FACT: I start every workout with a Ricky Martin song.

Yep, that's a true story. Which Ricky Martin song, you are probably asking? 'The Cup of Life.' Yep. Another true story. It's a great song to get you motivated at the gym when you really don't want to be there. Which is every time I go to the gym. Although today - I killed it. Yeah, I ROCKED the gym today. It was not a pretty sight after. Lots of sweatyness.

So, there are some things I've been wanting to tell you about and in order to do that, I will use the popular bullet point format so as to keep things organized here. Also, so I don't forget about what I want to say.

1. 236
2. feet shrinking
3. reality tv
4. strep
5. dance party gym
6. canoe

I guess it's actually a numbered list format. This is also used as a hooker, to hook you, the reader, in and make you want to continue reading. In reviewing this list, I think I will keep that order. It seems like a pretty good one. I know sometimes I like to jump around. But, probably not today.

Let's go!


1. 236

I'm talking about Route 236. Here's the route on a map. I guess it's a pretty typical road, in terms of roads. Here's a Facebook page for the route. (Note that it has zero likes.) It's a 15-mile road that runs north to south in southern Maine. I have never liked this road. Ever since I was little. It's too long. And it just takes forever to drive.

Unfortunately for me, this road is also the most direct route for me to get from Berwick to Kittery for my job working in a retail store. So, I have to take this road like, every day. And taking this road everyday has made me go from a simple dislike of the road to a burning, fiery hatred.

I hate that road. Those of you who know me, know that I don't hate many things. I'm a pretty easy person to please and I get excited very easy about very little things. I'm rarely in a bad mood and try to be as positive as I can. This road brings out the worst in me. I HATE it.

I don't just hate it for it's length, I hate it for its traffic. The traffic on this road is so totally unpredictable it's amazing. If you've been reading this blog long enough, you may have heard me analyze a traffic pattern or two. I really like looking at traffic patterns and trying to figure out how to make them better. (RE: easy to please, easily excited.) And, I've been driving this road a while now, since I've started working in Kittery, so I've had a lot of time to analyze it, and I've come to the conclusion that it's not only the pattern of which the vehicles travel that's the problem, but also the types of vehicles that travel on the road.

• The road needs to be four lanes. Two lanes going north, two lanes going south.

This would solve the whole problem, really. Both problems. Because the SOURCE are the kinds of cars that travel on this road and the lack of opportunity to pass them. If you're not stuck behind a giant, super truck, then you're stuck behind a normal sized car, going exactly the speed limit. Now, how many other roads in this country do people go the posted speed limit?? You can probably count them on one hand. And Route 236 would be one of them. It's kind of ridiculous. Ridiculous to the point that every morning when I leave for work, I say silently to myself, "please let me just get through this road." It's 15 miles of 45 mph. That takes a while. And that's 45 mph IF YOU'RE LUCKY and don't get stuck behind a giant super truck.

• SCHOOL ZONES

I get out of work at 2pm most days in Kittery. This means that on my drive home, I drive through 3 school zones. That's ACTIVE school zones. Which means 15 mph. Two of these school zones occur on Route 236. Those school zones make me wish I stayed at work just a little bit longer.

• Boring

The road is just plain boring. It's really 15 miles of Hell. I hate it. If I had enough money, I would probably buy the entire road and then somehow destroy it. And then rebuild the road 100 times better. I think the rebuilt version would also include some sort of time warp. So you can just warp through the whole thing.

BAD ROAD. It's just a bad road.


2. Feet Shrinking

So, I have the weirdest shaped feet. Like, ever. It's no secret. They are short and tiny and very high and very wide. I have freakishly small hands and feet. Anyways.

There are two parts to this story.

1. I have a pair of black flats. They're super cute. I have worn them a few times a while ago, and then recently started wearing them again. The first time I wore them after not wearing them for a while, my feet were covered with blisters by the end of the night. It was a very painful experience. I'm still recovering from the first episode of blisters.

Now, this confused me, because I had never gotten blisters from wearing them before, and suddenly, my heels were slipping all over the place. So, I put in heel gripper things and waited for my blisters to heal so I could wear them again.

