Multiple and Varied

Howdy! Multiple and varied are tonight's blog topics.

I ran a marathon on Sunday. A mothereffing marathon. 26.22 miles, to be exact. I did it in 5 hours, 13 minutes and 7 seconds. That's an average pace of 11:58 per mile. That's slow. But I don't care. I RAN A FRICKIN MARATHON. 

See? I have the medal and the bib and the beer can to prove it.

 

Trophy Wife bought me a beer as soon as I crossed the finish line and got my medal from a Marine. What kind of beer, you ask? Why, a Tallgrass IPA brewed in Manhattan, Kansas, of course!

I ran the Omaha Marathon with two AMAZING ladies, Grace and Keg. I love them, and I couldn't have done this without them. 

Me, Keg and Grace. Yeah, I grabbed my running bag and put on my stunnas as soon as I could. What of it? It was bright, okay?

So yeah. We did it. We're planning another one. And you bet your buns that two days after I ran a marathon, I went running again. Not only did I go running, I threw in some hills! 

Speaking of hills, we ran up one tough mother of a hill in the O. It was insane. 

Look really closely. We not only ran down this hill, but then we ran UP the hill in the distance, then ran around the Rosenblatt, then ran back UP this hill. It hurt. Like a bitch. We were pissed. BUT, this was the first time we got to see our AMAAAAZING support group, one member of which decided to run up the aforementioned and offending hill with us for about 100 yards...in flip flops. That chick is legit.

Anyway, I don't have a whole lot to say about the marathon. It was extremely humbling, and easily the most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life. When I woke up on Sunday, I was trying to think of when I was going to drop out of the run, because I knew it was going to happen. When I went to sleep (drunk, of course. You bet your ass we celebrated our faces off) on Sunday night, I was a marathon finisher. Crazy how we surprise ourselves, isn't it? :)

In sort of other news, Karen and Will came up to Omaha to surprise us runners, more specifically, Grace. Boy, was she ever surprised. But in the best way. FYI, Karen and Grace are cousins and Will and Grace are...well you figure it out. ANYWAY, we were all totally surprised, ESPECIALLY since Karen and Will were already planning on coming to Gleebo from the big city on Tuesday. They still came to Gleebo. Karen is all about B Spears. ANYWAY, Karen and Will made supper. Holy delicious. It was practically a dinner party. Couscous-stuffed acorn squash and a tomato-basil bisque with garlic and herb baguette croutons. If you'll excuse me, I just died a foodie-gasmic death. Speaking of the dinner party, we were all matchy-matchy and totally didn't plan it....sort of.

Will, Grace, Lo, Karen and Jimmy-Jack. Jimmy-Jack's the neon-orange one. Holy sweater, Batman...But seriously. Grey, orange, and grey-and-orange. We're that badass...

In other news, Food, Inc. is in my netflix queue. More to come on that at a later date. 

Jumping back to Gleebo*, Britney Spears, no matter how crazy she is or isn't, is still smokin' hot.

In future news, I'm going to Ren Fest in KC this weekend with SFM, Half-Pint and Bitty. Look out, Ren Fest. You don't know what 3 former theater students and their former teacher and a little booze can do, but you're about to find out.

Um...my brain seems to have stalled. Give me a sec....

The Chiefs are 3-0, the Colts are 2-1, and the Motherbleepin' Cats are 4-0. The Hawks are not. What's even better about this is that the Hawks can't even say "Wait until basketball season", because, well...*coughfirstroundcoughcough*...they just can't. Mwahaha. Also, I just went to the K-State sports website, and heard the growl (you know which growl I mean) and it gave me goosebumps. I think it always will.

So Half-Pint brought to my attention that I haven't talked about my new job yet. I picked up a 2nd job a while back. I'm a delivery boy for a shop in Emporia. Basically, I get paid to drive their pickup to and from KC Metro delivering motors and picking up pumps, etc etc, and I get to jam out to the radio. How bad can that be? Not bad at all, I say.

I made supper tonight. New recipe. Pork chops in an apple and onion sauce with cream cheese and chive mashed potatoes, biscuits and green beans. It was quite delicious. The recipe has been bookmarked. 

My brain is buzzing with all sorts of things to say, but I can't seem to pick out what they are and say them. Interesting.

I think I'll just curb the wordspit for now. I've said enough. Have a good one! :)

Michael Dean

Holy Wow!

I haven't updated this puppy in WAY too long.

 Let's recap my life, okay? Okay!

Went to Colorado about a month ago. Ran in this little thing called Warrior Dash. It was freaking fantastic. Want a picture? Okay!

From left to right, Warrior Co-Worker of Warrior Drew, Warrior Drew, Warrior Shirtless, Warrior Olga, Warrior Katia, and Warrior Sven. Warrior Sven and Warrior Katia are the Smiling Warriors...because we're cool like that.

