No Excuses

I've got nothing...no good reason that I've been gone from the blog for so long.  I'd like it say it's because I am so busy I just don't have time.  And while I have been a very busy person, it's not like I can't blog from my iPad which I generally have with me all of the time.  So really, I don't have a reason.  I know I keep saying I'm going to be better about it and I really do mean it every time I say it.  So if I've lost all my readers, the few that I have, it's really my own stinking fault.  But I will keep blogging and who knows, maybe one of these months I will have more than one post.  Fingers crossed!

Since we last checked in with the crazy adventures of MK, there have certainly been some adventures.  I really have been gone a lot which I wasn't anticipating this summer.  I knew I had trips here and there but they all seem to run together.  Ahhh, running.  How I miss you so.  But we'll get to that in a minute.  My birthday this year extended into July which was fabulous because July meant it was John Mayer month!  For those of you who have been around a minute or two know that John Mayer really is and always has been my boyfriend.  When he first hit the scene, I even had a playlist on my iPod called "My boyfriend John Mayer."  Now, I will admit that when he went off the deep end, I was a little more than disappointed.  But, he seems to have found the right path again and is back blessing us all with his music.  My BFITWWW (best friend in the whole wide world) got us two tickets to see John in Kansas City this month and it was such a great concert.  I don't remember how many times I've seen him (at least 5 or 6) and he never disappoints. 

But what was even better, is that his keyboardist on this tour is the same one I met in Denver all those years ago when I may or may not have been stalking John Mayer at his hotel.  If I've never told you that story, well then, remind me to tell you sometime.  It's a doozie of a story!  It was so great to hang out with Janet!  We hadn't seen each other since we got back from Europe last July.  A WHOLE ENTIRE YEAR!! That is just way to long for besties to go without seeing each other.  So she's coming here in September and I can't wait!  She hasn't been here since April 2012 when she helped me move so it's long overdue.  Watch out Iron Mountain is all I will say!

The week of John Mayer was a very busy week for this ole gal.  I flew out of Iron Mountain on a Tuesday afternoon to KC.  Concert was on Wed then flew back to Mount Fun (JB that's for you!) on Thursday, ran home, dropped off one suitcase, picked up the other and hopped in the car to go to Chicago for the weekend and the Ride for AIDS Chicago.  Of course, I had to work on Friday which meant getting up early and making the commute from Andersonville to Westchester.  Yeah...I've been living in a small town way too long because that drive really gets to me.  An hour out and an hour and a half back.  BLECH! 

Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn.  So here's my thing...every time I visit my brother for one of his sporting events I seem to be getting up on a weekend at 5am.  WTH?  Runners don't even start that early.  Well, okay, except for the Disney race in February (sorry MOM!) But seriously?  For those of you who I didn't already educate about Ride for AIDS Chicago (RFAC), it's what is known as a "double century" bike ride.  200 miles in 2 days.  Don't worry.  I'm not the crazy one who was actually riding in it.  I was riding in the support/cheerleader car with my Chicago bestie Lauren (that's a funny story too.  Drives my brother crazy that we call each other bestie and she refers to him as her bestie's brother!) We had so much fun, if you couldn't tell by the Facebook posts and the pics here and below.  We basically drove along the route cheering out the window and squirting them with squirt guns and blowing bubbles on them.  We even set up camp along side of a back road in Wisconsin with a cooler of beer and everything.  Of course, it wasn't so funny when the local patrol car came by and slowed down right in front of us.  Either he didn't see our beers or he thought we were too cute to say anything about it. You decide...makes for a great story, though!  So it was a great weekend but boy was I tired and I didn't even ride the 200 miles. 

And then I fell...yep.  You read that right.  I fell.  5 blocks from the car after the closing ceremony of the RFAC.  Seriously????  What is the freaking matter with me?  And I knew in mid-air that it was going to f&^% up my hip and boy did it hurt like a bleepidy bleep bleep bleep.  Luckily two guys were walking in front of me and they came to help me.  I told them to call my brother (who had ridden his bike up ahead of me) and tell him I fell and hurt my hip.  And then the Evanston police showed up...and a series of random cars stopped to see if I was okay.  Yeah.  My ego was bruised almost as much as my hip.  The good news, though, I didn't really do any damage beyond aggravating it a little, which is about right because I was aggravated too.  And, of course I tried to hide it from my PT which lasted about 3 minutes on the elliptical and then I had to come clean.  He was a little frustrated that I didn't fess up right away but, c'mon now, are we surprised in anyway that I didn't fess up?  I was going on the theory that if I don't tell him, it won't hurt.  Yeah, yeah..i know.  Anyway, it's much better these days.

As most of you probably saw via Facebook, I went camping last weekend with Tania and Lynea.  It was so much fun being out in the woods again.  And kayaking all day Saturday.  Yep.  I absolutely love my kayak.  Just need to get a better rack for my car because the one I have it too labor intense and doesn't really do much good anyway.  We had a great time, though.  That is truly one of the things I love about living in the U.P.  I don't always enjoy small town living but being able to go camping so close to home or taking my kayak out on Cowboy lake which is like 5 minutes from me is just amazing. 

