My Take On The Unicorn Success Club

***This post is hugely inspired by The Bloggess and her post on The Unicorn Success Club***

So I recently found out about this awesome thing called The Color Run, which of course I wanted to do.  After all, I already know that I can do a 5k because I've done one before.  And this is a 5k with literal color explosions throughout.  So I suggested it to the friends that I walk with, as well as suggesting the perfect team name (borrowed from The Bloggess)- The Unicorn Success Club.  Later, one of those friends was talking about doing the Dirty Girl Run (which is another 5k, but this one interspersed with obstacles like a rope ladder, a mud pit, and a water pit).  I mentioned that I had also heard of this and wanted to do it.  She has since suggested that we form an AWESOME group of 5k people and start walking (and eventually running) 5k's to raise money for charity and basically be awesome.  So, I think we're doing it.  We're going to be the Unicorn Success Club and we're going to be awesome.

Dirty Girl Run
Raise money for: the National Breast Cancer Foundation

Color Run
Raise money for: charity TBA but will probably be Milwaukee based

Brookfield Zoo Run Run
Raise money for: CZS Conservation Fund

Didn't I Promise You a Post About Rock Climbing?

As part of my previously mentioned "hang out with friends without it revolving around food" campaign a few months ago Leah and I went rock climbing.  That was so much fun and I'm a little disappointed in myself that I haven't gone back.  Leah bought these half price tickets for full lessons.  We learned how to belay (I'm pretty sure that means tie ropes to yourself and jump off of very high things), and then I got to jump off of this like twenty foot wall with Leah holding the other end of the rope to keep me from tumbling to the ground.  It took a few minutes for me to go ahead and jump off that wall, but once I did it, I loved it.  I didn't mind the sore muscles or the rope burn because it was so much fun.  Sorry I didn't tell write about it earlier, or that I can't tell you anymore about it.  It's been kind of a long time.  Sad.

There are other pictures, but sadly they are locked on my other, now broken, computer.  I will try to get them off and post them later.

Ms. Tina, Preschool Teacher

Remember when I said that I was stuck in my own head and that it was an unpleasant place for me to be?  One of the things that I've been stuck on lately is that I have financial and life dreams beyond being Ms. Tina, preschool teacher.  I don't always want to live in a friend's basement.  Someday I wouldl ike to own my own home.  I would like to be able to afford to repay my student loans (which have grown to something like thirty thousand dollars at this point).  I would like to feel respected.  One of the worst parts about being a preschool teacher is that pretty much no one respects my job.  Parents think that we're basically babysitters.  Everyone else just thinks that I play with kids all day and get paid for it.  When I'm not being all down on myself, I remember that I stand as an advocate for children.  That I give the voiceless a voice.  That I teach the builiding block of civilization (using words instead of violence to solve disagreements, toilet use, table manners, etc.).  What I need to do is either commit fully to being Ms. Tina, preschool teacher or find something else to do in order to fund my lifestyle.  For now I'm trying to commit to being a preschool teacher.  I'm focusing on the importance of my job.  I borrowed a CD called "I'm a Teacher, Not a Babysitter" full of tracks like the title one or "Powerless Children Need Powerful Friends", tracks that remind me why I became a preschool teacher in the first place.

Roller Skating

Lately I've been trying to focus on hanging out with my friends in times and places that don't revolve around eating.  My latest effort at this has been to get my friends to go roller skating, which is awesome because it's a great workout, no one eats while skating, and it's great nostalgic fun.  Like who didn't love roller skating when you were young?  Everyone loved it!  Of course the music is kind of loud for like talking to friends, but the roller rink we like is super close to my friend J's house, so afterwards we went over there to hang out.  Of course, we did also go out for sushi.  And ate a veggie tray at my friend J's house.  So hanging out without eating, didn't really work this time, our day didn't really revolve around food.  It revolved aroudn having fun with friends and since we hung out for like eight hours, we actually had to eat.
Last time we went roller skating it was fun, but there were issues.  The rink wasn't exactly safe due to holes in the surface of the rink floor as well as blatent safety rule violations (tag playing which was instigated by rink employees, and teenagers skating backwards and going opposite of traffic), which resulted in Kristin falling and hurting her knee.  This time we went to a different rink and the rink surface was smooth and perfect, the rules were carefully enforced, and there were no crowds.  In fact there were quite a few grown ups skating.  Which was awesome.

