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. 

I'm Not Dead

Hi. Remember me ? I'm not dead [yet]. I just tend to fall off the face of social media for an extended amount of time. Especially one that requires thought and planning and effort and it's not that I don't love you guys but honestly

Story of my life for the past 2 months. Which I feel SUPER bad about and will probably apologize for over the next million blog posts.

Especially when the creation of this blog was to track my progress for a certain half marathon that, oh yeah, I KILLED in 2:14:14.

So would it be okay that even though I haven't been around in almost 2 months, I got a little braggy ? I mean, you do come here to read about me, right ?

Oh good.  Want some pictures ? Of course you do. And I just happen to have some right here:

(Finish line pic - Sweatband dude is my FAVORITE)

(YAY for this guy. I'd probably be dead if it wasn't for him)

(Let's talk about the unnecessarily GIANT finishers medal, shall we ?!)

And you'll never guess who I ran into (no not literally, she was TOTALLY done before me) ?! The super awesome Tracy !

It was one of those fun moments of "Hey ! I'm so excited to actually meet you and I smell and you're here with your family and I'm awkward and I really want coffee but high fives for awesomeness and I'm gonna go die now, kbye !" I only hope that one day I can run a sub 2:00 half like this girl. Damn !

THEN, I ran the Santa Paws 5K which was my first ever 5K last year. The course was in a different place than last year, I got lazy and hadn't run since the half and holy hills batman did that course hurt. But I still PR-ed with a 29:01 !

(Again, This guy ? Best. Ever.)

And lastly...I ran my first Turkey Trot 8K on Thanksgiving. That however, was not a fun run for me as my lungs have decided to suck A LOT. I still managed to do it in 51:58 but I walked WAY more than I wanted to.  Shout out to Big Mike for running and walking with me the whole time while I was pretty sure I was dying. [Asthma that has been dormant for about 15 years has decided to rear its ugly head again in the form of exercise induced asthma.  Currently on a steroid inhaler to kickstart my lungs so cross your fingers they stop sucking - metaphorically of course - and breathing becomes not so brutal.]

Otherwise I've just been relaxing and having awesome adventures (pictures to come once I get them all off my phone, obviously): Front row seats to a Hurricanes hockey game, fun trips to the zoo, Dracula the ballet, and lots of other fun things. I can honestly say for the first time in a VERY long time, I am so insanely happy with my life. Now if I could just get a job that doesn't make me grumpy...

What does the future have in store ? Once I can get my breathing under control, I plan on training for a TBD spring half marathon. Only this time ? NO WALKING. Now that I know I can complete one, I want to run the whole thing. And I also want to nail some PR's in the process.

I guess the only thing left is...are you guys going to hang out and see how it all unfolds ?!

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) !!

Dead And Worth It.

I'm running on 4 hours of sleep (maybe ?).  My legs are KILLING me.  The last thing I wanted to do was get in my car this morning. I'm pretty sure the only reason I'm functioning currently has something to do with the unknown number of espresso shots in my coffee. Why ? Because I got home from Charlotte at 4AM last night from one of the most epic live shows I've seen in a while.

Confession: I'm getting too old for this shit.

Confession: I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

I want to tell you all about it.  However, 1. My brain can't function above keeping my eyes open and B. Words cannot do justice to seeing AFI, 30 Seconds to Mars, and Linkin Park all in one night.

Confession: That was my 7th time seeing 30 Seconds to Mars live.

Confession: I was never a huge Linkin Park "fan" until last night.

I had listened to their music and hell yeah did I know (and rock out to) some of the more popular songs.  But last night blew my fucking mind.  That is a band that KNOWS how to put on a show.  I have no shame in telling all of you in blog-land that I am revisiting everything they've recorded and giving it a fresh listen because DAMN IT WAS THAT GOOD !

So I leave with you with a bunch of pictures and some video clips from last night. Enjoy !

Because I'm a moron and can't read the tickets right, we missed alot of AFI and I was sad.

30 Seconds to Mars !  As always, I loved their set, but was slightly disappointed they didn't play anything (besides part of "The Kill") from albums before than This is War. 

The weather was supposed to be horrible and possibly monsoon on us.  The weather was PERFECT !

I didn't take many pictures of Linkin Park because I was too busy having my mind blown. Sorry, not sorry.

Also:

(The "after the epic night" mocha "merkshake")

Linking up for Humpday Confessions ! 

Thank you, Robin. Thank you.

Yesterday I was hoping the scales had finally tipped and the internet joking had crossed into "too cruel" territory.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.  For those of you who don't know, Robin Williams passed away yesterday.

Brian and I watched Dead Poet's Society last night and I would be lying if I said I didn't get a little choked up.  RW has been on my "Famous people I'd like to have dinner with" list since the day I created one.  Robin Williams is the reason I wanted to get into acting back in the day.  And later in life, after watching DPS for the umpteenth time, it made me realize that I wanted to be a philosophy professor.

I give you a collection of gifs and pictures that make me happy and hopefully bring out all the best memories of this man.  He will be missed. 

I could go on forever.  And I would love to.  But instead I'll leave you with a few clips from Inside the Actors Studio.  If you can find it, watch the whole thing.  You won't regret it.

You will be missed Robin.

"O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?"