this blog has moved to jillianc.com

I've moved my blogging platform to jillianc.com - check it out there!!

RIP http://jilliancurley.blogspot.com.

rent my apt!

Are you or anyone you know looking for a one bedroom apartment in Boston for Sept 1? I'm desperately trying to find someone to take over my lease for this gorgeous one bed. Check it out here: http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/nfb/1279715024.html

I'm looking to live somewhere else now, there is nothing wrong with the apartment!

Spread the word - help me out! :)

Xx

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kid cudi <3's lady gaga, too

I have so many ailments today but they are all reminders of good things. Bum knee means I've been running lots. Sore torso means I actually did something in Pilates class yesterday. Exhaustion and the overwhelming urge to eat a sausage egg and cheese means I had a great time last night at the Kid Cudi & Asher Roth concert!

With all this I wonder what today's Cardio Ball class (so hard) will bring. Most likely my resuscitation by paramedics and annoyed fit people that just wanted to take the class. Or even more likely I'll lay like a dead fish on the mat. Either scenario I'll still be reaching deep, haha.

Anyway, last night was pretty kick ass. Gail had an extra ticket and brought me. So here is where we give a big o-m-g shout out to Gail! Whoop! Thanks girl!

Kid Cudi has talent and he spun a Lady Gaga beat. So you've guessed it... I tried to rush the stage and got in another fight. KIDDINGGGG! Haha that would have been fun. Memories.

Asher Roth was good, too. I only know his i love college song which eerily describes being 21 with my girls at 218 Hemenway. I wish we taped it... for sure. Anyway I got to dance like a white girl to hip hop and well I loved every minute of it. ;)

Maybe the dancing is actually why I'm sore and have a bum knee. Totally worth it.

Tonight I have dinner with Sarah & Liz from work and I'm so pumped for cheese, wine and homemade risotto. Just have to get through work. :P

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not funnneeeeeeeey!

Sadly, I have to admit that I am experiencing Summer writer's block if there is a such thing. I know my past few blog posts haven't been my typical refreshing, cynical view on life, ha.

I will say that lately I would like to express to my readers (if you're still with me) that it's not cute or funny to be stupid. Nothing makes my blood boil more than when people play the Paris Hilton/airhead "oops teehehe I didn't know that tehehehe" card. Get your sh*t together and know what the hell you're talking about.

I clearly have no time for these situations. Just admit you don't know and know it next time, it's much better received.

Anyhoot. Summer gloom in Boston just may *fingers crossed* be over for at least a week which is probably best for everyone, especially those around me. ;)

Not much else to report so I leave you with my "new" favorite youtube video. Thanks Gail :)

Blooooooooood

Not funnneeeeeeey!

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4th of July is better with family!

With no real intentions of going home for the weekend, I bought a train ticket to Philadelphia last Thursday for the holiday weekend. Best decision, ever. It's so nice to spend the 4th with family and I haven't done that in almost a decade I bet.

I watched fireworks with the fam on Friday night, made s'mores and promptly passed out with the children at 11pm. Saturday I got up and ran a 5k with Jack and my aunt. Yes they both beat me. Yes I got beat by a 7 (almost 8)-year-old. But we all know I'm a slow runner.

The rest of the 4th was spent poolside and I got to throw Maya around in the water because she ways a feather in water. My back would beg to differ but it was worth it. I got to swim around like a kid again. So impressed with Jack and Maya and their pure athleticism at such a young age. I'm thinking Olympics 2020 for them both? ;)

I also got to spend some QT with my padre, time I don't get very often. It's nice when we can get along amicably in each other's presence! No... just worry about him sometimes. Great to spend some time with him, though.

I also got to see my fabulous Crisi ladies on Sunday evening before leaving town. They're finally moving to Malvern after all these years, can you believe it?! So strange but very happy for them.

My weekend came to an end as I took an overnight train from Philadelphia to Boston with a layover in NYC. 8 hour trip and I slept most of it... though not very soundly. Totally worth it, though!

It's raining here again in Boston. It's dark outside. I want to go back to sunny Philadelphia and play in the pool again! Back to work it is, though...

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rockin the sunshine in denmark

I can gladly say that I've been off the map in the wonderfully sunny and warm Denmark with my handsome fiance and it's been absolutely GLORIOUS.

For those of you who don't know, I barely made it here. I was on three different Chicago flights that were subsequently canceled except for one that was supposed to take off at 9am that I got on at 2pm. Of 8 total United flights from Boston to Chicago only two actually went. Sometimes it pays to be as anal about flying as I am.

There were four confirmed tornadoes in Chicago that day and only one small window of open air before another storm front came barreling through. I saw the next storm which only lasted an hour but scary none-the-less. The flight from Chicago to Copenhagen was only 3/4 full and I had both seats on the window side of the aircraft to myself. I got to sleep in all kinds of funny positions ;)

Christian and I have spent our days outside for the most part. We've done yard work, went to the beach, gone to barbeques, gone for runs and just basked in the sun whenever possible. The sun has been out until 11pm and has made my sleeping patterns very strange!

