USA vs. Canada

Jeff took me to the bus at 7:30 AM. A few minutes later Jeff showed up again and he had picked up some people that were walking to the bus! I got home and was late to church. Later in the day I went to Fleet Feet to try on shoes for the Shamrock Shuffle. Then I went to run with a high schooler for pay. Very fun. When I got home I watched the USA vs. Canada game. Wow- that was an exciting game!

Baby Shower

This morning Jeff had hockey and left at 6am with one of his friends. I got up alittle later and went for a run and then made pumpkin pancake mix. Then at 8:30 Jeff's friends wife picked me up and we met the guys at the Crawford's for breakfast. Everyone liked the pancakes. I really liked the wife of Jeff's friend, Nicole. She was a really neat girl. She is really into water skiing- like she can do jumps and human pyramids.

Later I left with Mrs. Crawford for my first baby shower. The shower was for Tracey Crawford, Jeff's oldest sister. The shower was really nice. They had it decorated so cute. The cake matched the center pieces that were on the tables. We played a few games (which I wasn't very good at- baby product knowledge is poor : ). Tracey got a ton of stuff. That baby is going to be very cute and treated very well with all the stuff he got. The guys went to watch Scott's hockey game while we were at the shower. They decided to swing by afterwards because they thought there would be food left. There wasn't so they were just put to work folding tables and backing the car with Tracey's gift (I would say their plan back fired : ).

day after birthday

It was so sunny today! I went for a run with sun glasses on in Ann Arbor. A little bit of a challenge because I am used to running in Chicago where they plow the path every few hours- this was pretty deep snow. I did some job looking. I also went to Salvation Army just to look around because it is a big one and I always wanted to take a peak inside. I made dinner for Jeff when he got home and then we went to Caribou Coffee to study for awhile. I had a free large drink at Caribou for my birthday so we split a large Campfire Mocha. Later we went to Coldstone to redeem my free birthday creation and split that. Ya for more birthday freebies : )

Happy Birthday to me : )

I had a great birthday! I had 68 birthday email (yes I did count them : ) - thanks everyone for making me feel so special! I took advantage of alot of birthday deals. I went to free hot yoga in the morning and then took the bus to Ann Arbor. Jeff and I then went to get free coffee and to Zingerman's which gives you a free half dozen bagels on your birthday. We then went to the Real Seafood Co. which gives you half of your entire bill and a free dessert. We also got free Ben and Jerry's : ). We had a great evening together. We will see if year number 24 can be better than year 23- because year 23 was my favorite year so far.

Chicago Athlete Mag

So the March addition is online! I wasn't pleased with the cover picture they chose but still exciting. I must have missed the memo that we were supposed to look at each other- and they caught me inbetween smiles.. : ) The inside one we were supposed to look serious and they had a wind machine on us. It's kind of fun.
Click the link and then go to page 70 (you can type it at the bottom)
http://bit.ly/bmt9hq

very productive day...taxes, met with some people about jobs, other job stuff,
and fun....Shamrock Shuffle fun run and party

US vs. Canada

I ended up spending the night in Oak Park because it was late so in the morning I had breakfast with Alona and then took the train back to the city in time for Church. Later in the day I ran with a high schooler. This is the sweetest job ever- get paid to run with someone : ). Also, when I dropped her back off her father answered the door and we started talking and told me to send him my resume because he has some good friends that are engineers so we will see what happens with that. This evening I had my friend Pam over and we made Pizza and watched the Olympics- US vs. Canada hockey! And we won! ya! It was fun because Jeff doesn't have TV so I would call him whenever anything exciting was happening.

Fun Saturday

What an awesome morning! I woke up at 7- no reason just woke up. So I made some coffee and drank it in bed with my laptop on my lap...this is my favorite way to start a Saturday morning : ) At 8:30 I left to meet my friend Heather for a run. We had such a great run! Heather wore her heart rate monitor and we tried to run the first third at 164-168 and the last two thirds at 170-174. We felt really strong and we were running fast. It was so great! It was snowing slightly and it was sunny. We finished up by doing a circuit with a bunch of people. These are my favorite because you don't get board- only 30 seconds of each exercise. We got some breakfast afterwards.
Then in the evening I headed to Oak Park where Alona took me out to dinner for my birthday. Then we watched Rent.

