Week in Review

I had a great week. Several odd/entertaining things happened and I thought I would share...

Saturday - Continuation of the scrapbooking weekend that started Friday night (OK, on Friday night we mostly watched What Not to Wear, but on Saturday we really got some scrapbooking done!). It was great to catch up with friends and to relive some memories while I was scrapbooking. Cheesy, but it makes me smile.

Sunday - Frisbee was AWESOME! I don't really remember if I played well or not, but it was so much fun!

Monday - I don't remember anything about Monday, so I'll skip it.

Tuesday - All of my meetings at work were in my office. I only left my office twice and got so much done! My desk is clean and all my long-term to do items are stacked in order next to my computer. I was in such a productive mood that I decided to stay home for the evening and continue my scrapbooking progress!

Wednesday - St Patrick's Day! Legend has it that St Pat is the patron saint of engineers. Well, at least that's what they say at UMR and a friend of mine went there, so he throws a party every year. Fun times with fun friends. Apparently there is a new show on TV called Minute to Win It where people compete in silly competitions. We had a live version of some game where two people strap Kleenex boxes around their waist and put ping pong balls in the Kleenex boxes, then shake to see who can shake the balls out first. Quite amusing! That was followed by a discussion about donuts, after which one friend headed out to get donuts for everyone. And darts came soon after that. I didn't play, but it's fun to watch how far off some folks can be. Fortunately, no darts went flying through the crowd : )

Thursday - Running with sweet friends! The temperature was perfect and we had a great time. We did have one small incident involving a raccoon. We were running along on a perfectly lit and busy street when suddenly there was a raccoon about 50 feet in front of us and he was staring us down. Brittany started running the other way. I turned to follow her, but Kallae wanted to keep going. The raccoon really was watching us and I was scared he was going to charge us and we'd all end up with rabies. We compromised. Brittany and I ran across the street to avoid him, but Kallae insisted on walking right next to him. I couldn't watch because I was sure he would attack her. He didn't, though. We crossed back over about a half block up and continued our run.

Friday - My boss suggested we go watch basketball over lunch, so we all headed to Chili's and watched for a while. My boss is a huge Kentucky fan, so we have fun harassing her! She's actually a graduate of MIT and on Friday, I found out that the MIT fight song is quite...well...amusing? I'm not sure what the right word is to describe it. Here are the lyrics. I'll let you judge for yourself how it should be described.

"E to the U, dU dX, E to the X, dX
Cosine! Secant! Tangent! Sine!
3-point-1-4-1-5-9!
Integral! Radical! µ, DV
Slipstick! Slide rule! M.I.T.!"

Seriously...that's the fight song. It is more like a chant, which my boss demonstrated for us. Really. I laughed so hard I was crying and almost drooling.

Saturday - Ah, it's Saturday! I have had quite a full day already, running around Clear Lake getting stuff done. Now I'm enjoying basketball and watching the rain. I'm headed out to Rodeo later for the Super Series championships and Brooks & Dunn's final concert. The most important part of the day will be when I cheat on my diet for one of the delicious cinnamon rolls at the Rodeo. I'm counting the minutes till I get there!

Fasting and Feasting

At New Years' this year, I decided that I needed to get my healthy eating (or lack there of) back in check. Problem was I was training for that marathon and I didn't want to mess up my routine. I know what you're thinking...why wouldn't you want to eat healthier before a marathon? That is true, I should. The thing is, I intended to change my diet a little more drastically than just "eat healthier" and I didn't want the drasticness (is that a word?) to impact my running.

So, I held off...until the marathon was over. As of March 1, I started what is called the Daniel Fast or Daniel Diet. It is a scripture-based diet of natural foods. I'm not doing it for spiritual reasons...just to get a little healthier. I've been on it for 12 days now and I can definitely tell a difference in how I feel. The gist of it is to eat no animal products (aka vegan!) or sweetened foods or drinks. So, I'm fasting from meats, cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, chocolate, and on and on.

But I'm feasting on so many veggies and fruits and finding new ways to get protein and calcium. It's a fun little game to play. I have to admit...I've cheated about five times (sometimes sausage jambalaya and/or chocolate are just calling your name and you have to answer; it's only polite!). But, I've been pretty good and I've even requested special food at work lunches. I'm just as satisfied with my meals and so much less dragged down by them.

I am also fasting from Facebook. Again, not 100% successfully and not for any deep spiritual or moral reason. I just find that I spend too much time on it. The thing is, I love seeing what is going on in the lives of my friends and I feel a little selfish checking out for a while.

But I have managed to fill the time with lots of other things. I really have no idea how I would have fit an hour of Facebook into every night over the last two weeks! I was busy enough with what I am doing. I'm feasting on reading a good book (Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels), watching my TV shows (I said I wasn't checking out of Facebook for any deep reason!), and hanging out with friends. So it's been good times.

In the meantime, since I'm off Facebook, feel free to email and let me know how your life is going. If you've eaten a good steak lately, leave that part out. Jealousy is an evil thing : ).

