Vacation Day #1

Last night around 11:00pm I booked my trip to Alabama. Around 1:00am I finally went to bed. And at 5:45am I got up and finished packing. My flight itinerary was a mess: Columbus to Cleveland, Cleveland to Philly, Philly to Charlotte, Charlotte to Pensacola. My first flight left at 9:55am. Because Dave had to get to work, he dropped me at the airport around 7:45am. I used the kiosk to try to check myself in but only got to pay for my bag and then it said I needed assistance. Two women came over to help me. One was putting on my tag while the other one said, "ugh, yuck. Your itinerary is awful." No crap! She said they needed my seat to Cleveland so she rerouted me from Columbus to Houston, Houston to Pensacola, and I would get in two hours earlier. And it didn't cost me anymore. Sold! She gave me a fake boarding pass and told me I needed to go because the flight left at 8:30 and it was now 8:00. I got through security, which kinda surprised me since I had a one-way ticket that I had purchased less than 12 hours ago, and made it down to the gate while trying to call Dave and my mom. As I arrived at the gate they were calling my name. I was given a real boarding pass and I was on the plane.

The rest of the trip was pretty adventure-less. It's HOT down here with a huge side-scoop of humidity. I had to go over two big bridges which my dad laughed the whole way and made fun of me. The teasing doesn't end no matter how old you get. Tomorrow will be a full helping of beach and hopefully I'll have some pictures to share.

And Coach, I found a track. :)

I'm Leaving!!!

Originally, I was supposed to be in Chicago this week but that fell through. My parents are vacationing on a beach in Alabama and after talking to mom today she wondered why I didn't come with them (we have NO photo booth events this week). Well, I hit the internet and tomorrow I leave on a jet plane and will land in Alabama (actually Florida) later in the day. That's right, I'm going on vacation!

Seven Traits

The Unathletic Runner tagged me to reveal 7 traits about myself. Let's see how this goes...

1. I'm highly competitive. Well, duh! Our house consisted of how fast you could do things like putting your napkin on your lap. Seriously. Being competitive has helped me on a lot of things but it's also hurt me as I've lost a lot of friends because I don't know how to NOT be competitive with them and has also made me highly suspicious of people.

2. I'm opinionated. That's an understatement. You might say I have an opinion about everything. My mom thinks I'm too opinionated which is funny because she also has an opinion about everything. She's just learned to keep her mouth shut but still shows it all over her face. Me too.

3. I am very self-critical. Nothing I do is ever good enough for myself. Believe it or not, I do not have a single photograph I have taken displayed in my house.

4. I have a counting obsession. This is probably a ritual from obsessive-compulsive disorder. :) I count when I run. I count when I wash my face. I count when I brush my teeth. I count different items. This probably isn't a good trait.

5. Surprisingly, I would consider myself an introvert. I DREAD social situations, even with people I've known for years. I've steadily gotten better since my teenage years, but it's more about getting comfortable with my shyness than actually coming out of my shell.

6. You might say I have an anger management problem. :) When I'm angry, it's full-out rage. Poor Dave.

7. I'm self-conscious. This probably all goes back to gymnastics and always having to be perfect. Damn childhood! My grandmother told me about a year ago that I had a big forehead. I immediately cut my bangs. I've been dealing with acne since I was a young teenager. I have probably spent tens of thousands of dollars on acne solutions even going so far as Accutane. Twice. I do not like to wear a two-piece swimsuit. I will NEVER walk around the house without clothes on. I always change in the closet or the bathroom.

Basically this list is all the reasons why I need psychological help. He he! No, seriously.

I'm not going to tag anyone else, but if you want to participate, please do.

Solid Run

Most of my workouts, including the long runs, have very specific instructions. Run X about of miles at X:XX pace. Run for this amount of time. Run in these zones. But today the instructions read, run 13 miles comfortably. I met the group this morning, which unfortunately, wasn't very big and I wound up running all by myself for almost the entire run. Thank goodness I brought my iPod. I have to pat myself on the back...I am really good at pacing! I started with my first mile at 9:20 and continued to descend until my last mile which was an 8:21. Overall my average pace was 8:44 and my heart rate was steady in zone 3. A solid run and a great conclusion to my three week training cycle.

Foto Friday

My sister has like a million kids (okay, only 4) and she has me photograph them ALL THE TIME! The fourth and final child was born in February and this was the first time I got to photograph her.

Welcome, baby Ashtyn! (And, my sister.)

And all the kiddos: Shelby, Jared, Carter, Ashtyn.

Thursday Thoughts

I almost forgot to blog today! So I was watching tv today and saw there was a new Dairy Queen blizzard that involves Girl Scout Tagalong cookies--my favorite type of Girl Scout cookies. I HAVE to try this blizzard.

What is your favorite DQ Blizzard?

A Car Accident and a Dog with an Erection

I knew at the start of the summer that since I would not be working I was going to need to find things to keep me occupied. My thoughts were to going on photo safaris every week to get outside the house and to work on my photography. Sure, I'm more than a month into my summer hiatus, but this week was my first photo safari.

I left the house with my polaroid camera with 9 pictures left in it and went down to the Short North/Campus area. I should have known right from the start of my walk that things were going to go badly. I parked at Goodale and the first person I see happens to be someone I kinda know. But, this person has always rubbed me the wrong way and I didn't really want him to see me. So I walked three blocks out of my way to get to the North Market. Once at the North Market I couldn't figure out what I wanted and the stench of an open-air market made me a little nauseous so I left without eating. Then I started walking down High Street into the Short North looking for interesting things. You know what I saw? NOTHING! The only things I saw that were interesting was a car accident and a dog with an erection. After walking from the North Market to 12th Avenue in the campus area I took only FOUR pictures. And they weren't even that good. So bad, in fact, I'm not even going to post them. I walked for two hours, had awful pizza for lunch, sweated my ass off in my jeans, and took four freakin' pictures. FAIL!

Any ideas for better photo safaris?