Off My Rocker

While sharing a little less than a million pictures of the Dallas Arboretum that I just couldn't edit out because I thought they were all too pretty not to share, I'm going to tell you an unbelievably true story about how retarded I am while also talking about my first Tulip Festival experience.

Let's start with the morning I got off my 3 night work stretch. 

All week I'd planned on seeing the flowers, but wanted to wait until I was good and rested, so on Thursday morning I was on a mission to get all my errands out of the way. I stopped at two different grocery stores, getting cash in the process, then stopped to get gas. After swiping my card a few times at the pump and reading the message, "See associate," I decided to walk inside to investigate. 

My card had been denied.

"Don't worry", they told me, "It happens all the time and sometimes it's just the pumps." So we tried again........same story. "Well you know they passed a law a couple of years ago, saying if you don't have more than $100 in your account, the pump wont approve your card," the lady "assures" me. 

No, I didn't know that.........and WHAT?!? I have LESS than $100 in my account?!?!?

It was all too much to process after being awake for so long, so I immediately went home to slept off my worries.......ultimately to wake up, still having to face my potentially empty bank account online. After crossing my fingers and toes and logging in, and discovering there was plenty of money to be spent, I decided it was by fault of that particular gas station's pumps that I was denied. 

But the fact remained I was still low on gas. 

Friday morning rolled around and the sun was beaming, so I got dressed and headed straight to the blooms. If I knew then what I know now, I would never have parked in the arboretum's parking lot. Everyone in Dallas beat me there, forcing me to park so far out I was merely on the other side of the fence from where we parked for free at White Rock Lake Park, yet after I walked all the way to the entrance gait and waited in another line (I'd already waited in a 10 minute line to park), I discovered I'd be paying $10 for parking.........too late to change it; that's how they get'cha. 

All the colors were absolutely breathtaking. The flowers were open wide, shining so bright my camera could barely even focus on them. It was a breezy 80 degrees out and I was jealous of everyone that brought their picnic supplies to lounge on the lawn. 

I walked around for about 2.5 hours, taking it all in, making sure I didn't miss a thing, just enjoying the massive garden and pretending it was an extension of my make believe mansion looking out onto the lake. 

A few rude lady bugs thought they'd set me straight and bite me back into reality, just a minor annoyance compared to the sunburn I acquired, a stupid side effect of underestimating the Spring sun's wrath mixed into the equation of my ignorant ability to judge how long I'd exposed my pasty pale skin to the outdoors. 

There were so many different walking paths, color combinations, and designs that I never got bored. Had I had some company other than complete strangers, I could have easily stayed out there all day. 

But the time did come when I decided I must leave, and with the confidence that I had enough money to get gas, stopped by the nearest gas station before I was forced to rely on fumes to get me home. 

I slid my card into the pump and saw this message, "Pump Suspended." WTH? I looked around and saw a man one pump away cursing the gas station. Hmmm......"It must be the darn pumps again," I thought. I drove around to another pump and tried again. "See Associate."

I marched inside to inquire. 

"Oh, it was shift change. That's why the pump said that. Everything should be fine, just go try again," they told me. 

OMG. If only they knew........Out again I went, with hopes it really was just "shift change" causing the error. 

Almost immediately after I swiped my card an abrupt voice blared from a speaker over my head, "It denied your card again!" 

Son of a biscuit eater!!!

Without an inch of patience left, I called my bank to get to the bottom of this, holding up the pump and all. 

"Excuse me! But my card keeps getting denied at every gas pump I go to, and I know I have money, so what is the deal?!" 

"What's your address?" the bank lady asks. 

I tell her. 

"Oh, well that's the problem. You're zip code is wrong. I'll change it for you."

"Thanks. But, WHY would my zip code be wrong? It hasn't changed since October. How could this happen? Isn't that a little scary that someone would just change my zip code for no reason?"

"Hmm....well, I'm not sure why that would happen. It says........(she reads it out loud to me)"

"Oh my," I respond, "That IS my zip code. I must have reverted back in time, had a brain fart, and forgot my current zip code! I need you to change it back to that other one."

