The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • Minimalism in 90 Days Update – What Got Unpacked During Week 3

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    Ruth Carter

    The Minimalism Pile at the End of Week 3
    The Minimalism Pile at the End of Week 3

    Rosie and I have been in the condo long enough that we’re starting establish day-to-day patterns so most of what we need is already unpacked – and yet there are still 21 banker boxes and other boxes and bags that I haven’t unpacked. Now I know some of these things will be unpacked – like the rest of my dishes. My dish set only came with 8 plates (4 big, 4 medium). Keeping all of these is not excessive. As the weather gets colder I’m going to unpack my warmer sheets, blankets, and my crock pot.

    I have yet to go a day without packing something, but the number of things I unpack each day has dropped significantly.

    I’ve started adding some commentary to this what-I-unpacked-list, not because I need to justify why I kept what I kept, but to share why certain things are valuable.

    Day 15

    Day 16

    • Hair dye shirt (the t-shirt I wear when I dye my hair and do messy projects), hair dye, small bottle for extra developer (as a short-haired person, I get 2 dye jobs out of each box)
    • Towel set (I told myself I can keep both sets of towels I own)
    • T-shirt, shorts, Crocs (makes it easier to work at my standing desk)
    • Vacuum
    • DVD
    • Rosie’s nail clippers
    • Everything That Remains book (love this book and I wanted to remember when Ryan Nicodemus had his first day without unpacking something – Day 10 for him)
    • Family calendar (yes, my family creates a calendar every year with photos from the previous year) and a tack to hang it up
    • Ibuprofen

    Day 17

    • Mixing bowls (I used the small bowl to make tuna salad so the whole set got unpacked)
    • Plunger

    Day 18

    • T-shirt and sweater
    • Lint roller
    • Floss

    Day 19

    • Hair trimming scissors (my bangs were getting too long)
    • Pants, dress socks, dress shirt, neck tie, and boots
    • Law books (I had a TV interview at my home about the law and Airbnb so I put them out to give my office more of a lawyerish look, including copies of my books)
    • Jason Surfrapp’s Creativity for Sale (I got out my extra copy to send to a friend)

    Day 20

    • Dress
    • Fork
    • DVD

    Day 21

    • T-shirt (I could have gone without unpacking anything if it wasn’t Halloween and I didn’t want to wear my Coroner shirt to work)

    I wouldn’t be surprised if I go a day without packing something next week.

    With the number of things I unpacked this week, I was able to decrease the number of boxes in the “minimalism pile” but there’s a lot of stuff left. It makes me wonder if I should make a pass through them and start clearing out some things before the end of the year.

    In this video I make my standard pass through the condo but I gave you preview of what I expect to add in the next six months. Please tell me what you think of my ideas!

    Other updates from the Minimalism in 90 Days project:
    What was Unpacked During Week 1
    What was Unpacked During Week 2

  • Marathon Training Week 7 Recap – And the Pain Begins

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    Ruth Carter

    Lucky 7 by Jim68000 from Flickr (Creative Commons License)
    Lucky 7 by Jim68000 from Flickr (Creative Commons License)

    When I was in college, my friends and I were frequently flyers at the piercing parlor. (I’ve had 14 piercings in my life but I’m back down to 2 currently.) After my last piercing they gave me a sticker that says, “We put the ‘f*ck’ in ‘That hurts.’” That was theme this week.

    Monday:  I had early plans on Tuesday this week so hit the gym today. To my dismay, the treadmill was taken so I jumped on the elliptical instead. I did 4.5 miles in 32 minutes (~8.5 mph). The last time I ran on the treadmill average, my average speed was 7.1 mph. I burned fewer calories than running but I was super sweaty by the end of my workout. Hat tip to Dr. Drew and Gary Vaynerchuk whose podcasts kept me entertained.

    When I got back, I knocked out 100 push-ups: 5 sets of 18 and 1 set of 10.  It was challenging at first but got easier by the third set. I hope to be up to 5 sets of 20 next week and build up to 4 sets of 25 within 3 weeks.

    Tuesday: No workout today. I spent the day at Shankminds Phoenix.

    Wednesday:  Back to running in the real world today, but I accidentally ran 6.7 miles instead of my usual 6.5 because I told a wrong turn into the condo complex next to mine and I got half way around their parking lot before I realized what I did. I did some speed work until I experienced a bit of hip pain around Mile 4 and took it easy for the rest of the run. If this issue keeps up I’m going to hit the injury clinic at Runner’s Den next week.

