The Running Club

Havasupai

2011-09-11T19:29:00.008-07:00

Oh hi there. Remember how we took that anniversary trip to Havasupai in May? Here's a recap:

It took about 6 hours for the hike down. Put that new backpacking equipment to work.

We went with a couple (the Harrises) and our bishop's family (the Gabbitases) from our ward. Lots o' fun.

Our bishop's kids... not too happy about the lonnnng 10 mile hike down. But on the way out... he said he would give $1 to whoever got out first and the 2 brothers did it in like 3.5 hours.

Getting ready to go play in that waterfall. Super-awesome.

There's Joseph. Mid-flight off that waterfall. Trying to make me a widow.

My little buddy Rebecca.

Joseph's little buddy Jacob.

On our hike out.

Back where we started from!

Happy to be home and showered and sleeping where it is soft and bug-less.

After we got home we carried out the tradition of eating a piece of your wedding cake on your anniversary.

We froze our cake toppers (they're made of white chocolate).
Unfortunately, the freezer burn got to 'em. Oh well :)

Cheez-its=Awesome

2011-04-03T20:06:00.009-07:00

Yeah...it's been about a year and a half since I've done a blog post. It's interesting, that's also about the time I started dating Paige. Probably some sort of correlation there. Maybe. Anyway, I thought I'd make a list of awesome things that have happened in the lives the of the members of The Running Club since the last time I posted (besides the awesomeness of getting married). Here we go:

10. We bought Cheez-its. I know. Intense.

9. We got a mouse at a White Elephant exchange in December and named him Ramesses. I want to change his name to Two Face due to the fact that he's scratched off half of his face. Paige thinks he has OCD. I think he's just got a really small brain. I thought that he would have died by now. I mean, we killed a cactus in the first month of our marriage.

8. Ramesses is still alive

7. I woke up at 1:30am the other night to Paige ripping the blankets of the bed and grabbing at me feet yelling "I have to get the twigs out of the bed! Now!" I sat up and looked at Paige who was frantically pulling at my leg hair. I asked her "Paige, are you asleep?" to which she answered "No." She then very calmly laid down and was out. This would have freaked me out if a couple of weeks before she hadn't shaken me awake about 1:30am yelling "Get the Magnets Joseph! I need the magnets!"

6. We went shooting with Some friends out in the boonies of Tucson. And we've been shooting before as you can tell in these awesome pictures:

Yeah, we look legit. But, I had no idea we would be shooting this many guns:

5. So, as I was searching through some old pictures on my phone, I found some pictures of cookies that we made over at a friends house around Christmas time. These ones were Paige's

These were mine:

Yes. That's a T-Rex eating a Stegasaurus. And it's amazing.

4. I saw this van driving through campus the other day:

I was kind of hoping that it would happen BEFORE finals. Dang it.

3. I saw this car at the Institute Parking lot:

2. We got teeth work done:

1. I got to dress up as Corduroy for a huge Book Festival they had in Tucson. It was a blast.

Anyway, life is good.

Quality time

2011-03-08T21:30:00.002-07:00

I feel the guilt to update this sad neglected blog.

I wasn't actually intending to keep this blog about our running adventures but it just so happens that the most exciting recent event in our lives is that Joseph & I did Ragnar last weekend. It was fun to be on his family team.

And sadly this is pretty much the only picture we have of us. We aren't even standing by each other!

We have vowed to keep running/training even though Ragnar is over so we made the goal to do at least one race per month. So yeah... that's what we're up to nowadays.

Life update

2010-12-07T20:29:00.002-07:00

Okay not really. Just watch this:

We all know that the real life updates happen on Paige's blog.

-joe

Joseph the big red husband

2010-07-31T19:42:00.002-07:00

Joseph works at the UofA Bookstore (if you didn't know) and a few saturdays back he had a pretty cool opportunity. Every so often they have book readings for the kids in the community and then they get to meet the character they read about. The usual guy who dresses up for the characters was on vacation so Joseph got to fill in.

It's put on by Arizona Public Media (PBS/NPR/etc.) so they had free merchandise for the kiddies. I gave myself a sweet teletubbies tat while we were waiting.

(oh and a free red balloon tied around my wrist)

The time arrived for Clifford to come! He did a little dance:

They had over 150 kids show up!

About 85% of the kids were just like "yeah yeah whatever".

About 10% were completely and utterly thrilled beyond excitement.

The last 5% looked like this:

Screaming... crying... begging their parents not to make them go...

kinda hilarous.

I was part of the "utterly thrilled beyond excitement" crowd ;)

Wedding pics!

2010-06-26T15:53:00.001-07:00

I'm feeling lazy... so until blogger creates a way for me to upload more than 5 pictures at a time, I'll just post the link to my fb album of wedding pics.

Enjoy.

Sweet Married Goodness

2010-06-06T09:07:00.010-07:00

It's been so long since I've had time to blog I almost forgot how to do it...

