Another Year Gone, Another to Shine On

Yesterday, Philip and I reached our NINE-year dating and SIX-year engagement anniversary (whoa.). I'd planned on blogging about it yesterday but thought to myself, "I don't want to worry about blogging about it when I need to LIVE it." We spent the evening enjoying each other's company and ate some fabulous pancakes for dinner.

{xmas at his mom's, 2004, about 8 months after we began dating}

{xmas 2004 at my grandma's house. philip had hair!}

{xmas 2012}

The only thing that could have made the evening with him more perfect was some warmer weather (for real! where's my sunshine? doesn't Kansas know it's mid-April??).



Jes

Gnarly Neon 5k and My 2013 Garden

I was in the midst of writing this new blog post when the Boston Marathon explosions occurred. There are absolutely no words to express the sheer sadness of this ruthless action, and my whole heart goes to those affected by the attack. I've spent most of the time since hearing of it in tears, even though I don't know anyone who was there at the time. The fact that someone or some group would attack innocent people who came out to cheer on loved ones and strangers is sick and wrong and abominable.

Anyway, here's the post I meant to put up. It all seems so trivial now, doesn't it?
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Hey there!

It's looking more like spring around here! You know what that means for me? Races and gardens :D (and also being outdoors, the return of Mad Men and Game of Thrones, and my birthday!!!!!)

I ran my first races in 2012, and I'm continuing to this year. I'm eyeing about 7-8 different races, the first of which I just completed this past weekend. The Gnarly Neon 5k was my jump into the "dirty/colorful" racing series (like The Color Run, Color Me Rad, etc.). There were things I enjoyed about this race and things that weren't too awesome.

The weather, though a little nippy for 9:00am on a Saturday morning, turned out to be rather pleasant. I started the run with a light jacket on over my white shirt that was soon to be smudged in color but took off the jacket about halfway through the race once I finally warmed up.

It wasn't a timed race, which I was at first disappointed by, but it didn't make sense to time anyone! We experienced a little bit of bottlenecking at the three color stations. Plus, this race was all about hanging out with my friends (at least it was for me). I was on my own for a while after the first color station and then found two of my friends right before the second station, then we found everyone else and ran together the rest of the way. That was probably the best part of the whole experience--being with my friends.

There was no flipping way I was going to get my phone and running case covered in weird, colorful chalky gunk, so I decided to run sans music. Running without music was a wholly new and very enjoyable experience for me. It allowed me to really try out the 3:2 breathing method I'd read about in last month's Running Times. I was just having a great time and realized I was doing the breathing method backwards (exhaling 3 counts: breathing 2 counts instead of visa versa).

Didn't end up with too much color dust on me. My friends got pelted in the face and in the ear with it. It was basically just people bent over boxes filled with color dust throwing it on runners as they passed by.

{m-fer it was cold.}

{Team Effing Carl...you'd get it if you watch The Walking Dead}

{Little Mermaid running tights?!? I die!}

{I'm off! still in my red jacket...it was COLD!}

{not too much color on my front, more on my back}

Also, garden 2013!! I'm working on arugula, lettuce, beets, cucumbers, zucchini, oregano, cilantro, lavender, basil, and swiss chard. Here's the progression so far:

{a couple of days ago}

{whoa!}

{lettuce grows amazingly fast}

Jes

Home, Feb 3 (wah wah...)

Ah, the end of the journey. Everything accomplished and still wanting more. That's the basis of how I felt upon returning to Galveston at the end of the week-long cruise. I loved being able to get away from everything, meet new people (I talked with lots of new people--strangers and the crew), and see places I'd only ever dreamed about. 

{last sunrise...already docked in Galveton}

{goodbye balcony}

One piece of advise from disembarking is to GO EARLY. We didn't want to hang out any longer on the ship than necessary (would only cut into the driving time back). So we chose to hang on to our bags and take early disembarking, which just meant bringing our bags down to deck four and waiting to be lead out in a group. We, luckily, hit the first group and were off the ship and through customs in probably 20-25 minutes (maybe even less!). I will definitely do this on future cruises.

