so excited!

Leaving in a couple hours for Champaign, il! I am ready to rock this half marathon!! Just so you know if you see the results..my PR is 1:21:38 and I really want a PR. I am hoping to average 6:11 pace.


then I am leaving for UTAH!! So this blog will not be updated for 10 days. So here is the link if you are interested in how I did in the half:
http://www.illinoismarathon.com/

You will have to wait to hear about my great adventures in the red rock and blue sky!: )

High School Track Meet

Tonight I took the train to the west side to watch Christina (the high schooler I run with) in her track meet. The track meet was close to Tyler and Jenny Z's home so they came over to hang out with me. It was really fun! It brought back lots of memories of high school track meets. The kids seemed so young. The winning time for the girls mile was 5:33 : ) Christina ran the 400 but I think me being there made her to excited so she ran the first 200 in 31 seconds (which was to fast for her to hold). I left in a great mood. It's nice to feel like just your presence in someone’s life makes their day...and that's how I felt by just coming to Christina's meet for awhile. That’s cool.

Want to get to know Jeff?

While taking a personality test I decided to take it as if I was Jeff- and the result was soooooo Jeff it wasn't even funny! So here he is in a nut shell : )

Energetic Doer

Energetic Doers are cheerful and spontaneous persons. They are charming and full of energy and real persons of action. They keep a clear head and the overview even in difficult situations. This makes them popular problem solvers. Their ability of being able to absorb and process information is phenomenal. Energetic Doers also have strong powers of observation and a keen sense when dealing with other people. They are very perceptive, witty and clever. They have a natural ability of convincing others of their point of view. Energetic Doers live completely in the here and now and make spontaneous decisions from one moment to the next. They love being together with other people and are sensuous, lively and amusing conversationalists. It is no problem for them to be the effervescent centre of attention at a party and they are generous, skilful and good hosts. They do not brood over consequences for long; they quickly grasp all the relevant facts, make a pragmatic decision and enforce that decision vigorously. Should a decision later turn out to have been wrong, one can always make new plans.

Energetic Doers magically attract fun and action. They need the kick - as far as possible with other people. Many representatives of this type have dangerous hobbies or go in for extreme sports. They quite consciously put themselves in dangerous situations again and again. At work too, Energetic Doers seek fun and variety above all. They are bored to death by routine, safety and calculability. Crises are their elixir of life and really bring their strong points to light. They react to new challenges flexibly and effectively. They gain their confidence from their imperturbable self-assuredness that they will be able to cope with them. Energetic Doers prefer practical activities which lead to visible results rather than theoretical fields of work. Endless discussions with colleagues quickly get on their nerves and they do not have the patience for interpersonal niceties. They say how something has to be done and that’s that!

Energetic Doers keep their friends in suspense with their wit, esprit and quickness in repartee. They mostly have a large circle of friends and acquaintances but often remain non-committal in their relationships. They expect a great deal of reliability and tolerance from their really good friends but are also willing to give the same to them. However, due to their spontaneous nature, they always remain a little surprising and unpredictable, also for their partners. Energetic Doers need a lot of space and time to themselves; they quickly feel hemmed in if their partners cling too strongly to them. But if you give them plenty of leeway, they are generous, cheerful and extremely imaginative life companions with whom you can have a lot of fun and enjoy life to the full. They do not avoid conflicts but address them openly and sometimes sparks can really fly. But this is typical for Energetic Doers and, afterwards, they are all the more devoted and loving.

distracted

Here are a few fun things I did today…although I do realize now that I am a bit weird. I went through my closet and put some of my winter stuff away and in the process I got distracted and decided I needed to build a shoe rack. I was thinking about what I could use for the columns and beam. I decided on pop cans : ) I thought about it and although the shear stress for pop cans is really low the compressive strength is pretty good. I only had 12 cans so I couldn’t test out how much stress it would take until buckling so I actually decided to calculate it : ). I felt like such a nerd pulling out my engineering book and looking up formulas and drawing Mohr’s circle. I used the thin walled approximation.

Then I decided to try out this crazy drink mix. I couldn’t read what it was but there were a lot of weird things in it- such as noodles (!?), raisins, pistachios, and tapioca! See picture below:


However, I got distracted again while I was making my drink. I had been saving the containers that parmesan cheese comes in because they seemed neat (and I am a pack rat) and so I decided to put different grains in them. Next I think I am going to decorate the lids because green doesn’t match the kitchen.

