I Did It!

‘Fade Into You’

-Mazzy Star

This has been a month of new adventures and trials! First off I ShamWowed for the first time, (that is another blog post in itself) but most importantly I completed a 5K for the first time. I was told I am now a real life runner. Next stop is a 10K, half marathon and then maybe next year the St. George Marathon. I’m not sure about running 26.something miles but we shall see.

The blue card above shows all my finishing information so no need to explain the details. However I am super stoked that for my first 5K I did it in under 30 minutes and managed to be 11th in my age group! Getting up at 5am and running at 7am was well worth it! I am ready for something new to challenge myself with.

I managed to narrow my playlist down to a few select rockin tunes and here is the listing from my official run Saturday that actually managed to shuffle to attention.

‘Why Don’t You Love Me (Jump Smokers Radio Edit)’

-Beyonce

‘Got Love to Kill’

-Juliette and the Licks

‘Living Dead Girl (Subliminal Seduction Remix)’

-Rob Zombie

‘Kids (Soulwax Remix)’

-MGMT

‘Kiss With a Fist’

-Florence + the Machine

‘4 Minutes (feat Justin Timberlake and Timbaland)

-Madonna

‘3’

-Britney Spears

‘Odyle’

-Heloise & the Savior Faire

While I was running I had a few moments when I wished I had taken my cell phone along just for the pleasure of photo’s that needed to be taken. First up was the old man who was walking faster than I was running. Don’t worry I managed to pass him and never look back but it took a minute or two. For the simple fact that he was speed walking so fiercely that his hips would threaten to knock me down every time I tried to pass him. I mean, I can’t swing my hips that hard or far out! We also had a ton of little kids that participated in the 5K. They were flying! God speed to their youth! Lastly after I crossed the finish line I spotted a guy who I thought could double as Willy Nelsons twin from the back side.

Not sure if the front could be equally twin worthy but still it was great. He was wearing these awful American Flag inspired shorts that were much shorter than the red ones I wore (see below photo) and then he had one of them hats that also has the bandana tail thing on the back. It too was American Flag themed. Then to top off the look he had the Willy Nelson hair. Maybe I was just tired from the running I had just done and the 5 hours of sleep from the night before but I almost walked up and asked for an photo with him.

I did run the entire time and not once stopped! That was a goal of mine and then of course to finish in under 30min. I am ready for another race, but I think my next one will be a 10K and they have one coming up in December.

While all this has been a lot of fun to prep for, if we recall back to my first post on this new running habit of mine I used it as a stress outlet. While I still treat it as such I am amazed at the amount of planning I can get done. The photography business, ARG IMAG, has been picking up and I have some big jobs in the next few months so to gather all my thoughts on these has been great. Besides all the planning I have gotten done I have come to terms with certain decisions I am having to make and I am ok with them. I love my life and where I am!

Thanks to all those that supported and cheered me on during this new adventure I have partaken of! You guys rock!!! And most importantly Trina (left) and Roz (right) you two are the best running partners EVER and you tore it up! Plus let's not forget we had killer shirts!

'Tom's Diner'

-Suzanne Vega

-Gawdun

Clip A What?

You know, bless Hillary Clinton's heart! She is such a wreck and trying really hard in her political position, I commend her on the efforts she is doing. However did any of you see the hysterics that ensued this week after her latest UN gig? If not here you go...

I am dying when I see this photo. If you want more check out the slide show The Huffington Post has...

Enjoy Friday!

-Gawdun

I Could Not Believe It!!!

Over this weekend I made it down to the Season 6 opening game for the Fabulous Sin City Roller Girls. I was not partaking of the photography side of the bouts (what we call a game in derby speak) as this time I was the teams official Twitter-er ( @SinCityDerby for those that speak tweet.) However I did bring my trusty Lomography camera I spoke of in my last post to test out on a derby. I am printing them this week so check back for shots that I hope turned out. Anyways I was also pumped that it turns out I wont miss the October bout like I thought I would. They moved the date a week earlier! I was going to be in Reno for the October one but it looks like I will be there to cheer and scream my heart out.

