Altitude, Schmaltitude...

I got into CO on Sunday night. I drove to the office on Monday morning. The first thing they did was tell me about altitude and to drink plenty of water if I run, and walk when I needed to. Whatever, I thought.

Tuesday morning, I got up at 5AM to go for a run. First, I was confused...it was 5AM and it was light out! Wow! OK, so I did my 5 minute walking warm-up. Then I started running. I may have gotten 50 yards, or .5 miles. Not sure which. That's because I'm pretty sure I left my lungs in the hotel room, and was more contemplating what bike path I could lay down and die on. Obviously, I started walking. I walked 2+ miles. Towards the end I was getting out of breath. I got back to the hotel, hopped in the car, and went to 7-11 and bought a HUGE water. Then I went to work.

Things weird about CO. Everyone bikes to work. Helmets aren't required. Bike paths are everywhere but you can bike on the highways (I'm not near an interstate). I have nearly taken out 5 bikers. Most bikers follow the laws, and use hand signals. It is pretty cool.
Today was CO Ride your Bike to Work Day. I had to go to a new site. I couldn't find the big plant with a HUGE sign. My manager was wondering about me. I'm pretty sure all the bikers were making me distracted, as I have to make sure I don't hit any of them (I'm driving a Durango, which is much bigger than a Cherokee. I think Durangos changed and became bigger. I'm driving a tank).

And work you ask. Lots of regulations. I MUST take a shower every day. I know you all were worried about that. I have to report if I have sunburn. I have to stay home if I'm taking care of a sick aunt or a sick child. I have to remember my lint brush because I have dog hair on my shirt and that is a BIG no-no. It's really interesting. The people I'm training with are pretty cool. On the young side, but really nice, and we all have our different strengths. Our manager is nice...I think we are his first "students." He kind of assumes we know things, until we slow him down. But it is fun. He is totally hands on, so after reading 4 hours of SOPs, we get to go into the lab. Tomorrow we have to be there by 545 AM so that we can see some part of a test being performed. Except for the time, it is exciting.

Today we took contractor training, and Internet on premise is a big no as are cell phones, and a zillion other things. So I only go on the internet to look at wiki and mapquest and delta.com (I don't have a seat to return home yet). Mapquest, because I have no sense of direction, and wiki, because I have no clue about things like John Perry bolts (or something like that).

Tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to work out. My goal was twice this week.

Oh and I went to the Boulder Brewery. Good beer. I didn't like the Hazed and Infused, but they replaced it for free with a Mojo. My favorite was the Porter on nitro. I liked the buffalo burger, I liked the green chili. The chicken sammy, eh.

OK, watching SVU, so I'm going to go.

Drugs are bad, mmmkay!

Do you remember Nancy's "Just Say No" Campaign?

So V was in town this weekend. We were supposed to go to Happy Hour with B and M, but like always, something came up… V’s flight was late and she got someone kicked off the plane. Like I said, always something…

So we were all ready to go to Happy Hour, and called B to tell her we were on our way (only 2 hours late), and she said, just to stay where we were, and not fight traffic to get up there. Fine by us, so we piled into the car, and went to see my favorite bartender Clay. A lot of beers later Clay called us a cab.

Saturday, we talked to B and M. (V flew down to see REM with them…I don’t like REM so I wasn’t going). B said she would come down at 4 (I live a mile away from the amphitheater) and meet up with us. M is having “life happen” right now, so she didn’t know what she was doing. I asked her if her head was spinning ala my Exorcist picture. She said just about. So she was going to try to make it to see us at 5 but she was bailing on the concert. No worries.

So V, D and I went to lunch at smoked meat. Then we went and picked up the car from the night before. Then we went home, dropped off the car, and went to Estoria. And had some beers. B called us and found the place (B is complete opposite of me, she loves the suburbs, and the city is eh too her.) So I was excited she was coming out to see “My city.”

So we are sitting on the patio of Estoria. A guy walks up to the patio and not very loudly says, “Someone call 911. My girlfriend is having a seizure.” Everyone on the patio stares at him, kind of in disbelief. Again he says it. But very non-chalantly, but points to where he is talking. OK, 3 people call 911. Within 2 minutes a fire truck pulls up, and the bartender goes out to the car with water and orange juice.

Coomer (the bartender) comes back, and we ask if everything is ok and is there something we can or need to do. He rolls his eyes and says that this seizure isn’t a natural phenomenon and goes back inside.

Atlanta’s Finest pulls up. The guy who wanted us to call 911 takes off.

The firemen go after him and he comes back. Bartender goes back out to the scene (all the patrons are watching from the porch). Unbeknownst to us, there is an ambulance on the other side of the building. As the fireman leave, we thank them for their fast response time. They said too bad it was for this twit.

A few minutes later the ambulance pulls around with the driver of the car in the back, and the cop leaves…No the cops drives around and sits in front of the car. Then a tow truck comes, and tows the car away. And the cop leaves.

