A Day In The Life of Ang

Misery is better with company

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:33:00 +0000

My bff was in town this weekend (more on that later :-D ) We decided we would go for a run Saturday am. We talked to our friend Heather and decided on 10am.

When we went to bed Friday night it was snowing, and I thought, I swear if it is snowing tomorrow I refuse!

Guess what, it was snowing. We texted and played the I don't care, its up to you game. Since no one called uncle out we went!

We did the high school loop and then then another lap to bug our friend Richie.

Since my knee is stupid we took it slow and I did stop and stretch a few times. We ended up with 7 miles. :-D

I normally would NEVER run in the snow, but since I had friends to run with I did, and it was FUN! :-D

I suck and didn't look at the camera when my mom took the pic, and she was using a phone to do it so we didn't try to get another one because it would have made her mind explode (hehe love you mom)

Aubrey would like the world to know, the water bottle was mine, I made her hold it so i could take a pic. She said water while running is weak. I said she is a brat :-D

I LOVED running with my bff and I CAN NOT WAIT for Marine Corp Marathon with her! I really hope we run it start to finish together, but I am worried I might slow her down, so I might send her on her way!

Special things

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:18:00 +0000

A couple Fridays ago I went to visit my mom’s parents. I had a Dr. apt right up the street from their house, so I planned to stop by and visit them after.

We sat around after dinner talking and watching Wipeout, which for being so dumb, is hilarious, but we all know I have a special place in my heart for people falling (it is why America’s Funniest Videos is a show I can usually not pass when channel surfing!)

Mema brought out her little brag book to show me. It was really neat to see what she probably took to work to show all her friends.

I took some pictures of it with my phone.

Pretty neat! Wonder what I will find next time I go to my grandparents?

I remember one time recently I was at my dad’s parents and I was asking about my dad’s Ph.D dissertation. They went downstairs and brought out this leather bound book, all 400 or so pages of my dad’s research paper. Nice. I read about a page and decided it was boring (sorry dad!) but pretty cool to see!

OH, AMEN!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:08:00 +0000

I am really excited for The Vow. I haven’t read the book, but I know basically what it is about.

I saw this picture floating around the internet, and I am not going to lie. I agree, whole heartedly 100% AMEN!

January is over already?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:06:00 +0000

Not sure how it is February 2, but it is! It feels like April 2 though! You don’t see this winter hating girl complaining though.

So I made goals for January, and I feel like I did pretty well.

Lets look back:

-No missed training runs: Well, I haven’t run since Jan 12, but I am not calling this a fail. I did something to my knee and it hurt to run. So I stopped and tried to let it heal. It is getting better, I did a slow half mile on Tuesday that was pain free. Slow and steady and I will get to race! I go to the dr tomorrow just to be sure!

-lights off, tv off, computer and phone away by 11(on work nights): I did really well with this one, until school started. Then 11 turned into more like 11:30 before I put the books and computer away. However, on more than one weekend night I was in bed asleep by 11. OH how old I have become

- 3 water bottles a day: Easy Peasy

-church 3 times: Happy to report that I went to church 3 times in a row, twice in a row to the new church – however, looks like 3 of the 4 Sundays in Feb I will be in the Frederick area. And it starts over again….this time I won’t wait 4 months to go back!

-Put away clothes after laundry: I did my laundry again yesterday, and everything is put away and hung up, except the stuff on the drying rack! Go me!

February goals are all similar and with the exception of the goals that are repeated or changed a bit, I plan to keep working on the January goals since they are all good for me!

Drive like the girls are in the car- I don’t know about you, but when I am driving myself I drive stupider than when I have 2 precious lives in my hands. (ahem, mom and dad, please skip this part) I use my phone while driving and not just for making calls, I drive faster, sometimes more angry.. yea its stupid but true. One day I was thinking, if I can drive safer with the girls why can’t I for myself. So the phone stays in the purse or in GPS mode while I am drive.

Cross train and or lift 2 times a week- I have done a lot of cross training in January, thank you knee, but I need to be better about it in the future even when I am running. I need to spend some time doing some strength work too. Good thing I have a new gym membership to help me with this!

Stay ahead of class reading- right now I am reading for next week in all of my classes. That’s great, but its easy to fall behind and end up scrambling to get the reading done and get the assignments finished, I don’t want to do that this time. Being hurt has really helped me with this, I can read while I elliptical, I can’t read while I run.

Sleep by 11:30- this means lights off by 11:15ish. School will wait til tomorrow, always will.

Vitamins Daily- I go through spurts of doing really well taking my vitamins, I suck these days. I need to get better about it.

Clothes away- its nice to not have baskets of clothes laying around.

