Why Not?

Okay so I just made it back from the Team in Training info session, I think that after 6 years I could probably run the info session but whatev. Its always fun to see the newbies and remember how I felt six years ago as I sat there. Its amazing that each time I well up and cry like I don't know whats coming. It is amazing to think that in only 6 years I will have completed 6 endurance events and raised over 60K. I have certainly come a long way since 2002 when I sat there thinking it were impossible for me to complete a maratho, but now I have possibly LOST MY MARBLES!!!

Yes people, I did it. I signed up for the Vineman Half IRONMAN. I guess they call it IRONMAN 70.3 because thats how many combined miles you do that day. Anyways I went to the info session thinking I was probably going to do another marathon. But I went with an open mind and wanted to speak to the triathlon coach before I made my decision.

Here were the pros of the triathlon:

Unbelieveable training conditions

A beautiful bike that I bought two years ago and need to get my moneys worth

Not many open water swims (less likely to get eaten by a great white...husband and father are nervous about that)

Nothing better than peeing in a wet suit

A great way to see all of San Diego county

No two a days! (I thought I was going to have to wake up and work out and then work out at the end of the day, and I have to be to work at 730 so that just seemed impossible)

Taking part in an event that it is okay to pee yourself while riding a bike

The coach promised he would ride the bike with me so that I don't get lost during 50 mile bike rides.

A trip to WINE COUNTRY

If I get low on sugar during the race, I can just jump into a vineyard and steal some grapes

Saying that I am an Iron Woman (well half of one anyways)

I am so looking forward to being part of the TEAM once again. I have truly missed it this year and miss that camaraderie.

So look forward to my many emails and letters begging for money because I have to earn my highest amount yet!

Coincidence? I think not

So this week was my first week back to work and it went off without a hitch. My ear is still nagging me, and is pretty painful at night so I decided to call the Dr that sent me to 4 wrong specialists and led to my eight week delay of a cast on my wrist, to see what was going on. I called in the morning and was told "all we have today is 2:45 and 12." So I booked the earlier one thinking the earlier the better. So I leave work and get there and the receptionist says " you are early, your appointment is 12:45" I tell her she is crazy, then she says "oh wait you are really early, your appointment is tomorrow." At this point I am furious and want to leap over the partition and strangle her. I very calmly said "listen I had to leave work early to get here, I was told 12 today, is there anyway someone can look in my ear, it will take one second." She told me to wait and then said "sorry you have to come back tomorrow" At this point I got up and said "I am not coming back tomorrow or EVER! You people suck and the only two experiences I have had here have been miserable. YOu can go ahead and cancel my appointment."

Sooooooooooo I was up shits creek without a paddle, and was told by my wonderful Boston Dr. to suck it up and call the other dr back because I just need someone to look in the ear. So that is what I did, I made the appt, AGAIN, and pretended like I was totally normal and sane. On the bright side, this pushed me to get a new dr, and I feel way better about her. The only thing is I can't see her until February.

Still not sure about the ear, I could not even tolerate the otoscope in my ear. Then the dr blew air into it and I nearly fell off the table in pain. In the same sentence he said "its totally fine" and then says "very inflamed" so I was a bit confused. THen he told me that I should put baby oil in it. This guy must be a frigin whackjob. My boston doc said this could take a while to fully heal so I should just give it some time.

I completed a 12 mile run today. Felt pretty good until a police officer blocked my path so that cruise ship people could get off, and this happened for a good 10 minutes. So I cramped up pretty bad, but other than that a great run on the bay in the sun.

I ran past many TNT runners and yelled a good ole "GO TEAM" as they ran by. I can't wait to start fundrasing and training again with the Leukemia Society, its just a totally different experience than trianing with real runners. I am still undecided on which event I will sign up for.
I am leaning towards the Rock n Roll Marathon here in San Diego. It would require no travel and no time off from work, so that means more days to get back east over the summer. I am also way ahead of the game in regards to running.
My other option is the Half Ironman in Sonoma. I have always wanted to do it and the weather here is probably the best I will ever live in. Great training conditions. Just have to see what kind of training schedule it is. The last TRI I did was all swimming training, and I felt totally unprepared for the biking and running. This race is in a river, and then bikes all through the vineyards. So basically I would probably make it to one winery after and be down for the count after two glasses......hmmn I fell like I just made my decision! Will fill you all in when I attend the meeting on Monday.

Oh and yes my wonderful husband flew to Vegas for the CES convention last night, and played in a poker tournament. Come to find out it is also the Porn Star awards show......hmmmmn and this is where the title of this post comes into play.

Did I mention that I got sunburnt today while running? Going to be 80 degrees here tomorrow so expect pics from the beach.

Oh and I also got news that I got tickets to the Ellen Degeneres show. I will be going February 5th, and it will either air that Friday or Monday. Tune in!!! I will do my best to dance like a total ass and make it on TV.

WE ARE...NOT BETTER THAN USC

New Year's Eve was rather uneventful since we were waking up around 3am to drive to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. We made it there in record time and hot footed it to the rose parade. It was pretty impressive to see the floats in person but after about four of them I was good to go and get to some good ole tailgating. We were parked in a lot right by the entrance. The USC fans were rather friendly and we quickly made friends with the college kids next to us. We had a few laughs with them, and realized that it was not too long ago that we were those kids. You know, the ones who were loaded still from the night before, and then wasted and puking by 10am. I mean who didn't do that in college. We all know the outcome of the game for Penn State, but it was just fun to be there and see the sights and people, oh and sit in about 80 degree weather all day. Happy New Year to all!!

Trains, Planes and Invisaligns

Well we are safely and soundly back from our trip to Boston. My ride out there was quite eventful. I left with a bad cold, and ended up rupturing my eardrum on my first flight into New York. I left during a storm so the ride was quite ridiculous, but I made it onto my connector after about a 5 hour delay.

