January 11, 2003

Ten years ago today was my first official date with Taylor.  Ten years!!  We had met about a month earlier, after I spotted him at an acapella concert and subsequently stalked him via a series of yearbooks, databases, and misunderstandings which luckily culminated in our first-ever interaction around December 20, 2002.  That day, I brought Taylor lunch in his freshman dorm room while he recovered from appendicitis (which he had a few days after we first laid eyes on each other...apparently his appendix sensed what was coming - late nights and the stress of dating a 19-year-old girl - and decided to split).  The "meeting" essentially happened because I straight up told him that I thought he was attractive and wanted to get to know him better.  It went well.  What I remember most was Taylor's black jeans which he paired with all-white sneakers (this was 2003, mind you, not 1993!) and the fact that he asked lots of questions and seemed genuinely to want to get to know me.  These two facts offset each other, but given the aforementioned attractiveness, I was still interested :)

We went out separate ways for the holidays, not really knowing if we would see each other again.  I had my first-ever trans-Atlantic experience that year, traveling to Italy over the New Years holiday with my friends Kim and Jessica.  Kim* also happens to be the same friend  that I visited in Australia this New Years!  Ten years of friendship (more, actually)...wow.  Anyway, I sent Taylor a postcard from Italy and, as he puts it, he knew I was "in the bag." Nice.

So we returned from the holiday break in early January and wouldn't you know it, apparently my cafeteria lunch (or maybe my amazing personality) had left an impression because Taylor contacted me almost immediately (I think it was via AIM, remember those days?) to ask if I wanted to go out.  We arranged to have our first date the first Saturday after we returned to school, January 11.  Taylor was (and still is) a huge sports fan, so we decided to meet up for the Vanderbilt basketball game that night and follow it with ice skating at nearby Centennial Sportsplex.

Saturday arrived and I had to go to my usual job at the school cafeteria, which was fine because I had the date that night to look forward to and, with any luck, Taylor would be coming in for lunch and we could see each other before our date, which would help take the edge off.

So I was obviously in a good mood and a little distracted all day at work.  So much so, apparently, that I attracted the interests of one of my co-workers (Josh, maybe?) and did not notice.  So when he asked me, literally, out of the blue if I wanted to go our sometime, I agreed (?) and suggested that we have dinner that night (?!).  I told him we could get dinner about an hour after work, but that I had to be done by 7:30 to meet friends (well, kinda) at the basketball game.

So, you know, that happened.  And I still look back and laugh when I realize that in my whole life, I have only gone on 2 real "first dates" in my life and they happened on the same night!   So Josh and I had dinner at a little Indian place near campus.  I remember it being pleasant but not particularly memorable.  I had him drop me off at the Baptist student center near the basketball arena, where I was a member, so that I could change my clothes.  Ironically, I had to dress down for my date with Taylor, into a Vandy T-Shirt and jeans.

We met outside the stadium and headed to the student section.  We had a good time at the game, which was actually a great spot for the first half of a date, because you don't have to talk the whole time.  I guess it is a little weird, though, that many of our friends were around also watching the game and we basically just sat off by ourselves.  I remember 2 things about the game: 1) Vanderbilt was unranked and beat Alabama, who were ranked #4 in the country at that time (recap here) and 2) the last few minutes of the game took FOREVER and almost caused us to not be able to go ice skating, and apparently I complained at length about this (oops). Taylor still tells me what if Vanderbilt hadn't won (#1) he may not have gone out with me on account of the complaining (#2), but he's somewhat superstitious so he decided to give it a chance.

So after the game we did go ice skating, and I remember 3 things: 1) making fun of Taylor for not taking his coat off and 2) finding out that he was allergic to the cold (oops) and 3) he was a lot better ice skater than I expected becuase it turned out he played hockey in high school (I know, I didn't get it either given #2.

