Sexy Brazilian Mini-Skirt Wearing College Student Geisy Arruda

Brazilian college girl,Geisy Arruda, expelled from school,… reinstated for wearing skimpy clothes to class,has become an international sensation in less than two months.

Who ever said …’’sex sells”…sure knew what he/she was talking about!!! 

Geisy Arruda,20, after being harassed by fellow students , was expelled from Uniban, the private university where she is studying tourism, accused of wearing a dress that was too short and sporting a provocative attitude. 

 She had to be readmitted later .

The AP reports…”There are hundreds of girls wearing miniskirts on this campus every day, and nothing has ever happened,” Vice Dean Ellis Brown said at a news conference held earlier this month. “The size of the dress was never discussed — her behavior was.”

Arruda has vehemently denied acting provocatively, telling the private Agencia Estado news agency: “It’s a big lie that I raised the dress.”

In reversing the decision to expel Arruda, Brown said the school was opting for educational rather than disciplinary action.

Although Brazil is known for revealing clothing — especially in beach cities, where one popular style of bikini is so skimpy that it’s called “dental floss” — most college students dress more modestly on campus, commonly in jeans and T-shirts.

“It will be a dream come true for me,” Arruda said just before giving a deposition to police who are investigating whether crimes were committed when a crowd of students harassed her on Oct. 22 at the University Bandeirante in Sao Bernardo do Campo, just outside Sao Paulo.

She will parade for the Leandro de Itaquera samba school in Sao Paulo and the Porto da Pedra school in Rio. The Rio and Sao Paulo parades are broadcast live in February throughout the nation of more than 190 million people.

“Sometimes, good things come from bad things,” she said.

Carnival features nearly nude dancers in elaborate feathered costumes, and Arruda said she plans to wear another short outfit when she parades atop a float in Rio.

Playboy Editor Edson Aran said that the young lady complies with the requisites to be front page of the magazine. “To have your photos in Playboy,” Aran explained, “a woman not only has to be beautiful but have notoriety, which is the case of Geisy.”

Geisy answered Playboy with this thought…”I don’t have anything against it, but I think I would not do a photo essay. This a matter of personal choice.”

She left clear, however, that she was not shutting down definitively the door on such a possibility.

 There might be mitigating circumstances she admitted: “Since I’m unemployed this might help. If I really need it, I will not be a hypocrite and say no.

We will be on the lookout for more of Geisy, as she rides her wave of mini skirt titillation all the way to the bank, as she extends her 15 minutes…

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gWYXyUj7NHnnHQM_iOUoe-EXYCmwD9C7HQ781

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/27/geisy-arruda-brazilian-mi_n_372143.html

The best way to welcome the New Year is to organize a party. New Year Eve Parties are a craze all over the world. There are parties in every house, neighborhood and cities to bid farewell to the past and welcome the new. The parties are organized in various themes. Big cities host some of the largest and extravagant parties. Numerous hotels and clubs organize all through the night parties. Themed New Year Eve Parties for seniors, young people, and couples are organized all over.

While organizing New Year Eve Parties, you should keep an innovative theme. At most parties, you can see people dressed in their best party wear. A good thing is to create a mood with top hat decorations. You can have guests wear top hats with the New Year sign. Give guests glitter glasses as party apparel which they can wear through out the event.

Decorate the entrance of your house with silver shimmer stars and the New Year logo to welcome the guests. There are New Year decorations available in all markets and stores. To make your party space more attractive, decorate it with gold, black, and silver decorations.

Make cutouts, balls and other winter and party themed decorations to give the party a personalized touch. A New Year’s celebration standee can be helpful to welcome the guests. Personalize the standee with a special message. The parties in New Year can also be decorated with personalized banners. Most of these are weather-resistant, heavy duty vinyl on which custom prints can be made.

