Race for the Cure

I ran my first Race for the Cure today. It was held in Lubbock, down by the Convention Center. My roommate and I participated, along with her daughter, and two of our friends. It was a really cool experience to be able to participate in such an emotional experience, not only for me, but for thousands of other people just in one city. I believe the final headcount for the race was 8,300 people, not bad for a town of just over 200,000.

We met at the Convention Center around 8:00, even though the 1 mile race didn't start until 8:45. It was a lot colder than I expected it to be. In my defense, I checked the weather the night before and it was supposed to be around 80 for a high. Definitely wasn't even close to 80, more like 56 degrees when I woke up. I say woke up, but it was more like I bounded out of bed after hearing L knock on our front door and ring our doorbell just before 7:00 this morning. I hope she wasn't standing out there for long!

It made me tear up to see the names of all the people who have died from breast cancer posted below peoples' race numbers. I noticed some people put pictures of their loved ones. Those were the hardest to handle. Some people had multiple names from the same family on their papers. I still get angry when I think about, it just doesn't seem fair for someone to have to go through so much pain, and not be able to do ANYTHING about it. I thought about my mom a lot last night as I was trying to sleep. It's still hard, and I still can't believe she's not here sometimes.

I ran into one of my old neigbors who live down the street from my dad. I used to babysit the little girl, and the mom is friends with my roomie's mom. They actually work together at Hamilton Junior High back home. Small world. The girl isn't so little anymore, in fact, she's taller than I am. She still seems like the same girl she's always been though, as if time hasn't changed her at all. I always was fond of her.

I think next year I'd like to try the 3 mile race. My running skills are improving. I'm able to run faster for steadier periods of time, which makes me happy! I've kind of gotten off track the last week, but hopefully I can get back on track this week before I go out of town to Houston for the weekend.

After the race, I came home and took a much needed nap. Something about cold, cloudy weather always makes me tired. I was tempted to take a second nap today, but wouldn't let myself. Instead, I made myself apply for more jobs. Talk about depressing! I must've applied for at least 10 jobs by now, and I haven't gotten a call back from anyone. I know the market is tough right now, but geez, really? I hope something will come along soon. All in good time, I guess.

Went to the South Plains Fair tonight with my roomie, and a few friends. It was so much fun! Kinda sucked that they don't take cards STILL, even in the year 2009! Ridiculous! So I owe my friend's boyfriend some money since he bought my tickets...but what else is new? I'll pay him back.

At least I won a stuffed flower! There's this booth where you pay a guy to guess something about you. My options were age, weight, or birthmarks. I wasn't about to pick birthmarks, and weight was not something I wanted to think about after eating Arby's Chicken Salad Sandwich and fried mozzerella with ranch for dinner, so I stuck with age. He looked at me for awhile, then wrote a number down on a tiny yellow notepad. He held his thumb over the pad so I couldn't see the number, then asked me what my age was. I said 23 for some reason, though I don't know why 'cuz I'm 24. I'm so stupid sometimes, lol! I guess in my heart I still feel like I'm 23, it just seems like a good age to be, I dunno. I'm actually closer to 25.

Anyway, he put down that I'm 22, which made me laugh because people ALWAYS think I'm either a lot younger or a lot older than I really am. Younger because of my looks, older because of my words. I guess I should be flattered. He was allowed to guess within 2 years of my actual age, so he got to keep the money. But my friend's boyfriend managed to convince him to give me a flower by asking him how he could deny a pretty girl or something like that. He must be sucking up so I'll approve of him again, but that's another story for another day. The guy gave in, picked out a stuffed flower for me, and told me not tell anyone. His secret is safe with me.