the half marathon is tomorrow! i have my racing bib, my timing chip, my cheering squad. i've been fighting a bit of a cold for a few days now, but if i can continue to hold it off with vitamin C and sleep for another day i'll be good. the weather is supposed to be sunny and 70, perfect for the post-run BBQ.

today i offer you my running playlist (in alphabetic order because my ipod's like that. normally the song order is randomized):

19th Nervous Breakdown - The Rolling Stones
3 Small Words - Josie and the Pussycats
4000 Miles - Blackalicious
99 Luftballons - Nena
Are You Out There - Dar Williams
As Cool as I Am - Dar Williams
Baba O'Riley - The Who
Baby One More Time - Britney Spears
Believing Is Art - Spoon
Better Things - Dar Williams
Blue - EIFFEL 65
Cry Baby Cry - Throwing Muses
Dio - Tenacious D
Dyer Maker - Led Zeppelin
Friendship - Tenacious D
Georgia - BETTY
Gone Daddy Gone - Gnarls Barkley
Happy Boys and Girls - Aqua
Harbor - Vienna Teng
Hey Julie - Fountains of Wayne
Hey Ya! - OutKast
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers
I Predict A Riot - Kaiser Chiefs
It's the End of the World (and I Feel Fine) - REM
Laid - James
Little Plastic Castle - Ani DiFranco
Manic Monday - The Bangles
Material Girl - Madonna
Mr. Brightside - The Killers
One Hell of a Life - Katell Koenig
Out of Range (electric) - Ani Difranco
Outta Me Onto You - Ani Difranco
Overture/And All That Jazz - Catherine Zeta-Jones, et al
Pretend to be Nice - Josie and the Pussycats
Pretty Deep - Tanya Donelly
Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire
Rock Lobster - The B-52's
Rock Your Socks - Tenacious D
Shameless - Ani Difranco
Sometimes (Lester Piggot) - James
Spin Around - Josie and the Pussycats
Take A Walk - Spoon
Take The Fifth - Spoon
Teenagers, Kick Our Butts - Dar Williams
The Obvious Child - Paul Simon
Tribute - Tenacious D

at lauren’s good advice i went to the renegade craft fair in wicker park this morning. anthropomorphic plush creatures seemed to be de rigeur (felt doughnut with eyes, anyone? how about a plush pot sticker named li’l sticker?). my weakness is paper and book arts, and my friend becky's thing was anything encased in a blob of glass or resin. fortunately for my pocketbook, i'm just crafty enough myself that when i go to craft fairs like this i'm prevented from buying things because i keep thinking, "i could make that!" of course, i probably won't ever have the time, but it helps keep the cash in my wallet. so do the prices, actually. i don't begrudge any of the artists their right to make a profit (or at the very least support their crafty habit), but $35 for a t-shirt is sadly out of my price range. for the sake all DYI designers out there today hopefully not all the shoppers were as poor (and potentially crafty) as i am.

i got home all full of project ideas and spent the afternoon hanging pictures on the walls (we're about to sign our second year's lease, so i figure it's about time we look like we've moved in). then i made the wise-but-un-fun choice to add up our bills and figured out that we have no money for crafty projects this month. so sad. i've got about $100-worth of yarn awaiting fall projects, so i'll have to stick to the knitting for now.

if i DID have money to invest in the craft fair today, however, by far and away my favorite items were the eerie, narrative paintings by jaime zollars. check them out at www.jamiezollars.com

by far and away the most time-consuming of items on my 101 list, the half marathon is just two weeks away now. i ran my first 10-miler today. this is a big milestone for me, because it's the farthest i've ever run, even back when i was running cross country in high school. it's true that on race day i still have to go 3 miles further than i've run now, but what seemed impossible for so long (i've been thinking about running a half for about 10 years now) doesn't seem quite so beyond the realm of possibility any more. i just keep putting one foot down after the other. and hope i can stave off injury or illness for a couple more weeks.

i spent much of monday hiding from the news; trying to avoid newspapers, talk radio and television steeped in september 11 memorials. five years after the september 11 terrorist attacks i find myself less prepared to talk about them than i was right after it happened. mostly when i think about september 11 i feel resentful and angry about the many ways in which the events of that day have been twisted, spun, remade and remodeled for a myriad of different purposes, some well-meaning distortions, some blatant manipulations, for the personal or political or financial gain. but if i'm honest with myself, then i have to admit that it's easier to feel angry about the political implications than it is for me to contemplate the untimely and horrific deaths of all those people. i didn't know anyone personally who died on september 11, and so maybe for that reason i've never worked through the grief process, because i don't really have a grief to call my own. but on monday when i turned on the radio and heard the names of the dead being read, my eyes filled with tears and i had to turn the radio back off. maybe i haven't gotten past the deep secretive guilt that it took me hours on that incongruously beautiful september morning to fully comprehend the gravity of what had occurred. i was visiting a dear friend in san francisco that day. i woke to the insistent ring of my cellphone; a repeated phone messages from my mother extorting me to turn on the television. i was sitting cross-legged on the couch, wrapped in a blanket over my pj's, a cat climbing across my lap, when the second tower fell, watched it live on television. my friend woke up and we watched the news in stunned silence for what seemed like hours, until the news became repetitive and tasteless (DAY OF TERROR, read the Fox News graphic). we wandered down the eerily quiet hills of San Francisco onto Market street and ordered breakfast at the only cafe that was open. i was lifting a bite of eggs to my mouth when my friend said, "do you think this is like Pearl Harbor? that we'll remember where we were when it happened?" and we looked at each other and it was at that moment that i realized the gravity of what had occured. my condolences, to all of the people who lost family and loved ones on that day. i'm sorry i don't know how to talk about this. i'm sorry i ate eggs the day that your loved ones died. i'm sorry i couldn't listen to the names of the dead being read. they deserve that, at least.