Something to train for

Hey! This past week, I've really tried to concentrate on working out. In the last nine days, I've exercise seven of them! I haven't done that in a very long time. I've done a combination of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, Brazil Butt Lift, Slim in 6, swimming and running/walking. I ran tonight for the first time in a LONG time and it felt pretty good. I mean, I felt like I was going to die during and immediately after, but once I recovered, I felt great. My friend and I just committed to and registered for a splash and dash that will take place in about a month. The event is a 750 meter swim and 3k (2 mile) run. Depending on how the splash and dash goes, it will be a warm up for a triathlon later this year, in August or September. I'm pretty excited about it. I've done several 5k's and thought about a triathlon, but never seriously acted upon it. My goal is just to finish, I don't care if I'm the last person to cross that line. I know I'm slow, but I just want to prove that I can finish. I really want to get into shape like I was during grad school and lose some of the weight that I've gained in recent years. On really tough days, it's difficult to remember that exercise acts as an antidepressant, so I have to keep reminding myself. There are so many benefits, it shouldn't be so hard to motivate myself to do it!

So, I just watched LOST from this week. This show is crazy. I don't even know what to say, except that they have a lot to wrap up in just a short amount of time. Does anyone else REALLY want to know what Jacob's brother's name is??? Poor kid...he might not even have a name.

It's getting pretty hot here in Texas. I'm a little worried about the summer temps. It's definitely a major downside to moving here and something I considered, since I'm not really fond of hot weather. I just figured I'd deal with it and enjoy the AC as much as possible. For the beginning of May, we've already had plenty of days at 95 degrees. Last summer, Austin had something like a record 60-some days over 100 degrees. We'll see how much hotter it gets here. Glad that my apartment has a pool where I can cool off and the AC works great.

Can't wait! Sex and the City 2 is almost upon us! Ah! I love, love, love that we get to see the girls again. I've said this before, but I feel like with the new movie it's like getting together with old friends. My new coworker is also a fan, so it looks like I have someone to see the movie with. We're going to see if there are any cool events going on with opening weekend. Less than two weeks remain!

Can we please be done with the funerals for awhile?

The past couple of weeks have been busy. More specifically, the last week was quite a whirlwind of shock, sadness, tiredness, love and lots of other emotions. The past three weekends, we've had football games in West Texas, so that was lots of long work days and travel. On Sunday, April 25, I was selling tickets at a game in Big Spring, TX and got a call from my mom.
1. She rarely calls me, I normally call her. 2. She knew I was working at a game at that moment. I knew she probably didn't have any good news when calling in a middle of a game. The shock was still immense. She told me that Uncle Chuck died and my heart might have skipped a beat. I didn't understand, I had just seen him a couple of months ago and he was fine. He's a really energetic guy, always busy with something and upbeat. For everything he's involved in and does, you'd never think he was 73. My parents had dinner with him and my other aunts and uncles just a week earlier and he was fine! She proceeded to tell me briefly what happened as I began crying hysterically. I had to put the phone down a couple of times to wait on customers and felt embarrassed and how I must look to the random strangers. A headache set in immediately and I finished the work day, not really remembering the details of what happened to my dad's brother.
I got the whole story on the way back to Austin and just can't believe it. A blood clot killed his intestines and then started to kill the rest of his organs and his heart was unable to compensate and he passed within about 15 hours of his initial symptoms of chills and body aches. Unbelievable.

Everything just happened so fast. I booked my flight Monday night (without second thought; it wasn't an option to not be there with my family) and was on a plane at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday. The visitation was Wednesday and Thursday, so our family was there the whole time. I know this is getting really long already, but I want to continue. Thursday was the Last Alarm ceremony with the Toledo Fire Department. It was a really nice way to pay tribute to Uncle Chuck as a retired firefighter and paramedic. Lots of retired and current firefighters were there and they all filed past the casket as one rang the bell until they all went by to pay their respects. The funeral home was packed.

Friday was the funeral, which began with bag pipes and time for everyone to pay their last respects to the body and a prayer with the family before the service began. Everyone was really emotional and touched by the music. I started to realize that this was harder than most of my grandparents' funerals b/c it was so sudden and he was healthy and not really that old. Uncle Chuck was one of my closest uncles out of all my dad's siblings and their spouses.
The funeral service was nice, a couple people read scriptures and shared some really nice memories and everyone who spoke was emotional. We sang hymns and listened to a touching sermon. After filing out of the church the bag pipes played again on the lawn and one of the tunes was Amazing Grace as they loaded the casket into the hearse. Heart-wrenching.
The final portion (excluding lunch) of the service was the processional past Fire Station #25 behind an antique fire truck. All the Toledo fire chiefs were standing outside saluting as the processional drove past. The drive concluded at the church where we enjoyed lunch and time with the extended family.
One kind of funny thing that happened was that my aunt and uncle who now live in California both thought that I was my mom. I guess it was good for me to laugh at them not knowing who I was right away rather than be highly offended that I was mistaken for someone over 60. At least they thought that I had lost weight and looked great, right? Apparently, I look just like my mom when she was my age. Yikes. Lol.
Anyway, I'm really going to miss Uncle Chuck and how he gave me a hug or two every time I saw him. Christmas is going to be really weird without him there. I feel blessed to know and be related to such a wonderful man and that he took the initiative for us becoming a closer family about 10 years ago. He touched many lives and we will always remember his stories, with the embellishments of course. My heart goes out to my aunt Bev and my dad and the other aunts and uncles who have lost two siblings in just two months.