I do have to give a shout out to my dear friend Annie for letting me crash at her place, it was a hoot. And man was she cheering enough for the both of us! She picked up my cheer slack so I could keep up with tweets (tweeting is not as easy live as it looks). However we need to down Oreo's next time. I mean we had two bags and not one was opened, but hey at least we got some Arrested Development in!

I will say though that the last two minutes of the last half of the bout were AMAZING! I have never seen a final push to score like that before. I was edge of my seat screaming!!!!

That is all.

-Gawdun

Supersampler Wake

'Electric Feel'

-MGMT

Over the past weekend I joined some friends at the lake. 26 and I sadly have to admit that I had never wake surfed before and the last time I was on a boat was when I was 9 or 10 and it was a tiny fishing boat. (You know the kind seen in the movie 'Date Night.' Yeah it was just as slow.)

It was a day of new things. First off I'm not a fan of water I can't see the bottom in, but that didn't even bother me. When it came time to attempt the surfing I wont lie, I sucked at first. But the guys said I was improving each try. I neither can nor cannot confirm that there was a few choice words out of my mouth at this time. I just about made it standing up but man-alive I needed to take a break, wake surfing sure used muscles I forgot I had. We then decided to hit up the cliff jumping rocks. I said "Heck NO!" to that but in the end jumped not once but twice. It was fun and addicting.

Later though when I tried wake surfing again I feel that I tore it up! One of the guys gave me a pointer on getting up on the board better and it totally worked. I was up and riding behind the boat! It was sick. The only bad time was when we hit, what my aunt calls, "that wave." I am surprised I wasn't knocked out cold. It was nooooo good.

Needless to say the pain in the morning was well worth the adventure.

While I was on the lake I brought along my camera. (I know shocking.) But I didn't bring my work camera I brought myLomography camera. It's a camera from the 'SuperSampler' line. I forgot how much I love shooting with film and this camera....

Bill yet showing how to do such events with the board.

I had Bill take a shot of me with the camera so I did my best to explain from the water how to use the camera. Bill did manage to photograph part of me, er the board I was on. Don’t worry Bill I still love it.

Fred, seriously tears it up. While I need to hold onto the rope he did not need it most the time. That shall be my goal for next time.

The cliff from which we jumped. I only was half way if that on it.

This is by far one of my favorites from the day.

'Dying Day'

-Brandi Carlile

-Gawdun

Now Where Did I Place My Man Card?

I seriously don't know why I do this to myself. From the moment I saw the movie adaptation of, 'Where the Wild Things Are' while it was in theaters I loved it. I just forgot one simple thing. It made me cry! I was all sorts of a hot mess.

Currently I'm hanging out with the family and I said, "hey let's watch 'Where the Wild Things Are.' (I am such an idiot)

We aren't even 30 minutes into it and I'm trying to keep composure. Let's talk about all sorts of human emotion used and expressed.

I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it though.

Amazing music for the film too! Karen O from the 'Yeah Yeah Yeahs' and a bunch of kids cover the soundtrack. Perfect music to mellow out with and then get the occasional jolt of excitement from intertwined music tracks.

But seriously if you by chance have seen my "Man Card" please call/text/message me/or whatever and I'll send you my address that you can send it to, Thanks!

-Andrew

PS: I am man enough to admit this though. If my mom decided to watch 'Steel Magnolias' I would truly have to leave the room. That movie ruins me EVERY TIME! "Here, Take a whack a Wezza!"

Here Ye, The Sounds of Speed

While I just home from a run this early AM and waiting to use the shower I thought it would be a grand idea to share my running playlist and how well I am doing at this 5K prep.

With only 2 weeks from today I am on track. Tuesday of this week I RAN (no walk) with 2 others that are running the 5K with me a total of 2 miles. Wednesday I did (RAN) 2.1 by myself. That was hard as running with others turned out to be much easier, but I ran the whole thing.

Thursday was a booked day with work and a hysterical night that unless you were there I will never talk about, well except the point where I launched myself off my chair in the middle of 'Inception.' (Another post for another time.) But I will say it was my 3rd time seeing it so sleeping was inevitable.

