the San Fran trip

So.. I just don't even know how to sum up the weekend, so I've been putting it off!
It was a really good weekend in San Francisco! Of course everything revolved around us running the 1/2 marathon on Sunday, so we tried to be careful about how much we walked and what we ate - okay I lied not so much what we ate.. haha. I did stay away from dairy, because I was afraid that helped in my stomach issues I have after I run. We chowed down on pizza, Ghirardelli chocolate and whatever else we felt like eating.. The run was a fantastic excuse to eat as much carbs as possible and being in San Francisco, I was all about the sourdough bread.

So Friday morning we all drowsily made our way to Allison's at 5:30 to meet and leave for the airport. The flight took off at 7:15 am. Luckily, we got a ride to the airport from Sarah's new man, so that cut out some time that we would have had to spend on parking and taking the shuttle to the terminal and all that jazz.

We landed in San Fran at like 8:45, but I think it was like 10:00 by the time we got to our hotel. We couldn't check in yet, so we dropped our bags off with the dude at the front and meandered around town, made our way to the Marathon Expo and picked up our race numbers, free shirts (that were really cool - dry fit material) and much more free samples of stuff. That area was out a little ways on a pier that's not so touristy and we found a nice place where we had a CHEAP lunch, so that was good. We headed back to the hotel to check-in, we all collapsed on the bed, the tired from getting up so early hitting us, then we headed back out. This time we asked the dude at the front where a good place to go would be. He told us an area, Fillmore St., that would really give us the character of the city. So we headed there by bus, hoping the guy wasn't delusional and that it really was a cool area. It was a pretty cool street - we later found out the 'Painted Ladies' weren't too far from there, but we didn't know it at the time and never saw them. We found a place to eat there - very cool place - where you could chill forever. Luckily, the three of us are similar travelers and didn't mind sitting back and relaxing and talking.. not too hurried to move on. We had two drinks that night.. in celebration of my birthday on Saturday - let me tell ya, we got wild.

Not so much.. we were exhausted from the early morning still.

Saturday, we headed out to the Wharf, took a duck tour (so touristy - love it), went to Ghirardelli Square.. basically hung out with the millions of tourists that take over the city. We also did some shopping, as we were staying in Union Square and there are stores all around! So we did some shopping - H&M! and then we headed over to one of our favorite Brits' hotel! She kinda spurred the whole San Francisco trip in the first place since we knew she'd be visiting from England. So after some time we met up with her and headed to dinner. We found the first Italian place we could find and headed in. We didn't really look at the menu.. or the prices first.. woops. It was a little on the fancy side, but we got our carbs and since it was fancy, the meal was smaller, which means it was the right size portion you actually need! so we weren't stuffed, but just right, afterwards. We had to get some sleep, so we couldn't party it up with the Brits, so we said our goodbyes, took a pic and parted ways.


RACE DAY!!!! We got up bright and early again.. about 5:30... were on our way about 6:15 to the Ferry Building... got on a shuttle bus to take us to our starting point (since we did the second 1/2 marathon). Our starting point was in Golden Gate Park - we got quite a tour on the bus.. the ride was quite long.. probably had to do with the streets blocked off for the marathon. We made it to the park and it was SO COLD.. we were pretty close to the water and the breeze was COLD. The sky was overcast, which turned out to be quite nice for the run, but cold for the waiting.

San Francisco does not get hot - so weird that the highs were in the 60's in August... I didn't know this until I started checking out the temp for our trip.

So we had to wait around for over an hour before starting the race. The line for the porta-potties was great. There were about 20 porta-potties and, obviously, everyone wants to go to the bathroom before running for hours, so the line was LONG. A guy that was helping organize the race was walking around yelling for people to use the bushes if they could.. and he had to keep saying 'seriously' because people would just start laughing...

So, now, to the race. We were waiting in the crowd and everyone just started cheering and clapping and before we knew it we were starting. So, you start off pretty freakin' slow since there are so many people around. Then it thins out and you have to weave your way through. The good part is it's pretty distracting and the first few miles go really fast.

Sarah and I ran the whole way together, which was awesome. I think I would have slowed down quite a bit at one point if I wasn't trying to keep up with Miss Speedy..haha..

We ran through golden gate park for 6 miles, then we were out on the streets of San Francisco. There were hills, but they were pretty short, so it wasn't too killer, although I could feel the quads getting tight by the time we were out of the park. While we were in Golden Gate Park, we got to run past the de Young Museum.... which is neat to an Architect :) so that was kind of exciting, and again, distracting.

Then we ran down Haight, which also gives you plenty to look at. There were some big downhills on this street, one being really steep. It was weird to run down, not knowing how fast I should let myself go.

One of the funny things we noticed was at the cross streets that were blocked off, they had motorcycle guys/ladies that were the 'guards'. It was funny - not police officers (there were some), but most cross streets were leather clad folks and they were cheering us all on..

The stations for water, electrolytes and gel were pretty awesome and I think ended up helping me a lot. The first water stop after we started, had all these things, but then had a guy dressed as the devil and holding a sign for beer and they had a table set up with little dixie cups of beer. Pretty humorous.

I found this pic on flickr... from the race

So, we made it through the race, the last mile definitely being the longest/worst. We finished in 2:07:24... which is like 9:44 minute miles.. Not too shabby.

Our legs felt so weird afterwards! We collected our free food, headed to get our sweats bags, found the free massage tent and met up with Allison! We all made it!!

It was pretty fun! I think we all said we'd do it again, too.
Also, I think it was pretty huge that we trained in Denver at 5,280 ft and went down to sea level for the run. It's so much easier on the lungs, it's amazing. I'm not sure I'd want to run one in Denver, I think I'll just keep traveling around to new cities, with fun, new stuff to look at!

pheeeeeeewww. that was long!

me.. running...



Duck Tours!

looking oh so good after 13.1 miles



And after the race.. we had time to shower but that was all.. we had to check out, so we spent a good amount of time chilling at this park..

little red corvette

So my friend won a corvette. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!?!?!? He had a bottle of Mountain Dew and entered the little code from the cap on the Mountain Dew website and he won a corvette! They've sent him the affidavit.. however you spell that. I'M SO JEALOUS. Who does that!? Who wins a corvette from a bottle cap..makes you never want to throw one of those bottles away again without entering that code in..

I will post a bit later about the weekend and the RACE. I survived and made it through. It wasn't as bad as I thought. It was kinda fun!
More later! :)

list..

I just ate a very large, filling cookie.. UGH.. I'm full! I can't turn down sweets..

To Do Sometime Before I Leave:
_Add more songs to RUNNING playlist on ipod -check
_Write down where to pick up 1/2 marathon info -check
_Print off hotel and marathon important info/confirmation numbers -check
_Write down few ideas of places that are must-sees while in San Fran
_Pack Jackets and Jeans... the highs are about 60 degrees!
_Charge camera batteries
_Pack all chargers - phone, ipod, camera
_Do a load of laundry - check
_Figure out what I will wear for the run!

