I might have a real job soon! It’s actually at the company I’m temping at now. And I’d get to travel!! That’s the main thing, really. The pay is pretty low. I don’t even know about benefits yet, so I won’t get too excited. But to travel…woo! Yeah!

I got a card today from my sister-in-law’s father. He said that the last check Jennifer’s mom ever wrote was to me for my fundraising. It’s just so strange to know that. And ironic, considering it was a blood disease that killed her. I decided I’m going to make up satin ribbons with the names of the people I’m running in honor of or in memory of. But it’s just so meaningless, so little. What could I possibly do that would do justice to these people? Not a silly satin ribbon. Sigh.

Had dinner with the TNT people last night. I’m a little irritated that I’m going to have to do a 16 mile run alone, the morning of Nick and Annie’s wedding. Not that it’s then, but that no one is willing to compromise when I need to run on a certain day. Hmm. Well, whatever. Eight long boring laps of Lafreniere Park. Won’t kill me.

14 miles tomorrow at LSU, with Chris. And Krispy Kreme afterwards!

I didn’t mention the other day how my five mile run went. It was a group run, and I think I made a new friend, Emily. She’s about my age, and we’re about the same speed (right now, anyway) so I’m happy about that. The run went well, even though it was hot. We’re having another group run this weekend, and it’s at 6 a.m., so hopefully it won’t be as hot.

Got a temp job yesterday. Decided to call Adecco to get back on their list, and they had a job come in right as I was calling. So it’s $8 an hour (more than B&N, at least) and indefinite. So I’m pretty happy about that. Got my first unemployment check today, and it was $105. So yeah…won’t be living off that!

Ran four miles on the treadmill last night. Other than the fact that my right knee and ankle hurt, it went well. I think I banged my ankle on something while riding Terry’s bike yesterday. I hope that’s why it hurt and not any more sinister reason.

We had an almost-hurricane on Monday. It rained a LOT, but nothing major happened. George and I were watching a Star Trek movie (I promised…) and the power went out. Saved! Of course, now we have to watch it anyway, so I was only able to delay the inevitable.

Taking my computer in to get fixed so I can update my website and figure out how much money I’ve earned so far…

Eva (Irish friend of Annie’s) went home yesterday. We had lots of fun on Monday, getting trapped in the French Quarter, got soaked, almost blown away. Whoops! This is why you shouldn’t go out in a hurricane!

Didn’t work out yesterday. George and I went to see the new Matrix movie instead. Woah. It made my head hurt. In a good way, I guess. I only had to close my eyes during one scene (when they were fighting with swords – don’t like blood, especially inflicted by sharp-object-wounds. Blech.)

Today I got another $100 in checks and two donations – a tour for 10 people of Mardi Gras World and also 2 passes to a Haunted History Tour of the French Quarter. Cool. Yay! This is getting really exciting! And now I’ve actually hit 10% of my monetary goal! Woo!

Yay new PR! Saturday was the Fat Boy 5K. My goal was to do it in under 35 minutes, which I thought was sort of ambitious since my old PR was 36:11. I’d have been happy with anything under that, but boy did I go under!

The race was in Baton Rouge, and I ran it with Chris, Teresa, her sister Larissa, and Joe. Oh, and Hunter the dog. We made up a team (had to weigh 650 lbs, we did that easily) and they combined our times at the end. I’ll just say now that we came nowhere near winning for the team time, but it was fun anyway.

Friday night I had gone to a baby shower for a friend who works at Barnes & Noble, so I didn’t even make it into Baton Rouge until about midnight. I was a little worried that a lack of sleep would affect my race, but as usual, I slept like a rock at my mom’s house and was pretty well-rested for the race. Chris and I rode together to the race, and it was a gorgeous morning. A bit too sunny for my liking for a race, but fortunately the course was very shady, you never actually had to run in the sun. The temperature was in the 60s, and there was no humidity, so it really was nice running weather.

What I’m never prepared for in Baton Rouge is hills. New Orleans is literally flat as a pancake, there are absolutely no hills, no undulations whatsoever in the roads, so even though Baton Rouge would be considered flat by most standards, compared to New Orleans, it’s positively mountainous. So I struggled a bit with the hills, but it was not a really big deal.

So the race started with Chris and Joe lined up near the front, and Teresa, Larissa and I in the middle. Teresa and Larissa went ahead of me for the first half of the race, but after that I passed them up (slow and steady, etc, etc) and met up with a struggling Joe. We ran together a bit, but soon enough, I left him in the dust. Woo hoo! Okay, it’s mean and petty, but all these people are thin and healthy, and even though they’re not runners, I didn’t really think I’d beat them. I’m a terrible friend. Sorry, guys!

