Still here!

Sorry folks...it's been a while since I've blogged! I don't feel quite so bad about it, though, because it looks like a lot of people have put blogging on hold for a bit, though. I've not really had the time to blog too much lately...okay, well that's not entirely true. I have had a lot going on, but I think the fact of the matter is that I've been kinda lazy and haven't really taken the time to blog. Plus, I just haven't had too many really funny stories to share with you, and I think we're all getting burnt out on my impromptu restaurant critiques (FYI - I received a $25 gift certificate from Ruby Tuesday to apologize this week) and my rants about my ill-working car (I spent yesterday afternoon having it serviced again), so I thought I'd refrain.

Right now, I'm actually in Atlanta (you know...where the playas play and we ride on them things like everyday) for a training retreat of sorts for work. While I'm here and kinda bored, I guess I'll take a brief moment to catch you all up on my last couple of weeks and give you some sneak previews of coming attractions. :)

I'm still training for the 10k...although I'm liking running less and less, haha. My knees still hurt when I run, and the general consensus that my IT band is just really tight and needs to be stretched. I've been even more over zealous than normal in stretching my thighs and even laid off the running a bit this week. It still doesn't seem to be helping me much, though. A friend of mine recommended one of these to me. After having few results from the stretching, I bought one last night to give it a shot. Basically, you lay on top of it with whatever part of your body you're trying to work out rolling over it. (I didn't describe that very well, but I'm too tired to care.) It works like a deep tissue massage does basically. So far, it hurts like there is no tomorrow. Seriously...I was basically lying on my living room floor last night wincing and screaming in pain, lol. But, I just take that to mean the muscle is really tense and will greatly benefit from the stretching. Lets hope it clears up soon, or I'll never be able to make it 6.2 miles. Oh yeah, I'm supposed to run a St. Patrick's Day 5k Saturday morning as part of our training, but I don't think I'm going to, haha!

Two weeks ago I went up to Greenville to help a friend celebrate her 25th birthday. I had a lot of fun...but that weekend deserves it's own post, so I'll save that one for later this week.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I had a lot on my mind and that I'd fill you in later. I guess now would be later. Among other things, I'm in the process of looking for a new job right now. When I first mentioned it to you all, I was conflicted and wasn't saying anything b/c I wasn't sure what I was going to do at that point. The problem is, I do like my current job, but unfortunately, I work for a small company that has been affected by outside items and there essentially isn't enough money for it to make sense to keep me on. My boss hadn't brought it up to me, but i was looking at where I was and knew the company wasn't making enough money for me to really be able to grow to where I need to be anytime soon. I'm the only real employee, besides the owners, and it doesn't make sense to run a company where pretty much everything we bring in has to go right back out to us to pay our bills. Plus, I don't have any benefits, and wouldn't be getting any anytime soon...and Mark wants to go to the dentist again, seriously! haha I wasn't sure whether I should just try to tough it out for a little bit longer (this was never actually a real option though), try to get a part time job to get some more money coming in (just a short term fix to a long term problem) or look elsewhere. I did bring it up to my boss and recommended I look for a new job, but continue to do the same work for them on a contract basis. That way, I get to stay out of the day-to-day crap that I hate and, when they actually have money and need a job done, they can call me, otherwise, we don't have to worry about it. B/c of other aspects of my job, I was going to remain connected with them anyway, but this seems to work out best. She agreed that this was the best solution and I think she had been realizing that something needed to change too, but also didn't want to say anything. I've sent out some resumes and have already had a second interview with one company. I should have a 3rd interview next week, and I'm pretty sure that, I'll accept that position, so that's good. A nice quick job hunt. I'm ready to move on.

I'm sure more has happened in the last couple of weeks, but at the moment, I can't think of what. In coming attractions, though, I'll have a post about Greenville, some super secret spy shots of a new car (well...maybe not all that secret if I was able to get them, but whatever), the unveiling of the birthday plans, and my super awesome birthday present (it's not really a present, but I'm counting it as one). There...now that I've put it out there, I guess I'll have to actually write them, right? If I don't...berate me in the comments until I do!! :)

Alright...I'm going to bed! Good night!

Unexpected Beautiful Day!

