on the road again...

Nathan took a Greyhound bus from Knoxville to Richmond to come visit me. :) I took him with me to Baltimore to watch the A's play the Orioles. It was his first major league baseball game, which I was glad I was the one to take him to it. Camden Yards is a nice park to go to for your first game ever. Hopefully he won't be too disappointed if I ever take him to the coliseum! We don't focus on the frills in Oakland, we just play baseball! We drove back to Richmond that night looking forward to a good night's sleep, especially since Nathan had been on the Greyhound and hardly slept and then I took him straight up to Maryland and back! We arrived at the apartment and no one was home. We couldn't get in and after deliberating for a bit, we headed to a hotel to shower and sleep. It had been sticky in Baltimore due to the humidity and we were tired. It was the first time I've ever paid for a hotel in my life. I always couch surf and my parents have the time share condos with World Mark so we don't go to hotels. I screamed when I saw a roach on the bed. I killed it and threw away the body, but wow. Gross. I was paranoid something was going to bite me. I don't think I'll be checking into a hotel again any time soon. I definitely appreciate my dad spending money on the time share stuff a lot more now. It's always super clean with a full kitchen and master bedroom.

I was hoping to take him down to the river and hang out, but since we were so tired we slept in and checked out of the hotel at 11AM. I baked a yummy pizza for lunch and we just hung out at the apartment and watched a movie. I packed up my stuff to leave Friday after work.

Unfortunately after I packed my stuff up... I brought my keys with me to work, which defeated the purpose of getting a ride to work, but Nathan was able to open the door and get my spare key so he could come visit me at work and have lunch with my co-workers and myself. :) After lunch we headed out, stopping at the house I lived at in Harbor Point to pick up any mail and drop off my key. Then we hit the road, stopping in Roanoke to have dinner with his uncle and two cousins who live there. It was a fun birthday dinner. I never have many birthday celebrations so it was nice to have a gathering on my birthday even if it wasn't specifically for my birthday. Last year I sat on the couch at the Richardson's watching the Cavs vs. Magic game by myself while doing homework. Super exciting, I know.

We continued to Knoxville, stopping to get gas along the way and were very tired and a little cranky by the time we got there. Tennessee was fun, we mostly chilled, hung out by the pool, watched movies and ate food of course! Brittany, Denise, and Jenna had gotten me a gift certificate to Olive Garden and I took Nathan there where we had a long and interesting conversation with our waitress about her life, kid, and gym memberships. I felt bad for her and tipped generously when it was time to pay for the check, especially since most of the meal was covered by my birthday present. Sunday night I cooked dinner, we need to get more spices, but I tried to make do with pepper... I liked my fish and potatoes, but my asparagus was lacking. I usually like to cook my asparagus with garlic, so next time I'll spring for the garlic when I go shopping. I was going to leave on Monday but I ended up staying until Tuesday morning.

After Tennessee I drove up to Dayton to hang out with Jecca and Dan. Jecca was done with school and just passed the NCLEX so we hung out, watched movies, and rode bikes. When I got there her friend was there and we all watched 'Dear John' which was one of the worst movies I've seen this year, if not the worst. I thought people said it was a good movie... or a good book, but it was horrendous! The girl promised to wait for John when he went overseas in the army and then wrote him a letter TWO MONTHS later saying that she was engaged... what the heck??? What is commitment to these people? How is that a good movie? I thought perhaps it'd get better or something, but it didn't. He ended up going back and they alluded to them getting back together after she was a widow because her husband died. She could have taken care of the dude without marrying him. That's ridiculous. If you really love someone, you shouldn't marry someone else. I felt like I had wasted two hours of my life that I couldn't get back. Ugh.

We did run the first morning I was there at a local walking/running park near where she lives, walked over to Graeter's Ice Cream (ice cream made in Cincinnati) and hung out by the pool until the clouds rolled up. We rode her scooter around a bit and I was left wanting my motorcycle (daddy said I'd hurt myself, which is probably true, so I sold it since it wasn't vital for my livelihood). It was awesome to just chill out. I think I could get used to this life! I stayed for about two days there and headed out to Wheaton... fighting off the Chicago traffic (it ended up taking 8 hours because of the last 30 miles, I had made good time through Indiana!). Jill and Catherine came out to meet me, Catherine had made me a sign that said "Welcome Jill" and we had pizza and salad for dinner. It was good to see them! Catherine and Connor have gotten so big! Patrick came home later and we had some ice cream and caught up.

