My Great Journey to the North West

So my dad is the only one who reads this - and tells me I need to update it. I told him I didn't have stories to write - so he told me to make one up and tell about my travel to the North West. So Here goes:

So I currently live in Cedar City, UT where the snow in the winter is a normal thing. The last time I had been home for Christmas was about three years ago in southern WA where it usually just rains. Not this year my friend. This year it snowed - a lot; causing many delays at the airport. I had planned my itinerary a few months ago - so luckily I still had reservations for the first flight out of Vegas to Seattle and some people were on it who had been waiting for a couple of days in the airport. It even snowed in Las Vegas!

The journey started with a text message from my friend Erin, she told me I should leave Monday instead of Tuesday morning b/c a storms was coming and I wouldn't be able to get to St. George on time with the roads being icy. So I hurried and packed and drove to St. G. as it started to snow. So this made it so I drove a lot slower. When I got to St. G. I went shopping, then I called my Adoptive fam and asked if I could crash at their pad - which was a given.

I got there and we talked for awhile, and ate french toast yum. In the morning they drove me to the shuttle. Surprisingly the shuttle was packed. There I met some pretty strange but friendly people. We all talked for most the ride. Arriving in Vegas I made it thru security just fine. They never did find my prison shank I was hiding in my shoe :)

On the plane I sat next to two nice gals from Germany. When I arrived in Seattle I secured my bags and found the bus stop. There, I sat on the bench for 40 min or so. I talked to a few pple and even took a small nap. ;)

The bus was pretty interesting. Usually it is a 55min trip - but it took us 2 1/2 hours. I was surprised at how close pple got to each other on the bus, and they didn't mind. I had one guy standing above me licking his chomps. And the gal next to me was canoodleing with me and sleeping - I think she drooled on me. The other gal next to me sneezed on me and the guy next to her often fell asleep - on her shoulder, and would wake when his single loud snore would stir him. Then was the lady across from me. She often would talk to herself and carry out full convos. Turns out she had a bluetooth headset on. And when this one guy got a phone call, everyotherword from his mouth was the F bomb. He apparently didn't like whomever he was on the phone with. I made sure to take many pictures of my adventure with my phone - so I will have to add them later.

When I got to Lakewood, my sis came and piked me up. The roads were covered in slushy/hard snow - and many pple were getting stuck. WE made it outta there and she dropped me off at the ferry. On the ferry the dude in charge got after me for having my feet on the bench - so I utilized my luggage as a foot rest. On the ferry I met two nice guys. One being my sister's friend - and the other his older brother. He was pretty cute and went to school to become a minister.

Now here I am on the island, and my dog doesn't remember me. He is pretty old and deaf and can't see well either. sad. At least it isn't snowing right now :)

Lets hope I make it back home - since there are more storms to come!

Logan-A-thon

I DID IT!!!

My goal this year was to run a marathon. I made the goal sometime in February for my 'new years resolution.' Tho guess I didn't take it serious and decided that I should, But also realized that time was running out and I wouldn't be able to get into a marathon before the year was over. Another problem is I developed some pain in my left leg that started far before I ran my half marathon.

It began hurting again more intense a few weeks before the marathon - which is about the time I started training for it. I planned on running 22 miles on labor day - but was hesitant b/c my leg hurt. I ran anyway - but got lost and only ran 16 miles, but it was great! On my run I saw snakes, prairie dogs and pretty flowers. Then on Thursday I ran ten miles. And my goal on Saturday was to run 2o miles. But I spoke to Brother Gudmenson - who has run many many marathons and told me I should take it easy for the next two weeks or I may not be able to run it at all.

I went swimming instead but it was not as good of a workout as running - and it was boring. I ran a few more days the week of the race and wrapped my leg. I constantly iced it too. Turns out I had a stress fracture in my leg. Many people told me to not run the marathon and tried to discourage me from my goal - saying things like: I wouldn't be able to ever run again, and I would end up in a cast blaw blaw blaw. I didn't care. I was going to run it - and I was going to reach my goal.

The race is in Logan. I drove up alone and stayed at my friend Tim Belmont's house. After sleeping a few hours I woke at 4am. Outside it was pouring rain! I was worried the race would be ruined with lightning and rain. I remember hoping it would be canceled earlier that week, scared my leg would hurt too badly to finish the race.

