My 40 for 40 | Peaches Prattlings

{September 14, 2013} Run for Your Lives, It’s Yom Kippur or It’s Yom Kippur, Run For Your Lives

No matter how you say it, it just sounds wrong!

The reason I mention both in the title is that they both occurred today and one played in the other which I will explain.

Last week I told you about the start of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, the High Holy Days, culminating ten days later on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, known as the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is observed with a fast from sunset the day before, last night, to sunset touch. Traditionally it is observed in prayer and most often in synagogue, or temple. Fasting helps us focus on prayers and reflections of our lives.

As the day of atonement, it is a time for us to ask forgiveness from people we may have wronged and as we hope that our names were written in the book of life on Rosh Hashanah, on Yom Kippur, the book is sealed and our fate is sealed for the next year.

In greetings, as we talked about greetings during Rosh Hashanah, and during Yom Kippur, you would wish someone an easy fast and a good Yom Tov.

There are a LOT of rules associated with Yom Kippur, I’ve attached a link to give you more information and insight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur

Everyone participates in their own way, I used to go to services more often, and…Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have the highest attendance rates in synagogues, those who may not be very religious, tend to go for these two holidays as they are the most holy and on Yom Kippur, we observe a special service for those who are no longer with us. It is a somber time, but a joyous one that we are here to celebrate another year of life and be with those we are close to.

Traditionally you “break fast” with a piece of challah (a traditional Jewish braided bread) or maybe a piece of rugelach, a wonderful Jewish pastry. My sister used to keep a small ziplock full of rugelach, that our grandma M used to bring us from a great Jewish bakery in Brooklyn for the holiday, in the car and the second service were over, she’d be in the car eating a sweet while we drove home for a wonderful dinner of traditional foods that my mother and grandmother would cook.

(I’m smiling thinking about it…home made chicken soup, gefilte fish, kreplach, brisket and/or chicken and wonderful desserts: grandmas home made apple sauce and rugelach)

As I said, I do not go to synagogue like I used to, but I do observe the fast and I never work on Yom Kippur, I observe in my own way.

I liked the title of my post at first, but I realized now that I only want to devote this post to Yom Kippur and I will tell you about the run tomorrow. (Run for your Lives is a 5k obstacle course I ran today).

So, as I said in my post on Facebook, my wish to you…”Wishing all my friends and family an easy fast, may you find the answers you seek this day of atonement and may you be inscribed in the book of life for another year”

{August 10, 2013} Neon Splash Dash

Tonight, I did my second night run in Denver, the Neon Splash Dash 5k.

This was one of the first times I’ve done a run like this and didn’t pick up my packet in advance, the pickup hours were 9am-2pm in downtown Denver, not sure what the deal was, some of us have to work, a evident by the long, long, long line to get our packets.

The only rule…you have to wear white, all white, which I followed along with a bunch of people, to the letter, but of course, there we those who were doing their own thing. There were a lot of tutus, a bunch of neon, but overwhelmingly…white white and more white! There were even people n white plastic suits, with hoods! There were participants of all ages, it was cute to see the kids in strollers and on bicycles with training wheels.

My own outfit, since this is my blog: white long sleeve t, white skirt (that I had worn for the color run, which was still white), a white baseball cap and my XX-Hi Chuck Taylor’s (if my smart feet didn’t fit, I would have been in a lot of pain after the run!), I looked fabulous, of course! Oh man, I should have gotten some angel wings!

CKM, you were very much missed at this one, you would have loved it! My Atlanta race friends, do this, it was a blast!

There was a huge storm earlier in the day, even while waiting to leave the apartment, BIG bah-da-boom thunderclap! On the way to the run, rain, thunder, lightening and rainbows. They said the rainbows were a good sign! All the pretty colors and we were going to shine like that!
They decided to delay the start of the race because of the rain and people getting their packets. We started the run about 8:30. After the run, I looked at my watch, it was only about 2.65, not sure what happened to the 3.1 miles!

We were off! It was a lot of fun! It was very relaxed, some runners, a lot of walkers. I saw a bunch of Color Run tshirts and some of the blinky (yes, I said blinky!) things we got at the Firefly Run. Needless to say, there were a lot of blinking lights everywhere. There was music piped in throughout the run, I didn’t hear a lot of it, I had my headphones on (you know, so I can’t hear myself panting!)

Every half mile, you went through some inflated light up balloons, they looked like curved dragon teeth, very cool. After the colored lights, which indicated the color of neon paint you were about to get hit with, reminiscent of the color run. As you went by the black lights, you were sprayed with watered down colored paint (blue, then yellow, then green, then pink).

