Idiocracy -- WTF?

At work we have launched our new web-site. So many cool things are there, in addition to us merely advertising our company, we are showcasing Twitter, blogs, job postings...just to name a few. Everyone in the company is supposed to write a blog entry for the company. (Don't you worry; I put one up for the chopping block) Some have been advertising related, some not. The guidelines we were given was it can be as personal as you want/or as comfortable with; and for it to somehow relate to advertising in one way or another. Slightly vague, I agree. Some interesting topics have been discussed. Everything from punk rock to Tennessee football to advertising using e-mail blasts. There was one entry that surprised me a little. Not the content of the blog, but a very simple phrase or rather an acronym, was printed that got me to thinking. WTF. Yup, you read right. WTF. I was really surprised that a corporate blog would allow someone to express themselves by writing WTF.

Andy and I got to talking and what we used to think of as taboo has become the norm. You hear of things like Barbara Eden not being able to show her belly button on national TV in "I Dream of Jeannie," but that was so archaic, right?

During the 80s and 90s things really did start "pushing the envelope." Things started losing their punch. And then with the addition of reality TV...well it is life, right? Rhetorical question. Consequently, things have started getting more "edgy." The desensitization of our society is extremely prolific, to say the least.

I am all for using hip jargon to express ourselves. My favorite word to use is bijigity. Personally, I am not even sure it is a word. I can't even find it in Urban Dictionary! But when I find something or someone that is being bijigity I say it. Also, I love saying, "wicked" if something is really bad a$! cool. But using WTF in a corporate blog? I think there is a time and place for everything. We need to be selective where and how we express our casual selves. If not, then we could evolve into this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtmfu34LRbw

Granted, not the best movie in the world. By no means will Luke Wilson ever win an Oscar for his work in "Idiocracy", but it really got me thinking...are we destined to be a society of idiots if we continue to use text language and slang as our only way of expressing ourselves?

Please everyone, I beg you...listen to NPR at least 1 day a week. If not for me--for the children!

Boring but a post nonetheless...

I regress...it feels like I have not spoken to anyone about what has been going on for the Sweets since the beginning of the year. So I am interjecting with a boring old regular blog post.

Things are going well. We stayed in on New Year's, it was nice. We popped a bottle of champagne & watched a movie. We also toasted at midnight with 12 green grapes for each of us. The 12 grapes represent the year to come and you make a wish every time you eat one. We also wrote on little pieces of paper the things in 2009 that sucked and we didn't want to dwell upon and burned them in our fireplace. All in all, it was a good night. Waking up the next morning to go on a 30 mile bike ride (1 mountain climb) with a 10 mile trail run at the end...well, it didn't happen. Instead we did a trail run off our back porch for about 5 miles and came home to a warm fire. Ahhh. I love that fire place.

Other than that, we have been trying to stay busy. Work is going well for me. I picked up some shifts at Hennen's Restaurant for a couple months. Work for Andy is starting to ramp up. He is finding odd jobs and we are doing well. Not to worry. We are really looking forward to our tax return this year :)

We are in the process of painting the kitchen/dining room. We moved our brown leather couch up to the great room. (Whoa that was a task and a half). So now we have a dining room with a fireplace in it. I love it. I painted the spare bedroom as well. Next task is trying to get the ugly wallpaper border down from the 3 bathrooms and repaint those too. I think in the next couple months we are going to repaint the master bedroom. I forgot how easy it is to paint and how much a HUGE difference it makes. All the projects we did on the house in Bloomington have made us pretty confident to remodel/refurbish our house in TN. We have a lot of plans, but as most of you are in the same boat, the $ needs to come first. We were saying to each other yesterday how totally Bad A*# our house will be once we have the money to do all the things we want. Mountain stone on the front of the house. New stone fireplace hearth, with a new fireplace insert. Hardwood floors in the kitchen, dining room, hallway, and both bedrooms. Tongue and groove on the ceiling to match the great room. New counter tops and tile back splash in the kitchen. New black fridge to match the stove and dishwasher. ...And I think that is it for now. ;-) We know we can't get all that done in the same time frame we gave ourselves for the house in Bloomington, but I think it is totally feasible in the near future.

Andy is doing some training. I think he wishes the weather would cooperate. We get warmer temps and no to little snow down here, but there is an ocean of rain that dumps on us every other day. We don't utilize our puffy coats as much as we did in IL, but the rain jackets are out in full force.

