The Holidays are Hectic.

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I promise it doesn't mean I'm not running!! I've had so many events attended and hurdles overcome, and I want to tell you all about them, but it must wait until after the holidays. I have been ridiculously busy baking and wrapping! So I will leave you until then with a tidbit from my heart about the holiday season:

I absolutely love this time of year. Everyone seems to be chipper and you can feel the magic of the season everywhere. I'm actually really sad that it's almost over! I'm the type of person that gets goin' on Christmas early. I do my shopping during November, and I count down the days until Black Friday. Not because I want to go shopping; because that is the day it is socially acceptable to decorate for Christmas!
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. That means there are only two days left of this magical season I love so much. The season where people are giving and forgiving. The season when someone lets you in front of them in line at the grocery store if you have less items. The season where people hold the door for you. The season where people thoughtfully choose a gift just for you.
I'm hoping that we will continue this spirit of love throughout the next year, well after the snow has melted and the flowers bloomed again. Let's try to be a little nicer, be a little more forgiving, be a little bit better. It's not just what the season is all about, it's what life is all about.


Please keep the spirit of the Holidays alive by making a difference in an animal's life. Donate today!
http://www.active.com/donate/PETAPack/jencar

Happy Holidays everyone, may your season be bright and filled with love!!!
<3

Getting better.......

So today I attempted my run again. I'm still back to taking baby steps, but it was definitely better. I think my calves are realizing that resistance is futile. And let me tell you, there is something about Bon Jovi songs that just get ya in the mood to run! I had told myself I was going to take it easy this week, but when Bon Jovi started in with the guitars and what not, I was PUMPED!

On the fundraising front, I am still at 16% of my goal. My mom and I are doing a cookie making party next weekend and I will be making cookies for my bake sale. I will take any special requests! I don't know the first thing about bake sales, even though I was in Rainbow Girls and Campfire. How am I supposed to price these things? Obviously they should be cheap but not too cheap. Anyone have any suggestions? Are there any veteran bake-salers out there?

I am really hoping to meet my goal of $1000 by February 1st. It is looking dim but I will not be discouraged. Please PLEASE reach deep into your pockets, or into your change jars, and donate to help the animals!

Today's playlist included:
"You Give Love a Bad Name" - Bon Jovi
"My Prerogative" - Britney Spears
"Money Money Money" - ABBA

Oh, Dear.

So that run I was telling you about yesterday?
Not so great.
Please remind me to NEVER take a two week break from running ever again!!!!
I pretty much had to start over from scratch. It was awful. My calves had tightened up to their old selves, but they let me think I was doing ok until halfway through when they started screaming again. I managed to finish, but as soon as I came back home I took a hot shower and used my massager shower head on the calves. It helped a lot, actually.
So I have to start all over on the progress meter, but I know I can do this! I just kept thinking about the animals, and it kept me going. =)
On my iPod running mix today:
"Lolli Lolli" - Three Six Mafia
"Paralyzer" - Finger 11
"Tell Me When to Go" - E-40
I approve of all of them for pump-you-up motivation.

So tomorrow I will be resting my rebellious calves and shakin' my booty for cross training day. I usually do this with the curtains wide open, and I often wonder if my neighbors get a kick out of my white girl dance moves. Oh well, it's exercise.

~*~
Does anyone have someone on their Christmas list that is incredibly difficult to buy for? My mother in law is that person for me. I love her to death, but I had no idea what to get her. So now, ladies and gentleman, I will give you a solution (and a shameless advertisement for my friend):
Soy Soother Candles!
My friend Mel runs this website, and her candles are amazing! They come in all sorts of yummy scents that will make your mouth water, and they are under $15. PLUS, a portion of the sales go directly to helping shelter animals in New York. How could you go wrong? Here's the website:
http://www.soysoother.com

Wow. It's been a while.

Sorry I haven't updated my blog in forever. Thanksgiving commanded all of my attention for an entire week, then I turned 24 on December 2 and had 2 days of partying! What a blast. But don't think I've been slacking! Ok, maybe just a little......
According to our training schedule for the PETA Pack, we are supposed to do a combination of running and "cross-training". Cross Training is basically anything that is not running, from my understanding of it. Apparently this gives you a "break" from screaming calves. My personal trainer read my blog and told me to do one less day of running, one more day of cross training per week due to my rebellious calves. Unfortunately, since my little Thanksgiving break, cross-training is pretty much all I've been doing. I've found myself so incredibly busy that I will say to myself "no worries, I'll run when I get home from doing xyz", however when I finally return home from xyz with all the crowds and the traffic, I am so exhausted that even thinking about running makes me want to crawl into bed.
However, I know I have to start again, and I plan to do that today. From now on, I will put my running days on my calendar, along with all of my holiday season engagements. Then they will have the same validity as my lunch with the mother in law. I wouldn't just flake out on lunch with the mother in law would I? well.....no, of course not!
In other news, the whole cross training business has been really confusing until now. When I asked our Coach and Personal Trainer for some ideas on what to do on those days, he mentioned yoga, weight lifting, and swimming. We have a pool, but it's December here in the foothills of California, and for those of you who don't know, that is the opposite of pool season. Next.
Yoga has always been an interest of mine. Ok, so maybe I took a class in college. Once. And got a D. But I enjoyed it! So I recorded "Pricilla's Yoga Stretches" on our tv, which involved a 60-something year old lady teaching "basic" yoga stretches. Easy enough. So i settled down on the floor in front of my tv, awaiting Pricilla's instructions. All I can tell you is that woman can contort her body in ways that no senior citizen should. My husband came home as I was attempting one of them, and burst out laughing. I was attempting what most school-aged children would call "the bridge". You lay on your back and using your hands and feet, contort yourself into a bridge with an arched back. This is much easier when you are 10. So I gave up after abour 15 minutes and decided Pricilla was too advanced for me. Next.
Finally, I found something I was good at. I've always known I was good at it. I can shake my booty with the best of them. So now, my cross training involves dancing. I put on a good song with a beat (mostly Pussycat Dolls, Britney or JT) and shake my booty for 20 minutes of cross training! It's good exercise and it's fun! I highly recommend it. Also a good excuse for goin' out on a Saturday night. "I have to get my exercise!"

So that's all the news on the exercise front. On the fund raising front, I am officially at 16% of my goal!!!! I couldn't be more excited! I have plans for a bake sale at some point, so if you are interested in helping with that, please let me know. Without further ado, I hereby announce with my extreme gratitude my contributors:

* Scott Browning: $11
* Beth Levinson: $150

I cannot begin to express how much this means to me. PETA is an organization very close to my heart. It has changed my life. I saw my first video about vivisection in 2007, and immediately stopped eating meat and stopped buying products tested on animals. I know that to the world, I am just one person, but to one animal, I might be the world. Thank you SO much to the people who have donated.
To those who have not, ANYTHING you can spare goes directly to the animals. It is completely tax deductible. Please think of the helpless animals this holiday season, and give them a little bit of hope for Christmas.

I changed the URL to my fund raiser page, so here is the new one:

http://www.active.com/donate/PETAPack/jencar

Thanks so much guys!!!