Coomer tells us that there was a bag the size of his fist full of blow in the car, and then they also found heroin.
Meanwhile B jokingly goes, “See this just doesn’t happen where I live.” We all laugh, because frankly we’ve never seen it either. About 5 minutes later, the 911 guy shuffles in and goes inside. According to Coomer, he tells Coomer he is having a really bad day, and can he get a drink. Coomer throws him out. Some words ensue, with Coomer telling him to go snort a few more rails, and just leave (I’m saying this way more politely). So we are still on the porch, and the guy comes back and searched the dumpsters, like he lost something. We tell Coomer the guy is back. He has to call 911. They come out again, and he files a report. By now he is shaking.

All the drama dies down, but for the rest of the night , “a fist of cocaine…” is in the conversation. By now D, V and I have had quite a few beers, and B and V decide to skip the concert. They give their tickets to Coomer, but he can’t get off (he has to work a double shift), so some girl at the bar got free tickets. Coomer buys us a round of shots, and D, V and I do them, and I do B’s. I don’t know what time we decided to go, but B gives us a ride home (she has long since stopped drinking the 2 beers she had).

Today I’m off to Colorado.

And if you are wondering about my running, I did it once this week, and a huge walk (900 calories for the walk). My Achilles is very tender so I’m trying to assess what damage I can do to it. I’m taking my shoes with me to Colorado, but I don’t know what I’m going to be doing.

And a neighborhood mourns...

A little girl was killed today. She was going to summer school. She got off the MARTA bus waving good-bye to her mother, and saying, "I love you, Mama." As she crossed the street , a tow-truck who was in too much of a hurry (and aren't we all, these days), crossed the double line and passed the bus, hitting the little girl. She died at the scene in front of the elementary school.

Thankfully the tow-truck driver realized he hit something and came back. He is now being charged.

Our neighborhood is stunned. I have never met this little girl, and my heart is breaking. Right now the principal of an elementary school is having to deal with not only the children of the school, but a neighborhood in mourning who are so lost. Right now, there is a mother who will never see her little girl graduate, get married or anything else.

And all because someone was in a hurry.

My heart breaks and my tears flow.

Tag! You're It!

Tagging is one way that bloggers connect with each other and each other's blogs. JMO tagged me.

So, here are the rules of tagging:

Just copy the following onto your post. The rules of the game are posted at the start of your blog post. In this case, I'm asking you to post AT LEAST 10 random facts about yourself. Each player lists the AT LEAST 10 random facts on their own blog. At the end of your post you tag 5 other people and post their names. Go to their blogs and leave a comment on their blogs telling them they've been tagged and to look at your blog for details. When they've answered the questions on their own blog, they come back to yours to tell you. Got that?

So, about those AT LEAST 10 random facts.

TAG if you haven't been yet...

1. When I have to pee, I usually wait until the last possible second to go. It seems too much of a chore to get up and walk down the hall and do it. When I get older, I definitely will have some issues with this, I'm betting.

2. I got kicked out of my high school's Amnesty International Chapter, because when I was supposed to write a letter to some leader of some country to release people for handing out propaganda against the leader, I asked the adviser if what they had done was against the law. Then I asked why if they knew they broke the law, then why did I have to write to free them. They knew the repercussions of their actions. The adviser said I was missing the point. I think the adviser didn't like someone questioning him.

3. As I have lost weight, my chest has gone from a C to a DD. My husband thinks it is great. I think it is a PITA, since I think breasts just get in the way. (Can you tell I'm childless?)

4. I don't like things on my feet (blankets, shoes, socks, etc.)

5. The Baltimore Aquarium's Shark Tank scares the crap out of me. I have to run through it because I'm afraid of the tank bursting open and having them eat me. This sounds far-fetched but the tank did do that in Australia or New Zealand.

6. I have an irrational fear of walking down the street and having someone come up in a car and hit me on the back of the neck with a lacrosse stick, rendering me para- or quadriplegic.

7. I'm totally passive-aggressive. I won't get mad at you for owing me $200, telling the world my life secrets, or breaking my lawn-mower and not replacing it. But be 5 minutes late for lunch and not call, and I'll never speak to you again.

8. I hate call waiting. I don't have it. On my cell, I do, but don't know how to use it. I think it is rude. I hang up when someone opts to take the other call over talking to me.

9. I don't understand the "I forgive but I don't forget" phrase. In my mind, if you don't forget, then you never really forgave.

10. I don't laugh during movies. It annoys me when someone tells me I should find something funny and be laughing. I find the humor in movies and I think things are funny. But I don't laugh. Occasionally I will guffaw though.

You're not in the big city anymore...

So I had to go to Chattanooga today for work. Basically 5 hours in the car for 5 minutes of talking to the TSA to get clearance for something.

On the way up, in a more rural part of Georgia, I saw a billboard. I don't think either of my co-workers saw it(because it would have sparked a discussion). I had to do a double take.

"Wake up America, if racial profiling was legal, 9/11 would have never happened."

It got me thinking of the stupidity of that billboard.
Timothy McVeigh
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
Eric Rudolph
Ted Kaczynski

With racial profiling, the above 5 people would have still achieved their atrocious acts. So with or without it, you still have terrorists. And they might even be the same color as you. There is something to think about...

