Thankful Thursday

First of all I must point out that the video I have posted is completely out of control. It's really NSFW (not safe for work) and it's definitely not safe for the kiddies. However, it completely cracks me up.

A couple of years ago my sister took me to see The Black Eyed Peas where a band called LMFAO would be the opening act. At the time their songs "I'm in Miami Bitch" and "Shots" were pretty popular. These two young men jumped around the stage and were generally very goofy. My sister and I sort of thought they were playing a joke on everyone. Come to find out they would keep cranking out hits like the huge "Party Rock Anthem" (you know it, "Everyday I'm shufflin!").

Anywho, as it turns out these two are the son and grandson of Berry Gordy. You know Berry as the founder of that little record label, Motown. Who'd have known these two goofballs had such powerful connections? Talent or not, they can make a hit.

This all brings me to today's Thankful Thursday. Since I'm currently babying this shin for a week or so I hit up the elliptical today at the Y. And yes the elliptical is just as boring as I remembered. However, with the help of LMFAO I made it through the 45 minute sweat session and got in a chuckle along the way.

Today I'm thankful for songs that are cheesy and fun, especially the one below. (I warned you though, the video leaves little to the imagination...oh and can you spot the famous Porn star?)

What are you thankful for today?

Augusta 1/2 Ironman RELAY Race Report

Hey ya'll! I'm back from Georgia and have finally gotten around to whipping up this tasty post. Fortunately, I completed only 1/3 of the 70.3. Unfortunately, this post is still going to be 100% long. Settle down now!

Cay-See and I headed up to Georgia on Friday afternoon and of course had to stop a few times to fuel up on random snacks and freebase Skittles! And my fave, Cheez-Its. Since we were in Georgia I felt it necessary to grab a photo with the pecans, peanuts, and Cowboy hat.


Since we arrived pretty late we were both excited to sleep in until 7 AM. (Sweet Jesus when did I turn into my grandma?) After a light two mile run we headed up to the host hotel to meet up with our peeps, get our packets, and peruse the expo. A few folks decided to test out the river and their wetsuits. Apparently, the water was just cold enough for wetsuits and only had a billion pounds of marshy muck. Yum!

At the expo I finally got to meet Summer! Why yes, I am hugging her leg. The story here is that when we were chatting via Facebook I told her that it'd only be weird when we met in real life if she hugged my leg. To which she replied about being a sneak up leg hugger and thus, the challenge of leg hugging was born. Let it be noted that this should now be a rule when meeting other bloggers for the first time. Leg hugs all around!

After much leg hugging, Cay-See and I headed to the transition area to rack her bike. Since I was the running relay member I got the benefits of going in and out of transition without all of the work. Yay for not schlepping a bike!

Cay-See was ready to go and as you can see there were a LOT of racers. Having never competed in an official Ironman event, I can see why they cost what they do. Honestly, they have thought of everything and really try to make it as safe and as efficient as possible. To that end, I'll point out that we did go to the pre-race briefing at the expo and it was absolutely worth it to a noob like me. I didn't know that the USAT drafting and WTC drafting lengths were different or that men had to wear shirts. I was also surprised to learn about this....


No one ever told me about this whole penalty box deal so I was really surprised when I heard that if you got a penalty for drafting you had to go wait in this tent while they held a stop watch for you. I find this hilarious and crazy all at the same time. I imagine with so many racers it could be tricky to stay the appropriate length behind. I won't have this problem since I can't catch anyone to draft off them. Ha ha.

So, fast forward to big group dinner. Pasta was had and everyone got a good night's sleep. Well as good a night's sleep as you can knowing you are about to be ONE HALF IRONMAN. Or in my case, ONE THIRD OF ONE HALF IRONMAN. Heh.

Race day morning Cay-See and I headed to the swim start and met up with my teammates, their significant others, and Tiny Tish and her hubs. We had about eleven friends completing the half and the three of us doing the relay as Two Chicks and A Rick.



Sweet shirts right? I love them.