So we are officially married and it's not too shabby I must say. Definitely lives up to the hype.

I don't have pictures from the Glendale reception yet... but here are a few I collected from other peeps as well as some pics from our honeymoon and Winslow reception.

Temple Time :)

San Diego for the honeymoon
Highlights include:

Getting upgraded to a sweet casita because we told the hotel peeps we were on our honeymoon

Hangin out with this guy 24/7 -- isn't he so cute?? :)

Abusing room service

Sea World

Driving the PCH in Joseph's Dad's convertible

Knott's Berry Farm

Kayaking in La Jolla cove = Joseph's first time in the ocean, EVER!

Private beach for the hotel we were staying at

Doing a session in the San Diego temple, despite the mucho exterior construction

Low-lights include:

Humidity. It makes my face swell. And I didn't even bother trying to tame my hair all week

This awesomely horrible caricature we spent $40 on at Sea World

Driving 8 hours from San Diego to Winslow

Me. Yuma. Speeding ticket. *sigh*

But come on, those aren't even terrible things... it was definitely still a really really great trip! :)

Winslow Reception

Anna, me, & Mary Catherine -- when Anna & I both curl our hair we look the EXACT same from behind

And I never thought it mattered much, but I love the fact that I married a really good dancer... no "eigth-grade shuffle" for this boy (you know what I'm talking about?) :) He knows how to get around a dance floor.

Joseph dancing with his Madre

Joseph dancing with Anna

That's all for now!

PS: if anyone wants to email me (jpgricks [at] gmail [dot] com) pics from my wedding/receptions I'd love to see 'em :) I'm just sayin'...

Cat-calls

2010-03-16T12:10:00.003-07:00

It's really annoying when you're out running and sweating to death and breathing so hard you might pass out and some teenage boys think it's funny to drive by and honk/shout vulgar things at you. (What kinds of people keep air horns in their cars anyway??)

When this happened to me while I was running today (it hardly ever happens in Tucson--just Phoenix, which is odd) it got me thinking about a couple of the only times I was ever "cat-called" running in Tucson:

One of the first times I ever went running with Joseph, we went through downtown Tucson. We ran by some guy on the sidewalk and he shouted "lookin' good ladies!" ...Joseph was not appreciative.

Another time I went running on my own. I was almost home from a run and picking up the pace a bit when I hear some guy from across the street yell "Ow! Owww!" I usually just ignore it when guys behave that way but that day I decided to prepare my best look of disgust and just as I turned to send it his way I noticed he had only been trying to get out of his car... whilst managing a massive cast on his broken leg. So really it was intended to be more of an "ouch ouch" instead of an "ow ow". Yeah, I felt dumb.

Actual conversation

2010-02-28T22:30:00.001-07:00

[Joseph] Our dating relationship has been like a game of chess.
[Paige] Yeah, I keep losing.

Game over.

I win! :)

Sage=Awesome

2010-02-06T11:05:00.010-07:00

Standing on a Corner

"Flying" kites

...not really sure...

...see above comment... :)

Playing in the mud in Winslow

At Niagra

Simba!!!......riding a unicorn

4 girls, 1 me......6 days....Rosef's in trouble.

Times Square

Random Picture

On top of some castle in Central Park

70's Dance

Graduation!!!

Epic family dinner/ talent show

Rosef was kind of jealous....

Amazing airport shot...

Dinner Dance

Happy (though slightly belated) Birthday Sage! :)

Lexical Ambiguity

2010-01-27T16:46:00.003-07:00

[the title of this post is a throw-back from my unfortunate & regretful expertise in linguistics]

I finally started running again--for reals--to get into shape for Ragnar this year. I was hanging out with Joseph and commenting that my legs were starting to get really hard... He thought I was talking about the difficulty of my legs for the race (I'm runner 12 this year) but I was actually talking about the fact that my legs are just physically more toned now.

Later that night we were running and I started complaining that one of my legs was 7.1 and the other was 7.9 ...and since my right leg is significantly shorter than my left (learned that through X-rays my sophomore year of HS) he thought I was being literal.

I was referring to my legs for Ragnar.

Radnonmnomess

2009-12-17T09:27:00.009-07:00

Anyway,so nothing has been posted on the running club in a long time. It's not that we haven't gone running in a long time (which I haven't), it's just that, you know life has been busy with more interesting things right now. In the past month Sage and Rosef have:

1. Found deformed gummy worms and Jelly Bellies. Ok, so this might not seem as impressive to anyone else, but how often do you find a gummy bear that is connected to 2 other gummy bears! I mean, is that not awesome!?

2. Talent show at my parents house. It was pretty amazing. We performed "Jenny" by flight of the conchords. It was a blast.

