Oh, what a day

So my day began with a big SMACK.

That smack resulted in my bumper getting scratched, dented, pierced in spots, and looking downright bad. My beautiful black pearl clear coat. After wanting a black car for so long, and keeping it spotlessly clean as best I could, I almost died when I saw it.  It's not terrible, and most certainly fixable, but I've had it just over 6 months, and now this. (Sad, exaggerated exhale)

Without getting all play-by-play about it, today added another line on my "getting my car rear-ended" resume. In the past 5 years, all 3 of these incidents happened on the same road...the same road I happen to live on! It's a long stretch of road, with the first one happening 5yrs ago about 15mi up the road. The second and today, the third, happened within 50yds of each other at the same intersection. Coupled with my evil address, could this be a sign it's time to get outta here?

Me stopping short and tapping someone else (my bad) then caused the guy behind me to ram me like bumper cars. After 10 years of Jeep driving, I'm still amazed they are built to take such hits like a champ. His hood resembled a tent afterwards, and that image flashing in a split second in my rear view was equally as scary. He definitely got the worst of it, and because he was the caboose in this bumper car train, that's coming right out of his insurance, (annnnd he should be picking up the tab for me!)

So there's a reason for everything and a lesson to be learned, I believe. (You didn't think I watched 15yrs of Oprah with no takeaways, did you?). Guess I'll pay more attention, be thankful it wasn't something more serious, personally email Jeep and tell them how much I lovvve their cars, and realize mistakes happen and there are much bigger things than the quality of shine on my black paint. (I know all this, obviously, but maybe today was a wake up call). Noted.

Wednesday....wait for it.....you ready?.... Randoms!

• Month 4 on the blog. Go me. This isn't that hard. What's most difficult is the fact this is public and I still have to sorta watch what I say. So I don't feel like I'm being 100% truthful, but I wouldn't want to offend all my loyal followers in Germany and Singapore (still don't get it) and now South Africa (?? S.A.?? I'm dreaming of a safari, any good tips?)
• I said 10mi was enough, but now I'm tempted to do a half!! The Philly Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon is in September and not only are there bands playing at every mile, Bret Michaels is performing a post-race concert! I just fell off my chair from sheer excitement. A friend let me know the registration cost is $72 for today only, and they it goes back up to $85 or something... so I gotta decide by midnight. Or,  could wait until November and run the Philly Half. Not training during the hottest months of the year sounds like a plan to me.
• Some parent's cell phone went off today while he was in my office, and the ring tone was Journey "Faithfully". I never saw someone's hand move so fast to silence it. Hilarious!
• The guy at the bank drive thru window has a smirky air about him. So I put the capsule thing in the chute, turned up my radio and closed the window. Oops. I forgot to hit send. If his mug wasn't in the tv camera trying to get my attention, he might have had to come outside and get it. #potentialplanfornexttime
• The running around never stops. Work, gym, going out, laundry, cleaning, shopping, repeat over and over. I can juggle a lot, and I like to keep busy, sometimes just riding the line of everything going out of control... but that's when you know you're giving maximum effort. You can always push yourself a little more- this I've learned.
• Of course Verizon comes out with a brand spanking new Droid on the 4G. Less than 2months after I get my "new" phone on the 3G. Hmm!
• Cali plans coming together!! I better ready myself for 4 days of crazy fun. Can't wait to see my pals!
• I used to be all proper when doing this blog thing. Now I give a quick scan, spell-check, and post it up. This is the type of thing that gets more difficult the more you over think it.
• Ever talk to someone work-related on the phone, or have several emails going back and forth and when you finally meet them, they are nothing like what you envisioned? Happened to me about 3x this week, and it was really funny. But the kind of funny only I would appreciate. Which really makes no sense to add it to the blog. Whatevs.



After pics of random objects in the past, I figured I'd reallly change it up. Quadratic formula anyone? 

Summertime...almost

If we want to get all specific, Summer doesn't really begin until June 21, give or take a few hours. Summer solstice- longest day of the year!

