Author: cheriarmour

Dead car batteries.

| cheriarmour

Good morning!  I’m so sorry for my silence yesterday, but I had to buckle down and get the wedding invites finished.  They are done, they look beautiful, and I’m sending them to work with Austin tomorrow so they can just be DONE and out of my face.

And then, I will just focus on getting as much stuff done as possible until the RSVPs start rolling in.

But I realized today that I am getting married next month and I cannot wait.  I am so ready to see all my friends and family, and most importantly, be married and get my swirl on with my man.  So pumped! Eep!

Okay, so on Monday, I told you guys that my achilles was sort of bugging me, so I embarked on some pool running, which was actually really cool, despite the fact that it looks so so dorky.  It feels like it paid off, because I was able to teach my Zumba class at Aradia on Tuesday, and then I woke up early Wednesday morning, and hit up the treadmill for a pre-work run.  The tendon feels great, and I think I will just stay off the trails for the next few days while I let it decide what it’s going to do.

Dead Car Batteries.

So, I was running around, getting ready to go to work two mornings ago, and I kind of thought that my car was being lazy as it was cranking up.  It sort of coughed, but it started, and I thought nothing of it.

Later that day, just before the World Cup game (ugh, don’t wanna talk about it,) I went to start my car up, and the battery was dead.

Dead BatterySo there I am, on the day that felt like a million degrees, bumming a charge off my boss.  Yikes.

So today, I made sure I got the workout in early, headed to the most unfun store ever (Advance Auto Parts), unfun because there aren’t any fun magazines there or good candy, and I bought a new battery, and the ever-handy hubby-to-be replaced it.

Whew!  What a day.

But my battery is replaced, I ran today and didn’t die of heat stroke, invites are on their way, and I am delightfully sore.  Life is good 🙂

What are you doing for the 4th of July?

 

Ann Coulter

| cheriarmour

Right turn from all the marriage talk and all this talk of texts gone wrong….

So, I can’t really even dignify this by linking to her article – if you’d like to read it, Google it, but Ann Coulter made some pretty heinous remarks about the World Cup as it relates to our country.  I get it, it’s Ann Coulter’s job to say horrifying things and get paid for it, but why do people feel the need to just be so damned mean?  And I’m not gonna sit up here and call her awful names or attack the way she looks, cause to me, that’s stooping to her level.  But it almost makes my throat hurt to know that she spews venom and gets paid for it.  Like, it’s completely beyond me.

img via AP/Peter Kramer
image via AP/Peter Kramer

Which brings me to this.  Once again, feel free to Google this, and luckily I’m not in a place where I’m yet lambasted on the internet, but there is a site, called Get off my Internets, or GOMI, which is entirely dedicated to (mostly) bashing bloggers.  I poked around on the site yesterday and I was astonished by what I was seeing.  Like, talking about a blogger’s weight, talking freely about a blogger’s relationship, or referring to someone as a “skank” for posting pictures of themselves in a bikini?  Just awful just awful.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good laugh, but I feel like if I felt like something like that was going on with a blogger, I’d just STOP READING THEM.  It’s really quite simple.

Why do you think that people feel the need to be so hateful behind their computer screens?

Happy Monday! My sister is a wife!

| cheriarmour

I am celebrated this weekend by going down to Charlotte to witness my little sister getting married. She called me up two weeks ago and told me she was going to get married, so Godspeed dear little sis, as folks are reading this, you have said your “I dos” and you are a married woman!  BAHHH! Make sure you help me to congratulate Deb, but not too much, cause she’s super private and might kill me when she discovered that the paparazzi shots I took are all over my world-famous blog.  Pardon the photo-dump, but you didn’t think i was going to watch my little sister get married without taking any photo evidence, right? PS you HAVE to tell me if anything about this post is weird – WordPress was crashing on me left and write as I was writing it, so let me know 🙂

DSC_0731DSC_0732DSC_0733DSC_0742It was really cool to see, and it literally took two seconds.  We enjoyed some dinner later on that evening, and I had a good time exploring my parent’s new building in downtown Charlotte – since they’re almost empty nesters (they will be as of August), and they moved to a party pad downtown, so I read by the pool, lifted at their gym, and explored for a little while.  I really didn’t want to leave when it was all said and done, but I’m down to my last few days at the old job, and I have to work hard to end on a good note.

How was your weekend? 

My sister is getting married tomorrow + random things Friday

| cheriarmour

Surprise!

My little sister is getting married tomorrow in South Carolina, so tomorrow morning, while all you sleepy-heads are sleeping, I am going to pack myself up, head down, and snap a few photos of my little sister getting hitched.

siblings

Deb is the one on the far right, and this photo was taken when she was the white rabbit in her middle school’s production of Alice in Wonderland.  We were all so little.  And now, she’s getting married like WHAAAA!  It’s so short notice, but I was able to get a sub for my usual Saturday Zumba class and the drive is only about three hours and twenty minutes.

