Obsession

I love finding discounts and freebies too much. Some might almost consider it an obsession. Nothing makes me grumpier than paying full price. I dedicated my old email for junk emails that I plan on checking just enough to get my birthday coupons and other freebies I can’t do without. I turned 24 on this Tuesday (the 24th—Golden Birthday).

Below is a list of 24 freebies (or coupons) that I received for my birthday:

1. Spaghetti Warehouse- Free entree AND sundae (no purchase necessary)
2. Mad Mex – Free burrito coupon (no purchase necessary)
3. Noodles & Co - Free entree (no purchase necessary)
4. Panera - Free pastry or sweet (no purchase necessary)
5. Sonic – Free medium tator tots (no purchase necessary)
6. The Pita Pit - Free pita (no purchase necessary)
7. Bucca di Beppo-Free appetizer (no purchase necessary)
8. CVS Pharmacy- $3 off (no minimum purchase)
9. DSW – $5 off coupon (no minimum purchase)
10. Polo Ralph Lauren in Tanger Outlets- $15 off (no minimum purchase--doesn't expire until 2/2012!)
11. Tanger Outlets - $10 off any store in mall (no minimum purchase)
12. Shabby Apple - $10 off purchase
13. Bravo- Buy one entrée, get one free
14. Carabba’s – Buy one entree, get one free
15. Dairy Queen – Buy one get one free Blizzard
16. Cold Stone – Buy one, get one free
17. Wendys - $1 off combo meal
18. Arbys- Free 12 oz shake (with any purchase)
19. Applebees - Free dessert w/ entree
20. Logans Roadhouse- Free Nutter Butter Fudgeslide with any entree
21. Chili's- Free brownie sundae (with entree)
22. Texas Roadhouse - Free appetizer with purchase of entree
23. O'Charleys - $5 off $20 purchase
24. The Melting Pot-Free chocolate fondue when you buy 2 entrees and a cheese fondue (LAME-O)

Hoaxes (were supposed to send me a coupon—but it never came)
Papa Murphy’s- Free container of cookie dough
MCL Catering– Free cookie (no purchase necessary)

So, I had a great birthday. No seriously, these coupons (along with everyone else who was nice to me) made my day. I haven’t redeemed them all yet. Let's face it-- I won’t redeem them all—-that would be a lot of eating out, but it was still fun. I think half of the people reading this email now are thinking “What a waste of time and email space,” and the other half are signing themselves up with their junk emails too.

Special K

I don't usually eat things that are considered to be weight loss foods-that whole fad just isn't my thing. However, I LOVE Special K Red Berries Cereal. In my defense, I loved them before I knew they were supposed to be part of a diet program. A while back, I ate enough cereal to get a free 10-minute workout video.

One night in December I decided to do a Hip Hop Workout. I was using my 2 pound weights for extra toning (ok, they probably don't do much, but it is all I have). One of the moves was a punch with your left hand to the right side of your body in front of you. I was getting into the hip hop and all and punched myself (hard) in the face, weight and all. In slow motion I probably looked like Rocky with spit flying from my mouth. I punched my jaw closed and ended up hearing this bad sound and biting my tongue hard.

Three months later...

I went to the dentist and she asked what I had done to my tongue. She said it looked like it had really taken a beating. I told her about the self-abuse incident in December and she said that I was really lucky I didn't do more damage to my teeth based on the amount of damage I did to my tongue. I hate it when you do something that causes a lot of pain but you don't have anything to "show for it," so I'm glad this one got me some sympathy-cuz it hurt.

No-I'm not starting to blog

but like most of you I'm sick of the wreath.

The End of a Snakeskin Wreath

I got a new job! Here are the top 10 reasons why I am thrilled (in no particular order):

1. My old job was with Wildlife Services with USDA. I consider myself outdoorsy(ish), but not to the extent that I want to decorate my office space with antlers and snakeskin. The photo above is a wreath that hung over my computer for about a year, but no more.

2. My new job is with OSU Health Plan. My degree was in health care, so I will finally be using my education.

3. It is employee appreciation week at OSU, so next week I can get cake on Tuesday, a massage on Wednesday, and lunch on Friday.

4. The pay is better.

5. Neal gets half tuition.

6. I can walk to work.

7. Neal will get to drive the car, thus saving me about 7 hours/week being a taxi driver.

8. No more chewing tobacco in the office. While the smell doesn't nauseate me like it did when I first started with Wildlife Services, I will be glad not to have to see/hear/smell the chew every day.

9. I can take up to 10 credit hours for free every quarter. I think I am going to start with Statistics and um...Sociology.
10. My new coworkers seem interested in becoming my friend--hooray! And to top that off, their interests aren't all hunting, fishing, or trapping. (Not that I am against any of these activities, per se, but they wouldn't be my top choice of water cooler topics.)

In short, I am so happy to have this new opportunity. It is always stressful to switch jobs, but now that I have finished 1 week at my new job, I am totally glad that I made the change!