The Cowtown Marathon

I finished!!! The marathon, that is. It was only my second full marathon. That is 26.2 miles for those of you that are counting. "How was it?" you might ask. To which I would respond, "It was long." Moma and Daddy came and cheered me on. Between mile 15 and the end, they caught up with me seven times! Daddy even ran/walked with me for a mile or so. Here are some of my favorite things about the run:

-I listened to four sermons on my iPod before mile 14. Three from The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX, and one from Simi Valley Church in California. Then I switched over to my running mix of music. Soon after, my iPod controls froze up and I couldn't change the volume or anything. Fortunately, I had a four hour mix on there, so I didn't need to use them. Just think of how long the race would have been if the controls had frozen up before I switched over to the music mix and I was just listening to silence!

-There were over a half-dozen people just around me dressed up as cows

-Just before mile 15, a family was in their front yard and they had put up an archway of balloons. Two of the kids were holding a long balloon across it so every runner could "cross the tape" first. It was fun.

-Just after that, I was walking for a bit and ended up walking along with a lady who was tired. It was her first marathon and she had decided to walk the rest (11.2 miles!). I told her to keep going because she'll be so happy that she can say she finished a marathon.

-Around mile 16, someone was in their front yard with jelly beans, which I grabbed a handful of.

-My dad decided to come run with me around mile 20, but he didn't decide until Ihad already passed them up, so he ended up chasing me for about a quarter mile. While he was running after me, he was hollering at me, but I couldn't hear him because my iPod was so loud since I couldn't adjust the volume. While he was chasing me, his phone fell out of the holster. Another runner on the course picked it up and brought it to him as he was catching up to me.

-At mile 20, a group was out with bananas, oranges, and Snickers! So good!

-At about 25.2 miles, one of my favorite songs came on just in time to run in for the finish. It was "Sing, Sing, Sing" by Chris Tomlin.

-At about 25.9 miles, a guy ran up next to me and said, "I've been chasing you for the last three miles and that's all that's kept me going, so don't let up now." It was his first marathon and he was really hurting, so I got to encourage him for the last push. Right after he came up beside me, the battery on my iPod went out...perfect timing for me to talk him to the finish line! As we got around the last corner, I told him, "See all those people? They are going to be cheering for you as soon as we get close, so keep going!" After the race, both he and his wife came over to thank me for helping him get through. That was my favorite part.

Sitting

I have spent an unusual amount of time sitting and listening to people talk lately. Here's what I did the last 2 days:

Sunday
Church (2 hours)
Fiddler on the Roof (3 hours)
Church (1 hour)

Monday
Neverending meeting (9 hours)

I think I should get a medal for patience!!

Conversation

I was going to write my next blog about my recent travels. But I had the funniest conversation with my sweet niece today and decided to blog about it. Here's how it went:

Jenny: What are you doing?
Mia: Playing with my lady bug rock.
J: What's a lady bug rock?
M: It's a rock that I painted to look like a lady bug for Nana (that's what she calls my mom)
J: Why did you paint it to look like a lady bug?
M: Lady bugs are on of my favorite bugs.
J: Really? What are your other favorite bugs?
M: Butterflies, lady bugs, dragon flies, and fire flies.
J: Well, that is quite a list.
M: Aunt Jenny, love bugs, too.
J: What? You love bugs?
M (laughing): No, I mean love bugs are one of my favorite bugs, too.

I love my niece.

Scatterbrained

That's my new title...Miss Scatterbrained! In just the last 8 days, I have misplaced my Garmin GPS watch ($300) AND my brand new bank card. I also have a weird noise coming from my car, need to clean my house, and I'm leaving for Nashville Friday morning to go run the half-marathon. I have trained for the half-marathon distance-wise, but have not run on what anyone would deem a "hill" in two years! This should be quite a weekend...

Update on Me

Whew, it has been a long time since I've written on this. I spend too much time on Facebook nowadays! Here are some random observations I made recently. It's not much of an update, but oh well. While driving between Houston and Alexandria for Easter, I observed the following:

-If I lived in a small town, I would have a love-hate relationship with my situation. I would love the fact that, on Good Friday, there is nowhere to park in town because everyone is at the Parish fair and is parking anywhere they can fit a car. I would hate the fact that the local Exxon station closes whenever the cashier has to run an errand. True fact: I went into the Exxon to buy a bottle of water. When I walked out, the cashier (who was very nice) walked out behind me, closed the door and put up a handwritten sign "Closed. Back in 5 minutes."

-Some people are in no hurry to get anywhere. Some are in way to much of a hurry!

-My family is hilarious! I almost spit out my food at dinner on Friday night when my sisters had the following conversation: "I'm going on a mission trip to Honduras." "Cool. Where is Honduras?" "I don't know...near Spain?" We all laughed really hard at that one, then it got better. "It's in Central America." "Where is that?"

-This one wasn't specifically on this trip. I used to be very independent. I preferred running by myself, living by myself, a good road trip to sing at the top of my lungs by myself. Not so much anymore. I'm spoiled by having company. I am scared when my roommate is out of town (which is ironic since I had to wake her up to ask her if she was OK the last time our alarm went off in the middle of the night), I prefer running with someone to talk with to pass the time, and I just outright dislike traveling alone. I don't know when all of that changed. Weird.

I guess that's all. Lots has gone on in my world, but there's not enough time to go over the minutiae of detail here. I'll try to keep up better from now on!