11/12

*Project 12: A photo on the first day of every month in 2014*

January | February | March | April | May

June | July | August | September | October

Read

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn [book review here]
Grace for the Good Girl by Emily Freeman
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
A Most Inconvenient Marriage by Regina Jennings
* * *
Currently Reading: My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff
After that: In the Woods by Tana French

Traveled

1) My family came up from Texas on November 8, and we took a trip to Eischen's in Okarche for fried chicken. This restaurant has been on my Oklahoma bucket list since I moved here! See more pictures here.

2) I went to Tulsa November 1-2 to visit a friend.

3) We drove to Texas for Thanksgiving!

Dates

November 7: We got Chinese takeout and watched a movie

November 16: Double date after church

Notable Events

It snowed! And...everyone in Oklahoma freaked out. School was closed and everything. Being from Illinois, I like to make fun of the Oklahoma drivers who don't know what they're doing in the snow, but it was for real slippery and dangerous. I think the main problem was that the weather people predicted "a few flakes" and yet it was like a blizzard on Sunday. No one was prepared.

Our turkey trot this year went great! We had a big turnout and raised a lot of money for Youth for Christ. The weather was perfect. I can't believe next year will be our fifth year of putting on this race.

After the runners leave, things get crazy. When will we be old enough to not jump on each other? Apparently never.

Just before everyone headed their separate ways, I propped my camera on the car for a good old-fashioned self-timer picture. And that, my friends, is how we ended November.

THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN DECEMBER...

Two big things are happening this month: 1) Christmas, obviously. 2) I'm flying to San Diego THIS WEEKEND to visit a friend who recently moved there. Our other friend is flying from Ohio, and I'm so excited for a fun girls' weekend! We're doing the Electric Run 5k on Saturday so I'll hopefully have some good pictures from that to share.

Serving: All the Fried Things

Last weekend my family came into town (minus my brother Daniel who decided to be lame and stay home; what a loser), and I got to cross something off my Oklahoma bucket list: fried chicken at Eischen's in Okarche, Oklahoma.

Since I moved to Oklahoma in 2008, I've heard people raving about Eischen's and how delicious the fried chicken is. But Okarche is a pretty long, boring drive, so we'd never gotten around to making the trip. With my family in town, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity.

Oklahoma gets a bad rap for being one of the most unhealthy states in the nation, and now that I live here, I see why. Never before have the options of fried food been so unlimited. People fry nearly everything. And it's awesome.

Since moving to Oklahoma, I've had the chance to eat my share of fried chicken at many different dining establishments. Last year I wrote a post about the deliciousness that is Babe's fried chicken in Texas. Well, sorry, Babe's, but Eischen's fried chicken is hands down the best fried chicken I've ever eaten. Ever. I mean, like we're talking party in my mouth can't stop won't stop.

Eischen's is Oklahoma's oldest bar, and it truly is a dive. It was actually featured on the show "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives." 

You can only pay with cash or a check, and I just always feel like a restaurant is more legit if they don't take credit cards. You eat with your hands on large, square pieces of white paper, no places or utensils. Fried okra comes in a giant pile with a side of slices of white bread. 

Goodbye, cholesterol levels.

 

My one complaint is that from a picture-taking standpoint, the lighting in this place was terrible. I guess that's a dive for you.

I love crossing things off my Oklahoma list! I might not live in the most popular of tourist spots, but the longer I'm here, the more I find fun places to go and things to do.
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*Comments have been turned off this post. If you're interested in why, read this. Feel free to email/tweet/facebook me if you have a comment! This experiment is only going through the end of the month, and then comments will be turned back on permanently, so don't worry.

9/12

*Project 12: A photo on the first day of every month in 2014*

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August

Read

1) Stella Bain by Anita Shreve (not very good, unfortunately)

2) The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr 

(check out my recap here)

3) A Dance with Dragons (part 2) by George RR Martin 

(If you've read this book, or really any of the series, you will enjoy this review I found on Goodreads. Literally LOL. And so true.)

