Food Porn, and Boston

I'm sure I'm living vicariously through someone at Red Robin right now. Ever since I got my wisdom teeth out on Wednesday, I've wanted a burger. Or chicken. But definitely a burger. And of course, they told me to stay away from ground beef... So I'm assuming a burger is out of the question (especially the fabulously spicy Burnin' Love Burger at Red Robin, fried jalapenos and all!)

...

Still trying to figure out how to get proper nutrition for running until my mouth completely heals. It's hard enough (and sad enough) when I get GI issues from running anyway...

On that note, here's a picture for you. Because I can ;)

Red Robin's Burnin' Love Burger, at your service.

(Also, I'm totally baking some sweet potatoes/yams right now. Got some mashed ones I'm hoping come out like sweet potato pie (yum!!), and some sweet potato pieces that I'm hoping come out like fries/wedges/what-have-you, but, you know, sweet) ;)

That said, with everything that's been going on in Boston, what with the explosions at the 117th Boston Marathon on Monday (15 April 2013)... Facebook, Twitter, the news... Everything and everyone has been talking about it. And I don't don't blame them. It's a pretty major event, scary and life-changing for so many - in positive and negative ways.

Negative ways... I shouldn't even have to specify how. Three dead, a large number injured (100+), and even more affected in other ways.

Positive ways, well... It's amazing to see people joining together to provide one another with support. From the slowest runner to the fastest runner, those in between, those are aren't runners, etc., etc., etc. - I've seen nothing but support, and it really does make a person feel good about some of the goings-on in the world, realizing (or having it reaffirmed) that there are wonderful people out there.

Today (within the last few hours, in fact) they caught the (still living) suspect. Boston was on lockdown this morning while they searched.

The other suspect (his brother) is dead.

That said - and please don't try to burn me at the stake or through the computer for this - I truly hope they have the right people. Looking online, seeing that people have been sending the suspects death threats in some way, shape, or form (and the threats sent to the person they initially thought was a suspect, but actually wasn't)... It stings.

Maybe it's just me and I'm overly sensitive (or not sensitive enough), but I can't imagine wishing someone dead. Maybe hoping they stub their toe or something, I guess, but not actually wishing someone dead.

I know some people will say "You run, why don't you get it?" or "Well, they shouldn't have done this!" or "That's what they get!" but... It's not up to me to decide "what they get". Such a concept has always made me rather uncomfortable.

I don't believe it's up to me to decide if someone lives or dies.

Take that how you will. Agree, disagree, hate me, love me, whatever you will.

I stick by that.

On that note: I hope those in Boston, as well as friends, families, runners, those who were at the Boston Marathon, etc... I hope they can breathe better and rest easier tonight. And that the right people are held accountable.

♥

Diva-licious for the Diva Dash 5k!

In the last 24 hours DH and I packed up, drove to Leawood, Kansas (just outside of KC), slept, got up, I registered for and completed the Diva Dash 5k, and then we came back home.

A girl I went to high school with told me about it, and I was so excited because there will be one in Omaha in May.
And then I realized... It's on the same day as the Runway Run, which I've been wanting to do for the last year. It's one of the events that got me interested in running!

So I talked with DH and we looked up the Diva Dash 5k... The event is also in Tulsa, Wichita, Topeka, and KC (see: Leawood), unless I'm mistaken. We were unsure of making the drive there, but last night he surprised me with the go-ahead.

We got to our hotel just after midnight, and were out the door by about 7:15 this morning. The website wasn't kidding when it said that the start/finish of the race was basically right outside of our hotel, when it talked about discount rates for the race.

Pre-run I stopped by the face-painting tent they had for everyone. I told the lady to surprise me and she gave me a beautiful purple, pink, and blue flower. That was at about 8:20 this morning. It's 6:30 in the evening. That flower is still on my face, and I. Am. Loving it.
I've gotten a few weird looks for it, including from some middle-school-age looking girl who just kept staring at me during lunch whenever I turned to look at anything.
DH calls it my "war paint".

I'm not gonna lie when I say I was freezing my tail off. I made the mistake of not really warming up, and in the first quarter-to-half of a mile I could tell my muscles weren't really warmed up. My calves felt tight and... Well, my toes were numb, but that wasn't from not warming up. I just don't bond well with the cold - something I should've thought of sooner. I didn't bring a headband (earmuffs) or my long sleeves for running, but thankfully I had other stuff with me. I threw on a sweatshirt, my mittens (that were gloves on the inside - not great for me, but better than nothing), my Steelers hat, some calf sleeves with my long shorts, and I was good to go! Well, for the most part.