In the morning I went with Jill to drop off the kids at school and back for Connor's 2nd grade poetry reading. Afterward I headed out to Wisconsin to hang out with the Richardson kids after they got off school. We just sat around, watched television and I regulated their chip consumption. ha, ha. Then they were picked up by the woman they were staying with for the weekend and I hung out alone in their house... which turned out to be very creepy because the lights were flickering in the dining room, the door shook and there were growling noises coming from in the basement. It didn't help that Kelly told me her tales of when she grew up in the house and there were demons in it. I was quite afraid alone and turned up the Jesus music and went back into one of the bedrooms, shut the door, put some stuff in front of it and prayed.

In the morning I gathered all my stuff, shut out the lights and headed out as soon as I woke up. I was on my way to St. Paul, Minnesota. I had a marathon to run and a baseball game to watch! I made it the 5 hours of driving without stopping for gas or the bathroom. I had filled up before I left Wheaton and made it to St. Paul with Lazarus' tank near empty. I pulled up to a gas station on Como Street where they were having an art fair in the drizzling rain and napped in the parking lot across from the apartments while I waited for Abby to finish at work. When she got there I brought some of my stuff up and we went downtown to go to the expo... which was the more pathetic excuse for an expo. There was nothing there, not even to buy if I wanted. The shirt was pretty cool and I like the color, but the jacket they were raving about was waffle material and funny cut. The sleeves are too short and there's a weird slit in the bottom of them. I just watched a movie on Saturday when they went out and then went to bed.

Sunday I got up and drove down to the Lake Street light rail station since the bus didn't start running Sunday morning until after the race had already started. I caught the light rail to Government Plaza, followed people to the bag check, turned in my bag (I brought a bag so I could have other clothes to change into because I was supposed to meet Kat that afternoon), and waited in line for the restroom (okay, so port-a-potties).

The run began. I took my time and walked up to the starting line. I ended up finding my way to the 4:45 pace group and chatted a bit with the pacer and another guy named Al who was running his first marathon. After mile 8 I sped up a bit with a girl from North Dakota who was there with her grand father running her second marathon. She was only a sophomore in high school who ran cross country in the fall and did a marathon in the spring instead of doing track. I thought that was interesting. We ran together for about 10 miles before she decided she needed to walk and I trudged along ahead until Fort Snelling when I walked up the hill because it was huge! They definitely did not give you enough water or Powerade (of course I thought of Nathan and how he would be pleased there was Powerade and not Gatorade). It was probably a centimeter of liquid in the bottom of a small cup which is barely a sip! I took three Powerade cups and two water at almost every station to attempt to wet my throat even a little!

I found myself with the 4:45 pace group again as I ran through miles 19-22. After awhile I just needed to hit 10s and couldn't run at the 10:53 pace they were at so I went on ahead. I was passing people and trying to encourage them to keep going to the finish and one guy took it to heart. His name was Kent. He was from Iowa and he ran with me from around mile 22-24.5 before he started walking a bit. I walked up the hill around mile 25 and he caught up with me again telling me I was close! and that I could do it. It was good to have a little push at the end and when we finished he hugged me and thanked me for the encouragement and said he wouldn't have been able to run those last few miles without me. His kids were there at the finish waiting for him. It always makes me feel like I've accomplished something when people say stuff like that. I feel like I've done something. Helping people achieve their goals is a great feeling.

Afterward I tottered on over to the bag check, picked up my stuff and wobbled over to the food where I picked up everything. I was appalled they didn't have water bottles for people who had just finished a marathon... I mean for crying out loud, why wouldn't they have water bottles? I drank 3 cups of water, but they weren't even full and I couldn't carry it with me. I laid around on the cement near the stone bridge while waiting for Kat to finish up at work. Unfortunately after I had text her a second time... (I text her right when I finished and then again 3 hours later) she told me she wasn't going to get done until 9-10pm... um, I wish I had known that 3 and a half hours before so I could have just gone back to St. Paul instead of lying around downtown Minneapolis! It's not like I could have done anything cool or knew where to go when I was super tired after running a marathon. And I was hungry! Boo. I headed back to the light rail, got back to the apartment, took a shower and chilled out. (I watched Step Up 2 for the millionth time.)