As all my buds and my teammate, Aloha Kris, lined up for the swim start I trekked it back to transition. Since the swim was point-to-point we had walked quite a bit that morning. Great job to teammate, Aloha Kris, on her swim! She rocked! I definitely walked more before this race than any other race I've done and did a ton of spectating. I watched the pro's take off in the river and then I watched all my buddies start. I got to transition in time to see Aloha Kris come in and hand off to our cyclist, Rick. And then I waited.

Fifty-six miles is a long ride. (Thank you Rick!) And it was getting warmer and warmer while I waited. I tried to relax but I kept seeing people come in and I was getting amped and just wanted to run. As soon as I spotted Rick I was jumping up and down and cheering for him. I grabbed the chip anklet and headed out for a run. It was about 1 PM and the angry sun was out in full force.

I started the 13.1 miles with the intent of keeping it easy and staying as close to a 2 hour half as I could. I would have no trouble with this because it was super hot and I was feeling it. I say this honestly, I felt bad being on a relay team. Here I was moving past people and thinking about how effing hot I was when they had been busting their humps since 7 AM. I had fresh legs and felt like crap when I passed people. I felt the need to explain that I was on a relay team even though the big letter "R" on my calf was a give away. Everyone was really cool on the course and I helped where I could. I walked through water stops and when I met up with Tiny Tish we chatted for a few steps. I'm pretty sure I told her how amazed I was by her and everyone else doing the entire half IM because I was sweating and panting and here I was, just doing the run portion. Hats off to everyone who raced!

Needless, to say I finished just under 2 hours and my team came in 25th out of 51 mixed teams. Not too shabby for Two Chicks and A Rick! I really benefited from doing this race as a relay because I learned so much about the event. I had a great time spectating and I was happy to be a part of the team. Hopefully next year I can complete the distance all by myself. I've been bitten by the tri bug and the bite's only getting itchier...wait. That sounded gross.



Congratulations again to Cay-See and Tiny Tish on their first 70.3! You gals kick butt. And of course congrats to all who raced on a hot day.

Friday Funny

I got a FB message from a blogger friend named Greg. He sent me a link to his blog where had had posted one of the funniest running videos I've seen in quite some time. So like any good blogger I stole the video and have placed it on my blog below. I have given him credit for finding this gem so by definition I didn't actually steal it. Right?

Anywho, I present to thee...Awkward Running.


I'm off to Gawga in a few hours and am rarin' to go. Cay-See and I plan to freebase some skittles and possibly stop at a ridiculous gas station for photo ops along the way.

Best of luck to those racing this weekend! Please don't run like the dudes in this video.

TGIF!

Thankful Thursday

This week started like a total disaster. My shin was all sorts of jacked up and I was super upset about it. I realize I become a total Crabby Patty when I'm worried about an injury. "I need to run! I need to run! I need to run!" Add that in the mix of stress eating and you've got a possible chocolate-cake-thunder-thighed disaster.

Well, we all know how that story ended so of course I'm thankful for that. But guess what? I'm also thankful for a LIST (Yay for lists!) of other things.

Today I am thankful for:

1. The new TV show New Girl. There was a LOTR reference in the first episode spoken by a geeky, yet lovable brunette girl. SOLD! (No, I'm not on this show.)

2. Pinterest. HOLY CRAP I'M OBSESSED. Just what I needed, another website to add to my faves. However, unlike Daily Mile and Facebook, this one makes me feel like I'm doing more than cyber stalking other people and talking about myself 24/7. I mean, geez, that's what the blog is for. Shout out to Red for hooking me up with this one.

3. Summer and Jason. I have never met either of these bloggers in the "real world" and yet we had the most epic conversation yesterday via facebook. I won't bore you with the details but it involved leg hugging and 1/2 IM. Woot!

4. Powerade Zero, grape. I don't like G or G2, but Powerade seems to be decidedly better on my tummy. Plus, the grape is tasty.

