A little inspiration for you

Yesterday I went for a run. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done.

And it’s %100 due to the fact that I listened to this song for the last few blocks:

It’s a commercial song for an insurance company. But I don’t care! It’s awesome.

I put it on repeat, and I was like, “I can do anything! I can lift a car! I can run the last mile! I can buy insurance and climb mountains and do anything I want to!” Seriously. Listen to it, download it, put it on repeat, and love your life.

You’re welcome, folks.

It’s autumn!

I love this season. The trees in the park behind my house are really great right now. I took my camera and my dog for a walk this morning, and it was just lovely.

Racing (like a pro)

This morning both of my parents ran a 10K! That’s 6.2 miles, guys. They are seriously some of the most legit people I know. Check it out:

My mom ran so fast that I missed seeing her the finish line! She snuck through while we were still congratulating my dad… who reported that he hadn’t seen her since mile 2. They both finished in under 1:30, which is amazing. I’m so proud.

Some of our dearest friends were also running the half marathon, so by the end of the morning these four had covered over 38 miles. So. Legit.

I felt a little bit bad for sitting, standing, taking pictures, and drinking coffee while they ran. But not really. It was interesting to watch other people react as they watched their friends and family reach the finish. At one point, I was standing with a small crowd of people who all were screaming, “WHITNEY!!! WHITNEY!!!! GO GO GO!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!”

And I really wanted Whitney to go, too.

It’s really exciting to watch people you love challenging themselves and succeeding. I am so proud of them.

A functional adventure

Today I rode my bike to work, and it was great. I wore my swanky new bike helmet (which I acquired today for this occasion) (and which actually isn’t that swanky at all, I was just excited about it), saved approximately $1 on gas, and enjoyed the perfect fall weather we’ve been having this week. Win-win-win! On my way home I took a couple pictures:

 

Sunset and bluetime are my favorite times, and they were both reeeeallly good tonight, so it was the perfect evening for a ride. I was a little nervous on the way home because it got dark and I didn’t have a light on my bike. But I didn’t get hit by any cars, so it was ok. All in all it was a lovely little adventure.

Camping!

Two of my favorite things in the world are being with my family and being outdoors.

Combine those two things that I love, plus some perfect weather, mountains, dutch oven cooking, roadtripping, campfire-ing and hiking, and you have a whole lot of goodness all bundled up (literally, at some times) in our family camping trip.

We spent the last week running around Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, and boy let me tell you, it was great. I would even venture to say it was a blast.

This is the view from our first campsite in a nice little place called Aspenglen.

This is at the Alpine Visitor center in the park. It’s in the tundra!

Also from the Alpine Center. My mom took this photo and the rest of the ones below. Isn’t she great?

While we were up in the tundra, we could see this lovely little rain cloud with the sun shining behind it.

We took a nice little hike around this place called Lily Lake.

This is Cub Lake, which interestingly, has a lot more lilies than Lily Lake.

I was really excited to use these bowls that we’ve had since I was 3. They are supposed to change colors when you put hot things in them, but since they’re 19 years old, they didn’t. It was a little disappointing, but thankfully didn’t ruin the trip.

miscellaneous

Two great things happened today: I spent the morning biking and brunching with some of my favorite people, and then I successfully completed my last night of summer teaching! woohoo!

This was me tonight:

-Ok class, this is the treble clef. It means you’re going to play on the top half of the keyboard.
“Trouble cleef?”
“Tumble clef?”
“Tremble claf?”
-No. Treble. Clef.
“Is it a staff cleef?”
-Nope. It’s a treble clef.

In their defense, “treble” is a weird word that sounds like a lot of other words. They did finally get it by the end of class.

For more about our biking and brunching adventure, check out my dear friend Katie’s blog  here. It was a blast. I hope it happens again.

Also, I can’t stop listening to Rhythm and Repose by Glen Hansard. It’s seriously the best record I’ve listened to in a long time. And the first album that I’ve actually spent money on since I can’t remember when. Seriously. Go listen to it. I’m freaking out.

A Doggie Disaster

Today I tried to give my dog a haircut. She was looking pretty shaggy, and it’s really hot these days, so I thought I would help her out and cut some of her extra fur off. She was really into it at first, because I bribed her with a treat, but after 5 minutes she was over it and SUPER annoyed at me for making her stand still outside in the heat. Secretly, I was over it too, but I couldn’t leave her half-done.

But actually, that ended up happening anyways, because the scissors broke before I could do her face and legs. So now she has a skinny little body and tail, while her face and legs remain scruffy as ever. What a mess.

