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Thursday, 03 December 2009

  • Thanksgiving 2009 continued

    Black Friday:

    Let's just say I didn't wake up early enough.  There really were no deals to tempt me to go out.  I wasn't hunting for anything major, like a TV or a computer.  So I opted to sleep in.  When I woke up, however, I was so excited to be able to listen to Xmas music, that I blasted it throughout the house!  I <3 Xmas!

     I did go out to shop, however, at the Mag Mile... I thought I'd not worry about driving so I took the CTA and then just walked around amidst the holiday bustle.  It felt good to walk around Michigan Avenue, with all the pretty decorations and pretty lights.

    As I was walking south on Michigan Avenue, I ran into my friend Rich!  It was a nice surprise.  He lived close and I was starving so I got Potbelly and we went to his new place -- it was sweet!  Very modern.  It made me wish I had my own place... oh well.  It was good to see him again and catch up.

    At night, I went to the LT Thanksgiving gathering @ Kenny's.  Had a good time playing "Watermelon [Start!]" Hahaha!  Girls RULE, boys DROOL! lol. Good drunken times. hahaha!

    The next day, Saturday, was one of the LOOONGEST days ever.  I did not want to go shopping in the malls, for fear of the mob of people shopping.  So I ended up staying home, and watching Star Trek til it was time to go to my mommy's for her Bday dinner!  Oh yes, this was also the day I cooked shrimp scampi for the first time.  It wasn't that bad, although I think next time, I need to add some salt in there -- it was garlic-y and butter-y, but I felt it needed more salt... next time, next time.

    Afterwards, I went to Sandy's Spanktastic Party at Bull/Bear or Bear/Bull, whatever it was.  It was fun times! Glad to see friends and had more drinks and dancing~ =) 

    Went back home, slept, and next thing you know it was Sunday... I spent the whole day bumming..  It was great!

    That's all I did that weekend.  I was thankful for the 4 days off... =)

    Godo night all.  I got work at 8 am tomorrow... ciao!




Saturday, 28 November 2009

  • Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

    What a crazy weekend... and year so far!! Since I last logged on, my little sister, Barbie, got married to Nathan.  I'm the only one left! LOL. Maybe I'll be a spinster in the end.. who knows? hahaha.  Such is life: crazy!!!

    So I was excited at the start of this weekend b'cuz I got all four days off, starting on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day~  I was supposed to start the day with running the Turkey Trot: an 8K race.  Instead, I woke up at 3 am to drop Arvin off to the airport (bye bye Vin!) then fell back asleep and didn't wake up ti 11 am or so.  Whoops!!! Oh wellz, I really didn't want to run it anyway b'cuz I didn't even train for it.  What a waste!

    Anyway, I got ready to go to Tita Norie's house in the burbs for Thanksgiving lunch.  I was so happy I got to see both my [married] sisters, and of course my niece and nephew!! I love them both, they are so adorable.  It makes our gatherings much more fun when there are babies around. Hahaha! Aaliyah was so cute and adorable in her 1st Thanksgiving outlet, complete w/ a cute turkey bib! Hahaha! I got it for her at a Carter's Outlet, it was so cute!  Joaquin was entertaining us by recalling his alphabet whenever we showed him a scrabble piece... awwww!

    Of course, we also had games... Nate and Barb beat Mak and I at Cranium... stupid Creative Cat!!! We got stuck on it!!! LOL.  Way to go for the newlyweds!! =)  When Joven arrived, he was really gung-ho for Pusoy Dos.  I won once, Joven won twice.  Mak was so funny.. "can i put this down?" and shows a 3-card straight... and Joven and I would say "NOOOO!!!" HAHAHA. Mak ur hilarious.

    Then we played other card games Uncle Mon taught us.  Let me just say I suck at those games... need more practice! Haha!

    After hanging out w/ the family, the married sisters had to go to the in-laws to celebrate with them.  It was a little sad for me to see them go, going to the other families, but I guess that is the reality when we all grow up.  Our family is getting a little bigger.  I wish we could all just meet up at some big hall and just celebrate as one... but that would be so taxing.  Ah wellz...

    I ended up leaving Uncle Mon's and Tita Norie's at around 8:30 pm.  Went home to the parentals to do my laundry, and i had a HUGE Load...!!! So I didn't finish til 2 am and ended up just crashing.

    next up: Black Friday -- I will have to continue this later. I'm going to eat!!!