Tuesday was the celebration of the longest day of the year. Here it's called Midsommer which directly translates to mid-summer. However Danes celebrate this longest day of the year by having huge fires in which they burn (now fake) witches. Christian's dad asked if I brought my broom or if I needed some help being hoisted on top the fire. ;) Te-he-he-he.

We've spent a lot of time with family and friends, free meals are great! We talked about going on a mini-cruise to Oslo, Norway and back but decided that with such fabulous weather here it would be silly to leave! This weather knocks Boston weather straight out of the park. I got my first sunburn of the year here, who would have thought!

Denmark in the summer is undeniably charming. It's making me want to go back to Boston (and work)... not at all. We played the Lotto yesterday and I promised if we won big I wouldn't go back to the States. Too bad we didn't win. I will keep playing because I've officially had a serious reminder as to why I want to settle here eventually. This country is so darn cute. You should come visit instead of taking my word for it!

We did stop by the castle (yes, the castle) and I had tears in my eyes. It's not easy for me to give up the dream wedding. We've chatted here and there about what our new wedding will look like and all I keep saying is how I don't like leaves (Fall) but rather flowers (Spring/Summer). Fall is not me but perhaps it will have to be. Anyway, no definitive answers on that yet.

Will be coming home on Sunday if we don't win the lottery or if I don't have some fleeing live by the seat of my pants moment in which I decide to throw my arms up in the air and just forget about Boston... ohhh I could be convinced.

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cousin jill is so proud!

Jack and Maya, the loves of my life (aside from Christian of course), never cease to make me so proud of them!

Jack, now nearly 8 years old (gasp) just won the machine pitch championship in little league. Only wish I could have been there! I am so happy for him and not the least bit surprised, I already knew he is #1 ;)

Maya just performed in a dance recital that I also wish I could have seen. She's definitely the tiniest one in the crew and it only makes her cuter! I do wonder how my aunt got her hair in pigtails, though. Maya refuses to put her hair up the last I checked ;)

As most of you know I have a really close relationship with these kiddos despite the distance between us. They make me so happy and proud even as a cousin!

These kids rock and so today's blog post is dedicated to them both!!! I love and miss you SOOOOO much Jack & Maya. xoxo

taking it to the next level

I officially wish to take my blog to the next level. This includes but is not limited to the following:

uno. a unique URL : it's a surprise! i just registered it but in up to 48 hrs it is all mine!

dos. a theme to some degree

tres. a flashier and uber cool template/design

cuatro. eventually act as a portfolio as well (for my geeky web stuff)

I could really use your help with numero dos above. I've asked you all for thoughts on a theme before and gotten few and varied responses. So I might just take it upon myself to figure out the theme. I suppose it will be much like this blog initially as I slowly find my calling in life. Calling, what and where are you?

I will keep you posted but soon enough you'll be able to navigate to my very own URL. THIS IS SO EXCITING TO ME...

the farmers ought to be furious

In torrential rain I made my way to work this morning cursing all things mother nature. June in Boston has been MISERABLE. It's been so cold and rainy, so not the summer to me.

I furiously began googling to understand just what the hell is going on lately and I stumbled upon (there is a reason there is a site by this name) the 2009 Farmer's Almanac long term weather outlook for the Northeast.

Let me save you the trouble of clicking the link because it's all lies. "...hot weather mid June..." Not the case. I'm sorry but it's really not nice to disappoint all the farmers.

Maybe the devil subsidized farming conglomerates write the Almanac to throw off all the hard working average farmers. Jerks.

Speaking of farming. I am volunteering this afternoon by planting things in Roxbury with some of my colleagues. Its pouring rain and we know I detest most nature. FML.

I did sign up for this but under normal weather conditions "gardening" on a Friday afternoon instead of sitting at my desk sounds absolutely delightful.

I get myself in funny little situations sometimes. TBC.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZZIE <3

Hope Tennessee treats your birthday just right! xoxo love you.

the things i love

I'm happy to report that the things I love far outweighs the things I hate. And the good person in me won't let that last post linger too long without a followup to show that I'm not hater all day long. :)

I. Living Things

• Dogs, anyone who has spoken to me lately knows that I'm counting down the days until I can buy a black lab!
• Cats are really cool creatures. My cats growing up were almost little humans with very sweet, funny and distinct personalities. But jaguars and tigers and cheetahs and lions all rein pretty cool to me as well.

