My Week In Review

As if you cared to know about my life, but here it is anyway.  I know I'll get around 15 readers, but I just can't seem to draw out any comments!  Maybe I need to give something away!

Monday
I confessed to you all that it was The End of an Era.  I am removing my labret piercing eventually (probably within a month).  I also was giving quizzes in both of my classes...still have some students who just don't care.  Ho hum!  I did get to see my Seester, so that was a wonderful surprise!

Tuesday
I went to the noon Isotopes game and after an hour in the 100 degree heat I was completely sweat-soaked through all my layers of clothes.  I had to use the dryer at the office because being that wet was making me uncomfortable!  I played my 17th softball game in 2 weeks.  We sucked!  And I threw out my arm.

Wednesday
I'm extremely tired, but it's another busy day with classes and work.  I'm officially behind a full class lesson because I had to further explain some homework problems which took all night, so now I need to revamp my schedule.  Work is starting to get crazy again because it's the end of the month.  Important lesson learned was to never NEVER buy enchiladas from Golden Pride...just stick to burritos!

Thursday
I have lunch with a really great friend who's prego and is the cutest thing ever.  Good times.  My boss steals my energy drink so the last half of the day was pretty tough to get through.  I get talked into playing my 18th softball game and even though our team lost, we had fun.  It's just unfortunate that even though our game was at 8:30pm it was still 95 degrees outside!  We watched So You Think You Can Dance last night and MIA'S BACK!!!

Friday
Here I sit today, I'm about to go the gym for the first time since the San Diego RnR (about a month ago) and I'm pretty excited!  I might run a couple miles and hopefully remember what I've been missing the last month.  I've got 12 weeks before Denver, so I've still got plenty of training time!  Game night is tonight, which is always a garaunteed good time with a crazy amount of laughter involved!  And tomorrow we stand proud to be gay and then I get to hang with my niece and nephew!

What are your plans for the weekend?  Gay Pride Parade, watching the kids, movies maybe, cleaning the backyard, and preparing for class.

Ever taken a long hiatus from running?  Going back after a month is gonna be hard, but I'm excited to get back to it...hopefully my hammy is ready too (and my calf).

~Chix

End of an Era

Sometime ago, over 8 years ago at least, I got my labret pierced!  Before you over-react, that is the space on your face just below your lower lip.

It's been part of "my look" for a long while now.  Well, because of my circus act at my softball tourney last week, I cracked the tooth that is directly behind my labret piercing.

Oh boy did it hurt!  I couldn't eat anything all last week and I was worried the dentist was gonna pull it out during my appointment on Thursday.  Thankfully, he didn't pull it, but did tell me I needed a crown on it.  Personally I'm thinking I could just grill the whole front section like Kanye, or Nellie, or Lil Wayne!

Anyway, what I'm getting at, is that once I get my crown, I will be permanently removing my labret piercing!  It is truly the end of an era.  Just like when I officially took out my nose piercing, or officially removed my tongue piercing.  Both of those events were HUGE decisions, but I've gotten past them, just like I'll get past this...I'll just unfortunately have a whole in my lip for a while and hopefully it'll close up a bit so that it's somewhat un-noticeable!

Basically, if I'm gonna pay major bucks for this crown, I'm not gonna ruin it with this piercing.  Maybe I'm growing up...nah!  Just wisening up!

"So long, dear friend!  It sure was a nice time we've spent together.  I hope you have a good time in the drawer with all my other old piercings.  And one day may you welcome my other piercings with open arms!"

~Chix

I'm Exhausted!

I'm exhausted.

House party this entire weekend!  Lots of people over and lots of fun to be had!  It's a really great opportunity to continue my birthday celebration!  It's an overnight softball tourney (well, 2 actually) and if it's anything like last year's tourney, I'm gonna have a blast.  I might not be able to walk on Monday, but it's gonna be fun fun fun. Unfortunately,

I'm exhausted.  I just wanna sleep!

I'm stuck behind a brick wall at work (metaphorically speaking).  It's like I have to get to the other side, or I should be on the other side of the wall already, but I have to break down each brick one by one just to even see how thick the wall is and try to determine how long it's gonna take me to get over it.  I just have so much to do...still!  But,

I'm exhausted.  I just wanna sleep!  I think one day I may never get out of bed!