Just so you know, no matter how much they water down the paint, it still doesn’t taste good! You learn quickly to keep your eyes and mouth closed, I forgot to hold my nose too! Luckily, I had my headphones in, protected my ears from a lot more paint! (I ended up getting some clear glasses, which would have been a good thing when going through the paint spray. I’m going to use them in the convertible, when the top is down at night.)

At the finish line, I started looking for DCM, we’ve missed even other once or twice, but there he was. I found him first, it was dark and there were a lot of us! And even though we were wearing white, we were all covered head to toe in neon paint. I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t want to hug me!

We walked back to the truck and it’s a good thing I brought a change of clothes, DCM said I would have had to ride back in the bed of the truck! Nah! But who wants to take a chance and find out? After I changed, I realized there was paint in my hair, ears, on my face and even my eyelashes!

My clothes are drying, might wear these for every one of these races! I need a backlight, anyone have one?

http://www.neonsplashdash.com/

{July 23, 2013} R.I.P.D.

After I finished work I called DCM and asked if he wanted to celebrate, he had a great day at work, solved a tough problem. I’ll take care of everything!

So, after I ordered pizza from Abo’s Pizza, yum, http://abospizza.com/, I order tickets to see R.I.P.D. We were set, DCM would just need to get home. So, since I had some time, I decided it was time to get outside and go for a walk, remember my post from Friday?

It was about 3:45 and out the door I went. On the way downstairs, I met a girl coming upstairs who told me it was hot out, not so bad in the shade. She was not lying! I did have trouble finding shade though. Off I went, took a tour, not sure where I was going, but what I love? There are sidewalks and paths everywhere! Even in between some of the houses, there are paths towards the paths in the fields behind the neighborhoods!

Well, I gave it my best effort, walked the hills, the neighborhood and when I looked at the weather app on my phone, it said 94degrees, but feels like 85, nope, felt like 94! I gave Mother Nature 2.13 miles and I was done!

On the way back to the apartment, I saw Muskego and Jason, he’s getting so big! The dog silly! Back to the apartment, 2nd shower of the day, DCM got home shortly after that, then…ding dong, pizza!

We chilled and then headed to the movie theater, 3rd movie date in 4 days! I. A lucky girl!

R.I.P.D. was funny! There was humor, good guys, bad cops, “dead-o’s”, surprise bad guys and Kevin Bacon. There you go.

Kidding!

R.I.P.D. is the Rest In Peace Department, everyone is dead, I hope you figured that out. The cops were all alive at one point, the best at what they do and their job is to catch the dead-o’s, those who have passed on but refuse to leave the earth.

Mary Louise Parker is the captain and she’s great in the role, very dry, but really funny, Jeff Bridges is Roy, the crusty old timer, Ryan Reynolds is the angry/confused new recruit…after he died and went up, he had a choice, serve on the R.I.P.D. For 100 years or go…

They have special weapons to go after the dead-o’s, although they try to capture them instead of eliminate them. The catch, go figure, they don’t look like themselves as they did when they were alive, Jeff Bridges is a 5’8″ blond bombshell, fully stacked, so to speak who can stop traffic, played by Marissa Miller, armed with a hair dryer. Ryan Reynols’ “avatar” is played by James Wong, an old Chinese dude, armed with a banana! Ok, so who else thinks of David Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China when they hear or see James Hong?

Does any of this sound like Men In Black? Yeah, that’s what we were thinking while we were watching, but we still enjoyed it.

If you’re looking for a good time with some good one liners, creative dead-o’s, explosions, true love, mystery and some “they didn’t see that coming?” and won’t get caught up by not understanding half of what Jeff Bridges character is saying, you’ll enjoy it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790736/?ref_=sr_1

{July 19, 2013} Firefly 5k

As I was run/walking the Firefly 5k tonight in Denver, I was thinking about my post and what I was going to say.

I was also thinking that if I could dictate successfully while running, it would make life so easy! The ideas would be there instead me trying to remember!

I was thinking do I write about something else about myself, do people really need to hear something else about me, shouldn’t I write about something more important or different, (I have to stop saying something!)? But then I thought…why not? It’s my blog and people who know me like to keep up with what I’m doing, know what’s happening with me, so there you go.