Now unfortunately I have to finish going through my winter and summer clothes…this time hopefully I will stay on task : )

Lunch with Holly and getting ready for Utah!

This morning I got out all my gear! It is so fun to get out all your toys that you haven't been able to use for quite awhile (including brand new super cool hiking boots : )! Oh and also a camping mug for making coffee- excited to try that out! I get to use all my outdoor gear for a change! ya!

Later I went and had lunch with Holly at Moody. She is such a great friend and it was great to catch up over some food.

After that I went to the library to get some books on CD for the car ride.

I am on a taper for my half marathon on Saturday which was a little bit of a bummer because it was so nice out. It would have been a nice day for a longer run but I am saving my legs for Saturday! This is my goal race for the winter. So far the first three races were okay or below average so I am hoping to redeem my winter season with this season's finale.

Ravenswood 5k

This was my first time doing this race. It was a fun one but I didn't run particularly well. I need to focus on running MY race. I have a teammate I have been training with who has very different strengths than me. She has figured out how to use me beneficially but I haven't seemed to figure out what I am getting from the deal : ) oh well. I got second place. The friends that came out to cheer were so great!! What supportive friends I have. I sure felt special. Thanks guys! The girl that got third place was super tall (see picture above).

After the race I went back and went to church. The Pastor talked about her recent trip to Africa. She said she went over with the prayer that she really really wants to follow and do God's work-- "but gosh- Isn't there a way to follow God that isn't so exhausting?"
From being over there she learned a few things about this:
1. The people over there believe that God is ALREADY at work. We seem to be more aware of what WE are bringing to the table than what God is doing..this makes us measure our success and failure. The people over there seemed to have such faith that God had a plan and they were just part of that plan (not the main act).
2. They read the bible stories and tried to complete the stories in their lives. For example, if the story of the Good Samaritan was told everyone left wanting to be "that guy". We are more likely to dissect each little passage and not live it out...looking for some deeper meaning. We don't have the faith and trust to actually believe what God is saying.

She gave an example of a time that she was going to have 15 old friends over and spent the whole day cooking for the special event. Slowly everyone canceled over the day and she was left with food for 15 people and no guests. She said in the back of her had "wow this is just like the parable of the great feast where everyone canceled and so they went out and asked people off the street" However, she said- I didn't actually do that. I invited a few friends in the neighborhood and then put the leftovers in the freezer for the next day. She said "What a missed opportunity to complete the stories in our own life!" It was an interesting thought.

AMAZING show

Today was a little too busy for my liking but that's okay once in awhile.
Run with friend 7:30 AM
Work Packet Pickup at Fleet Feet 9:30 - 1:00
Theater with friends 2:30-4:30
Hanging out downtown with friends 4:30-6:00
Dinner at Cuban Restaurant 6:00-9:00
Okay- that's the run down but now I have to tell you a bit about them. First, working the packet pickup was quite intense. The race was sold out at 3,200 people so there was quite a mob of people to pick up packets and I was in charge of this operation. Volunteers had different levels of ability. I put one guy in charge of getting the correct size shirt for different people but that was a little confusing for him so I switched him to asking people if they needed safety pins for their bib numbers. Then there is me- not quick enough at scanning down the list of names to find peoples names..kind of slow at it :) I fired myself from that job and put the librarian volunteer on that : )!!

A couple funny things happened- like one girl at packet pick up who said " Oh my Gosh- Are you Christina? I read your blog like every day! I had no idea that people who I didn't know read my blog so… Hi girl from packet pick up : )!!
Second when I got home I had several facebook messages they all were similar but here is a quote "You probably don't remember me, but I think we met at a 5k for a sec.. my friend just picked up his packet and told me the 'chick from the cover of the magazine' was handing out the packets. Good luck tomorrow"....these made me smile- I guess I am now "chick from magazine cover" haha