Sick

This morning I woke up feeling very sick. Some sort of stomach bug and a fever. It was terrible. I had plans to meet my friend Katie to study for the FE at 12:30 and by that time I had taken medicine and felt like I could journey outside. We studied until 3:30 and then I went home shivering and miserable again. I took more medicine and feel like I should be okay but whenever I get out of bed I can accomplish about 10 minutes worth of things and then I curl back up in bed. Urg! Well, no exercise today and hope I feel better soon. I was supposed to run with my friend Heather but we rescheduled for Saturday morning. On the job front, I really had my hopes set on doing research in the Sensory Motor Performance Program (SMPP) at RIC (Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago). I applied a few weeks ago and didn't hear anything so I applied today to volunteer in the prosthetic department or the research department and I got the following response:

"Thank you for your interest in volunteering at RIC. We do not have any volunteer opportunities in prosthetics currently. As for research, I talked to someone in that dept and they said they have over 300 applications for 12 spots, sorry!"

I can't believe that I can't even volunteer! crazy.

If anyone reading my blog hears or knows of anyone who works for a company that does biomedical engineering (or just a company that you think is neat and hires engineers) please don’t hesitate to let me know. If anything, I could talk to them and get some ideas of places I should look at. Thanks!

Oh and I got a birthday present from my sister. Two wii remotes. Now I can play team games (I only had one). AND- I have a PINK controller. Ya! love pink!

photos for The Competitor

Tonight was so fun! I got an email awhile ago saying that The Competitor wanted to do a feature on our Fleet Feet team. They wanted to shoot some pictures for the cover of the magazine! I figured it would just be a few snaps but this was in a studio and it was so cool! They had us use an all white background. They did all sorts of crazy things like fans on us to blow our hair back and running and then jumping in the air so it looked like we were running really fast...it was all digital so I could see the pictures and they turned out really cool! I don't know which one they will choose (some were silly and some were serious) and there are a few that I would be a bit embarrassed if they chose ( too much skin showing or me looking really white compared to my teammates who tan) so hopefully they choose a good one. They are printing an extra 44,000 to put in everyone’s packet pick up for the Shamrock shuffle! wow! I have to admit that I am pretty excited for the S&L team to pick up their packets : )

playing with Jack

Today I watched Jack from 8-5. We had a great time.
<--Meet Jack! Jack and I getting ready to go for a walk (yep he has a patagonia jacket) Jack loves to play with the dogs

This is Jack's most used expression...it means..what's that (the camera)..give it to me Christina so I can put it in my mouth! : )

Beautiful Day

The lighting was so pretty all day. Sunny and clear. Jeff and I had a nice day. We watched alot of Olympics and we just had a chill day and then went out for a special dinner.

evening with friends in Chi

This morning I got disapointing news:

"Your qualifications, though quite good, were not what we were looking for. Our team is searching for someone with specific testing experience--a combination of mechanical, electrical, and biological experience. Good luck with your continued search."

So a half of a day wasted writing a cover letter but that's okay. It wasn't the best fit.

This evening we drove back to Chicago and had dinner and hung out with Matt and Shannon, and Ali and Matt. We had such a great time.

Thursday in a2

I spent all morning (while Jeff was at work) working on a cover letter for a test engineer position for a company who makes medical equipment...after having my mom, sister, and Jeff read and edit it I sent it along to a good friend who works at the company. Jeff had the afternoon off but then had to work in the evening so we hung out together in the afternoon and had an early dinner and then he went back to work. I answered a ton of emails and made Ted and Jeff a big batch of granola. It was fun. I decided to only put ingredients that were good for the brain in the granola since they are med students. It was fun to research "brain food". I learned some interesting little facts. I then went into town to see what was going on but on my way there Jeff called and said he got out early so that was a bonus!