Thursday
_Pick up dress from alterations place - might be pricey..eek! -check
_Finish a lot of stuff at work..ugh

Friday
_Meet at Allison's at 5:15 am - woohoo!

OH YEAH! Exciting news!! H&M is around the corner from our hotel !!!!! Good and Bad at the same time...

Not thrilled

Not thrilled that I just got referred to as part of the marketing, graphics, interiors area. Not thrilled at all. I went to Architecture school. Just because I'm a female apparently I'm being put into this category at work...

This is exactly why I don't want to stay here long... because that is the direction I will be made to go. I could see that from the beginning when looking at the one other female in the office with an Architecture degree. There's nothing wrong with that area, but I didn't go through 5 years of grueling school for that.. no sirree..

UGH. Not happy at the moment.

Anyways, looking to the weekend.. where I will be freely wondering around San Francisco..
List time...

_Add to playlist on ipod (that apparently we're not supposed to use?!) for the run
_Don't forget to pack ipod charger


Hmmm... that's really the most important thing I can think of right now.. Must have ipod for the run! Apparently, they have started banning them in marathons. F THAT. I better be able to use it...one part of the website says they ask if you use them to only put one earphone in... I guess I can do that


----The girl next to me at work that works on GRAPHICS with me, just got off the phone with the client I did the renderings for last week and he just called to tell us that everything looked fabulous and had lots of comments on how great everything looked...so that's nice!

I lied

I totally lied! I'm getting nervous for this 1/2 marathon!

Well, I wouldn't be so nervous, except my run yesterday turned out to be pretty worthless. I had a soccer game Saturday and that left me more sore and more worn out than I thought it would. So the legs were sore from that yesterday and I decided to run at noon, when it was 90 degrees outside. I did not last long. I didn't want to push myself and make myself feel totally awful, so I had to run/walk for some of it. Not cool at all. If I would have gotten an 8 mile in like planned, I would feel better. Now I'm going to try to get a long one in after work, which it just never seems to feel as good when I go after work. Mornings have been awesome for me to run in, but I really just want to get this run in and don't want to put it off until the morning.


Other than the failed run, the weekend went pretty well. It was relaxing. I didn't do a whole lot. Had a relaxing happy hour on Friday for a few hours after work. I love happy hour on Friday!

I saw Batman on Saturday night and it was really good! I didn't know how I'd feel about it and at one point in the movie I got a little sick of all the crazy action going on. We were also in the third row at the IMAX so it was CLOSE to say the least. The movie started and the sound was off on timing- you heard what was happing before it happened and it was so confusing! I didn't realize that was what was happening for awhile.. I just thought I was confused....but alas everyone started booing and they turned off the movie. Employees came down as we were waiting - to explain how they had to fix it and how it would take 10 to 15 minutes, then another guy to say it'd be on in a minute. The crowd was really lively and funny. Each time someone came to tell us what was going on, the crowd cheered when they were done. One guy would yell 'FREE NACHOS!'. It was pretty entertaining.

The 10:20 show was sold out and then there was a 1:20am show after us. Crazy! It's not opening weekend, but it was still crazy.

In puppy dog news, we've started leaving Mia out for an hour or two at a time if we're all going to be gone. She handles it fine.. we could probably leave her out longer, but we'll get to that at some point. She loves looking out the window. loves it. We have a chair set up by the dining room window, so she can look out and when we're gone it seems like she just sits at the window most of the time. It's so so cute, when I get home and her little head is sitting in the window, waiting. It always takes her minute to see if it's me walking up to the door, so I always wave and when she figures it out she jumps down and waits for me to open the door. SO cute.

music love

Last night, we saw Matt Nathanson perform for a private showing. We weren't supposed to be there, but we got in and it was GREAT. The guy is great. Everyone should see him live. He has a great voice, great music and makes such a great connection with the audience. The little venue it was at was perfect for this kind of a thing. Everyone got to sit up pretty close to him and throughout the show he talks to people and gets the crowd excited. He could hear people being silly and laughing and would point them out and say something back to them.

I would have needed a few more drinks before I would start acting silly/loud enough for him to notice me. I was sitting front and center, though, which was pretty awesome. I got some pics and some videos of him performing, so I'll have to put them on here at some point.

This was the second time I have seen him perform and I'm pretty sure after every show he does he goes out and talks, signs autographs and takes pictures with every single person who wants to see him.
We waited in line so we could get a pic and have a short conversation with him. I got 'Mokies. Bernal Heights' written on my forearm in permanent marker by him. Apparently, it's a great sushi place. I told him I'd be making a visit to San Fran for the 1/2 marathon and that's what I got. So here I am at work with a nice little note written on my arm.

So, yeah, we weren't supposed to be there, as I mentioned. We heard he was going to be here from an email I got on Tuesday and I clicked on a link that took us to the radio station's page to fill out a form and become a 'panel member'. We filled out and figured that's all we had to do. Well, we got there and it turns out that last week they had a drawing of the panel members and whoever was drawn got an email to come. So the email I got was from Matt's email list and was a bit misleading! We had to wait around the door for awhile, but there were plenty of no shows, so we got in without a problem... so it was free and VIP.

Work is killing me..

I had a super fun, super exhausting weekend and now I am SUPER busy at work. That's a lot of supers to deal with at one time.. I know..

With a birthday celebration that got a bit out of control on Friday night and the weekend long Mile High Music Festival, my weekend was pretty packed full of fun. I took the dog to get boarded for the weekend on Saturday morning since the festival pretty much consumed 14 hours straight on both Saturday and Sunday.

With all of that going on, I haven't gotten a run in now in about 4 days. Not good. The 1/2 marathon is in less than 2 weeks! Tonight I am getting one in, although it doesn't appear that I will be getting out of work at 5:00...ugh! I am just sitting here waiting for the computer to render up a model I have built...and it is going SLOOOW. There has been a deadline like every other freakin' day and it is driving me mad. These renderings are for a public meeting for the community of the city to come to and look at and decide how they feel towards the project. Also, they're for some press release. So it is kinda cool that everyone will be looking at them, but they need to be a good representation, too, so kinda scary.

Anyways, back to the running... I'm not too worried about the 1/2 marathon. I've been doing really well on my training..except for this lull, which I saw coming. I don't have any big plans for this weekend, so it shouldn't be a problem fitting a relatively long run in - not too long though because I'm supposed to take it a bit easier the weekend before the big one.

Well, gotta go and hopefully finish up this stuff so I can get out of here!
I'll post some pics soon

country music, you always get me reflecting on life..

I've been listening to a lot of country music lately.
Country music always gets me in a different way than other music. It's about life.. and always gets me thinking about life.