When Ab and Eric got back they were going to Eric's best friend's house for a birthday dinner, so I tagged along. They had 4 kinds of pie! It was awesome. I of course tried them all. :) His grand parents were there, they were super cute showing off their great grand child. :) We chatted as I tried not to fall asleep. The next morning Ab and I laid out on the front lawn of the apartment... I fell asleep while trying to read Born to Run and got a little toastier than I would have liked. Then we hung out, made pizza for dinner, and watched some of the Blind Side when Eric got back. We headed to 331 with one of their friends for some free live blue grass music and hung out for a bit afterward for some strawberries in chocolate sauce. Al and Andy had gotten engaged on the west coast so I took a break from the blue grass music to hear the story. :)

After that, more sleep and when I woke up, it was Tuesday. Game day! I was a little worried because it was raining all morning. I took a nice long nap in the after noon and then packed up my stuff to head to Target Field. Luckily it stopped raining and although they canceled batting practice because of the rain, I was able to wander around and take pictures around the entire outside of the stadium and inside. I posted myself near the foul pole in left field and talked with some Australians who were there on holiday. They borrowed my glove for pictures and bought me a bottle of water in return for explaining some of our American baseball practices. I met another pair who lived in St. Paul and I didn't end up having to wait for the bus because they gave me a ride back to the apartment.

I fell asleep soon after talking to Nathan and was woken up in the morning when Abby knocked on the door and said she had to go to work. While I was packing and folding everything up, I watched the Proposal again and moved everything to Lazarus and hit the road. I had horrid reception on the way down interstate 90 toward South Dakota. Luckily I have reception here in Vermillion, but apparently South Dakota's best carrier is Verizon so everyone out here has it. When I arrived in South Dakota I had dinner with Lura and her husband Jordan, we hung out, chatted and had some ice cream afterward.

And this morning... all I've done so far is type up this blog, talk to Nathan and eat food. Not a bad morning for an unemployed master's program graduate huh?

- run for life

sharp top then back to the bay

I was a little heisitant but I went to meet up with a friend in Roanoke, Virginia at his cousin's family's house Sunday after work. I got Monday and Tuesday off since I have a bunch of PTO (paid time off) days and I'm leaving the company (I don't take sick days). We hung out, watched movies and ate lots of yummy food. (I'm definitely still the president of the Big Eaters Club!) I had just talked to a friend and mentioned that I wish I could have been going home this weekend because the A's were playing at home and I would of course have gone to all the games... and Dallas Braden threw a PERFECT GAME on Mother's Day (Sunday), the first in A's history since 1968 and the 19th ever in Major League Baseball! I was disappointed that I wasn't there to witness it... but at least I had fun in Virginia right? Sigh. We had dinner with his cousin's family and aunt and uncle at McDonald's... the first time I've been to Mickey D's in over 2 years. I, like the good dietitian I am, ordered large fries and an Oreo McFlurry. I'm such a great example.

Monday morning I woke up, did the dishes, took out the trash and ran up Mountain View street and back for a total of 4.6 miles. I need to run more. I was kind of tired and it was very nice weather though I have pretty bad allergies out here in Virginia. My friend and I drove over to the Otter's Peaks and hiked up Sharp Top. It was a perfect day, the sky was perfect, the weather was perfect. The pictures turned out because the weather was so great. We went to Cracker Barrel and I branched out and had something other than my usual blueberry pancakes... it was delicious as expected from Cracker Barrel.

Tuesday I was a little more lazy because it was raining when I got up and though I changed to go running, I didn't end up going out. We watched 'Death at a Funeral' at the theatre and ate at Red Robin for lunch. I headed out around 8:30PM and though I was falling asleep, I made it back to Midlothian via 460 to 307 to 360 (I passed Farmville where I used to intern at Southside, so the last 50 miles were familiar... I've fallen asleep while driving those 50 miles tons of times... not safe but whatever, at least I made it.)

Wednesday I went to the dentist and got the bumps taken off my teeth and I'm done with invisalign! :) I was excited. I chewed a piece of gum with gusto as soon as I got to work... despite the fact that we're not supposed to chew gum at work... but I haven't chewed gum in almost 9 months! I am a gum and chapstick addict and I'm not in denial about it either. I need to go to Costco and get gum when I go home. We had our Abbott rep come and do an A.S.P.E.N. inservice with us so we got Panera for lunch... I had already made plans to eat at Panera with some work friends for dinner... so I had the yummy Panera twice yesterday, ha ha. Later I met up with another friend from church for Cold Stone's. I love ice cream. Gosh, food is delicious.

