Tarantula's, Running and a Little Bit of Shame

School was pretty good this week.
Although in one of my classes my recent paper the religious feminist instructor apparently took her turn grading my papers. While I had been used to getting full credit and high marks on all my other papers by all the other instructors in it (There are 3).

She literally ripped it apart gave me my lowest score by far in any class, and honestly it kinda ticked me off and so did her comments.

Of course, it just so happened to be a topic that went against what she does. Apparently she does a lot of online polls for her religious stuff. My paper was on how polls (poll creators) weaken society by misleading them with manipulating questions and so on....

Technically I picked the topic long before I knew what she did.

I decided I could go at this two ways.
1. Begin to write things that would likely appeal to her.
2. I could be my self and remain the non-politically correct person that I am and keep on writing what I want to write about.

I had decided to go with being myself mostly because I want to keep on liking myself, LOL

THENI had to give a presentation on an interdisiplinary topic in her class, I did something that I still HATE myself for.

I glanced at her the minute I pulled up the picture of what I was talking about. Saw her smile and I literally felt like I could read her mind. So I decided to toss out everything I was going to say, sat my tablet to the side. Then made it up on the spot and went a different direction. I fed off her expressions and gear it towards what may entice her personality.

Yes, I did the pleasing thing. It's shameful I know!

I even brought up something that the president did that I am totally 100% against and while I didn't say I favored it, I let her and others assume what they wanted.

Because of that, I almost wanted to wash my mouth out with soap after, LOL Not even kidding!!!
That will NEVER happen again, I don't even care if I get 0's!

So I decided to make myself cookies for a treat to in a way make myself feel better for being a bit of a sell out. No those cookies in the above picture are not chocolate. They were snickerdoodle and I totally completely forgot I put them in the oven and the burning smell brought me to my senses to take them out about 35 minutes too late... So I didn't use cookies to feel better about it, LOL

I did go out for a few runs this week. The knee cartlidge has been doing fairly good.
Tried a few new trails, I call this trail the Quarter Mile Net trail, LOL (Way too many golf courses around here, if you ask me!)

Remember how a few weeks back I mentioned that I was afraid of what it was going to feel like to run and squish a lizard under my foot on the trail?
Well apparently that is not the worst thing I could step on.

I was out later than I normally run, and with the darkness I almost didn't see it on the trail before it was to late. Thankfully I saw it move a tad. Literally came within about 2 inches of stepping right on it.
I am not a spider lover, even if I did play with and let my friends pet tarantula's crawl all over me as a kid. (Not kidding) But stepping on one of these, yuck I really have to pay attention if I am out in the evenings for sure!

Oddly, that wasn't the scariest part of my run. Once it got dark I thought I better pull out my pepper spray/tear gas just in case.
Reached down into my flipbelt, gone..
It must have dropped back on the trail (that's the one downside of flipbelts)
Knowing I didn't have that little mini security while I ran the last half mile in the dark was way creeper than almost squishing a tarantula!
I mean, what if a Cougar jumped out, what was I going to protect myself with? The phone I actually brought for once on my run, I think not! LOL

I ran 7 miles on Thursday which might have been slightly a bit more than I should have pushed on my knee. But a little ice and anti-inflammatory and it was nearly pain-free again by morning.
Did try another new trail along the Virgin River. Looks like pure mud flowing, and probably was mostly, it was raining up in the canyons so that's why it looks like the river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, LOL

You can laugh if you want, but the marathon I was supposed to run. I went and picked up my packet. I figured I paid $90 for it, so why not.
I can always use a good camping shirt, LOL (No I won't likely run in a shirt I didn't earn, but camp, fish or hike of course! Because I won't mind if I ruin it!)
It was tough I almost wished I hadn't of picked it up to have the reminder I wasn't going to be wearing that bib the next day.

Definitely need a Pepsi that day to remind myself to let it go!

On the plus side I stayed after one class to take a test and then decided to head up to the red cliffs and eat my lunch.
Then I was hit will a brilliant idea, why was I going home between my classes on Tues & Thurs when I have the 2 1/2 hour break? I should go hiking.. Hello...

Who cares if I am a little sweaty for my next class, I won't sit too close to anyone, well maybe, LOL
I can easily bring deodorant to reapply and change into something different in my car.
So that is my plan twice a week now, Let's see how it goes this week!

Monday I decided I would officially volunteer at the race and hand out Medallions to the finishers. I might do another post on it for kicks so I won't say much on it except this.

While I did find it rewarding, and I really did enjoy seeing all their faces and giving them the "Great job" and putting a medallion around their neck. I'd be lying if another part of me didn't find being there a little bit harder than I expected it to be.

So that is a little few bits and pieces of last week. I couldn't resist throwing in one more picture, the skies were so pretty here this past week with a few storms in the distance. The one above are the clouds and mountain hills along the Arizona boarder.

Have you ever volunteered before? Did you enjoy it or not so much?
Did you ever do something to people please, and then dislike yourself for it?



I am linking up with HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin today for their Weekly Wrap!