Annuoncing Teddy Baer K5 Winners!!

I like to run, I like to run!! You all know this. Well, I found a race in Cincinnati called the Teddy Bear 5K to support children with dyslexia. I coaxed Matthew into racing it with me, and I began to train up.

I've had a goal for awhile now to get faster. I ran a 5K for Thanksgiving last year and came in roughly around 32:00. I knew it wouldn't be hard to beat that (I was coming back from surgery), but I wanted to shatter the time.

Matthew entered the 200-219 lbs category to stand a chance at winning. The skinny, lanky boys are simply too fast. I wanted to run in the clydesdale category 220+, but decided to just enter my age division. :p

Within the first quarter mile, I knew the course was going to suck. The first half was all uphill and the second half was all downhill. By the time you got to the half way point, you just took off downhill, not minding your shins, and barreled toward the finish line. I came across at about 26:45...cutting about 5:30 off my pace from before!

I knew that I finished about 10th place and that I was the third woman to come across the finish line. What I didn't know was that I won my age division; woohoo!!! Also, Matthew won his weight division. We got these nifty medals, even though we really wanted the first place trophies. (They were huge!)

Night on the (shady) town at the Ballet

Friday night, I decided to check out some of the Cincinnati art scene. The ballet had a new show, New Works, that sounded decent enough. I talked my friend, Bryce, into getting some dinner before the show at a restaurant that I found through Google. 

Approaching the restaurant "area", I'm cursing that I didn't stop and get gas when I left the hotel. I spent too much time picking out an appropriate dress for bar food meets the ballet. Not only am I leery about stopping for gas, but I'm also deciding to lock my doors at this point. The red gas light comes on. Eeek! Bryce calls, "The restaurant no longer exists." Shoot! I pick Bryce up from his "corner" and we drive around for 45 minutes trying to find any restaurant at all, let alone a quality restaurant. Luckily, Bryce was with me to get some gas; I wasn't feeling too good about my choice of outfit in this neighborhood. 

We found a restaurant, scarfed some food quickly, and I rushed off to the ballet. Bryce swore that he would be able to walk back to his car unaccompanied. I was already late for the ballet, and he didn't want me to miss anymore of the show. I didn't want him to get mugged walking back to his truck. 

Alas, I went running into the ballet, just as they were shutting the door. I made it! And needless to say, the show was nothing less than amazing. They did six modern ballet pieces. One of my favorites was set to New Orleans' brass band music. (Gretchen, you could have appreciated this for a few reasons. ;) ) 

The best one, in my opinion, had the stage set with three pieces of fabric running the length of the bottom of the stage in front and three more set up high in the back. The piece was set to violin music and the dancers  danced as if they were the bow playing the violin. Some of you know my inability to describe things well, so if I at all described this intriguingly, you would have been in awe to actually see it "in motion." I was taken back to say the least. 

Mom and Frank drive 600 miles for the Brewers to blow it

Mom and Frank came this weekend! We had tickets to see the Brewers play the Cincinnati Reds at the Great American Stadium. The Brewers were favored to win, but unfortunately they sucked it up and gave the Reds the game. The upside was that because the Reds scored 7 HOME RUNS on us, we got to see a lot of fireworks. 

It was a great weekend to have company; Cincinnati was hosting their annual Oktoberfest! It's supposedly only second to the Munich's Oktoberfest. So 

the three of us made our way downtown for beer and tasty German food. 

After hitting up 5th st and the street fair that was Oktoberfest, I decided that they also needed to experience the Hofbrau Haus. Being only a mile away, we decided to walk. What felt like 17 miles later, we made it. Ordering more German fried goodness and beer, I learned a valuable lesson: 34 ounces is A LOT of beer...

 Yes, we know I have a big head, and as you can see, this beer is bigger than my head. Proudly, none went to waste. However after eating all kinds of food, drinking all kinds of beer, none of us was in any mood to walk back downtown again. We took a cab. 

Now we were on a mission. Mom needed to have black forrest cherry cheese cake. Oktoberfest was starting to ramp up! As we approached Mom's cheesecake stand, I decided I needed to get my money's worth out of my souvenir mug and I filled up again! 

Mom got her goodies and I got mine. 

We had a great weekend, despite the Brewers playing horrible baseball. It's just too bad that Mom couldn't get Frank to leave his lederhosen at home!

New place, new people, new fun!

The first week at my rotation in Cincinnati was spent in the marketing department. I had a great project and it felt good to have something hands on that I could contribute to. On Friday, marking the end of my marketing rotation we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for Happy Hour!! Well, happy hour turned into happy night. We spent the duration of the night drinking good beer, talking about music and boneless wings versus boneful wings. 

