2 Miles for Andre's Cafe, and Some Fro-Yo for Recovery!

Ah, finals week. I forgot how terrible you are. I've been going pretty much non-stop since Sunday between studying, test taking, and running. The weather has been somewhat cooperating this week though. It's been pretty warm but kind of rainy. Not the best for running, but not the worst. And the lack of sun has reduced the temptation to play outside instead of do work. Side note: grad school needs recess. Or we should have a mandatory gym class at the School of Public Health. We can't expect to be able to convince people to exercise if we don't do it too.

This is how I envision it

So yesterday, I did my two miles for Andre's Cafe through Cambridge. I decided to listen to a "This American Life" podcast, because I need to get in as much American culture as possible, since I leave for Tanzania in less that two weeks! I can't believe it! Despite how tired I am, and how cloudy it was, it was a great run, and a very welcome break from studying.

Andre's Cafe gets a special award for being my only business sponsor! When we first found out we could do fundraising for the trip, we toyed with the idea of approaching restaurants for an event. After doing some research, we determined that given our short time frame and the logistics needed to actually make a substantial amount, this wasn't going to be our best bet. Hence, the launching of my "Running to Tanzania" project - which has been great - thanks everyone!

Despite the decision to do this rather than a restaurant event, the owner of Andre's, Karim, told me he was still happy to donate to my cause, which is awesome, and just reflects how great he and all of the people there are. I went there yesterday to thank them (and pick up some delicious frozen yogurt!) and got to meet Karim and tell him about my upcoming trip. He was very genuine, happy to meet me, and asked me more about my upcoming trip. There were also a ton of fliers around for groups doing fundraising through Andre's, as well as pictures and comments from customers hanging up. Both Karim and the woman who took my order were incredibly nice. You can tell care a lot about the community and their customers.

Here's an example - I saw this on a review on foursquare:

The man who took my order was so nice and game me a free yogurt b/c I'm visiting my Dad in the hospital. The vanilla yogurt with oreo is amazing btw. Such nice service and great food. Will come back.

For the record, chocolate yogurt with reese's is also amazing. They have catered events at the School of Public Health, and their wraps are so good, I'll go to meetings just to get them.

Somehow, their fro-yo is low-cal and still awesome! 

So between the excellent food and great people there, I foresee myself frequenting Andre's during the rest of my time at BU. I may even have to try one of the challenges! Who's with me?

So thank you Karim, and the staff at Andre's, for the donation, the great run, the delicious food, and great service.

-Natalie

10 More for The Ledge!

The Ledge was so impressed with my running and blogging, he pulled the most Ledge-endary maneuver yet. He donated more miles!! So yesterday I went out and did ten more for him. It took me quite a while to get my act together and go out there. First of all, let's all take note that yesterday was Seis de Mayo. I had an excellent Cinco de Mayo, so I woke up thinking maybe Sunday should be a rest day from running. But then I started working on a paper, and decided to hit the streets for some productive procrastination.

Ah yes, I have written a sentence.

It was about 6ish when I went out, and really nice out, so there were tons of people out. And by people I mostly mean hipsters. Oh man, Brian, you shoulda been there. I saw some ca-razy leggings, like better than jeggings. They looked kind of like this:

WHY DO PEOPLE WEAR THESE?

But my favorite spotting was a little boy wearing this hat/mask.

HEROES IN A HALF SHELL!

He even had it pulled over his eyes. I immediately decided that we need to get these for out next Day of Fun, which will also have to involve a caper of sorts. Or crime-fighting. Or just pizza.

Through some miracle, I was actually feeling really good during the run yesterday. I actually ended up doing half a marathon, so The Ledge, you got 3.1 fo' free. It may have been the awesome playlist I threw together before heading out. I'm pretty sure I was run/dancing to "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard" by Paul Simon, and "Motown Philly" by Boyz II Men. the latter was selected specifically to celebrate our love of Philadelphia.

Brian also runs like this. It's true.

In Brian's honor, I made sure to follow his cardinal rule of city running. It doesn't matter how far you have to go, how tired you are, or how fast you are running. If you see that blinky hand, you are sprinting. And I'm pretty sure I sprinted across at least half a dozen streets yesterday. And I got hit by 0 cars! Human frogger up in here.

