Welcome to Fun in the Mud

Yesterday I did my first ever mud run. Muckfest is a multi-city mud run event with the goal of rising funds to find a cure for multiple sclerosis (MS). I know a few people who suffer from MS and have seen how it effects their lives. 

Muckfest (also known as the FUN mud run) has been around since 2011. A few years ago, my coworkers started to go as a fun way to do team building and fundraising for a good cause. This year was my first year along with one of my other coworkers.

I tried to do some training for the event, but I was still pretty unprepared for some of the obstacles (plus I walked instead of ran the 5K part). From what I’ve come to understand, each of the obstacles were selected because of how they related to the day to day struggles of people with MS. 

Some of them were fairly easy, like crawling over a rope bridge or swinging into a pool of muddy water. Some were very challenging, like rope climbing up and down a “mountain” or crawling on your stomach under a tarp through the very thick mud (I did not do this one).Some obstacles were funny, like getting hit by a giant ball and thrown into a mud puddle. Finally there were the downright terrifying obstacles, like jumping off a platform onto a blowup cushion (was no one else scared of this one or was it just me?).

Prior to crossing the starting line, the MC of the event got us pumped up and ready to get muddy. However, before we officially began, he told us that within 48 hours, we should be ready to tell a story about our time on the course. Whether it was helping someone with an obstacle or someone helping you, whether it was doing something you didn’t think you could do or facing an obstacle that you thought would be easy, we should tell our stories about our adventures running.

I don’t think I have an “amazing” stories to tell. I didn’t help many people as I was the person often being pulled out of the mud (it was very sticky). However, there were a number of challenges where I stood up afterwards, turned to my friend, threw my arms up and yelled “I live!” I especially didn’t like the obstacles where I was free-falling (either into a muddy water pit or a squishy giant pillow). 

It wasn’t an easy corse by any stretch of the imagination. For people living with MS, mobility can be very difficult. I know I often take for granted the fact that I am an able-bodied person.  Not everyone can do the same physical activities I can.

If you know someone who suffers from MS, please consider trying the Muckrun. There are a few events throughout the United States. You can create a team or donate money to a team. 

If you have MS, there are also options to participate in the run. I saw a few people who shared with the event that they have MS and wanted to run.

Oh and don’t wear a white shirt or sneakers. They will never be white again.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to the Love of Animation

This week, I was saddened to learn about an arson attack committed at the Japanese animation studio Kyoto Animation. 33 people were killed with another 30 injured. Most of the victims were young women in their 20s and 30s.

Though I'm not super familiar with the animation studio's work, I was heart broken to hear about the incident and hope that the perpetrator is brought to justice. From what I understand, he is currently in police custody.

Following the news, a lot of people who couldn't pay their respects in person took to social media to talk about their feelings on the attack and how the studio's animated series and movies touched their lives.

Animation is a beautiful art. One that I think doesn't always get the appreciation it deserves.

There's something magical in the seamless world building created in animation. I never question the reality that Sen finds herself exploring in Spirited Away nor the appearance of the monsters in Moana. Everything fits in without looking fake or unreal. Contrast this with some CGI (particularly early CGI) and I'd take the animated world versus an unrealistic live action one.

Unfortunately some animated series from the US, also known as cartoons, are often only associated with children's entertainment, which isn't a good idea. I wouldn't want a child watching South Park or Futurama.

Gravity Falls is definitely one of the best animated series I've seen in a while that is also family friendly.

I have distinct memories of watching anime (Japanese animation) as a teenager and having someone ask me why I was still watching cartoons at my age. At first I was insulted by the comment, and then horrified by the idea that a young child would watch Black Cat (a fairly violent anime that was in fact geared towards teenagers).

However, I can't fault people for thinking that animation is only for kids. A lot of animated movies are meant for general audiences, especially if they have the Disney logo (or are of the knock off Disney variety) and cartoons, especially if they were made by Hanna-Barbera, were well known to be made on a shoe-string budget for kids. Once the 80s rolled around and regulations loosened on advertising to kids, cartoons were used as a 20 to 30 minute ad for kids to nag their parents into buying the accompanying toys (see anything made by Hasbro).

That doesn't change the fact that people who have since grown up, still look back on the animated works of their youth with fondness. This is likely why we've seen a recent surge in reboots of older series and/or live action remakes. Disney is currently raking in the cash by creating life action remakes of all the 90s movies I grew up with. Personally, I prefer the original animated versions, but there are a few of the remakes I don't mind. I admit that I'm curious as to the changes they made to Mulan (will it be closer to the original story from China?) and Halle Bailey seems like a great fit for the role of Ariel.

