This is Water- the most brilliant commencement speech ever.

Have you seen this?

Brilliant.

From Surgery to 13.1

I'm getting really antsy being in this cast.

I like working out, and this foot injury and surgery have really put a damper on that for a long time.

I had to quit Zumba and running because my foot was getting so bad, so I was doing stuff like weight lifting and boxing and whatever... I did a 3 week "squats challenge" where, by the end of 3 weeks I was doing 250+ squats at a time.

But it's all really difficult when recovering from surgery.


***

The good thing has been that I am really wanting to do things like RUN! I am NOT a runner and I don't particularly enjoy running, but I WANT TO RUN! That's what happens after being restricted for so long I suppose.

And so...

... my friends have convinced me to do the Provo Halloween Half Marathon with them.

It gives me nearly 23 weeks to rehabilitate my foot and train for a half marathon.

I'm sort of FREAKING OUT because I've never ran a real race before, and I haven't run more than like 3 miles in basically forever because of my foot.

But, I want to do it. Crazy, I know.

 ***

I'm making myself feel better by telling myself that if I'm going to do one, this is the one to do because it's ALL downhill. :) Check out the elevation profile.

So I'm going to do it. (*gah*). My friends will help me stay motivated, I think I've convinced Bryan to do it with me, and we'll see what happens. :)

***

The plan- I found two "training schedules" I think I'm going to model my training by.

I looked for a couch to 5k program that was gradual enough that I plan to give my foot plenty of time to heal, time to relearn how to walk normally, and time to break in a new pair of running shoes after all this. 

I also looked for plans that valued cross training because I think if I had to give up all things like weight training and yoga and kickboxing and hiking for the rest of the summer, I'd go crazy. I don't love running THAT much. Here are a few half marathon training programs I'm looking at. #1, #2.


And so, here's to (hopefully) only one more week of this cast, and then off to the races!

I'll try to hold myself accountable here on ye olde blog. :) 

We'll see how this goes!

I choose to be unstoppable.

Source 1, Source 2

I found this particularly inspiring tonight... 

I choose to be unstoppable.

Gap and Ender's Game: Two random things that were too short for individual blog posts :)

Why hello everybody.

Gap

I realized that I basically had no good tshirts, and a friend (who I trust in all things fashion because, let's be honest, I don't always know these things) said she gets hers at Gap sometimes.

So off I went.

I did some bargain shopping there, and am pleased to say I got 4 tshirts (that for some insane reason would have normally totaled nearly $100) for $45. Thank you very much.

I like them. This is one of them.

Unfortunately, I have never had worse customer service before in my life.

Nobody ever welcomed me to the store or asked me if I was finding everything and all that. 

I stood at the dressing room doors for a really long time (in plain sight) waiting for someone to come unlock the door for me.

When they didn't come I went out near the check out stand where the guy checking people out, a worker girl, and a customer (who they clearly knew) sat and chatted. I stood next to the girl with arms full of clothes and when their conversation ended she walked past me and went out to do some other random stuff.

I followed her and when she finally stopped I asked her if she would open a room for me and she did.

Then when I went to check out, the guy that was at the checkout stand earlier was nowhere to be found, so I went over into the Gap Body side of the store to check out. The girl at the stand didn't speak to me at or make eye contact with me except to tell me my total (she just said the price), and to say "have a good day" after I said it to her when she handed me the bag at the end.

Seriously people? I was NOT impressed.

Good thing I got my shirts on sale or I'd be complaining for real. That was ridiculous.

****


And on that note, ENDER'S GAME HAS A TRAILER!!! :) Enjoy.

May the 4th be with you

May the 4th be with you...

(PS I read somewhere else that today is "eat anything you want" day, meaning it's a sugar day for me lol. All the other days without treats? I just ate a cookie and a bite-size crunch bar. Yum.)

Have a good weekend, you will.

I don't want you to think like me; I just want you to THINK. Road edition.

Source

The question of the century:

Why do people not consider turning on their brains when they get on the road?

Now, I'm not talking about everybody... just the ones that stick out.

Originally this was going to be just about people who don't turn on their brains when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle, but then Women's Conference at BYU began, and after seeing nearly 50 people at different points nearly get smashed by cars because the pedestrians were being STUPID, I'm including them too.

This is what I saw just yesterday on two drives from Provo to Orem and back.

• DOZENS of people texting WHILE driving in bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic. (I would like to know what makes it a good idea to take all your attention off your car and the cars around you while you are in closer proximity to more moving cars than is possible in any other situation.)
• Two old women huddled around a phone screen with their noses 4 inches from the screen in this same moving, bumper to bumper traffic. One was the driver, the other was the passenger. 
• A woman driving 45 mph down State Street (still bumper to bumper traffic) while writing a grocery list or a check or something on her steering wheel. Eyes off the road.
• A woman tailing me, swerving around me, cutting me off, all while texting. The killer? She had a brand new baby in the back seat.
• A guy next to me on his phone that nearly side swiped me 3 times because he was swerving all around in his lane. Now, if you can talk on your phone and drive like a normal person, I don't care. I feel that talking is different than texting and all these other things. But, if you can't talk and drive competently, PUT AWAY YOUR FREAKING PHONE.
• A girl sitting through a whole green light cycle with cars honking all around her...because she was texting. Apparently that's more important than arriving at your destination alive? 
• About a half dozen cars ZOOMING through the intersection at top speed turning left, only to realize when they got stuck in the middle of the intersection with the lights turning green for the opposite traffic, that they should have paid attention to the fact that there was nowhere for them to go in the first place. 
• Probably a half dozen cars running red lights.
• More people than I can tell you texting, both hands off the steering wheel and eyes off the road. It's never the texter that dies in the wreck... always someone else's dad or sister or mom. Is your text THAT important? 
• A woman with both hands off the steering wheel and eyes off the road eating a plate of food... while driving down state street in the worst rush hour traffic I've ever seen, but still going 40 mph... 

I'm sure there are more examples... but I can't tell you how many times I yelled, "PUT AWAY YOUR FREAKING PHONE." It's not fair to the rest of us that we have to drive so defensively because you can't seem to keep in your own lane as you text "be right there" or something stupid like that.

Now, on to the hundreds of women walkers.

WHEN YOUR WALK LIGHT IS RED AND MY DRIVE LIGHT IS GREEN, STOP WALKING. I DON'T CARE HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE ALREADY IN THE ROAD. IT IS NOT YOUR TURN. IT IS MINE. YOU ARE LUCKY THAT GIANT BLUE TRUCK NEXT TO ME DID NOT HIT YOU ALL. SHE WAS NOT HAPPY THAT WE HAD TO SIT THROUGH OUR ENTIRE LIGHT CYCLE BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T WAIT 15 SECONDS FOR YOU WALKER MAN LIGHT TO APPEAR.  NEITHER WAS I.

IF THERE IS NO CROSS WALK AND NO LIGHT ON THE ROAD, AND THERE ARE  4 WALKING BRIDGES CROSSING THAT VERY SAME ROAD, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO WALK ON THE WALKING BRIDGE! YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS WHEN YOU THROW YOUR HANDS UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, ACTING SURPRISED THAT THERE ARE CARS THERE WHERE YOU ARE WALKING! IT IS A ROAD! DO NOT WALK IN FRONT OF ONCOMING CARS AND EXPECT THEM TO STOP FOR YOU! WALKING BY FAITH DOES NOT APPLY WHEN YOU ARE A PEDESTRIAN WHO IS BREAKING EVERY RULE!

That is how I feel. :)

Just turn on your brains people.

Thank you.