Takin' this Show on the Road

Well, friends, I'm off to Atlanta, GA for the New Years weekend. I am VERY excited because so many of my friends are going to be there, including some I haven't seen in a very long time!! We will be staying at Kim's fiance Will's apartment in Midtown Atlanta, which is a really great area of town with many restaurants, bars, and other fun things to do. Don't worry, though, I will keep up with my running while I'm in Atlanta. I have scoured the internet and I came up with a nice 8-mile route from right near Will's apartment and I will make poor Taylor go with me Saturday morning. I'll be sure to post you on how it goes. In the meantime, you don't take a break either, keep reading my blog and don't forget, your donation is 100% tax deductible for this year if it is made by 11:59pm on Sunday!! Thank you for your support: 30.5% there!!!

Here's a little visual of my run :)

My New Gear!!

Running slightly tangent to the mission of my marathon (curing cancer) is another very importany consideration: looking hot (well, that and keeping warm). So I made sure to ask for all kinds of hot spandex running gear for Christmas, and here are some photos of what I got!

Here are my new spandex running tights, my AWESOME New Balance Jacket, and my fuel belt. This belt holds little 6 oz. containers of water and/or powerade to keep you hydrated during long runs!

AHHH! I lost a hand!! One exciting feature of the awesome jacket, the cuffs flip over to create a little pouch for your hands (an alternative to gloves). The new hat is REFLECTIVE...those flowers are actually grey when they're not in the light. Crazy. Oh, and here's my Goo. It's this nifty stuff that is essential carbohydrates in gel form that you can dispense easily and and digest quickly during long runs.

See, coaches, I'm good, I stretch. Actually, who am I kidding, this is a pose. :-) Still, I do feel that I look fairly official. Oh, and how about those ARCHES? I mean seriously, no wonder I get accused of running on my toes!

Ok, I will spare you all the rest of the disturbing photos of me modeling my new gear :-) Don't worry, there will be plenty of action shots up here soon! Stay tuned!

We have liftoff!! 25% raised!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Let me start out with a big WHEW! It looks like my letters are finally arriving to their destinations around the country. Of course, their arrival is only step 1. If you are here as a result of receiving my letter, well that's step 2. Step 3 is, please click "Donate Securely Now" to donate to my campaign!!! I am 1/4 of the way to my goal, but that means I still have almost $3,000 to go!! I know that with your help, I can do it, so please read on. The money that you donate will go directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to fund life-saving research and patient aid programs. What better way to spend a few dollars this Christmas day than knowing you are supporting a good cause. In fact, I am going to start an honored hero series on January 2nd. Each day, I will feature one honored hero who has battled Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin's Disease or Myeloma so you can see how many people these funds are helping. And don't forget, you can e-mail me with YOUR honored heroes and I will gladly feature them on this blog and, more importantly, will draw on their inspiring stories as I run 26.2 miles on April 28th. Please, please get involved. If you do not want to donate online, you can e-mail me and I will gladly send you instructions for how to write a check or other exciting ways you can help!!!

Oh, and please make sure you come back soon, becuase later today I will be posting some pictures of all the great running gear I got for Christmas. I think you may just be jealous once you see me in my hot spandex!!! Thanks Santa :-).

Houston, we have a problem

You loyal blog readers out there may recall that 6 days ago I posted a nice little note anticipating the arrival of all of my new readers. They were supposed to come here immediately (if not sooner) after they received my (if I do say so myself) outstanding, compelling, and touching fundraising letter (inside the Christmas card). WELL...it appears that NO ONE has gotten my card despite the fact that I mailed them 9 days ago!! I am beginning to panic just a little, so please do me a favor and if you see my little card with the nice letter in it, please leave a comment so that I know I don't have to file a missing person's report on the little guy. Thanks! Oh, here's visual.

Feeling Inspired!

Well last night's practice was pretty uneventful. We were working on our arms again this week, which means we alternate our usual running style (mine being more "unusual" than "usual") with a modified style as dictated by Coach Ramon (see videos below for a little entertinment). This week, the modification was was to swing our arms really low, which subsequently makes our stride very short and we end up looking like we're shuffling along. I actually missed the part of practice where Ramon explained WHY we were shuffling along looking like a bunch of idiots, but I feel its fine. It was good for me, because I tend to run on my toes, and the new form really helped me stay off my toes. Another nice part of practice was that Taylor was able to join me at practice to meet some of my friends, and I even got to tell him a thing or two about running form, since I am quite the expert.

In other news, my fundraising is going very well, all things considered. Those things being: I mailed my letters 9 days ago and only my Aunt Sheryl in WHYOMING has gotten them...go figure!!! I realize that Christmas is a very busy season for the mail, but this really is getting ridiculous when it takes more than 9 days for a bunch of letters to get to Michigan and Ohio!! Well, the good news is that some of my local friends were so generous and visited my webpage and donated. Thank you so much Abby and Leslie, you are too kind. Don't forget, I will need all of the motivation I can get to get me through all 26.2 miles of the marathon, so please share with me any people you love who have been affected by a blood cancer or any cancer. These heroes have completed a marathon far more difficult against their will. The emotional and physical battle of cancer is more than I could ever imagine, and my marathon is a small way that I can show my support and attempt to understand. So thank you for sending me your honored heroes.

I should take this moment to introduce you all to my grandma, who is my inspiration to start this marathon. Grandma was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma three and a half years ago, and today she is a survivor. But her battle is not over, and neither is the larger battle against cancer. That is why I run. I run because there is still hope that one day, no one will have to go through what my grandmother and my family have been through; what millions of people go through every year: watching someone they love battle cancer. Here's to you, Grandma!!

Rotate 90 degrees clockwise

Welcome to my blog if this is your first time visiting!! You are in for a treat. I have been promising for about a week to put something interesting up here. Well, without further ado, here are some videos of our wonderful coach Ramon introducing today's workout. I apologize that they are sideways....but I completely forgot you can't rotate video (unless someone knows how!). Anyway, please still do take a look. Actually, the most interesting think about these video's is Ramon's accent anyway, so really you just need to listen. He has a hilarious accent and typically keeps us very entertained with it!! Enjoy and I promise some upright videos and more pictures soon!

Telling us what we're in for:


How fast should we run, Ramon?


I almost kissed him after he said this!


A little candid moment of Ramon telling us how he REALLY feels


A little explanation about how to run on the West Side Highway


Just to let you know, I am an intermediate runner and ran for 1 hour today, but this video was getting a little long, so I cut it off before he gave that instruction. I had a great time running this morning. We ended up doing a little bit more than six miles and, even though it was very hard, it was really enjoyable!! I never thought I'd like getting up early on a Saturday to run, but I really have been enjoying it! Though I must admit, right before the runs, I always want to punch myself in the stomach for deciding to do this. I realize that as our mileage increases, this urge will probably increase exponentially, as we will start to run as much as 18-20 miles on a Saturday!! This prospect is not exciting for me, but hopefully it motivates you to donate to my cause (unless, of course, you'd like to JOIN me!). Thank you for reading, don't forget to click "DONATE SECURELY NOW!!"

Did you get your letter?

Well, I do believe today may be the big day!! I mailed my letters on Tuesday, so my guess is that most people will be receiving them sometime today. My little blog is sitting here in cyberspace HOPING that it gets some serious hits today!!! So...if you are on my site for the first time or as a result of reading my letter, please leave a comment!! You can do so by clicking below where it says "124234 comments" (or something close to that) and leave your comment. You don't have to log in to leave your name, just choose "Other" as your identity and drop it in there :)

Please remember, I have a BIG goal, and I'm not just talking about raising $4,000 in 5 months. I want to hear from all of you who you know in your life that has been affected by cancer. Not only would it be an honor to run on their behalf, but I know that I will need all the inspiration I can get to propel myself the necessary 26.2 miles on April 28th!!

You can include the information about your honored teammates (that's what we call the folks who serve as our inspiration as survivors of Leukemia, Lymphoma, or any cancer) in a comment or e-mail me at carissa.lucyk@gmail.com. I will gladly accept photos, stories, names, ages, or any other information and will post it here and on my fundraising page.

Speaking of my fundraising page: PLEASE DONATE AS SOON AS YOU CAN to my fundraising!!! Remember, all gifts given before the end of the year will be tax deductible this year. Furthermore, what better time than the holidays to support such a great cause!! Thank you!!

OOOOOOWWWW!

Practice yesterday was painful!! The infamous "cross-training" workout is similar to those aerobics classes you may (or may not) have taken before where the instructor makes you do lunges, squats, push-ups, sit-ups, and all sorts of things that leave you essentially incapable of ascending or descending a flight of stairs the following day.

So the set-up for practice last night was as follows:
8 minutes running
8 minutes cross-training
repeat 4 times
=64 minutes!!!

Boo

So anyway, we ended up splitting into two groups, and the "intermediate" and "advanced" folks went in one group with the beginners in the other. Despite my consistent protesting, my mentor insists that I am intermediate, and I guess I am because I haven't had any difficulty with the workouts, they are just harder than I want!