II. Food

• Cheese will be what kills me.
• My dad's notorious london broil with spinach and potatoes.
• Lima beans... which I have trouble finding in stores here.
• Funfetti cupcakes, need I say more?
• Spaghetti & meatballs, plain jane girl more often than not.
• Mint choc chip ice cream
• Nachos
• Olives, sorry babe ;)
• Corn on the cob
• Cranberry juice aka "pop-pop juice"
• Margaritas

Holy crap this is why I'm fat! ;)

III. General

• My fiance. Christian you help me hate things less and love things more :)
• My papa bear - Jimbo taught me how love and laughter wins over everything else.
• My family, they're the bomb. I miss you all!
• My friends, they're the best out there.
• Jack & Maya, technically fall under "family" but these kiddos are very special to me and fall into a category of their own.
• The Esplanade in Boston
• Nyhavn, Copenhagen
• Baseball games and cold beer
• Europe, ask Sarah Root and she will tell you that I am wannabe Euro. <3>
• Following up with Europe we have my closet love of house music.... haha.
• Patio's... love dining and drinking outdoors
• Technology... mostly smartphones as I seem to go through two a year.

Holy crap this is why I'm broke.

Honestly all these lists could go on and on. As much as I can be a cynical ranter... I do love my life and everyone and everything in it. Who and/or what do you love?

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the things i hate

The other day, in response to my oral declaration of absolute hatred of pigeons, my boss suggested we someday make a list of all the things I hate. I propose I start that list now for the record.

I urge you to comment to add to the list if you think I've missed anything or to just share general disgust! :)

In no particular order we begin...

I. Living Things

RODENTS. Legitimately have a r-a-t phobia (even refuse to say/spell the word out). Let's recall 218 Hemenway or maybe not, prefer to black that out from my memory. Mice just as bad... UGHHH.

Birds... yep all of them. Don't trust them and they shit midair; I'm all set. Highest marks in this category belong to Pigeons and Seagulls.

Fish... again all of them. I don't eat them and I don't swim with them. Which creates a lot of drama because I love the ocean and body surfing. The second I feel something I'm headed for the dunes, though.

Reptiles... f**k that. Snakes and lizards, helllll no.

Bugs... including spiders, all things that fly, crawl and creep. Done deal. ONLY exception would of course be Butterflies (moths certainly do NOT count).

II. Food

Fish, we've went over this.

Mushrooms, texture.

Mayonnaise, all set with fat lard spread.

Mustard, ew.

Heavy Indian Curry, that smell reaps through your skin!

Milk that's not skim, hurts my stomach.

Horseradish, not much of a condiments gal.

Worcestershire sauce, see above.

Grapefruit, tastes like bitter acid to me.

There has to be more...

III. General

Grammatical errors... I'm not perfect but honestly you should know the difference between their, there and they're.

Silverspoon fed people drive me nuts.

Winter Street, Boston - it encompasses nearly all the things I hate in one stretch of street.

Being broke, though I think everyone hates this.

Creeps... they're everywhere.

Okay well let's have some fun (this beat is sick) and why don't you take a stab at contributing to my list and/or share your own!

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getting back in the groove

What have I been up to since LA you ask? Well lots.  I am desperately trying to get back on my regular schedule and lifestyle after wisdom teeth drama.

Last weekend Susan came up to visit and we went to the Dave Matthews Band concert at Fenway Park which was pretty fantastic. Love Dave even if he did play a lot of new stuff to which I couldn't sing along.

I did, however, manage to dance like a hippy in a long pretty dress! It was so fun. He played an amazing rendition of Two Step, my all time favorite song. :)

I am finally working out again. It only took nearly 3 %*#^@ing weeks to be able. These stupid wisdom teeth really got the best of me. Argh! Anyhowwww.  I signed up officially for The Hampton's Half Marathon in honor of sebcake's momma. Should be fun but definitely will need to do some hill training this time around, blast.

There is also The Philly Distance run the weekend before which I promised my cousin I'd run. I think two half marathons in two weekends is a bit much but totally doable, what do you reckon? Either way thanks to my wisdom teeth sabbatical I have a ways back into distance running. 3.5 months should be plenty of time, though. I hope!

Speaking of wisdom teeth sabbatical... went back to my original dentist (not the devil that removed my wizzies) yesterday because pain 3 weeks after surgery feels excessive. I was right. He put me on an antibiotic and just said my bottom teeth wounds were not healing. Finally some answers.

He too mentioned something about the surgery being too traumatic for my body. I thought I was one tough cookie, what the hell. No more elective surgery for this girl.

So in other (fantastic) news a really good friend, well best friend from elementary school, is pregnant! She is due Jan 17th and I told her that he/she needs to stay in one more day so we can share the same birthday! ;) Very happy for Bridget & Ian or shall I say "Mommy & Daddy".... Congrats!!

Lots of babies these days. We now know my body can't handle trauma sooo I will be holding off on pregnancy until some moment of insanity when I'm 30. 

Excited for this weekend, though! Pickles is coming to visit yayyyy! Sad weekend related news is that Saturday is Kayte's last day in Boston. :( Butttt going to party it up in her honor at the boys from LP's bbq on Sat afternoon. Yay summer bbqs!

