I am a Halloweenie

Today is Halloween. It's a holiday of candy, costumes, and scary movies. Oh, and did I mention candy? I like candy. While most people love Halloween because they love watching horror films, I am not one of those people. I simply don't do scary movies. They terrify me.  I am what you would call a Halloweenie. I said Weenie. Hehe. Nightmare on Elm Street? No way. Friday the 13th. I don't think so.  The Exorcist. Not a chance. I have never even seen Scream because I knew it would scare me. Once, at a sleepover while all my friends were watching Candyman, I hung out upstairs with my friends mother. I already have a wandering mind and I don't need scary movies adding fears.

There are non Halloween movies that I have seen that still haunt me like Arachnophobia and Jaws so I try to avoid any type of movie that will instill fear or paranoia in me. Jaws is literally one of the reasons I will not go above my knees in the ocean. And against better judgement I once even watched Open Water. Bad idea. Nightmares. But anyway, you get the idea, I am a gigantic wuss when it comes to scary movies. So when Halloween rolls around, I tend to steer toward wholesome, family Halloween oriented flicks, most of which are happen to be shown on ABC Family on the days and weeks leading up to Halloween. (Yes, I am 30-years-old and do love this channel. So what?) So when Halloween time is upon us I make sure and watch each one of these at least one time. But usually I end up watching a few of them over and over again. 

A Trifecta of Housewives

These last few weeks have been heaven for a Bravo reality TV fiend like myself. Bravo has outdone itself showing not one, not two, but THREE Real Housewives shows on in one week. New Jersey, New York, and Miami. Jackpot. It's quite the trifecta. If loving this is wrong, I don't want to be right. That's for damn sure. If only Andy Cohen could throw a sneak peak of Atlanta and Beverly Hills in there too, things really would be amazing. He really created a monster. And I say that in the most complimentary way possible.

So far all three seasons are full of the usual narcissism, drama, and wine-fueled fights that all Housewives fans have come to love. This season though, there seems to have been more of this than usual. Theresa vs. everyone on NJ, Aviva vs. Ramona and Sonja on NY, and so far Karent vs. Adriana and Alexia on Miami. Major dramz. And these are grown women. It's so bizarre to me that they actually don't mind being filmed behaving the way that they do. Clearly they are all part of the even-bad-publicity-is-good-publicity party or else they would be more mindful of how they act. Or would they?

Here we go again

With the impending Frankenstorm approaching NYC, everyone seems to be in a panic. You'd think with Hurricane Irene hitting just last year people would at least be a little bit calmer. Not the case. Lines at the grocery stores are super long and shelves are kind of picked over already. However, with meteorologists are predicting this storm to be pretty bad because of it being a combination of three storms. We have Hurricane Sandy meeting up with a Nor'Easter meeting up with another front. Essentially its the perfect storm. A weatherman's wet dream if you will.

Sidenote: It seems that these strong storms are becoming more and more frequent. Not just on the East Coast, but all over the world. Anyone that thinks Global Warming is a falsity needs to reconsider this or have their head examined. And if you don't believe me, go see An Inconvenient Truth.

Think Pink!

October is breast cancer awareness month. There is pink everywhere. Please tell me you have noticed this. This is the month where many people really show their support for breast cancer research by buying products and wearing products that help make others aware of breast cancer prevention. There are breast cancer walks and runs to raise money and awareness and it really is a fantastic thing. Breast cancer is a disease that almost everyone knows someone affected by, if not directly affected themselves. I myself know many people who have fought and won their battle with breast cancer (Go Grandma!!) as well as those that have lost their lives because of this disease.

Last weekend while running in Central Park, there wasn't one, but there were two Breast Cancer walks going on. The Avon 2-day walk was finishing up their 40 mile walk and the Making Strides 10K walk followed up after them. During my run, I passed hundreds of walkers, almost all of them donning pink. It was so inspiring. I think I got teary-eyed like 20 times. No joke. What gets me every time is the women wearing the "Survivor" T-shirts. They are amazing. They fought and beat this terrible disease and are out there walking with pride to bring awareness to others.

TLC continues to make me think

TLC has done it again to me! It has created a TV show that has generated a fascination and caused me to have so many questions. Although TLC has recently been criticized for their programming choices (Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo and Breaking Amish), I must say that I have enjoyed them and actually learned many new things.

This post is a little past due because the TV show that I am going to discuss, Abby and Brittany, ended its first season a few weeks ago. I am unsure if a second season was picked up but it was recently brought up on another show I watch so it brought it to the forefront of my mind again. Last Monday on CBS's Two Broke Girls, the two main characters, Max and Caroline, were lying in bed together (as good friends do,) looking at a computer and Max joked "Seriously, I don't know how Abby and Brittany do it, because I'm uncomfortable with you even sitting this close to me." I laughed out loud. This is actually rare for me when watching TV. Then I thought, geez, there are probably so many people out there that didn't even get this joke because they don't watch all the garbage on TV that I do. They didn't watch TLC's Abby And Brittany about conjoined twins. See... all the hours of my TV viewing is paying off. I got a joke a lot of people probably didn't get on show a lot of people don't even watch. Pat on the back to me.