Random things Friday:

A few random things.

  • After a ton of trail running and running in the heat, I think my right calf muscle has had enough of chronically being dehydrated in this heat, and uneven running surfaces, because it was cramping something fierce.

foam rollingI managed to find the poor foam roller at the gym, and I found the trigger point and released a lot of the tension and cramping I was feeling.

  • I’m overwhelmed by the congrats I’m getting on my new job! I am so excited to have the job, and now that the cat is officially out of the bag, I’ve gotten a lot of congratulation emails, a lot of hugs, and a lot of high fives.  However, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed and I’m terrified that I’m going to do a bad job at my new job.  And I want to do a good job, I want to stay there for like five years and be the best person they’ve ever had for the job.  Is that too much to ask?
  • I fell asleep in fully sweaty dirty clothing from teaching a class last night and that’s disgusting.  I know it.  But I feel asleep watching “The Challenge” on MTV, and I woke up like at midnight, and I could barely even drag myself into bed.  If it comes as any consolation, I did have the wherewithal to put clean clothes on, and I will be washing my sheets today.
  • We met with the photographer from Blest this morning at Bob Evans, and it was great.  They have really put my mind at ease as it relates to the photos, and I’m positive we are in good hands.  As a total side note, our server was the worst and would disappear for like, decades at a time.
  • I’m trying not to mentally check out at work because I recognize that although I have put my two weeks in, it ain’t over just yet, and I need to give it one last final push.
  • I want to get a GOOD chunk of wedding things done this weekend.  That means a good chunk of invites, some more stems for my bouquets, and paying a few of my vendors the other half of the deposit I owe them.

Tell me something random about today!

 

Full Circle.

| cheriarmour

A little over two years ago, I was desperately job searching.

I was not yet full time at Fleet Feet, and I had this complex where I felt like the loser in mine and Austin’s relationship.  I know that is imaginary, but once you’re told “no” so many times, your brain starts to play bizarre tricks on you.  You trick yourself into thinking that there’s something seriously the matter with you and your resume, and that the work that you are doing is unimportant.  That l-word starts creeping into your mind too, especially when you see how well friends seem to be doing through the lens of social media.  [Pro tip: No one ever puts the fact that they’re 3 months behind in their house payment on social media, so don’t sweat how amazing people’s lives may seem.]

So 2, nearly three years ago, I interviewed for a position at at my new job, that I felt like would be perfect for me.  So perfect.  I had one interview, then two interviews, and was in the process of setting up my third interview when they broke it off with me and told me that the job would not be mine.

I was heartbroken.  The news came through in an email, and as I received it, I began to dissolve into tears that didn’t stop for two days.  Poor Austin bought me smoothies, and did his best to calm the sobbing, which came in spurts.  I think he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for that.

So about a month or so ago, I interviewed, a very low-key interview for that same job, which had opened up.

One interview turned into two.

The second turned into a third.  And finally, I was offered the job.

I’m in shock.  It’s surreal.  I’m happy.  I’m visualizing all of the incredible things I want to do on the job.  And finally, I am grateful grateful that everything comes full circle, and will happen when it is supposed to.

photo (10)Grateful grateful grateful grateful.

What are you grateful for? 

 

 

Currently…

| cheriarmour

I stole this from Rhapsody and Chaos, and I liked it so well that I am gonna use it!

Reading: Orange is the New Black.  I have been trying to get this book finished forever, but with wedding planning, it’s been challenging to find time.  But I’ve tried to  make some relax time, and made some time at the pool last week, and am making some time for the pool on Friday.

OITNB

Writing: This post – I’ve also played with the idea of writing a book on black women and working out, but that’s not even a thing until we get me married 🙂

Listening: To Dr. Phil.  Amber from Teen Mom is on there.

Watching: I guess Dr. Phil?

Thinking: About taking the day off on Friday so I can get some work done that I’m behind on at the house.

Smelling: The sunblock I use daily.  Sunblock has such a distinct smell.  It reminds me of summer.

Eating: I just finished a breakfast smoothie.  Berries, some Greek yogurt, and a little bit of orange juice.  Very yummy, but it’s very apparent I need a Vitamix.  I ate all the crunchy stuff in the beginning.

Wishing: My house was clean.  But I think the wish won’t work, I think I might actually have to clean it.

Hoping: That I get to straighten up the home tonight!

Wearing: A sports bra under a pretty work dress.  I couldn’t find a real bra this morning.  I really need to shop for a few real bras.

Craving: A cold glass of seltzer water.

Loving: Austin. My friends.  My pets.  Especially my Coco.  I talked to her this morning before work, and she just looked at me like “you’re really gonna leave me when we could be napping all day?”

Wanting: More hours in the day to run.  More hours in the day to clean.  And more hours in the day to craft.

