Going...

Brown? Since I live in the desert I often wonder if we should call ourselves "brown" when being especially environmentally friendly. After all, if I was to truly "go green" in the desert that would imply water waste. Not good.

Blue? This would most likely apply to those living on small, barely populated islands. And really, are they able to import all of the crap that is killing the planet? Of if you're a smurf and are looking out for numero uno.

Green? Well, if that's the agreed upon phrase then I have to admit I am doing worse and worse as time goes on. Don't get me wrong. I recycle just about everything I can, and have even gone through the (top layer) of trash to make sure my brother / roommate has not thrown an aluminum can in there by mistake. What I can't figure out is why society is making it so darn easy to get less and less green? Take the Swiffer, for example. Yes, it does pick up EVERYTHING the "broom leaves behind" but then you have to throw the swiffer pad away. So I am forced to choose: leave everything behind that the broom does not pick up or destroy the planet one swiffer sheet at a time. Dilemmas!! Or then there is this new face wash stuff I'm using. It's the Aveeno face washing pads. They are convienently pre-soaked, individual face wash things that you (I) throw away after a single use. I was a non-believer at first, not totally convinced that my face would be any cleaner, but HOLY COW! It does make a difference! So again, a dilemma. Dirty face leading to all sorts of acne problems which would lead to all sorts of other problems, or fill landfills at an alarming rate?

I'm definitely not going green lately. Or brown, or blue.

I Survived!

The big race was today, and I somehow managed to survive! Actually, I'll stop being so mellow-dramatic (is that how you spell / use that phrase?). I had faith in myself all along, but I didn't expect to feel so good throughout the whole race. My time isn't as "good" as it was last year, but I did expect that... my focus has been on the New York City Marathon, not necessarily the Nathan's-Tempe Sprint Triathlon. So for me to multi-sport for a day and feel successful was more than I could have hoped for.

After a pep-talk with the bike this morning, (the girl who's bike was next mine thought I was talking to her when I said, "so we're going to have a good ride today, right?!") I felt confident that things would go smoothly. My swim was great - I managed to find some wide open spaces (isn't that a song?!) where I could get a few smooth strokes in without having to worry about getting kicked in the face. The bike was... well, the bike. I told myself to "pull it together" and rode hard. On to the run.

The run was the one place where I had my only minor mishap of the day: about three minutes into the my 5k I noticed that the braid on the right half of my head felt really loose. I reached back to see if I could tell what was happening and realized that it was completely undone! So my unexpected multi-sport of the weekend was me undoing one braid, pulling out a handful of bobbypins and praying that my tiny elastic band would hold a ponytail of some sort.

As I crossed the finish line I definitely felt like I had accomplished something for the day, and I couldn't have been happier to hear my mom, dad, and friend Lissette calling my name and cheering me through!

Parking Police

The silver BMW continues to be a menace in the parking lot. For a full week it was parked in my covered parking spot. Because I feared some sort of revenge from the silver BMW driver I never left a note and instead waited to either run into them in the parking lot and casually mention that it was, in fact, my designated spot. Or I was hoping to come home to have them gone and park there, hopefully making them aware that it was someone else's spot. (This is all so trivial, I know!)

Well as it turns out, the latter worked in my favor. Due to my ridiculously early show-times for Saturday morning running, when I returned at about 9:00 am they were gone! So I parked my car in it's rightful (shaded) spot. When I went out to my car 5 short hours later, there was the silver BMW... in the HANDICAPPED spot! I guess now I don't feel so bad - or at least I'm not taking it personally. Apparently this guy has no regard for the rules of the parking lot...

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(backwards smiley face!)

Breathe in, Breathe out. Repeat as needed.

The triathlon gods are against me. Now, with all of the possible things that I could have blogged about today (googling your birthday, the people I found out I share a birthday with because of the aforementioned googling, etc...) I find myself blogging about the triathlon gods. Why not blog about those other things, you may ask? Mostly because I've already told the three people who will truly understand my latest theory and it's still really bothering me. My bike seems to have strong feelings against me, as it has not cooperated for the past couple of weeks. It's either been my bike or the weather. Still. Hostility. Towards me. It's bad. An as I head off to what was supposed to be a rejuvinating and inspirational dinner, I find that the inspirational movie that was supposed to ... inspire... is nowhere to be found. Until September 23 (Run, Fat Boy, Run). So now, not only will I not have a bike to race on, I won't be inspired to rise above and beyond and, I don't know, perhaps ride a single speed BMX bike the entire way, overcoming all odds and showing those pesky triathlon gods who's boss! No. That won't happen because I am not to be inspired!

And just to add insult to injury, my gas light went off on my way home from school.

But really, if you google your birthday a whole list of celebrities will come up, and maybe even an areal photo of the Earth from that day. Good times.
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Day 2

On my birthday last year I made a "resolution" to write for 25 days straight, seeing as how I had just turned 25. The surprising part: I actually did it! So here I am, attempting to blog with some sort of consistency... two days in a row!

Today's thoughts during a 4:30 am, 16-mile run:
*It's finally cooling off in the desert- it was only 78 degrees at 4:15 this morning!
*I wonder: besides being up to run at that ungodly hour, where the heck are people going so early?!
*16 was the big mileage marker that I hit last time before realizing my marathon dreams of 2002 were down the shitter, yet today I conquered!
*Could I run 10.2 more miles? Hmmm... that's a good one...
*I have to start blogging more about running stuff because, quite possibly, people are getting sick of hearing about my 400-splits at Wednesday track.

I'm running sans music these days so I have a lot of time to think about things. And notice things along the canals. Like, there is this yard that has 3 goats in it and one of them is always sitting on top of this little doghouse type structure. It cracks me up, for some reason. Or, that most of the storm sewer covers along the Arizona canals were made in Mexico. Ah-hem: "hache en Mexico." (which ends up getting stuck in my head so I end up repeating "hache en Mexico" to the rhythm of my footfalls until something better presents itself.) And to think- I've been missing out on these things for years!

Seeing as how my Saturday Sleep Schedule is in full effect (5 hours last night, plus 4 hours this afternoon) I will probably pretend to clean my house for an hour or so before I am hopefully able to crash. Maybe I'll be back for an exciting day 3.
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Apparently this is my 100th Blog Post. It's probably been a year or so... and it seems like I seem to do this sort of thing in phases. We'll see how it ends up.

100th blog. I guess it's fitting, in a way, to be writing this 100th post at this point in time- this point in my life. (I'm feeling very reflective lately.) I really didn't even sign on to post something reflective. I decided to blog again because tonight as I was driving home I saw some things that made me think: Why does the stoplight by my apartment give east bound traffic a green arrow, even if no one is sitting at the light? Who decided to put a 3-way stop at San Tan Village when clearly there is traffic coming from 4 directions? Oh, and how come sometimes there is a "yield on green" left turn light, while at other intersections it is a "go only on the green arrow" type of light? I don't know who decides these things, and I wonder if there is a rational explanation behind all of it.

These are the types of things I think about, and yet I can't really tell people because they (rightly so) don't care! I have nothing super to write about, therefore my "100th Post" will just be another added to my little site. I'll try to come up with something better for number 104. Check back.

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