And of course New Year Eve Parties can’t be complete without balloons. The balloons can be filled with confetti or just any fun stuff for the celebration. While partying, serve New Year’s party snacks. These can always include soft and other alcoholic drinks. Save the champagne for midnight!

living with the poor reads more romantically than it is. i mean, we’re barely putting a single toe in the water, but even in choosing the intention of being available and responsive… interruptible… to the poor among us, it’s already sorta rough. like when phil down the street always forgets who we are and that he’s already tried asking us for money before, and we’ve turned him down, but now he wants to use our phone. so we sit on the front porch of  the dilapidated boarding house he calls home and talk to his housemate rio whilst he makes what seems like 15 calls on t’s cell phone, then asks for a ride somewhere. meanwhile, i really want to get in our car and drive back to the house where we saw a fantastic piece of furniture on the curb, up for grabs. but by the time we get away from the porch of phil’s house, it’s been taken by someone else. someone who didn’t stop to let a down-and-out guy use their cell phone. i’m more disappointed by this than i have any right to be.

dinner at the Winnebago house tonight had all the house inhabitants (minus jon, who left a homemade pumpkin pie in his place and the pences who are visiting family), plus me and t, neel and kaia, and jake’s brother pete. we sat around one long table and ate family style, which isn’t usually possible because there’s too many folks. but i guess lots of people were still away with their families for thanksgiving. harmony and eric made a mexican pizza, i brought some fried rice, and there were like 4 kinds of pie, 3 kinds of bread, veggie platter and frozen yogurt. anyway, all of this had a cozy family feel (we seem at ease with one another by now). i didn’t leave my seat all night, but had great conversations with the 5 friends who took their place beside me to chat for a spell.

t and i have been on our laptops too much today. there was lots of photo editing to do. and then photo-ordering (for frames in our apartment, for gifts for family, etc.) t has been tackling his email inbox with singular focus unusual for him. he seems to have forgotten that i’m occupying the apartment with him, so intense is his purposeful email sorting and deleting.

this is the beautiful face of claire, which i was staring at for hours today while i edited the photos i snapped of her on her 3-week birthday (for more, see here).

my SIL jess gave birth yesterday. oh, how i had hoped to be able to get in the car and drive over to Milwaukee to see her and daniel, little sam, and baby elijah hours after the birth. but, sadly, eli is in the nicu trying to learn how to breath, as he was born with fluid on his little lungs. of course, he’ll be okay, but i’m sad for jess and dan for this somewhat traumatic first two days, in which they aren’t getting the amount of bonding time that they desire and need. but here is little eli, with a shocking head full of dark hair and a nose that i think is undeniably collier-esque.

one of my Transit girls has left us. on some level, i know it’s normal for the second-guessing and temptation to leave to set in at about this point in their year. but it’s been extremely hard on me to watch her go, to see her decide for something else and, after a week of hard conversations and up-and-down emotions, to bid her farewell, praying for the best for her. the three remaining are standing in strength and a lot of mutual love for one another and i’m so very proud of them.

so now there is “chick church.” i know that e would rather i not call it that, only we haven’t found a suitable alternative yet. chick church is a handful of women whose names were each distinctly pressed onto my heart, who come to breakfast at our place on sunday mornings (so far only twice) and dig into one another’s lives and hearts, also studying the Word together and engaging in listening-prayer for one another. and so far it is very good.

yesterday i got to talk to a wonderful woman whom i’ve always short-handedly called w. there’s one particular thing that she said, full of truth, which i want to remember, so i’ll record it here: “God is always building something. either inside of you or around you.” yes! he is always building, even in those seasons that seem like so much dead space. i guess in the Kingdom there is no such thing as dead space; nothing is wasted.

i got some more things hung on walls this weekend, which felt nice. suddenly this area above our dining room table feels so much warmer. there is a hodge-podge of articles framed here. clockwise from top left: a prayer-room relic snatched from the SBR prayer garage last year, tim and WE International Founder/friend in the Sahara desert, an acacia tree photo inscribed with Psalm 1:3, Lake Michigan relics in a shadow box, and the Tendero’s dining room table.

