Keeping Things Simple

After two years of owning an iPod Touch, I finally figured out how to put apps on it.
I don't think it's entirely my fault. I had to pay for a software upgrade in order to make it possible. Every time I plugged it in to sync to my computer it would ask if I wanted to pay for an upgrade (there had been some free upgrades that I always said yes to) and I didn't really look at it before saying "remind me later" or something.

The point is, I have the following apps:

Scriptures
and
LDS Study Aids

I paid $15 for the Scriptures app. It has all the standard works, includes the Bible Dictionary and Topical Guide, shows cross-references for scriptures, allows you to highlight, make notes, etc. It's pretty amazing.

LDS Study Aids I got for free. It's the material that is being used in Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society. I have the Old Testament manual for Sunday School, and then the whole Gospel Principles book right there.

What I love about all of this is that now the only thing I have to carry to church is my purse - as long as my iPod is in it.

Realizing that I pack super-light for church now made me decide to walk to church today. It's almost 2.5 miles away, most of that is going uphill, but my hands will be unencumbered. It's been a while since I've walked to church (not since I stopped meeting around the corner from my house) and it's not too cold out there, so this will be nice. Hopefully it doesn't snow - but if it does, I can always beg a ride home. (:

This Morning-

-I woke up with this song in my head:
(specifically the part that begins around 1:34)

Determined to listen to it in the car on my ipod, I was extremely disappointed to see that somehow after having to redo my playlists, it didn't make it back on.

I made do with this one:

:which I also love, so it turned out okay.
(perhaps I should take it as a good sign that I belted out the song while alone in the car)

And don't worry, I've had my fix of the other song now.

I'm good.

I Really Like This Song-

It Worries Me-

-that they felt like this should be translated into Spanish...

I saw this a long time ago. I came across it today and had to share:

Friday's Phone Calls (or lack of)*

* this is not referencing Johnny,
in case you were wondering.

Friday morning I woke up at 3:20 (after falling asleep at 2 - don't ask, I can't explain), and headed up North around 4 to help answer the anticipated millions of phone calls from people wanting to donate to help the relief efforts in Haiti.

A friend and I got there a bit before 5.

Another friend joined us a little later.

Our shift was 5 - 9 am.

The phones rang twice in two hours.

We ended up leaving at 7.

On the way home I started laughing somewhat hysterically (I blame it on exhaustion) and finally managed to communicate to my friend the reason for my laughter - "We woke up at 3:30 to sit in a room for two hours."

I went home and slept for another hour and a half (doubling my sleeping time).

I was going to go back for a shift from 5 - 7 pm.

They told me to call in first to see if I was needed.

Turns out I wasn't.

Sad day.

I just found out that the Red Cross did raise about 9,100 on
Friday. So it wasn't a complete waste of a day for them.

Sixty to Zero in Twenty-Five Hours

In the last couple months or so I've had a few interactions with a guy that I've become interested in (the interest didn't all happen in the last few months, because I've known him for a while, it's just developed a little bit more). We'll call him Johnny. I asked Johnny out (which I absolutely hate, hate, hate to do, but it doesn't mean I never do it - unfortunately), we went out, had a lot of fun but there wasn't any follow-up from either of us and I didn't see him until this past week. This last time I saw Johnny wasn't in a date setting, but we talked quite a bit and things seemed to be going well. After parting ways, a friend who had been with me said that she was pretty sure he was interested in me (based on a few observations, and the situation itself - which I don't want to go into detail about). At the advice of a couple friends (one of them male, who I asked advice from), I texted Johnny to kind of follow-up with things and encourage him a bit.

That was at 4:30 pm.

Yesterday.

Nothing back.

Zero.

Zilch.

Nada.

And it's not like it was a text that may or may not have been needing a response. I asked him a question for goodness sake.

However, I'm sure that it was just coincidental that while listening to music on a walk I sang more energetically to this song -




- than to this one -



ps - I'm loving the boots on the guitarist and the blond

Purely coincidental.

ps - I've given up on Johnny.

Help the Red Cross Help Haiti

I got this email from the Red Cross yesterday -

I signed up - for the 5 - 9 am shift (not looking forward to the early morning hours - I haven't seen that side of 5 am for a long time {unless it's been when I haven't been able to fall asleep} -, but it's the shift they're having the hardest time filling). I just wanted to send the word out so if anyone else can sign up, please do!

