okay, I'm in love.

Now that Kanye's issued his apologies for last night's actions at the VMA awards (via his blog and this video from the Jay Leno show), I haven't heard a whole lot of "sorry". I'm not sure if this is bad management on the part of his publicist, or Kanye simply being headstrong -- but after all, what would you do if you were his publicist? That has to be a tough job.

There are two things I would like to hear in an apology from him.

1. A statement acknowledging Taylor's talent and saying that she deserved the award

2. A statement somehow recognizing his completely inappropriate behavior and taking credit for being either drunk, immature, or just plain unintelligent

Neither of these things are in his apologies. He simply blames stardom and the pressure of creating record after record for his drunken behavior. I'd rather hear him admit he was being stupid under the influence of alcohol than listen to him try to back up his actions. Sometimes, it's best to just say hey, I was drunk and stupid. I think the public can relate more to drunkenness than to in-your-face arrogance, rudeness, and disrespect to someone as well-liked as Taylor Swift.

Did anyone see how well she handled it? Her reaction is tactful in a way Kanye could never hope to be.

[Image via ETonline]

Why are weekends so short? Someone please explain this to me.

The only fun, out of the ordinary thing the boyfriend and I did this weekend was Spiderhouse. Our friend Jimmy, who we've both worked with for the last two years, is bartending there now. The only thing I really want to say about that is that as a retired smoker, it is the most tempting place for me to have a ciggarette. I still like it, but goodness.

Oh, the other activity was endless shrimp at Red Lobster. It's a beautiful thing.

Aaaand... the glorious football game, of course. Plus a great run Saturday morning which I believe I already wrote about.

Had a good run this morning during training. I was supposed to run for 20 minutes three times this week, and I only did twice, but the second time was truly much easier than the first and that is encouraging. This week it's 25 minutes twice and 20 minutes once. Hoping the growing ease will continue.

Austin has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the country to run. One of the things I love about this Austin Fit training program is we run down Riverside, the Congress bridge, and Town Lake. Today we ran out front of the Four Seasons and across the bridge a few times. I guess the longer distance we cover the more we get to see. The thing about Austin is it really can be a very fit city if you get involved in it. Many of the runners I saw this morning were in the same training program, but plenty were not -- it's awesome to see so many people out there, all smiling and encouraging each other and sweating their butts off in the heat. That sounds corny, I know, but it was very pleasant =).

On an even more pleasant note... it's GAMEDAY! This season is going to be incredible. At least I hope so. This is a great story I read (and tweeted about) earlier this week from the LA Times explaining exactly why this is our year. Of course, the Louisiana-Monroe game tonight isn't worrying me (or anyone else, I am sure), but it'll be great to see the boys back on the field. You can't come to Texas and not love football. I'll miss some of our amazing defensive line from last year (Quan Cosby, anyone??), but I'm excited to watch because I know our team has something to prove after the whole BCS setup last year. Hook 'em!

Lastly I should note that Taco Shack breakfast tacos are like little miracles in foil.

Went running as scheduled even though I absolutely did not want to. Goal for the day: accomplished.

Having survived one three-day week of this semester thus far, I'm feeling a little wary. I am constantly running from work to class to work to class to meetings to sleep, with not a whole lot of time for actual homework or studying in between. I feel this will get to be a problem. We shall see.

In other news, the first day of training for Austin FIT (with the overall goal of completing the Austin Half Marathon) was on Saturday. I had killed my feet with heels for an entire day on Friday, so that part was difficult, but I ran the timed mile like I supposed to and hopefully my time will continue. I currently run a 12:10 mile which I know is slow, but for me it's about what I expected. The goal of bigger importance is certainly distance, but I'm hoping to get to a 11:30 minute mile or so by the end of training. I'm just glad I got my butt out of bed and went to train! That was the biggest hurdle.