At the end of ice skating, I guess Taylor hadn't gotten sick of my complaining and making fun of him so we decided to grab a drink at a nearby restaurant call Tin Angel.  And by drink I mean 2 cokes in the bar because we weren't 21 people!  Ha.  We had our cokes and got to talking about (movies (I guess) because before I knew it we were making plans to go back to my dorm and watch The Wedding Singer, which we discovered was a shared favorite (incidentally, we watched another movie, Tommy Boy, on our second date and from then until now have never found another move we both really love).

By the time all of this was over, I think it was about 3 or 4am before I took Taylor back to his dorm.  I think I was late for church the next day :)  We followed up the next weekend with an even longer second date that included things like swing dancing, fondue, frat parties and the aforementioned movie, Tommy Boy, and I guess you can say the rest is history.  Ten years of it, at least.

*Kim also started dating her now husband of 5+ years the same day, January 11, 2003!  We had all been friends for more then a year when will worked up the courage to tell Kim that night that he was interested in her.  Such beautiful symmetry :)

Miscellaneous adventure complete! Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef

Well it's 2013 and it's high time I get cracking on the rest of this 30 before 30 list, you reckon?  What's that, does my use of the word reckon seem odd?  I bet it does and that's because it's usually reserved for use by individuals of an extremely southern or, it turns out, Australian, persuasion.  That's right, I am in Australia!  Well, actually, I'm technically in Border Protection purgatory waiting on my return flight to L.A. after 10 days in Australia.  I traveled here over the Christmas holiday with 6 friends, two of whom live in Melbourne and the rest of whom came from the US for 2 weeks.   Kim, Will, Jessi, Peter, Jill and Aaron and I spent the last 9 days getting a full dose of Australia's beautiful summer weather and experiences.  One of those, I have decided to count as my 30 Before 30 item that I left blank for a miscellaneous adventure: Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef!

I arrived almost a week after everyone else on the trip due to work and family obligations, and met up with the crew in Sydney.  We began out adventures with a 3-night trip to the Hunter Valley wine region just northwest of Sydney and had a great time taking in Australia's wines and the beautiful views of the Hunter Valley.  Aside from a major fall where I skinned my knee and the top of my foot, it was very relaxing. 

On my 4th day in Australia, we headed back to Sydney and boarded a flight to Cairns, one of the jumping off points for the Great Barrier Reef and its many wonders.  We checked in to our AMAZING accommodation in Port Douglas, Queensland on New Years Eve and cooked up yummy apps while drinking all the wine we had gotten as we rang in the new year.

On New Years Day, we were up with the sun to go out on our snorkeling trip with Poseidon Adventures.  The trip took us 1.5 hours and about 14 miles off the coast of Queensland to the Agincourt Reef, where we dove in 3 different spots.   When we boarded the boat, they offered motion sickness medicine for $3, but I declined because I didn't have a history of motion sickness and because I didn't want it to make me tired.  Wrong choice.  I will explain.

The trip began with extensive safety and technique overviews from the staff.  We were given masks, snorkels, fins and a lycra suit to protect us from any jellyfish or coral we may come in contact with.  The first dive was relatively murky and not ideal.  The sun wasn't shining so it was hard to see much.   I did rent an underwater camera, though, and managed to get some decent shots:

Near the end of the first dive, I started to suddenly feel nauseous, so I returned to the boat in a hurry only to find out that I was not alone.  A few of our group had come back with a case of the upset stomach.

I felt pretty sick throughout the boat ride between the first and second dive site, but seeing as I had paid good money and was on the Great Barrier Reef, I went back out for dive number two.  As soon as I got in the water, I felt a lot better, and got some great photos of the beautiful coral at the second site:

A giant clam!

After about 20 minutes of feeling fine, though, I suddenly got really nauseated and decided to separate from the group.  It's a good thing because within about a minute, I threw up.  In the water. On the Great Barrier Reef.  Awesome.  Luckily, I felt better after being sick, but I still returned to the boat where I managed to choke down lunch.

For the third dive, my friends used the camera.  Here's a pretty cool shot they got:

On our third dive, we saw a giant sea turtle and a sting ray and I'm so bummed that I didn't get pictures.  On the way back to shore, I got sick on the boat again.  It was not fun!

