Year of the Sneaker- Surf City 1/2 Marathon

me getting my run on

This Sunday, I ran the 1st 1/2 marathon's of the Beach Cities Challenge with Scott and my L.A. Marathon pacing group. One down, 2 more to go. I feel, tore up from the floor up. I've been running long distance in training, and I didn't feel as bad as I did after this race and as sore as I feel now. But that's my own damn fault:

- I didn't do good enough stretching

- I haven't been consistent with my weekly runs (when training for long distances you should be doing short runs 3 times during the week)

- I didn't hydrate enough

BUT I finished, and even though I swear I'll never run again after I finish a race, I'm pretty excited about the second of the Beach Cities series (1/2 Marathon in Orange County). The LA Marathon continues to scare the shit out of me.

If you want to know:

What I heard at mile 6.5 (1/2 way point)

And the song that brought me home (makes me think of my upcoming wedding)

Naps Suck: AKA- Baby Comas

The other day at work we were all bitching about how tired we are. Frankly, I think once you're over the age of 25 you immediately become sleep deprived and all those years you spent partying and doing all nighter's studying suddenly come back to haunt you. Scott and I have started saying we have a "bad case of the mimis." To all my non-spanish speaking friends Mimis is Spanish word for sleepy. In the south they call it the "itis" ( I think it's a southern word, I don't know! I make up shit all the time).

Me: "Oh hey Mimis!"

Mimis: "SUP BITCH!"

Anyways, back to my story: We were talking about being tired. The the word Nap came up. I hate naps, I've always hated naps. Ask my mom! She would pick me up from day care and the teacher would complain that I didn't nap. 

BUT NAPS ARE AWESOME you say! They aren't and let me tell  you why. Naps to me are like baby comas. I fall asleep deep! I mean deep!

It's suggested that you go through 4 stages of sleep , the 4th being the deepest. When awakened from a 4th stage you may wake up all disoriented and screwed up. This is what happens to me. I wake up disoriented, confused, I can't really walk. I swear my naps are baby comas. So next time you see me yawn and you brazenly suggest I take a nap, please don't be offended when I flip you the bird.


If you want to know what I look like when I wake up from a nap, please see this video of a baby giraffe learning to walk.

Kittehs: How my love for cats may have turned me into a hippie

Over the last two years I have procured two wonderful cats: Disco and Dr. Unagi. Right now they are all the children I have, which I am totally cool with! However, in the wonderful glow of kitten love eyes (cat owners will know what I'm talking about), making 'biscuits', and the most awesomely soft bellies ever I was struck by how much I absolutely love these little creatures.

Fast forward to Sept 2011- Scott and I are going on a road trip. As we're driving towards Yosemite we come across these lovely farm lands. Rolling green hills, silos filled with grain, and the smell of sweet grass were intoxicating. We stopped and admired the area, when a beautiful black and white cow came meandering over. I thought to myself "happy cows com from California." This looked like one happy cow!

I was met with a different view on our return from our road trip. As we drove more towards the central portion of California I was met with the site of miles and miles of cow in overcrowded conditions. The smell was bad, and those cows did not look happy.

I thought of my cats at home, so cozy, and warm, wondering where their owners were. How can I love one animal, and kill another. How can I offer living conditions to one animal while another one is living in pretty heinous conditions?

So I'm debating going vegetarian, eating only organic (eep Organic is still sooo pricey). This will be very difficult for me.

2012- year of the sneaker

Hey, back after a long reprieve, and realized that my desires to make this into a food blog may have been lofty, so now this will be just a whatever blog with some food thrown in the mix.  With that being said 2012 is going to be a busy year for me: Wedding (me and the Mr. got engaged in October 2011), teaching graduate classes, trying to get my licensing exam (MFTI to LMFT), and trying to run a marathon (two if I can). Today we did the first long run of the year : 16 miles, with a bitch of a head wind. I started noticing a pain in my hip on mile 13-14, soreness like i haven't felt ever, but i figure you can't run that long without something bothering you at some point.  I hope to update this more through out the year, but no promises!

I leave you with a few things that help me get motivated to run and stay running

1. New workout gear. I love buying a new work out shirt/shorts and rocking them. The brighter the better

2. MUSIC! This is super imperative for me. I have a music playlist called the Ass Grind that I listen to when I jog. Here are some songs that is allowing me to visualize the LA marathon

(Sweet Disposition-Temper Trap: I can see myself running through downtown LA)

(Florence + the Machine: "Run Fast for you mother. Run Fast for your father.  Run Fast for your children, sisters, and brothers. LEAVE ARE YOU LOVING, AND LONGING BEHIND YOU CAN'T CARRY IT WITH YOU IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE. Ain't that the truth Flo)

Eminem - Cinderella Man- "Screamed shut up thunder, flipped the world upside down and made it rain upward" (not the real video)

3. Inspirational thoughts or images I try to sustain in my head. I try to avoid "thinspiration" because I think it's really unhealthy to look at other people's bodies hoping to attain it.

4) You want to run a  marathon, 1/2 marathon, 10k, or 5k- SIGN UP FOR IT, trust me, the fact that you paid for it will give you incentive to train. 

