Line Dancing Anyone?

I seriously need to get some more hobbies. I need to spice up my life with something different and fun. The only thing I can think of doing is COUNTRY LINE DANCING! Yea... I said it. I love country music so this is perfect.

I was totally perusing youtube the other morning at work looking for little instruction videos. I found a couple and I think I actually might try to learn some of these! If the mister can learn a few tricks on the guitar from youtube, I can definitely learn how to do a few line dances, right? Maybe? Anyone?

There are a few bars around town that have country nights with line dancing. I've been a few times, but the only one I know is the electric slide. haha. How great will it be when I know more!?!? :) :) :)

Okay, new goal: Learn to line dance.

CIM - December 6th 2009

I did it. I'm still alive. I didn't break anything.

Sunday was amazing! I woke up at 5am, left the house a little before 6am, and got stuck in traffic by the runner drop off point at 6:20am. The mister dropped me off and had to turn around because they weren't letting people be dropped off too close to the starting line. We then had to pile into buses and be shuttled the rest of the way. By the time we were let off the bus, I had about 15 minutes until the race started. I was soooo nervous and I had to pee like a race horse! I stood in line FOREVER for a portapotty and then finally made it to the starting lines with about 4 minutes to spare. When I say I made it to the starting lines, I mean that I was jammed like sardines next to other excited/nervous runners and I could see the starting line waaaaaaaay up there. Haha!

Then the gun went off and I started my watch. Then I just stood there. Yea.... I didn't end up moving for a while and I didn't even cross the stating lines until 4 minutes after the gun went off. Haha! It was so crazy! There were over 8000 runners there! I was closer to the back of course, but it was so much fun! Maybe I was drunk on the excitement. Lol.

Then we hit Mile marker 1. They have a huge banner up that says Mile 1. It was so cool. I didn't know they would do that. I loved it because I could keep track of my progress better. I made pretty good time for the first 5 miles. Then I came to the 1st relay exchange. It was so crowded. I had to fight my way through. Once I made it I could feel my body start to slow down. Haha. The wind picked up and blew against me which didn't help either. And did I mention there were some CRAZY hills I had to conquer? It was out of control! I didn't realize it would be soooo hilly.

The next however many miles I ran were not pleasant. I had a goal to not stop or walk at all so I had to keep jogging. It was not easy. Those hills were killer. Guaranteed that I could have walked faster than I was "jogging" but I was determined to accomplish my goal.

I didn't see anyone I knew the whole race until I was just finishing up. One of my coworkers was helping to scout us out as we came in to exchange at the relay. He was so happy and energized and ran with me to meet my relay partner. I was on the verge of tears. It wasn't just because I saw someone; I was just so happy to be done. Lol. When running I could see the Mile 13 marker then I had to run a little father because a half marathon is 13.1 miles. I crossed over the half marathon split chip timer thingy and almost cried because I realized I had to go FURTHER to reach the relay exchange point. :( My half was technically 13.5 miles. Then right as I was getting there, I saw my coworker. He was the first familiar face I saw all day, and he'll hold a special place in my heart because of it.

I finished 13.5 hilly miles in 2 hours and 39 minutes. I was expecting 3 hours so this was awesome!

Anyways, I finished. I'm proud. I got a medal. I can now mark this off my bucket list. :)

By the way, check out the awesome arm warmer thingies I made out of knee high socks. :) I love them.

Sentry Pro XFC Flea Medicine

Never use this product on your dog. Seriously.

We used this on Bear Sunday because the vet was closed and we needed some sort of flea medicine for him asap. We were already at Petsmart so we figured we'll just pick something up to tie him down for a while.

NEVER doing that again! This medicine has seriously awful side effects. Foaming, spasms, etc.We had to check it out online and we read that TONS of other dogs had similar reactions. It was terrible. :(

Just FYI.

3 Days and Counting

Someone hit me with their car. Quick!

Just kidding (sorta). The CIM is Sunday. THIS Sunday... like 3 days from now. Ugh.

I'm NOT ready for this. I haven't prepared enough. I will probably pass out. Ok... that's a little dramatic, but you know what I mean. This is my first race and will probably be my last. Haha. I'm such a baby.

I'm scared to death. How lame is that? I'm so nervous I'll probably be sick. It wouldn't be so bad if I was just doing this race myself, but my whole office will be there to "support" me (when I say support, I mean judge... lol). I should have trained harder.... but running is boring to me. Oh well. Three more days and then I can breath again.

Let's hope I make it until then.

Christmas is fast approaching...

I'm sooooooo excited!!!! I'm sure you all are as well; you just don't want to admit it. The day after Thanksgiving (after I got home from shopping like a crazed person with my mother; don't judge me), I started putting up the few Christmas decorations I had. Luckily, my mother gave me a few things to make our place look a little more festive. I might have slightly freaked out my father in law when he came over later that day and I was wrapping Christmas gifts. I had a ton of gifts to wrap too. Luckily all the little things are taken care of now. I just need to finish shopping for the big things now.

Omg. I'm turning into my mother.

On a positive note, the mister and I got our very first Christmas tree this weekend. :) :) :) We went to Apple Hill and cut it down ourselves (actually that's a lie; I supervised while the hubs did it). Then we went home and I decorated it.

And here is the final product (this is a crappy picture.... I never have my camera around so I use my phone):

Anyone else excited about Christmas!?!?!

Morning Rituals

We all have morning rituals that must be done daily. My morning ritual happens when I get to work. I usually arrive about 45 minutes early (I need time to myself to drink my coffee and wake up a little more before I start answering the phones here). I update calendars for our meeting rooms and  hang them up for the day. While walking around the office, I have my ipod on since there are usually only 1 or 2 others here and I'm blasting country music. The country music gets me really pumped and I end up singing (not very well) and dancing while making my way around the office. I love it. This totally gets me ready for the day.

Maybe I need to rethink this ritual. After I made it back to my desk I was bombarded with emails and instant messages from my coworkers who were making fun of me. I guess I didn't hear them earlier because my ipod was turned up really loud. Now they continue to tease me. Since when did these people start getting here so early?!

I feel dumb.

Breakthrough

I had a breakthrough on Sunday. My half marathon is in a couple of weeks (yea, that makes me want to cry too), and I'm totally unprepared. Training for this marathon has made me realize that I hate running. I never want to do this again. It's not fun for me. It's boring and exhausting. Boo.

But anyways, back to what I was saying in the beginning. I needed to up my mileage drastically. I mean my long runs were coming to be about 6 miles-ish because I would be so bored to continue. This Sunday the mister and I took ourselves out to Lake Natoma and I ran it! Yea... well, I ran on one side and back. It came up to be about 10 miles! That's a huge accomplishment for me! I hadn't run in over a week before that either.

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So this Sunday I plan on making one lap around. I'm told it's supposed to be 11.4 miles. I can do it. The first 4 miles are the worst, but after that I'll push through.

I rock.