So that’s February, now off to get some reading done before the girls naps are over!

The good and the bad

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:18:00 +0000

This weekend I went to see Beauty and the Beast. It was pretty much the best ever! It was like being a little girl again. I saw the movie multiple times in theaters. We all know how I feel about classic Disney movies. LOVE.

This weekend I needed to do laundry. I am happy to report I did 4 loads. 3 are hung up to dry or folded and put away. 1 is in the dryer, but it is just sheets so I will fold them and put them away tomorrow! Yay for keeping a goal!!

It might have to be put on the next few month's goal list though, what do they say, it takes 2 weeks to form a good habit? Well seeing as I do my laundry every 2 weeks or so, I need to extend it :-D

School officially starts tomorrow. I spent today finishing up all my readings and doing my postings. This semester will be interesting I think. Nonprofit Law and Business Statistics.

So the bad - the bad is since January 12, I have run a grand total of 1.5 miles. (and that is a combined total) I did something to my knee and it isn't happy. Running kills, walking hurts, and I am sad. I am going to give running a rest and stick to the elliptical so I can heal, and start looking at a Dr. if things don't change!

I have too much coming up to get completely sidelined! I am so frustrated, and not running makes me sad. I joined a gym for 2 weeks (free trails YAY!) and will be ellipticaling, biking and swimming my heart out. I pray this goes away! I want to run and not lose everything I worked for!

Awww

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:16:00 +0000

At playgroup this morning E and I discussed how the little girl who's house we were at had a nanny and her mommy was at work, just like her.

So later at lunch, I am unloading the dishwasher, and this is the conversation:

E- Angela, are you my nanny?
A- Yes, E, I am your nanny.
E- Oh, well thank you for taking good care of me!

Sigh, so sweet.

Her sister pipped up with, Yes, thank you for my yummy lunch!

Love my job.

If your purse looks like this....

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:09:00 +0000

you might be a runner.

I was throwing all my stuff together to head out to see my girlfriends, and then go home for the night, and I went to grab my purse and this sight made me crack up!

It is totally normal to keep and ice pack (which isn't cold, but will go to the freezer as soon as I get to my girlfriend's house), icyhot and my giant bottle of Glucosamine Chondroition in my purse right? The kindle and granola bar is for post running :-D

Happy weekend friends!

Yellow Dubmarine and Badfish

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Austin and I went to Rams Head Live on Friday to catch 2 awesome cover bands.

Yellow Dubmarine is a reggae Beatles cover band, and they are really cool! I took video on my phone(it was so loud, my videos sound fuzzy, my ear didn't stop ringing til Saturday night!!), but it sucks. Of course my brothers phone took much better videos but he can’t send them to me! I am linking some random YouTube videos because they are awesome!

They did 2 of my other favorite songs. A Day in the Life didn’t make the show, but Something and Dig a Pony did!

They were really awesome, and I hope I can catch another show!

Then there was Badfish, which is a sublime cover band. Austin sang every single lyric of every single song! He had a blast!!

I on the other hand, enjoyed it, but realized just how OLD I am. They didn't come on stage til 11pm, and I was fading fast! Then the moshing downstairs started and I got super nervous. I don't get it. These people were getting shoved around so much, falling down, getting stepped on, and this is fun?! It scared me to death. One girl got her face busted! What on earth is fun about that?!

The concert was so fun! Great bonding time with my brother!

I do wonder what people though of us, we tried really hard not to look like we were together on a date!

The run that was a MESS

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:05:00 +0000

Saturday I set out to do 13 miles.

Despite having my watch on the charger (probably not correctly) it died 2ish miles into the run! So while I ran I downloaded an app to track the rest of my run. Of course my belt that I wear to hold my phone also broke around mile 2 awesome!

I ran 10 miles with the app and a total of 2 hours 23 mins. I am guessing it was close to 13 miles, but probably a little short.

I ran to Mount Vernon, past it a while, back to it, then down the Mount Vernon Trail to my house.

Beautiful run! The weather was WARM at 60 degrees! So crazy for January 7th! Loved it. Since I was holding my phone, I took some pics while running.

January Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:59:00 +0000

-No missed training runs: no excuses, all runs must happen! I don’t care if I am tired. MAKE it happen!!!!!

-lights off, tv off, computer and phone away by 11(on work nights): This means I will sleep more! (in theory at least)

- 3 water bottles a day: This isn’t even that hard for me, but sometimes I slack on the water drinking

-church 3 times: I know I shouldn’t have to put going to church on my goals list, but going to a new church alone is not something I am enjoying, but I need to do it more. The more I do it, the more people I will know and the more comfortable I will be with it

-Put away clothes after laundry: this is the worst part about laundry for me. I will let my clothes sit in the basket clean and pick out of it for a while. I hope that this changes!

