People You Meet At Shows

I was going to make this part of Monday's post, but it made the post unnecessarily long. However, I've been irked about it since Sunday, so I thought this would be a nice follow up/now I can stop being annoyed about it.

I love going to shows: indoor, outdoor, big, small. I've met some awesome people because of it and we say hi whenever we see each other, play catch up, and generally enjoy just rocking out together.  I love seeing people let loose and dance around, I'm always looking for new makeup/outfit combinations, and seeing people's reactions to the show whether it's their first or 50th time seeing the band.

And then there's the people I avoid like the plague.  If you've ever been to a music venue or festival, I'm pretty sure you've encountered them.

The People You Wish You Didn't Meet At Shows:

// The Over-Doer

This person dresses in a way that you KNOW would never go out in public on a daily basis like that. They're definitely trying too hard. I'm all about autonomy and to each their own, but I have a problem with people putting out an image of what they think they should wear for shock value and then seeming offended when they get that reaction.  Enough is enough.  I can tell you went overboard for this and honestly, it's just awkward. Honorable mention in this category goes to the people looking like they're going out to dinner at the Ritz, wearing 4 inch heels with their little clutch.  This is a rock concert and we're standing in mud.  Shout-out to the dude in the white polo, purple shorts and BOAT SHOES, looking annoyed at the Manson concert.

// The Drunk High-Fiver

This guy.  This guy makes me hate things.  Not at first, because at first he's only slightly inebriated, so it's all in good fun.  You and your fellow concert goers indulge him as he runs around trying to get as many high fives as possible.  You laugh and roll your eyes.  Then he has a little more to drink and comes back again.  You still laugh.  When he comes back for a 3rd time, pretty drunk and possibly missing an article or two of clothing (presumably because he's spilled alcohol on them) the annoyance sets in.  Okay dude, we get it, you're drunk and high fives seem like a great idea.  Any subsequent times are met with me giving you a death glare and possibly high fiving you so hard you high five yourself in the face.

// The Videographer

These are the people that experience the entire event through the screen of their device.  I will be the first one to break out my phone to take a quick clip of my favorite song, or a million photos of some cool lighting happening.  I want memories.  I can only assume these people want to watch the entire thing over again once the show is done. What do you do with 2 hours of a recorded concert ? Do you really go home and watch it again ?  I can't imagine you make any money off your shaky iPhone (or WORSE, iPad) video.  What is the purpose of viewing the entire show you spent money on to see live if you're only going to watch it digitally the whole time anyway ? Also, I'm short and you're blocking my view. Go die.

// The Unenthusiastic

This is the opposite of the Videographer, although they are staring at a screen during the show.  This person sits through the whole show, barely looks at the stage, can be seen checking Facebook and Reddit throughout the set and generally looks like they would rather be anywhere but where they are. Why are you here ? You bum me out.  Go home.

// The Soap Opera Couple

This is the couple that gets so drunk they have to use each other to stand up, unsuccessfully, yet manages to have a very animated argument in a very public way. I get it.  A concert/festival is the perfect venue to stage whatever dysfunction you need to display.  When you pull my attention away from what I paid decent money to see, I want to hurt you.  No one cares about whatever trivial thing you've decided at THAT MOMENT is so important it can't wait until after the show.  This is usually brought on only after copious amounts of alcohol have been consumed.  I get it, you guys want to make a scene and go home and have awesome make up sex.  Cool, whatever. Don't interrupt my night for it.

Then you get the REAL weirdos:

Anyway, I know this is only the tip of the iceberg.  What type of people irk you at concerts ?

Sassy Siri

I drive a base model Mazda 3.  Which means my car has no power locks or cruise control.  But it came standard with an AUX cable (priorities-go figure).  After going through umpteen cables like these guys from Target, I decided I was seriously sick of fighting with wires, decided I in no way was going to shell out a boatload of cash to get an aftermarket Bluetooth stereo installed and instead splurged a whopping $25 on this guy.  Minus the fact that I have to make sure I turn it off before I get out of the car so it doesn't die on me, it pretty much rocks.  Now I just have to turn it on, listen for the beeps and boom, hands free !  