So anyway, the intermediate group did slightly harder cross-training and then we had to run UP A HILL for our 8-minute intervals. This was especially painful when, on the third round, they made us sprint up the hill (which, let's be honest, wasn't much of a sprint). It was the most painful thing we've done yet!!

Despite the pain, I managed to win a game of beer pong at a nice little dive bar on the Upper West Side before heading home to get to bed early! Then, get this, I got up again at 6am for a run with my friend Leslie who said that our run actually felt a little brisk. I was proud that I was able to keep a good pace even after a tiring night. It was great and though my muscles are hurting me now, its a good hurt, so I'm happy.

Thank you for reading this far!! My goal for the next week is to get some serious picture up on this site, so if you are here and are thinking how lame this looks, please please come back and read on. I will make it interesting!

A little holiday entertainment for you (if this doesn't increase the "average time spent on my site," I don't know what will!

I GOT MY FIRST DONATION!!! THANKS WAYNE!

A big thank you to Wayne Ma, who despite the facts that - 1) we just met on Friday (we think) and 2) I didn't even ASK him to donate - just became my first donor toward my $4,000 Wayne, thank you for breaking the ice and helping people to see that "all the cool kids are donating."

I must admit, as I near the actual launch of my fundraising campaign, I am getting more and more nervous. Some of you may not be aware, but I actually hope someday to work as a PROFESSIONAL fundraiser with a non-profit. In fact, then I was working for Team In Training for the past year, I often helped people plan and execute their fundraising campaigns, so I have picked up many creative ideas along the way (one of which is this blog, actually). But when it comes to actually fundraising myself, I'm nervous that people won't respond like I think they will. So, again, thank you Wayne for helping quell my fears and giving me some inspiration!!

Beautiful Day

Well, Earl Saturday number 2 is behind me. That's right, it was NOT easy to crawl out of my warm bed this morning and layer on socks, tights, fleece pants, a long-sleeve shirt, a TNT Dri-Fit and a fleece, but I managed. I walked out of my apartment at 8:15am and was immediately blessed by the beautiful day! It may have been only 23 degrees out, but the sun was shining and birds were chirping, so I was able to ignore my freezing hands and enjoy the morning.

Not only was it a beautiful day, but practice was great too! I have never been much of a morning runner, but today was definitely an exception! I ran with a friend I have met through TNT. Her name is Kiernan and she's from Ohio. We have bonded over our midwest roots, matching accents, and similar paces. We ran the first 4 miles of our run together and kept a pretty good pace!!

I had my new running tights on, which essentially amount to expensive embarrassment because they cost about $20398523 a pair and are SPANDEX!! So, in order to save my legs from falling off, I have to pay to look like a nerd, but at least I wasn't alone. And the crazy thing is, these spandex pants actually seem to work! They kept me nice and toasty and I felt even better on mile 5 than I did at the beginning of the run. I probably could have made it a couple more miles with no trouble, but I stopped because I know that there will be days when I will have to run MANY MANY more miles. I'm going to save my energy for that!

Ok, well again, I promise to post some pictures this week, even if they aren't TNT related, so please check back! Oh, and if you haven't yet, check out my donation page and leave a comment!

Eh, Friday night, who needs it?

That's right, it is 10:49 on Friday night and I am sitting here thinking about my Team In Training fundraising. What kind of terrible 23 year old am I? And even worse, I am subjecting poor Taylor to my lameness by promising him a back rub if he doesn't bother me while I write a blog!!

Oh, good times! Well, I just wanted to provide an update on my FUNDRAISING for the Marathon. You may recall, I need to raise $4,000 by February 14, 2007 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I am extremely excited about BOTH my training and my fundraising. The reason that I am so excited is: I know I can count on all of you to support not just me, but all of the people we know who have or have had cancer of any kind. The money that people give to my campaign goes directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's life-saving research and patient aid campaigns.

Anyway, what I really want to do now is tell you HOW exactly I plan to raise $4,000 so that you have some context when you hear from me (and I promise you will, probably many times).

My fundraising campaign will have two initial thrusts:
1.) Letters
2.) E-mail

To support both of these initiatives, I have created a spreadsheet with everyone I think will donate to my campaign. For each person, I have listed a goal of the amount of money that I hope they will give to my campaign. I added people and increased my goals until I reached $4,000. The spreadsheet includes e-mail and snail mail addresses for everyone for whom I have them, and it will be my key tool for informing and tracking my fundraising efforts.

I will be mailing my hard-copy letters on Monday, December 11 and posting the letter to this blog the same day. I spent a lot of time writing my letter and I hope you will take the time to read it and consider how much you can donate to my campaign. I also hope that you will send me the names of the people in your life who have had cancer so that I can run in their honor as well.

Next, I will e-mail everyone on my list for whom I have e-mail addresses. These e-mails will include links to my blog and my donation page.

After my initial communications, I will periodically track my donations and will follow up with people to encourage them to give (I say "them" because I assume if you are reading, you have given!!).

Hopefully this gives you some context for when you begin to hear from me. I will be updating and increasing my fundraising efforts as needed to reach my goal, so please check back to see my progress!

My biggest hope is that everyone who hears from me will realize how importance this cause is and will be glad for the chance to join me in such an amazing adventure. Please feel free to e-mail me and give me encouragement or feedback, I would love to hear it.

Oh, and good news, I GOT MY FIRST DONATION TODAY!! A big thank you to Wayne who has promised to donate $25 to my campaign now and $25 more dollars if I run 9:25 miles and finish the race in 4 hours and 5 minutes. What a great challenge! Thank you, Wayne for your support, now click "Donate Now" and pony up (just kidding!!!).

As always, you can donate now by clicking the link at the top on the left. Thank you for reading this far. I promise some more media in the coming weeks!

Second Practice: Frostbite Much!?

Whew, today was the second practice of the season and let me tell you, it was COLD. I believe the temperature was aroun 35, which would be fine with the proper attire and no wind. However, neither of these mitigating situations was true for me, thus I spent the first 1/2 of practice FREEZING! Our workout today was rather humorous. We were working on upper body form, which our coach Ramon insists on calling "upperbody" form and the way he pronounces it, you can tell he doesn't know there's a space there, its really cute. Oh, by the way, his first language is Spanish, so rarely can he be fully understood. Oh! I just had an idea...I will video record Ramon at the beginning of the next practice just to give you the idea.

Anyway, our goal today was to work on our upper body form and to pay attention to the effect it has on our lower body. Now, you may recall from my post a while back called "Another Run in the Park, Another Batch of Stories". In this post, I described in detail how terrible my running form MUST be. Well, this little arm exercise really helped!! We were told to swing our arms by holding them at 90 degrees and rotating at the shoulder only. During this run, we exaggerated the motion just to get the idea, but generally we would not swing quite as much. Anyway, this really helped me focus on running on my heels and keeping my posture upright. It wasn't a very social run because everyone was going all different speeds, but mentally it was really good for me. I enjoyed it very much!!

The biggest problem with practice was that I was SO COLD!!! I am ashamed to admit, I own very few acceptable running outfits (I refuse to say how few), and so I am quite limited in what I have to wear in cold weather. Last night, for instance, it was about 35 degrees out and I had no hat or gloves and CAPRI'S!! My hands were literally numb when we started warming up, though I am pleased to say my body seems to have a pretty good internal heater, as they did thaw out during the run despite the fact that they were constantly exposed to the cold. That was encouraging. Nonetheless, Garett called me right after the practice to ask what I wanted for Christmas and all I could say was "GLOVES!" It was funny! Anyway, I must get back to work at this time. Please keep checking back as I will be updating my fundraising tomorrow!

FIRST PRACTICE!!

Apologies for the delay! Yesterday was the FIRST PRACTICE of the season for Team In Training!! Just to recap, I am running a marathon in April and raising $4,000 between now and then to support the research and patient aid programs of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I am currently working very hard at planning and will soon begin to execute my fundraising campaign, so be on the lookout. If you are reading this, you will probably hear from me very soon!

Anyway, Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30am to prepare for our first practice at 8:30am. We met at Bethesda Terrace, which is in the middle of the park at 72nd St. The morning was perfect for running, about 45 degrees and sunny. Despite a little wind, I was perfectly comfortable and ready to run. The first 15 or so minutes of practice were taken up with announcements, explanations, and introductions. The coaches told us that we would be divided into four groups for the season: Half marathon, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The definitions were as follows:

Half Marathon: if you are planning to run the 1/2 marathon(13.1 miles)
Beginner: You have never run more than 3 miles
Intermediate: You can run 4 miles or more
Advanced: You can run 6 miles or more.

They emphasized that the categories are solely divided based on endurance, not speed. So, I was forced to place myself in the advanced group (though I will probably drop back to intermediate just to be safe!). The intermediate and advanced groups were to run 5.1 miles, and were released first. I began to jog and realized that I was part of a somewhat elite group! Out of probably 75 people, only 10 or so took off with or group. Regardless, it was a good run and even though I definitely hit a wall at about 2.5 miles, I made it the whole way without walking.