Sunday, 25 October 2009

  • Trick or Treat Trot 2009

    Today, I woke up really early so I can jog 3 miles @ the lakefront for the Trick of Treat Trot.  I meant to train for this, but alas, my arse was too lazy to drag myself to run everyday. Haha.  The last time I ran was probably 2 months ago... Oh man was I in trouble? Maybe?

    Well, I developed a little taste for running when I finally tried to get into it a few months ago.  It's tough but the challenge of pushing urself is my motivation.  I ran around my neighborhood and would do a mile or so then call it quits.  I previously ran the Shamrock Shuffle in the spring (8K) without training, so I thought the Trick or Treat Trot at 5K should be OK without training. [[i should stop making a habit of this]]

    Anyway, when it was finally time to run, I was pumped!  My cousins were doing it as well, also Meghan [Kuya's girlfriend] so it was awesome to run w/ ppl this time.  Mak, Meg, and I [Triple M!] did the 5K while Kuya did the 10K.  So here we go...!!!

    OK I did not expect the little hills here and there in the run! lol! I was like, dang I am so not going to make it!  But I used the momentum from the downhill parts to gain speed and distance. Anyway, Mile 1 was the hardest for me.  I had to stop a lot and my side started hurting and I felt like I wasn't getting enough O2 into my system.  I puffed Ventolin at the end of mile 1 and decided to breathe in and out through my mouth instead of breathing in through nose then out my mouth.  I got way more o2 intake that way and it felt better to run.  Mile 2 was the BEST.  My body was on autopilot and it felt so good to run.  It didn't hurt that i was running next to the scenic Lake Michigan, with the sunlight breaking through the morning clouds.  It was amazing. 

    Mile 3 was tough.  I think I ran most of it, but had to stop more due to fatigue.  There was an older gentleman in front of me that was on pace the whole time and didn't stop.  I decided I was going to keep in pace w/ him.  It was good b'cuz he was always in front of me and when he got too far, I tried to catch up.  In the end, I beat him and when I saw the finish line, I just sprinted for it even though my body was aching and my legs were screaming in pain! =P

    Oh yes, the special part of this race is that you're allowed to wear costumes while u ran.  I was the "Devil" -- bought the headband, bowtie, and tail at Target on clearance for 8 bucks. and it was made for kids -- but hey it fit!  I partnered those w/ a red shirt and red leggings. It was awesome!  Some funnier costumes I saw was a guy perfectly dressed in a Hooters uniform -- and he had fake boobs and blonde hair as well. It was great!  Also a Pacman chasing a Ghost. Homemade, it looked like. It was awesome!

    I am going to do this again -- next one is the 8K Turkey Trot.

    Can't wait!! I'm so "excite"! hahaha

Thursday, 08 October 2009

  • Caving, part I

    Part Dos of my adventure.

    Waking up outdoors was an experience.  OK I was in a tent, but still outdoors.  At first, I panicked b'cause my phone reverted to Central Time and I thought KY was EST.  But thank God I was wrong about KY being EST b'cuz we would have totally missed our Wild Cave Tour!  But anyway, it was really cold outside and our tent had condensation inside.  I thought it rained and our tent got wet! Haha!  Man, what a way to wake up.  I was sore due to my sleeping position and I was freezing my booty off!  Anyway, we got up about an hour before we had to go on our tour... or was it 40 minutes?  All I know was that we didn't have enough time to even make coffee or a decent breakfast before we had to leave the campsite for our crazy adventure.

    So we finally drove to the visitor center to meet our group.  I made sure I had all my gear in check: knee pads [for Vin], elbow pads, and of course my ankle-high hiking boots.  They gave us the rest of the equipment: helmet, light, knee pads [that i used], and bandana.  They checked if our boots were the required kind (ankle-high), and we put our equipment on and we were good to go!

    We drove to the cave's entrance and finally got out to decend into the cave... We had to go down via stairs and I was already dizzy -- I've never gone down so many stairs before and I got dizzy staring at them and concentrating on not falling! lol.

    When we were finally inside, I was amazed at the fact that I was inside a cave!  I was a cave virgin... not anymore! lol.  Anyway as we started walking to our first adventure, I was getting used to the footing and my boots so I thought I was going to slip here and there, but I had pretty good tread so I was grateful for that. 

    We finally reached our first hole.  And by hole, I mean hole. LOL. Basically the first two hours of the tour is to weed out the weaklings -- test u mentally and physically.  I was ready to be on my hands and knees, but I didn't know I had to be on my belly too! =(  The first one was OK.  It was a BREEZE, actually.  Then we had a little ice-breaker session.  Then more crawling.

