Moved.

Hey yall, I have moved over to onelittlebecca.com  — figured it was time to update the look and feel! Visit me there, where you will find my 2012 wrap up (shortly)!

Grinch Style?

So here I sit. Waiting. On everyone and everything (may be over dramatized to get point across)….

Ok, I am not waiting on everyone and everything, but I am waiting on quite a few things and people. I am waiting for people to acknowledge my emails that I have sent with an OK or an I am in or whatever pertains to a good response to an email…. I am waiting for life stuff to pan out. I am waiting to pull myself out of my current funk. I am just plain waiting I guess. It seems that around the holidays, everyone else puts shit on pause…. I am Jewish. Yea, my mom is catholic and so she has a tree and we open gifts on Christmas and I go to services with her and hell, I even enjoy it most of the time. I like Christmas carols and I enjoy the smells, lights and everything that comes with the holiday (minus the religious aspects of it as far as pertaining to the baby jesus)…. but if you ask me if I am in church on Easter or any of the other major Christian holidays, the answer is no. I do take off work for Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, etc. however…. just so there is no confusion.

I mean, dont get me wrong, I was truly blessed to have a split household growing up because it enabled me to learn about religion and religious tolerance and hell, I explored a number of other religions in college, but I always came back to Judaism. Now, this is neither here nor there.

Maybe because I am me or I worked at a place for 3 years that was literally open 365 days a year, I am used to working on holidays, on all eves and hell, even on Christmas day. So to me, working the week of Christmas and having things due then is not a big issue. If I am at work, I assume you expect me to be working. This, to me, makes sense and I understand that this is not how everyone operates by any means. In regular jobs that actually close on government holidays, people take time off around them to enjoy and spend time with family and generally relax. Relax – this word very rarely enters my vocabulary. I feel like for about 3-4 years after college, I did “relax” so to speak. I mean I worked, but I didn’t have the work ethic then that I have now. Then, I never took work home with me. I did no work on the side and I just generally did what was necessary at work and left it as such…

Now, I do what it takes to get work done. I check work email at home and complete projects when needed wherever I am. I do side work (have about 3-4 projects going), I am in school and I am working on some personal projects. To say this is a drastic change from what I was a mere 5 years ago, is an understatement. With that being said, I think it is important to note that this change occurred about 3.5 years back in June of 2009. In the past year, I have had to find a balance between all of this stuff AND being able to see friends and kick it with the pup pup. While I am still working on my work-life balance and trying to get enough time for everything, I still am managing to do the thing to an extent… but I also have some issue with making it to all friend functions or getting a sa project completed when I underestimate time (I am noramlly within 24-48 hours of stated deadline but lord) and then end up feeling like I am letting someone down, always. And when I fail at spending time with the husband and the pup pup, I feel even more guilty because they are around all of the time, yet dont always get the attention the deserve from me because of all of this other stuff….

With the new year coming, and my training about to take a step up due to my goals of 13 in 2013, I have to say that my time management will be stepping up and I will actually begin to say no to some outside projects to get other stuff done. God bless my husband, he has started running and now runs the first couple of miles with me on my long runs on Saturday mornings. We calls them our run dates! He is so awesome!

Presently I am waiting to find out if I made it into my program and focuses for grad school – I find out on the 21st (assuming the world doesn’t end, HAH! we all know it isnt gonna, right? right? i know it aint. NASA put stuff up about how silly that is!).

I am also waiting for registration to open for the Marine Corps 17.75k (which includes guaranteed entry to MCM). I am waiting on me manning up and registering for tough mudder (what the hell am i so afraid of?) and I am waiting on the people who are making decisions to make them so I can move forward. I didnt get into NWM DC and I am bitter, but no worries, cause itll pass. I am too awesome to beg for a spot. BUT if you end up selling your bib, lemme know. 😛

With all of this waiting, you prolly wonder why I dont just kick back and relax a little while I wait? Why you ask? Because I don’t want to go insane. Which I would. If I tried this whole waiting thing. Anyway I have rambled enough. A few things I want to share with you before we leave today:

1) CHECK OUT THIS AMAZING PIECE I PUT UP FOR WORK!  View it here: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/YIR12/

I am really proud of it.