The biggest challenge for me at the Saturday morning practices is that I have NEVER been a morning runner, and this experience will require me to run all of my most difficult runs early on Saturday morning. After this morning, I am very encourage and really looking forward to an evening practice on Tuesday!! More to come.

Two posts in one day?? Something IMPORTANT must be happening!

That's right, something important IS happening!! My first Team In Training practice is tomorrow!!!! That's right, I have willingly given up my Saturday mornings for the next 5 months in exchange of hundreds of miles of running, and I couldn't be more excited! Tomorrow we will start with just a few miles, but I am still very excited to meet my teammates, particularly the minority of those who, like me, have chosen to be the cool kids who are going to NASHVILLE in April rather than just New Jersey. As our director likes to call us, we're the "closet country music fans," though if you know me at all, you know I am very much "out." I will be sure to post about how amazing practice was. Also, please follow along on my sidebar to see my distance run and funds raised to date!

An Out-of-Manhattan Experience

Today, I had a very interesting experience near work. Now, before I tell you this, you need to understand a little about the area that I work. Most of the people who populate the financial district work in one of the banks on Wall Street. These are certified city folk who usually don't own a car (well, not one that they actually DRIVE), pay a maid to watch their children, and probably have a home at the Cape, the Hamptons, or some other suitably civilized vacation destination. Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw, parked on the street outside my office, a PICKUP truck with a FOUR WHEELER in the back! This sighting was so strange and foreign to me in lower Manhattan that I had to break my newly-acquired "agressive New-Yorker" stride to get a closer look. Upon inspection, the anomale became a little less anomal-ish. First, the pickup was white, a particularly saline color for a pickup. Furthermore, neither the truck nor the ATV (as Taylor likes to call them, so official!) looked as though it had ever seen a unpaved road, let alone anything that might require an "All-terrain vehicle." Bother were shiny and new looking, probably the result of some executive's off-handed comment "You know what I would like, one of those little bike thingies that you can't fall off of with a truck to pull it" and his assistant's over zealous response. Regardless, I was quite entertained by the sighting in Manhattan - whether or not it has ever actually been on the open road.

Ok, maybe I did, but only a little!

Hello friends. I'm back from Thanksgiving and, let me tell you, I hit the ground running! The title of this post refers to the fact that I did forget to write for a while, but I promise I had a good excuse!

I had a great time at home relaxing, seeing old friends, visiting family, and showing Taylor even more of the glory that is Perrysburg, OH. I believe his exact quote was "Ohio's not without its charm." Indeed.

Anyway, I came back Monday morning and have been going nonstop ever since! On Monday, I had to wake up at 4:30am to catch a 7:30 flight. Of course I finally let someone talk me into arriving to an airport more than an hour early, only to discover that it was entirely unnecessary (as usual). I make a vow never to be more than an hour early, no matter what you or anyone else says! Anyway, my flight arrived in New York at 9am. I then proceeded to drag my 37lb suitcase (is that ALL it weighed?!) to the M60 bus. I took the bus to Lexington Avenue and then drug said bag down into the subway and all the way to the financial district, back UP to street level, and over to my work. It as about an hour and a half of dragging and, let me tell you, I was BEAT!

Monday night I went home and went to bed at the early early hour of 9:45pm!! Aren't you proud! I got up at 6:00am to go running with a friend, then headed in to work. Yesterday was a very busy day because I had to get ready for my first ever training session this morning. I left work at a decent time, though, and made it home to hang out with Taylor, who came to visit me. We had a very interesting night. Well first of all, Taylor has a REALLY sore throat and can barely talk. Despite its painfulness, it's actually kinda cute. So anyway, apparently he was at this deli getting a sandwich and the man behind the counter suggested that he try this ancient remedy for a sore throat. It involves buying honey and a lemon (which, conveniently, he sells at his deli). You squeeze the entire lemon and then add 2-3 spoonfuls of honey and drink it straight up. Taylor had me squeeze the lemon and mix the potion. He drank it, but (shockingly) we still haven't seen a huge improvement in his condition.

Anyway, after that we ordered Chinese and ate dinner while watching the end of the movie 8 Below. It's the one about the dogs surviving a winter in Antarctica, and I highly recommend it. It's so cute! Then came the best part of all!! We decorated out apartment for CHRISTMAS!!!! We put up lights, a Christmas tree, and some jingle bells all around the apartment. It is so festive, we even have a mistletoe scented Yankee Plug in. It is really a wonderful environment! I love it. I will post picture tonight if I have time. Haha many of you probably haven't seen my apartment. You'll be shocked at how small it is!

Anyway, today I got up at 5:45am and left my apartment at 6:05am to get to Jersey City by 7am for my session. It went off without a hitch and (I'm happy to say) I'm all ready for tomorrow. All I have left to do it run some materials up to the conference center (I'm at work right now) and then I'm ready!

Oh, one more thing. Tonight is the kickoff for TEAM IN TRAINING!!! That means that after tonight, my training and fundraising for the marathon will officially commence. Beware, this Blog will take on a little bit of a running and fundraising complex. I hope you will not mind my new focus, but I assure you that it is for a VERY good cause.

Well, I must head out. Please feel free to leave a comment and please come back often!

NO!!! I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN!

That's right, I am fighting tooth and nail not to give up this blog, but today, I must be honest, I don't have much going on. I really do apologize if you came here for some sort of entertainment, but my life at this moment is just not very interesting. Vanderbilt lost to Tennessee this weekend. Michigan lost to Ohio State. Rutgers lost (and I only care because they were undefeated and Taylor likes them) to Cincinnati. And I am back at work! Haha.

Really, the only exciting thing is that my training starts in earnest for the marathon in under 2 weeks. After that, I will be updating the blog probably every day or two with my fundraising and training status! Please be advised that if you care about me at all (or if I care about you), you will probably be getting a letter or an e-mail from me asking you to donate to my Team In Training fundraising campaign.

Oh! I know one thing I can put on here. Taylor and I went out on a "date" Friday night and got two really good pictures of us (this is a rare occurrence), so I will put them here!


Aren't we pretty?!

I hate New York

Ok, so I don't really hate New York, but I do have a New York complaint and I figured that this title was a good contrast to the last one.

So my story begins and ends after midnight on Saturday night. My friend Candace was in town visiting some of her friends from college at the University of Chicago. After waiting more than 2 hours for their dinner reservations, Candace and her friends ended up at what I now know to be one of the hippest, trendiest, snobbiest clubs in the city. Because I am officially lame, I have spent 4 months in this city and have yet to attempt to go to an actual "club."

So Taylor and I left my apartment at about midnight (that's right, LEFT at midnight, how trendy am I). For some reason, I thought that a sweater would be the appropriate attire for the evening. So we arrived at PM, a trendy club in the meatpacking district, and Candace and her friends were already inside. There was a line of about 20 people next to the fabled velvet rope. I called Candace who confirmed that they were, indeed, inside said trendy club and that "it didn't take long to get through the line." But as we stood there, it became abundantly clear that the "line" was really just a crowd of people auditioning for admission to the club. It was incredible. I like to think that Taylor and I are a decent looking couple, but it quickly became apparent that the only way to get into this club was to flash some serious cleavage or pay the mean bouncers. Needless to say, at 2am, I am in no mood to schmooze with the bouncers, but I must admit that at some point I found myself feeling REALLY self-conscious in my sweater. And the more I thought about it, OBVIOUSLY Candace and her friends got in. Every group of more than three pretty girls virtually waltzed right in while those of us with boyfriends in tow are left watching them strut by. It was quite an interesting experience, and I must say it left me a little sad for all those people who really do spend their whole week waiting for the moment that they can walk into a club and finally feel important. It really must be an empty life, and, club or no club, I'm glad that my self-worth does not rest in getting in to PM to drink.

I love NY

The fact that I finally employed this prase is not an accident. I think I've been in New York long enough to use that overused cliche and actually mean it. Today is my 4-month anniversary in New York (much like a relationship, my affair with New York gets "month anniversaries" for the first year. Since I am the only willful member of the relationship, I can choose to recognize or not recognize these milestones at will...anyway), and I have realized this week that I really do love this city and all it has to offer. Allow me to expound (though I am sure I will not do so in full).

First of all, this week was week four at my new job, and I feel more useful, productive, and satisfied with my work all the time. I had worried that moving to the financial services industry would be less satisfying than any other work I had done because I have spent most of my life working toward "good causes." However, my former job made me realize that one must be happy in their work environment for the "cause" to matter anyway. As opposed to my first job, this job is a great environment for me, and I love team on which I work. Everyone is very hard-working, well-spoken and kind. They take time to help when I need it (and belive me, I do), and the use constructive criticism and praise liberally. Also, I have found that I can really find small ways to see the bigger picture of what I do. Whether it's helping a co-worker who is swamped with work or being the only friendly client that a vendor has spoken with all day, I really feel that I have flourished in my new environment, and I am thankful for that every day.

Along with my fabulous new job comes a new area of town to explore! I now work in the financial district, which is the oldest and most historic part of New York. Of course, Wall Street is the most famous landmark of the Financial district, but on Thursday I decided to find out what else there was to know about my new neighborhood. At the encouragement of my supervisor, I took a long lunch (yay!) and went on a free walking tour of the financial district. The day was perfect (70 and sunny in November!), so yet another reason to get out of the office. There were many sights to see on this tour, and our guide was kind enough to expound with stories and historic facts where appropriate. Here is a brief list of things I saw.