(Keep in mind that these flats are size 6.5, which is my normal shoe size.)

So, TODAY was the day where my feet were finally healed well enough to try and wear the shoes again. With the heel grippers. And still - my heels slip. And now I have a new batch of blisters. I don't understand.

2. I recently ordered a great pair of sandals from Eddie Bauer online. They're super cute and I loved them instantly. I feel goddess-esque while wearing them. Even more than normal. ;)

(that might have been the first winky face used in this blog. milestone!)

Now, they only come in whole sizes, and it says to order a size up. So, I got a size 7. This is the size that I usually get if shoes only come in whole sizes, or if I am unable to get a size 6.5, so I was not too worried.

So, the shoes come (finally!), and they're great. I love 'em. It is very exciting to wear them for the first time. But, after the first time of wearing them, they seemed wayyyy too big. Like, super big. Like, REALLY big. But I was like, 'no, this can't be. i must be imagining it.' But I wasn't. And I tried, and tried and tried to convince myself that they were actually fine and fit great and it wasn't as bad as I thought. But, I wore them to work the other day, and felt like a clown. A CLOWN. Now, that's probably a tad overkill, but it was close to that. They felt so big and I felt ridiculous. So, I'm going to return the shoes and exchange them for a size 6.


These two instances lead me to believe that my feet are shrinking. There's really no other explanation.


3. REALITY TV

I cannot believe:

1. That Chelsea came in THIRD FREAKING PLACE on Dancing with the Stars. There's no way that Kirstie Alley is the better dancer. NO WAY. I won't believe it for one second. Kara and I both broke down and finally voted for Chelsea like five times each. Wouldn't it have been amazing if she had won by ten points?! Yeah, that would have been cool. Talk about power.

Anyways, Chelsea totally deserved to win. Not only because she is on JONAS, which is like the best show ever, but she was the most fun dancer to watch and always was super nice when talking about the other contestants. And Nick and Joe of the Jonas Brothers came to watch her dance a few nights!! It was really exciting. Sometimes I randomly start laughing if I think about Jonas too much. Because the show is THAT FREAKING FUNNY. Yep. Anyways, I can't believe that Chelsea came in third place.

2. I can't believe that Lauren didn't win American Idol! I can't believe it. I watched the start of the finals on Tuesday night and felt pretty certain that Lauren would win. Crazy. She's super cute! And has a great voice! I mean, Scotty is great too. I can't believe how old his voice sounds. I guess 'old' isn't the right word. Mature? Weathered?


But, I had watched AI a few weeks ago and still thought that Lauren was the frontrunner. HM.

I think the moral of the story is that I'm a better judge of talent than the rest of America. Obvi.


4. STREP

I HAD STREP THROAT. Yep. I know you don't believe it, but it's true. I've never had strep throat before and then all of a sudden - BAM. There it was. Here's the story:

- My throat kinda started feeling weird last Tuesday. I thought nothing of it, because my allergies are bad, and my throat frequently feels scratchy or weird.

- Wednesday it started to hurt. And I was like, 'aw this is crap, i'm getting a cold.' My throat also felt a little swollen, and my voice started to become funny-sounding. I looked back there with a flashlight and it looked a little white. I thought this was strange, but thought nothing of it.

- Thursday it really hurt. I was taking ibuprofen like, every four hours. It felt more swollen. I looked back there with a flashlight again on Thursday night and said, 'uh oh.' The back of my throat was covered with this huge white patches, the left side of my throat was totally swollen and huge.

That was when I got out my insurance card and went online to see if I still had health insurance. I had never gotten anything in the mail saying that I didn't... nor was I ever sent anything about COBRA health insurance. So, I was a little fuzzy on the whole thing. But I thought, I should maybe think about going to the doctor because of this throat thing, and I should find out if I have health insurance.

Nope. Negative on the insurance. Bummer.

- Friday I woke up around 6:30am because my throat hurt so bad. I actually didn't think I would be able to get back to sleep. I did eventually. I woke a bit later to call into work to see if I needed to come in... and I didn't. I was happy about that, because I figured I should probably go to the doctor.

