I think I’ll remember my own LIFE

The only good thing about 2008 is the fact that it’s almost over (even if it’s apparently going out with a final F you to me).

I apparently have caught whatever it is my sister and her kids had and I will be spending my NYE night in the freaking bathroom. 

Which is also apparently causing a lovely fight with my friend who thinks I’m faking it to get out of hanging out with her.  Ugh.  whatever.  I’m at the point where I seriously don’t even give a shit about anything anymore.  So everyone be mad at me.  Enjoy it! 

Have a happy freaking new year and hope 2009 brings you everything you want. 

I went running again yesterday hoping it would be easier than the day’s before (the first run back is always shitty).  In some ways it was a lot easier.  I ran the same route and even with the wind blowing I didn’t feel as slow or oafish running.  I even did a modified “fartlek” type run yesterday. 

However, it’s been A LONG TIME since I’ve done ANY speedwork…and I was paying for it at the end of my run.  I had about a quarter mile left in the run, and I’m on my last sprint session of the run, and my mp3 player has somehow fallen down around my belly (I usually clip it to my bra strap).  I finish the sprint and slow down to figure out why my mp3 player isn’t clipped anymore, and all the sudden, I had to go to the bathroom SO BAD.  It was so bad I got really light headed and thought I was going to throw up.  Walking just made it worse.

It was so bad I contemplated going up to some stranger’s house and asking if I could use their bathroom.  Then, the feeling just went away.  I didn’t feel sick anymore, I didn’t have to go to the bathroom anymore, nothing.  So…I’m guessing it was just the sprinting I wasn’t used to that caused it?  I have no idea.  Either way, I jogged to the end of my route and walked it on home. 

Then when I got home my dad asked me to hold the ladder for him while he cleaned out the gutters.  I hate holding the ladder for him.  It scares the crap out of me when he goes onto the higher part of the roof and I’m the last line of defense in holding that ladder in place (it’s seriously not the sturdiest set up he has going there).  Anyways, I have to say he has reinforced my desire to never own my own house.  I do not want to be responsible for yard work or house upkeep.  If I ever do buy anything…it will be a condo type unit where the homeowners association does all the outside work.  Ugh. 

Not much else going on.  I’m still enjoying sitting around doing nothing.  I really don’t want to go back to work next week.  :-)  Come on New Jersey lottery…pick my numbers!

So…I’ve been kind of busy  not posting lately.  But, after this amazing game yesterday…I just had to say go E-A-G-L-E-S!!!!!! 

Seriously, thank you Oakland AND Houston…you guys ROCK!  Also, this ass spanking couldn’t have been given to a better team. 

Even if we don’t actually go far in the play-offs…the fact that we beat the Cowboys and kept them out of the playoffs is more than enough for me.  :-) 

Anyways, not much else going on here.

I went running for the first time in a week yesterday, and my leg felt much better.  However, it was ridiculously windy so I felt like I was running in slow motion.  Oh well…it felt nice just being out there. 

The rest of my time has been spent watching old movies and being lazy.  Love it.

And now my mom is about to beat me if I don’t give her back her computer.

Hope everyone’s holidays have been fantastic!

So I had written a nice whiny post while waiting for my train to come and take me home on Tuesday.  But it didn’t work too well apparently with my phone and it only posted the title…but it did post the title TWICE.  Apparently in an attempt to make up for not posting the actual content? 

Anyways, summing it up: Tuesday sucked.

I paid extra money to get on an earlier train…which was then delayed by a bunch of hours and I got home at almost the original time I was supposed to anyways.  Slightly annoying. 

Then there were these two obnoxious kids who SCREAMED the ENTIRE time I was waiting for the train to come.  And the mom just sat there and let them scream.  And, it wasn’t a baby who was crying…it was a 5 or 6 year old who should have known better (and the mom should have been doing something besides just sitting there).  I was so grumpy and this was not helping. 

Then, there was the weirdest guy on the train.  I’m just going to sum him up by saying he was so drunk, he stuck a bag of weed in my pants pocket and wouldn’t let me give it back.  It was weird. 

However, being home has been nice.  I’ve been sleeping in every day (today I slept until 10…and I think that’s the first time in MONTHS I’ve slept that late).  It’s been wonderful seeing my family.  My Christmas was nice (even if my sister and her family are sick and possibly the bringer of the plague…I’ll see in a few more days) and I got some fantastic gifts.

