Tuesday Training

I had a couple of trainings on Tuesday.  My first was me training my daughter, imagine my surprise when she wanted to “run”.  She is not that active and doesn’t have a cardio base so I knew we needed to start slow, but really wasn’t sure how slow so I called my buddy Annette and she lined me out on a workout.

Stephanie came over around 8:15 and the first thing I noticed were her shoes, oh no, she had on some sort of New Balance kick around tennies, not running shoes by any means, she actually ended up wearing an old pair of my running shoes even though they were a little small and worn out, but better than the crap she came over in.

According to Annette who trained a beginner running group in the spring, I should start with a 30 second run and a 1:30 minute rest in between for 20 or 30 minutes.  I was shocked really, she assured me this would work and keep her coming back.  I’m glad I took her advice otherwise I might have pushed her too hard, I was thinking 1 minute run 1 minute rest.

I think Stephanie did great, she was in a pretty good sweat about half way through and couldn’t believe it had only been 15 minutes, I remember how tough it was, but I had a cardio base when I started so it was a little easier.  We ended up with about 27 minutes and 1.88 miles of walk/run.  We are scheduled to repeat on Thursday.

Last night was our weekly Running Clinic in Cabot, Tambo and I were raring to go, well, sort of.  Lucky for us the temperature was not nearly as hot as normal (did someone say global warming?), around 85 instead of 95, which is huge when you are out there running your ass off on a track with no shade.

Tammy and I started our warm up together, but there she went, I was determined to keep my warm up slow around 10:30 pace, we were set to run some hard intervals and I didn’t want to burn myself out.  Warmed up for 15 minutes, 2 x strides and then, 1 – 5 minute at Lactate pace, 2 x 200 at Interval Pace, 2 x 400 at Interval, 2 x 200 at Interval, 2 x 400 at Interval, some rest/jogs in between.  It was tough, I stayed on time for most of the runs, 1 or 2 seconds off, except for one of the 400’s I was 6 seconds slow.

Ended up with 5 miles and was glad it was over, Tammy was having a tough time with her knee, Coach Dennis thinks it’s here IT band, not sure she agrees, but I hope it gets better soon, she has been plagued with some pain lately!

Today, rest for the running part, tonight Cardio Strength at the Community Center, thank goodness our instructor is back, Monday I met my friend Sheryl at the Center for an upper body workout and I have to say my triceps are still a little sore, we had a good workout even though for the most part we didn’t have a clue!

Tomorrow back to the loop and then do a 30 minute training with Stephanie and then the dreaded YARD SALE.

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday I decided not to run, after Saturdays hilly run my legs were tired and I needed the break and it was great.  It was also a rainy day in July, how often does that happen?  It was an odd rain though, the sky would just open up and bam, sheets of rain would come, not a light rain, heavy rain.  Lots of lightning and thunder throughout Saturday night as well the day on Sunday.

I didn’t do much, read and finished a book, worked on my ebay items, made some blueberry pancakes out of the Clean Eating magazine, yum, and great mag even though it is a little pricey.  Read the entire Sunday paper, looked for a job in the classifieds, circled ONE and it was not even one I wanted to circle!  Pitiful.  Took a nap, it was definitely a lazy Sunday and I didn’t feel too guilty.

Today Tambo came over and we both wanted the customary 5 miles, but she has been plagued with hip and knee pain so she didn’t really feel she should do the loop so we decided just to run around the lake a few times.  We started around 6:30 and what a relieve when I stepped outside, it felt cool, well cooler than humid I guess I should say, I loved it.

About 1/2 a mile into our run when we are just approaching the parking lot of the activity center we see this white duck sitting in the middle of the road, we both thought she looked hurt, so we stopped and the duck stood up and we could tell she had either been hit or hurt somehow, she was hobbling, it was so sad, she just plopped back down on the street.  We didn’t want to leave her in the middle of the street we knew she would probably get run over.

Along came this group of 4 older people and we were telling them about the duck and one of the guys scurried her up into a yard, poor duck looked like it was really struggling to get up into the yard, I had tears in my eyes.  We decided to tell the guys at the center and maybe they could call someone at the Wildlife commission, since they is so much water fowl down there surely they would know who to call.

