What was I thinking?

I woke up at 2:30 this morning.

Seriously?

Mike and Mike were in town for a live broadcast on ESPN Radio, so of course I had to be there. I figured I should start my run at 3, because the show starts at 5, and the doors opened at 4 something.

Am I insane? Perhaps.

I have a race tomorrow, so it was an easy run (Fridays usually are), and then I got ready and hauled over to the show. Apparently I wasn't the only one. The place was more packed than any of the other shows I've ever attended. And this one was definitely less pleasant. I love the Mikes, but I sure don't love all of their fans. Rude.

I didn't even stay for much of the show, because I was getting so claustrophobic, and I started thinking about how silly it was to stand all morning (again, I have a race tomorrow) and wait in a huge crowd to try to get a book signed or a pic with them. I already have both. Multiples, actually. I even have a signed football.

This morning made me realize that life can't always be what we think it will. Sure, I already knew that, but it's always good to be slapped in the face again with it. Will I go to the live broadcast next time they come in town? Probably. Maybe I will even go earlier. But I am not heartbroken that things didn't go my way this morning. At least I wasn't as selfish and rude to others as some of the fans there were, all so they could get a glimpse of two other human beings.

It's going to be a long weekend (full of work, not play), so hopefully I will have the energy to divulge the latest happenings in the NatMer saga. As for right now, I'm going to go be part of the Teacher Appreciation night at the baseball game (a student asked me to wear his jersey and be honored at some little pre-game thing), then I need some food and sleep.

Since when did I start working on a Friday night until 6:49? Is it summer yet?

My day Friday

Friday is by far the second best day of the week.

Clearly Saturday is the winner here, but you have to love the feeling of Friday afternoons when that last bell rings (if you are a teacher, of course) and you know that you are finished for the week. Even if there are mounds upon mounds of work or grading that need to be completed before Monday morning, it feels so refreshing to take a deep breath and know that the weekend is here. FREEDOM!!

And it lasts for a whole two days!!

I am obviously very glad that today is Friday. I'm looking forward to a nice nap tomorrow at some point and not thinking about anything school or work-related. I'm purposefully avoiding the daunting thought that I have a 10-page research paper due on Monday in one of my grad school classes. I'm also not dwelling on the fact that I still haven't started. Actually, I still haven't decided on my topic just yet.

I'm putting all of that aside for now. It's Friday afternoon, and it's the second best day of the week. Sunday is pretty good, too. So maybe Friday is a really close third. Yes, definitely. It's the third best day of the week, and I am content with that.

Welcome to the digital age

I have turned my back on one more aspect of the '90s.

Yes, it's true: I bought a digital camera. I mean, it was due time. Disposable cameras have become rather archaic, and it's such a tedious process trying to get pictures loaded onto a computer from them. Plus, you can't instantly see how your photos turned out, and it seems like one or two always get lost in the development process, and they are usually the pictures you wanted the most. And don't get me started on the quality of the pictures you get. After all, you're only paying about $8 for something you're going to throw away soon, anyway, so you're going to get image quality worthy of such a price.

So, why did I wait until now to invest in a real camera? Three words: Mike and Mike.

I am a huge fan of "Mike and Mike in the Morning" on ESPN Radio, and I try to attend their live broadcasts whenever they make it out to Dallas. The first time I went to one, I had my friend Matt take a picture of the Mikes and me with my disposable camera. For reasons already given, it wasn't the greatest picture. Plus, I'm sure the Mikes weren't too impressed when I had to remind Matt, "Oh, you have to rewind it first."

The last time I was at their live broadcast, I had someone else take a picture with his camera and then e-mail it to me. He was super nice and didn't mind doing that at all, but I would rather not be such a burden and hassle for other people simply because I haven't capitalized on the technologies of the 21st century.

Well, the Mikes are coming to town again this month, and I refuse to deal with the disposable process again. I realize that I have an iPhone with nice picture-taking abilities, but it really is time for me to have a good camera, especially for situations where I might need to take a lot of pictures. I cannot think of such instances at the moment, but I'm sure there are plenty of them.

So this week I went to my favorite store (Target) and bought a Nikon Coolpix touch-screen digital camera. Hopefully it will live up to my expectations. I will be sure to post some of my new pics soon for your NATural fun.

Spring fever

Spring Break is finally within reaching distance.

I really haven't been counting down that long...maybe just the past two weeks or so. But these past two weeks have been so crazy busy and chaotic that I am definitely in need of a week off. It will be so nice to get some sleep. I have never been a big napper. Then I became a teacher, and everything changed. If napping became an Olympic sport, I might be able to take the silver. (My little sister would take gold, obviously.) This might be because I average about five hours of sleep each night and only get to take naps on holidays and occasional weekends. Oh, and I've now started taking "power naps" in the back of my car before my Tuesday night grad class.