    After my run I finished my push-ups for the week:  4 sets of 19 and 1 set of 24.

    Thursday: I went super pathetically easy on today’s 4.5-mile run. I’ve been trying to research hip pain related to running and I wonder if my pain is caused by doing speed work and running on hills. Everything from my waist down seemed to hurt today with a 2 or 3 out of 10 on the pain scale. Hat tip to The Daily Show Podcast without Jon Stewart for entertaining me today.

    Friday: Rest day.

    Saturday:  Holy crap today’s 12-mile run was hard. My right hip and left post-tib hurt from step one. My goal for the run was just to finish without stopping – except for stoplights. I felt pretty pathetic sometimes but I got through it. The last three miles with the hill were really hard. That’s when my knees and quads really started to hurt and I was running so slowly. It barely counted as running. My thanks to Profiles with Malone and Mantz for their extended show about Alfred Hitchcock that kept entertained and distracted from my pain.

    My New Shoes
    My New Shoes

    After today’s run, I checked my running log and saw that I’d run over 330 miles in my current pair of shoes. That doesn’t include wearing my running shoes out and about or walking Rosie. This pair of shoes has probably walked 400-450 miles since I got them in July. My post-tib has probably been hurting more because my shoes are dead. While I was out running errands, I hit REI for a new pair of insoles and Runner’s Den to replace my shoes. Nate at Runner’s Den said the wear pattern on my old shoes (Asics GT-2000) looked “perfect” so I’m definitely in the right shoes for me so we just replaced them. (I’m glad they still had them in my preferred color because it looks like next season’s colors for these shoes are ugly.) I also hooked myself up with another pair of Asics running shorts with the built-in brief and Feetures seamless socks.

    Sunday:  The increased muscle tone in my quads definitely came in handy on today’s 19-mile bike ride. I’m able to ride harder and faster than before. (Wait, that sounds dirty.) More endurance + less pain = happier Ruth. And it was nice cool 68 degrees this morning – perfect for a bike ride.

    Weekly Totals:
    Running: 27.7 miles
    Biking: 19 miles
    Push-ups: 200 push-ups

  • Adventures with my Bashful Bladder

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    Ruth Carter

    Pre–employment drug testing by Francis Storr from Flickr
    Pre–employment drug testing by Francis Storr from Flickr

    I was recently offered an adjunct instructor position at an art college to teach Business Media Law. When they told me that they wanted to hire me, they explained that the next step was a background check and a drug test.

    A drug test. This was going to be fun.

    My problem with drug tests isn’t that I worry about passing. It’s that I generally can’t pee on command.

    I’ve always had a bashful bladder. When I applied to the U.S. Air Force Academy, a drug test is part of the physical. I was there at 7am and I couldn’t make myself pee until after I finished the rest of my tests. About 10 years ago, I participated in one of the Merck HIV vaccine trials. I had to take a pregnancy test before each time I was due for a vaccination. I drank tons of coffee before going to the clinic and it still took forever to get me to pee on command. After that the staff gave me a set of specimen cups and trusted me to pee at home and bring in it with me. It was weird carrying a cup of urine in my purse into the clinic each time.

    Last week I got my official notice of my testing site and that I had 48 hours to complete the test. I drank a bottle of water after my morning coffee and when I started feeling a tickle in my bladder, I headed to the testing site. The gentleman with the African accent showed me to the bathroom and handed me the specimen cup with the instruction that I needed to provide at 50mL sample. I sat down in the stall and tried to think about scenes from my favorite comedians stand-up specials – like Kathy Griffin and Ellen DeGeneres. But no luck – my bladder wasn’t giving in.

    I glumly told the guy that I couldn’t pee and headed back to the waiting room to drink more water and think about humorous things. I paced around the room but thought it would probably be better to sit still. No one may have concentrated more on funny things than I did sitting in that waiting room. Two more bottles of water later, I was ready to try again.

    I sat down in the stall again and started thinking about Tom Green. His early stunts are so stupid and funny. They make me laugh so much.

    Success! After thinking about a few of Tom’s stunts, my bladder let go. Here’s the clip I was thinking about when I was finally able to pee.

    Thanks Tom!