Wednesday Rant

Today was not epic. On days like this one I usually feel like not posting at all. I don't like to come off as a negative Nancy. Sometimes I just get so f@#$ing angry and then later feel really ridiculous about it.

My husband works for a retail company (that may or may not be European and you may or may not be able to get a side table for 7.99 from them). It's a great company with really great core values and the most AMAZING benefits that you will ever find, really. Thus, we put up with his shitty hours. This company is the whole reason that we even live in Charlotte.

My rant is that there is no consistency, routine, pattern or even transparency when it comes to my husbands working hours. Since he's salary there is no limit to how many hours he can work. I try so hard, I really do, to be a patient, level headed wifey who smiles and nods with constant approval. 8 hours go by and, whatever, he rarely works just 8. Then 9, then 10... and then the blood starts boiling. Especially now that I have my own job I'm trying to work into our "routine".

I try to calm myself because I know that my anger will only stress him out and he doesn't deserve that. He's just working his ass off to support our family. A girl can only be so lucky as to have a guy who is so driven and determined. But I just keep thinking about "when the f&%# is going to be home?". I have shit that I would like to accomplish today too! And the kids are driving me up the f&#%ing wall! I start getting resentful, and hating all of his superiors. I moved here with this company and feel as though I am just as much a part of it as any of the people actually working there, but nobody ever asked me how I felt about 15 hour work days or overnights, or 14 GD kitchen events in a year. Everything that happens there bleeds over into my personal life.

After I have my big blow up and all my frustrations are unleashed onto my husband like a blood hound on an escapee, I end up feeling like a real shit head. Seriously, had I written this post 4 hours ago, it would have had 6x as many f&%#s in it as it does now. After he got home, I headed toward uptown intending to run the "pick your distance" meet up, but I wasn't going to make in time (I didn't feel like running anyway) so I just drove around to clear my head. Days like these make me feel like a terrible mother ( I was so short with kids), a lousy territory manager (I accomplished very little for work today), and bitch instead of a wife (I think that one speaks for itself).

Tomorrow will be a better day. I'll make sure of it.

Thank you sir, may I have another

The Reedy Creek Trail run whipped my ass and made me it's bitch yesterday.

You have an option. You can do the 5.74 mile loop or the 3 mile loop. I decided, since I somewhat regularly run 5 or more miles, that I would hang with the big dogs and do the 5.74. There's this other older dude who does the long route. He doesn't even look like he's in that great of shape. But, holy shit, if he didn't take off and leave me in the dust straight out of the gate! I still thought there was no way he could maintain that pace. I thought I would end up passing him shortly and thinking "poor rookie. You didn't know any better".

Well, who's the jackass? I'm the jackass. That older guy doesn't do the entire 5.74, but he does do about an even 5 (there are so many trails you can really make any distance that you want) and he most certainly finished before I did. I decided about half way through that there was no way I was going to do the entire long loop and still get out of there before the park closed, so I cut over to pick up the 3 mile loop. I ended up getting a little lost and ending with somewhere around a 4 mile total, but still coming in WAY after the people who ran nearly 6 miles! Did I also mention that I tripped over a root and busted? The big dogs passed by me just as I was finishing. They were on their way out to do another 5.74!

I'm sore today.

Shoud I short Tin?

This is a pretty big day for me and I thought I should share with all of you, my adoring fans.

I have had my first official google search hit for my blog. It was only one person, and I'm sure that they landed on my page not knowing what the hell it was. I'm also certain that they immediately hit the back arrow so that they could continue to search for the answer to a question that is on everybody's mind... "should i short tin?"

Well, should you?

My Business Plan

Last week my bosses told me that they wanted me to put together a business plan. They gave me ideas and expectations and now it is up to me to lay out my plan for success. Since I relate everything in life to running, I immediately equated this to a training plan. I need a finish line and a way to get there.

When talking to my, sort of, mentor we discussed the tweeking and fine tuning that this business plan would require. My position is new, uncharted territory for the company so my plan of action will probably change over time.

I think my marathon training over the last two years has also been going through a lot tweeking. I'll say it's changed quite a bit since my last marathon where I, uh, well, maybe didn't train at all. I started off pretty well this time, but then there was that 2 month stint in Texas where I didn't do much of anything except eat shitty food that went straight to my mom gut. For my first marathon I used the Run/Walk plan from Marathoning For Mortals, and being that it was my first time, it worked really well. But now I want a little more out of training. I want to be a little faster. Just like with my work business plan, right now I want to sell stuff. Later, I will want to sell a little more.

