13.1 And Other Such Nonsense

I have officially lost my mind.

There is just no other reasonable explantation for why I would sign up to run a half marathon.

Yes. You read that correctly. A HALF MARATHON. (My blood pressure went up a little bit just writing that.)

Here is how it happened. I had the following conversation with Lisa, my friend of over ten years, via text:

Lisa: Want to train and do the girlfriends 1/2 in oct w me 😉
Me: Ha ha ha ha!
Me: I mostly joke because that scares the crap out of me. The furthest I have ever run without stopping is a 5k. I don’t know if I could do 13 miles….
Lisa: No! Come on. Would be fun
Lisa: Me either…freaks me out to think about it…but it is in oct. My goal…to finish 😉
Me: But yes. I would love to. Especially the training part. Do you have a program you want to follow?
Me: Mostly I would love to do it because (not only is it BADASS) but I love those stickers that say “13.1 miles because I’m only half crazy.”

In hindsight, I’m a little embarrassed with how easily I gave in. I mean I actually used the word “love” with regards to a half marathon! Was this something deep, DEEP in my subconscious I actually wanted to do? I guess so. Bucketlist, here’s your newest item!

Then I had another conversation with Cyndie, my running inspiration who got me into Stroller Strides and gave me the confidence and encouragement to actually start running in the first place, via text:
Me: If someone were to want to train for a half (specifically Girlfriends), where would you suggest they start?
Me: I’m asking for a friend… 😉
Cyndie: BY REGISTERING!!!!! Wahoooo!
Cyndie: I mean, you know, for your friend…
Me: Ha ha ha. I thought that’s what you might say.
Cyndie: I’m not home but will be happy to email some stuff this weekend. Seriously, just do it. 🙂

And so I did. I went to the Girlfriends site and registered. Before I could change my mind.

Lisa is one of the very few people who could actually convince me to do something like this. For one thing, our lives have taken us in very similar directions. We worked together in our past (read: pre-children) lives. We both had our second daughters a mere five months apart. And we both spent the majority of last year on the same path to weight-loss (I lost over 30 pounds and Lisa lost, um, significantly more than me). So it only made sense for us to embark on this together. I am looking forward to conquering this challenge with my amazing friend at my side.

For me, every adventure begins with shopping. Cyndie followed through and sent me a link to Another Mother Runner and highly suggested I read their books, Run Like a Mother and Train Like a Mother which I promptly added to my Goodreads “to-read” bookshelf and will be buying for my Kindle later today. Then I stumbled upon the clothing links and found this awesome shirt and my new running motto:

So, anyone else feel like losing their mind in the name of health and joining me on this adventure?? It’s not til October so we have TEN MONTHS to train. What can you accomplish in 10 months? Anything.

Sigh of relief

I can breathe again. Whew. I just got back from the dentist. I must admit I haven’t been to the dentist in, oh I don’t know, four or five years. Shame on me. I know, slap my hand. But in all honesty the past has proven it’s just not necessary. I have never had any problems with my teeth. No root canals. No fillings. No cavities. Nothing. But today as Simeon and I drove to our “New Patient” exam, all I could think about was Heather’s post about having eight cavities. I did not want to ruin my streak. I mean, I have worked really hard to be cavity free for 24 years and I didn’t want to ruin it now!

And luck for me I didn’t! Whew. In fact, my new dentist even told me that I only need to get X-rays taken every three years or so. She said anyone who tries to convince me otherwise is just trying to charge me unnecessarily. Is my new dentist perfect or what? Thank goodness!

Luck of the Irish….or not?

Today has been a very odd day for me. I started off this morning by knocking the glass shower door completely off. I don’t even know how I did it, because I only bumped it slightly with my knee and I didn’t even get a bruise (those of you who know me, know I bruise like a peach!). But off it came crashing down to the ground hitting the wall and scratching the linoleum with one fell swoop. The worst part was that Sim thought I killed myself or something and ran in I swear before the door even hit the floor. He was pretty shook up all morning. Opps!

