Thursday, July 15, 2010

Phils Tavern 5K...and other nonsense

Ran with a few of my guards last night: Bethany, Chris, Kyra and Ryan. We collectively ran the Phils Tavern 5K sponsored by the Ambler Area Running Club. We all finished! I came in last out of the group :-) I don't know if I thought I wouldn't or not but to be honest, it was a tough run for me last night. I had a hard time breathing and I threw up/stopped once in the middle. And nearly again at the end. Yuck. I think I'm definitely a morning runner. ING Rock and Roll here I come!! ha :-) I did have a great time though. Definitely makes a HUGE difference running with friends. A few pics:

Pre-race



The Ladies



and Post Race:




All in all it was a fun night, like I said. I accomplished my goal time by going under 27 - I finished around 26:10 (give or take). Ryan finished first just around 21, Kyra and Chris finished in 23:40something, and Bethany finished in 24:50ish. Like I said, I stopped once and had a tough time breathing. I don't think the short races are my thing. But here's my story for the ending...and I wish I had my camera with me....

As I'm finishing the race - there's a small hill close to the finish line and we're pretty much surrounded by woods. I'm feeling pretty defeated at this point, like I'm not doing that well....and out of nowhere a huge butterfly starts flying with me. It stayed with me for awhile - until my friend Ryan could come and jog with me for a bit....it was, amazing. To say the least. It made me smile and gave me a sense of hope. I should've worn my RTFoundation shirt last night. I didn't even think of it. But that butterfly - Rachel was with me last night. :-)

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On to the nonsense:
This week has been pretty interesting to say the least. Monday I was "reprimanded" at Cabrini because apparently I don't seem like I'm happy when I'm there. So I asked one of the ladies who work in the office and she was like, "I have no idea why anyone would say that about you - you're like the happiest person here. They're crazy." So that put my disconcerting to rest. It really caught me off guard but I am honestly a pretty happy person - true I've had some hiccups this summer but nothing where I'd let it affect my performance at Cabrini. It upset me more that the Dean thought I was projecting that image. Nothing I can do about it now.

It's rained both days I worked so far this week; so the pool hasn't been busy. It's definitely nice to get a few things done when I can.

Went to see Despicable Me on Tuesday night. It was hilarious! I want to go see it again. Seriously - it's adorable and cute and totally adult friendly. Lots of things I was laughing at that the kids weren't. Awesomeness :-)

Parker texted me Tuesday night telling me he is making his trip (finally) to PA. Gettysburgh then Harrisburg. Not super close to here but I'm going to try and convince him to swing this way at some point. It's so last minute but I'd be pretty upset if I didn't get to see him and he was in PA. Hopefully we can work something out.

I'm off today - lots of errands/things to accomplish. I need to pick up my new contacts, spin class at noon or maybe I'll go for a ride on my bike (afterall I did get it!), study a bit of my praxis, possibly get a manicure, watch the Open Championship (c'mon Tiger!!!), maybe go to Scoogi's tonight.

The rest of the weekend I have to work (early every day) but I think I'll be able to accomplish a lot this weekend.

Monday, July 12, 2010

A new vision....

Two days into 29 and I'm feeling young again :-)

Firstly - the Birthday weekend was great! More good things ahead this coming weekend - Dinner/Shopping/Movie with Netty and Sleepover with Jackie followed by yummy brunch (zomg stuffed french toast!) from Sabrinas. yay! Can't wait :-)

The Phils game was awesome! Met up with Jackie and Mark before hand and went to Stogie Joe's - which is OMG amazing. They have great food! Good company :) We met up with a few of Mark's friends and headed to CBP. Our seats:



Were pretty freakin' awesome to say the least. Roy Halladay pitched and Jimmy Rollin's had the hit to score the winning run! Go Phils! They ended up sweeping the Reds. Good way to go into the All-Star break. Good times with my bestest!



Sunday (my actual birth day) was filled with the usual. Spin class. Visit to dad's. Run some last minute errands for the bbq festivities. Watch the World Cup final. Yeah EspaƱa! My guards eventually congregated - slowly trickling after 7 and then the rest showed up after 8:30. A pic of our group:


Randy came over too - but he had to leave early because he has a normal job :-) But it was nice to see him! Hopefully well see each other again soon.

Overall, I definitely can't complain about the birthday. Next year - I'm planning a big party! Details to come in the distant future......

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On to the post title - I've decided a few things in my old age (haha):

I will not allow the small things to keep me up at night any more.

I will have MORE fun this year than I ever have.

I will take more risks/chances in life. It makes things exciting!

I will take better care of my body and not put so much junk into it.

I will not freak out if I don't have a house, family, and job at this point in my life. It could be a hell of a lot worse. A HELL OF A LOT worse.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

I'm not in it to win it...I'm in it for you

I heart that Train song so much right now. They're new album (I use the term new loosely since it's not that new) is pretty uplifting. I seriously played "Hey, Soul Sister" like a bazillion (yes, that's a technical term) times.