I got on the bus, made a few friends, and huddled with others at the top of the cold canyon. The furthest I had run at once was 16 miles. I was surprised at my 1st mile's time of 7:11 - b/c I was taking it easy - nervous about my leg.

I used the porta-potty at mile 13. Mile 26 was THE HARDEST MILE EVER! I was using hard candy the whole time to keep my blood sugar steady and give me some energy. Sadly I ran out of candy at mile 22 so by mile 25 I was going to faint.

Then an Angel in disguise came running next to me and told me I could keep going and to push it - so I did and I ended up leaving her behind for a bit - then ran outta energy again she caught up to me and encouraged me once more to keep going. SO we ran together for a bit and I remember and old lady with a cane telling us that we only had three blocks left to go. I remember wanting to take her cane and hit her with it - I'll show you three blocks!!

When I saw the end I took off in a sprint - once again leaving that angel behind and finishing in 4:02:58 I didn't reach my goal of 3:40 nor my goal of under 4 - but i reached my goal of running a marathon this year!!

Afterwards I fell down on my back in the mud and the Sky opened and poured even more rain! I just layed there clutching my cookie and ice cream bar - laying in the rain.

Later on that Angel came to me and thanked me for running with her - I gave her a hug and told her she was the one who helped me!

Keep Runin' Runin'

August 9th 2008

My race was scheduled for Saturday at 6:30 am. Sarah Challis drove up with me, and will be running the race with her sister Lauren. I dropped her off at the motel where her family would be staying; they came down from Wyoming. My friend Dustin found me a place to stay a few doors down from him in some girls apartment. I was lucky enough to stay in their empty bedroom for the night. My goal was to get some good sleep so that I could do well in the morning. (I had been up in Orem earlier this week for a work conference and haven't gotten much sleep)

I got plenty of sleep that night and was pretty excited to go running. After taking the bus up the canyon and meeting some new friends on the bus, I used the port-a-potty and got warmed up. I was dressed up in 80's gear. I had a headband, and wrist bands. I had shorty-shorts and I wore a shirt that hung off my shoulder a bit. I wore "old-skool" head phones and tube socks that reached my knees with the two black stripes up top.

To stay warm and to get my muscles warmed up I danced around in a ska kind of way - kicking my feet and swinging my arms - all while pretending to listen to music. There were many who found it amusing and probably a few more who thought i was odd. However, dressing up was the best thing i could have done because it helped me be excited rather than nervous and brought smiles to a few faces.

I was nervous that I wouldn't be hydrated enough for the race so I made sure to drink more than enough the night before and the morning of. This was very problematic because when the race was about to start I had to use the port-a-potty again - but not too badly - so I just ignored it.

The race started when the gun was fired- and I was no where near the start of the race. There were 2500 people running in the race and we were all packed pretty tightly and actual running was a joke. So I turned on my music and starting singing and dancing next to people who were trying to run. I then starting skipping and walking faster than some were running. I decided that I should try to run so I followed after some people who were running off the side of the road in the weeds. There were times you had to make sure to not fall off the cliff though.

I made pretty good time on my race - however the WHOLE TIME I had to use the port-a-potty so that when I was finished with the race - that was the only thing on my mind - and we ran next to a river the whole time.

AND there was not one port-a-potty to use when the race was over. I was SO full of liquid it was about to leak out of my eyes! - for real - I had tears in my eyes I had to go so badly. So I found a restaurant and went straight to their restroom. After that I was a happy camper again.

My brother and sis-in-law joined me and took some rad pictures - it was awesome to have some support there!! My time was unofficially around 1:42:ish.

The things we think we see.

Two friends of mine asked me if I was interested in running a half marathon with them. At that time I had lost my motivation to run - so I figured it would be good for me to work toward something, eventually I signed up last min to run the Provo Half Marathon.

To "train" for it I was running 5 miles in the mornings and 3.5 miles as fast as I could up and back through a canyon in the evenings then 10-11 miles once a week - for only 2 weeks. The canyon runs I did with a gal on the SUU cross country team named Lisa Tubb. We would run it in around 6.5-7.24 min miles - which was super high effort for me and medium effort for her.

For our 11 mile run we decided to do it at night. We began our run around 9 pm on a Friday. We started running in town near Wal-Mart and ended in a very rural part of town where with every step we took small farms started to surface. It was very dark and it became rare that a car would pass by us.