But you know what really ticks me off...I can find out who paid for that billboard and write a letter and tell them they are ignorant, stupid, wrong or what have you, and it won't make a difference. They won't change their mind. They'll just think I'm a "stupid LIBERAL gurl from da big city trying to tell people how to think." And I won't change my mind.

OK, and I have to run tonight. Which is good, because now I want a drink!

Who Are You, and What Did You Do With Al?

OK, so what is up with me.

Yesterday, I was too hungover to do anything.

So D and I watched Talk to Me...a good movie. I enjoyed it. Then went to bed.

So this morning, I got up and decided to run with Guinness. We took Porter on our warmup which was .25 miles. They were doing fine, sniffing and smelling everything. THen a dog ran out between 2 houses. Now, mind you I'm totally a dog person, and this thing scared the bejeesus out of me. Imagine this thing running full force at you.

So Guinness decided to act nuts, and managed to get out of her leash. Border Collie on the run. Luckily, the Great Dane hit her in the nose, and Guinness ran behind a parked car, so I managed to get her back on the leash. Porter does not like any dog when she is on a leash, so growl. I got the pups all settled and we continued our walk with GD walking all around us. We came around the loop and there was one of my neighbors out. He was all huffy. And I asked him if it was his dog. You could totally tell he was upset, because he thought it was my dog, and had had a speech all ready for me, and now he couldn't use it. Apparently GD had dug up his entire back yard. GD saw the man and ran over and jumped on him. It made me laugh, and Guinness and Po and I went back home.

I really didn't want to run with that dog out, so I decided to go to the gym.

Time: 16:28 (walk)

Mileage .25 (65:52 min/mile)

Calories: 100

Max HR 146

Avg HR 112

So I got to the gym and was all by myself. I started running. About 4 minutes in, I thought I was going to die. My legs were made of lead. So I got to 8 minutes, and decided to walk 2. Started again, and ran to 18 and walked 2. Ran to 28 and walked 3. Then I ran the rest.

I'm not sure what was up with it, but eh. I walked a mile on my cooldown.

I went and got the car washed and then came home and mowed the lawn. All this before 10AM.

Time: 43:56 (run)

Mileage 3.1 (14:10 min/mile)

Time:20.38(walk)

Mileage 1 (20.38 min/mile)

Calories: 902

Max HR 184/167

Avg HR 168/150

In Zone 13:20/15:06

Carly told me to post 5 things about me, so I posted 6...

So Carly said to post 5 things about myself that you don't know about me.

This is hard, because I tell everyone everything.

1. I love to bake, and can do it awesomely (yes, I'm bragging). However, I cannot frost a cake. I don't know why, but I just can't.

2. After my wedding reception, D and I went to the afterparty, because well, sex would always be there, but a party wouldn't. After the afterparty, someone decided to take us to breakfast at the Disco Diner. I was in my flannel pajamas (I'm such a romantic...flannel on my wedding night, in JULY!), my crown (aka a tiarra) and my Guinness Slippers that I wore the whole day and night. We walked out of a hotel and a BMW 7-series was out front. I got in and told the man where I wanted to go. He asked who the hell I was, and why was I in his car. I was thanking him for being so prompt that I didn't have to wait outside. Doug and Sip got me out of his car and apologized.

3. I got laid off from a job and got a year's advanced notice that my job was being outsourced to someone for $1.33 a day. I refused to train him, and when asked if I would give him a winter coat (because my company was too cheap to go to Walmart and buy the man a coat), I asked my boss if they wanted my house keys to give to the man, as well as my sister to pleasure him. After that, I had no contact with the man. Upon leaving said job, I not only reformatted one of my hard drives (that had only word documents on it,) the more important hard drive, I reformatted, took out of the computer and drilled a hole through it. I wasn't bitter or anything. Ironically, I still talk to everyone at this place.

4. Don't come up behind me and put your hands over my eyes without me knowing you are coming up behind me (just ruining the point of this gesture). I will drop to the ground, spin and kick you in the balls. Most likely will embarrass the hell out of you. Yes, I have done it before.

5. People think I'm a beer snob because I will not drink Bud, Miller or Coors Products. Miller products give me vicious headaches, that cause me to go to the hospital. I have determined I'm allergic (and this is after 1 beer, not 11). I don't like lagers, which Bud and Coors are, so therefore I choose not to waste my calories on them. I don't like Corona either.
As for the beer snob...yes, I will not drink a beer that comes in a clear or green bottle. The light can go through the bottle, and cause the beer to "skunk." I had to take a technical writing class in college and my final project was on beer. Even then I found a way to geek out.

6. People who meet me (in person) think I'm very ditzy and stupid, because I sound like Minnie Mouse on helium (my voice didn't go through puberty). They are surprised that I have 2 Engineering Degrees and graduated with Highest Honors, as well as have my Fundamentals of Engineering License (aka EIT). I don't have a Professional Engineering License because I've never had the need for it. I took the EIT exam (an 8-hour exam all about engineering) because I had nothing to do that day. The same reason I got my second engineering degree. I had nothing better to do for that time, and Georgia Tech is the best school in the country for Industrial and Systems Engineering 18 years, running. Since I was here, and they were here, it was something to do.

OK, I'm going to go home.