Running Glory

Music: The Script- Live Like You Were Dying
Mood: Bored



Most of y'all would know this song from the radio. Kris Allen, last year's American Idol winner, released this song, Live Like We're Dying, as a single not knowing The Script wrote and preformed this song already. It's found on the B side of The Script album, and the two artists basically sound the same doing it, but I feel The Script's version is better stylistically.

I must comment that the lyrics of this song are beautiful, and I am trying to live this semester to the fullest.

We only got 86 400 seconds in a day to 

turn it all around or throw it all away

we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em

while we got the chance to say

gotta live like we're dying

While this semester stinks in terms of the course load and the work in the classes, I am thankful that I am a second semester senior with a JOB, and I don't really give a rat's butt about the classes any more. One class in particular really annoys me. This professor is know to be a good, engaging professor, but now that I don't care anymore, all his comments and anecdotes seem so trivial and almost annoying. Rather than saying something simply, he has to act like he's so witty and give an extended version of what could have been a quick answer. I've also checked out of school because I'm totally not doing any of the reading that I would have been doing freshman or sophomore year, and I hope I can get away with it.

Beyond school, I've been exploring Austin more and starting to cross things off on my bucket list. Happy hours all over Austin, going to drink specials during the week days, trivia night at the various pubs, hanging out with friends. It's been relaxing, but I want to do more of the fun things. I haven't gone to a concert in a while and I'm wanting to go to Howie Day (with Serena Ryder)-- both of whom I've seen, Matt Hires (with Jason Castro)-- I've already seen Matt Hires before, and I really want to see Citizen Cope (Mar 12) and Taylor Swift. Citizen Cope tickets are $30 and Taylor tix are sold out but I could buy them online for $120 a pop, and I don't know anyone else who would want to go to either concert.

Other than school and hang out and avoiding school, I've been training for the Austin Marathon on February 14th! In fact, I ran the 3M Half-Marathon on January 24th. I had only ran like 12 miles before then, so 13.1 was exciting and exhilarating. My goal was to run it under 2 hours and I ended up finishing with a chip time of 2 hours and 2 seconds. I tried sprinting at the end and wish I had gone 2 seconds faster, but I'm still very happy with my time. It averages into 9 minutes and 9.6 seconds per mile! That's really good, considering I ran the Run for the Water 10miler in 9 minutes per mile! My goal for the marathon is about 4.5 hours! Hopefully I can do it. The Half-Marathon was great! I ran well the entire time, having to stop and massage my numb foot around mile 4, 5, 6 until I stopped happening. I also took Clif Shot Bloks that gave me energy and stamina throughout the race. I'm hoping I'd be able to do double that. In fact, at 13.1 miles, when I reached the finish, I really could have gone for more!

Vicki also ran the half-marathon, and she did really well as well! She's running the Austin Half Marathon and so are many of my other friends. I hope when they finish their half, they'll go and cheer for me for the full. That would mean a lot and help inspire me as I'm struggling through mile 20ish. For training, I'm hoping to run at least 20-22 miles before the full marathon.

In my goals that I set in the last post, I'm hoping for 6-packs by spring break but I'm making slow progress. I mean, I'm running and eating healthy, but I don't know if I'm visiting the gym as well as I should. Also, I've definitely said yes more, as well! Well, I'm done eating my ice cream bar, so I guess I'll head out now. Enjoy the photos below of the 3M Half-Marathon!

Me Finishing the 13.1 miles!

Official Finisher!

Awesome Finisher Medal

Vicki and Me after the Race!

First Day

Music: Hey, Soul Sister- Train
Mood: Exhausted



The last semester of my undergraduate college career started today, and I'm anxiously anticipating my last class, last test, last group project, and last word to my thesis already. With class on Tuesday from 12:30 to 2 and then again from 5 to 8pm on top of waking up early to go for a run, I'm spent and about to go to bed.