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting much, or at least not anything exciting, lately. I've kinda had a lot on my mind and haven't felt much like posting. Everything's good though, and I'll update you all on it hopefully over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'll fill you in on my weekend I guess. Nothing particularly exciting, but it was a great weekend in my opinion. Friday night was a night spent in (as you probably noticed from my last couple of posts), but a relaxing one.

Saturday morning I woke up ridiculously early to go for a run. Remember that bridge run I'm training for? Well my running group does a run every Saturday morning...insane, I know. We meet at about 6:45 am or so, do some stretches and all, then start running just after 7...AM!!! Let me let you in on a little secret (which is painfully obvious to anyone who has ever met me)...Mark IS NOT a morning person! I'd rather stay up until 4 am doing stuff than getting up at 6 or 7 in the morning to get things accomplished any day of the week!

But yes, I was up at like 6:30 or so, grabbed a bagel and some orange juice, then drove down to the shop where we meet. We stretched and then started our run (well...to be fair, most of the people started the run, up to the loop we were going to...myself and a few other beginners drove to the loop. It seems their "warm up" running was almost two miles...then they started the run. That's a bit much for me at this stage in the game, haha.) I ended up running about 3 miles or so, and I was very pleased with that. I also ran into a couple people I knew, as there was going to be a 5k run there a bit later in the morning and I knew a few people setting up for that. After the run, I went back down to the shop, had some fruit and juice and all and we just kinda talked about what our running plan for the next week would be. At this point...I've already eaten breakfast twice and run 3 miles before 9am! Normally, I'm not even up by 9, so I was feeling pretty accomplished!

After the run, a friend of mine who runs with me joined me as we went out for breakfast. (yes, if you're counting, that would be the 3rd one of the day.) We went to a place (hmmm...apparently it's a national chain. Who knew? Still great!) up the road from me which is like THE official place to eat breakfast on my side of town. SOOOO good! There was like a 20 minute wait for a table when we got there (yea...it's that good) so we hung out for a bit and had an amazing breakfast! I had french toast with just the right amount of egg batter, good thick bacon and coffee. MMMM. Oh, I also ran into some other people I knew, so I got to catch up with them for a bit, which was nice. When we left there at about 11:30, we walked out to what was the most beautiful day!! Seriously...weather in the low 70's, blue skies, gorgeous!!!

When I got home, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to knock out some yard work I'd been avoiding, so I spent the afternoon finishing removing a piece of my fence, raking my driveway and the entire front yard, removing a couple stumps from out front and washing my car. Oh yeah, I also got to play with the new puppy my neighbor got the day before, haha. Apparently Saturday was the official day to go walk your pet/children/spouse/whatever! haha I guess the weather dragged everyone outside, but I actually got to meet and chat with several of my neighbors...which is nice, b/c I hardly get to see anyone around here...everyone seems to keep to themselves mostly. I guess that unexpected beautiful day in February just brought out the best in everyone.

Oh, I did get to meet this one old couple who have probably lived in my neighborhood for at least 30 years or so. They apparently have a little loop they like to walk around for exercise, but I thought it was really funny to see them. The old man was wearing like khaki pants and a button down shirt and the lady was in a dress and some of those old lady dress shoes. Anyway, not exactly what you'd expect to see someone out exercising in, but I guess it wasn't the most vigorous walk ever, so they were okay. I can't wait until I'm so old that I just stay dressed nice all the time. That way, I suppose you're always prepared for whatever happens! haha

Anyway, I came in Saturday night, had some dinner and did some touch up painting where I had to patch some cracks in the walls of my guest bedroom. All-in-all, a day of accomplishment. I was pleased. Sunday, I pretty much slept all day to recover, haha. It was a good weekend though and I could use a lot more like that!

Single much?

Whoa! I guess a lot of you folks out there are like me and didn't have Valentine's plans!! There was a huge spike in my blog hits yesterday! Yowza! (I stole that word from the hot girl I lived with one summer in Denver...also from whom I got my Nip/Tuck addiction, haha). Guess you all just spent the day of love at home alone reading blogs, haha. Seriously, though...thanks to those bloggers out there who have linked to me (some have even given me a parenthetical addendum to my link...sweet!). Also thanks to those bloggers who have befriended me and even chat with me despite their ever-so-busy lives!