I'm also still training for the Omaha Marathon, which is in like 4 days and a few hours. I'm freaking the eff out about it, so we're just not going to say anything more on that subject.

Running has pretty much dominated my life in the past month. That, and drinking to excess. But that's okay. That's what my 20s are for. At least, that's what I'm telling myself.

I actually had a huge list of stuff to talk about, but now I can't remember any of it. Like, any of it. Damn, I've been outta practice with this blogging thing. Sorry, guys.

On a bright side, a friend of mine has recently started a blog that is practically a soundtrack to his life. Seriously, there are at least 2 embedded youtube videos in each post, it seems. But that's okay, because it totally works. And he is WAY up on his music, and pretty much dictates the playlist for his and all of his friends' lives, my own included. Dude is legit. One of the more...shall we say "interesting" songs he posted is way not getting re-posted over here, but it was a) freaking hilarious and 2) makes me look at Arizona Iced Tea in a completely different way. Holy Buttcheek.

Oh, that reminds me. He turned the Wolfpack** on to this next band, one member of which (Hi, Fren!) subsequently turned ME onto. They're fantastic. Maybe you've heard of them? Mumford & Sons? Let me just say that Marcus Mumford is one of my new favorite people.

This is probably my favorite song on that album, which I'm not going to tell you to download, but you should totally download. Or buy. I meant buy. Or download legally. Because that's TOTALLY what I do... ANYWAY, check out Mumford. I should probably give the music guru a shout-out, shouldn't I. Hmm. Thanks for the music, friend. I'm a downloading fool, thanks to you! 

Speaking of beer, I'm ready to be back off the semi-wagon I've been on. I realize earlier I said I've been drinking to excess, but in truth, I haven't. I mean I did when I was in CO, but eeeeveryone did then. With this whole marathon business, I'm definitely taking in way less beer than I used to. I mean, that's cool for my body and all, but there are so many fall seasonals I'm missing out on right now! Working at the Booze Depot doesn't help, either. 

Want to hear about my latest revelation? You do?! AWESOME. I miss K-State. Like, an inordinate amount. (Bonus points for using 'inordinate' correctly in a sentence.) So...I'm pulling a few financial strings...and THE TENTATIVE PLAN is that I'll be back in the Hat in August 2011. I sorta came to the conclusion (all on my own, which is a HUGE deal for me) that I would actually be pretty disappointed in myself if I didn't finish out at K-State. I love that school way too much to walk away and be content with that decision. I know that goes COMPLETELY against what I talked about with some friends a while back, but I've done a lot of thinking about it, and it's what I want to do. What I need to do. It's going to be tough, and I have a huge hole to crawl out of, and I'm going to start back about 100 steps behind, but that's okay. I'm going in with a positive attitude and season football tickets. Like Incubus said, "Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there with open arms and open eyes."

Granted, they probably weren't talking about going back to school, but who cares? Not me. Also, blogfriend, I swear I'm not trying to copy you. It's just.......okay so I am MINORLY copying you. This time. But only because providing a soundtrack to the blog is a wonderful idea and now I'm going to try and do it better than you. Because I'm competitive like that. Just ask Karen the Chuglympics loser. :)

Um...crap. Colbie Caillat came on my Pandora station and made me lose my train of thought. I hate Colbie Caillat. She really irks me, and I can't even tell you why. Drat. 

In other news, my Colts are starting the season at .500, which isn't bad, but it's not what I'd hoped. Although Peyton totally walloped Eli on Sunday, which made me chuckle. The Chiefs (who are not link-worthy, in my opinion) are 2-0, which is AWESOME for them. And since they're the closest thing Kansas has to a hometown NFL team, I suppose I'm happy for them. In FANTASTICALLY PERFECT NEWS, the Wildcats are 3-0. I could not be happier. Seriously. Could not be happier. I don't even have to elaborate, as nearly all of you readers are K-State fans. Save my friend J, who is a KU Student. To her, I say, "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" 

I think that's enough ramble for now. I have the day off tomorrow, so I'll probably post something again. Ni night!

** The Wolfpack: an elite group of badasses that I pal around with. I'm not TECHNICALLY a member of the Pack, but that's fine. I'm a one-man Wolfpack, baby.

Bulleted Lists

...are some of my favorite things in the world. Let's make one, shall we?

This list's theme is "Things I Need To Do"

Buckle up.

• Sing more.
• Doubt less.
• Love harder.
• Forgive easier.
• Trust myself.
• Trust others.
• Love myself.
• Help others.
• Let them help me back.
• Learn a new dance.
• ....or six.
• Find contentment.
• Live for today.
• Live for myself.
• Do what makes me happy....no matter what. :)
• Be honest.
• Clean my room.

See you soon. :)