As we were walking toward the center we saw the guy who lives in the house where the duck ended up, we told him about the duck and one of the ladies that was with him said she saw the same duck 3 days ago hobbling.  That duck needs some help for sure.

We went into the office and were telling the guys about it and they were like “oh yeah, two weeks ago we called, they came out and took a look at the duck and there is nothing they could do and let her go”  What??  they said oh, they could have killed it or let it go.  Holy shit.  Is it in pain?  It sure looked like it, apparently the guys didn’t find out WHAT was wrong with it, but it’s leg/hip or something is messed up.  Is it better off out there on it’s own without care? I don’t know.

Every time we made a loop we would see the duck in the same spot we left it, just sitting in the grass, I really felt for it and wonder what will happen to that poor white duck.  It already looked like some male duck had her down plucking the feathers off her neck! and now it’s got a bum leg.

We ended up with right at 5 miles today with an average pace of 10:26, back to my house for coffee, the coolness wore off pretty quick, we were both pretty sweaty by the time we got back.

I’ve got tons of errands and just general BS to take care of today.  Not sure if I’m working any this week for my brother-in-law, I hope so.

Mom and sis are coming Thursday, they are having a yard sale at my house, holy cow, another one?  yes, another one!  I’m going to make myself scarce.

Fourth of July Run

Trying to be a better blogger and do this at least every other day, get back on track.

Today was my long run day, training for the Bass Pro Shops Marathon on November 1. Tammy and I always run with the Little Rock Marathon Training Group on Saturday and even though today was the 4th, it was no exception, but there weren’t near as many people as we normally have.

I told Tammy I would pick her up around 5:35am, banging on her door and no answer, weird, rang the bell and knocked some more, heard something and finally there she is, in her robe!! She overslept, girl, you better get a move on! Luckily she had everything ready to go so it didn’t take her but a few minutes to get ready, we were in my vehicle at 5:50, pretty speedy, don’t know if I could get ready that fast.

Luckily she lives close to this weeks meet spot, The State Capital. Not many folks at all, maybe 30. There were routes for 4, 6 and 8 milers, but we wanted 9 or so. Tom our fearless leader warned us about going to far up Kavanaugh, the Firecracker 5K would be starting at 7:30 and we would be right in the middle if we weren’t careful. We would work around it.

The weather was good for the 4th, humid, but not as hot as usual and there was a breeze. This route is pretty hilly and Tammy has been laying off the hills for a couple of weeks and she did great! Our route took us over the Broadway bridge into NLR, big loop and back over the bridge, up 3rd Street up to Kavanaugh. Once we got to the turnaround, which was about 5.9 miles, we decided since we wanted 9 miles we would run to 6.5 miles then turnaround.

When we got to that spot we were so close to the Firecracker 5K we decided to take a little adventure and watch, it was 7:25 and the race started at 7:30, we were probably 3 blocks from the race course. It was fun. We saw Tom, fearless leader, at the water stop for the 5K he kindly gave us some water then we saw the cops with the leader right behind him, that guy was flying, then a couple of Kenyans right behind the leader.

It took a minute or so before we saw anyone else and then they all started coming and coming and coming. We saw lots of people we know, in particular Lisa, Melissa, Marda, Annette and Jane, lots of others too.

We finally decided we better get back to our run, I guess we spent 15-20 minutes watching the race, it was different being a spectator. We had about 2.5 miles to go and after standing there for that long it was hard to get going again, at least most of our route home was downhill.

We make quick time of our run back, but after we hit 9 miles I was ready to be done, I guess that extra mileage to the race course was more than I thought. When we were a 3 or so blocks from the parking lot I walked it in, Tammy kept going. I ended up with 9.5, she 9.75, but at an amazing 10:22 average pace. That’s faster than we run during our “loop” runs. We have got to slow it down if we plan on running longer than 9 miles!

