Day 8-10

Since I have been out of town all weekend, I could not finish up my 10 Day Blogging Challenge. So here are the last 3 days....And I am GLAD that it is over! It was too hard to commit to blogging for 10 days in a row, and I'm not entirely sure anyone even read them!

Day 8:
Three Turn-Ons

1. An original sense of humor

2. Passion for life

3. Genuine-ness (Is that a word?)

Day 9:
Two Words That Describe My Life Right Now

1. Hectic

2. Happy

Day 10:
One Confession

1. I love Lady Gaga. She is a total freak, but I still love her. There, I said it.

Day 4

Day 4

Seven things that cross your mind a lot

1. I'm hungry.

2. I'm tired.

3. I should go for a run today.

4. I can't believe I STILL didn't go for a run this week/month. (Do you notice a theme here?)

5. I love my job. But I can't wait to have a full-time classroom position. And insurance.

6. What would it be like to move somewhere else for a while? Since the teaching job market is not great here, the thought of moving somewhere else is exciting, yet almost too scary to consider! Hopefully things shape up here, and it won't come up again this year!

7. What should I be for our movie themed Halloween party this year? If anyone has any ideas, I NEED them! What was I thinking, with a theme this year?!

Day Three

Day Three
Eight things I couldn't live without (in no particular order)

1. All the people I love
2. Pizza
3. Teaching
4. My favorite TV shows
5. Sarcasm
6. A heartbeat
7. Can't breathe, snorting, crying, almost pee-my-pants laughter
8. Pie. On that note, follow our new Pie League blog here. It's coming along.

Day Two

Day Two

Nine things about yourself

1. I recently fell in love with cilantro.
2. I have just started another blog with my friend Beth, about our adventures in Pie League. Call this a shameless plug.
3. I have always wanted to look like Sandra Bullock.
4. I want to adopt at least one child, from an Asian country.
5. I had to have surgery 2 years ago, to reconnect the nerves in my hand, after falling while holding a glass bottle. I will never have all of the feeling back in my right index finger.
6. My biggest pet peeve is people who chew loudly. I seriously cannot handle it.
7. I'm intrigued by Buddhism.
8. I cry when I fall down. Like a small child. And when I get stung by bees.
9. I wish I liked red wine.

10 Day Challenge: Day 1

I am stealing this idea from several other blogs I have read recently, in an attempt to get myself in the habit of writing again. A Ten Day Blogging Challenge! Pretty ambitious for me, but we'll see if I can stick to it! I'm hoping this will be a fun challenge, and not a drag, since I've seen a few other bloggers quit midway through the challenge. And that sounds more like me. Especially since I did not write that essay I posted about a few weeks ago. Back to school time is not a good time to start writing an essay due in several weeks, especially when the contest opened up in June. In my defense, I didn't know about it until September. I do really want to try a similar writing contest, so if you come across one, shoot it my way!
Anyway....
Here are the rules....Feel free to play along if you have a blog, or leave a comment with your own thoughts on each day's topics!

Day One: Ten things you want to say to ten different people right now.
Day Two: Nine things about yourself.
Day Three: Eight things you couldn't live without.
Day Four: Seven things that cross your mind a lot.
Day Five: Six things you wish you could change or you wish you’d never done.
Day Six: Five people who mean a lot to you.
Day Seven: Four turn offs.
Day Eight: Three turn ons.
Day Nine: Two words that describe your life right now.
Day Ten: One confession.

Day 1

Ten things you want to say to ten different people right now.

Beware: This is a random mix of funny and very serious things to say. Very random.

1. Fall TV Producer People:
Thank you for bringing all my favorite TV shows into my life: The Office, Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny, and more shows that are quickly filling up my DVR.

2. Short Jen:
You are tremendously talented and your gallery opening is going to be amazing.

3. Winter: Stay away. I only like fall. Just stay away.

4. Joel:
You are awesome. I never say that. But you are awesome.

5. Jim and Pam Halpert:
You are not as funny since you got married.

6. Today Show people, especially Matt Lauer:
Thank you for being my only source of news and the thing that makes me almost cry every morning as I'm putting on my makeup.

7. Bedbugs:
Stay away from our little part of the country please. You gross me out.

8. My Clarke College instructors, especially Joyce:
I am so thankful for the experience I had at Clarke, and I would not have made it through it all without you. I will never forget it.

9. My dad: I miss you.

10. My friends: Thank you for making me laugh and cry all at the same time. I'm so glad this crazy group of weirdos somehow found each other! You're the best and I love you!

Looking For Advice

I came across this writing contest on my Facebook page, since I am a fan of Real Simple magazine. Now, I realize I have NO chance of winning this thing, but thought it might be a fun, bucket-list type thing to try! Plus, I have been told by a few people that I should expand my blog into something more substantial. (The suggestion has actually been to write a book, but I definitely don't have enough interesting material for that!)

So, if my good friends out there would check out the contest on the link above and let me know what YOU think would be worthy material, I would be grateful. The theme is "I never thought I'd....." Real Simple is looking for something more original than the experience of having a baby or getting married. I'm in luck there!

What do you think? Running? RAGBRAI? A specific race/time that I have written about? I think the more specific and focused, the better!

Why am I asking YOU for input? I don't know what other people want to read. I'm still a little surprised people are still enjoying Lazy Girl. This is true Lazy Girl acting here....asking someone else to do the brainstorming!

Please comment on my blog page. To do so, become a follower by clicking on "Follow," and follow the directions. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give! Or if you think NOTHING I have written is interesting enough to write an essay, than feel free to comment on that. I'm not that sensitive.

How to Survive (and enjoy) RAGBRAI: Part 3

Consider this the third and last installment of my important RAGBRAI rules. I have other things I want to blog about, but feel that I cannot until I finish with RAGBRAI!! Thanks for your patience...these take a long time to upload all the pictures, and I find myself a bit busier now than I was 2 weeks ago, somehow.