The Firefly 5k is a run that happens at night and in multiple cities around the country, not necessarily on the same night. (Would be cool though if they did) It’s an all ages run and there were all ages. It wasn’t the party that the Electric Run was, but it was still fun. It was fun seeing all the costumes and the glow in the dark accessories. Our race packet included a performance tshirt (men’s), our bib and two dayglo yellow bracelets with red blinking lights on them. While you’re running or walking, it was cool to look forward or back to see all the red lights, like looking at traffic on the road, it was very cool.

The run was at the Dicks Sporting Good Center in Denver, haven’t looked up what events happen there, but it looked like a field with grass on it, so could be football or futball. We did part of the run in the parking lot, then through the stadium, it was very cool. I like night races, especially in the summer, a little cooler temperature and it’s fun to see all the ideas, you should try one.

The other thing I realized while I was run/walking, is that I am grossly out of shape! Oh, I can walk and keep up, but it takes serious effort! And we know how I feel about my shadow!

There are two (three sort of) things that I count on when doing a 5k.

One, I finish under 45 minutes (you can normally count on me to complete a 5k in 41-43 minutes). Today, I came in just at 45 minutes, not bad for someone who hasn’t run in over a week!

Two, that someone can read my clever and funny shirt, should I choose to wear a funny and/or clever shirt (tonight I wore the one that says “When the zombies come, I’m tripping you!” on the back) and three (which could be part of two) is that there are people who are still behind me. Even when I did the half marathon, we ad 3:30 to finish, I came in 3:23 and there were still people coming in.

I could blame it on a lot of things. Maybe the fact that I’ve been up since 6am MT (I think I’ve acclimated to the time difference), it could be that I traveled from Atlanta today, a 3 hour flight and then almost 2 to get home. It could be the altitude, lets go with that one! it could be that I haven’t run or walked in over a week. Or it cold be that I’m seriously out of shape.

Whatever the reason, I did the most important thing, I finished (after showing up!), yes, I finished and that says more than anything! I may never be the fastest, but they will never say I didn’t try!

I do know that I am inspired to get it there and start walking again, and then running, I’ll get there! My goal…complete another half marathon, this time, run more of it, heck, even most of it! Who knows…wish me luck!

{July 4, 2013} I heard that holidays mean relaxing…

Happy Independence Day!

And a BIG THANK YOU to all the men and women who are currently serving and have served in our nations military, so that we can enjoy our freedoms. Hint hint, DCM, DA, CA, KS, MA, just to name a few.

As I mentioned yesterday, CKM and I have volunteered for the Peachtree Roadrace for the last 3 years, this being our 4th, next year, we get a hat and a special 5 year pin! The alarm went off at 3:45am…what? DCM had just gotten home about an hour earlier! (I did snooze for about 10 minutes, it was glorious! Ever notice that the few minutes of snoozing are sometimes more enjoyable than the entire night of sleep!)

Up, dressed and out the door by 4:08, go me! Off to Phipps Plaza to park and check in. We checked in by 5am, got our volunteer T-shirts, (we like them best this year) our pin, clearance badges and Waffle House discount card.

Pack everything we can in our plastic bags inside our bags inside our rain jackets…did I mention it’s been raining in Atlanta all week and there were flash flood warnings until tomorrow? Then we walk to Dante’s Down the Hatch to do our jobs. This consisted of telling the elite runners go this way and everyone else, no entry. Not very exiting or incredibly organized, but since when do CKM and I need something to do when there’s an opportunity to talk!

Next year…new assignment!

After the wheelchair racers went, wicked cooks by the way! Then the elite women, then the elite men, then…the elite volunteers, well, us! We went out after the A group, after finding out that you don’t have to cross the start line to get your time clocked at the end, so off we went! We’d already walked the .2 miles (as that tshirt says…it’s that darn .1/.2 that gets you ever time!) so we were in good company!

All I wanted was to finish before my official corral, P came by! We were hoofing it, getting our groove on! We went by the Moe’s and got tshirts there! (We walked a 10 Queso!) all of a sudden we’re at mile marker 2, then 3, were we faster than last year? I do know that the rain helped, not as hot as past years, but all in all, it felt almost anticlimactic when we got to the finish because we were finishing so early and it felt like no time had passed. We finished the run before our normal start time, how cool!

We held hands and ran across the finish line, got our coveted Tshirts, then went in search of snacks: bagels, bananas, cookies, all the good stuff.

When we left Piedmont Park, we must have walked another 2-3 miles to the MARTA station and instead of taking the train, hopped on a shuttle headed for the train, then…jumped in a cab back to or cars. Two reasons we took a cab… First, it was less hassle than the train and second, CKM had never ridden in a taxi, cross that one off your bucket list!

