Irish gal living the American dream in Austin, Texas y'all!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Pucker up!

This week, South by Southwest (SXSW), the music, film and interactive festival hit Austin, as did close to 250,000 people! Quite crazy for a city smaller than Dublin. St. Patrick's Day (note: not St. Pattie's Day) fell on the last day of both SXSW and Spring Break, so with all these people around, my brain got to thinking of fundraising possibilities.

Lots of people wear the t-shirts 'Kiss me I'm Irish' but they're not the real deal like moi (!), so cheesy as it is, I decided to make the most of being REALLY Irish in America on St. Patrick's Day and offer kisses for donations from a real Irish girl. Once the idea was hatched I checked with a few friends who agreed that while it was a little nuts, I had nothing to lose (clearly dignity doesn't come into it).

A few friends agreed to chaperone so I wouldn't feel like a total prossie, and off we set for Sixth Street, aka Dirty Six. It's a dirtier version of Temple Bar in Dublin, a classy spot, just where we belonged for the task at hand.

me and my pimps

kisses for everybody!

After gaining some dutch courage in the form of Guinness and the like, I was ready to start smooching! We did the rounds of lots of bars and it was actually good craic (Irish word for fun, not cocaine). Most people were very receptive and generous. I only kissed one guy on the gob; rather he smacked one on me before I had a chance to turn my head! Quite a few guys gave me donations to kiss their girlfriends and.. wait for it.. I HAD to kiss two girls on the lips. I couldn't get over how soft their lips were (well this was in comparison to kissing big hairy beards for an hour earlier.. but still). Men always get the better end of the deal ;) The other amazing discovery from the day was how many guys wouldn't donate because they had girlfriends/ were married.. really, come on!

So after an exhausting afternoon of sipping, chatting and dishing out the smackeroos, we counted our donations.. $160! More moneys for Crohn's and Colitis research! A huge thank you to my friends Jackie, Mikaela and Tom (who brought listerine for me too!). I couldn't have done it without your help and I'm lucky to have friends so generous to this good cause.

Oh yea, I'm training for  a half marathon!
Fitness week:
Monday: 40 mins elliptical and 15 min Nike training club app 'abs burner'
Tuesday: treadmill 7.7 miles in 1 hr 4 mins.. Tempo run.
Wednesday: Gillian DVD 'week 3'
Thursday: 35 mins elliptical and 10 mins abs
Friday: Off
Saturday: Team Challenge group run, 4 miles
Sunday: 30 min elliptical and 15 min Nike training club app 'abs burner'

I'm transitioning to barefoot running.. you know wearing shoes that make you look like a teenage mutant ninja turtle.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure I've messed up my left foot with too much running in these babies too soon. I'll be crosstraining mostly for now, until it feels better. I'm going to Chicago for a few days next week (yipeee!!!) so I'd love to run on the lake there.


So thank you to all of you lovely peoples who donated this week. Between donations from Feng Wang (better known as Jack in the Box), Dominic, Mary Schtones (ok, she's called Mary Cody), Kevin and today it's been a great week. Dominic gave a very generous $100 so I will be running my first mile for him.. the lengths he will go to get his name tatooed on my arm ;)

Please give what you can, if you can.. earrings, bbq rub, a mile or a kiss in exchange; take your pick! Thanks to one and all.

Here is the link to my fundraising page: http://www.active.com/donate/napaSTXA13/atxHOConn1

Please feel free to comment/ mock me, i can take it! Oh and has anyone got tips for transitioning to barefoot running? are compression socks the way to go?

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