•Federal Hall - The site where Washington gave his innaugural address, where the Continental Congress met, and where the Articles of Confederation were written.
•The New York Stock Exchange
•Trinity Church – which interestingly is the 3rd largest land owner in Manhattan, having gotten most of it’s land from the government.
•Fraunces Tavern – the host of many famous early Americans and the site of the victory banquet for George Washington after the end of the revolutionary war.
•Delmonico’s – The first restaurant in America. Delmonico’s was the first restaurant to allow guests to order their food custom-made from a menu instead of being served whatever the owner was cooking that day.
•40 Wall Street – Which was the tallest building in the world for about a month before it was surpassed by New York’s Chrysler Building with its huge spire. This building is where Chase Manhattan bank was started, among other things. Annoyingly, Donald Trump somehow purchased the building and now has it titled “The Trump Building.”
•The Woolworth Building
•Bowling Green Park – the oldest park in the country and the location of the oldest still-standing structure in the country: The fence around it was constructed in 1773.
•The Charging/Wall Street Bull – This bull was created un-commissioned by artist Arturo DiModica. The statue weights 7,000 pounds and is worth about $1 million in bronze.
•Finally, it was interesting to see the original boundaries of lower Manhattan and to realize that about 50% of it is landfill and used to be water (the boundaries symbolized by Pearl Street, Beaver Street, and Canal Street).

Finally, this week I have had the opportunity to begin spending more and more time with some girls from the fellowship group that I have been attending, and they have been such a blessing to me. I am even going to start running in the mornings with one of them two mornings a week. I finally feel like I am starting to build some viable friendships in the city, and I am so thankful for that!

I must get to bed, but please feel free to leave a comment!

I'm running a marathon!!!

Three and a half years ago, my grandmother was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Since then, she has undergone months of Chemotherapy and many, many complications. Everyday, she shows me more strength and courage than I could ever muster.

Over the course of the next 6 months, I will spend most of my time on this blog chronicling my experience with Team In Training and sharing my grandma's story and the stories of those like her who, unlike me, have no choice but to run a marathon against cancer.

The basic gist is that I will be training for 5 months to run 26.2 miles in Nashville on April 28th, 2007. At the same time, I will be raising $4,000 to support the research and patient aid programs of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The research that I will be supporting is responsible for improving the quality of life of sufferers of Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin's Disease, Myeloma, and many other related cancers. I am so proud to be involved with Team In Training, and I hope that over the next six months, you too will feel a connection to this cause. I will give you plenty of opportunities to support me, don't you worry. For now, let's just celebrate the fact that I'M GOING TO RUN A MARATHON!!!

Mom's visit!!

Phew! Well, this week has gone by nice and fast because my mom was here for the first three days of the week. We had a great time, and Mom did a great job of keeping herself busy during the days by taking bus tours all over the city. Heck, by the end of the week, she was mentioning “Soho” and the “Flatiron Building” like a pro (I didn’t even know what those things were until I’d lived here like a month).

Mom got in on Saturday night and we went to dinner in Queens. My idea had been to take advantage of Taylor having a car and go somewhere that most tourists don’t go: Queens! Well, we did succeed in going somewhere most tourists don’t go, but I can’t say it was a totally cultural experience. We did end up in a very Middle-Eastern dominated area, with Hookah bars and Koran reading rooms all along the street. But the “Mexican Fusion Sports Bar” that I picked out ended up just being a bar with some rice dishes thrown on the menu. Oh well, it was fun .

On Sunday we toured around the city, stopping at the Museum of Natural History (see giant cross-section below), TJ Maxx (I had to return something!) and even church! It was very windy and cold on Sunday, so we were tired out by the end of the day and we went home early and ordered Pizza for dinner.

Monday morning we got up early and discovered that I had NO HOT WATER in my apartment! I sucked it up and skipped the shower and we went to Rockefeller center to see the taping of the Today Show. Mom got a picture of Matt Lauer, so it was successful. I had to work and mom spent her day exploring the town. We met for dinner at 5pm and went dinner in the Financial District. There is this really cute cobblestone street right outside one of the buildings that my company has offices in. We ate dinner at the Stone Street Tavern. It was delicious and very reasonably priced. After that we took a self-guided tour of Wall Street, which included stops at the New York Stock Exchange and the World Trade Center. It was fun, but I got some bad news when I called my leasing company during dinner to check on the status of our hot water situation.

Apparently someone had forgotten to “deliver the oil” (no wonder my rent is so high, I’m paying OIL prices….). They assured me not to “worry” I would have gas the following afternoon. Which obviously didn’t help me because I would have to go another morning without a shower! We decided that we would have to go get showers after dinner. My best idea was to go to my gym, which has two branches. One is closer to my apartment, and the other is NOT. We went straight to the closer one, only to find out that their showers are out of commission…AWESOME. So we trekked all the way down to the far branch and FINALLY got our showers at around 9pm. My mom was such a trooper! I was grumpy the whole time because I really wanted a shower. Thanks mom 

On Tuesday we grabbed coffee at my favorite place near my old work: Guy and Gallard. I love their hazelnut coffee, and I think Mom agreed, it was pretty good! After that, I went to work, and Mom did a couple more tours before she met me for lunch at South Street Seaport. We had a nice lunch in the food court there and then I went back to work. I managed to leave work early and we went to try to get tickets to see Wicked via the box office lottery. The way it works is you go there 2½ hours before the show to put your name in the pot. You can ask for up to 2 tickets, so my mom and I each put our name asking for 2 tickets, that way if either of us was drawn, we would be able to go. Even though it was Halloween, there weren’t many people there, so I thought we had a good chance, but we ended up not getting picked . That was ok, though, we decided to just have a relaxing evening. We went out to eat at this really good little sushi/Thai place up by Columbia and then had cupcakes from Buttercup Bakery before going to bed nice and early.

Oh, and if you were on the edge of your seat waiting to find out how I calculated the speed of the sunset, here it is . Ever since the sunset, it has been getting dark REALLY early in New York. I checked and sunset is at 4:51 tonight. CRAZY! Well, it occurred to me that since Ohio is about 566 miles west of here, but still in the same time zone, it must get dark quite a bit later at home. Sure enough, sunset there isn’t until 5:28. That’s a difference of 37 minutes. Do the math and you have 566 miles/37 minutes=15.3 miles/minute. CRAZY! I’ll keep up with this for the next few weeks and I’ll be sure to give you not only the velocity, but also the acceleration of the sunset as the season progresses! See…having a challenging job really gets my juices flowing!

Ok, enough blogging for now. Thank you for reading. Please leave a comment so I know you’re around!

Mom is here to visit!!

My mom has been here visiting since Saturday and we've been having a grand ol' time. Even though she just asked me to "do it tomorrow when I'm not here," I'm going to put some up now so I don't forget!! In the next day or so, I will have stories about when we:
*Travelled all over New York to find a shower
*Calculated the speed at which the sunset travels (11.77 miles/minute, FYI)
*Ate mexican bar-food in Queens
*and more!

In the meantime:
Here's a picture of me and my Dad, actually. He was here last week!


Me, Mom and Taylor in Queens (like where the show King of Queens is set):


A GIANT cross-section from a tree:


At the Museum of Natural History :) We liked the "City of New York" sign best:


Mom in front of Macy's, the one in Herald's Square!


More to come, I promise :)

Too long no write

Friends,

I am sorry that I haven't written in a while! Right now, I am eating a Salmon and Basil past Lean Cuisine and I thought it might be a good time to write a little update!

Well, I am officially on day 8 of the new job. The first week I felt a little useless and didn't really know what I should be working on, but this week has been much better. In fact, I would even say that I'm feeling borderline "busy." Essentially most of my work is done from my desk in e-mail, spreadsheets, word documents and the internet. As boring as that sounds, I really do get a certain amount of satisfaction out of supporting the more high-level work of other people. As a training coordinator, I essentially make sure that out training events happen by booking rooms, getting materials together, and getting the word out. The people jsut above me, on the other hand, deal more with deciding what training programs we will do and developing the actual content of the training. I find both jobs very interesting, so it's good!

Ok, enough of the boring stuff! I have a really exciting week! Last night, my dad was in town for a meeting today in the city. He flew in at around 5:30 and met me near my apartment at 7pm. We grabbed dinner at a really nice place called Henry's on Broadway and then went back to my apartment to change. Then, we went to a nice country themed bar (you know I love that!) on Amsterdam called Brother Jimmy's. We watched some of the Tigers game before heading back. One of the greatest things about having Dad in town is that he just can't seem to resist wanting to fix things up in the apartment. Because we have a 129847 year old heating system, I have no idea how to work it, so I was telling Dad how hot it was in our place. When he got back to the apartment, he immediately found the radiators and showed me how to turn them down so that it is no longer 124 degrees in there! Then, this morning, I hear strange noises coming from the kitchen and go in there to find Dad replacing the lightbulbs in our ceiling light (which hasn't worked since I moved in), so now we have light in the kitchen! YAY! Dads are so helpful!

