I was so excited to start my blog, and now I don't make time for it :(. Since I am already exercising more, which is my typical resolution, I resolve to blog more and to keep in touch with friends better. I called several of my good friends before Christmas but only got a few. It's always too long between visits:(, so; I vow to make more of an effort. So in my next blog I will have lots of Christmas photos and photos of the new puppies at my parents' house! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and has a great New Year if I don't get to that update before then:). Ha.
Pictures finally!
It has been a while since I've made an entry, time flies. I am including pictures in this post, finally! That way y'all really know I am running!
Training is going well. It has continued to be cold and wet, but it makes me feel more hardcore to run in the cold rain. Last Saturday we did 5 miles in the cold drizzly wee hours of the morning. I felt great afterward and very dedicated. It is real commitment to wake up at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning to run in the cold rain, right?! I have a whole ensemble for cold running (see picture) and I got a head lamp! It is the best thing ever and I can see while running in the dark and just as importantly, people can see me! I also have a warm headband, and several things to layer. Now I just nead a waterproof windbreaker with a hood, unlined (hint to fam).
It's hard to keep up a routine with all the holiday parties, but I feel like I am still doing a good job. Maybe I won't gain any holiday weight this year, although I have been eating a lot of goodies at the office. What is with people bringing/giving you sweets at the holidays? It's nice and all but definitely unhealthy and taunting and Jesus wants you to be good to your body, not wreak havoc on it with sugar highs and crashes. Personally, I'm over it and would prefer a donation in leiu of baked goods, FYI:).
I saw Inglorious Bastards, also finally! It yet again confirmed my love for Quentin Tarintino. Maybe that means there is something wrong with me but I'm OK with that, I think he's a genius. I also finally finished reading Twilight. On to New Moon. I was really into the book at first but then I just wanted it to be over to move onto the next one, so we will see how it goes. There are several other books I would like to get to that will stimulate my brain more so I will try New Moon and if it doesn't go quickly I may give up. I'm trying though because I did like the first movie and everybody's doing it ;).
I've done almost all my Christmas shopping. Definitely all my Christmas shopping for myself. I am redecorating my bedroom so I bought a bunch of fabric and stuff to make new bedskirt and pillows and new bathroom stuff. I am using a deep plum color along with red and green. etc. It's pretty. Now if I only had all the time in the world to finish it.
I will be driving back and forth to Corpus three times in the next two weeks! Ugh driving ugh. I'm going home this weekend to celebrate my Uncle Ray's and second cousin's Alicia's birthays and decorate our tree at home. This is me and my Uncle Ray and Aunt Kathleen! They are super awesome and I love them!
It's a little late to decorate the tree, but I insist on helping and drinking egg nog and playing Christmas music. Now that I think about it, my mom may have gone ahead and done it without me because she told me all her presents are wrapped..hmmmm. Anyway, then I'm comng back to work Monday and Tuesday, then going home for Christmas, then coming back to work for three days, then going back home for New Years...that just sounds exhausting. I thought about taking off more time from work but I really want to save up those hours to take a vacation later next year. Nevertheless, I am estatic about getting to spend time with my family. My Uncle Brian, who lives and works in Saudi Arabia, is in Corpus for the holiday also and that makes it extra special to spend so much time at home.
Congratulations to Clinton and Britt and Bree for finishing the semester and being on break. My cousin Bree will graduate from Georgetown law in May, and I know it can't come soon enough for her. I am very proud of all of them. Congratulations also to all my teacher friends who I am jealous of because of all the time they get off.
Ok, that's all for now. Thanks to those of you who have donated, it is very encouraging and great to have so much support. Now off to run hills!
