Saturday, September 24, 2011

5k

I am a GOOD blogger! No life has been super crazy lately. Tomorrow is my 5k which is super exciting. Plus since it’s at the zoo, we can hang out afterwards. I’m pretty excited hanging at the zoo, I haven’t really been there in a while. So I’ve been getting ready for that. One of the parents at my work ran a half marathon a few weeks ago, so she dropped her daughter off a little late because they’d slept in but she was just going in to work late. I’m off on Monday. Do you know the difference between a half marathon and a 5k? A 5k is 3.2 miles. A half marathon is 13.1 miles. Also this mom ran hers, I’m walking mine (with intermittent jogging possibly). Yet I’m the one who took the day after off work. I shouldn’t compare myself to her though, she’s pretty much amazing. Actually, I shouldn’t compare myself to anyone. I should just be myself and just calm down. Although I am pretty happy lately. I’ve lost 35 pounds in the last few months. I’m wearing the smallest size I’ve worn since high school. I have energy to burn. I’m happy.
On the other hand.
My mom hasn’t told me this yet, but my sister in law told me that someone is renting my house starting on November 1. I live in my house. Apparently until some undetermined time before November 1. I found a home for my cat. I can get a storage unit for my stuff. I told my best friend my plan is to sleep in my car one night, she’ll kill me and I won’t have to worry about it anymore. No, more seriously, anyone have ideas about where I can get another job? Because so many people are completely unemployed it almost feels greedy to look for a second job, but it has to be done.
Anyway, I think after the 5k things should slow down. Then I’ll blog more often. Unless I die. Then I won’t blog at all.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Not A Creepy Guy

Something happened the other day. I didn't want to write about it until now, because I had other more important things to say yesterday. But now I'm going to tell you about one of my best days.
First of all, my best friend's grandmother is like a grandmother to me. So the other day I went over to her house to craft. I spent the entire day working on...something that I can't tell you about. But it was fun. I thought Kristin was out of town, so when her family called Nona (her grandmother) to tell her what they were doing for supper I started to pack up so I could leave when they got there. But instead they asked me to join them. I assumed Kristin had decided to stay home for some reason, so I said yes. Then I drove Nona and myself to the restaurant. Yeah, Kristin was not there. It was just me and her family. But it was great. I had so much fun talking with her family and eating Mexican food. Already this was going down in my mind as a great day.
On the way home Nona asked if we could stop at Walgreens, which of course I agreed to. As we walked in a young man walking out to his car smiled at me. I was waiting for Nona to get out of the car and I smiled back. We exchanged pleasantries ("Nice night we're having, huh?" that sort of thing). Then the young man asked for my name. I figured, there's no harm in my nice generic first name, so I told him and he said to me, "Well Tina, I just want to tell you that you are incredibly beautiful." Ummm...thanks? I have literally never been told that before. Then as Nona caught up with me and I turned to leave he said "It was nice to talk to someone as sexy as you." Wow! I have never felt so good about myself. Thank you strange man in the Walgreens parking lot for giving me the best ego boost of my life! This day will indeed go down as one of my best.
Now if only secret crush boy thought the same thing...

Sunday, September 11, 2011

I don't want to say alot.

It's not about me. It's about those who truly lost. Who lost their lives. Who lost family. Who lost their sense of security. It's about those who lost the innocence. Those who lost the trust their neighbors once had for them. Those who are judged terrorists not based on their own actions, but on the actions of a minority group from the same area of the world. It's about those who can never live their lives the same again. So I don't want to say alot. But I want to say something.
It's hard to know exactly how to put into words the feeling this day brings to me. Ten years ago I was a student at my community college. My alarm went off that morning, as it did every Tuesday morning, to the sound of the local Christian radio station. But in my sleepy mind, all I could think was that it was a terrible joke. The new "war of the worlds" (which I had listened to the night before). I hit snooze. Nine minutes later, I thought the same thing, and I hit snooze again. When I got up, I didn't turn on the TV. I didn't tune into another radio station. I got ready for school and got on the bus. It wasn't until I got to my first class that I realized it was real. That planes had flown into the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. That another had crashed in a Pennslyvania field. That my world might never be the same again. I spent the rest of the day crowded into the college lounge staring at the TV in shock, surrounded by hundreds of my fellow students. Eventually we stopped even the pretense of going to class, all our professors were in the lounge with us.
I didn't lose anyone. I don't know anyone who did. I've never been to NYC. I've never seen or felt the damage. I'm not sure I should say anything, not even this bit.


Right after I took this picture, Nataly turned around and asked me "What are these pictures for?" How do you explain to a four year old? What could I say? I told her as best I could about the bad men who didn't love America and the people who died. She asked me what happened to all the people in those pictures (the pictures are replicas of the missing posters displayed near Ground Zero). I didn't know what to tell her.


The piece of granite Nataly and Nick are touching is a piece of granite from inside the buildings. Nataly wanted to know why they couldn't put it back together. Nick asked me "Why sad Aut Tia?" (he doesn't pronounce N super well). Then he turned back around to touch the granite. "Why broken?" he asked.


We kept the kids out of the listening area. They didn't need to hear those radio calls describing what was happening. They didn't need to see the silent tears rolling down the cheeks of the grown ups in the listening area remembering how we felt on that day. But I couldn't keep them from knowing. No. I wouldn't keep them from knowing. As they touched this piece of steel that once held up a tower, Mandy and I told them, in the most kid friendly terms about that day. The fear, the anxiety, the relief when no plane flew here, into our city and our towers. Nick won't remember touching this steel or learning about 9/11. Nataly will probably only have vague memories. But I'll remember. I will always remember.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Zoo Fun Run

I mentioned before that I'm signing up to do a 5k at the zoo. Well I did it. All paid and signed up and everything. Except I'm not very bright because you get a shirt for doing it and when they asked me what size I said 2XL because that's my OLD size, but now I wear an XL or even an L (depending on the cut). So my very first 5k shirt won't fit me, but that's okay. It can be pajamas!

The fun run is to raise money for conservation of wild life and lands. To me this is one of the most important "good causes" because not only does conservation help the animals, it also helps people. Conserved land is land that retains it's natural beauty, which is means that it's not in danger of oil spills, deforestation, or other man made drama. Land that remains natural helps produce healthy air and keeps water clean. We have no way to filter out toxins in the air, we just breathe them in with the oxygen. Many drugs come from wild plant and animal life, some of which we've barely tapped into in our ruthless determination to clear the land and use it our way. On top of the obvious reasons, the beauty of nature is in it's diversity and complexity.
If you feel that this is a good cause, please click HERE or on the zoo fun run picture to the side and donate. Every little bit helps!

Animals that became extinct in my lifetime
-Golden Toad (1989)
-West Afican Black Rhino (2006)
-Zanzibar Leopard (1996)
-Spix's Macaw (2004)
-Pyremena Ibex (2000)
-and many more