justice for all

all i have to say is if you are not from the boston area you are missing out. yesterday the news ran a bit all day that made me so very happy.

it was of a woman at a convenient store, she was in line and just all of a sudden drops her pants and tinkles on the floor. gets back up and pays for her stuff.

it was awesome. she is obviously not a triathlete cause she would have just leaned to one side and peed down her leg!

the store released their surveillance video for "justice."

ahha.

Other than that bri and i have pretty much been like an infirmary here all week/end. we have now had to sleep in two different rooms for two nights now because neither of us were sleeping with all the snoring/coughing going on. pretty sad. i think we have been sick more in the two months we've been back than the entire time in san diego. i think i just have to get used to the allergies and heat being on and what not. fun times!

i have discovered the netipot which i have been doing like any chance i can get. although today i am super stuffed up so it all went down my throat and i pretty much puked it up. fun stuff!

all i know is if you want to make it onto the news, pee on a floor and act like its normal

not my first rodeo

I'd like to say this has never happened to me but it has....multiple times.

I was at the studio in between getting my haircut and highlighted (could have had a child in the amount of time since my last haircut) and seeing clients. My space is done but everything else is still under construction as are the bathrooms. Since there are lots of construction guys I can only assume that the womens room is probably the room where the guys drop a deuce, leaving the mens room for a quick number one. However there is rarely anything to wipe with so I bring my own tp. I think they must be wiping with sand paper...

Okay so I went to the bathroom and yes women do shit, and if you are new to this site then you should be lucky that I am not fully describing this said shit. THANK GOD it was a normal BM or things could have gotten really ugly. Anyways I go, I wipe, I flush and the water just filled up. Now I should have known better but whats a girl to do at this point when there are only men using this facility? leave my brown friends floating in the toilet? NOPE I flushed again BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG mistake. The feared water rising happened and I quickly turned the water off (glad I learned that one) and grabbed the mop that was in there and started mopping. Thank god the poops did not float out cause thats happened before. I'd like to say I have matured cause the last time this happened I threw some paper towels down, closed the door and pretended it wasn't me.

This time I decided to yes close the door, but to call the contractor to let him know what he was walking into. I am sure he was amused. I would like to say that I was lady enough to drop in some "easy drops" before pooping. This stuff is genius. you drop a little of the oil in the bowl before you poop and no matter what happens in there it smells divine! It has been tested quite a bit. As I said to the contractor it was not my first rodeo with a crazy toilet and I am sure it won't be my last!

11/11

Thursday was Veteran's day which also is my mothers birthday. She would have been 59. I honestly think the thought of being that old would make her puke, but i'm sure she would rather be here with us than an eternal 50 year old. I spent the day working but had some time with my niece. At one point we were dancing in the living room and THE SONG came on. This was THE SONG, the cry in the shower song, the song that I heard after my mom passed and it moved me, the song that still if i hear it to this day it can rock me. The song came on and E-beth just looked at me and said "it sounds like a beautiful butterfly song" and started floating around the room. Presh. I have always connected with music, there are songs that can not only get you through a tough time but can connect you back to that time and bring all that emotion back. When I know I need to connect to that time, I will listen to that song. I miss music, for most of my life music was always on. I grew up with lots of music, granted it was always michael bolton type stuff that my mom liked. I went to my first concert at a young age and have attended hundreds of concerts. I have been slacking in the music dept. I don't love itunes or downloading music but i LOVE pandora. Actually pandora is where i first heard THE SONG. I played all my moms favorite music for her while she was in the hospital, I remember wanting her to connect with all those times and songs that made her happy and to take away the fear and pain that i am sure she felt at that time. Then we played all her favorite music at her funeral, odd to some but it just felt right. I miss her tons and it is still hard to imagine life without her.

I was walking with my doggie and contemplating things a bit. I was thinking about what has brought me to this point in life. I NEVER imagined opening my own business, and I was wondering how i could ever put into words what got me here. but now i know. it was my mother, it was her death, her absence that truly changed me. Obviously loss like that will change a person, but how did it change me? it was that loss that prompted me to start training for endurance events. the reason was my mother, i wanted to help empower families and people who are diagnosed with cancer and hope & pray that maybe one day there will be a cure. i do not know where i would be at this point in life if none of that happened. i realized that being healthy, and exercise could save a person. it changes you, changes how you feel, it destresses you, it forces you to breathe when sometimes its hard to do.

these events gave me courage, strength and confidence. but the best part of it all was being able to connect to my mom. whenever i was out on the roads or on the bike or anywhere it was like connecting to a good song. i found a way to honor her life but to honor my own and to hopefully inspire and help others along the way. i still find it funny when someone tells me that i am the one who inspired them to participate in a race. so here i am opening my own fitness studio. what a gift. a gift to be able to change other peoples lives, make them feel stronger, more confident and to connect to whatever it is they were disconnected from.

it is no shock that my actual opening day will be 12-11-10. who knows how this all worked out that way, but the fact that i will start on the 11th of the month once again connects me to my mom. i owe her a big thank you, thanks for this opportunity. i will take none of it for granted and will hopefully be able to make more of a difference in peoples lives now. all i can say is, on 11-11-11 when she would be turning 60 we are going to do something awesome.

outta my head

so I think that perhaps some of the stress of starting a new business up may be hitting me a bit. i have had a migraine for about 2 days now and the only medicine that helps makes me want to vom all over the place. pretty awesome. i do however think it is a result of tmj which i have not really had any issues with since i got myself all riled up around the vineman tri. i have had random twinges of pain in my face and ear area which is typically how it starts for me. oh and my shoulders and neck are super tight! man i miss my masseus!

whatevs. as the dr told me a year ago "find some namaste" so that is what i am going to do! and fortunately i can do it with one of my fav's from san diego! our friend from our tri team flew out last night and is here a few days so i am very excited. we are going to eat our way through boston pending that i do not hurl all over the place.

the rain is not helping. its not helping ANYBODY. especially when i went to the studio yesterday to let the mirror guy in and saw that yet again it rained inside the studio again. the puddles are back. son of a gun. so thank god i told them i needed the place done in november because i would likely have been screwed if this were all happening in december. as of now my machines get here december 1, training will be december 7-10 and i hope to open on 12-11-10! cool date if i do say so myself. not going to waste anytime!

do it

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Check out the blog for my pilates studio! Pass it around, like it, friend it, whatever the kids are calling it these days!

the potty train

I had to run out for a bit today to pick up some stuff at a Staples. I remained calm in line despite the fact that i was in line over 15 minutes with only one older woman in front of me that needed a price check on all items she bought. As I was waiting there was an older woman yelling at her grandson "go to the bathroom!" It was loud and obnoxious and I can imagine embarassing for this kid who was clearly just trying not to piss himself.

I finally get out to my car and hear her again "go dammit go just go!" She had him taking a leak ON MY CAR!!! He was mortified especially when he realized it was my car. Grandma could car less she continued to yell and draw further attention to him "just relax and go hurry up! She don't care she's not looking at your little thing!" yup it was awful. To top it off there were no other cars around me! I mean come on lady have him pee on your own car!

Frigin massholes

that hurt

I felt like pounding pavement the other day so that is what I did. I took the dog with me despite the fact that since we moved back east she has had the constant runs. And everytime i take her on a run I have to stop about 10 times and uses all the poop bags and then i have to run back out to the other spots that she leaked on to pick it up. Anyways the run was going well. its kind of good having the dog with me all pissed off cause she holds me back and makes me run slower than my already excruciatingly slow pace, but then picks it up the second half of the way after she realizes that she is on my time.