We just got a Skype account, so please sign up and we can talk for free. Here is a link for PC/windows users. http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/

Our Skype name is andy.heather.sweet

So far, that is all that has been going on for us.Talk to you all later (on Skype ;-)) and take care, Heather

Stepping up and Punking out

It has taken me almost 2 weeks to come up with something "profound." This profound thing is getting really hard. Just kidding. Not really. It has taken me 2 weeks to get the time to actually sit down and write something. ;-)

Here goes...Don’t mean to go all Wilford Brimley on your ass, but seriously people. Where the H did people’s manners go?

It seems everyone is so worried about numero uno. Compassion for others only comes out when the Red Cross makes it ‘easy’ for us. We can’t be bothered to let the older person go ahead of us at the Walmart check out. God forbid we sacrifice 5 minutes of our time for someone that might have less time than we do. I would like to know where the words please and thank you went. Why don’t people open doors for each other? Why do we feel it is our inalienable right to be the first one to get anything every where?

I think we excused manners from the preverbal table when technology came a calling. I am all for progress and change. I embrace edgy and provocative, but seriously dude… Technology has given us many things, but has technology made us boorish?

Have we been given the tools to propagate selfishness, rudeness, and sloth? Wasn’t life simpler before we had answering machines? I remember, not too long ago, if you called someone and they didn’t answer, you didn’t talk to them. Wow, what a concept. The idea you can’t talk to the person YOU want to talk to when YOU want to talk to them. YOU. YOU. YOU. Hmmm.

We have a responsibility to ourselves, sure. I agree. But I think we have a larger responsibility to make this world we live in better. Recycling. Organic food. Paper vs. plastic. Energy efficient cars. Carpooling. Sure those are all great, but they are all things we can buy or do. What about who we are? Compassionate, empathetic, honest, and respectful.

I think we owe it to ourselves. Seriously man. The more uptight everyone is about themselves and what they deserve; it only makes it harder to be happy. Try to take a step back and look at yesterday, how many times in your day were you thinking, “God, if that person doesn’t…” or “I wish this idiot would…” or better yet “I am gonna go ballistic if…” I can guarantee you the idiot didn’t do what you wanted him to do. Also, I bet your sense of urgency heighten every time you looked at your phone. Life was not passing you by because the other guy didn’t do what you wanted them to do when you wanted them to do it.

Not to blurr the lines even further by making a movie reference, but maybe Dirty Harry was onto something when he challenged… “Do you feel lucky punk? Well, do ya?” I am going to challenge myself to practice what I preach. I am going to start stepping up and stop punking out.

Day Dreaming: Your Tool for Survival

After a week, what I have come up with is not profound or spellbound, but could be interesting to read. In my previous post, I mentioned I wanted to have purpose to this blog of mine, well I think that is what I will do. Instead of writing to fill space or inform people of what is happening on top of our little mountain; I will additionally write with purpose.

My first thoughts of how to add to the sustenance of our blog was to write about what makes me happy. Simple but sometimes very hard. I will speak for myself, and not the "masses" but sometimes I have a hard time staying motivated, happy, chin-up, and all that jazz. When I find myself in those dark moments, I try to think of what makes me happy and focus on that. Simple, but it works. I put all the crap that is weighing me down to the side, it will be there later--no need to keep dwelling on that stuff, right? Once I am able to mentally visualize the good things in my life, I am in a better place to tackle the bulls*&%t that I wish would go away.

I like to start out with simple things for instance (this list is primarly going to be more for me than for you-so be patient)

1. Washing my hair
   
2. Nutregena bath oil
3. Good friends
   
4. Sunny days
   
5. 1st cup of hot tea in the morning
6. Good butt jeans
7. Betsy Johnson perfume
8. Dansco shoes
9. Chaco sandals
10. Living in TN
    
11. New hair highlights
12. Funky scarves
13. Stove top popcorn
14. Glass of nice wine
15. Lip balm

After I think of those things (there are more, but you get the picture) I start thinking of how blessed I am to have Andy, a job, a home, family...the thing that seemed so monumental and cataclysmic pales in comparison.

It is a true wonder the lives we lead. We go day to day driving from home to work to the gym back to home then cramming some food in us in the meantime. Sometimes we have meetings after work and can't workout, then in the morning we do it all over again. Why? Why do we let our schedules dictate our lives? True, if we weren't slaves to the routine, we wouldn't have the ability to enjoy the small pleasures in our lives. But in the meantime isn't it worth it to make our daily lives worth more?

In the summer it is so much easier to take the time to appreciate our lives. Primarily because we actually get to live them. In the winter the days are shorter. There are more gloomy days. The elements don't allow us to enjoy the world we live in. We do WAY too much driving in the winter. I think road rage contributes to the winter blas more than we know. So I usually go through my list while driving. I disconnect. I turn off the radio and force myself to LOOK around me. It is my small way of perseving my sanity...day dreaming. Simple but necessary.