What I loved about running even just the mile was that it's so difficult for me that all I can do is keep breathing. I'm literally so focused on "okay, breathe in, okay, breathe out.... need more oxygen!" that I can't think about anything else. I know that if I pace myself by keeping my breathing as slow and deep as possible, I will run for much longer. It's when you let your breathing catch and stop getting enough air that you are forced to stop. All other thoughts literally can't enter my mind. Helps me block out the stress, thus far at least. Is this what other runners who love running are talking about? I'm not sure, but right now it works for me.

Last week was the first week of my internship. It went reasonably well, I thought. I was asked to write a press release on my first day!! This made me very nervous since I've never actually written one before, only worked with them in theory, or worked with releases I didn't write. I do feel however that this is the best way to learn, to be pushed into doing something you're unfamiliar with until you GET familiar with it. The actual writing of it took me about three hours, and I haven't gotten her feedback yet so I'm waiting to see how many flaws it had (or strengths.... I guess that's possible). I should also mention that my mentor seems incredibly cool and (from what I can see online) is a contributor to a bunch of different fun blogs and news sources (such as Austinist) which I think is admirable/goes above and beyond her job description. I did mail a bunch of things as well, but it's certainly a step up from getting coffee or dry cleaning, and I know internships like that do exist. Besides, the mailing was genuinely a learning process as well.

I signed up to train for the Austin Half Marathon via USA Fit Austin and training starts this Saturday. I am very nervous about pushing myself to a goal that feels in many ways unattainable at the moment, but I felt like the time was right. I was thinking about signing up several weeks ago, and I know I mentioned it here, and then when I was in Greece our tour guide taught us the origin of the word "marathon" and I thought, okay, it's a sign. I have only signed up for and paid for the training program so far, so if I really mess it up or can't do it for some reason I won't lose money on the race itself yet. Not that I'll be 'racing' in any way. Just trying to finish the course.

Moving over the last couple days has been such a hassle (but isn't it always?). Apparently there is an unspoken rule in the movers and maids business that they can be two hours later than the time they tell their customers, and that is just fine. I clearly was unaware of this rule and wasted around five hours in the last two days sitting around and waiting for these services to arrive. In any sense, I'm almost done with the whole process. Just organizing things at my new place at this point.

For over a year now, having an internship has been this huge mountain for me to scale. I've been paralyzed by nervousness about my resume and cover letters and interviews and how to apply and what to wear. This semester, I simply worked through the process and have been offered two of the three internships I applied for so far (I'm still waiting to hear from the third). I feel like I've literally conquered a huge fear of mine, and I love that. I'm having difficulty picking because both are great opportunities with a huge variety of things to teach me. Unfortunately I can only take one with my school schedule the way it is next semester. But either way, I feel that I've achieved something I was afraid of for so long, and I'm very excited about that.

I am reading 73 Ways to Become a Better Writer via Copyblogger, thinking about my interesting past with blogging. This article suggests that blogging is a no-fail way to become a better writer, and here I am. I've typically only used blogging on a personal level, and I blogged all throughout high school on the then-popular blogging service Xanga (or maybe it still is popular? Who knows). But we'll see how this goes.

I'm dying to train for the Austin Half Marathon in February. I've never been a runner, but something about running around the track in the last few weeks has made me love it. I still can't run a full mile, which makes me think I am crazy to want to run 13 miles, but the more time I spend regulating my breathing and training myself in intervals, the easier it gets. I think the idea of knowing that on Monday I ran one lap and on Tuesday I ran two laps and on Wednesday I ran three means that on Thursday I have no reason not to run a mile. And, lo and behold, I may have had my first experience with the famous so-called "runner's high" that keeps crazy runners getting out of bed in the morning at 6am to hit the treadmill. I want to be one of those people.

Something about training intimidates me, though. Probably the possibility of failing after paying $75 and spending however much time I spend training before I fail. Or telling people, which means if I fail they will know. Or the fact that I've never run more than two miles at a time in my life.