Okay gang, I'm feeling a bit better today and want to dive into a list of random happenings and things going on in my life. I don't really have a theme, so we're just calling this "whatever" Wednesday and let's go with it.
1. First off, Syracuse is in the Sweet Sixteen!!!! Gahhhh -- this has been SO fun to watch!
For those of you who have been around here a while, you know I am a huge Syracuse basketball fan, considering that's where I went to school. Last season was a bit of a bust and moving to Atlanta made it difficult for me to watch a lot of the games so it was hard for me to watch a lot. I tried checking out a lot of the "Syracuse bars" I heard about and none seemed all that great. But luckily, I have made a few Syracuse friends while living here and March Madness has been so much fun to watch.
Last Friday we played Dayton, and I set up shop to work remotely from a location with WiFi where I could watch the game.
Then on Sunday evening when we played against Middle Tennessee, a bunch of Syracuse fans/friends all got together to watch the game also. They had a different game playing on the big screen when we arrived and I pretty much asked every employee in the place if they could change the channel until someone finally did!
I cannot wait for the rest of the basketball tournament and I have been beyond excited at how we've been doing so far. I didn't even think we would make it into the tournament until a couple weeks ago so this has been such a fun week to watch my favorite school in the big dance! Haters, back off. Sweet Sixteen, here we come!
2. On Sunday, before going to watch the basketball game, I went out to do some volunteering with my friend Brick's nonprofit organization. A number of my friends are very into volunteerism in Atlanta and participate in an regular event that cooks and feeds meals to the homeless. They've done really cool events in the past, such as a pop up three course meal served on candled tables with white tablecloths to give a great experience. This past Sunday was the annual Easter dinner that the group cooks and serves, along with Easter egg hunt, Easter candy, and other activities for the kids. Brick paired up with a local photographer to have family photos taken, and then having the kids decorate frames to put the pictures in. I went to help out and it was tons of fun and a great event. I was very proud of my friends for all that they do for the community!
A simple thing like a family photo may not seem like a huge deal for those of us with iPhones who take 100 pictures a day. But for families who are homeless and living in a shelter, it might not be something that they have and a single photo could become a cherished momento. I loved the concept, was inspired by my friends, and even made some photo frames myself!
3. Speaking of volunteerism and charity work - on Friday night of last weekend, I attended another charity event with a friend. I attended a dinner with my friend Janet that she got to go to due to her job, which celebrated women of achievement in the world of volunteerism. They were raising money for battered women's shelters and domestic violence support and there were some incredibly moving speakers a part of the event. I felt very lucky to be able to attend, and it was great to see my friend who I usually see at 6:00 a.m. and in running clothes, dolled up nice and out on a Friday evening :)
4. Last week when I was in Wilmington, North Carolina for work, we did a team event of going to out to laser tag. To be honest, I totally wasn't looking forward to it because laser tag really isn't my thing. However, the place we went to totally blew me away. They had all these different types of guns, it was really sophisticated in the the way that you had to shoot, charge, and reload your guns. And I am not a huge gun person, so even beyond that, I wasn't looking forward to the idea of just trying to shoot as many people as possible. However, this place had a ton of different games that involved strategy and teamwork and I totally love it. I would absolutely do this again!
5. A few months ago, a friend of a friend, and fellow runner (although much more advanced than me) started a blog called Athlettuce to write about her efforts to run a marathon in each state. She is totally rocking both the running and the blogging. I am always impressed when bloggers just come out of nowhere and totally just knock it out of the park. She is building a great following!
One of the cool things is that she even made t-shirts for her blog and was nice enough to mail me one. I grabbed it out of the mail when heading out on a work trip so I tried it on in my hotel room. Excuse my Alladin PJ pants and check out the cool shirt. Thank you Athlettuce!!
6. Snapchat filters have been really fun lately. I just wanted to share this ridiculous picture from when my flight is delayed. I love that Snapchat is a social media site that I can just use when I am bored and not think about the lasting impression so much.
7. I've been on a reading kick lately and have gotten through some pretty great books. I just finished up the book Shantaram, which I thought was fantastic. The stories within it were incredible and the language and detail with which the author described everything was incredible. It was really beautifully written and there were many, many quotes that I bookmarked for myself to remember because they were really beautiful and insightful. It was a long book, but I got through it really fast.
This week I did something that I haven't done since I was in high school and I joined the public library in Atlanta! I am excited to read more and am taking recommendations if you have any!
8. Last night Brick and I went to an event taking place in downtown Atlanta that discussed Google Fiber coming to Atlanta and what that means for social justice issues. I arrived there first and went up to a random group of people who were also just all there for the event and started talking to the group and joined their conversation. There were two men and one woman in the group.
When Brick arrived, she walked over, gave me a hug, and then walked over to the table with snacks to grab a plate of food. At that same time, the woman who had been talking with our group apparently turned and walked over to the snack table. She stopped Brick and said, "Who was that that you hugged over there?"