So a week into January, lets see how things are going. All runs ran this week! I ran 28 miles the first week of Jan! Almost every night I have had tv and computer off. One night I was on the phone with mom til 11:30, but I have been asleep by midnight every night, often before. Water is going well, except today. Must go drink some! I woke today with a headache, so I didn’t go to church, that means that next 3 Sundays I will be there! All my laundry is being done right now as we speak. I will put it away while I watch some of my DVRd shows after dinner!

2012 > 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:01:00 +0000

That is a guarantee! 2011 was a year of change. I started grad school, my long term relationship ended, I moved, I got a new car and I got very serious about running. Lots of other things happened, friends got married and I went on some fun trips.
2011 was hard. But 2012 looks to be amazing, it can only go up from here.
I don’t plan on recapping all of my 2011 like some people do, too much emotions there. Instead I will tell you about my ringing in the new year, and the out look I have
This year I decided I needed to go away for New Years Eve. Getting away allows me to start the year off on the right foot!
I went with my high school friend Jessica, and her husband and their friends to Bethany Beach.
I woke up on New Years Eve to amazing weather! 65ish degrees! I tried to go for my 8 mile run, but I packed for, you know, WINTER! So I was poorly dressed and burning up!
I managed to get a good run in, even though it was difficult.
We sat around watching greatest songs of 2000s on VH1 and all the songs brought back memories. Then we got ready and went out to a nice dinner.
I had the best cranberry martini (or 2) while we were waiting for dinner and at dinner. Super strong!
We went back and played lots of games. Apples to apples is such a fun party game. We rang in the new year with a bang! (though we forgot the fireworks we brought!)
So while I am late to write this post, I did write a list of goals for 2012.
Here they are.

- Run a marathon: yes, I realize this is crazy, but I am at the perfect time in my life to do it! I have no one to answer too with my free time, so I won’t feel guilty giving up 2+ hours on a weekend to go run.
-PR my half marathon: This won’t be hard to do, as I am in much better running shape, and my last half marathon time kind of sucked!!
-Call my grandparents 2 times a month (at least): I am very bad about talking on the phone. I don’t really do it anymore. I really only talk to my mom regularly. My dad and I email pretty often. But I often don’t check in with my grandparents enough. I shouldn’t have to make this a goal, but if I do I will be better at it. Here is to being a better granddaughter in 2012!
- Get and A in 5 out of 6 classes: 6 out of 6 would be great, but there are some tough classes coming up, some math ones, I must be realistic.
- Read 6 books for fun: I find that reading while doing school is pretty difficult for me. I am going to make an effort to read more for pleasure this year. I just finished 1 book today! I started it on Dec 30th, but I am going to count it!
-Keep healthy lifestyle choices: I have been doing a good job sticking to a semi paleo diet. Not as strict as I was in the past, but when faced with choices I try to make the better choice!
-Cross off 2 things from the bucket list: Some way, some how I will do this!
-Run 650 miles in 2012: This might not even be difficult with marathon training, but I am hoping I can do it!
-Sightsee in DC more: I live in an amazing city, and yet I hardly take advantage of it! That changes in 2012. Good thing I have made a friend who isn’t a local, I can drag her along too! Get ready Lindsay!
-Save money for emergency fund: This is something I have been doing since I moved, but I need to step it up. I hope to put more money in my savings account every month so that I have it when something unforeseen comes up, and it always does.

So that is my 2012 goals. I have specific January goals, but I will post those separately, this post is long enough!
Hope everyone had a great New Year! Happy and Healthy 2012!!!

Christmas 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:54:00 +0000

This holiday season hasn’t been easy for me. I struggled to get the tree up, and while it was beautiful and I loved it, it still didn’t feel like Christmas yet.

I kept waiting for it to start feeling like Christmas. Saturday am, Christmas Eve, I got up and went for a run. I went 4.5ish miles with a friend, then finished up 7.5 miles on my own.

12 miles = very sleepy afternoon. I sat around with Austin watching tv and waiting for A Christmas Story to come on.

The true is, I was waiting for the evening. Christmas Eve is probably my favorite part of Christmas. It is full of tradition and family.

Saturday night we went to church for service. The service was great but the end is the best. Everyone lights a candle and we all sing silent night. **insert chills here**

I ran home and made a breakfast casserole while mom and dad finished up at the 2nd service at church.

Then my 2nd favorite part of Christmas eve began. The Waffle House.

This tradition has been going on for 16 years. It started in GA, where we would spend a good few hours opening up gifts then our adopted grandparents (all the grandparents lived in MD ) would come over and we would go to WH for breakfast.