I was keeping a very steady pace for the first two miles, 11:01 for the first, 11:00 for the second, and during the third mile, I knew I’d be able to go under 35 minutes. Before I knew it, I could see the end, but there was a steady grade that wasn’t pretty. The clock at the finish was approaching 34 minutes, and I knew I wouldn’t make it by the clock, but I’d crossed the start line about 30 seconds after the gun, so I was safe.

By my watch, I crossed in 33:38! Ack! 2:33 faster than my PR! Amazing! Wow! I couldn’t believe it. Yay! After that, we all met up (Teresa, Joe, and Larissa all came in around 36:00 – see, they also beat my PR, those slender people kill me!) and had Krispy Kremes, sausage po-boys, eggs and grits…well, it was the Fat Boy…

So that was my exciting race. There really aren’t any more 5Ks until the fall around here, so I will have to wait until then to reach my next goal…sub-30:00!

But I have decided to possibly sign up with Team in Training for the Marine Corps Marathon in October, so I’ll be training a lot this summer. Will be hellishly hot. But should be good conditioning. We’ll see. There’s a meeting on the 30th. The cool thing is, last night at the pub, I was talking to this woman Cindy, and she did the Maui Marathon with TNT, and she might do MCM with me, so I’d have a training buddy. Yay!

Last night was another wedding reception at the pub, this time a crawfish boil. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!!! Oh god, it was so good. And I only have to wait two weeks until the next one, at Kettie’s mom’s house; it’s her wedding shower. And then the following weekend my mom’s having one because my brother/sister-in-law/sister/her boyfriend are all coming to town. Woo hoo! Crawfish out the wazoo!

Yay! George is home. Has been for a week. As usual, neglectful of my blog. Was a very nice reunion, no making out at the airport, not to worry. There was some couple going at it right in front of the entire arrivals area. Niiiiice.

Tooth isn’t hurting anymore. Think it was a sinus infection. Yay. Have to go to dentist again on Wednesday, just to be sure.

Got lots of nice presents from George from London. Underground socks, Coldplay CDs, book, pens, pub sign, underground sign, yay yay yay! We went and saw Harry Potter last night. Was good second time around. George liked it. Work is crazy right now. Well, actually, kind of dull. We aren’t allowed to do any projects, just help people, but they have so many people working that it’s never very busy. Hmm. And I have this weekend off, for the Celebration in the Oaks 2 mile run. So maybe the following weekend will be bad, but whatever.

Oooh, great race yesterday. Race for the Cure in Baton Rouge. George and I drove to BR Friday night (in his car, had to return my rental, because they’re actually going to put a new engine in my car! How stupid is that?) and ate at, appropriately enough, George’s when we got to BR. The next morning, my mom, Chris, George and I went downtown for the race. It was raining. We got there late, I didn’t get to pee before the race (sorry, but I have a small bladder!) so I was mad when it started. They had some news anchor saying a prayer at the beginning that had “Lord Jesus” or “Lord God” every other word. It was a bit much. So anyway, the race itself was pretty uneventful. There were some hills, so I walked the uphill parts, but not too much, and strangely enough, I actually finished in 36:23, which is only 12 seconds off my previous PR! I couldn’t believe it! So now I’m determined to run more, and Chris and I are going to do the Mardi Gras half marathon. Of course, this time, he doesn’t have to stay with me the whole time!

Went running yesterday. Longest run since the marathon! 3.5 whole miles! tee hee. Am happy about it, though. Ran 4, walked 1, except the last two bits I did run 3, walk 2. It was *&#$ hot, so I’m not unhappy about that. Today I’m going to do a 2 mile race. It’s free, thank god, because I’m so freaking poor right now. Blech. The downside of being unemployed. I did have a phone interview for a temp job yesterday, but I didn’t do so well. I’m really bad at answering questions on the phone or in an interview if I have no idea what the answer might be, so there was a lot of ummming and ahhhhing. Oh well.

Went running today. Finally! And it was a good run. At least by my recent standards. Kristina came with me and because it was so hot, we decided to do the run 4 minutes, walk 1 minute. Piece of cake. Well, Kristina wasn’t having any of it after one loop of the park, so I went another half mile or so while she waited for me. I felt better about myself after the run. I was afraid I’d never want to run again after the marathon, but I don’t think that’ll be the case after all. However, my big toenail on my right foot is turning a rather becoming shade of greenish-turquoise with yellow accents, but it doesn’t hurt, so I don’t mind. Thank god for nail polish.

