Dexter-Ann Arbor 10K

In case you didn't get the hint from the title of this post, I ran the Dexter-Ann Arbor 10K this morning! It was a lot of fun and I felt great the entire time. My time was about 1:06 which is what I was expecting. I wish that I would have pushed myself harder though because it didn't feel like I worked hard at all during the race. Oh well, live and learn.

I have been going to many of my friend Zack's cycling races. I've been helping his team out a lot working the feed zone and at the last race I drove the support car for the Cat. 3's. I really want to get into cycling so I can do duathlons and potentially triathlons. Unfortunately money is a slight issue. Mostly because it looks like I am going to need to get a new computer because my current laptop doesn't have a large enough hard drive to support all of the animation, design and programming software that I am going to need in the upcoming years. Maybe some of my new cycling friends will be able to hook me up =D

The countdown for Seattle begins, 27 Days!!!

Well...so much for that.

I said I was going to blog every week with an update on my training. As you can see that failed. I've just been so busy with school I haven't really had time to blog. But other than that my training has been going really well. Last weekend I was supposed to run 6 miles, but I couldn't see the street signs and I overshot my turnaround point. I ended up going about 7.6 miles instead...oops. It didn't feel like I went that far though, which is good. Then this past Friday I ran the Advance Packaging 5K here in Jackson. My time was 31:09, about 2 minutes faster than I was expecting =D

On a non-running related note, I am not living in Chicago anymore =( I have moved home for the summer and I am taking a math class at JCC. This past weekend I was in Ann Arbor visiting some friends and helping out at a cycling road race. I told some of my cycling friends there that if they could get me a bike, shoes, helmet and kit I would do a race at the end of the summer...we'll see if that actually pulls through...

So Far So Good...

Well I am about a week and a half into my half marathon training program and I am proud to say that I have not had to stop and walk once in the middle of one of my runs *knock on wood* My left knee has been bothering me. It's wierd because it doesn't bother me when I run, only when I stop, hmm....

On another note, I have officially signed up for the Rock n' Roll Seattle Half Marathon woohoo! I am really excited because this is my first major race that I've actually thought about ahead of time (Lost Dutchman doesn't count because Stephy and I did it just for the hell of it). My Mom also signed up for the half and my Dad signed up for the full. It's going to be a fun trip, hopefully the hills don't kill me...

On yet another note school has been going pretty well, my procrastination is starting to kick me in the butt though, so what do I do? Procrastinate more and make a blog post...go me! Next week I have 12 pages of an essay due, I currently have 3. My pencil test for my final Animation project is due. I have a project for New Millennium Studies due as well as a project for Digital Image Design...FML

Fun, yet lazy weekend...

Well...over the past week I didn't run as much as I probably should have. Monday I did 20 minutes of cross training. Tuesday, I ran 5 miles, and Wednesday I ran 2. Then on Wednesday night Eric and John came to visit. Thursday Eric left, then Patty, John and John were in town. Friday Patty and John left, Eric came back and Pat also came. Friday John, Eric and I went to see RENT. It was amazing and I got to meet Anthony Rapp! Saturday Eric and I went for a 3 mile run, needless to say I cannot run as fast as him but oh well. The rest of Saturday Eric, John, Pat and I hung out and had an awesome time. Sunday Pat left and Eric went to visit some of his family members. John was supposed to fly out that day also but all of the flights were booked, so we went and saw "I Love You Man" and he flew out early this morning. Around noon today Eric came back and we hung out untill he had to leave to catch a 7:30 flight back to Seattle. So, as you may be able to see, I've been extremely busy this week, but tomorrow I expect to be back on track with day 1 of my half-marathon training program!

Marathon!

Alright first things first, school has been going great, I have officially changed my major to Computer Animation and I am really excited about that. I have also started running in hopes to run the Rock & Roll Seattle Half Marathon. I decided to take it all the way and run the 2009 Chicago Marathon on October 11th. I registered last night and it's time to start training! So I thought it would be a good idea to use my extremely non-eventful blog to start a running journal. I will TRY to write here at least once a week and since I now actually have something to write about, but we all know how that has gone in the past...so if anyone actually reads this then get on my case about posting more if I start to slack off!

Wish me luck!

Merry Christmas/ Happy New Year/ It has been a really long time since I've made a post...

Hey everyone, it has been a very long time since I've posted anything here, so I suppose I'll try and sum up what has been going on with me over the past few months.

Once classes started things had been going really well, but then I realized that Musical Theatre isn't what I really want to do with the rest of my life. I realized that I really want to have a family, which is something that is next to impossible with a career in performance. I would also be constantly searching for my next job and I would rather have something more stable. I love Musical Theatre, but I would rather keep it as a fun hobby that I have as opposed to trying to make a career out of it.

So next semester I am taking classes in the Computer Animation/Interactive Arts and Media department to try that out and see how I like it.

Other than that whole depressing realization my first semester went really well. I became really good friends with the girls who live across the hall and a few other people who live in my building. We went to a couple of parties and clubs together. I also became good friends with the people in my Acting class.

I also got another piercing and a tattoo. I got my tragus pierced and I got a tattoo that says "Amore" in white ink on my wrist. The tattoo was kind of a spur of the moment kind of thing. Kayla was getting one, the four of us went with her and I ended up getting one too.

