Happy Monday!

wow, I can't believe it has been a week since my last post. Let's catch up!

Last Monday I had to stay up to wait for the arrival of my college roommate, Keisha. As I wrote before, her plane was delayed by six hours and she didn't land until 12:45 am. Tough to stay awake, since I usually go to bed around 10, I had to put in the MOST boring movie to stay awake. I remember circling the airport 4X (because they really don't let you park, even late at night when there was only one flight arriving). Finally, we connected a little after 1 am. Keisha was starving and the only food place open is McD's. Sigh, I couldn't resist the fries (medium), but I didn't eat them all. We watched the movie SWAT (love that Colin Farrell and Jeremy Renner!) and had great fun catching up. It was almost like we were back in our little Central apartment at Duke, hanging out discussing the really important things like why the commercials are so silly. I think I laughed until I cried, several times.

So I am sure I could go into great detail about her stay.....I'll spare you all the boring details and just write the highlights

Tuesday: didn't motivate until 1 pm, went to mall to get some walking shoes (Keisha), late lunch at CPK, crazy full run around 5 pm, watched TV until bed.

Wednesday: didn't motivate until 3 pm (yes, I sense this is a theme, but to be honest I did have a grad school assignment due)....we went for a 2hr run/walk around Diamond Head and went to Whole Foods for dinner, also hit up Blockbuster for the Mechanic (better than expected) and Battle: LA (ummm, good, but wasn't into).

Thursday: up at the crack of dawn to run because heading to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a FULL day of culture. Running in the am was a great experience. It was cool and not many people out exercising (although lots on the road, heading for work). I felt great getting the run out of the way, but I seriously know there is NO WAY I can get up early in the mornings. PCC was awesome. We took the bus to Waikiki, got on the bus at the Sheraton, and met our tour guide Rome, from NZ. As a teacher, I find it incredibly interesting to watch somebody in their element as Rome clearly was. He entertained with stand up/information for about 2 hours. Hilarious! Once at the center we met our tour guide, Sara from Finland and proceeded to head to the different villages to learn. We played with sticks in Aotearoa, watched a guy climb a coconut tree in Samoa, learned hula in Hawaii, made music in Fuji, laughed at the drum performance in Tonga, and much much more. To be honest I was toast (tired) at about 2:30 pm. It was HOT and completely covered in sweat. We still had the canoe pageant, the luau, tram to the Mormon temple, and of course the show. To sum up, food was excellent. At the temple, the guide made sure to approach us to see if we had any questions and to make sure we knew how wonderful the Mormon church was. And finally the show was AMAZING! They wove the story of growing up into the the different islands and then the finale was the fire dancers. Fell asleep on the bus ride back. Didn't get home until 11 pm.

Ok that was more than the highlights, on to Friday

Friday: again didn't motivate until 1 pm. Keisha helped me move all the crap I had outside to the curb for trash pickup. We had lunch at a build your own burger place. Saw Rise of Planet of the Apes (not sure how I feel about this - definitely will be talking about animal testing in class this year). Run at 6:30, super fast broke into the 9 min mile. Dinner at the chinese food place down the block. Back to blockbuster for Resident Evil 4 (ugh! so bad and I actually like the RE series) and Leaves of Grass with Edward Norton (hmmmm, interesting EN was excellent, but movie went in all sorts of directions).

Saturday: up at the crack of dawn for the Farmer's market. Managed to grab the last two lettuce. Yum, breakfast burrito! Watched Something New with Sanaa Lantham (funny!). Nap on couch (forgot to take vitamin) and sadly took Keisha to the airport. Managed to run after completely cleaning the house. So sad that she left, I really had a great time, even if we didn't really do to much.

Sunday: grad school project (final one for this class), short run since I was having technical issues with recording the narration to my PowerPoint

which brings me to today. eek! one week left of summer vacation. I know I should feel happy that I get time off during the summer. Some people only get two weeks of vacation a year. And many schools are already back at school. But I am in a panic about returning to school. I feel like I worked alot, but with nothing to show....and classes begin next Thursday. 3 mile run today - was cruising until the end and with 5 minutes left, I was done.

Well, to sum up.....I am proud to say that I have still run EVERY DAY in Aug. I still have a mental game to get myself outside, but I have run.