"These are my people" by Rodney Atkins... love it. This will take you to his MySpace page for you to listen.. I can't just write the lyrics - it's not the same!

The stage I'm at in life - along with all of my friends - is pretty interesting! It's hard to take a step back from your own life - troubles and stresses- and just look at the picture.
Here I am in Denver, surrounded by people from pretty much the same area of the U.S. - Kansas and surrounding states...most with some sort of tie to Kansas - school, family... something. It's interesting how that happens. Someone knows someone from home or school and introduces new friends into the picture.. and something clicks when we're hanging out.

Part of me is so looking forward to football season because it is so fun to go to our Kansas State bar and be surrounded by K-Staters... many of them familiar from school, even if I don't personally know them.

Not only are so many of us from the same area, more or less, but we're at this same stage in life. We just got dumped into the real world with these real jobs and we're really just trying to figure out what to do with ourselves! If someone at my age has it all figured out, then that's congratulations... but I don't! All being in a relatively new city to us, we get excited to try new things, go to new places, eat at new restaurants and it's so fun. You can't beat it.
We all have different things going on - job stresses, money stresses, time stresses, relationship stresses- and you get so wrapped up in them...it's just interesting to step back and look at the greatness of it. Making our way, finding out we're able to get through it and figure it out and come out on the other end.

I've been a computer rendering maniac lately! Here's the latest...

ouch

I am in pain from the weekend.. My body hurts. 10 miles ran on Saturday and a full day hike on Sunday leaves me a little sore and it is hard to sit at my desk at work all day.

Lots to do this week...

-Unpacking more - this is going to take awhile.

-Grocery store so I have something to bring to work for lunch.

-Call hotel in San Francisco and beg to have a late checkout on Sunday after our race. If I don't have somewhere to relax after the race, I don't know what I'm going to do.

-Get pictures developed (yes, developed - such a rare thing these days!)

-Make a doctor appointment - these long runs are doing something to my intestines... hence second bullet point

Things are sloooooowly coming together around the house. It is pretty hard to fit in a workout, dog play time and unpacking and organizing all after work. The idea that has crossed my mind is to get the workout in BEFORE work. I might actually force myself up early one of the days this week. It would be a good habit to get into..

I definitely need to get running - I didn't do any running this last weekend, so I need to push myself this week. I'm not sure when I'm going to get the long run in this weekend either! I have a soccer game on Saturday and then we're going on a long hike on Sunday. I guess I'll just squeeze it in before one of those.

I am super excited for the hike, though. I love getting out to the mountains. I've been seeing some pictures from other peoples' hikes and I've been aching to get out there.

A quick tidbit - Mia has been sweetly waiting for me to wake up the last few mornings. Adorable. She's the sweetest in the mornings - she's all about cuddling.

3 days non-stop

Looking back on the weekend, it's hard to believe I did everything I did in 3 days! It was a full weekend.

Thursday night we headed out for dinner on 16th street at Rock Bottom Brewery - which was delicious, then headed to LODO. Sports Column on Thursday night is the place to be, as it is $5 to get in and then $1 you-call-its... Well, since nobody had work on Friday, the place was pretty popular and there was a loooong line winding outside of the bar. We decided to wait - it was moving fairly quickly. We headed up to the the rooftop and spent the rest of the evening there. After we made it home, there was after hours with Mia...she gets lots of play time sometimes at 2 am.

Friday we eventually got up and around and got to Wash Park at about the same time as the rest of Denver. Well, it wasn't that crowded, but spots that had trees for shade were quickly getting taken. We ended up with a nice spot and started to set up the food table, volleyball net and ladder golf alongside another group doing about the same.

The day was perfect.. lots of fun in the sun, drinking, eating and hanging out with friends. Our plans to go elsewhere to watch fireworks faded as it started getting darker and we were still chilling at our spot.. a little too lazy to start packing up everything. There was an orchestra that played on a stage set up near us and then we watched some fireworks over the trees that were being shot off at the Denver Country Club.

We finally packed up, headed home and passed out. Mia was so worn out that she probably would have slept until noon on Saturday, but I had to get up and get ready for the big move. I missed the opportunity to sleep in! It was very hard to get out of bed before my dog did.

Then the moving began. It went pretty smoothly. I had the help of 4 strong guys and all the heavy furniture was out and in the UHaul relatively quickly. We stopped at the Spicy Pickle, I bought them some lunch and we headed over to the new place to unload. There was some furniture shuffling going on since I added two whole couches and another table to the mix.

The Uhaul basically had all the heavy furniture, but I still had stuff at the apartment. So I had to bring probably 4 more loads in my car over throughout the weekend. I did a lot of heavy lifting up and down 3 floors.. I got a workout for sure.

Now, the place is a mess. Mia is currently sitting in her kennel surrounded by boxes.. poor thing. She's a little confused as to what is going on, but she's not complaining because she LOVES Uncle Jeff.. who she now lives with. I'm going to have to get used to Sportscenter on the TV 24/7 now compared to Law & Order on 24/7 from the past year..

pack attack

Well.. the time has come to cram in all the packing! As the extended weekend draws nearer, I am realizing that I really need to get most of this stuff packed TONIGHT. I took one load of boxes over to my brother's (where I'm moving) on Monday. I packed a good amount of clothes and shoes last night. So I'll pack some more tonight and take another load over.. oh fun.

Saturday, we're getting the UHaul and moving all the big stuff over.. I got some boys to come over and do the heavy lifting and I will be providing drinks and lunch.

Besides moving, I plan on having a good time this weekend too! It looks like we'll be going out a little on Thursday and then Friday, the 4th, will be an all day event at Wash Park with drinking, friends and games! I love Wash Park! I can take Mia and get her all tuckered out too.

Also.. changes in the office! We've been bought out/merged with a much larger firm.. so it has been a little bit crazy around here. I had to go through all the paper work you go through when you get a new job and learned about all of the benefits. I now have a 401k. So far, it all seems like it will be a great change.

So, busy weekend ahead of me..
Next week will be a highly unorganized week as I don't think I'll get through all the unpacking this week.

See ya next week.. hopefully through all of the moving debris.

weekend review

Well.. 8 miles and two hours in the sun by the pool later.. I'm pretty exhausted and have a headache.

The 8 miles were rough and I had to walk a little bit, but I ran over 8 miles so I think I was pretty close to running the whole 8 miles. I had a soccer game yesterday and I think that just made my legs a bit tired for the run today. I need to make sure the day before we run in San Francisco, we don't walk around too much and make our legs tired!

Speaking of my soccer game, though, I had a pretty amazing goal! I got high fives from my team as well as the other team. haha.. so that was nice. A girl crossed the ball in right at me - like this line drive. It was coming in 90 degrees from the goal and I took a swing at it and nailed it right in the upper, left of the goal. Pretty sweet :)

Anyways, other than that I had a pretty lonesome weekend. A lot of people were out of town/busy. I don't mind low key weekends, but it's kind of bummer when I realize my lack of many friends in Denver. If my brother's out of town and then some of my other friends are gone, it seems I don't end up hanging out with anyone!

