Que Hippie: Labor of Love

My Señor is an amazing craftsman.

He is one of the most talented people I know and the work that he does always takes my breath away.
Recently while I was studying, he saw that I was struggling to fit all my notes, books and paperwork onto a dinner tray stand. So, he told me that he was going to use the wood that he had left over from a construction job to build us a computer desk with enough room for me to study. Needless to say, I was thrilled!
Que green?! Que Hippie?!
He was excited with the outcome and is inspired to build more furniture.
I. can't. wait.

He still needs to seal the wood before we can set it all up. But for now, it's holding all my work to study for finals.
I love it!

Music Tuesday--The Beatles

Just because I love this song..

All you need is Love

Gobble-Gobble re-cap

Hello everyone!
I hope you all are still stuffed from your Thanksgiving dinners, 2nd dinners, and even 3rd and 4th dinners. I swear, I can't even look at turkey meat without getting a bit queasy. I think I've honestly overdosed on the damn bird. So, it's tofu and noodles for a couple of days for me.
Anyhoot, here is the gooble-gooble recap.

My Señor and I had an amazing holiday weekend. For starters, we woke up to this pretty sight on Thanksgiving morning.

Snow!!

This photo was taken around 5am. I don't know why, but it's like my body sensed that I needed to get up at that moment and watch it snow. It was absolutely lovely.

We then went down to Patrick's father's house and made a really good dinner. The guys watched football while I studied the endocrine and reproductive systems.  Even though I was studying, I was super relaxed. I have to say, I am super interested in what I am learning in this A&P II class. It is pretty reassuring that an occupation as a Nurse will be fitting for me. 

Yeah, how about some of that with your turkey?

I was able to get a few good runs in this past week. I have never really exercised during Dia del Pavo week, but It was definitely a nice change. Not only did I work up an insane appetite for Thanksgiving, but It really felt good to get out and clear my head. I was able to get a good 10K run in the foothills and  a long 10 mile run down by the river. 

For the foothills run I decided that I would do the same course from the Run for the Hills 10k. It was much nicer this time around. Of course, there was less people on the trail and I wasn't getting elbowed by old men and ladies when I tried to pass them. That was definitely a plus! 

My stomping grounds in the foothills

For my long 10 mile run along the River it was nothing but beautiful surroundings. I had Canadian Geese flying in formation over my head and it was awesome.  Yeah, I was a bit worried that they might throw a wicked poop on me. But needless to say, I survived the run without getting pooped on. Yay!! 

We wrapped up our weekend with basically agreeing that we were going to do whatever we wanted. So, Patrick finished his labor of love (photos in an upcoming post.) 

And I put up the Christmas tree and drank lots of hot chocolate.

Ah yes, the season is here!! 

Isn't my Señor good looking?? I just love his T-shirt. I bought it for him when we first started dating.

Anyways, It's a busy couple of weeks coming up! I hope all of you are taking are of yourselves and making "me" time.
I have some good post lined up for this week.
Patrick's Labor of Love
Nike Free + Bandida blog review
and Christmas wish list (everyone has one right??)

Stay warm!!

Black Friday

It's Black Friday and I'm still feeling the Thanksgiving holiday spirit. I am so thankful for all the blessing I have in my life. Family, friends, good changes,  running, and my caring boyfriend. And also probably because I didn't really participate in the Black Friday festivities. Some people really lose themselves in buying all sorts of random caca.  However, we did go and do some brief window shopping for Pato's family who are going to be visiting us from Brazil! We can't wait!
Thinking about family arriving and friends coming in to visit during this time of year always gets me excited. I love all the little gatherings and of course hanging out with great friends and family. Let's not forget to mention the food. I have been seriously fighting off my tamale cravings.
Oh...one just hit me right now...

 

Dios mío goodness

They are so evil and yet so good. 

Anyways, this weekend is going to be a relaxing one for us. I'll probably fit in a long run somewhere in my weekend so I can eventually go crazy at the tamale buffet. But for now, it's just fires, hot chocolate and watching my amor work on a labor of love (more on this in a future post.) 

Labor of love in progress

Happy Thanksgiving weekend amigos!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Music Tuesday--Ellie Goulding

I love this Elton John song and I love Ellie's little twist to it.
It made me think about the ones I love through the whole song. 
Enjoy

Your Song

Turkanza 2010

My Señor and I have a fun tradition that we usually plan on having every year the week before thanksgiving. It's called..

The Turkanza

It's like a Matanza which usually involves cooking a pig in the ground. Ours is the same thing but instead of a pig, we cooked a turkey. Hence, the name Turkanza!
This year we had a good group of friends attend and it it turned into a sort of pot luck Turkanza. It was fun having everyone contribute and we had a good time stuffing our faces and hanging with good amigos!
Thanks to all our friends and family who attended! We can't wait till next year!

