Following Orders . . .

So, I've been told to get off my booty and blog. Happy? (I mean this in the most loving way - you know who you are!)

I didn't get into camp yesterday due to a very late night on Wednesday. I did make it this morning. Today we did a scavenger hunt around the campus where we work out. You have to find certain spots on campus, answer a question about the spot, and do a specific exercise there. You also have to run from point to point. We had a few people absent today, so my group was small (2 campers and 2 leaders). But, it was fun! Another fun thing about today was that we had several former NFL players working out with us today. That, of course, explains where the NFL Combine workout came from! I think stuff like that shows how strong of a program we have, if it can accommodate so many people of varying fitness levels and allow each of them to work their hardest!

I finally got my hair trimmed on Wednesday. Meg did a great job, as usual. I changed my mind on cutting it above my shoulders, so it's still long.

I think I'm heading to Louisville on Sunday for work. Although, I haven't received any hotel information, so we'll see.

Today's Motto . . .

"Just because your muscles are complaining doesn't mean you have to listen."

Except! Substitute "shins" for "muscles" and you have me pegged. Needless to say, my shins are still bothering me. Hopefully, with continued ice and some rest they will be fine. Tomorrow, thankfully, is an off day for us, so I don't have to workout until Thursday morning.

Yesterday was one of my favorite workouts. First, we ran 1 mile or so and then headed down to the field for the workout. We did random exercises, some for 30 seconds and some for 1 minute, and each exercise is some sort of skill. For example, we did jump rope, different type of squats and jumps, mogul twists, throwing and squatting, lunging and shooting a fake basketball. The exercises are meant to keep your heart rate up, and also to max out your muscles - legs especially. It's a fun workout because Stacy is very creative, and has some fun, and funny, exercises.

Today, was also a fun workout, but very challenging. The workout came straight from an NFL Combine Training Program. These are used to increase your speed and agility. We had five stations set up, and did different drills at each station. So, lots of sprints, suicides, shuffles, and things of that sort. The stops and starts really bothered my shins. In between the stations, we did an ab exercise.

I was very excited to finally watch "Heroes" last night. I really liked it. It's probably my favorite new show (although I still haven't seen "The Nine", it starts next week, I think). I'm not a huge fan of X-Men, or some of the other comic book type stuff, so a lot of it will be new for me. I loved Hiro! He was easily my favorite character. I'm already looking forward to next week!

The Weekend . . .

It's been a quiet weekend for me, which I'm very happy about. Even though I couldn't run, I did manage to get outside for a bit yesterday. I'm itching for a run -- which is good! Today, it's been raining off and on all day long. I've been reading mostly - which is so nice.

I've been icing my shins all weekend. They feel better, and I hope they feel okay during the workout in the morning. We have two full weeks left of our workout sessions. I'm going to miss three in the last week as I'll be in Louisville for work. I hope that my work schedule will allow me to do the next set of workouts. We're only going until around Thanksgiving because it gets so cold in the mornings. Then, things will start back up sometime in March.

I renewed my Crunch membership a couple of weeks ago (and for less than I was paying) for another year. I love my gym. So, I'll at least be able to run indoors and get in a good workout if it gets too cold for me outside.

I'm getting my hair cut on Wednesday afternoon. My step-brother comes in Wednesday night, and is staying until sometime on Saturday. I was planning to go with him on Friday because all the drivers mill about and sign autographs and meet the fans. I so wanted to see Patrick Dempsey again. I had originally considered taking the picture of he and I from last year and having him sign it for me. Unfortunately, I have to go into the office some on Friday, so I won't be able to go. I guess hugging on Patrick Dempsey once will have to be enough!

Bootcamp: Day 9, Round 2 . . .

I'm so happy that I'm working out with this great group of people. They all offer such unconditional motivation and support. I was talking today with Stephanie, one my my favorite leaders, about races this morning. She turned me onto Active.com, which has a ton of training tools, and race information. She also said she had a great half-marathon training program which she used for hers, so I should have that soon. The website is great. They had several 10Ks listed for November and December which are in Atlanta. So, now, I'm considering one of those instead of the bridge run. Although, Steph has done the Cooper River Bridge run in Charleston, South Carolina (which is similar to the one I've been considering). She said it was a blast. A lot of the leaders are running a 5K in the morning, which I decided I would do too . . . until the workout. More on that later.