    HOnestly, I don't really remember the names of the holes we crawled through during the first two hours.  I believe we went through three or four of them.  We learned how to behave as a team, not to leave the ppl behind us [because if u get lost in a cave, then it'll take forever to find u!].  Davin and Becky ahead of me were telling me how to get around certain obstacles and waited for me [[the uber slow one]] and didn't leave me behind. Yay! I should note, though, that I was uber nervous b'cuz there were some parts where it was really tight and we'd have to either go sideways, or have our heads slant one way or another, or crawl in awkward positions just to get through.  I remember a hole we had to go through called "Bare Hole" -- because it was barely a hole. I thought I was too fat to go through but hey. I pulled myself out, with a little effort. Heheh. Just had to shift my shoulder this way and that way...

    The last hole in the first two hours, though, I will never forget.  This was called the Hell Hole.  The tour guide, Darlene, said it was about 200 feet long.  We had to crawl/belly shimmy [as I like to call it] all of it and it was the dustiest one that I remember.  I was hyperventilating in there due to a small panic attack.  It was really tough to pull myself forward b'cuz I have no upper body strength and I didn't know how to use my legs properly.  Anyway, as I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, I was still struggling to get out. I was so tired at that point.  When I finally got out and stood up, I felt my lungs tighten and I couldn't breathe.  I was just so relieved at that point, and at the same time, super scared.  I had a tear fall down my face... It was really challenging and rewarding at the same time.  At this point, I didn't know if I wanted to continue on the second part of the tour -- but at the same time, I really didn't want to miss out on the wonders of the cave, since all we did was crawl and didn't really see any other sights in the cave [yet]...

    Anyway, it was lunchtime at the Snowball room, where a decision had to be made: should I go on? Or not?

    To be continued...





Wednesday, 07 October 2009

  • Camping

    i thought i'd journal about my adventure this past weekend (10/3 to 10/4) in Mammoth Cave National Park located in Kentucky...

    I was really anxious about this trip.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  Sure I read about the Wild Cave Tour in tripadvisor.com and i knew that this was going to be a challenging one.  But I thought, if I'm willing to do it, then I will survive and finish it.

    Anyway, Saturday morning arrives and I still have to pack.  I woke up extra early just so I can pack and get everything together.  Got to Vin's around 9:45 am, we were due to leave @ 10 am and hope to arrive 6 hours later, as it was a 6-hour drive.  Turns out Dav n Becky were running late and so we didn't end up leaving until 11:30 am -- when we finally stuffed everything we brought in Arvin's trunk -- only to find out later that we left something very important. I'll get into that later. haha

    We had so much stuff to eat in the car.  All the way down, we were snacking while we hit traffic on I-94.  While riding down, we realize that Davin forgot the tent poles -- he left it out intending to figure it out on the way to the campsite, but ended up forgetting about it on Vin's sidewalk. lol. whoops!  Anyway -- we had multiple stops along the way: stopping for gas, then we saw a sign for a KFC Buffet (?!?!?) so we HAD to stop at that one and had lunch... then we asked if there was a local Walmart around {no surprise, there was one around} to buy a new tent for Davin... then another stop for bathroom break...

    All the stops made us really late getting to the campsite.  We got there when it's already nighttime.  We had to set up the tents w/ flashlights [actually, the boys set up the tents], while us girls were supposed to look for wood so that we can start a fire [there were no stores open that sold firewood].  Anyway, Becky and I were pretty good at finding twigs but no real wood. lol. Sorry boys. We totally failed at trying to light the twigs up to make fire... yeh.. uber failed.  The boys took over and they were successful at their attempts, due to the fact that they knew what they were doing. heheh.

    After getting a fire going and 10 million twigs later, we finally had some Spam sandwiches for dinner, along w/ Cup Ramen soup. YUM. lol. Anyway, the night was so cold and since our fire was quickly becoming into ash, we decided it was time to turn in.

    I've never gone camping before.  I knew it was going to be uncomfortable.  But man -- I didn't really expect the cold!  I couldn't sleep! Arvin was in his mummy sleeping bag and was snoring before u know it. I was in my regular sleeping bag, with my hoodie on and i was freezing my booty off.  I finally fell asleep but woke up in the middle of the night because I was breathing in cold air and it woke me up! I had to bury myself inside my sleeping bag just so I don't breathe in cold air and that did the trick. I fell asleep.


    To be continued.....

    So that was my first ever experience camping, if you could call it that. hahaha.  I am hoping to go again next time, with an earlier start to the day so that we have time to make smores and share scary stories. lol. and oh yeah, have firewood next time!

    I'll blog about spelunking next. ciao!