i wanted to record this momentous occasion:
today i ran from my house to connecticut without stopping. if you have been to my neighborhood you know that's not actually that impressive but it's the furthest i've ever gone! yay for improvement.
and then my pace seriously tapered off as i began dry heaving on the side of the road.
i feel oddly accomplished. pretty sure it was the dry heaving.
at any rate, when i got home i checked the clock and i had only been out for 25 minutes. which means i did a 12/13 minute mile. which, once again, isn't impressive but it's faster than the 15 minute mile i've been running. i will for sure be able to do a 10 minute mile by march!
this morning was extra exercise-y. i went to the gym for an hour, came home and did my ab video and then ran two miles. some day soon i will be the buffness. hopefully by august. my plan for tonight is to run the two miles as soon as i get home from work and then it's settlers of catan night! i have an awesome life.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
she doesn't own a dress, her hair is always a mess
so i hastily committed myself to doing the marine corps run amuck in august. i thought 'if i don't sign up for this right this second i will never sign up for it... DO IT.' and then i did. and now i have 5 months to build up my upper body strength. because the word on the street is you need a lot of that for this race. GAH! i feel like a fool but now i just have to train for it. or die. those or the options. pull it together and train for it or die. i'd prefer not to die at this point in the game. (if i do die, however, please remember i want only the good die young played at my funeral... preferably sung by a gospel choir if that's not too difficult.)
i told a friend about this early today (before i realized i had lost my mind) and she responded with something along the lines of WHAT IN THE WORLD? and i said, 'well what's the worst that could happen? the worst is my heart could explode. that's the absolute worst thing that could happen!' which didn't help at all to prove to her that this decision was a good one.
i'm excited but i have a looooot of work to do.
ps diane: please don't give me any more ideas. ever. or at least preface all ideas with 'think about this for 5 minutes before you do something.'
yesterday i submitted an application to volunteer at a local homeless shelter that will be reopening in june. they're looking for a few people to start doing work sooner than that... i think working on administrative stuff. i hope they need me. i really want to be doing something some where. i want to give back. i might keep looking for places i can work in case this doesn't pan out.
anywho, on the application it asked for hobbies (why do they always ask that?!) and i wrote "reading, art, running." it made me laugh when i looked at it. i thought about adding tap dancing but decided against it.
eventually i want to learn to play an instrument. suggestions, friends?
i'm going to try to find a place to go salsa dancing a couple times a month. the cuban motion really helps with core strength. i'd like to build that back up. plus salsa dancing is tons of fun and i love the music. i'm also looking for salsa dancing friends, if anyone is interested.
so tonight i was driving home and i grabbed a random cd and it was the mix i made for my 22nd birthday. i must say, the cd is AMAZING. i spent the evening singing at the top of my lungs and car dancing. i loooove to car dance and i don't care one bit who sees me. there's just something magical about singing along at the top of your lungs to miss independent with the bass turned all the way up while pumping the fist.
one time dan and i were on the freeway listening to kelly clarkson singing along as loud as we possibly could when the sun started to blind me and i screamed and almost killed us. dan thought i was just really into the song. but no, i was being blinded by the light. those were the days. i miss my donut friend. there is a possibility that he may come out to visit for memorial day and i am besides myself excited. PLEASE COME VISIT. please, please, please. i miss my bff.
i told a friend about this early today (before i realized i had lost my mind) and she responded with something along the lines of WHAT IN THE WORLD? and i said, 'well what's the worst that could happen? the worst is my heart could explode. that's the absolute worst thing that could happen!' which didn't help at all to prove to her that this decision was a good one.
i'm excited but i have a looooot of work to do.
ps diane: please don't give me any more ideas. ever. or at least preface all ideas with 'think about this for 5 minutes before you do something.'
yesterday i submitted an application to volunteer at a local homeless shelter that will be reopening in june. they're looking for a few people to start doing work sooner than that... i think working on administrative stuff. i hope they need me. i really want to be doing something some where. i want to give back. i might keep looking for places i can work in case this doesn't pan out.
anywho, on the application it asked for hobbies (why do they always ask that?!) and i wrote "reading, art, running." it made me laugh when i looked at it. i thought about adding tap dancing but decided against it.
eventually i want to learn to play an instrument. suggestions, friends?