I'm running the 3M Half-Marathon on Sunday (that's 13.1 miles) and I'm so unprepared for it. During break, I didn't really train because of my travels to California as well as getting my wisdom teeth extracted. In retrospect, I should have trained more, despite the cold and the distractions, but what can I do? I went running today for about 6miles and it was a struggle. I had to stop to catch my breath multiple times, which I never have had to stop in the past. Before, my foot started to go numb before I was ever out of breath. I'm extremely worried but what can I do? It's in less than a week and I've screwed up my training. I'm more scared about the full-marathon on Feb 14th!

This semester as a whole is not looking that good, given that it's my last semester of my senior year. With classes that require homework, groupwork, etc., this is one the hardest semesters ever, yet I'm determined to enjoy it. While I'm not one to make new years resolutions, I tend to set goals when life marks a change of pace or a start of something new. Here's what I've contemplated with the start of this new semester:

• Abs- As shallow as it sounds, I'd like to have defined abs by my spring break trip. While I know I'm not fat or out of shape, I would like to have defined abs. This revelation came when I was at the Galleria Houston this past Sunday. Well, Abercrombie models are know for their ridiculously good looks and rock hard bodies. Well, outside of Gilly Hicks, the women's lounge line of Abercrombie, there was a model standing in the store front with his shirt off and just wearing jeans, showing off his defined 6-pack. I thought to myself, that would be nice to have! So there we go, I love doing ab/core work, the problem is that I have a smaller layer of fat slightly covering up my abs if I don't flex. I'd like to get rid of that. The joke around my house is 6-pack in 6-weeks for spring break.
• Eat better- This is probably along the same likes of the abs. I don't eat that terribly but I do go on eating binges sometime of ice cream or dry cereal. I'm trying to eat smaller meals, snack more, and snack healthier.
• Say YES more- instead of saying no to opportunities to have fun, I'm going to say YES and consent to more things. I've made a senior year bucket list that I'm hoping to accomplish before graduation. Along the same lines, I would like to say YES more. This is sort of along the same premise of YES MAN, which was a terrible movie. lol. 
• Be early- If you know me, I'm usually either late or just on time to things. Instead of keep people waiting on me, it's my goal to be early to things. This means leaving the house earlier or not starting something at the last minute right before I need to be somewhere.
• Dress better- While I have nice clothes and plenty of shoes, I've started dressing pretty sloppily. I've moved more  into wearing athletic clothes, which is pretty bad. Now granted I do ride my bike to school, but I still think I could try a little bit more than I am right now.

All right, I'm exhausted so I'm going to bed. Good night!

Twenty-Ten

Music: The Man Who Can't Be Moved- The Script
Mood: Content and Satisfied

Happy New Year and welcome Two Thousand and Ten.

Of course Ellen would have the best New Years Glasses of everyone!

I apologize for being missing in action for the last few weeks. I got busy with studying for finals, preparing for winter break, and enjoying the 2nd to last semester of my college career. I do have some good and bad news to announce. Some of you might know that I started this blog because I became a BBA Blogger for the Reality Bytes section of McCombs Career Services. Due to several reasons, Reality Bytes is put on a hold for the spring semester. Thus, as I graduate this May, Fall 2009 was my last semester blogging as a BBA Blogger. The good news is that I will still be updating this blog occasionally. Thus, everything I say represents my own ideas and thoughts, won't be censored or edited, and will thus, probably be more raw.

As a quick recap of what's happened in my life since I last updated, I did extremely well on my finals and in my classes, given that I didn't really study that hard for any of them. Due to the silly plus-minus grading system that should have been grandfathered in, I got one A-minus in Statistics in a semester that should have been a 4.0. Making things worse, statistics was probably one of the simplest classes I've taken during my college career. It's interesting that I got an A in business law and cost accounting but an A- in Statistics. Oh well. My GPA has wiggle room, but I wanted to save some wiggle room for this semester, where I truly won't want to do any work. The only thing I feel like doing this semester is working on my Thesis, everything else (intermediate accounting, finance for lg corporations, capstone management, and capstone finance) I could care less about. Lol.