Oh well.. hopefully the circle expands with time!

here's the run

They kind of rock

Brangelina doing more good things with their money..

7 miles!

7 miles yesterday! that seems like a big step for me! Now I'm over the halfway point of the half marathon.. haha.

The stress of paying for Mia's vet visit helped my run I think.. It wasn't all that bad until the awful stomach ache I got after the run. It was pretty painful. I think I was running harder and going faster than usual.

another vet visit...

Well, Mia developed quite an ear infection this weekend. Saturday I got back from my soccer games and she was shaking her head like crazy. I got a glimpse of the inside of her ear and it was all red. A lady at the pool in my complex said to mix together alcohol, vinegar and water to put on it. I did that Saturday and Sunday, but felt I really should talk to the vet, so we went in today. One ear looks fine and the other looks bad. They looked in the good ear first and saw there was a foxtail...



So the doc thinks there might be one in the bad ear and that's what started it. I guess this happens out in Denver - with the dry weather these little seeds fly around more and make their way in dogs ears.. or other places she mentioned she'd pull them from.

So... Mia is still at the vet. They are giving her a little sedative so they can pull it out.. and all I can think of is 'how much is this going to cost!?'

They're going to call me when they're all done with her, which seems like it should be soon. When I go in to get her, I am going to ask them if they have any pet insurance advice, because I think I'm going to get some.

GOALS

Goals are important, right? Well.. my goal for the summer is to look like this...

Two of the greatest moments (okay, I'm exaggerating) of my life were when random strangers - guys at that - told me

First time: 'You probably get this a lot, but you look like Eva Longoria'

Second time (in the ritzy cherry creek area none the less) by a gay/metro sexual man: 'do you know who you like?! I just had to look 3 times to see if you were her.. who do you think it is? come on.. okay.. I totally thought you were Eva Longoria. You look just like her'.. yadda yadda..

So.. clearly I am no spitting image.. haha.. but I'll take what I can get..
So I am working on closing the gap..

1 year!?

I've been in the working world for one whole year! This day seemed so far off awhile ago - it is a bit crazy. Time really has flown by so far. I'm still trying to get over it being June of 2008 and then I looked at the date yesterday and realized I started on June 18th last year! Wow.

So, I realized this at about 3:00 yesterday and the girl who sits next to me at work let everyone know of this accomplishment. There wasn't too much of a response from the rest of the employees - no showering of gifts or cake at least. I had a rum and coke at home at about 9:00pm in celebration..

Anyways, moving on...

_I have to move out of the apartment in 2 1/2 weeks. I currently have about 4 boxes packed. I have no idea how long it will take to pack up everything. I'm pretty sure I will assume it won't take that long and then be very, very wrong.

_I think it's time to get the golf clubs out.

_I'm finally catching up with the rest of the women in the world and going to see the Sex and the City movie tomorrow night! YAY! Drinks with the girls and then movie.

_Saturday night I'm going to see Corey Smith in concert. I've been loving his music and am pretty excited to hear him live.

_Two soccer games Saturday..that could be rough. We had our championship game for last season last weekend, so we missed the beginning of this season, so therefore we have two games this weekend. They cram these seasons in for sure.. I love playing the games once I get out there, but thinking about having to do something on Saturday kind of wears me out. After working all week, I would like the option of just laying by the pool for a few hours on Saturdays. I get to on Sunday, but that's another day I have to wait to get there!

Alright. I better end it there!

Happy Thursday! It's going to be a long afternoon I think...

Whoa! One thing I recommend NOT doing is what I just did! Imagine if you lived at home at your parents' house for the past year and add up all the money you've spent on rent/bills/some food for the past year.. If you lived with your parents think how you could have SAVED all that money! Yikes! It's painful.. you really shouldn't add that up.

Bikes everywhere! I love it!

Yesterday, I turned onto the street leaving work and whoa! Cyclists everywhere! Everyone is biking to work these days. It's fab. It makes me want to bike to work, but I just need to get a bike. I believe next week is bike-to-work week and that would be a good time for me to start. It all kind of scares me, though, with cars that zip by you and the fact that I haven't ridden a bike in quite awhile.
The locations of my work and my home are ideal for biking it seems. I live only about 3 miles from work and for a mile or so there is a designated bike lane, and I need to figure it out, but I think I can jump on another bike path at some point. I need to print out the crazy bike path map of Denver and figure it out. Some kind of "Biking Around Denver for Dummy's" guide would be helpful too.

Well..I had a fun weekend! I was outside in the sun a lot, which is always the goal on these summer weekends.
We went out for Allison's birthday on Friday night - dinner and out. We had a fab night - much needed - we all hadn't been out out together in awhile! I then had a soccer game at 10:00 in the morning on Saturday and didn't feel real great when I left for the game, but the running around and the fresh air must have been good for me because I felt better after about 15 minutes. The field we were playing on out at Dick's Sporting Good's Park had an awesome view of the mountains! It's farther East than the fields we usually play on and must be higher up because I could see ALL the mountains as I played the game... pretty awesome. It was a really clear day, too. Gorgeous.

After the game Mia and I went to Wash Park to meet up with some people (and dogs) for volleyball and BBQ. So fun.. love days in the park. Then had an engagement party dinner that evening. I was pretty tired after the dinner and just went home and to bed..

Sunday was a pretty lazy day.. laid out at the pool, took Mia to the park near-by, ran into a couple of the usual dogs and their owners. Met a lady who thought Mia was SO CUTE! Then found out she was a puggle and told me all about her neice wanting to get a puggle so bad. So that was pretty funny. She was really excited about seeing a puggle. haha.

After all that and a little nap, I mustered up the energy to go on a run. I didn't go that morning and it was pretty hot during the day, so I put it off until about 7:30. I was worried for myself, putting it off like that, but I was going to be SO MAD at myself if I didn't reach my 6 mile goal today.

So I did.. did the 6 miles I had mapped out earlier. YAY!

summary of thoughts

-Glad everyone's okay in Manhattan, KS (my alma mater) with the tornado! Scary!
-Sad about the boy scouts in Iowa.
-Impressed that Katherine Heigl turned down an Emmy nomination
-Noticing I'm looking forward to my runs - that's a good thing!

ohhh boy..8 weeks until the 1/2 marathon! I need to revise the training schedule.

This is what I think I'm going for.. just the long runs on the weekends. In between will be 4/5 mile runs during the week.