Ann Arbor mid week

I headed to Ann Arbor to visit Jeff and for a job interview. Jeff and I had a great little evening. We went and ran around downtown Ann Arbor but we were hungry and we wanted to go out to eat so we stopped every 2 minutes to read menus. It was kind of hilarious. We decided on Indian food. It was a nice place and we didn't feel rushed because it wasn't crowded so we stayed and talked and relaxed for quite awhile. It was really nice to see each other on a week night. We took this picture before dinner to send to Ted's (Jeff's roommate) mom because she made us each a scarf. Oh and you can see my new coat that I got when I went thrift store shopping with Calvin friends in Chicago! I can already tell it is going to have a great second life with me : )

Huge Snow!

We got so much snow! It was crazy. I went for a "run" - more like an extremely difficult trudge through snow : ) and I saw a mom with the coolest thing ever. It was a harness that went around her chest and back which was tied to a bungie that was attached to this amazing and luxurious kids enclosed sled. I thought that was a pretty crazy idea. You can't push a stroller in something like this!

(if you have been to my house you will recognize that this picture is right by the Clark and Division Red Line...looks a little different right : )

Superbowl Sunday

Today I started the day with a run in Central Park. I was surprised to see that there was a race finishing up in Central Park and I saw people with UM uniforms. I should have looked at a race calender for New York. It would have been fun to have done a race in New York. We went to Church and after Church to a place that specialized in bagels. I got a bagel and lox which seemed very New York like. After that my sister had to go pick up some dogs from the airport and so I stayed home and played wii and studied. That evening we went to a superbowl party at one of Melissa's friend's appartment. Aferwards we went and got some tasty pizza.

China town

Today we went to China town. We went to this really great Chinese dumpling place. I really enjoyed it and 6 dumplings were 2 dollars! After that we walked around and explored China town. That evening we went to all you can eat sushi and I met one of Melissa's friends who is an engineer in New York.

Top of the Rock

I went for a run this morning through Central Park. Then Elyse and I met my sister for lunch. I liked my lunch- it was an Asian dish that had eggplant and shrimp. Afterward we took the subway downtown and went to the top of the rock. I accidentally stole a Top of the Rock map- I didn't know that you had to pay for them so I just took one : ) oops! It was pretty neat to get an idea of how New York is set up and the directions of different buildings. The two of us are such flakes though! We took the elevator all the way up and then when you get out there is an escalator that goes to the very top but instead we got on the elevator (not escalator) which took us right down to the bottom so we had to ask if we could please go back up to the top! I enjoyed the elevator rides so I think we got a better deal with two rides for the price of one : ) We walked around time square and looked in some of the shops. That evening we got drinks with my sister and a few of her friends at a restaurant with a great view. After that we went to a Mediterranean restaurant.

Day 1 in New York City

today I headed to New York. My flight actually arrived 30 minutes early! I was impressed with myself for making to my sister's apartment with no trouble (air train, long island rail, several transfers on the subway...). When I arrived at my sister's we went and got my hair cut and then dyed it. I know- I don't know what my deal is with wanting to experiment with my hair recently : ) Anyway Melissa made a really great dinner of wheat soba noodles with orange chicken. It was really good. Later that evening my best friend from elementary school arrived! It was so exciting to see her after 9 years. We had so many good laughs and stayed up really late saying "remember when..." followed by lots of laughs.

lululemon Athletica Product Testing

I was asked if I would come into Lululemon Athletica to do some product testing. They are a mainly yoga store based in California. They have a few new stores in Chicago and are trying to branch out with a new running line I thought the store was really cool (it did seem California-ish with all the bright colors so we will see how it does in Chicago- the first thing I told them was that none of their running clothes are warm enough for Chicago: )!. They had me try on a bunch of clothes and tell them what I liked and didn't like about the clothes. It was fun but kind of a funny feeling because there was a group of designers who just sat with a big black board and then you would come out of the dressing room and and they would make notes on what you said or on how things felt. I had a blast and in exchange for a half an hour of my time I got 200 dollars of gear! I really like my new hot pink "Leader of the Track" jacket! All the products have alot of cool details- for example- a ponytail hole in the hood and a little attachment to hold an extra hair tie in case your brakes mid run, you can choose to have a visor or not a visor on the hood, there is special material in the "high sweat areas, the material is made with a 2 way stretch pattern so your mobility is not compromised....I love techy clothing : ) I would love to be one of those designers of running clothes.