3. Ugly Sweater Party. There was a hot chocolate bar, and peppermint peeps. And we had some pretty ugly sweaters.

4. Random Picture of me in high school

5. MistleToga. Ok, so this picture looks kind of goofy, and i'm wearing a pink toga (i had to borrow one of Sage's blankets because I loaned my bedsheets to someone else...ew), but it was fun.

6. Random Picture of Sage in High school
7. Random picture from New York.

8.Institute Semi-Formal Dinner-Dance. It was Awesome.

I like puppies

2009-11-18T10:06:00.001-07:00

Pertinent background info: Sage was being followed by a couple puppy-like suitors so, for her protection, Rosef opted to ask her to the upcoming institute date dance. This way, she could go with someone she'd be sure to have fun with. (By the way, this was before they started dating again... [what? they're dating again??? Uh, where have you been? jk] Moving on.)

Now try your hardest to reserve judgement but Rosef asked Sage to the dance over text... a text message people! I know, I know. But it was kinda cute:

Rosef:
"I know this is super lame over a text but... would you consider going to the formal with me? :)
A) yes, I'd love to
B) I like puppies
C) I... um... have something else that's really important that night
D) Pay me & I'll go
E) I hate all the formals in the whole world!
F) maybe (I'll consider it)."

Sage's response:
"G) create some elaborate scheme involving baked goods, puppies (real ones), balloons, music, and/or a jumbo-tron & I will consider it"

She did give a tentative "yes" though and then decided to just let Rosef off the hook for that other stuff... (college students are too busy to plan elaborate date requests)

However, Sage & Rosef went running the other night and what did they find???

The most adorable stray puppy EVER!!!

Rosef seized this opportunity to officially ask Sage to the upcoming dance thus complying with her demands. It was quite fortuitous for Rosef. And all was well again in the Running Club.

[Oh and if you're wondering what became of the puppy... turns out it actually belonged to a nearby biker. *sigh*]

"I'm an ADUUUUUUUUULT!"

2009-10-19T20:16:00.006-07:00

Happy Birthday Rosef :)

The Laziness Ends (sort of) and the Danger Begins

2009-10-16T14:05:00.011-07:00

So, Paige and I have officially decided to stop being bums, start being productive, and start running again.

Productive: We've been doing pretty well, I mean, we went running almost every day this week. Some of those days we even woke up early and ran in the morning.

But, you know, sometimes the laziness still kind of kicks in.

Lazy: Um, like the other day. Paige and I decided to go on a night run around the U of A campus. The run started off great, we had set a good pace and we were running pretty well, and then (about a mile into the run) the conversation turned to ice-cream...literally...meaning the running club members suddenly lost all desire to run and had the sudden urge to buy/eat crazy amounts of ice cream. We had a vote and ice-cream won 2-0.

And then the night started getting not just lazy, but crazy.

Dangerous: We ran back to my car, and drove to Safeway....and almost died on the way. Really, almost died. Paige drove my car...my car is a manual...and it stalled...multiple times...in the middle of the road.... and at stoplights....and cars almost slammed into us. And it was freaking scary.

Lazy: Anyway, we arrived at Safeway alive, and bought ice-cream and a Boston Cream Pie. And then decided to have a homework party at my apartment.

Productive: Homework Party ....

Lazy/Dangerous: During the lots-of-ice-cream-and-sugar-not-so-homework party, Noah, my roommate decided to make a jet engine in the kitchen using an old pickle jar, alcohol and a lighter. I mean, I’m a pyro, but holy cow! That's so cool! Paige-the-Pyro egged him on and the explosions kept getting bigger and bigger. Really though, it was pretty awesome, and it exploded.

Danger, bring it on.

Anyway, it was a random and fun (though i guess not so productive) run.

:)

Repent!

2009-09-30T18:56:00.002-07:00

Ye slothful, idle, gluttonous members of the Running Club:

Quit spending so much time on homework/school/work & getting semi-adequate amounts of sleep each night and GO RUN!

...(just as soon as I'm not sick anymore)

Wicked Cool 10k

2009-08-05T16:35:00.004-07:00

So this past weekend i ran a 10k in Winslow. And I won. . . . . . . . . . . . .(ok, so there were only 2 other guys in the race both over the age of 40 and they definately looked like they could have lost major amounts of weight, but hey, it sounds better if I just said I ran a 10k and won).

I had a friend named Tayna and she won for the girls (see the above comment about the guys and replace "guys" with "girls").

For winning they gave us a piece of corn on the cob.

No joke

I think they gave one to every participant.

Winslow rocks.

Running is Fun...Sometimes

2009-07-25T16:18:00.004-07:00

I went running hard this week for the first time since Niagra Falls. I have lots of really good excuses for the lack of running, like that my shoes smell bad and that my room is dirty,...um...ok, so i really don't have any good excuses besides that it's freaking hot outside and to go running when it's not 97 degrees outside means that I have to run at 5:00 a.m ...... yuck. But hey, i'm working on it

The week of hard running started in Utah ( I was up there for my brother's wedding http://joerickles.blogspot.com/2009/07/week-in-review.html) The 30 min run accidentally turned into a 65 min run when I got lost trying to get back to my sister-in-law's house (give me a break, it was the first time I had ever run up there before). Anyway, it was slightly embarrassing running by the same house 4 times. The guy mowing his lawn probably thought he was having deja vou (wait...vous?voo? vu? voux? dang french) when he saw this crazy kid in way too short shorts hauling by his house not once, but 4 freaking times.