"Okaaaaay........" I could hear the confusion in her voice, feel the uncomfortable silence that comes with thinking someone is off their rocker, and just knew she was smiling that condescending smile that conveys the message "bless her heart". 

So all this time, I was getting denied because I was entering the wrong zip code, had my zip code changed to the wrong zip code, and then had to change it back to the correct zip code. I called Patrick to tell him yet another story to make him question why he married me. 

"Babe, you are so crazy. We've never even had that zip code before, " he said. 

Okay, I know I can be crazy, but to just pull some random numbers out of my butt and pass it off as the zip code of my current residence?? I'm not THAT crazy, am I?

Turns out he was wrong, and we actually have had the zip code I was trying to use.........and that's a prime example of what happens when you move as much as we do. Neither of us can ever remember our address"es"!!!!!

Even funnier I somehow received a package in the mail from Heather, even though I looked back and saw I gave her the wrong zip code, too!!!

And a friend was suppose to be coming to pick us up the next morning to take us to a race, but she texted me to say she couldn't find our place on the map..........because I gave her the same wrong zip code. 

After all this nonsense, I walked back inside the gas station to get something to wet my whistle, and simultaneously received a call from a 1-800 number. I don't typically answer those, but for some reason did. Lo and behold, it was the fraud detection company calling to report suspicious behavior on my card. 

As automated systems are extremely difficult to pay full attention to, I didn't really pay it any mind until I thought I heard it say I was charged $160 at a gas station. WHAT?! Try as I might, I couldn't get it to repeat the dollar amount, so I had to keep pushing confusing numbers until a representative would speak with me. 

Apparently, that lady at the first gas station was correct. Gas stations float over $100 out of your account, to make sure you can pay for all the gas you can handle, and then refund the money you don't use. I'm sure this is a direct result of con-artists and gas thieves. So even though I only got $30 in gas, the initial charge is way more. Crazy........

I'm so glad it all worked out, even though my intellectual reputation may have been permanently damaged with a few girls at my bank.

I learn so much from my mishaps. 

1. Research parking before you go.

2. Wear sunscreen on other places than your face, even when you think you won't need it. 

3. Memorize your address. 

Have you learned any lessons lately?

You Can't Always Get What You Want

If I had to be honest, then I'd have to admit I had been feeling pretty anxious about how I would handle this weekend. All sorts of mixed feelings had been floating around in my head about how I might or might not feel, and I was completely clueless about how it'd all end up affecting me. After all, it almost feels like yesterday that I was expecting to give birth on March 17. It's a really awkward and backwards kind of grieving process to experience, especially when I'm at the stage of my life where everyone around me is expanding their families (seemingly effortlessly), and I'm left with choosing to be happy for their successes or wallowing in my own selfish sorrows. 

Thank goodness for the ability to stay busy, supportive friends and family, and guardian angels. I think someone has been praying really hard for me, because although it was always in the back of my mind, I was able to not let it dominate my emotions, and I think I can say the same for Patrick. 

But that's not what the pouty faces are all about; we have lots of blessings.

Our lips are puckered because after a day of sleeping in, making pumpkin pancakes, and cuddling while watching a day worth of Netflix movies, we decided to get dressed and walk a block down the street to a place called Mr. Wok; it's tantalizing aroma is always under our noses when we walk the dogs in our little townhouse neighborhood and the parking lot is always full! Convinced it must be amazing and itching to try it, we finally found the time. 

Only thing is, once we got to it, we realized something was wrong. Not a single car in the lot. Walking up to the dark restaurant, we see not one, but TWO "D" Magazine recognition stickers on the door, and a sign that says they are open all day every day..........EXCEPT SUNDAYS!!! What is this, Chick-Fil-A?!?!?