i'm going to try to find a place to go salsa dancing a couple times a month. the cuban motion really helps with core strength. i'd like to build that back up. plus salsa dancing is tons of fun and i love the music. i'm also looking for salsa dancing friends, if anyone is interested.
so tonight i was driving home and i grabbed a random cd and it was the mix i made for my 22nd birthday. i must say, the cd is AMAZING. i spent the evening singing at the top of my lungs and car dancing. i loooove to car dance and i don't care one bit who sees me. there's just something magical about singing along at the top of your lungs to miss independent with the bass turned all the way up while pumping the fist.
one time dan and i were on the freeway listening to kelly clarkson singing along as loud as we possibly could when the sun started to blind me and i screamed and almost killed us. dan thought i was just really into the song. but no, i was being blinded by the light. those were the days. i miss my donut friend. there is a possibility that he may come out to visit for memorial day and i am besides myself excited. PLEASE COME VISIT. please, please, please. i miss my bff.
Monday, April 5, 2010
things and stuff. stuff and things.
i have several extremely important stories to tell. i am beyond exhausted at the moment so i'm asking everyone to just bare with me if this is even more stream-of-consciousness-y than normal. also, these stories are only extremely important because i'm exhausted. it's like a terrible cycle of things i can't even think to describe. right-o, you've been warned.
story 1: why exactly is elaina so tired at the moment seeing as how it's barely 9 PM? i'll tell you what bud, don't get sassy with me. i was at the gym at 5:30 AM, worked out for an hour, came home and ran 2 miles with amber, went to work all day, met kimy for dinner, met em and went to the canal and ran over 3 miles and now i am home. some day soon i'm going to be buff and you're going to be too scared to ask questions like that. in all reality i plan on achieving my goal of running the monument 10k next march in an hour and nothing is going to stop me. i'm getting there one mile at a time... one exhausting, my legs are killing and i want to die mile at a time.
story 2: i had this craaaazy dream last night. the weird thing is i wasn't even in the dream. in my brain i'm just watching a movie. it's not like i see me watching a movie or i know that i'm watching a movie... it's just like a movie is playing in my brain. and that movie is adaptation starring my one true love nic cage. ::loves:: except my dream version of adaptation has zombies in it. and the entire time i keep thinking 'wow how could i have forgotten about the zombies?! i totally don't remember this part!' when i woke up it made me laugh b/c in dream world it makes more sense to think 'i don't remember these zombies being here' than to think 'there aren't zombies in this movie!' and that is why i love dream world. anything can happen. including running a 10k in an hour.
story 3: TIM PETERSON i blame you for story 3. i just want to throw it out to the universe that i need someone to blame and that person is tim freakin' peterson. you see last night at dinner tim and i were discussing my gyming (that's a new word i just invented! wow!) because that seems to be all i talk about these days and we were talking about how i use the weight machine and he says 'do you grunt while lifting weights?' and then i was totally offended b/c excuse me, i am a lady i would never grunt. my actually response was 'no. while i work out a make sounds like a disney princess ::insert angelic 'oh my's and 'ahhhing's and princess hands::' it was actually quite hilarious in person. in doesn't have the same impact when typed out. anywho, i just want to state that TIM PETERSON is the one who threw the whole grunting while working out thing into the universe, so he is 100% responsible for what happened at the gym this morning.
so em and i are walking up to the gym and we hear this loud grunt / yell from inside. we stop, look at each other and continue on. we get inside to find a cross between gi joe and the harlem globe trotters working out. so he's on the treadmill, running the fastest i have ever seen a person run. his legs weren't like real legs. they were like the blurry circles that the roadrunner gets when he's running away from wile e coyote. why you would ever run like that if you weren't being chased is beyond me. in my head when i think back i could almost swear he was flailing his arms as he ran but that doesn't seem totally possible. it just really seemed like he was running out of control and i expected him to be thrown into the wall at any moment. and all the while he is random yelling out these grunts. it was very distracting and, uhhmm, alarming, to say the least.
so he finishes up the running and moves to the weights. where he proceeds to back flip through the equipment. i'm not totally sure how to describe what he was doing except that he seemed to be doing crunches while balanced on his shoulder blades and he did hand stands while doing push ups. all of which wouldn't have been quite so awkward if we weren't in a 15'x15' room. i mean, we're at the gym in her apartment complex not some big place where we can hide in a corner from this man. after a few rounds of the shoulder blade, hand stand, black flips (during which, i swear his feet never touched the ground) he grabbed his shirt and left. the worst part of the entire experience was actually not the startling yell/grunts, but the fact that after he left everything in the entire room was covered in sweat. i did my best not to start dry heaving.
i'm going to pray tonight that he isn't there tomorrow. thanks a lot tim peterson.