Breath of Fresh Air

To add to the multitude of "gone is 2009 and the birth of 2010" blog entries out there...

I am not going to reiterate all that has happened in 2009, if you want that; you can go and read the multitude of previous posts in our blog. One might ask then, "What are you going to do Heather?" Well, my friends, I am planning to introduce a new concept to our blog. So far, I have written about our lives and the details of our days between posts. Nice, but not the only way I want to connect with the people who read The Sweetest Adventures. I am sure literary critics are not scrolling through my posts. (I certainly hope not, my grammar is horrific.) I want to entertain those of you who are here.

I watched a movie the other night, Julia and Julie. The preface of the movie is a downtrodden 30-something gal is looking for inspiration. She finds her comfort and happiness in food. Don't we all, right? She challenges herself to cook all of Julia Child's recipes (over 500) in 365 days--and she blogs about it. Don't worry all. Andy is safe. I am not going to try and cook him French food for the next 365 days. I think either he would divorce me from all the butter consumption or I would become the world's worst French cook. I think, better to leave cooking to people that know what they are doing. I can bake a mean pie, but I think pies and cakes are as far as I want to go right now.

I want to challenge myself with this blog. I want to write with a goal -- a purpose. I am not sure how or with what--but something. So no more weather updates and rambling about woulda coulda shoulda stuff. I foresee more substance about life, love, and the things that really mean the most to us. For Andy and I, we are so happy we went through all that we did in 2009. We learned so much and are so much stronger because of it, and not in-spite of it. I hope the same is true for all of you. So cheers to 2010! I hope everyone has a healthy and prosperous New Year and all your wishes and dreams come true.

Christmas: Sweet Soddy Acres Style

Our fist Christmas tree as a married couple.

Manger (Andy built) and Nativity from my parents

Atreyu cozy by the fire

All our fire wood

Ahhh Christmas lights...

This Christmas is going to have many "firsts" to it. This will be the first time Andy and I are able to put up a tree. Our house in Bloomington was too little for 3 dogs, furniture, 2 people, AND a Christmas tree. This will be our first Christmas when we BOTH are living in TN. Finally, it will be our first Christmas in OUR home.

Yesterday, Jacqueline and I made Christmas cookies. They all turned out great. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer for the first time in 2 years. I don't know why I didn't use it before. That mixer is AMAZING! I am going to have to find ways to use it more. Love it. Jacqueline and I had so much fun. I hope we do this every year. Next year, I want to make more cookies and maybe cook all day. :)

I realized that one year ago today I was driving down from my parent's house in Aurora to Chattanooga. The weather was horrendous. The wind was gusting up to 45 mph winds in IL. The wind chill was so severe that I had the heat on full blast and poor little Payton was shivering with the seat warmer on! I am pretty sure I posted a blog about it then, if you want more details scroll back. ;-) The weather today was great! Chilly, but awesome. We had a light dusting of snow last night. I woke up to a very fine layer of snow on the deck. I was walking around with a t-shirt and a fleece...that is it! I love the weather in Chattanooga.

I have 3 days of work and then off for a 4 day Christmas vaca. Christmas Eve Andy and I are going to go to midnight mass (@ 10:30 pm) with Deni Stockburger and Lois (Deni's Mom). We have been invited to an Italian Christmas dinner with the Stockburger's (our neighbors). On Christmas day Andy and I want to go on a ride or go rock climbing, depending on the weather. I also want to get some hiking in this weekend. With all the leaves off the trees it is so much easier to see the mountain and go exploring.

It is so amazing to look back on the past year and think about all the things Andy and I have gone through. This time last year, I just put the Bloomington house on the market and had not a clue what was happening next for us. I feel so blessed. People say that all the time, but it is really hitting me this season. Andy is an awesome husband, we have a great house, we are in great health, good friends and neighbors, and wonderful family.