Now I try to be friendly, and I like to say hi to people. Sometimes I make extra eye contact especially if its a sketchy guy. I give him a "yeah I could draw a picture of you from this mental picture i just created in the event that you try anything on me" kind of look. But mostly I just want to not be a douche and actually look at people. I guess my fellow bostonians are not on the same page. On the way back I decided to pick up the pace and forget about my heart rate monitor for a while and had a good pace going. A woman was running towards me but seemed to be refusing to make eye contact with me. Of course I tried staring her down all the while with a big smile on my face. Well she never looked. As I am looking behind me at this point I failed to notice the low hanging branch and clotheslined myself. Stupid bitch, she never even stopped despite me yelling a quick obscenity and moaning a little bit.

I will not give up on my fellow americans and i will continue to say hello even if you blatantly try to ignore me.

H 2 Oh shit

We all know how I have been dragging my feet when it comes to choosing the color scheme for the pilates studio. I have been agonizing over this decision more than the original decision to actually change my life and do this. I have finally narrowed it down to my colors, now I just have to pick where to put them. Sooooooo yesterday after doing some interviews I called the owner of the building so I could check in and just figure out what I needed to do. Well we got in and in front of me was our first major snaffu.

Its been raining pretty hard here and there was water that leaked into the space. I actually kept my cool, I mean we haven't done any real work there yet (and by we I mean the contractor) AND this probably buys me a few more days to figure out the paint situation. The owner is obviously taking care of the problem and at least it happened now and not when I am trying to run a business and cannot afford to have someone come in and take down the wall.

Things like this are bound to happen so I move on. Monday I am meeting with the contractor and am going to put up some paint so I can make my final decision.

On the workout front I reconnected with my kettlebell. I figure until my machines get here I need to do whatever I can so that I do not die during training. It actually went pretty well.

Now we are off to check out some fall foliage! My how I missed the colors of fall.

nothing special

The weeks seem to be flying by. Hard to believe we have been home for over a month. There is something about home that gives my dog the runs though. It has been rough on her intestinal tract. She literally had no issues at all in San Diego but something about being back here makes her a little leaky. It has made for some long nights as well as long runs when I decide to take her. Poor thing.

I have been trying to get some workouts in and they have been bike trainer sessions, lots of runs with the pup and some good ole walks too. I have been continuing to interview people so I have been taking some of their classes as well. I spend so much of the day on the coach cranking out paperwork and cranking out numbers for the business so I need a good amount of exercise each day so that I don't wither up here. I just filed an application for the Boston Triathlon Team. Hopefully that works out because I really do not know many people out here in the tri world (move home LG) and its not easy finding fellow slow pokes to talk about peeing and pooping with.

I was super psyched to watch this years world championship ironman in hawaii via the live stream on the computer. I pretty much spent about 13 hours in front of the computer watching. The same fella that we got super drunk with while we raced in Hawaii actually pulled out a win at the big dance. It was amazing to watch others that I have trained with through the years in San Diego compete in that race. Made me start to search for another half iron. I did come across an inaugural race that is in Italy in June, but with the business opening this year I am just not sure if it is feasible. I will have to do a local race towards the end of the summer.

I think I have finally chosen some colors for the studio but still have to fiddle with them a little bit. I kind of just wish we could fast forward to December's opening. Enough talking about it lets just do this already! Until then all the pieces of the puzzle will continue to come together.

color me....

This is what my living room looks like right now. Lots of swatches, so many choices. I have to choose a color for the floor, for the walls AND for the ceiling. I have to live with it everyday so its not a decision I am making lightly. The color has to SPEAK to me for the studio. It has to say "yeah I like this place, I would love to spend lots of money working out here."

I think I need a life coach, I am kinda okay with people making decisions for me. OOOOHHHH maybe its time to call the psychic!

Bruising arms everywhere

I have been lucky enough to be able to ride with my top down nearly every day since moving back to Boston. While there are LOTS of difference between San Diego and Boston one MAJOR difference is that people are crazy about the "punchbuggy" punch! I never really noticed people doing it on the west coast. Here if I so happen to drive by a school when its being let out it is like mayhem. I wondered today "why are these kids all fighting and hitting eachother" then I turned my music down and realized! How fun! I want to purposely let a headlight go out so I can be a pididdle punchbuggy!

I attended a class today to check out someone for the pilates studio. I am psyched by all the interest in people who want to instruct. I REALLY need to get some muscle back though so its good timing to be "interviewing" people at the gym. I do need some hot guys though, afterall I am on the market for a gay husband or two....i'm just sayin....

domestic diva

First things first this is my new store front for the studio. We will be the one on the left. There has been lots accomplished this week but still lots to do of course!

I have been getting back into a regular workout schedule. I also posted job openings to craigslist to find some instructors so I am checking out some of their classes in the next few weeks. If you know anyone who might be a good match to teach here then pass them on to me.

Apparently my stomach is back to 'normal' and normal as in being sick all morning but hopefully that is a flukey kinda thing.

Even more exciting is that I finally found a good yoga studio! After some recommendations I ended up at Prana Power Yoga. They have a bunch of locations and it is clean, just the right temperature and very similar to the corepower yoga that I loved in San Diego. Like with any working out I always feel like a different person after doing it, yoga especially. Rumor has it a yoga place will be opening in Lexington Center as well which I am very excited about.

So yes money is tight right now and I am lucky to have an understanding husband. Fact of the matter is there is no way I could have a job right now with trying to get the studio going. I am seeing clients 4 times a week which is nice to put my speech hat on but even that is tough right now. Its nice not having to be out of the house by like 645 to get to work though. So instead I get up hang with the pup and make my husband some coffee. Oh AND I have cooked dinner a few times and kept the house really clean. Best of all the puppy is MINE again! We spend the first year of her life together then she spent all her time with Bri since he worked from home. NOW its all puppy Jodes time and its WONDERFUL! Except for the 3 days that she had runny poop, that kinda sucked. Maybe I got it from the dog????

suckram yoga

I fell in love with power yoga out in san diego. After the moving and packing and unpacking and driving cross country my back was a mess. Not to mention the core strength I gained with pilates out in SD is nowhere to be found since I haven't done it in oh so long. Since getting back to Boston I have been trying to find a yoga place to stretch out and get some core strength back. It has not been easy. I found a so so place but the moaning is just too much. I went with my friend that I giggle too much with and it was kind of embarassing how much we were laughing. Like that trying to suppress your laughter and it gets even worse. But really people there is a difference between deep breathing and the shit you are doing which is borderline pornographic.
So I tried another place after many people recommended it. BUT it was bikram yoga. I have never done it and can say that I will never do it again. It was hotter than hell. My water bottle was hot to the touch. The tissues I had with me were hot to touch. I was not sweating like I should and that is not good when it is 120 degrees. When I am out doing an event in heat I just pour water over my head since I don't sweat like normal people and that cools me down. There was no reprieve. THe heat brought on major vertigo and dizziness and I couldn't do anything. I could not stand, I could not lay down. So I left the room to compose myself. Of course the instructor who was really nice and trying to be helpful stopped me in front of the door and asked "are you sure you want to leave? you could just sit down...blah blah blah" BUDDY I have alot of pride so if I didn't feel like I was going to pass out I would stay. I said "believe me I need this" and upon feeling the normal temp air yelled out "sweet relief!" I composed myself in the bathroom, cried a little bit inside and headed back into the room. At this point everything was spinning and I still had a gd hour to go. UGH! I just sat down for most of it. It was embarassing, but I really didn't care, I looked HORRID. I made it through the class, I have no idea how. I am pretty sure yoga is not supposed to make you feel super anxious but when you feel like that it is pretty unsettling.
It was so bad that at the end of the class a woman went up to my friend and said " was that your friend? he really should have let her go...she did NOT look good." AMEN SISTA! I honestly still felt like that a day later.
So bikram yoga, not for me. I like to leave yoga feeling like I worked out because of what my body did, not because of the heat. I am not knocking bikram, I know alot of people love it, but it is most certainly not my thing. So I am off again on the search for a good yoga place. There is going to be a yoga place opening right by my pilates studio so lets hope that is a good fit, that would be convenient afterall!
However, there were no moaners, that was good. Oh forgot to mention that it was carpeted, and stunk like the armpit of a sweaty man. brutal.