So Kristina and I got back last night from New York. I loved it! It wasn’t nearly as scary or intimidating as I’d imagined. My view of Manhattan now is of a giant network of Oxford Streets, though. Which, in spite of the shopping, is one of my least favorite streets in London. So I don’t think I’ll be moving to Manhattan any time soon, although Kristie almost had me (and herself) convinced to on Saturday night.

So our trip. Here’s the story:

Thursday: Got off the airplane, got herded into a taxi. Turned out to be an unmarked Lincoln Towncar. The driver put our luggage in the trunk and disappeared. Certainly, we thought, we would be dead shortly. Fortunately, two other girls (from England) got in the car too, as they were headed in the same general direction. We were all a bit scared, but whatever. Adventure #1. Kristina was convinced our driver had Mafia connections, as he kept talking about car theft and wanting to kill someone. Ah well. We were almost to Anne’s house when the car clipped another taxi parked on the side of the road. Naturally, the driver leapt out of the car and began to argue with the driver of the other taxi. I kept my head down in case of gunfire, but fortunately, no one was injured or killed. I wonder if they don’t just make these scenes just for the tourists. Whatever. When we got to Anne’s house, we hung out for a little while, but didn’t go out.

Friday: Anne had to work, so Kristina and I went to Pret (!) for lunch and wandered around a bit before meeting Marianne at Penn Station. We found her, then went back to Anne’s on the subway. I liked the New York subway, or at least I appreciated it, but I think the London Underground is far superior. Naturally, I would think that, though. After dropping Marianne’s luggage off, we considered going to the top of the Empire State Building, but the lines were too long, so instead we went to an Irish pub nearby. After that, we went downtown to meet Anne at her office for “happy hour,” which entailed sitting in the conference room of her office with a beer and her boss and talking about law. Normally would have been boring, but hey, free beer. Hoegarden, no less. After that, we went to some historic old pub near her office. Then to some famous pizza place (Johnny’s?). Then to some famous old speakeasy bar (Clancy’s?). Then to some other bar (Blind Tiger Ale House?). (Will fill in the details later, just want to jot it all down now.) Then home and to bed.

Saturday: Breakfast at a diner near Anne’s house. Had omelettes, nothing too New York-y there. Then walked around, to Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, etc. Took the subway to Battery Park, looked at the Statue of Liberty. Took the ferry to Staten Island. Took the ferry back. Went to get yummy french fries at this Belgian fry place. Mmmm. Went back to Anne’s for our big night out. Got dressed, took a taxi to a bar called Bliss on 49th. (don’t I sound knowledgeable when I say things like “on 49th?” yeah, i think so too.) After that, we went to meet Kristie at an unnamed bar in the Village (ooh, that sounds like I know something too, huh?) which was lots of fun. We stayed there for several rounds of drinks, which is where I made the drunken pact with Kristie to move to NYC instead of Boston. After that, to a bar next door called Kush, where Kristie and I talked to some Ken-doll lookalike who was nauseating. Then had pizza at some place nearby. Yum.

Sunday, went to have bagels at some uh, bagel place on the um Lower East side? (I could be making that up, but it sounds good.) Anne and Kristina went back to Anne’s after that, and Kristie, Marianne and I walked down Broadway so Kristie and I could get fake designer purses. We finally found some, I got a (as Kristie and I said) “Kate Spode” and Kristie got a “Prado” purse and “Kate Spode” wallet. Unfortunately, they actually say Kate Spade and Prada, so it’s not nearly as funny. Went back to the apartment after our shopping to prepare for Meat Fest. Anne had booked us a table at this Brazilian barbecue place near her house, and we had to eat lots of meat. There were yummy appetizers (fresh mozzerella, boiled shrimp, other stuff) then the main attraction is these guys who walk around with huge skewers full of meat. Lamb, steak, chicken, sausages, even a suckling pig. It was good, but I won’t be needing to eat meat for a long, long time. After that, we could only go back to Anne’s and lie on the couch, moaning, which was fine by me.

Monday: Walked around. Went to Bloomingdales, Trump Tower, FAO Schwartz, walked through the lobby of the Plaza Hotel. Walked a bit through Central Park (gorgeous!) and then to the Carnegie Deli. Had half of a yummy pastrami sandwich (more meat! geez!) and Kristina had (half) a liverwurst sandwich that was, literally, as big as her head. Incredible. As if we weren’t full enough after lunch, Anne insisted we go to this diner near her house that had banana split milkshakes. Just to fill in the cracks. Blech. Kristina and I had to leave right after lunch, and let me say, walking to the bus station with heavy suitcases (not on rollers, thank you) wanting to barf up pastrami and chocolate malt is not the most pleasant experience. But we survived. Yay! I heart ny!