When we moved to MD, we would open gifts and then head to my grandparents house so there wasn’t time for a WH stop, so we started going after church on Christmas eve. Along the years others have joined us in our tradition. The past few years our music minister at church, Chip, and his wife, Marcie have joined us.

The time is full of food, fun and laughs. Always guaranteed to laugh, a lot.

This year, since Christmas was on Sunday we decided we would open all of our family presents on Christmas eve. So we came home and exchanged gifts.

Dad handing out presents.

I got a lot of running related gifts . A cute new bag and my brother gave me new perfume. Then we went to bed for the big day.

My mom got a trip to go drive a racecar from my dad. Her reaction was HILARIOUS!! Hoping I can get the video edited and up here soon.

On Friday night, Austin and I made some homemade eggnog, it was pretty good, even Kobi liked it.

Sunday am, we got up and had blueberry french toast casserole and then headed to church.

After church we went to Rockville to do the rounds at my grandparents house .

Christmas at my mom’s parents house first with lots of yummy cookies and carrot cake.

Then over to my dad’s parent’s house for dinner and then more presents. This time is probably the most funny part of all of Christmas. It seems that there is always jokes being cracked, typically because my granddaddy got yet ANOTHER damn shirt.

Also, my uncle Mickey is just hilarious and gets some pretty great presents.

Like this year, my brother the DIE HARD Steelers fan got this shirt.

to pour salt into the wound, he got 2! Because my uncle bought one in orange first, then realized it was the wrong color and got it in yellow too. It was hilarious!

What was even more funny, was everyone else got Jesus Loves [Insert their team]

I got the complete Harry Potter series! Which is what I plan to do today!

We came home and all of the neighborhood kids that are Austin's age came over for a little party. So fun, but man I felt old. I used to babysit most of them!

It ended up being a great Christmas! Even if it didn’t feel like Christmas until the very end! Looking forward to the last week of 2011 but even more to 2012!

2 more sleeps

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:11:00 +0000

I do my countdowns typically in sleeps. It is easier that way. I started it for the kids I babysat, and never stopped. Today is Wednesday, I am going home for Christmas on Friday. 2 more sleeps til I go home for Christmas! I can't wait.

It is slowly starting to feel a little more christmasy for me. All of my presents are bought and hopefully arrive on time.

I can't wait to watch A Christmas Story with my dad. The movie is stupid, but my dad watching it is the best. The man cries laughing at half of it. Fra-ra-ra-ra-rah Ra-ra-ra-rah! You should watch it with us, its funnier that way!

In other news, not having school means I get bored. But not bored enough to deal with my reader. I am VERY weird and I hate having an unread count. My email in box always says 0.

So that 639 is giving me anxiety. I don't read everything that I subscribe to, but after a weekend at home being pretty unplugged, the number is too big to think about dealing with.
I will probably mark all as read and start over :-D (yes I am odd)

Last weekend I ran 10.5 miles. It was a great run. Running 10 miles during my last half marathon training was NEVER easy. (I also beat the time of my 10miler race) It was easy until about 9 miles. I ran 9 miles like it was no big deal. Who am I?

I also went out to lunch with my bff Richie and the "merry widows" for his birthday. I ran into so many people I haven't seen in such a long time. It made me very happy, and made me miss Frederick a little. (not enough to move back though!)

I got a new phone. It rocks! I can take screen shots (like above), I can take pictures of things quickly. My phone holds a charge and actually works. It is amazing! I love it.

Getting excited for Christmas, but really just excited to go home to my family. I love them

Will Run for Chocolate…

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:26:00 +0000

Maybe never again.

I signed up for the Hot Chocolate 15k because it sounded fun. 9.3 miles with fondue at the finish? No brainer.

So. I sign up with no real information about the race. I didn’t know the course. I wasn’t sure the logistics, but whatever.

So as it gets closer I get about 40 emails about getting a parking registration and carpool. UM…what? I wasn’t planning on running this with people…

So I reach out to a friend to carpool with her. whatever.

Fast forward to race week. I feel sick all week. I run 1 run. I don’t even know how long it was because my watch died and I was pushing the girls in the stroller.

Went Wed. night to pick up my bib, and traffic getting there was nuts. (red flag number 1) but I just figured it was rush hour in DC and whatever.

So Saturday am, we make plans to get picked up at 6:15 (Meredith is running it with me now because our friend got hurt and couldn’t run it.)

We get to the highway and its break light city. We have to go 3-4 miles, literally across a bridge and 1 exit. We sit, and sit, and sit. The race starts at 8am. At 7:45 we are not even off the highway and we still have to go to the satellite parking lot and catch a shuttle to the start.