Is this a running blog?!

My father cracks me up.
After one of our "Funemployed" lunch dates he looks up at me from his green chile stew and asks.
"So, Speedy Gonzales, how far did you run today?"
"10 miles today along the Bosque." I say.
"Whoa shit girl! You're really getting serious about this running stuff?!"
This whole conversation was too funny. I love how my father speaks to me like he is super impressed. But really, my mother and him were the ones that inspired me to pick up running.
My mother was the one who I remember at first training and running the half many years ago. My father trained along with her but didn't compete in the race. My mother actually completed her first half marathon at the same event I did, The Duke City Marathon.  I didn't get to watch her race her first half. I must have had some sort of swim meet or something. But I never forgot that she did it and I wanted to join the half marathon club with her.
They don't really know it, but my parents actually did help fuel this running addiction I currently  have.
Running has always been my go to exercise if I didn't feel like swimming. Since I ended my college swimming days back in 2003 it's been a challenge to find something else other than the sport I did all my life to keep me motivated while I exercised.  I tried yoga, cycling, and even Capoiera (Brazilian martial arts), just to name a few.  But none of those activities really had me challenging myself or had me setting any sort of real goals for myself.
Enter running.
Running has honestly brought on a whole new focus for me and I love it! Since I feel that it has become a good part of my life, I plan to post about it here every once in a while. No worries, I'll keep it entertaining and I won't lay off on the other stuff in my life. But please, feel free to share any thoughts or comments you have about running or any questions you may have about my personal running experience. I'm not an expert. So I can't really give any real advice about running. But I can share my experience with you all and I would love to do that.

So on that note!  I have scheduled my next two goal runs for 2011.
Here they are in all their TRAIL RUN glory!

The Valles Caldera National Preserve Half-Marathon

This run actually takes place at the end of May 2011.  I will hopefully be done with my semester from hell and I should be able to enjoy this beautiful run above 8,000 feet. Believe it or not, this is going to be a nice training run for the run I have scheduled next. Here are a few photos of Valles Caldera National Preserve. 

What a beautiful place right?

 

 Next Run

The La Luz Trail Run

Okay, so this run is pretty crazy. I don't really have the desire or motivation to run a full marathon yet. So I have made the La Luz trail run my marathon equivalent.

I'm pretty sure a marathon will be a piece of cake after this race.

The La Luz Trail Run is a 9 mile trail run that starts in the far northeast heights of Albuquerque, NM. The race consists of 1.8 miles of paved road and 7.2 miles of dirt single track trail with a 12% grade. The race finishes at the Sandia Crest (10,678 feet) towers on the crest. There is a strict 400 runner limit imposed on the race by the U.S. Forest Service. In fall issue of 2001 Trail Runner Magazine, La Luz was selected as one of the "12 Most Grueling Trail Races in North America".

Intimidating much??

Am I freaking insane or what?!! It's running up the mountain that I have been staring at all my life and for some reason that excites me.

There is a lottery to get into this race, so there is still a chance I won't be able to participate in this run. However, If I do get to run it I can't imagine how it would feel to reach the top of that mountain.

Bottom line is. I have a lot of training to do Lucy.  

This race takes place in the 1st week of August.

 Top of the mountain where the run ends
Look closely and you can see the actual trail. 
(photo by: transluminate)


 
 The trail
 (photo by: ab_14asos)

The La Luz Trail finish line

(photo take from road runners club facebook page)

Insane goals I know! But they motivate me to challenge myself!

Any tips or advice that you may have on these trail runs or trail running in general are welcome! 

Happy Trails To You!!!

Let me see if I can schedule you in

The Unemployment Chronicles
 It's crazy to say that even though I don't have a job, I have been feeling super busy lately. I think I've finally mastered being able to find ways to occupy my time.  It really is a blessing when you come out of the "I'm feeling sorry for myself phase." and just move on. There really is a lot to do out there! It really took me reflecting on some of the things my good friends said to me when I first lost my job to snap out of it. Such as, "Be grateful for this time to think about your future." and "You said it yourself that you've been feeling stuck lately, what a blessing to finally be able to move on!"

Moving on.

Yes, it's true. Even though right now I'm just an unemployed lady who is filling up her time with finding new running routes around the city, studying hard for my Anatomy & Physiology II class and having  coffee/drink drink dates with my amigos. I honestly feel like I'm finally moving forward. It may look or feel unproductive, but I am honestly grateful for this extra time that I have right now.
This week I finally was able to enroll in classes for next semester. I have one semester standing in front of me until I am able to petition for the Nursing School program. It's going to be a hell of a semester, but I'm ready for the challenge. I honestly have my college athlete days to thank for preparing me. My schedule of Swimming bright and early in the morning, going to class all day and then swimming again in the afternoon was a brutal one.  My schedule next semester actually looks easy compared to my college athlete days. Which gives me confidence and has me feeling ready for it!