5. Got my tickets to Halloween Horror Nights. If you are a noob to this blog then you don't know of my LOVE for all things Halloween, especially this event at Universal. I've been every year since 1998. It's epic. And you can drink beer! (Not a good idea if you pee a little every time you get scared.)

6. I am so thankful to see so many reaching for their Ironman and 1/2 Ironman goals. I'm in complete awe of my friends who are tri training machines!

7. Twizzlers!!!!!

8. The "Moves Like Jagger" song. And I'm thankful not because I particularly like the song (it's only on every 3 minutes) but because every time I hear it I think of an old Mick Jagger drinking some Metamucil and yelling at some kids to get off his lawn. (Sorry Jagger fans, dude is almost 70. I give him cred for having said "moves" but is there no one else we can reference?)

9. The fact that if you say "gullible" slowly it sounds like "oranges."

10. Super thankful that most of you tried the above because I did too when I first read that.

I'll be heading to Augusta tomorrow afternoon so I'll catch you all when I get back. Team Two Chicks & A Rick are ready to do this!

What are you thankful for?

Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

As some of you may have noticed, or at least I hope you noticed, the posting slowed down quite a bit here on D.R. after my rabbit post. The reason is because I had a dirty little secret and I didn't want to jump the gun on posting too soon.

Recently I have been having some shin pain. In July I bought a pair of shoes that I ran in for about a month and the pain started. I changed shoes in August and it let up bit, plus I took a week off of running to let the shin rest. Here recently it has been giving me pain again. The worst came after Saturday's 14 1/2 miler.

I've had shin splints before and this didn't sound or feel like shin splints. The shin bone hurt to the touch and it throbbed randomly after I ran. Uh-oh, I thought. Sounds like a stress fracture or at least something on the way to becoming one. Since I've been around a lot of injuries lately, I've become quite paranoid and so I scheduled an appointment to see an ortho on Tuesday.

After what can only be described as an obnoxious doctor's visit (long wait, Doogie Howser style intern, and a doctor who didn't listen when I talked), I was prescribed an MRI. The doctor thought it was a possible stress reaction. Fortunately, I got the MRI yesterday as well and had the chance to go back today to have it reviewed.

The good news is that it's not a stress fracture or even a stress reaction. It's apparently inflamed tissue right over the bone and right around the bone. I guess that's why when I pressed the bone it hurt. I had similar symptoms of a stress reaction but thankfully it wasn't the case. Damn sheep in wolf's clothing!

I was given clearance to run Augusta (seriously - THANK GOD! I would have hated making my team bail!). And I was given some prednisone to help with the inflammation. (Side note: My mom said prednisone makes you hungry and reminded me of when we had to give it to our family dog and she got so fat in like one week. Eek! Just roll me through the streets of Augusta! Heh.)

Ok, so the only bad news here is that after Augusta I was told to rest. And of course, when I asked for how long, he just said, until it stops hurting. Uh, does he not know that runners need definite dates for resting? I am going to attempt a full week off after Augusta and then I'll go from there.

Happy, happy stress fracture free Wednesday!

Rabbits

Yesterday I mentioned that I was thankful for rabbits and it really got some of you wondering. I got a couple of emails and I thought it was pretty funny how my randomness got you all questioning this little tidbit of thankfulness.

I shall explain.

I recently asked a fellow book loving co-worker for a recommendation. He and I have a lot of the same tastes in books along the nerdier vein. We both love LOTR, and he is the one who introduced me to the Fables series of graphic novels comic books. With the exception of all the truly girl crap I love, I could be a 14-year-old boy. In any event, he recommended a book I had never heard of and when he told me what it was about I raised an eyebrow and said, "Really?"

It's a book about rabbits called Watership Down.

Apparently this book is very well known and sometimes cited as a children's novel because the author, Richard Adams, wrote it from stories he made up for his own children. Others argue that it's not really a children's book and I agree. I think it's more of a high school level summer read than a book for children. This ain't your typical Green Eggs and Ham type stuff. (The author actually had some trouble getting it published because publishers he went to couldn't determine who the audience would be.)

