Full House, Rice A Roni, and Flowers In Your Hair

If you were able to put all the clues from the above title together and come up with the topic of this week's post, San Fransisco, then you are one smart cookie! Go you!

This was actually my very first time visiting San Fransisco, so I was super excited to check out the city!

I had plans to go out to dinner with the crew the first night we arrived, however, the ol common cold combined with working a 15 hour flight left me sounding like a drag-queen-a-licious version of myself, so I opted for room service and some 'Merican TV in my jamies! These are the kinds of things you can do when you're 25.

The next morning I headed out bright and early for a day full of sightseeing. After an interesting train and bus ride, complete with an elderly woman ramming her tennis ball covered walker into my shins while screaming at no one in particular, "You don't respect me, I don't respect you,"  I arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge. I felt like walking across the entire bridge would be monumental, and just something I should do, however, half way through the windy, two mile walk I started to think that the only thing I was going to do at the end of the bridge was turn around, so I might as well just go back now. Gail Schutz's ever present voice in my head reminded me that, just like the time I realized half way through my 5th grade school year that I was no Kenny G and wanted to quit the band, I should complete my intended goal, "If you start something, finish it!"

Onward I marched!

After my journey across the bridge, I caught another bus (no apparent crazy ladies this time), and headed to Fisherman's Wharf. This area that encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Fransisco was so cute! It was filled with lots street vendors, mom and pop stores, and cool restaurants.

After meandering around the area for awhile longer, I began to gnaw on my arm, and luckily found a local restaurant just in time! I devoured the lunch special of the legit best clam chowder and sour dough bowl I've ever eaten and a side salad. Yum and yum!

 

 

 

 



After lunch I finally spotted the famous San Fransisco cable cars! I was a bit confused about how to pay for them, and where they actually went, so I settled for a photo opp instead of an actual ride on this form of public transportation. My shins thanked me.

I 100% by accident, without even knowing it, swear I didn't mean to, ok I'm lying...headed to the famous Ghiradelli Square where I devoured some delicious chocolates, drank a coffee, and listened to a local dude play a live set of his new acoustic album. Perfection!

My next stop on Tour de San Fransisco is probably the most iconic place in town, the reason most people travel thousands of miles to visit the city by the bay: Fleet Feet Sports, an awesome running shoe store! The Saucony Hurricane 14 running shoes I wore for the half marathon were no longer cutting it, as I was still dealing with blisters from them after wearing them for nearly three months. I'll spare you the photos. You're welcome.

The guys at Fleet Feet were super knowledgeable about all things running, and properly measured my feet, watched me run, and even massaged my calluses and examined the blisters to determine where my current shoes were rubbing. He then received a purple heart for his act of bravery.

After his assessment he presented me with several shoes he recommended for my foot type. I surprisingly ended up with another pair of Saucony's, but a much lighter weight pair called the Cortana. As soon as I can take a deep breathe without my chest breaking in half, I'm definitely going to bust these bad boys out!

 

The next morning before the long flight back in the mother ship, I went to do some non Arabic grocery shopping. The grocery store across from my hotel was Trader Joe's. Although I've always heard great things about this chain, I've never actually been to one. I was beyond impressed by this place, and would go as far as saying I'm hooked! There is a ton of fresh and locally grown produce, as well as a huge variety of healthy pre packaged food I had never seen before. The kicker was that it was all insanely inexpensive, especially for California!

My Trader Joe's Loot...Minus the Items I Already Ravaged

That's about it folks! I'm off to the local Jazz Club to see if they have any lead singer vacancies....

Roadtrip! Errrr Skytrip???

February is officially OVA! Can we all just collectively let out a halle-freaking-lujah?! This past month was a rough one for me! I didn't anticipate the one year anniversary being the emotional equivalent of sticking a hot needle that had been dipped in dog poo into my eye, but man, was it! Why some holidays and anniversaries come and go like a breeze, yet other random Wednesdays can leave me alternating between the ugly cry and echoing the words of my five year old self, "I just want my mommy," is beyond me! Grief, you are a tricky little booger!

Grief hurts. Nutella can help.

A close family friend of ours has coined the phrase, "Sometimes you just need to be with the home folk."

With the one year anniversary lurking just around the corner, I decided that I just needed to do just that! Luckily, I have a pretty cool job that allows me to decide at 6 pm on a random Tuesday that I'd like to take a week and a half off from work, fly across the world that night, and why yes, I would like to do so using insanely discounted airline tickets, another pretty neat perk of the 'ol 9-5!