We planned on meeting Kim around 10am and had time to kill so we headed back to Tambo’s pad, parked and walked over to the Argenta Farmer’s Market and Foodie Fest. I was starving!! But I was saving my self for the BBQ we would have when we met Kim and Josh at his uncle’s Kroger store later.

Lots of good stuff at the Market I ended up with Peaches and Tammy ended up with Zucchini, huge Zuc I must say! I wanted some blueberries, but I already have some in my fridge I need to eat, but let me tell you, they were super delicious or maybe I was just super hungry!

After the Farmers Market we headed to Starbucks, we both got our coffees and walked over to the Kroger store on Cantrell, there was Kim behind the smoker helping out, it was good to see her, haven’t seen her in about a month! She said Josh was inside and then we realized, hmmm this food costs money, damn it! We did not plan on that! Where did I get that it was free? Who knows. Oh well, Tammy and I went inside and perused the aisles in the air conditioning and then went back out and talked to both Kim and Josh for quite a while. I ended up buying a smoked chicken for $5.00 and Josh bought us a rack of ribs. Sweetie.

We then headed home, when I dropped Tammy off I couldn’t stand it any longer, she handed me a knife and I cut into those ribs! Yum, food, food, food, I was really hungry! after 3 ribs I was set and headed home.

Not sure if I’m running tomorrow or not, may take the day off, by the end of our run today my legs felt like lead. So, probably no running for me tomorrow.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!  Oh, my sister just sent this Evian commercial, too funny -

Finally Summer

Is it a good or bad thing?  For me it’s both.  I love running in the summer, but since I’ve lost my job it makes this particular summer, not so great.

It’s Fourth of July weekend, my plans, nil, nada, nothing, pitiful.  I would love to go somewhere, do something, get out on a boat, go fishing, swimming, I don’t know, just all that 4th of July stuff.   I sort of had some plans to work for a friend, but that fell through, not unusual.  So, running will be the event for the weekend.

Nothing much has been happening, it’s been a while since I posted, last weekend I guess.  No news on the job front, seems like I’m applying for less jobs, or I’ve already applied for them all!  Little Rock is just not that big.  Seems like the same jobs are out there, but no new ones.  I guess I will start resending my resume, which I plan on revamping this weekend.

Running has been decent this week, the humidity has been down which has made for some nice morning runs, unbelievable really, the low humidity, not the runs themselves.  I did run a new loop and got into a little trouble on North Hills Blvd because I ran out of sidewalk and had to dodge some cars to get across the street, I’ll know next time.

Looking for new shoes, what a pain in the ass!!  I know what I want and no one has them.  No one on the internet, no one locally, what’s a girl to do??  My shoes have about 450 miles on them now, noticed my heel was bothering me a bit this morning, yep need new shoes.  My favs are discontinued, haven’t even been out a year, Mizuno Wave Nirvana 4, size 9, just in case anyone sees any out there sees a pair let me know, I can hopefully call and get them shipped to me.

I’m finding the more time I have the less I want to do.  I have a list of crap that I need to do, but it’s taking a while to mark things off, when in actuality it probably could all get done pretty quick if I wanted to do it, HA!!

Jaw is a bit better, down it only 1/2 a pain pill a day, usually at night before I go to bed.  I’m due to go to the Root Canal Dentist next week, they are called something, but I can’t recall.  Do I really need a root canal?  Why?  I guess those questions will be answered next week.  I was able to extend my dental coverage through work, COBRA, so at least it will be partially covered, not much, but some.

Hope everyone has a great 4th, enjoy and be safe!

Come on I can take it!

What else do you have out there?  Come on, throw some more crap my way, I can take it!!  I just want a break, a small little break, just a day where I don’t have some sort of drama in my life, every day seems like someone is playing a trick on me, I don’t get it, I’m not a bad person.

This morning Tammy and I headed to Pinnacle Mountain for our run with the Little Rock Marathon Group at 6am.  We were on time, but apparently neither one of us paid great attention to the email and we were the only ones there, the gates were locked to the Arboretum, I was befuddled.  We always meet here, could it have been somewhere else on Pinnacle?  We drove to the Main Park area and the gates were locked there as well.  Hmmm, we decided to drive back over to the Arboretum to make sure the time wasn’t different, No, still no one there, so we decided to check the Visitor’s Center.