JUNE 14/15 - 6 miles
JUNE 21/22 - 8 miles
JUNE 28/29 - 8 miles
JULY 5/6 - 9 miles
JULY 12/13 - 11 miles
JULY 19/20 - 8 miles
JULY 26/27 - 9 miles
AUGUST 3RD - 1/2 Marathon

So the 1/2 Marathon will be at sea level, so that's a plus, since I'm training at 5,000 ft., but it will most likely have hills and that will be tough. It will also be in a city I have never seen though, so hopefully some stuff to look at will serve as a little distraction...

Anyways...
Mia and I had a nice evening last night. Our old puggle friends invited us over for a doggy play date. They had moved and have a good size backyard now. Marvin and Mia hadn't seen each other in quite awhile, so they did a lot of playing. It was still a little hot when I got over there at 7, but cooled down and it was a beautiful evening. They grilled up Turkey hotdogs and Turkey burgers as well. YUM YUM.

Also, it should be a fun weekend ahead. Friday we're celebrating Allison's bday! Then Saturday night I'm celebrating Angie and Corey's engagement at Ocean. More yum.
My soccer team is in the championship game of our league. I wasn't really expecting us to win two games last weekend, but I checked online since I missed them and we won. So, 10:00 is the championship game. After that I'm heading to the pool.. If we win the team will probably want to celebrate, but I need to go to the pool and layout! I haven't gotten the chance to yet and it's making me a little mad.. not gonna lie.

visitors over the weekend!

After taking a long weekend off this was pretty rough.. but I should be on a steady schedule from now on with long runs on the weekend.




I had a superb weekend with the girls! Camdin, Jesi and Megan all came out to Denver and we had so much fun and did a lot. I'll sum it up pretty quickly..I showed them around a bit on Friday, then went to the Rockies game Friday (we left early and ended up missing one exciting game apparently - woops!), but we wanted to get ready and go out in LODO. We got back downtown and had a fun night. Saturday morning we headed to brunch at this place called Bump & Grind. On the weekends the servers cross-dress and are loud and obnoxious... pretty funny. Our waiter/waitress tortured this grandpa from Kansas. He had come over to talk to us when he saw Megan's K-State t-shirt. Anyways, we're not sure if his family and him knew what they were getting into when they came to this place.
After breakfast we headed west and went hiking and camping in the mountains. Very fun!
I'll put some pics up in a bit.

blogtastic

This is a cute blog.. I like this post in particular

http://www.thejinius.com/category/its-hard-being-a-genius

Wednesday's run

So I'm putting these runs in here so I can keep track of what I've done and in hopes to motivate me if I'm putting it out there when I run!

more running

I need to figure out a new run around my apartment.. I'm going to get sick of this one. I am moving in a month, so I guess I will have a new route around then. I'll try to get creative for the next month though.. and I need to bump up the running. I'm hanging around the 4 mile mark too much.. I need to jump up to 6 miles asap.


YESTERDAY'S RUN..



SATURDAY'S RUN...

During this run I went into a really beautiful area with beautiful houses.. well the whole run has pretty houses, but South of 6th street has BIG houses.. in the Country Club area. I hear it's the most expensive neighborhood in Denver. Seriously some beautiful houses in there!

The weekend was pretty uneventful, but VERY relaxing...well except the intense soccer game on Sunday. Those games take it out of me! 90 minutes, coed and no subs for the girls.. and the games are definitely competitive and fast-paced. I love it though, so can't complain. I am kinda glad the season is now over, though. I would like to use my Sundays to lay by the pool! Especially since I won't have a pool to lay by after July 6th.
We were in the playoffs, but lost this game after a long battle. My Saturday team is now in the playoffs - the first game is this weekend, but I will be missing it.

This weekend I will be hanging out with my visitors! Looking forward to it! We're leaving Saturday to go camping and I am so excited for camping this summer. I bought a tent and sleeping bag and was tempted to buy all kinds of fun camping stuff, but I stopped myself.

Also, since the heat has been on in the last week and I've had Mia back, I have noticed how she reacts to hot weather. She does not like the hot weather at all! Last summer she was a little, tiny puppy and we didn't spend all that much time outside in the hot air. It also didn't take much before she was worn out when she was that little. Now it usually takes a lot more to get her worn out and I have found that hot weather wears her out so fast! We can even go to the park and sit and chill because she doesn't want to run around as much. She enjoys hanging out in the shade. So this weekend we hung out at the park and I read a book as she played some with her favorite toy of all time and rolled around in the shade.

I must say this summer might be pretty nice if that's all it takes to get her worn out and in her cute, adorable sleepy puppy state. She might start adjusting to the hot weather and not get worn out so fast. Either way, with her favorite toy of all time it's not too hard to get her tired.

UGH!

UGH..is all I'm feeling like today..

Yesterday's run ... 3.7 miles

Trying to get back in the training.. this was a little rough. It doesn't help that the whole second half is practically up hill. ROUGH.

Looking forward to the weekend

Hopefully this weekend consists of:

-Running (must get back into the running habit for training! we bought our plane tickets to SF!)
-Soccer (it's getting towards the end of both of my seasons!)
-Laying out by the pool (getting a tan!)
-Having some drinks with friends
-Relaxing
-Playing with the puppy at the park (getting a tan!)
-Driving range (get my golf back on)
-Farmer's Market

The past three weeks were not wasted! Thank goodness! I've been studying my butt off for this test I had today and I PASSED! It was a scary test - I definitely didn't know if I passed at the end of it. I didn't know how many I could miss and still pass, so each question could have held the results in it's hands! Scary! So after two hours of an increased heart rate and about 15 seconds of near heart attack, the score came on the screen and I passed.

The people around me at this testing center (taking different kinds of tests) just might have been a little worried about me as I kept making loud exhaling noises.. but whatever..

So I am officially a LEED Accredited Professional. Wahoo! I'm sustainable.

This is something I've been wanting to do for about a year and a half, so I'm pretty excited that I did it. The object of LEED is to create buildings that do not hurt the environment nearly as bad as most do, so it's definitely something that will continue to be a big deal. I would love to be a big part of it.

it's official

We officially signed up for the San Francisco 1/2 marathon! We also have a hotel booked. Just need the flight now... and to do some training, of course.. which is a little off track..

musical summer

I'm loving music lately. I've never been one to get really into music, but I think I'm changing my ways. I'm all about live music these days - which is also a good way to break the bank...

I guess sitting at work all day long and listening to music for some of it has made me want to explore a little more. Also, www.pandora.com is a fabulous way to discover some new music. You put in an artist you like and it plays music by that artist as well as similar sounding artists. Check it out.

Denver has some great little venues for smaller bands/artists to come and play..

My faves right now

Matt Nathanson
Corey Smith (concert June 21st)
Ingrid Michaelson
Spoon

I'm also going to the first annual Mile High Music Festival- www.milehighmusicfestival.com - it's got quite a line up and should be a good time of sitting out in the sun and listening to music. That's July 19th, 20th - can't wait!

The thing about concerts is that you really don't know what you miss until you go.. live music is great.

