Layovers...

After leaving Cincy vaguely still drunk and high on an amazing weekend, I landed in Charlotte to continue my two week hiatus in Destin.

We landed right on time and then proceeded to sit. I thought, no worries, I've got plenty of time before my next flight boards. 45 minutes to be exact. And 20 minutes later we still hadn't gone anywhere. 10 minutes later we got an announcement that we were waiting a terminal. I got nervous. So help me god I am not going to miss my flight to Destin. We finally pull into our terminal and the pilot politely asks people to allow others who have a short connection to get off first.

I raised my hand so high and so fast. I have 10 minutes to get off this plane and board my other plane before it leaves. I also just ran a marathon, so moving quickly was not ideal. In the Cincinnati airport you could tell who had just run the marathon. Not so much in Charlotte.

I was off the plane and hobbling as fast as I could to find my gate. I start to skip run because my gate was further away than I would have liked. I finally rounded the corner to see my gate and hear my name being called for final boarding. I snaked right on in there in the nick of time. I also scored a row to myself and promptly fell asleep.

Waking up to the sight of the ocean is one of the greatest feelings in the entire world to me. And the beach did not disappoint. Immediately all of the stress of this year just melted away.

I ate as much tuna, drank as much beer, and played as much farkle/yahtzee as humanly possibly every single day. I was up with the porpoises and asleep by 9 pm every single night. We saw sea turtles, crabs, sharks, and baby porpoises. I collected all the shells as I regally strolled (limply waddled) down the beach.

Not much can beat the beach in my book. I've been going to same beach for as long as I can remember and each year it is new and different. I love that about the ocean. Each day is an adventure.

Two weeks.

What do you do when you want to run away from all responsibilities? You do just that and you run away.

I took almost two weeks off of work (consecutively) and I am zero amounts ashamed as to how awesome it felt to basically put my middle finger up to the man. 

I was getting that run down, I hate everyone, please stop talking to me forever feeling. Each day was a little bit more soul crushing than the last. Luckily for me, I had a trip planned and something to look forward too. 

Working in a "corporate" job means you have to follow their rules in regards to vacations. That personally is a big hurdle for me. Coming from the small business spectrum and working for and with the amazing people that I did, I was fortunate enough to be able to peace out without so much as second thought. Not having a salary and benefits has a few of it's own hidden perks. 

The first part of the two week hiatus started with a 7am flight to Cincinnati. To run The Flying Pig. The Pig is a marathon. A very hilly, hilly, hilly marathon. I flew up to Cincy to hang out with some girls I had met this past October running through the hills of middle Tennessee. Those girls. Lindsay and Maggie are the best. So many laughs.

The Pig. The race that broke me. Literally. It was miserable, but I finished it and it was worth every tear and muscle cramp along the way. When the weather turns out to be 75 and sunny instead of 60 and rainy, you hobble your broken ass down to a bar to drink away the feelings and soak up the sunshine. Which is precisely what we did. We hobbled our way uphill (because Cincinnati only goes uphill) and made our way to The Blind Pig. We ate some bar food and drank all the beers before we decided we had been burnt enough for one day and needed to shower off the goat smell before we ventured out to drink away even more feelings. 

We stayed at The Cincinnatian Hotel Sunday night (Saturday we all crashed at Lindsay's house with her adorable boys. They were total troopers and dropped us off at the race and cheered us on!). The Cininnatian is baller. Like baller. They have real keys to access the rooms. We had to take a shot because Maggie hates elevators, but we were on the 7th floor and she had also run the marathon. So shots it was. Delicious, delicious shots. Once we were showered and in actual clothing (some of us may or may not had bobby pins holding together our pants...ahem Maggie), we made our way down a hill to go to Yard House. The last time I was at Yard House, I was in Hawai'i. Naturally I ordered Hawaiian beer and a shrimp bowl. I love that place. On our way down to Yard House it started to monsoon. I mean the heavens opened and they didn't hold back. Soaking wet we roll into the coldest restaurant in America. Luckily beers and laughs make everything more bearable. 

After Yard House we ventured across the street to Jefferson Social where we watched Lindsay's husband be a one man band and have all the women swoon over him. Such a fun way to finish my time in Cincy. I was definitely bummed to know I wouldn't be spending another day with those two weirdos, but I feel we made the best of the twoish days we had together. Especially by finishing the night snuggled into a king size bed.

Monday morning I got up at 5 to make my 7 o'clock flight. I shared a cab from the hotel with a gentleman from Houston (who picked up the tab) who had also run The Pig and also didn't want to talk about how miserable it was. 

Stay tuned for the layover from hell....

