Monkeys and elevators

I haven't run in over 10 weeks. I know there's a lot of debate about if running is safe in pregnancy or not, and I always thought I would run while pregnant because I'm pretty convinced it's okay. However....because of all the travelling and just not feeling great the first trimester, I chose to walk instead.

I was pretty good about walking, trying to get in an hour of walking a few days a week. However......the heat index has been hanging around 106 and I mostly have time to walk in the afternoons.....which is why I haven't.

I have been feeling pretty sluggish because I haven't intentionally been exercising. I've been trying to walk at least 30 minutes a day, but that doesn't always happen, and have I mentioned the cookies I've been eating?

Anyways..... I had stopped my gym membership for the month of June since I was going to the States, and then July was so crazy with us travelling and being gone, and then throw in that I get evening sickness and not morning-before you know it, it's been 12 weeks since I've been to the gym.

So I made up my mind that tonight was the night....I was going back to spin class no matter what! 

So after dinner tonight I filled up my water bottle, squished myself into my workout clothes, and headed out. 

As I was approaching the gym, I saw several people impatiently waiting for the elevator. As i got closer, I saw them decide to take the stairs. The elevator arrived right as I was walking up, so I got in. But not before I saw THE MONKEY that was sitting on the stairwell that leads to the gym.

A monkey....really?! I hate monkeys.....they're sneaky and dirty and who knows where they've been.

So after spin class, (which went quite well), I took the elevator down. However, once it reached ground level the doors didn't open. It just stayed there with me locked inside listening to the voices on the outside. Then I started to panic. It was really hot in that elevator. Every button I pushed, nothing happened and nothing lit up.

Was this an emergency? Could I justify pushing the alarm button? And how much language do I know to be able to say "I'm stuck in an elevator, can you please help me." I technically knew every word but 'stuck,' the most important one.

Anyways, after praying for what felt like forever, the elevator started going back up. The doors finally opened back at the gym.

I high-tailed it out of there, and took the stairs. (you know see where this is going?)

As I was reaching the bottom of the stairs, I thought, there is no way that monkey is still there. 

HA.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and the scary monkey (with no owner might I add) was running back and forth on the handrail, making obscene noises that scared me to death.

I managed to make it out alive, but kept looking over my shoulder to see if the monkey was following me.

Now I'm faced with a big decision.......next time I go to the gym, do I risk being stuck in an elevator and sweating to death, or take my chances with the monkey??

I think I'll go learn how to say "stuck."

love

laura

Good Insanity

(alternately titled "My life is awkward and I can prove it")

Thursday was a day to end all days.

While it was completely chaotic, there were several good things that came out of it.

We have been waiting on paperwork for over 3 months now to allow us to renew our visas. Daniel is making  a sacrifice for our family and continuing his language study at the university while I study one-on-one with a tutor. Daniel studying at the university allows us a visa and ability to live here. But, in order for me to ride his visa, we have to have very specific paperwork from the states.

It was supposed to be overnighted from Houston on Tuesday morning. We found out Thursday morning that it was sent regular mail on Wednesday afternoon. Now would be a good time to share that our visas expire tomorrow.
Thursday morning is when we found out the paperwork would not arrive until one day after our visas expired.
Cue anger towards the Houston office.

Anyways, long story short we had a local friend go with us to the visa office and were given an extension until Tuesday. Problem solved, however there was a lot of worry and nervousness for a few hours.

Then between the hours of 12 and 4:30, we had several people in and out of our house, and it was crazy! Crazy because no one spoke english but us!

If you remember this post, I explained my bitterness about the extra room that we have in our apartment that the landlord wouldn't give us the key too. Confession: I have tried to pick the lock MANY times.

It was time to pay rent (we pay a year at a time here) and we thought since we were meeting with the apartment manager (he manages the apt since the landlord lives in another city) it was an opportune time to ask for the key to this mystery room.

At first he kept telling us no.

I am very persistent.

He finally said he would bring a locksmith to open the door, but he was very busy. So we were pretty surprised when he came this week. It was a LONG process to get this door open. The first repairman looked at it and immediately said he couldn't unlock it. He said for $30 he could get another guy to do it. The manager scoffed and said no to opening it then. Then I jumped in and told we would be more than happy to pay for it. Paying $30 to get access to more space is worth every penny.

Keep in mind, we had no idea what was behind this door. At the minimum I was expecting a small room to keep luggage or something.

Imagine my surprise when we opened the door and found....

THIS wonderful room!!!! I would classify it as huge :) It has built in cabinets on BOTH sides and it goes to the wall and T's and has space on both sides!!!!!!

It had this large mirror (more on that later) on one end of the T. I'm trying to show you both sides of the T.

This is the view from the inside looking back towards the front.

