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A Walk in Fall Through My Neighborhood

Long Overdue...

Okay, okay, I know its been a while, and it is time for a new post, and in my defense school started, and I had a paper at the end of the summer to turn in, oh and Blake was here...so now that I am out of excuses heres whats been going on since August.

Oh the end of the summer, it was so sad to see ya go!

But, Blake was here visiting for a week which was amazing, and we were able to visit Boston for a couple of days. It was one of those weeks that my boss was actually nice to me, so she gave me some extra days off! We stayed at a hotel fairly close to downtown Boston, and our first day we wandered around, ate food at some pub and ended up getting drunk, who knew right! ha! We went bar hopping, and instead of focusing on just drinking beer, we mixed with gin, oh, good combo! We ended up sight seeing and bar hopping at the same time, taking pictures, talking, walking, and talking about our future together. It was a really great time! The next day we went to the Sam Adams brewery then the Boston Aquarium, and after an exhausting afternoon drove back to Bronxville. It was so great having him here, and our little adventures on the East Coast are always wonderful, I just wish he could of stayed

.

Well, then I couldnt think about missing Blake anymore, since as soon as he left I had to turn in my field work paper, quit my job, start my new intern, and prepare for my first meeting with Shahnaz (who is my thesis advisor) and prepare for class. Thats pretty much all thats been going on since.

I started an internship with Planned Parenthood, I am their Smart Wheels intern, and the Smart Wheels is a community outreach STI information/testing, sex ed., etc van that goes out into the community and offers info to people, its lots of fun!! I love it! And so I am going to help them out for the remainder of the school year. The training manager also wants me to create and implement my own training session and I am thinking about doing one on the history of sex education (which is what I did my field work project on this summer). Well, its scary, but completely beneficial for my plans for next year.

Schools been anxious, but so much better than last year, our classes are more based on the research we are doing and how our theses are progressing. Although Shahnaz is really tough on me and is really working with me to become a better writer, sometimes its frustrating, and I really hope that I dont have anymore dreams about getting more research or writing papers, cause let me tell ya, those are exhausting! We just turned in our final draft of our theses prospecti's which is exciting, I think our introductions now are due in just about a month! crazy! Its going by so fast, and its amazing to think about how intimidating it was last year to write 15-20 pages, now I can whip that out in a day!

Ahhh, its now autumn too, there are so many colors outside right now its amazing! I will try to take some pictures and post them in the next entry...I promise, I wont wait till spring to post them. Last weekend I was in Pennslyvania with Kristin, I got to spend some time with her family and go to a football game! holy crap, can you picture me at a football game! Well, its was fun. It was cold, State College, where the stadium is at got 8 inches of snow when we were there, so you can imagine how cold it was. But I had so many layers on, a t-shirt, sweater, a jacket, a bigger jacket, thermals, a blanket, two pairs of socks, 1 was wool, hand warmers in my socks, AND a poncho - I was warm!! let me tell ya! And it was fun to see how that ole game was played. Sunday I got to meet up with Brian in D.C. and check out the White House, now that was cool! We even got to see Obama's dog! Then off to a sports bar for dinner and to meet some of Brians friends, then back to his house to watch Wanda Sykes and drink beer till midnight! Brian even made an additional beer run cause we ran out! haha It was soooo much fun!

And now I am exhausted....I now have a stack of about 15 inches on my desk of papers that I have to read this weekend and all I want to do is sleep.....

So for now I say goodnight and I miss California, and all those that I love on that West Coast.

:D

And I am pain free!

Yesterday I went on an 8 1/2 lunch bike ride to a waterfall in Scarsdale, it was amazing. I did it in 1 hour, it felt so good to exercise again, and that I did it so quickly too! I was riding without any hands, singing to my music essentially making an ass of myself (I think that its a good thing that no one else was around, or else I would of been really embarrassed). And yes, I am a pro now, able to ride my bike without any hands. Ask my uncle Ted, or my brother or sister, but I have been trying to figure this out for years now, and I can finally do it! I was even able to raise my hands above my head for the first time and stretch, yup, I know your jealous, all while riding my bike. :D Needless to say, that was exciting.

Today, that is, August 15 2009, I went on a run with Kristin and we went about 4 miles. I had to walk I would say around 55-60% cause I couldnt breathe, but I did it almost pain free. My ankles didnt hurt at all! woo! Although I did have heel and arch pain (plantar fascitis - is what I have in my heels, yuck) and some hip pain (which Kristin gave me some tips on how to get rid of it), and some knee pain. All this pain is apparently normal for new runners, and hopefully, after icing my knees and ankles, I will be up and riding my bike tomorrow. I figured that I will keep the pain to a minimal and switch with running and riding to keep the exercise going, and keep the pain minimal.

Soon to come, pictures from Blake and me in Boston! :D

Ankles seem to be pain free.....

Well, I developed brusitis in my ankles from running too much in BAD shoes. :( Its was crazy, my right ankle was swollen and bruised for about 3 weeks, and hurt to walk, sleep, rest, basically anything that I was doing was hurting my ankle. After a visit from the doc, she told me that I had brusitis in my ankles, which is when the bursur sacs (we apparently have them all over our bodies, they are a kinda air cushion to our bones, tendons and stuff) become enflamed from say overexposure, and fill with fluid to protect that area of the body from further damage, like maybe a broken bone? Thats what happened to both of my ankles after Kristin and I ran between 5-7 miles (well I ran about 5.3 or 5.4 miles, and she ran around 7). Now after about a months rest, I think starting this weekend I am going to start riding my bike almost everynight, to warm my body up a little bit, while Krisin is on vacation to test the ole ankle out a bit. Then when she gets back from her vacation in Ohio, I want to start running again...I know she mentioned running a 5k at some point this year, think about it...me....running in a marathon, shit, of any kind. I kinda like that idea, :D
I will keep ya'll posted on that one.

