Not even the DMV.

As a hair stylist my weekend starts when I get off work Saturday night and I don't have to go back in until Tuesday. Sometimes it's a bummer not having the same weekend as people with "normal" jobs, but having an entire weekday off does have its advantages. For instance I still need to switch my driver's license, tag, and title from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania. Now that I'm getting more hours at work, I finally have enough moo-lah to pay for all that and I thought yesterday would be a pretty good day to get it all done.

First things first, I call up my pals over at USAA to switch my insurance. It's a little more expensive here, which I expected, but all in all, it was easy as pie and I got it transfered without a hitch, and even before breakfast!

I head back down to our room in the basement to get a shower, make the bed, etc. I even curl my hair so it'll be nice for my driver's license photo. Nate got all of his car stuff re-registered about a month ago, so he told me where I could go to get it all done; I put the name of the place in my GPS and off I go with the windows rolled down and some good tunes on the radio. I'm in a pleasant mood because I plan to roll through all of this and then go home to crochet the rest (or most of the rest) of my afghan.

Well I follow that GPS to a tee, but surprise surprise Pittsburgh's done it again and Google isn't updated so it takes me to the wrong location...one without a building. I pull into a parking lot, re-Google the place I need to go, and head back out. Luckily it's only 6 minutes away from the first incorrect location. I said, FIRST incorrect location. Now I've been led to an abandoned building, which probably used to be the AAA place, but it certainly isn't anymore. So I pull into the parking lot, park, search my GPS, search Google and finally decide it'd be best to call the phone number and ask for directions.

The first phone number I call is a wrong number. A very confused State Farm Agent informed me that the AAA hasn't been at that phone number in at least 10 years....ok, lovely. I sure do love a wild goose chase. I find another number, dial, and praise the heavens a woman from AAA tag agency picks up! So before I ask for directions, I figure I should probably make sure I am calling the right one and they can actually help me before I drive over there. I tell her what I need and she proceeds to tell me that I can't get my driver's license switched without 2 forms of proof of residency. Now I'm all too familiar with what that means from my days working at an insurance company, and I also know that I only have one form (my pay stub) because all the utilities are in Nathan's parents' names. I explain this to the representative and she informs me that in my case I need to bring in someone I live with who already has their PA license. I thank her for the information and hang up, but I'm pretty irritated by this point because I just spent two hours driving around and calling people only to find out that I need to wait until Nate finishes his finals so that he can go with me.

Once Nathan gets home, I explain everthing to him, so we hop in the car and head over that way. He's been there before so it's a straight shot. (Man was my GPS and Google both off.) It's 4:00 PM and the photo license part of the AAA tag agency closes at 4:15, so we're smiling thinking maybe we've gotten there in the nick of time. We get up to the window and a lady politely informs us that we can do everything EXCEPT a driver's license there. I tell her that's not what I was told on the phone, and she apologizes, giving us a phamplet with a list of our choices. Of course those all close at 4:15...

Needless to say, I still need my Pennsylvania driver's license, tag, and title.

Lee Baxley Photos.

Well I've finally been going through more of the photos from my shoot over at Bernard's Auto in Norman, OK right before I left to move up to Pennsylvania. I was given so many photos from the shoot that I decided to release them a few at a time, but then with my move across the country, getting settled in, finding a job, etc...I've let a lot of them slip through the cracks. So here we are with the first installment of previously unreleased photos from the shoot...

Those two were outside the shop with an actual Delorean! How neat is that?! As always, these photos can be viewed  in various places on the world wide interweb: Facebook, Model Mayhem, fellow model and photographer websites...you just never know where I'll pop up!


So while everyone is hopefully patiently waiting for me to find photographers to work with in the Pittsburgh area, I'll let a few of these trickle out over the next several weeks to try and keep you entertained.


Of course you can tell this last one doesn't have me in it at all, but instead my friends Pamela Harjo and Rachael Callaway. The reason I included the photo, other than they are two gorgeous friends of mine? That's my Camaro they're sitting on!

One Training Day at a Time

I walked 5.25 miles today. I'm not mad, I don't want to scream, I'm not going to cry, but I'm pretty disappointed.

I've always wanted to be a runner. There's no real rhyme or reason. I just thought it would help clear my head, keep me in shape since I've always considered myself athletically challenged, bring more peace into my life. Maybe that's my rhyme and my reason.

Not only did I want to run I wanted to do a marathon. Not a 5K, not a half marathon, a full one. So at 3am one day last September I started running. I really wanted to do the OKC Memorial marathon. I've always wanted to do that run. Then I moved to Pittsburgh, so I decided their marathon would be ok. It'd give me more time to train anyway.

I rejoined a gym at the beginning of the new year and for someone who's entire athletic training could previously be summed up in one semester of Pilates during college, I think I've done a pretty good job so far. I even got up to 12 miles in less than 2.5 hours. That was the middle of February and the height of my training. It was hard, but going great. I had previously set a very achievable goal of doing the marathon in five hours. After that 12 miler I knew I could do it in 4.5 if I really wanted. Except when I tried to run 13.1 miles two weeks later my ankle was really bothering me. Not normal training aches and pains, but an actual 'I've got to take a break from running for a while this hurts so bad' sort of pain.

At first I was really upset, but then realized I could do the eliptical and bike in the meantime; work on muscles that would benefit my running. But when I was still in pain two weeks later while doing short runs I really hit a wall and I've had a terrible time trying to climb over it since.

The last two weeks have been a little bit better. It was too late to continue with the Hal Higdon's plan I was previously using because it would put too much strain on things that are still trying to heal. So instead of 3 medium runs during the week and a long run on the weekend per the previous plan, I decided to do the 1.75 mile loop around the neighborhood once a day six days a week to keep things loose and really focus on just getting through the long run on the weekend. Supposedly you can do a marathon even if you only do one long run a week. Your time won't be stellar, but you can get through it.

I'm not giving up. I don't want to throw in the towel. I'm still going to show up at the race. I'm still going to run or jog or walk when that gun fires off to signal the start. I don't know if I'll be able to finish, but what I do know is that I can't go any farther than my legs, or knees, of ankles will let me. I know that it'll still be an attempt at something most of my friends haven't even tried.

So I'm not mad, and I won't be mad if I don't finish. I will be disappointed, but disappointment after a valiant effort is a lot better than the anger I'd feel from not trying.