Sand Cloud

I follow a ridiculous amount of Instagram accounts that include the following:

Swimsuits
Handmade Jewelry
Surfing
Oceans
Beaches
Travel

Do you see a theme? Seriously, it's obnoxious but I love being flooded with so many beautiful scenes when I open the app. It does not help with the serious case of wanderlust I always have but it does help with the serious case of concrete jungle boxing in that I experience on the daily.

That being said there is a company called Sand Cloud and they make these really cool beach friendly towels that have pockets in them to hold all your secrets belongings when at the beach, lake, parking lot, picnic area, wherever you may be.

As I was scrolling one day I happened to notice that they had a picture up about following the link in their profile to apply to become an ambassador. Yes please.

I followed the link and sent everything away without another thought. The next thing I know I have received an email from them saying that I have been selected to be an ambassador. HOLY SURPRISE BATMAN!

I've never been an ambassador for anything but I thought it was a pretty cool opportunity. And who doesn't like a company that donates 10% of all their sales to marine life? People who kick puppies, that's who.

Without further ado here is all the information.

Sand Cloud

If you want to save 25% use the code "dorothy25" <- who doesn't love saving some cashola?

I used mine as a scarf because it is like woah cold outside and I currently do not have the pleasure of living near an ocean to enjoy this towel. But soon, I'll break it in properly.

Go forth and save the marine life. #diditforthetowel

2016.

It's stereotypical, but I think it's good to write down goals. Whether big or small I think it is important to have goals. Year long goals are tough, but here's to 2016 and giving it a whirl.

1. Travel
Because duh.

i don't know where i got this. 

But seriously, travel is really important to me. The beginning of 2015 was a tough time for me and I was fortunate enough to be able to sort of run away from life for a little while if you will. You can check out this, this, this, this or even this post to see more.  It was refreshing to take a break and reset. Then it was time to hit the ground running and get serious about some things and grow up a little. Just a little though, because Peter Pan will forever live inside my soul.

2. Run
Because races.

1/2 Marathon in New Orleans
1/2 Marathon in Memphis
Full Marathon in Destin
Full Marathon in Cincinnati

All important post race libations

Those are all by the first weekend in May. The next 5 months are pretty intense, but I am excited about it. I am still tentative with my injury and have been running smart, but man I am ready to just be able to get up and knock out my run without too much thought.

3. Food
Be better at it.

I eat a lot of food. I love it. I am Italian, it's in my genes. That all being said I could be a little smarter about what I put into my body. Here's to that attempt.

4. Be Present

These days it's very simple to zone out and be physically somewhere but not be mentally there. I don't think it's fair to you or whatever situation you are in to just phone it in. Everything in life takes work and effort no matter the situation. I believe it is very important to put your whole self into situations and I am making a pledge to myself and to everyone around me to be better about living my life in the here and now.

5. Read more

I am an avid reader. I read a lot. I read before bed, I read when I have nothing else to do, but I want to actively choose to read. Not just read before bed, but to read in the middle of the day while sitting outside with my doodle.

The dood, Paddler. 

6. Save more, spend less

Obviously. Very cliche.

7. Volunteer

I volunteered at the end of 2014. It was mentally necessary for me and helped me tremendously realize a lot of things about myself and my life. Everyone should take the time and volunteer. It doesn't have to be extreme like I did and take a month off of life and volunteer, but it needs to be done.

8. Be more appreciative

It is easy to fall into the trap of wanting more and newer and bigger and better things. The majority of the time none of those things are necessary or vital to life. Appreciate what you have in terms of clothing, housing, people, and quality of life. It could all be gone in a minute.

9. Start looking

I tend to stick to what I know. I want to start looking at new opportunities, places, friends, people, colleagues. Really start to look out into the world and better myself with everything I find. Really start to learn.

Still don't know where I got this. 

10. Love.

Not easy for me. I'm not taking this one on in the traditional sense, but I am taking this on in everyday life. Love yourself and the day ahead.

Let me know if you know where this is from. 

Running.

I used to to write a running blog. But then I got bored with the whole talking about running and I didn't know how to incorporate anything else into said blog, so I decided to put in spurts of running on here.

With that long winded intro....

I ran a race on Saturday morning (afternoon? brunch hour?) at 11. Firstly, that is a weird time. Secondly, it was my first race post 1/2 marathon at the beginning of December. Thirdly, it was one of 3 runs since said race. Fourthly, it was the first run post injury where I felt mostly normal.

To reverse this train.

I was training for a marathon at the beginning of December and was lucky enough to make friends at work who were training for the same race but the half. Totally a-okay with me. I just logged extra miles before our long runs together. They are some awesome people and I am totally thankful that they allowed me to tag along and run with them and also allow me to force them to be my friends :)

hi friends!