Determined not to get too beat down with disappointment, we walked back home to hop in the car and find another Asian place, since now nothing else would suffice. I thought of a crusty looking place off the highway that I'd noticed always looked busy, Zenna, so we wasted no time finding it. We got there just in time to enjoy happy hour food prices, and ordered an array of things to try. This place turned out to be such a pleasant surprise with their delicious sushi rolls, Thai food, and dancing dragon entertainment!!!

I was feeling really adventurous and tried a soup called Tom-Kha Kai (chicken, mushrooms, and coconut milk in lemon grass broth, with chili paste and cilantro). It had a bit of a startling flavor at first, but was actually pretty addicting with it's interesting characteristics......sweet and tangy and brothy but fresh. 

Full, happy, and satisfied, we headed back home to watch another Netflix movie no one has ever heard of......because Netlix is weird like that.

It's true, you can't always get what you want, but you usually do get what you need. (Thanks, Rolling Stones.)

How do you cope when you don't get what you want?

The Time We Almost Lost Sumo, Again. And My Parents Moved, Again.

My whole life up until my 21st birthday,  I never imagined my parents living anywhere else other than what I had always considered home......then they sold their house and moved into a haunted rent house in Waco that smelled like old person. Everything about the situation was weird. I was the rambler, not them. 

A year later, they bought a place to settle in to, and called it "home". That was 6 years ago. Now that I've finally accepted their new place as a place to come home to, they're already moving again. The real crazy part is they don't have a place to live yet, unless you consider a tiny camping trailer with a metal pod behind it as a utility room and a 5x8 trailer in front of it as a closet someplace to live. Yup, that's where they'll be staying until they get a house built at the river, the place we all agree feels most like home. 

But to make that possible, first we had to move all of their insane amount of belongings into 4 of these 45 foot pods........with the help of movers and numerous volunteers. The worst part was arriving at my parents house on Saturday and hearing my Dad say, "Your job today is moving everything out of the loft in the shop."

Me: What? Are you crazy?? Do you know what my legs feel like today? Isn't there anything else I can do?

Dusty: That's what you get for running 10 miles yesterday, when you knew you had to help move all weekend.

Wowzers. Tough crowd. 

After too many clumsy trips up and down the steepest, narrowest stairway ever invented, we got smart and formed a moving train to surpass the death trap stairs........one of the many benefits to having tall men with long arms in the family.

Super heavy??? More like extraordinarily unimaginably ultra super heavy......but thanks, anyway, for the warning. 

Moving sucks, but finding nostalgic items from my childhood is a definite plus, and a major distraction.

And although a bit sad we had to finally give our last respects to the old wooden wagon I spent countless hours playing with, who'd seen better days, I was super excited to find my old Polaroid. My very first camera!! I no idea it was still lurking in my memories pile. I'm now open to donations to afford the crazy expensive film for it!

On  Sunday, while loading up the last of my parent's belongings, a heart stopping scream broadcasted through the air; faint at first, but quickly becoming more urgent and shreiky. It was our Moms. Dusty, Patrick, and I immediately dropped everything in our hands and ran to the front of the house just in time to see Sumo sprinting across the yard after a very large mut headed towards the road and a far off field. (He'd aparently Hudini'd his way our of his leash.) Knowing we'd never be able to catch up to the four legged speed demons, we desperately trailed behind them anyway, in hopes that Sumo would get distracted from his mission and ultimately respond to our commands. Luckily they crossed the road without any casualties and eventually the big dog stopped running, so the persuit could cease. Sumo was safe. We may have only ran 1/4 mile, but with all the stress and moving induced fatigue, it felt like 5.
Dusty: Why'd you stop running so soon? I thought you were "the runner"?
Me: A girl needs a decent recovery and proper conditions! Not sinking muddy fields, and soggy grass. Besides, it's not like we could have ever caught him!
My Dad: Get back to work. I didn't say you could take the dog on a walk.
My family, the loving support types.......

Admist all of that, we managed to have time to hang out with Vanessa and Ricky and their sweet family. Nothing like a night of full of cheap Mexican food, unforgettable memory making of tipsy shananigans on vacationing friend's front porches (which I can't go into detail on), and histerical laughter.

