As promised, my weekend. A tea tasting, two races, a museum, Mother’s Day lunch, and packing. The end.

Sorry, couldn’t resist, but now, here it is, my weekend, not sure if you’ll need a nap and or a tissue or maybe both.

Friday started out fine enough, until I lost ALL my files on my work PC, what? Several hours and cuss words later and a chat with my favorite IT guy at work, RJ, I had my files back, apparently my external hard drive wanted them, bad hard drive!

I managed to get a little packing done as well, then at 3:30, headed out to pick up our race packets for the Electric Run, race number 2 on Saturday. It wasn’t very crowded at all (OMG, Air Supply on the radio!) at packet pick up, but I had our entries and we were ready to go. In order for me to pick up CKM’s packet, she had to complete a release, I attached the link because it was really funny!

Click to access PACKET-RELEASE-FORM.pdf

Then I headed to meet CKM for the first activity of the weekend, a tea tasting at Zen Tea, it was quite enjoyable and highly recommended, by us. There were 6 of us, 3 sets of 2 women, we each got to select a pot of tea to have while we waited to start, we smelled about 6 before settling on White Christmas for CKM and Jasmine Rose for me (I have probably gotten those wrong and she will correct me!). Both were really good and they had lots of sugaring options: simple sugar, raw sugar, rock sugar, sugar water and honey. You know I was in heaven! We also had a glass of an iced tea, yes, I drank iced tea! Not going to make a habit of it, but it was good!

When everyone was settled and had their personal pot of tea, the lesson started. Tonight, we were doing white teas. I love white teas, I enjoy almost all teas, but I really enjoy white teas. Camomile is a good example of a white tea and PF Changs has one of my favorites, White Tangerine. We would get a lesson on the tea we were going to try, we would smell the leaves and then get a demitasse cup of the tea. You wouldn’t think that six teeny cups of tea would be filling, but you would be wrong! CKM was taking her time and laughing because at one point, she had about four cups in front of her and the thing about white teas, they looks so similar! Hard to tell what you’re having! We did agree, neither of us liked the lemongrass tea.

In the middle of the tasting, we were given a slice of chocolate cake with black cherry sorbet, you know what I ate…the sorbet was great! After the six cups, we got to choose one more pot, so we decided on a caramel and oh my! Tasted as good as it smelled!

http://www.ezentea.com/atlanta-tea-shop/atlanta-tea-room-house-chamblee-georgia

When we were done, we were hungry! We walked down to Vintage Pizza, I almost asked what the soup of the day was! What? We had a nice dinner and then walked back to our cars, still talking and then I realized, we were going to see each other the next day! Why are we still talking? I had to get to the hotel and it was almost 10 pm!

We parted company and I headed to Cartersville to crash for the night. If I haven’t already mentioned this, when a race is 1.5 hours or more away, I spend the night. I don’t mind driving here, I don’t feel like getting up before the sun to get to the race, so I spend the night. (I get my points, it’s a win-win!)

I the morning I drove to Dallas, Ga to meet BG and his brother AG for the Savage Race. Unfortunately, BG had surgery on his foot and wouldn’t be able to participate, and I knew AG would take off at the start, they are both “real”runners! I didn’t realize when I signed up it was 4-6 miles with obstacles!!! What? So…when someone told me it was 6 or 7 miles for the run, I felt better, because at one point I was thinking, I don’t think this thing is ever going to end!

It was tough because there was more running than anything else and it was mostly uphill, no thanks! I can tell you that my hamstrings are killing me and I thinking my glutes hate me! I said after I did the Spartan Run that I wouldn’t do another without real training, apparently I lied to myself!

This was a tough race, but not much tougher than any other hard core obstacle race. The slogan is “The Savage Run…A race built to kick your a$$! A least at this race, no one made you do burpees if you skipped one and everyone wasincredibly encouraging and helpful to each other, definitely a plus!

There were a few obstacles that I skipped and I slept just fine last night! BG asked if I would do this one again, I said not unless I really trained for it, I have very little upper body strength, need to work on that! But…the most important thing? I finished, I ran, I jumped, I climbed, I slid, I was shocked by electricity and I got muddy, I finished,that is what really matters, I have the tshirt and medal to prove it!
The best part? My knee didn’t hurt! I turned each ankle at some point and my elbows hurt,but other than that, I survived!

Home

Need a nap, a cup of coffee? Go for it, we’re not going anywhere for a while!

Next, I went to LA Fitness to take a shower, I got as much as I could off with a garden hose with really low water pressure. Very nice!

After the gym, I drove over to The High Museum of Art for the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibit. It was the last weekend, so I expected it to be crowded, it wasn’t too bad. There were a large number of Hispanic families with lots of kids, which was great to expose them to the art world.

If you’re not familiar with Frida Kahlo’s work, she is famous for her self portraits and one of the distinguishing things was her “uni-brow”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo
Frida Kahlo was married to Diego Rivera, it was a tumultuous relationship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Rivera
There was a quote from Frida on the wall, “I suffered two accidents in my life. One in which a streetcar knocked me down. The other accident was Diego.” That should tell you a lot!

After I left the museum, I called my dad. I told him I was a little unsettled, I had just been to see a Frida Kahlo/Diego Rivera exhibit, he asked one question, “why? You don’t like her!” True, I’m not a huge fan, but I do like Diego Rivers’s work.

The reasons I don’t like her work is that when I was 9, I was at her studio in Mexico and saw a painting that she did that freaked me out, gave me nightmares. This is a painting that shows her conflict between her Mexican and American sides, after you look at the link you’ll know why I had nightmares!
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/K/kahlo/two_fridas.jpg.html
I really thought I could get thorough it, but no, there were a few pieces I enjoyed and a few that I couldn’t stomach.
I made it through the exhibit and it was good to talk to my dad after, he knows how I feel!

Ok friends, I think it is time for me to pack it in and say goodnight. We’ll call this part one, I will finish my weekend telling tomorrow