When the semester ended I came home for the holidays. I got back on December 11th and I'll be going back sometime around January 26th. My Christmas was great. I got to join back up with the music group that sings at 10:30 mass on Sundays, and we did Christmas Eve mass which was a lot of fun. On Christmas Day we basically adopted Zack. He came over Christmas morning and he also came over to my Grandma's house in the afternoon.

On New Years Eve Zack had a few people over, we hung out and played pool. Then my parents came over later in the night and we played Apples to Apples.

On January 7th I'm heading out to Seattle to visit Eric and John for a week. I'm really excited about that. I've never been there before and my friend Chase from high school also lives out there.

Well that pretty much sums up what has been going on with me. Maybe I'll make another post before summertime...no promises though.

WOOHOO!

I got my belly button pierced!!! Yay!

Chicago!

On Monday I moved into my apartment in downtown Chicago. It is so amazing here, I love it! So far I've gone to a few "Weeks of Welcome" events which naturally are really boring. Last night I met up with some of my mom's cousin's who live in the area and we went out to dinner. I'm really glad this happened because I've been feeling homesick lately...

My roommates are great, we all get along really well, and my apartment is awesome! Definately not your typical college dorm. We have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen. Grocery shopping is kind of inconveniant though because we have to walk a few blocks to get to the store.

My classes start on Tuesday, I'm really excited about that because I'll finally be doing what I came here to do. I am taking Writing and Rhetoric, Chemistry, Italian, Musical Theater History and Musical Theater Dance.

Well untill next time!

Summer Recap

Well since I move to Chicago a week from today I decided to do a racap of my summer.

After I graduated I started working full time for my Dad at Mechanical Products, I was hired to wipe off labels on circuit breakers and restamp them. I was told that I would be done by the end of june, but since I kept getting pulled to do other things I ended up working all the way up untill August 15th. Which is a good thing because I made a lot of money.

In the beginning of July I went Up North to Northport with my whole maternal side of the family for a week. This is something we do every year, it is almost always the highlight of my summer. Well since we were staying in a huge house we had some extra room so my Grandma decided to invite my friends Zack and Nick to come up and stay with us for a few days which was a ton of fun.

After Up North I went back to work (woo fun!) and one day Zack, Nick, Camille and I decided to go to Cedar Point for a day which was also a lot of fun.

A few days after Cedar Point my Dad decided to hire Nick and Zack to destroy bad circut breakers for them. So Zack, Nick and I ended up pretty much spending every consious moment we had together, because we would wake up in the morning go to work and then hang out untill we passed out at night. It's gotten to the point where we don't even need to verbally communicate to have conversations...it's kind of sad.

My weekends have consisted of going to races with Zack and Nick. I've gotten to know some of Zack's team mates and they all seem pretty cool. My favorite races I've been to this summer are the Pancake Stage Race where Zack won the Crit and took 3rd overall, and Ada where I got to ride in the lead car.

Within the last week I've gone to two "Going Away Parties" one was at Thea's house where we played Catch Phrase (big fun) and watched "A Bit of Fry and Laurie (even bigger fun). The other was at Meghan's house, we had a bonfire and took some fun pictures.

This upcoming week I have to pack (ick) not too excited about that, but I am very excited about moving to Chicago. This Friday we are celebrating my Mom's, my Grandpa's and my birthday with my Mom's side of the family, and then on saturday we are going to Litchfield to

celebrate my mom's, my dad's my uncle's and my birthday with my Dad's side of the family. Then on Monday the 25th I move =D

This summer has definately been one to remember I had a ton of fun and in the words of ABBA...

"I can still recall our last summer

I still see it all

walks along the seine

laughing in the rain

our last summer

memories that remain."

Orientation/Retistration

Orientation was a long, painful, stressful, and fun day. I woke up at 4 in the morning to drive to Chicago with my parents. When we got there I met one of my roommates Caitlin, she is really nice and I look foreward to getting to know her better. After an hour long speech of things I've already heard at least 5 times, they split the Musical Theater Majors into four different groups. Since my last name is Baker I was in the first group. They took us to the Theater Center where our Advisor talked about our major and the classes that we should be taking. Immediately following that I went with a some other people to the Dance Placement Test where we did some stretching excercises with some moving across the floor stuff, and we learned some original broadway coreography from Seussical the Musical. After the Dance portion I moved onto the Acting Placement which consisted of an interview of all of my past theater experience. Finally I was able to eat lunch, Caitlin and I were two of the last people to eat lunch and right in the middle of our meal we were pulled out to take the Music Theory placement test. After about 40 Minutes I completed the test and it was graded, I got a high enough score to take the next portion of the test which was Sight Singing (YIKES!) not my strongest point. Apparently I'm a lot better at it then I thought because the instructor was really impressed and I ended up placing out of all of my first year Music Theory, Sight Singing, Dance and Acting classes. Not too shabby. Then I went up to the Lab to schedule all of my classes. Unfortunately since I was one of the only people to take and complete all 3 placement tests I was one of the last to register so most of the classes were filled up. The classes I am taking are Musical Theater The Beginnings to 1945, Musical Theater Dance, Italian Language and Culture, Writing and Rhetoric, and Chemistry. I am pretty happy with my schedule, I wish I could of gotten into an Acting and Music class though.

Overall Orientation was a lot of fun and it only got me more excited to start learning more about my passion.


I move in 3 weeks from today =D