so, we’ve said “no” to the offer to lead that trip to algeria in january, for no reason other than that we sat down and listened a while and heard Him say the word Stay. now we’re kinda camping out on that command to Stay… wondering what it’s about… for how long and in what way and where precisely to stay. does it mean buying property in our neighborhood, bearing children here, deciding no longer to waver about our role in the Madison Boiler Room, to abandon daydreams about our next move? (i’m reminded of jeremiah 29:4-7).

thanksgiving morning was sorta special in our family of two. i woke up before t did and whipped up some pancakes, which we topped with the leftover berry sauce i’d prepared as a topping of the homemade ice cream we ate with the Transit girls the night before. we had a french press and sat around the table a while lounging and talking casually. here is a scene that i love – t at the table, coffee mug in hand, bed head not yet corrected:

and after this we drove to Milwaukee to celebrate with the collier clan. what a spread of food and goodly number of people were present. we had roasted potatoes with kale (me), gingery apple-yam-plantain saute (me), turkey (linda), mashed potatoes (jess), wild rice (lisa), green bean casserole (linda), pumpkin pie (nathan), and orange salad (linda). sam was a little show-off. and, because they couldn’t be with us from Pittsburgh, we made flat versions of ben, lisa, and little sophia and took turns posing with them (missed you guys!).

no, i haven’t been cooking anything particularly interesting or amazing lately. (well, t might beg to differ, as he was terribly fond of that homemade GF pizza we had last night. he said that it was so good he wanted to punch something, which is his newest form of highest compliment).

goodnight.

My beautiful best friend Teale Kelly married the wonderful Greg Fox on the 27th this week. I couldn’t be happier for them both! There wedding was beautiful and I was so glad to be able to be in Rochester for it. I loved that the wedding was a perfect representation of themselves. They did everything very non-traditional and pulled off an easy, comfortable, casual wedding that still had plenty of glam.

She wore a beautiful and simple off-white gown that matched her mother’s train perfectly. It was great that she was able to tie in a piece of her mother’s wedding with her beautifully apliqued train. She wore feather’s in her hair and thrift store find earrings (perfect!) as well as the big statement piece…designer red Louboutin shoes! Our good friend Sue from Surface Hair salon in the South Wedge in Rochester, NY did her hair Greg wore a three-piece suit with a pocket watch (swanky!) and a red tie to match her shoes. Sue did Greg’s hair too. They looked so great!

The wedding and reception was held at Artisan Works, an art gallery and Co-Op In Rochester. It was a really funky, unique place to hold a wedding and provided something to do for the guests that don’t dance. It was so much fun to tool around the place with the happy couple to take photos. Just outside those doors is the bar where canapes and drinks were served while the room was transformed from ceremony to reception.

Teale and Greg had one of their first dates and Phillips European, a restaurant in Rochester, where they went for dessert. They decided to go with Phillip European’s beautiful desserts instead of a wedding cake which I thought was a more sentimental…and delicious…idea. They displayed so beautifully and really beat out the wedding cake idea for me!

The Reception went until 10 and a second after-party was hosted at local restaurant and cocktail bar Good Luck. Teale changed out of her wedding gown into this beautiful party dress that was made by her good friend Kate. Kate is a seamstress and Etsy seller that makes beautiful fashion creations. This dress was made out of a vintage sequined skirt that she shortened into a dress. The extra fabric was sewn on as cap sleeves and it was all synched off at the waist with a gold ribbon. It was so beautiful with her red shoes! Beautiful work Kate!

Kate did some work on her own dress too! She’s great with re-working vintage clothes.

Kate has made dresses for Teale and I before. The first time I met Kate she had made a faux wedding dress for Teale to wear and destroy as I took photos. We took her creation to Stoney Brook Park and wrecked it under water falls in the name of art. Kate was a good sport for creating it, Teale was a good sport for wearing it in cold cold water. You’ll be hearing more about Kate around here soon!

I made my own dress for the wedding too, unfortunately since I took the photos…I dont have any of the dress! I’ll make sure I find some soon to share with you. Its made entirely of recycled neckties in black, white and gray.