We spent another 2 days after our diving adventure up in the Port Douglas area.  We toured the Daintree Rainforest with a crazy tour guide who really just wanted to teach us how to live off of the land, whereas we just wanted to see pretty views.  We returned to Sydney and spend another day and a half exploring Sydney, which was really fun.  We went to Paddington Market, which had great clothes and jewelry for sale and then went to Manly beach, which I hadn't done last time I was in Sydney.  It's a really cool little beach area with a boardwalk and all kinds of beachy sores and restaurants.  We also had great beers in Sydney and went to a restaurant that we really loved when we went there a couple of years ago.

And now I'm on the way home and back to the grind of the real world (and the rest of my 30 Before 30!!)

30 Before 30: Read the Bible all the way through (in a year!)

Oh hi there! In case you missed it, here's my 25% progress post about this goal, which has some pretty funny verses I found.

I have been busy blogging this month, but not on this blog.  In fact, that's a whole other post that I need to get to stat.  But first, I need to post a delayed post about completing another one of my 30 Before 30, reading the Bible all the way through!  I started this item on October 24, 2011, Taylor and I's second wedding anniversary and completed it on October 23, 2012 in under a year!

I truly enjoyed daily reading of the Bible.  I learned a lot and was able to put into context all the stories I've read in pieces my whole life.  I made over 500 bookmarks, so now when I want to go back and read something, I have lots of choices of good passages that I already like!

If anyone is looking to do this, I recommend the iPhone/iPad/Android app YouVersion and they will connect you directly to the plan.  You can also visit: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/. 

Here's my medal!!

Today (yep, just today)

I can't remember the last time I just blogged about my day.  I think it was like 2008.  Seriously.

Today wasn't overly eventful, but it was a nice, fun, festive day and I happened to take a bunch of photos, so I figured why not blog about it!?

First thing this morning, I took Taylor to school to work on a project.  Since I had a little time to kill between that and my 10am tennis match, I decided to check out the one of the 2 Ann Arbor dog parks that I had not yet seen.  It was awful!  No other dogs. Small. Mostly dirt (not grass).  We hadn't been there 5 minutes and I could tell Nashville was pretending to have fun just so it wouldn't hurt my feelings (am I projecting human emotions on him that are too complex?  I think not, I mean look at this face!

)

Anyway, we left the dog park (much to Nash's joy) and headed to my tennis match.  Now, I just started playing Tennis in June, but if I do say so myself, I'm getting pretty good considering how long I've played.  At least that's what I thought this morning, even after seeing my 55 year old opponent, Jane.  We started to warm up with easy half-court lobs and things were going pretty well.  Then she suggested we back it up and warm up full court and...

WHAM!
BANG!
TAKE THAT!

She was smashing shots at me (and in-bounds, goshdarnit) like a 55-year-old Maria Sharapova (seriously!). Turns out she was in the league of people just 1 level better than me (?!) but they didn't have enough people so they combined them (without warning!).

Anyway, needless to say, I did not win.  She won 6-1 in the first set and 6-0 in the second set.  :(

And she said that patronizing thing every one of my senior citizen opponents have said after they beat me: "Your strength is your speed, and the rest will come with time." Translation: "You may be young and able to run to all my shots, but you suck enough at everything else that I still beat you."  Tennis; the great equalizer.

After tennis, I had precious little time to eat lunch and relax before I had to get ready to head out for a 5K that a few friends and I were running called the Holiday Hustle.  Taylor and Nashville were nice enough to come cheer us on.  Here we are before the start, all decked out in our holiday best:

 That's Heather, Theresa, Zoe, Lana, Me and Nashville

Blurry...

The race was fun.  My friend Theresa told me after our first mile, which was 10:20 that she was hoping to break 30 minutes.  I had no goal since I have run...wait, let me do some math...5 miles since my sinus surgery.  So I was just going to hang with everyone and go whatever pace was comfortable.  But when I found out she had a goal and that we would have to be focused to make it, I took it as a personal challenge. We ran together the rest of the way and I'm happy to report that Theresa got her best 5K time by a full minute: 29:31!  Way to go, Theresa!