My latest training tweek came from this months issue of Runners World. I could find it and give you more info, if I felt at all like getting up from this recliner... but I don't. This chick (I think) talks about putting more miles by basically doing two-a-days. Just like the boys in high school football. For instance, you currently run 5 miles every evening. Just add two miles to your day first thing in the morning. Then you get a daily total of 7 without killing yourself all at once. Since my speed has been sucking lately, I'm going to start waking up for an early 2 mile run. Hopefully I can increase my mileage and my speed. And if it doesn't work, well, I guess I'll have to do some more tweeking.

The Yard from Hell

I spent an hour and a half mowing my 45 degree angle lawn and then another half hour trimming the prickly hedge next to my car. I consider it a workout.

So, now I sit at a table, in a freshly mowed and cleared lawn, on an 85 degree night.

Just waiting for the weekend

I haven't done much except for a little bit of work today. I'm not sure if I should run, because I don't know if I'll be doing my long run tomorrow or Sunday.

Last nights Rolling P-Stone run was so much better than last week. I made sure to take it easy and pace myself so the hills didn't burn me at the end. I ran it in Vibrams this time too. The ball of my foot is a little bit bruised from landing in the crack of a sidewalk so Vibram runs will be limited for a while.

I stayed for two beers after the run this week instead of just one. I had a tall PBR and after I had finished it the conversation was flowing so well that I just had to stay for a second beer. This time I chose a Sweetwater Blue draft. This could be my new favorite beer. It was really smooth with a hint of blueberry, but not too sweet. Thank goodness they were out of Yuengling or I may never have tried it.

My Private Jet

Today was a most excellent day. It started out with me in a panic because I couldn't find my camera, and I thought I was behind, and the kids were both breaking down into fits! My bosses were coming to visit, to train, and check up on me out here. I was really nervous about the whole thing. I thought surely they were going to tell me that I haven't done jack shit since I got here, strip me of my star floors gel pens, and send me on my unemployed way.

That was not the case at all. We visited an amazing installer that yours truly was responsible for finding, and then I received some really great tips, objectives, and strategies that will help me grow the business.

Then the best part came! I got to get my picture taken with the private jet! The only reason I got to go near the plane was so they could give me some ginormo magnets with the company logo to put on my car (yuck) and some more goodies like tiny flashlights and calculators to hand out to customers (that my kids will find, play with, and I will be digging out from behind the sofa). Since I was already standing next to a cool private plane, I awkwardly asked my boss to take a pic with his iphone and email it to me (and make sure to copy C25Karen). He's not much of a tech guru so it took him some time to figure out the camera. I had to hold my pose for, I swear, more than an entire minute before he snapped the picture. I just stood there, one elbow on the wing, with my thumbs in the air for 45 min to an hour.

Can you tell I see TONS of private planes, like, all the time?

After I unboard my jet, I'll be off to the Rolling P-Stone for my Thursday meet up! A great way to end the day!

Where I've been Wednesday

A few months ago I took an involuntary blogging leave of absence. My husband and I thought there for a while that we wanted/needed to be back in Texas with family and familiar faces. I decided to go back first, get my self a job, and try to build up our savings. All at once it became apparent that my husband wouldn't be able to get a transfer back to Dallas and, really, home didn't feel quite like home anymore. I was so busy all the time and I felt as if I spent 80% of my day behind the wheel of my car. And building up our savings? Nope. After daycare and gas there just wasn't that much left. I won't say that the experience was a waste. It showed me that I should have making better use of time here in Charlotte rather than daydreaming about all the fun things that I could be doing back "home". I have come back to the Carolina's with a new desire to get out there and do all I can while I'm here now. I'm sure that some day I will return to the great nation of Texas, but I'm in no hurry.

Since I didn't blog hardly at all while I was in Texas, and since I don't have anything new and amazing to talk about today, I'll use this Wednesday to give a recap of those two months. These are all the pics of all the stuff that I did that went undeleted. They are in no particular order here.

I resided in a cabin, "the chateau", beside my dads house. One room with two beds, a bathroom, and a mini fridge. I consider myself a minimalist so I didn't mind the small space. I would have like a kitchen though.

Inside may have been cramped but my dad's place is full of wide open space.

Easter was celebrated

There were a shit ton of storms. It was recockulous!

Brad came down for a visit and picked some strawberries.

I didn't have internet in the chateau, so I would go outside, pull up all my favorite blog pages, and then lay in bed reading them. Of course that was only after sitting outside to catch up on Glee, The Parenthood, and The Office on Hulu. Look at all those tabs I have up!