Oh, look at all those runners, we found the right spot and of course we were late.  We had to search for parking, spray with bug spray, get our fuel belts on, grab routes, I think we probably headed out about 6:30am.  Did I mention the humongous hill up to the Visitor’s Center, no?  Well, all I could think was “oh shit, we have to run up this in our last mile”.  It rivals the Rahling Road hill.

Tammy and I were lone runners to say the least and after such a good run yesterday it was not starting well for me, I was looking for a bathroom before we even got down the first hill, I was pissed at myself, just because I don’t know what causes these “episodes”.   It didn’t get better as the morning wore on.

We made a pit stop in Maumelle Park, at this point it was only about 2.5 miles in, and the day was getting hotter and the humidity was thick.  We only had a route for 8 miles and decided to add on to Pinnacle Valley Drive, it was a little more crowded (car wise) than we had expected with no shoulder to run on for the most part.  At least at this point it was flat, but we were right out in the sun.

We made our turnaround at 4.7 miles or so and I was already feeling tired, for one I did not fuel up before we headed out, I grabbed some crackers at the house, but  I guess I laid them down right before I locked the door so I was running on no fuel.  Had a few Honey Stingers with me, but I guess it was too little too late.

When we got back to Maumelle Park I was feeling nauseated, I went to the bathroom and found that I was having problems of the female variety and of course I had nothing with me, I had to improvise the best I could and kept my fingers crossed I would make the next three miles.

It was the worst 3 miles, I just had no energy, especially for the hills and that was pretty much all it was the last 2.5 miles.  I would run then walk, run then walk, I just wanted it to be over.  I told Tammy to go ahead, she was a trooper, I know she gets sick of my dilemmas cause you can bet there’s gonna be one.

We finally see the sign for the Visitor’s Center, I thought we would never get there, but it was at least another 3/4 – 1 mile up that damned thing, same thing but this time, it was walk then run some, walk then run some.  My back started hurting around mile 7, just right under my left shoulder blade, I’ve had this same thing happen before, it’s miserable, I don’t know what it is or what causes it, but by the time I got to the end I was ready to throw up.  Tom was talking to me and all I wanted to do was throw up, my mouth was watering like crazy and I just knew it was coming, but it didn’t.  I grabbed a wet cloth and wiped my face, not really helping, I needed to get to a bathroom.  I saw Tammy and told her I wasn’t feeling well, I finally grabbed the goods out of my purse and headed to the facilities.  It was like heaven in there, clean, air conditioned and soap.

I just sat on the toilet and cooled off, still a little shaky, but after a few minutes I started to feel like a whole person again.  Headed back down to my vehicle so we could get to Starbucks.  What a disaster that was, Tammy always gets the same drink no matter what Starbucks we go to, but this Starbucks would NOT fix it for her.  She asks that the water be steamed and they said they weren’t allowed to do that, it was a fiasco!  We left without drinks.  I could have gotten my drink, but had gotten out of line and decided to just wait with Tammy until we got to JFK.

Ahhh, our drinks finally, the best part of the day, besides my shower.  After my shower and my Turkey sandwich I was sitting in the living room and I could hear a bird and chirping, in the stinking wall!!  But every time I got up to try and figure out exactly where it was, it would quit moving around.  I finally just stood perfectly still in the hall until it started chirping and scratching and marked the spot.  What now?

I called a critter removal place and I also looked it up online about how to get it out since I really don’t have any attic access to speak of.  Looks like cutting a hole in my wall was the only alternative, because the critter guy charges $129.00 during the week and $100 more on the weekend, but it was so nice and was going to do it for the weekday rate.  He did give me lots of tips about cutting the hole and getting the bird out.

Unfortunately all I had to cut the hole was an box cutter, that was not really working that well, then I found a Ginsu type knife in the kitchen, that worked a little better.  Still this was a job, sawing this hole hoping I wouldn’t hit electric or the bird!  Once I got the hole cut, 45 minutes later I removed the square and what’s there but loose fill pink insulation, I get a bag and start putting the insulation in the bag thinking where in the world is this bird going to be?  I bet he is burning up if he’s in all this insulation.  I get most of the insulation out of my little hole, and pow, out jumps the bird, scared the shit out of me.  Hopped down on the floor, chirping and running into the spare bedroom, me chasing after.