Sometimes when I'm driving though, I don't feel like listening to the radio or using all my data to listen to spotify.  This past weekend, after skipping so many songs, I was like "Meh, don't feel like it," and went to turn off my bluetooth guy.  I had my phone in it's little holder thingy, and as I'm holding the button, it makes a weird bloopy noise and I notice Siri has popped up on my phone. 

Um, what ?! So stupid me never realized that my GoGroove ALSO works as a microphone.  Now the wheels start turning.

Don't Call it Hump Day

It drives me insane that people call Wednesday, Hump Day.  Just stop.  Please. It makes me hate life.  If you need something to focus on because it's the middle of the week, focus on Wednesday:

See what I did there ?  Here's some random Wednesday confessions for you.

Philosophy of my Mind

I've been thinking about posting some non-floofy posts recently.  Or should I call them, "Get to know the inner workings of a WeebleNugget?"  Maybe I'll just tag them, "Getting to know a Weeble."  Anywho, after having this conversation with a few people recently, I thought "Hey, maybe I'm not the only one who's constantly going 1000mph."  Also, I said I would let everyone out there get to know more about me.  So, *deep breath in* here goes...

Everyone's seen this floating around the internet.

Happy Birthday !

Can you believe that 1 year ago today, From Zero to 13.1 started ?! I mean, have 365 days seriously passed already ?

Wow.  Just wow.

Did you miss it ? Don't worry, the posts didn't go anywhere so you can click through them and catch up !  I will say that after looking back at the posts from last year vs thinking about everything that's happened, I'm going to make a point to be more open.  I feel like everyone has a tiny, microscopic glimpse into who I am based on what I've posted and that's cool and all, but I feel like there's SO MUCH MORE we could talk about, explore, and learn.  

25 Things

25 Get to Know Me’s

1. What is your middle name?: Marie.  Pretty sure every girl born in the 80's had this name

2. What was favorite subject at school?: High School would be Performing Arts or Chorus.  College was Epistemology.

3. What is your favorite drink?: I could drink white mocha soy lattes forever. I especially love when there's a shot of vanilla added.  I'm in sugary, chocolatey heaven.:)

4. What is your favorite song at the moment?: I can't pick just one, but right now I find myself gravitating towards The Pretenders "500 Miles" when I can't think of what else to listen to at the moment.

Adulting Sucks.

I really don't want to be an adult.  Mostly because I a) have no idea when I became an adult and 2) totally didn't ask to grow up. There are some major perks, don't get me wrong, but I can't count how many times I want a time machine just so I can go back and slap my younger self anytime I would say something stupid like, "Man, I can't wait to grow up !"

Harry Potter Hilarity

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned, but I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan.  My mom used to wait in riddikulusly* long lines to get the books for me when they came out, only to hide it for about 2 weeks until we went on our family vacation.  Basically for about 5 years (I got the first 3 as a set about a year after they came out but about a year before they got popular) I was physically present for our family outing, but my nose was stuck in those books.  (I really don't want to talk about the vacation the year Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out. Page 596 ? Devastated. Ruined the whole trip !)  If you haven't read the books, or seen the movies you could bookmark this and come back after you've realized the error of your ways.  Or you could just stop reading now.

(*No, that's not a spelling error)

Homesick

Last night they lit the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center.  I was way more sad than I should have been.  After a lot of thought, I decided that I would not be traveling to Jersey for Christmas.  There are too many factors to get into, but ultimately, I decided that staying in North Carolina was what was best for me & the monsters and my sanity. And also my wallet. I'm looking forward to seeing how I celebrate in my own way.  But I still feel like I'm missing a little piece of myself this year. 

Quirky.

