Home for the Holidays

Well I'm finally back in Arlington Virginia with my family. Being home makes me so excited for graduation and the extended amount of time I get to spend with my family in January.

I'm officially cleared to run after an injury of almost 4 months, with Physical Therapy, and cannot wait to get back to it.  I've been really sick for the past week and thus not been able to actually get out a test run so we shall see how that goes when I do. Mr Charlie, my PT man, told me to keep it easy and let my ankle control how far I go. Honestly, after four months I think it'll be my lungs that restrict me. I'm just so excited to get back into it and have my normal past time back.  It's been a rough last semester without my usual stress reliever of running. I've also been so busy with school work that gym time has been precious. I'm extremely happy I've basically kept my weight constant since I stopped running, so clearly I'm doing something right (cooking all the time helps).

I'll be needing to place an order for winter running clothes since I own slim to none. Especially since my roomies cat decided my running tights were a good scratching post. Fun. 

Not. 

Anyway I'm going to go play Wii with my twinsie and my BF who are being absurd in the living room. Figured I need to get back to this since I'll actually have a life again, and will be getting back from this horrendous injury. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am one stressed out pre-graduation girl.

And damn do I miss running.

Tomorrow is my first physical therapy session! YAY!

Wait, I'm excited?

Yes, excited. I want to be back out on the road. I miss running and I'm sick of having to watch this gorgeous weather pass me by. 

Besides not being able to run, I've been miserable with the amount of work I've had to do for school lately. Senior design is kicking my ass.

Seriously, even when I sleep, I dream of solar cook stoves.

Anyway I'll update/explain that later but for now I have a test tomorrow so I must go study.

Up and Out

So I'm graduating in 11 weeks. 11? 

10?

One of those. 

I would love to say I have everything after that lined up and that it will go smoothly but I know that I wouldn't be 'starting a new chapter' if there wasn't some uncertainty. 

Without a doubt however I know I will be leaving Atlanta. This I am very ready for. It's not that I don't love GT, because I do.  If I could live by Tech and go to every home game till I die I would. I love the atmosphere when the weather cools from the sweltering hot of the summer and everyone is outside in the Fall. Just as so when the weather warms up from a hard winter in the Spring. 

It's just time to leave. 

My group of friends has become amazing, I couldn't ask for a better group. Very few people have survived four years of school staying close to me, the few that have are still my best friends.  However it's my newer friends that cross so many 'friend circles' that make the best looking bunch of Hodge-podge friends I've ever seen. It's just what I want. No stress of a 'group' and no drama. I have people over every other night, we drink beer sometimes, we work on HW most times and we watch a lot of football.

Most of all we all enjoy the time we have together because we all know it is limited. It's the time of the year when everyone realizes that 6 months from now everything will be different.  

Every minute counts.

But don't worry, no one is stressed about it. This is the best time to make a big change, and I'm so ready for it.

I've been to 5 interviews: Continental, Solar Turbines, Harris, Schlumberger and Pratt and Whitney.  The relocation varies from Michigan, San Diego, Connecticut and wherever else they want me. I'm praying for a Pratt job up in Connecticut. I'll be 6 hours away from my family and get to have real seasons. REAL SEASONS. 

And a real place to myself, with probably a real dog.

Something I'm really looking forward to though? Besides leaving behind the dredge in my life in Atlanta. 

New running paths. 

Run Happy Everyone, and never be scared of change!

Fall and My return

Happy Fall everyone! It's my favorite time of the year, fun fact. 

Well in theory it is.

If I didn't live in Atlanta I would get a real fall, instead of today's high being 80+ degrees. One of my favorite parts of fall is fall-styled beer. Oktoberfests and Pumpkin beers. Pumpkin being number 1. Today's pumpkin beer is by Heavy Seas.

 

Crafty beer!

It is, so far, very good. Actually much better than I anticipated. Not overwhelming pumpkin but can definitely taste the cinnamon/fall flavors desired.

Now away from beer.

Yes I still run. No not as often. I'm 6 weeks out of my sprained ankle and it's still giving me a lot of hate and discontent. It swells every night, especially when I'm on it a lot, and I've been having to ice it regularly. I originally thought this was just a 4-6 week recovery but it's looking to be a lot longer.  I still cannot even come close to wearing heels, the angle hurts, and it some days my ankle is tender to the touch. 

All bad news.

So tomorrow I have a DR appointment at 10am to get it looked at and hopefully get a referral for physical therapy.

I did run 4 miles twice last week and it wasn't too bad.  The after-swelling is pretty rough though.

So this explains, not excuses, my absence from the running world/my blog.  So I've been a little bitter, yes. 

I'll be around now though. Because the BF, seen here (yes with me, classy photo):

is finally on my ass about it. 

He says he has his eye on me...

See you guys around!

IM GOING TO SCHOOL

This whole summer has been wrought with anxiety and working to be able to afford to pay for my 14k$ tuition bill for my last semester at Georgia Tech.

Well it's all over and everything is golden. And I could not be happier.
Stressful summer with a lack of running but a whole lot of fun and memories.


