The Half is Here!

Alright folks. This race is really happening. In 3 days. My bags are packed, I've managed to keep all joints, limbs, and muscles in good working order (though I DID almost disqualify myself from this event by falling off a curb during a very exciting conversation while walking with my darling friend Cami two weeks ago...luckily my quick reflexes (or divine intervention) saved me from any kind of ankle damage).

Now I have to not get paranoid. Tonight I packed every thing I will possibly need on race day in my carry on (just in case of lost luggage)...who cares if I have to wear sweaty shorts for the 2 days after, so long as I am happy on race day, all is well. I'm even tempted to wear my running shoes on the plane, just to make CERTAIN nothing happens to them....but that seems a bit extreme. I wonder if it's normal to be this paranoid. I have been exceedingly careful this week with my body...to avoid random meteors, falling palm branches, anything that could jeopardize my ability to participate in this dang race. Truth be told, the only injury I've sustained in the past 4 months involved laughing too hard with Areta last weekend while stretching to reach the gum I'd dropped in the car-which resulted in a strained muscle in my back for about 2 hours. All better now.

I'm excited. Nervous. Thankful. It will be an amazing experience...whether we are fast or slow...the company will be excellent, the scenery beautiful, and I will be grateful to be having the chance to do something that once seemed impossible.

150 in 11

So...this morning I completed my goal of 150 miles in 12 weeks...1 week ahead of schedule. :) I'm ready for the 1/2 marathon a week from Saturday. I'm so excited. I've got my shoes all figured out, have found some great double-layer anti-blister socks (WrightSocks) and have made friends with body glide. It's a great life.

No Nalgenes?!?!? NO!!!

Friends, this is a dark day for me. I just read an article that Nalgene is taking away a bit of my heart in the form of its polycarbonate water bottles that may have been predisposing me to cancer now for the 6+ years I've been best friends with them.

This surely is a joke. A late April Fool's trick? Right? Sigh. I've been through all the stages of grief in the last 5 minutes: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. I'm a quick healer. I've decided that the good news is that I have a good reason to stock up on BRAND new non-cancer BPA-free water bottles. This could be a good thing. But will I really throw my old ones away? Do I really have to stop using them? Because cell phones, microwaves, fluoride and the slew of burnt things I've consumed in my life might have already gotten me, right?

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/cancer/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100200558&GT1=31025

cRazY!

I love my job. Most of the time. There are days when I come home and when my roommates ask about my day I say "Well, today I am tired of dealing with the severely mentally ill." Please note the word SEVERELY. In all fairness I need you to know I'm talking about 2% of the people with whom I work. I have a great love and respect for my clients, their struggles and their strength. I am not tired of the kids ever. Sometimes tired of clients that tell me about the T-Rex and all of its capabilities, cat CPR and other bold animal rescues/deaths and/or funeral services, but even that is at least interesting. But today tired of people whose difficult life circumstances render them almost incapable of authentic and normal human communication. I feel bad for them. But sometimes I just feel bad for myself that I have to deal with them. To cheer myself up, sometimes these lyrics play in my head and make everything better. I used to tell my friend Tere that I was going to pipe them over the intercom at our job. Just pretending I would one day do it made a lot of days survivable...here are the lyrics...and if you get really serious about this, go watch the video. It's even done in inkblots. That smart Gnarls. He's something else...

I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind.
There was something so pleasant about that place. Even your emotions had an echo.
In so much space. And when you're out there, Without care,Yeah, I was out of touch.
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough. I just knew too much.
Does that make me crazy? Does that make me crazy? Does that make me crazy? Possibly.

And I hope that you are having the time of your life. But think twice, that's my only advice.
Come on now, who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you are?
Ha ha ha bless your soul, You really think you're in control?
Well, I think you're crazy, I think you're crazy, I think you're crazy, Just like me?

My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on a limb. And all I remember is thinking, I want to be like them. Ever since I was little, ever since I was little it looked like fun. And it's no coincidence I've come.
And I can die when I'm done. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe you're crazy. Maybe we're crazy. Possibly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w

Friendly Officer

Last night I was driving home after a long walk/talk with a very good friend. I had quite a lot on my mind following the conversation that had just occured. As I was driving I noticed I was being followed by a police car. I thought "Am/was I speeding?" "Have I done something illegal?" followed by "Did he just see me texting?" (Yes, I may have sent a little baby text. And I guess I did not fully complete this baby text while completely stopped. Judge not.)

So on come the lights and they swirl through the air as my heart starts pumping faster than it has on any of my recent runs. I find a safe place to pull over. Mr. Officer walks up with a flashlight, asks how I'm doing and if I know why he's pulling me over. He asks me if I've had anything to drink and I laugh as I say "No, sir." All the while I'm frantically pulling stuff out of my glove box looking for insurance/registration. He then asks me if I've been reading, which I thought was a weird question. Then he shines the light on the magazine that just popped out of my glove box and says "What is that?" I flip it over and before I can say anything he smiles and says "Oh...the Ensign. So I guess you weren't drinking." He's back in a flash with everything and announces "No ticket. But no more reading the Ensign as you drive okay?"

Saved by the Ensign.

Seven Things...

Anna, here you go...as promised...7 things about me that people may or may not know.

1. I've always wanted to pull a fire alarm. Lindsay actually did this in 3rd grade and I've always been jealous. Now that I'm not in 3rd grade I don't think I'd get away with it.