I must admit I'm only about 200 pages in (out of about 500) and I'm enjoying it very much. It's surprising how a book about rabbits has really pulled me in, but honestly it's just a good story. The writing style isn't what has grabbed me, even though it is well written. These rabbits have unique personalities and traits. And while they do "speak" to each other they also maintain their natural rabbit features of burrowing and fighting. I'm happy the author decided to learn more about rabbits in nature so that these rabbits aren't knitting or wearing bonnets.

Quite like LOTR, it's really just the story of a journey for a motley crew of outcasts and their search for a safer place to live. I'm finding this book has a lot of wonderful characters who look out for each other and rise to the occasion when they are needed, but also make time to play, smell the flowers, and run.

And thus, I'm thankful for rabbits.

Happy Friday.

Thankful Thursday

This morning I woke up in a better mood than I have been in for quite some time now. That whole grumpiness thing is non-running related but I feel as though a lot of it has been worked out, hillside pep talk and all. (Yes, I get grumpy and grouchy. I try to keep the blog upbeat but I'm still human and have those days.)


I hit up the Parkway with P-Funk, the Reporter, and Kris10 to run some intervals this morning. And I am super happy to report that my 800 meter repeats went very well. Granted I had four on deck so I think a better judge will be when I get to six and seven of those bad boys. However, it's the little confidence boost that I needed. I practically skipped into my house after I unlocked the door.


This leads me to my not-so-deep Thankful Thursday.

Today I'm thankful for working things out. I'm thankful for partners who listen as well as vent. I'm thankful for getting over the grumpiness. I'm thankful for girlfriends who send you baskets of junk food because they know you've been grumpy. I'm thankful for intervals that make you believe in your ability again. I'm thankful for new gals in the running group who are great additions. I'm thankful for laughing in the middle of the night because a hanging shirt looked like a scary something before my eyes adjusted. I'm thankful for little dogs. I'm thankful for sisters who don't ever judge. I'm thankful for new blog friends who are wonderful and email me random and hilarious things. I'm thankful for becoming closer with folks I didn't know too well before. And I'm thankful for rabbits.

What are you thankful for?

7 Links

KC over at 140 Point 6 Miles...of Awesome!! decided to nominate me to participate in a post that brings some of my older posts. It's like a throw back post of sorts. I really like this because it gave me the chance to look at some of my old posts and reminisce. And of course be a little more self indulgent then I already am. Hee hee.

Here are the rules:

1. You do not talk about fight club!
1. Blogger is nominated to take part
2. Blogger publishes his/her 7 links on his/her blog – 1 link for each category
3. Blogger nominates up to 5 more bloggers to take part.
4. These bloggers publish their 7 links and nominate another 5 more bloggers

Easy enough right?

My most beautiful post was THIS one (3/25/2010). It's a Thankful Thursday post I did about my dad. I miss him every day and go back and read this when I'm down.


My most popular post was this ONE (10/23/2009). It's the 100 hundred things about me post. I must admit that I go back sometimes for a refresher on those items to see what's changed.

My most controversial post was this POST (9/24/2009). Another Thankful Thursday in which I proclaim I'm backing out of MCM for that year. Granted it wasn't super controversial to the readers but it was something I struggled with and felt I made a controversial decision not to go. What? I'm not a very controversial person in general. It's all I got. Hahaha.

My most helpful post was this ONE (1/21/2011). This was my attempt at helping out noobs. The comments added a lot by way of suggestions. I suggest you go read them.

A post whose success surprised me was this ONE (9/29/2009). I wrote a list of my top ten Halloween movies and I was surprised at how many comments I got because it had nothing to do with running. I suppose sometimes those posts are the best. By the way, I'm so STOKED it's getting close to my favorite holiday!