Currently I am dealing with a very bad sprained ankle and will probably be out of running for a few more weeks.
But that's ok.
Why?

BECAUSE I'M GOING TO GRADUATE IN DECEMBER!!!

I hope everyone has a glorious day and can find something that puts them in as equally a good mood as I am currently in.
Run happy everyone!

My Texas-Sized Hangover

So radio silence occured becuase I was in...
TEXAS!
For 5 days. Left Wednesday at like 6am and got back Sunday night...more like 12am Monday morning and then had work yesterday and today. Crazy! I've been very very tired/worn down. It was the longest car ride I've ever taken and the first time ever traveling in Mississippi and Texas. Louisiana I've been to...for Bourban street.
Another time, a good story, or two.

Anyway it was awesome. The drive out was to Dallas and then stayed the night there, then from Dallas we drove down to Texas Station. That's right folk's Giggem'/Saw The Horns Off/Texas A&M Aggie town.  I'll post more about why I was there later, with pictures and all.

I would like to however cover my excitement about Texas.
This is how I pictured Texas: desert-y, armadillos, long horns, salloons, maybe tumbleweeds?

Clearly I'm an idiot.
No there was no desert. I did see some long horns while driving, Holy crap they're huge. I saw a few dead armadillos, which made me sad.  (Fun mini story: my dad ripped the muffler off him and my  mom's little red MG by driving over a dead armadillo. My dad thought it would smush...nope.)
Tumbleweeds were a negative HOWEVER Salloons? I'm gonna say where I partied Saturday night was close enough in my book.

Picture in your head if you could, a college town bar. These are foreign to me. Atlanta doesn't have many since it is a City in it's own right and College Station...well is College Station.
Cruddy engraved tables that wobbled, stuff ALL over the wall, lots of Aggie things/memorabilia AND 6$ PBR pitchers and 7$ New Castle pitchers.

'Scuse me how much?
Done.
It was 9 of us all out together so we started with 3 pitchers. As we're looking around the bar we find, I shit you not, LIFE SIZE connect four. The pieces were wooden circles of 8ish inches in diameter.  It. Was. Amazing. And then we found Jenga made out of 2x4's. I was amazed. We were all amazed actually. Like big kids in a big kid toy store.

I had 2 beers, The BF brought me a gin and tonic and while playing connect four (reigning  champ what up!) I met a very nice A&M girl named Jackie who played with me a few times.  I decided that clearly, as I was drunk enough and from out of town, that Jackie and I needed a shot. Here's how the bartender and I's convo went.

ME: "Hey umm how much forrrrr your Patron shots?"
Bartender: "4.50$"
ME:"...."...serious pause going on..."How much for Jose Silver?"
Bartender: "3.25$"
ME: "HOLY SHIT I'll take four."

So me, Jackie, Jackie's friend and BF and I took a shot. and it cost me total what 1 and a half shots of patron would cost me in ATL. All the drinks actually were super, super cheap.

AMAZING.
This is why my hangover was huge.
Hey, everything is bigger in texas, I figured my hangoer should be as well.

Great fun, I have great pictures, I can't wait to post more later. The epicness of how cheap drinks were had to go up here because I think I'm still reeling from it.

I'm currently in my lab slaving away. Put in a solid 6+ hours yesterday, I'm on hour 5 right now. Makin MONIES!

After this it's gym time to bike/lift/abs since my hip flexors are still killing me, which the long car ride did not help. Then headed to the Roomie's swim meet for the kids she coaches and dinner at Felinis!

This is such a nice day.
Everyone, go be happy, go enjoy the day.

Go listen to some country!

Forever and a day. Or Two.

Long time no post eh?

Alright, I've been way out of running for a few weeks. Maybe like 6. 

Running here and there, putting in mileage every week but I haven't been into it.

Well, IM BACK!

Back and unfortunately having some problems. My hip flexors/abductors absolutely murdered me during my half. I mean, mile 7 out I was in so much pain and it was so weird because it'd never happened before. Well now it's a reoccurring theme. I'm icing and taking care of them, they've kinda radiated down to my knees, specifically my left, but it's still annoying when I want to come back with crazy-I-missed-running-mileage.

Since last Sunday I've put in about 28 miles. Not bad for a week and a half! My body feels good, feels like it's getting back to normal actually, even the aches and pain feel good. 

I'm now working in a lab as a research undergrad-help-assistant-monkey-sidekick for a grad student. It's very interesting and I like the work so far. Kinda tedious, but I get to do other things in between...like blog! oh hey that's what I'm doing right now!

So my summer consists of lab work, 20 hours a week, grading papers and running/training my little butt off.  I've got some new goals for shorter distances now.

5k: sub 25 (ouch)

10k: sub 50 (maybe not this summer but we'll see)

Half: still sub 2 hours. It's gonna happen. Soon.

In other news I've picked my camera back up again, so I will part you all for now with a fave photo I took this weekend. 

Raindrops

Run Happy everyone!