He couldn’t fly yet, but I’m guessing within a couple of days or so.  When I caught him he was squawking like I was killing him, but he calmed down really quick.  I grabbed an old white trash can and put him in there until I could figure out my next steps.  Thank goodness Smokey was outside on his leash.

I looked online and it said if they were big enough you could put them near the nest (which was in my eaves) and the mom would still tend to them.  So I got a container, put some shredded paper in the bottom and put him in the closest shrub.  I waited a few minutes and he hopped right out onto the ground.  Oh shit, what now?  He scurried right over to this mound of growing unknown scruff and I couldn’t find him, I knew he was in there though, so I just sat.  Not long he started calling him mom I guess, just chirping away, I could hear other birds, but I knew she would never come if I was that close so I went in the house for a bit.

When I came back out I think I saw the mom fly away from the scruff and then I heard the baby squawking again.  I sat there a bit, sweating like a pig and saw the scruff move some.  So, that’s the bird story.  Here are a couple of pics, the hole in my wall and the bird.

New hole

Baby Bird

Okay that drama is over, then the last couple of days I’ve been noticing my jaw is starting to hurt again, I don’t know if any of you will remember about a year or so ago I was having horrible jaw pain, went to the dentist and they couldn’t find anything wrong and wanted me to go to a specialist, but I didn’t because it got better.  Well, it’s coming back, this is actually the 3rd time this has happened, it is very hard to explain, at first it feels like a tooth ache and then it starts radiating into my entire jaw.  I guess if it’s not better by Monday this time I will go see my GP.

Next please?

Job Scam and Running

I want to post this job scam because I could have been a victim, but I wasn’t, but I know other people might fall for it unknowingly.  I posted a little about it the other day, I’m going to start from the top

I applied for a position on Craigslist. com for a Personal Assistant at $500.00 per week, basic office duties, making travel arrangements, appointments, schedules, expense reports, errands, your basic personal assistant duties.  I’ve actually only been my own personal assistant but was confident I could do it for someone else.

After sending my resume and cover email I received a reply from a James Mahfood of the UK he liked my email and was willing “to give it a go”, whatever that means, I have to admit I was a little excited, he had mentioned I would be working from home and wasn’t sure exactly how many hours the job would entail, I could possibly even work another job.  He also mentioned an orphanage and one of my first assignments would be to purchase items for said orphanage with money he would send me.  I could do that.  He wanted me to keep in touch and watch my email for further details.

A couple of days later another email saying I am employed, again, mentions the orphanage and how busy he is, the email is quite long, no real tasks in the email, I email him back and let him know I am anxious to get started, but in reality I’m thinking something is not right.  For one thing in the beginning of the email it said ‘Dear’ and my name was missing, not like he forgot what my name was, but like it was a copy and paste job.

On Tuesday, June 16th I received an early morning email saying I would be receiving a check from one of his clients, I was to take the check to my bank, cash it and then wire it to a Valerie Mock through Western Union, really fishy now.  They had decided it was going to be too expensive for me to buy things for the orphanage and then ship them so the orphanage was going to purchase their own items.  I was very leery at this point.

Around 9am UPS shows up and low and behold a check for 2850.00 was enclosed from Ft. Smith, Arkansas, no doubt the Alan Burns on the return address was fictional.  The cashier’s check was written on Navy Federal Credit Union, first I looked them up online, yes they do exist, next I called them.  After I gave them the account number and name they said “DO NOT CASH”.  That’s all I needed to hear.

She asked if I could fax the check over, of course I have no way to do that anymore and she told me to contact my local police department, which I did right away.  I have to say, I was very disappointed, they said this is very common and you did the right thing, no need for me to bring the check or the emails I had printed out, the end.  They weren’t even going to try and catch this person!

