Ramblings...

Can you believe that today is the last day of April? Before you know it, summer will have come and gone. I think this is one of those signs you are getting old. The first sign is you complain about the weather, which I do often. The second sign is you talk about how fast time flies. So its official, I’ve reached the first two stages of getting old. Super. Anyway, to celebrate how fast time is flying, I feel a good old post of Ramblings is due. Also, I have tons to ramble about today.

Speaking of summer, I already have rockin’ plans for the summer. I will be attending some of OKC’s coolest summer concerts. I’m kicking off my summer concert series this weekend. Friday night I’m going to see a cutie-puttee country star. I’m so excited! The second concert is in June. Are you ready for this? Sister #1 and I are going to see- Cyndi Lauper, B-52s, Joan Jett, and a few other people I don’t know. But I get to see Cyndi Lauper! When I asked Sister #1 if she wanted to accompany me to the concert she replied, who? Are you freakin’ kidding me? I about had a heart attack. Don’t worry folks, I quickly educated my sister. Thank goodness she knew who they were after I sang “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Love Shack”. The third concert is in August- Dave Matthews. I’m super pumped to see Dave. It’s going to be a great concert. I purchased my tickets for Dave the weekend they went on sale. Now I just need a cool concert for July.

The YOY is back for me! In case you forgot YOY stands for…Year of Yes. I realize it’s been about four months since I’ve babbled about the YOY. Hopefully, you haven’t forgotten. Ok, fine quick review incase you have forgotten.....
Back in November Holly and I decided to make 2008 the Year of Yes. We decided we were going to say yes to all dates. Ring a bell now????
Anyway, I must say I was doing pretty dang good with YOY. Then I got a bit sidetracked from the YOY, but now I’m back on the straight and narrow path. I feel that I’m ready to take back the challenge of YOY. Actually, I’ve been back with YOY for two weeks. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I just didn’t know if you guys would be ready for the big announcement.

I have super news for all ice cream fans out in Blogger World!!!! Tonight from 5-10 Baskin Robbins will be having a 31 cent scoop night. Participating stores will reduce prices of small ice cream scoops to 31 cents. They are honoring firefighters. I’m not a huge fan of ice cream but I’m all about honoring firefighters!

Last night I was able to participate in something really neat. Last night my Relay for Life committee hosted a Cancer Survivors Dinner for all the cancer survivors in my town. This is the fourth year my family has been part of this dinner, and like all previous years it was a huge success! I know the committee worked hard to make the evening special to all the cancer survivors. I actually got to give a short spill about Luminaries during the dinner. I knew I wasn’t going to have great things to say so I took a cute 4 year old up on stage with me. Thankfully, the cute 4 year old won the crowd over for me. It was a great evening and the dinner was amazing! Outback Steakhouse donated all the food and Brown’s Bakery made us individual cakes. I highly recommend both places.

Monday is Cinco de Mayo. I feel that it’s my duty to celebrate by eating Mexican food. Wouldn’t you agree it’s the right thing to do? Heck, I’m about to pitch an idea to my boss of working half day on Monday. I want to get a jump start on the eating part. Ok, scratch all that…my boss isn’t in the greatest mood. I think I’ll wait to pitch the half day idea.

Today during lunch I went back to the mall. Now before you get all judgy on me….I went for a specific reason. The new fab purse I bought yesterday had a make-up stain on it. Sista’ #1 pointed out the stain last night. It hacked me off because it was brand new, and I didn’t want to return the purse. I knew I didn’t put the stain on the purse so I felt it was only fair to return the purse. Anyway, I exchanged the purse today during lunch. You hear that Sista’ #1? I exchanged the purse. She made me promise her I’d take the purse back. Anyway, while I was there they were having a sale. It was Friends and Family day. I was so happy that Macy’s considered me a Friend and/or Family! I’m telling ya, it’s all about who you know in retail. Since they were having a sale I had to purchase something. I bought a new dress. It was 40% off and then I got an additional 20%. Who could pass up a deal like that? No one. Also, I need new clothes. I really do. I own absolutely nothing that fits anymore. Ok, I have some things that fit but mostly everything is too big. I’m sorry think what you want, but I need clothes to cloth myself.


So if you’d look to your right you’ve noticed that I just added this cool map feature to my blog. Ok, so the map has been there for about a month. Anyway, I think it’s neat to see where my readers are located. No I’m not stalking you guys; I just wonder where you are from. I now know where you are from…but who are you? Who’s reading my mindless babble, besides my aunt and cousin?