Last night I had a spectacular 9 mile run.  Unfortunately, my legs refuse to ever be okay after running anything over 6 but whatever. Lots of heat and ice and elevation for me today. I've got enough problems with IT band on my other leg, so you better get your shit together Achilles tendon...

Anyway, post run, I was soaking in my bathtub (Epsom salts FTW !), eating some yogurt, watching Netflix, and texting Alyssa.  Thankfully this girl just gets me because anyone else would have totally thought doing all of those things concurrently would classify me as certifiable.

On Sunday, B and I watched Good Will Hunting.  After the whole thing was over, he told me that HE'D NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE !  I felt like a moron because I kept making comments about different scenes (again, operating under the assumption that he had seen one of the best movies ever created).  One of my favorite scenes is when Sean talks about his wife.



[Random fact: the camera shakes because the camera operator couldn't hold it still from laughing so hard - Robin improvised that scene]

Why did I tell you about my post run soak and Good Will Hunting ? Because it got me thinking about weird things people do that sometimes seem completely ridiculous to some but totally normal to others. So, I now share with you some weird idiosyncrasies I have which are totally normal to me:

• I can go run for 90 minutes without any music but need to have my phone, food, and a movie playing in order to sit still in a bath for 20 minutes. 
• I won't open a can without tap tapping the top of the can, knowing full well it doesn't do anything. 
• I won't leave my apartment without saying "Be good monsters, Mommy loves you" to the dogs. 
• When I'm at work, if I have Spotify playing in the background, no work gets done but put on a TV show from Netflix on and holy crap you wouldn't believe the amount of work that gets done. 
• I eat Smarties 3 at a time.  For some reason 2 is too little and trying to eat more than 3 at a time just doesn't work.
• When I don't have my rings on, my thumb still goes to each finger and tries to spin them even though they're not there.
• If I run in the morning, I can't have coffee before but fiend for it by the time i'm done; if I run at night, drinking anything other than water after makes me want to kill myself.
• I try to limit the amount of times I check my phone but when I do, I have 4 apps in the bottom corner that if I check one, I'm checking them all.
• If I'm the only one in my car, things have to be in a certain place so I can get them whenever I need to without taking my eyes off the road.  If someone else is in the car, they get a purse on their lap and the phrase "Can you get me my..." happens about every 5 minutes. 
• I can recite pretty much entire movies, TV series, discographies, but ask me something like "Is today Tuesday ?" and I'm all "I dunno".

So there's that. Completely random, useless, not remotely related to anything things that you didn't need to know but things that make me, me !  But I'm super nosy...what are your peccadilloes ? Tell me, tell me, tell me !

Have a good Tuesday friends :)

Insanity.

There is no excuse for my absence other than I simply haven't been able to make blogging a priority. I just need you to know that I thought about you everyday. I didn't forget about you.  I hope you didn't forget about me !

Mostly my training has been going phenomenal with some setbacks here and there. I'm currently panicking as I realize how close my 10 miler is and then the week after that is my first ever half marathon.  Um, give me a minute, I'm freaking out again.

I need to get back to my insane work schedule, but I just wanted to make sure you knew you were still loved.  I do have some fun blog posts planned (just be patient with me) like:

• Why I became a runner
• Where I see myself in 5 years
• Obsessions (including Netflix binges !)
• Anything you've been dying to know about me :)

Until then, please enjoy a random assortment of shirts I need from lookhuman.com.  You know, for when I have infinite monies and all. 

And my two favorites (because reasons for those of you who know me)

I hope everyone has an awesome week !

My Laptop Hates Me.

Bless me Blogland, for I have sinned.  It's been 2 weeks (!!) since my last confession.  Or blog post. Or any semblance of online blog presence.

It wasn't my fault though ! My MacBook decided that it didn't like its hard drive anymore and decided I needed to drop unnecessary monies into getting it a new one. So I want you to know that I still love all of you, I'm back, and the insanity that is my life can continue for all of the internets to see.  And what better way to start up again than with a confession post ?!