When I got home from Fleet Feet I got spiffed up and left to see Hephaestus at the Goodman Theater. Now I have been privileged to see many good shows as a kid but this was my first show in Chicago AND it was AMAZING! The theater was tiny so you were right next to the stage. In fact at one point one of the actors came and sat on my friends lap! It was told as a circus tale so everything turned into an amazing talent show which I felt was fitting for the story of Hephaestus (Greek God thrown from the sky by his mom Hera- raised by nymphs- He becomes talented at making pretty jewelry for the nymphs- then Hera is jealous of nymphs so comes down and asks Hephaestus to make her jewelry- he makes her a thrown with invisible shackles- she sits in the thrown and becomes stuck- then Hera sends down war god to get Hephaestus to set her free- he won't do it until she sends Aphrodite- he falls in love with Aphrodite so he lets Hera free and goes and lives on Mt Olympus with Gods- that's the quick summary). Anyway- I can’t even explore all the crazy effects but for example Hephaestus really does fall head first from the sky- and when you are under the sea the whole theater was filled with bubble so you felt like you were under water….okay post to long—that’s it for the day.

Helping Mel Move / Gospel Choir

Today I headed back to Chicago in the morning. When I got back I biked over to Mel's and helped her move. She is now only 3 blocks from me! In the evening I went to Choir practice.

Lunch with Mrs. C and Lentil Cakes

Today I went and got some food for Jeff and my road trip next week. It was fun to pick out some road food in anticipation for our 24 hour car ride to Salt Lake! Then I went out to lunch with Mrs. C. It was fun to chat with her over some Cosi sandwiches. When Jeff got home we went for a run and then ate dinner together. I made meatloaf but realized that they didn't have a loaf pan so it was meatloaf cupcakes : ) Oh and I used lentils instead of ground beef...so I guess it was actually Lentil Cakes. Jeff is a good sport to deal with all my experimental cooking : ) But this did turn out pretty tasty. And it costs $0.32/serving : ) Here’s the recipe if interested:
1 cup lentils (cook according to instructions and then mash up a bit)
1 small onion, diced
1 cup quick-cooking oat
3/4 cup grated cheese (whatever kind- Jeff had cheddar in his fridge)
1 egg, beaten
4 1/2 ounces spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce
(a shake of whatever seasonings I could find- this ended up being –dried basil, dried parsley, garlic salt, and pepper)
Combine everything and cook for 20 minutes in muffin tin.

To Ann Arbor...meeting baby Chace

Today I headed to Ann Arbor and Jeff and I headed over to the Crawford's for dinner when he got home. We had a nice time catching up with everyone. After dinner we headed over to Tracey and Dave's to meet baby Chace. He is very cute! He is so big! He is already back up to his birth weight of 9 pounds. It will be exciting to see more of his personality as he gets older.

Busy Sunday

Church (really good service about the relationship between knowing and loving)
Run with Christina (highschooler then long talk with her father about networking)
Photo shoot for the running documentary that I am going to be in...now this was an experience. There was a make-up artist to do our make up. I don't wear much makeup at all and it really bothers me that I don't look like myself in the pictures. The lady promised that the makeup wouldn't show up that much in the pictures but we all look different than normal. Oh well it was a unique experience.

Here is the trailer and website for the film:

http://wendycitypro.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/running-towards-2012/#comments

http://vimeo.com/10834570

FE

I took the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam. The first portion I thought went well...the second portion..ummm- worst nightmare. I got my packet and I went right to the first page and started cranking away at it. I was really getting nervous because these Chemistry questions were tougher than the ones that I had studied! After over an hour I though I should switch to a different topic for awhile. When I switched to another subject I noticed that the numbers started over again...that's when it hit me--I had been working for over an hour on the Chemical Engineers Exam! I was registered for the General Afternoon Section (which includes a little from all concentrations). I had just assumed that they gave you the exam you were supposed to take and not that they gave everyone the same test and you were supposed to turn to the chapter that you registered for! After that it took me awhile to calm down and be able to focus on my actual test (after erasing all the bubbles from the wrong test!). What a nightmare. I hope I still passed : (

I went to a birthday party for Alona that evening. I was so brain dead I had to focus so hard on listening to what people were saying so I could contribute to the conversations....needless to say I went home a bit early : )

Ultra-G

I sneaked a picture of this. I had only seen it in a magazine about elite runners training. This is an Ultra-G treadmill. They can set it to a lighter weight so you don't have as much impact. Professional runners use them so that they can run more miles without getting hurt or when they are coming back from injury. I happened to see this while I was waiting for a friend to get out of physical therapy who I was carpooling with.

