Weekend of Awesome

Wow, I almost forgot that I have a blog. I know y'all have been staying up at night wondering what happened to me, but life has been super crazy and busy. Plus, I've been seriously distracted by important things like Instagram and rekindling my love of Twitter. Priorities, I know. I think I'm going to set up a separate Twitter account for my blog and running stuff so I can keep that stuff separate from my fandom/random stuff on my current Twitter account. But not today. I'll probably think about doing that for weeks until I finally get around to getting it done.

I still have to recap my my Kiss Me I'm Irish run from last weekend, but first, I have to share my weekend of awesome from this weekend.

Seriously regretting not buying this for one of my
costumes for Dumbo Double Dare.
Boooo.

I found myself at Tucson Thrift Shop Saturday night where many shenanigans took place. And I sang the Thrift Shop song about a million times that evening.

But first things first. The reason I was in Tucson was to take Louie to his first rated horse show! I really hadn't planned on showing, I was just taking him to get some training done at a horse show environment. As luck would have it, there was a scratch on Sunday, so I made my horse show debut with only a few hours notice. And on Lou's birthday! Happy birthday, Lou!

Here are the highlights:

Lou all wrapped up and ready to get on the trailer.



Our show tent. Classing it up!

Beautiful sunset at the Pima County Fairgrounds

Lou and me after a successful maiden voyage.

Little Lou did great! He got a good score and came in second. I'm really excited because he made a few baby mistakes, but he's only going to get better. Woot!

A super tired baby after a long weekend.

Saturday night, we hit the town in Tucson for some dinner...and some wine. Now, mind you, we had several glasses while still at the horse show. Tucson is a college town (I actually went to college in Tucson. Go Wildcats!), and that means several very interesting shops.

First up was the Tucson Thrift Shop.

This group always means trouble. The Quattro Amigos
Lara, me, Kristy and Sarah

Possible scene from Criminal Minds. Creepy, right?
Me and Lara

This is your captain speaking...

Next up was a head shop. I haven't been to a head shop in like 10 years, at least. Let me tell you, the very adorable guy behind the counter knew his pipes and bongs. Now, mind you - and this was emphasized about 4 times - they DO NOT sell marijuana paraphernalia. They sell tobacco pipes. We may be older than the college crowd, but we're not stupid.

It's very freeing to be 36 years old and not give a shit about being cool anymore. I made that kid explain to us in great detail how all of the pipes and bongs worked. A twenty something Jaime would have hung around for hours flirting with that kid because he was A.) adorable and B.)strangely knowledgeable with excellent customer service skills. But then I felt vaguely like a cradle robber. Whatevs.

Those are horse pipes.

I should probably note that at no time were we using any of these "tobacco" pipes - for tobacco or for anything else. Drugs are bad. Don't do drugs. And stay in school. Mmm'kay?

So, yes, this was a great weekend. Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day!

Blah Blah RAGNAR, hell yeah!

It's awesome that this was a three day weekend...for everyone but moi, apparently. Not that I'm bitter. I only had a 2 day weekend. Bah.

Available on Zazzle!

Despite the fact that this weekend was so insanely busy and exhausting that I had to go to bed at 7:45 last night, I somehow managed to fit in a 4.25 mile run on Saturday morning.

Do I look like a creepy flasher? Who cares, dude!
 I'm wearing a marathon shirt. Yeehaaaw!

And we took the horses to a schooling show and rode around the cross country course, even though I no longer jump.

Olympian in the making, right here!

I also finally put together my medal display that I got from my mom for Christmas. My race medals have been sort of lying around my house waiting for a place to call their home. I could not commit to a permanent fixture on my wall, so I came up with another idea:

A coat/hat rack! Genius, right?

There's an overwhelming about of runDisney bling
on this rack.

I can move it where ever I want. And I think I'm going to move it upstairs to my bedroom, because this giant monument to my self proclaimed awesomeness is a little too narcissistic even for me. It takes up a lot of room.

We did have our final Ragnar del Sol team meeting yesterday. There are some substitute runners on our team now due to a few injuries. That also means shuffling around runner assignments. So guess who is the lucky girl now running the longest leg in Ragnar history?