So, me and Kara went to the Berwick Medical Center, where I have been before. It's a great walk-in clinic for people with or without health insurance.

**SIDE NOTE** I love walk-in clinics. I love them. If I were a doctor, I would work in a walk-in clinic. I think they're great. Also, I wish I were a doctor. **END SIDE NOTE**

So, I get there and fill out the required paperwork, etc. It's not a very long wait in the waiting room and then I get into the doctor room. The doctor, Jeffery (who I had when I went there for the first time because I was in desperate need of asthma medicine), walked in, took one look in my throat, jumped back and exclaimed,

JEFFERY: UGH!! Well you've got strep!!

It was a bummer. He said it's been going around like crazy and he's seen a ton of people come in with it. He also said that working in the two different, people-oriented jobs that I work in, I could've picked it up anywhere.

My first case of strep. He said I should quarantine myself for 24 hours and give it about two days for the medicine to start working.

I checked out of the Berwick Medical Center and they said they weren't sure how much it would cost, but they would give me a 15% discount and bill me later.

So, I brought the prescription to Targs to get it filled. They gave me a non-insurance discount, so it came to $14. Not too bad.

I felt like a statistic all day long. Being like, "no...I don't have insurance..." I don't know. It was lame. I felt like a loser. Not only was I sick, but I didn't have insurance.

- Saturday morning I woke up really early again almost in tears because the throat hurt so bad. Yeah, it was bad. Saturday it was also really, really swollen in the morning. I was finding it hard to talk. I had to call out of work for Sunday. By Saturday night the medicine finally started to feel like it was working. So, that was good.

- Sunday I felt pretty good. I was super tired, but eating and talking was pretty easy.

- By Monday I was feeling better.
- Tuesday, 100%.

And that's the story about how I survived my first case of the strep. I don't recommend it.


OK. We're almost there! Almost to the end of the list!!!! This is a marathon blog entry. I was not expecting it to turn out this long, actually. Only two more! And the last one will be short! I promise!


5. DANCE PARTY GYM

Ok, so I have this great business idea. DANCE. PARTY. GYM. It's like a normal gym, with normal fitness equipment, etc, but then there's a dance party room, where you can just go and dance.

NO - It's not like zumba.
YES - It's like a dance club, only without the alcohol and high heels.

Just a place where you can go and dance your face off. It'd be super fun. Like, a FUN way to work up a sweat. A great way to warm up before you hit the treadmill! A fun way to end your workout.

And - I would hire all my friends to be professional Dance Party Gym Dancers, who just nonstop dance all the time in order to encourage others to come join. Because, not many people will start dancing in an empty room. I don't know any of those people , but I'm sure they're out there.

I think it's a great idea. Every time I go to the gym and find myself hating it, I think of my dance party gym idea and I get really excited. The best part about the gym is getting to listen to loud, dance music anyways, so why not just play it out loud and let people dance?? WHY NOT?!!

DANCE PARTY GYM. My future claim to fame.


6. Canoe

Kara and I are looking to buy a canoe. If you have any leads on canoes that are for sale, reasonably priced, good condition, please let me know. Paddles included would be great, but not necessary. We have a newly installed roof-rack on Kara's car, so transport of the canoe could be pretty immediate.


THAT MIGHT BE IT. I think that about wraps it up. I think this was pretty informative, no? A decent update.

Just finished watching the Bruins game. They won! So that means it'll be Vancouver against Boston in the Stanley Cup!! I'm actually pretty excited about this. Hockey is the only sport that I will willingly watch. And, my dad lives out on Vancouver Island, and I live out here in New England, so it's kinda exciting, I guess. It's like a family battle.

OK! I hope everyone has plans for an awesome weekend. I will be working. And I think it will be super busy. Like, super busy. I worked this morning from 9-1 and it was crazy town. Like, CRAZY TOWN. Ah well, it makes the time go by faster.

Alright, I'm going to bed very soon. I'm looking forward very much to sleeping in a little bit tomorrow. This getting up at 8:30am is too hard. Today I had to get up at 7:30. That's like, middle of the night.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!! Talk to everyone soon :)




ps: it's been really nice talking to you again. i feel like it's been too long.