A 'Banker's' top ten pet peeves:

I wanted to take this time to post a few random thoughts that a number of us 'bankers' have. Hopefully this will make you 'non-bankers' more aware of what we go through everyday, and a little nicer next time you visit your local financial institution:

10. I am putting you check on hold because the bank requires me to do so, not because I don't trust you, or think you are shady, it's my job, and if I don't do it and something is wrong with your check, they will fire me, not you...

9. I work at a bank, I am bonded and have had a full background check, if I ask you for your social security or any other info, it is not because I am going to steal your information it is because I have to have it to open your account or do your loan, so yes it IS my business.

8. If you watch the news, you will hear that house prices are coming down and foreclosures are going up, that means if you want a mortgage you will need a down payment, period, again this is not because I don't trust you or think you are shady.

7. If you have more than a page of collections items on your credit report, please do not apply for a loan, it wastes my time and yours.

6. When I ask you how you would like your cash back, please tell me when I ask, not when I am counting it back to you.

5. The sign in the drive-thru says 3 transactions or less because it's a drive-thru and you are wasting people's gas when it takes you over a minute just to tell the teller what you would like to do.

4. The bank is a bank, it is not a candy store, nor is it a coffee shop, so yes those are the only colors we have for lollipops and no we don't have de-caf or flavored creamer.

3. We weren't joking when we put the sign that says "Please wait here for the next available teller", it doesn't have LOL or HAHA after, it's for real.

3A. Just because my office door is open, it does not mean I am available, that is why we have a front desk to sign-in at, papers all over my desk or my ear to the phone reciever is usually a hint that I am in the middle of something.

2. Just because you know the Bank President's name or have been a member "forever" I will not refund your fees, you should keep a check register, and balance it, like in the old days when you met our President or became a member.

And finally number one, and this one is personal...

1. Yes, my last name is Register and I work at a Bank, it's hilarious, except it's not really, and you are most certainly not the first person to figure that out, move on, or I will put your checks on permanent holds... :)

This was the cure for my case of the 'Mondays'. Thanks for reading, hopefully you enjoyed or at least got some education...

Naive Running

I finally got to run yesterday after a week of no running. (See previous two posts)

Well I went to this park near my house that I like to run at (about a mile and a half from my house). I used to always run to the park, and then run the long trail. I would also run around the neighborhoods near there.

Due to my previous injury, I decided to drive there yesterday, so if something happened I wouldn't be able to get home without having to hobble a mile and a half.

Now for the last 2 years of my illustrious running career I have thought that the long trail at riverview is 2 miles because the short trail is 1 mile, and I usually will run the long trail a few times, along with my other neighborhood running.

Yesterday I really wanted to do ten miles to keep up my training. As I was running and was nearing (what I thought) was 7 miles, and except for a little back pain, my body was doing well, and my breathing was great! I decided to only do (what I thought) was 8 miles, so I didn't put to much pressure on my body and didn't want to agitate my back, since I was starting to feel it some. And 8 miles is great with not training for a whole week!! Well the more I thought about how great my times I were (I ran 9 minute miles on my first day back!!) and watched other runners figure 8 the trails, I decided to investigate when I got home...

It turns out the long trail is only 1.6 and to make it 2 miles you do have to figure 8 the two trails. I feel like my whole running career has been a fraud!! I have thought I was running 2 miles there when I was only running 1.6!! The worst is that I thought I was running 8 and 9 minute mile times there because I thought it was 2 miles, but really it was 10 and 11 minutes miles. I knew I wasn't running fast but I figured I was going fast because it was flat and I have long legs and didn't have to wait for stop lights, ALL LIES!!!

Anyway, no one else seemed to understand why I was so upset, and better yet, everyone I have told, has seemed to already know this!! What the heck?? Didn't think you might clue a sister in?

So yesterday I ran 6.5ish miles when I thought I ran 8, big difference! So with less than 3 weeks till the big race I am currently running half the distance of the race...

Hence I have quite the dilemma because the hardcore-competitive part of me thinks I should step-up my training since I was running less than I thought on my long runs, and I was out of commision for a week, but the rational part of me realizes it would be better to walk some of the race than to re-injure myself and not be able to run it at all.

This is soooo not how I wanted this race to go this year, for heaven's sake, I started training 4 months before the stupid thing!

Oh jeez! I think I will take up a less injury prone sport like....ping pong

Pain...

So i'm still in pain, I seem to wake in the morning feeling better, and then after an hour or so at work, I'm in major pain again...

I finally bit the bullet and made an appt with my PCP. A 'benefit' to living life on a budget is you go with the HMO over the PPO, and therefore I have to see a Dr. who probably can't do anything for me, just to be able to make an appt. with a Dr. who MIGHT be able to...

This sucks! Big time! I don't like to complain about being in pain, I like to suck it up, but feeling pain constantly in any part of your body is difficult and not fun. The worst thing is that I am training to run the half-marathon in va beach on labor day weekend, and I'm really afraid that I'm not going to be in shape to run for at least a week, and with the race fast approaching, it could mean certain disaster...

Prayers will help and are definitely accepted...40 year-old injured person signing off

Put your back into it...

So, I turned 25 last Wednesday, I expected my insurance to go down, I expected the "when are you going to have kids" questions to go up, I even expected to feel a little nostalgia since "I'm now a quarter of a century!!", but never did I expect to start experiencing the health problems of a 40 year-old. Yes kids, it's true, I threw my back out. How you might ask, lifting a 200lb safe? no, lifting a couple gallons of milk? no, lifting anything? no... I simply bent down and to the left while I was running, when I went to stand up straight, all I felt was sharp pain in my lower left back. I stopped for a minute and stretched it out, being the stubbourn 25 year-old I am, I kept running for another three miles, determined that the pain was only in my head, and creating the rule, "If you would continue walking even with this pain, then you should continue running, it's pretty much the same thing, right?, stop being a baby!!"