I had also sent an email to the Attorney General, ditto, they weren’t going to do anything either!!  I did file an extensive complaint on the FBI site and they said they have thousands of complaints, they may or may not ever get back to me.

I have told a few people about this and if you don’t know here is what would have happened, if I would have taken the check to my bank and cashed it and then later the check would have been returned, which it would have, the bank would in turn get the money from MY ACCOUNT!  The bank doesn’t verify the check is good before they cash it, they verify you can cover it!

I was thinking about my daughter and my mother specifically, I believe both of them would have fallen for this scam, no doubt, both are gullible enough to say, okay without checking it out.  This really pisses me off, I was looking for a job and there are bad, very bad people out there that will take advantage of other people just because they can and apparently this is happening so much that our police and government doesn’t have the time to do anything about it.  I just wonder how many people fall for this scam, apparently quite a few.  The Sargent at the police department asked me if I had ever been to the website scam.com, No, why would I?  I have now.

I did email my “employer” and played along for a day, asking him how much the check was for and some other vague crap, he was an idiot, couldn’t even answer my questions, just wanted to know if I had completed my task.  NO, I verified the check was no good, I have not received any other correspondence from him, surprise, surprise.

Running -  Off on Wednesday, Ran solo yesterday had some stomach issues and wondered if I would make it through the run, I did, but it was not pleasant.  Today I was looking forward to having Annette come and run with me and Tammy, but was pissed off because I have gained another pound!  WTF!!  All week I have been trying to curb my snacking, being unemployed has made me eat more for some reason.  I also had cramps, stupid monthly crap.  BUT, the run was great!  It went really fast, we ended up with a little over 5 miles, drenched from the heat and humidity, but what else do you expect for almost summer in Arkansas?

Tomorrow Tammy and I will be meeting the LR Marathon group at Pinnacle Mountain for either a 9 or 10 mile run, it will be just as hot and humid, but that is a hilly route, so it may be 9 instead of 10 miles.  I just hope the run part is as good as it was today.

Running Clinic

Last night was the weekly Running Clinic, it was in North Little Rock this week, yippee!  I was not pumped about going, just had a crappy day all together, as I said in my previous post, nothing is going in the right direction DAMN IT!!

Anyway, I trudge to the High School and put on my semi Happy Face in the 6pm heat and humidity, no not complaining, just bitching, yes there is a difference.  I could see Josh, Melisha, Jeff, the other fast guy already running, these are the ‘advanced’ runners and they were booking it around the track I was wondering why they had already started, it wasn’t 6 yet.  I asked Tambo and she said they were going to watch Leah throw out the first pitch at the Travelers game.  Leah is the ’superstar’ in Little Rock, she won the Little Rock Marathon this year and has come to the clinic once, needless to say she is SUPER fast.

Close to 6 we finally got our workout, 1 x 1200, 3 x 400 both at Lactate Threshold for me 9:47 and then 2 x 200 and Interval pace, 9:XX something, I don’t know because I didn’t do it!

We started with a 15 minute warm up, Tammy and I started together, but she ended up going ahead of me, I just couldn’t keep up.  After our warm up Coach Dennis took up over to the only hill off track and showed us hill techniques, so we ran up the hill and down the hill about 3 times.  After the hills it was 4 x strides and then the workout.

After I finished my 1200 I noticed my time was slow, about 30 seconds slow, that’s really not like me, I’m usually a little fast, I was faster last week and it was just as hot.  I did a 3 minute jog before my 400’s grabbed some Cytomax and took off, after the first 400 I was off by about 20 seconds, slow again.  What the hell?  I just couldn’t get it and I was not feeling it either, off day.  After a 2 minute walk/jog and water break I started my 2nd 400, halfway around I ditched it, not working.  I was almost in tears I just was not into it at all and I could not make myself finish.

I walked up to Coach Dennis and just told him it was an off day I was making my times at Lactate Threshold, he asked what the times were and told me to go do 4 more strides and blow off the 200’s, fine by me.   I was still close to tears as I started my strides, WTF? Hormones? Stress? No Job??

