Back Aches For those of you who are of the observant species, you will have noticed that i was walking like an old lady (minus the walker....although having one would have been nice) last night at Dee's birthday dinner (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEE....being 22 is weird eh? 22...22...22...22...yeah...it's weird). it all started with one pair of jeans at Garage... i was shopping yesterday, and after trying on some jeans at Garage, i started to get this HUGE pain in my lower back. aw dang. it got progressively worse and had me walking at a turtles pace all bent over like an old person. i have a greater respect for old people now... i layed on my back when i got home, until i went to Dee's birthday Dinner. it was after the dinner that was the most painful experience of the whole night. walking out to Lindsay's car and getting into it was the most painful experience thus far in my life i think. it brought small tears to my eyes, although none fell. lucky for me my response to painful or stressful situations is to laugh and joke. that helped a little. i seriously thought that i should go to the emergency and get some morphine. enough of the whimpy 600mg ibuprophen, i need to good stuff! to brighten my spirits i watched Mr. Bean with my family. (but i am still totally up for a Mr. Bean night with y'all sometime...maybe a last class bash party with Mr. Bean?? it would almost be as good as our face painting and trunk ride excursion last year...almost) so i went to a chiropractor today and it helped, although i am still in quite a bit of pain. going to the bathroom has never been such a chore! nor brushing my teeth for that matter... so pray that i will have a quick recovery, and i won't have to take too much more time off of work. although i am thoroughly enjoying the day off...well...except for the pain!! Jingle Bells and Running On November 25 i did something i have never done before...ran a race. ok that's a lie, but it was the first time i'd ever run 5km in the Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis. (given my current state of ache, i can better understand the pain arthritis causes....kind of) Thanks to Renae who helped me train and is a great motivator and encourager. i had kind of been training for about 5 weeks (which consisted of running once a week. HA! yeah i was hardcore.....) the day of the race was CRAZY!! the weather really was Frightfull! it was -17 degrees and snowing! only the hardcore runners came out (about 300) of which renae and i were in their number. Th ey even gave every person a jingle bell to attach to their shoe. we all jingled as we ran. it was quite the event. Renae beat me by 1 second! we completed the 5km run in 30min36sec and 30min37sec running at a rate of 9.52min/mile. i had so much fun running the race...well not at the time...it was hell runing it in the cold. my lungs were burning and i had a frost goatee...but the idea of being in a race was really fun. the whole experience was great, and i am hoping to do more runs. there's the Moonlight Run in march and i'm hoping to run the 10km for that one. here is a before picture of renae and i. 
we did not look this good AFTER the race...what with our frosty goatee's and all... Awkward Dancing oh and here's a random video of "awkward dancing at the awkward halloween dance"
Yeah...i'm hot stuff.... And i'll leave you with some amazing classical guitar music played by our very own josh. MA out. | 