It's all happening!

This week was pretty exciting and exhausting all at the same time. I thought I was going with one space at the beginning of the week, and that did not happen. I am always a girl to go with my gut and sometimes people will show their true colors and fortunately for me it was before I entered into business with them. So I started my search again and was brought back to the original space that I was drawn to. It is in Lexington Center. Today I signed the letter of intent which is like an agreement, and then they will give me the lease. At that point I will have my lawyer check it over to make sure I am not screwing myself or anything like that. Lord knows I am no good with the fine print so i'd rather pay someone who can sift through the bs. So if all goes according to plan I will have the space by next week!
I had my LLC formed and my official name is Boston Pilates Plus LLC. I kept going back and forth with names, and this ended up being one of the only ones available for use so that is what it is! I also got my tax id number today so i'd say all in all this was a pretty successful week.
One thing is for sure, I have to get back into shape before this all starts up. Its a good thing I have no job right now.
I am going to start putting the word out there for some cool people that want to be instructors. I figure that is also a good way to get back in shape if I try out their classes (not my idea but i'll take it anyways) to see what their teaching style is.
All good things.
I created a facebook page for Boston Pilates Plus as well as a blog. I will likely use that blog for all the good stuff: www.bostonpilatesplus.blogspot.com

where to begin?

I honestly have no clue how to start this post. I will break the last three weeks down for ya.

Cross country trip:
Utah: gorgeous, saw so many rainbows and awesome scenery.
Utah to Colorado: I cried, a few times, it was so damn pretty. I want to back to the breckenridge area in the winter, I cannot even imagine it. Ate really good steak at a random "restaurant" that was really a house in the middle of nowhere with a giant tree growing through it.
Colorado to Nebraska: BOOOORING! Oh and we took a wrong turn so we ended up in Kansas for a while instead of Nebraska
Omaha: We arrived to our hotel along with about 100 police cars, apparently someone tried to steal something from a nearby mall, ran down the cop, and the cop shot them. We ate yummy steak yet again.
Next stop Chicago! I have to go back there, what a cool city. The hotel we stayed at was super pet friendly and was pretty ridiculous with dogs everywhere and happy hours that were free. LOVED IT! It was interesting watching Belle try to find a place to do her business in the city. Highlight was her peeing next to a homeless man and me yelling for him to move....was probably unnecessary since it already smelt of urine, but really its his home too!
Chicago toooooooooooooo Boston...Really? thats a long time, but we did it. At this point we were DONE with the driving. I got slightly batty at one point and pouted big time but it was the right call to just get home.

Since the arrival we have been at my dad and apples house until today. Weddings, sleepovers with little ones and TONS of unpacking. I have also managed to get many steps closer to being a small business owner. But I have come to realize that ALOT of things have to happen in order for this to happen. Thank god I am unemployed right now because this has been more than a full time job. Patience my little grasshoppers.

Belle is settling in and has fallen back in love with grass since she hated it in SD. We are at our new place which is across the street from our old condo. THis came in handy these past few days and we owe SO many favors. I have to say its really nice to be welcomed back to our old neighborhood and see so many familiar faces. We did not get to know hardly any neighbors in SD, which was sad for me :(

That is it for now. I am hoping to get my bike put back together because my body is falling apart. PLUS there is a ride this weekend with the boston tri team called "concord to cakes". YUP a ride specifically to go eat cake.. I LOVE IT! Only thing missing is LG!!

Thank you SD

Dearest San Diego,

I never thought we would be so close. I think I had a hand in sending at least 10 people your way and I knew I would have my turn someday and boy am I glad I did! A few things I will take with me about your lovely city.

-Your jacarandas are quite possibly the prettiest trees I have ever seen.
-The smell of the eucalyptis trees that I would always say a "yoooooooouk" in honor of the red sox each time I smelt you.
-Your countless dog parks and dog beaches and many restaurants that allowed Belle to sit with us.
-Your endless sunshine, I mean really that was too much.
-Your coastline, especially the 101 where whether I was biking, running or driving took my breath away each time.
-Your vineyards
-Your canyons and trails, gave me such a break from the roads(until I got too scared of rapists and killer bees)
-Your wonderful people who I got to swim bike run with, work with, and play with!
-Your crazy chargers fans who liked to yell at me many times for wearing anything patriots related.
-Your sunrises and sunsets
-Your many outdoor pools that were always nice and warm
-Your fish tacos, sushi and many breakfast nooks, and Croce's which was like a second home at many times.
-Your silly porn shops and smoke shops on just about every corner, kind of like a dunkin donuts
-Your palm trees, lily's, and hibiscus flowers
-Your crazy helicopters letting us know what killers were on the loose
-Your driving rules because it made everything so much smoother
-People who do not incessantly honk their horns
-Not letting me get eaten by any sharks or swept out to sea because there were a few questionable moments.
-your avacados
-and last but not least your CUPCAKES!

The list could go on dearest San Diego. Thanks for the good times and the memories. I hope we will be back, what a great place it would be to retire. Until them please take care of my wonderful friends I made along the way and I can't wait to see you again soon! I am so sad to leave you but I know there will be another time we will be together.

Love The Merrill's

its so haaaaaaaaaaaard to say goodbye to sun diego

My first week of vacation was fantastic. I probably would have been pretty bored if my college buddy did not come out to visit from the east coast. We had some silly times with too much wine and way too much food and very little packing. When you move 6 times in about 4 years you get to be pretty good at packing though so I am not nervous. At this point we are mostly packed up. All of the breakables are wrapped and what not and we are going to be good to go for our next move after this one with all the extra boxes that we have.
My car was picked up today and I have to say it was pretty sad seeing her go. While I know it will be there when I arrive in Boston, she will not be the same when she is covered in ice and snow. Ugh. I do have to say I am slightly looking forward to the changing weather, but talk to me in February.
In the meantime we had a super fun barbecue with lots of SD friends. I know we'll be back for visits but its still hard to say goodbye to such wonderful fun loving peeps.
Now its all about packing and cleaning. Not only did I have to say goodbye to my car today but I am bringing my bike down to the shop so I can have it safely packed so it doesn't get smushed in the treck back east. Not sure if I will have time to post again before our cross c0untry trip on Thursday but we will be sure to update as we drive across country. I am going to try to document all of our car fights. Its really the only time we fight and it is always because I yell out "brakes" or slam down my imaginary brake and hold onto the side of the car when Bri is well aware of whats going on. Then I have to tell him what a great driver I am, but not good enough to drive the full 10 hours a day that we have planned. I'll try to keep it zipped but its not easy when you are such a stellar driver and great trash talker like myself. OH speaking of trash talking I got into a fight with the traffic cop at the airport the other day. They do not like when you pull over to text and then say "come on what am I supposed to do, I can't text while driving and you guys won't let me pull over?! should I just have my friend DIVE into my moving car when she comes out?!" then they gave me a ticket. SUCK IT CALI COPS YOU are not getting my money!