Challenge accepted

The Ledge pulled another sweet move last week, and decided to go to a comedy night this Thursday, even though there might be a Flyers playoff game... and rumor has it that part of this decision was based on it being my final night in Boston. If you know Brian, you know this is the ultimate sacrifice. And I appreciate it!! Unfortunately school keeps me quite busy... especially lately with these finals they are making me do... and this preparation for Africa and such. Apparently, you can't just go all willy-nilly into this kind of thing. Who knew? So we haven't gotten to hang out much at all lately, which makes me sad.

But, when I am back in August, and putzing around like a kid on summer break (because I will be a kid on summer break...) we can have our second Day of Fun. And we will dress like turtles and eat pizza. Also we can go down to Berklee and play Hipster Bingo. And I'll be sure to bring back some Tastykakes and Yuengling from PA, and we can have those too. AND YOU WILL LIKE IT.

Diet of champions 

Thanks again the Ledge!! It's gonna be a loooonnngggg summer without my BFF, but we'll make up for it!

-Kakes

1 Mile and 4 High-Fives for Rick

There are few things in life more satisfying than a good high five. People should be high-fiving instead of shaking hands, hugging, kissing or greeting people any other way. They are versatile. You can go high or low, go into a clasp, bring it in for the real deal, or even go for ten. They are the ultimate display of friendship, celebration, camaraderie, congratulation, and solidarity. If everyone high-fived more often, the world would be a happier, sunshiny-er place. Crime would stop, and world peace would follow.

The power of the high-five

Rick clearly understand the greatness of high-fives, so as part of my mile for him, he offered to give me more money for high-fiving people. There was a list of people who were "bonuses," and this included runners, people walking dogs, and the dogs themselves. So when I went out today, I was pumped. I decided that my "mile" would be around part of Fresh Pond, because there is usually a plethora of dog walkers and runners. A gold mine, if you will.

I high-fived the first woman I saw when I set out, just as practice. It was glorious. She chuckled, we both got a nice boost, like getting a mushroom in Mario Kart.

After high-fives, you run super fast for about 20 seconds

In all of my excitement, I forgot about the disappointments and embarrassment associated with the dreaded "awkward high-five." So when I got to Fresh Pond, I saw a woman walking her dog. Perfect, I'll ask to pet the dog, high-five it, and high-five the woman too. And that when everything went wrong. First, I scared the bejeezus out of this woman when I practically sprinted into to her yelling "CAN I PET YOUR DOG!?" Seriously, she gasped and jumped and luckily did not experience any sort of cardiac arrest. Despite this she let me pet her dog, which high-fived me. At least, there was hand-paw contact, so I'm counting it. Then the woman apologized to me for being so scared... even though I was the creep and I stood there with my hand out for about 10 seconds, essentially forcing a high-five out of her.

"Yup, I'll just be here. Whenever you feel like slapping my hand is cool with me."

So after that I took off, a little flustered, but no worse for wear. A runner was coming my way. Remembering my success in my practice high-five, I was hopefully. We made eye contact. There was a smile. There was a head nod. I put out my hand and successfully slapped his bicep, since he has no clue I wanted a high-five. He apologized too. Apparently a poorly executed high-five is embarrassing for both parties. The next high-five went pretty much the same way, only I smacked the girl on the hand. At this point, I realized the first good high-five was a fluke, and now I was just harassing people. 

I felt like I had failed for a while. But then I realized there was only so much I could do in this situation. People don't anticipate a high-five from a runner while they are in the zone or walking their dogs. But given the majesty, and likely healing powers, of a well-executed high-five, I think I will be starting a crusade to increase their usage. Rick, I hope you will join in my efforts. 

 

Together, we can turn this:

Into this:

Official count: 4 high fives, 1 bruised ego. 

High fives for all,

Natalie

Two and a Half for Doug and Some Dinos

I was running for three great individuals this morning. One was a human named Doug. The other two were dinosaurs, Francois and Pierre. I met Doug right when I moved to Boston and he came to my housewarming party in Brighton. He really liked my Guinness hat, and I really liked that he liked my Guinness hat. 

It's a great hat.

Although Doug lived in the far-off land of Somerville, he had a weekend job right up the road from me, so sometimes I would visit him there. Once I brought him Thai food. I also put a Smirnoff Ice in the bag, thus icing him. It was awesome. He got me back about a year later on Easter. 