Congrats to the happy couple again, and now that this busy holiday weekend/moving is through, I hope to get head first back into the shop and the blog. Remember to take advantage of Cyber Monday free shipping at my Etsy store!

On Saturday afternoon, I drove up to Celebration, FL to take in the beautiful day there. Celebration is a little town here in Central Florida near Disney. The town celebrates holidays a bit like “the old days,” and has all sorts of fun events going on year-round.

We were having a beautiful weather day here in Florida and so I decided that taking in the town along with a long walk at their walking trail would be a great part of my day. I ended up walking for almost an hour just taking in the fresh air and surroundings. I love taking walks, not only is it a good cardio workout if you keep moving, but it gives you a chance to clear your head and think. Really calms the mind as well.

here are some concept images of the mega tent going up at holland park for the olympic celebration site

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. It is the only day of the year where the sole purpose is to eat. There isn’t the stress of buying presents or hauling a prickly tree (of course that inevitably comes later). Rather, one simply needs to eat large quantities of heavy, delicious food unashamedly and in the company of great family and friends. It’s a perfect day.

This Thanksgiving was a very special one. Whereas usually my immediately family (Ma, Daddy and my brothers), have a small (in the amount of people, not the amount of food) dinner at home, this year many members of our extended family all came together. My mother, a wonderful cook who loves both the preparation and presentation of meals, made sure we had a fantastic celebration. There was, of course, a huge turkey, but also baked salmon, black eyed peas with hamhocks, collard greens (made by my Cousin Nikko), potato salad and seafood salad, cornbread, and much more.

It was so heartwarming to be able to share stories and laughs with people we love, but unfortunately do not see as often as we like. I hope we do it again.

Some of the family gathered around the table. Clockwise from left: My mother, my cousin Nikko, Nikko's husband Malik, and Uncle Tim

We decided to play the game "Taboo." Unfortunately, my team lost

I’m so grateful to have a loving and supportive family. They are what has inspired me throughout my life, and have allowed me to develop my dreams, in spite of how unconventional they are.  I cannot thank them enough.

Sorry about the camera glare! Here's everyone, from clockwise left: Me!, my cousin Kendra, Kendra's husband Will, my brother Jason (partially covered by the stupid glare), my mother and my goddaughter Zoe, my father, my cousin Brandon, my uncle Tim, my cousin Nikko and her husband Malik

Realizing that another season like those that had just passed would mean the extinction of the entire community, the elders of the colony decided to try something radically different: the introduction of private property rights and the right of the individual families to keep the fruits of their own labor.

As Governor Bradford put it:

“And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number for that end. . . .This had a very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted then otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little-ones with them to set corn, which before would a ledge weakness, and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.”

The Plymouth Colony experienced a great bounty of food. Private ownership meant that there was now a close link between work and reward. Industry became the order of the day as the men and women in each family went to the fields on their separate private farms. When the harvest time came, not only did many families produce enough for their own needs, but they had surpluses that they could freely exchange with their neighbors for mutual benefit and improvement.

In Governor Bradford’s words:

“By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God. And the effect of their planting was well seen, for all had, one way or other, pretty well to bring the year about, and some of the abler sort and more industrious had to spare, and sell to others, so as any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day.”

Gisselle turned the big 6 this year. And sadly I had to go to work and wasn’t able to spend the whole day with her. Before I left for work, she got her Tinkerbell cake (which I ran around half a day trying to find the specific kit for the cake 2 days prior). She got here bday gifts and off to work I went. Seemed pretty stoked when I got home in the morning. Happy Birthday big girl!

3 word wednesday: give, thanks, obvious

celebration flames
the candle of remembrance
glimmering soiree

harmony surrounds
talkative table of twelve
silverware sleeping

harmless happiness
mash potato companion
perfect gravy pours

give the gift of thanks
obvious oblivion
pass the stuffing please

pumpkin pecan pie
another cup of comfort
don’t forget the cream

Ok …here is the “Rocky on Trike”. We chose to use the Tennis Court for this video as Rocky is good riding on a plain surface. Enjoy!!