Lets start with the negatives of the week:

-being herded like cattle to this place and that.

-avoiding people I hadnt seen because I really did not know if I could answer the question "Hows San Diego?" one more time, without losing my shit. Its just not alot of fun to talk about the same thing over and over.

-TRAFFIC: within a few minutes of being in the car in Boston I was quickly dropping f-bombs, d-bags, the middle finger and honking the horn incessantly.(people just don't do that in San Diego so I had to take advantage)

-rupturing an eardrum

-being told by my dentist that I need braces because my teeth are crowding. Especially since I prided myself on the fact that I saved my parents tons of money because I never had cavities, needed braces, and never got wisdom teeth. And now I will have to pay for them.

-getting the stomach bug at 3am at the same time as two other people and battling for the toilet

-having to leave and say goodbye all over again

Okay and the positives of the week:

-seeing Nana toast the entire nursing home "I love all of you, you are all beautiful people"

-seeing neices and nephew really enjoy Christmas for the first time

-meeting friends babies, and seeing big bellies

-hanging with my family

-seeing snow

-good Italian food

-getting a new video camera so I can capture moments like this!

-coming home to see the puppy

We are very excited to wake up tomorrow at 4am(its a good thing that I am still on east coast time) and drive to Pasadena to see that little old lady and floats of roses and the rose bowl! I will be sure to take lots of videos as we chant WE ARE PENN STATE. We are sitting in the end zone with the Penn State Kids. Maybe I will get them to pick me up and shake me around when they score!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Floods and boogers

So I have been living all by my lonesome for a week now since Bri had to go home early for business. This has meant a few things:

Cereal for dinner or no dinner at all

LOTS of bad television
LOTS of chic flicks

Destruction at the house: the lamp (my fault), my jacket (dog's fault)

Me waking up sleeping sideways

Of course Bri has been gone during the worst weather yet. I actually got home during a flash flood the other day where I had to wade through water just to get to my door. And just as soon as it happened it was done. Very strange. Apparently around 4 people or so a year die near here because of flash floods. Its no laughing matter.

Anyways this week has flown by at work. We had our holiday show today and it was so nice to see all the kids have their special moment. I was emceeing the event with one of our students so that was fun. I did not even make any inappropriate jokes.I wanted to, but I didn't. The only thing I said that was not on my original script was this "well that was a long skit so maybe he needed some extra protein." This was after one of the kids stood on stage, picked his nose, then ate it, over and over and over and over the whole skit. It was AWESOME. I'm pretty sure he did it on purpose so that made it even better.

I leave to go home just in time for all the snow so lets hope that I make it there on Sunday! I can't wait to get back to Boston!!! Lets just hope that I want to come back......

Okay well I guess i'll have to come back for Belle!!! Stupid jacket eater

Not quitting my day job anytime soon

I got bored last weekend and decided that I would try making videos. It is supposed to be to a really cute song about a puppy but I am not that good yet. Anyways I am going to attempt to put together some fun videos and figured i'd start with the dog. Afterall she won't judge me. She may eat my socks and underwear, but she never judges.

We are winding down here in San Diego and Bri is off for the east coast tonight. In case you are a psycho reading the blog, I am not alone, I have a dog, she is very big, and vicious, and I also have a loaded gun that I am not afraid to use. Although Bri has repeatedly warned me not to play with it, and that "wherever I point it it will shoot" well isn't that the point?!

Anyhoo that is just a precaution since I very often hear helicopters flying overhead making announcements about people running around armed and what not. Oh and I also promise not to do any late night runs through the canyons while he's gone.

Our water polo game this week was fun, we won, but at the end of the game my head had a major collision with the goalies elbow. I could have done without that.

Not sure if i'll make it to all the fun ugly holiday sweater parties this weekend, since I feel a cold coming on, but hopefully I do! Oh and hopefully the dog doesn't eat the christmas tree while she is left alone here all day for a week.

middle fingers and mylar

So after my dad left all diseased and what not I got to decorating and put up the Christmas tree.

I must say it is rather odd decorating in warm weather, but I am not going to complain. Running has been in full gear and this weekend I ran with my group on the half marathon route and it was beautiful. We run right along the ocean and its a beautiful view of the ocean and tons of surfers. Today was the first run and I mean first of many that I did not feel like I wanted to die.

After my run Bri and I ventured out to a great little hole in the wall breakfast place, Big Kitchen in South Park and it became our fast favorite. The woman who owned it gave us a big hug on the way out, god bless Judy. I took a picture with Betty Boop outside of the restaurant as we were leaving.After breakfast we took off for the beach with the dog. And yes that is me giving the finger because I usually take the pictures to send to friends and family back home, and lets be honest, it is basically me giving a big giant middle finger. So I figured I would actually give it on this one.

We are off for some more holiday cheer tonight. THere is a big giant christmas extravaganza in Balboa park which is where we live, so if we can brave the crowds we are going to check it out and see some christmas lights.

Oh and this week we played the same team that gave us our name "we go for balls" in water polo, cause last season I actually jumped out of my tube to knee a fellow in the nuts cause he was really physical with me and I saw no other way to handle it. Anyways we played them and they are the reigning champs. They beat us by around 20 points last season but we managed to only lose by 6 this week.Yay for us!! I am still trying to post a video of us playing, but we are usually low on subs so I never get to get the footage. Maybe next time!

Happy 2nd birthday to Elizabeth!! I am very sad to be missing the family party today but sent a nice bunch of balloons for the birthday girl which i'm sure she'll still be dragging around for Christmas. SHe's got a thing for mylar!

The trip back to boston is coming soon! Two weeks and counting!