As for me...pretty uneventful Valentine's day overall. Went to work, but didn't do much (I worked hard the beginning of this week and end of last week - hence the lack of posting - so I deserved it). Came home, continued trying to pull out fence posts (no injuries this time...but also no trips to Home Depot) until the sun went down, then went for a run. I actually ran 4 miles folks!!! What what??!! They were 4 very slow miles...my average was like a 10:37 mile or something ridiculous like that, but still...considering my previous best was only 2.5 miles and I felt sore for a couple days after that one, I am thrilled. Actually, I did a fartlek run (yes, it's pronounced like it sounds...hold back your giggling) tonight as part of some heart rate training. Oh yeah...I'm running in a 10K in April. A friend talked me into joining a training group for the run (although at the time, I thought the run was only a 5K, but oh well). I thought it'd be good to do it in the group b/c, although I could care less about the race, it figured it'd be good to have some structure to my runs, instead of just going for a jog when I felt like it. Plus a good place to meet new people, haha. Anyway, the group started last week, so I'll be running much more and with a much greater frequency now. Oh, and they like to do group runs early Saturday mornings...like I have to be there at 6:45 am --- and then run several miles!!!! Ugh! I knew there was something wrong with runners. Oh well...I'll let you know how that goes.

After my victory lap, (read - a lot of stretching and then passing out on my comfortable leather seats in the Maxima, haha) I decided I needed to reward myself with a good meal. After a quick shower and change of clothes, I headed out to this local bar that has the BEST hamburgers in the world!! Seriously, it's one of those places that doesn't advertise and doesn't even have a sign on the building, so a local has to take you there, but one of the times the President (as in...of the United States) was down in Columbia, they took him to eat there. Say what you want about our current commander in chief, but any place good enough for the leader of the free world has got to be decent. Anyway...I went there figuring no one would be there on Valentine's Day, so I could just pull myself up to the bar, get a burger and eat non-conspicuously...maybe even strike up a conversation with someone sitting around me. Apparently this place was like THE hangout for everyone who didn't have Valentine's day plans or something, though. Both bars in the place were full, so I ended up having to just grab a booth by myself and eat in a very conspicuous way...and not meet anyone new. Oh well...I got a big greasy burger, plate of fries and a margarita...soooo worth it. And you'll be happy to know, they didn't screw up my order at all (although, even if they had, I would've completely forgiven them for it b/c this place is too good to miss).

After dinner, I came home, relaxed on the couch, read some blogs, chatted with some bloggers and watched some Donny Deutsch (I'm a dork...I know) and took some Aleeve for the pain in my knee which seems to follow every run these days (I think I need new shoes). Tomorrow my bosses are out of town so it'll just be me in the office. I have a little bit of stuff to do, but I should knock it out pretty quickly and will start my weekend early! Yay!

Anyway...thanks for reading, don't know what caused the spike in hits, but hopefully you like the blog and will be back! Of course, with all these people reading, that may mean I need to post more frequently...and about more exciting topics. Hmmmm.....

Lazy Blogger

Sorry for the complete lack of posting lately. I'm just gonna churn out a quick update since it's late and I have an early morning tomorrow.

Yeah, I've been a bit lazy lately, I guess. No running, no posting...what have I been doing?

Let's see, since last we met, I went to the tree lighting for my town, which they conveniently held across the street from me. Of course, they later moved the tree down to city hall, but I guess they've decided to start doing more community events by me. There's a mall across the street which is undergoing a major rehabbing (read: vacant) but it has a big parking garage which, due to a lack of customers, is pretty much always empty, so the city likes to host it's events on the roof of the garage. Works for me! I grabbed the neighbor (her roommate had oral surgery earlier in the day, so was out of commission) and we headed over. It was a good time. Free food, some strange calypso band playing non-Christmas music (random) and a million people. Well, okay, maybe a thousand or so (at least a few hundred) but considering within the city limits of where I live there's only technically about 10,000 residents, that's way more than I expected. Actually, I'm kinda surprised the city does a big tree lighting at all b/c my city has a very strong Jewish Community (both of the major Temples in the Columbia area and the Jewish Community Center are located within our city limits). I told the neighbor we needed to find me a girlfriend. She replied that we needed to find her a boyfriend. Always the practical one, I recommended that we just pool our efforts, find a cute couple and split them up. That way, we each get one but only have to do half the work. Plus there are WAAAAY more couples around here than single people anyway, so I'm sure it won't be that hard. She did bring up the point that if we did that we probably couldn't be friends anymore since significant others would hate us. I told her I was willing to make the sacrifice. :)

Friday, I mentioned that I had to go out of town for a seminar for work. I did. The seminar was, like all work seminars, informative, but overly so. I was done taking in information long before they were done talking. Plus, it started too early in the morning. Ugh! Oh well, it's done and taking that class will be making me a lot of money soon. :) Instead of burning up the highway to get back home, I decided to hang out in Charlotte for the rest of the evening. As always, I enjoyed myself there, but that's a story for another post. Hopefully I'll put that up by the end of the week.