I feel like this blog needs some direction instead of my random spatter.This always happens in the "off season" hmmmn any ideas?

moving on

Our time is dwindling. It is all about goodbyes right now, which sucks but I am so grateful for the lifelong friends I have met (yes you LG). Luckily alot of the people I have met have east coast ties.
Today was awesome. The weather was perfect when I woke up, which has not been the case here in Coastal Socal as of late. I got up early and drove to southern Orange County to check out a pilates studio that is using the new machines that I will use at my studio. The ones I am used to are the older model. The owner of SeaFit Studio in San Juan Capistrano was so welcoming and helpful to me today. What was even better was hearing from the loan guys that things are finally moving on that front. I have been apprehensive to share too much because I did not want to jinx anything, but I am getting really excited to bring this awesome workout to the Boston area. It will be epic. I forgot what a tough workout it was until I was shaking all over and sweating my buns off.
I got to chat to the owner and got some pointers from her. After that it was top down weather all the way down the coast until I stopped at In n Out burger. I mean it feels kind of gross after, but I know once I am back east I will hope I had more of it around.
Todays awesomeness also included a final massage from Roz my masseuse extraordinaire. She has become a great friend and is so knowledgeable on anything and everything especially when it comes to the body and how it works. I am so grateful for her and for helping me to realize the potential of my body when I take care of it.
My other awesomeness of the day came from a book. Right after I lost my mom I found myself in the good ole grief section of the book store. I wanted to empower myself and learn as much about the grieving process as I could. I recently found myself on Amazon and found a book that was the sequel to the one I read years ago. Although it does not really relate to me at the moment (its about raising your kids without a mother), it is the topic that scares me to death. After just a few pages I found it does relate to me, there are other motherless daughters out there who like me know what a tremendous loss it is, and are apprehensive about starting our own families in fear of how that loss could be magnified. I need to find these other freakshows and maybe just maybe I can get over it. Anyways in this section I was reading it mentioned a social worker who happens to run groups in Boston so I AM IN LUCK!!! I already emailed her.
While the fitness and training and fundraising has been like a therapy for me, I guess its time for some professional help. YAY ME! So please people, stop asking if I am having kids. You have no idea how messed my head is. God bless my husband.

all done

My school year FINALLY came to a close. Sick to see commercials for back to school when we hadn't even had our break yet but that is the life in a special ed school. School gave me quite a send off with a great day of eating and lots of visits and fun books and flowers and all that fun stuff. The real party happened at the end when I was just casually walking by a classroom. Now typically on peoples birthdays they get a pied, which is a platefull of whip cream or shaving cream in the face. I got through the 2 years without being pied. Instead I got a bucket of water poured over me superbowl style. My initial fear was that I was in all white on top and since we weren't on spring break, and I was surrounded my my high school aged students I was a little nervous but they also had a dry shirt for me...how nice.

After that I was on bus duty and I got proned. At our school for safety reasons you carry a whistle. A whistle only blows when something bad is going down and you need back up. They blew the whistle on me and proned me right on the pavement. Was pretty funny. I will have pictures of that soon because someone had a camera.

I am going to miss school very much. It was like a family for me and I have never had so much fun at a job. You have to have quite a sense of humor to survive. At this point I don't know if I will ever work at a school again. Life is COMPLETELY up in the air right now.

I have been interviewing and am still waiting to hear about loans for the pilates studio. I am excited to get back to the east coast but am really going to miss all the people that we met along the way.

One thing is for sure, San Diego will be a GREAT place to retire.

booooooooring

Really life is kind of whatevs right now. I am pretty much in limbo here in between here and there. My last test on Monday was pretty uneventful. The only fun this was checking into the hospital for the test. I was behind two guys in full out shackles and about 20 corrections officers with them. It was something else. The test was BOOOOOOOORING! At least with the colonoscopy I got to get loopy, this one not so much. I had to drink a sugary drink (oh and fast yet again) and literally sit, couldn't lay down, couldn't move around, just sit for close to 5 hours. Then a nurse would come in and I had to breathe into a tube every 15 minutes. At one point I was getting sooooo loopy it was close to 2 I hadn't eaten since the day before and was bored off my ass. I decided that trying not to sing was way harder than just singing so that is what I did. I was in the prep room for peoples procedures so they were all getting drugged up anyways. That left me amused for at least a half hour or so. I won't know if I have some sort of bacteria issue for another week. They have tested for everything so only time can tell. Most likely they will label me with "IBS" which is like when you go to the dr and they say you have a "virus." At this point I am over it and have come to terms with the fact that I am going to deal with crazy movements of the bowel nature for a long time and the only time it will be acceptable is when I am in a nursing home some day. ( I am well suited for a home, it will be just like college again....sleeping in a room with 3 other people, bad food, people pissing in weird places...its gonna be great.)

Anyways there is not a whole lot of "training" going on. Just doing the random run, biking and some pilates thrown in there. I did sign up for a half marathon in Boston in October to technically I am starting to run again. This is a good thing, because I start to go a little cookoo when not breaking a good sweat every day. I am not sure my body knows how to slow down. Exercise gives me way more than just the physical benefit. I mentally need it so bring it on!

We are just trying to get organized in life here. Come to find out its kind of a pain to move across country, all the while trying to start up your own business. I always did like a challenge. Looking forward to spending the next month here with all the people who have been our family the past two years. One more week of work (yes thats right there are already commercials for back to school and we have yet to start our summer vacation). Its not going to be easy to say goodbye to my coworkers and kiddos at school but i'm sure i'll be seeing them in the future..hopefully...

Ok enough of my booooring post. I will write more when something funny or athletic happens, but there is really a fat chance of that.

post colonoscopy

Again please disregard if you do not want to read about my poop but this is for those who may be embarking on their first colonoscopy. Okay so the day after was more uncomfortable than I expected. You are painstakingly aware of what you are putting into your mouth, which I suppose is a good thing. I was still pretty exhausted and just had some slight crampage which was likely due to the biopsies that they took. I pretty much slept most of the day. We decided to head out for a bit cause I was going slightly stir crazy. We went to the movies and ate a bit before. All I managed to eat was some tomato soup and a grilled cheese. We went to see Salt which was a great flick but I was just as uncomfortable as I was when I was drinking the stuff and not going to the bathroom yet.

I finally was able to have a normal bm this morning and finally got some relief. Seems as though things are back to normal. I am going to work on finding a nutritionist soon. If anyone knows a good nutritionist back in the Boston area who may have some knowledge on IBS I would love it.

Made it out to the Solana Beach Triathlon today. I was so amazed watching the young kids who joined in on the action. They literally kept up with the elites. They all came flying off their bikes doing the same fancy dismount that I attempted a few months ago but fell on my ass. Stupid kids.

Its OVER!

I survived last night. I was pretty much up all night running to the bathroom but was properly flushed out by the time I left for my appt. I was more worried about my leg. I had been having a weird sensation/pain in my left leg that has slowly been traveling from my calf and is now in my thigh. I decided that since I would be at the hospital I would just swing by and have them check it out and make sure it was nothing like a clot. For some reason I keep hearing clot stories and was freaking out a bit.

I got to the hospital and told them that after the colonoscopy I wanted to have my leg checked out which meant that I would need to be somewhat coherent. This led to me telling the Dr that I didn't want any of the sedative. This quickly changed once I got wheeled in because I was getting a little anxious. They promised me that they would give me a minimal dose and if i needed more they could do that. I have to say I really don't think you even need the sedative. The only painful thing is that they blow air up there so its like a really bad gas pain that comes on really quickly. Nothing too bad and it was quick. It was also good to be coherent cause I could watch the whole thing on the screen which is pretty cool. It looked clean but they did take some biopsies just in case.

