Ah Pinterest....FAIL!

So I'm one of millions that feverishly pins on Pinterest and always have good intentions to try things. I've baked some cupcakes and made some desserts, but since I'm re-doing my Master bedroom I've been looking for DIY stuff and once I start looking on one board, it leads to another which in turn brings me to my Pinterest fail. I have long, thick hair. I wear it straight or I curl it which hot tools (hee hee hot tools!) so needless to say my hair takes a beating. I only shampoo it every other day to keep it from drying out too much. But then I found a pin that took me to this website...Olive Oil hair treatment. I mean look at her hair, it's fabulous when she's done! I mean now that I look at it, it's not the same girl. Ah crap! Oh well, I grab the EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and warmed it up and proceeded slather it all over my hair, great use for my $10 olive oil, but I digress. Add a bun and a some saran wrap and I was good to go for a while. All this time on my hands now that I'm finished with school and I end up in oil and saran wrap, ahhhhh.

I left it on for an hour and found some other stuff to do, fold some clothes, watch some Undercover Boss and may have pinned some more stuff. Now being that I have a Master's degree now and I'm wicked smart I knew to shampoo my hair BEFORE you get it wet. I meant oil and water don't mix! I shampooed it and it did feel smooth but that could have be the layer of oil on my hands. So I went ahead and conditioned it really well too. So I get out of the shower towel dry my hair and I couldn't really tell a difference when I was combing it. I blow dried it on low heat and it felt softer. I didn't want to ruin the reveal for myself so I did it away from a mirror. Now in my head it was going to look like my friend Carrie Ann's hair, it's ALWAYS shiny and nice and well you can see by the picture that well it pretty much looks the same as it always does. And really it wasn't even THAT shiny. Sigh. So I guess I could say it wasn't a fail since it didn't say MIRACLE HAIR SERUM! But I did click on some others and they all said the word shiny so to me that's a fail. 

In other news, I'm going to blog more! I'm going to blog about my whole bedroom re-do, summer races and graduation!! WOO!! 

A.D.D blog, little of this...little of Oh look a squirrel!

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned,

so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.

Joseph Campbell

Life doesn’t always go as planned. Ask my dad; he didn’t really expect to be wishing for a new liver for Christmas. I keep telling him it’s because he already has everything else he could ever need, so why not go out on a limb! I don’t really talk or post about it a lot because really it is what it is, we can’t change it. But I’ve already been tested and my liver seems to be in good working order.

I set 3 goals at the beginning of this year and I can say I have already accomplished all 3; I’d like to kick ass in Economics as well. If I look at it this way I have 22 weeks of actual school left. Then I guess I’ll be wicked smart! But with being wicked smart should come be wicked happy!

I found this quote recently and I realized we all hold on to pain, why? It’s PAIN, it hurts, makes us sad, bitter and keeps us from living the happy life we’re all entitled.

Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing
 you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is
 not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing 
which keeps you from hope and love?

I try to take all my problems and when I run leave them on the pavement. But there have been times when I can’t do that. I was holding on to things, for WAY too long. Or I thought I was letting go and in the end I would let things consume me again. Why? I don’t like to be bitter and grumpy (and when you’re generally happy people notice). So I took that quote and wrote down those things that caused me pain and took them out to my BBQ and with a bottle of wine LET IT GO! I woke up the next day feeling as if a weight had been lifted. I was carrying so much burden of pain that was caused by OTHER people and yet I was the one who was suffering.

So boys and girls what did I learn? 1. Soaking paper in lighter fluid makes a REALLY big flame and pouring wine on it to try and kill it only makes it bigger! 2. There is only one person you truly have to live with your entire life, YOURSELF! 3. Always remember to make that person happy, I shouldn’t have to tell you that, but then again I had to remind myself of that!

In other news, I put in a good 6 mile run today, but AGAIN my Nike+ app crashed when I tried to upload it again. Did 13:30 miles, which for me was a great pace. I didn’t run out of steam before I ran out of water or good music so I call that a WIN! I’m trying to finish my project I’m doing with my race bibs and medals but I can’t find the one from the ½ marathon, seriously the MOST important one and I can’t remember the safe place I put it! I’ll find it and when I do, hopefully I’ll have it done shortly after that. I have no races for September (there is one in 2 weeks, maybe I’ll run it) and I’d like to find a 10k in October. Then November 4^th is the ½ marathon which I’m sure I’ll see everyone I know there!!

Daily Mantra: "There are things that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind. But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world; it’s the beginning of a new life."

70 Days

70 days until the All Women and One Lucky Guy 1/2 marathon. I banged out 5 miles yesterday with about a 12:50-13 minute pace which is what I'm aiming to try and keep. Though there will be no princesses or prince charming along the way this time. It'll be me and the road and hopefully all my friends at the finish line waiting to pick me up! I'm not nervous like I was last time, but actually following a training schedule is harder than I thought. I didn't last time and I admitted when it was over the most I had run was about 9 miles. So the last 4.1 were all adrenaline, this time I'd like to actually get to the 12 mile mark before the race. I'm doing a lot of short runs in there too and as much as I want to go fast, I'm trying to set pace for the race. I did the Tavern to Tavern 5k last week, all by myself. I got up at 6, drove to Boston, took the T (and didn't get lost) and ran all before 10. Little bummed it was the same medal as last year, but I guess that's to be expected from most races. 