The room was filthy! We don't think it had been opened in about 5 years or so, so there was a layer of black dust and dirt on everything. (i wish i had taken a before pic....there was stuff everywhere!) But I was willing to do anything to be able to use it, ha! That is pure joy on my face.

This is where it gets awkward. When the door was first opened, myself and the manager walked in. (we agreed to store everything that was already in the room and use the leftover space) There was a lot of junk and boxes all over the place. This box was right in the middle of the room.

Except the box was open and its contents were right in front of us. And yes, what is written on the box is really what is inside. And the box was completely filled with the umm, "product." And this is why there was a large mirror inside. We believe it was the "fitting room."

Not only does it weird me out to have a box of this stuff in our house, but now I look at the furnishings that came with the apartment and wonder "Do we have this couch because business was good?"

love

laura

Health Exam

It's two words you just don't want to hear in the EA. While i truly do love it here, and enjoy most parts of life here, i'm just not in love with the health system available here.

Daniel and I needed to have a health exam/physical for our university application.

Let me walk you through our day.

We arrive at the larger-than-we-expected health clinic to find tons of people standing in several lines and swarming about. We find 2 other foreigners and they give us a quick synopsis of how the system works.

We stand in the first line.

When we get to the counter we're told we need to go to another line to get an application. I had to sign that i agreed to the following.

It says " I am responsible for the deception."

That really should have been our first clue to how the rest of the day would go.

We get the application, fill it out, go back and get in line #1.

After a quick glance they send us to line #2 which is quite long.

I need to use the bathroom. I leave line and am about to use the squatty and realize a. i don't have any tissue or anything even close to resembling it, and b. i have no hand sanitizer. (i know what you're thinking, i'm in a health clinic surely.....but no). There is a local girl doing her thing too so i waited and begged asked her if she could give me 1 piece of tissue. She does, and i'm grateful. But then i realize we're going to be there a while and I might need to go again. So, yes, i rip the small tissue in half and i'll spare you the rest of the details. Again, no hand sanitizer and i'm already feeling pretty contaminated.


While we're still standing in line #2 we realize everyone else has small pictures to go with their application. We do not.

We ask the kind man behind us and he points to the little shack out front. They will take our pictures for us. We know line #2 was about an hour wait so we took turns leaving the line to go get our pics taken.

We get our pictures and continue standing in line.

We take another picture at the end of line #2 and are told to go to #4. I don't see anything that looks like a #4 and ask the lady more specifically where i'm supposed to go. She told me floor 2.

I go to floor 2. The lady tells me to go to floor 3.

At floor 3 i have to do a urine sample. I'm ever so thankful that i had half a tissue to use for a urine sample using a squatty. I'm mentally preparing myself for any illnesses that might spring up in the next few days as a result of today.

After the urine sample i get in line to have my blood drawn. After waiting a while i get up to the front and the lady tells me i haven't paid yet. (we were actually told to pay at the end, but whatevs)

I go back to floor 1, pay, get another receipt and stamp and go back to floor 3 to have my blood drawn. There are 2 other foreign ladies in front of me and they asked the technician to change her gloves before she draws their blood. I notice that the technicians hadn't been changing their gloves the entire time i've been in line. Not wanting to be the snobby white american, but also not wanting to die, i also ask ever so nicely if my technician will change her gloves too.

Get blood drawn, and am given a long Q tip to put on my arm. No band aids to be found. This is when i start praying and asking that Father protect us from anything and everything that we could catch while at the clinic.

After the blood I get my height, weight, BP, and all that checked. The lady totally rounded up a full pound on the paperwork. I was tempted to change it, but didn't. I tell myself "Big picture Laura."

Then i go to a series of different rooms and have to lie down on the table in each one. Things were really busy and i also noticed that they're not changing the blue liners on the beds at all. One table had hair and wet goo on it. Que prayer.

I reallllllly wanted to ask for a new liner at each station, but i also wanted to get out of there ASAP.

In one room a lady is on the phone and starts putting these very strange looking clips on me. Like huge chip bag clips. I have this intense fear that she's going to do some type of electric shock on me so i started calling for Daniel. Turns out she was monitoring my heart, which  should've been obvious when she put the clips on my ankles.

I also had an eye exam and had to put the same cover over my eye that everyone else had used. Note to self: always carry my own alcohol swabs. You just never know.

The last stop was X Ray. I was warned that females had to take off everything on top and put on a gown. Which would seem normal if you weren't standing in room full of people watching you get your x ray. I was able to change behind a curtain, but have never felt so exposed. i'm trying to block this part of the day out.

After X ray we realize we have to go back to where we received our application to get some stamp thing and a free carton of warm milk. Yummmmm.

Then we go back pick up our x rays and learn we have to come back in 2 days to get our final results.

At this point it's been a confusing day and we are both feeling infected.