WELLL I believe I’ve Rambled enough for today. Have a great Wednesday!

Who needs therapy?

Impulse shopping.

Is there any other way to shop? I’m going to go out on a limb and say I’m not the only impulse shopper out there. However, if no one else is brave enough to admit the thrill of shopping impulsive than I’ll take all the blame/credit for this shopping technique.

Today has been a slow day at work. It’s been the type of day where a minute feels like an hour. The type of day where all you think about is food because you’ve looked at every cooking website known to man. I hate these types of days. When the clock finally hit 11:30 I was about to go crazy. I could sit one more minute in my lovely office, and I still had 30 more minutes before my normal lunch crew ate. It was at 11:34 when I decided to make a quick trip to the mall before meeting my lunch crew. Let me just say that working across the street from the mall can be very bad. Actually, I can’t think of one instance when working across the street from the mall has been beneficial? Yup, not one instance.

When I walked out of my office building I had decided I was on the hunt for a new purse. When I reached my car I had talked myself into buying the Coach purse I’ve been wanting for years. Once I came close to buying the purse, but I couldn’t justify spending all my rent money on one purse. Call me crazy, but I thought a warm house was better than a purse. I know I’m so not a girl! However, I decided today I would buy the purse. I figured this would be my reward for running the half marathon, making it through The Week from Hell, and still doing well in my MBA program.

I walked into the mall ready to purchase my purse. I didn’t even get to the Coach area before I was distracted by this super (much cheaper) cute Fossil purse. I looked the purse over for about 10.7 seconds before I decided it was a must have. I purchased my new purse and still about 20 minutes to kill. Next store was Buckle. I swear I was not even in the store before I found something I had to purchase. But in all honesty, the shirt I found (when I wasn’t even in the store) was the shirt I’ve been wanting for a few months. I saw a girl wearing it and thought it was too cute. Well now my cute butt will be wearing it!

I love impulse shopping. I feel better, purchased two cute things, and made it back in time for lunch. I had a yummy turkey sandwich waiting on me.

Work it harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger

Let me tell you something, all of my life people have said to me, "You're too small, Pre. You're not fast enough, Pre. Give up your foolish dreams, Steve!" But you know what, they forgot something: I have to win. There's no fallback here, no great stride, no long legs--nothing!

Sunday my alarm went off at 4:30am. When I heard my alarm go off I thought to myself…this really is stupid. Who in their right mind gets up at 4:30am to put their body through hell? Me.

Yesterday, I felt like Prefontaine. No, I did not win the race or place in the race. Shoot, I didn’t even beat my 55 year old dad. Yea, yea my dad beat me…go ahead laugh it up. Let’s see you guys get out there and run 13 miles with him. He’s a fast little man, I’m sure he’ll beat you too! Anyway, I felt like Prefontaine because Pre was a cool man and Sunday around 9:00am I felt cool. I felt pretty stinkin’ cool, actually.
Right now, I’d like to point out some cool moments about the race and then some of my random moments.

Cool Moment #1
When everyone lined up at the starting line it was raining. Most people would say this wasn’t a cool thing, but I beg to differ. I ran my first mile and half wearing a trash bag. I, along with 16,000 other people looked like a California Raisin trotting through downtown OKC. The cool factor came into play when I tore off the trash bag and threw it on the ground. I felt like Superman.

Random Moment #1
After the Superman reenactment the race was pretty basic. I ran and rocked out with Little Shuffle. I must say, Little Shuffle did fantastic job on his first ½ marathon. I think I’m going to keep him. He proved that he can pump out great music when I need him. For instance, at mile 11 I was tired and he brought to the table- Rihanna, Kanye West, KT Tunstall and a little MC Hammer!

Cool Moment #2
Around mile 4 I randomly saw Guy #3 run past me. At races I usually don’t notice other runners around me, because I’m in the zone. However, it’s hard not to notice a guy when he totally cuts you off. After I comprehended that the idiot that cut me off and Guy #3 were one in the same, I was suddenly energized to continue running.
Also, a few miles later Guy #3 ran up behind me…which means for a small amount of time I was beating Guy #3! I know, I was excited too! However, this small amount of time was quickly gone when he zoomed past me.

