Thunder Thighs

Friday as I was changing to go to the gym I noticed there was a hole in my shorts. In the rear. I put them on and sure enough…the hole was right smack in the middle of my left butt cheek. Unfortunately, I could tell this wasn’t a new hole. And even more unfortunate than that was the fact that about 90% of my underwear are thongs. Or tbacks. (Yes, there is a difference between the two. You don’t spend two years working in the lingerie department and not learn something.)  Which means for I don’t know how long, I’ve been going into the gym and baring my butt. Just a teeny tiny little bit of it, but still…

No wonder I’ve been getting a bunch of high-fives!

So my dilemma – wear them regular and expose everyone but feel awkward because now I know I’m exposing them?  Or roll the shorts up enough that my shirt covers the hole but create booty shorts in the process? I opted for booty shorts.

It wasn’t pretty.

So today I wore a new pair of shorts. Those didn’t work out too well either. Because I totally have thunder thighs. Not like “shaking your house apart thunder”, more like “rattling the windows thunder”.  But regardless, still thunder.

Here comes the thunder!

When I was young and I started to get that little curve in the inside of my thighs, I thought it made me soft and womanly. Now I realize it only makes my shorts ride up and bunch in unattractive ways.

I hope, as with other parts of my body, that all this treadmill work will fix that little problem. I mean, I know it’s all about being healthy but if I’m gonna bust my butt every day for an hour, I want to see a little difference. Something besides my boobs shrinking.

Because honestly, I really am trying here. I’m up to an 8 minute run with a 5 minute walk and then another 8 minute run.  You have no idea how long 8 minutes is until you try to run it. Longest 8 minutes of my life.  And it’s only gonna get harder. When I get discouraged, I look forward on the program to see what’s coming up. It kinda keeps me motivated – like, hey, at least I’m not having to run 20 minutes straight. Yet.

So looks like I need to go buy another pair of shorts. While I appreciate support, it just seems all kinds of wrong to hear my thighs clap for me…

Day Late

I'm really grateful that I got to go to Chicago last week, however, it also meant that I missed the biggest thing that has ever happened in our town. Except for when the state capitol seal was "stolen" in 1910. And trust me, that was a big deal. 103 years later and people around here are still bitter about it.  So I guess technically I missed the second biggest thing to ever happen - a Mumford and Sons concert!

The city has been planning it for at least 6 months and it was suppose to be a huge, weekend long festival.  They were setting-up a couple of days before we left and we were already experiencing crazy traffic.  Not sure how they fit all those people into our sleepy little town but apparently they did. And I heard it was an awesome concert.

Equally upsetting, maybe even a little more so, was that a few weeks before the conference I saw some advertisements that Kevin James was coming to campus for a performance. I love Kevin James - he is hilarious! I am sure his stand-up was great. So I jumped on the computer to get us some tickets and was stoked when I realized they were really reasonable. But then I realized his one day performance was the day we flew out.  Really? That stinks!

Then when we were in Chicago we're walking down the street when we see a billboard advertising...Kevin James!  So I run over to check and...he's there the day after we leave!

I guess it's like so many other things in life - it doesn't matter how bad you want it, sometimes you just gotta accept that it's not meant to be.

Lucky Leak

Had a heck of a day!  It was a Monday all the way around. By 8:30 a.m. I was asking for a redo and the day continued to nose dive. I kept thinking eventually it would turn around but apparently no one else got that memo. So things continued to hit the fan. And then kind of land in big plops all around me.

On a positive note, I was dying to go to the gym and work out some of the frustration of the day. This is huge because I usually work out my frustration through a large order of fries. And occasionally sex. But usually fries.

So the fact that I was havin a day and still motivated? That was a gold star moment. And I'm so glad I went. It was SO good for me.

I've been doing this 10K training program (run/walk) but after I'm done I usually walk an additional 15-20 minutes so I can get my full hour in. While I'm doing the program I just kind of zone out. When I'm running I focus on breathing and the rhythm of my run. And then during the walk I just try to recover. I'm not really paying much attention to anything else - run, breathe, walk, run, breathe, walk. With a few intermediate gasping wheezes  and a lot of sweat thrown in for good measure.