Today we did "B-52". It was a competition workout. We were divided into 5 groups, and each group had a deck of cards in the middle. Each team member would sprint to the middle, pick up a card, and based on what the pulled card was, complete an individual exercise. Numbers 2-9 meant repetitions of the card value, face cards were 15 reps, and Aces were 20. However, when the first Joker was pulled, all the reps doubled until the second Joker was pulled. You have four different exercises based on what suit you pull from the deck. The first group to get through the entire deck, put it back together, and bring it back to the middle wins. It was fun. The first round of exercises was push-up variations, round 2 was ab work, and round 3 was leg work. My legs were bothering me during a good portion of the workout. So, much so that I was nearly in tears -- and I do consider myself to have a high pain tolerance as far as exercise goes.

After the workout, three of the guys were checking on me because I was limping and walking slow. After they all inspected my legs, including prodding around a bit, they decided I've probably got shin splints. Those aren't fun at all. One of our leaders is a chiropractor, so he was able to give me very detailed and good advice for recovery. First, ice, ice, and more ice. He also suggested that I fill a bucket with ice water and soak my legs. I really dread that. He cracked up at the look I gave him after he informed me that "after the first 5 minutes, your legs are numb anyway." I was reading about the benefits of ice baths earlier this week, it's just getting up the nerve to try it. I can't run this weekend, under their orders. It was pretty funny, because all three of the guys were babying me a bit. They've all been teasing me about my fall most of the week. One even teased me that he was going to come over tomorrow and just cut off my legs. I told him that I was already short enough! Hopefully, by resting this weekend, I'll be okay for Monday. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Bootcamp: Day 8, Round 2 & Super Motivation . . .

I missed the workout yesterday, deciding to let my knee and lower leg rest a bit. It was a good decision. It felt much better during today's workout. The bruise is still really ugly -- but I'm kinda fond of it. I think it makes me look tough -- some might say klutzy, but I say tough. Yesterday, they did interval training, so I picked a tough workout to miss.

Today was 21s. It was 49 degrees when we started and throughout the workout I shed two layers of clothes. I was drenched when we finished. We started off running the stadium stairs, up and down three times, then we did our regular dynamic warm-ups. We probably ran about 1 mile around campus. The strength exercises were in downward pyramids, starting at 21 and moving down in 3's (i.e. 18, 15, 12, 9, etc.) Each circuit consisted of jumping jacks, some form of squats or lunges (or sometimes both), some form of push-ups (regular, military style, and diamond), and some form of ab exercise (sit-ups, crunches, butterflies, flutterkicks, and plank). Then we did two sets of 21 tricep dips, and 2 sets of 21 elevated push-ups, angle to work the triceps. Mine gave out at the end. It's the weirdest feeling to be pushing and pushing and your muscle is so fatigued that it won't go. Afterwards, we sprinted up and down the massive hill for 2 minutes. I have officially named that hill "Bane" -- as in the bane of my existence. I hate it.

In other news, I start my job October 1st. I'm looking forward to it. I'm still not sure what's going on with next week. I emailed them this morning, so hopefully I hear from them today.

My stylist -hair, not fashion, but how I wish I had a fashion stylist too -- is on vacation this week. So, I may have to wait until next Saturday to get my hair cut. If I don't go to Louisville, I can do it earlier. I must call Meg once I find out my schedule.

I've lost 4 pounds, as of today, since I started this session. Everybody told me that your second session is when you see vast improvement. So, hopefully I'll see changes in my body tone over the next couple of weeks. People told me they could see differences with the last session, and I sort of did. I'm already seeing a little bit now, and we still have 2 weeks to go.

Last night, I was reading through my "Runner's World" magazine and came to an article about Dean Karnazes. He's an ultramarathoner who is running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. For those unfamiliar, that's 26.2 miles per day. He's sponsored by The North Face and you can read more about it here: endurance50. He's going to be running in Atlanta on October 27th -a.k.a. the day of reckoning for Georgia Bar Examinees, and Helen's birthday! This guy amazed me. He finished 8th in the Badwater Death Valley Ultramarathon! This race covers 135 miles, is held at the end of July, and the racers not only run for approximately 60 hours, but have to deal with temperatures of up to 130 degrees! Talk about tough, I mean, look at this picture. Sure, it's beautiful, but could you imagine running there?