It probably took me a little too long to decide I was going to do it, but when I thought of my dad in Haiti... well... the decision became easy.

Happy weekend eve everybody!
(it'll be a super-early night for me!)

Wednesday's Goodness

So... earlier today I thought about a few things that I would blog about today. Now, at 11:10 pm, I can't remember. It was a good day though, so yay for that! (:

Tuesday's Goodness

private dance parties in my bedroom!

- created a "dance party" song list
- randomized the "dance party" song list
- busted a move
- without witnesses.
(except the dingo, but he's not willing to talk)

so fun.

while dancing, some different scenes went through my head.
for your viewing pleasure:

(please ignore the Spanish voice-over)

Disaster Relief

Last week we found out that my dad was going to go to Haiti to help in the disaster relief efforts. When he's done things like this before (hurricane Katrina, 9-11, Columbine, Indonesia, etc) it's been in a debriefing capacity. He'll help the volunteers deal with things that they are exposed to - since witnessing and working in the midst of all that devastation is naturally mentally draining. Based on the work gloves and work shirts he asked my sister to pack (he was on vacation with my mom and brother visiting my two oldest siblings when he got called away and had to fly out of CA on Sunday), it sounds like he'll be doing some of the physical work as well.

As my sister said, "I'll be following the situation in Haiti even more closely now. And be praying more fervently."

Monday's Goodness

Today I am grateful to my professor who last week told us to take today off. It was a nice break.

I'm also grateful that I had a chance to go through so many old pictures. Sweet memories! I'll post some of them soon.

ps

- I'm also trying to come up with a new blog title.

I'm open to suggestions.

This Week -

- I'm going to try to post about something good that happens each day.

I just wanted to put this up first so it's not just something in my head that ends up never happening. (:

Grrr...

I'm still awake.

Maybe I Should Rethink This...

Look here.

Maybe I should rethink it.
But I won't.

I'm Glad That I Know (and Meet) People Who Are Smarter Than I Am

I went to the Salt Lake Running Company today. One of the first things I told Scott (the worker) was that I'm a stupid runner. I like running, but I don't really know the best way to do it without injuring myself and just having an overall better experience.

That's where Scott comes in. I talked to him for about an hour and a half about shoes, clothes, gels, water belts, and Dingo (yes, Dingo did come up in the conversation). What prompted my visit was my five-mile training run this morning. My feet had some funny aches on my way back home so before I even took my shoes off, I went to the store to talk to them about it. Best guess as to what caused the pain - I was running unfamiliar terrain. But we talked about a lot of other things too.

It's time to retire my running outfit. Or at least parts of it. I'm wearing 7-year old pants (purchased prior to my mission and used for running on my mission) and three of the four zippers are broken, a 9 1/2-year old cotton t-shirt that's started ripping on one of the sleeve seams, and an old sweatshirt that's been shrunk in the dryer (the arms are still long enough, so it works). As accessories in the winter I also have pink, green, yellow, and purple striped gloves that were a Christmas present some years ago (thanks Tara!) and a purple and (I think creamish) knit beanie that Faith made and gave to me (thanks Faith! ... although, I've misplaced the hat as of late... sorry Faith!). I may post a picture of the whole ensemble sometime. Maybe.

So that was another reason for the trip to the running store. We talked a lot about clothes and I have some good ideas about what I might try. I'm really reluctant to retire my outfit though because I know it works. I know it's comfortable. There's no rubbing, chaffing, or anything else going on that makes the run more painful than it should be. However logic tells me... it's time to try something new. The sooner the better so I have time to find something that I won't hate running 26.2 miles in.

Another reason I'm really glad I went to the store and talked to Scott is because of what he mentioned regarding my current marathon training. I told him how a part of my "running stupid" is deciding to sign up for a marathon and not train properly for it. I told him I was supposed to run 17 miles and I really wasn't ready for it. He suggested that if I got up to only 18 before the marathon that that should be plenty far and would help me slow things down and prevent injury. We had talked about Jeff Galloway and his run/walk thing and how his training schedule gets you up to 26 before the marathon. I told him that I really liked it because then it gets the mental block out of the way and you feel ready about race day. But then I realized that my mental block should already be gone because I've already run this far. With that in mind, he suggested bumping the training back so the the 26 miles I'm supposed to run before the marathon lands on the day of the marathon. I hope you followed that. So, that's what I'm going to do. I bumped back the training, so rather than this, my life now looks like this:

