Fun Fact Friday

FUN FACT FRIDAY

Today's fun fact - an airplane ticket from Charlotte, NC to Kigali, Rwanda costs exactly $2,396.00 - I know this because I FINALLY BOOKED MY FLIGHT!!! So it's real. I'm going. There's no turning back. 

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I'm not going to lie - when I finally booked it, I felt a little butterflies in my stomach. I do not know why. I guess I'm just a little nervous. I know that people take these trips all the time and they are always fine, but I still have some fear with traveling by myself, staying 2 weeks by myself in a foreign country and even just being a good volunteer. 

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My flight schedule - 

	Location	Destination
Trip	Charlotte, NC	Washington DC
	Departs 12:35:00 PM	Arrives 4:03:00 PM
to	Washington DC	Brussels
	Departs 5:49 PM	Arrives 7:15 AM
Rwanda	Brussels	Kigali
	Departs 10:40 AM	Arrives 6:45 PM
	Kigali	Brussels
Trip	Departs 8:00 PM	Arrives 6:15 AM
	Brussels	Washington DC
Home	Departs 12:00 PM	Arrives 2:12 PM
	Washington DC	Charlotte, NC
	Departs 5:20 PM	Arrives 6:53 PM

I'm ready to go!!!! 

I don't know Thursday

I don't know what I really want to talk about today. I always have thoughts going through my head about what to say in my blog, but sometimes, I forget or have a hard time focusing. I get on little rants, which probably what I'm about to do, but I want to include pictures and not make it too long so people will read it. For me, if a blog is too long or just words, I don't always want to read it.

gratuitous photo - that's me at a friend's wedding

Thoughts from the last few days - 

Real Housewives of Atlanta

Last night, I was watching the last episode of them being in South Africa and admittedly, I do get a little serious when talking about Africa so maybe I'm overreacting but they were talking about how much more blessed they were than the kids in Africa because they had nice homes and drove fancy cars and wore Louboutins. 

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I love my girls on RHOA. Love them. But shoes/houses/cars does not happiness make. Maybe you're blessed because you never have to worry about where your food is going to come from. Maybe you're blessed because your children have every opportunity in the world to go to college, have a career, be safe from disease and civil war. 

I would say that if you gave every single family in Africa a choice of if they want a Hermes clutch or food on their table, they'd choose the food. I just think that's part of the perception that Americans have is that everyone wants to be like them and that we are blessed because of the abundance we have. Actually, I think what people of the world want is not affluent wealth but just some security and stability in their lives. Food, clean water, good schools and equal opportunity. 

Freedom

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I was trying to decide what to eat for dinner last night and had a choice of a couple of different things, Domino's, Subway, Chinese, etc. I decided on Domino's because it would last a couple of meals which we need since I am not buying any food before we go out of town (tomorrow). And this seems like such a simple concept but for whatever reason, I realized that I can eat whatever the eff I want to eat. Sometimes, I feel caged by all of the rules I have created for myself. For example, I can't eat that pizza because that pizza is bad and if the pizza is bad, then I'm bad because you are what you eat, blah blah blah. Actually, who says I can't eat that pizza. I'm a grown a** woman, I can eat what I want. 

I may be the only person that struggles with this or even thinks about this but why do I create all of these rules for myself. That's where I determine if I'm good or bad. I'm good if I eat this, I'm bad if I eat this. No, I'm just eating this - there's nothing else that goes along with it. I'm not sure if what I'm saying is making sense, but I just felt a very big sense of gratitude to realize that I can do what I want and I don't know if it has bad implications or any implications. I think it just means I want some pizza. 

or a french fry

And that's all. Those are my thoughts for Thursday. 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Time for -

Jamie is the bomb!

Sweet Home Alabama

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I am so in love with this show. First off, out of 3 seasons, 2 of them have been Clemson University graduates so obviously, they have good taste in people. But more importantly, they are similar to the Bachelor but with a better premise. They split the contestants into "city folk" vs "country folk". They send them to a house in Mobile, AL and they compete for the love of a good ole' southern lady/gentleman. 

1. The people they choose for "southerners" are typically from Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas. Me being from South Carolina, that is not really what I call southern but more country. They need more GA/NC/SC folks! 

