Trapeze-ing!

I know you all have been waiting with baited breath for the release of my debut trapeze video...
well, wait no more!

The first video is me practicing, we went through this routine three times. The second video is the last run I did where I was supposed to catch the trapeze professional... You'll see how it turns out.

Okay, the whining post has been up long enough...here's a new one.

So, how do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day if you're not Irish and you're in Boston, Massachusetts? A city known for its Irish roots? Well, if you can't beat 'em, join them! So that's exactly what I did:

South Boston St. Patrick's Day 5K:






The last picture was taken at a Mid-St. Patrick's Day Party, where I was transported back in time to frat parties of my distant past, that in actuality I never attended. and my pupils are really huge for no reason.

St. Patrick's Day is crazy in south Boston! I highly recommend the 5K, but the after-festivities were a little much...

Red Sox Champions

Last weekend the Drs. Brown came to town and it was fabulous! It was sooo good to see them and just enjoy being around them. The best part about the whole thing was that I wasn't sad at all when they left, which meant even more confirmation that I am smack-dab, right in the center of where God wants me. Awesome.

Despite the fact that I love living in Boston, and am enjoying not being homesick, I'm still lonely at times. Not so much during the week, since I stay so busy with working and talking about going to the gym (and not so much making it), but during the weekends, I get lonely. In Lubbock, there wasn't a whole lot to do, but plenty of fun, good friends to call. Now I'm in Boston with plenty to do, but no one to call. I've met some really nice people at church, but no one yet that I've really clicked with. And...I'll be really honest, I had hoped that 2 months into living in such a big city with lots of guys, I would have met at least one by now that would want to spend more than 2 minutes with me. I just want someone to explore Boston with, to play frisbee with in the Commons, go see a movie, walk around the North End to visit Mike's, learn how to hike in New Hampshire, go to the Boston Pops... those kind of things. For example, today it was 72 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, a perfect day to spend in the park, but there was no one to do anything with. Now, don't let my paragraph-long pity party make you think that I spend all my time at home twiddling my thumbs, wishing my life away. I don't, I still explore Boston all the time, walking for hours by myself, going to eat by myself, getting ice cream by myself, but all these things would be more fun with someone to do them with.

Okay, enough of that. The Red Sox are playing right now. I totally think they are going to win the whole thing...yep, the WHOLE THING. Things you can see from my window right now: a row of limos waiting for all the high rollers at the game, the transit policemen waiting for the game to end, riot police biding their time, a "band" of a drumset and a saxophonist playing right outside our apartment, crowds of people peering into the apartment on the 1st floor to watch the game... yep, I said riot police. A little bit scary, I'm not gonna lie. My roommate Ashley and I each have a "Boston Red Sox boyfriend" her's is Dustin Pedroia and mine is Mike Lowell, who, incidentally is only 34. I think the bits of gray in him look good. The Red Sox pretty much play in my backyard, so I feel like we're BFF, in fact, sitting in my living room right now with our windows open, I can hear the cheers from Game 7. Double Awesome.

I think I've gotten used to seeing strange things around here, so I don't really remember funny things that happen... Graham and Ashley have both seen a lady around their bus stop with a full blown, real-life goatee. Oh, and my friend Jeremy Granger (so good to see him!) was here last week and saw Kate Hudson filming a movie in Copley Square! Pretty cool. I once saw Ted Danson-post-Cheers in the Albuquerque airport, not so cool. He was tall though....

So that's about all that's new here in Boston, the trees are changing some, but it's been dry here so they aren't as vibrant as in the past. Be sure to watch the Red Sox whoop up on some Rockies a double s. And if you think about it, pray for me that I'd find some good friends and a great guy to hang out with.

Adios Mi Amigos

The Green MOnstah

Work this week was full of more 10 and 12 hour days. I'm learning to appreciate the weekends even more. Tuesday it rained all day and I was forced to break down and purchase my first ever umbrella. Yep, first ever. yeah, it does rain in Lubbock, but you drive every where and just run through the rain from door to door. You can't do that here in Boston. I walk about a total of 20 to 30 minutes at least every day. I know that doesn't sound like very much, but when was the last time you walked outside for 20 minutes that wasn't for exercise?

