One to Nothin'

Friday’s Letters

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Dear Brighthouse, Thank you for capturing my true side in this photo. Dear Crossfit, I was not mentally or physically prepared for you. This is the second time this week my body has been cripplingly sore (I can’t even find a comfortable position to type in right now. Everything hurts.), and I have not felt this out of shape, maybe ever. Dear Muscles, You need to be strengthened, STAT. 
Dear San Francisco, I will be all up in you very soon. I am beyond excited. It’s surreal. 
Dear Thanksgiving, Holy crap, where did you come from? I feel like Halloween hasn’t actually happened yet. Time is a bizarre thing. Dear Jessica, I’m glad you had a fabulous honeymoon, but I am so happy to be able to text you on the reg now. There were so many times I tried to update you while you were on your cruise to no avail. I imagine you’ll be getting play-by-plays of Cali all day erryday (whether you like it or not). Dear Self, Where is your holiday spirit this year? I mean, seriously. You live for this stuff. Get your act together. I can’t even remember the last time you crafted something.. Dear Ziggy, I’m sorry you’ve been neglected lately. I promise as soon as my body goes back to normal I will start taking you running again, even if it means having to wake up early. Speaking of.. Dear Time Change, SUCK IT. You are ruining my chances of continuing training for races since the time I like to run is the time you like to get ridiculously dark out. Dark running = terrifying. Dear Big Mack, Just because you ran 13.1 mile almost a week ago doesn’t mean you have permission to eat cake/pie/pizza every day of the week. Quit this madness. Remember when you gave up carbs for 30 days? Yea. Let’s do that again. That was better. Dear Britni, You rock. I don’t know what I’m going to do without you in Cali. Skype and Sushi: A Tale of Two Sisters. Dear Readers, Thanks for being awesome and supportive and funny and not judging me and for just reading the nonsense I babble about on a daily basis. Y’all are the best. 
Love,
Kensie
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When I Drink..

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I’ve been meaning to address this issue for a while now. And by “this issue” I mean hangovers. I heard a rumor that there’s a Hangover III coming out in May, and I thought ‘what a perfect excuse to blog about my EPIC hangovers.’ I’m not exaggerating when I describe my hangovers as epic either. And it’s not like it’s because I’m getting old either because this has been going on since the day I started binge drinking (when I turned 21, obviously.. definitely not before then when I was attending the #1 party school in the country and joined a sorority…) Also, for you goodie two-shoes out there who only drink a glass of champagne on New Year’s Eve, I would advise not reading this post because surely it will do nothing but make you judge me (and it’s too late to call the judge).
So basically my nights out (which have become far more sparse in the past couple of years) follow in the sequence of those lovely gifs: First I’m all “gross, omg, I hate liquor,” then I’m all “MY GO GO JUICE GONNA HELP ME WIIIIIN,” then it’s “I just wanna effing DANCE,” quickly followed by “waaaaaaaahhhhhhh,” then there’s usually a little bit of awful, drunk sleep interrupted soon after by violent vomiting and the next 24 hours are spent telling everyone “I’m never drinking again.”
On particularly awful days, however, the vomiting continues through the next 12-15 hours and I’m almost positive that I’m going to die (this probably hasn’t happened since my 21st birthday, but still). I may or may not have some sort of allergy to alcohol, but as much as these hangovers truly suck, I am a trooper and don’t let it stop me (kind of like when I throw all caution to the wind and devour a triple cheese pizza.. and then hate myself for the next 12 hours). Instead I have come up with some go-to hangover cures (which never, ever work, but they do seem to ease the pain somewhat, so I stick with them).
#1: For whatever reason sweet tea seems to be the only liquid that will go down (and stay down, for the most part) when I’m in hangover mode. And I mean disgustingly sweet tea, too, like the $.99 kind from McDonald’s. The kind that immediately gives you diabetes. The kind I would, under normal circumstances, never subject my body to. Sometimes, after enough sweet tea, Gatorade seems to be helpful as well, but despite my obvious dehydration, my body totally rejects plain old water.
#2: Chick Fil-A. Now if you know anything about me and my beliefs, you’ll see why this is a problem. I absolutely do not want to support an institution like this with my hard earned money, but damn it if they’re nuggets and waffle fries aren’t flippin’ delicious! The Chick Fil-A sauce is the real kicker because where else am I going to find Chick Fil-A sauce?! Most of my fried chicken needs are met these days by Zaxby’s, but their Zax sauce just doesn’t compare. Maybe I’ll learn how to make my own Chick Fil-A sauce… I’ll work on it and get back to you.
#3: Showers are a hangover’s best friend. I have been known to take ridiculously long hangover showers, where often I’m 80% asleep on the floor of the shower. I realize this is wasteful, and I’m a bad person, but when you’re about to vom your guts everywhere, you’re generally not too mindful of the environment (at least temporarily). 
#4: Lastly, Advil. This stuff helps everything. The trick, however, is getting your stomach to a level of calmness to where swallowing the pill will not reverse all the progress previously made. 
Then you just wait. Sleep when you can. Stay very still. Occasionally curl up into fetus position and think about what you’ve done. There are of course some preliminary steps you could take during the night to avoid this situation, like drinking water between drinks, eating food at the end of the night, maybe NOT going drink for drink with dudes who are three times your size, but of course the best way to avoid this debacle would be to not binge drink in the first place. 
And that’s what I plan to do. My body has been through enough abuse, I hereby pledge to take better care of it. As fun as it’s been, hangovers, I never want to see you again. Moderation is a word I’d like to make better use of in my life. I’m not saying I’m never going to drink again (because let’s face it, I like the nightlife, baby), I’m just saying if you see me out and it looks like I’m about to start taking shots, tackle me immediately.
There you have it. An entire blog post inspired by hangovers. You’re welcome.
PS: Check me out over on Whiskey Tango Foxtrot today!!