Mostly due to Doug's efforts, I now live in Somerville too. One magical evening, he took me around to some of his favorite haunts. He had me at Sligo. (That was supposed to be like "You had me at hello," but it's hard to do that impression without actually saying it out loud.) Doug and I both have a special place in our hearts for dive bars. Also for bacon. 

Yup.

We also have matching turtle shirts from woot.com. That wasn't planned, I got a mystery shirt and this is what I got.

FYI: it looks equally good on both of us, and when we both wear it, all of Somerville goes into esctasy 

So that's Doug and me in a nutshell. And now the dino-donors.

Many of you have met Francois. I found him in the Longfellow House when my family and I stayed there in the Summer of 2010. It was raining, I was bored, so I started taking pictures of him doing everyday things, such as:

Nomming on funny cake and ice cream

Playing cards

Brushing his teeth

He even made it into our family Christmas card. Naturally, I adopted him, and he frequently goes to family gatherings, bar crawls, marathons, and cultural events like the Somerville Fluff Festival:

Here he is with the Pharaoh of Fluff and Hi-Jinx Mistress

And yes, he will be coming to Africa. He's a bit nervous because he hasn't had his shots. But I think he'll be ok.

And finally, Pierre. Pierre was discovered on my kitchen table one morning with a note saying he was seeking refuge and believed my abode to be a safe haven. This is true. He had come all the way from Doug's homeland of Maine. And he and Francois hit it off immediately. 

Instant BFFs

It does make Pierre a little uncomfortable when Francois eats other dinos though. 

So this morning I ran a lovely 2.5 for Doug and the dinos with Back on My Feet. It's still hovering around the 50s and cloudy up in Boston right now, but I'm hoping to get some sunny days in before I go. For part of it, we did a relay race, so for a half mile (split into two quarter miles) I ran as fast as I could run. I think I could outrun a T-Rex (they actually were probably quite slow), but probably not Doug. He's kinda speedy.

So thanks Doug and the dinos for the donation and for the great run! Francois and I will be missing our buds big time this summer, but hopefully we'll return with some great pics of Francois on safari! Or perhaps the beaches of Zanzibar!

ROAR!

Natalie

I Think About Snags in the Summertime...

Back in the summer of 2008, great things were happening. But here's what was more noteworthy:

1. I met Jess

2. New Kids On the Block got back together and had a hit single.

Jess and I lived together while I was doing Notre Dame's Summer Service Learning Program. For some reason, the site I worked at, the Don Miller Homes (which is also what got me interested in public health and HIV/AIDS, but I digress) went though Loyola College of MD, and I wound up living on that campus. This. Was. Awesome. Most SSLPers end up living with a host family or on site. I lived with Jess. And another girl named Jess. We hit it off, and had a blast that summer, doing our service projects by day, and getting dolla' dolla' beers at MaGerks by night, when that was the special. I see these are now 2 dolla's.

George knows what's up

One night, we were bonding over the cinematic genius of The Land Before Time. We were having a pretty serious discussion about the dinosaur names simply being a description of the dinosaur. 

Sharptooth the Sharptooth, Ducky and Swimmer, Spike the Spiketail, Petrie the FlYer, Little Foot the Long Neck, and Cera the Three-Horn

We decided we needed nicknames that simply described us, similar to the dinosaur species in TLBT. She became "Snaggletooth" or "Snags" for short. I became "Butt munch" or "B-Munch." For the record, Snags doesn't have a snaggletooth, and I have never munched a butt in my life. Nor do I intend to. But we insisted on calling each other by our new names. We were so into our new names that one time she couldn't find me on facebook because she typed "butt munch" into the search bar. 

Getting back to the important even of summer 2008, the reunion of NKOTB, and the release of one of the greatest songs ever sung:

That's right. "Summertime." And you know what, Snags, I think about you in the summertime. 

So today, I ran two miles for Snags. And I listened to "Summertime" and a CD that she made me at the end of our time together, which is amazing. I made her one too, but that was like 2 laptops and an iPod ago, so I'm not sure what was on it. Anyway, here are some highlights from hers:

"We Fit Together" by O-Town

"Touch My Body" by Mariah Carey

"Hey Juliet" by LMNT

"Missing You" by David Wilcox

"Livin' in a Box" by Livin' in a Box

I actually laughed out loud running when some of these came on.