Beyond school, I got a lucky and was picked in the draw for a BCS National Championship Ticket for $220. Having gone to almost every UT home game this season (except for 1 because of a retreat) and even having attended the BIG 12 Championship game in Dallas where we had a close-call against Nebraska. I really wanted to go to the game in Pasadena but getting hotel and airfare there wasn't reasonable. I ended up selling the ticket and using some of the money to pay for spring break. My roommates and I booked a 7-day cruise leaving out of New Orleans stopping in Cozumel, Belize City, Guatemala, and Costa de Maya!

For the first part of break, I stuck around in Austin to celebrate my good friend's 21st birthday. It was really fun because I was the DD so I stayed pretty coherent for the whole night and got to watch people make fools off themselves! Lol. Happy 21st Little Creamer! After returning home, I enjoyed myself and caught up with friends in Sugar Land! Sugar Land has changed a lot. There are places to drink, hang out with friends, and enjoy yourself! On the 24th, I flew to San Francisco to visit cousins and family! I spent from the 24th to the 31st in Sacramento, playing board games, watching movies, and catching with my cousins. Then on the 31st, my family and I went back to San Francisco where I rang in the New Year watching Ryan Secrest and the ball drop. I really want to go see the ball drop one year. We also explored the Fisherman's wharf as we do every year and also walked around Golden Gate Park. Now, finally because I'm old enough, we went to Nappa Valley to go wine tasting! We went to 4 vinyards, and I tasted (and swallowed) at every single one! I discovered how to taste wine correctly, and I found a liking for Petite Sirah's, reaffirmed my love for Cabernet Sauvigon, and I also discovered a liking for Ports and Moscat's! I really enjoyed the wine tasting, despite how expensive the bottles are. The problem is, I know what tastes good, but I don't know what a good price is. I definitely want to go wine tasting in the Texas Hill Country, where I hear it's cheaper and pretty good.

After getting back to Houston on the 4th, I went to the dentist to get x-rays for my wisdom teeth. I'm having my extraction on the 11th, but between now and then, I'm in Austin watching the game with my roommates and friends. I'm hoping to see the tower light up orange tonight, so Hook 'em Horns!

Cold, Jaded, and Relaxed

Music: Adam Lambert- For Your Entertainment
Mood: Relaxing and Avoiding Studying

Close your eyes
Not your mind
Let me into your soul
I’ma work ya ’til your totally blown

Adam Lambert's American Music Award performance was interesting, that's for sure. But I must say, I do really like him as an artist and a performer because he doesn't really care what others thing. I'd venture to call him the male version of Lady GaGa. Weird and edgy but cool! Lol!

I just recently got his album, I also like Whataya Want From Me:

Just don't give up I'm workin it out
Please don't give in, I won't let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around
Hey, whataya want from me
Whataya want from me
Whataya want from me

Ok Sorry for the random asides. I haven't posted in a while now. I meant to post during Thanksgiving week but I didn't because I [1] forgot, [2] was too lazy/distracted, [3] wanted to get away from the computer.

So let me do a quick recap: I only have class on Tuesday and Thursday so last week, I only went to my Tuesday classes and then drove back home. 2 of the four classes I have got canceled, so I was definitely ready to be gone and done for the week. Driving home Tuesday afternoon, I'm not sure where the time went. I didn't really go jogging or work out during thanksgiving except for the one day when I did 4.5 miles. I did manage to torture my body some more by registering for the 3M Half Marathon in January and the Austin Full Marathon on February 14th. I have a lot of training to do, which I am not prepared for because of the cold weather.