 

As a result of our semi-secret prank, I happily can say after years of seeing this petrified scrotom in disguise as floral decor in Vanessa's house, it has now fulfilled it's mission in life and is officially retired.

Do you remember (or still have) your very first camera? What special place does your heart associate with "home"?

Thank Goodness For Husbands (Project Pretty Week 9)

(Project pretty is a personal commitment to share my weekly journey of keeping my non-New-Year's-Resolution: staying fit to improve quality of life while inspiring others to do the same. Let's all jump on the endorphin wagon!)

It's getting down to the nitty-gritty before the up coming half marathon, and since my training schedule has been neither ideal nor consistent (skimpy is more like it), I knew I had to get in one more long run before the big day. The problem with this is, life always has a way of throwing me a wrench to dodge.

I knew I wouldn't have a hot minute to squeeze in a run the entire weekend, so I had to wake up early on Friday afternoon, after working 3 nights in a row, to complete my long run. Not only is forcing my body to change it's rhythm while asking it to have enough energy to run 10 miles difficult, but I was also cutting my recovery time short by 2 days due to conflicts, AND it looked like I' d be having to do it all by my lonesome (since my planned running buddy had something come up, and my husband was working).

Queen of risky experimentation, I thought I'd change up a few things for this run by eating some cinnamon toast with peanut butter and strawberries, wear some calf compression sleeves, test out my new Experia Thor-Lo socks, and fill my water bottle with Cytomax......all at the same time, in efforts to avoid issues I had the prior week (I even went as far as considering changing shoes to my Pure Cadences instead of the Pure Connects, but concluded against it). To stay consistent with my inconsistencies, I decided to explore a trail I'd never been to that was both close to my house and extra long, Chisholm Trail.

Only .16 miles into it, I had to stop. Not only were my calf muscles ridiculously tight and sore, but I had to go back for a potty break. Wow, this was starting out great........ A solid stretch later, I began again with a fresh start, but my legs were a far cry from feeling fresh. Tight. Tired. Sore. From the very first step despite all my efforts at yoga. This was going to be tough, mentally and physically. Not the ideal time to be alone with my thoughts was this. Negativity started to creep into the realm of my brain, sifting down through my legs. 

The only things that kept me going was the anticipation of my husband catching up with me on his bike after he got off work (he couldn't stand the thought of me trying to conquer that feat solo), and knowing despite my body's defiance, I was capable. A few Y's in the sidewalk later, and I figured I'd better call Patrick to communicate which concrete path I'd chosen, or he'd never find me. I LOVE my Yurbuds earphones already, but when I get to use the hands free call feature I fall in love with them a little more. 

Patrick found me just after mile 4 and I needed him more than ever. Just having him by my side gave me the burst of energy I needed to keep on keeping on, and an outlet for conversation is always a nice distraction from my inner demons. 

Leave it to me to get lost on a marked sidewalk, but somehow I managed to make a couple of wrong turns and ended up having to back track to get my distance in, always a peeve. The good news is the trail follows a long creek, tunneling under all the major roads, so stopping for traffic is completely avoided......of course this feature creates some hills, which normally wouldn't be considered a bad thing.......if I needed more of a challenge, which I didn't. At mile 9 I started to loose my steam again but looked at Patrick and said, "Well, I've gone this far. Might as well keep going." (A quote I stole from Forest, Forest Gump.)

Long story short, I did it (slowly: 1hr 57min), but owed to the support of my wonderful husband. Then an even more sore, but side stitch free and blister free me, drove straight home to partake in my first ever recovery formula.

The logs are officially chopped and in the barn.  Time to let them rest a little bit before the big day.

Would you be scared to make so many changes before the longest run in your training? Do you prefer to run solo or with company?

Unrelated Reasons to Eat Good Food

Our friends who live in Australia came to town and thought we were important enough to incorporate us into their jam packed itinerary!! When you live continents away from friends and family, 2 weeks isn't much time to see everyone and do everything, so we were honored to have them over for wings, french fries, brownies, and beer.