Needing: All of the above.

Feeling: Happy.  Content.

Clicking: Myself on Women’s Running’s website.  You too can vote here!

What are you currently doing?

Don’t get pets.

| cheriarmour

So today, it was a little cooler in North Carolina so I met up with some friends to go running on the trails in Umstead.

I like trail running because it’s a lot cooler, and that’s really important.  I spent enough time on the treadmill all over this past heinous winter, so I have yet to torture myself in that manner.  Plus no good shows are really on telly right now so I have no interest in staring at the creepy trainer in the gym who wears a sport coat over his windbreaker pants.  (Not kidding).

photo (8)Even though I’m getting really close to the wedding (2 months exactly as I write this), I’m really starting to get the itch to race again, and I’m really really dead set on making sure I don’t lose any fitness even though it’s gonna be hot as hell this summer if last week is any indication.  I feel like the little incident with the Greensboro Marathon could have been avoided had I done better with training in the heat of the summer.  As of right now, all I have planned is Ragnar in Vegas with the Bondi Band girls, and I’m starting to really warm to the idea of a trail race or to an ultra either in the late fall, or in the spring.  I’ve sort of had my eye on this Badwater Race in Cape Fear in March.  I think I want to do something like this because when I prove to myself that I can do crazy physical things, I can do amazing things mentally and in my work life.  Maybe I’m just crazy.

Don’t get pets.

So, as of this marriage, I am a stepmother to a large cat named Chester, and mom to Martin, the orange cat, and Coco, the grey poodle.  I love my pets so much, they make my life happy.  But my honest advice to you is if you like your house clean, do not get pets.

I am constantly vacuuming, cleaning up someone’s barf, or worse, steaming the carpet of Coco’s pee (the worst ever).  So I’d steamed just the other day, and I look over tonight and Martin, the orange cat, is literally sloshing like 89 gallons of water onto the carpet that I’ve just cleaned.

I can’t even dignify this orange cat’s actions with anything, so I will advise you.

Unless you want to clean all day and night.

Don’t get pets.

Any pets?

Have you ever done an Ultra?  Thought about it?

Have you voted yet? Please???!

The house of horrors.

| cheriarmour

I told you a few weeks back, that me and Austin have been looking for a house here in Raleigh.

We had a sort-of house that fell through after the price seemed liked it was climbing beyond what we could comfortably do.  Since then, we’ve been trolling real estate here, with some success, and some weird stuff.  But on Sunday, we saw a literal house of horrors.

[As a side note, I’m currently a social worker in Raleigh.  This is important to the story.]

rocky-horror-6I’d show you pictures of the house, but I don’t want to embarrass anyone.

So anyhoo, I already was suspicious of the area – the are that the home is in is really important to me so I can access greenway and a safe place to run, something that I’ve had a little bit of trouble with here at this apartment.  But Austin assured me that he loved the house and that I would love it to.  So off we went.

Me, Austin, and the buyer’s agent headed down to the home, and it already wasn’t looking good.  As we started driving through town, the residents started looking more and more sad, and the homes started looking a little more run-down.

And then I started to recognize the area, an area where a lot of my clients lived. Not inherently a bad thing mind you, but I was really hoping that where we were wasn’t anywhere close to where a client might live.

So imagine my surprise when we pulled up to the house, a very nice house home, and it was right next door to a group home where three of my clients live.  The thought of one of my clients seeing me in a pair of boxers was enough to sour my mouth, and I couldn’t look at the house the same any longer.

So here’s hoping that we find something good, and not next door to all of my clients.

Weekend Update

| cheriarmour

I hope you guys had a good weekend.

I’m officially swimming through all of my workouts.  The heat and humidity in North Carolina is absolutely unbearable – both classes I taught last week were nuts, and then on my run on Sunday evening, sweat was literally dripping down my nose,and into my eyes.  I’m desperately continuing to run, and hoping that my heat training will turn into something good by the end of the summer.

So on Sunday morning, I woke up early, and we had some friends over for brunch.

I got the idea a couple of months back in DC.  In DC, a lot of my friends, both married and single, live in these group house type situations, and last time I was there, I went to a brunch at one of the group houses.  It was cool, it was kinda like being at Bob Evans, without having to go to Bob Evans.  Plus here in the Bible Belt, they can’t serve alcohol out until 12pm, so if you try and go to brunch much earlier you’re all…

FridayRookie mistake. 😦 😦

Then you have to drag out brunch for a very long time while people glare at you for not giving up your table.

So we decided to do brunch at our place.  Wanna see why the South has such a problem with weight?

DSC_0728That would be a biscuit, eggs, some really really good hash brown casserole, some fruit for good measure, scones, and some mimosa.  All of which I ate.  I ran after cause I felt really bad!

Your favorite breakfast food??

How was your weekend?