Next on my list ..... Olympics

Well, I've done it. I just signed up to accomplish one of the goals on my "Things I would like to Conquer" list. I'll be running the Dismal Swamp Stomp Half Marathon this April. I need to start running ASAP so that I won't end up crawling past the finish line.

If anyone would like to join me, just follow this link.

http://dismalswampstomp.kalerunning.com/

I started looking for a half marathon beginner schedule and I liked the quote they added at the end.

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired."
- George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

Happy Inauguration Day!

In honor of Inauguration Day and President Obama, Krispy Kreme is giving away one donut of your choice for free. Let's all go to Krispy Kreme, hold our donuts high up in the air, and toast to this historical event.

Image courtesy of http://www.junkfoodnews.net/KRISPY-KREME-WHOLE-WHEAT-400.jpg

My New Years San Diego Trip

I am still trying to recuperate from my trip to California. I went back to work today and was tired all day. Took me forever to get through all my work emails and I had to finish writing my self-evaluation.

On my way to San Diego, I had two stop overs - one in Detroit and one in Minneapolis. All week long I was worried about my flight getting delayed due to snow. I made it through both Detroit and Minneapolis just fine but then 30 minutes before we were about to land in San Diego the pilot says our flight is getting diverted to Los Angeles because of fog in San Diego and they can't land. All this time I'm scared of getting stuck in Detroit and Minneapolis and not worried at all about landing in San Diego, the city known for its almost perfect weather. I finally get to Los Angeles and buses were arranged for all the passengers. It was about a two hour bus ride from LA to San Diego. I was starving by the way too. Even though I had two stop overs, both of them didn't leave me enough time to eat. I was rushing from gate to gate. My family kindly took me to Denny's even though it was 3AM. It was weird eating a meal with three other people not eating and just staring at you.

The next morning my brother woke me up to go to the mall. Usually the roles are reversed but, he had some shoes he wanted to exchange. We went to the mall and saw this ad on the wall of this girl happy to be carrying shopping bags. So we did what most normal people would do.
New Year's Eve was at my parent's house. It was a fun-filled night of Bingo, eating, drinking, Donkey Konga and of course throwing coins all over the place and chasing them like you aren't civilized. It's a great tradition.

The rest of my vacation included going to Church three times and a chapel once, doing limited shopping, going to Valley View casino and lots of eating. Sometimes I did both at those places, even Church. One of the times that I went to Church was for an older couple that was renewing their vows for their 60th anniversary. All during Christmas and New Years masses, I kept on hoping someone would sing Ave Maria in Church, especially someone with a more soprano voice. I was happy when it was finally sung at the 60th wedding anniversary.


The priest also said that marriage included three rings - an engagement ring, wedding ring and suffering. (Cue drum sound after joke). It was nice to see a couple still celebrate their love for each other even after 60 years.

My family went to Vally View casino twice, not for gambling but for the buffet. The first time we tried to go the buffet was sold out. You have to reserve a certain time slot and have at least one person physically stand in line for your party. So the second night we tried to go again and we were able to try the buffet. Very delicious. Just to name a few of the things I ate: lobster, 3 of them, shrimp tempura with rice and ketchup, chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and macaroni and cheese, chocolate covered strawberries, bananas, biscotti, chocolate cake and ice cream. Pictured below are a few of my conquests.
I also dominated the slot machines with total winnings of $35 dollars. Take that Valley View casino. You've been hustled.

I had previously fallen in love with the tres leches cake. Can you imagine how happy I was when there was a tres leches Oreo cake for my cousin's 13th birthday party? Why can't they sell cakes like that here?
My vacation went too fast. I'm actually feeling liking I'm still on west coast time. On the way back home, I had a red eye flight. I only had one stop over this time in Atlanta. Don't think I'm weird but, the bathrooms in the Atlanta airport smelled good. Maybe I had just come at the right time when they were just freshly cleaned. It was 530AM after all when I got to Atlanta. The bathrooms smelled more like the perfume section at a department store not typical bathroom smell mixed with air freshener.

Belated Happy New Year to everyone and I hope the Holidays were wonderful for all of you!

Half Man, Half Tree

Warning: Post contains graphic video and pictures.

I'm watching this documentary on TLC about an Indonesian fisherman named Dede with an unusual skin disorder. His body is covered with warts and his hands and feet are covered with so many warts that they are starting to look like branches. Hence, the nickname "Tree Man" that Dede is usually called. I had read an article about him a couple of months ago and was shocked by the pictures but, watching this documentary really made an impression on me.

