Torchlight Parade

After the incident yesterday, the university was back to normal. I had anticipated this, but it was nevertheless incredibly strange to walk by the PCL and see people going in and out like any other day.

Something I was grateful for was the tonight was the Torchlight Parade and rally for the Red River Rivalry weekend. The rally brought everyone together under the rally cry: "OU SUCKS!"

Let the mass migration up to Dallas begin! (Friday afternoon is when I am going!)

APO doesn't only do flag runs at football games (which I will be doing this weekend), but we also have several other, smaller, less used flags in our trailer. There are four or five flags in there - 3 football flags (the current one and two old ones I think), 1 parade flag (an ultralight, "small" [in comparison to the football flag] flag for marching in parades), and 1 drop flag (a heavy, large flag [but not football sized] that is very dense and falls very quickly). Tonight, we broke out two of the flags - the drop and parade flags.

The Drop flag is dropped from the Presidential balcony. (That photo is from another event we do a drop at, Gone To Texas.) We have to show up super early, tie on harnesses, and go tie the flag to the pillars on the balcony, the whole process taking about 45 minutes to an hour.

We have to put the flag in the elevator and then take it out again...

We have to tie harnesses on (in a very awkward manner, let me tell you...)

We have to snake the flag around the pillars (and take artsy photos because the sun was perfect!)

And then we have to return to watch the proceedings from above...

And then we have to push the flag off the balcony.

Before we pushed it off, however, there was a lot of this going on:

(If you are reading this in the email, there is a video here. Go to the blog on the internet and watch it!)

I can't wait for this weekend! It's going to rock, whether we win or lose. (But of course we're going to win.) (Except if we play like last weekend, that was just embarrassing.) (It's 11:25 and OU STILL SUCKS!)

Totally fine

This morning, the University of Texas campus went on lockdown after a gunman shot off a number of rounds. Luckily, he did not shoot anyone, but he did shoot himself on the sixth floor of one of the libraries on campus.

Here is an article, which probably explains everything better than I can.

My classes do not start until 9:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I was just waking up when I heard about the incident, and I am perfectly safe in my apartment. There was a possibility of a second suspect, and the campus has been combed, but as far I know, they did not find one. I've just heard that we have been given an "all clear", but the university is closed for the day and all classes have been cancelled.

I am so grateful that nobody was hurt by his actions - it is still very unreal to me to realize that this happened not even a mile away from where I live. Thank you to all who emailed, called, or texted me to see if I was safe - it means a lot to me to know that you all love me so much.

Specific brand of crazy

I have news!

The diet is over!

In my opinion, my final tallies are overwhelmingly positive. I've gone from 43% body fat to 36% (obviously I have a ways to go, as a healthy range is in the 20-25% area), I've lost 35lbs, 40lbs of fat (a good visual for this is like going to the store and holding 40 boxes of butter), several inches around my waist and hips, and something like 3 cup sizes (YAY!!) I am so happy and proud of myself. And I had to go shopping for new exercise pants yesterday, cause mine don't fit anymore. (Double yay!) I want to lose a few more pounds, but what I really want is to focus on toning up my body now.

Now that the crazy diet is over (and I've gotten a few of those cravings out of the way - only gained back about a pound and a half after finishing my HCG shots, which is to be expected after coming out of such a strict diet!) I'm ready to move forward with my life and my new dietary habits. So far, this has included a lot of salads for lunch and grabbing apples or bananas on the way out the door, so I believe it is so far so good. (Although, I am guilty of a half batch of "1am cookies" and watching Love Actually with Ally on my couch the other night!)

Ally (who is doing the Jenny Craig diet right now) and I have been walking around Town Lake once a week in the morning. Since we both want to get to swimsuit season next year and be able to go to the mall and ask "Does this swimsuit make my ass look fat?" (instead of "Does my fat ass make my ass look fat?") we've been talking about goals and training and how to go about continuing to lose weight and look fabulous. We, who have our own specific brand of crazy, decided that the best way to go about training is to literally just throw ourselves into it and sign up to run a half marathon in December. (December 4. Mark your calendars. Do it.)

(So okay, we decided this after a few margaritas. But when we signed up, we were totally sober. I believe that's one of the best drunk decision I've ever made.)

We decided that the first 6 weeks of our training will be using the "Couch to 5K" app on our iPod/iPhones. It is a program which eases you into going from not running at all to running a 5K in nine weeks. Well, we only have 13 weeks between now and December 5, so we're cutting it a bit short. It starts you off with 1 minute running and 1.5 minutes walking, which is what we have done this week.

Ally mentioned a few weeks ago that she was interested in starting a vlog to mark her progress through her diet. Her idea morphed into a shared vlog for the two of us, where we record ourselves talking for a minute or so about how each run went and how we think we're progressing.

And so, Team Super-Mega-Foxy-Awesome-Hot was born. ("SMFAH" is a Very Potter Musical reference... Which, if you have not seen this Harry Potter parody musical, you should.) We are going to buy matching shirts for our race - it will be totally awesome. I am SUPER pumped!

Ally and I have a few videos posted so far, so go ahead, take a look around the blog, and follow our progress through the next few months!

Oh Fall where art thou?

I’m ready for the fall to begin.

I’m ready for cooler weather. I want to wear those hand-knit fingerless mittens in my sock drawer, my lovely blue scarf that doesn’t match them, and my long jeans again.

I’m ready to bundle up and head out, to retire my flip-flops for the winter (but not really because, let’s be honest, it’s almost always flip-flop weather). I want to wear those boots I found at my mom’s house last weekend with my comfy darkwash jeans tucked in them.

I’m ready to get into the swing of classes, and I want to embrace the humdrum of the campus once it has settled into the semester and bathe under the unflattering fluorescent lighting in the library every night. I want to push beyond the introductory and into the really good, juicy stuff I know is coming.

I want to tie my apron around my waist and bake pies, cookies, and cakes with pumpkin, cinnamon, and cardamom. I want my whole apartment to smell like a cake shop while I switch between reading a cookbook and reading a textbook while the pastries bake. I want to bring my creations to classes and meetings and make people smile.

I want to snuggle on my couch with a book, squished between my little colony of pillows and under a mountain of blankets. I want to light a candle on the days that I can’t cook, and I want that candle to chase away the stress of an impending exam or paper.

Oh yes, I’m ready for fall to begin.

A rant about assigned reading...

Somehow, I always forget how unending schoolwork gets every semester. Right now, I'm looking at my "Syllabus Syllabus" (which contains every reading assignment I need to complete between now and December 3rd) and while I have every assignment thankfully crossed out for the week of August 30-September 3, I have yet to begin everything from September 6-September 10. My sense of accomplishment from last night and my righteous feeling of "I deserve to sit on my couch and watch this movie!" has already worn off. And it's not even noon yet.

The weird thing is, while I miss that sense of accomplishment and am grudgingly mumbling a few choice words at my textbooks, I'm still enjoying myself. I love being in school. This year is already so much better than last spring. I can feel it.

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In other news, I'm sick of my diet. I want it to be over. I can see the golden light on the horizon! The golden light is filled with bread, and cookies and margarita nights! (But not an excessive amount of any of these, of course!) My friends keep telling me how good I look, and I know what I need to do to keep on going. I'm feeling so good about myself and about the way I look that even if I progress no farther, I know I'll be happy. But darnitall, I WILL keep going.

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In other, other news, UT Football season starts today with an away game at Rice! So I want to see everyone proudly wearing orange and with their horns up!