Eleven days of unplanned and unscheduled home time was seriously JUST what I needed!

While I was home I helped prepare lots of gourmet meals like...

s'mores over the fire!

Hung out with these crazies a ton, including a fun day of swimming!

Gave dis widdle bidy baby a million and five kisses...

Rang in my 25th with this cool cat...

And overall just had a boot scootin good time at home :)

25 years is a very long time for a born and raised farm girl to never have owned her very own cowgirl boots! Thanks, pa!

Though the visit home has come and gone, I feel beyond blessed to have been able to take just a little peice of home back with me in my heart...rather, my chest. Awww upper respiratory infection, truly the gift that keeps on giving!

13.1 Thoughts

Someone que the Chariots of Fire soundtrack because this girl is officially a half marathoner! With no further ado, I present to you my 13.1 thoughts on the matter.

1- Dr. Scholl's Blister Protector, you saved my life and for that I will be eternally greatful.

2- I think God has a sense of humor. How else would you explain Outkast's song Bombs Over Baghdad coming up on my iPod just as I was running past a group of men dressed in traditional Arab attire? I specifally chuckeled when the lyrics "Bob your head, rag top," started blaring in my ear.

3- More people should dress up in costume to run races. A special shout out to Fred Flinstone who provided me with some much needed comic releif as he sprinted by me at mile 8.

4- Rock and Roll Half Marathons have entertainment in the form of crazy bands at every mile of the course. But who needs cool bands when you have creepy Indian men, complete with their video recording cell phones, to cheer us all on! And by us, I mean only the girls.

5- I cheated. I walked for approximently 11 minutes of the race. Following the Jeff Galoway run/walk method, I rotated between running for 4 minutes and 30 seconds and walking for 30 seconds. I was able to consistantly stay with the group who was also running about a 9:45 mile. I'm a big advocate of walk breaks!

6- Saucony Hurricane 14's...it's been real yo. Asics Gel Kayano's...I'm sorry I ever strayed!


7-  In my humble opinion, the invention of Body Glide, was far more genius than anything Bill Whatchamacallit or McSomething Jobs ever created!

8- I'm fairly certain the Kenyans completed the entire race before I got to mile one.

9- In the words of Forest Gump, "I just felt like running!"

10- My very carefully calculated and planned race day diet consisted of one sourdough roll, a spinach omelet inside a wrap, two original glazed Krispy Kreme donuts, a bag of Skittles, one slice of carrot cake, and an entire pepporoni and mushroom pizza courtasy of my beloved 800-PIZZA. Being able to eat all of this and know that I'll actually burn it all off tomorrow is the real reason I love running!

11- The night before the race, I was trying to be all deep and write my favorite scripture "Isaiah 41:10" on the bottom of my shoe. I wrote it on one shoe, only to discover that I had written it backwards. So I reattempted on shoe number two....and spelled it wrong. 

12-Technology is cool, but my family is even cooler! They were able to see me cross the finish line from thousands of miles away by watching the live web cam!

13- I didn't know another single soul at the race. Regardless, I did a victory dance at the finish line. Despite the warm temperatures, I was apparently a little chilly on the right side...

 

 

13.1- Check out the bling, baby! And the extreme red face syndrome I'm working with.

 

Official Chip Time 2:05:02

 



 

 

Twas The Night Before Valentine's

So true life confessional time: I just spent the last hour of my life cleaning my apartment with a Valentine's Day play list, courtesy of YouTube, blaring in the background. I'll try to keep this post as non mushy as possible, but I Can't Help Falling In Love With You  it if my musical choices From This Moment On  the past hour have rubbed off on me a bit, and effects The Way You Look I write Tonight.

This past week I was supposed to go to the one of the hottest tourist destinations on the planet, Dhaka, Bangladesh! Never heard of it? It's up-and-coming (if there were a font to use specifically when I was being sarcastic, I would have just used it). Luckily, the Flight Gods were looking out for me, and  I received a last minute schedule change and flew, instead, to Johannesburg, South Africa!

My cousin spent several years living in South Africa, and fell in love with the country. She liked it so much, in fact, that when she returned to the U.S. she brought back a souvenir in the form of a husband! Over the past few years my family has come to know and love my cousin's husband, Marco, and his family, and have learned a lot about South Africa and it's culture. Naturally, it has been one of the countries I was most looking forward to visiting!

