Halloween Costume History

2009 Not the best picture, I should try to get more from friends. My friend is a Cougar, it only makes sense if you know her and if she was standing next to her boy toy.
2008
2003
2002 Not Halloween, but the costume I bought and wore on Halloween 2002. This is a at a carnival during the summer camp I worked at for several years with one of my all time favorite people, Holly.

Clogs

I live in Denver and it is not uncommon to see people wearing these shoes, which I think are hideous, year-round. I have been thinking about buying a pair for winter purposes for a while but they are remarkable expensive and let’s face it they are ugly and it would be a rare occasion when I actually wore them. So I never bought a pair but over the summer I received a pair via Freecycle. Yay for free stuff, especially free stuff that you kinda wanted but didn’t want to buy. So, I wore these shoes on my way to the office because Denver has been hit by a pretty bad snowstorm but I brought another pair of really cute shoes, although not very comfortable pair of shoes to change into. When I arrived to work my feet were a. warm and b. dry, so the shoes are great for their intended purpose, in fact my feet are so warm and cozy that I decided to keep them on. They don’t look too bad (I don’t have my camera). I am wearing an above the knee grey skirt, purple blouse, black cardigan, black tights, so I look very wintery. I mention that I think the shoes are hideous but warm and comfortable to my coworkers and they both say that they love these shoes. I work at a planning firm and not at a fashion magazine and we are in no way beacons of fashion but I was surprised to hear people say that they actually like them.

So, yay or nay on the ugly clogs?

Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things reside is a very sad place. I was really disappointed in the movie. I thought that because there is so little story in the book that Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers would really be able to let their imagination go wild. Unfortunately, I felt like nothing happened other than what happened in the book. The Wild Things were very sad and in turn didn't help Max with the issues he was having. I had always imagined Max retreating into his mind and enjoying himself. This movie was really sad and lonely. I was truly disappointed.

Mrs. Chavez

So, I decided to keep my name after I married. It’s not really a big deal. My husband doesn’t mind. As of today we are not planning in having children but if we do they will probably take my husband’s name. If I wanted to push the issue Jerome would be fine with giving our kid a hyphenated name but honestly I don’t care. There is no feminist theory behind me keeping my name – I just like it, it’s my name, and I didn’t want to go through the hassle of changing it. Another reason I kept my name, it is really stupid I know, but it’s Mexican, and I like that. I am half Mexican (Hispanic – I honestly don’t know where my family is from, but I am guessing Mexico) but I look like a pale white girl with dark hair and eyes and I like keeping that Mexican part of me. Jerome is also half Mexican, but the opposite of me – his mother is Mexican and his dad is White so his last name is White. This is totally not PC but it is what it is. Plus I like sharing a name with this guy.

But the point of this post is that people are really passive aggressive about it – mainly my mother. She knows that I didn’t take Jerome’s name but she insists on sending me cards, checks, whatever addressed to Celeste Chavez-Hamman. I am not Chavez-Hamman, she knows this. I remember my mom making a stink about it when we were planning on getting married and Jerome told her what about your daughter makes you think she would change her name? HA! Love that husband of mine. There are other family members who may not know that also send cards the same way – but for sure my mother knows, as well as an old friend who sent a card. I don’t get it. Just send the card to Celeste Chavez, it’s easy, it’s the same as it was. We send our x-mas cards as the Chavez-Hamman Family, as in J. Hamman and C. Chavez. I guess that might make it a little unclear, but how would I really clarify?

2:10:23

I know it may sound crazy but I run because running keeps me sane. Yesterday I finished #5 on the list of things I want to accomplish – I ran my first half marathon. I was so impressed with myself. I have been training really hard and all of that paid off. I was able to finish with 2 hours, 10 minutes, and 23 seconds, definitely a personal best. It is a full minute per mile faster than my normal pace. I think part of the reason I did so well is that for the last 4 miles I was near these women who had a radio – it was so annoying. I kept sprinting ahead and would eventually fall back with them, this happened 4 times before they finally turned it off (a dj was playing) and we finished. So thank you, annoying women for being rude and playing your crappy radio pop bull shit music for all around you to hear.

