Happy pre-birthday to me!

In anticipation of my birthday this week, my mom asked me what I wanted. New purse? New jeans? New earrings? No, sadly, I'd really like new running shoes. Because she loves shopping for just about anything, we met this afternoon to pick some out.

I'm not particularly brand loyal to anything since I run on cement and underpronate like a mofo. I'll wear out the bottom of shoes long before anything like arch support or cushion becomes a real issue. After trying on several styles, I opted for a lovely pair of Asics. Cute, huh?

After picking out the shoes, we started talking about my cold-weather running apparel. I mentioned that I love my black Under Armor shirt, but I wish it wasn't black when I want to run at dusk. (I do have a white Nike cold weather shirt, but it's not compression and not nearly as warm.) Because my mom is awesome, she marches right over to the apparel section and starts pulling white UA shirts for me to try on. Five minutes later, she's tucking a new shirt under her arm and heading toward the register. This stuff will probably get much more wear than some boring sweater from the mall anyway. Thanks mom!

And just as another fun birthday thing to do, I'm getting my body fat % measured using an underwater test on Monday. My mom is concerned that all this running is martini-shaking my internal organs (overies in particular), my dad has thrown out the word "barren!" as a cautionary tale, and I've accidentally caught the husband with a pointy hip bone a few times. Hopefully this test will put some of their concerns to rest. For me: I just want to see if I'd be skinny enough to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. (And if you aren't watching Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team 3, you absolutely positively should be. Trust me on this.)