Avengers Marathon

Last weekend the new Avengers movie came out.  Which I was super excited about.  I was so excited that I took the day after the release off so I could go to a midnight release of the movie.  Then I found out that some theaters were holding day long marathons the day before so in one day you could watch Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, dIron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America, all leading up to a midnight showing of TheAvengers.  I didn't take a vacation last year, and I've been stuck in my head lately.  This is not a good thing for me, because insdie of my head is full of bad thoughts about myself, and comparisions to other people that are very biased against myself.  This is something that happens to me sometimes, and the one best thing that always gets me out of my head is watching action movies (adreneline, testosterone, and explosions- the perfect combination to make sure I can't really think about I packed a huge bag of high protein, low carb snacks (you know in case of fainting) and jogged around the parking lot during the forty-five minute breaks between movies.  Before the movies even started it was great because I found a seat where I would be able to stretch my legs out, and where I was sitting right in front of Wil Wheaton in disguise and his friend Hot Greek Frat Boy.  they were fun to chat with a little bit, even if Hot Greek Frat Boy like Captain America best (I prefer Iron Man myself).  I was also in front of and slightly to the left of this group-

Yeah, that's a group of people in costume.  They're missing Iron Man, but it's still awesome.  I talked to them for a little while because I had to find out where my favorite character was.  They just said that the Iron Man suit was to complicated to work out.  Then I asked how they decided who would be who.  Apparently they all wanted to be the Hulk, but decided to let the muscle-est guy have that honor.  Then Thor went to the guy who already had his own beard, Loki went to the guy who already looked exactly like Loki, Black Widow went to the girls (even thoguh Capt. America there wanted the honor), and the last guy got Capt. America.

I Facebooked after pretty much every movie, and really all I could say was that it was teh best day ever and I was having a great time.  Which is still pretty much all I can say.  I can't wait to see The Avengers again when it's not twelve in the morning and I can focus a little better.  Fortunately, my friends and I are going for Jamie's birthday next weekend.

Where have I been lately???

So it has clearly been to long since I last blogged, because when I went to sign on today everything was in chaos and there's some kind of crazy new thing going on. I took me like five minutes to figure out how to compose a post.
Excuses for not blogging-
1. I'm tired and cranky and I don't want to bog my blog down with all that nonsense
2. I changed to gmail and now I have to sign out of my email in order to write a post and that annoys me
3. I passed out a few weeks ago while I was out with friends and I didn't know how to tell the internet 4. I'm pretty sure that I see the people who read my blog like every week and if they read it online, what will we talk about in person?
Oh, what's that? You want to hear more about the passing out thing? Alrighty then. So the other week I was all bored with life and I texted my friend Sarah (not the one you know about, but the other one that I've never mentioned before. Except that time that she was a new year's resolution and it was a little creepy, but also a little awesome) because I wanted to see if she wanted to hang out. Which she did. So we decided to go for a walk and then go get some pizza for dinner. After taking a fairly gentle two and quarter mile walk we picked up Leah and headed for pizza. So we're standing around waiting for our table and I was all "Man, I'm hungry. I should eat some of these peanuts conviently located on this table right here next to me". So I did. Except then when I had a peanut in my mouth I apparently passed out a little bit. When I came too, there was an ER doc who happened to be waiting to get his seat standing nearby and he was all "We should call the paramedics. Sit down. Don't cross your legs." But I'm poor and I don't have insurance, so I was all "I'm fine. I just need to eat something." and then I passed out again and threw in a "small seizure" you know, for the fun of it. So then the paramedics really did have to come and my blood pressure was some ridiculous thing like 60/53- which is apparently scary. And the I worked out this mathematical word problem about paramedics- If a regular guy is X points of hot on a scale of 1-100, he gains 10 points for being a paramedic and 20 points for actively helping me or one of my friends in a medical emergency. Meanwhile I am normally Y points of hot on a scale of 1-100 and lost 20 points for being "grey and scary looking". What is the maximum level of hot that the regular guy can be and still not be too hot for me? I should point out that I wrote that word problem while sitting in the ambulance, although I cleverly didn't state it out loud to my friend's until I was safely home and away from the hot paramedic. So anyway, while I was sitting in the ambulance tyring to convince the paramedics that I didn't need to go to the hospital and that I totally promised to go to the doctor ASAP Sarah bought the pizza we had intending on eating at the pizza place and we all went back to Leah's house. But my pizza had an odd texture and Leah made me spaghetti-o's. Because she's the best homeowner/roommate a girl could have :)
I did go to the doctor and her basic response was "We may never know why you passed out because all your test results are normal. Eat more protein." So that's what I'm doing. I promise to get around to that promised edition of "Things that made me laugh" as soon as I can.