4. i heard that newish michael buble song this morning on my way to work and i about died b/c i love it so much. enjoy the video friends!
story 1: why exactly is elaina so tired at the moment seeing as how it's barely 9 PM? i'll tell you what bud, don't get sassy with me. i was at the gym at 5:30 AM, worked out for an hour, came home and ran 2 miles with amber, went to work all day, met kimy for dinner, met em and went to the canal and ran over 3 miles and now i am home. some day soon i'm going to be buff and you're going to be too scared to ask questions like that. in all reality i plan on achieving my goal of running the monument 10k next march in an hour and nothing is going to stop me. i'm getting there one mile at a time... one exhausting, my legs are killing and i want to die mile at a time.
story 2: i had this craaaazy dream last night. the weird thing is i wasn't even in the dream. in my brain i'm just watching a movie. it's not like i see me watching a movie or i know that i'm watching a movie... it's just like a movie is playing in my brain. and that movie is adaptation starring my one true love nic cage. ::loves:: except my dream version of adaptation has zombies in it. and the entire time i keep thinking 'wow how could i have forgotten about the zombies?! i totally don't remember this part!' when i woke up it made me laugh b/c in dream world it makes more sense to think 'i don't remember these zombies being here' than to think 'there aren't zombies in this movie!' and that is why i love dream world. anything can happen. including running a 10k in an hour.
story 3: TIM PETERSON i blame you for story 3. i just want to throw it out to the universe that i need someone to blame and that person is tim freakin' peterson. you see last night at dinner tim and i were discussing my gyming (that's a new word i just invented! wow!) because that seems to be all i talk about these days and we were talking about how i use the weight machine and he says 'do you grunt while lifting weights?' and then i was totally offended b/c excuse me, i am a lady i would never grunt. my actually response was 'no. while i work out a make sounds like a disney princess ::insert angelic 'oh my's and 'ahhhing's and princess hands::' it was actually quite hilarious in person. in doesn't have the same impact when typed out. anywho, i just want to state that TIM PETERSON is the one who threw the whole grunting while working out thing into the universe, so he is 100% responsible for what happened at the gym this morning.
so em and i are walking up to the gym and we hear this loud grunt / yell from inside. we stop, look at each other and continue on. we get inside to find a cross between gi joe and the harlem globe trotters working out. so he's on the treadmill, running the fastest i have ever seen a person run. his legs weren't like real legs. they were like the blurry circles that the roadrunner gets when he's running away from wile e coyote. why you would ever run like that if you weren't being chased is beyond me. in my head when i think back i could almost swear he was flailing his arms as he ran but that doesn't seem totally possible. it just really seemed like he was running out of control and i expected him to be thrown into the wall at any moment. and all the while he is random yelling out these grunts. it was very distracting and, uhhmm, alarming, to say the least.
so he finishes up the running and moves to the weights. where he proceeds to back flip through the equipment. i'm not totally sure how to describe what he was doing except that he seemed to be doing crunches while balanced on his shoulder blades and he did hand stands while doing push ups. all of which wouldn't have been quite so awkward if we weren't in a 15'x15' room. i mean, we're at the gym in her apartment complex not some big place where we can hide in a corner from this man. after a few rounds of the shoulder blade, hand stand, black flips (during which, i swear his feet never touched the ground) he grabbed his shirt and left. the worst part of the entire experience was actually not the startling yell/grunts, but the fact that after he left everything in the entire room was covered in sweat. i did my best not to start dry heaving.
i'm going to pray tonight that he isn't there tomorrow. thanks a lot tim peterson.