That's right, it's me. And I get some extra bling bling for doing it.

So that's super cool, right? So why did I wake up in the middle of the night (besides the fact that I went to bed at 7:45 like a grandma and had 5 hours of sleep already) having a mild anxiety attack over it?

It's not the distance that scares me or even the fact that I still have two more legs to run after the 13.5 mile leg. (I mean, I survived Goofy, right?) It's the fact that I'm super slow. I have no doubt I can do it, but I won't be able to maintain a fast pace for that leg for the entire 13.5 miles.

So I'm equal parts scared and excited. Shockingly, it's not the extra medal that has me excited. Don't get me wrong, I ain't turning it down, let's not get extreme here. Choosing races has now become more about the experience now, rather than the medal. Who would have thought that would ever happen?

Anyway, I'm more excited about the fact that it's a unique Ragnar experience that only a few people get to do. Ragnar is a different breed of race. Your performance affects the outcome for the other runners. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried about that.

All I can do is my best, right? And Ragnar del Sol begins Friday morning at 4:00am or something crazy like that.

Also, Words With Friends does not accept Ragnar as a legit word. FYI.

Post Thanksgiving Blues

It's always hard to go back to work after a four day vacation. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving break, Surprisingly, I don't have have actual Thanksgiving dinner pictures, despite the fact that I have divorced parents and therefore, I had not one, but two Thanksgiving feasts within a few hours of each other.

Wednesday night started off with an 8 mile run with Tara... Which didn't do anything to really lessen the damage I did shoveling food into my mouth on Thanksgiving day. *siiiiiiiiiiigh*

Thanksgiving started with a morning at the barn, of course, and Louie attempted to steal my coffee...

Mmmm

Coffee? Yes, please!

Actually, he was more interested in ripping off the plastic top and chomping on it than the actual coffee, despite the fact that it was cinnamon coffee with vanilla creamer!

Then there was lots of Thanksgiving snarfing. Like, seriously, I ate a lot of food on Thursday. I wish I could say I did some sort of Turkey Trot run - it's not like there's not a ton of them around - but I did not.

I also did not participate in Black Friday this year. I've joined the insane masses on Black Friday for the last several years with my friends and it always turns into getting up at some insane hour, going to the mall, getting Starbucks, getting sleepy and annoyed, going out to breakfast and then finally heading home pretty much empty handed.

Last year, we pretty much had Starbucks and people watched instead of trying to actually shop. I was too exhausted to join in on that this year. Maybe next year instead of Black Friday Starbucks, we can tailgate and and drink wine in the parking lot of Best Buy and watch crazy shoppers try to kill each other. How awesome would that be? It would be awesome.

Hell yeah, count me IN!

Moving on...

One of my friends also organized a reunion of some of my high school friends. While I have seen some of these people a few times since high school, most of them I haven't, so it was so great to catch up with everyone.

By Sunday, I finally did some more running. I met up with Tara once again for a long run. We originally planned for 13 or 14 miles and ended up doing close to 11. It was 10.75 to be exact.



Yup. Had to Instagram this to make it look better.
Here's my required narcissist blogger pic.

The park is really pretty at night

Tara brought me CHRISTMAS GU!!! OMG, it tastes like candy canes. I loved it.

Tastes like Christmas!

Tara running along...probably around mile 4

Thank God, Tara and I have started making an effort to meet for longer runs. She and I are total slackers and it's getting tough to make myself go out and run. At least we find ways to entertain ourselves.

Pole dancing

Tara doesn't like boring pictures, so she wanted me to be silly. Of course, it turned out really blurry...

This is the only filter I could find to
lighten up this pic

We tried to come up with a strategy for the Goofy Challenge. Since the NYC Marathon was canceled,  we don't have the experience of completing a full marathon to figure out how to pace ourselves for Goofy. Last year, when we did the Half Marathon and the Marathon Relay back to back, we took both races really slowly to try and save our muscles. I think we're going to try and do something like that this year. Anyone have any advice?