Rachel described her grief about Uncle Chuck on her blog and it's a really good post.

Back to civilization

Unfortunately, I'm back to the real world and civilization. The peace and quiet of the desert, mountains and river was absolutely wonderful, just wish my trip hadn't been so short. I'm going to post my photos to Facebook soon and I'll show my itinerary below. Big Bend National Park is awesome, hopefully I'll get to go back sometime to explore it even further. I hadn't been camping in awhile and that was a lot of fun too. I love my new tent and camp stove and hope to do some more camping this spring, summer and fall.

Sunday, April 4
Depart Van Horn, TX – 220 miles to Big Bend National Park
Arrive @ Big Bend, setup campsite @ Chisos Basin
Visitor’s Center
Window View Trail – sunset

Monday, April 5
Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive
Santa Elena Canyon – 1.7 miles
Lost Mine Trail – 5 miles, 1,100 feet elevation
Ranger led program @ Chisos Basin campground

Tuesday, April 6
Boquillas Canyon Road, Boquillas Canyon Trail – 1.4 miles
Rio Grande Village Nature Trail (Ranger Hike)
Hot springs trail and relaxation – 1 mile
Ranger led program @ Rio Grande Village campground

Wednesday, April 7
Pack up campsite
Visitor’s Center
Dugout Wells, Chihuahuan Desert Nature Trail (Ranger Hike)
Depart for Austin, TX
475 miles to home

Scratch that

OK, well change of plans to my trip this weekend/next week. I'm cutting out the Guadalupe Mountains, Carlsbad Caverns and Marfa parts of my trip and just going from Van Horn to Big Bend. I just found out that I only get 15 days of vacation and need to not use five of them next week. I know 15 sounds like quite a bit, but I used to get 22 days per year plus sick time and wouldn't have possibly ever been able to use them all. My boss said that the 15 days includes sick time, vacation and personal days. I've already used about three, one for a funeral and two when Rachel was here. I'll take three next week, but have to consider that I have a wedding to go to in Ohio in July and time off to go home at Christmas. Ugh. I know I shouldn't really be complaining, but working for a self-employer definitely has it's downsides. I miss working in a real office, like with people, office supplies and my own desk space. Now, my interaction with people consists of my boss (in the comfort of his own house) and maybe one other person. I have to travel daily with my own portable office. I wish I had the funds and ability to create my own home office and set up things for better efficiency and comfort. OK. I'll stop complaining and say that I'm glad to have a job with a lot of flexibility.

Lots going on lately

March has been a pretty active month for me, with still more fun stuff to look forward to. Spring is my favorite season and the weather is just about perfect here right now (don't even want to think about summer) and that seems to make everything a little bit more enjoyable.

My good friend, Marie visited in early March. Her sister, brother-in-law and niece live here in Austin and were expecting their second baby, so Marie came out in hopes to meet the little guy. Unfortunately, he had other ideas and waited until St. Patrick's Day. Selfishly though, I cherished the little bit of time I had with Marie, whom I miss dearly. We enjoyed great conversation, wine and shopping (as usual).

The next week, my sister visited and we explored lots of sites around Austin, San Antonio and Johnson City. We learned SO much about LBJ, Lady Bird and LBJ's presidency...it turned out to be much more interesting than I had imagined. Check out my Facebook page for the photos. We went to the LBJ Presidential Library, Capital Building, Zilker Park Kite Festival, Town Lake, Mount Bonnell, The Alamo, San Antonio Missions San Jose and Concepcion, River Walk, and the LBJ birth place, boyhood home, Texas White House and ranch. That was all in four days. Our dogs were barkin'! It was a great visit and I'm glad that we got to spend some time together and learn more about the history and the area.

As far as work, we've had about a month or so off from games and we're about to enter into another busy stretch of traveling and hosting games in West Texas. Next weekend, we are headed to Menard and Van Horn. Van Horn is pretty close to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, so I'm going to use my new birthday gifts and go camping for a week! I'm really excited to go on this adventure and explore even more of Texas. I'm still finalizing my itinerary, but I plan to see Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Marfa and Big Bend National Park. Big Bend is going to be the main attraction and I'm spending three days there. It's the biggest national park in the system but one of the least visited b/c it's so remote. It's along the bend of the Rio Grande River that forms the border of Texas and Mexico. It will be so much fun taking pictures, camping, hiking and checking out some ranger lead programs. I have a lot to do to prepare for that as well as make sure all my responsibilities for work are covered, since it's a busy time. It's not guaranteed that I'll even have cell phone coverage where I'm going let along Wi-Fi. I shouldn't even be blogging right now when my To Do List is a mile long! I will post again once I've finalized my itinerary for the upcoming journey. Off to run errands!