No Place Like Home

I've been traveling a lot lately for work...Orlando, Philly, Louisville, the list goes on. It's always exciting to visit new places, experience new things, but I find myself missing home before my plane even leaves the runway. In new cities I always feel on edge, worried about everything that is out of my control. What if my taxi never shows up, plane is delayed or bags don't arrive? What if I go to the wrong venue or have the wrong time & show up late? What if I don't sell enough, hotel lost my reservation, expo doesn't have our company name listed? Questions flow through my mind like speeding bullets.


I'm the type of person that has to go through every scenario & figure out what I'd do in each circumstance, so I'm ready for the worst. I hate being caught off guard. It helps me to be prepared, but it's very stressful to always be figuring out the many ways something can go wrong, and these work trips make it so much worse because I'm there representing someone else, it's not just about me.


This is why my favorite place to be is home. Sitting on my couch, snuggling with the pup, I can't think of a single thing that could go wrong. I love the feeling of being somewhere familiar, somewhere comforting. A place where I know where everything is, where the smells and the sounds are almost a part of me. I know what it sounds like when the AC is about to turn on, what I'm going to hear when the puppies in the apartment nearby are out on their balcony. I'd know which room of my apartment I was in just by the smell & the feel of it. There is no place like home.


I miss it when I'm away. I miss my bed, having all my things, being able to get up & make dinner, playing my music loudly with the windows open & the breeze blowing in. Even the little things like the taste of my tap water, the feel of my soft paper towels, the way the mirror in my bathroom never fogs up. Mostly though, when I'm gone, I miss this little pup...
Ellie Bear
....and I can't wait to come home to her.

I Run, Therefore I am Nuts

I ran the Chicago marathon on 10/12/08 in 6 hours, 26 minutes & 19 seconds. My goal time was 5 hours….yeah, not even close. In my defense it was around 85 degrees when I crossed the finish line…in Chicago….in October….what?!?


I was never a runner. In college I would sit on the couch while my roommates went running, eating Cheetos & drinking beer. I just didn’t get it, it wasn’t fun. My best friend Melanie convinced me to start doing short runs with her when we both moved to Austin after college. I would do a mile 3 or so times a week & that was plenty. Why would I go further than that when that itself was so painful? I thought I was tough shit running a whole mile.

She started talking about this 5K in Brenham that she wanted to do with her boss (who was like a real runner). 3 miles? Yeah right, that’s crazy talk. After a few days, I finally agree to go (mainly because I heard it was run by Blue Bell & there would be free unlimited ice cream after the race). So we drive there & her boss goes to sign us up…..for the 10K. Huh? What? I’m sorry, you must have me confused with someone else, I can’t run a 10K. Well, we didn’t quite run it, we walked a lot, but I did finish….and I was hooked. From them on running was in my blood.

After running the Cap 10K a few times & some other races, I decided to try for a 1/2 marathon & completed the Austin 1/2 in 2:20…which to this day is my fastest half. This picture is after finishing that race…you can see it in my eyes, I have the running bug for sure!

The day after the Austin 1/2 I signed up for the Chicago marathon….I thought I must be insane! I trained for 6 months & during that training, woke up at 5:30 every Saturday morning, had group training in the 90-100 degree heat on Wed. evenings & ran the San Francisco 1/2 in August. Then the day was finally upon me, I was so nervous! I don’t think I slept a wink the night before. My parents & brother had gone to Chicago with me & we all took a taxi to the starting line. They tried to give me some pep talk, but I wasn’t listening at all.

It took almost half an hour to cross the starting line after the race started, there were so many people! It all started out good, my time at the 1/2 was 2:42, only 12 min. off my goal time! Then it all went downhill. It started getting hotter & hotter and I was getting slower & slower. I started feeling sick & had to start walking around mile 21 or so. For a while I didn’t even think I was going to finish. I just kept telling myself, “just make it to the next water stop & then you can stop”. Then I would go to the next & then the next…and then I saw the finish line. Yes, I am crying in this picture.

From someone who used to sit on the couch while everyone else was out running, I had come a long way! I placed 30,081 out of 31,34, but I DID place…I finished!