We did hear they were delaying the start so that was good.

So we eventually get to the start, through a series of bad directions and a little bit of wandering.

We just jumped the barriers and just got in a corral. I was corral O and I think I started around C. This ended up really being a good thing for me I think.

So the race starts. The course is NARROW. Like one car lane for 20,000 people. The course sucked. It was crowded and mostly out and backs. The first 2 miles went down a 3 lane highway, 1 lane runners out, 1 lane runners back and 1 lane TRAFFIC. I heard someone got hit by a car! SO NOT SAFE, and horrible breathing those fumes! Another out and back on this gravel construction site. Then running along the river on a skinny little trail.

Then there were the hills. LOTS of hills. The last half mile or so was up a pretty steep hill. I was trying so hard to go fast, and I felt like a hamster on a wheel. I was running hard but going NO WHERE.

There were very few spectators or people cheering. I get that, they probably couldn’t get to the race!

It was very boring and of course I picked this race to give up running with music!

However, crappy race details aside, I ran the race of my life! I ran the first 3 miles sub 10 min miles!

I walked one water stop only because I got caught in the middle of everyone who just stopped to get water, and I struggled to get out of the jam. The rest of the race was me just going, thinking about how I was going to get some chocolate at the end (WHAT A FAT!)

I finished the race and felt good. I would have felt great if I didn’t have to fight that hill at the end!

I found Meredith and Bo and we went to get our chocolate. We get apples, banana, pretzel and rice krispy treats to dip in melted Ghirardelli chocolate! SO GOOD.

The weather was COLD, and so the the hot chocolate at the end was perfect and tasted amazing too!

The race officials sent out an email apologizing for such a logistical nightmare of a race.

As frustrating as it was, I had a great run, so I can’t hate it too much. I just won’t run it again, unless there are significant changes.

Look at that pace! I give my running coach Kelly lots of that credit!! I am getting excited to see what my half brings!

Life Update

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 03:18:00 +0000

School consumed my life in November. But it is over. I officially finished my second semester with 1 A and 1 B. The B was in my finance class and that class challenged me from the start. I get 2 months off! I have been watching Grey’s Anatomy, running, and reading books that aren’t textbooks so far!

I went to New Jersey with the roommates (I will always call them the roommates, even though none of us live together anymore) We took my little car on its first road trip! Armed with Justin Bieber’s Christmas album we headed to Jersey to celebrate Carol’s birthday. After a few drinks at the bar, we may have played on the greatest playground I have ever seen at midnight.

Saturday we got up and went to the city and then had a party! I remade Carol’s wedding cake in cupcake form.

Thanksgiving was awesome. Mom had to work, so we had dinner in Frederick. I cooked my first Thanksgiving meal. Beer can turkey, mac and cheese, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, beans, carrots, rolls and desserts! So good. Then we played apples to apples.

Before I finished up the cooking, I went out for my own personal turkey trot 5k. I have slowly noticed my pace getting faster, but since I ran 5 miles on Wed. I decided to just run a quick 5k. Well, my legs just went, I was running fast and it was easy. I noticed at 2 miles that I had run both miles sub 10 min miles! I decided I was going to make this 5k a sub 10 min mile 5k! I pushed hard at the end and PRed my 5k time by about 2 mins! My pace never went over 10 min miles! So exciting! (foreshadowing for an upcoming race maybe?!…) Wait and see.

Lastly, I have been struggling to find my Christmas spirit. I have this nagging feeling that this year is going to be hard for me. While I am staying positive about it, I still worry. (but I worried about my birthday and it was perfect!)

I decided I could fit my tree in my room here, so I would put it up. But then I never talked myself into doing it. I wanted to, but it made me sad. Meredith said that we would all do it as a family. So today my favorite toddlers pitter pattered up my stairs and helped me decorate my tree. They did a great job and there were no ornament casualties.

Helping Evelyn put on the elephant

Helping Sylvia put on the fishy

Decorating the tree together

Me and my girls

The toddler clump

About 5 ornaments on 1 branch <3 it!

We hung my stocking downstairs with everyone else’s

Some new favorite ornaments!

After I balanced out the bottom

It is beginning to look a bit like Christmas, and it may even be beginning to feel like it too

27 is a big deal

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:36:00 +0000

I had a birthday. It was perfect. I am long overdue talking about it (and many other things going on) but school is owning my soul lately. I finish classes the Sunday after Thanksgiving and then I will be playing catch up.

So October 26, 2011 I turned 27!

Last year I set out to bake 26 different things… but life changed big time, and that got pushed away. I will eventually finish that list, but it isn’t important anymore.