Training was going really well, I had knocked out a 17 miler with negligible pain with a pretty stellar pace, and then I decided to add in some cross training. NOTE: Add cross training in gradually and at the beginning...probably not 3 weeks before the race like I did. Lesson learned. I was on injury reserve for 2.5 weeks and decided mid race to not complete the full and tuck my pride under my tail and run the half.

Preliminary race to see if the big race would happen. #turkeytrot

It was the smart move. I however hated every moment of the decision.

so proud of these three!

Back to Saturday.

The original three met up and drove out to Shelby Forest for the annual Hill and Dale 8 Miler. Not a bad way to start out a new year.

I was tentative going into this race. Jess said she would race with me and Kirk I knew would be out ahead of us.

We started off strong with just under a 9 minute mile for mile 1. The race lives up to its name. There was a monster hill we ran down (ahem shuffled down) and another short but steep one we ran up (ahem walked up). But then we hit the switchback and realized we had to do all of that in reverse.

The steep hill that was up wasn't so bad going down except that it had a hell of curve that was a little nerve wracking. By this time I was a little behind Jess. Apparently not really running for almost 6 weeks slows you down considerably.

Then came the monster hill. Ha. No. Walked up that bad boy. And then finished strong.

I was proud of my time: 1:12:57. A 9:07 minute mile pace. That's with walking up two monster hills. I'll take it.

I told myself two things going into this race.

1. Race smart
2. It's okay if to bow out

I didn't need to bow out and I raced smart. I didn't push too hard and I recognized the difference between racing strong and being hurt.

Now hopefully my training can get back on schedule and I can reach some of my goals I have set for this new year, race-wise.

Cell Phone Dependency.

I went off the grid for a little while and it was fabulous.

It wasn't exactly self imposed, it was more of a my phone screen stopped responding to touch and I didn't see the merit in replacing the screen or upgrading my phone.

So I went without a phone for just about 2 weeks. You can learn a lot in any amount of time that you don't have a phone.

1. You will constantly torture yourself by pushing the buttons on the phone and then remembering that you can't open anything.

2. People will still text you even though you don't have a way to respond and then you have to email them as to not look like an asshat.

3. Life goes on.

Seriously life goes on. I didn't have a cell phone until I was almost 16. Before that it was fine. I didn't need a phone. I still don't need a phone. A phone is literally just a convenience luxury. That is it.

When I was in Guatemala I learned to live without my phone. I used it to take pictures and if I had access to wifi I would text my parents updates and post random pictures to Instagram.

I finally got a new phone and it is shiny and fancy and has sucked me back into the vortex of the technology. I sort of hate myself for letting it happen, but here I sit with my new phone and my iPad within reaching distance...

Saying all of this means absolutely nothing except, that to me, it seems sad that I have come to be so reliant on a piece of technology that I literally never used to have access too and got a long just fine.

2016 I have a few resolutions and not being so reliant on my phone is a big one.

Cheers to being more aware, in touch, and less self absorbed by a tiny glowing screen of nothing.

MIG Welding

I enjoy a weekend of getting your hands dirty and learning about something you've always wanted to know about.

Enter the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis.

The Metal Museum has a rich history that's not without it's fair share of scandal and ghosts.

Opening it's doors officially to the public on February 5, 1979, the Metal Museum has offered artists a place of learning and growth all the while providing the community with a place to see masters in their art as well as learn and participate in the metal working community.

The buildings that are on the property were originally a US Marine Hospital during the Civil War and were used to treat soldiers as well as do research to search for a cure for yellow fever. 

The hospital officially closed in 1965 and after some land dividing and renovations the museum was opened to the public. To learn more about the museum and it's grand history check out their website: http://www.metalmuseum.org/history

Nowadays you can drop in and see the art that is on display, bring in something for repairs, have a wedding on the grounds, take a class, or join them for an iron pour. It is an amazing place that is an inordinately large resource to many an aspiring blacksmith.

I was most recently down there taking a MIG Welding class. I've learned to weld before, but this was my first real class.

The classes are small - about 8 people - and there are two instructors. We went through the basic science of how MIG welding works, the types of welders on the market and what the difference is between each type of welder available. I could try and explain the science to you, but let's just go with electrical current, metal on metal, and some sort of conductor. SCIENCE.

Anyways you learn about the different machines and then you get to test them out. Like they just hand them over and you get to play with them. HOW COOL IS THAT!?

After you've played with each machine for a little while they send you out to the scrap pile to test your new skills and you get to make whatever you want and then take them home.

These are the things I made.

If you ever get a chance to go visit the Metal Museum I highly recommend it. Tell them I sent you. Also definitely take a class. You'll learn something new and get to play with awesome machinery, get a little dirty and create one of a kind art.