I'm up to 5 minute power-walking intervals and as you can see by my "Daily Mile" update to your left, I'm doing a pretty quick pace too.  I'm getting so close to jogging I can hardly stand it.  I go to the surgeon this week for my 3 month follow up and I am confident he will let me jog.  Okay, maybe I'm not confident.  Maybe hopeful is the better word.  I don't even care if I can only jog short intervals.  The point is I WANT TO JOG!!  I think I've been a pretty good patient the past three months.  I have not worn heels at all (which is also driving me cray cray) and to not be able to run or wear heels is like taking my identity away! 


So my brother started a blog (yeah, I think he's a copy cat but again, he doesn't read my blog so he won't even know I'm calling him out) about his journey to become a published author.  Unlike him, I do read his blog on a regular basis and recently it got me thinking.  Not about anything serious, of course.  That's actually what I was thinking, though. His posts are full of deep thought, reflection and the meaning of life and it made me question my posts and why mine are not like that.  And then I remembered why I started this blog.  I started it to share my life adventures as I started in a new place with a new job and new people.  Not that there is anything wrong with either of our blogs or the purpose behind them.  I'm just not a serious person, really.  I mean, I am at work and when I really have to be.  But I also really try not to have deep thought and reflection.  Does that make me a shallow person?  I'm not sure that it does.  I think it's who I am and it would sound forced, I think, if I were to have deep and meaningful posts.  Plus, he is on a different journey than I am and I think his blog is helping him figure out his journey where as mine (again mine came first ;)) is just to catch everyone up on what's going on in my life.  Because apparently Facebook doesn't do that. 

Wow...that was kind of deep and reflective...I gotta stop that! 

This week starts another busy time but I am excited because in less than a month, I will be in Key West for a few days.  So excited!  One of my favorite keys ever is the West key.  Hahahaha.  Yep, I'm a dork!

I don't have any new music artists to recommend to you but I just bought the new Sarah Bareilles album last week.  It's great, as all her albums are.  She is such an amazing, emotional singer/songwriter.  Love love love her stuff! 

I'm sitting here wracking my brain to come up with a piece of trivia for you, because I know how much you love to learn new things when you read my posts.  Since I couldn't come up with anything, I went to Google.  BTW...have I told you I created a new word?  I actually created it about a year ago.  "Googleable"  def. if you can look something up on Google it's Googleable.  Anyway, I digress.  I turned to Google and typed in Random Facts and found a Twitter feed that I now follow.  (Yep, I'm a tweeter now.  Good lord.)  Most of the random facts are a bit too risqué for me to share, mostly because Moms and Pops read this and I don't want them to blush.  So here is your PG trivia for today...

• For every human killed by a shark, humans kill two million sharks.

Blows your mind, huh?  Okay, maybe not but I did find it interesting.  And with that, have a great week, dear reader(s), and I promise I will try to do better. 

Living the Dream

Holy cannoli!  It's been a month since I posted anything.  Wow...I am not a good blogger.  I have thought about posting many times and just never seemed to get around to it.  You know how it is.  Life just gets in the way sometimes.  So here's where we are with all things MK.

Hip progress is slow but steady.  It's been incredibly frustrating some days with the great weather FINALLY!  I've been cleared to "power walk" in intervals.  Yeah, I was not designed to power walk.  But it's all I've got at this point so I guess I will suck it up.  The first time I went for a power walk was last Tuesday.  I didn't make it .8 miles before the pain started.  Boy oh boy was I frustrated.  So I was talking with the PT Assistant at the clinic I go to and she asked me if I had been stretching.  Of course I hadn't been because no one told me it was okay for me to do.  So yesterday, I did some stretching and what a difference that made.  I was able to go 2 miles before the pain.  It was WONDERFUL!!  Oh the simple joys in life sometimes. 

I made a trip to sunny San Francisco to go to my 20th MLB ball park with mom and pop.  It was a great trip despite the travel delays and having a terrible head cold. 

I won't go into the boring details of the travel problems.  Let's just say that I decided to fly out of Iron Mountain for the first time in about 6 months and that was a mistake.  It's worth it to drive to Green Bay.  Delta is quickly becoming my least favorite airline.  UGH...

In other news, my business is starting to take off.  I have two full time clients (2 times a week each) and one client that is paying as she goes so I'm not sure how often she will be training.  It's a pretty cool feeling knowing that I am actually doing this and that people are signing up.  I can only imagine what will happen when I advertise.  I'm currently working on that and hope to have some kind of add in the newspaper or on the radio by the end of July, if not sooner.  I keep telling people that if I could make the same amount training that I do at the VA, I would quit my job tomorrow and just train full time.  I love it that much!! 

I have a new music recommendation for you.  Her name is Ivy Levan and she's sings what she calls "Swamp Hop."  It sounds kind of 50s/60s-ish with a modern twist.  She just released her first EP and it's very good.  All four songs are very catchy and I think she will be a big hit soon. 

I think that's about it for now.  You would think I would have more since it's been so long.  And I probably do but it's escaping me right now.