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LA part duex part 2

Well the 2nd half of my trip to LA was a whirlwind in some ways. In other ways there was a lot of sleeping involved? Haha.

The hike in Runyon Canyon was in the heart of the Hollywood Hills but unfortunately we didn't see any celebs hiking/walking/running any of the trails.  We discovered a lot about nature, mostly that Gail hates it (even more than I do if that's possible). She was even upset about the BUTTERFLIES. Oh man haha what a riot. 

Some drunk Slovakian man told us to find some aloe plants on the trail for Gail's very obvious red legs. This turned into Gail asking me if each plant we passed was aloe. No... no... kind of looks like it but no.... Until we arrived at the GIANT aloe plants that were the size of the 3 of us put together. Here is when Gail demands Libby and I to try and wrestle a stem off to get to the aloey bottom part. Not sure if I'm up for the humility of these pictures.

Next on our adventure was to navigate to Lauren Conrad's house. LC lives in the Holltywood Flats which is funny considering the name of her show is The Hills.

We then headed to Robertson Blvd and grabbed a drink at what is apparently LA's premier gay and lesbian club/bar, The Abbey. Not sure why the shot boys in speedos didn't give us the hint right away but that's what internet phones are for, right? ;) Anyway there was a promotion going on and here at 2pm was a live dj pumping the beats. Right up my alley... gay or not.

This is where we must have consumed sleeping rufies because we got back to Libby's in the late afternoon to relax and we all fell asleep watching Empire Records. We woke up and ate homemade guac and then fell back asleep. I appreciated it though because my lack of teeth/whole mouth was in serious pain for all of Saturday. Argh.

All this sleep had the three of us up and at them at 7am Sunday morning. Gail knew about a weekly flea market on Melrose that has vintage designer labels as well as handmade stuff. We got brunch (we are freaks about breakfast in case you didn't already gather) on Melrose and then hit up the market.

I got a set of homemade coasters for my new apartment. It's a shame I have no table to put them on. My coasters and I will be very happy on the floor, don't worry. ;) Gail got some rockstar jewelry and we headed back to Libby's for beach preparation.

Libs had to work at the gym (the one I told you she owns) and because Gail and I are are not able to drive stick (I mean I can get to 3rd gear but like whatever) we borrowed bikes!

Biking was a joyful yet painful experience. On our way to Venice Beach I crashed into a pole on the sidewalk and still can't get rid of the bruise. Oh well. Hit the beach for a few hours while Gail covered her body in towels to protect her sun burn.

We biked from Venice Beach up to Santa Monica Pier and back which was super fun when I wasn't dodging small children and power bikers. And I suppose there was the point when the chain completely fell off. Funny that a damsel in distress approach resolved this quickly. Thank you Mr. Man. ;)

We got back and waited for Libby before a big night out in Venice & Santa Monica. Well this night out is best described as a "hot mess." I can let some pictures speak for themselves as unfortunately the events of this night violate the parental advisory of my blog.  I will let you know I seriously contemplated sleeping on the bathroom floor...

LA night out

Anyway our last day in LA was spent mostly paying for the night before but it was worth it. How often does one really get to party like a rockstar with Libby?! ;)

So concludes the LA trip recap. I feel so lame for all this time going by but I really wanted to wait for Gail's pictures. It's been hectic ever since.

To a more active June! :)

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beautiful and dirty rich

I love my life and I love my friends. LA part duex is amazing as ever. This time I'm with the notorious Gail and we have Libby all to ourselves!!

Gail and I both got in Thursday night and we stayed up until 4:30am east coast time gabbing away with Libby over cheese and wine. It was fabulous.

Friday we got up and went to brunch with two bottles of champagne in hand to benice... "be nice" or "benice" as in Venice but noone can be sure. Had their legendary banana batter pancakes and drank mimosas. Heart my life.

Headed to Marina del Ray for some serene beach with more champagne and soaked in blissful California sun. This very sun makes Gail want to say FML because she's a little strawberry on her front side.

I, apparently, am immune to the sun and thanks to factor 15 I still look like Casper the friendly ghost. F-M-L. We headed to a Venice Beach bar called Cabo and took advantage of happy hour 2-for-1 drinks.

[Insert team trip to Trader Joes that had us laughing so hard we were crying.]

The best thing ever happened next. Our very own Lady Gaga dance party in Libby's apartment. YES!!! We introduced Libby to many a Lady Gaga songs! Oh and homemade fresh berry mojitos were involved. YUM!  This ended abruptly when the neighbor downstairs rang the doorbell and told us it sounded like we were coming through his roof.  You better believe it, sir.

We made it to dinner by 10pm for Spanish tapas and wine. It was delish despite the wait for a table.  It was BYOB so we had our cheap Trader Joe's wine in tow and it was perfect. Cherry cherry, YUM YUM.

