Hills

You know the drill. Sorry it has been so long blah blah blah.  Life has just been so crazy blah blah blah.  Well now that we have that out of the way... I really have missed writing  :)

Before you start reading, this post isn't about scary hills with pupils or drama filled beach scenes. It's about how I have come to realize there are life lessons in just about everything you do.  You just have to be open to them.

This January I started training for my first half marathon.  Before 2015 the longest distance I had ran was 3.1 miles. Now in a little under 3 weeks I will be running 13.1 miles! (I can't focus on this too much as it does make me emotional but I'll save that for another post). In my early days of training, I wanted to run on the flattest routes I could find.  Hills were evil, all they did was ruin my motivation. I tried complaining about the hills to my boyfriend and all he said was "They'll make you a better runner." All I could think was "Phish! what does he know." Maybe its because he already has 5 half marathons under his belt that what he said did have a little weight.  So I started trying to look at hills like they were a pill or supplement. The more hills I had, the better I would become (in moderation of course).

Now, whenever I run up a hill, I look at it like just another obstacle in life.  Life is filled with hills and downhills (also crests but I'll get to that). The uphills can sometimes seem daunting, impossible, and you may wish you could just avoid them all together. But if you just tell yourself that you will be a better person once you get over that hill, it makes the climb a little less horrible.  The down hills are great. When you have to climb up a hill to get to the down hill, that is when they are amazing!  The last part of the hill, the part I probably hate the most, is the crest. The part of the hill when you aren't quite to the top. You see and feel the top, maybe even see the downhill side of it but you are just not...quite... there. You can't celebrate but you don't know if you keep the motivational thoughts flowing much longer to get you past that last part... of.... the hill.  Then you get to the top and give yourself a grin, maybe even a laugh because it is just a hill.  Did it really think it could defeat you.

Sushi and Ants

Sooooo, I think I've fallen into the Sushi-craze.  It all started when my friend received some gift certificates to a sushi place here in town.  Her boyfriend didn't want to go with her so she invited me and another friend out for a girls night out.

We didn't really know what to order so we just order what our server suggested based on our taste preferences and lack of sushi experience.  I was a little wary at first but everything was delicious.  Since then I have just been waiting for an excuse to go out to eat sushi. Tonight I found my excuse :)

I was sitting at work, swamped as usual, when I heard a commercial for a new sushi restaurant.  I immediately started craving it as I tried to get back to work.  I then remember seeing a 3 course dinner special at a new sushi place that ends tomorrow.  I thought perfect my excuse would be, "there's this great special and I would really like to go to this new place".  Boyfriend was all for it, didn't even have to give him the full spiel.  Of course, when I offered to buy, I'm sure that was all the convincing he needed ;)

So we go to the sushi place and after we're done eating I feel that I have sated my sushi fix.  Then as I'm getting ready for bed, I start thinking "I wonder how hard it would be to make sushi from home?"  Another voice in my head says "Uh-oh, this isn't going to be good. surely picking up a sushi 'hobby' will not be a good thing for your bank account."  It is taking everything I have to not google, pinterest, search all things sushi!!

What am I going to do with my self?!

Ants....
I hate them.  Not because they sometimes crawl on you or that the only true way to kill them is to smooch them with your finger. But because they seem to come from thin air and you never really know if you've ever gotten rid of them. Also because if you do find one on you, you get that crawly feeling all over you     :(

Yea about that...

The last we talked I was starting my "get fit" journey. Well I took the next day off (the 10th) because I was pretty sore from my first day.  The morning of the 11th I had my bag packed and ready to go to the gym right after work.  This way I would avoid the temptation to plop on the couch when I got home.

My work day was kind of rough and it was 9/11 so I was kind of gloomy.  As the day wore on I kept trying to lighten myself up and by the time 5pm hit. I was feeling great.  The sun had came out, I was grateful for all the amazing things I have in my life and was ready to hit the gym.  As I was leaving the office I had to drop off the mail and their were two different ways I could take to drop off the mail and still not drive to far out of the way to go to the gym.  I decided to take the way I usually take home and was in for quite a surprise.

I had my windows rolled down, my headphones in and was jamming out to the radio on my nano when I started feeling grateful that my amazing boyfriend got me such a great gift. As I was getting into my left turn lane, I notice up the way a white van had taken their right turn too wide, I didn't think anything of it just that I had done it before myself. The next thing I know the van is practically in my lap and my car gets whipped around so I'm facing the wrong way in a turn lane.  The only thing I was aware of at that moment was my head hurts and there is glass everywhere.  There were people coming up to my windows asking me if I'm ok, if I can move. All I could say was "Am I bleeding?"  Each person said no.