Anyway, Dad leaves today before I'm done with work, so I won't see him again...until Thanksgiving. But, tonight Taylor and I are having lunch with the BCM Chaplain from Vanderbilt, Scott Allen. BCM stands for Baptist Collegiate Ministries and it's the Christian ministry that I was involved with all through college. I'm excited to see him!

THEN on Saturday, my MOM is coming to visit me!!!! She was supposed to come with Grandma, but unfortunately she won't be able to make it until the Spring due to her surgery. I'm bummed, but I know my mom and I will have a good time, so that will be nice!

Ok, well this is getting long, so I'm going to sign off. I promise to come up with some better writing topics in the near future. I'm actually thinking I'll do a little photo documentary of the area in which I work. I work down on Wall Street (as in...THE Wall Street), so there are tons of beautiful buildings and architecture. yay!

Update

As you probably read, my grandma had to have emergency surgery last week while on a trip to California. Fortunately, she came through the surgery just fine, and is now in the painful process of recovery. She is still out in California with my Aunt Sheryl recovering and waiting to make a follow-up visit to her doctor. The doctors all say she should be fine, so of course just keep praying, specifically for her recovery which will likely be long and painful.

Another sad side effect of Grandma's surgery is that she was supposed to come to New York with my mom to visit me next weekend, and now she won't be able to! I am so disappointed, but obviously I understand. The sad thing is that my mom might have to come by herself, and since I work during the day, she'll be spending two and a half days in the city all by herself. If you or anyone you know has October 30-Nov. 1 off of school or work, come visit me in New York!! You can hang out with my mom and I on the evening and weekends and with just my mom doing some sight-seeing during the weekdays! Just putting that out there :) E-mail me at carissa.lucyk@gmail.com if you're interested :)

Ok, well I gotta run to Bible Study. Hope all is well, please leave a comment and let me know you're reading!!

First Day at my NEW JOB!!

Well, today was my first day at my new job. This morning, I put on all new duds and headed down to Wall Street for my first day. I have been worried about what I would wear ever since I got the job, so the past two weekends have been spent shopping furiously to invest in my future! I spent almost $500 on clothes and shoes, but really it was well worth it. Here's what I bought:

3 pairs of Tahari pants, usually $228 each: $59.99 each
2 white button-downs, brown vest, grey turtle-neck, brown ruffle-shirt, black skirt, black flats, black heels, brown heels, new belt.

All I need is a new bag or two and I'm set!

As far as the job goes, I must say, I am COMPLETELY overwhelmed and a suffering a little bit from disbelief. Do I really have a new job? Am I REALLY now an employee of corporate America?! Crazy! I must admit, I like it. They have so many resources and conveniences, it's ridiculous. And even though its very busy, my team is still kind enough to spend an hour of their time each going over everything they think I might need to know. They have already been so accommodating!

I will gladly spend some more time updating as soon as I have more news. For now, I'm just getting oriented to my responsibilities! For now, I'll leave you with some clandestine photos that I took while waiting for my supervisor to come get me!

Um....is it just me or is my nose HUGE?! What the heck?

Say A Prayer

I just wanted to ask everyone for prayers for my Grandma Lucyk. She had to have emergency surgery last night while on a trip out to California for her birthday. Luckily, she was with her sister and two nieces when this happened, so she has company with her out in California. My Uncle Jeff is on a plane out there right now to be with her and all signs show that she will be fine. She will be in the hospital for 3-5 days, and after that I'm sure there will be a long recover.. But for now, things look ok, so just keep Grandma Lucyk in your prayers.

Thank you.

Obviously, I'm fine

Otherwise, I'm sure you would have heard it on the news :):) Anyway, I just wanted to point out that the most surreal and scary part of this afternoon is that when I first read about the plane crashing into a building this afternoon, it said something like "police en-route to the scene, details to follow." And then, all of a sudden, I heard TONS of sirens outside my window. I'm not even joking it was so crazy for the front page of CNN to be audible outside my office. Very weird indeed.

Anyway, I am just fine, so no need to worry. My mom was really worried, I could tell because she called me about 2 hours later!! JK, Mom, I know you just don't read the news. With a kid in NYC, you may want to take that up.

Oh! And I finally received a start date today from Goldman, so I will officially report to the 20th floor of 85 Broad Street on Monday morning at 10am!!!! I am extremely excited!! While it is sad to be leaving Team In Training, I know that this opportunity will be a fabulous and enjoyable one. The spare change doesn't hurt either.

Well, I must get to bed because I finally tried ordering my groceries online from FreshDirect.com, and they are dropping them off tomorrow morning between 6:30am and 8am. I swear, it's the coolest thing. You can order almost anything you would at a grocery store, the prices are almost the same as a New York grocery store, AND they deliver it to your apartment for just $5, which is well worth it when 1) you don't have time to go to the store and shop and 2) You live on the 5th floor of a building with no elevator. Yay! So off to bed I go!

The Pressure's On!

So I just realized (I don't know how it took me this long) that my good friend Dillon has me listed in the column on his blog called "friends' blogs." Normally, this would be flattering, but in light of the fact that Dillon's blogs are deep, link-ridden, and much more well-written than mine, I feel that I will need to step it up a notch. To see what I mean, go here

And just because I randomly found them somewhere, here are a few old-school photos that include Mr. Barker and some other college friends! I just think all these old pictures are funny!




One more...

Longest Run of my LIFE!

That is not a dramatization, I really ran the longest run of my life on Saturday - 11.05 miles!! I am very excited about this, and even more excited that my ankle did not swell, nor did I have any out-of-the-ordinary pain after this run! This is exciting because a year and a half ago, when I was training for a 1/2 marathon, my ankle got all freaked out after 10 miles and I had to stop. So I used Saturday as a test to see if my ankles are week or if I perhaps had just injured it last year without realizing it. So the good news is that my ankles appear to be strong enough! As you all know (or if you don't, I'm telling you now) I am going to be training for a MARATHON this winter and running it in April in honor of my Grandma Hooper, who is a Hodgkin's Lymphoma Survivor. Anyway, here's a picture of me with a couple of running buddies after the run.


Kari, me, and Beth after 11.05!!!

Big Job Change!!

I must admit, I have not been complete in my reports on my life for the past few weeks. Now that everything is ironed out, I have past the background and drug checks, and have notified all interested parties, I am finally able to discuss the EXCITING opportunity that I am going to pursue. Since I haven't been detailing this process all along, I'll start at the beginning.

On August 28th, a fellow Vanderbilt Alumunus sent me an e-mail regarding possible opportunities in the training and development department of one of the biggest banks in town. In the interest of discretion, I'm not going to put the name on here (I'll just call it the Company), but feel free to ask me more about it in person. Here's an excerpt from the e-mail:


"I looked into Dore2Dore in case there were any alum that would be interested in a position with the Company. Please contact me should the below job description be of any interest to you. There are also opportunities with Company University dealing with Training if that is of interest to as well. Let me know...

While I had just started my job with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society a month and a half earlier, after talking to my dad and some of my friends, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to at least take the time to talk to someone about the opportunity.

I wrote back saying that I might be interested, and I was set up to meet with one of the recruiting managers of a recruiting firm that works closely with the Company to staff its more administrative positions (like the one I have). I will technically be working for this Firm onsite at the Company. The Firm works closely with the Company(the bank that I will be working at) to hire and manage certain categories of employees, including administrative assistants, recruiting managers, and the training coordinators who then work on-site at the Company but receive their pay and benefits from the Firm. I was probably more nervous about this "meeting" than I ever was about any interview that I had ever gone to because I wasn't sure that I was even interested in any of the opportunities with the organization. This was especially nerve-wracking because I know that many, many people would give anything for an interview to work at the Company. I just have never been one of those people who was particularly concerned about working for the best bank in the world.

So anyway, in talking with Mr. Marty (Pseudonym, just so I don't get in trouble), I decided that I was very interested in talking further about positions with training at Company University. I proceeded through three more rounds of interviews, talking with more than seven different people on the team that I would be working on. Everyone I spoke with had nothing but good things to say about the other people in the department and the work. The more I heard, the more I liked what I heard. During my final interview, I even got to meet two girls who have the exact job that I will be doing. They were positive, encouraging, and very friendly. So, I was VERY pleased when I got a call last Thursday offering me a job!!

Just a little about the position (since I'm sure that's what you're wondering). I will be a training coordinator in the OTFS (Operations, Technology, Finance and Services) division of Company University. CU, as it is called, is the training and development branch of the Company. As training coordinator, I will be responsible for ensuring the smooth operation of training programs for these division. The job description is as follows:

• Reserve training rooms at training center
• Schedule speakers/facilitators for upcoming training events
• Set up training event details in Learning Management System
• Prepare printed materials specific to the training session, e.g. agendas, handouts
• Respond to inquiries related to training events
• Send email and/or voicemail communications on any schedule or other course changes
• Interact with divisional training teams on action items for upcoming training events
• Be an “onsite” representative to ensure training events are properly prepared and executed
• Support faculty during training events
• Consolidate and summarize course evaluation data
• Answer questions related to historical class statistics and attendance
• Follow up on open issues
• Manage training program budgets and vendor contract/invoice processes

What I like most about the job is that it really is very similar to what I am already doing, except it incorporates my education because it focuses on training and development of the people of the organization. I see many opportunities to work hard and really have a chance to contribute on my new team. It is really a great opportunity.