"There’s something so amazing about music; it can transform the dullest of environments into beautiful places. Put it on, hear it out, look around, revel in the moment. Here lie the beauty and clarity that get you through your day."
- Tristan Prettyman

I really wish there were such a thing as a chill pill.. I would totally mash it up and sneak it in to certain people's water..or coffee..

my neighborhood in Denver

So in July, my lease at my apartment complex is up and I'm moving to my brother's house to live with him and his roommates. It's a great deal - I will be saving tons of money on rent.

I'm going to be a little sad to be leaving my neighborhood, though. I have spent so much of my time in the neighborhood with my dog. I am outside on walks or at the close neighborhood park, Congress park, with her every single day. On these walks and at the park, I have gotten to know a lot of my neighbors in Congress Park neighborhood that have dogs. Sometimes there will be 5 to 10 people there with their dogs, which results in doggy playtime. So it has been nice seeing familiar faces every time I'm at the park and knowing other people's dogs' names, as well as them knowing my dog. There is Aspen and Boogie that Mia particularly plays well with.

Tonight I was at a near-by coffee shop - locally owned. There is a very close starbucks which I have gone to because of it's very close proximity to my apartment, but this coffee shop serves up some great sandwiches, coffee and baked goods. So I sat outside today and had a turkey, avocado sandwich while studying. As I sat there so many people from the neighborhood walked up to either the coffee shop or at the ice cream shop next door to sit outside with family friends and dogs. There was a friendly run-in between one couple and their dog and another guy with two dogs. They clearly knew each other from seeing each other with their dogs and they sat down and chatted for awhile.

It was an awesome evening outside and loved that there was this neighborhood meeting place where neighbors run into each other. The ice cream shop - I think it is actually custard - is a simple store, where they home-make the custard daily. They have chocolate and vanilla every day and then a flavor of the day, today was coconut, and many toppings to pick from. After having my sandwich and studying, I decided I should probably check it out and ended up with chocolate custard and m&m's.. my favorite. While checking out, one of the guys asked if I would like to play a little trivia and try for 10% off. why not.. right? So I picked 'pop culture' and then picked 'sports and games'. I don't remember the question exactly, but it had something to do with "which city has held the olympics twice in (the name of the stadium)." And I totally got it right! Athens! Which if you've been to Greece or know much about it you probably would have gotten it right, because the name of the stadium was pretty obvious - in that it ended -aikos...

So to sum it up, I love the neighborhood and the neighborliness that exists.. a local park and the local shops add to it so much! And I'm going to miss it when I leave. It won't be too far and I could easily make some trips over to visit.

I will be close to an awesome and beautiful Denver park, Wash Park. Not as close as Congress Park, but it will suffice..

Yesterday's run... 5 miles

I went twice around Wash Park..good and pretty run!

This morning's run.. 4 miles

All kinds of things are going on right now!

Well, mainly two things I guess - training for the San Francisco 1/2 marathon and studying for the LEED test.. as well as working. Thank goodness for my parents taking Mia home with them after they visited last week because I don't have time for my little pup.
It sounds like she's having a good time with the grandparents though, so that's good. I think I've talked to them every day since they took her home! I'm going to be one crazy mom to a real human being one day.

My LEED test (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design if you were wondering) ended up being scheduled a little bit later than I was planning, so I have a little more time to prepare. I'm pretty nervous though- I just want to pass this thing and it's not going to be easy! So much studying ahead of me and definitely much running ahead of me.. I have quite a ways to go before I'm at 13.1 miles!

I'm definitely excited for the half marathon and definitely excited for a trip to San Francisco.

I'm up to 5 miles this weekend..wahoo.. just the beginning! I'm also playing in two soccer leagues that have games on the weekends, so it's hard to fit in a run on top of a full game of soccer!

Well.. that's what is currently on my mind, so thought I'd share.

more deliciousness

I'm not turning this into a blog about food..haha.. but here's a recipe to a delicious dip. It's really easy and really yummy

Black Bean Dip

1 pkg frozen creamed spinach

1 can chicken—the one a bit bigger than a regular tuna can.

1 can of black beans rinsed & drained

2 C. shredded Colby-Jack Cheese

1 jar of salsa (I can't remember the exact size. I'd guess about 14 oz.)

Mix everything together. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve with Frito Scoop Chips.

YUM

the most delicious thing to hit my mouth

I am not good at waiting...

Climbed the tallest building in Denver!

So this weekend myself and a group of friends decided to join in on the 'Run the Republic Stair Climb', which is going up the tallest building in Denver - 55 stories. This is hopefully the beginning of many different athletic events I plan on partaking in.
So, anyways, our team was named 'We're Not in Kansas Anymore' since we were all mostly from Kansas and people seem to think we don't have tall building in Kansas.. so we thought it was pretty good. The whole thing started at 8:00 Sunday morning, but we didn't go until 12:00. There were like 1800 people who did the whole thing, so they spaced us out.
It all went pretty fast - it felt longer than it took- and it was rough, but I made it up the building in 10 minutes and 52 seconds. A whole lot better than I had imagined. The whole team did it in less than 15 minutes, so we were pretty awesome!
They do this event for lung disease, so all the money goes towards that. We had a good time and hung out for a while afterwards because it was gorgeous outside!

Here's some pics.



There's the building behind us!


before:
after:

Resolutions??

or just a list..

. Become LEED AP
. Run a half marathon.. just a half (no more please)
. Paint more
. Take more photos with my new Canon Rebel xti and improve my photo-taking skills
. Keep track of my money better.. save more..

Fall Back

I have never been so affected by the short days of the winter and it is driving my a little bit crazy. This is my first time working an eight to five job during this time of the year. In school there was always studio to attend to in the evening, so it didn't matter if it was light or dark. Now, I don't really have anything to do after work, so I had been taking advantage of the beautiful evenings in Denver and spending a good amount of time outdoors. On top of just being annoyed that when I leave work it is dark, I also have my puppy that is used to her walks or runs shortly after my arrival.

So, this has led me to start thinking about taking her to doggy daycare twice a week for half a day. I will probably take her for the second half of the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then she will be all worn out for the evening! And that means I can get more done when I get home from work..hopefully this works out.

Random Info:

These are my favorite things to snack on right now.. de-licous.. fresh ones are very crisp and tasty..

Sugar Snap Peas..

Currently recovering from a cold and the Rockies bombing it at the world series.

My nose is raw from all the kleenex usage. I'm sure the night out on Friday did not help the condition. But I took it easy the rest of the weekend and am feeling much, much better.

what's goin' on at work..

Fun Times in Colorado!

Okay, well, lately everything's been going pretty well in Denver! The pictures above are from the camping trip over Labor Day weekend. I went with Jeff, his roommate and some of their friends. I brought Mia and another girl brought her puppy, Daisy, so they tired eachother out and it was perfect.