Other than that, I finished the first draft of my paper for my Plan II Tutorial Class on psychology and religion. I also worked on my Thesis a bit (ie. working on the outline and reading some books) but other than that, I didn't really do any amount of work. It was pretty bad. I also did some Black Friday Shopping-- went to Target at 4:30am and got a $3 coffee maker and a $60 1-Terabyte external hard drive. We couldn't get the $250 32" LCD TV at Target (they ran out), so we went to Conn's (which I didn't even know was still in business). We waited for it to open at 6am and got a 32" LCD TV for $300. Afterwards, we went to Home Depot to buy 100 light X-Mas strings for $1; I bought 6 strings to decorate my house here in Austin. Afterwards, I went to Academy to get my friend, Shyam, a UT Snuggie for his birthday before checking out if JCPenny had some glass Pyrex storage set for my mom.. they were out. So we went to walmart to see if they had a similar set, they too ran out. It seems like Pyrex storage sets were just as rare as flat screen TVs. After getting back around 8am, I went back to bed and woke up to be "productive." The rest of thanksgiving I hung out with friends and spent time with my parents. I drove back to Austin this past Monday, spending 7 nice relaxing days at home! =) I had to reluctantly came back. Break was so nice and it was painful coming back here to do work. I'm so ready for winter break!

So this week, I have a Stat test tomorrow and I need to do a small case project for my Financial Analyst Program. I also have to finish the Final Draft of my TC paper, work on my thesis, and study for an Accounting and LEB final exam on Thursday and Saturday. I'm staying around until Dec 16th b/c Shyam turns 21 so we're planning on celebrating with him and then I'll drive back to Houston. I'm going to California from Dec 24th to Jan 4th but other than that, I'll just be in Houston enjoying myself and relaxing. I do have several dentists appointments though (I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out), and I also need to visit the eye doctor to to see if my vision has gotten worse. Hopefully it's gotten better, given how little work I do any more.


Lastly, this was from You Learn New Things Every Day.com, which was really cute! I love green and turtles! =)

21!

Music: Leona Lewis, John Mayer, OneRepublic, and Justin Bieber's new CD
Mood: 21, twenty one, ventiuno, èr shí yī, vingt et un, einundzwanzig, واحد وعشرون, Είκοσι μία, इक्कीस, ยี่สิบเอ็ด, двадцать один)
(sorry i got carried away... that's 21 in Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Arabic, Greek, Hindi, Thai, and Russian)


If I haven't made it clear, I turned 21 this past weekend! I had a great weekend, and now I am totally checked out of school and enjoying myself.

The consulting firm I signed with to work for after graduation flew me and all the other offerees up to Dallas for what they call Offer Weekend, where we visit the office, meet everyone at the firm, and get to know Dallas better. They wined and dined us and really made me excited about post-graduation plans! I flew up to Dallas on Friday morning, where our chauffeur picked us up from Dallas-Love and drove us to the office in Irving. That's right, we had chauffeur who picked us up in a big HUGE sedan. They even gave us a text message the night before of the name of our driver and when we landed, where the sedan was located. It was a little intense.

On Friday, we got oriented to the office, chatted with other offerees, played foosball. After a nice lunch at the building's fancy restaurant, we had one-on-ones with partners and managers of the firm, where they were responsible for trying to sell the firm even more to the offerees. Since I had already accepted, it was definitely more laid back and very comforting to know how approachable the top ranking members of the firm were. I had conversations about my plan to run the marathon, my post-graduation travel plans, and how they had gotten to where they were, etc. After the one-on-ones, we met back together for an "anything goes" consultant panel where recent hires answered all our questions from lifestyle to Dallas to housing. After that, they bused us to the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Uptown Dallas where I was able to fit in a nice work-out and enjoy my decadent room a bit before dinner. Dinner was at Sambuca's, across the street from the Ritz. Let me tell you, dinner was delicious, especially since they were serving a good number of people in our group. We had different appetizer choices, salad, entree and desserts to choose from. I settled on a spinach-walnut salad, a steak and lobster entree, and creme brule for dessert. There were also free-flowing top-notch drinks all night long. After dinner, we gathered for more drinks in the back before calling an end to a lovely Friday night (but not before more drinks at the Ritz Carlton Bar. Of course, right?!)

