First Adventure of 2014!

So I have this theory...how you close out and start the new year is sort of how your year will shape up. 2013? Don't ask...let's just say it wasn't the greatest start. :)

So I closed 2013 with my knitting friends. We hung out at my friend M's house with her husband, her fake sister, and another one of my knitting buddies. We had good food and lots of fun just watching random YouTube videos and knitting. It was awesome.

Yesterday, I managed to get myself out of bed and drive out to Durham to Eno River State Park. I met up with the Raleigh Trail Runners and went for my first ever trail run. 30 mins out...30 mins back.

It was hard! I'm not sure Trail Running is for me. There's lots of logs and branches to jump over...rocks to twist your ankle on, and leaves to slip and slide on! It is kinda fun because it's a challenge. You have to step carefully.

At one point...I was leading a small group (it was single track so only enough room on the trail for one person at a time and I ended up in front somehow) and I got us off the trail! Whoops! We had to double back and I was thankfully in the back of the pack after that!

All of the other runners were much faster than me but since I am learning to appreciate my own pace...that was ok by me! I did end up walking with a really nice girl for a bit so that was awesome. Total - I ran about 3 miles.

We all got back and then it was time for the real adventure! We headed to the quarry to do a polar plunge! We hiked another 3/4 of a mile and when we got there...there were other people jumping in too! I've been told that some of them were naked but can't confirm this as I didn't see it. (Thankfully!)

We went to a slightly higher point and started right in on jumping in! I was the 3rd person to jump in...

Am I holding my nose as I jump?

 

SO COLD!!! The shock of the cold literally takes your breath away. As I was underwater waiting to surface I had the brief thought that I might die underwater. But then my muscles unfroze and I surfaced. I managed not to curse (as there was a news guy present) but I think I might have yelled "CRAP it is COLD!"

 

 

Get me out of here!!

 

I managed to swim to the bank and climb my way out of the water. There were a bunch of roots that you had to use as a ladder to get out. My muscles did NOT want to cooperate and so I ended up almost falling back into the water!

 

 

I am not staring at her butt. I am trying my best to get out of the cold-ass water!

 

The funny thing is that it was actually warm when you got out of the water. I managed to change without anyone seeing any naked bits (as did everyone else) and we were on our merry way back to our cars.

 

A group of us decided to celebrate our plunge with some food so we went and had an early dinner. While at the restaurant...we saw ourselves on the news! NBC 17 had sent a guy out to tape us and we made both the 6pm and the 7pm newscasts! You can't really see me in it except the side of my face for a brief second and my legs/shoes in one shot. LOL.

 

All in all...it was a great start to the new year. Meeting new people, chilling with friends, good food and great adventure. Plus some knitting and running to boot!

 

Here's to 2014 - may it continue to rock my world!

 







Yarrrrrrrn

I haven't been knitting but I have been playing with yarn!

Almost 2 years ago, I won some dye-able yarn from the Carolina Fiber Festival. I've held onto some of it...just waiting for the right opportunity to present itself.

Last weekend...that opportunity showed up!

A couple of us Dirty Knitters went over to our friend M's house. I shall call her Darkside because we always joke that she balances me out in the world. Everything I love, she hates. Everything she loves, I hate. We're complete opposites...but it works because she's the sweetest person ever.

Darkside has the neatest basement ever. She has a great craft area and it has it's own kitchen with a pull out stove that is seriously retro-cool.

She has done a lot of dying so she knew what she was doing and had the right dyes to make everything super easy. We had all pre-soaked the yarn so we just soaked it a little more with some dawn to make the yarn "open up to take the dye" and then we put the yarn on the stove in big pots with the dye until the dye was "exhausted." What's cool is that if you do it right...the yarn will EAT all the dye and then the water will turn out clear! Sweet!

That hot pink is my yarn!

 

I picked a hot pink color to dye my main yarn. I love bright colors and I couldn't believe that Darkside even had that dye! Apparently a friend of hers bought it. LOL! It's currently drying over my kitchen sink...waiting to be turned into a hat with a tiara in it!

 

I also stuck a skein of yarn in with one of the Dirty Knitter's yarn...for a beautiful teal. My yarn wasn't taking the dye so great so it had to stay after school with Darkside for more soaking. She sent me a text though...it's looking pretty good!

 

 

 Oooohhh pretty!

 

Not sure yet what that one will want to be. But I'll keep you updated! :D 

Weekly Recap

Oh man....what a week!

I have not run a whole lot because this week has been so crazy!

Monday:

I managed to sneak out of work early (I took my boss home) and worked in a run with the Wal-dog. We only went 2.05 miles because it got dark. I do NOT like to run in the dark. I was impressed with Waldo. He kept up like a champ!

After my run (and a quick shower), I went to my C25K graduation! We all met at Crabtree Tavern and enjoyed a great meal together. There was lots of laughing and joking around. We gave our coach/leader/guy a card and gift card to Fleet Feet. I told him he could use it to get some new shorts! (The day we ran in the SLEET, he showed up in shorts!) We've all promised to keep up with each other and go running together again.

Such a good looking group!

 

Tuesday:

 

I had tickets to go see Macklemore and Ryan Lewis at the PNC Arena! I pretty much paid nothing for my ticket because I had won a gift card from the PNC Arena that I used to get it. So imagine my face when I found out that it was $20 to park!!! Crikey!

 

I went to the show by myself and had a blast. I sat next to the nicest family. It was a little uncomfortable sitting next to the mom while the opening acts were rapping about F-this and F-that. I told the mom that they seemed like cool parents to take their kids to a concert like this. (My parents would have NEVER gone to a rap concert with me. Or even let ME go!) She told me that they didn't censor their kids music and that they were both straight A students so they didn't worry too much about it. It's just music. I thought that was a cool way to look at it.