After that I took my slightly drugged behind to the ER with Bri and they did a quick ultrasound. It was clear so I likely just did something to my leg. Thank the lord for that one cause I was pretty nervous for that. I will chaulk it up to the meds that after the ultrasound we just left. I came home and passed out and the ER was calling my phone looking for me. OOPS!!

So now I am trying to eat a little, I was warned not to do anything fatty. I don't think my colon has ever been so clean!

Colonoscopy Prep

I am writing this simply because I could not find any sites that spoke on this topic AND I like to talk about poop. Anyways I got the call from the Dr this morning as I was attempting to eat some egg whites that they could get me in for an early morning colonoscopy the next day. I had my gallon of stuff chilling in the fridge since yesterday so that was good to go. I was not as hungry today as I was yesterday. I think the two days of pretty much only liquids better prepared me for the lack of food. I didn't even imagine the dog to be food products.

I would say that I should have started the drink sooner. It was extremely difficult to keep up with. I was supposed to drink 8 ounces every 15 minutes. That lasted the first 45 minutes or so. At one point I considered putting it into my aero bottle and getting on the bike. It feels really strange to drink that much of anything and not be running mile after mile. Once you start drinking you could really care less about eating food anyways so its kind of okay.

It was extremely uncomfortable and nauseating. I was NOT a good time. I was super mean to Brian, hung up on my dad, and whined ALOT, oh and I was bossy. But really when you know you are supposed to drink something that makes you vomit almost every time you sip it, you really don't need someone telling you what you should be doing. I believe my quote was "bri when you turn 50 and have to do this, you will finally understand." But he can drink large quantities of stuff anyways so perhaps he would be okay. I should have just funneled this stuff like the good ol days.

I found that taking my time with it and having some nice warm tea to chase it helped a bit. I started it at 4. It is now midnight and I am not through the gallon yet. I do have to say the actual shitting part is CRAZY. It is like a powerhose. It is so effortless. It is so unlike all the attacks I have had as of late. At one point I was just lounging on the toilet. Sounded like running water but it was just me. It almost made it all worth it!!! okay not really but once you go the first time it is easier. It took until about 9 at night though for me to go so for about 5 hours I was in bad pain, kind of like gas/ass pains and awful nausea. I would say start early, take your time. I started to think I was never going to go, but rest assured that is not possible.

I am now waiting for the bowl to be just a clear yellow so I can go to bed!!! I have an early morning appt so this should all be over before lunchtime tomorrow and I should be coming off of my buzz from the anesthesia! Oh Boy!!!

(during this very short post I had to sprint to the bathroom twice actually 3 with editing.)

NO MAS!

I apparently have an addiction. It is an addiction to food. I am not sure if its because of constantly being in "training mode" but my body has become accustomed to eating small amounts about every two hours. I have been doing that for like 8 years. I have never missed a meal pretty much in my life and if I have its because I am ill or taking in gu's instead of food during a long race. Anyways my colonoscopy was scheduled for today BUT it was scheduled at 2 PM!!! So that meant that I was supposed to be on fluids ALL DAY yesterday, drink the nasty stuff to "clean" myself out, and then wake up at 5am like I do every day and not eat or drink ANYTHING until my colonoscopy at 2pm.

I was good, at work I just pretended the chicken broth was food. I got home and had some Jello and ginger ale and lots of clear stuff. At about 330 I went crazy. I was dizzy, I was starving, I was in pain. I could not conceive how I would get through another 24 hours. So I called the Dr for like the 3rd time that day. I kept calling and asking different people if they were sure I could not eat food. I begged them to take me in the am. I told them how ridiculous I get when I don't eat and how my dog was already looking more and more like an in n out burger. Seriously I was like homer simpson stuck in a desert where everything was an oasis of food. It wasnt pretty. I even cried on the phone. She told me not to give up and she would send an urgent message around to see if they could find a time to do it for me in the am. Well they never called and so around 7 last night I snuck into the fridge and ate. It didn't even feel that great, but it felt better than being starving.

I got up and the Dr called saying they could see me tomorrow morning at 730 am. Now THAT is more like it. This just means that yet again today I am on a liquid diet and will begin my liquid concoction at 4. I will just have to suck it up and get through it. I was just going to wait til I got back to Boston but at least my stomach will be a little more used to having nothing but fluids in it. I will chaulk yesterday up as my dress rehearsal, a run through for the real thing. So tomorrow morning at this time I will be all through with the madness and will either have a diagnosis or more tests in my future. Either way its one step closer to not having UD every other day. Amen to that!

My wipeout review

So this is what ACTUALLY went down. I have been waiting to post this since October but we were under strict rules not to talk about the course until it aired. So here goes. Since I was only shown for a total of about 3 seconds here is my recall of what went down on my day at WIPEOUT!

So this was my battle cry, I did a karate kick and sang to vanilla ice's ice ice baby. "yo big red balls you can suck it!" and then I went backwards into my typical backbend and humped the air. Your typical graceful moves from yours truly.

I should back up a bit. My nickname was given to me at the initial interview and I was deemed the Master Pee-er. This was due to my story about how I suck at everything triathlon EXCEPT peeing myself during the race. It is a skill that develops for people and I just happened to be born for that skill. Basically I had a 10 minute interview with the host Jill in which I told her that she was in Bri's top 5 and how that was okay because I put every guy there that day in my top 5 for the day (if you saw the show you would know why that was funny). It came up that I was 30 and so was Jill so I did a WHS cheer and yelled GO HAWKS. My friends at the bar would have appreciated that. Thanks to the Waltham News Tribune for the front page coverage! News must have been lagging this week huh?! I said alot of other inappropriate things thinking that I gave them plenty to go on, but I guess not!! back to the course!

The diving planks were first up. This mud sucks. Like real bad. It gets in your lungs and is just nasty and cold and really tough to get through, kind of sucks you in. I fell and fell some more. But what great form!

I do have to say that most men finished the course AND PUKED. Like bigtime pusses. However alot of the second course relied on upperbody strength to hoist yourself back up on that platform. As you can tell by the lanky limbs my upper body strength is not a strong suit.


Next up was the punching wall. This was one of the only shots I got on tv, taking one in the face. For some reason I thought I got kind of far, but not so much. As people were coming back from the course I did notice they were covered in various colors. I should have known. It took about 3 weeks to stop finding this shit in my ears and other orifices of my body.

After the punching wall were the big red balls. I do not recall anything about those, judging by the pictures it looks like I hit one but fell to the side. Thank goodness. Next was the shakealator. I ALMOST made it across this when a wrecking ball took me out from behind. Last was the slide and as you can see I timed it perfectly to not hit any holes.

I finished up by doing an irish step dance on the circle and probably saying something really stupid judging by the way Jill is laughing.

I made it to the second round and although it looked like I never tried I assure you I fell off that frigin thing at least 20 times. It got so bad that at one point I swam up to the producer and asked if my eyes were bleeding. And I was not kidding. It was by far the most fun day I have probably ever had in my life. THe people were just hilarious and some totally weird. But most were those I never would have met and I can't wait to get together with them soon. We spent the ENTIRE day together so you really have to make the most of it. Its ALOT of sit and wait. As my friend LG can attest, when I walked to the car I was once again COVERED in mud cause I fell in the mud at the ranch while walking to the car. I was a real good time. I am sorry I didn't get more coverage cause I know you would have laughed but obviously I was way too cool for ABC. It was a suuuuuuuuper fun time and I am so glad I did something like this while I had the chance out here in Cali. YO BIG RED BALLS LETS KICK IT!

One more day!