Saturday, after resting in the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in with more pillows that I've knew what to do with (and of course, using the comfy bathrobe), I woke up and they took us to brunch at Matitos in Uptown Dallas where we were treated to tastey breakfast tex-mex items! After brunch, and catching some of the UT vs Baylor game, we headed to the Dallas World Aquarium for an afternoon getting to see interesting animals and to mingle with everyone else. Some of the group went off to play soccer instead, but of course, I choose the aquarium instead. That aquarium, while cool and interesting, is so small, and it left me feeling terrible for the animals! It was nice getting to interact with the other offeeres and chat about the different offers everyone was considering. Of course, me being biased, I tried to do some convincing of my own to get people to accept their offers. It's pretty interesting that despite the different backgrounds we all come from, I have truly enjoyed chatting and meeting everyone. I am really excited about those who accept an join my entering class! After the aquarium, it was about 2:30pm and dinner wasn't until 6, so we went back to the Ritz Carlton where I took a nap, went to the gym (it was a really nice gym!), and then took a relaxing bubble bath (haven't done that in AGES), before getting ready for dinner. Post dinner, we had a western chic themed company party for us, so I had to get ready for that, then went to Cuba Libre, a nice cuban/tex-mex resturant in Dallas that they also have in Austin. Dinner, of course, was delicious! A round of appetizers included nachos, calamari, a ceasar salad, guacamole, and fried plantain chips. I ordered a grilled mahi mahi (I definitely had my share of red meat after the steak from the night before) and of course, I had a mango mojito. For dessert, we ordered chocolate brownies a la moda and banana pudding a la moda before finishing with coffee and Baileys. Yes. Clearly Wine and Dine is a way to describe what I did this weekend. After dinner, we headed to the location for our western chic party where I played a game of doubles pool with another offeree and two consultants. I was terrible but got a few balls in AND won the game (by dropping the 8-ball into the corner pocket). After night of mixing and mingling with offerees and current employees at the firm, I was exhausted. Everyone sang happy birthday to me and I met someone else at the firm who was also born the same day as me! It was pretty cool. I cabbed it back to the Ritz with some other offerees before crashing into the bed of pillows at the Ritz!

Sunday, I woke up, got ready, and went downstairs for the final weekend brunch at the Ritz Carlton with my fellow offerees and several managers and partners at the firm. After relishing over the great weekend we had over fresh fruit (cantaloupe, honey due, raspberries, strawberries, pineapples, and blueberries), french toast, muffins, bagels, eggs, bacon and sausage, we called it a weekend. I went back up to the Ritz for a quick 45minute nap before catching a cab to Dallas Love for my 2pm flight. After landing in Austin, I drove home, chatted with my roommates for a bit, had dirty martins for the first time (which is a crazy greasy burger). and then took a nap before, getting up and going to trudy's to celebrate my birthday some more with my roommates and friends. Afterwards, I spent the remainder of Sunday night watching Finding Nemo (which NEVER gets old) and watching The Hangover before retiring for the weekend.

If you've read this far, give yourself a pat on the back! Thanks for reading! Here are some quick pictures before I run off and take a nap. This Tuesday is killing me and it's still not over! One of my other roommates JUST turned 21 and got into medical school so I'll be celebrating with him!

Look at that bed! Ritz Carlton! =)

The Ritz Bathtub. The walk-in shower and toilet is on the left and the right features a Jack and Jill sink with granite counter tops!

Of course we're in Dallas, and that's my dream car, an Aston Martin... but take  closer look... what does his license plate say? No, your eyes are not kidding you.. he's a "FLYMAN"

Freakishly Large Fish at the Dallas World Aquarium

The big manatee at the Aquarium!

All right, that's all I have for you! This week I don't have much going on. I've got a Mortar Board event I'm planning for Thursday, a plan II paper to work on, my physics paper to work on, and the Kansas vs UT game!