Brick replied, "My friend Katelyn? And... who are you?"
We both thought it was incredibly random that this woman who didn't introduce herself to Brick or say anything to me when I was talking to the group, went up to her and just asked who I was. That is all.
9. I really love the "On this day..." posts on Facebook that bring up old memories. Because I posted SO much years ago, I always get really interesting and meaningful posts. I recently shared when I received a notification about when I started a Couch to 5K program for the first time, and then last week I received a notification from when I reached the weight loss goal I had set for myself. When I started losing weight I was over 210 pounds. I always had the goal of weighing under 150, which is what is technically a "healthy" BMI for myself.
I think I only managed to be under 150 for a week or so back in 2012. And then I reached that goal for the first time again this past summer. Right now I am about 10 pounds above that at 160 and would love to be able to work towards that again. I've been really focused this past week on eating healthy and trying to remotivate myself to not just eat everything I can get my hands on.
10. And finally, after my moody posts from the other day, my pep talk is sinking in and I have decided to just give the next two months the absolute best that I can. Today I am really proud of my workouts and everything I did to take care of my body.
I started this morning with swim practice, which had a really fun and different workout. We did a lot of 25s on tight intervals and it was a small group. I pushed myself to keep up with the boys in the group (I was the only girl) and really made the most of a tougher than I thought it would be workout.
This evening, I brought my bike over to the Silver Comet trail after work and rode for an hour. I know that I have been averaging about 15 mph so I wanted to get in at least 15 miles during the ride. I ended up after riding 30 minutes being a little under 7.5 so I challenged myself on the way back to beat my time and make it back in under an hour. There were a few other bikers that I used as motivation to keep up with/race on the way back and hit my goal of beating my first half split.
I then switched shoes and gear, and returned back out for a quick 2 mile run that ended up being 9:00 minute miles. I know it is only 2 miles but I was really happy with that! From now on out, I want to run at least a mile after my bike rides. I need to get better at that transition from being on the bike to running. This evening was absolutely gorgeous and the kind of night that you just feel happy to be outside. I felt really happy when I finished up my workouts for the day, came home and foam rolled, stretched, ate a healthy dinner, took and epsom salt bath, and got myself ready for the next day. Right now, I'm feeling very inspired :)
1. First off, Syracuse is in the Sweet Sixteen!!!! Gahhhh -- this has been SO fun to watch!
For those of you who have been around here a while, you know I am a huge Syracuse basketball fan, considering that's where I went to school. Last season was a bit of a bust and moving to Atlanta made it difficult for me to watch a lot of the games so it was hard for me to watch a lot. I tried checking out a lot of the "Syracuse bars" I heard about and none seemed all that great. But luckily, I have made a few Syracuse friends while living here and March Madness has been so much fun to watch.
Last Friday we played Dayton, and I set up shop to work remotely from a location with WiFi where I could watch the game.
Then on Sunday evening when we played against Middle Tennessee, a bunch of Syracuse fans/friends all got together to watch the game also. They had a different game playing on the big screen when we arrived and I pretty much asked every employee in the place if they could change the channel until someone finally did!
I cannot wait for the rest of the basketball tournament and I have been beyond excited at how we've been doing so far. I didn't even think we would make it into the tournament until a couple weeks ago so this has been such a fun week to watch my favorite school in the big dance! Haters, back off. Sweet Sixteen, here we come!
2. On Sunday, before going to watch the basketball game, I went out to do some volunteering with my friend Brick's nonprofit organization. A number of my friends are very into volunteerism in Atlanta and participate in an regular event that cooks and feeds meals to the homeless. They've done really cool events in the past, such as a pop up three course meal served on candled tables with white tablecloths to give a great experience. This past Sunday was the annual Easter dinner that the group cooks and serves, along with Easter egg hunt, Easter candy, and other activities for the kids. Brick paired up with a local photographer to have family photos taken, and then having the kids decorate frames to put the pictures in. I went to help out and it was tons of fun and a great event. I was very proud of my friends for all that they do for the community!
A simple thing like a family photo may not seem like a huge deal for those of us with iPhones who take 100 pictures a day. But for families who are homeless and living in a shelter, it might not be something that they have and a single photo could become a cherished momento. I loved the concept, was inspired by my friends, and even made some photo frames myself!
3. Speaking of volunteerism and charity work - on Friday night of last weekend, I attended another charity event with a friend. I attended a dinner with my friend Janet that she got to go to due to her job, which celebrated women of achievement in the world of volunteerism. They were raising money for battered women's shelters and domestic violence support and there were some incredibly moving speakers a part of the event. I felt very lucky to be able to attend, and it was great to see my friend who I usually see at 6:00 a.m. and in running clothes, dolled up nice and out on a Friday evening :)
4. Last week when I was in Wilmington, North Carolina for work, we did a team event of going to out to laser tag. To be honest, I totally wasn't looking forward to it because laser tag really isn't my thing. However, the place we went to totally blew me away. They had all these different types of guns, it was really sophisticated in the the way that you had to shoot, charge, and reload your guns. And I am not a huge gun person, so even beyond that, I wasn't looking forward to the idea of just trying to shoot as many people as possible. However, this place had a ton of different games that involved strategy and teamwork and I totally love it. I would absolutely do this again!