(All Photos taken by Christopher Stribley at Bergdorf Goodman in NY, November 27, 2009.)

With our bellies still stuffed with the delicious foods of  Thanksgiving, the holiday season draws closer. No matter how you celebrate, a decent holiday outfit is vital to survive the numerous gatherings to attend during the season. It’s important to have the holiday cheer, without feeling the need to dress up like a Christmas tree.

Here’s an outfit I threw together as a basic idea of the type of outfit to wear this holiday season.

What’s great about this outfit is the fact that it doesn’t go overboard. There’s no need to dress incredibly fancy if you’re just going to a small holiday party, but this outfit still sends the message that you put effort into your outfit. Pairing a nice skirt with a plain white t-shirt makes the outfit more casual, yet the sweater, tights, and flats help to make the outfit less of an everyday look and more of a special event one.

Of course, this outfit doesn’t have to be reserved just for the holidays!

I’m really resisting the urge to just suck it up and do a bullet point post. I promised myself that when I started this new shindig over here that I’d write actual paragraphs, all the time, since I consider myself a writer and writers should take what they want to say and expand a bit, instead of just throwing it down and running away. But you know what, sometimes real life gets in the way and we’re going to compromise since there are just not enough hours in the day.

#1: My sister had a birthday. It was her 23rd, which is odd because I still can’t believe that she’s of legal age to drink a glass of wine and sometimes I still can’t believe that she’s still not four years old and playing with her gazillion dolls. Luckily I was able to swing it that I could go down to UNC and visit her. I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to hang with those in the under 25 bracket and that I’d be calling it a night long before they were ready to turn in for the night, but her friends were amazing and fun and intelligent and classy and I had a blast. Plus, there’s nothing like curling up, semi-hungover, and watching Amelie and eating popcorn in bed with your favorite sister that you hardly ever get to see. I wish there was a way that could hang out more, but I don’t think that’s in the cards anytime soon, unfortunately.

#2: I went to a small presses conference at my old school where I listened to a bunch of authors talk about their process with their agents and editors, literary magazines talk about why you should submit to them, and other industry folks generally discussing over and over again how the system is fucked and no one can figure out how to fix it and that no one is making money. It was about as uplifting as it sounds. The good news is that I realized that despite the fact that for many many years I’ve wanted to be published by Penguin, I know know that I want a small press to publish me. It’s ridiculously important to me that I get to have say in things like fonts and papers and book jacket designs. Because my novel is about women, I know that the cover will be some torsos without heads or pastel or some other such nonsense and that will make me never want to publish again. Also, fun fact, most big publishers will always have the book come out in hardback first despite the fact that hardbacks are a tough sell for a first time author, and if they don’t sell, then they just turn the books into pulp and don’t publish you again. I’d much rather have a small press just do a few thousand paperbacks and then not turn my hard work into pulp. I’m not big on hardbacks, I generally think they’re difficult to read and hold and carrying them around with me all day is not fun. Bring on the paperbacks.

#3: We celebrated our 6 month anniversary. We celebrated by making dinner then falling into bed. I was in bed for twelve straight hours and when I had to get up to go to work the next day the last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed. I’ll leave it to your imagination how we passed that time. Then Thanksgiving was a quiet, intimate affair. It was just the two of us, and he was my sous-chef so that I could whip up a great dinner in about an hour. I’m really enjoying spending a lot of quality time with him before things like other jobs and kids and travel and life get in the way. Not that any of those things are close to happening, but I like our us time now.

Maybe in December I’ll do a better job keeping track of my life. Maybe not.