I'm not even going to touch the number of sequels that have come out this year.

Animation is some of the first art we're experienced to. Some of my favorite memories are of waking up early to watch Rugrats, Scooby Doo, or Bugs Bunny before my parents woke up. One of the first movies I saw in theaters was The Lion King and it blew my young mind away.

I'm currently writing this blog post while watching Spirited Away. It's one of my all time favorite movies (though Castle in the Sky will always be my number one Studio Ghibli film). I don't think I'd enjoy it nearly as much if it weren't animated. The world building, backgrounds, and characters all seem so tangible animated.

Castle in the Sky is beautiful and I recommend it to everyone.

The tragedy at Kyoto Animation is heart breaking and I hope the people who were injured are able to recover. They touched a lot of people's lives through their work.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Murphy’s Law while Mercury is in Retrograde

Murphy's law (as explained in the first sentence on Wikipedia) is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".

Apparent retrograde (also from Wikipedia) motion is the apparent motion of a planet in a direction opposite to that of other bodies within its system, as observed from a particular vantage point.

What does it mean when Mercury is in Retrograde?

If I'm to believe one of my yoga teachers: it means to be prepared for anything and everything that might screw up your plans. In other words, weird $h!t happens when Mercury is in retrograde.

Well, Mercury has been in retrograde for a few weeks and my sister's wedding shower was yesterday. Prefect timing for Murphy's Law to take effect and my life to suddenly turn into a 90s half hour sitcom.

To be clear, everything turned out alright. That's how I know that I somehow got dumped into a 90s sitcom, but there was a good portion of the day where it was one thing after the next preventing us from having this wedding shower.

The first major problem occurred about two hours before the shower, when one of the bridesmaids called to say she was stuck in traffic and might not make it. Traffic in Virginia is notoriously bad, but two of the worst areas to get stuck are on 64 near Richmond and 95 anywhere between Frederick and Springfield (which is about 50 miles). Naturally, most of the guests were taking these two highways to get to the shower.

This is actually Portland...where traffic is not as evil as Virginia.

Not much later we heard that the in-laws were also stuck in traffic. At this point, it was safe to assume that the shower was going to start a little late.

Then the final blow: another bridesmaid called. She had all of the decorations and games and had been helping me plan out a lot of the celebration. Her car had died and she needed to get it fixed.

Clearly yesterday was not the day to be on the road.

By this point, I had headed over to the place we were holding the shower. Thankfully, everything there was prefect and the people working there were very nice and helpful.

Now's the part where I really screwed up.

I text the wonderful baker I had hired to make cupcakes. She was confused and asking me why I was talking about Saturday and not Sunday. This is where I actually started panicking because I realized I had made a huge mistake. I hadn't checked the invoice which clearly said the day I asked for delivery was Sunday, not Saturday.

I was definitely a dead duck.

It was at this exact moment, while I was writing my obituary in my head, that my mom calls me to tell me she got all the food and that next time I had better ask to have it delivered. There was going to be a lot of equipment to set up.

I, of course, had to give her the update on the cupcake situation. Mom took it as well as she could given the stressful circumstances. She quickly got to the venue and we set up (with help from the wonderful staff) the food we did have.

That's when my luck began to change and the point at which I realized that I was totally in that 90s sitcom.

Texts began pouring in, updating us on everyone's ETA, which happened to all be between a 15 minute window, 15 minutes after the official start to the party. The bridesmaid who's car had died, managed to get her car repaired and back on the road while only losing a little of her time. The in-laws and the other bridesmaid who was stuck in traffic managed to get to the shower  A few of the guests who were a little early were happy to help with setting up.

And the baker whom I had hired was able to get the cupcakes to the party! She really saved my butt~!

They were really good cupcakes too.

Everything went off without a hitch. Games were played, food was eaten, gifts were opened, and cupcakes were enjoyed! Everyone said they had a great time and had a lot of fun...especially my sister (the bride).

Moral of this little escapade:

• Always call the venue a few days before hand.
• Triple check all of your order forms and invoices
• Expect the unexpected

I don't know if the craziness that occurred yesterday was due to Mercury being in Retrograde, Murphy's Law, or because I'm living the real life Truman Show (that would really freak me out). I do know that I learned to have a couple of backup plans ready to go if bad things do happen.

But really, my life is actually a 90s sitcom.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.