Random Moment #2
At mile 8 I realized I’d wasted over an hour looking down at the ground instead of looking at all the good looking guys running past me. Girls, races are a great place to pick up guys. I mean, I didn’t because I looked like death, but if you are a girl that’s pretty when she runs…you should consider running races.

Cool Moment #3
This moment actually takes the cake of all the cool moments. Well I don’t know if it beats finishing, but it’s pretty dang close. At mile 10 I had two cheerleaders waiting for me! Sister #1 and Sista’ #1 (Tonya) screamed and clapped as I ran past them! Saturday night Sister #1 told me where they would be standing. The whole race I kept looking at street signs to see if I was getting close to them. So when I realized I was there I was so excited I almost wet myself. Of course, I didn’t because Sister #1 said I was not allowed to pee on myself. The hardcore runners pee on themselves instead of stopping to go. No, I’m serious. Anyway, two of my favorite people stood in the freezing cold to cheer me on as I finished the remanding three miles. A-mazing!!!

Random Moment #3
Realizing that if I ever make a will Sister #1 and Sista’#1 are going to be left something! It might just be my running shoes, but hey, they can dip them in gold and put it on their mantle. Yea, I realize it’s weird to think about death and wills while running but it really did go through my head.

Cool Moment #4
There was a lady standing on the side walk with a sign that said “2.25 left” and at that exact moment Little Shuffle threw Kayne West “Stronger” at me. I picked up my pace and started passing people. I knew I was almost done.

Cool Moment #5
When I turned the corner and saw all the people waiting for me to finish. Ok, fine they weren’t all there for me, but you wouldn’t know that by all the cheers I heard.

Cool Moment #6
I turned off Little Shuffle so I could hear all the cheers from the crowd. I knew the finish line was less than 100 hundred yards away and I was going to finish the race.

Cool Moment #7
Running through the finish line!

I’m ran the race in 2:19. My goal was 2:15. But after the Week from Hell and breaking in brand new shoes during a ½ marathon…I think I did a pretty fine job.

I survived and I deserve a medal!

I’m so happy this week is over! This week has been by far the most stressful week since I’ve started school. I have gone ahead and named this week…. The Week from Hell. Don’t you just love a good week from hell? I know I do!

I realize it’s annoying to hear/read someone’s complaints about HOOOOW BUSY they were. I get it, everyone is busy. But you guys don’t understand, I was actually busy.
Besides, this is MY blog and the title of the blog is This is my world, not your world my world. Therefore, I’m going to recap all the craziness that happened to me this week. So hold on to your hats folks, get ready for the recap of The Week from Hell!

Recap #1
This week was finals week. I have survived a lot of MBA finals week thus far; and this finals week shouldn’t be any different than the others. It gets crazy but that's it. WRONG! Monday night was my Accounting final. I’m not good at Accounting. I just don’t get along with numbers, unless it’s numbers going into my bank account! But by some miracle I had a 95 in the class. Ah, that 95 would be before the final. I’m just throwing out all this information so you guys don’t think I’m a complete idiot. Anyway, I was really proud of myself for having an A in my MBA Accounting class. I made up my mind thatI was going to work super hard to keep my A.
I studied my butt off Sunday and even left work early Monday to go home for more studying. When I finally took the accounting final I walked out of the room feeling like crap. Total crap. I didn’t know how to do the problems on the last two pages. I had to guess on about 10 questions. I was bummed, but trying to stay positive and thought I could possibly keep my A. It was a stretched but I thought maybe God would grant me this small request.

Recap #2
Again-finals week! Last night I had another final. This final was in Leadership. Sounds like an easy class doesn’t it? Well it was, until the final. My final in Leadership was over the 13 quizzes we’d taken up until the final. SOOOO 13 quizzes X 25 questions on each quiz = 325 possibly questions on my final!!!! I feel that I clocked a good 7 hours for this final. Ok, maybe not. No, actually it was about 7 hours. Ok, so I clocked a good 7 hours.
I studied Tuesday night and Wednesday night for this stupid test. However, studying for this test was somewhat fun, because of my study partners. I mean, it still sucked but at least I laughed a few times.

Recap #3
This happened yesterday! Guy # 3 calls me at work to let me know the Accounting test grades are posted online. Let’s just say I wasted a whole lot of time studying. I made a whopping 60!! I missed freakin’ Big Brother to study for that stupid test. Ok now you guys can think I’m an idiot, not because I watch Big Brother. My grade went from that beautiful A to a horrible looking C. AHHH! Luckily, I have one homework grade that saved me. I believe I pulled a B in the class. I’ll take a B, better than a C.