Watching him trying to live a normal life with hands and feet so weighed down by warts makes me feel so shallow. I worry about trying to get rid of a couple pimples on my face or why my hair is limp and not curly from the curly girl method. His number one worry is providing for his family including his son and daughter. He provides for his family by participating in a freak show with others that have similar skin disorders.

Another man in Romania named Ion had the same condition. He underwent surgery to remove a layer of warts on his hand and skin was taken from his thigh for his hand. One of the first things he said after recovering from surgery was that he couldn't wait to shake his friends' hands. I'm always self-conscious of my sweaty palms, especially during the Lord's Prayer at Church when everyone holds hands, and here's this man who can't wait to shake people's hands because his fingers finally look like fingers even though the surgery damaged numerous nerves and his sense of touch is barely there. He also couldn't wait to return to work as a tractor driver. He was so excited he could finally drive a tractor again. Me - I'm disappointed when the weekend goes by too fast and Monday is right around the corner. I should be excited like Ion to be returning to a great job, especially in comparison to his, and working for a strong and wonderful company.

There's a scene in the documentary where Dede, the Indonesian fisherman, and his other friends that perform in the freak show, are eating lunch. They have a discussion about how hard it is to even split a boiled egg because they can't really use their hands for anything. Then they talk about how God made them like that so God will know what to do. So many other people in their situation would be angry with God. Then they talk about how it seems like all of them are always calm and never get mad. I know if I'm already having a bad day, one more bad thing would just ruin the rest of day or week for me. These people have been having bad decades and they can still laugh and joke around. You don't get the feeling either that they're hopeless or that they've given up on life.

Whenever I see or hear about situations like this, it always brings me back to reality and what SHOULD be in important in life. Being healthy is one of things I easily take for granted. I should be thankful I can get up in the morning by myself, brush my own teeth, leave my home and drive my own car to work. I should be thankful I'm strong enough to finish a step or weight lifting class at the gym. I shouldn't be focusing on the extra pounds that I've gained because of all the food I easily have access to, which is a blessing in itself. I should be thankful that there's a Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and shopping mall all within 5 minutes of me and not be all sad if they don't have my leave-in conditioner or limited edition MAC lipstick in stock. Dede didn't have a hospital closer to him than the one located four hours away.

Even though I should be packing for my upcoming trip, I don't feel like this time was wasted. This reminds me of what's important but, easily taken for granted. A lot of the things I worry about now probably won't even matter to me in a year. I should have that hunger for life like Dede and his friends and Ion. I was worried earlier about obtaining travel size products for my trip like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, etc. Instead I should have been packing with no worries and just be happy that in the next few days I'll be reunited with my family for the New Year. When I look back at this time, I won't be thinking about that great travel size lotion I bought, but the time I was blessed to spend with my family.

Video from mrblogged on You Tube and picture from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1foyZFQbPzjh-o0hFG_EgB9T0FI_lqIJSqErV5f8pkUBOB2gLSesg8csGn27DID8TXLeyNsvjaruH8qBb9YKf9VeeykwWU45jxqRcZL5S1M-1rGQgaF3nu-i81V3ziUWBna7IIiruyMk/s1600-h/20071121_treeman.jpg

Season for Giving

Today I had the opportunity to volunteer for the Salvation Army. First off I would like to thank everyone who participated. I will definitely have a team name made up for us next year.

You've probably seen the Salvation Army in collaboration with the Marines collecting items for Toys for Tots and the Angel Tree. Our task today was to help the families who qualified "shop" for these items. The toys were set up in this huge warehouse. It used to be a store called HQ, a store similar to Lowes and Home Depot.
My job was to be a "shopper". Basically, I would have a cart, usually with some extra toys already in it, then I would be assigned a person, who would be picking out gifts for their children. The aisles were divided by gender and age groups. As we would go down the aisle, volunteers and Marines would be putting in freebie gifts into the cart. By the time we got to the end of the aisle, the car would usually be stuffed full. Then if they had an Angel Tree gift available we would pick it up before we checked out. After checking out, they even received canned goods and other food. Then I would assist another person with picking out gifts all over again.

Most of the others in my group were shoppers but, some had to also assist families to their cars and call out the numbers for people waiting in line to pick out toys (and there were a lot).

Even though the Holidays may be a hard time for the individuals that came today, seeing them leave with carts full of toys made me hope that the Toys for Tots and Angel Tree program brightened their Christmas season at least a little. I wish I could have taken a picture of how many toys there were. Every toy you could imagine was in there including nice bikes. They were quality toys too, not just toys you can purchase at the Dollar Tree.

