The good the bad the ugly

Well shoot readers what to say today. 

The good: I had quite the off week. I slept a lot. Worked a lot. Ran a lot. And had a lot of fun at the beach. My work threw us a party and it was probably the best work party I've been to.  We went whale watching (open bar) and snorkeling in the morning,  and then spent the rest of the day at the beach. I got some surf lessons from one of my colleagues, went sea kayaking with another, and then had a pretty great dinner at a beach view restuaraunt. Life was classy and good. Feels very good to be thrown a super nice party and feel appreciated in that sense. 

The bad: ginger mittens and I have been fighting all week. And in short, I'm throwing in my white flag because she's got more tricks up her ginger colored paws than hudini himself. And to keep it brief: she's killed two rats and left them to rot under my bed. So today I paid my respects to her and threw her a piece of raw chicken. Hopefully she gives me a damn break. 

The ugly: nothing is too ugly right now. In fact life has picked up a lot for me here and just keeps getting better and better. So maybe I'll just share more a slight ugly and then share some more good.

The ugly: I'm succumbing to a phone plan here.  But life is just too hard with this horrible internet and I am not being a good friend because I can hardly reply to shit. And lastly to justify it more, I need it for work. Bam. Take that tax reduction form. 

More good:  had a very crucial meeting this week. I was pretty nervous and wasn't sure if I was going to be able to hit all my points of my proposal with a clean enough argument behind it. but I did. It flowed out of me like the Nile river and in that sense I feel very blessed and grateful that my brain was working like fire and I know something greater than me was with me in that meeting. So yes It went extremely well and I'm really stoked to be given the opportunity to do this project. 

My Spanish is also improving. I translated last week!!! I felt so proud I myself! I think my biggest growths are when i am forced to speak Spanish and English is not even an option. So that means going to town more, traveling more, etc. 

Here's some visuals for my ADD homies

In the ear buds lately: pacific air, phatogram, toro y moi,  logic, Drake and Chris Browns new cd. (Don't judge me too hard on those last two)

 

Chaos homies

Hi life it's me.

I've always got a lot to say and that's why I have a blog.

This is to my tribe, aka that's what you call people of your kind. People who just set with you and get your soul. 

We live in confusing times, and just to attest this fact, I felt a earthquake last night and it was confusing for a sec, so there...believe me I know all about confusion. Witnessed it first hand last night. 

Anywho back to the topic, listen tribe this chaotic world is always going to be chaotic and never the place our parents saw at our age. That is life. Life evolves and changes. And for us growing american kids we are being hit hard by some nasty economic, global, Eco times.  I'm not a pessimist or loosing my mind but stating the knowledge I've collected from old wise minds and trends of the current times. America won't be the place it always was, it can't because it was never self sustaining from the get go. It was a facade and curtains are slowing but surely unvieling a wreckless floor plan. Note: I never said america will stop being the great. But we will not be allowed to continuously live without consequences as carelessly as our prev gen.

Take that info in and let it mean what it means to you. For me it's means this. We can't keep having dementia mind sets aka I'll make mistakes now and pay for them later, because later was our parents gen and we are the repercussions of the use of credit cards and buying with false money we never had and other reckless decisions. Be wise. 

Knowledge conquers all and will set you free. If we all upped the anty on our knowledge and wisdom  levels as a nation we could save ourselves from a lot of mistakes. Learn and never stop learning it will be your last standing leg when all else has failed and taken from

You, ifyou ever find yourself there. Which hopefully it won't. But don't be naive this is life and we see sad movies all the time. Sometimes those sad movies were based on real shit. 

Lastly if its yellow let it mellow. Save some water. 

May peace and blessings be with you. 

The dogs are always right

 The dogs are always right I tells yeah. 

At three am the dogs in the jungle were making a fuse about nothing. Straight up woke me up; they was complaining so loud. Then Ginger mittens the kitty kat was being so abnormally annoying and kept wanting to cuddle and meow. I'm like yo cucumber muff getcha meowing outta here, it's three am! Well all the chaos makes sense now because bam 4 am..earthquake hit. 

