.thank.god.

i have a lot of things to be thankful for in my life. we have a home. all the bare necessities (and then some). a fabulously spoiled, yet good natured dog. a lot of good friends (and that doesn't come easily). family. and 1 of the things i've been grateful for lately is my friends' twin girls came home this past month, after spending 3 months in NICU. they were born 16 weeks too early; but with all our praying and good thoughts, they came home in early september. we watched a video of the girls coming home, and of course i had tears in my eyes. i remember when we were all scared...scared when she started feeling wierd pains, scared when she called her doc and the doc said to go to the hospital...scared when we didn't hear anything for hours...and scared when we finally did hear news that she delivered the girls at 24 weeks. 24 weeks. and that's when the praying began...i made a point to go to mass every weekend, because if i went to church religiously, then the girls would have to be ok, right? thankfully god decided it was best to keep the girls here with her parents...so just watching that video made me feel so thankful. they're mostly out of the woods, but still will probably face some challenges ahead...and i will be sending them good vibes for the rest of their lives...

oh, another thing to be thankful for: brian griese was named QB for the bears this sunday! say it with me now, THANK GOD. i hope this gives the bears a chance...

.if.you.can't.run.it.volunteer.

so since i'm not running the marathon this year, i decided to try to volunteer. i looked it up and apparently you can't volunteer individually; you have to join/create a group or 50 or more and then ask to volunteer...tried to think of ways around this, then **lightbulb**...my sis-in-law works for pepsi/gatorade, which is the main supplier of liquids at the marathon...ab asked a few people and in the end hooked up me and a with the 25th mile marker aid station.

WOOT WOOT!

so for any of you who will be running this year, a and i will be at the 25 mile marker, cheering you on with some final words of encouragement as you start your last 1.2 miles!

i'm so excited!!! not as excited as i would be if i were running, but at least we're helping out...

.intermittent.wedding.review.1.

so since i never seem to have enough time lately for long posts (except that mtv one, since i was typing as i was watching), i'm just going to mix it up here, post a pic from christine/coco's wedding and 1 story to go along with it...

let me preface this by saying i was a hot mess that night. seriously. so bad that i don't really remember what happened after we left the ballroom and made our way upstairs. next thing i knew, i was waking up from what seemed like death; such a deep sleep. my first thought was, 'omg, rum is the devil.' and i had no clue if my contacts were in my eyes or not. i had to keep squinting at the wall across the room and trying to focus on things. he woke up and asked, 'what are you doing?' i responded with 'trying to see if my contacts are in my eyes or if i lost them.' he says, 'i made you take them out, don't you remember??!'

uhm, sure.

here's a pic from the slightly more memorable moments of the night. g, chris and i seem to always have a bootay battle at every wedding we go to...so of course we start it here, and the other girls wanted in, into the booootay club. some things to take note:

: the bride is oblivious in the background, just waivin her arms. classic christine.
: obviously not a flattering pic of me. this is probably when the 'bacardi superior' peaked in my blood stream.

.2007.VMA.play.by.play.

7:18PM: i'm watching the pre-show right now...and nelly furtado is lit!

7:29PM: damn, common is lookin HOT.

7:49PM: damn damn, PHARRELL!!!!

7:59PM: oh britney. when are you going to sing, like you used to on star search? what's up with your lackluster performance? are you high again? or are you just going thru withdrawal? did you even practice for this performance? and why are you re-using moves you used a few years ago with that python? you totally look uncomfortable on those heels, maybe you should try dancing in flats. or better yet, just say no to drugs. what a hot mess...and i'm not talking about her physical features.

8:01PM: i absolutely despise sarah silverman. she's not funny and crass, and why the fuck are you mentioning britney's kids into your monologue? you have no class at all. get off the stage please.

8:20PM: JT's 1st win! woohoo! love how he served mtv 'i want to challenge mtv to play more videos!' damn, break me off o piece o that...

8:29PM: kanye and 50 face to face. i didn't realize 50 was that tall. i can't tell if these guys really hate each other, or if it's just a marketing stunt.

8:30PM: beyonce wins...but she can barely make it to the stage, it's so cramped! this production is way too big for the palms. mtv was crazy to host it here...

8:43PM: the 1st real performance of the night: chris brown and rhianna. their performance was HOT! they totally should have opened this show.

8:53PM: oh yes, break me off o piece o justin.

9:34PM: common is performing in 1 of the suites! but mtv only shows him for 30 seconds...DAMN YOU MTV!

9:43PM: jennifer garner and jaime foxx. jaime is messing up his lines and jen is trying to get him on track. when jen announces the winner she says, "gym class FALLOUT"??? i'm guessing she meant gym class heroes who are in the fallout boys suite...yet another example of how mtv is messing up this production. whoever is the producer is so getting fired this year...

9:58PM: YES! they just mentioned that JT will be on stage soon....WOOHOO!

10:03PM: JT gives the best performance of the night. how fitting that trainwreck brit opened and the star jt closed. aren't you sorry you cheated on him now, brit?!????


overall, this show was a hot mess with a mixture of screwed up performances, bad audio, bad cueing of the stars, obviously drunk presenters all in a room that is way too small for this kind of production. i understand mtv was trying to re-format the vmas with having different performances in suites, esp since that palms room was way too small to hold this type of event, but common...use your heads when planning this. isn't it obvious this is going to be a logistical nightmare?

anyways, the only things i liked about this show were chris brown/rhianna, JT, timbaland, and the few shots of pharrell and common. love them!

.it's.already.september.

i can't believe it's already the 9th month of this 12 month year. what have i done this year? nothing. at least nothing that i can really remember. i guess we did train gus all year...that's something.

but in terms of my running season, what have i done? i ran a bunch of 5Ks...more than any other year...but wtf does that mean? i'm not running anything big this year...no marathon..no 1/2 marathon...didn't even do the soldier field 10 mile run...i feel like i've wasted this year away. nothing to show for it. i guess i didn't want to commit to anything for the fall...but now that it looks like i didn't need to not-commit...ugh.

oh well. moral of the story: when the future is uncertain, just make plans like normal. it'll all work out either way.

i think this month i'll be running 3 5Ks. tomorrow is the lung run (very last minute), the race for the cure on the 29th, then the bucktown 5K on the 30th. maybe i'll join other runs in between....