Finally, after the race we headed straight to downtown Detroit for the 40th annual Noel Night.  It's a night in early December each year where all of the museums, cultural centers and libraries downtown open their doors for free and decorate for the holidays.  They have music, crafts and games for kids, snacks, and opportunities to do some holiday shopping.

It is really crowded and we got there a little late because of the race, so we didn't get to do everything, but we did enjoy what we did do:

The Detroit Library, we got cider and donuts here and toured some of the collections:

We didn't go in the Detroit Institute of Art, but it is a beautiful sight from the outside

Here we are:

And then when we got tired of walking around (that didn't take long after tennis and a 5K!), we headed to a place I've wanted to check out ever since it was on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, the Polish Village Cafe in the old Polish neighborhood of Detroit, Hamtramck.  My grandma's whole family is from Poland and she and my grandfather grew up in the predominantly Polish and Ukranian areas of Detroit back in the 30s, so I love discovering these places.  I only wish Grandma Lucyk could have been around to go with us!

They have the BEST (and only, I admit) dill pickle soup that I have ever had.  We also got their pierogies and a Hungarian Pancake with goulash on top.  It was amazing, and the place was so cozy and vibrant, you had a hard time believing that you were in Detroit, Michigan rather than a Polish Village.

Bonus, I have a potluck tomorrow where I'm supposed to bring food from my culture.  I had no idea what to make (my only idea was mac'n'cheese and I was putting that under "American," not Polish).  Thank goodness they sold the soup to go!

 Decorations:

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Today's post is not a 30 Before 30 (even though it should be, time is running out!  I have 9 months left!!).  It's a post-because-I-am-lame-and-haven't-blogged-in-a-month post.

So my parents moved to Arizona back in September, and since they were already out west, our whole family including aunts, uncles and cousins decided to make the trip out to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Riverton, Wyoming for the holiday.  All told there are 19 of us here for dinner tonight, and it's already been quite an adventure!

The first crew to arrive came in last Saturday, 5 days before Thanksgiving.  Then some more of them, including my brother, traveled out on Sunday.  The rest of us (my mom and dad, Taryn and Taylor) got here last night after all flying into Denver and driving the 5 hours to Riverton.  Before we got here, the rest of them went to Jackson Hole for a night.  I went to Jackson back when I was 11 years old, and it is such a beautiful place, I'm so jealous!  I'm also jealous because they decided to do old timey photos and we missed out.  But they are SO good, how can we be mad?

The cutest child in the world, my cousins' son Zane, who is almost 11 months old and too adorable for words.

My Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Geoff built their dream home a couple of years ago and it is just amazing!  The house faces snow-capped mountains and has the million dollar view through picture windows that flank a 15-foot stone fireplace.

They also have more toys and things to do than, well, than we know what to do with!

You name it: a huge John Deere tractor

 a new Shelby mustang,

a monster truck,

dogs,

 horses,

 and a Ranger side-by-side four-by-four. Taylor wants one for Christmas now.

 And that's just the outside!

They also have a large pole barn that they lived in when they were building their house.  It's completely insulated and has a huge camper inside it.  Taylor and I are sleeping on a bed in the middle of the barn, and not 8 feet away is the area where they store their...um...pets.  Case in point:

Today is Thanksgiving and I have spent most of the day in front of the TV watching the Lions try (and fail) to take down the 9-1 Houston Texans and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Meanwhile, Taylor has been dutifully hanging with his brother in law, father in law, and uncles in law, doing manly, Lucyk-style thing like moving a propane tank and setting up a deer hunting blind.  I haven't seen him all day!

Now we're about to eat dinner and (hopefully) remember all we have to be thankful for.  Like family, the beauty of nature, and fun times.

Here's to the same for you and yours!!