2. My first kiss was under a desk in 4th grade.

3. I race unsuspecting people. Let me explain. I'll see a person who looks like they're headed to the same place I am...to the door of a building, up the stairs, etc. I make a point to see if I can beat them. My friend Megan once expressed that she felt it wasn't fair that I was racing people who didn't know they were racing me. I told her it IS fair because I always give them the headstart. What these innocent "racers" don't know is that I get ticked off if they beat me (though it rarely happens). Megan asked me, "please at least tell me when we're racing." Mogeets, I promise to do so. But the rest of the world, watch out!

4. I am pretty much opposed to catch and relase fishing and hunting for the sport of it. If you need to eat the animal fine...no problem. But come on, ripping a fish out of the water by his lips again and again...ridiculous. There's a nearby lake full of traumatized fish. I wonder how manly these men feel being able to catch a fish in a lake FULL of gimpy fish. DUH-you're GONNA catch one!

5. I speak 4 languages. English, Spanish, "Ithig," and one that my parents invented on a road trip wherein my name would be Jibulibe. (Mom, what's it called?) I'll admit that the last two are not considered "real."

6. I almost missed the deadline for mailing grad school applications for several schools because I was riding a unicycle. Or attempting to.

7. I love old, hard cinnamon bears. Sher gives them to me for my birthday in a bag that's been opened for months...just growing harder by minute. She loves me. ;)

horrible hunting

I try to keep the scorpion talk to a minimum. But it's just that tonight we found 15, which is 20% of all that we've found in all the time we've lived here...so kind of a big deal. Our friend Ammon brought over a really great black light and we decided to go looking for them. We found one (dead) inside within the first minute...and from there found a total of 15 (with the majority being outside on the stucco wall). This big guy to the left...was HUGE...the picture for sure does not do him justice, but his torso was about the circumference of my pointer finger...we're not talking a little flat baby scorpion. ENORMOUS. And the worst news is, he's one that got away. The others we managed to kill. Sigh. I had big plans to have my favorite AZ "nieces and nephew" (the family that I have come to love as my own) over for movie night OUTSIDE this weekend...complete with projector and everything...but I don't think I can feel good about it now knowing the backyard is TEEMING with dangerous insects. And scorpion stings are even more dangerous for the wee ones...dang. I'll have to plan something else for the little wonders...

the best day...

i had pretty much the best day. i needed a break from work and spent it with one of my favorite friends...from 8:15 am (okay 8:17, I did arrive late...) until about 11:15 pm, it was non-stop talking, laughing, playing fun. she was prepared with grapefruit, pineapple and strawberries dipped in chocolate for breakfast...got to spend quality nerf time with her darling son, she cut my hair, we had good talking time, ate lunch at applebees, shopped and found great beads at michaels for bracelets, picked up the cute kids and played after school, made preparations for garage sale for tomorrow, ate excellent the excellent dinner she prepared, more garage sale prep, followed by more talking and laughing...ended with s'mores and lava cake. pretty close to as perfect a day as possible. i'm so grateful for days like today where everything feels just exactly right. so grateful to know and love this darling friend and her family...they have become such an important part of my life, an extension of my family. i'm a lucky kid.

camping!

This past weekend a bunch of us went camping...had a great time...until it was time for sleeping. I've decided camping must be like having a baby...you look forward to it for a long time and make all the preparations. You have a lot of people who are also excited...and it all starts out really fun and exciting. But when it comes right down to it...there are many miserable hours of pain (freezing for camping, labor for pregnancy) that make you think "I will NEVER, NEVER do this again." And after the worst of it is over, you start to relax and then you start feeling better...and within not long at all you think "That wasn't so bad...just that little part in the middle was rough but I'm ready to go camping again" (or have a baby). Those of you mothers out there are probably shooting eye darts at me for comparing being cold to having a baby...listen, I'm just saying...it could be KIND OF similar. A little.

Now...note the picture to the right. You will see two white objects.
They are marshmallows. Yes, both of them. The one to the left is a
small mini marshmallow you use for...well, rice crispy treats or something. The MEGAmallow to the right is from Mexico and is about the size of three jet-puffed mallows. I do now know why Mexico has created such a large marshmallow. It did make for some fun rounds of "chubby bunny" (with the winner being able to shove three of these suckers in the mouth). I tried roasting one. It took about 7 minutes longer than I had patience for and created about 17 minutes of mess to clean up after attempting to make a s'more out of it. Still, it was fun.

The photos below are proof that staying up late+sugar+1 hour of sleep=fun pictures at 5am. :)

Quote of the Week: (from a 7 yr old)


"I had a bad case of the chicken pops."


Yeah, I hate the chicken pops, they're the WORST! (Seriously, so cute...)


So, it's 11:31pm and I'm getting up in 6 hours to run...because I'm 4 miles behind where I should be because my nikeplus/ipod gear malfunctioned halfway through my 10k yesterday and I got NO credit for my run...which causes me great consternation. To my greater dismay, when I called nikeplus to to see if the run could be recovered and to troubleshoot (if this happens in the half-marathon...I will NOT be a happy kid)...the man with whom I spoke actually had the audacity to say "Oh unfortunately, we are just like twins because that happened to me too." Dear Customer Service David, you live in different state than I do, work at NikePlus customer service and we have quite possibly NOTHING in common, so NO...we are NOT "just like twins!!!!!" So please don't use your little catchphrase customer service lines on me ever again, got it?


Phew. Did that come out sounding harsh?