{still amazed by how large the ship is when on lad}

{parting view...sigh}

The drive from Galveston to Wichita was SO. FREAKING. LONG. Instead of stopping for the night, like on the drive down, we powered through and got back in the evening. Still, longest drive everrrrr...

{Sam Houston statue, looming large}

Once back, it seemed totally surreal. Philip and Enu fared well while I was gone that entire time, as I expected. 

{Philp trying out his creepy old man marionette}

{trying on his luchador mask. best souvenir ever.}

{unpacking hell.}

And with that, I'd like to announce that I'm moving to Belize. Peace out!


Jes


PS--Just joking...(sadly). But I'd love to move to Belize someday. Out of any other the places we visited, it grew on me the most.

At Sea, Feb 2

No one likes returning from a fantastic vacation. NO ONE. (And if you secretly do...what's wrong with you?!?)

However, boozing it up certainly helps one forget about being on the downslope of a vacation. That's pretty much what our last whole day at sea consisted of.

Jen and I, along with some other ladies from our group, went to Bartender Paul's second cocktail class. We tasted four fabulous cocktails, including RCCL's signature Razzle Dazzle drink. So frapping good!

{oh yeah, plus it rained...another reason to drink.}

{Annette helping Paul mix up drinks}

{the result: pretty darned tasty!}

{this is what happens when you get to class late...short chairs!}

{tall Jes and short Jen}

{group shot!}

{the fourth and final cocktail...so delicious}

{ah, i miss my tan...}

Our last dinner consisted of Rachel and Jen trying their best "Jes photo faces." The evidence is below.

{the ladies pre-joking}

{one of my photo faces they tried to replicate}

{Jen's attempt is fairly dead-on}

{Rachel channeling me, ha!}

So, instead of depressing myself during our last full day of cruising, I found myself some drinks and an RCCL Catalog to peruse in an attempt to find my next vacation. 

Jes

Cozumel, Feb 1

What's up? It's Friday! Woo! Two months ago on a Friday similar to this, I was in Cozumel! (Well, OK, it was warmer, though strangely cloudier...). I remember that day well...

{Jen showing the RCCL Allure of the Seas passengers what's what}

{breakfast next to the larger ship}

{oh, my poor, burnt forehead...i think it started peeling this day...urg}

{the girls in front of both ships}

{ready for the beach, I think?}

{it really is fascinating to see two ships side-by-side like this. and I thought our ship was huge...maybe some day i'll take a trip on the Allure or Oasis of the Seas}

{Playa del Mia beach...totally made up for the cloudy weather!}

{this was some neat sand. we kept finding seashells in it, and my feet were buffed after walking around in it for several hours}

{the beach really was quite beautiful and well-maintained}

{selfies!}

{"oh, we aren't allowed on this right now? ok..."}

{for $15 more than the regular excursion fee, we got FREE DRINKS all day...worth it!}

{Rachel! PINA! lol}

{stormy skies...it did end up misting for a while, but nothing too bad}

{exfoliating!}

{who goes to Mexico and reads on the beach? these gals.}

{jen posing in the luchador mask i bought my husband as a souvenir}

{woo!}

{view back on the boat}

{magnificent water in Cozumel}

{how cute is that?!? the Allure crew held up a huge hand to wave 'goodbye' to us as we left}

{i stood on our balcony and watch us depart for quite some time}

{at this point, i wasn't thrilled to have to go back to reality}

{our 2nd formal dinner night...we decided to take one happy and one sad photo...the photographers kept hiding this sad face print behind the happy one when on the display, haha!}

{after-dinner drinks at Bolero's with rachel}

{so damned sunburned...}

Only two more days to put on here! It's two months after the cruise, and I wish I was back there.


Jes