Honestly, I could write all night about all of the weird/awesome stuff Snags and I bonded over, and that sounds a lot better than my paper. But responsibility calls. And unlike the seminar we took together at Loyola, I'm actually getting credit for the work I'm doing now...

But I will leave you with this.

YAY SHARK WEEK

In closing, Snags, I ain't missing you at all. Ok, I've been lying to myself... You can expect a visit from me when I'm back from Africa. 

B-Munch

Two and a Half with Some Running Buddies for Heather

Heather gets some extra karma points for being yet another donor who doesn't even know me. I feel like we know each other though, because she is my mom's running buddy at work! 

This is how I imagine their lunch breaks

Collectively we have probably logged hundreds of miles with my mom, and my mom has told me quite a bit (all great things!) about Heather. I realize I am not the center of my mother's universe (I got Lindsayed out of that position) but I imagine I come up in conversation from time to time. She at least knows enough about me to donate not just to this trip, but she also donated last year when I was fund-raising for Boston! Heather's vision of me is probably something like this:

Majestic runner

Always asking for money

Just kidding, she's probably well aware I am far less attractive when I run, and I don't own a brown floppy hat, and I utilize way more efficient ways to collect donations. But you get the gist. I run a lot and ask people to give me money.

Since Heather is my mom's running buddy, I thought it would be appropriate to do her 2.5 miles with some of my favorite running buddies at Back on My Feet. It was still kind of chilly and cloudy this morning when I went to meet the running group, but it wasn't rainy or windy anymore, which was great. We did a kind of speedy route through Somerville, but not so speedy that we couldn't sing a little bit. I hope we didn't wake up too many people with our rendition of "Livin' on a Prayer." But if we did, they shouldn't complain, because what a way to start the day!

So thanks Heather, for yet another donation to my crazy life, and I hope that one day we can actually meet and maybe even go running! 

Natalie

PS. I know my mom just had her first half marathon on Sunday, but don't let her slack off!

Another 5 for Lindsay!

Ok Lindsay. This is getting out of hand. This is the third time you have sponsored me running I have run for you. I've dealt with one of the hottest Boston Marathons, minimal sleep, and today, some gross misty/raining/chilly/windy weather. And as far as I can tell, you have no income, and are just conning your parents, aunts, and uncles into making me do this in your name.

"All right, Aunt Natalie. You caught me. I've been manipulating everyone into making you run"

It's cool Lindsay, anything for you. Especially since you've been such an asset for this fundraising adventure! Latest victim of cuteness leading to charity - Aunt Meg.

Today I went out and ran 5 miles for you in some very ugly weather. I was going to rest today, but my options for today were:

1. getting ready for finals

2. writing a paper

3. working on a presentation

What I would have actually done while "working"

And this is what I would have resorted to

Also people have been getting super generous (thanks everyone!!!), so I have a lot of running and blogging to get done in about 2 and a half weeks. Feel free to keep giving though! If I can't get it all done before I go, you know I'm good for it when I get back! And maybe even while I'm there - although the blogging will be tricky with the no internet/no electricity situation I may be jumping into...

So despite the gross misty situation going on outside, that seemed to be the most appealing activity.

I did a nice 5 miles (ok I did 8...), through the mistiness of Cambridge, and cut through some of Harvard's campus in the hopes of being inspired by the smart people there. Hopefully this will pay off when I get to work on this paper...

I listened to some sweet music, like "Hey Good Lookin'" by Jimmy Buffett (with Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith and George Strait), because I'm still on a bit of a country kick from this past weekend. And listening to Buffett makes it easier to pretend it's nice out! So let's pretend I ran through this:

I'm like a beautiful gazelle

I also listened to a Stuff You Should Know podcast about Braille, which was super fascinating. Learning is fun! Wow, I am a nerd.

So thank you Lindsay, for some more amazing miles. And thank you to one of her many awesome aunts, Meg, who was been conned into this by her cuteness. I don't get to see her very often, but when I do it is always a pleasure - Lindsay has one awesome Godmother! And a little bird (or my mother) told me that Lindsay also has a cousin on the way - congrats! I hope you don't mind me announcing that to my millions of readers... You're gonna be an awesome mom!

Natalie