Today is a particularly tiring day for me, seeing as how I was up later than usual for something totally worth it: the Taylor Swift concert. It's the second time I've seen her show, and it was equally as awesome as the first. I could have lived without all of the shrieking middle-school girls and their unabashed fanaticism, though.

I realize the day is nowhere near over, but I will survive. Then I get to go visit my sister in the lively town of Van, Texas tomorrow. Can I get a "Woohoo!" for that one? She is living it up at Sky Ranch for the next few months, so I cherish the moments I get to see the little Runt.

Happy Friday (and a Spring Break to all the teachers out there)!

Marchin' on

Seeing as how it's been almost a month since my last post, I felt the need for some updates.

Not that there are an abundance of exhilarating things going on right now, though.

For starters, running is going better than ever for me. I feel strong, and I am enjoying it beyond belief. I won the Stonebridge Half Marathon at the end of February, so I guess that was a little bit of a confidence builder, as well. It wasn't the biggest race, but it was still fun and nice to get some more experience under my belt.

I have a few upcoming races, and I'm excited for them. I did make one idiot mistake, though. I signed up to run two back-to-back races at the beginning of May, not realizing I was committing to both. The Warrior Dash is on May 1 (and looks awesome, by the way!), and the Heels and Hills Half Marathon is the following day. Oh, dear. I haven't decided what I'm going to do just yet. I mean, I really want to run this Warrior Dash, but I also really want to PR at the half. I hate it when I put myself in ridiculous situations.

In other news, I'm addicted to Words with Friends. This app rocks. I even have my mom playing it. It doesn't get any crazier than that, let me tell you. By the way, I didn't capitalize the "w" in "with" on purpose, because it shouldn't be, even though it's the name of the game. Some people just don't understand the rules of grammar, but I'm a stickler for them. I proofread everything.

I must end your dear reading on a sad note: one of my favorite teachers from high school died over the weekend. She really impacted my life in so many ways, including contributing greatly to my love for reading and, you guessed it, always being grammatically correct. I still talk about her to my students, and I was crushed to hear that she had left us. May God bless her family and loved ones during this time. She was an incredible woman.

I think this calls for the lyrics of the chorus to Nichole Nordeman's song, "Legacy"

I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to You enough to make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy

I hope that groundhog is a liar

It's amazing how chaotic things can become in a mere matter of moments.

Just when I thought my life was beginning to get a little boring and predictable, a whole onslaught of stuff was dumped on my plate. For starters, I began grad school in the middle of last month. I'm really excited about it, but my level of fatigue has increased dramatically. I have class on Monday and Tuesday nights, so those two days pretty much seem like the longest 48 hours of my life. Each week. I guess I just need to learn to adjust to this new schedule.

A childhood friend died two weeks ago in a motorcycle accident, and the funeral was last week. He was only 22. It was just one more reminder that life can be short, or life can be long. Either way, it's important to live each day to the fullest, and I hope to do that. I also want to make sure I'm living each day for God and not myself. He deserves all the glory, but I'm far too aware of the fact that my concern with myself often overshadows that. Each day is a new lesson in selflessness.

It's also time for progress reports to go out at school, and grades for those are due Monday. That should make for a fun weekend on top of all of the reading I have to do, none of which will be done on Sunday. That sacred day is reserved for the Super Bowl.

I've also been given a few video projects by some of my co-workers. I love editing, and I love helping others out, but it's not always so fun when they all make these project requests at once.

To make an actual reference to the title of this post, I don't believe everything Punxsutawney Phil predicts, and I hope his forecast for more winter is invalid. He's just a dumb animal, anyway.

It's just one of those days today, and I need this weekend to relax!

'Boys and biz

It looks like my 'Boys have broken the playoff curse. :)

I really wish I could have been at the game today. I have an ESPN connection who was trying to get me a ticket, but it didn't work out. He sent me a text suggesting I buy a ticket from a scalper and that he would pay me back for it. I don't think he realizes that I am a teacher and don't get paid the same salary as he does. And payday isn't until Friday, so my bank account can't really handle dropping 200 buckaroos.

And, is it just me, or are some NFL refs really bowed up all of a sudden? I'm not suggesting they're on the juice or anything, but you never know. I mean, you've got to be on your A game to make all those calls...

On another note, I've become obsesses with The Office. I didn't think it could happen to me, but I've been defeated. Over Christmas break, pretty much all I did besides watch bowl games was watch seasons 1-5. I now understand what the big deal is about this show. Pure genius.

To finalize this note, I might as well mention how much the Texas weather of late is ridiculous. Since when did we have authentic winter temperatures with wind chills of 3 degrees? I'm pretty sure my pinky had frostbite the past two mornings, and I was wearing mittens and ski gloves! I don't claim science to be my strong subject, but this sure doesn't feel like global warming to me.

The crowd at the Cowboys game is singing "Na na na na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye." I suppose that's my cue.