So, here I am in New Mexico, and the whole state is on fire. Nothing here in the Metro area of Albuquerque, but the Gila National Forest, all of Ruidoso, Corrales bosque, are all on fire and it's pretty smoky around here. It's sad to hear that hundreds of homes are being lost up in Ruidoso. But what's really sad, is that while it's 100 degrees here, a major thunderstorm hits Duluth, Minnesota and totally floods the place. Click here for an article about the Lake Superior Zoo getting flooded. They lost 11 barnyard animals and 2 birds. Both of their seals and the polar bear also got out of their enclosures and were swimming around the major streets! This is some crazy stuff! The elements are not being gentle these days! And,

I'm exhausted.  I just wanna sleep!  I think one day I may never get out of bed!  And then I realize there's more important things happening around the world, and I get up, put on a happy face, and here I am!  Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!

~Chix

A Story and A Test

Bullets!  Bullets everywhere!

• I've planned a big vacation finally!  We're going to Puerto Vallarta!  Yay!
• I cracked my front tooth playing softball this weekend.
• I'm still getting birthday presents and it's been 4 days since my actual birthday!
• I finally get to go to an Isotopes game after missing them for 8 days!!
• I'm going for my first run tomorrow since my race.
• I still love teaching!
• It's hot as hell today, and I really wish I were outside instead of here at work.

Random Story

On the first day of my 7th grade science class, the teacher greeted the whole class with a bunch of jokes.  Everyone knew he was a funny and wacky guy, but we were all still bummed that school was starting and a bit nervous for what was coming in this science class.  We had all laughed at his jokes and started to feel a bit more comfortable in class.  Then he pulled out these 2 really large books and set them on his desk.  He asked for 2 volunteers to read the books over the next week and prepare a presentation for the class because they were based on some larger subjects we'd be discussing over the next couple months.  Nobody moved.  We all looked at him like he was the craziest person ever and was spouting nonsense through his silly mouth!  But, because I'm an honor student (read: big nerd), I raised my hand to volunteer, as did another larger nerd in the class.  He brought us up to the front of the class and handed us each a book.  Right away I was hoping he was kidding because the books were so heavy.  We carried them back to our seats looking ahead to the unfortunate task that lay ahead of us.  He asked me to turn to a certain page, and asked the other kid to turn to a certain page, and there it was...a shiny hundred dollar bill!  One for each of us!  We didn't have to read after all, but we got rewarded for volunteering!  Luckiest kid in the 7th grade!

Test Question

Last Wednesday, both of my classes had their first test of the semester.  Not too shabby outcome for both classes, but a few people could add a couple more study hours to their schedules!  Here's a question from the test...Good Luck!

Home Depot sold a set of chainsaws to Lowe’s. The list price was $3,800. Home Depot offered a chain discount of 8/3/1. The net price of the chainsaws is:
A. $3,537.12
B. $3,537.21
C. $3,391.12
D. $3,357.21

Have a great day!

~Chix

Today Is My Birthday!

I'm one of those people who LOVES to celebrate their Birthday!  I don't mind admitting my real age, nor do I mind getting older.  I normally find that I'm the oldest one in a large group of friends, but I'm okay with that for 2 reasons:  I'm older, which means I'm wiser AND I look like I'm still in my 20's (if you look past all my gray hairs)!

But really, I can't think of anything better than receiving presents for my Birthday!  Actually, I'm not as materialistic as that sounds, but I really love presents!  They can be actual physical gifts like shirts and hats and watches and large items like that, or they can be personalized items like a handmade card, doing something thoughtful like sewing the buttons onto my shorts, or even just remembering to call or say hello and I love you!  It doesn't matter what you give or how much you spend, cause knowing that you care about it is present enough.  I try to explain this to the GF sometimes, but she still gets me the kind of presents I can unwrap!!

So, in a little less than 2 hours, I will officially be turning 34 years old!  I have been celebrating for about 15 days now and I plan to continue celebrating for at least another 15 days.  Then I have 11 months to wait until I began the process all over again!  I will take a small timeout next week for my niece who turns 7 years old...SEVEN!  That's the smart one that I'm always talking about...if I could go back to when I was 7, I would remember that I had an older brother who was a butthead, carpet that was a bit shaggy and greenish/yellowish/orangish in color.  I had bangs and actually wore the color purple.  And I'm pretty sure I hated wearing dresses back then too!



This wasn't it, but this is how I remember it!

Anywho, Happy Birthday to Me!  Next time I talk to you, I'll be just a bit more mature!  Who am I kidding...a bit less!!

~Chix

Monday Randoms

Hi!  This is for my peeps.  My life has been crazy busy lately.  I'm hating my real job again, and loving my teaching job!  You know, the usual.