2) I am done waiting for this: I AM A GIRLS GONE SPORTY AMBASSADOR!

3) The Redskins actually stand a chance of making it to the playoffs?!!? This is AWESOME news!!! We are tied for first place in the NFC East! Also a first in several years. I am also going to my first redskins game ever (long time fan, first time game goer) on Dec 30 at FedEx to watch the Skins take on the Cowboys. It could be a deciding game for playoffs as well as a rival grudge match. Here’s hopin we man up!

4) Happy holidays, no matter your religion and what you celebrate, festivus for the rest of us and all that jazz.

This is a pug I found on the interwebs and not aldy

and this pretty much sums up how i roll these days:

happy tis the season y’all. 🙂

13 in 2013, Apollo 17 40th and December is here.

my husband is gonna haaaaaaate me! I signed up to do 13 races in 2013. My justification — I already have 7 that I am either registered for, waiting on registration to open, or anticipating lottery results to get in. I am more than halfway there and with the starters saying they are going to host 4 virtual races, that brings my total to 11 (to me, virtual races, while still races, can be done on training runs). So I need 2 more and I intend to pick up Ragnar Relay DC or run geek run in sept and jingle all the way in dec again next year so I think I can handle this (assuming my body doesn’t start to hate me). But nothing and I mean NOTHING will stop me from my end ultimate goal of Marine Corps Marathon 2013 in October.

I want to run a marathon. Not sure why in the hell I would wanna do this, but I am gonna do it and I am gonna do it well! And I have my sights set on the Marine Corps Marathon. I ran the MCM 10k this past October and it was great! I figure if I am going to be running a little more than half of the distance in training, I might as well go balls to the wall and handle business. Plus, how many people can claim the title “Marathoner”? And over the past year, I have fallen more in love with running than I ever thought I would. I mean sure, in high school I ran to stay in shape for soccer and in college, I ran to get rid of the freshman 15 (good lord it happens to everyone). And I started running 4 years ago to help change my outlook on life, and relieve stress. This past year alone, with a fair amount of help from Michelle, Leah, Sheena and a couple of others, I started really enjoying  running. And hell, I even started to enjoy racing! WHO KNEW?! Mr. Mensh would never have been able to predict that with all of the excuses I gave in high school!

SO I have 6 races prior to MCM 2013 as of right now, my first ever half included and I am really excited! So yea, game plan, injury free and running my first marathon along with 12 other races.

A couple of other administrative things (that I am REALLY proud of!): Apollo 17 has it’s 40th anniversary today and I created the flash feature for it on NASA’s homepage!!! This is really exciting because I have been working really hard on these features and this being one of them, I am just so freakin proud, I have no words.

December is here. Where in the heck did December come from? I feel like at the end of October, time just started to fly by. Thanksgiving came and went and now into December, holiday parties, etc. Channukah starts Sunday, Christmas is soon after and I have a final and my first ever book club meeting in between!

December is going to be busy, but fun! I am really looking forward to my husband’s face when he opens his holiday gift! My mom picked hers out but I know she will appreciate the little surprise she is going to get also. and I still need to get my dad and brother something! I am SO behind!

The Extreme Update I have Been Putting off for About 2 Weeks

Here goes nothin.

I went to Costa Rica for ten days with my husband. It was our 1 year anniversary and since we didn’t take a honeymoon, we decided to take a big trip for our 1 year anniversary. We left for the airport at 4am. Starbucks wasn’t even open and the security line didnt open until 4:30am, but we were first in line for that!!!

We flew from DC to Miami and then on to San Jose, Costa Rica. From San Jose, we had arranged transport to our first of 2 stops on our ten day trip. We headed to Monteverde. It was BEAUTIFUL there. Green, 70+ each day and amazing. The roads were not as awesome. Half of the ride to Monteverde was extremely turbulent because the road was not paved. We got to Monteverde and our hotel and realized it was a slight hike from the hotel to town to get any kind of supplies or eat (somewhere other than the hotel).  We spent 4 days in Monteverde where we spent our time hiking, wandering around cloud forests, ziplining, horseback riding and doing many other outdoorsy things. We had a great time but when it came time to head to Arenal, we were ready to move on.