I need to start to work on my bib board and medal rack. Class is officially over this week, so I have 3 whole weeks with no homework and I think after work I shall go to Michael's and start my project. I have to find all my bibs that I still have and print out some pictures to go in there too. 

It's also time for new motivation on the back of my front door. I'll keep the brick wall quote up but I need some new running quotes. I'm past giving up now and no pain no gain. Ok maybe not the whole no pain since my quads hurt today for sure! 

In other painful news, my next class is Economics. Still LOATHE math and will be calling on all my math geek friends, Matt ya hear that? But after that, is one more class! And then I will be done with school FOREVER! And I'll probably still do 5k's but I may be hanging up my running shoes too. Thinking about doing something like kickboxing or one of those fancy fighting classes. Get rid of my pent up anger and tone up. I also started whole food, no sugar again today. Ask me in 3 days if I'm ready to kill someone, hmmm maybe I should start that kickboxing now!


Daily Mantra: You only get one chance at life, do it right and that's all you'll need. 

Color Run!

Dubbed the Happiest 5k on Earth the Trifecta +1 (yay Kathy!) took on this 5k on a beautiful Saturday morning. Thank God for Bill driving as traffic was a nightmare getting there. He was able to drop us off at the start line and we got in the mass crowd. We ran and we walked and in some cases we rolled (in the color of course!) and had a BLAST. The nightmare continued when we were done, it took over an hour for a bus to come get us and had we not got in line when we did it would have been a 3 hour wait from what we read! Deanna, Kathy and I went to Friday's to celebrate and had a few cocktails and food that we had been longing for! I'd do this again if they organize it better but all in all 2 thumbs up!

Daily Mantra: Color makes the world a happier place!

Vegas!

I have to thank social media first and foremost for the post. Had it not been for Myspace I would have never reconnected with my friend Sarah and I wouldn't have been in Vegas this summer! Sarah was one of my very first friends in the 4th grade when I moved to Texas, I moved to PA and we lost touch over the years, but thanks to the magic of the internet we connected again about 6 years ago! She finally found her Prince Charming and planned a destination wedding for Vegas. Really all I needed to hear was Vegas and I was in! Got to spend 4 days there and did more in that time than I have before. My friend Mike went with me and I have to thank him for dragging me on all those thrill rides, though at the time I was screaming "I hate you" and told him if he bought any of the pictures where I look like I'm about to die I'd kill him myself!














We got to go to the Grand Canyon in a helicopter tour and that was awesome! Our pilot was kick ass and the views were AM-AZ-ING! It was so worth getting up early and riding a bus for an hour. There wasn't anyone on the way back that wasn't sleeping! Pool was awesome, great people watching and too expensive drinks but it all comes with the territory.

To finally catch up with Sarah and Bridgette (another Jr high friend) was so much fun and we all said the same thing about not changing since Jr high. Though I'd like to think I changed a little! The wedding was so beautiful and there was so much love between those 2!

Other highlights included: ziplining down Freemont Street, meeting up with my friend Cathy from HS who I hadn't seen in 15 years, watching the train wreck that is Rehab Pool Club and well not being at work!

















Daily Mantra: 

Revolution Run

Another repeat race! It was absolutely POURING before the race started, they practically had to shove everyone out to the start line! But it cleared up just in time for the start. I started slow again only because I know there is a hill at the beginning and I didn't want to start too fast and then burn out at the end! I got stuck with the run/walkers and the people who start to run really fast and then burn out by mile 1. So annoying to me when I'm trying to run around you and you can't decide what you're doing! This year they had COLD water (little further up that last year but still). It was the same medal as last year, which I didn't notice until I re-read my post from last year. BUT I did not get a blister and I tore through the course. The rain before helped and it is slightly downhill at the end and the sun came out so I just REALLY wanted to be finished! I got done and waited for another person I knew to finish as she ran the 10k in prep for her 1/2 marathon training! Got a banana and went home! Made the rounds to some cookouts and ended the night with being able to see the fireworks from my house. Going to work sucked the next day but it was a sense of accomplishment for sure. Foot went numb towards the end, so I adjusted my laces and stride and haven't had any problems since then. Another successful run!

Daily Mantra: Always thankful to live in the land of the free because of the brave!

1 Year Later

My first 5k ever was the Hollis fast 5k. I went back and read my blog from that race. Sure was a lot of thanking to do! This year was a really nice day out and since the outlets were opening I may have taken a day off of work to check them out, so I was rested for the race. I did take a nap before and that affected my legs as they were "cold" when I was stretching. But the gun went off and off we went. I love this race, it's point to point and it's all downhill, so there's only going to be a cut in time from the previous year. 

It was a QUICK run, I felt like I got to mile 2 before I even knew it. I made a new playlist after I got my new iPhone so maybe a change in music helped. I wanted to break 30 minutes, I was actually demanded to break it from a few people (damn non-runners!) and I ran it in 30:22, which in my book is a WIN! I was upset there was no water at the finish line when I got there or there was no cups I can't remember which one and the water back at Alpine Grove was warm, so I ditched that place and went home and got some protein to recover. 

It was also the first time my arches were bothering me in my shoes. They are made to take the impact on the middle of your foot and I'm a heel runner so that may be it. I've had some really good runs and I've had some not so good runs, but I think I'm still breaking them in so I hope it gets better.

Daily Mantra: What a difference a year makes!