JMU Duuuuuuuukes!

Wow, its been a while! Sorry for the lack of posts, but I've been on a 'fun binder' for the past 10 days and I am just now getting caught up! I had SUCH a good time at JMU with the girls!!! It was so great to see the girls and just have fun with them. Unfortunately work blew up in my face and I wasn't able to leave early, but amazingly enough, 66 West wasn't too bad and it only took me the normal 2.5 hours to get there. Once I got past the normal Friday night traffic it was smooth cruising. And man, driving down 81, there were BEAUTIFUL images of the moutains and acres of greenery.

Once I finally got down there, we celebrated Melissa's birthday and got ready to paint the town red. And there was A LOT of red :) We went to a few local bars until I had to tap out and go back to the hotel. I had been fighting a cold and had a pretty stressful day/HECTIC week, so I was exhausted. The girls continued out and the shots kept a flowin', so I loved hearing their stories about the night.

Saturday, (aka game day), was rainy and drizzely in the morning. Nikki was also batteling a nasty cold, so we opted to hang back at the hotel and eventually wonder out to the Buffalo Wild Wings and had a few beers inside as it rained outside. Eventually the skies cleared and we finished our many bloody mary's and headed out to campus. I wish I had more time to take in the sights of JMU and Harrisonburg, but what I was able to see, it was GORG!!  We had a BLAST at the game and thankfully the Dukes won! We had amazing seats and actually sat in the student's section..whoops!!

We were all exhausted and after the day of drinking, thankfully we decided to stay in Saturday night and watch tv! That's when you know you have best friends, when you can stay in on a weekend night and watch tv instead of feeling the need to go out and rage on.

We woke up Sunday and headed home. The drive was so easy and beautiful, it didn't seem like 2.5 hours. Once I got home, I had to unpack and re-pack for my trip to Baltimore for the Out & Equal conference!

Enjoy a few pictures of JMU and the homecoming game!

JMU Homecoming

Tomorrow I'm driving to Harrisonburg to visit JMU. I'm meeting up with my bffs and going to JMU's homecoming game to celebrate Melissa's 30th birthday! I'm super excited because I've never been to JMU. And I'm excited to get some of these girls together again:

And we'll be supporting the purple and gold! And to celebrate the Duke Dog:

Melissa wanted to celebrate her 30th birthday doing something that she loves with the girls she loves too! She did have a birthday party last weekend but I wasn't able to attend because I THOUGHT I would be running the Army 10 miler...but oh well, I'll celebrate next weekend! I do have a bit of a sore throat so I'm going to have to drink LOTS of hot tea (which I hate) and take my vitamins!

JMU also finally has a Phi Mu chapter too! The Gamma Theta Chapter is doing well and growing! I wont be a super creeper and try to visit the chapter, but I will smile really big when I see the Rose & White!

6 words I never thought I'd hear

"How about let's skip this one". Wait, am I still dreaming or did I just hear my father say that?  Well, I wasn't dreaming and he really did say that. We skipped the Army 10 miler. Holy shit. Did we just voluntarily skip a race? That's usually ME saying LET'S SKIP....PLEASE?!?! For once it was the other ways around. We both slept like shit, the hotel was loud and people kept slamming the doors at all hours of the night. (hotel etiquette please a'holes!!) We are both out of shape. Neither of us wanted to run. So we turned the alarm off and went back to sleep.

In a way I was happy but in a way it scares me. He's getting older. He's not as fast as he used to be. He doesn't bounce back like he used to. And its scary. Granted he is in REALLY good shape, even though he says he isn't. I mean, he is in great shape compared to other men his age, but for him, he's used to running fast and long. So instead, we went back to sleep and then got up and did a 30 minute run. Needless to say we were really winded at the end. If you had added another hour, which it would have taken us to run it, I probably would have thrown up at the end and then hurt for days. And it was hot. Well, as hot as 60 degrees, which is like 80 degrees hot when you're running! Phew, thankfully he got smart.

But not only did I get to spend some time with my dad, I finally gave in and bought myself my first pair of lululemon pants. Man, those suckers are EXPENSIVE. But DAMN, my ass looked GOOD. My roommate swears by them and she said even though they are expensive, she's had them for over 5 years, so its worth it.

I only got to run 30 minutes in them, but I think they're pretty awesome. Or it could just be my mind telling me they are awesome because I spent an ass load on them. But hey, maybe I'll be motivated to exercise again! This is a wake up call to myself that I need to get back into shape!

30,100

I'm going to be with 30,099 of my closest friends running Sunday morning. Ugh. Just looking at that number scares me and gives me anxiety. I don't like crowds and I don't like running in crowds, but I know that there is such a wide variety of physically (un)fit people running/walking the race that it will be fairly well spread out, but MAN, THAT'S A LOT OF PEOPLE!!!

When I ran it two years ago, I finished in 1 hour 48 minutes. Since I'm SO out of shape, it will probably be around the same finishing time. Definitely will not be the 1:31 I did with the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler earlier this year. I've been too busy with work (most of the time) and fun (some of the time), I haven't had time to train. I just need to know that I've run four halfs: 2 prior to the blog, the Shamrock this past March in Va Beach and one in Richmond back in 2010.

If you can do 13, you can do 10. At least that's what I keep telling myself...Everyone should say a little prayer for me!

Places I'd like to Visit

I've traveled all over Europe, in fact I've spent about 20% of my life living outside of the United States. I've always wanted to continue traveling around the world, and it used to be that I had no desire to travel within the border confines of the United States. However, recently that has started to change. I'm curious and am interested in what else is out there in the US. Here is a list of the places I want to visit, in no particular order.

Boston

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Something about Boston just makes me want to go! The history, the T, the music scene, the breweries!

Chicago

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I definitely have not spent enough time in the central US. The food, the parks, and performing arts seem awesome!

Seattle

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This one should be easy since my sister lives outside of Seattle. However, life just gets in the way and I haven't made it out there. I'd have to go when the weather was nice because I don't like being cold!! I want to see the first Starbucks, the Pike Place Market, and the Space Needle are all the things I'd have to see.

San Fransisco

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Maybe its from all of those years of watching Full House, I've always wanted to visit San Fransisco.

This picture of the Golden Gate Bridge is just so cool and BIG and I've always wanted to ride one of those streetcars :)

San Diego

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Besides the weather and the beaches this is a no brainer! I'd love to live and/or visit a place that has such nice weather year round!

Denver

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I'm not a big outdoorsy type of girl, but something about Denver makes me want to go visit. I'd even make more of an effort to do outdoorsy things such as hiking, running, and biking.

Atlanta

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I'd want to go around and see the museums, the historical sites and eat lots and lots of southern fried food :)

Peachtree City

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Of course, after I visited Atlanta, I'd have to drive to Peachtree City to see the Phi Mu National HQ!

Honalulu

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If airfare wasn't so expensive and it didn't take SO LONG to get there, I would be on a plane tomorrow! My friend Sami and her family live there so I'd have a free place to stay!

So those are my top places I'd want to go! If anyone is interested in taking a trip with me, I'm always down :)