I’m so ready to move back to the area.  I always forget how homesick I am until I get home again.  :-/ 

Anyways, hope everyone is having a fantastic holiday!  Enjoy the yummy food, alcohol, and running!

I have never been so happy to see the end of a work week as I was yesterday. 

The factory went into shutdown last night, which means we had a bunch of things to do to prepare during the week on top of our regular work.  Usually, they attempt to reduce the number of changeovers we have that week in an effort to reduce the amount of extra work we have to do, however, this year, they tripled the number of changeovers during the week (wtf?), and we were slammed all week.  I pretty much didn’t get to sit down at work for more than 3 minutes at a time.  It was crazy. 

Needless to say, I was exhausted by Friday afternoon. 

Friday was also a running day, so after work I got changed and figured I was just going to try and run 2 miles b/c of how tired I was (and since my run on Wednesday was so shitty).  Unfortunately, Friday’s run was even worse.  I had this shooting pain in my right lower leg (The arrow points the location of the pain in the picture below) when I first started running.

After about half a mile of running it was more of a steady ache than a sharp pain.  But then, after about a mile it went back to shooting pain.  I stopped and walked and it was fine.  I started running again and my leg was killing me again.  I alternated walking and running for the last half mile (same feelings again).  Irritatingly enough, my leg is hurting me today even just walking, but it’s more of a tight muscle feeling than a hurt leg feeling if that makes sense. 

So…all you smart people out there…what is it?  I’m taking today off from running, and trying again tomorrow.  I’m hoping maybe it was just really tired and sore from walking around all day (really all week) in the safety shoes and I didn’t take a long enough break from Wednesday?  Any other suggestions? 

Coming home from running, I stopped to get gas and had an awesome conversation with homeless person in the parking lot.  She was walking around with these cheap felt flowers (that looked like they had been thrown away from a store they were so beat up).  She was trying to sell them to the customers in the parking lot. 

I actually don’t mind giving money to people like that.  At least they’re pretending to work and not just asking for money from me straight out.  Also, the people here that ask for money are so much more polite than the people who used to ask me for money back in Jersey.  It’s crazy.  (There was a homeless guy in NJ who used to spit on you if you didn’t give him money…and then come back the next day and ask again.  He was truly crazy).  

Anyways, I didn’t have any money on me at the time so I just told the lady I was sorry and I didn’t want a flower.  So, she tells me…”I also take donations”.  For that alone, I probably would have given her a dollar if I had one.  It was just so entertaining.  I apologized again and kept going.   But seriously, how awesome was her response?  I think I need to start going around telling people I also accept donations. 

So, I think I’m going to go attempt to take a nap.  Irritatingly enough, I woke up at 6:30 this morning (even though I had NO reason to be up that early) and COULD NOT fall back asleep.  Argh.  I’m hoping now that it’s 9, I can maybe fall back asleep.

Have a lovely weekend!

Today was a bad running day. 

All week we’ve been crazy busy at work, running around pretty much non-stop (although today I at least had a few chances to sit down) and just killing my legs.  I went running today and totally planned an easy 2 mile run just based on how tired my legs were.

I started running and my muscles just hurt.  I can’t even describe it.  It felt like I had just run 20 miles and was trying to force myself to run another 20.  They were so sore.  I got mad at myself that they were so sore (I’m sure it’s all my fault somehow) so I decided I was going to show how I tough I was and run the hilly path again. 

Idiot.

I at least shortened it to a 3 mile loop instead of the 4 mile loop, but even so…I only was able to run about 2.5 miles of it and needed to walk about half a mile of it.  And now…my legs seriously are rebelling against me.  I was walking Oscar and attempted to jog with him back to the front door…and my  legs seriously WOULD NOT do it.  So I just let go of his leash and let him run it in himself.  It was pathetic. 

However, on a positive note…I DID get my annual review from my old manager today.  And words such as “outstanding”, “excellent”, and “incredible” were used.  No lie.  I got the second highest rating I could have gotten (I’ve never in my 4 years with the company met a single person who has received the highest rating…I don’t believe they exist), however, b/c I entered the program in September I kind of screwed myself out of a yearly increase (I have to wait until this upcoming September to get one).  So that sucks the big one. 