Today I got up at 3AM and registered for the Rock 'n Roll San Antonio Marathon, so I'll get Texas done this year. I don't know if I'll get New Mexico done while I'm in Arizona because we're supposed to stay in state as much as possible and I really want to make it to Miriam and Al's weddings. My friends are priorities over running... as we tell because I'm paying to fly to California for K-Gibbs and Noelle's wedding this weekend even though I already registered and paid for the Delaware Marathon back in November. Hopefully I'll be able to run it later/not have to pay another full registration fee again (I already deferred my registration for next year for $25 but I might not be able to make it out to Delaware since I'll be in Arizona... augh!).

Well, I've been at work for about 5 hours (I got here a little before 5:30AM) and I'm really tired, it's a good thing it's hospital week and it's the ice cream social today after lunch. I have to drive up to RIC and fly out to Oakland today. I'm SO excited for In-N-Out. Of course Manuel's picking me up and we're going to In-N-Out like I always do as soon as I touch ground at home no matter what part of California I'm in. Tomorrow is our joint birthday venture (my 7th birthday party ever), we're going to Quinn's and bowling. Hopefully I'll see Rock tomorrow and also see Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood. Saturday I'm hanging out with Al and Andy before K-Gibb's wedding in Portola Valley... my tan lines are horrid for a strapless dress, but oh well, I'm going to blame New Jersey. Sunday is Bay to Breakers! I am pretty sure Manny, Noli and Herns are all doing it... along with a whole host of other people I know but haven't confirmed with. Good times back in the bay. I can't wait.

- run for life

hyperthermia

I'm a little concerned about Nevada and the 'Running with the Devil' 50 miler than I have scheduled. I went to New Jersey this weekend and ran the New Jersey Marathon. It was reminiscent of what I would consider torture. I hung out with a friend and watched "John Tucker must die" or something at her house, it was funny (mindless funny). Then I drove up toward New Jersey and slept at a rest stop in Maryland a few miles from the Boarder of Delaware. Since I am holding off on the Delaware Marathon and have no Delaware jumping pics, I stopped off at Delaware Park (I thought it would be a park, like a garden-ish type park with a walking path/playground, but it turned out it was a race track and casino... ha ha). I took some pictures by the signs and met a guy who was on his daily walk who helped me to take some jumping Delaware pictures at the track.

Afterward I headed out to the hotel where I would pick up my stuff for the expo. Of course I'm brilliant and forgot to print out the booklet with the directions and information for runners... So I looked up hotels in Long Branch, New Jersey on Tommy's (my GPS) points of interest. I knew it had the word 'Ocean' in the title, so that narrowed it down to two choices. I called the first hotel on the list. It wasn't the right one, it must be the second right? I called them and it turned out it was the location of the expo and across from the starting line. I chose that as my destination. I was planning on stopping at White Castle (as in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle) but I was too tired and wanted to get my stuff.


I hit the expo and picked up all the samples they had and bought a few sports bras and shirts with sweet logos. I even 'designed' my own shirt from the logos they had. It's going to be great. I think it's hilarious. I got a shirt that says "will run for ice cream" aka the story of my life and another that says "it's not fat, it's fuel"... plus the one I designed. I usually don't buy anything, but I really liked the material and the sayings on these shirts so I got sucked in! ha ha.

After I left the expo I wandered around on the beach and sat out on the rocks chatting/catching up with a few friends. I even signed up for unlimited text messages! Big deal for me since I haven't had them since 2007 and am not the hugest fan. Honestly I got them because of a certain someone... but I'm also excited to get A's scores every day sent to my phone.

I read the small book I got from visiting Park West Church in Knoxville, Tennessee by Lucado. I love Lucado's writing, he's so frank and he just makes so much sense!

I went to the 50 States Club meeting and met some people who are just as crazy as myself. :) I was glad I am really not the only one. I'm going to join and get a 'certified' 50 States finish when I am closer to being done. I added up how many states I will complete this year... and I've already done 4 and I will get 4 more before the year is through with just the runs I've already signed up for, not to mention I want to do Arizona and Ohio this year...

Afterward I ate some food and read some more and chilled in Lazarus before prepping for the next morning and falling asleep in the back of Laz.