Trinere – Celebration 10

Quem está na casa dos 30 anos certamente vai lembrar dessas músicas, pois era lei tocar nos bailes.
Trinere marcou época com suas músicas e quando tocava alguma, ninguém conseguia ficar parado e se o DJ demorasse muito a tocar alguma, alguém iria até lá pedir.
Marcou época também pelo clássico “passinho” de dança que todo mundo gostava de fazer. Nos bailes eram muitos os grupinhos mandando seus passos, cada um diferente do outro, mas todos em harmonia com as músicas.
Então, é obrigatório baixar esse CD e colocar no som pra curtir a nostalgia daquela época maravilhosa!

1. When I Hear Music
2. Night Life
3. I Want You to Want Me
4. I Know You Love Me
5. Can’t Stop the Beat
6. Forever Yours
7. I’ll Be All You Ever Need
8. Rockin’ to the Rhythm
9. How Can We Be Wrong?
10. I Have Finally Found Somebody
11. In and Out
12. I’m in Love Again
13. Stay in Love With Me
14. Alone at Last
15. In Two Places
16. All Night

Glenn's Proud!

Pre-game rehearsal

For the first time since 1968 (41 years!), the Apple Cup ended in shutout–this time the Huskies held the Cougars scoreless. The headline on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s website on Sunday morning read, “Huskies Crush Cougs in Apple Cup Blowout.” This 102nd game between the two schools started at 3:30 p.m. and was played under lights as a cold wind blew wildly around the stadium. We were among the ~67,000 fans who were so grateful it did not rain. Chris Polk rushed for 130 yards and became the first true UW freshman ever to rush for over 1,000 yards in one season. Jake Locker had the kind of game everyone has expected of him every time he’s played these past three years, running for 94 yards, passing for 196, scoring one touchdown himself, passing for another.

Once again, I attended for free as a member of the Husky Alumni Band. The band’s routine goes like this. We arrive three and half hours before kickoff and have a short rehearsal at the tennis court grandstand just north of Hec-Ed Pavillion. Then we walk to 4-5 tailgate venues in different parking lots. At each site we play about five tunes, ending up with a little longer session at the final stop near the Husky dog and Coach Jim Owens statues at the stadium entrance. In addition to the songs mentioned in my post (below) on 11 October, we played a bunch of other tunes yesterday, including “Shake a Tail Feather,” “Hey! Baby!”, “Vehicle,” “Find Myself a Sunny Spot,” ”Polynesian Paralysis,” “Separate Ways,” and one of my favorites, “You Can Call Me Al.” Of course, we always play “Victory for Washington” and “Bow Down to Washington” everywhere–those two are givens.

During the game itself, the routine continues. We play a few tunes during some of the time-outs. Our turn to play is all coordinated with the UW Varsity Band via headsets. Then, after the Varsity Band concludes its half-time show, we play a few tunes from the track in front of the main southside grandstand until the teams return and the second half begins. Next, after the game ends, we play a few tunes in front of the people in the “horseshoe” stands at the west end, where we always sit during the games. Our last song there last night was “Celebration.” People in the stands sang along and swayed to music…it’s great to relish a victory.

Finally, we walk back to the Nordstrom Tennis Center behind Hec-ED, and play some more. I walked there with Dan Niven (see my post of 9 September below). Dan plays trombone, manages the Mills Music Store in Lynnwood, sings in the Total Experience Gospel Choir of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Seattle, and is an actor in various community theater groups. He’ll play the Ghost of Jacob Marley in the Evergreen Family Theatre’s production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Redwood Family Church in Redmond in early December.

We overheard a couple of very pleased fans talking about this victory and about beating the University of California Bears next Saturday. Dan noted that they spoke using the pronoun “we,” meaning the Husky football team. He observed that it’s funny how people own the team when it wins but disown it when it loses, switching to the pronoun, “they.”  It’s “we did this and that” when our team is winning, and “they did this and that” when our team is losing…chuckle.

How did the Alumni Band help “our” team win this historic game? Well, several times during the tailgate playing tour, we played our special version of the “WSU Fite Song.” We started out with the regular tune but suddenly broke into “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” Then we switched back to the regular fight song, only to interrupt it again with “The Farmer in the Dell,” immediately concluding with a most discordant, emphatic “Splat!” And that’s how WE really won the 102nd Apple Cup!