I think she looks like an irresistible little snow monster when she’s yawning.

I also found a bottle of “Sugar Cookie Pet Cologne” in the drawer with her scissors and brush. Excellent.  I busted that squirt bottle out, snuck up on her, and sprayed her a few times after the haircut. Now she actually smells like a sugar cookie. What more could you want? (Why we have this pet cologne is beyond me. My mom claims that it was given to her by the lady who usually cuts Emma’s hair, but I don’t buy that.)

Clearly, this little story is an indicator of other things in my life: I’m not working again until next Wednesday. My sister is out of town. I have nothing else to do except mutilate my dog’s haircut, make her smell like cookies, and blog about it.

a little look at my day.

I’ve been spending a lot of time with 6-year-olds this week. They crack me up all the time.

“Is this my left hand?”
-Nope, it’s the other one.
5 minutes later: “Wait, which one is my left hand?”
-This one. You can tell because it makes an L when you hold it out, isn’t that cool?
“They both look like Ls.”

The 4th of July was the best ever, we got to shoot of fireworks and went to my friend’s house and played with three train sets, it was even funner than my house and my house has a Wii. And a lot of times I watch tv in the PM – that’s the one in the later time, and AM is in the morning.

Umm…. I’m don’t understand which ones are the notes.

This is the excitingest day of my life!!! I get to learn more piano!!

Umm. I couldn’t practice because I had to clean my house a lot. My house is really messy.

-So how many beats does this note get?
“You’re wearing the same earrings as last time.”

I learned how clocks work in kindergarten. The little red one moves ALL the time and goes tick tick tick and it goes around 70 times and then the big one waits until it says 59 and then it goes to 3 and then 4 and then 5.

“Wait. This one’s my right hand?”

-Watch out for that extension cord, don’t trip.
“Sometimes wires can have electricity in them and hurt you.”
-Yep, that’s true.

Teaching is a lot of things, but it is definitely never boring. I try not to actually laugh at them, but sometimes I just can’t help it.

Sushi and Lady Gaga

Today, Lindsay and I made sushi!

It turned out really well. I was pretty nervous, because we didn’t really know what we were doing. And usually that turns out badly for us. But not today! These california rolls were awesome.

For our first sushi-making experience, it was pretty good.

Also, don’t worry. This isn’t going to turn into a food blog. Today one of my students came in and asked if she could sing her favorite song for me. I said maybe after class she could. As soon as we finished, she said, “Okay, wanna hear it now?” and proceeded to sing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” This was not what I expected. But now that I think about it, I don’t know how I didn’t see it coming. What else are 8-year-olds listening to these days? I sure don’t know, and I probably don’t want to know.

While she was singing, I was thinking to myself, “Wow this is really strange and I don’t know what to do.” I was cracking up on the inside, and I was also appalled that this was her favorite song (I have my fair share of favorite pop songs, but this one sure isn’t on the list), and I was also trying really hard to keep a straight face and smile instead of laugh.

When she finished, I didn’t know how to respond, so I said, “Great job! You have a lovely voice.”

“Thanks. I know more of it, but I forgot the words,” she said.

what a week!

It’s been a crazy one. I can’t even remember everything that happened this week, and of the things that I do remember, I can’t even believe that they all went down in one week. Between teaching 6 hours every day and having as much fun as possible, a lot went down. Here’s a sampling from the week:

1. Two of my dearest friends returned to Nebraska from their year in England! I’m so glad to have them back.

2. One of my students gave me some crab apples on the last day of our week-long class. Totes presh. I felt like a real-life teacher and I wished I had a desk on which to set the apples.

3. I went to a baseball game, and actually enjoyed every minute of it. (Fact: my personal policy toward baseball has always been to avoid it whenever possible, because it’s typically slow, hard to follow, and associated with inebriated and sometimes annoying fans. But to my surprise, I had the best time at this game. I followed it, all kinds of exciting plays happened, the people I went with were tons of fun, AND I got to participate in the best around-the-stadium wave I’ve ever seen. That’s saying a lot, because I usually scorn the stadium wave, too. It was an all-around unexpectedly fun time.)

4. I developed an immunity to Claritin. Bad news. I won’t be able to breathe until September.

5. I joined a bike gang! Watch out, we might be coming to a lake or recreation area near you. (Actually, we just went for a bike ride around a lake. But that’s the same thing, right?)

That’s actually all I can think of. Who knows what the coming week will hold!