With most every experience in life, you have expectation when entering into a new situation. In my mind, South Africa was hardly even a part of Africa. I have been to Uganda and Ghana and seen the extreme poverty that exists in these African countries, but knowing that most South Africans I am familiar with are very westernized, I assumed that the country itself was completely westernized as well. I was extremely surprised to see, at least in Johannesburg, that people living in third world and first world conditions literally share this city.

We stayed in the downtown area, in a very posh hotel, and went out as a crew to a very upscale area for an awesome steak dinner the first night we arrived. This was the side of South Africa I was expecting. The next morning a group of us ventured off with a tour guide to see the Johannesburg Lion Park. As we drove out of the downtown area I was amazed to see that beautiful subdivisions, and villages filled with shacks existed only blocks away from one another. It was very interesting to see, and it was quite different than any other city I've ever been to before.

Jo'Burg Hotel Room

The country itself was gorgeous, and after being trapped in the sandpit for nearly two weeks, I thought all of the greenery was exceptionally beautiful! I had an amazing time at the Lion Park, and was able to get way closer to some species than I had ever hoped or even wanted! I was all about keeping my distance from the lions. Baby lions are still lions in my book!

Notice my strategic placement near the wall....

 

Before we left for the Lion Park, I squeezed in a four mile run in at the hotel gym, and following the Lion Park, worked an eight hour flight back to Dubai, so when the plane touched down I was exhausted! I spent the next 24 hours in my signature after a flight look: leopard pajama pants, a large t-shirt with the slogan God Made Policemen So Firefighters Could Have Heroes printed across my chest, coke bottle glasses, and my long hair caked in 10 hour old hair sprayed tied messily on top my head. Needless to say, I didn't leave my apartment. I also have officially entered into my February mope. Seriously, besides a few awesome people being born in this month, what good ever happens in February?! Thankfully, God only made this stupid month with 28 days, and only once every four years they (I don't know who they are), try to be funny and throw in an extra day to the suckiest month of the year, and well, you can ask my mom how well that worked out last year! Oh wait, that's right, YOU CAN'T.....

Dying on Leap Day is for fools, I tell you, FOOLS!

I'm Talking About You, Gail Schutz!

Rant over.

Anyways, I woke up yesterday, and thought, "Schutz, get your shit together," and ended up having a great day! Attitude really is everything. Who woulda thunk it!? I spent the day at a resort pool with my friend Paula, and went with another group of friends last night for dinner and to see Dralion by Cirque Du Soleil! The show was absolutely amazing! After the show, one of the producers saw me striking this pose, and offered me a lead part, on the spot. I obviously had to decline, because I'm really busy and stuff, but I was flattered (again, where's that font when I need it).

Have a great week and enjoy celebrating Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Valentine's Day, and Kelsey's First Half Marathon Day!


 

Victory All Around

Greetings Friends and Foes!

Today is a bit of a celebratory day in the book of Kelsey Schutz as I’ve not only successfully completed my certification exams for work, but I also completed my final long training run my half marathon preparation. Waahoo!

I’m sure most people laugh at the thought of flight attendant training being tough, I mean how hard is it to ask if someone if they would prefer chicken or beef, right? However, the safety and emergency procedure’s training and well as the general medical training we are tested on is very in depth and detailed. Most of my colleagues began studying the exact locations of the fire extinguishers, signs and symptoms of a heart attack, and fire fighting protocols weeks before their recertification exams. Being the procrastinator that I am, I begun studying the day before. Despite by minimal effort, I still managed to skim by, and am happy to announce that I am once again legal to hold people’s lives in my hands at 30,000 feet above the earth. Mwahahaha

To celebrate my flight attendant victory, I woke up at the butt crack of dawn, drank my black coffee, ate my banana and peanut butter pita wrap, read everyone’s facebook rants concerning the Superbowl (no such showings on Arab TV), through on my running clothes, and hailed a cab to the Dubai Marina to run my final pre race 12 miler.

I’ve kept a log of my training runs, and it’s fun to not only look back at how far I’ve come in terms of conditioning, but also where all I have actually run. I’ve ran on treadmills in Milan (Italy), Accra (Africa), and Dallas (Texas). I’ve ran on trails in Zurich (Switzerland), along the ocean in Los Angeles, through parks in Dubai with fellow joggers wearing their abayas, and, one of my personal favorites, down the mean streets of White Hall, Illinois!