A post that I feel didn't get the attention it deserved is actually one I wrote very recently. Go give IT some love k? (6/10/2011)

The post I'm most proud of is this ONE (12/12/2010). I like this post because it's a reminder to me to stop being such a brat in terms of where I am as an athlete. Hell, there are days I don't even think of myself AS an athlete. I'm proud of this one cause I really look at myself and where I am remind myself to shut up and not take it all so seriously. As a running coach once said to us, "It's only running."

Memories...like the corners of my mind...

Now for the lucky five who get to go back and re-live their glory days of blogging:

1. Living the Dream
2. Cautiously Audacious
3. Joanna Runs
4. It's all about Pace
5. Runner In Progress

Happy Wednesday!

Champion Gear Winner and other stuff

And the winner of the Champion give away is...


The Lazy Runner! Since the Lazy Runner is a dude, I'm hoping he looks good in the pink hoodie and sweatpants. He could always bedazzle the bottom to say something clever like "Lazy Ass."

In other news, I'm getting super close to my 1/2 Ironman Relay in Augusta at the end of the month. As I noted in a previous post I hit my 12 mile run on Saturday with little incident. Of course, I probably pushed too hard but I wanted to see if I could still run a certain pace at that distance. While I was shooting for a 1:45 goal for Augusta, since that's my PR, I'm thinking it's going to be tougher to reach that in this race. My 1:45 PR was from the Cleveland Half Marathon on a chilly day where I just hung on to some random dudes I met. I'd be happy at this point with anything sub 2:00.

Plus, I want to have fun at this race. It's a no pressure race for me and my buds and I am stoked about the shirts I had made for us. We were initially going to be Three's Company, remember? But Ironman emailed us and said someone else already had that name. Drats! So we came up with "Two Chicks & a Rick." Wait til you see the shirts! I love them. Suspenseful ain't it?

In other, other news, it appears I will be moving in November. Before you get all excited, I'll still be in Florida and I'll still be in the same county but I'll be much, much closer to this...



That's right! The lovely Bayshore Boulevard. Granted, I'm sad to be leaving the hometown of my youth sorta and my beloved BRA but I'm only about 20 minutes away so my long runs will continue to be with my running buds. More to come on this....

Happy Tuesday!

DWYLLC DONE!

Remember when I posted about the Do What You Like Least Challenge? No? Hm. Ok, go HERE for a refresher. I'll wait.

I'm a barbie girl, in a barbie world, it's laughing plastic, it's fan- Oh. Hi. You're back.

The DWYLLC was created in order to get my butt on the bike and KC and Summer's collective butts in the pool. I'd have to say it worked really well for me. I can easily be peer pressured into just about anything. Jumping off a cliff? You guys doing it? Hell yeah, I'm in!

Seriously though, it really did help me get more motivated to ride and is truly helping me get more comfortable on the bike. I've gotten better at drinking from my water bottle and have felt myself relax my kung-fu grip on the handlebars. And while I did enjoy getting more rides in it was super hard to arrange my schedule to get 5 in with the running I need to be doing for my upcoming races. I feel that the bike is so much more involved then running and swimming. Of course, that could just be my thoughts since it's what I like least...

In addition to just getting more comfortable on the bike I had no choice but to learn how to fix a flat tire after my first attempt at ride number four was a fail. I had planned on ride number four for an early AM ride but when I got to the start of my ride my front tire was completely flat. This was on Friday morning mind you, so I had no choice but to ride Saturday AFTER my long run.
Here's how my week with the rides broke down:

1. Monday - 18 miles (plus 1 mile swim)


2. Tuesday - 12.89 miles (plus 5 mile run)


Wednesday - 0 miles (5 mile run)

3. Thursday - 12.85 miles


4.Friday - 0 miles and a flat tire FAIL and no swim due to a storm (This Friday can suck it.)


4. Saturday - 12 miles (12 mile run, no photo cause I just forgot. My bad.)
5. Sunday - 18 miles and DONE! Woot!


Sunday PM = Celebratory wine!

Since the minimum amount I had to ride was 12 miles, and I have a convenient four mile loop nearby, I started calling this the Tour de Twelve. Heh.

