Akron Marathon Relay 2.0...

It was maybe 40 degrees this a.m. um...brrrr.....

Ahhh, race day! Who doesn't love a sleepless night, and a 4:30 am wake up call in the bitter cold?

It was a 2 hour wait in the freezing cold until I was "on"!

Sidenote: I'd much rather hop around and stretch constantly to keep my muscles warm, vs. almost die of heat exhaustion any day. (hello, Cleveland marathon with its 108 heat index!)

I was a bit worried about my performance since I was off my training for a while due to illness.



 Mr. Magoo poses with my race shirt and bib. I love our shirts this year!

 

 

Mr. Magoo had the utmost faith in my ability to still race well. Dog's opinions obviously matter.

 

I did ok! I kept it a comfortable jog the whole time until I noticed at the last half mile...which was the bottom of a grand hill......that I had a chance to come in under my goal time and pushed it a bit too fast, and as a result, I had to WALK into the relay exchange, while dry heaving. I sure hope this isn't on film.

 

One day I'll learn not to do that.

 

 

 

 

Getting your medal, is the best part!!



 

 I had an original goal of a 10 minute mile pace. Race day, I had hoped to come in at a 12 minute mile and finish my 7.5 miles in 90 minutes. I actually finished it in 85 minutes, at an 11.3 pace. So I did better than expected.

 

My team which consisted of two of us avid runners, 1 beginner, and two casual runners, finished the 26.2 in 4.5 hours.

 

Not too shabby. And, just as I had expected, it stirred up the race day excitement in them all, and I have some new racing buddies for the future!

 

My beginner, wants to do the half next year, and thanked me for being an awesome workout buddy, and said she couldn't have done it without me. Now I know why people train. It's very satisfying!

 

I told her I will be her training partner, and stay with her thru every step of that half, just like my BFF did for me.

 

Isn't running GREAT?!

 



 

 Yes..the dog really thinks he had a part in this whole thing, so he tried to get in every photo.

 





Joining the Cool Kids...

So the stock market took a crap today. Listen to me sounding all adult-like, and caring about things like that!!

Luckily I had already sold my shares of stock, and almost doubled my investment, rather than holding out for it to go up even further!

Yaaaay meeeee!!!

Whenever one "comes into money", they need to buy something frivolous, right?

I have a really hard time buying things that I don't "need".  (unless it makes me look or feel younger....or makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside as in the form of wine..or, makes me laugh as in buying stupid clothes for my dog to wear)

Nevertheless...I am moving into the millenium, and purchasing a flat screen television. (and of course a new entertainment center)

My current TV works perfectly well. But I talked myself into this because my bedroom TV has half the screen inverted at the top.

So like...people's heads are standing on top of one another, and the sound is pretty muffled by an underlying buzzzzzz....but it still works!!!

I'll swap my bedroom TV with my current living room TV, and then have a fabulous new television in my living room.

Most people already connect to Netflix thru their TV, but I'm still curled up in my side chair in front of the laptop for these things.

I'm making a come up!

Hibernation Mode...

I have stayed in the last several weekends. It started out that I was sick, and needed to rest, so I gave up working out for a week, which is hard to make myself do.

During this time, I discovered that Netflix (my most favorite thing on earth besides wine, and real tivo, not DVR) has the first 8 seasons of Grey's Anatomy.

So, naturally I watched the first three seasons in 3 days.

It was fun catching up with the gang, but this is highly anti-social, not to mention....lazy!! This should be reserved strictly for snowstorms, and freezing temperatures!!

I took my hibernation to two weeks. While it was hard to make myself not work out for a week, it was pretty easy to just not work out another week...an object at rest stays at rest.

Now I am facing a 7.5 mile relay leg next weekend, followed by a half marathon the following week.

Gulp!!

So finally, today I laced up my shoes, and hit the trail for a test run of 8 miles. I hadn't been outdoor running for months due to the heat, and I forgot how much I love it! But fall has arrived!! The crisp  air, the beautiful leaves turning color, waving to fellow runners.

But mostly, I love the forced time to be alone with my thoughts. That is my favorite therapy. I do my best thinking when I run outside. (indoor runs are distracted by TV watching)

I'm glad I went! Sometimes you just have to force yourself to do what you don't feel like doing to remember how much you love it!

I'm back on the wagon this week, and I am hoping that I can pull these last two races out of my ass.

It's the end of the season for me. (I think) What I know for sure is...I cannot wait to get those last two medals!! They are like crack to a crackhead for me!

Stalking Your Stocks...

I am so not a gambler. One time I went to the "game room" with my Mother (who is addicted and loses far more than she wins) and every time I was up, even a dollar, I cashed out, and put the money in my bra, until I turned my $20 into $60, and left her there to go buy new running shoes.