Got the cars, headed home and took a long hot shower, what a mechia!

Two of DCM’s daughters came over and brought new baby M, to meet his grandpa for the first time. What a doll baby! What a great to see them together, it was love at first site! After what seemed to be a very long time, DCM relinquished the baby to JJ! So soft and sweet!

KAT, DCM, DCM, Baby A and I all hung out and played, chatted and got caught up. I left to go meet CKM AND A for dinner and let DCM have some alone time with his kids.

We met at a Turkish restaurant, shared seem great food, great stories, lots of laughs and then went to see The Heat and we all know how much I liked that!

Now I am home writing to you, dear readers, ready to catch up on some much needs sleep!

{July 3, 2013} I’m still awake? Are we there yet?

What a day! You may want to sit down, I don’t want you to get worn out!

I got into Atlanta last night about 10:15, got a rental car (remember when I said it wold be surreal, every time I come back to Atlanta, will need to rent a car, yeah, still weird), drove to my house, it’s still here, ha ha. It is a little weird to be in it and it is so barren, very nice and clean, but very little of my personality, oh well, such is the life of a house on the market.

Right before the alarm went off at 7, I had the worst dream! I got pulled over for texting and I wasn’t even texting! I think I was looking at a map, but definitely not texting and I couldn’t wake up! I am on the fence about whether I knew it was a dream, just know that I was not happy!

Snoozed enough, grrr…that I had just enough time for a quick shower and out the door. I forgot its been raining in Atlanta A LOT lately and we are in flash flood warnings until Friday, what? It rains in Colorado for about 3 minutes, then it’s over! So, off I went, hoping the traffic wouldn’t be too bad, no school in session!

Had my annual visit today, that’s the doctor for girl parts, love seeing Dr. B, she cracks me up, we laugh a lot and she told me she likes me because I’m real, well, thank you. She also told me she’s closing up shop, so now I need to find a new doctor, I guess I’m looking in Colorado.

Off to find something to eat, went to Moe’s (“Welcome to Moe’s!”) I sent a picture to DCM with the caption…jealous? The closest Moe’s in Colorado is about 4 hours away, guess we’ll be having it when we’re in Atlanta. Connected to their WiFi and got some work done; the good and bad thing about having a black berry or at least being able to get work emails on your phone..you can still work, no matter what..see, good and bad.

A few hours later, went to meet CKM at MARTA to head to the Georgia World Congress Center for the Peachtree Roadrace Expo to pick up our bibs and check out the expo. This is the first year we didn’t volunteer at the expo, we’re volunteering tomorrow (tell you more in a minute). After we got our numbers, we walked the expo, doing a little shopping and looking. The thing about the expo is they have all different vendors from running shoes, to shirts, skirts, sport drinks, snacks to things to help you heal and registering for the next race.

Since things are so discounted, at least the pricing they have indicates mark downs…I buy a few things I might need and others I want. I used to get my running shoes there deeply discounted, not today. I got a few shirts, a pair of running pants and information about some races I’m interested in. It turns it that they are bringing the Monster Dash to Denver! I was hoping to register, get my jacket, SOCKS and BAG, but I will have to wait until they post it online. JCT, guess what!!! They are only doing a 5k and 10k this year in Atlanta, you get the jacket no matter which run you do! And it’s smokin! http://www.monsterdash.org/

I did, however, register for a Disney 5k much cheaper than the others! I see a girls weekend in my future! Who’s with me? (It’s in February 2014). Guess what the bonus was for registering at the expo..I’ll let you figure it out!

The shirts I get are always funny, I’ve posted pics for you to see. I love the zombie one, I’m wearing that tomorrow, but there is one that CKM shouted, “you HAVE to get this one!” You’ll know it when you see it! I also finally got a magnet for my car and a sticker for DCM! I got him a funny shirt as well.

We saw everything, tasted everything, got swag, goodies, snacks and our annual picture taken, like we’re running the race! We even filled in “Why I Run” bibs from VW Runners Unite, can you guess which was mine and which was CKM’s! We were beat! This was the first time we got to chill out while and take our time, it was nice.

Since our plans got rained out, an impromptu dinner came about, we met TS and her daughter KS at an Irish pub. Always great to see them, but as KS is in college, a rare treat for me! We ate good food, I carbo-loaded as is customary before a race, of course if I was actually running, it would have meant more than just pasta for dinner! We caught up, laughed, joked and had a great time and then realized what time it was!