Sweet Eats: Infusion Tea

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1600 Edgewater Drive Orlando, FL 32804
After staying up until 5am after the Disney Wine & Dine half marathon this past Saturday and sleeping in until 11:30ish, Emma and I needed some food. Despite being so sore that walking was a task, I knew I needed to eat at Infusion Tea again. I had been here once before with Emma when I came to visit her in Orlando on St. Patrick’s Day. I was beyond excited to see that they had an all-vegetarian menu with lots of lactose-free options, including a goat cheese, mushroom, pine nut and sun dried tomato pizza (drooling), which I got the first time. It was amazing. This time I knew I had to try something different since I really want to try the entire menu. I was torn between the Middle Eastern Pizza (Hummus topped with eggplant, roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, goat and feta cheeses, fresh basil and olive oil drizzle) and the Chèvre Panino (creamy herbed goat cheese layered with spinach, marinated artichoke, olives and tomato, grilled on hearty ciabatta). I decided to go with the Chèvre Panino simply because I figured there would be more food (and I did burn over 1300 calories the night before, after all) and it was a fabulous choice. It was accompanied by a delicious bean salad (edamame, chick peas, black beans, raisins, omg) and I tried the Island Coconut iced tea, which was one of their tea specials of the day. It was perfect. Afterward I hit up the pastries and after careful consideration decided on a vegan chocolate and banana cupcake. It was to die for. Seriously. Maybe it’s because I’m overly enthusiastic about anything that’s creamy, delicious, chocolaty AND I don’t have to make myself… but it absolutely hit the spot. Emma got vegan chocolate ice-cream, and it, also, tasted just like the real thing. Heavenly (yes, desserts that don’t hurt my stomach make me say words like ‘heavenly’ and ‘to die for’). 

 

Besides the amazing food and pretty menu, the restaurant doubles as a cute little boutique selling beautiful, eclectic art, jewelry, tea accessories and more. Not to mention the friendly (upretentious hipster) staff, massage chairs and area out front perfect for small, intimate concerts. If you ever find yourself in Orlando and like awesome things, I definitely recommend checking out Infusion Tea

Moving On

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“Girls are taught a lot of stuff growing up. If a guy punches you he likes you. Never try to trim your own bangs and some day you will meet a wonderful guy and get your very own happy ending. Every movie we see, every story we’re told implores us to wait for it, the third act twist, the unexpected declaration of love, the exception to the rule. But sometimes we’re so focused on finding our happy ending we don’t learn how to read the signs. How to tell from the ones who want us and the ones who don’t, the ones who will stay and the ones who will leave. And maybe a happy ending doesn’t include a guy, maybe… it’s you, on your own, picking up the pieces and starting over, freeing yourself up for something better in the future. Maybe the happy ending is just.. moving on. Or maybe the happy ending is this, knowing after all the unreturned phone calls, broken-hearts, through the blunders and misread signals, through all the pain and embarrassment, you never gave up hope.”

Wine&Dine Overview

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Saturday night my friend Emma and I completed the Disney Wine & Dine half marathon at Epcot. It was her first race and my fifth, but let me back up to before the race (segue into the past via doodly doo doodly doo and spiral effect a la Waynes World). At about 11am I woke up Saturday morning and took my time gathering my stuff, chatting with my family and half-assedly trying to print my race waiver to “save time” at the expo (where I glanced at the hours and noticed it only ran until 4, so I decided I wouldn’t stress but I should probably head out), and I was finally in my car about to drive to Orlando around 1:30pm.  I arrived at Emma’s house at 3pm, but I didn’t realize that just because someone lives in Orlando doesn’t mean it takes 15 minutes to get everywhere in Orlando (like my little hometown of Ocala). So she informs me that it takes about an hour to get to the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex from her house. *Insert freakout here* We then jumped into her Prius, started stress-drinking Gatorade, speeding and even running a toll plaza due to a lack of exact change. We arrived at the sports complex at 3:50, sprinted to the expo and picked up our race bibs by 3:52 and picked up our t-shirts and explored for approximately 5 minutes before the announcer said the expo was closed. That’s when we decided we were safe to take pictures.
Lesson learned?
Poor planning not only works out, but it also adds a rush of excitement to your plans!