I highly recommend you all challenging yourselves to do what you don't like doing. It's been rewarding and dare I say that biking is becoming something I no longer loathe. Granted, I still have a long way to go but this five day challenge was worth it. Now get out there and DWYLL!

Oh Canada!

One of my most favorite emails ever to receive is the Active.com one that looks like this....


It's official! I'm all registered for the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon. I'll be heading up there the Friday night before the race and will be working the Women's Running Magazine booth again this year at the expo. I'm stoked because the last time I worked this race, I didn't actually get to run it.

The course for this one is pretty cool because you get to run into another country - Canada! I haven't been out of the country in a while. My passport has been feeling neglected lately and is just collecting dust. I suppose I should aim a little higher than a country that borders my own, but this will have to do for now. I may run off course and try to find some Canadian souvenirs so I can show off how I have been travelling the world.

Street corner t-shirts, always a good idea.

I plan to use this as a training run for the Miami Marathon and just to add to my bling bling collection. I'm a total medal junkie. And the medal for Detroit is totally rockin. Take a look...

Actual size.

And that's all she wrote. Seriously though, look me up if you are in Detroit. And have a great weekend peeps!

Deuces.

Thankful Thursday: Give away!

Happy Thursday peeps! I'm happy to say that I had a lovely holiday, despite suffering from the black lung. I coughed and coughed some more and yet the doctor gave me nothing but a dumb cough syrup while he took my co-pay. I am finally feeling better and no longer sound like a three-pack-a-day smoker.

On a non-phlegmy note, I did get in all of my workouts over the weekend and then some. And since KC and Summer threw down the DWYLLC, I had no option but to attempt it this week. I have a lot of runs ahead of me and when I ramp up for Miami, I doubt I will be able to squeeze in five trips with Dolly. I've gotten three of the five rides in thus far. Keep your fingers crossed that I can get in my final two!

Now on to what you really came over here for, the give away!

Since I'm not a male, even with a name like B.o.B., I only have lady stuff to give away. Many apologies to all my doods.

Anywho, Champion recently sent me some sweet samples from their new Eco™ line. This line is made "with fibers from recycled plastic materials – so with each purchase, you will be helping Champion to keep nearly 5 million plastic bottles out of landfills." If you are like me, when you hear "eco" for a clothing line you start picturing a product that feels like burlap and can be rolled up and smoked. But just trust me on this, it's super soft and not smoke-able. Heh.

They were kind enough to send me a hoodie, a crew neck sweatshirt, and some really soft sweatpants. And bonus on the sweatpants for not being all elastic around the ankles. Member those? Hahah.

The hoodie is absolutely delicious and I think the crew neck would be perfect as a post-run warm up/eat your breakfast in top. And obviously, the sweatpants are a must for the upcoming Fall and Winter seasons.

This is my version of the Blue Steel.*

I'm so happy in my crew neck!


The sweatpants you can look at HERE. I got so tired after all my modeling and didn't want to model them. Modeling is like, totally exhausting, OK?

Today, I'm super thankful for this awesome give away! I heart Champion.

Want to win the hoodie, crew neck, AND sweatpants?** Go "like" Champion on Facebook HERE or go follow them on Twitter HERE. Let me know you've done 1 of these things and tell me what you are thankful for today. I'll post the winner next Tuesday.

*Blue Steel does not come with hoodie. Sorry.
**All three items are size small.

Do What You Like Least Challenge (DWYLLC)

Last week KC from 140.6 Miles of Awesome had this insane brilliant idea to help keep us doing that which we don't love the most of the tri events. She happened upon this idea while realizing that by pairing up with Summer from The Blue Line Runner (who is also in on this challenge) she could be held accountable for not swimming as much as she should, she loves the swim about as much as I love the bike.

Thus, the Do What You Like Least Challenge was born.

Here's how it works, and I invite you to play along. You must either swim, bike, or run at least five times in ONE week. The five days do not have to be consecutive and we're not giving specific dates for the challenge just that you do it by year's end.