Speaking of Goofy, I went to send my Dad the link to the Goofy hoodie I wanted for Christmas (he never knows what to get me) and they're already sold out!

Waaah. I want it.

Anyone have any ideas for how you plan to handle Goofy? Any advice?

So that was my Thanksgiving holiday in a nutshell. Love my family, my friends, my wonderful little horse, the great friends I've made through running, blogging and various other Internet sources. I'm thankful for each and everyone of you.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Pandemonium

Eeeeeek!!! I'm leaving tomorrow for NYC! I feel unprepared and undertrained, but c'est la vie. It is what it is.

Halloween was awesome... And not really because it was Halloween, per se.

First, I had the best ride on Lou that I've had so far. (Don't worry, I was back to my mediocre self when I rode this morning due to the fact that it's impossible for me to go out of town without first creating drama and anxiety for myself.) Anyway, Lou was perfect yesterday!

This was from Sunday,
but you get the idea.

And then there was my half assed Halloween costume. Racing out the door to get to the barn so that I'm on my horse by 7:00am means I'm very disorganized in the morning. Therefore, I forgot half of my costume at home and had to improvise. The most important part of my costume that I forgot? BLUE EYE SHADOW.



Tiana and I- Flashdance style



I also got some new super awesome boots for going out in NYC. Meh, I'm aware I do not have nice enough legs to really pull this look off, but whatever. I think they're cool.

Then I actively avoided being around children trick or treating by drinking wine and going out for sushi with some of my favorite ladies. Whew! I didn't come into contact with a single child all night. Success!

See? I told you I was allergic!

So yeah, I have lots and lots to do before I leave in the morning. I have to BE at the airport by 5:00am, so that means leaving at 4:15ish. Yowser.

Of course, there's tons of drama going on with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, but I'm chalking it up to a once in a lifetime adventure. There will be bumps, but lots if people lots their homes and more, so I'm being mindful of the fact that I'm not really in a position to whine and complain like a lot of the assholes on Facebook.

Apologizing in advance for the amount of pictures and posts that are going to fill up your dash board over the next few days! I <3 NY!

Horsin' Around

Had a great weekend that so far, has not included any running. Oopsy. I will rectify that tomorrow since Little Lou is going to get a two day break.

I missed our group run on Saturday because we took Lou to a schooling show. We had a lot of fun and made a party out of it with my barn mates.

Louie and Petey in the trailer headed to the horse show

How cute is this little face?

Katie and Sarah. Of course, we had champagne.

Me and Katie

Ava helping me get Lou ready.

Showing Lou

I am now officially Louie's new owner. Last night, his previous owners came by to give me his papers and I gave them a really big check. Welcome back to debt! Hope my car lasts a few more years because there's no way I can afford another one right now.

It was sad to watch them say goodbye to him, but he will be much happier in his new job. They decided to sell him because he didn't want to be a western horse, much like Bam Bam didn't want to be one, either. I assured them that I would take very good care of him and that he would be really happy at our barn.

Now I'm off to get ready to meet up with Jason, Tara and Ari from our running team for some shopping and dinner. Pictures and blogging to follow!

What to Expect When You're Expecting

The other day, I sent a text to a friend of mine saying, "Guess who is going to be a new mommy?"

She freaked out and thought I was pregnant. Yes, I can see where she might come to that conclusion. However, I am allergic to children, so it's probably best that I don't breed, no matter how cute the potential Daddy may be...

So no, I'm not having any human babies, but I did just get a new horse. His registered name is I Won't Kiss N Tell, but he goes by Louie around the barn. And really, I prefer that my men don't kiss and tell, so he's perfect.

Originally, he came to the barn to be sold as a dressage horse, but since I was his primary rider, I sort of just fell in love with him. He's got a great brain even though he's only four and he's adorable. I'm very excited for this new chapter in my riding career and even though Little Lou, as I call him, may not be the fanciest as a dressage horse, his attitude and willingness makes him worth his weight in gold.

I'm super excited and happier than I've been in a long time. Welcome to Kemah Farms, Lou! His previous owners even sent me a baby picture of him. How cute is this boy?