A million thanks to my group! Thank you for coming out and giving up your Saturday afternoon.

Thank you Josh #1, Marie, Jenessa, Megan, Josh #2, Tin, Suzie, Christle, Danielle, (not pictured) Andrew, Andrew's sister and friend, Rosalee, JR, Norma, Tarsha, Jovie, Darlene, Morgan, and Marivic.

Birds Are Kinda Scary

Does anyone else get freaked out when they see hoards of birds together? I don't know what it is but, when I see a lot of birds hanging out, like 100 or more, it kind of creeps me out. I'm not scared of birds either, just a large population of them all in one spot.

I've been tagged!

"Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write a blog with sixteen random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end choose ten people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them. Don’t forget to leave them a comment (“you’re it”) and to read your blog. You can’t tag the person who tagged you. Since you can’t tag me, let me know when you’ve posted your blog, so i can see your weirdness."

Janelle and Ailene have both tagged me. I think I'll have to steal something similar like this that I already had on Myspace. I now tag Christle.

If you're reading this and you haven't been tagged, feel free to fill it out - I tag YOU!

1. I love eating. I mean really love eating. Especially cheeseburgers, ice cream, chicken - just as long as it's not too healthy. At work, everyone sends food my way like I'm a garbage disposal. One of my good friends always says that I say everything is the best - I just had the best cheeseburger, the best ice cream cone, the best chinese buffet (props to Red City), the best pizza - no matter where I eat. I don't pick up on it but, she even noticed it on my Hibachi (boyfriend work Christmas party) entry. I talked about how good the food was. I can't help it. I LOVE food. I don't think I could ever be a food critic.

2. I used to be obsessed with changing my hair color ALOT. It would keep going back and forth between light and dark, many times within a week. And now I'm trying to go more natural. Not so much color and embrace the curl more.

3. I really do consider my dog to be my daughter. I even like to dress her up with coordinating top and hair bows. I even hold her like a baby and try to put her to sleep like one. I've had her since August 2004. My grandmother named her after Korina Sanchez who's famous in the Philippines.

4. I love makeup, hair, or anything to do with beauty products and had dreams of working for a makeup company (hence the Chemical Engineering degree). I was allergic to MAC at one point then tried it again and wasn't so I started buying MAC once a week. You can find me at your local Sephora, Ulta, MAC counter, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Target, Walmart - anywhere they have makeup and hair products.

5. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and that God has everything planned out for me. When I miss out on something that I really wanted, I try to reassure myself that God doesn't want me to have it now because it is not the right time or He has something better in store for me. Or if I happen to be in a bad situation, I try to go with the flow and know that God is planning something great for me even if I don't understand the way He's doing it. Or something has to be taken away from me to benefit someone else, someone who is in more dire circumstances than myself but, God would never put me through anything I can't handle.

6. I miss playing sports especially tennis and volleyball. Going to the gym isn't the same as being on a team.

7. Some people tell me I have an accent but, they can never tell me what kind of accent it is. Maybe you can decipher it from my hair tutorial.

8. When I get out of the shower, I walk on my tippy toes because I don't like my feet touching the floor when they're damp. My old roomates will agree and called me a name when I would do it.

9. My grandmother, mom and me all do this twirly thing with our thumbs when we're sitting down. I don't even notice when we're all doing it at the same time. When we used to all go to Church together, you could see us in a row twirling our thumbs simultaneously.

10. I am a sister of the finest Multicultural Sorority in existence. ONE love! I was the deuce of my line - so 2's represent. I pledged Fall 2001. I am very much into diversity and meeting people of various ethnic backgrounds. I'm not into the whole I don't see color - I don't care if you're white, black, brown, green, blue blah blah blah. I recognize that everyone is different but, I choose instead to embrace all those differences. What is so wrong with being different? The world would be a very boring place if everyone was the same. I went to this one "Improving Relationships in the Work Place" kind of seminar. The only thing I remember from it was that diversity was necessary in the world. If two people were exactly alike, there would be a need for only one of those two people to exist.

11. This is hard. Finding 16 interesting facts. My all time favorite TV show is Friends. Right now I also currently like Desperate Housewives, Real Housewives of Orange County, Real Housewives of Atlanta (dang it Bravo, got me hooked on all your shows), and What Not to Wear. I also like the Saved by the Bell and Wings reruns.