Hull City manager Phil Brown laughs off Jimmy Bullard’s celebration after the midfielder’s equaliser in the Tigers’ 1-1 draw away at Manchester City…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: city populations. The blog is also related to: wealthiest city.

Hull City manager Phil Brown laughs off Jimmy Bullard’s celebration after the midfielder’s equaliser in the Tigers’ 1-1 draw away at Manchester City…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: world cup soccer. For a different topic see cake recipes. The blog is also related to: soccer games.

So here’s the thing. 

I had this whole post planned with the title:  You Don’t Expect Me to Run Up THAT, Do You?  And the post was about the Wild Wild Wilderness Run hosted by the Kennekuk Road (and must.not.forget.the.TRAIL) Runners a couple months ago. 

That trail featured 7.55 miles of pure running torture.  (So terrible that I plan on running it again in the arctic weather we surely can expect during the Sibearn Express on January 2, 2010.)  Seriously, though.  It was terrible.  There was a nearly vertical hill that only mountain goats or really nimble deer should ever be expected to climb, one that hugged an earth wall and where a single step to the left would leave a person pummeling hundreds of yards to their demise in a thornbush-infested ravine.  There were three or four miles of challenging, but bearable terrain that initiated the uninitiated WWW trail runner.  Then (surprise, newbie!) the turn-off to the hill-from-hell.  Only to be followed by three or four miles more  of Really. Hard. Trail Running. 

Now, I love running hills.  But these weren’t people-hills.  They were animal-only hills.  And those super-runners who could just prance up them with ease–well, I’m astounded by those people.  They need a special category of fitness just for them.

As for me, I was so proud of Finishing Without Dying that I floated along on that experience for quite some time.  It mattered very little to me that I was near the Very End of the pack.  I was thrilled beyond words to have finished on my feet instead of a stretcher.

So that was the essence of the post I was going to write.  Because that was the craziest trail I’d run so far.  Until today.

Today I was introduced, quite accidentally, to the Backpack Trail at Forest Glen.  I personally believe they call this the Backpack Trail because most normal humans would need to bring camping supplies (or at least a meal!) in order to traverse the sucker, because it takes SO LONG and is SO HARD to finish this monster of a trail.

Now the introduction to the trail was only partially accidental, I confess.  Because I planned to do the 4.5 mile trail.  You know, the ”this-11-mile-trail-intimidates-me-so-I-want-a-shorter-version-of-the-Backpack-Trail” trail.  What I did NOT plan to do was the 11 mile version of the Backpack Trail. 

Had I completed the 4.5 mile version, I’d still have had plenty of material to share with you, believe-you-me.  But the fact that just one teensy-weensy turn to the left rather than the right had us move our bodies over 11 miles of terrain instead of 4.5 miles is just plain wicked.  Indeed, we made the left vs. right decision because some Very Helpful (sadistic) Campers advised us that everyone had headed toward the left.  Thank you campers. 

What followed was an adventure that my two running buddies and I certainly had not anticipated.  We were told that we’d be heading over a creek.  Indeed, we headed over multiple creeks.  “Creek” is a highly subjective term, apparently.  I’m thinking, it’s a little thing you can hop over.  Nope.  It’s several big things that, even if you don’t fall off the slippery rocks that pose as steps across the current, you’re going to be wading in the water at least up to your ankles.  (Before you Florida readers think me a wimp, now, please remember that it was 33 degress when I got in the car to drive to this adventure!). 

And there were hills.  So many hills.  This trail wasn’t playing.  And let’s not forget that it’s been raining for, like, 952 days straight here in Central Illinois, so it was Mud City everywhere we went.  Read that:  No Traction.  Slip-N-Slides are fun when you’re eight and in your front yard with your neighbor buddies.  When you’re 43 years-old and trying to find footing climbing up a Monster Mud Hill, there are few humans that would call the exercise fun. 