The day we have all been waiting for is almost here! My WIPEOUT Debut is tomorrow at 8pm!
Here is a sneak peak! And at first I forgot that there was mud before this too and for a second I got nervous that I shat myself...

NO NO NO YES YES YES!!!

I have never been a "no" person, but this year has brought me the challenge of having to say "no" or "i can't" to ALOT of things. I hate to miss anything, but when you live across the country apparently you can't go home every month like I pretty much did l
ast year. Today marks the last "I can't" of our time here in San Diego, and it is one that hurts the most. Today I am missing my best friend Dee's wedding. Its hard to believe that I won't be there. If anything this reminds me that going back to Boston is the right thing. I don't want to be the absentee friend, ESPECIALLY to those who have always been there for me. It really sucks letting finances dictate what you can and cannot do. Dee was the friend who let me make halloween costumes like this. ( I cannot post the after picture because it is obscene but we did win 3rd place that night AND were able to flag down cabs with our giant penae that were under these coats). I mean who doesn't love a nude leotard?!
I guess in a way though I am grateful that I have had this new experience of missing things and with battling with money because it has forced me to get COMPLETELY out of my comfort zone. When I come back to Boston I will be opening my own business. You heard it right people. I am what they call an entrepreneur (not even sure if I spelled that correctly)! I am going to be opening a pilates studio and am super stoked about it. This is going to be a challenge and something I have NEVER dreamed of doing until recently. I am so ready for the challenge and for the possibilities it will bring. I am most excited to get people moving and for them to believe in themselves as they challenge themselves through this difficult workout. I will share more details as they come but right now I just have to get home so I can make the next step and find a studio to do this in! As Bri put it, "we are risk takers and this is a risk but we have to go for it."

Before I go I have to thank my friends and family whose big moments i've missed. You have all been understanding of my situation and made it as easy on me as you possibly could. I thank you for that and hope that I will be there for not only all the big moments in life but for all the crazy fun little ones in between too!

September is right around the corner!!!
In the meantime to get through this day I am off to the Pride Parade!!!

buh bye cali

So the word is out and Bri and I (& Belle) are moving back to Boston. Lots of factors that at this point no longer matter we are on to the next venture. California was something I NEVER thought I would do and it has been an amazing experience all around. Its time to go though and although it happened pretty quickly we are now embracing it and excited for the next chapter. We will be homeless and I am pretty much jobless but i'm sure things will work out. There are always ways of makin money....legally of course.

So we should be back by September and are looking forward to being a part of everyones lives again, but sad to leave all the friends we have made here behind.

I guess things got too boring and we thought another cross country trip would be fun....right?!

Cupcake crawl

LG and I finally made it out for our cupcake crawl in LA. She has been talking them up for some time. With the weather being sub par in San Diego this July we took off today bright and early for LA and literally opened up a few places. We did manage to walk a bunch on rodeo drive of course. I mean can anyone go to rodeo and NOT act out scenes from Pretty Woman...I think not. I had yet to go to LA so LG toured me around like a guide to the stars. We saw the hollywood sign, rodeo drive, the stars on the ground and I mostly sung the tune of 90210 in my head the whole time. It was great. At one point we realized that we had about 10000 calories of cupcakes in our cooler that we packed equipped for cupcakes and milk. We are two smart broads. Of course this Cali day trip could not have been complete without a trip to In N Out Burger so that was how we ended it.

Above is a picture of the chocolate marshmallow cupcake from Sprinkles that NEVER had a chance. This thing was like a hostess cupcake (which my mom packed for me almost every day with my lunch) on crack. It was amazing.

Our first stop to the Cupcakery was fantastic. We got some of their nublets and one was a salted caramel cupcake. The sweet and the salty was something like back in the day at Chadwicks when I would dunk my french fries in the hot fudge that would drip into the plate....yum

Many thanks to them for letting us take shots. Cause they DENIED us at crumbs.

I still feel sort of sick and I really only took in about 2 full cupcakes. Too much sugar in the ole system for me but sooooooooo worth it!

F.O.C.U.S.

Sometimes you just need to call your psychic? Right? Doesn't EVERYONE have a psychic?! I have a real appreciation for those in the energy fields. I am quite in tuned with this stuff myself and love coming across those that I feel are truly gifted. I have had many readings through the years, some have been life changing (i.e. my first medium reading with my dad right after my mom died, room full of hundreds of people but WE got the reading), some have been just okay. It is no suprise that life typically brings me to those in the energy field. One of my favorite people on earth, my supervisor in graduate school Pearl happened to own her own holistic center www.theselfcenter.com . She then trained me on reiki which is all about energy and channeling it for healing. I have loved it all, but when I come across people who are gifted I have to share it. My friend referred me to Tamara Nolan www.energyinhealing.us I knew I had met a good match.

I have never had readings over the phone before and wondered how that would work. I should have known that energy does not need two people to be in the same room to make something like this work. I should know since I still find ways to feel the connection with my loved ones who are dead (really i could try to think of some other pc way to define them but they are in fact dead...i am not insensitive). I find myself at a bit of a crossroads currently and HATE the feeling of not knowing or not feeling settled. So what do i do? I call my psychic!

And thank god I did. She has a way of making me feel so at peace and for the first time in weeks I finally feel like I can breathe easy. Its funny how it sometimes takes someone else to tell you what you already know to really believe it. Everything in life is about believing it.
I will leave you with what she left me with tonight on our phone conversation. F.O.C.U.S. Follow one course until successful. Amen sistah!

And now I will just sit and enjoy this LONG weekend coming up! Oh and I should probably relish this time before my debut on wipeout on July 20th. I am pretty sure I will start to be spotted on a regular basis for being quite possibly the biggest ass on television.

light it up

Neon Themed pub crawl through PB this weekend.
All the kiddos from work on the NEON pub crawl. Yes we were dressed like this for a reason.

Bri was by far the most normal with my vegas hat on but whatever, normal is boring.

And sometimes this is what happens when a 30-something has been pounds vodka sodas all day getting "day drunk" with the youngins. I would like to thank my mother for her godawful taste in shirts that were covered in beads and sequins in the 80s. I have many outfits for future pub crawls.

Come to find out PB is all about the pub crawl. During the day almost everyone is dressed up like a complete moron. I fit right in. At one point shuffle off to Boston came on at a bar. I irish jigged it up and had everyone around me believe I was a true blue irish step dancer. At least thats how it happened in my mind.

sweet revenge

So my last post was all about being spiteful. I had to stop off at the CVS today. Its the type that has a bunch of cash registers but the line is down one aisle. I noticed there were about 10 people in line. I stood there laughing at the poor woman with 4 girls who were all arguing with each other and thanked my lucky stars that I was there alone. Then an older man and his wife just got in line at one of the registers. The poor kid had to tell him he was not in line and pointed to where the rest of us rule followers were standing. He gave the kid a hard time. I got pissed. At this point I was now at the front of the line and the guy stood next to me ignoring the 5 people behind me. I felt obligated to tell him that the line in fact was way behind me. He argued and ended with "what are you the line manager?" I rebuttled with "I'd ask you if you were a DICK HEAD but i already know the answer to THAT question." I could not believe what came out of my mouth. All my life I have pretty much been a pushover. Not anymore! Luckily the next cashier called me up. Oh not to mention everyone in line cheered for me. As I walked out a girl around my age commended me for my actions, I said "yeah I should have smashed him over the head with my tampon box" hahah that would have been the icing on the cake. I feel like my week of wanting to tell people to F off finally paid off. The guy deserved it, he was a giant jerk. I hate people who do not follow the rules. I guess its the old catholic school girl in me.
Poeple should know they should not mess with me!