Patrick and Charlie go way back, but him and Rochelle moved to the land of Down Under right before our wedding, so we've watched these little ones grow up over the last 5 years via Skype. This was our very first time to actually meet the youngest, Kai, in person, and you can't tell from this picture, but they have kid # 4 on the way!!! 

Don't mind my super market feet...........I swear I clean my floor more than every 5 months. 

Now, for the unrelated good food.........

I've heard about Twisted Root for a long long time. We even had one within walking distance from us a couple of years ago, but we just never made it there. How could we resist their marketing??? "Great Burgers, Bad Service, Cold Beer, Get Yer Butt In Here"

I loved the sticker on the margarita machine, "Eat Well, Stay Fit, Die Anyway". And the saying posted in the bathroom, "We used to have Chuck Norris toilet paper, but it wouldn't take crap from anyone." It was cute that instead of getting a number for our order identity, we got a piece of paper with the name of a celebrity on it. We laughed when we heard the sound of Chewbacca blaring through the microphone, but laughed even harder when no one showed up at the counter to claim their meal until the second, more literal announcement, a while later.............because apparently someone didn't know what Chewbacca sounded like. 

The atmosphere was funky, the pickle bar scrumptious, the burgers big, juicy, and creative (apparently voted into the top 15 burgers in Texas)........but I was a bit taken back that a single burger was $9, not including a side or drink!..........Maybe that's because Guy from Diners Drive-ins and Dives gave it his seal of approval? Mine was I'd for sure go back, but next time I must remember to bring my ID (I see to be forgetting than thing a lot here lately) so I can enjoy some $1 happy hour PBR, and a friend to split a burger with!

Where's your favorite place to eat a burger? 

DYI Dry-Erase Calendar

Back when Cousin A was visiting, she asked me to help her come up with a poor-student-friendly idea for a XL dry erase calender to write her ever changing school schedule on. After some deliberation, we decided using a large picture frame would be the cheapest route and allow for the most creativity, so we hit up Hobby Lobby, used our 40% coupon, and walked out with a 24x36 frame for $20. All the other supplies were lurking in my crafting boxes, free of charge. 

Supplies:

Picture frame

Scrap book paper

Scissors

Glue stick

Yarn

Felt

Burlap

Hot glue/gun

Directions:

Remove the "fake picture" paper insert from the frame and turn it over so you have a nice, large, flat, blank slate to work with. 

Decide on a background design (get as creative at you want), cut out your scrapbook paper accordingly and glue stick it to the blank slate, which we'll now call our design platform. (I would really stick to more neutral colors than this, as not to distract from the dry-erase writing you'll be doing later, but Cousin A wanted color.) 

Measure enough strips of yarn (in groups of 3) to grid out your calendar, making each strand a few inches longer than the length and width of your design platform. 

Tie 3 strands of yarn together and braid all the way down, then knot off the end. Do this again and again, until you have enough braids to map/grid out your calendar days. (The point of this is just to have a bolder line to make the grid stand out well enough against the busy-ness of the design.) 

Hot glue them in place on the design platform. 

Using the burlap and felt, cut out a large enough rectangle (or whatever shape you want), to create a space to specify the Month.

Hot glue this to the design platform (as seen on the top left of my design platform).

(Cousin A also wanted space to write random notes, so I made a similar area to the top right of the calendar.)

Next, cut out small felt squares and hot glue in one corner of each day of the month (this will give you a designated space to number the days of the month).

Lastly, put the design platform back in the picture frame!

We made this one under a great deal of time restriction, so I got a little rushed with my yarn gluing,  resulting in a slightly crooked calendar grid......but in this case, we'll just call it shabby chic!!! 

Personally, I hate calendars, if you your a schedule freak, let those dates shine!!!

Pizza, Music, and Red Lipstick

I didn't forget to mention the last insanely fun concert night we had just before leaving for vacation, but there just hasn't been enough time to squeeze it in!..........UNTIL NOW!