Traveled

As you know if you've been reading this blog for the past few weeks, Jordan and I took a road trip to South Dakota Sept 11-16. See more pictures from our cabin in Keystone here, Carhenge here, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse here.

Dates

Our entire South Dakota vacation was a date. On Sunday night we went into Rapid City and had dinner and went mini golfing.

Things that Happened in September Last Year

I finished all my 2013 resolutions.

One of my blog posts kind of went viral for about a week. 

I published Part 1 of my "How to Start Running" series.

Notable Events

1) I checked "Do 3 Legit Pull-ups" off my bucket list. Watch the video here.

2) The sunrises on my way to work were out of this world in September. Check this one out. Completely unedited. I can't even.

Coming up this month on the blog...

1) Blog Talk #6! The topic is: quality vs. quantity. Find links to all the past blog talk posts here.

2) More South Dakota recaps. Yes, it's still happening.

3) A Day in the Life in 72 seconds. I filmed clips of my day and put them together in a video that's a mere 1 minute, 12 seconds long.

4) Life of an Editor part 2: answering some FAQs.

5) Runners Tell All on October 21. The topic is: your most memorable running moment. This can be anything. Funny, happy, sad, embarrassing, exciting... The sky is the limit!

6) Linking up with Kiki on October 22 for another round of The Circle. This month's topic is all about books! I'll be talking about the books I've read so far in 2014 and telling you what book I would take with me to a desert island.

Housekeeping question: Do you like a preview of what posts I have coming up, or do you prefer to be surprised?

Actual question: What are you most looking forward to about October? One of my best friends is coming from Illinois to visit this weekend, and I can't wait to see her!

Runners Tell All: My Race Bucket List(s)

"Runner's Tell All" is a monthly linkup for runners of all ages, skill levels, and experience hosted by Sunshine to the Square Inch and The Lady Okie. Each month we'll have a different topic, and you can find all the topics listed here. We are accepting two sponsorship spots for each month, who will receive a sidebar ad on both blogs as well as entry links in the giveaway. 100% of your sponsorship money will go directly toward running-related giveaways. Find more information on sponsorship here. We have 2 spots available for October! There are only 3 months left to join the sponsorship fun!

Before we get started, a quick public service announcement: If your name is Amanda and you entered my giveaway for a bag of Hemp Pro70 protein powder, email me, girl! You won!

Okay, this month's topic is: race bucket list. I made two of them for you.

Let's start with unrealistic. 

Obviously it would be fun to run a race in a place like Hawaii. Because Hawaii. 

I've actually been to Hawaii twice, but sadly I was not a runner then and didn't take full advantage of the whole running-along-the-beach-in-Hawaii thing. And of course any runner knows that it would be amazing to run Boston. However, I have neither the natural speed nor the desire to train for the speed to get fast enough to ever qualify, so that's most likely out. Paris is really just a placeholder for any European country, and I really want to visit Alaska some day. I have cousins who live there, and it just looks awesome. It would be so fun to run there!

The second list of races are slightly more realistic. As in, chances are high I will actually do these. I have friends who live in San Diego and Minneapolis (hi, Alison and Erin!), and I live close to Dallas. I WILL run in Chicago at some point. It is absolutely happening, and when it does it will be glorious. And Little Rock isn't too far from me. I want to do that one because the finisher medals are gigantic aka awesome, plus I've never been to Arkansas.

This year I have actually only run 2 races: a 5k (recap here) and a 10k (PR by six minutes! recap here). I started feeling like I didn't want to run races just to do them. I want to save up my money and run new races and in a place I haven't run before, like the ones on my realistic bucket list. So hopefully I'll get to cross some of these off at some point.

While we're on the subject of races, I am interested in your thoughts on the Rock & Roll race series. The Dallas race is March 2015, and I'm considering signing up. But the fee for just the 1/2 marathon is $80! Has anyone run a Rock & Roll race? Is it worth the money?

So that's my list! Or at least a few of the races on my list. Link up below and share yours! Hop around, meet other running bloggers, and maybe you'll find a race or two to add to your bucket list. Speaking of... I want to suggest two races you should add to your bucket list.