We celebrate by going to Subway (yes we have a few here!) and chase away our contamination fears with coke and chocolate cookies. We found a public restroom that had soap and we both scrubbed at least 2 layers of skin off.

Welcome to my life :)

love

Laura

I'm back!! (and awkward story)

I ran this morning.

I haven't run in one month. It's the longest stretch of not-running i've had in the last year and a half, since i've started. Last night when going to bed i kept thinking 'i wonder if i've still got it?' 'will my body remember how?'

This is me before:

And this is me 2.1 miles later!

I was trying to capture how sweaty i was. Even though it was only 2 miles, i had sweat literally pouring off of my body. Not sure what the temp was, but it was 90% humidity.

I feel like i started running for the first time all over again! I was SO proud and excited that i actually did it. It was more of a mental victory than a physical one. I've been scared to run here for a while. But i ran at 7 am so there wasn't as many people out yet.  I didn't run with headphones though. There is so much going on with motorbikes riding on the sidewalk, cars honking, and people that will walk straight into you, that i want to be pretty aware of my surroundings.

I would like to get back to running 5-6 miles at a time. I think i could do 3 later this week if i had to. It feels SO good to be back!

Sidenote: We made Cajun blackened tilapia last night with corn and rice with a twist. What is the twist you ask?? Cooking the rice in coconut milk instead of water. We had the rice this way at a friends house last week and i loved it!! And i don't even like coconut-but it gave it such a great flavor! This dinner was good!

Cultural sidenote:

Okay, this may be weird to share, but here goes. We have Western (american) toilets in our apartment. However, once we leave our house, almost all bathrooms are squatty's. They can be nice ones that actually flush, or trough style where you just straddle the hole. I have squatty'd many a time. Never had a problem. You do want to be careful to keep your balance though because nothing is grosser than falling forward (or backward eww) in a squatty.

SO, last Saturday night we went to our friends cd release show. I had showered and was wearing jeans. I went to the bathroom at the restaurant. It was a squatty. no.big.deal.

So i'm going.....and i hear a strange sound that doesn't sound quite right. I kept going.

I walked out of the squatty stall and looked down at my pant leg. Soaking wet!!! I had peed all over the bottom of my jeans! Hello, what the heck???? I have NEVER peed on myself or had issues before. So i rolled up the bottom of my jeans to hide it and went back to the show.

Life goes on. You have to laugh at these things. You never know what kind of weird situation you'll be in at any moment. You have to learn to roll with it. It's life and it's awkward.

love

Laura



help a sister out

Speaking of awkward....

Ya'll know Sarah AKA my sister?

We go way back.

We're both new to the whole long distance running thing. Sarah has always been in good shape, but we're exploring this new world of running and racing together. It's not uncommon to compare what we eat, when we eat, what we wear, how we felt, and all the other details that go along with this new uncharted territory.

Which brings me to Sarah's email yesterday.

 (I did get her permission to post this)

and i quote:

"So dilemma is I only have 1 pair of running shorts which I can wear my regular cotton underwear with. When I wear my yoga pants or running capris I can't wear regular underwear becuase of underwear lines. What do you do? Do you run in shorts all the time? I am thinking of getting another pair of running shorts. Mike thinks when its cold I will want to wear pants. But most marathoners wear shorts only even in Jan.   What do you think?"

I emailed her back and told her "real athletes don't worry about panty lines."

She disagrees and has googled to see what people do, and is getting a mixed response from the Internet. shocking.

so i told her i'd ask her question to all my blog friends who run, work out, or have ever worn any type of athletic clothing and get your thoughts.

do you worry about panty lines when you're running/working out?

if so, what is your solution?

do you think Sarah is as weird as i do?

and GO!

awkward!!

ok, i HAVE to share with ya'll what i consider to be a very funny story from last night! I am still laughing about it...

disclaimer: i am not from Oklahoma, but i am currently living here. So it's never unusual to hear words or phrases that i am unfamiliar with......

Last night Daniel and I went to a couples dinner group of our church that meets every week. I was chatting with one lady who i had just met. I asked her about her children and the convo went a little something like this...

She was telling me the names and ages of her children, then she said they had a Garden Chip.

i'm sorry a what?!!?

Me: you have a Garden Chip?

Her: Yes, she lives with us but we didn't adopt her, a Garden Chip

Me: I'm sorry, i'm not familiar with that term. What is it exactly?

Her: A Garden Chip...umm...you know, the parents sign over their rights

(her to another lady...yes, let's please include more people in on this awkward convo)

Her: how would you describe a Garden Chip?

Other Girl replies the same way

me: huh, wow I've just never heard about this Garden Chip before.

(this goes on for a few minutes, because i am bound and determined to learn this new term of "Garden Chip" and get to the bottom of what it means)

Her: Yeah, i don't really know how else to explain a Garden Chip...

me: (the light has finally gone on)  OHHHHH!!!! you're saying GUARDIANSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her: yes, a Garden Chip.