Thanks  to such late bedtime on Thursday, the sun and red wine we all passed out at midnight!  Roll on day two.  We're going for brunch (clearly) and then our daily adventure will begin with a hike.  Stay tuned!

LOVE MY LIFE!

i've lost my wisdom!

Teeth, that is.  Yesterday at 8am I was given more drugs than I thought was legal to sedate me through surgery to remove all four of my impacted wisdom teeth. Here is sad, pathetic me in my 5 year-old tie-dye t-shirt sucking on a tea bag to help clot the blood.  Sigh... so tragic haha.

The lovely, one-and-only, Ms Sarah Root took me there and sat and waited for me and took me home. All the while work was calling her non-stop to get things done.  What a good friend she is and my other friends that have been over to visit or are coming this weekend - I am truly blessed! 

So here is what happened, that I remember.  I go in and I'm super nervous.  They give me laughing gas, I go numbish.  They turn the radio on... LADY GAGA was playing.  I told them this was a good sign.  They put in the IV and put me to sleep with anesthesia.  I semi-remember waking kicking in pain and look up and see three heads around me telling me to calm down and that everything was ok.  I think they shot me with more Novocaine at this point.

They walk me over to a chair and Sarah is talking to me about this and that. Some old man comes over and is talking to us.  I apparently felt the need to clarify to him that Sarah and I were not partners - HAHA. While my mouth was full of gauze and Sarah is telling me "Jillian stop talking, don't touch your mouth!"

Then we go to CVS and this man is asking me about my phone that he sees me texting to the pharmacist with, by this point it hurt to talk and I was listening to the surgeons' advice.  He quickly figures out that I can't talk and says to hold up one finger for "yes" and two fingers for "no".  This is how the conversation went:

"Is that a blackberry?" - two fingers

"Can you text and email on it?" - one finger

"Do your minutes roll over every month?" - two fingers

[receive text message from sarah in the car]

"Oh is that your friend texting you?" - one finger

[him reading over my shoulder]

"You're Sarah Root" - two fingers

"Who's "me", your boyfriend?" - two fingers

... and so it went until the pharmacist finally gave me my drugs and I left.

So after Sarah drops me home I start icing and change the gauze.  My right side will not clot - bleeding profusely.  I run out of gauze.  I remember an old trick from stopping wrestlers' bloody noses and start cutting up pieces of tampon and put them in my mouth HAHAHA.  Sorry for all the male readers - but I was just being resourceful.  

My entire lower jaw remains numb all day.  I have no feeling in my tongue, chin, lips, etc.  Choking on water I worry about taking pain pills on an empty stomach.  I force yogurt down my throat and choke and half of it ends up on my chin but I don't notice this as I have no feeling.  I get a pain pill down and fall asleep.

I start to panic at 4pm when my numbness has not subsided WHATSOEVER.  I was freaking out.  I finally got my blood to clot on the right side by biting down on a moistened tea bag. Hot mess, this girl. Kayte calls the surgeon for me and he calls back and says that they gave me long acting Novocaine so it's just taking my body a long time to metabolize it. 

Steph came over with more frozen peas, coffee ice cream (YUM), and gauze.  Then Kayte came over.  So nice to have company!!!

I regain feeling in my lower jaw circa 11pm. FINALLY.  Slept pretty badly and now here I am rambling on and on.  I think it's the percocet, haha.

Sooo if you stopped reading 6 paragraphs ago, I don't blame you!  But visitors are always welcome.  Kayte and Gail are coming over later with movies and smoothies and Kayte said she's going to force me to eat solids... eeeek. :(  But still should be nice!

Thanks everyone for your concern and support! xoxo

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a place to call home

Things are looking up. Yesterday I put first month's rent down on an apartment in Brighton Center. Assuming all goes well today when the landlord reads my application, it's mine.

The apartment has its pro's and con's as all apartments do when you're on a budget. Check out the listing here.  Craigslist may take down the ad soon, though. 

Pro's:

- Modern kitchen & bathroom

- Hardwood floors

- Laundry in building

- One block from 501 express bus into town

- In heart of Brighton Center, close to everything we need

Con's

- It's small

- It's on top a store front

- It's not in Brookline :(

- It's far (relatively) from my Brookline family

Despite the con's, I truly think Christian and I can make it our little home! We promise to host dinner and game parties even if it's no mansion. I can't wait to go "Ikea crazy" on the place, haha. 

However, that will have to wait as it is costing me $4k to move in so I'm broke for awhile, argh. 

What do you think? Is it cute? :)

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now hiring a gym buddy

Too sore to move today. Admittedly I am shocked at how my body can run 10 miles with minimal soreness the next day but just an hour of squats, pushups and weight training has me so sore I want to cry! I know that it makes sense physiologically but don't like it just the same.