It was a very nice loop, starting us off in the shopping area our hotel was in, going through a neighborhood, down a street (Nall Street??), past the outdoor mall, through the edge of the parking garage, and down through the drive to the shops we started at.

It was the first run I've ever done by myself. And I saw in action something that I've seen mentioned again and again on websites: when out running, be aware of your surroundings. Especially when alone, but also when running with others. As we were running through the neighborhood... Well, people live in neighborhoods, right? I got to witness a number of people blocking cars trying to slowly drive away from the crowd of females. And they weren't aware they were blocking moving vehicles, unless they suddenly turned around, the person next to them tapped them on the shoulder, or, in the case of one person I saw, someone ran up to them and told them.

Basically, it's important to pay attention to your body AND your surroundings.
It's something you know, but sometimes you realize not everyone is aware of it.
Headphones shouldn't drown out everything.

Oh! In addition to it being my first run by myself, it was my first run in the cold. I admit that I was totally using my mitten for my nose a little bit.
My nose lightly ran almost consistently for the first two miles. Then suddenly my nose was pretty much done running,.. And then I started lightly sweating. Go figure.

I'm rolling my eyes at that, just FYI.

Finish time: 39:20.9

My next time goal is to get under 39 minutes. I'm hoping to do the Illuminite Run the night before the Runway Run and get a sub-39.

I'm enjoying myself :)

Maybe... Marathon? Race Junkie

We're going to start off on a note unrelated to running.
Shocking, I know! But we'll get there, I promise.

I am officially done with my internship hours! I'm already 140+ hours over the minimum cumulative I needed, but I needed more hours with individuals... And I finished them up today! I am freaking psyched. I meet with my head supervisor and my instructor before class on Monday, and we'll talk about it then. I know when I met with my head supervisor on Tuesday, he told me that when people finish their hours he usually has them stop. But I'm pretty sure I have to continue all the way through to the end of the semester, so it may just result in me having my hours cut back.

Also, when I was making my outreach calls today (which helped me meet - and surpass!!! - the minimum individual hours needed), I sucked it up and called one particular client... Last time I talked to this person, s/he wasn't mad at me, but s/he was mad as can be. And I do mean MAD. And this person normally is a bit loud on the phone anyway, but that day s/he was taking loud to a whole new level. As in, I held the phone away from my hear and my team leader could hear the person. Maybe not understand him/her, but definitely hear him/her. And she (my fearless team leader) went and got me a soda to make up for the call ☺
Anyway, I called this person, and s/he was in a MUCH better mood. The concern that she/he'd had for over a month now? Taken care of.
And I was genuinely happy for him/her - AM genuinely happy. It really is amazing to know that the pieces all fell into place. It took more time that s/he would've liked, but the fact of the matter is that the end result is wonderful news.

Now on the subject of running... Technically I'm registered for the Disneyland Half Marathon... Twice. Yes, TWICE.
I'm really contemplating deferring the non-charity-organization-registration to the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend for the Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge.

Yes, I just said what you think I said. I've conquered a half marathon (granted, I walked most of it, but I did it - AND a crap-ton of walking around the theme parks for all four days we were there!) and now I'm really getting psyched about the prospect of doing a marathon.
And also of somewhat warmer weather, so I can take my running from the treadmill to the trail by our apartment. Only a little bit of that is related to safety concerns. From what I can tell, they plow the trails around here pretty quickly. Frankly, I think I'd be more likely to get frostbite and hypothermia than to slip, fall, and break my neck... Although I'd rather not chance THAT, either. It's so interesting: in the last year, I haven't been all that concerned about breaking bones and running (or, breaking bones in relation to running). But in the last week I was just so concerned that I would break something. My feet and legs hurt so badly that I went from overpronating to possibly underpronating (I couldn't tell, all I knew was it was out of the norm). You hear horror stories (I think one of them was in a recent issue of RW) of people running in the winter, falling, and breaking something.

Just because I'm slow doesn't mean I can't do it.

A marathon, I mean. Not falling and breaking something, although I suppose I could do that, too. But I mean just because I'm slow doesn't mean I can't do a marathon. Or a marathon AND a half (at separate times, I mean. At least right now).

And now I'm seeing all of these really cool races. I mean, they're ones that I'd noticed before, but they'd always seemed out of reach to me. A wonderful former best friend suggested the Diva Dash 5K. I'd eyeballed the Leprechaun Chase 10K, but that sold out ridiculously quickly (something tells me it's related to it showing up in the February or March issue of RW??). And oh my god, if I had my way I would sign up for the Runner's World Half & Festival. And do the entire. Freaking. Thing.