Luckily I was covered in sweat and was talking to myself trying to find a street that didn't have a dead end. So, yeah, he probably didn't think I was crazy or anything.

Anyway, I'm still alive, and it was a fun run.

Niagra Falls and the Marathon

2009-07-01T17:59:00.015-07:00

So, since about March, Sage and I had been planning to run a marathon. So we chose one in Canada. Anway, Long story short, we bought tickets, three other girls decided to come, and Sage didn't get her passport in time. So, she and another girl stayed on the US side of Niagra Falls, while 3 of us crossed the border to run a marathon.

So, Sage and Maren had fun doing things like:

Finding massive amounts of mattresses at the bottom of a hotel. Mattresses loaded with cats.

Going to niagra falls and getting soaked,

finding a buffalo with hotdogs painted all over the side. And a wing coming out of the back.

finding a clown with its face shoved in . . . .and a pink football shoved in his face.

And sitting and pouting in hotels waiting for us to get done running.

This whole time Rosef, Blessica, and . . . .(um, I don't think we ever came up witha name for Laura . . .) went running in the rain for 4 hours in Canada.

For the record, marathons=death.

I think Sage and Maren definately had more fun.

Anyway, the trip was a blast

And I want to run another marathon :)

Guest Runners

2009-06-05T13:49:00.004-07:00

The Running Club has been broken up for the summer [sad, I know] due to geographical reasons. But we'll just call it franchising! There are now TWO branches of the Running Club: the original Tucson, AZ club and the *new* Gilbert, AZ club.

Luckily, President Sage (of the Gilbert club) had business in Tucson recently and was able to meet up with President Rosef (of the Tucson club) to have a sweet, sweet reunion run.

You see, Sage was called to Tucson on the business of dog-sitting for her boss--two very active dogs which each needed to be taken on a 2-3 mile run twice a day for 4 days. Running club at your service!

Now I feel it important to note: the Running Club is not an exclusive organization. In fact, we proudly welcome runners of any age, sex, nationality, religious persuasion, and um... species.

Allow me to introduce you to our most recent guest runners:

Bean (above) & Otter (below)

We just love having guests in the Running Club! Although, I don't think we've ever had to worry about our past guest runners doing this:

But they were still lots of fun and Joseph was finally able to have a partner who could run as fast as him :)

If you're interested in joining or participating in the Running Club all you need to do is contact your local branch!

Hope to see you soon :)

Facial Hair

2009-05-20T18:04:00.017-07:00

So, Paige has this weird obsession with facial hair. Seriously. An obsession. I don't know what's wrong with her.

I can't stand facial hair (on me) because I can't grow hair on my face. My older brothers, they can grow hair. Me. . . not so much.

Anyway, few days ago, Paige convinced me to try and grow out my facial hair for a week. I thought it'd be fun to see what people thought. Honestly, I think Paige had more fun than I did.

For example:

Conversation with my little sister:

"Are you growing a mustache Joe?""--MC

"Maybe." --me

--laughing--MC

--very laughing--Paige

It was interesting how many people I ran into that I hadn't seen in a long time, and how many new people I met. If any of you are reading this and saw me with facial hair, just remember to blame Paige.

Anway, so, here's what I looked like after 4 days ( I had shaved everything but the almost-a-mustache) . You can see it . . . sort of, if you squint one eye a little. It's probably the bad lighting that it's hard to see, not the fact that my facial hair gene is almsot non-existent.

. . . . . I'm not really sure what Paige is doing in the background.

Anyway, after 4 days i gave up (thank you missionaries for calling me and asking if i could come teach with you . . . it was a great excuse).

But, I started wondering what I really would have looked like if I would have continued to grow my facial hair. Here are some possibilities.

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.

I think I'll keep shaving.

Must be the endorphins

2009-05-14T21:59:00.005-07:00

Ever wonder how Joseph--an amazingly speedy & talented & very in-shape runner--tolerates running with a lazy, sauntering, not-so-in-shape runner like myself?

Aside from his unfailing patience, I'll tell you his secret: on any given workout he probably runs twice as far as I do. Now you may ask, how is that possible, given that we go running together? Observe this map of a typical run:

I am the red lines, Joseph is the green. NO joke he runs zig-zags and circles around me while I struggle for life just to make it through our workout.