Al Barsha Pond Park (Dubai)

While I usually run on a padded track at a park near my apartment, I decided that for today I might die from physically running 12 miles, so why up my chances of death from boredom after running the same 1.5 mile loop for two hours? Running on the roads in Dubai and hoping you won't get hit by a car, is pretty much the equivalent of walking through East St. Louis with a sign on your back reading "I HAVE CASH" and hoping to not get robbed. The drivers here are insane, therefore running along the roads is out!

The Dubai Marina has a great walkway surrounding the water that is filled with cool cafes the entire way around, and is very jogger friendly. It is even complete with a bridge that overlooks the sea. Running with a view of the ocean is always a bonus! The jogging path even had tons of motivational signs (sponsored by Reebok), and kilometer markers, which is great if you understand the Metric System....

Dubai Marina

I started my run a little after 7:00, and 1 hour and 56 minutes later I had completed 12 miles. The entire run actually went really well, but I was also completely ok that it was over! Since the entire run burnt a few calories, or a hundred, I decided I could treat myself, and I devoured a ginormous mushroom omelet and toast, and didn't feel even slightly guilty about it!

 And now for more exciting news, I'm off to the grocery store. I've been alternating between brussel sprouts and frozen pizzas for the last 4 nights of dinner. Unfortunately, I'm not joking.

Have a great week!

 

Poker Game of Life

I recently watched an Oprah episode (yes, I am a huge fan, don't judge me), where she interviewed Pastor Rick Warren, who was comparing life to a game of poker. Warren explained that we all have five cards in the game of life: chemistry, connections, circumstances, consciousness and choice.

“The cards we are dealt are the things we don't have control over. I didn't choose where I was born, when I was born, I didn't choose my gender, my parents, my race, my natural abilities, my natural weaknesses, but a wise player can even play what seems to be a weak hand, and win the game. There are ways to take what you are given and make the most out of it," said Warren

Warren goes on to explain that out of the five cards, the first four are non negotiable. The fifth card, choice, is the only card we have control over, and this single card can make it or break it in the game of life.

Last week marked my one year anniversary of living in Dubai. I remember my parents being so incredibly proud of me for making my big move last year, and embarking on yet another one of life's great adventures. Although they were scared about their baby moving so far away, they also shared with me in my excitement. My mom and I held many Skype conversations during the first few weeks following my move, the majority of those with her sitting uncomfortably on the second to bottom basement step, balancing the laptop on her knee, careful not to move an inch and risk loosing access to the one spot in the house that seemed to be able to hold a steady wireless connection. During our conversations, I always talked, and she always listened, as I rambled on about my new city, new friends, new apartment, and new job.

"I look forward to seeing it for myself," she'd always smile and reply. And she meant it, too.

 My mom obviously never made it to Dubai. Turns out, that visit wasn't in her cards.

After my mom passed away, my family quickly adopted the attitude that she died, but we didn't, and that we have to keep going, we have to keep living. As the one year anniversary of my mom's death becomes closer, I'm amazed by how much I've learned from her passing. One of the biggest lessons I've learned is that just because our loved ones are gone physically, their presence is always with you. I've had so many crazy things happen this year, that I know without a doubt are my mom. So when my dad and I began to discuss a time for him to come visit me, and the week of my one year anniversary in Dubai, as well as the one year anniversary of the last time I ever saw my sweet Mama just so happened to be available for the both of us, I knew it was meant to be.

So last week, after nearly 24 hours of standby travel, I picked up my weary traveler of a dad from the airport, and transported him via limo back to my apartment where I had prepared the most lavish guest bedroom known to mankind. Ok, ok it was a city cab and an air mattress. Tomato, tomaaatooo!

Although this was technically my dad's vacation, I was on a bit of a mission to show him as much of Dubai as possible in a mere six days, and he was such a good sport! Throughout the week we attended Friday morning services at my church in Dubai, ate and drank at brunch with my friends, went on morning runs, saw the local horse races, floated down the Dubai creek on a Dhow dinner cruise, shopped at the Gold Souks, enjoyed a desert safari (complete with dune bashing and camel rides), toured a local mosque, watched the world's largest outdoor fountain show beside the world's tallest building, and, my personal highlight of the week, skied on the indoor sloops of Ski Dubai! I still stick to my claim that it wasn't until after I brought him up to the highest point, and watched him tumble down the slopes, quickly picking up speed like a giant snowball, that I realized he was being serious about the whole, "I've never skied before" thing. Oops!