It was my first trip to the mountains since I've moved here, so it was about time to get out there. We made it out just in time before the weather started to cool down ( which I am absolutely loving right now!). I love when summer starts slipping into Fall.. I think it's my favorite. Sweatshirts, sweatpants... awesome.

I have also been playing around with my new camera... the Rebel XTi and it's so much fun so far. The camera was purchased from Wolf Camera and they provide some free camera classes with my purchase, so I went to one last Thursday and hopefully I will be able to go to the more in-depth one this Thursday. There are so many little tricks that can be learned. This is one of the things I wanted to do, so I'm so glad that I was given the opportunity to purchase this camera. Now I just want to figure out how to take beautiful pictures.

Mia has been my main subject so far. Maybe I will turn into an animal photographer. Haha... but that could be interesting..

This last weekend, we went to a local designer fashion show. I went with the k-state architecture girls that have all moved here. There's about 5 of us that usually hang out. So, this event was called Art in the City and is kind of tied to the First Fridays events that happen around the city at the art galleries on the first Fridays of the month. It was in a very random spot in Denver in a warehouse, so a little confusing to get to and I think the cab driver was a little worried when we told him to 'continue driving by this warehouse, past the cement truck... keep goin..'

Anyways, it was a $5 donation and drinks and food all night.. Local designers had models strut their designs down a walkway It was really neat and nice to do something a little different and be around the artsy crowd.

Tomorrow, the same girls are all going to head to a rock climbing gym and take a lesson to learn how to climb... Sarah set it all up and we all jumped at the chance to do something new and different.

It's so nice to be with a crowd that likes to do fun things!!

A trip to Colorado Springs might be in the works this weekend and then Jeff and I are going to Greeley, CO to visit our cousin and her family for dinner.

Well, that is what I have been up to.. All going well and loving it!

Pictures of Mia, my puggle pup

the daily routine..

5:00am-6:00am(if I'm lucky) - Mia wakes me up
- take out Mia
- feed Mia

7:00 am - look at Einstein Bros. Bagels across the street and really want a bagel

7:00am -8:00am - play with Mia while trying to eat breakfast and get ready for work - usually don't get a bagel

8:00am - leave for work(no one usually shows up before 8:15)
- grab coffee at coffee shop next door to work or starbucks along the way
- eye the muffins - usually don't get one

8:15am - 12:00 - spend some time checking out the email and facebook situation, then start working on the fun autoCAD.

12:00 - 1:00 ish - go home to let Mia out and eat lunch

1:00 - 5:00 ish - work, check out more facebook and email.

5:15pm - possibly workout directly after work, possibly run errands, possibly just go home

6:30pm - always back to play with the pup, feed her, have snack - go to the park, run/walk around neighborhood

7:30 - 8:00 - dinner, tv, wine

10:00-11:00ish - bedtime

I remember looking forward to having a routine and schedule... it's getting a little monotonous..

I am going to write a post soon.. promise!

I don't know if anyone stops by this site anymore, but I do plan on updating every now and then...we don't have internet in our apartment just yet - coming on thursday. Just trying to put together the apartment lately-going to look at a table after work today. That is the major piece of furniture that is missing and it will be soo nice when a table is in there.
But, I have moved out here to Denver and started working - everything is going pretty well!
Later

FINISHED!

Here are some of my 3d renders from my project. Finally done and I'm so excited.
No job yet...so now I'm on a mission to find the job.
Check ya later

the end is near!

One last week of putting my body through this awful, miserable marathon of no sleep and high stress. After this (assuming I pass this semester), I won't have anymore school projects that keep me up in studio for countless hours straight with no sleep. Starting today, many of us will slip into 'freak out mode' when we realize how little time we have to finish a whole lot of work!
On top of stressing over studio, I also am thinking about how many of my hours this weekend are going towards working at Panera.

If I was really thinking ahead I would have made this week my last week of work at Panera. But, I am not a planner and didn't realize what a good idea that would be. Instead, two weeks from yesterday is my last day. This gives me most of finals week to put in some hours, since I only have one final.

This is the last week of having to use the super glue that must be used to make a model at the pace I need to make it at. For five years now I have dealt with the itchyness that happens in these last final weeks and any other time I have had to build a model in studio. I have known for the last five years there has been something I am allergic to in studio. After coming back from a stress-free, super glue free semester in Prague, I realized it was the super glue. Any resistance my body had built up to the constant use of superglue had left and there was no question after using it again this year that it was the super glue. I have avoided it my best all semester, trying to use the slower-drying tacky glue to build study models, but when it comes down to this time of the semester, I have no choice but to use super glue. I'm loading up on allergy medicine the best I can while using the super glue, but it fails to stop the skin irritation. It's awful!

But it will all be over in one week! Then it is recovery time and graduation.

I still do not know what I will be doing after graduation. I have yet to secure a job and the search had to be put off starting a couple weeks ago, so that I could buckle down and finish the project. What is a job if I don't pass studio??

So after graduation and getting my wisdom teeth out, I will get a move on the job search again. I pray it doesn't take too long to land one that I will enjoy. For the most part, I will be looking in Denver and Chicago, but I will continue to look at some other exciting destinations as well!

Well, it's back to work with the irritating super glue and the severe itching that comes along with it.

studio fun

some progress on my current project.. less than a month to get all this finished!

job searching

that's it. keeping me busy and stressed

1 year, 1 day

I meant to write a little something yesterday. Yesterday was a year since I left for my big study abroad experience. I left with Luke from Wichita and flew to London. We then made our way to Oxford for a very jetlagged tour, then we ended up at the house of Luke's friends, who were so amazing.
And from there, so much more for 5 months.

The students going to Prague this year haven't quite left yet. We left about a week early so we could go to England, but the ones I have talked to are going straight to Prague, so I think they leave in just a couple days.
What a great experience and I've been looking through some of my pictures just remembering what it was like to be there. It would be awesome to be able to go back for a visit soon. Too bad flights aren't as cheap to Prague from the US as they are from England!

Okay, well here are a few pics of my first days in England and Prague.

post!

well, it's about that time to write something.
The semester has been a lot busier than it seemed it was going to be, but that is because I ended up getting a job. After a little bit of looking, I got a job at Panera. So far it's going well. It's definitely keeping my schedule busy. But it's all good and now I have a little bit of income, so I'm not stressed about that quite as much. Besides working, I'm only busy with studio. It's nice to come into studio and only have to worry about studio stuff instead of other classes.
Between studio and work I am trying to finish my portfolio.. it's a slow process, but I'm going to pick up the pace and get it done so I can make sure all is well before design expo.
Design expo is our career fair that the college of architecture does. Right now there are like 130 firms coming, so it is a good opportunity. There are firms from all over, but I don't think there are any from Boston - which is where I really want to go! I think there are some from Chicago, Denver and Portland, which I am interested in as well. Atleast I'll get some practice in for interviews through this.
Our professor just gave us a little lecture on balancing studio and job stuff, because fifth years always get distracted with portfolios and interviews and design expo.