Then it was just us two wolves running around the desert together in Orlando looking for strippers and cocaine a place to change and dinner. We changed at Publix (after our directionally challenged selves did several U-turns of course) and discussed everything from politics and religion to running strategies over pasta and salad at TGI Fridays. Despite the rush from earlier, we figured it would be best to check our bags a good two hours before last call, so we spent about three hours hanging out with a very enthusiastic runDisney host and a whole lot of costumed folks ready to run and get drunk. We dabbled in the Cupid Shuffle and Macarena. Then it was finally time to get in our corrals. Since Emma had never run before they stuck her in Corral C and since it’s much more fun to be nervous, excited and freezing with a friend, I headed back with her. Turns out, neither of us should have been that far back because we were about to cut some b*tches as we tried to start running after the shotgun and fabulous fireworks went off. We probably lost a whole two minutes in that first mile because there were so many slow pokes in front of us. Another lesson learned.

We stuck together pretty well for the first nine or so miles as a mega-death blister formed and throbbed on the side of my left big toe. Finally I needed to slow down and told Emma to go on without me (another lesson learned: When Emma says she’s not good at something, she’s lying — always. 😉 I then went on my journey through Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot alone. There were mascots everywhere, a giant mechanical turtle, an EPIC Christmas light display (seriously, it was amazing) and finally crazy, trippy fog with a ceiling of laser lights above it leading us to the finish line. Lately my GPS watch has been fritzing on me, so I didn’t bother bringing it. I set the stopwatch on my iPhone just so I’d have an idea, but I was interested to see how I did without constantly checking my pace. I didn’t look at the stopwatch for almost the entire run because, in true running fashion, my music library kept shuffling on the slowest, saddest, most un-epic running songs ever (nothing like these, maybe I should take my own advice..), so I was pretty stoked to see that there was still a chance I could finish under two hours (my fastest one yet was 2:01:51 from the Five Points of Life Marathon in Gainesville about two years ago) at mile 12. Of course, by this time I was completely exhausted and my blister had probably developed its own brain by this point, but I was determined to at least not slow down.

And I didn’t. I finished in 2:00:43, and I officially have a new Personal Record. I am also feeling pretty stoked because not only do I think that if I had been in Corral A I could’ve broke 2 hours, but I also get to train with Emma in San Francisco when we live together, doing epic races and pushing each other to run faster and be better.

Today I am thankful for great friends like Emma, who are willing to go on adventures, talk for hours and who just seem to get me, 100%. Congratulations, my friend, you rocked your first half marathon.

After we finished, found each other and tried to not barf for a while, we started limping around the food and wine festival. The only bad part about going to a food and wine festival after running 13 miles is that you really don’t feel like eating much (oh, and your legs hurt like hell). I decided to use my complimentary $10 gift card in South Korea and Japan, but like I mentioned here, my drink voucher had to be saved for another time — there was no way my stomach was about to tolerate any kind of alcohol. Some how we still managed to stay out until 4am and didn’t arrive back at her place until 5am, which probably explains why I can still barely walk. These calves better be huge by the time they stop burning.. Just saying.

It was a wonderful weekend and I am so glad we got there before 4.

Linking up here & here!

Sunday Confessions

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1. Emma and I almost didn’t make it on time to pick up our race bibs for the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon. We sprinted to the expo to get there before 4pm and only had eight minutes to spare.
2. I don’t think my butt has ever been this sore.
3. I keep thinking my bed is wet because of the icy hot slathered all over my legs.
4. If my dog steps on my hair or rakes her paw against my head one more time while I’m lying here, I might have to kill her.
5. I have THE biggest, gnarliest, most disgusting blister on my foot right now.
6. When I get blisters from running I have this weird compulsion to show them to people. It’s like a disgusting, puss-filled trophy (are you gagging yet?).
7. I giggled so hard when I saw spectators at the race holding signs that said “Runners do it longer,” “Run like her husband’s coming,” “Keep going! Keep going! (that’s what she said)” and “Is that Gu in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”
8. I didn’t drink any wine at the “Wine” & Dine event..
9. I do have a Caprisun-like packet of Sangria in my purse though. Drink voucher well-spent.
10. We didn’t go to sleep until around 5:30am, and I’m probably going to spend the rest of the day in bed.