So on to the celebrations!

The weekend before, my parents, brother and I went out for Japanese Hibachi. It is my favorite and it was so good. Such a fun, dysfunctional time with the family!!

This is what happens when my mom makes us take 50,000 pics

Mom’s big mouth… drums and gongs and lots of embarrassment!

Yes dad thanks.. we know!

On my actual birthday I woke up and went down stairs and was greeted by two adorable two year olds singing to me and a plate full of pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes with turkey bacon! YUM!!

The girls sang to me ALL DAY! Seriously. ALL DAY. I may have loved it a lot.

We had a little play date with 2 moms I am friends with. I walked into balloons and cupcakes. I even let the girls have one

We may have had a little silly photo shoot too.

We love our sunglasses

Then Meredith and David made me a super yummy steak dinner and chocolate brownie cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. (OH MY GOD! So good!)

Then my new friend Lindsay and I went out for a birthday cocktail.

The Friday after my b-day, all my college peeps got together for Mexican

I was really worried about my birthday. I tend to love October, and countdown all 26 days til my birthday! I was still excited, but it was a little more subdued. I was worried I would be sad, or lonely on my birthday. But I wasn’t. I felt so loved and so happy all day! I have a lot of great people in my life! Thanks everyone who makes my life so great!

26 was a good year, a hard year, a year of changes but it has nothing on what 27 will bring to me.

At 27 I will be PRing in a half marathon (yes, I will PR that baby!)

At 27 I will continue to focus on me and my health.

At 27 I will keep on kicking grad school butt.

At 27 I will run a marathon (well it actually will be 2 days after my 28th birthday, but whatever)

At 27 I will cross off at least 2 things from the bucket list.

27 will be the BEST year yet!!

Who am I?!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:50:00 +0000

I ran 7 miles this weekend. Outside **gasp** without music **falls over in shock** who the heck am I these days.

I run more runs outside than on the TM and I prefer it that way. Even though it is getting colder so I am not sure how much longer I will prefer it (and why did I sign up for another winter race again?!)

Typically I throw on the iPod and try to get sucked into the music. But since I got a new computer I had to reformat my iPod and I lost all my running playlists. I have been to ~~busy~~ lets be honest here, lazy to remake them. So I end up running to stupid songs and inevitably if you happy and you freaking know it comes on right around the time I hit a wall. I am certainly not clapping my hands! (oh the joys of having work music on my personal iPod)

But lately I have just let my thoughts wander. I don't really know what I think about, but because I don't have a timer of about 3-4 mins going off (when songs change) time goes faster.

So I may have been converted to an outside runner - maybe.

Also, I fought with a finance midterm ALL weekend. I just got my score back (my teacher grades super fast!!!) and I got an 84%. Now I figured an A was out of the question, this thing was HARD. But this is the first non A I have gotten this semester and I am really pissed about it.

The old, undergraduate me, would have been like Sweet I didn't fail, lets go to the bars and celebrate. But now I am just mad about it. I probably should have waited til tomorrow to check to see if he graded it. But I didn't. Grrrr.

Who is this person?! Is this what a 27 year old looks like? (nope not til Wed at least :-D )

oops

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:41:00 +0000

I did it again...

Congratulations! You're registered for the 2011 Hot Chocolate 15K - DC

Your bib number is #59371

Registrant:
Angela Eubanks
Female - October 26, 1984

Because 9.3 miles outside in December seems like fun.....right? Oy,

6 miles

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:50:00 +0000

So I have been pretty busy with school and stuff. I totally blew off my 5.5 mile run last week and I didn't run at all this week. Until this am.

I went to mom and dad's last night. I slept in and at about 9 a drug my butt out of bed, ate a banana and laced up the shoes.

I ran my dad's 6ish route and it was almost exactly 6. I added an extra turn to make sure I hit 6 when I got back home or else I probably would have just gone inside :-D

My run today rocked! I felt strong the whole time. I got tired at 5.5. and my knee was hurting - so I walked the .05 up the hill and then finished the run fast and strong.

Love a good run.

A few things I learned :

1- 6 miles through walkersville is BORING.

2- I need to trim my toe nails :-D Yay new blister (sorry for the TMI)

3- the library doesn't open early during the week (i had to hold it fro 2 more miles til I got home - again sorry for the TMI)

Now the weather is amazing and I am going outside to play. I just finished some school work out there. I really want a pedicure, but I don't want to waste the weather. Do you think they would do it outside for me? Hmmm

I promise I will be back with fun stuff that has been going on. Promise. :-D

Life Lately

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 03:35:00 +0000

Classes started - this time I am taking 2 classes. I feel like I am never caught up, and I haven't even started with big assignments. The one class has so much reading and the textbook is impossible to understand. I feel like I re-read pages a lot and I still don't get it. It is one of the most poorly written textbooks I have ever read.