The stress of that day was more than I could handle, and I refuse to go back! Gambling to me is like burning money. Who burns money???

I'm even terrified of the 401k plan because it puts your money into the open market and gambles your future away. I can't handle it.

I happen to be very lucky that the company I work for allows us to buy stock in our company at a discount thru an outside company. Not only that, but it is a stock savings. So, at the end of 2 years, even if the stock plummets, you still at least get what you put into it, plus interest.

No risk= my kind of thing!! I like to play it safe!

It's time to cash in, and all I have been doing, is stalking my stock price. It goes up a dollar. It goes down a dollar. It goes up 50 cents, it goes down 75 cents. I am on the website roughly 50 times a day. So far, I'm looking at a significant rise since I bought in!!!

I'm trying to keep a level head.

But greed is the American way.....and I have big plans for that money!!!

Making Dreams a Reality....I'm Doing It!!...

Let's face it. While I may feel as though I am still 21, I'm pushing 37!! (not very hard though, I am not trying to get there very fast...)

There are a lot of things I keep putting off because "I might meet the right person one day and everything will fall into place". I guess there comes a time in your long-term singledom, when you have to let go of those foolish hopes, and face reality.

While I'm still a firm believer in love, and of getting everything that you want, the "someone" may come far later in life.

In the meantime...I'm getting kinda sick of waiting on things. I'm somewhat impatient.

Most women my age would see this as a time to start looking for other ways to have kids because we are 'getting old'. Me? Not so much!

I want to take an exotic trip!! I soooo want to see the world, and I keep banking on meeting the right guy to go with me! (mine is not the life with friends of liesure that can pick up and go, or I'd have been gone on said trips, long ago!)

This week.. I had the most amazingly vivid dream of traveling to Antigua. I may be slightly ashamed to say that, before my dream, I had never even heard of this place. Which makes this dream even more amazing!! I remember every detail, smell, color, and experience like I was actually there!! Then google helped me feel the connection.

And so...In 2013...I am booking a trip to the Carribean solo!!  Antigua? Maybe. Punta Cana? Perhaps...All I know is, that my sometime is no longer waiting on a future Mr. Me to come. My sometime is now!

Am I terrified? Yes!!!!!! I don't even dine out alone down the street!! But do I want to wait around on something that I really want to do, in the hopes that maybe I'll meet a guy that will go with me? HELL NO!!!

Life is far too short to wait around.

I am perfeclty OK with spending all my time at the resort, lounging by the pool or, enjoying the crystal blue ocean,  sipping cocktails and reading trashy magazine articles, or the next best thing since "50 Shades of Grey".

I am looking at this as an "Under The Tuscan Sun" experience. I love that movie! And while I don't expect to find love on my solo vacation, I expect to find myself, and be so freaking proud that I did something I never in a billion years thought I could do.

I have not felt more excited, or alive since making this decision!

This seems terrifying to me.. But it's the times we step outside our comfort zone when the most amazing things happen.

And I am so ready to take that step!!

Laptop Killer...

So, I killed yet another laptop.  What the heck am I doing wrong?

I can't even count the number of nights I've enjoyed a few martini's or glasses of wine around the laptop while blogging, facebooking, or watching netflix. I mean, who keeps track? Of course, I have said drinks in their appropriate thin stemmed glasses, and never manage to knock them over.

This past weekend, I had a nice big glass of ice water, in a regular water glass...I was not feeling my greatest, sick...cough, cough... while preparing to watch a great netflix movie, and bam!!! Whole glass of water takes out the Dell.

I guess the biggest mistake I made was trying to turn it back on right away, who knew you should disconnect power and battery? I am not a computer genius! At work, I have a 4 digit extension that fixes all my problems!!!

Plus, I was in the middle of a fantastic horror movie! I wanted to see the ending!!!

Long story short, I left a few days later with a brilliant HP laptop with a ginormous 17" screen, greater memory, and windows 7. I am learning how to use this new technology and I'm loving it!!

Week-ending...

I've been a bit under the weather. I am not yet sure if it is the change of seasons, or the fact that I am juicing. I read that you usually get sick when all the toxins leave your body, but then I'm not really doing a strictly juice diet, so who knows. Either way, it sucks!

I watched so many netflix movies, that I am really down to the nitty gritty. But I dunno what I'd do without it. I also rented Hunger Games.  One of the few books I read made to movie. It of course, wasn't as detailed as the book, and my only complaint is the movie didn't explain why they actually did the hunger games.

Despite being sick, I did manage to get out and enjoy the annual tradition of the Yankee Peddlar Festival with one of my best friends. We had amazing fall-like weather, which allowed for jeans, t-shirts, and sandals without freezing or sweating to death! I heart fall temperatures!!