So, I went to CVS and purchased a black, inexpensive umbrella. I quickly learned some important facts about umbrellas:

1. Every other person in Boston owns a BLACK umbrella. Sure glad I picked an original color...

2. It took a total of 2 seconds of walking in the wind for my umbrella to turn completely inside out. stink.

3. There's such a thing as "umbrella etiquette". There are a lot of people in Boston and walking on the sidewalk is usually a crowded experience. Carrying umbrellas adds about 2 feet to your width. So when you're walking with umbrellas and walking past someone you either lift your umbrella up or pull it way down, so they don't hit. I'm still working on my coordination, but no one's lost an eye yet.

I went to my first REd Sox game the other night. It wasn't a huge game, but it was a lot of fun! I totally stood up with the crowd to sing "Sweet Caroline" in the middle of the eighth, made a game of trying to talk to the not-so-friendly New Englander next to me (she totally said 2 whole sentences to me by the end of the 8th! We're so bff), and I tried order funnel cake when it was called "fried bread". Note: Fried Bread and Funnel cakes are NOT even close to the same thing. Fried Bread is gross, and leaves you feeling like you ate a ten-pound dumbbell. This is me, sad because we lost the game, but even sadder that I ate some of that fried bread.

And then, the weirdest thing happened. I don't know if you're familiar with "Kidd Kraddick in the morning" but I used to listen to him all the time on the way to school. And they had this "intern" on there named Adolpho. Interesting character, that Adolpho. Long story short, Rich Shirtenlieb, the funniest guy on there, moved to Boston to do radio up here and brought Adolpho with him. Well guess who I spotted while I was leaving the Red Sox Game? You guessed it, Adolpho!! And I was soo excited to see a fellow Texan and someone not-really-famous-but-more-well-known-than-me, that I went up to him and started talking really fast, and then Ashley got her camera out, and this was the result:

He's kind of like a Hispanic Chucky doll if you look close. And the guy that took our picture was either a)drunk b)on drugs or c)both. And he totally left us feeling violated... I won't go into that story, but I'm glad Ashley was with me and glad I had my mace..

Well, I have another long work week ahead of me, another week of totally relying on God's Grace and Wisdom to get me through.

Much love to all my friends and family, I miss ya'll a lot this week.

Super-Fun Weekend

Last weekend I went to Austin with Graham and Allison. We flew, of course, because that's the way we roll.

We had to stop over in Dallas of course, because that's the way SWA rolls... [PS: to the cute doctor on the plane who looks like Jonathan Silverman, you should definitely call me. You need someone around to keep you from buying another pair of turquoise cowboy boots.]

My fantastic sister Sara picked us up from the airport {thanks again Sara for letting us invade ya'lls house!} and Saturday morning we got up early to pick up our race packets.

Also, I bought a new pair of running shoes. I'm hopeful they will make me faster, because I am certain that they were made out of the same material that they also use on speed boat decks.

After that we headed downtown for some lunch on Sixth Street, and as we meandered across the street for some Jamba Juice, we noticed a "Pro-Life" parade coming our way. Normally, this is no big deal, but we had my 8-year-old niece with us and I wanted to make sure she wasn't exposed to anything she shouldn't be at such a young age. After trying to explain abortion to her on her terms (she asked what they were marching for) she responded with "Is my smoothie ready yet?" Obviously, she's not quite ready to become a political activist. Towards the end of the parade, there were some graphic posters of fetuses, so this is me trying to distract Paige.

Some other fun stuff we did pre-half marathon: Ate Amy's Ice Cream at the Arboretum and hung out on some stone cows. Yes, that's 8 girls we got on one cow and yes, you should never try to vault over a stone cow. Not a good idea...

I also enjoyed my brother-in-law's (Frank) delicious cooking, watched American Idol with my sister and had fun hanging out my beautiful/handsome niece and nephew. Colton is almost crawling!! Right now he just kind of rocks back and forth on his hands and knees, but I'm sure it will happen any day!

So, I guess you're probably thinking, "Get to it already! Did you guys actually run? Did you win?" Well, yes, we ran. And yes we won, in the sense that we finished and we ran the whole time, and those were our goals. We definitely had fun, but it was different then the first time we ran. It was still cold, but by Mile 3 it had warmed up and I could feel my fingers again. This is us at about mile 9, the knee pain had definitely kicked in, but this is me faking it for the camera!