The run began at 9AM... I thought it was pretty late, but people were arriving before 7AM. I was woken up by the sound of car doors slamming on either side of me. I decided I should get up when it hit 7:39AM and changed and headed toward the hotel to brush my teeth, wash my face, and charge my cell phone... ha ha.

Others were stretching out and were serious about this run... I waltzed in with my toothbrush and was just out to complete another state as a part of my quest to finish the 50 states.

I talked with some fellow runners, dropped my stuff off at Lazarus, put on tons of sunscreen (though apparently not enough because my neck and cheeks were still burnt after the 5 hours in the sun). I headed toward the starting line and there was a sea of people. It was kind of ridiculous. The race started... the gun fired... and then again the gun fired. I didn't actually cross the line until 10 minutes after the original start. It was already 85 degrees and 85% humidity when we started. The sun peeked out through the clouds. It was going to be a hot day.

The loop was unnerving because you could see the markers for the second loop... so at mile 2 we saw mile 14 0.1 miles before we hit mile 2. It was frustrating... I felt so annoyed by mile 9 that I wanted to hide the flags and pull them out later for the second loop. (I'm not a big fan of loop marathons or when you see the other people who are ahead/behind you while you're running, it's disheartening.) I met a guy named Don who was 54 years old and didn't run at all other than the half marathon each year. He said he was out of shape, but he didn't look that terrible for a man of his age and his claims of not exercising. Later he said he was going to do something he'd never done before in his life... walk. I trudged on along ahead and eventually found a woman named Julie to run with. She was 46 and a health and P.E. teacher with two kids. I want to look like her after I have kids when I'm 46. She was awesome. I pushed her through the last 3 miles of the half and was excited to she her finish her first half marathon. :) (That's the only cool thing about a straight up double loop, I could literally see her finishing her run as I passed under the sign that pointed to the "loop 2" for the marathon.)

I continued to slop along (my heels had both been bleeding for at least 5 miles at this point and were quite tender and painful). I stopped by the port-a-potties by mile 14 only to discover to my horror that it was that time of month... no wonder my stomach had hurt, but not running cramping, the other kind. I was so annoyed and of course no one running had anything. I was tempted to ask someone who was sitting on their lawn cheering us on but I figured I might as well just get to the finish so off I went. I ran with a guy named Sean who lived in Texas but worked in Northern Jersey for a company based in Southern California. He got paid to travel around. I liked the sound of that. I definitely need to find a job like that. He was walking/running so I eventually ran on ahead (slowly mind you) and eventually was delirious by mile 22. I thought I was going to die. My head hurt, my body hurt and I wasn't sure what was keeping my legs moving but I had to chant to motivate myself and tried my best to encourage those around me despite the overwhelming heat.

At one point (around mile 24) I was almost crying from the heat and pain of it all. I hit mile 25 where we ran along the boardwalk and I knew I was going to finish under 5 hours. I kept on moving and even picked up the pace in the shoot passing the guy I had set my sights on around mile 23 and dominated the girl who had passed me at mile 22 (I actually passed her at mile 24.5 when she started walking and I continued on toward the finish). When I crossed the line, it was like a release of tension and my head hurt, my body hurt and I semi collapsed. It's a good thing they have medical personnel to help, they put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me over to the medical tent. I didn't quite pass out but I was hyperventilating and it turned out my body temperature was a toasty 103 degrees. They packed my body in ice (armpits, groin, under my knees, neck, in my shirt, etc) and it took a good 20 minutes to get my temperature down to 102.1. I couldn't talk because my tongue was malfunctioning and I called Benedetti to tell her I'd be slower than I had anticipated. My entire body was tingling more than I had ever tingled in my life. I tried to slow down my breathing as they instructed but it was difficult. I was glad I had texts at that point and took a picture of my medal and bib number still pinned to my stomach and sent it off to some friends to notify them of my 13th state finish. 37 to go. After another hour and then some (it took over 90 minutes to get my temperature back down to normal ~96 degrees), I eventually was freezing cold because my clothes were soaked in water from all of the ice melting (they had to change packs of ice on me multiple times) and the breeze coming from the nearby ocean. I left AMA (against medical advice) because I was really hungry and wanted to get back on the road to Princeton to visit Benedetti, Andy and Jeff.