I finished the strides, did one cool down lap and called it good and still ended up with 4 miles, average pace was 10:09.  Slow for a clinic night, usually in the 9’s.  Tammy talked to Coach for a bit and then we headed out.

I just wanted to get home and hop in the shower if I haven’t mentioned it I have a little poison ivy and it was driving me nuts!  I also broke out in a little heat rash on my arms.  What else?  Oh I do have this huge bite on my neck too.  I look like a freak.

Got my shower, put a Healthy Choice dinner in the microwave and watched a movie “New in Town”.  It made me laugh and I needed a laugh or two, I really liked the movie, I guess it was a romantic comedy, funny and not too romantic, more funny than anything.

I filed a complaint about the scammer, I’ll try and post about it later.

Jobs

Well, I’m still unemployed, this is the start of week 4, WOW almost a month and I finally received my debit card yesterday which holds a whopping $411.00 for unemployment, I hate that it’s on a stinking debit card, now I have to go to a specific bank, withdraw the money and then take it to my bank and deposit it so I can pay some bills.  You are probably thinking why do you have to go to a specific bank?  Bank fees, if I go to any other bank they charge like 2 bucks to withdraw money and at this point 2 bucks is too much.  I’m thankful for the money, but it is spent, every cent gone already.

I’m a little bummed, nothing is coming together, nothing.  I’ve applied for no less than 20 jobs, all of which I’m qualified, probably over-qualified with the exception of a job a Blue Cross Blue Shield of  Arkansas, which I was qualified for, just didn’t have the experience they were looking for, another story.  I’ve received 3 responses, you qualified and we will let you know within 3 weeks if you have been selected for an interview.

Another one, get this, on Craig’s List was for a Personal Assistant, sounded interesting enough, basic office crap, travel arrangements, setting up meetings, expenses reports, lots of errands, etc. $500 a week, I can do that right?  Well, this guy sends me an email and he lives in the UK and commutes back and forth, says I can work from home and he will send me assignments, blah, blah, I’m thinking, something is fishy, very fishy.  I’ve received a few emails from him with no specific “assignments”  just that I’m hired and to keep watch on my email.  Today he says he mailed me a check wants me to cash it at my bank then go to Western Union and wire funds to an Orphanage in Florida, lot more details were listed, huge email.  This just doesn’t sound right, so I sent an email to the Attorney General locally and am waiting on a reply, I think it’s a scam, lucky me.

My mother suggested I just take any job at the State and I could move up, that’s what she did, yeah, she worked there forever, like 25 years!! and still when she retired she was in a boring job not making squat.  She also suggested I apply with the Arkansas Lottery, good suggestion since they have not gotten up and running yet, but of course on the website “employment opportunities coming soon”.

Reached out to a few friends for odd jobs for some cash, yard work, painting, whatever, no takers.  Supposedly I’m going to be working with my brother-in-law this week, talked to him last week and he said “I’ll call you”, so still waiting and it’s Tuesday.

Not looking for sympathy, just putting down my thoughts, I’m not sure what’s going to happen with this job thing, there are lots of jobs out there, but most of them I am not going to do, not yet anyway, not going to be bored out of my mind or starting from scratch to wait 20 years to make something of myself, I already did that.  I know I can’t start at the top, but the middle would be nice.  I just want an interesting job.

Oh, and I’m not getting much done around here, you would think my house would be spotless and all those little to-do lists would get done, not really.  I don’t know what it is, but I don’t want to, I just don’t.  I generally make a list of things I need to get done every day and if I get them done, great, if not, oh well I’ll do them tomorrow, what else am I going to do?  It’s not like I have a job or anything.

At least I haven’t falling into the sleeping my life away trap, still going to bed around 10pm and getting up around 5:30am sometimes 6am.  Getting my running in, going to the Community Center on Monday and Wednesday nights, mowing the yard, woohoo, it’s so exciting!

Well, I’m sure I’ve bored you silly by now so I’m off to look for a job, internet beware!  Maybe my next post will be a little lighter!

Oh, I am Marathon Training, sort of, Bass Pro in Springfield, MO, November 1st or 2nd, 2009.