The awesome gayness of 'Glee'
I love Glee. Rolling Stone had an article about the "Awesome Gayness of 'Glee'," and it's right...the show is totally over the top with cliches about everything high school, glee clubs, and everything else. Sue, the Cheerio's Squad coach is completely riciculous. For example, in yesterday's episode in her local news segment, 'The Way Sue C's It' she demanded that ugly and fat poeple stay in thier homes and reminecse on thier better looking days the day after Christmas so that she could have just one day without having to see unfortunate looking people...another good example of how ridiculous the show is, the star football player/glee club co-captain/virgin, Finn, actually believes that he got his girlfriend Quinn 'pregnant by hot tub.' Again, I love Glee. It is at times excruciating to watch and awkward moments are in abundance but I can't stop! The actors/singers/dancers are multi-talented, thier voices are beautiful, and I would really like to see all of them in another context, although they are all perfect for the show. I was dying for Will to find out his wife was faking her pregnancy, just like everyone else, and it finally happened last night! Whew! Now Will and the school counselor, Emma can be together. I knew Emma wouldn't marry that gross coach guy who seriously repulses me (casting genious there). Hopefully Finn will find out that the baby is not his soon too because that is annoying me. Ok, that's my Glee bit. Running is going great this week despite the freezing cold conditions thanks to the gym. I am not loving my gym though...over time thier equipment has gone to crap, it smells like b.o. and I have had to wait in line for a treadmill almost everyday this week. It's grossing me out. I am seriously considering canceling my membership. They don't even have a comment box so I can tell them I am grossed out. Almost time to call management. I've heard we should have a bit of snow tomorrow so I am not looking forward to hill practice tonight or long distance on Saturday, both outdoors. I am going to buy a headlamp at lunch, which I'm afraid will look really dorky, but is essential for running at night. Lastly, I am sending out my last e-mail blast of fundraising letters today, hopefully. I have had a few people tell me that they will contribute which is really awesome! I am trying to think of other fundraising ideas that I can do on my own. Group things are great and I am open to them but then we have to split the money and sometimes it can be a lot more work than it is worth. Happy Thursday!
Thanksgiving aka according to Val "T-Give"
Happy Belated Thanksgiving! My friend Val in the Peace Corps has started referring to the holiday as T-Give? Anyway, I had a great T-Give week/weekend with my family and kept up pretty good with my running. Phil and Pam came to Austin Tuesday night and Wednesday we picked up C-Mose in Waco and drove the horrible I-35 drive to Arlington. We ended up taking a farm road a little outside of Waco, which worked out really well; my cousins(shout out to Brandon and Cassy for getting engaged! Congrats!) were on 35 for nearly 5 hours between Waco and DFW. It was nice to finally arrive at our Cowboy fan filled hotel near the stadium. I ran in the hotel gym when we got there! Surprisingly, I don't really mind running on a treadmill. I get to jam out on the I-pod and its really not so bad. It helps me keep a consistant pace and track of distance and time. Running outside is definitely better though. Thanksgiving was the big Cowboys game. The stadium is what everyone says it is...huge, shiny, new and awesome! It was a fun game to watch too...the Cowboys actually scored points and Miles Austin and Keith Brooking really worked the crowd. Brooking had a blurp on the big screen in the beginning of the game encouraging the 80,000 fans to do whatever it took to be loud, etc and pumped everyone up. Throughout the game the would show him on the screen pointing with; "Remember what I said" and the crowd would go crazy. It was great. Didn't get to run but I also didn't eat as much as most Thanksgivings so I will let that one slide. It was kind of weird not being with family and having the big meal but the game was a really nice treat and I'm glad we went. We spent Friday through Sunday in Bastrop at my cousin Zack's house with his family, my Uncle Ray and Aunt Kathleen and a few other friends and fam. They gave us a re-do T-Give dinner Firday night so we didn't really miss out on anything. They have a cool hill loop in their neighborhood so I ran 5 or 6 loops around that Friday and then on Saturday I went to Jazzercise (yep, Jazzercise) with Clarrissa, Zack's wife. Jazzercise was a good work out and pretty much as ridiculous as you imagined...at one point the instructor said, "Lets get into those 80s jeans, ladies!" We went and saw Joe Ely on Saturday night at the Hyatt Lost Pines resort. Joe Ely and the resort were awesome and everyone really enjoyed it. We had a great weekend and it was really hard to wake up yesterday morning and come to work. Yesterday it was really cold and seemed to get dark really early so I just went to the gym and ran on the treadmill for 50 min. Then I went and met up with my homeboys, Brian and Barrett and we watched the Saints dominate. I really like Drew Brees and I am super excited for the Saints. Romo better not slip up because although I love the Cowboys the Saints are definitely my second favorite team to watch. I had an even harder time getting up today but I will make it. Tonight is team 'Track Practice' where we do drills and run and core exercises. I like it except for its so coolddd and dark outside at the track. So that's the running news...it's almost been a month and I feel really good and committed. It keeps getting easier and it's nice to see that it is possible, even for me, to run a marathon. I sent out fundraising letters a week or so ago and hope to start getting some of those back soon. I'm kind of nervous about fundraising but I'm really proud of this so hopefully it will go well. I also sent out an e-mail to several folks today so hopefully that will get my great friends and family, and family friends, and friends of family and of my parents, and colleagues and co-workers and haha...all those great people inspired to support me and the cause too! If you're one of those great people and you're reading this, I want you to know your support means a lot to me and I am truly appreciative of you all!