Last year we discovered they served booze, and we think this year they got hip to it, because they no longer allow you to buy cold 6 packs to go...so we just had a few draft Berry Weiss beers, and called it a day. Having beer at a craft festival makes you very popular. Everyone asks you where you got it.

I think next year we should learn how to be spokeswomen for Leinenkugel. We drum up a lot of sales for them!

Not only did we have a couple beers, but as you can only get the best foods but once a year, I also indulged in my usual turkey reuben sandwich. I think I heard angels sing with each bite of this heavenly treat. It was, aside from my morning and evening juice, my only meal of the day. It wasn't even out of calorie conservation, I was full from it the entire afternoon/evening!! Worth every single calorie though!!

The only other event of the single gal weekend was my Mr. Magoodle-bug got his hairs cut off. He looks like a totally different dog when he gets groomed! He's so tiny!

Mr. Magoo with his cat brother Pickachu on Friday, hiding from the treacharous thunderstorm together!

Mr. Magoo after the groomer on Saturday. Totally different dog!

Surely, you had a more exciting weekend?

Juicing My Way to Health...

"Mean Green Juice"

 I have been on a Netflix documentary kick latley. I've run out of scary movies to watch, so... why not?

I watched this movie, "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" last weekend, and it inspired me to start juicing!

I am not going to go on a "juice diet" like he does in the movie, because it is just not for me. Knowing that just as diets don't work for me, neither would the absence of chewing and swallowing food work for me in the quest of losing my final 15lbs. 

But the more movies I watch about food, the more they inspire me to eat even more healthy. And that is my goal!


I have been partaking in the mean green, as featured in the film, and I have to say...I feel fabulous! The first day I honestly felt like I had a few glasses of wine, I felt fab-yooo-licious!!

There are a bunch of ways to get on board to "rebooting" your system at the website for the movie. (you can also watch the full length movie for free here)

I'm opting for eating breakfast as usual, (egg beaters, turkey bacon, and a carb - whole wheat toast or an english muffin) and having a mean green juice for my two snacks during the day, and having my regular healthy lunch, and dinner. Weight loss would be a plus, but I'm mainly looking to see how my energy level, and overall sense of well being changes.

So far, I have felt as though I am having too much caffeine. sort of jittery..I have cut out my morning coffee, so this is interesting!

I'll keep posted about how I feel after adding in all these new nutrients each day!!

Want the recipe?

1 cucumber
2 green apples
piece of ginger (to taste)
4 celery stalks
6 kale leaves
1/2 a lemon

I didn't think it was bad at all, but I let a few co-workers try it and they were not on board. But they also are not healthy eaters. It's a bit sweet, but mostly it's "green".

Do you juice? 

We All Love...

Sometimes you have a bad day at work, and  then, everything starts to feel bad, and you can no longer keep up a strong front.

"I'm no spring chicken.  I thought I'd own my own home by now. Why don't I have a significant savings? What if I wind up alone and a ward of the state when I am old, without a hand to hold, or even my cats to comfort me? I am such a good person with a big heart, why am I still alone?"

And then I heard a song that made me remember feelings I thought I had forgotten, so then...I sobbed the entire drive home.





After my good cry...I came home. To an apartment that I love, and pets that I adore. I had friends to talk to, and a family that would listen to my endless tales about times gone by.

Mr. Magoo shows off his only front tooth alot. I also captured his one good eye in this shot. 

It's ok to still hurt. It only means I am still not ready to move on. Which is OK. We all have our own demons to face before we find our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I have not yet become bitter about love. I still love it and all that it represents. I still feel optimistic that I am going to have that amazing feeling again. I just refuse to settle for someone. I want "the one". I have plenty of prospects, and dates, and guys that like me, but really....it means nothing to me. I want so much more than that. I could settle down, but I refuse to "settle". None of them light my fire.

"Everyone says love hurts, but this is not true. Loneliness hurts. Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Envy hurts. Everyone gets these things confused with love. But in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all the pain and makes someone feel wonderful again" -Greg Braden

Horror, Minus the Horror...

I went to see "The Posession" opening night, in true me fashion, I have to be the first to see the latest scary movie.

I even read up on the "true events" of the story. And found that there were several movies about the same mysterious box....there was also a syfy "paranormal witness" episode about it. They all kinda sucked. This movie kinda sucked too.

Maybe for the average person it was creepy? (one of my girlfriends was freaked out...) But I watch horror movies before bed, alone, in the dark, living in the ghetto.

It takes a lot to rattle me, scare me, or make me actually recommend a movie to another person.


If you have seen it, chances are, I have too. 

So, a challenge!!


So, if you are also a fan of the genre, ("thriller's included) what is your favorite scary movie? I am always looking for something I havn't seen!