My new manager also added some input and it was all good.  I was a little nervous to hear what he had to say about me (I never really get any feedback from him so I have no idea if he’s happy with my work or if he thinks I’m the biggest moron ever…) but it was a nice relief to see all good comments. 

Go S.

Anyways, although my day of running totally sucked…at least everything else has been going ok. 

Have a lovely hump day. 

This past weekend was one of the most awkward weekends I’ve had in a while. 

Friday night a bunch of my friends from my work program decided to meet up at an awesome restaurant downtown and someone kind of high up in the program decided to come as well.  This person is not an associate in the program and doesn’t usually hang out with us (in fact I’ve talked to this person all of 4 times in my life). 

So this person apparently never learned the lesson that pills and alcohol do not mix.  At least they don’t mix in their body.  I have never seen such a sloppy messed up person.  We were actually kicked out of the restaurant for being so inappropriate. 

It would have been one thing if this was my friend acting this way…but seriously.  We didn’t know this person that well and it was a pain in the ass to have to take care of them.  I ended up driving them back to their house in their car and they proceeded to tell me some crazy insane secrets I really didn’t want to know. 

Just awkward all around.

Then Saturday was our holiday party which was supposed to be fun and I was totally looking forward to it.  Until they announced all the layoffs for that department on the Thursday beforehand.  And seriously…a lot of the departments got SLAUGHTERED.  We went from 178 people in one department to 38!  So the party actually got kind of depressing when we found out that a lof of people who had been layed off still came to the party (including the host of the party…which had to suck even more for him).  It was fun, but in a kind of depressing way.  And I definitely have survivors guilt going on right now.  Blah.

Anyways, the weekend was just awkward. 

So I made up for it today by having a good run.  I ran about 3.5 miles but it was a hill workout instead of a straight run which was nice.  I was near the end and I had promised myself I could stop and walk across the driveway at the library, before running the last couple hundred of feet.  But when I got to the driveway, the only person in the state of VA that actually stops for pedestrians was waiting for me to cross, so I felt compelled to sprint across instead.  Sigh.  By that point it seemed silly to stop and walk so I just ran the rest of the way. 

It took about 40 minutes all together which is pretty good for me considering how many hills were involved. 

Now, I’m waiting for dinner to cook and watching The Muppet Christmas Carol. 

Love this movie.

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and have a wonderful week!

It’s been raining pretty much all day here, but today was also a running day.  So…I put on my running shoes (following my exact method of course) and drove over to my running area. 

When I get there it’s barely raining.  It’s just a gently soft rain that is actually more invigorating than annoying.  I’m super psyched for this run.  I start off down the road and the first quarter mile is awesome.  It starts to rain a little harder, but not too bad.  Although I promised myself if it starts to rain any harder before I hit the one mile marker I’ll just turn around and do a short 2-miler instead of the planned 3. 

Everything is going good…I pass the one mile marker and still no problems.  I get about 1.25 miles into the run…and torrential downpour.  Seriously.  In less than 10 seconds I was as wet as I would be if I had jumped into a swimming pool fully clothed. 

My clothes weighed about 10 extra pounds.  My shoes were soaking wet and squishing with every step I took.  The ground couldn’t absorb all that water so little rivers were forming everywhere I tried to step causing me to run the rest of the 3 miles in 2-3″ deep water. 

People in their cars are honking and shaking their heads at me, some were laughing, some just looked at me like I was insane. 

It was a really great run. 

The only bad part was when I returned to my car and realized I was soaking wet and still had to drive about 20 minutes back to my house.  Luckily I had some extra clothes in the car (and you all laugh at me for driving around with my closet in my car) and laid a blanket on my seat to sit on on the way home.  I stripped down in the car, put on a dry shirt and got back as quickly as I could.

I stripped as I walked in the door (gave the neighbors quite the thrill :-P) and ran into the shower.  Now I feel all happy and ready to curl up in front of the TV (with little O of course).

Too bad my TV is now BROKEN.  The volume has decided it no longer wants to work on my TV.  So…I can watch all the TV I want…I just can’t hear any of it.  Argh.  I refuse to buy a new one…so if anyone wants to donate a working TV to me that would be fantastic (how about it Best Buy?).  :-)  I have an extra one…but it’s kind of small so I can’t decide if it’s worth moving into the room or not. 

Whatever, I’ll deal with it this weekend. 

Hope everyone is having a lovely week!