Saturday I slept ridiculously late b/c I got in from Charlotte late and because I pretty much had no sleep Friday night. The no sleep was partly because of me staying up to get stuff done and partly due to a 3 AM random phone call from a friend. While it is a funny story, it's not mine to tell. When she gets a blog and posts about it, maybe I'll link to it for you! After I woke up, I went to the condo of my suitemate from freshman year for a big holiday dinner he started doing a couple years ago. He invites a bunch of us over and has a big turkey and various other "fixin's" and we just catch up and relax, family dinner style. It was good, but I certainly did not know as many people as years past. That also reminds me of another observation I've made about many of my friends. But again...for another post. I had plans to go to an event with some other friends later in the evening, but was really just too tired. I decided I needed a night in for a change. I did catch up with a friend later in the night at like 10:30 or 11 or so and he wanted to come over. We rented a movie and hung out for a bit. I popped some popcorn and finished off a bottle of wine I uncorked the other day. It was nice. Between the Holiday dinner and the movie, however, I probably had about 1 and a quarter bottles of wine on Saturday though...oops! :)

Sunday again I slept in. I don't know what it was about this weekend, but I guess I needed some sleep! I ran a few errands in the afternoon, tuned into our weekly conference call for work and snuggled up to my Sunday night shows...here and here. (Don't think I've forgotten about What's in Mark's DVR...they're still coming, just delayed. I'll probably have time for that when we run out of episodes next week thanks to the stupid writers' strike! Grrr!) Oh yeah, during these shows I also pulled out my Christmas decorations and started some light decorating.

Monday I went to work, came home, went running, then went to buy a Christmas tree. I only use real trees every year! A fake one just doesn't cut it for me, I don't know why. Plus, the smell is nice. I was very pleased with the tree I ended up with - and it was pretty much the first one I grabbed! Maybe someday soon I'll begin sharing with you old Christmas memories and family "traditions," if you will, of how things normally go at Christmas. I'm much more low-maintenance around the holidays than my family is, so it's always a nice refreshing change to me. Anyway, now the house is all decorated and I'm pleased!

Today was work, got my car washed, went running, met a friend for dinner (same one as Sunday night) then came home to my TV.

Oh yeah...as far as my pledge last week to run twice on Wednesday and Thursday...didn't happen. I did manage to make it out once on one of those nights, but I just went about a mile or so around the neighborhood. Yesterday when I went, I ran two miles around the neighborhood which was intense, considering I'd been on running-sabbatical for so long, but I was proud I could do it. Oh yeah, also when I run in the neighborhood, I have plenty of hills here, as opposed to the park, which is relatively flat. Today I ran at the park, but decided I needed to try for 2.5 miles since I could obviously survive 2 miles on hills. I'm very proud to say I did it, but it probably wasn't the best idea. My legs were already a bit tense from pushing myself yesterday, and so about a mile and a half into tonight's run my knee started getting a little sore. I definitely felt every step from then on, but I persevered! It wasn't an unbearable pain as long as I kept it moving, but after sitting down for dinner and what not, it's actually quite sore now. Argh! Hopefully a good night's rest will heal it up, but no running tomorrow! I guess it's my first exercise related pain, which is kinda cool. That means I am pushing myself, so mission accomplished! Although, I am a bit disappointed in you, readers! Only one of you actually held me to my pledge of running like I asked you to! And to be fair, he only asked me once! What kind of friends are you?

Well, I guess the post wasn't all that short per se, but it was fairly quick for me to write. I think that's all I promised. I did somehow manage to create at least 3 more posts in my mind during this one though. I guess I've created more work for myself!

It promises to be a busy week at work this week and the weekend has plenty of plans too, but I'm going to try my hardest to get lots of content up for you since next week I'll be out of town for almost the whole week. Details will come later....crap, now that's 4 posts I have to write! I'd better stop!