4. i heard that newish michael buble song this morning on my way to work and i about died b/c i love it so much. enjoy the video friends!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
"You can pretend to be serious; you can't pretend to be witty."
so we're watching sherlock holmes and jessica turns to me and this is what happens:
jessica: ronny told me that if you light a dorito on fire it burns blue... it's either the nacho cheesier ones or the cool ranch ones. he couldn't remember which ones.
me: lets do it.
so i only had nacho cheesier so we decided to light one of those on fire. i stand over the sink with the dorito while jessica lights it on fire. we quickly discover that it is just burning regular and it was probably the cool ranch that does cool stuff (we should have guessed from the name) and so i poured some water on the plate that was sitting in the sink and dropped the chip on it... which immediately sent a fire ball up into the air burning my arm hair off by my wrist.
there must have been oil or something on the plate that burned off when i dropped the flaming chip. that sure was exciting. this was our reaction:
me: i just got my hand caught on fire by a flaming dorito. we really need to start dating so that this isn't what we're doing on saturday nights!
jessica: elaina... i haven't told you because i thought it went without saying...but i don't date girls
me: ::hahaha:: no. if we dated each other we would still be sitting here watching a movie and lighting doritos on fire. we definitely need other people. people who will say "don't light that tortilla chip on fire!"
what an exciting evening. speaking of exciting things we had a pancake breakfast this morning.
fun things happened like:
jim ate butter. friends, i wish that was a joke but it isn't. the man ate butter. from the stick. he picked up the stick and took a bite. a bite of butter. and then i started dry heaving.
joseph walked into our glass door. joseph is one of the smartest people i know. he's probably the smartest guy i know. and so at first i thought he was joking and then i realized he wasn't. and then i laughed. a lot. because i am mean. sorry joseph. i hope your face feels better now!
jim made me a pancake shaped like a shoe. because he is totally into stuff like that. he loves shoes and purses and braiding hair and cooking breakfast. jim is pretty awesome if you ask me.
the men cooked for us. that never happens at our house. i documented the momentous occasion.
so tonight i was thinking about my opinion on panhandlers. i was mostly thinking about it because i think it's not the same as most people's. so now i will share it with you. so, i believe that if you see a person who is homeless and they have some sort of sign asking for help or they ask you for help and if you have money to spare on you then it is your responsibility as a decent person to give it to them.
i know a lot of people say well, they're probably just lying but to me it's not about that. so often people don't ask for help when they really need it and so when i see someone standing there with an actual sign saying i need help, it's only right to do what i can. and if the person is lying that makes them a bad person and not me. they will be accountable for being a liar and a thief. if they're not lying i will be accountable for not using the gifts that have been given to me to help those less fortunate.
i think this thought process applies to other kinds of relationships in our lives. too often we assume the worst of people or do only what we see as being beneficial for another person.
my last blog thought: i'm weird. ::hahaha:: so my roommate amber has this cat who is afraid of the world and just likes to hide around. anyway tonight she decided she loves me and just wanted to sit on my bed next to me. she was like 'hey elaina, lets be friends always. i like you for no real reason other than the fact that you smell good and there is carpet on the floor in here.' i feel like this is my life these days. i also feel like people see me as being a walking television show. i'm not. this probably seems random and doesn't make a lot of sense but it makes sense to me. if you'd like further clarification please contact management. she'd be happy to explain.
jessica: ronny told me that if you light a dorito on fire it burns blue... it's either the nacho cheesier ones or the cool ranch ones. he couldn't remember which ones.
me: lets do it.
so i only had nacho cheesier so we decided to light one of those on fire. i stand over the sink with the dorito while jessica lights it on fire. we quickly discover that it is just burning regular and it was probably the cool ranch that does cool stuff (we should have guessed from the name) and so i poured some water on the plate that was sitting in the sink and dropped the chip on it... which immediately sent a fire ball up into the air burning my arm hair off by my wrist.
there must have been oil or something on the plate that burned off when i dropped the flaming chip. that sure was exciting. this was our reaction:
me: i just got my hand caught on fire by a flaming dorito. we really need to start dating so that this isn't what we're doing on saturday nights!
jessica: elaina... i haven't told you because i thought it went without saying...but i don't date girls
me: ::hahaha:: no. if we dated each other we would still be sitting here watching a movie and lighting doritos on fire. we definitely need other people. people who will say "don't light that tortilla chip on fire!"
what an exciting evening. speaking of exciting things we had a pancake breakfast this morning.
fun things happened like:
jim ate butter. friends, i wish that was a joke but it isn't. the man ate butter. from the stick. he picked up the stick and took a bite. a bite of butter. and then i started dry heaving.