A gentleman comes up to my window and asks me if I'm ok and if I can get out.  I told him yea I think so.  The driver door is smashed in so I carefully make my way to the passenger door.  I'm shaken and do my best to maneuver around all the little cubes of shatter glass.  He walks me to the other side of the street so  I can be safe out of the way of traffic.  I asked him if the other driver is ok, he told me yes, just shaken.  He walk back over to her car and I call my boyfriend.  This whole time, I feel calm, I start going over my checklist of what I need to do next.

My boyfriend answers I tell him I was just in an accident, I'm ok, I have a little scratch on my arm but I'm ok.  I'm not even sure if I got all of those words out because the moment I start talking, my calmness leaves me and reality hits. He asks me where I am, I gave him the intersection and before I could say anything else he said "I'm on my way".

I see that the other driver is a young girl and is talking to the man who helped me out of my car.  I decided I would go over and let her know I'm ok.  As I walk to her, she is discussing with the man if she should call her dad or not.  The man told her that if it was his daughter, he would want the phone call no matter what.  I look at the damage to her car, a slight crack to the headlight and corner bumper. In my head I think "O this isn't bad at all".  I look down the turn lane at my 92 Buick and my heart sinks.

The whole driver side, from the middle of the front door all the way past the gas tank, was smashed in.  Both windows were shattered.  The cop came and took all of our information and set up everything for the tow truck to come out.  My boyfriend came and was there to see my poor car get towed away. He told me that had I been driving a car like his (small 2 door), I would be in a lot worse shape. I agreed.

Had it not been for that 92 Buick that my younger brother gave to me 3 years prior, who knows what would have happened.  I told him that I was debating taking a different route home that day.  He said if it wasn't me, it would have been someone else and maybe even more vehicles had she not hit the car in the turn lane first.  I recalled then a lady who came up to my window.  She had gotten out of a minivan that had 2 little ones in the back.  If all I got was a scratch on my arm and a totaled vehicle, I would take that any day knowing that it may have saved a life.

Just another little reminder that everything happens for a reason.

I'm Baaaack

Hello yet again blog-o-sphere.  I feel like I've made several of these posts,"sorry its been awhile" " I promise I'll be better about posting new posts"  bla bla bla

I've decided that I'm going to start getting in shape.  I'm really doing it this time. For some reason I feel like saying that is just like when I say "I promise I'll be better about posting". BUT MAYBE, if I start posting about my fitness progress then I'll have more accountability for both aspects.

Please don't worry, this is not going to turn into a health blog but its just another thing to discuss and to share with you.  I've found lately that I need another creative outlet.  So here goes..

Day 1: Today I was at work and a lady in her late 30s early 40s came in and she looked good. She was toned, looked healthy and still had good curves.  It made me want to go to the gym.  Soo I told my boyfriend that I was going to the gym. Throughout the day I was found myself excited to start fresh on my new "get fit" journey.

I got off work about 45mins late, I still had to take the mail to the post office and by the time I got home and changed it was already almost 6:30.  I started coming up with all the excuses I usually had, "well its too late maybe I should just go in the morning"  "its pretty warm out and I just got done sweating all the way home from work"  "I'm pretty hungry, maybe I should start making dinner".   Eventually with a little pep talk from my boyfriend, I reluctantly found myself out the door with my iPod in my ears.

First day, done and done.  Now the harder part.... going back :/

It's Been Too Long

It has been to long time since I've graced my blog with my presence   Sorry about that.  I feel like my mind is always racing with these crazy ideas but then when I get to this space, they've all raced away.  Lately I feel like I'm waiting for my life to happen and every time I try to get something going in my life, I fail miserably and am stuck 2 steps back from where I started.  so I just sit here and wait, and wait, and wait.

I have the urge to run away today.  Just run away from all the stresses of work, all the worries of money, and all the pressures of society. So because I don't have the means or finances to run away, I've mapped out a 3.1 mile run for this evening.  I've only ever run about 1.75 without having to stop so I guess we will see how it goes.

Random Tangent

I have been itching to make another post but not really sure what to write about.  So I'll just go off of my initial premise of the blog, "A Blank Page", just typing and letting my mind take me where ever it takes me... All I'm coming up with is how I think the words "at least" and "a lot"  should be one word.  I find that I do that a lot.  Also for what ever reason I keep accidentally using " instead of ' when making abbreviations.  I don't know why but its really getting on my nerves because I feel I type fairly well.

Ok so you don't want to read about my rantings about typing.... I suppose if blogging were easy everyone would do it.  Some even make it a career.  I would like that if I had more ideas to write about. But sometimes I feel like the subjects I think I should write about, others wouldn't enjoy.  Or they would read but then afterwards feel like they just wasted 10 minutes of their life reading through a garbage post.