Today's hot! Luckily, when you live in a place as small as mine, it takes about 10 min to get the entire place to 70deg. At least coming home to a cool place is comforting, discovering there is no food anywhere and no more Oprah at 4pm (many sad faces!) Always nice to hear the splish-splash of all the retired folk, lounging with their wacky noodles in the pool. I've lived here a while and I despise going to the pool. People are nosy and they are such gawkers! I know most have at least 40yrs on me, but I don't need the stares. It's gross, awkward, and just plain uncomfortable. Plus there's just something about public pools that skeeves me out. Someone's private pool is fine, but I've always felt no amount of chlorine can kill all the nastiness a public pool holds, with 30 people sharing the same water. Ew, I have to stop talking about it now.

Random tip: Don't bother watching Messengers 2: The Scarecrow. Terrible wannabe horror flick. Give me something that's really scary! The only ones that really do it are the psycho-thrillers like Saw. I don't really prefer those, but these haunted cornfield things aren't cutting it (or shall I say harvesting? Okay, bad joke. Not even funny. 2 out of 10)

From Scarecrows to....... scary good tennis! My transitions are horrible today, my God!
Roger put away Monfils, and next it's on to Djokovic! The stakes are high and that will be an incredible match. I can't wait! I'm reallly pullin for Roger. Both should be amped up with confidence, but has been on fire these past few months. Roger has the experience and mental toughness, and anywhere he goes, the crowd loves him. I'll be so sad if he loses... but Wimbledon is just around the corner.

Gym time. Don't feel like it, but if I keep moving and get ready, not allowing myself time to talk myself out of it, I'm halfway there and it's no turning back. Discipline. It's not always easy or fun, but without it, your life is one step away from a hot mess!

French Open

Watching some great French Open tennis, and excited for my upcoming favorite- Wimbledon!

Looking forward to see Roger play fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka. That's gotta be tough to play a friend, especially someone you've won a gold medal with in doubles! Competition trumps friendship in big tournaments like this. With all their back and forth rivalry, if Roger and Rafa can manage to be friends off the court, anyone can. I can't say how I'd feel, but there has to be some guilt when you lob that sneaky shot right over the net and the other person has zero chance of running up to volley.

If you haven't noticed, I have a slight obsession addiction liking for Roger Federer. I've been following him since 2004ish, seeing him beat Andy Roddick, Rafa, Novak, and countless others. I've commented on his website fan forum lots of times, but haven't actually sent anything to the fan postal address in Switzerland (see, I'm not totally crazy!) That streak of 5 Wimbledon titles in a row was by far my favorite. Definitely remember being late for work because I couldn't miss watching him win! Gotta run. More later... go Roger!

Only he could look this good after hours of high intensity play.

Wednesday Randoms

It's Wednesday, and I'm gettin random

• The END of my beloved Oprah show was today. Mama O was on her pulpit preachin her heart out. Everything from Jesus, to fufilling your destiny, to the impact we as the audience had on her and helped to define her life, I loved it. I'll miss it. And no one can ever, ever replace her. I was tweeting up a storm while watching. I'm Twittering waaay too much lately, but then I look at the likes of @ochocinco and his 50 tweets an hour, and I realize I'm aight. 
• Someone was wearing slippers at the gym tonight. Yes, those fuzzy slippers you slide on when it's 5 degrees out and you're decked out head-to-toe in your best sweats because it's too freakin cold to do anything else. Did I mention it was 87 degrees today and it's almost June? She was riding the stationary bike while wearing these. Come on! (a la Job from Arrested Development)
• Had a little talk with a coworker today about some random topics- conspiracy theories! There's this group called HARPP http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/ and glancing at the site, it looks like a government op that might be tinkering with the weather and atmosphere (cloud seeding and chem trails anyone?)  Crazy stuff. I never bought into that too much, so maybe I'll stick with the whole 'ignorance is bliss' theory when it comes to the government conducting population control right under our noses. I really wish I could be a fly on the wall in the Situation Room some days.
• You ever have to spell out a website for someone over the phone, and do the whole 'A as in apple' explanation? (Sorta rhetorical, cause no one's answered any of my questions yet... hmmm!)  Today I had a real piece of work on the phone. This guy was from somewhere (not the US), and he spoke English pretty well, but for some reason he wasn't getting the site I was trying to give him. It was 4 gdamn letters. How can you possibly not understand 'M as in mouse'? (Give me a break, it was the first word I could think of).  I've concluded, next time around, I'm giving the most ridiculous examples EVER so there is no confusion. 
  "Oh, you need the website for Google?"
  "It's G as in Galapagos, O as in Octomom, O as in Onomatopoeia..."  You get the picture.
• These hour long bodyworks classes at the gym are a killer! All these reps and moves with 3lb and 5lb weights have me hurtin the next day! I'm pretty certain I'm seeing better results from this than the free weight routine I was doing myself back in the winter (with much heavier weights). I've shifted the focus now to an even 50/50 of cardio and strength training. I'll keep doing different things until nothing is challenging anymore. I've read about a pure barre workout http://www.purebarre.com/ that sounds really amazing, but at $225/mo and locations only in Philly- no dice on that one.
• The "i" key on my laptop is acting up. Suuuuuper annoying.
• My west coast trip is looking like mid-July. Should Will be a blast. Might even get a flight for less than $500! I've made absolutely zero progress on any other vacaton plans. I'm taking this as a sign. Like Oprah said today, "listen to the voice and let it guide you."  Well, I'm not hearing any voice, but if I haven't been able to come up with a plan in the past 3 months I've been talking about this, maybe that's a sign that I'm going to win a really big trip, and I should save my time off for that! OK, far fetched and pathetic, but I'm not going to push it any longer. I'm rollin with whatever happens and if that means I take ten 3-day weekends, so be it. I'll save the $$ for my Africa trip which I will go on before I'm 35.