(it also means that today I ran one mile longer than I needed to)
the only difference is the date of the run. but it means that next week I only have to run 12 miles instead of 17!

much better. (:

2009 Recap

not comprehensive (or in order of occurrence or mportance) because my memory's not that good and I don't feel like going over blog posts right now
(not to mention the fact that I've yet to blog about some of these)

1 - I ran my first marathon
2 - I applied to, got accepted into, and began grad school
3 - I attended my first rodeo
4 - I attended my first celtic festival
5 - I witnessed caber tossing first hand (see above)
6 - I registered for my second marathon
7 - I became an aunt for the 15th and 16th time
8 - I found out I would be an aunt to a 17th & 18th by this coming April
9 - a photo I took got chosen to publish in a magazine
10 - I took Dingo through his first 5k
11 - I lost 20+ lbs (and kept it off!)
12 - I got Red Cross certified to teach courses on HIV/AIDS
13 - I watched Donny win Dancing with the Stars
14 - I met Tom McGowan in person
15 - I saw Wicked
16 - I got a behind the scenes tour of the Wicked stage
17 - I won two sets of tickets on the radio
- Beatlemania
- Air Supply
18 - I saw REO Speedwagon (and others)
19 - I ran my second mud run
20 - I took an impromptu road trip to Evanston, WY

I'm excited to find out what 2010 has to offer!
I may try to make this my theme song for the year...

Scuba Diving & Public Health

The other day in one of my classes we watched a video talking about damage that's being done to coral reefs.

A lot of the video took place underwater (naturally) and showed people scuba diving.

It made me start to wonder if there was a career in public health that would require me to scuba dive*.

It made me want to go into that career.

Let's see what a career like that might look like, shall we?

this thing looks like it should be opening up it's mouth to talk to you

yeah.
I think I'd like a job like that.

*thanks to my parents, I'm already certified to dive up to... I think 90 feet.

Billy Mills

Nope, not some guy I'm dating.

Billy Mills won the '64 10,000 meter (6.21 mile) run in the Olympics. The first Native American to do so. He was virtually an unknown when it happened.

Check this out:

he's the one in the dark jersey, #722

I love hearing the guy yelling "Look at Mills! Look at Mills!" I think that perfectly shows the excitement and unexpectedness.

I heard about Mills from one of my teachers who was personally able to meet him and have a private conversation with Mills for about an hour. During the hour, Mills basically just told him story after story.

He told about a time when he was in Barcelona (I think for the Olympics again - maybe just to watch? I don't know.) with some of his family and they overheard drunk reporters talking. The conversation went something like this -

Reporter 1 - What's the name of that Indian guy that one that race? The really fast one.
Reporter 2 - Oh, that drunken Indian? I don't know. I don't know his name.
Reporter 1 - Do you know whatever happened to him?
Reporter 2 - Oh, drunken Indian, I think he 's dead. Went back to the Reservation. Died out there. Drunken Indian.

Mills' daughter to Mills - Dad, go over there and tell them who you are.

After hearing the conversation go on a little bit longer, Mills finally went over there.

Mills to the reporters - Are you talking about Billy Mills?
Reporter ? - Mills! Yeah, that's the name of that drunken Indian.
Mills - I happen to know he's still alive, and he's not a drunken Indian.
Reporter ? - Oh yeah, how do you know?
Mills - Because I'm Billy Mills.

Mills told my teacher that after the exchange, he went into the hallway and cried. Upset after everything he's done, to be thought of as a drunken Indian.

Mills was orphaned at 12. He joined the Marines and was a marine when he participated in the '64 Olympics. He's started his own business. ... not some drunken Indian.

more about the race
more about Mills

Dear Santa...

This Summer -

any questions?

Q & A

Q: what do you get when you workout on the elliptical for 2.5 hours and finish it up with 30 min. on a stationary bike?

A: tired.
very, very tired.

Allow me to explain myself:
I was supposed to do a 14-mile run today.
I didn't think my knee would be able to handle it.
My last 14-mile run took me about three hours to complete.

You do the math.
I'm going to sleep.

On The Road Again

I'm trying to get myself motivated to get ready and get into the car.

I like driving, so that isn't the problem.

I just don't want to leave, and I'm not ready to go back to school.

Not just yet.

Though I have been missing my school friends...

But, the later I leave, the later I get there.

I just hope I don't have to drive through any nasty snowstorms on my way.


oh yeah - Happy New Year!