These are the LAST rules (according to this Lazy Girl) for how to survive and have fun on RAGBRAI.

1. Eat as much homemade pie as possible.























































2. When you have 102 degree heat index, find some shade. To do so, just follow the hundreds of bikers pulling into people's yards, sleeping under the poor, unsuspecting farmers' trees. Do what you have to to get out of the sun.
1 tree = 40+ bikers















3. Enjoy local attractions. Such as an amazing grotto built by one man. Take time to appreciate everything these small towns want you to appreciate.













4. Eat a good breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day. French toast, burritos, pankcakes, whatever strikes your fancy after biking 15 miles.
















5. Drink blue lemonade sold by the Future Farmers of America. It is the best thing you will drink all week. It may be because you are so sick of water. It may be because they are usually set up in the last 20 miles of the day. Or it may be just THAT amazing. Whatever. Drink it. Every day.















6. Eat a church dinner. Oh. My. Gosh. This will be the best thing you eat all week. But get there early. Absorb all the amazing church lady homemade carbs/love you can.














7. Fill up your water bottles wherever you can. Hope that this well water tastes better than the last town's. You never quite know.



















8. Tear up a little coming through Parkersburg, a town that has suffered so much. Know that riding your bike today is helping them recover from the hurt. Take a picture of all of the sculptures made from bikes lost/ruined in the tornado.















9. Stay inside a house. At least once. Find a friend who will take you in. No tent to put up. Ahhh.

10. This rule is breakable. I actually suggest breaking this rule.
Bike through a thunder/lightning storm. Freeze because you only brought 50 cent ponchos. Learn that rain jackets are essential for warmth. Stop at a Moose Lodge for pancakes, hoping the rain will stop. When the rain doesn't stop, keep biking against all better judgment.














11. When rain finally stops, warm up and attempt to dry your shorts on Mr. Pork Chop's giant grill. Chafe the rest of the day due to wet bike shorts. Be angry. About the chafing.

































12. I would also suggest skipping this rule, but for me, apparently, it was an essential part of my RAGBRAI experience.
Break out with various skin conditions throughout the week, culminating with skin rejecting sunscreen. If you're lucky, the sunscreen will not soak into your skin at all. Have a stranger try to apply a tatoo, only to tell you "you're too greasy." Really try for some diaper rash. Be thankful someone had the foresight to bring Desitin. Feel strange applying Desitin to yourself, rather than a baby's butt. Try to get some heat rash, lip blisters, chafing, and a bit of sunburn. Then you're in good shape. (This is not an exaggeration, by the way.)










13. Chill. Often.















14. Powder. Powder is your friend. Moisture is your enemy. However, you may enter into a more complicated, love/hate relationship with powder, as it somehow ends up all over your butt. Like, all over. But no one else has a white butt. Just black shorts. And you know they're using powder. Oh well. I suggest embracing it. Until your loyal RAGBRAI teammates make fun of your powder-butt as you mount your bike in your own unique way. Whatever. They're just jealous. You make that look good.

15. Be scared of Potter's Hill. Arrive at Potter's Hill and be even more scared. Screw it. Get off your bike and walk it like the other 75% of RAGBRAIers. Unless you are Joel. Then you are going kill that hill. Amazing. Know that no matter how many pictures you take as you are catching your breath from walking up the hill, they will not do it justice.




























16. Breathe a sigh of relief when you reach your hometown, the ending point of RAGBRAI. Then realize (since you know this city) you're not even close to the endpoint. Not. even. close.














17. Smile as you spot your fans who came down to cheer you on.












18. Dip your tires in the Mighty Mississippi.















19. Celebrate. Then realize you're not done. You still have to bike 5 more miles to your house. If you are us, that is.










































20. Arrive at home. Smile.














21. RAGBRAI OVER! Sleep. If you are me, you will sleep for 15 hours.




























22. Next week, after some well-deserved rest, think that even though it was really hard, you can't wait to ride RAGBRAI next year! But for now, you don't even want to look at a bicycle.

This is a first!

The world of blogging is a new one to me, newer than the idea of me exercising for pleasure! I have always enjoyed writing, even as the nerdy junior high kid who "competed" in writing contests with my equally nerdy best friend. I think that this new forum will provide an outlet for my writing, as well as my protests against this new active lifestyle that's really putting a damper on my napping.
Some random, semi-interesting facts about me....
**I hate the new(ish) "text" talk that has taken over our society. LMAO and OMFG are killing my brain cells so, you will not see that junk on this blog! And if you do, please virtually slap me! (That being said, I do sometimes fall into the LOL and BRB habit while I am sucked up into the addictive evil that IS Facebook!)
**This little rant on language leads me to the fact that I am a new teacher this year. I teach elementary students who struggle with reading. I feel blessed to know that I am doing exactly what I was born to do. I love every minute of teaching, even when a kindergartener gives me a hug and asks, "you havin' a baby?" That's right. Even then.
**I am a freak about recycling. I even recycle toilet paper rolls. My students last year seemed slightly annoyed when I told them to "save a branch" and use the back side of their papers! One girl even gave me reusable grocery bag as a gift! She knew me well!
**My car has had its back bumper hanging off of it for over 5 years. I have been told it smells like feet and dead people. Virtually nothing works on it. I often have to rely on friends and the boyfriend to help me get gas when I inevitably run out. (The gas gauge is broken!) Why do I still have it? It's a love-hate relationship I have with my car. It's complicated.
**I overuse exclamation marks! Much like one of my favorite female sitcom characters, Elaine Benes!! (Any Seinfeld fans out there?) I have really toned it down here, but it's a real mind effort. (!!!)