I'm getting waaay too predictable, aren't I? Yes, so here it is. The random pic to go along with the random-themed blog. Anatomy of a crochet hook? Don't say you didn't learn something new today. (You're welcome)

 

A Great View

My porch is alive again! After 7 months of empty, ice-covered, snow and wind-battered planters, color has returned to my life. Although space is limited and my creativity stifled, for now, I'll deal with the lack of options (and lawn) which leaves me with no option but container gardening. Some day though... you better watch out future lawn, I will make you my landscaping masterpiece!

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday Randoms

Randoms and it isn't even Wednesday. Guess when you're the author of the blog you can really take the power and run with it! Here goes-

• As we ALL suspected, Judgement Day was a bust on Saturday. And the movement's whacko ringleader is supposedly "flabbergasted". Someone's got some 'splainin to do!
• Bath Fitter, the award-winning (not really) company whose entire premise is based on covering up a ghetto bathtub/shower instead of replacing it, has a competitor. ReBath! So if you're too lazy to properly remodel your bathroom, you can pay someone to glue a pseudo-bath veneer right on top! I've only known one family who's used Bath Fitter, and getting in the shower was equivalent to jumping a hurdle.
• Chase Utley back in the Phils line up. Holla
• That commercial for those Oreo Fudge Cremes sold me, and I bought a package yesterday. I have to admit- original Oreos are waaay better. Stick with the originals Nabisco.
• Speaking of food, picked up a pint of Ben & Jerry's Boston Cream Pie. I still like the donut better, but this pretty good. How could I resist a description like this?
  "Boston Cream Pie Ice Cream with Yellow Cake Pieces, Fudge Flakes, & Swirls of Pastry Cream" Oh yeah. This filling-colored font was completely intentional.
  
  
• Roger won pretty easily today at Roland Garros. Keep it goin!


• Ran a decent 5K on Saturday. I'm going to try and do 1 a month to keep me on track. I'm happy I'm to the point where I can just go out and run 3.1 with no problem, and without feeling tired or sore the rest of the day. That's how it should be. We'd be better off as a country if everyone could drop everything and run 3.1 on a moment's notice. Even if it takes them 45min. Too many lazy peeps in this world.


• Next up on the Kindle is Andre Agassi's autobiography "Open". Should be good.


• I'm feelin that class I did at the gym yesterday. I must have done about 100 squats and lunges. What was completely ridiculous was the "Spiderman push-ups" and the super planks. Never, ever assume you're in shape just because you can run for a couple hours. I never made this assumption, but if I did, yesterday would've had me eating an entire serving of humble pie. Super planks are so ridic!! You start in the standard plank position and then alternate between and plank and a push-up, all in one fluid movement, for a minute straight. I made it about 15 seconds and there was NO WAY I could have done any more. Just when my cardio is at its best, now it's upper body strength that's lacking. I think the yoga class tonight might be just what I need.


• And finally, Oprah is ending this week! Done! 25yrs, and I'll no longer have anything worthy to watch at 4pm. I can't wait to see the final episode.