The GF is taking this intense 2 week class, so we don't get to spend much time together, but her last day is this Friday, so we'll get some quality time together soon.

This Friday is also my Birthday!  I've already been celebrating this month and I've gotten some pretty kick ass Birthmas presents.  In case you are unaware, Birthmas is just like Christmas, only I get 12 days of presents for my Birthday instead of Christmas.  Brilliant, I know! 

I took my dry cleaning in today, and if the pants come back with creases again, I'm gonna be very upset.

Some of my students don't understand what it means to study or turn in your work.  Not my problem if they don't want a good grade in the class.  I've given them the tools and showed them how they work...can't make them use them (or use them correctly)!

I haven't run once since San Diego RnR and I feel great!  I can't wait to get back to it, but it's been a very nice break.  Denver is on the horizon, unless I find something before then.  Otherwise, it's go time.

I might have mentioned this once before, but I'm giving up giving something up this month.  Make sense?

Have a great day!

~Chix

San Diego RnR Race Recap!

The moment you've all been waiting for...Race Day!!  Read the Pre-Pre Race Update or San Diego Pre Race reports if you want all the deets!

After a blissful night of rest in the most uncomfortable bed ever, we awoke for the 6:15am start time (more like 6:45am for us slowpokes in a later corral)!  We were dressed and ready pretty quickly since we had laid everything out the night before.  It wasn't quite as cold as we thought it would be so we didn't need our throw away pants...I opted to wear my long sleeve shirt just to be sure!  We walked the two blocks over to Balboa Park and ran into a hundred other racers headed to the start line!  About 4 more blocks up we stopped for the port-o-potties.  I needed to get one last pee break in before the start in hopes of not needing to stop during the race.  Here we are before the race!

Notice how well slept we look!  While waiting in line to pee, the race started!  We knew we still had another half hour before our corral would cross, so we didn't worry!  We got out of the port-o's with plenty of time to wait in our corral and for the GF to get really really scared and nervous!  She didn't really train for this race AT ALL!  The most she's run this whole year was a 10K on May 6th.  She didn't run for about 2 weeks after that because of this intense summer school class she was taking and really only had about a handful of runs the week before the race.  So her main goal was to finish!  Actually, her time goal was to hopefully finish in 3:30:00.  I knew she could do it, but I told her just to do her best, run the 10K we knew she could do and then try a run/walk thing from there until she finished!  Still a bit scared we crossed the start line together and fell into my pace and sadly left her behind.  I knew she'd do just fine!

If you remember from a post last week or perhaps the week before, I gave up on making this my PR race.  My training wasn't going well AT ALL and so I decided to go into it having no expectations.  If I walked, I walked...if I was thirsty, I'd stop and have an extra cup of water...if something started to hurt, I'd stretch it out and take my time.  I knew I'd still finish with a somewhat respectable time, but I wasn't worried about much!  This actually made the race a lot more fun.

Mile 1 was some uphill and some zig-zagging through the crowds.  It astonishes me that people are already walking in the first mile...not the ones who started walking and walked the whole thing, but the ones that I was running behind and they immediately stop in front of me.  I'm sure they were thinking "What did I get myself into?"...I just sort of hopped around them and made my way up the hill.

Miles 2 through 4 were pretty spectacular.  They were also mainly downhill!  We winded through Balboa Park and hit the 5K mark just past this awesome Organ player...He was playing the Sound of Music and these 2 gentlemen behind me were very excited about it!  At mile 4 we entered the highway and although it was a spectacular downhill, it was also very slanted.  I added on some mileage moving up and down the lanes trying to find the flattest part of the road because my hamstring was starting to act up.

Miles 5 and 6 flew by as we still cruised the highway.  At some point a lady handed me a popsicle, so that was exciting!  Mile 7 was another major downhill area, but only to be followed by an uphill portion...we corkscrewed off the highway, went over the road and switch-backed onto the other side of the highway.  We got to pass a pretty cool drum band though, so that was entertaining.  I'm not sure I remember most of miles 8 or 9 but they sort of flew by pretty quickly.  I was noticing that my body felt amazing other than my hammy, the weather was amazing, and I was almost completely soaked with sweat from head to toe!

Miles 10 through 12 were okay.  There was a major switchback for about a mile and a half in each direction.  I did get to see my friend about a mile ahead of me (same pace, but earlier corral).  Although I still searched for the GF, I knew she was probably a couple miles behind me.  We are headed down the road towards SeaWorld and it seemed like the time had just flown by.  I wasn't really sure of where we were in relation to the parking lot and how everything was set up, I just stayed in the chutes and kept my legs turning over until I reached the finish line.