Miss you all. Hope you have a great holiday. We will be thinking about you. Take care, Heather

St. Jude Marathon 12/5/2009

I am going to preface this post with, this is NOT going to be a race report. The more I race and read race reports the more I realize they are a HUGE long list of excuses. I have tried to make my race reports funny and entertaining. Not sure if I have succeeded, but as Andy says, "You are the funniest person you know." Thanks babe, I think ;-)

I drove to Memphis to meet up with my best friend Candace Crawford and her friend Megan Dombrowski. I got there a little early so I unpacked, went to Walgreens, and watched a movie. Candace and Megan got there and we went out to dinner at Club 152 and picked up our packets. It was good to reconnect with Candace. I haven't seen her since I moved from IL. We got back to the hotel (which was SUPER DUPER scary...strange stains on the box springs and a bathroom that needed to be sprayed down with bleach). Candace didn't want to take her shoes off all weekend ;-) I started to put my race things together for the next morning. I started to slowly realize I was underdressed. The weekend before I ran in tights and a short sleeved tech shirt. Thinking that would be adequate attire, I packed the same outfit for the marathon. Come to find out, Memphis is colder than Chattanooga! Who would have thunk it? Candace let me borrow a warmer pair of her tights (btw...when traveling with Candace, she packs her ENTIRE closet ;-)) and a fleece. I thought I was going to be a little overdressed because I get hot really fast. But it was a good, if I would have been smart and brought a lighter fleece of my own, it would have been perfect.

Race morning: We woke up before our 5:30 am alarm and went and got some food, while Megan slept in a little. When we got back to the hotel we were ready to go! We walked down to the trolley. Downtown Memphis has these awesome HEATED trolleys that took us to the start. The temperature was a balmy 29* race morning. That is the coldest I have felt since leaving IL. Yikes! We got into our corrals. I found the 3:50 pace group leaders. 2 really cool guys. I think one of their names was Ben, not sure who the other guy was, but very nice guys.

Race: When we got up to the start I was worried I was going to loose them in the first couple of miles. It was my first time running with a pace group. The first 2 miles felt slow, so I started to relax. The next 6 miles felt amazing! I looked at the mile marker and was shocked to see that 8 miles were already in the bank. I got a smile on my face and new that I was going to run a marathon in under 4 hours. I really appreciate those pace runners. A couple times they would tell us to slow down 'cuz we were ahead. So nice. The other thing I noticed in those first 8 miles was the amount of technology that surrounded me. In triathlon, it is really comical when you get to a hill and you can hear everyone downshifting...you know there is something up a head if you can't see it yourself. In the marathon last Saturday, every mile marker you could hear a handful of beep beep beep. All the GPS watches were calculating and telling their runners what they were doing. It gave me a little smile. I was wearing a GPS watch too. It was amazing, every single mile we hit the 8:41 pace on the money. I felt great! I was able to talk to the other pace runners. I had so much left in my engine. Then it hit me. Uh Oh. Porta potty break. I knew we were coming up to a mile marker, so there were sure to be porta potties there. I started to speed up, so that hopefully, I would give myself some cushion room to catch back up to the pace group after I was done. Check. Found a porta pottie, got in and got out. Sped up and found the pace group again. The half-way split came and went. I looked at my watch and it read 1:45, whoo hoo! A PR at a half! I was initially going to do the half marathon, but it filled up too fast. So instead of being a bandit, I ran the full. Right after the half split... my potty emergency hit again. So I sped up and jumped into a porta pot -- got out and caught back up to the group. I was feeling a little whooped by this time. Not as much spring in my step. I visited every porta potty from mile 14-19. Not sure what happened, what I ate, or why for the first time EVER I had digestion problems, but I did. With all the stopping and starting and being dehydrated, I had a lot of trouble running. I think I pretty much walked most of the last 6 miles. I finished in 4:23:46 (10:05 pace). I will say that was the hardest marathon I have EVER ran, inside or outside of an Ironman.

In the end, I am happy with my decision to run the full. It taught me a lesson that I had not gotten the opportunity to learn until now. Long distance running hurts. It really does. I guess I have had it so easy for so long that I didn't understand when people would tell me about their issues during a race. I couldn't empathize. In my 5 years of racing I have never been injured (except for an inflamed bursa sac on my heel from putting my feet on the coffee table watching TV-opps!), had digestion problems, or during race injuries. This marathon taught me humility and the importance of preparation. So to end my rambling, this was my 5 marathon, but not my last. I will go under 4 hours in my next marathon...just not sure when I want to wake the 26.2 mile beast again. ;-) Thanks for all the support and advice. Mostly, thank you to Andy. He did get fired as my coach once, but he gracefully let me hire him back after a heartfelt apology. He is amazing and he really helped me train to be a better runner.

I am taking some time off this week and re-evaluating my race schedule. I really want to start climbing and doing yoga again...but then again there is a half marathon here in Chattanooga at the end of February. Hmmmm. Tune in next time to see the super-fabulous adventures of Heather and Andy Sweet. Same bat time. Same bat channel.

PS-As soon as Candace and Megan send me pictures of the weekend, I will post them.