Of course, the other benefit of this new position is that it comes with a much higher salary than my current position. While I would never want to be one to make such a decision based solely on money, the fact that this position pays 50% more than what I am currently making in addition to overtime, I am a happy camper.

My first day is October 16 (I have put in my two weeks, and my current team has been very understanding), so I will definitely let you all know how it goes!!!! Please e-mail me ir you have any further questions :)

Um...this is not ok.

So on Tuesday morning, at work, we had a brief discussion about the shooting on Monday in Pennsylvania. One of my co-workers mentioned that she had seen a news story with a map of recent school shootings. We spend some time having a relatively NOT P.C. discussion of how we now seem to be able to analyze what should be an infrequent abberation much like the weatherman analyzes the weather. I mean, seriously, look at the map below and tell me: doesn't it look more like your "weekend outlook" than your "recent fatal trips to school." It's just so sad that it has come to this for so many people. And the saddest thing is, each time that it happens, the story gets a ton of coverage, and other would-be suicidal shooter people realize that they, too, can go down in history. So sad.

Oh, and this map only goes through 2005 (the most updated I could find). It doesn't even include the three shootings in the last 2 weeks.

Another run in the park, another batch of stories!

Tonight, I ran the entire loop of Central park for the second time. Except this time, I decided to run in the opposite direction (the fist time I went counter-clockwise). The main reason for this was that it would be dark at the end of my run, and I wanted to avoid running near Harlem after dark. So my run was an enjoyable six miles in the (finally) cool, fall weather in New York. Not only was this run enjoyable, it was also blogable!! You betcha. I came out of that run with more stories certainly than the entire rest of my day combined. And, you know what, while I was running, I was thinking about all the things I would write in my blog, and it kind of made the time go faster. See how things work out like that?

So anyway, I had a very interesting run. I’ll tell this story chronologically, so imagine each of the events happening at a different point in my clockwise loop!

The first crazy occurrence of my run was when I spotted my first wildlife!! That’s right, a raccoon ran right out in front of me and then just kind of stopped there, scared that I would run into it. So I swerved around the raccoon and I think actually made the guy behind me come pretty close to kicking it (I was blocking his view until it was nearly too late!).

After the raccoon, I kept running for about a mile or so. Now, I’ve always been told that I run on my toes. One time at the Y, this guy came up to my treadmill and was like “are you a sprinter?” Do I LOOK like a sprinter to you, buddy, get to the point! He went on to tell me that I run on my toes like a sprinter. Who knew. Anyway, this happened again at TNT practice a few weeks ago, one of the coaches stopped me and told me, essentially, that if I liked having my shins in one piece, I should learn to land more flat-footed. Well, today’s chastisement takes the cake. While I was running down the east side of the park, this relatively good-looking boy ran up beside me and motioned for me to take my headphones off. Ok, fine. Then he says, “Are you ok?” Naturally, I told him I was, as I was clearly running with no problem. Then he looked down at me again and said, “You really run on your toes.” I asked him how I could fix this problem and he – ingeniously – suggested that I land on my heel. Brilliant. I told him that I have had several people tell me that I run on my toes, but no one has bothered to help me fix the problem. He replied, “Well, at least you’re building up your calf muscles” and sped away. Another critique, still no advice...So a note to all the single women reading this (are there any?), a good way to pick up a good-looking, athletic boy is to develop a noticeably bad running form. They will swoon, I promise.

Ok, so I kept running for about another mile when I approached a fork in the road where I had not previously seen one. It’s one of those scenarios where you don’t notice it coming from one direction, but from the other direction, it presents quite the conundrum. Well, I used my best Lucyk judgment and followed the advice of our family vacation T-shirt and (now) the CD of photos that I received from said vacation – I took the fork. This did not turn out so well. Before I knew it, I was running in the horse lane which, as you may have inferred, means that I was running on piles of horse poop, and it smelled AWFUL!! The thing is, though, the horse-poop trail was separated from the normal road by a cobblestone divider. If you have ever run on cobblestone you know that it is a sprained ankle waiting to happen, so I had to take my time getting out of the horse-poop trail before I could be free from the stench.

So now I’m rounding the final major turn in the park when I realize that it feels as though something has made its way into my shoe (presumably some wood or a rock or something) and is lacerating my toes. I stopped on the side of the path, sat down, and took off my shoe only to find that my toes had been rubbing together creating a very raw patch of skin that was sending sharp pains through my foot. I had about a mile until home, so I decided to keep running to get it over with because both walking and running hurt equally. It was another ½ mile before I realized that I was no longer carrying the keys to my apartment in my left hand. Not good. Without those keys, I have no way to get home, no phone, no money, nothing. All I had on me was my iPod and my keys. I turned around and ran the ½ mile back to the spot where I thought I had sat down (really the side of the road looks the same everywhere, so I was guessing. I spent about 5 minutes trying not to look like I was looking for something because I didn’t want anyone to offer to help. Finally, just as I was about to give up, I glimpsed the American flag keychain on my ring. I grabbed the keys, kissed them, danced around a bit, and headed off.

My final interesting encounter of the day happened just after this when I saw a family of 3 raccoons crossing the path in front of me. Crazy, I’ve never seen wildlife in the park and today I saw 3 specimens!

As a result of my key detour, I bet I ran about 6.5-7 miles today. Good times.

That is the end of my run. Oh, and stay tuned, my next post will be well worth your time to read, I promise!!

Relaxing Weekend

Well, this has been a very relaxing weekend. Taylor's parents are out of town this weekend and since the house is a little quite without Morgie, I have been out here keeping him company. But, let's be honest, I would probably be out here anyway, I love going to Taylor's house.

Friday night we went to the Museum of Modern Art because they have FREE admission sponsored by Target on Fridays from 4pm-8pm. Not gonna lie, modern art can be just a little weird. Things like random Televisions showing home videos and balls of hair definitely qualify as art. But, we did have a great time and saw some very famous pieces like La Persistencia de la Memoria (Dali), Les Demoiselles D'Avignon (Picasso), Starry Night (Van Gogh), and the Campbell's soup thing by Andy Warhol. So there it is, my gift to you, a virtual trip to the MOMA :)

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to an appl orchard and bought some apples and some cider as well as this mix that made fresh apple crisp. I baked (yes, BAKED) that yesterday, it was DELICIOUS! Then we went running yesterday afternoon, watched college football, and went into the city. Taylor hung out with his friend Cooper who is moving to Alabama this week and I met up with a co-worker to go down to a fundraiser for Team In Training down on the Lower East Side. It was fun, but I was ready to call it a night at midnight, for sure!

Today, we're watching the Jets (who are currently, at leat, beating the Colts). I think we're also going to go watch some of the game at Taylor's friend's apartment before going to Fleming's for their SWEET Sunday special. You get a 12 oz. prime rib steak, a salad, a side, and a desert for only $28. It's a very good and delicious deal! After that I'm going to head back into the city and watch some TV before going to bed :) Just an update!

Rest in Peace, Morgan

Last night was a very sad night. Taylor's dog, Morgan, died at 8pm in his crate. He had been sick for a little over a month, but still, the loss is hard. However, we take comfort that he never seemed to be in any pain, and when the time came, he went to his crate (the equivalent of his bedroom), laid down just like he always did for a nap, and quietly stopped breathing. Taylor and I made it home just after it happened, and watching Taylor say goodbye was one of the hardest things I've had to do in a while.

Luckily, the Smith family has many years of happy memories to look back on, and we know Morgan lived a good life. He was loved more than any dog I think I've ever known, and that makes it so much easier to say goodbye. Thanks for the good times, Morgie.

First Loop of Central Park

Monday night was another momentous occasion for me!! I ran the 6-mile loop of Central Park for the first time. Below is a picture of the park:


The loop is the outermost road around the park. It goes all the way from 59th up to 110th st. and obviously across the park. Honestly, I really enjoyed the run and got to see parts of the park that I'd never seen. It's HUGE, that's for sure, but I was so distracted by all the sights, I didn't even get that tired. When you come visit (because I know you all will) We will definitely need to run/walk in the park!

New York Sights

Today was a somewhat momentous occasion. After spending a relaxing early afternoon watching football and Scrubs episodes, I came into the city for a run and some fundraising brainstorming with some Team In Training folks. The girl whose apartment we met at has a sweet place down in Tribeca, right near the river. I arrived a little late for our meeting, but apparently those who were on time got there just in time to see Kate Bosworth arriving at the same building. Not quite my first celebrity sighting, but pretty close!