The ride to Arenal was much better than the ride to Monteverde. Getting out was bumpy, but once we got out of Monteverde and Santa Elena, we got on some paved roads and headed on out and over to Arenal. We had to go around their large man made lake that was there. Arenal is one of the last active volcanoes in Costa Rica. This was super neat because 1) I had never seen a volcano and 2) holy crap it’s ACTIVE?!

When we got to Arenal we were informed that there the volcano hasn’t been that active the past two years but that it is still considered active. In Arenal, we had some real treats! Our hotel had some hot springs! How cool is that?! Our first full day in Arenal, we went on a volcano hike and then went to Tabacon where there were more hot springs. I just want to take a moment and describe how AMAZING tabacon was! It put our hotel’s hot springs to shame! This place was so nice. With our evening entrance, we got dinner also, which was EXQUISITE! Anyway, if you ever go to Arenal, you must spend an afternoon at Tabacon!

Aside from the hot springs and hiking, we went on a safari, looking for monkeys and tucans; white water rafting and had a generally good time! Coming home was bitter sweet. Life there is so relaxed and just different. It isnt all money motivated or materialistic like here, but they don’t have internet everywhere like they do here either. hehe. I enjoyed my time, but was happy to be headed home.

My husband’s and my trip home was not as smooth as the rest of our trip. Our flight was late leaving Costa Rica (because it was late arriving from Miami) so we got to Miami late and had to get through customs and immigration and recheck all of our bags in an hour. We were checking our bags as our flight was boarding… no good. So we went on the next flight. Found out at the gate we were flying standby as opposed to the guaranteed seats that were implied… but we got home. My pop picked us up and everything was fine!

Overall, Costa Rica was amazing and I would definitely go back and do it all again! I was happy my husband and  I brought rain coats (as it rained a lot in the cloud forest areas) and that we prepped by getting quick drying clothing so that we could do our own laundry and didn’t have to take as big of bags because more clothes could fit in with the quick drying clothing. For some reason it folds up smaller…?

Anyway, after Costa Rica, we have been trying to chillax and such. I got back into my training. Last week, I ran 4 times and this week I will be hitting 4 runs also. Two of my friends and myself have signed up for the Jingle All the Way 8k on December 9th. I do not expect a PR at all, but I do expect to finish strong! hahah possibly contradicting. who knows.

Other than that, not much to report. I am the featured blogger over at fitblogger today!  I am honored to be the featured blogger on this wonderful Friday as I go into this weekend with a 6 mile run planned for tomorrow. I haven’t run over 5 miles since I started my training two weeks ago, but I don’t expect a lot of problems. Meeting with Michelle tomorrow morning to embark on the journey together! Excited to be running with her again as it has been some time since we have ran together!

Anyway, thanks for the continued support and I hope y’all have a good Friday and a happy weekend!

 

Why I Love my Brother, Part 3

Our most recent gchat conversation is too precious not to share.

 me:  hey

hey you

i had a quesiton but forgot what it was

 Ben:  omg

I just had my first water-cooler conversation

around a water-cooler

 me:  nut uh

you did not

 Ben:  fo sho bro!

like totes!

 me:  uh

now you are mocking me

 Ben:  did I stop?

ever?

my brother is awesome. even when he is mocking me.

happy tuesday y’all.

if you enjoyed this post, feel free to check out my earlier installments of Why I Love my Brother: Part 1 and Part 2

I have failed you

As of late, I have failed you as a blogger. I haven’t posted about my trip or the fact that I am back at square 0 in my training because after my 10k I decided not to run anymore for two weeks then I went to Costa Rica and opted not to run there either. Thanks to my bosses and coworkers, I now see daylight! I got my hours adjusted at work so I could run in daylight!

As far as coming home from costa rica… it was bitter sweet. My dog was happy to see my husband and I. I was happy to see him and my condo. I missed my home. I missed people and things that come w being close to a city and work and toilets I was allowed to flush toilet paper down…

But. I knew I would miss the laid back atmosphere of Costa Rica. And the beauty. Ah well. Bitter sweet.