I was reading someone’s blog earlier (sorry I can’t remember which one) and they were talking about things they are neurotic about.  I decided that would be a fun and easy post to write since I’m neurotic about SO MANY things.

So enjoy

• I hate when my food touches any of the other food on my plate.  I’ve mastered the art of getting entire platefuls of food in a buffet and not having any of them touch each other
• I hate circles.  Seriously.  I don’t like them.  I fully admit it’s a weird thing to hate…but I just don’t like them.  If I have a choice between a circular table or a square/rectangular table…I will avoid the circular table at all costs.  My plates are squared.  I only use the square shaped glasses at my parents’ house.  It’s weird.  I know.
• As much as I hate circles…I love polka dot designed things.  Explain that one.
• I don’t eat the butt of a fry.  I always bite my fries right before where I’m holding it on the one end and leave that end on my plate.  I won’t eat it.  After a meal, my plate is full of fry butts.  I’m not even sure why I do this.
• I only eat the outside breading part of onion rings.  I literally peel the onions out from inside and only eat the outside.  It’s the best part. 
• I eat my reese’s peanut butter cups from the outside in.  I scrape all the chocolate off first and then eat the peanut butter last.
• I apparently have a lot of weird things with food.
• My desk at work has to be SPOTLESS or I get this restless urge to organize and can’t get work done until it’s clean.  My home…not so much.  I’m one of the messiest people I know. 
• I won’t get in my car until I verify there’s no crazy slashers hiding either under my car (waiting to slice my achiles heel) or in my back seat (waiting to cut my head off).  I do this pretty much at any time of day.
• I hate going to the bathroom in the middle night because I’m worried there might be a spider inside it waiting to bite me.  I don’t have this random fear during the day.
• I have a routine that I follow exactly every time I put on my running shoes.  They must be put on in a certain order and tightened a specific way.  They feel uncomfortable if I don’t do it right the first time. 

Umm…yeah…that’s just a start.  But maybe I shouldn’t be scaring you away with how weird I am.  So…anyone else have weird quirks like this? 

So…my annoying pity party from yesterday is over.  Like I said, crying about it never helped anything, and seriously…what am I complaining about?  I still have a job and place to live (for now at least), I have awesome friends and family, and…I still have Oscar.  It could be MUCH worse so enough whining from me. 

I even managed to go running today.  Sadly, no hot officers were out running today (I’ll try and go again tomorrow…maybe I’ll see them then).  The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold, and a lovely breeze.  Seriously.  Perfect. 

Unfortunately, my lack of eating is apparently catching up to me.  I started to feel light headed around mile 3 and had to walk for a little while before running it in for the last half mile or so.  But, all in all…not a terrible run all things considered…and it made me feel good…so that’s all I really care about. 

I somehow managed to win my fantasy game this week.  Even after completely forgetting I was in the playoffs, forgetting that there was a game on Thursday night, and forgetting to actually look and see if all my players on my roster were actually playing this week.  But…oh yeah…I rocked.  Ok, maybe “rocked” is a bit of an exaggeration…but I did win so that’s all I care about.  Go Pretty Pink Princesses!  (Yes…my fantasy football team DOES have the coolest name ever…I know you’re so jealous).  Sadly, this year my other team, The Football Fairies…did not even come close to making the playoffs.  Sigh. 

Lastly, on another random change of topic…I had the most bizarre dream the other night.  I was back in the apartment I lived in in college with 22 other girls (no…not a sorority…apparently just a brothel), except I had some weird ass roommates.  My sister J was one, and then the Jonas Brothers were my other roommates.  We were trying to get ready for a party, and I couldn’t find anything to wear so I decided to wear my old orange/pink/peachy color bridesmaids dress (it’s actually a very pretty dress) which was so not the type of party I was going to.  Then, I couldn’t find shoes and Joe Jonas was yelling at me for taking so long (geez…what a jerk) so I looked in J’s closet and she had these HIDEOUSLY ugly boot/sandal things.  They were like boots with 3″ heels…but the backs were wide open.  And they were red and green and yellow and had MONKEYS all over them.  We thought they would look really cool with jeans and the dress.

So of course I chose those shoes. 

Then I woke up when Joe Jonas started yelling at me again.  It was odd. 

Anyways, hope everyone is having a wonderful week!  Off to hug Oscar some more