Gotta get my head back in the game

Over the summer a friend and I purchased a Living Social deal for speed dating. We figured it was us being open minded and trying something new and different. Best case scenario: I would meet my future husband. (Or maybe just someone cool/cute to date for a while.) Worst Case scenario: I would get a good story out of it for this blog. Basically I felt it was ultimately a win-win sitch. However, although I have seemed to have gotten a blog post of it, this is not the direction I wanted this post to go in but I will get to that in a second. 

My friend and I were both really busy over summer and then once school started and marathon training was in full swing, we had even less time to use our voucher. With only two weeks left until its expiration date, I decided to use my voucher and go speed dating. Alone. And sober. (I am not drinking this month because it is so close to the marathon and I don't want any alcohol in my system.) I was trying to go in as positive and open minded as possible but my head just wasn't in it so it wasn't a good time. Besides the fact that I was exhausted, felt gross (fat and zitty), and was by myself, this speed dating event was not as I expected it to be. I walked into the bar it was at and it was a small sports bar with regular patrons in the bar. There was no back room where this was going to go on. It was all going to happen out in the open. Okay, this was sure to make me feel more like a pathetic loser than I already was feeling. Now random strangers can watch me do this awkward speed dating "dance." This bothered me and then I was bothered that I even cared what others thought. Things were not going well in my head.

Respect the Runner

Runners come in all shapes and sizes.

I don't want to be that girl that only writes about running because it can be a snooze. But since it's been a big part of my life the last few weeks and will be for at least another four weeks, just bare with me. I am going to write about it again. Trying not to make a habit of it though. :)

It's no secret that this year has been a brutal one for me health-wise. I had a broken foot and four Ulcerative Colitis flare-ups, including one hospitalization. Because of my health, running to took a back seat. I just didn't have the energy. And when I finally started to feel better, I had very little motivation and desire to work out and run. This past June, I ran my first road race. It was a 5-mile race in Central Park and I had barely run in over two months so this was probably a stupid idea anyway. Who runs a 5-mile race and doing zero physical activity and being really sick? Um, well, I do. I did. And it was a HUGE mistake. I ran the race. And then went home and cried. My time was awful. It was so freaking slow. And I was upset.  My health was improving but my morale was down. My friends tried to console me saying that I should be happy I finished the 5-mile race after being inactive and sick for so long. They were proud of me. I tried to see it that way, but just couldn't. I understand for those that don't run that far of a distance, this can be a great achievement, but I was just not a happy camper. I wish I could have been because they were right. But I just kept thinking "after not running for so long, would I ever get back in it?" Would I have the heart and the right head on my shoulders to keep at it after this demoralizing race? Well, I think we all know the answer is yes now. To think that in a little less than a month I will be running 26.2 miles is really exciting for me and I am grateful that my body has held up thus far. It has certainly come a long way since that 5-mile debacle in June. 

Respect the Distance

Since my life as of late has consisted of running, work, running, eating, running, and sleeping lately, I figured that this post would be about...you guessed it...running. With about a month to go until the NYC Marathon, my life is consumed with training for this marathon. I had said I wasn't going to officially say I was running this 26.2 mile journey until I completed my first 20 mile training run. Well, this past Sunday, I did just that. It was such a relief to check that off my list. After crying on and off for the past week full of anxiety and stress over this run, I was happy to have completed it. And it even went pretty well. It gave me the motivation I needed to finish off these next four weeks. I have one more 20-miler to go and then I can taper down my mileage. November 4 can't come soon enough and as stressed and crazed about this marathon, I am ready for it to be over.

Since most of my friends run, they know challenging it can be. Whether its for weight loss, to stay in shape, or just for fun (who really does that anyway?), we share this hobby in common. Whether they are fast or slow or run high or low mileages, most of them know that running long distances like a marathon is no easy feat. We respect the distance. Most people with any common sense do. However, there happen to be some people that seem so completely clueless about long distance runs and the time and effort that go into training for and running them. These people are just straight up ignorant. And sometimes borderline insulting because of their ignorance. This past weekend after my long run I ran into one of these very people.

It's almost muff season...Hehe

Mixed Nuts. Hehehe

I consider myself to have a pretty great sense of humor. It can be dry at times and sarcastic at others. It can be straight up offensive most of the time, and also immature on occasion. Today I am going to focus on the immature. Why? Because it makes me giggle. And sometimes a good ole chuckle can make your day.

There are certain regular words that whenever I hear them, I can't help but turn into a ten-year-old boy.  A grin will comes across my face and I try to contain my giggle. (The fact that I work with teenagers all day makes me more aware of this too since I cannot laugh in front of them with these words so I hold it all in.) These are words that have more than one meaning, and the second meaning is usually completely inappropriate. And since my mind is in the gutter most of the time, I almost always think of that second definition. I can't help it. And its even more funny if I am with good company with an equally great sense of humor and we just repeat it and all get a good laugh.