 

The two opening acts were ok. They were Big K.R.I.T. and Talib Kweli. Honestly, I wasn't terribly impressed. Maybe because the sound quality wasn't that great? Talib Kweli rapped over a track of himself for a couple of songs and that really just turned me off. They both had a couple of songs I enjoyed but honestly, I just wanted to hear Macklemore.

 

Plus I was really uncomfortable when I saw a young girl (maybe 8 years old?) walk past me in a homemade Macklemore shirt while one of the opening acts was singing "F-these haters, F-these hoes." *censor is mine and mine alone.

 

Macklemore does curse in his songs. But it's not every other word. I have a problem with people who can't talk or rap or sing without cursing every 3 words. There are lots of words in the English language!

 

After the opening acts, we got to sit there for about 30 mins. Weee! So fun. I know I'm getting old because I texted Bliss and told her I was ready for the main act to start already. It was past my bedtime!

 

Finally at 9pm...the main act! Such a great show. Macklemore had such a stage presence. He would talk to the crowd and really kept the energy going. I just loved it.

 



Why is it in this day and age I still can't get a good concert pic on my cell?

 

Wednesday:

 

RatBastard and I went to therapy. I supposed now that we're back together I should come up with a new nickname for him. I'll think about it.

 

Therapy went well. We both really liked our therapist and RB really took it seriously and opened up a lot. I'm looking forward to our next session. We even have homework!

 

Thursday:

 

Stitch 'n bitch night with my knitters! Where my stitches at? I'm working on a pair of fingerless mitts that are currently the bane of my existence. I have frogged them once completely and now am ripping out two rows. On DPNs. Boo!

 

Friday:

 

Hasn't happened yet but I have a Girl Scout meeting tonight! We're going to work on our detective badge and probably talk about our pending trip to Savannah next year! Fun!

 

HOPEFULLY I can get some running in on Sat. I feel like I haven't run in forever but I think that since I ran so much last week...I'll be ok this week. But back to the grind next week! I'm running 8k on Thursday next week!

 

Running update

I have been running!

Last week was a crazy week with running.

Monday - Hibernian Harriers Run Club
Tuesday - C25K meetup group - W8, D1
Wednesday - Ladies night at Fleet Feet
Thursday - should have been W8, D2 but I needed a rest day
Saturday - C25K meetup group - W8, D3!

On Wed, I went to Ladies night at Fleet Feet. It was very fun. I got there and there were about 14 of us ready to run. We took some pictures and then we were off!

Good looking group!

 



It was a straight shot down Six Forks Rd and then back. The way down was easy...I was running at a good pace and felt great. I loved watching the people in the cars just staring at us as we ran past. The way back was much harder...it was all up hill! I don't remember there being any downhill!!!

Back at the store they had some delicious cocktails for us to try as well as some snacks. The stuffed mushrooms were particularly delicious as I shoveled about 12 of them into my mouth. I had to apologize to a lady for eating while she was talking to me but I was STARVING after running 3.49 miles!

After I ate, I decided to go get a chair massage. I was 2nd in line so I talked to a guy about being cryogenically frozen. Apparently, its the new thing to do in sports medicine. You take off your clothes (you wear panties and gloves) and then step into this machine with your head outside of it. The blast you with cold for about 3 mins. It makes your blood go to your core and is supposed to rejuvenate muscles and all that good stuff. I can make an appt for to try it for just $20 so I might do that. It sounds interesting!

The chair massage was excellent. I wish I could get one of those after every run! After that, it was all over. I took my picture with my running friends and we were outie!

 

My running girls!

 

 

On Sat...we ran our last meetup group! It was kind of bittersweet. It was awesome because everyone was able to run the full 35 mins and most of us went the full 3.1 miles (5k!). We actually ran a little further...3.35. Not too shabby! I also found out that I look like a total doofus when I run!

 

 



Goofy girl!

 

This week will be rough trying to fit my running in. I need/want to run at least 3 times this week...but I have a full schedule.

 

Mon - Meetup group graduation! Hooray for a nice dinner with running friends!

Tues - Macklemore concert! I can not wait!

Wed - Therapy session with RatBastard - should be interesting

Thurs - Stitch n' bitch

Fri - Girl Scout meeting

Sat - will definitely be able to run

Sun - The new Hunger Games movie! Catching Fire here we come! 

Where's Sprinkles: Halloween Edition!

Sprinkles has been spotted!

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. When else is it social acceptable for an adult to dress up in costume and eat tons of candy?!

You already saw a preview of my awesome costume (that I've worn the last 4 years in a row!) so it should be no surprise to you what it is!

So let's play...Where's Sprinkles?!

 

Sprinkles is hard at work!

 

 



Sprinkles stretches after a run!

 

Sprinkles also went to Panera for her stitch n bitch but forgot to record the moment for blog-sterity. So just pretend you can picture me knitting! Use your imagination! It looked pretty awesome. I got tons of weird looks and lots of smiles. Love it! 

Getting my swag on!

If you know me in real life....you know that I love free swag. I use coupons, I like freebies, and I live for a good deal.

Because I'm so cheap...I like to volunteer my time rather than give my money. (mostly because I have more time than money)

So when I heard they needed volunteers for the City of Oaks Marathon in my home city, I was all about it. Hang out with runners....experience the race without having to run it or pay for it...and get free swag? Sign me up!

I had my volunteer training session last night. Plus I picked up my swag!

I get a a tech hat too!

 

This picture in no way demonstrates just how bright YELLOW this shirt is! I love it!

 

I'll be going to the race expo and hanging out with runners. Then on race day you'll find me at about 26.1 miles (or 12.8 if you're running the half marathon)...near the finish line!

 

I'll be the one yelling "You're almost done! Great job! Don't quit now!"