I had a free training session yesterday because I just moved gyms. I always dread these free appointments as I have little to no tolerance of meatheads showing me how weak I am. I get it. You like protein shakes and hair gel and I like running sneakers and ipods. Oil and water, I tell you.

I know that I need to be doing things other than running but the gym is infested with protein obsessed meatheads. I also feel 100% stupid doing exercises like he had me doing yesterday. Oh well maybe I just have to suck it up.

I think now I need a gym buddy on top of my running buddies. Here's the deal:

Qualifications:

- Normal amount of enthusiasm (all those with the work-out sunshine and lollypops approach will not be considered)

- Serious distrust of protein powders

- Low-maintenance (please don't insist upon matching your outfits or wearing makeup at the gym)

- No desire to forgo shirts and prance around the gym in just a sports bra

- Don't be too "earthy", must believe in deodorant and shaving

- be slightly (key word here is slightly) more in shape than me so you can show me how to do stuff

- Understand that 30% of the time I will hate your guts

Key responsibilities of the job:

- Making me laugh

- Keeping me in a routine

- Deterring approaching meatheads

- Going out for wine and beer after some works outs

- Calling paramedics if necessary

If you feel you fit the requirements above please send your resume and cover letter to me.

Happy Friday Everyone!  I'll leave you with my favorite You-Tube video of all times. If you closely resemble any of the characters, for the love of god do not apply to be my gym buddy. ;)

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my project is live!

I am proud to announce that the Experian QAS Customer Community is fully live!

Well, you're probably thinking "what the hell is a customer community?" And the very simple answer to that would be that it is the project I've been working on for two months. Doesn't answer your question? Weird...  Well anyway, check it out!  

On to a more nerdy explanation. In an effort to increase value to our customers we hope this community will be a place where they can communicate with our organization as well as other customers. Here's a quick article outlining why communication is key in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). 

To do this, we've put in a forum as a platform for communication and are publishing customer-specific articles on a regular basis. The community also stands as a one stop resource for everything they need from FAQ to training materials.

My biggest involvement was from a technical production and input standpoint but also the most fun bit, if you ask me! :) I worked with our development team very hard on the forum functionality as well as on RSS feed implementation for any new content. I got to test my development skills on all the page content and imagery production. I heart Photoshop... and well I can sometimes enjoy writing HTML when I'm feeling extra nerdy.

Anyway, we are at our very early stages of the Customer Community and are super proud of what we've been able to accomplish so far. Unfortunately most of my involvement ends here as maintenance of the community will sit with my fully capable colleague, the lovely Miss Liz. :)

So what's next? A lot. I am really eager to implement a lot of tedious changes to our site in order to improve our visibility on search engines. It's onsite SEO work for any that know what I'm talking about.

I am also eager to improve the Canadian site lead production through a mix of new PPC/SEO strategies.

Finally, I hope to hone in on Web analytics and start studying site user behavior to help identify further improvements. Web analytics is highly complicated but hugely important so I'm excited.

YOU CAN WAKE UP NOW I'M DONE TALKING ABOUT MY NERDY BORING JOB (that I love so much haha)!!!

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01:41:41

Broad Street Run 2009 - 23,093 finishers - holy crap! I was one of them! :D

Ten miles, I did it!  I can't believe it but I actually finished the 10 mile race without stopping to walk or fall too much off a 10 min/mi pace.  I think the more impressive bit worth mentioning is that the last two miles of the race it POURED cats and dogs rain on us!  I did anticipate some rain, and it was just scattered sprinkles throughout the majority of the race, however, I wasn't prepared for the downpour during the two most physically challenging miles!  

Here is a "before" picture.  The "after" picture is literally so bad of me that I really can't share it.

 

So Mike and I finished the race side by side like two mops in a bucket.  The other bad part about the rain was having to SLOWLLLLY walk through these crowds to get food and water after crossing the finish line. We were soaked through and through.  Got back to the minivan and said… let’s bounce!  The Downingtown Running Club had a bunch of stuff to tailgate with, too.  So it was kind of a shame.  It totally would have been my style to eat a burger and relax in the sun.  Unfortunately, shivering in the rain made everything less fun.

But all in all, the race felt really good.  I felt really comfortable with my pace, as slow as it may be.  It managed to keep Mike by my side and he has never run more than five miles.  He certainly kept me going through certain miles that felt longer than others.  He also put up with my weaving traffic of slower runners – I get annoyed easily, we all know this. haha.

We finished in 1 hour 41 minutes, a time I am pretty proud of.  I think I will be just fine to run a half marathon in the near future.  One of my aunt's friends running with us said that once I've done 10 mi then I might as well train for a marathon.  According to her (a very experienced marathon runner) it's making the jump from 3 mi to 7 mi for non-distance runners that is the hardest bit.  I don't know if I am convinced.  She said that I could do a marathon in the fall if I wanted to.  If I wanted to.  Hmm. 