I drove over and we watched Drumline, which I love. A good quote from the movie: "we don't date in the South, we have boyfriends." We got pizza from Papa John's and chilled out. Andy came by and visited after he got back from church in Philadelphia and Jeff stopped by to stay hello after he was done with his prior obligations. I was just glad to see everyone since I was in New Jersey and wasn't planning on going back. I finally left around 10PM and headed south. I made it to Maryland before I had to pull over and take a nap. I was very out of it and quite delirious at this point. I felt so dehydrated I couldn't think. I took an hour and a half nap, woke up and continued on my way (of course after trying to figure out how to get to the freeway, rolling over a curb because I was still out of it, I finally made it back to 95S). I ended up cranking up the tunes and bustin' a move to stay awake till I got back to Midlothian. I arrived around 6AM, took a 2 hour nap and got up and went to work.

I need to get more sleep. Last night I tried to go to bed at 10PM and I couldn't fall asleep until after midnight even after taking half a Benadryl (usually I'm knocked out from Benadryl).

- run for life

three things.

Another weekend, another marathon, more life goals checked off the list. I went to Tennessee to hang out and go zorbing in Pigeon Forge, TN. I forget when I discovered zorbing, but I thought it'd be awesome, so of course, I went. It's like a huge hamster ball for people. You get in it and if you do the dry version, you have to get in a harness. If you do the zydro or the zorb with water in it, you don't need a harness and you sort of roll down the hill with the water reducing the friction in the ball. It's pretty awesome. I recommend doing it at least once in your life. I might have to go again...

While in Knoxville, we watched movies, ate food, and hung out. It was fun. We drove up to Louisville, Kentucky where I need to do 2 more things on my list: go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and run the Kentucky Derby Marathon. It was AWESOME. The museum was one of the greatest places I've been, and I've been a lot of places. Perhaps it's because of my huge affinity toward baseball, but it was good times. I ran the marathon and had local ice cream in both Tennessee and Kentucky while I was in each state.

For the first time I had a spectator with me, which was nice so I have some pictures of myself while running (Sam was there when Kristen and I ran the Greenville marathon/half, which was super great so I have pictures from that run too, but this was also more special because my spectator was there specifically for me). I just wish I was actually in shape... haha! Well, I haven't slept much due to driving around so much, but I figured I'd throw out a quick update on my ever jam packed life of traveling and experiences.(I am tired because I left Knoxville around 11:30PM/midnight Sunday and slept an hour on the way to work and last night of course only slept 6 or 7 hours as usual. I need to get back on my regular sleep schedule!). Well, gotta sleep, more work and letter stuffing (for the Tucson mission trip) ahead before the New Jersey marathon this weekend. I'm excited.

- run for life

mmmm...!

I love good food. I love eating it, cooking it, baking it, and everything about it. I like making food aesthetically pleasing and the smell of glorious creations wafting from the kitchen.

Tonight some of my co-workers at I visited Mamma Zu's in Richmond (Churchhill area) and I had gargonzola sauce over penne with peas (I didn't choose the peas, it came with it, I would have chosen broccoli or mushrooms). I love 'stinky' cheese! It's so delicious! I liked the other dishes they had as well. (I need to remember to bring my camera so I can take pictures of my dishes...) I probably shouldn't get cream sauce prior to a marathon [note to self] because of the whole lactose intolerance factor (and if you read about my lactose tolerance test, you know I'm legit lactose intolerant). We went to The Phoenician last week on Monday night and had the Mezza or appetizer sampler. Their hummus was so smooth and delicious! I was delighted to have the yummy pita and the large variety of dishes to try. The cheese was so good! I liked both the cheese that was crumbled and the cheese that was in the block still (the block was better, but I love cheese either way). I need to figure out the names of everything I like... which was pretty much everything but the grape leaves, their flatires and kebbe.

I was disappointed because Auntie Helen used to make kebbe and I loved it so I was really looking forward to it... theirs tasted a little too fried or toasty/dry for me though. I miss Auntie Helen. I was talking to Anito and I think Auntie Helen was Lebanese... I never thought about it before. Interesting. The minds of young children are so different than adults.

It's past 11PM and I'm trying to get back in shape so I should wake up early to exercise... so it's past my bed time!

-run for life

note to self

Dear self,

Remember the grit, grime, gunk and long waits at bus stations when you have the brilliant idea to take Greyhound instead of flying again to save a little dinero. That was ridiculous. There is no reason to ever subject yourself to anything like that again. Flying is really the way to go, it's faster, more convenient, and usually you can get decent prices if you are looking around. Don't take Greyhound ever again. Sincerely, me.