Will post pics and a proper update soon. Just thought I should let y’all know I’m back. And sorry for the radio silence.

Blog update delays

Sorry about lack of blog updates! I am in Costa Rica! But I will be back and updating soon! Lots to share and lots to show you all! Back at square 0 or 1 on my training but hoping the hiking will have helped.

While you wait, I will let this three toed sloth keep you company!!!

Giveaway Winner and Worldly Update

picked a giveaway winner through random.org — commenter number 14 — @melissyk — get at me and DM me your address so I can drop your gift card in the mail to you

For a worldly update. All of my running ceased last week in light of completion of a 10k, Sandy banging the east coast with water overloads and some family stuff that forced me to go back and assist at my folks’ place for a little bit. BUT we are still trucking and the exercising begins again today!

Soccer tonight, rest tomorrow/free yoga in the district for election day (http://www.lululemon.com/community/blog/election-day-yoga/ — if the link doesnt pull up, I am sorry… it’s acting weird now), running wednesday and thursday and then COSTA freakin RITA ON FRIDAY!!! WOOOOO!!!! Aight. That’s all. Thanks to everyone who entered my first giveaway, I am pretty happy with the turn out for my first attempt!

Marine Corps Marathon 10K and Giveaway!

So I ran on Sunday morn. In my mind, I did pretty well. I will go through the list of why I think I did well:

1) I finished

2) I didn’t stab ANYONE

3) I averaged 10:48 a mile, pretty good for me especially with the amount of people crowded in there gettin their run on.

4) finished 6.3 miles in 1 hr and 8 minutes!

Unofficial results, viewed above.

My buddy Adam did pretty well too! He finished a full 1000 people before me with a time of 1:01 and waited for me at the finish to get our medals! The whole experience was pretty awesome!

me, waiting for my husband to wake up before the expo!

It was my first big race expo! I waited until Saturday morning when the husband could go with me to pick up the race packets (mine and my buddy’s, who was running with me) and go to the expo to see all of the neat stuff!
Outside of the expo, my husband and I got on line and began to wait to get in.

When we were almost up to the door, my husband realized he had a pocket knife and was unwilling to part with it (my dad gave it to him), so he went and walked around a little and then hung out near the car while I went into the DC Armory to mill about the expo.

The expo was great! There were so many awesome vendors there.

RunDisney was there and I got information about staying at the resorts and going through the parks at a discounted rate for runners — I am running the Disney Princess Half in February. They had all of the medals there for the upcoming races! It was very exciting and informational and the woman there was excellent with answering questions and very knowledgeable.

Brooks was there with MCM and MCM 10K gear. Pacers made a showing (I got gu and gu blocks). Clif bar was there (not all of their stuff has nuts!!!), there were some safety at night people. I bought a couple of pink running lights since I run so early and got a rolling bar for my dad and me for our knotted muscles. It was a great expo!  After the expo my husband and I saw my folks and did a couple of errands.

A group of my friends had a party the night before and we left early so that we could come home and get enough sleep for the race. We got up bright and early at 5:14am and got prepped and ready for our 7:55am start on the National Mall. They opened the metro up early at 5am for the MCM and there were many a-runner on the train with us. Some, who were running the full marathon, got off at the Pentagon. We were running the 10K and went on to L’Enfant Plza. We had a nice walk from Maryland and 7th to the start line. We arrived a ridiculous amount of time early and so we walked around to stay warm until the start. THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE! and no one lined up according to finish time, so I was running past people maintaining slower times for at least 2 miles. It took 5 minutes to get across the start line because there were so many people but we got to listen to gangnam style while we were waiting where I showed the wonderful women behind me how to do part of the dance. Then I tried to Tebow while gangnam stlying (fail). After that, we were off.

Adam started with me but quickly outpaced me! So I was left to my own devices. As I was running, I passed a lot of marines that were on the sidelines helping out. I also passed a lot of participants that had shirts with dedications on the back to lost loved ones — fallen soldiers. It was emotional, to say the least.