I was thinking if I were to do a marathon, obviously I've toyed with the idea in the past, then I would want to wait until next spring.  I would like to build my stamina as a runner and speed up a bit if at all possible. So my thoughts were to make it a destination marathon like London Marathon or Copenhagen Marathon.

Again, those lofty and ambitious goals of mine.  I still have to tackle the half marathon next.  I had the very quick idea to do the Big Lake Half next Saturday with Carissa in New Hampshire.  I took a look at the race description and thought that "rolling hills" is a good thing when describing a drive in the country but not to run.  I just, to be honest, have incorporated very few hills into my training.  Boston can be pretty flat, especially along The Charles.

I also will have you all know that the race was over as of like 11am yesterday and I still haven't had one single drink! I could really go for a cold beer right now.  I am in the airport which is one of my favorite places to grab a beer but PHL is telling me that despite all this rain my flight is actually ON TIME.  Never (ever) happens in PHL so I'm not sure what is going on. Do they serve beer on puddle jumpers? ;)

Oh wait, just made an announcement.  My plane due to depart in an hour hasn't even left Boston, yet.  On to finding a suitable pint of beer!

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i'm scared... mostly of me.

it's a friday night.  i've spent 1 hr on f**king craigslist apartment hunting, 15 min on facebook, 15 min on twitter, and 15 min rereading old blog posts. i am a loser. this is what forcing myself to not drink and eat out does to me. i will now promptly watch 3 episodes of friends season 5 and pass out halfway through the 3rd.  this is why i'm scared...of me.

however!! i will hopefully be able to cross the finish line on broad street this sunday. no toxins in this body to be found - just try, go ahead... lots of veggies, fruit and PASTAAAA (my favorite part of running distance, pasta consumption is mandatory).  

haven't even so much as flirted with a glass of wine in over a week.  round of applause!!!  

but nothing funny has happened in over a week, either.  coincidence??

it is going to rain, 80% chance, on sunday. if you see what looks like a blonde wig mop laying across broad street, please scrape me off the pavement before the street sweepers come by.  thank you citizens of philadelphia.

forget face masks - will need an oxygen mask come sunday

So you're probably thinking that when I've decided not to make this blog all about myself anymore that I suddenly have nothing to say, haha. Let's just say I have been hugely busy and nothing to show for it!! At least it feels that way, highly frustrating.  Don't worry, I haven't dropped off due to a Swine Flu infection, haha. ew.

What have I been doing worth sharing? Well I have been trying to launch my project all last week but hitting hiccups along the way, as all projects do. We did a "soft launch" (sorry for the industry speak) on Tuesday. Aiming for full launch early next week. I will blog more specifically about this mysterious project at that point!

The weather in Boston over the last seven days has been monumentally higher than avg April temps. Tuesday we hit 94 deg!! Back to normal for the next week I think, though. This is good because a 10 mi race in 90 deg weather isn't going to cut it!

Speaking of the race. It is a mere 3 days away...eek! I might die but I am uber excited just the same. The one and only Mike Prible has signed up to run with me. Thank you Mike, please let the EMS people know that I have no known allergies and no prior heart conditions.

This does mean I'm coming home to PA but unfortunately I am only going to be home for .2 seconds, running for 1 hour and then in hospital for 2 days. No but seriously, flying in Sat afternoon and leaving Monday afternoon. Apologies in advance if I don't get to see all my fam and faves. :)

Has anyone reading this ran the Broad Street Run before and have any good tips or tricks???

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26% of you don't know what i'm talking about

Most of you know (or can only surmise) that I am an only child. For this I can be very selfish (and bratty) at times. But most learn to love me in the end, I think. I bring this up because my blog has a tendency to be all about me. Coincidental?

I don't think I could truly resist telling you all the stories that make my life interesting but I ought to switch it up now and again!! So tell me what you'd like to hear about!! There is a survey on the top right of this page. Dooooo ittttttt!! ;)

In the meantime I leave you with my favorite commercial at the moment... 

It's apparently promoting the new Palm Pre Web OS... pretty cool.  We all know I love Palm. Just wish Sprint was as cheap as T-Mo!  Anyway the commercial kind of speaks to all the nerdy things I concern myself with on a daily basis... and leaving cell phones in cabs - that's some of my friends' favorite hobby. haha.

The weekend weather here is going to be GORGEOUS!!  Although I hope it cools down just a tad before next weekend. 10 mi in 90 degree weather doesn't appeal much to me!! Ambulance will have to be called at mile 2. Kidding :)

So let me know what it is you wanna hear more about!!!

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how much do mud huts cost?

Sooo... I want to buy a house. No big deal. Unfortunately I think a bank would laugh in my face at this point.  I mean, to be honest, I could use a bailout right about now... debt be gone.