I was thinking last night - 'what have I done in the past for my birthday?' Yup. It's tomorrow. Just kind of feels like another day to me this year. Not sure why. 29 is pretty anti-climactic. Next year - well - we'll talk about next year, next year. But for fun, I though I'd look back on what I've done in the past for my birthday(s).

28: My friend Josh (who also shares the same birthday as me) had a party at his house. I went there with some of my friends and then they came out with me for my birthday. The pictures are on FB. I lost the hard copies when I lost my HD in the crash. This was our group that night (post josh's party).

27: I was on the BBX shoot in Michigan! Wow! It feels like so much longer ago. That was an awesome Birthday. The whole crew went bowling that night :-) All for me. They all sang happy birthday in the bowling alley (listen, we were in the middle of nowhere - it's all there was to do! ha). It was a pretty fun night. I had a bit of a hangover during our shoot the next day. But totally worth it.

26: Celebrated with my friends at Pat O'Briens at Universal City Walk. It was an awesome time! Let's just say - I found out they had an elevator that night ;-) - greg did too! hehe. This pic is my friend Chris and I when he got there (late).

25: I think I came home for this? I'm not entirely sure what I did for my 25th birthday. I feel like I came home for it. It was at this point in my life I hadn't made that many friends in Orlando and I feel like I might have planned to come home that weekend and celebrated with my friends? Not sure (is that bad that I can't remember that? haha)

24: I was in Michigan. My mom came to visit me and helped me buy some new furniture for my new apartment. She took me out for dinner and I am pretty sure I went out with my friends for the night.

23: I was in Michigan still. My mom and cousin Allison came to visit me. I was still living in Deerfield Village. I stayed at CMU for the summer because I was taking a Summer class. I was also working at Roth Electric. I remember they made me a cake. I miss them. They were the nicest people.

22: I was in PA. It was a pretty sad birthday for me. I am pretty sure I didn't do anything extravagant. That summer was pretty sucky for me. I stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's. I think we might have had a BBQ at the circle since I didn't want to do anything.

21: This one - oh boy. This one was pretty insane. If I could upload pics from this night, you wouldn't believe me. I went with my mom, sister and Derek to the Manayunk Brew Pub. Definitely a good time. Drank WAY too much - but my mom picked up the tab so that was all sorts of awesome. The next night I had my friends over to drink and celebrate. I drank so much from the night before that I didn't drink anything that night. Oops!

20: I celebrated this birthday in the Inner Harbor with Derek. He was on an internship with the NIH (National Institutes of Health) and he was in Maryland for the summer. I remember us getting into a fight that night for a few stupid reasons....but the evening ended splendidly ;-) I think we also went to an Orioles/Yankees game that weekend.

19: I think I just celebrated here at home. I remember Derek coming home from college (he was taking summer classes at PSU). I think we just went out to dinner. Again - not a very spectacular bday - I mean - 19 - c'mon.

18: This birthday was rockin'. I had people over to my grandmom's pool in Narberth. Tons of fun - lots of food. Good times.

17: Went to the Hard Rock Cafe Philly with a big group of people. [[Sidenote: I plan on doing this again this year with Josh (per his suggestion) since we can't celebrate our Bday's together this year]]. I was dating Joe at the time so I know he was there. I can't remember who else was there - but it was a fun night.

16: Amazing day - I got my permit that morning (first test of the day! and oh yeah, JUST passed - I got the most you could get wrong and still pass, three). After I got home, my dad stopped by with a new car! Totally unexpected and unwarranted. I never expected to be one of those kids that got a car on their 16th birthday! I immediately took it out for a drive. My sister was working that day. I remember driving up to see her with my dad.

I can't really remember a whole lot of other birthdays - with the exception of the last one I had when I was little - my 10th Birthday.

Since my birthday is in the Summer, I used to have my party (for my school friends - because most of them went to sleepaway camp - yes, most of them were jewish) in June, just a week or two after school was out. This birthday party was epic. It lasted more than a day. Chain of events: 11am - everyone meets at my house, we drive over to my grandmom's house to swim. 5pm - we head back to my house, have dinner and cake and then my friends sleep over. Friends don't leave until noon the next day. It was an awesome birthday. [[Sidenote: While this birthday was all sorts of awesome, I failed to mention the part where all my friends and I were downstairs in our sleeping bags and could actually hear my parents fighting upstairs. Yeah. That was awesome. Also. After my friends left the next day. My dad left shortly thereafter. Yup]]

All that being said - maybe that's why I can't remember the birthdays between 10 and 16.

This year - well - this year I didn't really plan anything. I'm going to the Phillies Game tonight. I'm having a BBQ at my house (per my guards' request) tomorrow. It was more a compromise since they basically said they were going to come over anyway - so I just told them I'd have a BBQ then. We'll see how many of them actually show up.