7 random things.

Okay so my sister Britta and my sister Brooke tagged me to do this sillly 7 random things about me. Seeing that are probably the only ones that read this none of the stuff in here will be too shocking but here we go

1. I am freaking out about turning 40. Yes... this is stupid and shallow...but for some reason i have really been freaking out about turning 40. Its like now im old and i dont want to be old...i want to be young and fun and hot.. and not old and dumpy and gross... Okay so not all old people are dumpy and gross...I am exagerating but these are the things that I am freaking out about

2. I am a people person.... I like hanging out with people and socializing. I would have my neighbors/ friends over 3-4 times a week and probably really never get tired of it. I like hanging out with people.

3. THis is related to number 3 but I like having parties but have serious stress about organizing them. If its just a come over and have drinks and we will order pizza ect... i am fine..but if there is expectation that im a "hostess" not that im a bad one it stresses me out.

4. I like Rock Band... So again this relates to 2 and 3 but if you have never played Rockband2 it is very fun. We have Rockband2 and 4 people can play.. 1 person plays guitar, bass, drums and vocals. They have awesome music in there because you can pick oldies like " White Wedding"....or they have System of a Down and Linkin Park ect... very cool.... very fun... especially when you have friends over..

5.My kids watch waay too much TV. Im not sure what to do about this one. My husband is a "TV is a baby sitter" person and I am forever telling them im turning off the TV and that they need to go outside and play. It usually doesnt work, and i have arguments...and then a conversation with myself that all this arguing is not worth it.

6. I wish i was more intellectual. Okay so Im not dumb but, my brain does not retain any "smart" "intellectual" type facts...both my sisters have those smarty type brains and sometimes have conversations where I am like...you gotta be kidding me... you actually think about this. Stuff like that does not happen in my brain... Im not sure what is in there but its not smarty stuff

7. I am a fashion retard.... I like to look nice... and dress up for work ect... but I cannot put an outfit together by myself to save my life. I hate stores like TJ Max ect.. where stuff is super cheap but you have to look through racks and racks of clothes to find the perfect shirt to go with some other pair of pants... NOT for me... I want to go somewhere and I am going to buy what they have put on the manican... i dont know what looks good with what...really...?

ultra...

So im not sure how it started but my running partner, Chris, and I started talking about how we missed doing trail runs... That conversation progressed to races...and what kind of races we liked and somehow the conversation ended that we both want to do the Leadville 100 trail run. For those that dont know the Leadville 100 is a 100 mile trail run that is considered an Ultra- meaning anything over the 26.2 miles, marathon distance. Not only that it is considered as one of the more difficult Ultra Marathons..because it is on trail and is at altitude...

Interestingly enough I had kind of decided in my mind that I wouldnt be doing a marathon for a while because the training is pretty significant and I had already done several. But for some reason this Ultra talk really got me considering it... Im not sure if it is just because I have never done one before but I have been thinking alot about it lately.

I was at work when I should have been working but what I was really doing was googling training schedules and race times for people who have done the Leadville 100.. The GOOD times for women that do the Leadville 100 are around 27hours... hmmm that really made me stop and think hmmm. Plus they said 75 percent of people that do the Leadville 100 have a pacer... So a pacer is someone who is not signed up for the race but they run the last..30-or so miles with the racer. This happens for a few reasons, you are running a significant distance an im sure by the time you get to 70 miles you are pretty delirious... there is a good chance it is dark at this time AND you probably need some serious motivation and cheering up at this point.

So based on all this I have been trying to convince my running partner that a 50 miler would be a much better choice for right now and we should train for a 50 and see how it goes. For some crazy reason...maybe it is a guy thing he thinks he should run this 100 miler.. Mind you this is a person... and im sorry Chris if you ever read this but it is true... seems to sign up for races and doesnt really train for the properly and ends up either A- dropping out or B- doing the race anyway but feeling completely miserable the entire time because he is not really trained.

I dont like to operate that way and I would feel much better committing to 50 miles to do on my own than 100 miles... who knows or maybe he will acutally get the gumption to train for the 100 miler and I will end up being HIS pacer..

Anyway...at this point im not sure what im going to do other than the fact that it intrigues me.. and Im not sure why. I had already decided I wasnt that interested in another marathon at this point...so why would my brain consider going even further...?

Canning

So this post is mainly for my over industrious sisters... because lately they have been posting and blogging about canning and doing super industrious stuff. I have an awesome garden... It is big and lots of flowers... EVERY year I plant tomatoes, squash, cucumbers all with the intent of canning them.

I have lived in my house 6 or 7 years and have never canned a single tomato. I love the IDEA of canning but, when it comes to the actual canning of foodstuffs...it never happens. I just can always find something else better to do plus, maybe I dont plant enough tomatoes but, I dont ever seem to have enough to have a true canning experience. I acutally have not done any tomato canning on my own it was always with my super industrious mother who canned everything. I think she acutally made crabapple jam.... have u ever seen a freaking crabapple?? They are supertiny and how many you would have to get and deal with to actually make jam out of seems completely a ridiculous waste of time to me... but maybe that is because she did not have a job "outside the home" until I was about 16 so other than relief society meetings ect..she had to find things to fill her day.