Don't F with me today kids

I am more tired today from my school's walkathon than any marathon/triathlon I have done. Seriously. I woke up before 5 and headed into work just like a race day. Don't get me wrong, it is fun to see everybody and to win some fun prizes, but its just a looooooooooong day. Man. I am also pretty sour on the fact that I have to constantly read status updates from people who work in public schools that actually have a summer vacation. It makes me angry. I understand our kids cannot function being out of school BUT that does not mean that we the staff do not need the time off. I would say that given the difficult (at times) population that we deal with that we should probably have more time off to reboot. I need to reboot. I need to love my job again and right now I want to be somewhere else. I also want to phsically harm the bus drivers that work with our kids. I am suddenly sour and spiteful. Its not enough to just drive home with the top down. I want to be at the beach with the dog. I want to be out exercising and enjoying the sunshine. I want to be out enjoying happy hours in the sun.
My life has been nuts for i'd say the past ten years. In ten years I finished college, moved home, got a job, lost my mom, moved out with a friend, went to grad school, met bri, got a job, got laid off, moved back in with my dad, got another job, moved in with bri, bought a house, got a dog, got married, decided to move to cali, sold the house, got a new job, moved across the country, moved to another house... and here I am. Apparently I like change..BUT DO I? Not really. I guess I had alot of changes that were out of my hands. Thats not fun but you have to roll with the punches. The later part of this decade I finally decided to start making these changes on my own...and now on "our" own. But this has been my life for almost 10 years now. Its kind of the only thing I know. I am not so sure I know how to be in one place for a long period of time.
My mind is always going and constantly thinking about what I can do next, I guess I need a challenge to face. With no challenge I get restless and I feel like that 12 yr old kid during summer vacation whining "but maaaaaaaaaa i'm booooooooored." What the heck was I thinking?! What I wouldn't give to be that kid bored during summer vacation again!
Come to think of it, this happens every year once my big race of the year is done and I don't have something to focus my attention on.

On a funny side note, I pulled into the house today and noticed music blaring and a bunch of kids having fun at the house across the street from us. Now across the street is a hill and we face their backyard. Anyways I was resting my eye lids when I heard some raucus and heard Bri go outside. He put on his old man authoritative voice and yelled "hey kids I don't know what you're doing but you better KNOCK IT OFF!" We laughed at the fact that we were old. Then when we were leaving to head out for a bit we noticed what the commotion was. A bunch of neon colored water ballons that were tossed at our cars/house/garage from above. HAHAHA good stuff. I seriously wanted to knock on their door and scare the shit out of them and make them come down here and sweep up the mess yelling "you missed a spot!" but then I realized that Halloween is just around the corner really and I don't want the house that we rent to be riddled with eggs. I do however want to retaliate. I am good at this kind of stuff, plus I am spiteful and sour right now remember?!?!?!

To my Dad

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful, amazing father who is so much more to me than "Dad."

xoxo

stiff arms

I joined my friends on their personal training session on Sunday. It was at a very cute park in Encinitas and it involved 3 of us, one trainer and ALOT of grunting. It was pretty much what I expected, I have been to quite a few classes like that the past few years but each time I forget how sore I am the day after. We did a bunch of circuit things, cardio, lifting that kinda thing. At one point we started walking over towards the play structure. I had no idea what I was in store for....pull ups. I have never ever in my life attempting one of these. The closest I have ever come is to that machine at the gym that pretty much lifts you up with weights and you go through the motions with your arms. This was no joke. I don't know how people do this. I don't want to make excuses, but my arms are REALLY long. So to hang and then pull myself up...not possible. Anyways the poor personal trainer had to basically lift me up and back, the poor guy was sweating and i'm pretty sure he would have grunted but was too nice and didn't want to make me feel bad.

Today I literally cannot move my arms. I am sore. Real sore. Its always amazing what you push yourself to do when you are held accountable by others.

the flying dismount gone bad

okay soooooooo I made it back onto the bike today with a few of the girls (rocketpants & LG). They are lying bitches. I kind of figured it would be an easy ride because rocketpants has had a rough year and was diagnosed with an overtraining disease. f-that when you go biking with someone who is of ironman mentality it is NEVER a recovery type ride. LG mentioned something about '3 witches' out about the course. I have come to realize that when bike routes that contain words like mountain or other evil sayers like witches, you should generally steer clear of them if you are not feeling particularly in shape.It was a gorgeous route though. Anyways as we are riding I am thinking...."hmmn Jod when you get off of your STATIONARY bike at home you can do the fancy pro dismount like a champ, you should definatley try it....try it you woosy!" So I did not mention this to the girls. Sometimes you have to do something out of the ordinary. So as we were pulling into the parking lot I made up my mind that I was going to try the "flying dismount." Above and below are pictures of people who actually know what they are doing attempting this at a race. Ironically enough the only picture I could find is a fellow blogger and sd athlete Beth, Check her blog out if you want to read about a real triathlete and not a poser like myself! (OMG EXCITING I just figured out how to do the cool blogger link, so proud of myself! links all around!)

As you could probably imagine, my outcome was not so pretty. I got the one leg over, BUT I missed the whole taking the shoes off thing. SO I was still clipped in with one foot. I was stuck and I was heading for a parked car. I hit the car and fell to the ground while still clipped in. The girls look over not knowing what the hell happened and I could barely stop laughing to tell them what I had tried to do. After being home for a bit I was picturing what the pros(or real triathletes for that matter) do, and realized that they don't have their shoes on. BRILLIANT! What a dumbass. I will try it again and this time I will not fall. That was my first fall.. well my first fall on my new bike. I dunno maybe an uncoordinated lanky broad like myself should not attempt such activities. Whats even funnier was trying to explain to brian why i felt the need to do it. Now most do it to save time, not have to take their shoes off that sort of thing. I did it because after long rides its hard to get my long ass leg over my bike and this just seemed 'easier.'

tomorrow morning my friend and his wife invited me to one of their workout sessions at some park in encinitas with their personal trainer. I am sure that I will never be invited back. I tend to over swear and under work at these types of things. Hopefully I develop a gross bruise from my fall today so I have an excuse for why I suck at life.

I could use a miracle

One of my coworkers neighbors is distributing the above Mila seeds. These are the seeds from chia seeds. The same thing that you would put on porcelain and grow grass like hair (in college we had a chia dick, it grew hair you know where. the Chaplain came over for dinner once and the chia had to be thrown into the sink so he would not see it...). I have been hearing so much about the chia seeds and its health benefits. I was lucky enough to get a bag of it from my coworker!!!! I can't wait to give it a try and see if it can help with my intestinal issues, so help me god if I start to grow long green hairs all over my body.

If anyone has any suggestions or fun tips as to how to go about ingesting this stuff that would be great!

I am officially on my "off season." I decided after having to waste my $100 entry into the rnr marathon that I did not want to chance missing out on the SDIT and more importantly pissing away $150 bucks. I have pretty much been struggling to really train like I know I should due to illnesses so I put my bib up for sale and a lucky teammate got it. I am relieved. I feel like I have a little stress lifted and now I can just work out as opposed to "train" for something. I am looking forward to my next tnt event and that will start up before I know it so I am going to enjoy my "off season" and hit up some fun classes, volleyball, paddle boarding and whatever else I can think of!

oh dear yogis

Since I was still feeling sick I took to yoga with one of my buds. It was suuuuuuuuuuper hot, like hot like you thought you were going to pass out much of the time. At one point the instructor kind of moaned out "you don't have to be strong or flexible for yoga....you just have to be aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive."

oh boy the things they say are so funny. I too teach yoga to some of my kids at school and sometimes i laugh at the fact that I am trying to pretend to be a yoga teacher "yes focus on your breath, go inside...blah blah blah." Too funny.