You know it started off right, with red lipstick in downtown Dallas and good company over amazing pizza. (In case you're wondering, we eat pizza A LOT.) Laura and I always save room for dessert, especially when it involves Nutella and roasted marshmallows. 

One of the best things about Neo's is it's location, conveniently right across the street from House of Blues. 

This music hall was all decked out for Fat Tuesday and ready to rumble. And rumble it would, because we happened to have tickets to the sold out Imagine Dragons concert!!! 

Can I just say, I think this might be one of the best photo-bombed pictures ever made. Those boys.......can never trust 'em!!

Something magical happens when I text a concert wish to Tim: It always comes true! 

Several months prior, I knew I liked a few songs by this band, but didn't realize just how cool they were until I watched a documentary about them on my favorite music channel, Palladia. They instantly became a favorite on mine and Patrick's Pandora playlist, and the rest was history.

I don't know what Patrick did to that cartoon guy in the back staring him down, because I was too busy making a hot mess of myself at the bar, running into completely unsuspecting people, spilling a brand new drink all over the bar before I could even take the first sip. "I swear I'm completely sober!!" I pleaded to the bartender........just also a complete klutz!

Atlas Genius opened the show. You may have heard their most famous song already, Trojans, which is pretty impressive, considering they hadn't even released their first album until a week after this concert and already had a large enough fan base to be nominated for awards and tour with Imagine Dragons!

They had a great live sound and the lead singer was loaded with snarky comments to make the audience laugh. He even wore someone's cowboy hat for a song, in the spirit of being in Texas.

During the band break, all the black sheets were finally pulled of stage, revealing the extensive set of various drums waiting to be pounded, including one particularly ginormous Odaiko.

Despite the band coming out full of energy and drama, the balcony crowd stayed pretty mellow, which I could only assume must have been a result of most people not knowing many of their songs. Laura and I Redidn't care; we stood alone, dancing and singing proudly amidst the sea of sitters. With every song, we looked to each other saying, "OMG, I can't believe they're playing that one already......What are they going to finish with?!?" But they never ran out of impressive cards to play.

It was really fun to watch the lead singer, Dan Reynolds, bring his inner rhythm alive on stage. Not many moments went by without him running around thrashing one of the various drums laying around, like these beats consumed his body and if he didn't let them out he'd spontaneously combust. It was his religion in that moment, completely connected to each song's force.

By the time they played Radioactive, there wasn't a warm seat in the house, every chair abandoned by fans would couldn't help but stand, raise their arms, and scream along to their jam. My favorite part was a breakdown that lasted forever, where every member in the the band was pulverizing the drums, creating such a climatic effect..........and I'm not even a drum fanatic.

As we walked out, satisfied with our musical experience, we noticed a line of cars wrapped around the block with parents waiting behind the wheel for their children to come out of the venue..........minors at a concert on a week night?..... unchaperoned in downtown?...... did we miss something?

Anywho, if you don't know who Imagine Dragons are, you're missing out on some great Alt Nation/Indi Rock. If you trust me, you should watch one of my new all time favorite videos (top of the page). Also check out "It's Time", "Demons", "Bleeding Out", "On Top of the World", and "Hear Me"; they're all great songs!

Restless Legs

For me, writing is like therapy. 

It's usually fun, but sometimes it's not. I commit to 4 days a week (a habit formed from an actual English assignment in college, years ago). Sometimes it's easy breezy, the words flowing too fast to type. Sometimes it's challenging to get my story out the way I want, stumbling over my thoughts. Sometimes the outcome is funny, and other times I find what I need to say is painful.......but I do it anyway, purge it from my brain. Turns out, that teacher knew what he was doing. I find that even though a sense of satisfaction comes from writing for an audience (hoping someone can find a way to relate or be inspired), a deeper sense of pleasure is fulfilled when I read back on my writings of times past and see my personal growth, challenges I've overcome, surprise myself with something clever I've long forgotten about, reminisce about exciting things I've done. 