So during the last 15-20 minutes, when I'm just walking to walk, I catch a little news or whatever happens to be playing at the time. Today it was all the coverage from the Washington shootings.  I'm sure it was on the entire time, I just hadn't noticed.

It really put my day in perspective. At least I hadn't gone to work and been shot. I survived the day and was able to go home, love on my family, and bitch about a bad day. What an amazing gift. 

It made all the stuff in my day just seem so trivial and pointless. Like any of that will even matter next year or even next week. Who cares about any of that other stuff, right?

So I drove home filled with gratitude and determination to remember to count my blessings. And I drove straight home to a leaky house. A leaky house that has a BRAND NEW roof on it.

BRAND. NEW.

Like 27 days old new. Like several thousand dollars new. Like what the hell new.

Oh I see what you're trying to do here, God. Well played. Very well played.

And I get it.  So leak or not, let me just say how happy I am to at least have a house. Because I could be sitting out somewhere in a leaky cardboard box. And that's not exactly the kind of leak that can be fixed...

Chi-town

I know I promised updates on my Chicago conference but I have something else on my mind.

I've been thinking a lot about relationships. How strange relationships can be sometimes. Something happened recently that helped me realize that sometimes the relationship we think we have is little more than our own one-sided perception.

It's a strange feeling to think you're good friends with someone and then to realize you're really not. Sometimes all it takes is watching that person interact with someone else to realize you don't even make the top 10. 

What can you do?  Cross your arms, stomp your feet and demand that they find you witty, smart and charming? As good as I am at forcing my way into things, friendship doesn't work like that. And I'm sure I wouldn't want it to.  But it makes me wonder - how was I so far off the mark? Clearly, I got this one all wrong.

And I'm sure it won't be the last time I overvalue a friendship.  For some reason, I have a hard time realizing that not everyone likes me as much as much as I expect them to. Yeah, I can't figure that one out either...lol.

So tomorrow starts a new week and I'm bringing with me some new ideas from the conference. It really was some great material. Now I just need about 3 more people on staff to make all this stuff happen... sometimes having the ideas but lacking the resources and time really sucks. But I'm gonna try, gonna try to put some of this stuff in place because I've never given up hope that I could create the best program in the state. That's been my vision from day one and I've never lost sight of that. Everything I do is to try to move towards that goal.  Sometimes it's exhausting. And frustrating. And seems so pointless and impossible.

Then I go to a conference. And I feel like I need to make all this happen. I feel like anything less then the best is cheating my students. I feel like I need more strategic planning, more outcome analysis, more understanding, more implementation, more, more, more...which is way I'm way more productive and creative after conference. And my staff kinda hates me because I create more work for everyone.

The hubby came with me to this one. He'd never been to Chicago so thought he would tag along.  He really didn't venture out too much though.  I was in sessions most the time and he's not really adventurous (or into big cities) so he spent the majority of his time in a hotel room. Not sure it was very exciting for him but we were able to see a few sights during some down time.  I like Chicago - but I like big cities so it was fun for me. 

As promised, here are a few picture highlights:



Even in Chicago, it's Sooner time!

Love these girls!

Listening to legends - amazing.

Navy Pier ferris wheel



We were way high!

On the ledge of one of the tallest buildings in the world. Just a little freaky!
  

Don't look down!
 

Bitter beer face from the WORST beer I have ever had!

And yet, I kept trying to choke it down.

I give up, just give me some water!

So lucky to have these amazing ladies as friends!





Buried

Just returned from a conference in Chicago...buried today in work but will definitely post pics and updates soon.  I know, I know - blogger of the year award.  Add it to my list of imperfections - somewhere under Painfully Stubborn and Embarrassingly Bad Speller.

One thing I do have time to tell you - I LOVE my job! 

The rest will have to wait until I have a minute to breathe!

And It's A Win

Spent the weekend celebrating a Sooner win!