No worries folks I'm ok. It happened to be just a short baby one. Happens all the time out in these parts or so I'm told 

Couldn't sleep after that so I got up and made this deluxe off the top my head breakfast omelette. I guess I'll write it down in my recipe book as the earthquarker breakfast shaker. Amen the end. 

Pictures of my life in Costa Rica

I live in Las Tumbas, A lush tropical jungle about 30 min from a San Isidro city. The coolest thing about living in these hills is that I get the best of both worlds, a jungle of rolling hills and an ocean that you can see peeping over the hills (which is about 15 miles away).

 In short its a pretty eye pleasing place 

This is the sevegre river. Last week we took a week long white water rafting and kayaking trip through three different river 

Even the cows in Costa Rica are slot nice than in the us!

Where I live... I live here ☝️ most of the time aka a giant adults outdoor fort!! When I'm working I live at a lot different places depending on what I'm doing that week (river house, beach house, rancho tranquil) . That probably sounds chaotic to most but I'm just a modern nomad and don't like living in one place for too long.  

     

                    Food 

Costa Rica has some amazing fruit and I am constantly being introduced to new ones every day. Plus produce is pretty cheap. 

I buy organic kale from this adorbs Tican Lady. 

The I make giant green smoothies fon them. 

Rafting 

Saw these crazy indigenous carvings while on the rafting trip. 

Getting lost: 

I got lost, read about it on my insta bc I've way too tired to attempt to tell what happened. Obviously I made it out alive. 

Shout of the day goes to this shinning night in armor. Homeboy gave me a ride on his quad right up to my door in the rain. I ran into him the other day and we had a much less confusing convo. 

Learn how to lose ten pounds in just ten minutes...10 lbs mentally that is... Aka be real and vulnerable

I moved to Costa Rica once. It was scary and had no idea what my life would be like. Sometimes id have minor freak outs and tell my mom I'm not ready for this, but the lady is a magician and knows how to listen well, then somehow not give back any advice and magically I feel better. Trying to incorporate that technique into my therapy skills these days.

Costa Rica
Well folks before you think my life is all skittles and rainbows..just know it's not. Sometimes social media can make us believe people have fairy tale lives through the pictures they share, and to be quite frank with ya, of coarse people are only going to post the highlights!!! it would be a tad awkward to post moments when shit ain't working out or when your crying into your pillow because you didn't win the grand chucky cheese prize.  So don't worry, we all have nice lives in different aspects. Don't devalue yours because of others. I say this only to be upfront about life and not lead you on some false personae of my journey in life.

So with that in mind I'll share with you the hardest moment and the best moment I've had here.

The worst...

One day it was hot humid muggy moist..all those terrible words combined..I had to go into town to grab some more groceries. On the ride there the whole bus became full except for the seat next to me. I had some elementary flash back moments and it felt a little painful because once again I was falsely lead to believe that I'm the weird white kid ( I went to a predominately Latino populated school) (don't worry I'm not racist, just painting a picture of understanding for you). Anywho here I was facing the same battle of trying to figure if my vibes are bad/intimidating/weird/etc. To add to this sometimes when you are an outsider living in foreign lands, you have moments when you realize no matter how long I live here, the color of my skin will always define me as an outsider. That is a feeling that can quickly eat you up and leave you feeling USA home sick  if you don't tackle that bad boy thought.  Don't pitty me though, not all people treat you like this, ticos are some of the nicest people around, but that is an overall generalization about a culture and thus doesn't dictate people of a nation on an individual level. Thus there are nice people and bitter people in all nations. Back to the story: finally a woman and her child got on the bus, being that there was an open seat next to me I saw this as an opportunity to prove myself as a caring individual, so in my horrible Spanish I asked the lady if she would like my seat so she could sit by her son. She was thrilled. And that's how I made my bad experience feel not so bad and lonely. Amen thee end.