Anyhoo the funnier part of yoga was when this couple in front of me kept like holding hands in their poses. THEN at the end in the corpse pose, they each had their hand on the others heart.....E ZZZZEEEEE people!!!

At least yoga gives me lots of stories....

sell out

I am a bum. I am not even going to read my posts from earlier cause it will just frustrate me....BUT I had to bag my first race this morning. I was up all night coughing coughing and coughing some more. I was holding off on taking a sleep aide cause I had to wake up at 4 for the half marathon. Well somewhere around 2am (I went to bed at 8) I gave up and took some nyquil knowing I would not be able to function at 4am. I got up at 4 and had to make sure I got in touch with my friend because I was picking her up in the am. Anyways I got in touch with her, she was going to drive and I went back to bed to try to actually get some shut eye. Such a bummer. These things happen though and I have not had the easiest past month with sicknesses. This was just really unfortnate timing to have a sleepless night. Especially when I paid 100 bucks to race. Oh well its still a donation to the leukemia society AND I got the shirt like I finished anyways! I am really hoping that between the cold and the stomach problems that they both stay at bay for the rest of the month so I can get some good workouts in for the triathlon I am doing at the end of the month. Until them I am going to try my best to suck down these monstrous mucinex pills and hope to get some shut eye. I promise a fun and upbeat post is on the horizon...I HOPE!!

fun times

rock n roll baby

This week was not the best to be sick (for once i have a head cold and am not sitting on a toilet)for it was the 2nd annual prom at school. Our department pretty much throws this and its ALOT of work but soooooooo worth it. I snookie poofed my hair, rocked a tiara and brought out all the classic prom moves. We had an awesome time with a live band and a limo for the kids to take pictures with. The theme was "Enchanted Forest." Was one of the only days there were little to no behaviors at school and that is record breaking and always amazing to see the kids enjoy a little bit of normalcy.

(k kinda looks like we are holding dildo's. we are not, we are holding flat stanley's and some champagne glasses...get your heads outta the gutter)

After getting home from the prom and wanting to pass out I decided I would try to sweat out my cold on the bike trainer. I put in a solid hour workout and actually did feel a bit better after that.

On the running front, today I picked up my bib number for the rock n roll half marathon. I have to say it is pretty nostalgic for me being at the expo and participating in this event once again. It is so hard to believe that 7 years ago I was here to run my first ever event. What is even harder to believe is that means that my mother has been gone for 8 years. Ugh. I keep kind of hoping that life could be more like a soap opera and people come back to life, or were never really gone. Stupid reality. Anyways I do feel pretty lousy but I am pretty excited to be where i'm at in life and I am pretty sure that if I never lost my mom that I NEVER would have accomplished all that I have so far. But if it meant that I was still a sloth but she was around I would take that trade, pretty fair to say that! I am looking forward to seeing lots of my teammates old and new out there on the course. Should be a very early but fun event with some nice warm temps.

screw you intestines

Wanna know something intestinal tract?! I have HAD IT WITH YOU! You have ruined way too many weekends and quite frankly I'm sick of it!

I can't drink because of you, I can't do my bike rides because of you and I am sick of getting pins and needles in my legs because I have to sit on the porcelain all day.

I am a little bitter. I was all set to go for a bike ride with my old coach and teammates when all of a sudden everything turned on me and I quickly realized that yet again I would have to back out of something because of the shits.

I guess its okay, instead I spent the day in the back yard where I knew I was close to a facility. I got lots of sun and finished reading my financial book "smart couples finish rich." I seriously recommend anyone who is as big of a moron as me when it comes to financial topics. The man who wrote the book also wrote "smart women finish rich." The book was written back when the ecomony was actually sky rocketing but I just wanted to build some knowledge there. I feel like I should start a second blog about our quest into financial stability, we are like two big idiots. It is really quite astounding to go through every dime that you spend and categorize it. One month we ACTUALLY spent $2500 on food and only about 300 was on groceries....OOPS! After being on top of it its now close to $1000. I seriously dare you to do the same. Its kind of mind blowing. WHen you are not thinking about it, it goes pretty quickly. I itemized all of our money for the past 6 months and we meet with a financial planner in a few weeks to plan out our lives.

I am digressing from my typical ridiculous stories. OH I ALMOST FORGOT my silliness of yesterday. Since my legs were trashed from my pitiful run/walk on Saturday I nixed my bike ride for an easy day on the legs. Instead I went to pilates in which it was ALL LEGS. I was dying. Then I decided I needed yoga so I went and it was a 1.5 hour class. My legs and arms were so dead I couldn't even stay in downward dog without shaking. Here is the gross part. The dude next to me actually blew snot rockets into his mat the entire class. EW. I could not even believe it, like the hot yoga classes are not unsanitary enough I have to deal with that kind of shit?! Gross. I kept giving him dirty looks but it did not seem to matter. I wanted to go out and get him a GD kleenex. Nasty. Uncalled for.

I am done for now. I do realize I complain alot and I am sorry for that but I am just so fed up with this. Its now happening like 4 times a flippin month. I just want to be able to train and feel good and be able to eat and drink to my hearts content. That is all..

a good dooby

Year after year I tell myself that I will adhere to heart rate training. But year after year it is just way more fun to actually run and chat and talk about inappropriate things with people, who are typically faster than me. After my last bout with whatever intestinal problem it is that I have, I have had a really hard time getting my fitness level back. Not that I think it should be where I was before Lavaman, BUT it should certainly not be shooting over 100%heart rate over any ole hill! I have still been doing plenty of training.

With a half marathon lurking just a week away I got rid of the negative thoughts of (screw it.. hey its still a donation to tnt even if I dont run....i don't wanna!) I decided I should go on a long run this weekend and stick to the plan. DO NOT GO CRAZY! aka keep my heart rate to a semi normal percentage. And that is what I did. I decided to do a time goal instead of a mileage goal. So I just thought eh i'll do two hours. I ran to the 101 and headed up the coast for a bit. It was a perfectly gorgeous day. THAT and my husband had the great idea to use my phone's pandora app on my run and that made it way more fun. It was like karaoke out on the streets. I kind of like to sing as loud as possible without looking like a total freak and more like someone who loves life and doesn't care who hears me.

I have to say it was hard to stay pretty close to 75% Max HR. I did still notice that on inclines it would shoot up but I would just take lots of walk breaks and felt like I did not over exert myself. I made it onto the beach a few times, got lost a few times trying to find my trails to get home.

I finally found the trails and got a friendly warning "hey rattlesnake up ahead." I got my mace ready. Of course the sucker was right there in front of me. I squirt it with my water bottle (THANK GOD I HAD SOME LEFT!) and it made the loudest rattle as it slithered away. Crisis averted! I did not want to have to call brian from the trails.
I have to say I was happy to stick to the plan today and I will try to do so with my running. I know it works out for people and that eventually they can run faster while keeping a good heartrate, but right now it feels like I have to do alot of walking. I guess thats okay....

After my 10 miles I refueled at the cutest place in Rancho Santa Fe for lunch. It was called Thyme in the ranch and had AMAZING looking pastries and deserts and yummy lunch. The chocolate chip cookie hit the spot, but twas nice sitting there smelling all the beautiful flowers growing all around the place. So cute.

Speaking of cute I am super proud of our dog, she was a trooper at the dog beach today and was swimming up a storm. She turns alot of heads I must say. She looks wimpy but the chic does not mess around. She actually puked in her mouth and still did not drop the ball, ah yes she is her mamas doggy. Nothing says summer like being covered in sand and salt water!

Happy start of summer everybody!