I used to write in my notebooks all the time when I couldn't pay attention in class because I had something on my mind.  It always seemed to help get it out of my head and on paper.  Sometimes I'll come across an old notebook with random pages written on, and read what was on my mind that day. Random pages is always key because if someone found your book they would usually only look at the end or the beginning. Sometimes I would read an entry and think "wow, I really was crazy." Other ones I would laugh and some I would even fill sad for the past me.  Which is kind of ridiculous because whatever it was, I already went through it. Why in the heck would I make myself feel that again.  But it does remind me of where I've been and how far I've come.  So that part is helpful.

I guess if you can take anything away from this, if you feel you ever have some things on your mind that you can't talk about with someone, just write it down.  After you write it down, don't re-read it, just close the notebook or put away the paper.  Don't throw it away just yet, it could help you later down the road. Also if you just throw it away it might give you a negative feeling. It doesn't have to be in perfect handwriting or grammatically correct. Just get all of those thoughts on paper. Who knows, maybe as you're writing you'll come up with an answer or a solution that you wouldn't have thought of before.

My Valentine's Day History

So in honor of the upcoming (faux) holiday, I thought I would take a look back at my history of Valentine's Days.  It all started in 2002.  I just had my first kiss the January before.  But the guy I was dating at the time decided that he would break up with me on Feb 2nd. 2/2/2002 to be exact, which started my hatred of the number 2 but that's a story for another day.  So although I thought that was going to be my first Valentine's Day that I celebrated with a significant other, it was not.  Later that year, I moved to another school and started dating a guy that fall.  So in February of 2003, I got to celebrate my first Valentine's day with a boy (imagine little-high-school-girl giggle here).

The guy that I had my "first Valentine's" with, I dated for almost 5 year so there were lots of V-days in there.   I do know that on my first one I got a teddy bear that he had sprayed with his cologne and a card (and some flowers?) The first and second get mixed up.  On one of them I made him a 2 layered, heart shaped, german chocolate cake with the coconut frosting because that was his favorite dessert. I brought it to school with me to surprise him with it.  That was disaster.  He had to leave school early to go to a wrestling meet and couldn't take it with him because it would have been a mess and it he couldn't eat it because he had to "make weight".  I don't remember what I ended up doing with it, I just remember that I was extremely embarrassed and crushed that I went through all the effort to make him, what I thought was a thoughtful gift, to be essentially turned down.

The other V-days I spent with him all kind of blend together.  But I did some mild digging through my boxes of old stuff and 2005 Valentines day he was going to college down in KS and I was still in high school. I don't remember what happened but, there is a sad face :( on that day in my planner.  So I'm going to guess that it didn't end well. In 2006 we both would have been in Kearney going to school.  I found a planner for this year and apparently we "broke up" on 2/9 that year.  I'm not sure when we got back together but I know we were back together mid March.  I don't remember what happened in 2007.  But apparently nothing spectacular happened because I can't remember them.  I'm sure back then I could tell you exactly what happened.

In 2008, I believe I was single.  In 2009, I was "seeing" a guy but we just went out for dinner a couple days before or a couple of days after. I think it was at that dinner that we both realized we didn't have much in common.  The February of 2010 may very well be my last "single" Valentines Day.  I believe I spent that one getting annihilated off of a mixed drink recipe I threw together called "Love Potion".  But as I recall, it was a pretty awesome night.

In February 2011 I celebrated my first Valentine's Day with my current boyfriend.  It also happened to be our 6 month anniversary. He got me a dozen red roses that were delivered to me at work and then we went out to Red Lobster for dinner.  He got there early so that he could put our names on the list because it was over an hour wait.  I remember walking up to the restaurant and seeing him standing there in his suit jacket and button up shirt.  He was so handsome, he literally took my breath away. We were planning on seeing a movie after word but with how long everything took, we just ended up postponing that part of the date.  Our second Valentine's Day he had another dozen roses delivered to me at work but this time they were beautifully multi-colored roses. Then for dinner we decided to skip the long waits at the restaurants and stay at home.  We made lasagna together, chocolate covered strawberries for dessert and a bottle of champagne we had left over from New Years Eve.  We even ate most of it by candlelight.  It was a very romantic evening.

Now it's our third Valentine's together and I feel like a kid the day before Christmas.  I don't even care what he gets me.  I'm just so excited knowing that tomorrow night we get to have a night where we cook a special dinner together.  And looking back at all the crumby valentine's days that I have had and it just makes me that much more grateful that I have such a loving man in my life.

So to those of you out there that are single, I suggest searching for a fun drink you can mix and get drunk off of, getting a group of single friends together and play some good ol' fashion drinking games.  You'll get the sweet sappy Valentine's Day another year.  To those of you who are in a relationship, I hope yours is filled with love and happiness.  Just don't forget to continue the trend throughout the year :)