Some friends of ours from out of town came up for the game. We decided to make a weekend of it and stay at a hotel.  I started calling around and everything around Norman was booked - apparently there was a lot happening that weekend.  Our friends had suggested a certain casino hotel but when I called they said they were  "full, full, full" but I was able to find one that wasn't too far away.

And the hotel was brand new - it's only been open about 4 weeks. The room was nice, I was especially fond of the bathroom and informed husband that when we build our house I want a bathroom like this - it had a really cool pocket door that I loved and a great shower.

 

The best part of the room though was that I was able to get us a discount and we got the room super cheap - for $77! My only complaint, and it's a minor one, was that the sheets were really stiff and kinda itchy - they felt like they had never been washed. I'm sure it's because they were new and honestly, if it's between stiff sheets or a bunch of strange people wrangling around in those sheets to make them soft, I'll take stiff sheets any day!

So we met up with our friends, stuffed our bellies with nachos, won a little money at gambling (I made a whole $10 off the penny slots and was super excited about that until I found out my friend won $150) and then headed off to the game. It was so super hot! But it was totally worth it - I was just glad to be there! We started off kinda rocky. The first half was not good. But they pulled it together and in the third quarter, really started to look like a team. It was a great game!

Sweat much?

Sooner girls



Enjoying time with the Jones'

Boomer!

And it's a win!

But I must be the pickiest fan in the world because I had issues with the people next to us. First, the chick that was sitting next to me was totally not into the game – at all.  She was so disinterested that she hardly looked up and stayed on her phone the entire time. And I know I shouldn’t care – really, it’s none of my business if she hated being there but seriously, it was killin my game buzz! I mean, the crowd energy is what makes the game atmosphere so awesome. Can you at least pretend to be a little excited? How bout a sporadic “Boomer!” every once in a while? Something? Anything? Hey, are you even still alive?

And the guy with her wasn’t much better. But for totally different reasons. The entire game, the only thing he yelled was “There we go!”.  The night went something like this: Completed pass -  “There we go!” Tackle – “There we go!” Block – “There we go!”  PAT – “There we go!” Touchdown – “There we go!” Stoops breathing – “There we go!” It was so annoying.  I almost offered to let him borrow my copy of “101 Things To Shout At A Football Game Besides There We Go” but the bored girl on her phone next to me was in the way.

See, I’m picky. And apparently a little bit bitchy too.

As big as the games are, in all the years I’ve ever gone I have never ran into anyone that I’ve known. Until this year.  We were sitting with our friends before the game when I saw a former coworker. It turned out that when we moved to our seats we were directly behind her two rows back.  Then during the halftime show I was doing something on my phone when I heard a guy call out “Amber!” And I don’t know why, but I didn’t think it was directed at me.  I just thought there was another Amber somewhere in the crowd.  Then I heard it again and my husband jabbed me so I look up to see this guy waving frantically at me. We yelled across the aisle at each other for a minute and then he went on.  After he left I told my husband who he was and how I knew him and he was like “Didn’t you date him?” To which I explained, no I did not.  I went out on a date with him. He was a terrific guy - smart, funny, and nice. But he had little boy hands. And I Just. Couldn’t. Do. It.

See, I really am picky....and a little bitchy too.

Happy, happy, happy

You know what happiness is?

Happiness is having the house to yourself for the first time in months.  It's eating an eggroll and a bowl of cereal for dinner because there is no one else to feed. *Not together, of course, because that would be gross, not happy. It's watching that trashy tv show because there isn't anyone to hear the bad language or see the adult content. It's singing at the top of your lungs, taking over the entire couch, and doing grand jetes across the living room just because you can.

Happiness is the family finally getting home, hearing "Mommy!" like they haven't seen you in a week, getting those sweet little kisses, and talking about the day. It's noise and busyness and engery. It's "can you carry me?", reading bedtime stories, and listening to a three year old recite the Lord's Prayer perfectly.

Happiness is knowing that the next day is Friday.  And waking up that next day excited just because it's almost the weekend. It's realizing there are no meetings, wearing white jeans one last time before labor day even when your husband hates them, and lunch plans with the best friend.

Happiness is this:

This girls is happy, happy, happy!