30 Before 30: Complete a dozen half marathons

This Sunday I completed another of my 30 Before 30 items: Finish a dozen half marathons!  Here's the list of all the half marathon's I've done:

Race Name and Date

1. Bronx Half Marathon - 2/11/2007
2. More Half Marathon - 3/25/2007
3. Brooklyn Half Marathon - 4/14/2007
4. New York City Half Marathon - 8/5/2007
5. Ft Lauderdale Half Marathon - 2/17/2008
6. New York City Half Marathon - 8/16/2009
7. Manhattan Half Marathon - 1/24/2010
8. Brooklyn Half Marathon - 5/22/2010 - Personal Best 1:52:47
9. Queens Half Marathon - 7/24/2010
10. Bronx Half Marathon - 8/15/2010
11. Miami Half Marathon - 1/27/2012
12. Detroit Half Marathon - 10/21/2012 - Second Best 1:54:45

Sunday was the Detroit Free Press/Talmer Bank Marathon and Half Marathon.  I somehow wrangled my brother and Taylor to do it too.  Hey, a girl's gotta have good company for these sorts of endeavors, you know, the ones that start in downtown Detroit before the sun comes up.

Saturday was a busy day.  Taylor's sister and her boyfriend were here to visit, and Michigan was playing Michigan State in football (a big game).  The major challenge for us was that football game days require lots of walking, standing, and drinking (beer); all things one might normally avoid the day before a half marathon. We opted not to "avoid" so much as "limit" said activities.  We did walk to the game, but we sat down at the tailgate and didn't drink (too much) beer.  We found a place near the top of the stands at the game, where we could sit rather than just stand.  Here's Garett and I at the game:

It was a great game, including a last-second field goal to be Michigan State for the first time in 5 years!  Here's the crowd celebrating: 

After the game, we immediately headed back to our apartment, let Nashville out (he'd been in his crate 7 hours) and left to grab a pasta dinner before heading to our hotel in downtown Detroit.  We opted to stay downtown rather than get up before 4am to drive there and have to find parking in the morning.

Here's a blurry pic of the Renaissance Center in Detroit as we got into town Saturday night.  Taylor's office when he starts his job next year will be in this building!

Here's our lovely room at the Robert's Riverwalk Hotel

We had to request a rollaway bed for Garett since the hotel room I booked only had one bed (oops).  We went to bed pretty much immediately after it arrived seeing as it was 11pm and we had to be up at 5:30am for the race. 

In the morning, we each had our own routine of things to get ready:

Taylor with his ridiculous regimen of antacids, vitamins, decongestants and Dayquil:

Me with my very specific pre-race food requirements:

Garett standing shirtless...this is what he does.

We got to the start line very smoothly thanks to the shuttle offered by our hotel.  Here we are, all ready to go :)

So my official goal for the race was 1 hour and 50 minutes, which works out to 8:23 miles.  Taylor's goal was 1 hour and 30 minutes or 6:52 miles (insane, I know).  My brother was originally shooting to run with Taylor, but unfortunately, he got an IT Band injury during training and wasn't able to run as much as he needed, so his goal was just to finish.

We separated at the start line.  The boys went in Corral B and I went to Corral C (for Carissa, I think).  My corral was really full, so I actually stood outside it until the first group or runners started at 7am.  As people started to move up, I was able to move in.  I crossed the start line at 7:01:40am.  My intention was to use the timers that are always on the mile markers to keep track of my pace.  I find that doing math during the race really helps to distract me.  So with each mile, I would calculate whether I was ahead of or behind the average pace I needed to break my time and that would keep me going.

Fat chance.  Turns out that apparently Detroit decided these markers were unnecessary because I got to mile 1 and had NO IDEA how long my first mile had taken.  Rookie mistake, I had no watch at all so I couldn't even keep track of my own pace.  This was quite deflating. What was also deflating was the mile-long hill that was the ascent of the Ambassador Bridge. That's right.  For miles 1 and 2 I felt really good and was really enjoying the run.  Then came mile 3, where we climbed what seemed like 1,000 vertical feet up the Ambassador Bridge that links Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Despite the hill, the bridge was definitely a high point of the race.  The view over Detroit and Canada as the sun was coming up was really amazing.  The mile-long descent was also amazing.  It was, however, at that point that I realized I probably wasn't going to make my goal time, because the pace team for the marathon  time that worked out to double my half time (3:40:00 for those who are good at math) passed me.  Their pace, despite all my training, just felt way too fast for me.  Such a bummer too.  I had been fighting a cold/allergies/sinus issues for weeks, so I knew I would have to have a great day to make my goal and I did not.