I went to Tampa this weekend. I got to work a little before 6AM Thursday morning, finished up and got a ride over to the Petersburg bus station. The bus was late. Great start. Luckily I had a 4 hour layover in Richmond to wait for my next bus so it didn't matter the bus was an hour late. When I got to Richmond I was quickly reminded of how much I dislike taking Greyhound. The chairs are uncomfortable, dirty and there is no where to sleep while you're waiting for your bus to arrive. I got on the next bus, fell asleep quickly since it was already 7:50PM when I got on and was rudely awoken by the bus driver tapping my head as a slept telling me I had to get off the bus until they called us again to reboard.

Waiting at bus stops near plugs is not the most fun thing in the world. They do have "charging stations" at some bus stations at least. Most of them (like Richmond) have very few plugs and some of them are oddly placed 5 feet above your head. They're also so loose you have to hold your plug in at an angle in order to get it to work. It's so frustrating. When I got to Jacksonville a guy came up to me and was SO excited I had an ipod... which everyone and their mom has an ipod these days right? He wanted to charge his, I'm nice so I let him. He went to smoke and came back in... he asked me where I got my plug and I told him I bought it from the apple store. He asked how much I got it for, I told him $30 bucks. He went back outside to finish his cigarette, came back in and offered to buy my plug for $20 bucks... I was like, "dude, I just told you I bought it for $30, why in the world would I sell it for $20?". He offered me $30. I told him I wasn't interested unless he was going to give me $300 because I used it for my ipod and phone, so why would I sell it, then I wouldn't have a charger, duh.

Weird people.

I finally got to Tampa where my CS host picked me up and we drove over to St. Petersburg where the Rays play. The stadium was interesting looking, all indoor stadiums are kind of ghetto. We bought the cheapest tickets, took a few pictures outside as per my custom and headed inside where I took some more pictures. We missed free t-shirts (to the first 10,000 fans), I blame Greyhound for that since I was over an hour late. I got over it really quickly when I saw them. They were baby blue and quite ugly at that, I would have just donated it to Good Will anyway. We found some seats in the front of the bleachers where we sat until we were kicked out. We thought perhaps the man at the end (we dubbed him 'peanut man') would be nice and let us sit next to him, instead my CS host got sprayed by peanut flecks and spit from peanut man's mouth when he was yelling that the seats next to him were taken. Interesting. We moved down closer to the players and I was having difficulty seeing because tall people kept sitting in front of me... and the lady behind us was all into the cow bell thing (which is really loud and annoying). A family sat in front of us and I occupied the youngest girl by making funny faces (fish, platty, etc). Soon more people moved into our row and we were forced to move again.

We moved down closer (you'd think we'd have to move further but that was not the case). We sat in an almost empty row on the first base side. A guy in a hat was sitting 8 or 9 chairs down from me. It was the worst hat I've ever seen, I almost lost it right then as I was turning to say something, my CS host made a comment sending me into fits of laughter. It became the butt of our jokes for the rest of the night. I got a picture of it too. Wow. It's interesting right? The Rays and Yankees both had home runs in the game, continuing my streak of home team home runs (home runs in general really). The game was uneventful, the Rays beat the Yankees 9-3, no come backs by the Yankees at all. They had indoor fireworks... really the lamest show I've ever seen in my life, but they let us walk across the fake astro turf and exit out the back which was kind of neat.

We left the game and went back to the small parking lot we paid to park in ($10 vs. $20 for the team parking lots that were the same distance away-within walking distance). I wondered if the lot even belonged to the boys and father who were taking money and showing us where to park behind the fence. I really doubted it. We got into the car, I ate a snack (I refused to buy food from the Rays and support them more, especially since tickets cost $23 each for the cheapest ones!) and we headed back to Tampa on a mission to find a restaurant to eat. I spotted IHOP and we pulled in. It was super cold inside so I went out and got my fleece pants and sweatshirt. It was a good choice. I got a Spinach & Mushroom omelet with 3 pancakes (cheesecake pancakes with blueberries on top). Unfortunately I couldn't really taste any cheesecakey bits so I was a little disappointed but they were still good nonetheless. The Hollandaise sauce on my omelet or whatever it was, was disgusting so I scraped it off and proceeded to consume my entire order. There were some interesting people in IHOP at 1AM including a girl who looked like she wasn't wearing any pants when she walked past. I didn't get to see the rest of the ensemble, but that's probably for the best.