After I had finished running, I stretched for a while, but nothing seemed to work, by the time I got out of the shower and was getting ready for church I was getting goosebumps and tears in the corners of my eyes from the pain. The same stubbourn 25 year-old pressed on...I HAD to go to church, it as my friend Dan's last weekend before he went to the seminary, and I had to fill in for my parent's as EM's since they were at Grandma's.

All through church the pain was intense, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't hiding it very well. Sitting hurt, Standing hurt, going from sitting to standing hurt (and if you have ever been to a Catholic church, you know you do this a lot)!! By the end of church, all I wanted to do was go home and lay in the fetal position (or whatever position was semi-comfortable) in my bed!

So that's what I did, for close to 6 hours on Sunday, I laid in bed and read, and slept, and then repeated these actions! I was sure that I would not be able to sleep last night because of all the slept I got during the day, but that was not a problem either, apparently pain really takes it out of you. Today I am feeling much better, the pain is more nagging tightness then severe sharp pain, hopefully by tomorrow it will be completely gone...but that could just be the optimistic 25 year-old talking instead of the injured 40 year-old...

Nature vs. Nurture

Jonathan and I have long had this debate, I tend to be more of the "Nature" philosophy, where Jonathan is more of the "Nurture". This has led some heated debates mainly related to sexual orientation and weight. As much as I love him, I think Jonathan is completely wrong in believing that people 'choose' to be gay, and if an overweight person wants to be skinny they just need to get off their lazy butt and stop eating big macs.

Last night I think we had a small break through... Jonathan (for about the 6th time) as decided to start P90X. For those of you not familiar, it is the new hit way to get in super duper shape in the comfort of your own home, with only 1 hour a day, in 90 days you will have a beach body!

At the start of this program you are supposed to measure your physical fitness level, mainly to gauge whether you are strong enough to start and to see how far you've come at the end. Jonathan wanted me to help him, but since he was supposed to take breaks between each test, I also decided to measure myself.

I have belonged to a gym for almost three years now, and I actually use it. I also run on a regular basis (my last run was 9 miles!). I also use TV commercials to do circuit workouts at my house! I am very active!!

Jonathan, on the other hand, can count on one hand the number of times in the last year he has done some sort of excercise without me doing it with him. (And he rarely does excercise with me, besides...you know....)

Well anyway, last night Jonathan beat me or barley lost to me at every test!! What the heck!! I actually try to stay physically fit and his activity level is slightly above that of the 700 hundred pound man. When I brought this to his attention at first it made him smirk, but them when I brought it back to the good ol' metabolism discussion, he really couldn't say much.

A great example is my brother, while not a health freak, he is far from most his age, and he is fairly active. He was keeping up pretty well at rock climbing, and he just left a week of intense drumline camp at ODU. We went out to eat at the mexican restaraunt and he got a salad, while it was a taco salad, he was the only one!! Yet, he still is and probably always will be overweight, even if he works really hard and gets his weight down by eating like a rabbit and working out an hour plus everyday (not typical for most people) he will never be a string bean, which for some people with worse eating habits and less activity (cough, cough, Jonathan) just comes naturally.

Before I get off my soapbox, I will say I do not support obesity, I support a normal healthy lifestyle, normal= some junk food + not excercising EVERY day, and if you live a normal healthy lifestyle and still have weight issues, then unfortunately you got the bad genes, but you are not a worse or more lazy person than the skinny person with the same eating and activity habits!!

Stepping down...before I fall. :)

Rock Climbing and Harry and Sally

We are going rock climbing this afternoon. I'm very excited...for two reasons. One, I am not an avid rock climber, but I am an avid let's DO something kinda person, and whitewater rafting would have been a little more expensive... so who knows, maybe I'll be good...

The other reason is we are combining friends from several social groups. We have some of our friends from young adults, one of my friends from FOREVER and her boyfriend, some of 'jonathan's friends' (in quotes, because they were Jonathan's first, but I'm pretty sure they like me more, j/k), and also a friend of mine from my old job, who has become one of my closest.

The reason for my excitement is that I have always wanted to have a social gathering type house, where people come and party, and it's all decked out in southern living and williams and sonoma. While we are still a far leap to the decked out-ness, we are one step closer to having parties at our house and inviting everyone!!

It's not fun to have parties and feel like all your doing is introducing and trying to start conversations all night long. It always reminds me of that scene in "When Harry Met Sally" and they are at the restaurant and Sally is setting Harry up with her friend (Carrie Fisher) and visa versa, and they both try to start conversations for the other, but when they try it doesn't work, and gets awkward.

So I think DOing something is the way to go, it gives everyone something to talk about. And when you are working together to get someones butt up a wall, it's like sports, it brings people together. I hope everyone in our different friends groups ends up like Sally's Friend and Harry's Friend who like each other without the help of Sally and Harry, if you haven't seen the movie more than once like myself, this analogy is probably not working for you, but just imagine a dinner party disaster and you will get the picture.

We are going to Mexican and Margaritas after which will continue to bring the group together. Who doesn't like Mexican!! and social lube is always a big help!

I need to say Thank you very much to my hubby who planned all of this!! I know he thinks it will be a disaster, but I will continue to let the dreams of southern living and williams and sonoma dance in my head :)