Around Mile 9, I had looked down at my watch and noticed that I was on pace for a PR...if I could sustain the speed I was at, I'd most definitly PR, so I forced myself not to look at my watch again until I crossed the finish line.  Once I crossed the finish, I stopped my watch, took a few steps, grabbed a water, and finally looked down to find:
2:12:17

I had PR'ed and I didn't even try to!  See what happens when you have no expectations!  I was so excited and couldn't wait to tell the GF!  Since she wouldn't cross for another hour I decided to stop and get ice for my hammy, I grabbed some fruit, met up with my friends, and grabbed my gear from the gear check.  I had set up runner tracking for the GF so I'd know when to go look for her at the finish, so I pulled out my phone, and HOLY SH*T...she crossed the 10 mile mark 20 minutes ago!!  She'd be finishing in about 20 minutes, so I changed my clothes really fast and headed over to the railing to hunt her down...and sure enough, about 10 minutes after I got there she came running by!!  There was no way to find her until she came for her gear bag, so I just waited.  And my phone chimed in, she finished with a final time of:

2:45:57

Holy crap, she kicked the sh*t out of this race!!  So so proud of her.  We shared a happy moment of "Hell yeah's" and of teary eyes for how well we both did!  We proceeded over to get our free beers and rest our legs and eventually decided to head back to shower.

Post Race events coming soon!

~Chix

San Diego Pre-Race

Now for the Pre-Race!  Click here for the Pre-Pre Race Update.

Saturday morning we woke up with plans: Run, Expo, Movies, Rest, Dinner, Sleep!  Oh how things didn't go the way we planned!

Like I mentioned in the Pre-Pre we went running again on Saturday morning.  This run was a bit shorter, but through some similar parts of Balboa Park...over the bridge, past the fountain, by some museums and ponds, and by 20 port-o-potties that were already set up for the race start the next morning!  There were a lot more people out enjoying the scenery too.  After the run we headed back to shower up.

Instead of heading straight to the Race Expo at the San Diego Convention Center, we had some friends pick us up for breakfast, since they too had to go to the Expo.  We could just grab a quick bite to eat and knowck out the Expo before our 1pm movie time.  Check watches, it's 10:45am (not quite enough time for the Expo adventures, but we're going with it).  We get picked up and made the bad idea of heading downtown to see which breakfast restaurants we could find.  After an hour went by of driving up and down and back and forth on every street, we finally settled on a place called Brian's 24 and sat down and ordered by noon!  I called the theater to see if we could move our Fandango's back to the 4pm show!  Breakfast was amazing...I had this chorizo and egg burrito and it was the size of my bicep!  It was heartbreaking having to leave half of it behind because I had nowhere to keep it!

Expo time!!!  After breakfast we drove around for almost another hour until our San Diego native figured out how to get to the convention center.  Finally we're at the Expo and we have big plans to spend lots of money!  We grab our packets (light blue shirts for SD, yay!) and head into the madness.  By this time our friends' child had fallen asleep so they couldn't enjoy the excitement of a Rock'n'Roll Expo, but we indulged as usual!  We both planned on buying new shoes, but they didn't have the ones I wanted, so only the GF got a pair.  Then we bought the GF a new SpiBelt to hold her phone and GU chomps while she runs.  Then we bought a box of GU for me!  Then we signed the GF up for the Vegas Half in December (I'm already signed up)!  Then we visited a few more booths, checked our watches, and it was 3:15pm.  We needed to get to the movies!

Before we left town, I promised the GF that we'd go see SnowWhite and the Huntsman because it was opening weekend, so I bought the tickets to surprise her.  Luckily, the manager was able to honor our tickets for the later showing!  We walked the few blocks to the theater and enjoyed a great movie.  The ending seemed to be left open, like they want to make a sequel, but overall it was pretty good.  Your typical Snow White film, with a few twists and turns along the way.

Once the movie got out it was 6:00pm and we were supposed to meet up with our friends again for dinner.  They weren't too keen about driving down our direction because of all the traffic and people, so we just said we'd see them in the morning at the race and we headed to the Old Spaghetti Factory!  When we got there it was almost a 2 hour wait, and being that I was hoping to be in bed in 2 hours, we opted for take-out!  We both got spaghetti and hopped a bus back to the hotel.  We ate our food, laid out our race clothes, packed our bags a little, and hit the sack to get a good nights rest before the race!