My first weekend in Texas, before my husband went back to Charlotte, we went fishing. We were all so proud of miss Hollywood for not only touching a fish (gasp!) but removing the hook all on her own (doube gasp!). Accent: Check! Small town roots: Check! Handled live fish: Check! Congrats Angie, you are almost a full fledged redneck!

I made sure to visit the grand folk.

They live on, the always beautiful, lake Texoma. Giant Styrofoam on the "beach", trailers in the backdrop... this place holds fond memories for me.

I did a tiny bit of running in the awful Texas heat.

C25Karen and I took our monkeys to the zoo. Anytime you tell some "I'm thinking about going to the zoo", they'll say "Oh, don't go the Dallas zoo. It sucks. Go to the Fort Worth zoo". Well, we decided to give the poor little Dallas zoo a shot and we thought it was fantastic.

That was a fun trip down memory lane. I need to wake up my husband now so he can watch the kids and I can get in 4 miles.

Technical difficulty Tuesday

What is up with electronics today?!

Today I reconnected my vintage (that makes me trendy) blackberry because my antique Samsung stopped working. Actually it worked great right up until I would dial someone and then it would say "no signal"! You might think, "whoa, cool, now you have a smart phone", but I beg to differ.
**Side note: as I type this, a big red bar flashed across the top of the screen saying "error". Really?!**
Although I do enjoy all the perks that a smartphone has to offer, I DO NOT enjoy the bill that comes with it at the end of the month. So this was tech problem #1.

#2 and 3 weren't even happening directly to me. I guess there were some storms in Dallas last night (boo hoo) and some power was knocked out (whaaa). So my home office had no phones and no server all day today. I couldn't access any of my work email and I couldn't call anyone at the office.

It only makes sense that all of this would be going on today. Today was my very first customer appointment! I saved all of my customers contact info on my outlook calendar (outlook web access to be exact) and didn't write any of that information down on actual paper. Who needs paper, right? Ugh! Luckily C25Karen came to my rescue (again). She gets copies of all my inbound emails (something weird my boss set up a long time ago. She hates it, but I don't mind at all). She at least had access to all of my past emails and got the info for me. Thanks Karen!

Tech fail #4 was my camera. The appointment was going well. I went over the samples, took a good look at the original wood, and then measured and doodled a bit. Then I started to take pictures of the area and a mere two pictures in my camera broke! Now the customer has to email the pictures of their kitchen. So embarrassing... and when will I check that email?! The server is still down!

Other than those things, my day wasn't half bad. Hopefully I can get a good run in this evening. I have so much to think about. When it rains it pours. I went from trying really hard to find something to do for work, to being crazy busy in one day.

Meet Up #2 Trail run FUN!

I decided to do this meet up at the last minute, but I'm so glad that I went. Every Monday night there is a Charlotte Runners meet up at Reedy Creek Park. You have an option to run 3 or 5 miles depending on which route you take... and then you can do it again! That means that you could run up to 10 miles.

I had to run a last minute errand for work and then I got a little lost so I was about 10 minutes late for the meet up. I thought about heading home, but decided to just park and check out the trail on my own, and maybe I would end up running into the group. I passed a couple of people that I thought might be part of the group but I didn't ask. I ran aimlessly for at least a half hour until I cam to a dead end. Just then, some shirtless dude went running by and he seemed to know where he was going so I fallowed him. He had to exit the trail system at some point, right? I stayed just a bit behind him but turned down every path that he did. At one point I saw him turn back to see who's footsteps he was hearing. We came out of the trail and I started walking and trying to figure out where I was. I think he got a drink from a water fountain so I caught up to him. I took that opportunity to apologize for being creepy and asked if he was part of the group. He told which way to go for the 3 mile route and then he continued on the 5 mile path. When I got back to my car the whole group was there. As it turns out I parked in the correct location. Half of the group went back out for round two while the rest of stayed and chatted.

The park and trail were pretty cool. Lots of people were out playing disc golf. A bad ass course too. As I ran the trail, I kept thinking, what the hell are these cement pads I keep running across? Well, that's where "t- off" at the disc golf "hole". I really don't know anything about disc golf. Then there were people playing cricket. I've never seen a live cricket game.

Anywho, I can't wait until next week. I now have 2 regular meet up groups!

I leave you now with a picture of me wearing makeup since I pretty much look like shit in everything that I post. I had to put on makeup because I did some actual work today that required me to be visible to other humans.

10 Puckett miles

Happy Father's day folks! Last night my husband and I stashed the kids in a secure location and went out for drinks.