Miles 1-3 were relatively easy to get through. 4 and 5 got a little tougher, but 6 was terrible for me! at mile 5.5, I got the worst stitch I have ever gotten in my side. I started running a little hunched over (bad), then my back started aching so it was a constant alternation between standing up straight so my back wouldnt hurt and leaning over so my stitch would stop with the shooting pains. As I approached the finish, spectators picked up and I saw my mother and husband at the bottom of the short steep hill that led to the finish line (YES! a hill right at the finish line!).

And here is Adam, he finished before me.

This is Adam and I at the finish. He waited for me at the very end and we walked to get our medals from marines together.

And here is the view of the marine corps memorial (iwo jima memorial) from the finish

I was really proud to have finished my second post and to have made a new PR AND gotten some bad ass bling!

Hurricane Sandy rolled in that evening and my husband, pug and I snuggled up under blankets on the couch to hang out and catch up on missed tv

Now for the reason you all are really here!

As you all read when I made a Big Announcement a week or two back, I am a blogger repping the Falls Church store of Road Runner Sports! And I have a giveaway going on for a $25 gift card to Road Runner Sports! I am pretty sure, you have a Road Runner Sports near you! They have stores all across the country and a great online ordering system! They have a wide variety of apparel and equipment! So I guess now all that I need to know is who wants a $25 gift card that you can use at any of the stores or online?

HOW TO ENTER: (you can do any or all of these)

Leave me a comment saying what your favorite way to exercise is and some way to contact you.

For Bonus entries:

Follow me on twitter and leave me a comment telling me you did and your twitter handle.

Tweet about this Giveaway and leave me a comment telling me you did, with the link to the tweet!

_____________________________________________

And that’s it. The giveaway will close on Monday November 5th at 10am and I will pick a winner randomly through random.org!

Any entries AFTER the cutoff time will be ignored (this is assuming that I fail to cut off comments)

annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd GO! (lord I hope this works — it’s my first giveaway!)

About 6 days behind!

I am probably about 6 days behind in everything.
6 days ago, I was featured on a Daily Dose of fit —  another summary about my 8k race (the first one in 13 years!) –Thanks to a daily dose of fit for featuring me!

5 days ago, I was supposed to move forward on a couple of side projects. I made some progress and three days ago got stopped again because one plugin is interfering with another, but I am unsure as to which plugin is stopping progress since I didnt originally create the site! frustration sets in.
4 days ago, I drove to balitmore. It was not awesome, but I love my husband and so therefore it wasnt bad.

4 days ago, I was supposed to work on my side projects, instead I delivered some chairs and learned how to play apples to apples.

3 days ago, I was going to do my make up long run but couldnt cause I was goin to get my hair colored and cut and didnt want to wash it beforehand (you arent supposed to) nor did I want to show up with sweaty ass hair — nasty

3 days ago, I was supposed to go to a bday party after the dc united game. I did not. Instead  I went home and watched 5 hours of crap on my laptop until 330…. because im awesome!

2 days ago, I drove to baltimore to pick up my husband

2 days ago, I had every intention to go finish up shopping for costa rica and to go get some yoga in. — FAIL

1 day ago, I got my tempo run in during my soccer game! AH mazing!

0 days ago (aka today) I woke up and got to work at 615am for a Soyuz launch!

I have had some life fails. My code for one of my projects at work isnt working quite the way I want, but I am all over it! The code for one of my projects at home isnt working the way I want it to at all, being blocked by one of the other plugins — very frustrating! I WILL figure it out! I have to since it is for some very nice people!

I have been failing at my training. I have been running Wednesday and Thursday. Shorter runs — 4 miles. happy to be averaging 4 miles in about 44 minutes. but would like to get a couple of longer runs in… I need to get back on schedule so maybe this week and by maybe I mean DEFINITELY.  Also, game plan — rei will be hit some time this weekend to pick up rear bike rack and some kind of pannier so I can start biking to work after running. SWEEEEEEEEET! I will also need to pick up hiking boots for the costa rica trip and my husby still needs a few pairs of pants.

I have just ordered Cards Against Humanity and am stoked! It is a variation of the Apples to Apples Party Box – The Game of Hilarious Comparisons (Family Edition) — Pretty stoked! Super nerd awesome style! Lemme know if any of you wanna play the game with me! OK, back to work.