BABY!

Jeff is now an Uncle! Tracey had her baby last night.

Evening with Aunt Lynn

Today Aunt Lynn came to Chicago for a conference! I met her at her hotel and then we walked over to Millennium Park. I wanted to show her the pretty park and the Bean. Then we walked down the Magnificent Mile. We got dinner at La Madia. It's a contemporary gourmet thin crust pizza place. They has all sorts of interesting pizzas- including one with 3 hour roasted grapes as one of the toppings. I don’t remember what the pizza’s we got were called by they both had unique cheeses that I hadn’t heard about and one had different types of squash on it and the other had sautés spinach and pine nuts and prosciutto. I had a deal for 2 pizzas for 12 dollars (usually one pizza is 15 dollars so it was quite a deal). It was nice to catch up. I want to find a time to visit Aunt Lynn and Uncle Mike in San Francisco with Jeff. That would be so fun!

Prosthetics at Northwestern

Today I met with a Prosthetist / Mechanical Engineer at the RIC. We were so similar and hit it off right away! He told me about the program at Northwestern and showed me the research that they are doing at RIC. This really got me thinking about if I want to go back to school. The program right now is 7 months and is going to be moved to a masters program in 2012 (so 2 year program). He set me up to volunteer there 2 days a week so I can get some clinical hours and see if I like it. In the mean time I will continue to apply for more engineering jobs and try to figure out what exactly I want to do. I like the idea of seeing patients and analyzing and adjusting to get people's gait corrected...however, I am wondering if it is creative enough for me...however, my previous job was about the most uncreative left brain job you could have...are all engineering jobs like that? Is it practical to pay 20k for more schooling? All things to think about. The one think I have decided is that I definitely want to do something biomedical.

Babysitting

Full day of babysitting. Feels nice to have a roll of cash : )

Race That's Good For Life

Today I went to Oak Park to run a 5k...actually Coach Leach asked me about the race so I am just going to copy and paste my email because it sums the day up well:

"I felt much much better than Shamrock. I ran 17:55 which was 9 seconds slower than last year but I think some of that was just that last year I was battling back and forth for first where as this year I was by myself for all of the race. My first mile was 5:35 the second was 5:55 (oops!) and the last was 5:44. I must have gotten distracted looking at Frank Lloyd Wright houses the second mile : ) I really like racing and hanging out with all the runners afterwards. I think that even though I am training for the longer races this year that we should keep a few short local fun ones in the mix just for fun. And I think I am on the up. I think I am going to be ready for a PR in the half : )!

Oh and some good news! After working the RIC kids camp I met a guy that works there and he told me to send him my resume and we have been emailing back and forth. Then he passed my information along to a guy in the Prosthetics department who called me and asked if I would like to come and talk to him on Tuesday. It's not really an interview- more of an informational talk / job shadowing I guess. He majored in Mechanical Engineering and now is a prosthetist. So I am really excited to talk to him."

10 year Anniversary for Real Simple / Alona's

Today I went to the 10 year Anniversary party for Real Simple. It was alot of fun. There was a free lunch that was catered by all these really top notch restaurants. It was so tasty. There was this one salad that had so many different flavors and this refreshing after taste from a restaurant called Epic. Another favorite was this squash ginger soup. They were also giving out free manicures ( so I got one of those). I went to this chief table and watched as they made different chocolate desserts- and you got to sample each one. Then there was this style show. It was actually really good...I listened to it while I waited in line for my manicure. She said the thing for the spring is to get some great accessories to wear with neutrals and was a real fan of getting a pair of nude shoes. I will have to wait until I get a job to get in style : )

That evening Alona picked me up after work and we had dinner at her parents. They were interesting to talk to. Her mom is graduating with her PHD in a couple months and was studying Carbon Neutrality. We had a really yummy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert for Alona's birthday.

out of my comfort zone

Today I went to an All Women job fair at Navy Pier. I always get a little nervous about these things but I figured I have nothing to loose. There was a long line to get in and once I was in I was very very disappointed. It was so terrible...let's see who was there.. Wal-Mart or Meijer anyone? How about selling tuber ware or jewelry by having house parties...oh I know you could be a cosmetic rep for a makeup company! Kind of ridiculous. (not that there is something wrong with those careers- I was just frustrated with the lack of diversity. They just assumed that there wouldn’t be anyone interested in the sciences) I am never going to an all women career fair again. The good thing was that they had free resume critiquing and the lady was very helpful. Another bonus was I got alot of free lotions and make-up.