A few weeks ago, my parents had to put our kitty, Spencer to sleep. He had stopped eating and peeing, and when they took him to the vet they said he had a huge mass in his abdomen, and there wasn't much they could do for him. I got him when I was in 7th grade, so he was an old kitty and so putting him to sleep was the best thing for him, anything else would have just prolonged his suffering. I was much sadder than I expected. Spencer and I haven't had a good relationship since 2003ish. He started getting really nasty with me around college time, and so we just tolerated each other. But I have fond memories of Kitten Spencer and his beanie baby raping* ways. Silly Cat.

Spencer liked the paper at christmas

My runs lately have been great and FAST. I took some time off for the wedding and for traveling to FL. I was a bit worried they would suck after all of that, but I PR'd (personal record) a 5k last night on the TM. Sweet. My awesome running coach and I have created a plan to get me a sub 30 5k by mid January. This prompted me searching for 5ks in FL. I found an awesome one where you run around the track at the Daytona Speedway... Please tell me that wouldn't be amazing... I think I might priceline a flight and if I can get one for super cheap I am going to do it! Why not!?

This weekend we are doing a fun activity. Buy With Me had a deal for a discounted ticket to Drink and Hunt a scavenger hunt pub crawl. Sounds pretty fun! Hopefully we win. :-D

I will post a recap of my trip to FL soon.

* Spencer used to steal beanie babies from us. Then we would hear a loud growling and meowing from another room... and we would find him, um, having his way with the poor beanie baby. Perv! I did get it on video tape in high school. Back before we could put videos on the internet. It was funny.

Mr. and Mrs. Ben B!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:57:00 +0000

This past weekend my college roommate got married.
I was so excited to be a part of it all. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a ton of fun.
It almost made us forget about the nightmare of our dresses. But we all had the same dress, and the fit (for the most part)
Here is a quick review in pics.

Meg was SO Beautiful

Married!

Bridal Party

Carol ~~Dory~~ Beadle and Me ( I can’t remember to call my friends by their married names)

The guest book was so cool. It was a picture of a peacock (the theme of the wedding) and we put our thumbprints as feathers and signed it! SO COOL!

I LOVED my hair!!

Wedding cake – sugar peacock feathers

this was before I started double fisting the drinks

I love them

This is the new tradition…

I had so much fun at the wedding and the festivities leading up to it. Mostly I just loved being with my friends

Not even a Hurricane can stop this party!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:25:00 +0000

Meg’s bachelorette party was set to be a bar crawl through some fun bars in the National Harbor. Thanks to a great Groupon deal we got a NICE big room at the Gaylord National Hotel. This hotel is beautiful with a HUGE glass atrium (the glass thing should be noted later) over looking the water.

We decided we would spend the afternoon at the pool, then get changed and head to dinner then out on the town. There was a Dueling Piano bar, a country bar with a mechanical bull, an Irish pub and the rooftop nightclub at the hotel on the list of places to hit up.

As the weekend got closer, talk of this Irene Bi-otch started saying that she would visit on Saturday night.

Oh yes, please, lets have a hurricane while we stay in a GLASS hotel, on the WATER and plan to walk to a bunch of different bars, not to mention the whole pool thing.

We watched the weather and decided we would still go to the hotel and make the best of it!

That we did!

First we skipped the pool and went to the hotel and decorated, then gave Meg some fun gifts.

Our goodie bags Jill made – with little bottles of booze, hair ties, pain meds, ponchos,bead and snacks!

Gotta give the bride to be some fun presents

Group shot

Then we got changed and headed out to dinnner in our Little Black Dresses

Going out in our LBDs

and ponchos!!

Jill and Meg at the Yummy dinner.

Dinner was at Grace’s Mandarin. It was SO GOOD

Then we headed to Bobby McKey’s Dueling Piano Bar. Where we had a blast! Since the rain was coming down sideways we decided not to leave until we were ready to go to the nightclub at the hotel.

Beer tower

The Bride to Be and Me

Jello shots

We got Meg on stage and they sang to her!

We had a lot of fun there and ended up staying really late. Then we decided to head to the hotel around 2. We ran in the pouring rain to the hotel where we were met with glow sticks and the news of no power. Irene you nasty girl! We had lights, but no elevators.

We stumbled up 7 flights of stairs to our rooms and hit the hay.

It was a great night! I think everyone had fun! I did!

The Best Week EVER

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:43:00 +0000

So Monday I found out I got an A on my first grad school class.