Indeed, as we got to the bottom of our 382nd hill (perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but not much) we stopped thinking, “surely this is the last big hill we have to deal with” and started thinking, “surely this stinking trail has to end at some point.” 

Who knew that any trail, anywhere in the known universe could have So Many Gigantic Up’s and Gigantic Downs?  One after the other.  (Of course, happily interspersed with flowing creeks throughout.)

And the downhills.  I believe they were even worse than the uphills.  I’d always had the strategy of running on the downhills whenever possible.  It’s just that it was Very Rarely possible on this Sadist Trail.  The first bad boy that we faced, I remember clearly thinking that we’d taken a wrong turn.  People aren’t supposed to go straight down hills that steep with NO earth on either side.  Just a little mountain goat path straight down with an occasional tree mercifully situated for holding-on-for-dear-life on the downward descent.  I remember thinking after that first hill that the worst was behind us.  HA HA HA HA HA.  No.

All three of us in our brave little what-in-the-blazes-are-we-doing-out-here-without-a-GPS-or-a-cell-phone party fell nicely on our touckases at least once during the adventure.  We kept a good eye-out for each other and never got too far apart while out there.   We learned the difference between a shriek of  “Woo Hoo!” (“We’re awesome!  Look what we’re doing!”) and a shriek of “Woo Hoo!” (“Heaven help me, I’ve just fallen into the biggest mud pit in a five state region!”).  We learned the difference between this-hurts and this-sucks-but-let’s-keep-going-because-we-still-have-daylight.  And we most certainly learned to love the signs with the little red arrows and how to look for the red splotches on lots of trees. 

Most of all, we learned that there was more within us than any of us bargained for when we set out to Forest Glen for a little run one cold Saturday morning in November.  We learned we could do it.  At least for me, I surprised myself that I could do it.  And any one of us could have gone the 13.1 half marathon distance–so we learned that we were able to do that too!  I had another chance to give one something that had intimidated me a beat-down.  And we were blessed with the commraderie, the friendship, that comes from battling those stinking hills and creeks and elements together. 

Overall, it certainly was a day worth having.  Maybe even a day worth repeating.  A great adventure by some unlikely adventurerers.  And a great achievement by some tough-as-nails women who, though total newbies, were ready and willing to give it our all.  And we did. 

Three other Very Important Points: 

1.  Hats off to the Kennekuk Road (and Trail) Runners who gave every one of us a round of applause as we staggered off the trail.  These Super Runners had been done for well over an hour, but were still glad to cheer on the lost-little-newbies that somehow finished that 11 mile beast without dying! 

2.  My trail shoes are now officially trail shoes.  Here’s the after picture: 

Shoes: AFTER

3.  WW Activity Points mean I can EAT after today.  Yes!

4.  I’m certain I’ve forgot to mention much more than what’s been said here already.  I’m sure you’ll get more tidbits as the days and weeks move on…

For now, here’s proof of the mud: 

Muddy!

And proof of the buds:

We Made It!

Currently listening to: Wedding Dress (Taeyang)

This year was a different Hari Raya Haji celebration. We didn’t celebrate it over at Woodlands like every other years. Everyone from the maternal side came to our house after visiting their in-laws. Aunt S and mom cooked mutton briyani. Everything was extra, extra, extra spicy – just how we like it! Was yummy! And to cool it down, we had jelly fruit punch for dessert. No pictures taken. Don’t know why.

Been thinking lately, it has been quite some time since we had a family barbaque. The last time was back during Labour day. Too bad we can’t have one anytime soon thanks to the unpredictable weather. At a point of time its sunny and the next minute comes the angry grey clouds. Most probably will plan for it early next year. If the weather permits.

We’re coming to the very last month of the year – December. See how fast time flies? Wow. I didn’t even notice this. I must have been too busy with lots of things only to realise it now. My weekends will surely be packed with chauffeuring the parents to weddings. My plans to whisk the family for a short getaway either to Melaka during Christmas was disrupted because two of my cousins will be getting married on that weekend.

I miss my grandpa.

Cheers!~