Friday I was just too pooped to run. I knew I should have pushed myself but I didn't. I was given a complement at work though by one of the fellow co-workers who also is an avid runner with her boyfriend. She said you can totally tell I am running. It shows in my mid section. Now I'm no chubby buddy (as Kirstie Alley calls it) but I had developed a small attachment that I have been attempting to kill. I guess all this running is working better than the other stuff I did.

However today I got home and in bed at 2:30am. (It was my normal Friday of closing the bar and Ruby). I still managed to get up at 8:30 against better judgement and run at 9. As posted of Facebook I ran 2.2 miles today in 18:14 which averaged 8:42 a mile! Next week I kick it up to the full 3.1 miles.

To end it here is the playlist from today:

'Got Love to Kill'

-Juliette Lewis

'King of the Berry (Piano Slam Mix)'

-Happy Monkey

'Click Flash'

-Ciara

'My First Kiss (feat Ke$ha)'

-3OH!3

and half of...

'Empire State of Mind (feat Alicia Keys)'

-Jay-Z

Hope the weekend rocks for y'all!

-Gawdun

You Can Go Where You Wanna...

Boy did I do it to myself now!

I officially signed up for my first 5K today. I have never been a big runner, in fact I would say I only ran when Sydney Bristow would run... Stressed out times. However two weeks ago I made the mistake of tweeting a post to my facebook account on my awesome run for the day. 2.6 miles after not running for 3 months. Ok let me level with y'all. I did a lot of running mixed with walking, but I did it. After I posted the tweet I was notified by a friend of a 5K that was coming up soon. After doing a little research I learned that a 5K is only 3.1 miles.

Oh I got this in the bag :)

Today I ran 2 miles non stop with two fellow 5K runners!

I have learned though I have a new addiction... I can't stop thinking about running! I mean I want to get out and do another run right now. I'm like a crack addict I think. Although tomorrow is almost here and I can run again.

The big day is on Saturday, September 25th at 7am. I don't care about being the first person to cross the line in my age and sex group, I just want to run the whole thing and finish. And darn tootin I will do just that.

Besides it was only a $12 entry fee, only...

-Gawdun

What a Zip Code It Is.

Today was a great day! I have turned a long over due leaf. I mean it only took me since early January till now to get outta this funk. I have a huge amount of people and thoughts to thank on this. (Yeah you can thank thoughts too.)

However the last couple of days did it for me and then waking up today and learning that it was 9/02/10 day (90210) I was fist pumping all over town! But this post will be dedicated to the wonderful series of 90210.

Growing up, my family, as I've said before, lived the mobile home life. We loved our Roseanne and such. However thanks to a former network we called, The WB, we were introduced to the syndication of the wonderfully trashy show, 'Beverly Hills 90210.' My mother had to screen it first and for some reason decided that it was appropriate for us to watch. As I have since seen it on cable in syndication I seriously wonder if my mom was high at the time cause this show is scandalous with a capital S!! Either way we watched it and then there was the time we had a babysitter who thought we shouldn't be watching it so she changed it. I remember telling her my mom let us and she highly doubted it. I guess my mom was much cooler than hers.

The show provided me with one of my first childhood crushes... Shannon Doherty! (silent sigh) She was mean, hot, and smart. But let us not forget that she was seriously misunderstood.

HOWEVER I'm still not happy with the way Kelly and Brandon ended. I think that was crap and they were meant for each other. Dylan schmillan! All the bad things happened to Kelly too. She was shot, developed an eating disorder, amnesia, canceled her wedding, almost killed by a psycho girl who wanted to be her, and the list goes on.

And who could forget the parents of Brenda and Brandon? Or the Peach Pit? Peach Pit After Dark gave me the dream of opening a night club one day (still want to).

I hope you all enjoyed your 90210 day, I know I did. There is still time if you haven't and have time in your day left.

PS: The new version is crap! I'm just saying I tried it once but never made it past 5 minutes. Nothing can take my Brenda away :)

(I will now lower my head in shame and think of something manly to post about next time)

-Gawdun