Thursday I bought a BRAND NEW car!

Our family doesn’t buy new cars. We buy new to us cars. I went shopping and was set on a 2010 Hyundai Elantra.

My dad went to look at the cars, and the guy had him look at a 2012 Accent.

I could get a 2010 and pay it for 5 years for the same price as a 2012 for 6 years. Ok so that doesn’t seem like a great deal. Well the warranty was what sold me.

10 year powertrain with the 2012 – nothing with the 2010

5 year bumper to bummer with the 2012 – 28k miles with the 2010

5 year roadside assistance – AAA with the 2010

So that extra year of payments is worth it to have a basically hassle free car.

And it’s the body style I like.

So dad started wheeling and dealing on Tuesday. I couldn’t get to Frederick to look at the car until Wed night.

I get there Wed night and the ONLY car there was gone. Hello dagger to my heart.

So they search everywhere, but no other dealership would give them an Accent.

So we decided we would find one somewhere and go there. (Sorry Clyde)

So my dad found a car, called and made sure that it was there and off he went.

He was at the dealership at 1:30 and was making a deal on a white Accent. I didn’t reallly love the white, but I liked it enough.

As he was sitting there he called me and said a truck pulled up with a grey one on it, do I want that one instead? UM YES!

So they waited for me to get off work and head over, and after a few hours of stressful negotiations we made a deal!

They didn’t want to give me much for my car, but my dad busted out his smartphone and showed them that they were seriously low-balling me and we got another $300 out of them.

This got us in my price range and we had a deal.

While we were there for 4.5 hours, 2 people bought cars. This place sings to you when you buy a car! It was cute. But when it was my turn it was awkward and embarrassing, but I still made them do it!

I said goodbye to my little Alero and drove home with my sweet NEW CAR!!!

Ok pics time – and the most embarrassing video ever

Bye Alreo – I will miss you

But not your duct tape

WOOO new car!!

4 of those miles I put on when I took it for a test drive!!

NEW CAR!!

Them singing to me:

Oh Hell YES I did!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 02:20:00 +0000

So remember when school started and I was totally freaked out and I didn’t think I could handle it all?

Yea… well… lets discuss this.

Yup that’s right! I got an A!!! I am so excited!

Hello 4.0! Nice to see you there!

My group paper, while it was a nightmare from start to finish, the professor said it was the best paper in the class. I will take all the credit for that thanks… I basically re-wrote a lot of it because one of my members hardly cared to do her part.

But anyway, that is life.

Did I tell you I got an A? In a 6 credit class…. oh yea!!!!

What’s new?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:20:00 +0000

Lets see

***Training is going so well! My runs are amazing! My pace is so much faster than before. It is amazing. I guess loosing the toddler I used to carry around when I ran helped.

I have been doing p90x pretty regularly. Tonight I tweaked my hamstring muscle when doing a move and decided to quit early to avoid injury. I iced it and just applied a big old glob of icy hot. Will be hitting up the foam roller in a little bit. P90X is great, but it isn’t my main focus, that is running.

So I signed up for the half in March. I also signed up for a 5k on Sept 10. Marine Corp Marathon 2012 is hardcore on my radar. I have always said that 26.2 isn’t something I could/would do. But maybe I was wrong. We shall see come time to register.

omg insane right?

***In other news I went to a new church last Sunday. I love my church at home, but it isn’t going to help me make friends in the area. So I put on my big girl panties and went ALONE. HOLY OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE BATMAN!! I walked in and pretty much wanted to vomit… then I ran to the bathroom until it started.

I filled out a little paper, and a very nice lady called me on Tuesday. She invited me to the small group she leads. It is for women only. (READ: potential friends) So next week she is out of town, but the girls are getting together and hanging out. So I am going to go and meet them in a casual setting.

***Lets see – OH! Buying a car soon! Real soon actually. SCORE. I am praying that the right car is available soon. I really want a 2011 Hyundai Elantra, but I am not sure if it is in my price range yet. I am waiting on the bank to get back to me with loan info. I would like to do it alone, but I will probably have my dad co-sign and get better interest rates.

All pics above from google images

***I survived my first semester of Grad School! I don’t have my final grade but when I do I will do a “ my thoughts on school” post.

***Lastly, last weekend we celebrated with Meg and threw her a shower. It was super fun and I GOT TO BAKE!!! I didn’t have time to take pics while baking though. I guess I will have to bake again soon.

College Roommates <3

Awesome Bridal Party

This weekend is a quiet weekend at home with my parent’s dog – haha that sounds sad

Next weekend – BACHELORETTE PARTY!!!! I can’t wait!! CAN’T WAIT!!!