He also has written a book titled Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All Night Runner, which I totally want to read. It really motivated me to read about him. I mean, if he can run that many miles, then surely I can stay off my ass and keep running.

Bootcamp: Day 6, Round 2 . . .

First, a pretty picture of my badly bruised kneecap!

I'm telling the truth when I say it doesn't hurt. However, because I compensated for it yesterday during the workout, my shins were hurting pretty bad today. I had to take it easy on all the non-abdominal exercises.

Anyhow, today's workout was an Ab-O-Rama! It was so painful, mostly because I despise doing ab work . . . it just sucks. We set up in four staging areas and did a different exercise at each one, for a total of 12 exercises. Each exercise was performed for 90 seconds. 90 seconds doesn't sound like a long time -- it's only a minute and a half -- but it sure seems like a very long time when you're doing difficult ab exercise. The 12 that we did were: rowboats, plank position, ball twists, push-up to plank, leg scissors, bicycles, side planks, regular crunches, supermans, oblique crunches, leg holds (6 inches off the ground -- can you say "ow"?), and up & downs. We also did different exercises, such as sprints, back-pedaling, and walking lunges between the stations. That was the part I had to take it easy on. The first set of sprints got my leg.

I'm thinking of cutting my hair. Right now it's almost down to my collarbone, and it really needs to be trimmed. I'm trying to decide if I just want to trim it, and keep the same style, or if I want to have it cut to just below my chin. I'm debating, and looking at pictures. Who knows. We'll see what happens when I get into Megan's chair.

Bootcamp: Day 5, Round 2

My knee and foot are both feeling better. My knee doesn't look pretty. It's totally blue right on top of my kneecap. It felt okay during my workout this morning, save for the jog back down the huge hill (yes, the huge hill from Friday). I noticed the further into the workout the more achy my knee became, I suppose it's simply from the jarring of the exercise. My foot felt a little wonky when I woke up, but once I put on my shoes, and it had a little support, it was fine. It didn't bother me at all during the workout.

So, today's workout was a mixture of jogging and 1 minute recovery exercises. All in all, we probably jogged around 1-1.5 miles. AND! I jogged the massive hill without stopping or getting nauseous! I was very pleased, as was Bryan, the guy who stayed with me on Friday when I was walking off my nausea. In between the jogging portions, we did the following exercises: 1 minute curb toe-touches (x 2), corner jumps (x 3 -- once with both legs, and once on each leg), walking lunges, 1 minutes basketball slides (x 2), 1 minute plank, 20 sit-ups, 1 minute bicycles, 20 tripcep dips, and 20 push-ups.

Tomorrow is ab day! I'm really dreading that. I hate working my abs!

Yesterday, we didn't get to go to Nino's because they were closed. Instead, we went to Roxx Tavern. They have great burgers, but I was good and ordered Lemon Rosemary Chicken with green beans and carrots. I wanted that burger so bad I could taste it, but the chicken was good too!

Ouch . . .

I've had a pretty good weekend. I've been all on my own, which has been nice.

Yesterday I watched baseball and football. Boston took one game from the Yankees, and then gave up the second one. They play another doubleheader today. Tennessee lost to Florida by 1 measly point! I was yelling at my television throughout that game so much I was hoarse!

Today, I went for a run. I went over to Lovett since I wouldn't have to deal with any traffic and it's a pretty campus. I ran 2 miles, if I mapped it out right, in 18:36. However, I had a negative split, running the second mile in 9:06, 12 seconds faster than the first. I'm not sure how that happened at all! On my way back, I was running across a wooden bridge which crosses the Chattahoochee River when I fell. I'm not sure if I tripped or if my left ankle gave out on me. I landed directly on my right knee. I was able to finish the run (and get a faster time)! My ankle's a little tight, but not swollen. My knee doesn't hurt but looks as if I've got a cotton ball stuffed under the skin! It's already bruising. I'm icing my knee right now, and then I'm going to ice my ankle afterwards.

Meeting some friends for lunch at Nino's Cucina Italiana. Hopefully my knee does alright.