This weekend is Alpha Chi's 60th anniversary reunion. so a lot of people are coming into town! but, panera also decided to schedule me really crap times for the first time so far. I close friday night, which it says is around 11:30..boo! so nobody come to panera on friday, please, so I can possibly get out of there sooner. that's the pub crawl night, so I'll have to join much later. then i work at 7 am on sunday so I can't do anything too crazy saturday night.. so it really kinda sucks. oh well... i'll do my best to enjoy the weekend. I think I may go out on Thursday night to compensate. Or tonight, if K-state beats KU tonight I will probably go out...

that's what is going on.. i will try to do a little more updating.

this is what i want

My goal in life... to be able to get a massage every single day of my life...

break?? not quite...

I got home tonight for Thanksgiving break and this is what I am doing...


yup, school work... this is my project for studio

mid-semester

So, I've made it through over half of the semester. Time has gone pretty fast here in Manhattan - the weeks seem to fly by lately. They need to start slowing down a little bit, so I can enjoy my last year here - which I have been doing. The beginning of the week is a little tough to get through because I have my night classes on Monday and Tuesday, so then by the time those are over I feel like half of the week is gone.
I have finished my Tuesday night class and now need to get motivated to figure out something for my studio project. This new project we have started is proving to be a bit challenging for me and I need to get myself motivated. Halloween is coming up and I don't want to sacrifice those nights of fun to be in studio! -- so that will be my motivation for the rest of the week.

I had a great weekend back home in Wichita. It was nice and relaxing and I felt like I hadn't been home in awhile. We have had so many home football games this year that I have to find the weekends we have away games to do anything. These football games are definitely all day affairs. We have another one this weekend -the homecoming game - it hardly even matters that it's homecoming now that I'm not in the sorority anymore, now that I'm "alum". The only thing "homecoming" means right now is "halloween".
Anyways, Jeff was home from Denver this weekend as well - shortly, because he went to the OU game with my dad while my mom and I hung out in Wichita. We had some good food and I ate way too many m&m's from our bottomeless candy dish...
I don't have too much else to "update" on right now, but life is good and I hope it is for everyone else!

I'll throw in a few pics


some tailgating action

and the roomies

update!

So, obviously I'm not doing so good at updating this, but every now and then I may get the urge to post something.. so I'm keeping the blog around. I need to change the name, because I am no longer in Prague -- sadly.
So I'm still working on getting into the swing of school. Basically, it's the studio stuff that is hard to dive into. I'm not ready to spend all my time in Seaton Hall again. I have had a very large amount of reading to do this semester and most of it is not easy reading. I have to whip out the dictionary every now and then to figure out what exactly these writers are talking about.

***actually, please look at Laura's blog - there's a link to the right. She has a nice quote off of one of the readings we had to read for our Project Programming class in her last post.

One of my classes is basically all reading. We have the class once a week and discuss the readings we were supposed to read throughout the week. We also have a paper over the readings - about 2 pages - due every class. So that keeps me pretty busy. That class is on Tuesday evening. I am in a drawing class on Monday evening, I have studio every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as usual, golf class Thursday morning, and a Project Programming class Thursday afternoon. It really isn't too bad of a schedule, since all of them except for studio is only once a week. It also gives me plenty of time to work out in the morning.. besides golf at 9:30 on Thursday, my classes start at 1:30 pm at the earlies.

I'm really liking the golf class of course. I'm so glad I took it. There's probably 11 people in the class and I am the only girl. They have other classes and I think those have more girls, but I'm the only one in mine. We've gone out on the golf course one time so far and I'm guessing we will start doing that for now on. We can go out early before the class and play during class if we want to; we don't have to actually go to the lessons. I have been, because I need them, but a few people just go out and play. Right now the weather is really nice, so it would be awesome if this held out for a good month or so before it starts getting frigid outside.

The football game was glorious yesterday. It turned out to be a pretty hot day, but it was so nice out and we stayed the whole game- which is rare. It was a little difficult to get up after a night out on Friday. The game was at 11:30 so in order to get some tailgating in we had to get up early. Of course, we didn't get up as early as planned, but we got out there some time around 9:30 or 10. Our phi delt friends always have a tailgate going on and this game they had rep. for the energy drink Rock Star, so they were handing out free energy drinks, which I most definitely needed.

Anyways, the weekend went pretty well. It rained last night while we were in Aggieville, which wasn't too fun. The bars got really crowded since nobody was out on the patios. We ended up heading home a little early and called it a night. Now, I'm taking a little break from the reading I'm doing. Fun stuff. I will be busy with homework all day - and week. We have mid crits this week. I'm going on Wednesday. Half way through our projects we pin up our work and get critiqued on our progress so for. I also have to do a presentation with Laura on Thursday for our Programming class. We have been researching an architect and one of his specific buildings.. we have quite a bit to do for that before we will be ready to present. So it shall be a busy week.

Well, I better get going on this reading. I'll try not to wait so long to post next time!

back to the little apple

I have moved back to Manhattan now. My parents came with me on Sunday and helped me move all my Stuff in. This year I had to bring along a bed, a dresser and a desk for the first time. Last year, the one semester I was in Manhattan, I was lucky enough to get to use somebody else's stuff for the semester. Jessie, who subleased from me while I was in Prague, didn't need her bed, dresser, and desk for that semester. It made moving a lot easier! This time we had a lot to haul, but I also get to keep it here for a whole year - and that is a first. I have yet to be able to leave all my stuff in one spot for a whole school year. In the dorms we had to move most of our stuff home over christmas break and same with the sorority house.

My room is pretty tiny, but everything fits in there and so far I'm enjoying it. The set up is working nicely. My desk is at the end of my bed, so the end of the bed is working as a chair for the desk. haha. That is the most cramped part of the room. Good thing I never have to do a lot of homework in my room because the bed as my chair would be rather dangerous and I wouldn't foresee much work getting done there.

We have one more roommate moving in tomorrow and then we'll all be settled here. School starts next Monday and so far the only things I have been doing in Manhattan have been getting ready for the semester - paying for it and then signing up for which studios I would prefer to be in. I'm not sure when I find out about the studio assignment. I also picked up my transcript from my semester abroad-thank goodness those got to the school. They told us that last year they had issues getting them.

Other than those few things, I haven't been up to much more than I was all summer in Wichita. Amazingly, the weather has been beautiful the last two days, so I have been able to run and walk outside. My roommate has a dog - still a bit of a puppy! - so I look forward to taking her on some walks. I took her on a walk yesterday and tried to run with her, but it turned into a full-fledged sprint. So we sprinted up and down Vattier (my street) yesterday..

well that's about it. I will try to update this a little bit more frequently now!