12. I get kinda cranky if I'm tired AND hungry. I think it's the hunger part that makes me more crankier. I think I get cranky because I get nauseous and have a headache when I'm hungry. My dad's the same way.

13. I have unusually large, muscular calves. I even had to get boots from this one website that made boots for huge calves. Us big calved girls want to be cute and tuck our pants and tree trunks into boots too you know. I used to be very self conscious about my calves but, now I've learned to accept and appreciate them 100%. Fashion-wise sometimes it is difficult. I really liked this past summer's look of gladiator sandals but I just couldn't pull it off.

The look I was going forHow I ended up lookingPicture courtesy of https://www.alexanderscostumes.com/store/images/Roman%20Gladiator%20Costume%2015007.jpg

14. I'm weird about sleeping in beds not my own. I can't sleep right - at other people's houses or hotels. Even if the hotel is a nice, 5 star hotel. I'm always relieved to get back to my own bed. There's no place like home. (The tag said interesting facts right. Can you tell I'm struggling?)

15. I dislike running but, this year I started running in races as a challenge to myself. So far I have done a 5K, 8K and 10K. I would like to do a 1/2 marathon and full marathon before I turn 30. I *dream* of doing a triathlon except I'm not that strong of a swimmer unless I swim on my back. Does anyone know if official triathlon rules will allow me to swim on my back? As you can tell from the picture on the right, I've modeled my running form after Phoebe from Friends.










Team Spice Girls

16. Last fact. I love bargains, coupons and sales. I even have a coupon organizer that takes up a lot of room in my purse. I'm always clipping out coupons. Some of my favorites websites are blogs dedicated to coupons and bargains. I have to get a new Entertainment book. You know what book I'm talking about right? It's usually sold as a fundraiser and it's a book of good coupons. They were selling it at Bed, Bath and Beyond, where I purchased mine, so I used my 20% off coupon to purchase that. Smart, ehh? I think my blog can be used as a drinking game. Take a shot everytime I mention Bed, Bath and Beyond.

In other news...

A couple nights ago, I heard this scratching noise in the middle of the night. I figured it was my dog because sometimes my dog will get up in the middle of the night and scratch the door so that I can let her out into the kitchen. I was a little surprised to see my dog knocked out next to me under the covers with her teddy bear like usual. So I investigated and found the noise coming from inside the wall. Eeekkk..it could only mean one thing. It's winter time and the mice are coming inside to the warm houses. My boyfriend and I left the house ASAP and got a variety of mouse traps.





For the next week or so, I didn't see or hear anything so I was relieved that the mouse hadn't broke into the house. Until today. The mousetrap like the one on the right where the sticky part is on the inside was next to the dryer. This morning I hear all this flapping. I'm thinking again that it's my dog except my dog is asleep next to me.


I get up and go to where I hear the flapping. Lo and behold - a mouse stuck on the glue trap. It was actually kind of cute. It stayed real still. I didn't want to just grab it so I got some tongs out of the kitchen. I looked at the mouse. The mouse lifted his head and looked at me and I swear it looked like this.
For one second I was hypnotized but, fear makes you do some crazy stuff. I took the tongs and closed up the glue trap into a box again. The whole time the mouse is still moving a lot because only its tail was stuck on the glue trap. My heart was pounding so fast. I stuff it into a Walmart plastic bag. Then another plastic bag. Then a box. Then another plastic bag. And then another plastic bag. I placed it outside while I took a shower just in case it gnawed itself free before I was finished taking my shower and could dispose of it properly.

I will be replenishing my stock of mouse glue traps tonight. So you if you see a crazy lady acting like it's supermarket sweep in the mouse trap aisle. Don't be afraid.

Sort of like an online diary

I used to have a Xanga blog too. I stopped posting on it but, two months ago I reread it and kind of missed being able to go back and read about what was going on with my life then.

So I think I'll make this my online - not too public - diary. I grew up writing in diaries until I got paranoid about someone finding it and exposing all my teenage secrets. That's when I used to write everything.

Gotta go..off to the gym..or maybe 3 Amigos Mexican Restaurant.


ETA: I ended up not going to the gym. I just went home and ate a cheeseburger and some cheetos. To make it worse, I finished it off with a drumstick - not the chicken kind but the ice cream. I'm majorly slacking off since my work Christmas party since I don't have to worry about fitting into a dress. I probably won't work out tomorrow either because of my boyfriend's work Christmas party. I won't have enough time to work out and get ready.