I said 'Burrr'
It's freezing outside. We have had our windows open and it has been really nice until this morning when I could not get out from under the covers because I was so cold. I went running around my neighborhood last night after dark and it was a good run. It had cooled off a lot but I ended up taking off my jacket and appreciating the temperature. I felt like it wasn't much distance wise, but then I mapped it this morning and it was almost 3 miles! It's nice to have figured out a route close to home for an easy run day like Mondays, and it's even nicer that I felt like it was an easy run and not like I was going to die. This weekend was great. Clinton wanted to run with me but it turned out that we found too many other things to do. Here's the recap that I know you were dying for... Friday night we went to dinner at Ninfas with my parents and Clinton and his roommate Jon. We all decided the next day to never eat there again. The boys ended up convincing me to go out with them to this resturant/bar next to the restaurant we ate at. This was probably the first time I have gone out with Clinton and his friends in public. We had a blast playing pool and shuffleboard until his roomate got kicked out (for a really dumb reason) but it was time to go anyway. Clinton walked me from the bar to our hotel which was very close and passes right by his house. So convenient, Waco! But so much for running my long distance before the game on Saturday, needless to say I slept in and needed to. We finally got up at 10 a.m. to make the game at 11 and ate some yummy, huge breakfast tacos at this hole in the wall on the way. It was a nice surprise to have a decent taco in Waco. With my mexican food standards being so legitimately high from Corpus food, and my expectations of Waco mexican food being so low becuase of the other choices, this place was a treat! The salsa was not good but we worked with what we got. Baylor got stomped by Texas, which I was excited about, except that I felt sorry for the bears. At one point my Dad actually said, 'Man, they are doing so bad." I thought he was going to compliment UT at first, guess not, but it made me laugh. Side note: Baylor needs to learn how to tackle. They just really sucked it up, but finally scored twice in the end so it wasn't a total embarrassment. We left at the top of the 4th because it was hard to watch Texas put such a beating on another team we try to like. Clinton showed true loyalty to his school by pretending to be disappointed that they lost. Then we napped, instead of running again, and then went to eat at this awesome homemade Itlaian food place called Baris. So cheap, BYOB, and seriously deliciious. Always packed but they move people in and out quickly so it is definitely worth the wait, and did I mention how cheap it is? I recommend it to anyone going to Waco, and I hope I am not giving away some big secret. After dinner and putting Mom and Dad to bed Clinton and I played some Super Nintendo at his house before going to this frat party on the river. Another side note: There is a huge dispute between us about who actually owns the Super Nintendo, or Clinton thinks there is. I bought the thing with my own money like when he was born (literally) and now he thinks it's his and has claimed it since then, but reall the reality is that I have generously let him borrow it all these years. I will eventually recliam it or it will die, but it's awesome that it still works. Anyways, there is this river resturant bar that a couple of frats rented out for the night. One of his roomates is in one and got us 'VIP' wristbands...ooooo. It was like all the frat parties I've ever been to and kinda fun but over all, not worth the effort. The drinks were cheap, but it literally took 45 minutes to get drinks at the ONE bar with TWO bartenders; the music was good but no one would dance; the people watching was the best part as usual. We had a lot of fun hanging out for a few drinks, planning our river bar ferry transport line, and then the four of us went back to their place and hung out. College is fun and I miss it. Went to church Sunday morning and heard a sermon I have honestly never heard before about testing prophets and discovering false prophets, evil spirits, truth, etc. It was strange but definitely biblical and I appreciated hearing a new perspective. He even talked about evil possessing people and speaking in tounges, which is pretty far off from anything I grew up with, but again welcomed as a different view. Then lunch, parents dropped me back off in Austin and I didn't run again. Great weekend. My family is so much fun and I feel very lucky to be able to say that I love to hang out with them. Today is a team track practice. Drills at a high school track followed by a core workout. Im anxious to see how it goes. Afterward we are invited to go to this local BBQ brewery, Uncle Billys and work on fundraising letters, etc. All of this is pushing me out of my comfort zone a bit but the part that gets me is that Tuesday practices and several team activities are up in northish Austin. I somewhat live in my bubble and never usually go north of downtown but I'm committed, even if I am a north Austin hater. 78704 FOREVER! haha. p.s. I would sincerely appreciate someone helping me or referring me to a good blogging guide, etc so I can personalize, make this pretty, etc.