...
Is that a belated runner's high talking? I can't tell.

A half marathon seemed like a dream - a dream fit for a princess. I don't even know how I got up the guts to sign up for the Princess Half, but I don't regret it for a second!
I used to think a marathon was crazy and WAY out of reach, and I couldn't imagine spending 5-7 hours of my life (all at once!) doing such a thing...
I used to think a half marathon... Well, I didn't really even think about half marathons, to be completely honest.

Four years ago I was a freshman in college. At this time of year I'd been engaged for just over two months, I was actually liking college (the first semester was a doozy), and I was trying to envision where life would take me, but I was still somewhat unsure.

I never ever ever saw my life taking this (literal) path.
But I'm along for the ride (or run, walk, and plane ride, as the case may be), and I'm loving it.

Bring it.

(Now to wait for the hubs to get home from class so we can go run together!) ☺

In spite of stereotypes, or because of them?

Now I'll be the first to tell you that people don't exactly consider me to be "dark."
Then again, when you compare me to most of the people on my campus I'm not exactly "light," either.

And it hasn't escaped my notice that, even though I love my school... I live in the boonies.
And I'm black.

*cue gasps and "OMG I didn't know you were black!" from readers* (lol)

I have two jobs doing non-medical in-home senior care, one on the weekends and one that's during the week until I get my diploma in 3 weeks.

For this job during the week, I have one specific client the entire time (unless it ends up that I get a new one or something).
Well, said client lives HARDCORE out in the boonies. I mean you take the town my school is in and drive half an hour to an even smaller town.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my client. She's a sweetheart.
And I don't have a problem with driving the half hour to get there in the evenings.
What I DO mind, however, is driving hack to school around 10 at night, when there's nobody on the road except for me...

I seriously quake the whole way back because, if I'm being totally honest... Well, I'm just nervous and that's all there is to it. I'm absolutely terrified of getting pulled over in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere.

Now of course unless they have awesome vision then it's not like they can see who's behind the wheel, but you hear so many horror stories of women who were either pulled over or who had car troubles then were raped and/or mugged and/or killed by someone who stopped to help or something.

And let's face it: There's a reason that there are so many horror stories about black people in the boonies. On my first day of work with this particular client I saw at least one person watch me drive by - and not because I was the only one with a car, because plenty of people out there have them.
Heck, for a little town the houses were much nicer than I thought, too.

Just to give you an idea of just how small this town is: my client isn't concerned about locking her doors or about closing one of her doors. Or closing her blinds.

I keep waiting for someone to poke there nose in the windows, and for me to go screaming - regardless of whether or not the person happens to be a neighbor.

*cue scary movie suspense music*

People don't need to knock to enter, either. I was told that whenever I arrive I don't knock on the door and instead just go in. Whenever her neighbors arrive I'm only alerted by the jingle of the bells on her front door.

Now I keep wondering how much of this is me being unfair and if I need to give it a rest, how much of it is me being realistic, and how much is me being overly cautious and if I should not worry as much.
But it's hard not to worry.

It was especially horrible driving back from work on... Wednesday, I believe. I don't know if you saw it, but there was an episode of Criminal Minds on TV where this guy was preying on college girls with similar appearances (I'm well aware that I don't look like anybody out there, ok? so one obstacle down), and then it turned into college girls with similar appearances while they were babysitting (now I don't babysit, but I'm sure you see the resemblance), and THEN he got someone who was about to leave after babysitting - AND he killed the dad, too!
THEN he got into the house of his old babysitter, who apparently married his dad and he was apparently in love with her, and they actually showed a close-up of him cutting her arm!

Oh, and they showed him looking into the windows of all these girls.
Creepy much, correct? Especially when I thought about how the doors in the house I was in were unlocked...

I mean, without even putting the race card into it, I avoid parking in parking garages. I HATE having to do it at the airport, and if there's no parking at the mall then I'd rather park out in Egypt away from cars.
Heck, I try to avoid parking next to people at the store, especially bigger vehicles (and not just the idiots likely to horribly ding my car).

Thankfully I do not have agoraphobia or anything of that sort. Because wow.

I just keep telling myself that not breathing is for dead people. Thankfully (yet at the same time regretfully) I keep reminding myself that I only have 3 more weeks with my client.

Reminder to self: not breathing is for dead people.