I thought i was going to die from embarassment, but it was SO funny (to me at least!) how i couldn't understand what she was saying and never even came close to connecting the dots to a guardianship.

I LOVE moments like these...slightly embarassing, 100% awkward, and beyond funny.

hope everyone enjoys that little treat for the day!!

wish me luck on the long run tomorrow!

love

laura

random..as always

SO where to start??

We met our international students on Sunday, and we l.o.v.e them!! we actually picked up 2 more too!! i told Daniel on the way home that our family just went from 2 to 6! It was a lot of fun getting to know the students (they are all from the same country) and looking forward to our fun times together. It was hard not to host more students.....170 signed up for a host family, and on Sunday only 70 had been placed. I hate that someone signed up looking for a new friend, and may not have the opportunity.

We're having them all over on Friday night for ice cream and brownies, and i am SO SO SO looking forward to it!!

in other news....i'm running injured. not physically, but mentally at least. i'm a little wigged out after the 15K experience. even though i ran it and finished, i'm a little freaked out that i'll never be able to run more than 5 miles again. idk why....but i've run twice now and have this new fear that my running will never get better and i'll never have a long run again. lame. i know. but still real.

anyways.....

we're actually digging into our Radical study at church tonight. we're excited to see what everyone else has been learning so far. Daniel & I talked thru it on Monday night, and i loved our discussion! i enjoy times like that where we aren't talking about work or schedules, but just sharing what we're learning from Father. good times my friends.

how is everyone's week turning out so far?

random: i love the smell of diesel!

it reminds me of my school bus when we lived in Belgium, which always makes me remember some good times and awkward moments of Sarah and I waiting for the bus in our huge, ankle length purple puffy coats (that we thought were cool) and giving our bus driver homemade breads my mom made, all the time arguing over who had to give him the bread...because the very thought of it convinced us that it would most definitely be our most embarassing moment ever......

anyone?

love
laura

this is my random post....


i've had a lot of random thoughts i've been wanting to share, so here ya go:

- One thing i miss about living overseas is wearing the same thing over and over. At the bookstore at the college i work at, there's a sign that says

"of course you can wear a t-shirt everyday, as long as it's not the same one."

i disagree here. One thing i loved about living OS is choosing my outfit (usually layers) and knowing i was good for 4 days. Unless i got really dirty or gross or something, it would be 3 days. Then i'd wash those clothes and move on to the next outfit. I really wish i could do that here and not be judged or mistaken for homeless.

Life is so much simpler when you wear the same clothes for days at a time and everyone else around joins in too.

confession... i have to constantly remind myself to wash my clothes now. It's not unusual to go a few months without washing my jeans. i can think of a couple of pants right now, that have been washed less than 3 times probably in the last 7 months. don't judge me. i like it this way. and i'm not dirty.

-awkward moment....so now that i'm at the new job, i walk around a lot doing different things and go thru outside doors several times during the day. i've been in almost daily awkward situations where i don't know if i should hold the door for someone.

i mean if the person is right there, of course, i'm not going to just slam it in their face. but what about the people you see coming towards you to use the door or are behind you, but still at a weird distance, so if you keep holding the door open, it almost makes it worse. is there a polite way to acknowledge that you see the person about to use the same door, but they're at an awkward distance so tough luck??

does anyone else have this problem??? do you have a solution???

-my line for the week....for the past week or so, after i say something funny, Daniel & I laugh, and then i say "I'm funny.' as if i'm announcing it or Daniel needs to be reminded that i'm a funny person. i think sometimes i just surprise myself when other people laugh at my jokes. it's kinda nice.

-again, i'm in a college atmostphere now for work...which means there is PDA. i'm all for holding hands, whatev....but extreme PDA is not appropriate. but that got me thinking....is there such thing as blog pda?? am i committing this crime?? i would define BPDA as showing too much mushiness for your significant other to where it annoys other people. yes, i'm madly in love with Daniel. but is there a line when blogging to keep the PDA to a minimum??? thoughts???

-I've decided that it's hard to make friends in Oklahoma. Yes, I have friends already, but they don't live here. And it's hard (at least for me right now) to find friends that you are realllly friends with....the kind you call on the way to/from work, have dinner with, go to the movies....Not the general friends that you have in your outer circle....you know, the ones who don't know your middle name.

I feel like i'm on first day of new school repeat. i go home everyday to my family (Daniel), and feel totally comfortable. but other times, i feel like the outsider. idk.

I think when i first moved here, i wasn't really concerned bc, let's face it, i was bombarded with wedding planning. Then we had the holidays. now it's March and i have yet to add to my 'friend' category. hmmmmmmm.....

p.s. ran 3.3 last night...woo hoo!!!

love

laura