Race Day coming next!  Enjoy some more pictures!

Pond at Balboa Park.

Front of some museum at Balboa Park.

Fun Game: Find the Airplane?  My stellar picture taking skills
can't seem to capture the low flying plane before or after the palm tree!

Mr. Turtle laying in the sun at SeaWorld!



The GF holding a Starfish at SeaWorld!



This guy kept screaming at the GF to throw him some food!
He would wave at her too!

~Chix

Pre-Pre Race Update

Hello Friends!

Let me begin this post by telling you that I'm posting a couple more times to really encompass how fun this Race Weekend was!  Let's start with the Pre-Pre Race!  This started on Thursday (travel day).  I worked a half day, hit the gym, went home to pack, and was off to the airport.  We landed in San Diego around 6pm and were starving, but first we had to check-in to our luxurious hotel!  I lie...it was 'enough' for the weekend.  When looking for hotels in San Diego, we wanted to be near the convention center, but near the race start, but near downtown, but near the finish line, but cheap...so we settled on a $80+ per night hotel about 6 blocks from the start and 2 blocks from Balboa Park!  It had a double bed parked right next to a sliding door closet with a tv and modern dresser almost at the foot of the bed and a small area for the bathroom and shower to fit.  It was like a utility closet, but it worked (except for the internet...that did not work...more on that later).

We ended up ordering pizza because we were so hungry and didn't want to think about finding places to go and it was nearing 9pm.  After scarfing some pizza, we decided to go for a walk around town...not necessarily recommended at 10pm in our neighborhood!  Someone, who will remain nameless, and who is not me, but was with me, was a little jumpy walking around in the dark!  First off, a plane flies over and about 2 minutes later the wind it created flew over too and shook the be-jesus out of this palm tree and "someone" thought there might be an invisible gorilla jumping around trying to come after us.  "Someone" gripped my arm very tightly!  Then "someone" jumped out of their skin when they happened upon a homeless person sleeping on the sidewalk, then 2 more homeless people sleeping, and a little later on about 6 more homeless people on both sides of the street...we almost had to walk down the middle of the road just to stay safe!!  P.S. They were harmless and probably passed out anyway, but when you don't normally see stuff like that, it can be scary!  We walked for about 2 miles just around the town...pretty cute and quiet!

Friday morning we woke up to go for a quick run through Balboa Park.  I'd like to take a moment to thank Yes Folks, I Run Like A Girl for posting some great tips on her favorite running spots in San Diego because I was able to find all the trails that run through this gorgeous park!  Since we were only 2 blocks away, we headed over there and just started running.  We ended up having the best run we've had in a very long time!  It was just over 3 miles, but it took us almost 50 minutes because we stopped and took pictures of EVERYTHING!  This place is truly beautiful...the gardens, trails, buildings, etc...everything was beautiful!  We enjoyed this run so much that we ended up running another 2 and a half miles on Saturday morning (even though it was the day before the race).

After freshening up from our run, the GF and I headed to SeaWorld (please note that we took a $28 taxi ride) and spent the next 5 hours walking, watching shows, adoring the sea creatures, walking, riding rides, eating and getting sun burnt!  We decided on riding the bus back to the hotel to save money, but ended up having to wait almost an hour because when the first bus came, out of 20 people on board, nobody had change for a twenty...NOBODY!  So, we had to go buy a hotdog to make change and then wait another half hour to board the next bus! 

We changed clothes and headed to Petco Park to watch some baseball.  They had Beerfest going on, so for 5 bucks a ticket you could get a draft beer from one of 25 different breweries set up in their outfield "park"!  It was pretty great...especially since Friday was June 1st and I could start drinking beer again.  I definitely noticed the difference of how I feel the morning after drinking beer...I'm sure you could guess that I feel much better on mornings when I didn't have beer the night before!  Anywho, because it's my birthday month, I am not giving anything up until July!  Anywho, we stayed and watched the first 5 innings of the game and tried to take the bus back to the hotel.  Because we weren't aware of the way the bus system works, we missed the bus we needed and ended up having to wait another hour to catch the correct bus (please note that the game has ended by now...should've just stayed).  We finally get home and crash right away because it's been the longest day ever!

Pre-Race coming soon!  Enjoy some pictures!



Fountain at Balboa Park.





The Dolphin show was the best of the day!

 

These 2 Flamingos are about ready to 'do it' flamingo style!



Shamu show...such a pretty smile!



Petco Park...great stadium...poopie teams!



~Chix