Ski Dubai

For the low down payment of only three camels, this man's daughter could be YOUR next wife!

My dad and I had an overall awesome week together, but it definitely wasn't without some bittersweet moments. I read a quote the other day on one of the grief blogs I follow (btw reading really sad stories in grief books, websites, etc. makes me feel about as inspired to move on with my life, as Pinterests' "motivational" pictures makes me feel like putting down my 3rd ice cream sandwich for the day...), that after the death of a loved one, it's almost like your family portrait is forever painted with a slightly different color. Perhaps that's a little fluffy, but I agree that no matter how great the good times are, a part of me will just ALWAYS miss my mom and wish that she were here.

Loosing my mom when I was 23 was something that I had no control over (wonk, wonk). Death is a part of those four cards in the game of life that we can't change. What I am happy to report though, is that despite the pure amount of suckage (is that a word? it should be!) it is that she died, my family continues to keep living, continues to still find joy, and continues to celebrate the good things in life, because there still are a million good things in life! I'm very grateful that my family has CHOSEN to have this attitude, and despite the setback of this past year, I think we've made the very best of being dealt a weak hand.

All in favor of the Schutz Family doing a rendition of Lady Gaga's song Poker Face say I!

I!!!!

New Year, New Pad

Happy New Year! Hope all of your resolutions aregoing well. My 2013 resolution was to give up chocolate, cold turkey style.Nutella, Reese’s (cups, trees, and bunnies), and chocolate chips, all a part of my past! It went well, cravings were relatively low, until 12:35 A.M. January 1^st,when some jerk paraded down to economy class and presented all of us stewardesses with celebratory Godiva Chocolates. Here’s to 2014!

It’s safe to say 2013 was not my most exciting new years to date. As my watch struck midnight, I was decked out in the old beige uniform and a pair of disposable gloves, flying approximately 30,000 feet above northern Africa, crouched down in the airplane lavatory, and wiping remnants of someone else’s urine off the discolored toilet seat. Seriously, do I know how to party, or what?

I decided what better way to kick off a new year than with a new apartment! Actually, I decided it was time for a new apartment about eight months ago, the accommodations department didn’t agree with me until last week. My housing (including electricity and water) is provided completely free,so I’m really not in the position to complain. My former apartment was a nice place. It was in the downtown area of Dubai, conveniently located right next to the metro and, by one of my favorite places in this world, Starbucks. One of the downfalls to the former apartment was that I lived on the 43^rd floor, and none of the windows opened. I missed being able to have fresh air,and I could never quite get passed the time I was my bedroom, wearing nothing but my underwear, and a Filipino window washer gave me a friendly wave. It was creepy to say the least.

The biggest reason I wanted to move is so that I could live with one of my friends. My former roommates were very polite, but just informing people that the inhabitants of my apartment were American, Chinese,and Ethiopian sounded like the beginning of a bad joke. The three of us all stayed in our rooms when we were there together and there was no shared living space. Even though I don’t forsee myself staying in the UAE for anextended amount of time, I still want my apartment to feel like a home.

Last week my friend Maggie and I were notified of an available, two bedroom apartment in a building that formally only housed first officers, however, due to an increase in staff, they were opening up 16 apartments. We toured the new place, and both loved it! It’s still very close to a metro stop, has an awesome gym and pool, a nearby park with a padded running track, and a great roof top view that includes both the sea and the snowy slopes of Ski Dubai!

 
We moved in several days ago, and I think we’ve both enjoyed having someone to share meals with, run ideas by, and most importantly, knowing that if one of us croaked another human being would inevitably notice in a timely manner (a fear we both shared living in our former apartments). The new place is also located close to a mosque, complete with a soundsystem that notifies me of the five different call to prayer times throughout the day. If you can’t beat em, join em! However, I don’t know any Muslim prayers off the top of my head, so I am now taking suggestions of alternative things I could do five times daily. Push ups every time I hear it? The Macherana? Hammer time?Perhaps, even more productive, my own prayers? I will report back!

Hope you all have a great 2013!

“Life is about experiencing all the things you find interesting and fascinating. Just get out there and experience as much as you can. Participate in life!” –Louie Zamperini

The Living Room

My Bedroom...Representin' White Hall

Where the Magic Happens!