My travel plans as far as work have changed, most likely to early next week. So, I'll still be in Atlanta this week. Hopefully my knee goes down so that I can still get my workouts in this week!

Run, Baby Run . . . (aka Bootcamp: Day 4, Round 2)

Today was a long run day. After warming up, we did two 1-minute rounds of curb toe-touches, then 40 tricep dips, and 30 lunges on each leg. After this, we took off on our run. All in all, we ran for 25 minutes. I estimate that I ran 2 miles. I was going fine until we got to this huge, huge, huge hill. About halfway up, I got nauseous and was really worried I was going to throw up. That meant I had to walk it off for a little bit, otherwise, I probably would've been closer to 2.5 miles.

Yesterday I was skimming my October issue of SHAPE magazine and found a small blurb I found interesting. A University of Virginia study lead by Dennis Proffit found that hills appear steeper after an intense workout. Evidently, this is your brain's way to get your body to conserve energy. This totally makes sense to me. It really made sense when I looked up at that massive hill this morning. The article was published in Perception & Psychophysics, in August 2005. However, you can read the abstract and purchase the article at IngentaConnect. I haven't been able to find the entire article online without being required to purchase it.

In other news, I had a job interview yesterday afternoon which resulted in being conditionally hired as an associate with a firm expanding in Atlanta. I'm pleased and very excited. Next week, I'll be at the firm's main office meeting the attorneys and paralegals and receiving some training. Hopefully, everything works out. I do hate that I'm having to miss several days of bootcamp, but I am packing my running shoes and workout clothes so that I can still workout.

Itchy, Itchy . . . (a.k.a. Bootcamp: Day 4, Round 2)

Yesterday was a recovery day as far as bootcamp goes. Thank goodness. I woke up so sore from all the repetitions we did on Tuesday. I made myself stretch off and on all day long, which helped. However, I decided to stay up and watch Project Runway, so I ended up getting into bed at about 11:45. Not a good idea when you have to be up at 5:00 a.m.! I'm so tired! Usually it's just physical exhaustion from the workout, but today it's mental too. I'm taking a nap this morning or I won't be able to function this afternoon.

Today was jump rope day. Fun! (insert sarcasm here) In all, we did about a 1/2 mile run, part of it up a really big hill. I hate hills, and this one in particular. One of the leaders, Stephanie, stayed with me, and encouraged and pushed, which I needed. I'd have been walking up that hill had she not stuck with me. Thanks Steph! Once we reached the top, we jump roped three 3-minute rounds, with a 1 minute break in between. During the breaks we shadow-boxed. I'm a pretty coordinated person, but not when it comes to the jump rope! Then we did some ab work. Afterwards, we headed to the practice field and did a couple of snakes, one with flutter kicks and another with the plank. (The snake is where we're all in a line, we start the exercise and one end gets up and starts running between everybody exercising, all the way to the other end. Once every body is done then we stop. So, the slower people run, the longer we do the exercise and vice versa.) The last bootcamp I did we did this workout during the third week, and my knee was killing me! I definitely liked doing earlier, as I had no tightness in my knee.

Anyhow, the itchy portion of this post is due to rolling around in the grass during the ab-work, the snake, and stretch-out. Because it rained all day yesterday the grass was extra moist and muddy. I had grass from the tops of my knees all the way into my shoes! Mud is all over my favorite white workout shirt! But, it was fun!

I think I forgot to mention that last week I officially returned the new cell phone I purchased when I water logged my phone. My old one has been working fine for 3 weeks, so hopefully it will keep doing so!

In local news, Whitney Houston filed for a legal separation from Bobby Brown. They live in Alpharetta (just North of Atlanta) most of the time. The stories around town of their adventures are pretty crazy. Story's here: Whitney's Prerogative: Leaving Bobby Brown.

Maybe more later, just depends on how things go today.

12 of 12: September

This is my first time doing Chad Darnell's 12 of 12.