We went to Puckett's Farm Equipment just down the street from our house. It's an old farm equipment store turned bar. It's been around since 1933. But when did it turn into a bar, you ask? 1933! I don't know when the farm equipment business began. This is a little bit of their history according to their website.

Puckett’s Farm Equipment was once just that. A farm equipment dealer. Once Charlotte started impeding on the small community of Derita, many farmers found their livelihood and their land disappearing. As time went on, the farmers started visiting Puckett’s to share a beer and their sorrows. Eventually Ralph Puckett, the grandfather of current owner Gary Puckett, found that he was selling more beer than tractors. Thus, Puckett’s Farm Equipment the local bar was born. In the years following the family developed one of the best local bars Charlotte has ever known. Add in live music, a hometown friendly atmosphere and cheap beer and you have what Creative Loafing Charlotte readers voted as the Best Live Music Venue. Puckett’s owner Gary Puckett says, It’s what we’re about. Puckett’s began in the time when this music was born.”

There was a live band last night playing some good ole country music that you won't be hearing on CMT anytime soon. They do bluegrass music every second and third Wednesday of each month which I am really looking forward to. Here is a sampling of the band from last night. I think I found a new favorite bar. Not that I've been to enough bars lately to have many options.



After we left the bar and picked up the kids (I was DD) Brad had me go through McDonalds and that infuriated me. I HATE DD drive through after 2 am. It takes too much time and the french fries were going to ruin my new car smell! We didn't get back home until 3am.

Fast forward a mere 5 hours and I was out on the pavement for a 10 mile long run. It was incredibly slow, but I felt really great the whole time. The morning temps were the biggest factor to my comfort, but I also think that nuun helped. It didn't make me feel water logged like Gatorade sometimes does. I won't say that it was better than GU. Maybe about the same as GU. Some strong winds blew through the other day and there were limbs down all over the greenway. One tree split in half and was laying across the path so people had to climb through the branches to get across. I kind of liked it. It makes things different for at least a few days. I'm sure it will cleaned up and gone by next week.

A fun night out and then a SLOW but good run in the morning. I was shocked by my own enthusiasm today. I usually have to fight with myself to run after getting a full 8 hours on regular nights.

Does it count?

Does dragging your kids all over town all morning count as a workout? Because it sure felt like one. First we went to breakfast at a little place down the road. I thought that filling them up might make them a little calmer. Wrong. Next we went to Ulta so I cold finally get some more medium beige Bare Minerals foundation. I've been out for months now. I really hate dropping $25 on one little jar of shit, but it lasts me at least a year every time. My kids were totally embarrassing in the store. Ulta is the worst place ever for small children. Tiny, colorful things all over the place for them to grab. I finally paid and got the hell out of there with one kid on my hip screaming. We then headed over to Dicks so I could get a new fuel belt. I have a Nike one from my first marathon training but I lost a lot of weight after that marathon and now that belt is too big.

I ended up going with this

It can hold a variety of water bottles, so I don't have to freak out if I lose one. Then as I was perusing the aisles I found these and thought of Angie and Randee. They said that they can never find anything in red. I don't know if this counts since it has some sort of gray pattern over it.

After purchasing my fuel belt we went to Bass Pro in hopes of finding a fathers day present. I HATE shopping for my husband (because it's not shopping for myself). He almost always tells me exactly what he wants, which I don't like at all. I want to get him a fun surprise gift, not a here's what you asked for, I'm just a human gift card, kind of gift. The food saver he said he wanted was like $100! So I walked all around and all I could come up with was the this coozie.

I suck.

Guess Who Got Pooped On... Again...

I really can't say how many times that my children have shit on me. Literally. When my daughter was only 2 months old, at our very first 4th of July celebration, she let out an explosive shit that broke down every barrier in her Loves diaper and ended up all over my white capri pants. This picture also displays a fair portion of the 60lbs that I gained in my first pregnancy.

But do you think that having shit all over my only pair of pants was going to keep me from enjoying some fun with smoke bombs and sparklers? Uh, no. I just kept on keep'n on, cuz that's way more fun.

You may have seen this look on all the news stands in '07. After I introduced it, it was all the rage. It's the "receiving burp skirt".

Today's shit storm didn't bring on any new fashion trends and I didn't get any pictures, but it was far more pungent. It looked like guacamole.

Hope you're going out for Mexican tonight!

Shit talley: 5

P Stone Running Meet Up = AWESOME!

I had such a great time tonight! I met up with the Charlotte Runners club this evening and it was fantastic. It totally rejuvenated my love of running. I didn't even have that great of a run. It was 4 1/2 miles and I did it 49 minutes. I started off way too fast. I was trying really hard not to be creepy, but I couldn't wipe the giant grin off my face. There were a lot of runners there. At least as many runners as attended the last 5k that I was part of.

