the un-shun

Starbucks, you are officially un-shunned. I thought customer service was lost on corporate America; but you have proved me wrong. Being wrong never felt so good. I'm proud of you Starbucks; I'm gonna give you a little pat on the back.

A couple of weeks ago, after the Starbucks incident, I wrote a letter to the corporate headquarters. I put my best collegiate writing skills to use (none of which you see on my blog, ever) and let them know about their shunning.

Two days later I received the nicest apology letter from Stacia at Starbucks. I don't really get that many apology letters, ok I've never received one, but even I had this letter would still be on top of the pile. I wanted to frame it, or at least save it for future training purposes.

Then, yesterday, I got two free drink coupons from Stacia. Who I will now try to stalk on facebook so we can be friends.

Anyone want to join me for a free drank?

get loose, footloose

its friday y'all

lets party, footloose style

turn it up loud and make some room to dance...you kow you want too!

letter to the editor

Someone put the an issue of Time Magazine on my desk at work. I was delighted to read something new at work, until I saw the front cover:

I flipped to the article titled: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin. You can read it here, if you'd like. I should warn you though, its a load of crap (but I kind of expected that since it's in Time). The author, John Cloud, talks about working out (which I don't believe he does), over-indulging after working out (which I'm sure he does) and about experiments where women gained weight because of working out at the gym (I'm thinking they were either anorexic to start out with OR the gym was located between a Bojangles and Wendy's).

In short, the article fails to address that health and fitness are directly related to what you eat (quantity and quality) and working out (quantity and intensity). So, I had to write a letter to the editor. I had six different drafts. Seriously. I was so fired up about this article. But then I starting thinking; if I was an editor of a large publication I'd appreciate a witty and concise letter. Let the bullet points begin! I had eight bullet points total, complete with lots of opinion and sarcasm (two of my better qualities)

I think this is my best part from the letter:

Congratulations!! You have officially released them [obese and gym-phobic] from any guilt they may have felt about a lack of exercise. Of course its about what you eat, but it is definitely about exercising too. Could you please show me the person you found that was healthy and "in-shape" from just watching what they eat and didn't exercise? Can't wait to meet them (and bring them to spin class with me.)
exercising and not eating the blueberry smoothie protein fat blasting smoothie,
Blair
Shelby, NC

i've lost my mind

I just signed up for the Charlotte Racefest half-marathon. To date, the farthest I've ever run in a race was 6 miles for the Cooper River....I did run 8 miles one time, but then I couldn't really walk the next day. Sooooooo, this training is going to be interesting to say the least!

How did this non-runner end up signing up for a 13 mile run? Simply put: Lindsay made me do it. My friend Lindsay is quite the athlete. She swam in college, completed several half-marathons and has signed up for a Half IronMan triathlon. We've been friends since college (ok, since she was in college) and have been working out together for the past 6 months. It has been so fun to have someone who's meeting me at the gym.....the accountability has been awesome.....what's not so awesome is that she can kick my tail all over the weight room and still go run a quick four miles afterwards. Needless to say, we're not exactly equals in this whole training for a half-marathon thing.

So here I am. I've just signed up for the half-marathon. I'm $40 poorer and looking into the next 13 weeks of training with 25% excitement, 25% dread and 50% this video:

jesus loves clarks and wellies too!

Josh and I went to Bargain Shoes, affectionately known to the natives as "The Jesus Shoe Store", last Friday. And, as always, we found some fabulous deals. In addition to their normal discount pricing, they are having an additional 25% off winter items. They have a ton of men's cowboy boots for $30ish right now. I tried to talk Josh into getting a pair, but he wasn't really feeling it. I don't know why.....since he (sometimes) dresses like this for his job:

Anyways.....here's some of our most recent finds:

We found some new Clarks (retail $100) for Josh for only $39!

We also found some Hunter Wellies (retail $115) for me for only $11!