ON TURNING 24!

Yesterday (September 26th) I celebrated my 24th birthday! It really was a lovely little day. I spent the first half of my day at work and had to do a (last minute) ride along with a doctor. He was very nice, and I was happy teach him about my career. He even treated me to a birthday lunch! I was able to get off of work early, so I packed my bags and headed down to SD. I already had an appointment to get my hair done. This time I had my stylist put in extensions and I was so happy with the way they turned out. They are clip-in, so I am hoping when its time for me to put them in myself that they look just as decent. The last part of the evening I was told to get dressed and ready for a surprise. I was treated by my sweet man to my favorite restaurant; The Prado in Balboa Park. It was the perfect evening!

My birthday celebrations will continue the remainder of the weekend. Today I went on a little shopping spree and spent a little too much money. But I must say it felt good to spoil myself since I've been very responsible this year. Tomorrow there is supposedly another surprise for me and then in the evening I'm meeting a few friends out to hit up the town. Its already been a great weekend, but I am looking forward to everything!

As I reflect and look back on being 23 and the past year, I've never felt so proud of myself. I accomplished a handful of major things this past year. I remember when I turned 23 I wrote down a list of goals I wanted to accomplish, and I did whatever it took to complete them. Getting my dream job, buying a new car, living on my own, running my first half marathon--I would have never thought at 23 I would accomplish all those things within a few months! This year was a huge year of growth and I plan on continuing to grow at age 24.

I am planning on writing on more detailed post on my goals for 24 and what I hope to accomplish this upcoming year.

FIRST HALF-MARATHON: GIRLS ON THE GO SAN DIMAS

I am officially a half-marathon runner. Earlier today I crossed the finish line and completed a huge goal for the year. The race started at 7:20am, and I had butterflies in my stomach all morning. It didn't help that I ended up leaving my house late so I was worried about making it there in time. I literally arrived 10 minutes before the race was about to start. So I drank some water, did some quick stretching, and got in line for the start.

The start was very simple. Someone did a small countdown on some loud speakers and then the race started. I placed my towards the back of the runners, since I wanted to pace myself and because I didn't want to get in anyones way. I started off with a very slow jog since there were so many runners. I would say the first half mile or so it was very slow because it was so crowded with runners, but after that people started breaking away. Everyone came to this random dirt hill and was unsure where to go, I saw some people turning around and saying go the other way. But 98% of the people decided to go down the dirt hill anyways. But apparently that wasn't the right way to go....but everyone forged ahead anyways until we found a paved road.

I saw women passing me up left and right and I kept telling myself "pace yourself, regardless of what speed other people are doing". I remember seeing the sign for the 1 mile marker and thinking to myself "WHAT?" I of course was tracking my run with the runkeeper app, and as I hit the 1 mile marker my runkeeper was telling me that I had already run close to 2 miles. Okay....

At about 3 miles we had to go down another deep hill which led to a creek bed. The only thing was that in order to cross the creek you had to step on a path of teeny tiny rocks. Of course this took some time, so there was a large back-up of people waiting to cross. I would say this took 3-4 minutes, which kind of sucked if you were going for a PR.

Unfortunately my phone battery died before the end of the race. But I crossed the finish line at 2:46! Which is a time I am actually proud of. Especially considering that I ran 14 miles! What you ask? Yes, remember I told you my app was telling me I was running a mile longer than the markers on the trail? It wasn't just a problem with my app, EVERYONE said we ran further than what we were supposed to. Apparently we ran extra because the trail wasn't properly marked, and we were given poor direction. Since this was my FIRST half-marathon I didn't know any better. But after reading reviews, people are pissed about how this event was organized. People were mad about running over 13.1 miles, about it not being completing safe, and about people cheating. I mean there are seriously people calling this the worst half marathon they've ever ran.

Like I said, I don't know any better. I do know that this was a great accomplishment for me. My longest run was 10 miles, so being able to run 14 miles today felt amazing! I feel like I can accomplish anything. I am looking forward to completing many more half-marathons throughout my life.

MONDAY BLUES

Today I definitely had a case of the Mondays. I woke up feeling kind of 'sick' and I had symptoms on and off all day. I'm not really sure if I am getting a cold, allergies, or sinus infection? I'm thinking its sinus issues because my head feels like a ballon. Its such a weird feeling. It was also another hot day (102F!) but thankfully today went by fast. But I don't want to focus on the bad anymore. I've created a list of things that I am looking forward to in the upcoming weeks:

My birthday

My first half-marathon

Vegas trip with friends

Disneyland during halloween time

Treating myself during my bday

Fall and cooler weather

Re-doing my fall wardrobe

My first professional conference

WELCOMING SEPTEMBER

The beginning of this month was of course spent in San Diego. What a crazy labor day weekend I had (both good and bad). I did have fun going to the Del Mar races, seeing friends, eating out a lot, going to a BBQ, and much much more. I love action packed and fun filled weekends. I dream for all my weekends to be that way.