Running through Canada was good.  You run right along the river and have a view of Detroit (oh, the beauty).  I was pretty impressed with the crowds considering it was before 8am!  I took my first PowerGel at mile 5.5 or so.  I opted for the Tangerine because it had caffeine and I was dragging.

At mile 6.5, we began our exit from Canada by heading away from the river and toward the entrance to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.  The tunnel was great, for the first half...the down half.  I felt like I was coasting and the sound of all the steps echoing around me was pretty cool.  Then came the climb back from underneath the Detroit River.  Not so fun.  It started gradually enough but like any truly grueling hill, it got steeper as it went!  By the end, I felt like I was climbing a staircase as I breezed (staggered) through Border Protection (take THAT, "what was the nature of your visit" man!).  I actually had to stop as soon as I got out of the tunnel to stretch my poor left hip flexor.  It did not know what had hit it.

Mile 9 was really cool because you come out of the tunnel in the middle of downtown Detroit and there are big crowds cheering.  It's quite fun.  If only I hadn't felt like death.  At this point, I seriously considered just letting my pace fall off to a slow shuffle.  Luckily, I was brought back from the brink just before mile 10 by none other than my brother!  Now, it wasn't a good thing that we were running into each other.  He's typically much faster than me so the fact that he was running my pace or slower meant something was very wrong.  And it was.  Apparently he felt find until about mile 7 and was running at a good pace and then his IT band said enough and that was that.  He still had the endurance to keep running, but it was excruciating.  Excruciating enough to run with little old me for the last 3 miles.

I'm a bit of a sap when it comes to running and I was so happy that Garett and I were going to finish the race together.  He stuck with me and I with him.  Around mile 12, we looked for our Uncle Steve whom we'd expected to see, but we missed him.  That was ok though, because now it was time for the homestretch.  We again headed into downtown, making one final right turn to see the finish line.  At this point, I still had no idea what my pace was, but I figured it wasn't good.  Garett gave me a pep talk and picked up his pace.  If he could do it, I could and I dug as deep as I could and finished strong.  The clock read 1:56:18 when I crossed the finish line.  The math I had waited the whole race to do somehow failed me but I was able to determine this was probably my second fastest time.  Not what I had hoped for, but not bad!

Here are some photos of all of us during the race.  Sorry for the low-res and watermark...I snagged them from the race site:

Garett and I together toward the end.

 Love the bridge in the background

  Ouch, ouch ouch!

Cheer for me!

Taylor was waiting for us at the finish line an it turned out he had done very well!  He ran the race in 1:32:15, or about 7:04 miles.  Insane!  He used a pacer and said that it really helped him.

Here's a photo of all of us at the finish.  I would TOTALLY buy this one if a download didn't coast $24.99.  SERIOUSLY?!

We grabbed some snacks, stretched, got our bags, and went to find Uncle Steve.  It turned out that we hadn't planned very well and had no idea how we were going to get back to our hotel.  Garett was limping horribly and taxis were impossible to find.  Not to mention most roads were closed anyway.  So meeting up with Uncle Steve for breakfast while the race cleared out was the perfect plan.  Here's a picture he took of the three of us just after we finished (medals donned):

And here are Garett and I with Uncle Steve:

We spotted an ancient little diner nearby (the place seriously hadn't been painted nor the tablecloths (featured below) changed in probably 35 years.  No matter, the french toast, sausage and coffee were delicious and all 4 of us ate our fill for less than $20!

After breakfast it took us a solid 45 minutes to finagle our way around, under, over and eventually through the actual race course and to our hotel.  And still, the poor souls running the full marathon were making their way to the finish line in front of our hotel:

I was so relieved not to be running the full marathon that day and very proud, along with my husband and brother, to officially be a:

So there it is, my 12th half marathon - Complete!

Here's the medal, pretty sweet!