Some of the highlights of the day were 1. Of course beating my pb and doing much better than I had expected, 2. this guy in girly bikini bottoms, a rainbow afro wig, and a lei passing me, he did the full marathon in under 4 hours – he rocked, 3. the Denver Marathon organization printing your name on your bib and people I didn’t know were able personalize words of encouragement, 4. Reading people’s T-shirts; there was a group of people with a really beautiful Hellen Keller quote on the back and ‘Run for Jon’ on the front, a group of custom ‘I RUN…’ – I RUN because I can, to save live music, to hear people cheer, etc., 5. the signs people made; my favorite sign was right around mile 11 that said, “If your feet hurt it’s because you’re kicking asphalt, “ I know it’s cheesy but at that moment my feet did hurt and I was kicking ass! Another I thought was funny was, “26.2 Make each mile your bitch!” 6. My husband calling later in the evening and telling me he was proud of my run and that I killed it! The course was beautiful and is my home turf – it felt good to know where we were going, being familiar with the neighborhoods, and the terrain. The weather was perfect, we started at 7AM and it was pretty chilly, the weather predicted it to get up to 80 but I finished way before it did. The sun was out, the sky was blue, it was a perfect Denver day.

I feel awesome – I did something I never thought I would have done, I did better that I thought I could. 5 years ago I never would have thought I would enjoy running, never would I have imagined that it would become such a positive, powerful force in my life. I feel in some way that I have earned my stripes as a runner. I know that sounds silly but when you run in groups, which I do from time to time, it can be discouraging being a novice runner or a slow runner. But yesterday I lined-up with 10,400 other runners and did my personal best and accomplished something.

I was trying to find the quote I mentioned above and wasn’t able but I found this one that I think is awesome – “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”
Helen Keller
I pulled this picture off the web, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures and my husband forgot to bring the camera. This is City Park, a beautiful park about a mile away from my house - I run this park pretty often.
I also pulled this from the web - this is from the Denver Marathon website. I will post my pic when they are available. This is an example of some of the costumes people were wearing - the woman is actually a trainer at my gym. She teaches an awesome bosu class.

Till Death

One time when Jerome and I were still dating I was really drunk at a party and I told his friend how much I loved Jerome and that I would often get this overwhelming sensation – a sensation I now describe as my heart swelling. We are celebrating our fourth anniversary this year and I can happily say that I still get the swelling sensation.

We are having a pumpkin carving part the weekend before Halloween (a few days before our anniversary) and I found an awesome papel picado pattern that I think will be awesome for the occasion. I am so excited.

Nike

My husband bought me the Nike Sportsband for my birthday. I use it everytime I run but it has not been calibrated. I think I am shorter and slower than the average Nike runner. I am not crazy about the website. I use it mostly for the time. I really average 11 minute miles, so my profile mileage is inflated...

Celebrate FREADom

I just received an email from my public library letting me know that it is Banned Book Week, a Celebration of the Freedom we have to read. My library actually has a really interesting webpage about Banned books. It is pretty interesting to read how many books have been banned. Judy Blume is on the list twice! The Witches and James and the Giant Peach are also on the list, I must have missed something…

I am currently reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and plan on reading the Adventures of Huck Finn next, a banned book. The DPL also has a One Book, One Denver, where they select one book each year and all of the community book clubs are suppose to read it. Its weird Denver is a big city but often do these types of things that make it seem small. This year they selected To Kill a Mockingbird, I read it in Jr. High School, but I think I am going to re-read it. It is amazing how much books can change with perspective, age and hind sight.

When you've already paid...

This totally irks me that my gym displays their classes as complementary, we've already paid! It is not as though some Joe off the street would be able to come in and join the complementary classes. We actually pay a butt load ($79) a month for that so-called complementary class.

Face Shape

I think I just realized that I have an oval face and not a round face. I think I just have fat cheeks...
see below, fat cheeks do not equal round face
and for fun

What face shape do you have?