It kinda reminds me of Billy from the Family Circus:

[side note: I'm guessing that was not the original caption to this picture but it was the best one I could find to illustrate my point]

Sometimes when he has way too much energy I'll just point out a sign 100 feet away and say "sprint to that and back!" to let him to burn some of it off. So if I run 4 miles, chances are Joseph ran 7 or 8. This is why Joseph is gonna be ready for our marathon and I am not. Impressive much? Yeah, that's Joseph for ya :)

Hand Painting

2009-05-04T12:39:00.008-07:00

So a couple of days ago, Paige and I were going to go running. She came over to my apartment, sat down, and started laughing. Now, I’m used to girls looking at me and laughing, you know, nothing too new. But usually they do this after looking at my face. This time she was looking at my left hand.

Curious at this strange behavior, I looked down and saw this looking at me:

There was a face drawn on my hand! complete with eyebrows and eye color!

. . . . Ok, so I was really bored at work. And there are a lot of permanent markers at work. And did I mention I was bored? Anyway, yeah, once again I guess it was that dang 9-year-old cub scout coming out. Yeah, Paige laughed and made fun of me.

Funny thing, the next day in church, I look over at Paige and she’s drawing on her hand. Weird. And what was she drawing?

ps. Love the eyelashes

I lieu of running this WEEK

2009-04-21T11:52:00.003-07:00

Last week I got a nasty sinus infection that put the kibosh on our training for a few days--me because I couldn't breathe, Joseph because... what was it again? Moral support? Oh and homework. So running couldn't happen, but that didn't mean Rosef & Sage stopped having adventures. There's always some fun to be had by us somewhere:

Like petting a forbidden art pony

or seeing an Andy Warhol "original" Marilyn Monroe
(you tell me how "original" it is to see 1 of about 10,000 of the same silk-screened image )

Getting a new nickname :)

Playing with a random wheelchair found in the ladies restroom

Growing a blond unibrow

who knew eating spinach would be such an adventure...?

Trying to take a picture of me at work

Joseph was murdered by Sasha's panda collection

Found a random swing hanging in a tree on campus

So much adventure... Sinus infections = great fun!

In case you were wondering

2009-04-14T19:08:00.010-07:00

So, you might be wondering why it has taken so long for us to put pictures on our blog. You don't have to wonder anymore. Paige just hates me taking pictures of her, . . . and she has this thing about wanting to destroy perfectly normal pictures. I would never do that. Ever. I'm serious.

So, I tried to secretly take pictures of her (remember, I'm not a creeper) so I could put them on the blog. It never worked, she somehow would always realize when I was about take the picture. Dang camera phone:

Anway, like I said, I never mess up pictures.

She didn't want this one for the banner. Never figured out why.

In lieu of running this evening

2009-04-09T22:23:00.010-07:00

Safeway was having a sale on ice cream!

...and now we have a new banner picture with both of us in it :)

-Posted by Paige on Joe's computer

Tonight while we were running...

2009-04-07T23:15:00.003-07:00

I got hit by a car.
Seriously.

It was an orange Scion. Joseph just got clipped by the front bumper. I was up on the hood.

The driver said he was sorry.

Luckily he was moving a whopping 0.1 mph. We're ok :)

The Drop Kick

2009-04-04T22:50:00.018-07:00

When we first started running, some of us in the running club (Kenzi) were not extremely dedicated. She would say she was going to go running in the morning and would then completely cop-out and decide that sleep was more important than running 5 miles at 6:00 in the morning. Lame, I know.

Paige had kind of started doing this for about a week. Yeah, she had lame excuses like she had gone to bed at 3:30am and couldn't go, or had a term paper she had forgotten about. I mean, 2 hours of sleep=lame excuse. Wanting good grades in school= very lame excuse.

Anyway, I had to do something to keep Paige running and keep her motivated, . . . and then it dawned on me; threaten her, duh.

So, the texting/threatening began:

Paige: I don't think I can go running tonight
Joe: Just do it
Paige: I really can't, I have homework

(in comes the threat)

Joe: Ok, you're getting drop kicked
Paige: no!

A drop kick is a very not-so-subtle-karate-zilla-kungfuish-i-watched-too-much-dragonball-z-as-a-kid-move that I had practiced much of my childhood in front of the mirror in my room. Basically you throw the person on the ground and jump on them. It's great fun. And what greater way to make someone want to go running with you. Right? It works without fail . . . meaning that it doesn't really work at all really.

For example, one night, as Paige was ditching running club, Blessica (a sometimes member of the club) and I ran over to Paige's house and knocked on the door. She opened it, and looked slightly surprised as we ran in, threw her on the ground (ok, so she sat down on the ground before we even got to grab her) jumped on her, and then booked it out of there.

Needless to say, I don't think it really hurt her or even motivated her to go running. Partially because she was laughing the whole time, and partially because I have no idea how to really drop-kick someone. It's a good thing that Paige's roommates weren't there, they might have fought back . . . and Sasha knows oragami (that's some kind of karate thing right?)

I'll just have to think of a different way to motivate her. Or go practice in front of the mirror.