// In trying to look at the bright side of my computer failure (no really...it said "FAILURE" in HUGE letters) I've realized I can now start from scratch.  I'll still have everything backed up, but it's a fresh start in a sense. It's always good when you can just get rid of stuff you don't need anymore without having to sort through EVERYTHING !

// I REALLY don't want to hear about how it's automatically fall because September happened. STOP TRYING TO TAKE MY SUMMER AWAY FROM ME I FEEL LIKE IT JUST GOT HERE.

No, I am not getting my sweaters & hoodies & scarves & boots & insanity out of my closet and drink pumpkin things.  It is still summer until midnight on September 22nd.  And I will wear my flip flops and drink my iced things and drag out this summer for as long as I can.

// I want summer to stick around because training in this weather is the weirdest best motivator ever. I look at my times on my long runs and the fact that I'm running longer and farther, EVEN in this humidity and heat just makes me so excited for how I'll run when fall eventually graces us with its presence. Hopefully I'll see some crazy good improvements.  Just have to keep it up !

//  I want September to go by super slowly because I have so many awesome things to look forward to in October that I'm worried it will all go by too quickly ! I feel like I went to bed last night and it was July.

//  My last confession is also a promise that I'll be by your blogs sometime this week to play catch up and I'll make sure to update on my training.  City of Oaks is only 2 months away (as of yesterday) !!

My dogs hate you too.

[Warning: Rant ensuing.  If you're a people person or anti-dog. Don't keep reading.  Come back tomorrow or go read last week's confession. This weeks post is 100 % from my perspective and my opinion alone.  Thanks !]

Confession: I hate people.  I used to say things like "I hate people that do X" or "I hate when people..." and then I just stopped listing reasons because well - people.

I generally just try to avoid them.  Headphones, book, phone, resting bitch face, on purpose bitch face...all ways that let people know, "Hey ! I'm not a people person and I'm probably not the best person to talk to." Yet people do it anyway.

I try and be nice to them.  Depending on the situation, it's usually not entirely unpleasant and I can deal (sometimes get a good story out of it) and move on with life.  And then you get the people that try and start small talk with backhanded compliments.  These people need to be thrown in front of a bus.  The thing that makes me hate people more than ANYTHING though, is when it comes to my dogs. 

People are idiots.  I won't go on a long rant about the ignorance towards dogs in general, certain breeds, and rescues in general.  What I will go on about though is when people make assumptions about my dogs (and me) based on the 2 second interaction you have with us.  


  

In November of this year, Ryker and I will be celebrating the 4 year anniversary of the day he picked me. Sadie and I just celebrated 3 years together in May. That means that I have had almost 4 years with my dogs every day.  I know them better than they know themselves.  I know that because Ryker is a Beagle/Heeler mix, his bark is obnoxious and honestly I would love it if it were about 2 octaves lower.  I know the difference between his stress bark, his "you're not paying enough attention to me bark" and his excited bark.  He's a vocal player.  I try to minimize it where I can but guess what ? HE'S A DOG AND DOGS BARK.    Don't tell me to get a muzzle for my dog because I will suggest the same for you.

  


Also, DO NOT ASSUME YOU CAN JUST TOUCH MY DOGS !! Let say that again: DO NOT TOUCH MY DOGS.  My dogs are both rescues that had a hell of a life before they got to me.  This is something I know a lot about (because I adopted them and live with them) and why you should just use the simple phrase "Can I pet your dog ?" 

Do you know those 5 words are the best things ever to a dog parent ? Here's why:

• That pause allows me to asses my dogs' behavior.
• Depending on who you are, I can determine if you can safely touch one or both of my dogs. [Sadie DOES NOT like strangers, especially men. Ryker gets too excited and I will not let him around children]
• If I decide (because they're my dogs) that you can pet one or both, I can hold them properly on the leash as to have the most control over the situation.
• This allows me to say things like "You can pet Ryker, but please pet his shoulder or his butt as he doesn't like having his head touched." or "Sadie doesn't like strangers but she seems to want to say hi, so why don't you stay there and let her come to you."