Here are the minimum distances:

Bike - 12 miles

Swim - 1,600 M (1 mile)

Run - 5K

Weight Training - 30 minutes each session*

I know that most of us have trouble getting in our workouts for our upcoming races as it is, let alone getting in five of the ones we don't looooove. But, I am going to put on my big girl panties and attempt this challenge.

Since today is a holiday I'll be hitting the trails with Dolly. I would like to make this week my DWYLLC and get it over with, but we'll see if I can do it. I'll try to snap some photos at my ride so that IF I finish the challenge I've got photographic proof. Uh, and also to keep me honest.

The prize for this challenge is that you get more practice in the area that you need help in. That's it. I personally need this reward and will most certainly benefit. However, if that isn't enough, check back to this here blog tomorrow for a fun give away.

Have a great Labor Day!

*We added weight training and I may try this one too. I don't hate it, but I should could use 5 days of it!

Thankful Thursday: The Sick Edition

Alright, so yesterday I was home sick, but today I'm feeling much better. And guess what? I learned a lot of useful things while staying home. Ok, not really useful but at least worth a Thankful Thursday post about things to do while at home sick. Oh and guess what? I'm thankful for all of these silly things.

P.S. I totally wrote this post yesterday. Heh.

Things To Do While Home Sick:

1. Foam roll with your dog. You're sick and you don't have anything else to do. Foam roll away!

2. Read a high fashion magazine with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover even if you don't looooove her and decide that you'd still rather spend two grand on a bicycle then some fur-trimmed purse. Lloyd is anti-fur. This is him giving me "the look."


3. Re-paint your fingernails. I know that this list is getting girlier by the moment but dudes, whenever I say do such-and-such that's girly just insert "rub some dirt in it."

4. Rent a movie on demand. I rented Jane Eyre mostly because I like the girl in it from Alice in Wonderland. And yes, I love a gothic Bronte romance. So sue me. It was that or the animated film about birds and quite frankly birds freak me out a little. They give NO warning before they attack. At least dogs growl. Uh...where was I? Oh yeah, Jane Eyre. It's worth renting for sure.

5. Catch up on a shit-ton of blogs. If I didn't comment on yours, don't worry, I probably read it and had some trouble commenting. What's up with that? It wouldn't let me comment on some of them I swear. Blogger is dumb sometimes. I also read one of my favorite pro's blog. You can see what Mere is up to here.

6. Work on perfecting the jewel-tone smokey eye. Dudes, this is where you insert "rub some dirt in it." Yes, that is my bathing suit looking all sad in the shower behind me. Geez, even IT looks sick. Heh.



7. Go to CVS, Walgreen's, Rite Aid, or Duane Reade and cough your way through all the fun aisles. Half of the people in there are sick anyway and I know for a fact that the ones in my home town were because they were almost completely out of Mucinex! Besides just needing meds and mags, I just absolutely love drugstores. Since we only have CVS and Walgreens here I'm all about the other ones when I travel. I made Red take me to a Rite Aid when I visited Michigan. She thought I was nuts. But, just like a way less creepy truck stop, you can find very entertaining things at the drug store.

8. Clean. I totally didn't do this but it's nice to know it was an option. I'm sure I would have been thankful that I did it but meh. Just wasn't feeling it.

9. Nap, duh?

10. Write a few blog posts. This is a personal favorite of mine because sometimes trying to fit in a workout, blog post, and work can be tricky.

Quite honestly, even though I am still sick, I'm glad I took the day off. I notice some co-workers coming in and sounding terrible. I don't work at a hospital and people aren't going to die if I miss a day. I'll only be spreading my germs.

I'll definitely have lots of emails to catch up on but I think getting better and staying home is so much more important. I'm thankful for being able to have a sick day and do the above mentioned things. I'd rather be running, but for the time being I'm thankful for health insurance and paid sick days, especially when I need them.

What are you thankful for today?

By the way, head over to Today's Health for a $30 Dick's Sporting Good give away! There's something to be thankful for!