Day 1 of blogging Post #2
Two posts in one day! I really want to stay motivated and this is already helping...even if no one reads it. So, I went to team practice tonight and completed 'Hill Training'! They were pretty right on when they named this practice because we just ran a loop up and down a bunch of hills for an hour. I think the first few minutes starting out running are the hardest for me. I have heard people say that before, but now I felt what they are talking about. After about ten minutes it gets easier for a little while, until I think I am going to die again after about 30 minutes. It's also true that it is really hard to start running after stopping because of lactic acid build-up, apparently. Every time I wanted to stop running up a hill it turned out that it was easier to just slow my pace and keep running. I got a good pace and breathing pattern going and was even able to carry on brief conversation with a few other runners. I ran near three other girls tonight, who all seemed really cool. There were only about ten people at tonight's practice. It's awesome to have people my age at all different levels to run with. We pretty much stuck together because it got really dark on some parts of the run. Since it gets so dark so early now I am going to invest in a head lamp/light. One of the girls had one and it definitely saved us from stepping in a few potholes and from being freaked out. We ran in this neighborhood that overlooks Lake Austin and the views and houses were UH-mazing. I have never seen that view of Austin and it made me love it even more, and was a nice distraction to the hills ahead. (By the way I am watching Vampire Diaries while writing this and just about had a heart attack. It is getting really scary and if you know me you know I don't like scary things. BUT now I am hooked on this CW Twilight knock-off show and am just going to have to endure being scared :(.) I also just remembered that I could be a millionaire right not and not even know it. I only buy lottery tickets a few times a year and 11/11 is one of my lottery ticket days. I will check them later and let you know. I'm feeling pretty good so you never know! Tomorrow is a rest day for training (Thank goodness!) and my parents are driving through Austin to pick me up on our way to Waco to see Clinton and go to the Texas v. Baylor game Saturday. I am excited to spend time with my family as usual and now I only have to convince my brother to run with me on Saturday. I will let you know how it all goes. Now I am going to stretch and relax and go to bed. This whole running thing really can take it out of you. Not only do my muscles ache (in a good hurt kind of way) but I can tell I will need to start getting more sleep. Oh crap...I still have to pack. Peace.
Manda and a Marathon...did I read this right?!
Hi people! I'm sure you are excited to know that I am really going to start blogging now! I just got a new computer and am motivated to learn how and share my exciting life events with everyone. More importantly than new technology, I just started training for a marathon with Team in Training, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's training/fundraising team. I will use my blog to update you on how training and fundraising are going. I have a feeling that fundraising will be easier for me than running 26.2 miles, but you never know. Maybe I can at least give you a good laugh telling you about the aches and pains and sense of accomplishment I feel from completing small steps! http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/cmc10/mmosleylmm Above is the link to my fundraising page (I tried to do some HTML stuff but apparantly I'm not quite ready to use those). I am really proud to be supporting and raising money for a cause that will help my uncle and milions of other people who are battling blood cancer. I hope to raise $6500.00 by February 2010, but have to raise a minimum of $3800.00 to participate in the event. I am really encouraged that LLS spends 73% of every dollar raised on it's mission to find a cure for blood cancers. Not only do they fund research, I was surprised to hear that among many other support services, patients can apply for reimbursement for hospital parking when they go get treatment. That may sound minor, but I know it can be like $20/day to park at M.D. Anderson, and it adds up. They also host support and informational meetings and much more I hope to share with you. So now that asking you for money is over.... I already know I need all the encouragement I can get. I started running on my own a few weeks ago (thought I'd get a head start before the team started training together) and yep, it's just as hard as I thought. I have been following a beginner's training schedule I found online and I ran 18 miles in my first week!! The longest distance I have run at once is 6 miles, and I thought I was going to die. Don't get me wrong, I had to stop and walk, and it got harder and harder everytime I stopped running, but I kept reminding myself that I did it, and that it will get easier if I keep it up. Running is hard people, and I am only starting, eek. I was out of town for the Team's launch and first two practices so I am attending my first team practice today after work. Its labeled "Hill Training" on the schedule. I am frightened by this label, but I am going to do my best and try hard not to complain. Oh, and I was out of town because I went to the beautiful Denver, CO for my homeboy BJ's wedding. Shoutout to Taryn, Katy B, Eli, Kenny, Dick and Hannah, and of course Congrats Beej and Becky. It was a blast and the weather was so beautiful and in the seventies everyday, barely needed a jacket. Great trip and great to see everyone I hadn't seen in months, or even a few years! No running happnened while I was there which probably was safer because the air is so thin and I was on vacation. Ok, this seems like a good start to me. I will try to update as much as I can. Welcome and thank you fo reading my first blog!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
