mama

Author: jamers

  • Look up

    Look up

    There was a rainbow above the Standard Market parking lot today. It’s sunny out and hasn’t rained recently, so I was surprised to see it. It was one of those moments that remind me how great it feels to find joy in the little things. I wasn’t on my phone, I could have been frustrated and bored because I was sitting in the car, but I tried to be present. I read something about how a sense of wonder is a great predictor of how happy you’ll be.

    When we got home, I figured I’d do a little photo storage cleanup. I’ve been trying to not let my digital archives get too out of hand. So what I’ve been doing is typing the day “May 26” in the search bar and deleting duplicates of photos or just ones I don’t want to save anymore. To my surprise, I also captured a rainbow last year on this day. Now I have high hopes for May 26, 2026.

  • Running

    Running

    I’ve recently started running again. It’s been about 10 years since I ran consistently and far(ish). For awhile after kiddo was born, I kept getting freaked out about my heart rate being too high on runs. Doctors basically said I was fine, but since I like Googling WAY too much, I decided it’s probably POTS from having COVID. But anyway, it seems slightly better now, or I’m just embracing being a slower runner as I age.

    Pace has always been a huge hurdle. It often feels like unless you’re running at least 6 min miles (no matter the distance) so many people say it’s not really running. I hate that. I was always so hard on myself for “only” being able to run 9 min miles at my best. Well now I’m at 13 min miles and finally don’t care. I’m glad I can still run. I’m thankful for what this body can do.

    I also think a lot about how you change as a person over the years. And how sometimes it’s hard to know who you are after having a kid. TikTok recently showed me a video about someone running a 250 mile race, and after it kept my attention for all 10 minutes of it, I realized that’s definitely still part of who I am. lol.

    So today, Pete and I ran almost 3 miles at the arboretum. Kiddo hung out with Gaga and Grandpa and we all had lunch after. It was tough to run the hills, but overall I felt good about it after. Hopefully after a couple more weeks of practice, the 10k there won’t be so bad.

  • Tending a digital garden

    Tending a digital garden

    I’ve started so many blogs over the years but never stuck with any. Pete told me about thinking of it as tending a digital garden which I love. So maybe this will be a place to combine old ones like the tumblr posts where I mostly want to save to see all of the art and images I curated, Apple’s Journal app which has fun stats and prompts, and Obsidian which has cool linking/organizational features. But this blog should have staying power since it’s our own domain. I’m glad Pete set it up and encouraged me to start.

    Oh and the reason I thought of starting again was from reading a blog post of descriptions of recent tabs the author had open. And I thought it’d be fun to document mine:

    • Out of Eden Walk: An eerie walk through Japanese ghost towns – I’ve always wanted to go to Japan and have been hearing about this person’s walk for awhile. The idea of long walks/hikes has also always appealed to me.
    • CROONeR – Kick and Snare – Pete and I heard a song in the car which reminded us of Robert DeLong. I tried to use Siri to ask what the song was, but it connected to the car speaker, shutting off the radio. Finally downloaded Shazam, which told us it was CROONeR, a side project of a member of Silversun Pickups.
    • WLTL – the local high school radio station. We’ve enjoyed listening to them lately because it’s going to be kiddo’s high school, and they play such an eclectic mix it’s always fun to find something new. It was playing the previously mentioned song, but the display wasn’t showing the name of it. Also, the website usually has a “now playing” list but it wasn’t working either.
    • cryptograms – Annie sent a cryptogram to book club, and it reminded me of The Woman Who Smashed Codes and how I enjoyed learning how its done. So I looked for online games with it and this one came up but it’s a huge bummer in that it rates how quickly you complete it. Even when I was doing the puzzles in 5 minutes, it was saying I was super slow which was annoying and didn’t make me want to play. lol. So I found a better app.