Still Nada

I can’t believe it’s been 6 days since I’ve blogged, but it has, and yet still nothing is going on in my life, boring as hell really.  I was supposed to start helping my brother-in-law this week with some work, but come to find out, it’s next week.  That got me down in the dumps, I was looking forward to the work and a little cash.  No job prospects, still applying all over the place, can’t even get a return phone call, very disheartening.  Hard to put into words everything I can do on a resume that is supposed to be short and to the point.

Tammy and I ran on Monday, can’t really recall anything particular about it, oh I think we just ran around the lake, I was having stomach issues and didn’t want to stray to far from the bathroom, boring just making that loop, round and round, but at least I had someone to share in the misery.

Tuesday Tammy and I headed to Cabot for our running clinic, it was hot out, around 90 or so and of course humid.  Tammy’s hip was bothering her so she did a modified workout so I was solo, 2 x 800, 1 x 400, 2 x 200 at Lactate Threshold and 2 x 200 at Interval Pace, it was a good workout and I believe I was going a little faster than I should since my average pace ended up being 9:30, that included my warm up and cool down.  I’ll do better next week.

Wednesday – Rest day from running, I didn’t want to end up like last week where I had been running for about 9 days straight, but this week I joined the NLR Community Center at $10.00 a month, what a deal, yes I am unemployed, but I can sell something on eBay to pay for it.   So, I went to the Cardio Strength Class at 5:30pm and it was good, we did a variety of cardio, a little kickboxing, step aerobics, weights and abs, I was sweating pretty good and felt like I had gotten in a good workout.

Thursday – Solo run, it was so stinking humid I was drenched within 2 miles, did the 5 mile loop stopped by to see our favorite old lab Blackie and fed him a couple of treats

Friday – Loop again with Tammy, another humid day, this is going to be the theme for the summer, it was about 80 degrees at 7am, but so dense with humidity you could cut it with a knife.  Saw Blackie again, sweet old dog, more treats and then home for coffee.  Later in the day there were terrible storms

Saturday – We were looking forward to running with Kim today, but she couldn’t make it, so it was just me and Tammy who ran with the Little Rock marathon Training group in Maumelle this week.  We were there early and thought it might rain again, but luckily or not, depending on how you look at it, the skies cleared up by the time we hit about 7.5 miles.  We were moving our mileage up a little each week to start our Marathon training.  This week 9 miles, I’m guessing next week we will do the same or raise to 10, but no more than that.  We had a good run, but we both struggled a bit at the end, once again, stinking humid as hell!  We stopped for Starbucks when we were finished, OMG, it hit the spot, worth ever pounding my poor feet had taken.

Not sure what awaits for the rest of the weekend or next week for that matter.  I’m hoping to work with my brother-in-law, hope to get my unemployment check sine it’s been almost a month and bills are starting to pile up.  Hope to hear something from someone about a job, eventually.

Still putting myself out there for odd jobs if anyone needs help with anything, my skills are very varied.

Nada….

Sorry for all you loyal readers (HA!), but nothing is going on, absolutely nada.  Can’t complain about work because there is none, I’ve applied for several jobs, but nothing as of yet.  I’ve asked around for odd jobs, mowing, cleaning, painting, etc. nothing there either.

I’m doing good, I ran every day for 9 days in a row, big no no I know, but the circumstances were beyond my control, HA!!  I had to run last weekend, and then Tammy and I run together when we can, running clinic, good weather that I couldn’t pass up, Little Rock Marathon Training Group, I just can’t bear to let these opportunities slip away!  But today is a rest day, except for mowing, gotta get that done today.

I think I may be helping my brother-in-law this week, he has a pool business and my sister said he needed help and asked if I wanted to oblige, of course I said yes, she said I needed old clothes and sunscreen.  So, that will keep me busy if it falls into place.

Hope everyone has a great week, let me know if you need some work done around your house, I take cash!

Oh, I did pack up all my old life from my former employer and mail it away, laptop, phone and scanner, so that 8 years of my life is gone, vanished like it never happened.  I do have a new phone number which I’m not going to publish her so drop me a line if you need it.