(this one begin registration on Jan 18th 2012, and is a lot of fun)

5) And my last one that I tell myself when I don't want to run: The only thing getting in the way of you accomplishing your goal is YOU. (unless you want to be an astronaut, then the person standing in the way is NASA).

"Sorry, we reject you on the basis of you sucking."

Good Luck, and Good Runs!

Kittehs: Written?Kitten!

Do you have writers block? Go to www.writtenkitten.net ! You get awarded a cat for every 100 words you write. This is what I wrote:

For every 100 words you write, you get awarded a kitten. that seems like a really good idea! I mean who doesn't want a cat!? I want a cat! A kitten is a cat, only in small cute size bites! Don't think poorly of me, I'm not actually going to eat a cat, psh that's ridiculous! I wonder if the cat will be a tabby, tuxedo, or calico cat? I already have two cats, one of which has a disproportionate head. Her name is Dr. Unagi, she has an M.D. and specializes in Orthopedic surgery. She's a little slow.

* I never said it was any good

Life Lessons: 20 things I learned in my 20's

1.      You can hit puberty twice, apparently my hips were little delayed  in getting the memo and the next thing I knew was having to buy brand  new Lee jeans ( I also learned I had poor jean taste)

2.       Find a good, legitimate, Brazilian waxer - not some  weird place in a plaza called Shinnee Nail, you want the words “salon” “spa” and “painless” in the title

3.       I thought I was writing amazing poetry and insightful journal entries, I wasn’t.  I was just pretentious college kid with a thesaurus who thought it was crass to use the work Fuck in her journal. FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK FUCK.  

4.       Boys with tongue rings taste like you’re kissing a dirty nickel.

5.       Guys you meet in clubs who drive corvettes are a bad a bad idea. A  very, very, bad idea.

6.       Don’t slut shame another woman, you’re just as big a whore as she is.

7.       You CAN buy a sexy and supportive bra, you don’t need to need to be condemned to maiden ware beige.

8.       Perms are super bad ideas.

9.       Don’t buy a sports car as an “I’m getting over this __(insert: break up, quarter life crisis, job loss, weight gain, other traumatic event)_” purchase. Get a purse. Buy an Alpaca, I don’t know just don’t buy a sports car.

10.   Everything I ate eventually caught up with me, tapped me on the shoulder all winded and was like “oh look at you trying to outrun me! Lets go buy elastic band pants!”

11.   I learned that if you can't get yourself off, it'll be difficult for someone else to do it too! 

12.   I Learned that if you talk about owning a wedding dress and you don’t clarify  that you were previously engaged, people will think you’re crazy.

13.   I learned, like within the last five years, that you don’t need to keep holding on the gas pump when you fill up, they have a little flip thingy that holds it for you!

14.   I learned you can have soulmates who are women.

15.   Cats/Dogs make perfect surrogate children.

16.   Sadly, I learned, that I'm capable of being rendered helpless by a an unhealthy relationship.

17.   I learned that cold pizza is pretty much THE SHIT!

18.   Apparently, men don't read minds! Weird I know! 

19.   I Learned that competing with others is like competing in the special Olympics: no matter who wins, you’re both retarded.

20.   I learned that I didn’t know anything and I still don’t know anything and I’m ok with that. Here’s to another 20 + 100 years of learning. 

Kittehs: 10 reasons why my cats(or cat's in general) are cuter/better than your baby

After long consideration and viewing multiple facebook posts of peoples babies I have come to the conclusion that my cats are far cuter/better than your babies*. Let me provide some scientifically proven** facts as to why cats are better than your babies/children.

1.)   Fur. Is your child covered in fur? Because if it is that’s fucking terrifying and you should see a specialist. As for my cats they are covered in fur and look adorable. Have you ever touched a cats belly? It’s like touching angel wings or the hair of God.

Dr. Unagi

Disco

2.)   My cats don’t incessantly cry for no reason. No, they purr or meow. I mean they howl when in heat, but you can handle that with a quick trip to the vet. You can’t take a baby anywhere to fix that high pitch scream they do at 3am.

3.)   My cat’s got 9 lives, your kid only has 1 beat THAT!

4.)   They crap in a box and cover it up. Cat’s are discreet and have dignity, they don’t want you seeing their crap. Babies? Babies crap everywhere on anything at anytime possible.

5.)   I’ll never have to send my cats to college

6.)   My cats can’t get pregnant (well Dr. Unagi can but we’re handling that soon). Can you say that for your baby? “Oh but Andrea, my baby is only 7 months old”. You wont be saying that when they’re 16 , pimply,and horny.

7.)   Entertained easily by a string. My cats can play endlessly with a cat dancer ($2.99) and a plastic bag. How much is that X-box or baby Einstein stuff?

enjoy this video of cats on cheap catnip

8.)   Spring loaded feet. Can your baby jump 3-5 times their height

9.)   Cat’s clean themselves

Adorable? Yes! Clean? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

10.)   15-18 years emotional investment tops and no one will judge you if you buy another afterwards. You can’t say that when your 35 year old kid moves back in with you when his band didn’t take off. 

"Death Ferrets are playing at Kmart opening, I think this is our big break"

*I may end up having kids of my own, and yes, my cats may still be better than them
** there is NO scientific proof that cats are better than babies/children


Enjoy this video of a cat on a roomba:

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