We finished in 2 hours, 26 minutes. Not a record-setting time by any stretch of the imagination, however we did finish almost 10 minutes faster than last year and there were definitely more hills this year!

And as you can see, Graham finished ahead of us, about 30 minutes faster than us. And he didn't start training until November or December. He's good, real good.

So, it's finally done. But I'm looking forward to next year, another run! One thing I've learned: don't take more than a week off of running! You lose it sooo quickly. And you know what? If I can run 13.1 miles at a snail's pace, anyone can!

The Greatest Game Ever Played

Boise State 43 OU 42

I would be happy just to see OU get beat, but to see them go down like this was a late-Christmas present!
Kudos to the Broncos who never gave up and had the guts to put it all on the line with the 'ole Statue of Liberty Play (first time i've ever seen that!) I actually suggested that play...yeah, actually the coach called me up during the timeout and asked what he should do. So of course I told him, "Coach, if we're not free, we've already lost" and he was like "ok, statue of liberty play it is"... It's a good thing i'm such a sports guru, or else they may not have scored that goal unit.

So, to all those who thought the game was over after OU's interception with 1:04 left......




Suckas!!

Dear Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...er... Texas Tech Red Raiders,
I have supported you through the years, I have worn your colors with pride, I have defended your honor. And yet you disappoint me. You take my emotions and play with them as careless as a cat playing with a catnip soaked toy mouse...err, you get my point. It's cruel, it's heartless and I'm not sure I can take it anymore. You play the first half as a top-ranked team and then it's as if you send out your Arkansas backwoods cousins that have never heard of football to play in your stead!!! Why? So that's it. Finito. No Mas. I'm finished. I always said I'd never kick you out of my bed for eating crackers, but guess what? You better start packing your saltines!

I'm now accepting applications for new teams to occupy my Saturday afternoons. Preferably winning ones.

Take me out to the Ballgame.....

In honor of it being October and we all know what October is good for... No not for me getting sick after eating a whole bag of rolos (sheesh people, one bad Halloween decision and you're tagged for life) No, October is good for BASEBALL! So, in honor of America's Favorite Pasttime, I've decided to write a little tribute to baseball. After watching several playoff games, I realized that baseball players have some funny names. So, here's a short list of the best names in baseball:

1. "Coco Crisp" Red Sox Center Fielder, real name is "Covelli Loyce Crisp" but really, with the last name Crisp, why not?

2."Kenny Rogers" Tigers Pitcher, Not to be confused with the singer of one of the greatest duets of all time "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly Parton.

3. "Chone Figgins" Angels Third Baseman. I can't even fathom the conversation that went on when deciding what to name this guy. "What about Bob?" "No, too plain.", "Josh?" "too preppy", "Chone?" "yeah! just right!"

4. "Boof Bonser" Twins Pitcher, lots of words rhyme with boof: hoof, doof, aloof, goof etc...

5. "Huston Street" Oakland A's Pitcher, Apparently the person who filled in his birth certificate got the name and address boxes mixed up....

6. "Milton Bradley" Oakland A's Right Fielder, what can I say? He makes a great game.

7. "Emil Brown" Royal's Right Fielder, this one is my personal favorite.... for obvious reasons!

____________________________________________________

I've come up with a short list of ways to know that the jeans you're about to try on would look better on the rack:

1. If the zipper is shorter than you're pinky finger...trust me on this one people, not a good sign!

2. If it takes you 5 minutes just to get the tab undone. Think about it: you're rushing to the bathroom, barely holding it in, do you really want to be messing with that in an emergency situation?

3. If the jeans have enough diamonds and jewels on them that they would make Dolly Parton shy away.

4. If you have to recreate the "zipping up with pliers" scene from Dazed and Confused, just put 'em back.

mmmmk. That's all I've got right now. Because I love you all, I'll keep shopping in hopes of finding more tips.

Maybe the greatest line of all time "The great state of Vermont will not apologize for its cheese!" -Thank you for smoking: pretty good movie, have remote in hand towards the beginning (if you're in mixed company and don't want a super-awkward situation)

Also, one of the prestigious professors at my school gave me a pep talk today about how I need to travel after I graduate. Someplace exotic, someplace that would make Globe Trekker proud. That's one lecture I will never forget and will definitely take heed.

These words are salty....

Excuse me while I finish eating my words......

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=262802641