And speaking of celebrity sightings, I saw one of the most famous women in all of New York City today. While I was running along the Hudson River in Tribeca, I was getting frustrated because the wind was coming from behind me and was blowing my hair right into my face. To fix it, I stopped and turned around only to see the Statue of Liberty across the water!! I had been in New York for probably a total of 4 months and never seen the statue, so needless to say I was QUITE excited!! :)

Well, I must get to bed, not to mention the cat is sitting on the keyboard making it quite difficult to type. But I just realized I have never mentioned the cat, so suffice to say she's a very cute, very psycho, very furry little Himalayan named Coco Giselle. Love it :)

Signing off!

New York Delights

Ok, I'll make a deal with you. I'm going to write a nice long post about my life in New York. Something that will hold your attention and rivet you for a good 5 minutes before you must get back to whatever it is you were doing before you thought "Ooh! I could check up on Carissa's blog and see what's there" and subsequently signed on to find this post. I know you're super excited to dwindle away a few minutes while living vicariously through me so, like I said, I have a deal for you!! You MUST comment before you leave this site. Please, say something because I'm beginning to think no one is reading this!! If you've commented recently, I'll let you off the hook, but seriously - come out of the shadows and say hello :) Ok, on with the post:

I feel that I have not provided much information lately about my life in New York, sorry! In truth, things have not been altogether exciting lately!

Well my job is going well. In case you didn't know, almost everyone else in New York works in finance. These people work REALLY long hours and make a lot more money than I do, but they have virtually no time to enjoy it because they work so much. Case in point. I've been going to this great fellowship group on Thursday nights. Last year they met at 10:30pm. So the e-mail I got said this:

"We are moving the time up an hour to 9:30. If people are concerned about consistently not getting out of work in time, please let us know."

Apparently getting out of work by 9:30pm can be an issue in banking. Dang! Anyway, so work has been going well. Right now I am managing a team of about 80 participants and 8 mentors who are training and fundraising for the P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona marathon in Phoenix in January. They meet for training on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. I have been joining them on Wednesdays because the practices are usually pretty fun, but I skip out on Saturdays because its at 8:30am and I refuse to run in the morning if I don't have to :) I plan to run a marathon in April in Nashville, the Country Music Marathon. I'm extremely excited, and training starts in November. I'm so excited!!! Oh, and I'll be fundraising, so y'all better get ready :)

ANYWAY...So yes, there's work. Then there's the rest of life, right? Well, New York has certainly been an adventure, but nothing terribly challenging. I would say right now the hardest part is that I definitely don't have a group of friends yet, but there's also just not enough time in the day to really have time to build relationships with people. This fellowship group has been really great (the one I mentioned above, regarding meeting time). The people there are all really nice, and a few of them are even Vanderbilt Alumni!! I'm a firm believer that people come into your life for a reason, so I am just keeping my eyes wide open and getting to know people as best I can. Fortunately, I have a great job for meeting people because we have so many participants every season and most of them are the same age as me! I love the Team In Training people that I've met so far, and I am looking forward to getting to know them even better!

My daily activities really vary from day to day, but I'll give a few examples below:
*Going to the gym, which is right across the street from my work. The gym is actually pretty nice and over looks Park Ave, so there's lots of people-watching while you're on the treadmill.
*Run! I've been trying to keep my endurance at at least 5 miles and my speed up so that when I start training for the marathon, I've got something to start with :) I usually run this loop:



*Fellowship group. I mentioned this before. Basically we get together and study a portion of the Bible, right now we're working through Galatians. Each week someone new leads the discussion and we take prayer requests, etc. It's a good time.
*Netflix. I know, I know, I'm in New York, why would I want to watch T.V.? Well, partially because now that I'm officially out of the homework phase of life, I need to catch up with what I've missed for the past 5 years in terms of movies and T.V. on DVD. So, THERE!
*Getting a drink with my roommate. Unfortunately, Sooz is a VERY busy girl, but I do like to squeeze a drink in here and there, because I do have a very fabulous roommate!
*Comedy Clubs. I've only done this once so far, but my roommate really likes live comedy, so we went down to the Comedy Cellar and saw a few really funny people and some scary ones. I'm sure we'll be doing it again :)
*Seeing the sights of the city! New York is a massive place, and it really is impossible to see everything. So, I'm trying to chip away slowly, often taking detours out of my way just to see the different areas of town where I've never been. Last night, for instance, I walked from the subway to Chelsea Piers just to see a new area. Chelsea Piers is this giant entertainment complex on the Hudson river with bowling, fitness centers, restaurants and all sorts of other things. There are also some MASSIVE yachts there, probably owned by the famous and CERTAINLY by the rich. So I just walked around gawking at the boats a little last night too.
*Visiting Taylor's house. I LOVE going to Taylor's house for several reasons. First, they have nice comfy couches and a big-screen T.V., perfect for Saturday and Sunday-afternoon football-watching. Second, New Jersey offers plentiful, more affordable convenience shopping, so I usually wait for the weekends to buy things like shampoo, groceries, etc. out there. Finally, it is SO nice to get out of the city and stretch out a little. Whether its sitting around on the couch or talking a walk along the river, it is so refreshing to be surrounded by the suburbs and trees sometimes. Oh, and Taylor isn't so bad either :)

Well, I hope that's a small picture of my life for those who care. Leave a comment so I know you're reading!!

My Star-crossed Flight to Nashville

I am not very good at flying. And I’m ok with that. I’ve accepted that God just didn’t give me good flying genes.

I’ve learned this this summer, as I’ve been feverishly flying from point A to points B,C,D, and E ever since May. The first time I realized I may not be a good flyer, I cut it a little too close on a flight to D.C. and Dick Cheney felt compelled to punish me by quarantining the airport and causing me to miss my flight.

Flight disaster #2 was this past Friday. Allow me to expound. My flight from Newark was at 7:05pm, and since travel time in the City can be a little unpredictable, I had come to work early and arranged with my boss to be able to leave at 4pm. So, I began my day at about 7:30am with a 40 lb suitcase in tow. I took the (*&^#$ suitcase all the way to work on the Subway, soliciting several dirty looks and pulling what I will now refer to as my “suitcase muscle” in the process. I arrived at work bright and early, and quite grumpy. Oh, and of course it was raining.

As the day wore on, the weather became progressively worse, the rain and wind increasing by the hour. By the time 3:30 rolled around, I realized I should check to see if my flight was delayed. When I entered my flight number, I realized that my fligth was actually originating in Montreal, Canada and making a stop in Newark before continuing on to Nashville. The Montreal to Newark leg was delayed by two hours when I checked, but the Newark to Nashville leg still purported to be “On Time.” Balderdash.

Naturally, I was curious to know if my flight, too would be similarly delayed. I have spent my fair share of time sitting in airports waiting for delayed flights and would prefer NOT to have to do so again. So I called Continental to check and see what the deal was. I asked the customer service representative if my flight (the Newark to Nashville leg) would be delayed until the arrival of the first leg. The foreigner on the other end sounded confused by my question at first but eventually managed, “Yes, yes, your flight will be delayed the 2 hours as well.” Ok, that’s helpful, but why did it still say “On Time.” Mysterious.

So anyway, I called Taylor and made the decision to amend our plans because my flight was obviously not taking off until at least 9pm, so why arrive at the airport by 5:30? We decided to meet back up by my apartment (rather than down at 34th St. because it is best to avoid driving down to midtown if you can help it). So I drug the $%^&%*# suitcase BACK uptown to my apartment, thus rendering my entire dragging pointless.

Taylor picked me up and we decided to head back to his house and monitor the flight situation, as obviously I did not need to go to the airport yet. We went back to Taylor’s house, getting there a little before 6pm. Meanwhile, I monitored the situation with my flight by calling Continental’s automated flight status line. The departure time for my fligth finaly started creeping back at around 6:30. At 6:30 it said that the first leg would arrive at 10:00pm (even more delayed), and that my fligth was scheduled to depart at 7:20pm, a full three hour discrepancy, so I decided to call Continental again and verify that the fligth would not leave before the frist leg arrived. Again, the representative let me know that the second leg would be similarly delayed. I was confused as to WHY they didn’t just put that up there. Taylor said he thought it was because they wanted people there just in case they were able to get out earlier, but really it was unlikely.

But obviously I had to decide. I could head to the airport in case the flight left earlier and likely end up sitting there until 10:30 or I could stay at Taylor’s until at least the first leg had departed and then went to the airport later.

Taylor’s mom had made turkey burgers so we decided to eat something and then check the flight again and leave if necessary. Well, by 7:30pm, the flight was scheduled to take off at 8:05pm (still creeping back) even though the first leg hadn’t even left Montreal. Nonetheless, I was getting paranoid so we decided to leave. Waiting for a couple hours at the airport wouldn’t be the end of the world.

So we left and got to the airport at about 8:15pm. At that time, my flight status said that it was taking off at 8:05pm, but I knew that wasn’t true. I asked Taylor to stay at the airport while I went and checked my bag and asked about the flight. I stood in line for about 10 minutes and finally got up to the counter. I told them I was on the 7:05 flight to Nashville, but that I didn’t think it was taking off for a while, even though the status was all screwy. The lady took my bag, tagged it, checked my ID, and told me that it would be leaving at 10:18. This made perfect sense because last I knew, the first leg was getting in at 10:00pm, so with turnaround time, that seemed about right.