:)

Decoded

2009-03-31T19:36:00.008-07:00

Joseph & I have had the experience of living with roommates who were dating each other... THREE times. (Oh and by that I mean his roommate was dating my roommate, not that we lived with people who were dating each other--awkward.) Anyways, our roommates from last year are now happily married and living in SLC; our roommates from this year... have given us much to discuss in the running club--even after Joseph moved to a new apartment. Well, talking about people is rude (dontcha know!) but seeking advice for friends? That's a very nice thing! It all started one day...

Paige: So, Joseph, I've got this friend named uh... Sage. And she has a roommate... named Shayla. And sometimes they don't get along. What should Sage do?
Joseph: Well, I think Sage should talk to her friend, um... Rosef about it because he can talk to Shayla's boyfriend... [Joe, did we ever come up with a code name for Ryan? I don't remember if we did] to see if everything is okay between Sage & Shayla.

Anywho, that's how it all started. Now we just use codenames for everyone. It's fun, you should try it

Tacia = Sasha (Side note to Colton F: this one couldn't be avoided--but we can change it to be spelled Sacia if you'd like)
Kenzi = Penzi/Renzi
Jessica = Blessica
etc. etc.

Yes yes I know, we're pretty clever. And now you're in on the secret too :)

2009-03-27T10:02:00.000-07:00

There are lots of interesting things that happen in this world. For example, this morning after I went running, I hopped in the bathtub, turned on the water . . . and the shower head blasted off of the wall and into me. I yelled/screamed (this always helps in crazy situations) then tried to fix it by shoving the shower head back in place, . . .without turning the water off. Yeah, that didn’t turn out so well. But it was pretty cool.

And it was an interesting story.

Interesting is an interesting word. And Paige has brought to my attention that I use it more than any normal human being. It means pretty much everything, from awesome to weird to ugly, or as a way to introduce amazing intellectual insights (ie. it’s interesting that girls won’t date me after I show them my Pokémon collection).

Paige has even come up with a song that she sings every time I say it that goes something like “Da nah nah, da nah nah!” and I hear it quite a bit. But, the more Paige has hung out/ gone running with me, the more she has been using “interesting”(da nah nah) as a way to describe everything including:

1. Joe, your hair looks interesting (funky)
2. That was an interesting joke Joe (lame)
3. Want to hear something interesting? (freaking awesome)
4. Joe, you’re interesting (weird)
5. I want to do something interesting today (slightly crazy/non-boring)
6. This was an interesting movie(intriguing )
7. This was an interesting poem (dumb, boring and psychotic)
8. Life is interesting (incredible)
9. My roommates are interesting (all of the above definitions)

Now that’s interesting. . . .da nah nah

Injury Report

2009-03-26T09:25:00.002-07:00

When you run, you get hurt. When you hang out with Joseph, you also get hurt.

Current injuries:
Paige
Left big toe: broken; cause: unknown.
Left big toe: swollen; cause: biffing it on the sidewalk yesterday.
Left shin: bruised; cause: Joseph's karate moves.
Joseph
Right ankle: smashed to smithereens; cause: he kicked it with his own left foot.
Ego: bruised; cause: being tripped by a girl :)

More Than Just Runners (doughnuts and karate)

2009-03-25T21:31:00.011-07:00

Lots of awesome things happen in the running club. We're not hard core runner's all the time, we are also intellectuals. Like the other day when we went running downtown. I discovered that you could throw freezing water at Paige in order to make her run faster. See, that's fun and educational. So, ok, actually Paige is the intellectual/genius, I am kind of the hunchbacked sidekick who messes everything up . . .and throws freezing water.

As I have stated earlier, Paige is a very intelligent person and is very fun to talk to. She tends to bring up very smart, deep, and relative topics as we cruise the backroads of Tucson. I tend to think of things like doughnuts, ants, and things that would be cool in a microwave (DVD's, matches, ants, very small rocks, etc). For the record, today while we were running, the topic really did turn to ants. Maybe this was because I realized that I had been sitting on an anthill and the little black bugs were beginning to say hello to me by crawilng up my shorts.

So, back to today's stats:

Time of run: 6:21pm

Ran to: Snake path --> Tucson Ave. --> 3rd Ave --> Institute --> through campus --> to Joseph's car --> to Carl's Jr. --> to Safeway --> doughnut section of Safeway (we both got a craving about 4.5 miles into the run) --> soda aisle

Distance: 6.3 miles (about another 2 to Safeway)

Calories burned: not as many as gained from the doughnuts

Interesting happenings:

-->I sat on an anthill.