While running Lisa and I were startled by a fast-moving iridescent object which ran from the street into the field to our right. To me it didn't look like an animal because it looked as though it had two legs - but also didn't look human.

I started to freak out a little - letting my imagination get the best o me. I thought of the movie Signs were the Alien runs into the field of corn, and the most you see of it is its skinny, creepy legs. Did I mention my biggest fear is Aliens? My next thought was that of Skin Walkers. Lisa thought it was a ghost - but we both decided to pretend it was a deer so that we could turn the corner near where it turned and continue running. We ran it in under 8 min miles :)

Oh we still don't know what we saw - it was too dark.

Plastic Surgery's for the dogs

Currently I work at the best place in town: SWATC. My favorite thing about working there are my coworkers. We can have fun and still get our "work" finished. (inside joke)

Speaking of jokes, often at work we play practical jokes on each other & tell funny stories, I don't think a day goes by where I haven't laughed at someone's story or silly quirk. There was a story told to us the other day that I think is Blog-worthy.

Jayne and her husband are dog people - along with their neighbor; we will call him Tom because I cannot remember his name :)

Anyway Tom has two dogs both chocolate labs. He left town and meant to take both dogs with him, but left the one behind when it took off for an adventure - and he needed to be on time to Oregon. So he called Jayne and asked her if she could find the dog and dog sit for a few days until he could return.

Tom's dog is male - and as is customary around these parts when you don't want your male dog to impregnate all the other dogs, you get them neutered. Well my friend, Tom didn't want his dog to have a complex from being w/o his manhood. So he paid for his dog get plastic surgery. That is correct, the dog has some fake nuggets implanted now. Oh and it gets even better. Tom feels that he didn't give his dog big enough ones, so he is going to upgrade.

I was in shock when I heard and couldn't stop laughing for a while... a dog with a complex ha!

Don't Cross the Red Tape... without chocolate

April 30, 2008

It all started with a few requests as my friend and I announced we would be going to the store to pick up some things....

I found myself alone at the store when my friend saw that the basketball game was on. It was fine - it might be faster this way. One item of business was buying feminine products for people who shall remain nameless. I select needed items and carefully balance them in my arms just in time to answer my cell phone to another request. This request is for a phone charger.
On my way to electronics I hit up the frozen isle and snag some mixed veggies and continue on. With a smirk on my face I asked the two gentlemen where I could find the charger and chuckle as they awkwardly glanced at my hands.

I found the correct charger and headed in the direction of checkout when I realize my wallet is still in the car so I decided to stash the items in the clothing section. As I start to bend over to set down the balanced items - the top box of tampons falls to the floor bursting open - tampons fly like little miniature torpedoes all over the floor. I laughed as I scurried to pick them up - just in time for two guys to come around the corner and almost trip over me and my now-rebalanced feminine products.

I obtained my wallet, grabbed aforementioned items, and jumped into line. . . and guess who gets in line behind me? A young, cute, guy friend of mine who probably doesn't have any bit of an understanding of how funny the whole situation REALLY is. He was uncomfortable when he saw my handful of goodies. Naturally I had to explain - and a few people in line had a good laugh too :)

The smell of black oil on the rain-covered pavement

(changing my friend's oil 5/29/2008)

Memorial Day May 26, 2008

SOMEONE IN HEAVEN: "so how did you die?"
ME: "well there we were looking up at the undercarriage of my car changing my oil..."

On Friday my friend Levi was changing my other friend's oil. I was about to pull out of the parking lot to go get my oil changed when I spotted him and told him of the coincidence of it all. He offered to change mine for me another day and teach me. Heck yes!

That day was today my friend.
After cruisin' to Wal-Mart and snagging an oil filter and some oil we jacked up my car. It was sprinkling out and the sky was a dingey gray. It reminded me of Washington - and reminded Levi of Alaska. But here we are in Utah - our legs protruding from beneath the car - the rain picking up now and water running off the car and onto our legs. It was cold and my hands lost their ability to work well.

With the right tools we painstakingly unscrewed the too-tight bolt on the oil pan. Scraped knuckles and a bruised funny bone later - the old oil was spilling from the car and into a plastic pan. There were a few times where the thought crossed our minds: "what if the jack was to fail"
I also imagined it falling while I was on my side - think of all those broken bones! That would sucketh.

In the end everything worked how it should and I was left with a well-oiled machine and a hand/arm that smells of old oil. Oh and neither one of us died on this Memorial day :)