More weekend details to come tomorrow.
What are your Sunday Confessions? Link up with Alyx here!

PS: Today I am thankful for our veterans. Thank you for all you have done for this country. Happy Veterans Day!

Top 10 Running Songs

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Last night I got a text from one of my best friends ever (one of the Cardinals) that said:

“Top 10 running songs. Ready. Set. Go.”

As I was running around the Japanese steakhouse I work at, I thought to myself, “Challenge accepted.”
Of course I needed time to think about it though, so here you are, Emma. My top 10 running songs, just in time for Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon 2012 (TOMORROW!!), some of which will no doubt simply be epic running songs because they refer to running in general. I’m a big fan of giggling to myself as I’m running and a song coincidentally shuffles on telling me to run. I’m also a huge dork (but you already knew that).

#10  “Seventy Times 7” by Brand New — So violent. So angry. So fun to run to (and sing to ex boyfriends).

#9 “I Ran (So Far Away)” by A Flock of Seagulls (Fun fact: I thought the lyrics were “Aurora borealis burns in you.” Apparently it’s “comes in view”.. who knew?)

#8 “Prayer of the Refugee” by Rise Against — This one gets me so pumped. I’m like, “Bring it, hill. I ain’t never scurred.”

#7 “That’s What You Get” by Paramore — That little ginge gets me all fired up.

#6 “Dance Dance” by Fall Out Boy — Seriously, what happened to them? I love me some FOB.

#5 “Carry On” by Fun. — (Ok, it’s a little slow for a running song, but I love it. And this lyric: “Oh, my head is on fire, but my legs are fine! After all, they are mine.” Also, I pretty much just run to this entire album, always.)

#4 “The Future Freaks Me Out” by Motion City Soundtrack — Just the truth right here. So catchy.

#3 “Dangerous” by the Ying Yang Twins — I may or may not have this entire song memorized. Bet you didn’t realize I had a straight up gangsta side.

#2 “Cute without the E (Cut from the team)” by Taking Back Sunday — Old school TBS rocks my socks off. Middle school-style.

#1 “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen. Obviously.

And just because I love Ke$ha..

If you’re interested in my Wine & Dine playlist from last year, click here, my friends.
And if you’re stopping by from Story of My Life, welcome! Please introduce yourself in the comments so I can come stalk your blogs as well. 🙂
What are your favorite workout songs?

Dog Butt

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This is my life.
Also, today I’m super pumped because one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Kristen of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is giving me a blog makeover!!! I cannot wait to see what she comes up with. So get excited and say adios to the outdated banner cartoon version of myself (with the Rapunzel-like locks). Moving forward! Have a fabulous Thursday, my friends.

What I Wore & Thoughts

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Shirt: Express Outlet / Boots: Steve Madden
Cardi: F21 / Jeans: Billabong / Shoes: Payless / Earrings: INpink
 Top: Buckle / Jacket: Hurley / Jeans: Hollister 
Dress: Kensie Brand / Tights: F21 / Sweater: AE / Necklace: F21
 Shirt: AE / Scarf: The KO Jewelry 🙂
Dress: Old Navy / Shoes: Target / Belt: Target
Shirt & Shorts: AE // Shirt: Old Navy 
 Running Gear brought to you by Nike
Bridesmaid dress brought to you by Jessica
Dress: Cotton on / Wedges: Target / Ring: Dillard’s
Top: Kohl’s / Shoes: Old Navy

It’s amazing to me that I can already wear sweaters and long sleeve tees to run in. I love it. It’s amazing to me that it has been almost five months since I was running the Rock ‘n Roll half marathon in Seattle, and it’s amazing to me that the Disney Wine & Dine half marathon is this weekend. I am so grateful for the changing of seasons, in every sense. I am not a religious person (like, really not), but I heard this song by The Byrds when I was little and I’ve always thought it was awesome. When I started learning about the bible and found out it was from Ecclesiastes, I always kind of clung to it. 
“There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
Even though change is terrifying a lot of times (actually, most of the time), where would we be without it? I would grow so bored of cute boots, scarves and sweaters if it was always cold out. I would long for jorts, flip flops and sundresses. As it is, I’m longing for the west coast. I have two more months of living in the town where I had my first kiss, got my driver’s license, graduated high school and 30 minutes away from where I graduated college. Almost all my cousins, aunts, uncles, brother, sisters, parents and grandma live in Florida. I don’t have any phone numbers memorized that don’t have the area code (352), and I’m moving to California. The opposite side of the country. My only new year’s resolution will be to find a job, and I know I will. Because it’s time for a change.
I am so thankful for change.



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