For some reason, Friday night rolled right into Saturday morning which happened to be the annual company golf outing. What better way to meet people! I signed up to volunteer with setup, take-down and food prep. Five minutes before the shot-gun start, the head honcho arranging everything asked me if I knew how to golf. "Well...I've golfed all of about 4 times." This was enough for him. There was a team of two that needed to be "evened out." What I didn't know was that this meant that one of the guys golfed pro for about 10 years and the other guy just golfs on various leagues about 3 times a week. 

Lucky for me, the Gods of Golf decided to grace me with their presence. I tore up the course (not literally) and our team ended about 7 under par. woohoo! Sadly, my skin wasn't in as good of hands as my golf clubs. Considering I thought I would be inside all day, I was not properly sun screened. I fried. Lobster red fried. But the golf luck was enough to cut the burn. 

But the fun can't stop there! Several of us decided to head to downtown Cincinnati for some drinks and the Ohio State game. Before making it downtown, we stopped off at Matthew's place and managed to catch a good view of the city from his awesome condo rooftop. Yes, the black ghost like figure is me. 

From rooftop to dance floor. We made it into the famous Lodge Bar for a good 80's band with a side of a hip hop spinner. We danced til they closed!

Just because the bar is closing doesn't mean it's time to go to bed. It was necessary that we played wii bowling into the wii  (haha) hours of the morning. Matthew needed to perfect his strike for our United Way campaign bowling tournament. 

Sunday was the day for sleeping. And sleeping is what I did. 

Nasty in the Nati

So I made it to Cincinnati! It's been a WHIRLWIND of excitement around here.... Last weekend, I was studying at Panera and out of nowhere, the power went out. I figured I couldn't study in the dark and decided to make my way to Target. Outside, there were some strong winds, but I thought nothing of it. 

Ten miles away, at Target, the power was out too. And whatdya know, it just happened to be out at my hotel and just about everywhere within an hour of Cincinnati. The winds were blowing at approximately 70 miles an hour, enough for a CAT 1 hurricane, and the city of Cincinnati went into blackout mode. 

At 5:30, about 6 hours after the power went out, a cop came by the hotel for the third time. He said that 10-12 inches of rain was going to hit in about half an hour. He also said that when (not if) the storm hit, we were supposed to sit in our bathtubs, with the door slightly cracked open to keep the windows from bursting. I was like, "Heh?" I'm thinking, there is no way I can sit in my bathtub for 4 hours with no lights, no cell phone, nobody to keep me company. Also, I was one of two guests at the hotel, and the other one was taking off. I can't sit in a hotel all by myself!!! 

I asked the cop if there was any other possibility. He mentioned that randomly Newport, Kentucky was spared from the power outage and if I could get there in 20 minutes (it's 30 miles away) to get there. I was gone. 

At this point, I had been in Cincinnati all of 3 days and I was lucky enough to have one coworker's number in my phone and even more lucky that he lived in Newport. Also, he happened to be extremely generous and allowed me to come over to wait out the storm. So instead of sitting in my dark bathroom by myself, with no outside contact, scared out of my wits, I played wii, ate chili, and watched football. 

The kicker of it all is that my power was out for 4 DAYS!! My friend, Matthew, was unbelievably kind enough to let me crash for the duration of all the nasty in the Nati. 

That really makes me somebody!

YAY! 

My life is about exams. I learn, I study, I test. Test after test after test. For the first module of my program for my job, I read about 4 hours a day and sat in a class the rest of the day. On top of that, our boss would give regular exams to track our progress. Beyond all of that, there are professional exams that we have to take for two reasons: to stay in the program and to achieve our professional credentials. 

I'm currently working towards my CPCU, Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter, designation. At the same time, I'm hoping to get some actuarial exams under my belt. Like I said, lots of tests. 

I mentioned in my last entry that I had just taken a professional exam (for my CPCU), and I got word on Sunday that I passed!! Woohoo!! 1 down, 20 or so to go...

Along with work, I leave on Monday for Cincinnati. This will be the second module in my program where I attempt to apply what I learned from module 1. I'm really looking forward to the hands on training and I have only heard good things about the company. 

Boskey (Melissa) just finished her rotation and informed our boss that we should probably have business cards to look more professional when we go out to other companies. So lo and behold! I have business cards now! In the words of The Jerk, "My name in print! That really makes me somebody! Things are going to start happening to me now!"