--> While we were running down the road having an intelligent conversation, Paige biffed it pretty hard on the sidewalk . . . like, she sprawled out on all fours. This was actually probably some kind of divine punishment for a couple days ago, where she decided that she was going to start tripping me all the time. Seriously, we were walking out of the institute and she had this crazy look in her eye. I go to my apartment, she gets out of the car walks next to me and sideswipes me! No joke. Why did she do that? . . . (ok so I know why she did that, I was accidentally practicing my cool karate moves at the institute and slightly missed the air and kicked her shin, oops, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" ). We have sinced called a truce. partially because Paige could would definately win if we ever got in a fight.

Anyway, I gotta go finish my doughnut, and practicce my karate.

a day in the life of the running club

2009-03-23T23:21:00.009-07:00

Ever wonder what it's like?

Actual text conversation from this morning:
Joseph (5:56am) "Paige! Are you up? -joe"
Paige (6:00am) "Yes... I'm cold"
Joseph (6:01am) [without sympathy] "haha :) gotta love the Tucson weather -joe"
Paige (6:02am) "No kidding. Did you get your homework done? Am I going over there or you coming over here?"
Joseph (6:05am) "Still working on it, but almost ready. Can you come over here? -joe"
Paige (6:06am) "Okay. give me a sec though... I'll be honest, I haven't gotten up yet :)"
Joseph (6:07am) "lol :) ok, I'll run over there -joe"
Paige (6:07am) "haha No no I'll be over in a bit"
[Paige procedes to fall back asleep and is awakened by Joseph clawing at her door 15 min later.]

Now the real life conversation:
Joe: [upon entering the apartment, taking a look at Paige's facial expression] Paige what time did you go to bed last night?!? You look... uh... ... ...
Paige: [holds up index finger without speaking, indicating 1am]
Joe: PAIGE! Why so late??
Paige: [still without speaking, uses index finger to point to her sleeping roommate, indicating that they stayed up late talking... as usual]
Joe: Really you look... um, pretty tired. Do you want to run later?
Paige: [confused, half-awake expression] Did you see my new socks? Look at the cookie sample I got in the mail yesterday... [still half-awake/bewildered]
[Joe & Paige walk out to the street to decide where to run for the day]
Joe: Really you don't look um... Do you want to go back to bed? We can go run later...
Paige: Is this a trick question? ...um ... yes. okay.
[Joe leaves to run a little on his own, Paige goes back to bed]

Back to text conversation:
Paige (6:27am) "Ahh the covers are still warm haha"
Joseph (6:52am) "lol :) have fun sleeping :) -joe"
Paige (10:55am) "Guess who just woke up...? :) [hand raises]"
Joseph (11:07am) "This is a really tough question [finger scratching head] but seeing as you are the only one with your hand raised, I'm guessing . . . you? -joe"
Joseph (5:07pm) "hey Paige! Are you coming over this time? :) -joe"
Paige (5:07pm) "Haha yeah :D I'll be over in a bit"

Today's stats
Time of run: 5:20pm
Ran to: Eastmoor park on the bikepath and back
Distance: 5 miles
Main topic of discussion: "Hell hath no furry like a woman scorned" As typical, we discuss past relationships, relationships in general, and the divisive differences between men & women.
Interesting happenings:
--> Joseph & I accidentally matched. Perfectly. White shirt w/ navy blue writing & navy blue Nike shorts. We looked pretty retarded. No offense Joseph.
--> Saw some hoodlum vandalizing a sign. He looked up as we ran by, and then went right back to tagging that sign.
--> On our way out to the park we ran by some disoriented homeless guy. He was probably about 6'5" (Joe says 7'2" at the very least) and SUPER messed up on drugs or acid or something. He tried to stop us and asked "... ... uhhhhhhhm... ... ... where's... that... the... uhhhh... uhhhhhh" and pointed kindof in the direction of downtown Tucson. So I just said "that's downtown Tucson. Bye!" and we ran off. It was a little scary. On our way back we passed him again. He was peeing on a wall. I'm not kidding, this guy was super DRUNK or way messed up on something. He lost his balance and kinda fell into the wall and just leaned there, doin' his business.

And there you have it. That is a pretty normal day for the Running Club. Except usually we actually do run in the morning. I was just really really really tired today for some reason...

The JK Theory

2009-03-16T16:26:00.008-07:00

Being a Psychology major is pretty cool, until you tell people that's what you're studying--and then they stop wanting to talk to you out of fear that you are psychoanalyzing them. I swear I never am... at least no more than you would psychoanalyze me in any normal conversation. Got it?

Well sometimes you get the rare responses from people who aren't afraid/enjoy the possible opportunity to be psychoanalyzed. Maybe they've read a few articles, taken a class, gone to therapy. Whatever the case, they're not afraid of any Psych major, and they prove it by throwing some weird theory at you--like the theory of "just kidding"...

I don't think I was in the running club longer than a week before Joseph tried this one out on me. I remember long ago hearing once that "all truth is said in jest". Apparently Joseph heard the same thing & brought it up for discussion--how we sometimes will say something offhandedly--straight out of our subconscious maybe?--and that something may have come off a little too... unrefined... and then, upon realizing the mistake sputter out a baffled "heh heh [level 1 laughter] juuuust kidding!"