If you are new to 12 of 12 - here are the basics:
1) ALL PHOTOS MUST BE TAKEN ON THE 12TH OF EACH MONTH.
2) After you post your pictures onto a webpage of your choice (Livejournal, typepad, MySpace, Flickr, etc...) please post the TIME, LOCATION, and A SMALL COMMENT in the pic.
3) You own the rights to all of your pictures. The idea "12 of 12" is mine. While credit is not necessary, please don't credit someone else with the idea.
4) The original concept was at least one body part in the picture. That idea was slowly faded away. The important part is that it is 12 pics.
5) The monthly Bonus pic is a 13th picture and is optional. (This time around the bonus pic is based on the word "break")"

5:34 a.m.: In my car on my way to bootcamp. We have to be at the park at 5:45 a.m. for the 6:00 a.m. workout. This is the second time I've done bootcamp, but today is only day 2 of this session. It's a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun.

7:05 a.m.: Today we were working out on a practice football field, so my shoes are extra dirty. You can barely make out all the grass on the back of the shoes. My arms, legs, and back were covered!

7:20 a.m.: Here I am at Cobb Parkway and Paces Mill Road, on my way home from working out. Although I despise getting up at 5:00 a.m., I do love being finished with my workout by 7:00 a.m.

7:22 a.m.: This is a condo tower being built near my apartment complex. It's called Vinings Mountain and is built on the hill where Gen. Sherman stood when Atlanta was burned during the Civil War. When it's clear, there's a beautiful view of the city. Said view is the reason these condos start at $500,000! I don't think I'll be moving in anytime soon.

7:25 a.m.: Home at last! The first thing I do when I get home from working out is leave everything at the front door! It all ends up in a pile of clothes, shoes, sweat, grass, only to be picked up and dropped into the washer. After that, I clean up and make some breakfast.

11:00 a.m.: After doing some housekeeping, I was in need of a few groceries. Naturally, I headed to Publix! Evidently, my Publix is "the place" for single people on Sundays. It's too crowded for me on that day!

11:45 a.m.: On my way back to the apartment. The cars belong to construction workers building the massive condo tower (see above). I've always liked how the office building is perfectly centered between the trees. It's especially pretty during fall.
11:50 a.m.: Now that I'm home I must carry in my food and water! Anybody want to help? In the back of my trunk you can see my Metro Atlanta map, always a helpful item when trying to wind your way around Atlanta traffic.
12:15 p.m.: This is my book table. It currently holds 19 books. I refuse to buy more until I've read these (aside from The Little Prince, that I've read).

12:20 p.m.: Sitting down for a quick lunch and news check, while waiting for a friend to arrive. Lunch was a grilled chicken salad. The website is CNN, which I'm partial to because it's located here in Atlanta.

5:50 p.m. After a late lunch/early dinner with a friend, I made a quick run to Target. Not much on this list, just detergent, stain remover, and lotion.

6:30 p.m. On my way home, I stopped to pick up the mail. I was happily rewarded with the new issue of Shape Magazine and a Neiman Marcus catalog.

Bonus Pic: "break": My pic is of one of the three books I'm currently reading, since reading is what I do on my breaks. It's Everything is Illuminated by Johathan Safran Foer.


That's all for today (except for watching Nip/Tuck at 10:00). Hope it wasn't too boring. I had fun photo-blogging my day. Hopefully, I'll remember next month's.

Day Two . . . Round Two

Just an update on my morning workout. The theme . . . pyramids and pain! I was a bit sore this morning, mostly in my back and quads. I think it came from running stairs yesterday. In case you don't know what pyramids are, I'll tell you. A pyramid is when you take an exercise and do 10 sets starting with 10, then 9, etc., once you get to 1 (the bottom of the pyramid) you go back up doing 10 sets starting at 1, then 2. etc. They suck, but they work! To be quick, for most of the exercises we did 110 repetitions. Those exercises were push-ups, fire-hydrants (leg exercises, think dog peeing on a fire hydrant), and Mary Katherine lunges. (MK lunges were created thanks to Molly Shannon's SNL skits of Mark Katherine and her movie "Superstar". The starting position is down in the lunge, and then you jump, switching legs. The picture below is close to the starting and ending position, (without the paint, of course) except you are in a lunge, not with one knee on the ground.)After, the MK lunges we did 50 mountain climbers, a few sprints and sit-ups. All in all, it was a tough workout. I'm sure I'll be very sore tomorrow. Thankfully, tomorrow is a recovery day, so no workout! Just lots and lots of stretching.