The best time: eh I've changed my mind and don't really want to think about that right now.
But I would like to bullet point and few things and share some pics:
-I wish I could talk about my work life more, but everyone knows where that ends you up at...jobless. Just know this: I'm working on a really cool project right now and have a presentation this week. Pray to heavens that my ideas are heard, clearly communicated, and fully embraced because i believe it to be a marker of next step evolution for us. And just a reality check, I'm not some big shot of importance here, I just read a lot books in personal growth and apply it to work. Thus I took a lot of initiative... Aka intrinsically seeked out a blip in the comp, spoke with the director about how I saw it as a way for us to step up our game up and be more competitive, then asked to take the project on. You can all do this too, and if you work for a comp that  doesn't like feedback and thinks they have it all figured out, then get out of there quick because we are an evolving species that will forever live in a self revolutionizing world. Nothing is constant and thus the mouse who refuses to look for cheese in new places will eventually die. My dad taught me that one on a fishing trip once.

- I have a maid.. I just think this is hilarious. But also a real time saver. Hey don't even get mad at me, the company provides it for free and as a way to give a local tica lady a means of work to provide for her and her daughter.

-life is humble, fresh, and always teaching me some interesting shit. On to the pics..... Just kidding because I'm using my phone to write this, and  blogger wants me to download some app to do so. Crazy kids I tell ya.

Hums from the lawn mowers, satins panties, and garbage disposals

Its 7:30 am and Friday morning. As I slowly wake I can hear, through my open window the slight swishing of palm trees, birds chirping, and the hum of lawn mowers. Everything else is silent.

Together the ingredients of sounds will always be a melody that signifies good vibes, summer air, and the weekend. Growing up I always mowed the lawn on the weekend mornings. I suppose, forever I will believe that hums from the lawn mowers = the weekend.

Other shenanigans.

I made two epicly failed dinners this week, but yay for teenage boys whose appetites are like garbage disposals. So there was no guilt or shame of wasting food on my part.

Havent been running alot this week, as this week is a low milage/ back off week. Which has been a nice break for my mother/myself of trying to keep food in stock. Because on 50 mile weeks I eat for two.

Still havent heard anything about the job and have used all my resources of emailing, vmailing, calling, and bugging people. sigggghhh.

Mike (my guitar teacher) is teaching me Fire and Rain by James Taylor this week.

Landon, Brent, and I snuggled on the new couch with blankys and in our boxers, me( booty shorts) while watching The Truhman Show ( I almost cried, and Landon secretly got emotional)....

Wait wait wait....... in your underwear together?? What kind of family values are your promoting Jenn???

People might think this is weird, but after 6 oclock if you come to the Bishoffs house, youre probably going to see someone in their underwear. Mind you no ones roaming in thongs or "satins painties" and my defense to the nay sayers out there is this: underwear is the exact same as wearing a swim suit and no one gets weirded out by that! So bam shocka locka lamb... free your mind a little of these ludicrous social construction we have.  Because one day Id like to live in a society where in hotter climates of the world, underwear or swimsuits are totally normal daily attire.

Over and out roger

Your alive...Im alive. We are alive. Heres what ive been doing while youve been doing too.

Lets see here. update.....

Still running (55 mi this week)
Still reading (Hide Tide in Tuscon by Barbra Kingsolver and Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel)
Still Alive ( Eating lots of gratefruits and Ceviche)


Running

Sunday I did a whooping 17 miles of Radio Hill. It was quite the experience. After Mile 10, I had to suffice with walking down each time. Which seems to be my achilles heel. Contrary to popular belief downhill miles are much more challenging than uphill. Anywho Im working on this, because if you want to keep up with the big boys you gotta train with the law of physics and what Alicia Keys so cleverly said...which is.... "what goes up must come down".  Sundays are usually my radio hill days so after im done writing this I shall go venture out to the solitude of the desert in hopes of feeling of oneness and peace.

But where are you going with all this running Jenn? Hmmm good question... Ill let you know as soon as I know. But here is what I do know this far... it keeps me mildly sane and teaches me some sort of "inner wisdom"... so in that sense is akin to what ambrosia was for the greek gods.

Barbra Kingsolver is the woman!!!! Im not sure why I havent heard more rave about her writing but holy moley the woman speaks to my heart. You know when you keep your expectations low about an event and then the event is like amazing? Thats the experience I had while reading High Tide in Tuscon. I rented to the book, but will surly be buying it as it is a piece of writing I greatly respect and thus feel that paying a small fee towards Barbsy is the least I can do in saying thank you for having the courage to say the things so many of us dont have the guts to.