Now, then I get home and I am like, I think I will join the Church's Gospel Choir (without fully thinking about the fact that I don't know how to sing). I figured that it wouldn't be a problem because there would be plenty of people so what is one out of key voice. However, only 7 people showed up! It was fun though. Everyone was so nice and at the end they had a time of prayer and I asked for pray for God’s guidance in my job search and it turned out that 4 of the 7 had been unemployed and recently got a job…so they joked around that coming to Choir practice was the ticket to getting a job : )

mud

I don't know what my deal is with running in Mud but I just LOVE it. I met Beth and Kalina to run and we were going to do in and out 200's (speed up slow down every 200) but when we got to the parking lot we were told to head over to Cricket Hill because the wind was just to strong (like you couldn't really move) and the park was a bit sheltered. However- the park was a mess of mud since it had just rained...but we did the workout in the mud. I had sooo much fun!

How does this deodorant make you FEEL

Today I worked a focus group at the Hancock. It's amazing the weird jobs you come across when looking for a real job. So the group met from 11:45 to 2:00 and included lunch and we were paid 100 dollars. Not bad! It was really quite hilarious. There were about 10 of us at a table with our deodorant of choice. The room had mirrors all around it which we were told was because there were people on the other side of the mirrors watching and taking notes on us. They asked us a lot of questions about what we wanted in a deodorant. After everything they would ask "and how does that make you feel if your deodorant did ___" If you said "It would make me feel confident" The lady would say and "and how does feeling confident make you feeel" oh please. haha. I had no idea that so many questions could be asked about deodorant. I actually had a ton of fun. I would do it again if I get the opportunity : )

Sunrise Service

Today Jeff and I went for a run into the sun- watching the sunrise. It was a great way to start Easter. We left and forgot the keys though which was worrysome but someone let us in after awhile. The church service was good- very upbeat. Afterwords, we went back to Mr and Mrs. C's and had an easter egg hunt. I got a nice shirt from Express from Mrs. C. I like the pinkish-red color. After that we played some basketball games, I tried to fly a kite (not very windy), and we played some catch with Scott. Around three about 25 relatives came over. It was crazy. The Crawford Uncles are really funny together- they are always making fun of eachother.

Sat w/ Jeffers in A2

nice trail run
big breakfast
biked into town and got coffee and sat outside in the sun and people watching (there are a lot of interesting people in Ann Arbor : )
went and got some stuff for our Utah trip (they were having a Easter Egg hunt in the store- the eggs had discount % in them. I felt up the manikins and found one for 30% off!
We got hiking socks (2 for 10 dollars), biodegradable soap, and water purification tablets.
We went back and did some studying/emailing
Made a great dinner of Salmon, asparagus,sweet potatoes and brown rice
Later we biked down to the river to watch the sunset- Jeff was borrowing a fancy camera from Dan D. but we had trouble figuring out why most of the pictures were really grainy.
We always have so much fun together!

Fun chill evening

I met Jeff in the Hospital Caf for lunch it was really fun! We went for a short run when he got out of work and then we made dinner. After dinner we went to the store and bought some groceries and a movie. We rented "My Sister's Keeper." It was really sad but good.

It was really cute- I could hear Jeff talking to his dad saying that I met him for lunch in the Hospital and Mr. C said "ooo look at you- girlfriend meeting you at the Hospital for lunch. pretty cool!" I thought that was cute.

B-E-A-utiful day!

So So nice out today! It was 70 and sunny. I went for a nice run in Ann Arbor in shorts and a tshirt! I then studied for the engineering test I am taking in just 15 days! After Jeff got out of work we went to a Maundy Thursday service. Afterwords we went over to Chris and Andrea's to hang out and see their new place. On our way back Jeff got a text that some of his friends were in town so we stopped at a bar and said hi for a little bit. Jeff is going to be very sleepy tomorrow morning at 4:45AM when his alarm goes off!