So every year although I know frost is coming.... I dont pick my green tomatoes or cover my plants because i think the time frost comes..im just done and a lazy gardener. I just tore out my tomato plants by the way and made a new resolution that next year I WILL so some canning... Why.... im not sure... will I save alot of money probably not.. I have a bunch of carrots in my garden that i planted and have not done ONE thing with...maybe i need to make some carrot soup....why did i plant so many freaking carrots.? What did i think I was going to do with carrots.? Help canning sisters..

As a side note... my 3 year old just peed all over our trampoline, like on purpose...not an accident... WHY did i have BOYS!

Love in the time of Cholera

I think I have a love hate relationship with this book. I was going through some of my books decluttering my house and ran across it and just started flipping through it.

I think this is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read (other than maybe "The English Patient". The entire book is like poetry and i wonder what it would be like to be able to express yourself in that way and what it takes to think and describe things so eloquently... check this out..this is my favorite:

"Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves"

Is that not the most freaking cool? ..... the entire book is like that where you are just amazed when you are reading it.

The downside however is it has terrible characters... I typically like at least 1 character in the books I read or you try to relate to at least one of them but in this book I had a really hard time relating or empathizing them.

The entire book is about unrequited love and i guess the main female protagonist is semi appealing, but the guy in the book.... ,Florentino Ariza, is basically a pedophile. Now it could be that because the writer is Columbian and it its a cultural thing...but the main character has a thing for like 14 yr old girls.

The other thing I found amazing in this book was the language... It was translated from Spanish and maybe im just dumb but I guess im perpelxed when there are ENGLISH words translated from Spanish that I have no idea what they mean... like diaphanous , ascultation, imperturbable.....I had to look these words up...so im wondering how much liberty does the translator have?? I obviously dont speak spanish...so are there these words in the spanish language..or did the translator just have a good old time..?

Convenience

There are tons of products out there that are made for convenience..but in the end they dont live up... Bottled garlic for instance... I love the concept.    Garlic is a pain in the ass...you have to peel it and smash it and inevitably your hands smell like garlic for at least 2 days.. So I have been buying bottled garlic....its a timesaver..amazing already presmashed.... no smelly hands.  

It tastes terrible however... I recently made some fish tampande thing and it called for like 8 cloves of garlic... I am positive the bottled garlic ruined it.... It doesnt even really taste like garlic, im not sure what it tastes like but im tossing my bottled garlic.   

I have a cold sore ... and I hate it, hate it hate it.  Im not sure what I did in another life to get afflicted with cold sores but I wish i would not have done it.   There are all these VERY expensive products that claim to reduce your cold sore by days and I have used them all and they are ALL a bunch of BS.... A cold sore is at least 14 days of digusting ooze and crusty grossness on your face no matter what product is out there.   I would like someone to come out with a cold sore prevention that really works......that would be even more convenient for me than even bottled garlic...  

 I guess I shouldnt be complaining  I could have that OTHER herpes, that would REALLY suck.  

Book Obsession

Im not sure if everyone is this way but I think I have a book obsession.  Often I will start a book or a series of books that I very much become obsessed with.  I dont want to do anything but read that book and be in the book.  I carry it around with me everywhere and use every 10 minutes of time to read my book.  Im not sure why this happens. 

 I will sometimes delay reading the next book because I feel guilty and know that if I start reading it I wont be able to stop and then I will ignore everyone else and not want to do what I am supposed to be doing because I want to read my book.   Im not sure why this type of escapism appeals to me...but it does.. 

Traveling

So I have to leave on Monday to go on a business trip to Atlanta, last week I was in San Francisco.  That makes me sound very adult and responsible.   Its not really that way at all. 

 I think I have San Francisco pretty down now,  but I have to confess that I have traveling anxiety or maybe it is just unfamiliar territory anxiety.   I  definitely am not one of these "go with the flow" type people who can just "wing it".   

When I first started to going to San Francisco I would have stress about it.  Basically I would have to be very prepared and print about a zillion maps ( and look at them a zillion times)then, review where I buy my Bart ticket, which Bart train I get on,  and which station I have to get off. I would say I  had Bart stress for a while, but I think Im okay with it now..just as long as my routine doesn't change.  

Monday I go to Atlanta where I have never been AND I think is like one of the biggest airports in the country (yeah).    Luckily, I can take a taxi to the hotel but I always stress about dumb things ...like what if I only have a credit card and the taxi only takes cash and what if I cant find the taxi's(very stupid I know), what if the taxi driver doesnt know where my hotel is....   

Then I overanalyze what im going to wear.  I am there for basically 2 nights 3 days but I end up trying on a bunch of outfits and wondering if I will be over or under dressed.  

I am going to this conference that my boss is sending me to on "customer feedback week"   So y it is all these seminars from other companies where they are talking about how they use client feedback and survey data to improve their business.  The interesting thing is I am wondering who these people at the conference think I am.... a couple of days ago I got a email from one of the meeting organizers inviting me to a "special" luncheon on one of the days with some of the meeting organizers to give feedback and stuff.    THEN I got a phone call that one of the meeting organizers wanted to meet with me 1:1.... I guess I can go and be whoever I want to be... Im the only one from my company that is going so I can be as important as I want to be...

Anyway I am going to try to be a bit more adventurous and explore more while I am there.   While in SF I always end up going back to my room and watching bad TV.... but my brother is going to go out to dinner with me and show me some sights...the first night.    I always go running when traveling because I love to see the city in that way... lots of different things to look at.   But im usually stressed with the time change and dont want to be late or miss any meetings or events because i think Im afraid ill get into trouble.... can you get into trouble at a conference...i dont know.