Staying Alive

Ill share a small amt of what else is been going on but only because it has tested my patience on a whole new level. Im currently playing the waiting game for a job. And waiting is hard for us human beings.....This is a job where there are multi hoops to jump through and you wonder if they are secretly just testing patience levels. So here I sit crossing fingers, toes, eyes, lower intestines and pray to the job gods to let the odds be ever in my favor.


Other news....
Ceviche, Gazpacho and Blackbean brownies are rocking my taste buds right now.
Also I cant wait for summer because Im having intense cravings for watermelon.

Pink Moon

When all was quiet on the western frontier in the life of jenn, life gave me my running legs back.

And when everything seemed scary and chaotic running gave me a reason to be. 

In short, I have experienced some very intimate runs the past two weeks...Runs, which have left me with a new understanding of what it means to be deeply connected with the earth. Pretty amazing stuff, and my lexacon nor the english language contain the words in describing these moments, but i know that they will remain some of the most intimate moments of my life. To run under a full moon and milky night sky with a soft spring breeze pushing the scent of orange blossoms down the trail... you cant help but crave for more.

On a more surface level on my running endeavors... I lost a toe nail and I dont think its coming back....sighhhh. I also jacked up my milage to 50 mi the last two weeks. Meaning ive got 100 miles under my belt in the span of two weeks. Which I believe is a new personal best.

Guitar, Trail Running, and Books

The past two weeks have been filled with guitar, trail running, and books.

Guitar
Thanks to my wonderful guitar master teacher Mike, my guitar skills have improved ten fold.The man is so gifted and I feel very fortunate for him to pass on a little bit of his legacy to me. Im learning a very unique style from mike, maybe ill post something sometime.

Trail Running
I love it. Theres something very thrilling about going out into the middle of no where on a dirt trail with nothing and taking off. Its peaceful and its where I feel the closest to my higher power and the most connected with nature. Ive also made radio hill my second home and have been spending alot of hours out there working on my vertical climbs. Which I am finding is excellent training in helping me stay injury free on my distance runs. Also more exciting news, I trained my mom to run radio hill!! Im most certain she may be the first 50+ to ever accomplish such a challenge. Im really proud of her, and its been something that has helped us grow closer. She also accompanies me a few times a week on some of my runs. I love her motivation to still strive for super results even at her age. I think she deserves the hash #agewasneverafactor. Also I cannot be more grateful for all the beauty I experience on my runs. Here are a few cliche sunset pics ive snappped while out on my runs, I know.... but when you experience something this beautiful everyday you cant help but not! Anywho cant say enough about all the greatness running is for me right now: ran a total of 36 miles this week! wowzer bowzer!

Books:
Something very unusual has happened in my reading and that is that im starting to read more "classic like" material. I know its weird! It all started when I took a chance and decided to read Hemingways "The sun also rises". I found it so amusing that something written so long ago could still carry a modern day humor to it. Next thing I knew I was reading things from  Leo Tolstoy and then Maya Angelou (shes not really classic but African American Lit never enticed me either and now it does). Now Im on to James Joyce. Maybe its just a phase Im going through or maybe its just my little brain finally maturing into a beautiful well rounded lad.

And thats whats new in the life of Jenny bo denny fee fi fenny.

How to Recover From Soul Fraud

TED talk: Bjark Ingels: 3 warp-speed architecture tales

Inventive, fresh, and against the grain ideas, thats what this talk was for me. It reminded me of the power of not being afraid in following your ideas/thoughts/brain, instead of going with crowd. It also reminded me to challenge every thought that enters my brain before accepting it as truth. Its important to ask your brain if its thoughts are valid. By questioning your beliefs (ie: Im ugly, Im dumb, No one likes me) you are giving yourself the power to create your own reality. If you accept your belief "I am dumb" then essentially this belief is your reality AKA self fulfilling prophecy.  Be kind to yourself and challenge your beliefs. It only makes sense; we have zero tolerance for credit card/ identity fraud, yet how much fraud do we let into our precious souls.