This year, CKM and I volunteered to work with/help the elite runners, the runners that are invited to participate in the Peachtree. We are excited for the new challenge, besides the tshirt it comes with! But…this assignment starts at 5:30AM, what? We volunteered to sign up for this? Apparently we did! I think it will be a lot of fun and if we are really really lucky, maybe we can go earlier than our assigned start times, fingers crossed on that one!

So…DCM just landed a while ago and is on his way to see his daughter, DCM, who turned SIXTEEN today! A very very very happy birthday to her! I am looking forward to seeing her while we are here! I know she’s going to be so excited about her presents! I can’t tell you what they are, she might be reading this right now, but I can tell you, she’s gong to be stoked!

So, here I sit, it’s 11:32pm, I have to be up again in about four hours! What am I still doing awake? I just reiterated the title of this post! And my next question…are we there yet? Yes, friends, we have come to the end of this post..in conclusion, we are there, but I’m still awake! About to change that! Good night!

{June 9, 2013} First Run in Colorado

Today I/we did my/our first run/walk in Colorado.

One of DCM’s co-workers has a son who was diagnosed with epilepsy, and today was the Epilepsy 5k. I originally registered as a runner because I wasn’t sure if DCM was going to be participating.

The alarm went off at 7am…I will sleep past 7am one Saturday, I can feel it! You’ll pull for me, right? We headed out to City Park in Denver, it only took about 30 minutes to get there, it was a nice ride with the top down. We got our race bibs and T-shirts, found the group and got ready for the run to begin,

There was a good group of people, employees and spouse/significant others. Most people were walking, a few running and they encouraged me to run, I made sure DCM would be alright with that as I said we’d do it together, he was cool with it, as he’d be with his co-workers, I still feel a little bad, as I don’t know if I’ll get him to do another one with me.

It’s been about 5 weeks since I’ve run or done any kind of exercise due to packing and the move, I can’t believe I was kind of jonesing to run, if you can believe that! I wasn’t prepared to run (I did have my running shoes and 2 sports bras on, that was good thinking!) I had on jeans short, but honestly, they fit well, didn’t slide down and kept my thighs covered, what could be wrong.

The bad part…no headphones! So I had to listen to myself breathing, ok, panting most of the way! I ran the first quarter mile, walked 2 minutes, ran a quarter mile and so on. My best time in a run was 39 minutes, my slowest time 43 minutes. Since I haven’t run in a while and I’ve been told it would be very different with Denver being the Mile Hight City, I’m really happy, I made it in 44:55, no complaints here!

Someone said I need to train here, then when I go back to Atlanta, I’ll be a monster on the course! That is the plan!

After the race, I got to hang out with DCM’s co-workers, we had frozen fruit bars, ice cream, snow cones, popcorn, danced with team mascots, had a lot of laughs and took team photos. After the run, we headed home.

There were some side effects, could be from the run, might be from something else. My chest was tight for most of the day and I ended up with a wicked headache, spent the rest of the day on the couch, fading in and out of sleep, DCM taking care of me, thank you. So, I just need to start training again and I should be golden!

Tonight, DCM got an email from JS, PS’s wife about a run June 22nd and she said, “DCM, this email is of course, directed to JRS!” Too funny!

Here’s to the beginning of my runs, bib and tshirt collection in Denver, looking forward to it!

{May 13, 2013} My weekend Part II

So, I hope you didn’t fall asleep reading my post last night! I have to tell you, I had to stop blogging last night because I started dozing off as I was writing!

After the museum, I drove to JB’s house to meet CKM so we could go to the Electric Run, http://electricrun.com/atlanta/, at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Luckily for me this was a 5k and we were going to walk it! Whew!

At JB’s house, they fed me, it was his son E’s birthday, yummy yummy yummy! After a while, we got dressed in our day glow funky outfits (we were the “Brightest Crayons in the Box”) and headed to the speedway. The race was capped at 10,000 participants, so there wouldn’t be too many people there.

We passed a bunch of people going to the race, you could tell, we were all glowing! Everyone gave each other thumbs up! When we got to the race, it was fun to see all the different ideas people had for this run. There were light up tutus, wheelchairs were decked out, grow ups, kids, everyone was definitely in the spirit of things! I’m excited because I registered for the Firefly 5k in July in Colorado!

There were no official start waves, they started a countdown every five minutes and we were off! There was music at the start, pumped through speakers throughout and at several stations. It was very cool, all the different lighting features along the way, umbrellas hanging from trees lit up, Chinese lanterns in the trees,all different color lights, even the water stations were cool, the cups were dayglo colors and they had these lit up tubes and when you added your cup, it created a great feature! There were tunnels with strobes and tunnels with bubbles. The course even took us onto the track! That was so much fun, and as close as I will possibly ever get to a racetrack!