"Would you marry me already??" . . . . . . . . . . . . "Juuuuuuust kidding!"
[awkward situation: avoided]

Or was it? Now that Joseph & I have talked about this "JK theory" extensively and thought about all of the possible null situations we have concluded: it's correct probably 90% of the time--people use humor to disguise, for example, unpleasant "real life" feelings. This likely isn't news to anyone, but bringing that to your attention means you can NEVER tell a joke again without having your motives questioned and without pleading that it falls into the 10% category of actual kiddings. "I hate getting up so early to run every morning! Just kidding :) No, really, I am. I'm kidding! I love to run... when there is no sun... it's so much fun... Honest. I was kidding. Sheesh." Try to go through a normal conversation and see how many times you joke about something. Now imagine that the person you're talking to knows of the JK theory. They'll call you out on it and you'll have to stop, wonder if you're actually kidding--and if you are--then take the time to make a logical argument with factual support to convince the person that you are really and truly joking. It's no wonder the career outlook in my field is always showing positive growth.

The JK theory will forever ruin your jokes. It will ruin your life. And I hate it.

...just kidding :)

So who's the smartypants psychoanalyst now?

Poetry, Smoetry, oh-Noetry

2009-03-15T21:34:00.012-07:00

Paige is a psychology major. I'm an English Major. Paige is very intelligent. I'm an English Major.
English is an awesome language. It really is. I really thought that, . . . that is until I started taking poetry classes. Poetry is weird. It's basically the way in which super nerds try to assert their authority and demonstrate their true intelligence by creating something so weird and different that no normal human being could ever really understand what the hek the poet is trying to get across.

Poets: 1
Psychologists:0

I am required to write poems for one of my classes. Most of the poems that people write for the class go about like this: the car fell on the dog, like a blanket. Cool right? Some sort of symbolcic reference to life right? wrong. It's just really bad poetry.

Poets:1
Pychologists:1

So, Paige and I started writing our own poetry. It started at late one night when I texted her.
It went like this:
me--"Hey, tomorrow morning want to have fun and go run?"
paige--"Yes, at about six-oh-one"
me--"There won't be any sun."
paige--"Should I run with a gun?"
me--"Is this a pun?'"
paige--"my hair will be in a bun."

about this time both of us have run out of words that rhyme with "un" and there is a longer and longer space of time in between each text.

me--"ok, but an elephant weighs a ton."
paige--"From the running club, Kenzi we will shun."

Paige usually wins these poetry battles. Most end with me doing things like, "um . . . zun?"

Poets:1
Psychologists:2

But see, THAT is awesome poetry. And i'm sure there's some kind of symbolic meaning of life in there! Why don't we study this kind of stuff in my class? no idea. Maybe real poets just don't appreciate talent.

Ok, so honestly poetry isn't too bad, the class is actually pretty fun.
It's just really sad.
And it makes me mad.
But running is pretty rad.

(take that psychologists)

The History of the Running Club

2009-03-12T23:05:00.005-07:00

joe---Paige & I have been running every morning for the past 4 months. Wait... 5 months. No, 4 months. I have been running for 5 months. Paige joined four months ago. It kind of started because a cute girl had asked me if I wanted to go running in the morning, I was like, "Hek Yeah!" (note: cute girl i'm refering to was not Paige) So for a few weeks, I would wake up every morning, run over to the girl's house (i'm not a creeper) and wake her up (I'm serious, really, i'm not a creeper) and go running. A few weeks into this, she dropped out, interestingly enough this was about the same time i asked her out on a date, and the same time she re-got a boyfriend. . . is re-got even a word?

paige---no. it's not. Luckily I overheard about the running club one evening as Joseph--in true ward mission leader diligence--asked Kenzi if she would commit to go running the next day. I think I just kindof invited myself to join. I was nervous about intruding... but as was implied earlier, I think Kenzi liked the idea of having extra "company" in the club.

joe--- no. she didn't. Anyway, this is when the REAL creepiness began. Every morning, Paige and I would run over to Kenzi's, text her, call her on the phone, knock on her door, pry the screen off the window and see if we could fit through ( ok, that last one only happened once, give me a break . . .and it was Paige's idea) Needless to say, Kenzi started "staying up late doing homework" and couldn't run in the mornings anymore. Weird.

paige---basically our beloved RS president went inactive from the runing club. Then she wouldn't respond to our fellowshipping efforts... so she was excommunicated. Sorry Kenz.
Okay back to the relevant history of the running club:

joe---so, over the past few months, what started as training for the Ragnar Relay eventually turned into a pretty good/freaking awesome friendship. . . .and since Paige likes to blog, I like to write . . . we did what every other, um, . . .duo? does: we decided to start an amazing blog in an attempt to explain the many awesome things that happen while we run every morning.

paige---these are our stories...

:)