Day One . . . Round Two . . .

Thought I'd give a quick update regarding my workout session this morning. Today was the PT test, which includes a 1 mile run, a stair sprint, and 1 minute of timed push-ups and sit-ups. I increased my push-ups and sit-ups, my sprint time was roughly the same (.07 slower), but my mile time went up by almost 1 minute. That sucked. Although, I didn't get to run a whole lot during my break which explains the difference. I'm so tired because I didn't sleep well last night, but then had to be up so very early. I'm hitting the bed early tonight. I'm sure I'll sleep well. So far, I don't have much soreness. Just a tiny bit in my back.

Somehow this evening I've become sucked into watch Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. I enjoyed it very much when I saw it in the theater. I missed the first half-hour or so tonight, but watched the remainder while cooking, and then eating dinner.

I think I've decided to run the ING Georgia Half-Marathon on Sunday March 25, 2007. However, there is also one on Tybee Island in February and depending on how strong I feel (and if I can get someone to go with me) I might do that one instead. I'm still trying to decide on a 5K and 10K. I'm thinking I'll do a 5K on October 7th which supports the "fragile kids foundation." The only 10K that I'd be able to do schedule-wise is the Enmark Savannah River Bridge Run on December 2. Again , I'd prefer if I had someone to go with me (but I can work around that). The problem is, that bridge is a very high, 1.9 mile cable-stayed bridge! I don't even like driving over that bridge -- much less running over it (which, by the way, I'd have to do twice, because the 10K runs over the bridge and eventually back across the bridge)!

So, we'll see, I might get up the nerve to run across that thing.

Five Years . . .

It’s hard to believe it has been five years since the events of 9/11. I can remember that day so vividly in my mind. In some ways, I feel uncomfortable discussing what my day was like. I lost no friends or family. I was also in Nashville, Tennessee, many miles away from the tragedy. I hope people who did live through the horror of losing loved ones that day, those in the buildings, the emergency workers, and citizens of New York City and Washington D.C. will not think I am in any way belittling their experience by discussing mine.

I was driving to work that morning, listening to morning radio, and heard a report that a small plane had hit one of the WTC Towers. I called my then boyfriend, who was a news reporter for a small-town newspaper in one of the Nashville suburbs. I woke him up when I called, told him what I’d heard, and asked him to turn on the television. At this point, the second plane had not yet hit the WTC Tower. He was describing the scene for me, when the second plane hit. His reaction gave me chills, and I can still hear his voice very clearly.

Once I arrived at work, a small Nashville law firm, three paralegals were there (we had two attorneys and 6 paralegals). They were crowded around one paralegal’s computer which had internet access. We were trying to find out any information we could, but there were only small amounts of information coming in. One paralegal’s daughter was at the WTC for a meeting. Of course, she was unreachable all day long. She was able to contact her mother the next day and had made it out of the building before either collapsed.

Once our boss arrived, we went to our individual offices. At that time, I shared an office with another paralegal. We turned the radio in our office to National Public Radio. That is what we listened to the entire day, hearing of the collapse, the Pentagon, and finally Flight 93. It was scary to create my own images of the things taking place. Our office was very slow, the phones aside from our families calling, were fairly silent. I wonder now what my reactions would have been were I able to visually see what was taking place. In most situations, the visions you create in your mind from descriptions are usually worse than what actually occurs. However, in this instance, I think that’s impossible. I don’t think any of use could have fathomed what was actually taking place.

At lunch, after I had finished eating, I walked across the street to a brewery that I knew would have television coverage. It was so crowded that I could barely get to the bar to see the televisions. I was so shocked at what I saw. It was the first time that I saw the smoke, the second plane hitting the WTC, and finally the collapse of the two towers. I was immediately in tears, and there were many people in the bar (men and women) who were openly crying also. At home, I watched the coverage until I went to bed that night. I had been to New York City about two years prior, and had stood at the base of the WTC. It was so hard for me, even with the images I had seen, to imagine those wondrous buildings collapsing.

Several evenings later, my then boyfriend and I watched the 9/11 documentary by filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet. It was unbelievable, and so emotional, to see what happened through the lens of their cameras. I can remember crying and jumping every time I heard the sounds of people falling. That sound, and the sound of the firefighter distress whistles are the ones that I will remember most.