5. A few months ago, a friend of a friend, and fellow runner (although much more advanced than me) started a blog called Athlettuce to write about her efforts to run a marathon in each state. She is totally rocking both the running and the blogging. I am always impressed when bloggers just come out of nowhere and totally just knock it out of the park. She is building a great following!
One of the cool things is that she even made t-shirts for her blog and was nice enough to mail me one. I grabbed it out of the mail when heading out on a work trip so I tried it on in my hotel room. Excuse my Alladin PJ pants and check out the cool shirt. Thank you Athlettuce!!
6. Snapchat filters have been really fun lately. I just wanted to share this ridiculous picture from when my flight is delayed. I love that Snapchat is a social media site that I can just use when I am bored and not think about the lasting impression so much.
7. I've been on a reading kick lately and have gotten through some pretty great books. I just finished up the book Shantaram, which I thought was fantastic. The stories within it were incredible and the language and detail with which the author described everything was incredible. It was really beautifully written and there were many, many quotes that I bookmarked for myself to remember because they were really beautiful and insightful. It was a long book, but I got through it really fast.
This week I did something that I haven't done since I was in high school and I joined the public library in Atlanta! I am excited to read more and am taking recommendations if you have any!
8. Last night Brick and I went to an event taking place in downtown Atlanta that discussed Google Fiber coming to Atlanta and what that means for social justice issues. I arrived there first and went up to a random group of people who were also just all there for the event and started talking to the group and joined their conversation. There were two men and one woman in the group.
When Brick arrived, she walked over, gave me a hug, and then walked over to the table with snacks to grab a plate of food. At that same time, the woman who had been talking with our group apparently turned and walked over to the snack table. She stopped Brick and said, "Who was that that you hugged over there?"
Brick replied, "My friend Katelyn? And... who are you?"
We both thought it was incredibly random that this woman who didn't introduce herself to Brick or say anything to me when I was talking to the group, went up to her and just asked who I was. That is all.
9. I really love the "On this day..." posts on Facebook that bring up old memories. Because I posted SO much years ago, I always get really interesting and meaningful posts. I recently shared when I received a notification about when I started a Couch to 5K program for the first time, and then last week I received a notification from when I reached the weight loss goal I had set for myself. When I started losing weight I was over 210 pounds. I always had the goal of weighing under 150, which is what is technically a "healthy" BMI for myself.
I think I only managed to be under 150 for a week or so back in 2012. And then I reached that goal for the first time again this past summer. Right now I am about 10 pounds above that at 160 and would love to be able to work towards that again. I've been really focused this past week on eating healthy and trying to remotivate myself to not just eat everything I can get my hands on.
10. And finally, after my moody posts from the other day, my pep talk is sinking in and I have decided to just give the next two months the absolute best that I can. Today I am really proud of my workouts and everything I did to take care of my body.
I started this morning with swim practice, which had a really fun and different workout. We did a lot of 25s on tight intervals and it was a small group. I pushed myself to keep up with the boys in the group (I was the only girl) and really made the most of a tougher than I thought it would be workout.
This evening, I brought my bike over to the Silver Comet trail after work and rode for an hour. I know that I have been averaging about 15 mph so I wanted to get in at least 15 miles during the ride. I ended up after riding 30 minutes being a little under 7.5 so I challenged myself on the way back to beat my time and make it back in under an hour. There were a few other bikers that I used as motivation to keep up with/race on the way back and hit my goal of beating my first half split.
I then switched shoes and gear, and returned back out for a quick 2 mile run that ended up being 9:00 minute miles. I know it is only 2 miles but I was really happy with that! From now on out, I want to run at least a mile after my bike rides. I need to get better at that transition from being on the bike to running. This evening was absolutely gorgeous and the kind of night that you just feel happy to be outside. I felt really happy when I finished up my workouts for the day, came home and foam rolled, stretched, ate a healthy dinner, took and epsom salt bath, and got myself ready for the next day. Right now, I'm feeling very inspired :)
BATTLE HOUSE LASER TAG!!!!
ReplyDeleteSO FUN. The first time I went I was also very doubtful because I didn't really like laser tag, but now it's a favorite for my group of friends. It's also totally how I sprained my ankle last year :P
a) what an inspiring, amazing, and go-getting group you have down there! i'm so impressed by all of you girls!
ReplyDeleteb) i hear you on the 150/goal weight issues. i started whole30 yesterday to lose the last ten or so pounds i hate. i feel like at one point i was under 140, but then i also think i am imagining that. i'm sitting at about 146 right now and am convinced that with just a little discipline, i can be between 135 and 138. am i dreaming?
c) what a great idea to run after every bike! go get 'em gf.