A thing of the past

I never carry cash. Actually, I don't carry checks either. We don't even have checks for our checking account. We do everything with online bill pay and credit cards. I have often thought I should carry a little money, just in case, but never do. It has been a bit of a problem every now and then (ie the temple cafeteria), but I enjoy my cashback bonus so much that I am a plastic girl through and through. This week, I set a new record low purchase on a credit card:
That's right, I didn't even have a penny on me. I couldn't believe it (I thought I was going to get my socks for free, but the system doesn't allow a $0 transaction). I kind of looked around me for a kind-hearted person, but was too embarrassed to ask for a penny, so swiped my card. Even though cash is a thing of the past, I think from now on I will have at least a quarter as "emergency funds." (oh, and yes, DSW would qualify as an emergency)

Where we've been

I feel like I can't start blogging again without providing some sort of explanation as to why it has been so long since I last posted anything. Neal and I thought about saying that Internet connections are hard to find in Africa, but we haven't left the county. What it boils down to is that we don't have a good excuse. If I had to come up with one excuse, it would be that I think blogs are boring unless they have photos, and we never take photos. I'll give you an example...

I decided to start training for my first ever half marathon in January. (I really hate that the last two posts are going to be about running. We really don't run that much, but races are just one of the few times we take photos). I got a workout schedule and stuck to it like glue. I really pushed myself and set a goal to finish in 1:51.30. On May 1, I ran the half marathon. Neal came along to take photos and this is the result:

This would be an okay photo if it were a photo, but he accidentally took a video. Pay close attention. I run by in the very beginning of this video (taken at mile 6). Here are the other photos. They actually tell you a lot about my race:

1. It was a rainy day so Neal carried an umbrella.

2. There were so many people running (7,500) that it was hard to locate any one particular runner at the finish line (I am in the pink shirt on the right side of the road) until after she had passed.

3. My finisher's medal has a strap just like our camera.

Before writing this post I asked Neal for permission to make fun of his photography skills. He gave me the okay, but has just came down the stairs to say, "If you can't think of anything to say, don't say anything nice." So, enough of the joking. We actually took 8 (yes a whopping 8) photos of the event. Here is a good one:

Even though this post makes fun of Neal's photography skills, I am very glad that he came along to support me. It sprinkled for a good portion of the race, which doesn't make conditions ideal for photography or waiting almost 2 hours for me to finish.

My final time was 1:51.46. It is 16 seconds off my goal time, but I guess that just gives me room to improve for my next race (which, by the way is not scheduled yet due to a knee injury from working too hard).

One more thing off my checklist!!

Last fall I ran my first 5k with Kelli when the law school did one as a fundraiser for various charities. I did not bother to train at all and I struggled to keep up with Kelli (at a pace of roughly 8 minute miles) who had run several before and had been running occasionally in the evenings. Although I played soccer pretty much year round in high school and did track my senior year, I never really considered myself a runner. However, I do try to stay in reasonable shape and the 5k was a wake up call. So at the beginning of the summer I decided that it was time to check off one more item from my list of things to do in life (yes, I have an actual list and I think it has helped me do things that I would not otherwise have done). I began training for a marathon. Kelli's first response was "Yeah right, do you know how much work it is to train for a marathon?" Obviously that hurt my pride enough to make me actually do it because the next day I paid the non-refundable entrance fee for the United States Air Force Marathon at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and I convinced Kelli to run the 10k as well.

I am not sure which is the greater accomplishment, finishing a marathon or running 528 miles in three months to train for a marathon. Kelli was right that it was hard work, but the training was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Mostly it was just a big time commitment because I had to run 4 days a week and most Saturdays were taken up by long runs followed by laying on the couch recovering. I initially just set my goal to finish and did not care how long it took me, so I never had to push myself faster than my natural pace during training. I found that listening to audiobooks on my iPod was a good way to pass the hours spent on the trail. (I finished 7 or 8 books, including Moby Dick which is very long and not especially entertaining). I first timed myself while running near the end of my training when Kelli rode her bike along the trail with me for twenty miles and timed each mile. I was surprised to discover that I was fairly consistently running each mile in approximately ten minutes. Based on that, I set my goal to finish the marathon in 4:30, which is two minutes better than the men's national average.

.

I can't decide if setting a time goal was a good idea or not. It definitely pushed me to run harder on race day, and I finished in 4:30:08. However, trying to keep the pace the whole time sure made the last six miles miserable. I definitely thought the actual marathon was significantly more difficult than any of my long training runs. Maybe it was because the course had more hills than I had trained for. Maybe it was because I got a cramp in my leg at mile twenty which I had never experienced in training (I am not sure what you are supposed to do with a cramp, but I just kept running and tried to massage it as I ran and it eventually went away, then came back a couple times, then went away).

The sense of satisfaction that you feel when you cross the finish line is great, but it fades quickly when you find out that after all of that hard work you have actually gained weight (maybe I am skinnier and more muscular, but I can't really tell...I should have done before and after photos). It was also a little embarrassing using the elevator at the law school the Monday after the race because I was too sore to walk down three flights of stairs. While I am glad that I did this, I still don't consider myself a runner. Although I do plan to continue some sort of exercise to stay in shape, there are too many things to do in life to repeat the same thing twice. Perhaps a triathlon or some mountaineering expedition are options for the future, but I have no plans to continue running marathons.