Lately I've been feeling anxious. Ants in my pants. Gotta move. Must expand. 

Maybe it's because I just recently went on vacation to a place I've always thought I'd move to one day. Maybe it's because I spent an hour looking at my favorite pictures, trying to decide on which ones to use for my new fancy banner and 99% of the ones I wanted to pick had something to do with the mountains or the ocean (and I only get to see either of those things a couple of times a year). Maybe it's because I've never, as a grown adult, stayed in one spot for longer than a year or two.....and here I am going on my 3rd year in the same place. Maybe it's because Patrick and I have been unsuccessfully trying to expand a part of our lives for the last two years, probably marking the first time I've never been able to control the amount of success I want to achieve, and I'd rather create a diversion in our lives by completely changing everything again.
There's this terrible thing that happens to me at night when I'm exhausted, RLS. I literally cannot be still. My legs develop a mind of their own and if I don't kick and squirm, I feel like I'm going to combust. It seems there are times in my life when this syndrome tries to creep into other aspects of my world.

(source)

In a life filled with so many "sometimes" and "maybe's", there's a few things I know for sure. I love my husband, who will always make wherever I live, however temporary or permanent it may be, feel like home. I hate schedules and politics. The thought of complete routine feels suffocating. No matter how things have evolved, I still can't shake the feeling of restlessness. I find comfort in unknown territories, a place I can stretch out my legs and learn new ropes, something most people try to avoid in life. I know myself, and know what I want..........but are the things I want too selfish? 

I really have no idea how to cure this "syndrome" that possess me, but at least I have an outlet. I think everyone should give it {writing} a try.....you know....for therapy.

Do you ever feel restless in your life? What do you do for therapy?

Finding Prevalence (Project Pretty Week 8)

(Project pretty is a personal commitment to share my weekly journey of keeping my non-New-Year's-Resolution: staying fit to improve quality of life while inspiring others to do the same. Let's all jump on the endorphin wagon!)

No matter how active I stay during vacation, my rhythm never fails to be interrupted by the time I get home. Piles of laundry to be washed and hours of work to be done always puts a halt on my pending anti-climatic workouts when compared to the euphoric endorphin rushes I get from being somewhere else.
This week my goal was to push through the "I don't wanna" mentality. So how did I manage?

1. I rekindled my peace, composing my inner self at yoga. And it was hard. My upper body had no idea what hit it. 

2. I hit the gym after work for some low impact cardio and weight machines while everyone else was sleeping or headed to their day job. 

3. I got outside to experience a new running trail, soak up some vitamin D, and get a grip on my body's ability to handle the almighty Long Run. I was a little worried about finishing, since it would be my first run in 2 weeks and I was increasing my distance by 2 miles, but prevail I did.

Luckily the weather was absolutely perfect, and I was able to simmer down Patrick's ego long enough to convince him to ride his bike next to me for company and encouragement......and to fill up my tiny running water bottle, throw my trash away, and take pictures. Both his presence and energy fed into my confidence to stay strong. 

 

White Rock Lake Trail was just as busy as I expected it to be on a beautiful mid-Sunday, flooded with bikers, runners, and dog walkers galore. Was it a peaceful run? Nope. But that's not what I needed.

 Race environments aren't peaceful; they're filled with activity, people watching, energy in motion, distractions for my mind, and that's exactly what this trail provided, along with a great scenery which was much appreciated.....and a few police sirens. I've come a long way in my ability to run alone outside, but at this point in my training serenity is still for short runs.

Whatever it was about the day that worked so well, it felt amazing (evidenced by comparing my usual average pace with this run's average pace)........minus the terrible side stitches I managed to obtain once per mile at miles 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 (which is blatantly obvious in the red), and the terrible blisters I managed to acquire. 

Next time I think I'll skip the oatmeal, and wear my new fancy $15 pair of running socks I splurged on. Process of elimination, right?

What do you eat before a long run? Do you wear fancy socks or whatever you can find?