So yeah!
Bring it Microbiology lecture and lab!!
Bring it Anatomy & Physiology lab I & II!!
Bring it Bio Medical Ethics, Psych, and analytical writing classes!

I will no longer be identifying myself as being unemployed. I am now officially a full time student.  BRING ON THE STUDENT DISCOUNTS!

I'm excited about all of the educational goodness in my future! Hopefully I will still have some time to go snowboarding and of course keep up with my running & blogging!

Thanks for reading guys!

photo by: lochaven flickr

Music Tuesday--Shakira featuring Dizzee Rascal

This song is so damn catchy!!
However, this video makes me want to force feed Shakira a donut! She is a toothpick!

Loca



Loca en Español

Nike +Skirt + Capris = Skapris!!

So it's true, I can admit that I am somewhat of a Nike whore.
I don't know if it's because I love all the little gadgets that they have come up with such as Nike+ and the programs that go along with it.  Or is it just because I can always find their stuff on sale.
Recently I found Nike Skapris on sale for $15 less on citysports.com.
I have been going back and forth with trying to decide if I could run in one of those cute running skirts that I see girls in at races or just while training, they just look so damn cute!!
However, it's getting cold here and I sort of was looking for something more functional to keep me warm during my cold runs.

Enter Nike Skapris: I had recently written a post including them here.

What I can I say? I really do love them.
I ran 10 miles in them this past weekend and they were pretty comfortable.  The only time I had to really mess with them is when the drawstring came lose and I felt like my bum might fall out. But other than that they were very comfortable and the capris portion of the skapris actually felt like a compression tight. I did order a size down when it came to these tights because I read reviews that mentioned that they bunch up in the back. Ordering a size down did help with this issue. However, if you are a size small and you're sort of on the borderline of being medium, just stick with ordering a small in these babies.

So bandida blog gives Nike Skapris a good rating for this skirt. Not to mention I felt super cute running around in them. What brought it home for me in these babies?
My boyfriend was driving home from work and saw me running around the neighborhood in my new skapris.  He yelled,  "Hey bonita, who are you dressing up for?!!"
Yep, case in point!!

Please feel free to leave me a comment with any questions you may have or share your experience with this product!

From across the pond

From Danielle via London.

Nothing like waking up on a Sunday morning to a photo of an original Banksy piece!

Thank you Queen D! Miss you!

Veterans Day

Thank you to all who have served, currently serving and may we remember those Veterans who have given their life so that we may live ours!

Thank you to my favorite Veteran!
Mi Padre!

 Photo of my father as a young man in the Army.

Domestically Disabled Post: Get up off of that Stain!

Coffee and tea cup stains.
Some people view them as a badge of courage.
My amor and I absolutely hate them. However, sometimes our schedules have us leaving our coffee cups with just enough coffee or tea left in them to stain the cup and have it looking like this..

Awwww, que cute no? Well, we love this sort of thing..

However, I'm talking about this sort of stain..

Ewwwww right?

Well, do you want to know a quick, easy, and natural solution to get rid of those pesky coffee or tea stains?

Yep, Baking Soda!

Just add a spoon full of it into your mug with some water, scrub and Voilà!! 

You have a pretty mug without stains!

(You can use an old toothbrush to scrub out the pesky hard to reach stains.)

There are other ways to remove the stains off your coffee mugs but I felt that this was the more simpler natural way to do it. 

Happy Drinking! 

Music Tuesday--Jay Z and Alicia Keys

The New York City Marathon was so inspiring this weekend! They kept playing the song Empire State of mind and you could almost feel the excitement.  It was fun to watch all the runners and hear the inspirational stories. It really made me want to be a part of it!

Empire State of Mind

Damn You Auto Correct!

This website is absolutely hilarious!!
DAMN YOU AUTO CORRECT!
If you have an iPhone, iPod, or iPad, you know how frustrating and annoying the Auto Correct feature can be. It changes words without you knowing, and if you’re chatting with someone and hit “send” too quickly, it can really make you look like a complete weirdo jack ass.

Here are a few of my faves!

Día de los Muertos Marigold Parade 2010

It was a colorful and fun evening in the South Valley of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

My mother, sister and I got all dressed up and put on our calavera faces. I have to admit, I was so excited to go to the parade I didn't pay much attention to detail on my face.  We showed up and had a great time and witnessed a great parade that had activist, lowriders and dancing. It was a beautiful weekend and it reminded me why I love this time of year so much. Family, friends, and Fall.  The 3 F's!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Here are some highlights from the parade!