2. The southerners are kind of mean. They automatically start being rude to the northerners! What's up with that?? And they are rope cattle, hunt and compete in the rodeo. One episode, Paige took them all skeet shooting. I am born and raised in Greenville, SC and let me tell you - I have never held a gun, I have never been hunting and I surely haven't gone skeet shooting. And actually, there aren't a whole lot of cattle ranches around here, we're more cotton and tobacco so I'm still a little lost of their southern idea. 

3. I always end up liking the northerners more. Right now, my favorites are Sean (who started off kind of rude) and the guy from New Jersey - I can't remember his name. 

Even though it sounds like I'm complaining, I straight up love this show. It is my favorite. 

90210 

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How good is this season? From Annie's prostitution ring to Silver dating the adopted father of Adrianna's baby, this show is getting good and creative. I love a crazy story line and they are giving it to me. Plus I love the way all of the girls dress. 

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Ink Masters

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I don't know why I love this show so much. My husband and I found it this weekend and I was hooked. It's like Top Chef but for tattoo artists. They have a "challenge" that usually involves something related to art in some way but not tattooing. Then they have an "elimination tattoo" where people come in and get a tattoo and the judges eliminate people based on the tattoo. 

My question is, who are these volunteers? I guess they want a free tattoo, but I mean, really? I'm not sure I'd put permanent ink on my body from someone competing in a game show. On the flip side, these might be some of the best people in the nation? Who knows... I know that I would just wait until the 3rd or 4th season. Lastly, I just can't understand why people put a tattoo on their neck. I get really stressed out about stuff like that. Like, oh what if he wants to change careers, he just will never be able to work in a corporate environment. My husband reminds me that they probably don't want to anyway. These are just the thoughts that go through my head. 

What are you loving? 

The Allure of 13.1

Half marathons are the new black. They are super popular. And I know why, they are fun. It's challenging enough for one to feel proud of oneself, BUT, it's not a marathon which takes a lot of time to train.

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I've run 5 half marathons, 1 trail half marathon and 4 Rock'n'Rolls - 

My running story is this - 

In 2007, I had reached a point where I was completely unhappy with my body/myself. I had been trying to work out for several years but never really knew what to do or how to do it. I started doing Crossfit in late 2007 and did that for a couple of years. Then I met a runner. 

I officially started running in November of 2009. I ran my first half marathon in February of 2010. I ran my second half marathon in April of 2010. Then I ran 3 half marathons in 2011. I fell in love with the distance, but  

1) got burnt out on training and 

2) improved my times a little bit but never really got very fast

I was running in this group with people that had run multiple half and full marathons, so naturally, that's what I wanted to do as well. But I never really built a strong foundation of running 5ks and 10ks. So now that I've decided I'm not running a half marathon this year, I want to use this time to build a very strong base/foundation and build up some speed. I'm not a natural runner. I'm slow and I have to work hard to get to a speed that most people started out with. 

So my goal for 2011 is to speed up. I'd like to get a solid 5k time of under 28 minutes and be able to keep it there. I'd like my 10k time to be in the 50 minute time frame. Once I can do that consistently, then I will look at longer distances again. Those times aren't super amazing or anything, but I think if I can be fairly solid in those times, THEN, my half marathons will be more enjoyable. 

Since I ran a 5k in 33 minutes on saturday - yes I know, not my best, I have a long way to go :)

Weekend Recap

This weekend was a lot of fun! I was very sad to see it come to an end.

My stepdaughters and I did a project we found on Pinterest!!

I got to see my friend Ansley who moved to Chattanooga

this is her little girl, Pearl

I had dinner at my in law's house (like I always do) and got to see my little niece, Kate. 

I obviously have not worked on my blog yet. I haven't had time. And really, I'm not sure when I'm going to have time. Which brings me to my upcoming week - 

Tonight - my husband and I are celebrating his birthday! I don't know where we're going to eat

Tuesday & Wednesday - I get to help assist in yoga class!! It'll be my first time as an assistant teacher - i'm a little nervous

Friday - Sunday  - we're going to Chattanooga to visit Ansley 

Then next weekend, I have yoga teacher training all weekend - it will be our last one before exams. So sad!!!

I've also decided to bring back the fashion page, mainly so you can tell me if my outfits look crazy or if they look good. The older I get, the more comfortable I want to be and I'm starting to where more and more dresses. At some point, I feel like I am going to switch to wearing MuMu's full time so I need you guys to keep me in check!

Here was my Valentine's Day outfit - flowy dress, but at least I included heels and tights

your thoughts?? 

How was your weekend?