Well today was the last race of my first season of cross country: college edition.  It was pretty much an amazing two days.  We piled into our trusty bus friday morning, celebrated missing classes all day, listened to music, and watched "Robots" which is pretty cute/funny.  There was much snacking as well.  We stayed at the Radisson in Fresno, where we checked in, watched tv for an hour, and then drove to the course we would race on the next day to run it for our workout.  Our team captains for the girls team did this amazing thing where at the start of our run we all picked up "substantial" sized rocks and carried them with us for a mile.  Then we stopped, took markers, and wrote our biggest anxiety or worry about the race on our rock.  Then we ran another while....with the rocks, which was pretty akward.  After that mile we came to a pond, where after thinking about how much more difficult it was to run carrying the extra weight of our worries with us, we threw our rocks into the pond..........the more malice the better.  After that, the last mile back to the bus was easy, in a lot of ways......most noticably my wrists werent killing me anymore.  That night we went to an alumni's house for dinner, last years team captain apparantly, and watched MIB, definately a new classic.  Back at the hotel meant calling dibs on the first showers and then watching "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", which I think is an awesome movie.  Breakfast at 5am, followed by going back to sleep.  My roommates had a good laugh at my gigantic redhead 5-am fro.  And all the bus-riding meant I got to hang out with Jon a lot which is always amusing.  The race was awesome.  My training buddy and I rejoiced in the fact that our shared game-plan for a conservative first half to keep our asthma episodes at bay was successful!  Kelly and I both ran season PR's, and were still able to effectively exchange CO2 for O2 at the finishing shute.  Awesome.  It was a learning experience for me, being the first time I was able to not let myself screw up a race because I wouldn't admit that I have limitations now that I have to work with, not against.  I think now that I have a feel for begining to control my lungs, I can actually start looking towards my high school times as a goal again.  I like being 2 minutes off rather than 6 minutes off **shudders at the memory**.  It was a short trip that felt like half a week, but only because it was so much fun.  I have really loved coming to know so many people on the team who are just really fantastic.  It's been a very long 2 days.  Really good ones.

And tomorrow...............crepes!!!!

Fierce melon gatorade..............its hot.  New shoes are hot too.  I should injure myself more often and blame it on bad shoes.  I showed up to practice today expecting a light workout to get back into things, yah no, we're going shoe shopping, because I need new ones.  Awesome.  If Cinderella was a runner, these would be her glass slippers. 

4 day is coming.  Ribs.  Man thats all I want.  I've had a mind-numbing craving for Woodranch ribs for weeks.  It gets worse every time I run at the beach because of all the BBQ's.  Ribs.  Side of garlic mashed potatoes.  Maybe a double side.  And Chinese food.  And donuts from my favorite little donute shop with milk out of the carton, which always tastes better.  And biscuits and gravy for breakfast from the Cactus Patch, our eccentric cowboy cafe from 1974.  Sssssssssssssooooooooooooo goooooooood.  I don't think many people really know the joy of biscuits and gravy for breakfast, truly amazing.

My parents are coming to see me race!  I think I already wrote this a few days ago, but it makes me really happy.  I pretend I don't care if they don't care, but when they do I care so much I know I just lie to myself.  My dad said he would cancel any plans they might have so they can drive down there to watch me.  And then he said they could take me home and hang out and get all the good food I want.  I love it.  I'm so excited to be going to have them there cheering for me, I'll have to try really hard not to cry in my race, can't afford to lose any water.

I finally got around to starting my life soundtrack.  Project I've been meaning to put together.  Its like, that would be a really useful thing to be able to simply hand someone a cd and say "Here, this is me."  Not that I would. *sigh*

I learned about the death of the potato today.  Apparantly we have murdered it as a food.

And I would really like to go stargazing tonight, but alas....spanish assignments thwart my every whim.  Plus I have nobody to gaze with.  Tonights one of those nights I would eat every ounce of chocolate in my room were it not brought directly from Germany.

OH MAN!!!! I performed my very own UNSUPERVISED ECG today at the clinic!!!  Yeah, oh yeah.  No problem man, it was like I do them all the time.  Nothing quite like being able to actually use what you learn.  Unchecked sweetness.  Fantasticality out of control.  And in my world, I am amazing today.

But ok, So!  I had a freaking awesome weekend.  There is something to be said about not going home and staying here, especially when you live with two way cool roomies.  Here's the rundown: friday night I went to a pasta party with the girls team at our captains house and bonded...awwww, and then when it ended at 9 I decided I could still make it to swing dancing, which I did and had a total blast.  The next day I had a race at our course which went really well, lunch afterwards with the team at State and A, and then Ashley, Jessica and I drove to ventura to go to Target cuz we wanted these awesome bean bag chair things they have.  We all had dinner at Mimi's cafe, and then spent the evening decorating our dorm with the new stuff.  Sunday I went to starbucks with Ashley to study and then went to visit my friend Phil in ventura.  I'm bummed cuz he's moving to Pennsylvania soon.  But we went to this little cafe place with fantastic chocolate cake and cocoa and live music and I got to hear all about his time in Fallujah, Iraq as a Navy photojournalist, and got to see his pictures too, which were amazing. 

And now its back to work til saturday bleh.  Need sleep.  And to write spanish composition.  Now to go not do that......yup, definately taken over by the desire to watch a disney movie and have cocoa.