Relaxing and Chilling

Music: Joe- I Wanna Know
Mood: 90's Weekend on 94.7



Post tests last week, I've been relaxing again! After my tests, I went out to celebrate on Thursday night. I cannot believe I had 3 tests in the course of 24 hours, but I survived and cannot wait for Thanksgiving and for the semester to end! I actually did pretty well on my STAT and LEB test, so that's good news. I find out my grade in the ACCT class on Thursday, so hopefully that brings good news as well. On Friday, my roommates and I did dinner were we (ie. they) made pasta in bread boxes and homemade Tres Leches cake. We watched Paris I Love You, which was an adorable movie but at the same time, it was sort of depressing not being in a relationship. Haha! Then on Saturday, we woke up, had brunch, and then went to the football game at 11am against Central Florida. Though the game wasn't that exciting, I really enjoyed it because it was pretty empty in the student section so we had a bunch of elbow room AND my friends and I were on the jumbotron for a couple seconds!! We were on the jumbo-tron sophomore year and it was exciting being on again senior year! After the game on Saturday, I really just relaxing and hung out with friends. I went to bed early because I was going to run the Gazelle Foundation Run for the Water 10miler at 7am.

This was my first big race of the semester and I was pretty nervous about it, especially since I hadn't run for so long in about a week, and my left foot always goes numb after about 3 miles. I ended up running the 10 miles in 1 hour and 30 minutes, for a pace of 9 minutes per mile. I left foot went numb around mile 4, and I had to pause to massage it and let the blood return. Then my right foot started going numb as well and I was pausing for about 30 seconds every mile. It was extremely fustrating, and I am very happy about my time, given the numb-foot delays. Big Shout-Out to Vicki and Shyam for driving me to the race around 6:30am and then waiting at the finish line for me and then going to brunch at Upper Crust Bakery after the race!

Now, I'm debating wheter I should sign up for the half-marathon on Dec 6th. I am most likely going to do it, but I'm going to wait a bit to see what the weather is going to be like. Decker Lake is known to be a very hilly race (with long, rising hills) that can be killer when it's cold and windy. I am for sure going to do the 3M Half Marathon in January and the Austin Full-Marathon on Feburary 14th. I know I can do 13.1 miles (even if my foot goes numb), but I am worried about the full-marathon. I have no idea what to expect and I don't know if I can make it. I'm still going to run it because it's been my goal since high school, so it's something I'm gonna do regardless! I know for sure that it's not healthy for me (in terms of the wear and tear on my joints), but I'm still going to do it!

Beyond preparing and training for the races, I haven't been doing much of anything else. I am going up to Dallas this Friday through Sunday for the Offer Weekend with the consulting firm I recently signed with. I am really excited about this trip because the firm is essentially going to wine and dine us and treat us very luxuriously (we're staying in the Ritz Carlton and have an executive sedan driving us all around). Not only that, we are going to tour and enjoy the office on Friday followed by a nice dinner and happy hour. On Saturday, we have a brunch followed by a trip to the aquarium followed by dinner and the firm-wide recruitment party. Sunday will be brunch again before flying back to Austin. It'll be a great opportunity to meet more people at the firm and meet other people who go offers with the firm (ie. my starting class), so I'm excited to get to know them!

Also, on Sunday, I will be celebrating my 21st birthday right when come back to Austin from Dallas. My flight lands around 3pm, and I've got activities plan with friends for the evening! This weekend should be very exciting and I cannot wait! =)

Also yesterday, I was able to go onto the field at the football stadium because they passed out field passes at the football game on Saturday. It was cool exploring the field and seeing the stadium from the perspective of the players. I took a picture with the E in TEXAS in the north endzone and with the H in LONGHORNS in the south endzone! =) That was exciting! And I ran into a fellow blogger and friend, Brendan!

Running with Stress

Music: Body Language- Jesse McCartney
Mood: Good, Lazy Stress




This new Jesse song has been stuck in my head!

