Running with Soy Sauce

As I mentioned last post, The New DeLews are eagerly trying out our new persona- the Sportsy Couple. So let's talk about our history with sportsy-ness.

For the past year I have spent most of my lunch breaks on the treadmill at my work's gym. It's been cool, I've watched a lot of the news, particularly 'Russia Today'- which has given me a superficial view of how Russian media views the U.S.... sometimes depressing, but mostly entertaining. Anyway, I've become pretty comfortable with my inside-running routine.

Now even though I can easily run 3 miles inside, take me outside and suddenly I'm all wheezy and heaving, and I usually end up all angry the whole time. So if Mark ever suggests that we go for a run together, I have 3 criterion that Mark must promise to follow:

1. Mark must talk the whole time
2. I must set the pace
3. I can decide at any moment that the run is over, and Mark can't judge me

Pretty reasonable rules, yeah? Well my dear husband knows how to humor me, so he appeases me in this one area.

One day last Fall Mark and I decided to take a run outside. And of course, I reiterated the rules, Mark agreed, and then we agreed on one more rule- we need to run with a purpose! Now this purpose (for some people) might be to get healthy, to build endurance, or whatever. Our purpose for running that morning- to end our run at the sweet diner that we've always wanted to check out. And it was fun! I mean, sitting in the diner all sweaty and wheezing wasn't necessarily awesome, but we had a good time 'running with purpose'!

Now that I am training to run a 10 mile race at the end of May, I am pleased to say that I've gotten over my running-outside phobia. The 3 rules don't really apply anymore, meaning that I can be a civil human being when my husband graciously runs with me. But we still like to 'run with purpose'.

In fact, last week Mark and I were planning on taking a 3 mile run, when we realized that we were intensely craving homemade pad thai, and that we needed some bean sprouts from the local Korean grocery store. So we figured out a route that would conveniently place us at Jung Boo at the 2.2 mile mark. In we went, picked up the 50 cents worth of bean sprouts and pranced to the cash register. Until we found out that they had a $5 minimum for credit card transactions. (who carries cash anymore?). We picked up the largest bottle of soy sauce ever (it was a great deal, so we had to get the big bottle of course), and cashed out of Jung Boo. Mark graciously carried the huge-*** bottle of soy sauce for the remainder of our run.

We looked like total running rookies with our soy sauce and bean sprouts, but ya know, we had a great time! I'm realizing that our desire to be that 'Sportsy Couple' doesn't necessarily mean that we'll look super sportsy. But we're learning how to interact with each other in sporty-ish ways. So bring on the running outside with purpose- we may not look pretty doing it, but we'll have fun- even with soy sauce in hand.

The DeLew Happenings

It's Saturday morning and I'm drinking French Press coffee, listening to John Coltrane, and staring out the window at the dismal 'wintery-mix'. What a perfect day to catch up on the New DeLew's most recent happenings? (mind you, I am intentionally choosing not to make this post about the [insert inappropriate language here] weather this weekend, so take that Chicago!).

-NYC Baby! Two weekends ago Mark and I had the incredible chance to explore New York for a long weekend, traversing around Manhattan like it was our job. We met up with some awesome college friends, and we even brought along a personal photographer (Chucky rocks!). It totally works out to be good friends with a budding professional photographer, we're always his guinea pigs, as you can see in these sweet pictures. And we contribute to his photography endeavors by lugging his huge tripod and 100 lb camera throughout the entire city.

-Goodbye Whipple, Hello Medill! We came to the exciting decision to move out of our lovely newly-wed apartment and try out the first floor of a classic Chicago brick two-flat apartment. For the same price that we pay now, we're only two blocks from the El and we'll have two bedrooms! So come on over and visit! You'll actually have a bed to sleep on.

-Sportsy Couple- We've decided that this summer we want to be a 'sportsy couple'. This means we plan to be that couple that bikes to work and runs after work. Yeah... we're hard core. But first I need to get a bike wheel, since it was stolen last year. Punk kids.

-Wine- we've decided to decrease our daily wine intake. Partly so that we can be less of the 'wine couple, and more of the 'sportsy couple'. But don't worry, there is still a plethora of vino at the DeLews.

-California- Next weekend Mark has a bunch of work presentations on the west coast so I'm going along to spend the weekend in California with my beloved family. I can handle this horrible snow today, because next weekend we'll be in the beautiful sunshine of my homeland.

-Zambia- And lastly, we are always thinking up ways to get back to Zambia. We dream about living in my host family's guest house and working with the school where I taught 2 years ago. Although we love our new life together in Chicago, our hearts long to be in the community of Musonda, where we feel called.

We've almost hit our 10 Monthiversary. It's amazing to see how much we have learned about each other in these months. And I can't even imagine how much we'll learn about each other in the next 30 years. We are very thankful.