Then Simeon and I went to lunch over at Gustav’s by Lincoln Tower and had some lovely food (complete with green beer for St. Patrick’s Day!) and just enjoyed each others company. It was very nice. Sim was totally flirty and we just laughed through the entire lunch (“Is it twitching now?” “No.” “How about now?”). Then as I was pulling out of the parking lot, I paused to turn right onto Greenburg Road to let a pedestrian cross the street. Just as I stepped on the gas to drive forward I heard this great screeching and crunching metal. I looked in my rearview mirror as I pulled away to see that the car RIGHT BEHIND ME had just had its front fender ripped off by the car behind them trying to drive past. I couldn’t believe it. I was THIS CLOSE to that being me in the crumpled car. I guess this goes to show that those drivers in the Lincoln Tower parking lot really are crazy (except you Carole darling, you are an angel). I did have my suspicions.

Now to finish off my St. Patty’s day, I plan to have a nice calm movie night with Erin while Simeon is at the CFUG meeting. Do you think anything else will go wrong? Erin, honey, you better watch out….or at the very least bring your First Aid kit!!

Annoy vs. Amuse

Things that annoy me:

  • Leaving the toilet seat cover on the toilet seat after you have obviously used it. They are not reusable people!!
  • Filling the paper towel dispenser so full that I cannot actually get a paper towel out of it, only small fragments.
  • Telling me I have a phone call when I am clearly doing something else and negating the entire purpose of voicemail.

Things that amuse me:

  • Telling me a story that makes me almost spit broccoli all over my desk.
  • Calling my husband a pickle.
  • Accepting my challenge to see who can find the name for “@” first. (It’s a “commercial at” by the way.)
  • And not thinking I am a total geek as you do it.

Too tired for a title.

I am getting sick. Just in time for the holidays. Bah! I woke up this morning feeling quite phlegmy (sorry, TMI) and my throat is feeling super sore. I instantly gargled some Listerine to kill whatever was trying to attack me. Then slammed my vitamins with a Pumpkin Chai Tea Latte chaser. Mmmmmm. So now I have been trying to maintain conversations with co-workers and convince everyone that all the synapses are firing. I don’t know if they are. But I am nursing my lemon herbal tea (with honey!) and praying I caught things in time.

Things were kind of hectic here at work yesterday, so I forgot to tell you all about my brush with death. Well maybe it was more like a good scare, but it did involve metal flying at me. I was very innocently sitting at my desk working away when I happen to look up toward the ceiling and see a man looking back at me. Nothing new. Goes hand in hand with construction. The man says, “It’s gonna be a little loud here for a bit.” And I smile and thank him for warning me. Then all of a sudden things start falling from the ceiling. What is this?! He mentioned nothing about particles! Only sound! So I kinda scoot to one side and try to ignore the cloud of residue residing on my desk. The voice inside my head starts saying Resist all urges to clean the desk. It will only keep getting dirtier. Put down the Pledge Grab-its. With any good voice in your head, you have to listen. So I did. Then all of a sudden the particles start getting bigger. One hits me. It hurts. I recoil and push by chair back as far as it will go and nearly collide with my desk neighbor. The particles are no longer soft dusty pieces of ceiling but sharp shards of metal! I am now painfully aware that my job description did not mention anything about dodging shrapnel! I grab a few of the metal shards and go back to visit my friends in the back of the office and share my latest construction presents. (Apparently they think we have been together for 11 years, because steel is the anniversary gift for that milestone.) When I returned to my desk the Rain of Steel was over but my desk had a nice sprinkling of metal, which the voice in my head SCREAMED at me to CLEAN UP. NOW! So like I said, I listen to the voice. Now my desk is clean. But I keep looking warily up at the ceiling. Who knows what kind of treats they have in store for me today.

Drawing attention to ones chest

Being fairly well endowed, you would typically assume I would not need any help drawing attention to my chest. However, today I think the Powers That Be thought I needed a little assistance. While driving to work this morning I splattered coffee all over my shirt. (I keep trying to blame Simeon for filling the cup too full, or putting the lid on wrong, but I’m pretty sure I did it all to myself. Sorry Sim!) So today when I catch people not looking me in the eyes when they talk to me, I can’t blame my breasts. I have to attribute it to my lack of grace.