I called Taylor and told him he could go on ahead and began to mosey my way toward gate 99 (I had like 2 hours to kill). I talked on the phone, bought a magazine, went to the bathroom, and ended up getting to the gate at about 8:55pm. I was on the phone with my mom at the time, and I looked at the gate screen thing to see that Flight 2744 to Nashville was scheduled to depart at 8:35pm (20 mintues ago). Suuuure. The gate area was still packed with people, so clearly the flight hadn’t boarded. So I finished talking to my mom, read my magazine, and otherwise killed time until about 9:30. At that point, I looked back at the gate, only to see that Nashville had disappeared and the gate screen now read, “Continental passengers, have a safe fligth”….not good. I got up and walked to the nearest “Departures” screen. No flights to Nashville were listed. I called the automated Continental Line (from the airport, I know, I know) and they told me that the flight hat left at 9:05pm….#$%^^*#@$&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How on earth could the flight have left, that’s impossible. I scurried back to the gate and asked a couple of people where they were going, and they were all headed to Austin, TX. I mentioned Nashville and a lady told me that the Nashville flight left. WAIT A SECOND! How could the flight to Nashville have left at 9:05pm? I was sitting in the gate area at that time and CLEARLY would have heard the announcement?! Not to mention, the lady at the coutner told me it was leaving at 10:18pm. No good.

Well, it turns out that it had left. To this minute I have absolutely no idea how I was sitting at the gate and somehow missed my flight. All I have been able to figure is that the lady at the ticket counter was completely wrong and that my flight had actually already boarded by the time I got to the gate. They must have just been waiting for the last few people to trickle in before leaving, and therefore made no announcements of any kind. I, meanwhile, sat there oblivious as my flight taxied and took off right under my nose!!

Needless to say I freaked out a bit upon hearing this news. I called Taylor in tears and asked him to come back to the airport to get me (what a sweetheart). Then, I went back to the ticketing area to some lines that I’d seen marked “Flight Re-Accomodation.” Luckily, I got a really nice lady who was able to get my on the first flight out the following morning, at 9:50am. In addition, Taylor’s mom offered to take me back to the airport Saturday morning (Taylor couldn’t, he had class). The woman told me that my bag would be in Nashville when I got there, so I went back to Taylor’s with just my carryon.

The next morning, I got to the airport at 8:30 and went to the baggage office only to find out that my bag had missed the flight too! So, it looks like it might not have been possible for me to make the flight in the first place, which is reassuring.

Anyway, the rest of the story is that the fligth actually got into Nashville early and I was able to make it to the football game and otherwise enjoy my trip very much. I will post photos and stories later this week. For now, I hope you’ve enjoyed my tale!

Delayed Reflection on September 11th

By delayed I mean 5 years, not just 3 days. It occurred to me this year, as I was watching the news Monday night, crying my eyes out, that I have never taken the time to reflect on September 11, 2001. I had certainly never cried about it. But this year, as I sat in my apartment, not 5 miles from thousands of people who lost loved ones, I finally realized how much there is to cry about.

To start off, we all have a story of September 11, 2001, and mine is no more interesting than most, but its worth sharing. In the Fall of 2001, I was in my first semester of college. Of course this means that I had plenty of 8am classes in my schedule and I was seated in one taught by one of my very favorite professors of all time, Brian Griffith. Brian was probably talking about psychosocial development or something similarly stimulating when Beth Arnold peeked her head in the door and told Brian that something had happened and he may want to stop class to find out more. He politely thanked her for the information and carried on. A few minutes later she returned and asserted her authority as a higher-level professor and instructed Brian to zip it and turn on the T.V. Doesn't the day become a blur then for you too? I remember people immediately picking up cell phones, other people starting to cry, and I remember walking back to my dorm room in a daze. Of course I called my family and told them I was safe. Then I watch T.V. all day and went to my math class.

Really, I don't know that what happened actually sunk in. I think it's still sinking in for me, but being in New York on September is just a completely different experience than it is anywhere else. I drove into the city with Taylor Monday morning and there were flags across the GW Bridge, flags all throughout Times' Square, and flags in everyone's windows. The news covered nothing but stories of people who had lost loved ones. One town in New Jersey lost 37 out of just a few thousant residents. It really his heartbreaking to be surrounded by such grief. And its troubling to know taht there are people in the world capable of these types of things. Evil beyond what I could ever imagine is out there, and I'm not talking about a certian race or religion. Be that as it may, it is truly terrifying, not in a paranoid sense, but in the a realistic sense to know that there are people out there who would commit the same acts again if they could. Again, I'm not trying to get political, I am just realizing for the first time, after being in New York on September 11, that none of us exist in a bubble. These things can happen anywhere, at any time, and it is so important to love and appreciate the people you have and the things you have right now, because not everyone is so lucky.

My heart, my thoughts, and my prayers are with everyone who lost someone they loev on September 11, 2001. May I always remember how lucky I am to have the people I love just a plane, train, or bus ride away.

My Visit to Nashville!

I'm so excited for next weekend! I'm going to Nashville!! I'm working on the itinerary...here's what I have so far!

Friday
Taste of Cincinnati party at Jill's
Tin Roof
Sparky's (?)
Sunset Grill nachos

Saturday
Breakfast with Kurt
VANDERBILT vs. Arkansas
Run the loop
Dinner party at 1623
The Stage!

Sunday
Midtown
Brunch
T.J. Maxx
Movie/Shopping at Green Hills Mall/Football!

Summer's Over!?

I found this survey and, since this has been a pretty eventful summer, I decided to do it. Can you believe this summer is over!? Depending on when it technically began, I've been a lot of places this summer. Allow me to list them:

Beginning May 1

May 1-2, New York, job interviews
May 2-22, Nashville, chool
May 22-25, DC, job interviews
May 25-June 2, Nashville, school
June 3-13, Perrysburg, with my family
June 13-15, Nashville, final presentation for school
June 15-18, Perrysburg, home again
June 18-22, New York, job interview
June 22-July 10, Perrysburg, home!
July 10-August 4, New York, new home
August 4-6, Cincinnati, Abi and Jon Jon's wedding
August 6-18, New York, getting used to my new life
August 18-26, Montana, family vacation
August 26-now, New York, Back *home*

Whew, what a ride! And without further ado, the survey!!

SUMMER'S OVER SURVEY

Looking back on this summer, have you...

1. Drank alcohol? a bit, I even learned to love beer!

2. Cried? Of course

3. Kissed anyone? Yes

4. Been on a vacation to a different state? Yes

5. Been on a vacation to a different country? Does Montana count?

6. Been to the beach? Yep, in Michigan

7. Been to an island? Haha, Manhattan!

8. Done drugs? Nope

9. Smoked? No

10. Snuck out? No need

11. Had a sleepover? Yep!

12. Stayed up all night? No, not a fan

13. Slept in someone elses bed? Haha, yeah i get around

14. Went pee in a pool? Haven't been in a pool ;-)

15. Went skinny dipping? No

16. Been on the computer a lot? Of course

17. Played video games? A little bit of Mariokart

18. Listened to an ipod/mp3 player? Plenty!

19. Been on over 30 car rides? I'm sure I have

20. Been grounded? Haha I don't think that's possible at this point

21. Been to a party? of course

22. Regret something? maybe a little

23. Been dumped? Nearly

24. Lied? Probably

25. Done anything against the law? I don't think so

26. Been camping? Just the cabins on our family vacation

27. Got in a fight? Not a physical one

28. Got a new hair do? Mom cut my hair a little and highlighted it :)

29. Stayed at a hotel? A couple times

30. Talked on the phone all night? No need

31. Went shopping? TOO MUCH!

34. Someone ask you out? No

35. Got in a car with a stranger? My Mommy taught me better than that!

36. Lost someone close? No, luckily

37. Had someone sleep in your bed? Haha yeah, Kim ;-)

38. Been to a movie? Only a couple, surprisingly!

39. Been to a club? Nah

40. Slept in? Just a few times

41. Got tanner? Oh yes, I've been tan and back again

42. Watched TV for more than 5 hours? Consecutively? no.

43. Tried something new? Does New York City count?

44. Did homework? Finished up June 30 for GOOD!!

45. Learned something new? Many things

46. Went surfing? Nope

47. Went dancing? A bit

48. Been to a concert? No, sadly!

49. Quoted a movie? Oh, surely

50. Played with fire? Yeah a little

51. Made new friends? Oh yeah!

Who is the person/people you were with the most? Um...Taylor, Taylor's family, Susie, WORK, my family, and everyone else in spirit!

What is your favorite ice cream this summer? Chocolate, surprisingly

What is the best day? Saturday!

What is your biggest regret so far this summer? Life's funny, but I have none :)

What is your favorite song this summer? When the Sand Runs Out

What is your favorite movie this summer? No Clue

Is this the best summer so far? The most eventful, that's for sure!

Are you looking forward to school starting? I never have to go to school again!!