MUSAC for the day....
Sounds like: warm dry desert sunsets/desert cactus/shot of tequila might have been involved.

Just a spoonful a sugar helps the medicine go down

NOTE: If your going to read this blog entry, do so while listening to this song. It really brings out the essence of what Im saying, and besides its pure bliss to the ears. WORDLESS music = not distracting while reading.




Something Ive implemented into my life is starting the morning off with a "spoonful of sugar"
No, not actual sugar, because that stuff is poison to the brain! Im talking about the REAL sugar of life, which is anything that just makes your soul sing.

You see, lately I wake up and literally and have to drag every muscle/nerve/cell in my body out of bed, it takes every inch of will power just to get myself to remove the snuggley comfy blankets. But you know, making best friends with your pillow is a sure way not to succeed, or for me at least.

So I asked myself an important question: what would it take for you to be absolutely stoked to wake up? What would make every morning like the anticipation of Christmas you feel Christmas Eve night? I cant think of any other day where i'm actually excited to hear my alarm clock go off. Why cant all mornings be like this?

Well folks, I have news for you.. they absolutely can! This is not a pyramid get rich scheme, because im offering you this information for free, and not endorsing it with any magic pill. So take this info as rich, and if you try it, it will revolutionize your life forever.

So heres what I did: I love waking up before the rooster, the milk man, and the sun.  To me, there is an essence of bliss and magic to mornings. Being awake at the most quiet/secluded time of the day; I feel so alive and peaceful at the same time. The way this song sounds is exactly how I feel in the morning, Its peaceful/curious/simple/ yet oh so rich at the same time.

 But heres the predicament: the actual act of waking up is hell for me! Opening my little peepers triggers me to feel soo grumpy. I needed a battle plan to counter act this initial feeling of grumpiness. So I asked myself, what would I have to be doing at these wee hours of the morning to over power the feeling of grumpiness? I needed something that motivated me to feel energized/empowered and absolutely alive about life, something full of pure joy.

Heres what I came up with: Im going to master and craft the BEST/ MOST RICH cup of coffee. Then i'm going to slowly enjoy my cup of coffee over the most wittiest and well humored shows ever: Parks and Rec, in the dim lighting of my peaceful kitchen.


See how thats working folks? Im waking myself up very early so I don't feel rushed and because early morning is the most beautiful time of day to me(4:30) -> in order to get myself up -> im motivating myself with the pure bliss of mastering and crafting a beautiful cup of coffee  (something I truly enjoy doing) instead of letting some dimpy machine make a half assed cup -> and then i'm tag teaming my item of joy (cup of beautifully rich coffee) with another pleasurable activity-> watching an episode of something fun and delightful.

And that is how I conquered the morning blues and started feeling excited and electric for the day. Try your variation of this and I'm absolutely certain it will change they way you look at your pillow forever.

Digging and escaping traps from your demon host

Today I realized that my food tendencies are a lot like life.

You see, I typically only like a certain part of the food im eating.
In ice cream,  I dig around like an archeologist looking to hit the jackpot chunks of oreos or the fudge brownie morsels
In cereal forget the corn flake part, im in it for the honey cluster packed bunch
On the pie, minus the filling and give me that graham cracker crust.

Basically I search for the best part of the food and leave the rest... Believe me its no easy task, it takes time!! plus my family despises me for it.

But you see my little learning ducks, life is like that; sometimes you gotta dig around and explore a bunch of crap to get to the really good stuff.

but on a side note, enjoy the digging and searching part too. you know what they say..

"Life's a Journey" which I've always comprehended to mean you spend alot of time doing the traveling part, maybe even more than the actually being at your destination so you might as well enjoy the "ride" part too.

Hi Im jenns blog and im consistently inconsistent. 

Ive taken a few months off from life. 

And the results of that have been this...

Also known as great music bouncing around in my head. 

Also this happened...

fishing in remote places with my paps

canoeing in remote places

   

eating dates in remote places 

watching a young fella grow like a weed

drinking coffee, reading books, & lounging in the sun

repeat

and watching giant slip n slides be built by Landon