It is hugely depressing to think about how I will be in debt until I'm dead. It gets a little overwhelming to think about mortgages and my future children's college education. Is anyone really ever fully out of debt? If they are, where do they live and do they adopt 24 year old blonde girls?

I browsed through my roommate's US Weekly on Friday night for the hell of it and there was a bit on celebs feeling the pinch in this ecomomy. Freaking Ed McMann, OF ALL PEOPLE, went into foreclosure. Guess he's done turning up on doorsteps with giant million dollar checks. Nicholas Cage had to sell the castle in Germany he owns. There were more... huge $10 million dollar mortgages in forclosure... don't celebs hire people to make sure things like this don't happen? I don't know whether to take pitty or just call them idiots. Idiots.

Anyway, I got on this rant because I actually went condo shopping with Steph this weekend.  We spent Saturday perusing 2 bed 2 baths in Southie.  I liked the second place we saw the best, GORGEOUSSSS.  Sunday we went to two places in Brighton and three in Charlestown.  All very cute but the one in Southie is still my favorite - and Steph's too!

If all goes well and she settles on a place before September, I am going to move in. So, needless to say I was having lots of fun looking at these places.  It will certainly help Christian and I get on our feet without killing ourselves in rent while still helping Steph out tremendously with the mortgage payment. I am pretty sure, however, that many realtors thought that Steph and I were significant others, HAHA.  OMG! Hysterical!

The only other thing worth noting is that I can't really walk down stairs or sit down without excruciating pain, thank you running.  But all is worth it in the end when I actually cross the finish line on Broad Street!!!

Broad Street - are you ready for this?

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confession time

I feel like I need to be a little honest here.  If not just to my readers, to myself.  I've always felt that I'm quick to make excuses for quitting many endeavors before reaching my goal.  I know it's a personality fault and I really am unsure how to fix this.

This issue has been plaguing me for as long as I can remember.  For example, I quit the viola one year after starting to play it in third grade.  The following year I decided to play the trumpet... and quickly quit that mid year.  I think I also quit the mile run of the Presidential Physical Fitness test half way through on a yearly basis until middle school. HAHA.  Does anyone remember that stupid test?  I couldn't do pull ups/flex arm hang, either!!!  Always got National...

Anyway, I set these really ambitious and lofty goals and then find about 100 excuses (on average) as to why I am unable to fully accomplish these goals.  The one major exception here is of course graduating college. 

I just decided that running a half marathon on Memorial Day weekend does not appeal to me so have decided to go to LA with Gail to visit Libby instead. [INSERT HERE: you nodding your head in disappointment and making noises that resemble gasps and mumbles like "jillian michelle"] However, my crappy excuses are as follows:

• At $179 total round trip (and nonstop!) I'd be crazy to pass it up
  
• No one will really be around Memorial Day weekend in Boston
  
• LA with two friends is more fun then running 13.1 miles
  
• I'm running 10 mi on May 3rd - what's the difference, really?
  
• I can run a half marathon pretty much whenever, there are always some to choose from
  
• I don't feel adequately prepared, my training has regressed a bit
  
• I'm getting my wisdom teeth out the weekend beforehand
  

Unfortunately, there really is no excuse other than that I got lazy about keeping on top of the training schedule because I probably partied a little too hard in the last month.

UGH.  If you ever worry about me being nonchalant or indifferent, you can rest assure that I get really down on myself all the time for all my underachievement.  Which... I'm pretty sure just makes things worse.

So... plan of action for the next couple weeks.  Getting healthier by eating right (no more eating out), drinking more water (and less booze for sure) and getting my selfish 8 hours of sleep I love so much.  Also need to make sure I'm putting in my "short" runs, even if they seem trivial - they help!!!  Will also buy new trainers - I have logged enough miles on my shoes I blogged about many moons ago.

I leave you with my all-time favorite poem that will most likely remind you of me!

Sick
by Shel Silverstein

"I cannot go to school today,"

Said little Peggy Ann McKay.

"I have the measles and the mumps,

A gash, a rash and purple bumps.

My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,

I'm going blind in my right eye.

My tonsils are as big as rocks,

I've counted sixteen chicken pox

And there's one more--that's seventeen,

And don't you think my face looks green?

My leg is cut--my eyes are blue--

It might be instamatic flu.

I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,

I'm sure that my left leg is broke--

My hip hurts when I move my chin,

My belly button's caving in,

My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,

My 'pendix pains each time it rains.

My nose is cold, my toes are numb.

I have a sliver in my thumb.

My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,

I hardly whisper when I speak.

My tongue is filling up my mouth,

I think my hair is falling out.

My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,

My temperature is one-o-eight.

My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,

There is a hole inside my ear.

I have a hangnail, and my heart is--what?

What's that? What's that you say?

You say today is. . .Saturday?

G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

....haha!  To this day... love this poem.  

For me, it's a never ending battle trying to learn that sometimes you need to sacrifice "the fun" to do something extraordinary.