Today, since I am at home working, I have been watching CNN’s Real Time Coverage. I’ve cried off and on throughout the footage. To me, because I was unable to see things unfold, it was very powerful. Although, I imagine those scenes will always be powerful to our generation, just as the images of Pearl Harbor and Oklahoma City were to other generations. I can remember feeling empowered afterwards because the entire country seemed to rally around each other. The partisan politics, which were constant, seemed to go by the wayside for a while. Now, partisan politics are rampant, and our country seems so divided.

I think I’ll close this one out. I’m still ruminating all of this, especially since there is coverage all over today. My thoughts and prayers are with those who lost their lives, lost loved ones, and our nation as a whole.

*The picture I’ve posted is one that I think is beautiful, despite what occurred. It was taken by photographer Thomas Franklin of The Record.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise . . .

Makes me very, very sore! Tomorrow starts my first day of Bootcamp Round 2. We begin at 6:00 a.m., so I have to be there at 5:45 a.m.! I so dread getting up that early. I suppose the first day is always the hardest. There are only 4 workouts planned this week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. So, I can sleep late on Wednesday.

I did manage to get in a short 1 mile run today. Hopefully, that will help me fare better tomorrow.

Yesterday, I spent the day with a friend. We ate at a restaurant called Agnes & Muriels. (http://www.agnesandmuriels.com/ ) It was really good and wonderfully tacky. We had a good meal and split the largest piece of Chocolate Cream Pie I've ever seen! It was beautiful, and super rich, with huge bittersweet chocolate shavings on top. We were both about to be sick once we were finished. Although, we didn't actually eat the whole piece! I'm happy that he's moving into the city since he'll be closer to me. We always have a lot of fun hanging out.

I watched "The Constant Gardner" on Friday. It was one that I wanted to see in the theater but never got around to because of school. I really enjoyed it. Ralph Fiennes (he's so dreamy!) did a wonderful job. I don't think I've seen him ever play a part badly. Rachel Weiss also did an excellent job. I also watched "Quills". I'd seen it before, several years ago. I enjoyed it again this time. I love Geoffrey Rush! He's always wonderful.

I think one of my step-brothers will be here Sept. 27-30 for the Petit Le Mans. It's held at Road Atlanta, which is about 1 hour away, and is a sports car race. I've never been into that sort of thing, but did go with him last year. It was a lot of fun. They drive the Indy cars and go so fast! Last year, I was able to meet Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy). He was super nice and graciously posed for a photo with me. Hopefully, he's there again, and I can have him sign our picture.

Bootcamp: Tomorrow!

Another week . . .

It's been a busy week! The weekend in Florida was fun. The weather was really nice and it wasn't too crowded, which was surprising for Labor Day weekend. I've spent the rest of the week job hunting and taking care of things around the apartment.

My bootcamp sessions were pushed back to a September 11th start date. So, this Monday is when that starts. I'm looking forward to it. I still have yet to find much motivation to exercise, so hopefully this will kick me into gear. That's what usually happens. It will also be nice to see the group again.

On the sports front, my Red Sox are still playing very poorly. They're 9 games behind the Yankees in the AL East, and 5.5 games behind Minnesota in the Wild Card race. Seriously, when did the Twins become good? They've been pretty crappy the last few seasons! Although my baseball team is down, my Tennessee Vols won big over California last week (who was ranked higher and favored to win)! Tennessee jumped from #23 to #11 in the Top 25! I was very pleased. This Saturday they play Air Force, in Knoxville. Unfortunately, it's not on tv. Next week's game (9/16) is on tv -- it's the big UT v. Florida game! I don't get quite as excited with college football as I do with baseball, but I'm still excited!

Bootcamp: 3 days (again)!

One Quick Thing . . .

I love "Mind of Mencia". Carlos Mencia is hysterical! I laugh out loud everytime I watch. If you have Comedy Central and enjoy stand-up comedy along with comedy sketches, check it out.

That is all!

Btw, I'll try to update from the beach, but I think all I'll have is dial-up. I also will try to run at the beach -- that is my goal! Hello, motivation -- long time no see!

Bootcamp 2: 4 days!