I know Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is probably not high on your list of must-see places, but I've run in this race three times now (the half, full, and 5k), and it really is one of my favorites. First of all, there is a ton of crowd support. It's almost like the whole city comes out to cheer on the runners, and it's really fun. I also think it's a pretty route through downtown, old neighborhoods, and then partly around the lake. If you live in a surrounding state, consider coming out! It's every April.

The Cowtown in Fort Worth, Texas, happens every February and is definitely a favorite of mine as well. For one thing, half marathoners get two shirts (one for registration and one for finishing), and it's a fun race through the downtown stockyards.

Click on over and say hello! Ashley | Tracy

*On last month's giveaway, I asked you guys what your favorite color is. In case you were wondering, pink was the winner! Followed by: green, blue, purple, yellow turquoise, and a last-place tie for orange, gray, and mint. My favorite color is red, which I was sad to see didn't get any love. Come on, people!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Runners Tell All Linkup Rules

1. You MUST leave a comment on the person’s blog who linked up directly before you. This is not a linkup for the sake of linking up. This is a linkup to build community and spread the love and encouragement to your fellow runners! Don't be lame.
2. Do not share links to unrelated running posts or to your blog’s homepage, or we will have to delete your link. (I've done it before too, so I'm not joking.)
3. Please link back to either Beka or Amanda in your post so others can come here and join in! Or grab the button below and add it to your post. 
4. Have fun!

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My Unofficial OKC Summer Bucket List

We can still talk about summer, yes? Good, because I have some things I need to share, for the sake of my 2014 blog book and the fact that if I don't write about it online, it never happened.

This summer I was able to cross some things off my unofficial OKC summer bucket list. I say unofficial, because I didn't officially create a summer bucket list. But I had one going on in my head, which is basically the same thing.

Remember when I took you on a tour of downtown OKC and showed you the Myriad Gardens? Well, every Wednesday night during the summer, they showed movies outside on the lawn. My birthday was on a Thursday this year, and my mom drove up on Wednesday to hang out and spend the night. I decided it was the perfect time to check out the outdoor movie! And guess what? They were showing Frozen!

Yes, I'm the freak who had never seen Frozen. (I suppose this shouldn't surprise you if you know how I feel about bandwagons.)

That's what you call killing two birds with one stone. Or, I guess three birds.

Watch Frozen. Check. See outdoor movie. Check. Eat birthday cupcake. Check.

I know I already talked about how ziplining across the Oklahoma River was kind of lame. But this was before we went ziplining in the jungle of Nicaragua, so it wasn't that lame yet. And we did have fun. 

Plus, I wore my sweet birthday shirt, so there's that.

I'm so glad I got to do this! 

I mentioned in my OKC tour that we have a rent-a-bike program where you can rent a bike in one location, ride it around for a while, and return it to another location.

Well, when Beka drove up for our birthday blogger date, we went biking together! It was really fun even though we couldn't figure out how to get our bikes unlocked once we checked them in at the docking station, so we ended up having to walk all the way back to our car. Oh well.

I showed her around Bricktown, and we had dinner at S&B's Burger Joint, and it was lots o' fun.

Did you know that Oklahoma City has an entire underground tunnel system? Because it totally does. There are shops and restaurants down there and everything!

I'd heard about the tunnels but could never figure out how to get down into them. Then one afternoon in July, I convinced my boss to let us take a field trip into the tunnels. Secretly I just wanted someone to show me where they were. 

I went back for my birthday lunch! There's a de-freaking-licious Chinese place down there that my friend Liz recommended, and it did not disappoint. Above is a picture of me in the Chinese place on my birthday. My mom was like, "Wear this crown and go stand in the corner and take a picture." So of course I did, because I have no shame.

If you ever come visit OKC, I'll have to take you down to the tunnels, and we'll eat Chinese together. It will rock your world.

Bucket lists and birthdays and fireworks and homemade popsicles and weekend long runs facing the sunrise.

Is it really September? 

I'm in denial. In my head, I'm still at the lake...

>>What did you cross off your summer bucket list?