"Parlez vous francais?
Konichiwa
Come and move in my way
Hey, little chica from Guadeloupe
That thing you got behind you is amazing

Now, I don't speak Spanish, Japanese or French
But the way that body's talkin' definitely makes sense
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
The way she moves around
When she grinds to the beat
Breaking it down articulately
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body"

Let's be honest, I'm stressed. And I admit, I've done it to myself. I did this last time during my first round of tests, but in my defense, that was the week right after I got my full-time job offer. Now, about 4 weeks later, I've done the same thing. After watching a lot of Glee (I'm still one episode behind), socializing with friends more, and just relaxing, I find that I have an accounting test on Wednesday and a statistics and business law test on Thursday. I finally started studying yesterday, so it's my own fault that I'm stressed, but I'm definitely okay with that because I put it upon myself. Hence, my mood is a good, lazy stress.

Don't get me wrong; my grades still somewhat matter. And I'm still confident I'll do well on my exams. But I'm just waited till the last minute to study for these exams. I did okay during the last exams, but I definitely need to turn it up a notch if I want to pull out with a decent grade in my classes.

So I registered for classes last Wednesday and I totally got NONE of the classes times I wanted. I got all the required classes I needed, but I was on waitlists for 3 different classes. As of today, I got off 2 waitlists, so my schedule is now MW 11 to 2pm, T 12:30 to 2, 5 to 8, TH 12:30 to 2. I'm trying to move that Tuesday class from 5 to 8pm to TTH 11 to 12:30, but we'll see if that works out. It's the senior level FIN 370 capstone finance class, and I had the last day of senior registration, so obviously I got stuck with the worst timeslot.

This past weekend, I went to Houston on Saturday and Sunday to see a good high school friend who goes to rice, to go to an Owl City concert, and to celebrate Halloween at Rice's (in)famous Night of Decadence (or NOD). Let me say that I had an amazing weekend. Thanks to Chaya for letting us crash at her place and to Shyam for driving! The concert was not really what I expected. It was at the Meridian in downtown Houston, which was a terrible venue because the stage was pretty much on the floor, so you couldn't really see that much. The opening acts were TERRIBLE, but Adam Young (of Owl City) has great songs, so it was fun seeing him live. However, I must say that he is not an entertainer at all. I'm sure he has a lot to learn, but he literally just played through all the songs without any transitions or telling us the background or the meaning behind the songs. In other words, he didn't really captivate us with his personality, though the songs were still fun. He played for about 1 hour, which was about as long as the openers played. Also, the concert was full of high school/middle school students, which Vicki noted some of their combined ages was equivalent to her age. It was funny seeing the parents pick up their kids after the concert. While it seems like this post was full of complains, I definitely enjoyed the concert overall!

And halloween weekend was amazing! I spent Friday night celebrating in Austin and spent Saturday night at Night of Decadence (wikipedia it!). I was a sailor on Friday and a captain on Saturday because I had 2 different hats that I paired with a bandana around my neck. I wasnt sure what to expect of NOD, but I had a blast, though a Rice party is definitely different from UT parties.

As many of y'all know, I've been training for the Austin Marathon since the summer and meant to do the Austin Distance Challenge, but that didn't work out. I've still kept up running, and I just registered for the Run for the Water 10 miler which is on this Sunday. I've been putting of registering for it because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it (and because it was $50 to register.) My left foot has been going numb after 3 or 4 miles, which is really wrecking my time. My goal for the 10miler is under 2 hours, but I'm not sure if that'll happen if my foot goes numb b/c I have to stop and wait for the blood to return. I'm planning on running the Marathon, but I haven't registered for it yet. It's $110 dollars, and it's not about the money (though the race money added together could probably buy me the iPod Nano and a new camera I've been wanting). I'll probably register for the marathon after I run the 10 miler on Sunday.

So, I guess I'll continue to run with (good, lazy) stress! =)