Dog sitting and the forest

Well the last week I have been dog/cat/house sitting for one of my teachers from last semester, and let me tell you, I miss having big dogs around me, but I really believe that I am a cat person. My teacher has two labs mixed with 1) border collie and 2) wiemaraner, along with 2 adorable cats! Our daily routines consists of the wiemaraner waking me up at 6am and gathering them up in my car driving to the forest, where they love to run! And what a lovely place this is to go for a walk! Perfect for the dogs, everyone who goes to this area takes the leashes off of the dogs and they run like hell all over the place. This place is beautiful! Its called the Hastings Trailway, and let me tell you, gorgeous! We walked through along the trail, which the dogs knew better than I could ever learn, and the wiemaraner always managed to find its way into the mud - always! By the end of our adventures together in this forest I counted 7 mosquito bites, and I know need to scrub the inside of my car (its covered in mud), but it was worth every minute to hang out with these dogs. I really have a lot of fun walking dogs and playing with them, but I need to be in the mood to deal with them at home. I realized that I dont like to be licked, or them bouncing on me at all! That's why I definitely believe that I am a cat person, if only I could figure out how to take cats on walks in the forest my life would be complete! ha! But anyways...During my week of house sitting, cat and dog sitting I had so much fun! Thunderstorms at night, and the dogs were there to protect me if need be, the border collie seemed to be very protective, never leaving my side!

And interestingly when we went walking in the forest, the border collie would always stay very close to me, then once the border collie got hurt (she has a bum right foot, which I think she strained, and is now limping :( ) and I took the wiemaraner out to the forest then she would stay really close to me too, instead of running amok like she usually does. These dogs are super sweet, and protective! When my teacher was showing me around their house and introducing me to their pets, she mentioned how shy the cats were, but by the 2nd night there the shyiest of the cats came up to me purring! :D then as the week progressed I became friends with their cats too, and goodness, they are sweet kitties. I think Mattie was a little jealous that when I came home I smelled like other cats, uh-oh (I'm not cheating on Mattie I swear!)

But that was my adventures in dog sitting, and I had to clean up diarrhea, and mud but you know what its okay, because those dogs are awesome! And with animals they can't tell you when they dont feel good, and they cant tell you when they are in pain, so it was definitely a pleasure to hang out with these amazing pets!

oh and Blake will be here in 5 1/2 days !!

I am a beginning runner

ewww...
I never thought I would hear those terrifying words, but alas, they came out of Kristin's mouth last night as I was trying on new shoes strictly for running purposes. Thats right folks, I have started running, and so far I LOVE IT!

So, it was a rainy tuesday (or some other day of the week), and Kristin and I had plans to go for a run/blade/walk adventure after we both got off of work. Now to catch ya'll up to speed on what that entails, I have never been a runner, I think I tried once-or twice, injured myself, and gave up for faster modes of excersing: bike, roller blades. Since I have been living in New York to occupy my time (and to keep me from going crazy from missing Blake) I started riding my bike through this little trail that runs along the Bronx River, and the Bronx River parkway (aka freeway), its a great trail, and I think the total distance is anywhere from 10-15 miles round trip. I love it! Well, I started using the trail with Kristin (who is a runner, and even ran in a marathon or 2), since she is running, I would use my roller blades (which is slower than a bike, but faster than running) and we would go anywhere from 4-6 miles a night. Okay, now you know the back story....So, this Tuesday night I asked her if we could walk instead, since it had been raining all day long, and for those of you that use roller blades, water and blades dont mix well - you slip and fall...ouch! She agreed and asked if maybe we could run too a little bit....well shit, that started this whole running buisness.
We ran about half the way (only about 4 miles that day) and I loved it! I had so much fun, and I didnt realize that I could run that far! woo, I was hooked. We went out almost every night that week, and every night I was able to run for longer periods of time, and with more energy. I was so proud of myself. The only problem were my shoes, and every time we went out, my body would yell at me a little longer and a little louder: my ankles, shins, knees, thighs all would be in pain towards the end of the run. I needed new shoes: running shoes

On Sunday we decided to go for a super long run, between 5-6 miles, my ankles by this point were not happy, and hurt the entire time. But we beat our intended stopping point - we went somewhere between 6-7 miles! woo! I was so impressed with my body it was awesome! Although by the end I was exhausted, and wanted to die. After 2 days of resting we decided to go for a run Tuesday night this week - I almost couldnt do it, my ankles hurt so bad! But we did, we ran around 4 miles, and the next day my foot was in an ace bandage all day. I could barley walk! My first running injury, how precious!

So last night I bought my first pair of real running shoes called Saucony: Pro-Grid Triumph 6
(fancy right?) and spending waaaay too much money on these cushiony-pillowy wonderful, hug-your-ankles shoes, I am ready to go running again!
I am excited! I really like running, I like running with a friend, and feeling good everytime I wake up in the morning. I have more energy and my stamina is quickly picking up. My breathing is becoming better (which I am excited about once Yoga picks up again), and I am working my way to keeping up with Kristin.
Maybe one day I will be able to run the whole distance with her! woo!!
Oh, and the shoe guy also told her and I that we should create a runners group in Bronxville, I dont know if I am ready to do that...I have a hard enough time keeping up with her!

Time will tell I suppose....but I will keep ya'll updated on this new building passion of mine.

Cheers!