Recap #4
Again, takes place yesterday. Guy #3 calls me yet again! This time it’s to let me know I need to make a 77 on my Leadership final to keep my A in the class. What the crap! Does Guy # 3 not have anything else to do at work besides find ways to stress me out!!!!
This bit of information about kills me. I get so stressed that I leave work early to go study…but not before Recap #5 makes me want to blow what little brains I had left out.

Recap #5
As I posted earlier this week, Sunday I’m running a half marathon. Somewhere between Sunday and Wednesday I developed shin splits. Awesome! I thought maybe I was being a big baby so I kept trying to run with the minor case of shin splits. Again this is me thinking….I thought since I’m tough and strong the shin splits would just go away. WRONG! Yesterday they got so bad that my pro runner coworker told me to toss my brand new shoes and go buy new shoes. This along with about five other tips was the only way I was going to make it through the half marathon on Sunday. Yesterday I left work early to buy new running shoes and cram for my Leadership test. Now I have about 2 days to break in new running shoes. Double awesome!

See, that was a stressful week! But it’s over. Last night some classmates and I went out to celebrate passing Accounting and Leadership. Who would have thought those two finals would have caused so much stress?
Tonight I’m doing nothing. Really, I sitting on the couch and watching TV. Heck, I might just stare at the wall because I’m too tired to look for the remote to turn on the TV!

2,1097.5 meters

Hopefully, I will look like this lady on Sunday. Well, I probably won’t be crossing the finish line while waving a flag. I mean, it could happen but I doubt one of the spectators will randomly hand me a flag to wave. Although waving the flag as I finish, might get my picture in the paper. Hmmm, my picture in the paper would be neat. What am I thinking? You and I both know I will not be waving any type of flag as I cross the finish line. I’ll be lucky if I’m still smiling as I finish the race. Shoot, we’ll be doing good if I’m not screaming profanities at my dad as we cross the finish line.

Sunday morning my dad and I are running the OKC Memorial Marathon for the second time. Actually, we’ve participated in this race many times but this will be our second time to run the half marathon. I guess I should clarify how my dad and I run this race. I run the full 13 miles while my dad cheats and only runs 8 miles. He runs the first 4 miles with me to help me set my pace, because apparently after all these races I’ve ran I have no idea how to set my own pace. Anyway, after the first four miles he cuts off and meets me for the final four miles. It’s this cute bonding time we have together.

So yea, 13 miles on Sunday. Well its 13.1 miles to be exact or 2,1097.5 meters. Holy crap, I’m going to run over 2,000 meters on Sunday! I must say, that’s a heck of a lot. But I think I can do this. No strike that- I know I can do this. I’m ready for this race. Wish me luck….and this is how I want to finish the race. Well minus the dog and the snow and I won’t be wearing sweat pants. Ok fine! So I won’t look anything like this. Basically, I just want the Rocky theme song playing in the background! Anyway, Sunday…think of me.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Last night, I was watching an old rerun of Fresh Prince. Hey, before you start judging me you should know that I was super tired and brain dead. I had just completed my Accounting final, hence the brain dead part. I was too tired to care what I was watching; it was nice to just be lying down. Besides, how could you hate Fresh Prince? The show has the greatest intro song. I’m proud to say that I still know every word to the song. It’s true. I tested myself last night. I wish my brain could hold useful knowledge like Accounting instead of every stinking word of the Fresh Prince song!

Anyway, I’m lying in bed watching this old episode when something hit me. RESPECT! I wouldn’t say this random thought just hit me. The episode was about Ashley getting mad because her father and Will wouldn’t treat her with respect. It was actually a good episode; I remembered it from back in the day. But Ashley did something in the episode that I’d felt like doing all day! She sings the famous R-E-S-P-E-C-T song. While Ashley was singing on TV, I wanted to stand on top of my bed and belt out the empowering lyrics myself. I wanted to sing to everyone I had come in contact with yesterday! Of course I didn’t, because I was home alone and no one would hear me. Well maybe the dogs next door.

Since I didn’t sing last night, I’m taking the time to sing now...or blogging about it and pretending that I'm singing to everyone from yesterday. Who would have thought Fresh Prince would bring so much clarity to me?

Monday Wise Words

Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like, 'You know, sometimes
I just forget to eat.' Now I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name, and my
keys. But I've never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat.

I couldn't agree more!