joseph walked into our glass door. joseph is one of the smartest people i know. he's probably the smartest guy i know. and so at first i thought he was joking and then i realized he wasn't. and then i laughed. a lot. because i am mean. sorry joseph. i hope your face feels better now!
jim made me a pancake shaped like a shoe. because he is totally into stuff like that. he loves shoes and purses and braiding hair and cooking breakfast. jim is pretty awesome if you ask me.
the men cooked for us. that never happens at our house. i documented the momentous occasion.
so tonight i was thinking about my opinion on panhandlers. i was mostly thinking about it because i think it's not the same as most people's. so now i will share it with you. so, i believe that if you see a person who is homeless and they have some sort of sign asking for help or they ask you for help and if you have money to spare on you then it is your responsibility as a decent person to give it to them.
i know a lot of people say well, they're probably just lying but to me it's not about that. so often people don't ask for help when they really need it and so when i see someone standing there with an actual sign saying i need help, it's only right to do what i can. and if the person is lying that makes them a bad person and not me. they will be accountable for being a liar and a thief. if they're not lying i will be accountable for not using the gifts that have been given to me to help those less fortunate.
i think this thought process applies to other kinds of relationships in our lives. too often we assume the worst of people or do only what we see as being beneficial for another person.
my last blog thought: i'm weird. ::hahaha:: so my roommate amber has this cat who is afraid of the world and just likes to hide around. anyway tonight she decided she loves me and just wanted to sit on my bed next to me. she was like 'hey elaina, lets be friends always. i like you for no real reason other than the fact that you smell good and there is carpet on the floor in here.' i feel like this is my life these days. i also feel like people see me as being a walking television show. i'm not. this probably seems random and doesn't make a lot of sense but it makes sense to me. if you'd like further clarification please contact management. she'd be happy to explain.
haven't you always wanted a monkey
so, adventuring! we went to an adults only easter egg hunt at the fair grounds. there was potential for winning fabulous prizes like a television and a lot of other stuff no one cared about. the rules were kind of sketch in that there weren't any.it's a little unnerving to see adults maul each other for plastic eggs filled with candy. people were jumping through hedges, pushing people over, setting things on fire. i wanted to say hey friends lets just go buy a couple bags of candy and call it a day. but i guess that defeats the purpose and the joy that is the easter egg hunt.
i got to take a picture with my personal hero... nutcheeks! the mascot of richmond's aa baseball team. that totally made the fact that was i unable to get even one easter egg worth it. after it was done i really wanted to set up my own egg hunt where i knew where all the eggs were hidden just so i could dominate the hunt. but it just doesn't seem right.
better luck next time elainagans. luckily the guys fared a little better than i did. good for them, bad for my ego. kevin was kind enough to give me some rabbit bubble gum and a tootsie roll. thanks kevin! steven on the other hand... not the greatest with sharing.
i like the final picture because i think it looks like we're a band. from left to right, steven on piano, elaina with vocals and kevin on saxophone.
** fyi the flying squirrels' mascot is actually named nutzy. we just call him nutcheeks b/c that's h
ow we roll.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
for the morphi
"quarter life in crisis: this news column explores the soul-searching, angst filled roller coaster ride of finding yourself in richmond in your 20s" is NOT written by or about me. also, that is NOT an artist's rendering of me. i don't have a cat. the fact that i sleep with my laptop and books in my bed is totally besides the point.
about a month ago richmond.com sent out this little newspaperette to everyone in richmond and this was the cover story. i saw it sitting on the kitchen counter in passing and didn't think much about it until my roommate mention that she saved it because it made her think of me. GREAT. in the moment it was funny and i laughed it off. until i get to work and one of my coworkers came up to me and says 'i saw this article in the newspaper that made think of you...' and went on to describe the picture of the girl with the cat and the books and the couch. and i was just like yeah i got it, thanks. thanks richmond.com for giving my current state of life a title... and then mailing it to everyone i know. that makes life awesome. the article is still up on our fridge because my roommate wants to recreate it and take a picture of me as the girl. if we ever actually do it i will be certain to post it.
anne and i went to dinner at pho so tonight. i love that place. and anne. and i love that the guy who takes our order told me i wouldn't like what i ordered because i'm american and he told me what to order and it was delicious. plus i adore anne. she is such a great friend and it's nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of.
after dinner we met up with joseph. JOSEPH ROCKS. that's all i have to say about that.
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