We headed back to sleep, he slept on the couch and I slept on the bed because he felt bad that I had spent so long on a Greyhound bus. When I woke up it was nearly 1PM and unfortunately the last run for kayaks was at 2PM so we missed that. There was also a new zipline Safari in Florida that was full for the night (moonlight Safari). Rock climbing was expensive and the other options just didn't seem worth it so we went down to the pirate ship and bay walk where I got a jumping picture in front of the boat and we walked for an hour down the bay walk and back. It was nice and fun to just chat and hang out (for free). On the way back we stopped at Bo's for ice cream, I got a vanilla ice cream cone dipped in chocolate. It was great. We hung out for a bit at his place before we hit Carraba's where I got lobster raviloli which were delicious. The bread was good, my salad was better with cheese on it and I was disappointed to find they no longer at canolis. There were some kids going to prom there also.

We hit the grocery store to get some ice cream (moose tracks with health magic shell) and headed back. I was excited to watch Die Hard... but it turned out that Live Free or Die Hard was on Sunday night, not Saturday! So disappointing. We ended up watching Fever Pitch and The Bank Job instead. Fever Pitch was okay, I didn't really like the acting but the story was decent. After all, I do like baseball. Could you tell?

I went to sleep again on the bed after taking a shower and woke up at 7:30AM, ate some breakfast and we were off to the Greyhound station... I was not excited. I said farewell and waited for my bus. It was late. I got on and we ended up getting late to our stop in Jacksonville (big surprise) and I ended up missing my exchange. Luckily there was another guy who missed his transfer also... because we ended up outside McDonald's in Waterboro, Georgia and sat there for over 20 minutes wondering if we had just got left in the middle of nowhere. We got on the correct bus and I sat next to an ex-Marine (the CSer I stayed with was also an ex-Marine). We chatted for a bit before I passed out and was sleeping soundly. We arrived in Columbia, South Carolina at 1:15AM, only 5 minutes behind schedule. My bus was scheduled to leave at 2AM, his at 2:50AM. I was glad mine was going to leave earlier. Unfortunately... they ended up leaving first and my bus didn't leave for an hour and forty minutes after the scheduled departure. We got to Charlotte, North Carolina late and to Petersburg, Virginia an hour and forty minutes late. Luckily I had chosen the earliest arrival so I was still on time to work. I got everything done and was able to make it to my appointment for my oil change and dentist on time. It really pays to work ahead and sort everything out to be sure that I won't be swamped on Mondays.

Overall, Tampa was definitely more fun because my host was hilarious. We joked around like old friends and had a blast. The food was good and I was a fan of the ice cream as well. I love couch surfing. I have made so many good friends while traveling around sleeping on people's couches. Good times, but I'm still never taking the Greyhound bus again. It's definitely not worth it!

- run for life

relief

I am officially done with class as the final day of school was yesterday. Monday will be my first day as a non-student since I was four years old. That's a long, long time. I am gearing up for the day ahead at work, finishing my ServSafe certification is one of my priorities in the coming weeks.

Yesterday I faxed my official 'acceptance of appointment' to the PC USA to be a Young Adult Volunteer in Tucson, AZ. I've been praying about it and God has really given me a peace about it. He's done so much, even my dad has now said that he just wants me to be happy and if God wants me to go to Arizona and not move home yet, that's okay. :) I nearly cried when he said that and apologized for getting mad at me and hanging up abruptly when I first proposed the idea. It really means a lot to me to be able to honor God without feeling conflicted inside by disobeying my parents.

I created my new YAV-only blog yesterday. Raisin helped me with the title. It's called: babbling oasis. I posted my first post yesterday. I'll still be posting here now and then, especially while I'm still in Virginia (which is the original reason made this blog... because I was so far from my family and friends) and driving across the nation. I'm excited about moving closer to home.

Dad also wants to go to Japan and China this summer. I'm pretty excited about that. I need to take my new passport picture tonight and get the renewal form sent off. I decided I was going to do the Running with the Devil 50 miler in Nevada. I still need to buy my plane tickets to get from Denver, CO to San Diego, CA and back for Rachel & Jeff's wedding the day after Ashley & Brian's. It's going to be a great summer.

- run for life