If you choose not to ask and just assume you can touch my dogs, charge at them and/or approach them in a way that makes them feel freaked out, prepare for an unpleasant experience and DO NOT YELL AT ME FOR NOT BEING A RESPONSIBLE PET OWNER.  You're the moron; not me.

Some other things to note:

• If I make an effort to walk AWAY  from you and your dogs, do not follow us.
• Don't try and talk over me and to my dogs while I'm trying to give them commands.  I'm telling them to sit or leave it for your benefit, not mine.
• When my dog behaves in a way that is not favorable and I apologize - accept the apology ! Don't roll your eyes or make ignorant comments about me or my dogs.

I'm fully aware that there are millions of dogs out there that are great with everyone and everything and are all around perfect.  I get it.  But dogs are like people not everyone likes everyone and everyone reacts to different people/things/situations differently.  Same goes for my fur babies.

I could seriously go on forever.  Short of wearing a sign that say "DO NOT APPROACH" I don't know how to get people to leave us alone on walks/at the dog park.  I just want to give my dogs the exercise they need, let them do their business and play with the dogs/people that we have worked very hard on building a relationship with without the comments and eye rolls and judging.

In conclusion, people: I hate you.  And my dogs hate you too.

Running Randomness

At this point in my running career, I've come to terms with the fact that I'm going to hurt.  

I'm currently sitting here, typing this for all of you, trying to ignore my legs. Because we're currently not on speaking terms this morning. They woke up (late, I might add) and were all "We're sore ! We're gonna put this knot in your calf ! Hey, we're throwing some shin soreness in there but don't worry because your IT bands are still going to hurt like always ! Nah nah nah nah nah nah !" and I'm all like

and as soon as I'm done laying some fun random running updates on you, I'm making a date with the stick (That's what she said ! Ah !) and going to town with the RockTape.  Hopefully my legs appreciate the attention because they're going back to work tonight.  I found a 3.1 mile route that didn't murder me and I'd like to try that again tonight.  

I have another 5K on Saturday ! I'm actually more nervous about this one than the last one.  Mostly because everyone I know will be running it.  I keep making jokes about how when they're all done, they can come back and get me.  It's funny but at the same time makes me pretty sad that I'm slow enough that all my friends will finish the race, probably walk around for a little bit and still be able to run back, get me and run probably another mile with me while I finish.  This will be the ultimate test of self confidence for me.  I just have to think about putting one foot in front of the other and finishing the race.  It's going to be hard to ignore how slow I'll feel, but the most important thing is that I finish.  I don't have a time goal or anything, I just want to feel like I did my best.  Or as best I can do with doing 3:1 run/walk anyway.  I could chance running the whole thing but I don't think that's my smartest move right now.

After this 5K it's time to buckle down and focus on preparing for the half marathon.  I need to focus on being consistent with how often I run, increase the mileage and avoid injury.  The biggest challenge for me is going to be my diet.

I eat like crap.  Chocolate is the main staple of my diet.  I survive on Goldfish and M&M's.  I'm lactose intolerant and despise fruit (bananas are okay).  I think it is absolutely okay to eat pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and I learned this weekend that it can also be dessert !) I don't know how to cook and am usually too lazy to go food shopping.  I don't know what food to eat to help with training.  I am THE pickiest eater you will ever meet. Also I'm lazy. If it takes more than 10 minutes to make and I have to use the oven or stove, well it's just not happening.  Cheap, easy, plain jane recipes (especially smoothies) are welcomed and encouraged if anyone has any !

I will leave you with this:  I should be getting my new shoes soon !  

I have been drooling over these babies for over a month now when I first got to try them.  And soon I will own them and it will be awesome and I'm so excited I can't even wait.

Can't wait to get back to Meredith College again tonight to run because last night's run went so well !  So there's your random running updates from me.  There will start to be more of these because, after all, I started blogging so I could share my progress.  As always, thanks for reading you guys !!