Optimism

As an attempt to be more optimistic and positive, my teammate (Megan) and I have begun trying to find the silver lining on things that initially seem bad.

Examples:

- The good thing about a 4 hour Sunday morning practice is we don't have to worry about figuring out what to eat for breakfast because we just won't eat it.

- The good thing about when it gets extremely hot and humid and we race really badly is that we don't have to worry about feeling good about ourselves or about getting a feeling of accomplishment from the sport we dedicate so much time and energy to.

- The good thing about not getting enough sleep is that you don't have to feel awake for any portion of the day.

- The good thing about driving really far away to do a workout is that you don't have to worry about the inconvenience of planning what to do with your free time because you can just spend it swerving all over the road in the back of a smelly van.

Asserting Dominance

Last Friday while warming up with my team for our first cross country meet of the season, we ran by the rec fields where 3 little boys were playing soccer. One of them accidently kicked the ball out of the gate and it rolled into our path. In order to assert my dominance over these children, I punted the ball as far as possible away from them and then laughed in their faces. As we continued to run one of the boys' tiny prepubescent voices chirped out "You'll pay for that!". He was wrong. I did not pay for it.

Sleep Deprivation

Last night I slept for 11 hours. The night before I slept for 5 hours. I kind of feel the same amount of tired today as I did yesterday. I guess its not super healthy to have such random sleep patterns.

Online one time I saw that a sign of sleep deprivation is a growing anger and near hatred of everything and everyone around you. Sounds fun! I do think that when I am sleep deprived I tend to develop hatred for random strangers that I know nothing about. How dare that guy in the computer lab have such a loud carrying voice! Why does that girl in the hallway think its ok to talk on the phone in another language and virtually eliminate my ability to eavesdrop? The nerve. And why do those 2 people I have never seen before think they should greet each other so cheerfully? It is early and they shouldn't be able to summon that much energy. Soooo inconsiderate.

Another sign of sleep deprivation is being socially inept. If that is true then I have been sleep deprived every day since birth. Or at least since learning to speak coherently. You can't really expect a baby to be a social butterfly when they can't talk.

I want to nap later. Maybe I will but usually when I wake up from a nap in the middle of the day i feel like I have been run over several times by a steam roller and then tortured via water board for a couple hours. Maybe I won't. But probably will.

Damn You Auto Correct

This website is hysterical and I read about 200 of them last night:

http://damnyouautocorrect.com/

This site is also a time suck:

http://theoatmeal.com/

From the website I ordered this shirt for my gay roommate:

Shout Out

Giving a "shout out" is presumptuous because it makes the assumption that there are enough people reading a blog to "shout out" to. Well I fully acknowledge this and don't care.

Shout out to Kelsey Hart, Julia Gross, Betsy Flood, Katherin Rehn, and Megan Ranegar for having a sweet pad. Check it out:

http://www.flotrack.org/video/505178-Track-Shacks-University-of-Iowa-Womens-Cross-Country

STAY IN SCHOOL AS LONG AS YOU CAN

Today was the first day of school. IT WAS WAY BETTER THAN WORK.

Work is like this:

-Get up early

-Drive to work

-Sit at a desk and pretend to be professional for 4 hours

-Eat lunch for an hour

-Sit at a desk and pretend to be professional for 4 hours

-Drive home

-Get 3 hours to use for working out, eating, showering, and hanging out

-Go to bed

School is like this:

-Get up sort of early but it really only feels early cuz of the late night before

-Bike to class

-Have class for one hour where you can wear what you want and there is almost no standard of professionalism

-Take a nap or hang out with friends

-Another class in which the prof is progressive and throws in the occasional swear word

-Head over to the Pentacrest: Would you like some free lemonade and coupon booklets? You look parched from your long day.

- Why thank you! Don't mind if I do.

-Picnic lunch outdoors for an hour. SO DIFFICULT.

-Class again where the prof has been teaching for 50 years so he is really laid back and announces he will only hold lecture for 2 of the first 4 weeks.

-Bike home in the beautiful sunshine

-10 hours of free time/ workout time/ homework time

-Maybe go to bed or maybe stay up and hang out more

Why did I ever think that school was so bad???? This attitude will probably change as soon as projects, papers, and tests roll around. Then I will go back to hating school.

WORK = DONE. Sort of.

Today was my last day at the 'ol internship. It was kind of depressing because I felt like I met a lot of cool people there that I may not ever see again. I was pretty excited to have a week of summer before school starts. I say "was excited" because that was before I remembered I don't get a summer.

Instead I get to go to Dubuque for 5 days because one of my classes has "jump start week". This week was named in an attempt to make extra school sound fun. Well, my idea of fun involves a lot more sleep and tv and seeing friends and does not involve any sort of schedule or wearing of business casual clothing or wearing of more clothing than just shorts and a sports bra.

Here are the things that I already know I won't like about "jump start week" that wouldn't happen if I got my week of summer:

1) Waking up to an alarm

2) Immediately getting out of bed instead of lounging for several hours

3) Dressing nice

4) Feigning interest in things

5) Not napping

6) Conversing with people I will only talk to next week and never again

7) Being polite

8) Learning

9) Thinking

10) Having a positive attitude

11) Being asked questions like "What did you do this summer?" because there is nothing else to talk about

12) Introducing myself to people

13) Running by myself

14) Walking

15) Trying to stay awake

I am sure there will be plenty of good things but those are way less fun to mention.