Happy Halloween

I made Heidi a ballerina costume for this year's PetSmart Howl-o-Ween Costume Contest:

I made myself a 50s soda-shop girl Poodle Skirt for Halloween festivities:

with the Beetlejuice crew

I found Waldo!

Khal Drogo from HBO's Game of Thrones

Leeloo Dallas (from The Fifth Element) and her MultiPass

Chewbacca the Wookiee!

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!!!

TSRS 3/7: UCF U Can Finish 5 Miler

Sunday was the third race of the Track Shack's Running Series: the UCF U Can Finish 5 Miler at UCF in Orlando, Florida!

Here is a snap shot of my race results (I'm 22nd):

Nike+ offers some neat statistics and graphical views. Here is a graphical view of my pace throughout the race:

Here is a breakdown of my time per mile:

Here is a map of the route (with start, finish and mile markers):

Overall, it was another great race. The weather for this race was still pretty warm, but it wasn't nearly as muggy as the first race in the series - thank goodness! I did walk briefly while I chugged some water at the station, but it was non-stop other than that (gotta stay hydrated). I think the potato salad through the week helped me load up on carbs because this race felt good. That and a good night's rest and good breakfast the day-of.

Added bonus: my friend, Joel, ran the race with me! He was up until 3 am the previous night but still got up to race at 7:30 am! What a trooper!

After the first race I was sitting fairly well in 7th place in the series for my age group (Women 19-24) because I came in 7th place in the race. After the second race, I was sitting pretty in 4th place in the series because I took 3rd place in the race. Now, after the third race, I am still sitting in 4th place, and I'm okay with that. There were x girls in my age group this time, and I'm happy with my time.

And that wraps it up for the third race in the series! Next up is the Florida Hospital Celebration Health Founder's Day 10K in Celebration, Florida on Sunday, 13 November 2011! Here's a snap shot of the Track Shack Running Series (link to my blog about it):

I am the Therapist

As I was clearing out some old draft blogs I came across this. I don't know when I first made the draft, but it was sometime during the year 2009.

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The black hole of a sky is pouring rain. She is desperately stumbling through the middle of the street in one high heel; she seems to have physically and mentally abandoned the other of the pair. Clutched in her grasp is a tattered and soaking shoe box; with white knuckles she holds the box at the corners, as if she's trying to force the length of it through her core. Her mascara is almost all washed away, her hair is a rat's nest. Her shirt slumps off to the side of one shoulder. Everything is gray. Almost tripping, she finally reaches a man. A man in a black suit - a professional - carries an umbrella too small to share... not that there's any reason to share one with this woman who approaches him frantically. With a wild grip on the box, she thrusts it towards his face, "please tell me where I can find this person! I must know where I can find this doctor!" At first the man flashes a most curious, scared, unbelieving expression, and then it's gone. Replaced by the face of a man who knows what he's doing. The man exchanges his briefcase to the same hand which holds the umbrella. With his free hand he firmly, but gently, holds the woman's left arm. He looks her straight in the eyes and says, "Ma'am, it's written here, on this shoe box lid, that that YOU are the therapist." And with that he let her arm free, returned his briefcase to his right hand, and walked away in a purposeful manner, as if he had not even stopped for the woman. She didn't turn to watch him walk away. She didn't collapse on the spot. Instead she just looked down at the box. Disbelief. The distant entertainment of the truth in the statement "I am the Therapist." She just stared at the words on the box until the sky fell away.

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I just had a dream that was of the story told above. When she reads the lid of the shoe box, I was suddenly her, and I felt heavy. Something significant came with that realization of "I am the Therapist," but I don't know what it was. I don't know what to make of the dream. I keep wanting to put the dream towards something religious and having to do with faith. I was scared to type up the story; I got one sentence of the dream typed before I realized I was scared. But why? What am I scared of? Why did this dream leave such an impression on me that I felt a moving desire to record it in the form of a short story? Will I transfer this blog entry (draft) to a journal entry or make it a public blog entry. Sometimes I hate the question "why."

3 LM Women Execs in Fortune Top 50 Most Powerful Businesswomen

Three of Lockheed Martin's top executives have been named in FORTUNE magazine's annual list of the top 50 leading businesswomen in America.

Appearing in its Oct. 17 issue, the FORTUNE "Most Powerful Women in Business" rankings include Marillyn Hewson, Executive Vice President of Electronic Systems at No. 27; Joanne Maguire, Executive Vice President of Space Systems at No. 29; and Linda Gooden, Executive Vice President of Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS) at No. 33.