Prior to leaving the house, I put on makeup (Talia says I should!). I wanted to make a good impression! But before I could put on makeup I had to take of a stupid zit that I picked at on my forehead. Ugh! Why am I a disgusting picker?! It really is aweful, I just can't keep my hands off of my stupid face. My husband yells at me all the time. I suck at self portraits and that is a bottle pf peroxide.


At the beginning they introduce the newbies to the club (yours truly and a few others) and then they do a couple of drawings for free beer and gear. Today was a cool wicking hat. Then they explain the course and the markings that they have put down on the street. Every week a "sweeper" is delegated to make sure there are no runners left behind.

I was toward the back of he pack. There were some really fast people there. It was cool that everyone was gathered at the finish spot to clap and cheer on even the last person. We then headed over to the Philosophers Stone, the pub that is the center of the entire event. The runners club have the entire back patio to themselves plus beer specials that are just for us. I had a $2 24oz miller.

And I made a friend! Her name is Jenny and she has a 5 yr old daughter and she ran a little faster than me but that's ok and we talked over beer after the run and she's coming back next week and so am I! Do I sound like my 4 yr old on her first day of preschool? I can't help it. It was awesome and I can't wait until next week!

I didn't take any pictures, because remember, I was trying to not be creepy. But here's me being excited and sweaty (with a lazy left eye apparently) after the run. Photograph by Braden Taylor age 2 (He's starting his own facebook photography page)

I'm So Excited!

I'm so excited that I have to put up another quick post for the day. I googled "Charlotte Running Meet Ups" and found a quite a few. The biggest one does a meet up every Thursday at a local pub... and it's FREE to join!!! I already signed up and RSVP'd for tomorrow nights run, a 4.5 mile loop around uptown. They have runs almost every day of the week so although I'll still be doing the majority of my runs solo, there is a lot of opportunity to team up with the group.

Yeah! Friends!

Where I've Been Wendnesday is back!!!!

Last weekend we went on a family camping trip to Black Mountain campground at the bottom of Mt Mitchell.

We got there at around 3:30 on Friday and quickly set up camp. I don't think we've used that old tent in a little under 2 years.

We got a site that was right on the river but you didn't have direct access to it because of a drop off and a fence bordering that drop off. That was fine by us. It just meant that we didn't have to stress out about the kids wandering into the water.

I did do a little bit of trail running while out in the woods. It was only a half mile, but it covered some rough wooded terrain. There were large boulders, a couple of old wooden bridges and lots of steep inclines and declines. Just being at the campground, you were already pretty deep into the wilderness. No phone reception and rules that you had to fallow to ensure bears wouldn't walk into your camp. So out on that trail, I started to get a tiny bit of anxiety. I'm so lame. My biggest fear was stepping on a copper head. The path was covered in leaves and I could see little burrows in those leaves. Gives me the shivers right now just thinking about it. So every time I cam to really leafy part of the path, I would count to three and then take off as fast as I could. This method caused me to almost roll my ankle once.

On the morning of day 2 we took the kids down to the river for a little class, seminar, presentation or whatever you should call it, about wildlife, bugs and bears. It was mostly for the kids, but I found it to be very informative.
First he told us about the different tiers of creatures that live in the water. The top tier that he talked most about were creatures that are the first to be affected by pollution. So if you find those bugs and things in the water than it is good and clean. Then he had all the kids (and the grownup too!) go out into the stream and find all the things like stick bugs and craw fish that are a part of the top tier.

We also spotted a really large water snake sunning itself on a rock just down stream from where we were all turning over rocks. Fun fact though, that is the only water snake in that portion of the carolinas and although it will bite, it is non venomous. And, the second that it hears you it will take off. So that was nice to know. He also educated us on bears. Good to know that black bears do not want to eat me. Black bears only want my chips and beer. If I see baby black bears, I should get away!

After our wildlife education, the kids did a little of this...
And then I did a little bit of this...

While Brad attempted this...
The temps were great. In the 70's at night and mid to high 80's when the sun was out during the day. It did rain for most of day 2 and all of night 2. This led us to the realization that we need a new tent. Ours leaked through the windows and got some of our stuff wet. Wet stuff is miserable when tent camping. But all in all it was a fun trip. The next time I go there, I want to hike to the top of Mt Mitchell and camp for a night. It's a 6 mile hike that takes at least half a day, and when you reach the top, you are at the highest peak in the Appalachian mountain range... at least that's what we were told. I can't wait to go camping again!