There is no secret that September is my favorite month of the year. Not only is it MY birthday month, but its also the birthday month for a lot of close friends of mine. Yes, thats right! Most of my close friends are virgos' and libras'. This month is fun due to the fact that the whole month is one huge celebration. I am very excited to look back on the past year of being 23, and seeing how much I have accomplished and grown. I can already say that 23 was a HUGE year for me.

I know I said earlier that I don't like planning nor celebrating my own birthday. But I know I absolutely cannot do anything special on my birthday. I'm still very much wanting to take a get-away somewhere, and I've kind of settled on Ensenada, BC. I am planning on booking something by the end of this week.
How nice it will be to get out of the country for a while. I'm also planning on taking half a day of work and having a little 3.5 day weekend. Now, I just need to make sure I follow-up with plans and book the hotel room.

On top of celebrating September is going to be filled with the last training for my half-marathon in addition to studying for my REHS exam. It is going to be one busy month, but a well balanced one at that.

LOVELY LITTLE UPDATES ON LIFE

I find that I never update as much as I intend to. But I guess thats a good sign that I am staying busy. I can't believe that summer is winding down, but I couldn't be happier. Summertime spent working in 90F to over 100F weather has been too much for me to handle. I'm looking forward to it cooling down and it being a nice warm fall.

And with fall comes so many changes for me. I am just four short weeks away from my first half-marathon! I am happy to say that I accomplished my longest run (both distance and time wise) of 8.5 miles and 1 hour and 30 minutes. I can't even begin to explain how amazing I felt after that run, especially since I could feel myself becoming drained the week prior. One thing I learned is to listen to your body! I realized I was ignoring a lot of important signs; my body needed more rest in between runs, more water, more protein, and more sleep.

And of course next month I turn 24! Oh how your 20s just seem to roll by. I don't have any definite plans set for my bday yet and I keeping going back and forth on if I should or not. First off, I'm not one to plan parties or celebrations for myself. The past 2 years were an absolute disaster. So I've made a promise to myself that I will never plan something for my birthday again ever in my life. And if anyone loves me enough to plan something for me, that would be awesome. But at that moment, no one does. So who knows what I will be doing, going out to dinner? a road trip and hotel room somewhere? a night of drinking? or even just staying at home.

I am also proud to say I have started studying for my REHS exam. This is pretty much the exam that my whole life is riding on. They recommend that we start studying 6 months in advance. I'm studying 6 months + some weeks to make up for everything that is happening this time of year (bday celebrations, holidays, travel time, etc). Another reason why I enjoy fall. But I will definitely be putting in a lot of hard work for March 2014!

MOVING ON

Lately, I've been battling with something. Its a matter of the heart, and something I've been praying to God about. Because day by day my feelings would change on this matter, and it just left me feeling frustrated and lost. But I realized I was tired of feeling lost and that it was time for me to take action. I decided to cut someone out of my life. Someone I would continuously give my all to, but was not willing to do the same for me. Someone who would take from me all that I had to give. Someone who has made it clear that they don't feel like I am a blessing to have in their life. My big heart has always been my downfall. I think thats just the Christian girl in me. But that big heart has also gotten me in some trouble. This situation has happened a few times in my past (with all males), and it always comes down to this type of ending.

Sometimes you give your best in the situation and thats all you can do. I've done all that I can do. But this person is no longer serving me or helping me grow. I can't help but think how much I have supported this person, encouraged them, helped them, gave them great advice, looked out for them, and loved them more than anything.  And I never expected this person to ever go above and beyond to do anything for me. I just wanted this person to appreciate me and what I have to give. But this person doesn't see it and therefore I refuse to do anything more. Its time for me to move on, and I've decided to cut this person off by no longer having any contact with them.

I will constantly be praying to God for the strength to stay strong and continue having no contact with them. I will also pray for their well being and happiness. I will ask the lord for forgiveness whenever I think "bad" thoughts in order for me to move on faster.

HELLO THERE

Happy August! Is it really the last month of summer? Yes, it looks like its winding on down. I actually couldn't be more excited. This dessert heat is just too much for me to handle, and I can't wait for some cooler weather. I think living in San Diego the past five years, really made me spoiled. But man, I cannot get enough of that lovely city.

Lately, my heart has been craving all the pretty & wonderful things in life. I feel like sometimes I get so caught up in my work that I fall into a little rut. I get tired, and I get stuck in my "lazy routine". It's been one of my goals to break that routine this year, but its really proven easier said than done. I want less messes in my house, less TV, less junk food, and less unnecessary money spending. I want more apartment decorating, more cleanliness, more reading, more traveling, more girlfriend time, and more time with Jesus . I also want to have more things to look forward to during the workweek. My weekends have been so amazing that all I can look forward to is the next weekend. I want to change that! I know things will change next month as I start studying for my REHS exam. But I know I can have all the pretty & wonderful things like I wish to.

I have been so incredibly inspired lately. Now I just want to use that inspiration to make my already wonderful life even more wonderful.