The nice thing about the race was there was no pressure, just walk it at your leisure and finish when you finish. It started raining during the run, on and off, it wasn’t bad at all, luckily it wasn’t cold and we had ponchos if it got bad. After the finish was a big thumping after party, we both looked at each other “when was the last time you were at a night club?” Um…

We left after jumping and dancing for a bit, I dropped CKM off and headed home, but…I realized I was starving, so I stopped at Fellini’s for a slice and a Coke, it was heavenly! That gave me the little boost I needed to get home, it was a wee bit late when I got here. I knew I needed to blog quickly and then I passed out!

Sunday came and I amazingly enough slept in…when did sleeping until 9am become sleeping in? Oh well…I wished a few people of Happy Mothers Day, I got to talk to my sister, that was great! got a few hours packing done and then headed out to meet SDL, her sister DJL and Miss A for lunch. We went to Doc Chey’s in the Highland and had a great time, as always. I am so honored to be a part of their lives and that they let me celebrate in the big and little things in their lives means so much to me.

I posted a picture of myself, my mom, her mom and my sister, in honor of Mother’s Day and it still amazes people how much I look like my mom. People posted some wonderful things and memories about my mom, I was really touched. It was 19 years ago today, I left NYC for GA, the day after Mother’s Day, she had mixed feelings,happy for me in my new adventure, sad that I was going.

I will tell you sometime about my mom, she was quite the woman, just not today. It was nice seeing all the photos on Facebook of people and their moms and the wonderful things they had to say, some who’s moms have passed, and of course, it made me miss mine all the more.

And then, it made me a little sad, because for almost 12 years I was mom to a son and daughter (step mom, don’t want to confuse anyone too much) that I miss very much. They were 7 & 8 when I met them back in 1996! They were so little, cute and shorter than me! (That didn’t last that long). I realized that May 2008 was the last time I saw my daughter and August 2008 was the last time I saw my son. I understand that with divorce you lose your spouse, as you’re supposed to, and you might lose some friends, but the hard part is when you’re the step mom, you might lose the kids and that’s what really hurt.

I did hear from my daughter back when Hurricane Sandy hit NYC, she wanted to see how my family was doing, I was very touched. She also told me about herself, where she is and what she’s doing now and how I impacted her life and it was wonderful and made me feel great, I think I cried and bragged about it for a good week, sorry if anyone had to hear me go on and on! Unfortunately, that was the last I heard from her.

No matter what happened with their dad, I loved those two more than anything and every Nov 11 (boy child) and May 9 (girl child) I think about them on their birthdays and send them a birthday wish that who knows, maybe they feel in their heart,they may not know what it is, but it’s there.

Ok, maudlin is done.

I got home from lunch and mowed the lawn, apparently the dandelion fairy had made a stop at my house and her sack broke because my yard was a toddlers dream! All those pretty flowers for mommy! I felt much better! Sorry kids!

Speaking of fairies, I have been sending up requests to the packing fairy and she isn’t listening, I even offered cookies, no dice. BG tells me that she is trying to teach me a lesson, I have to much stuff! Gee thanks!

This is really happening! Uhaul is rented, the realtors are coming over tomorrow to sign contracts and put a sign in the yard. Maybe it’s time for a new St Joseph statue, the last one didn’t seem to work!
http://www.stjosephstatue.com/

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Now, it’s off to bed to dream about packing tape!

{May 12, 2013} My weekend

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

{May 4, 2013} A very full day

I started to put something cheesy in the title of this post, A Very Full ( of Iron Man), but aren’t you lucky I didn’t!

The day started very early, or late, as it were. I realized at 2am that I needed to get up at 6 to go run a race, so I got some sleep, up at 6, listened to the rain come down and think about if I wanted to get up and do the run and if there would still be a neighborhood yard sale, all before 7am!

So, I cancelled the help I had for the yard sale, got dressed and headed towards Decatur for the Beat the Street for Little Feet 5k. http://www.rungeorgia.com/littlefeet5k.html. This race benefits the Oakhurst Park Prep school. One of the reasons people like to do this particular race is that James Dean, the artist, draws this wonderful cat, Pete, check out his site and some of his artwork
http://www.petethecat.com/. You can purchase the T-shirt without having to run the race, I haven’t done that yet with an race and this is a race I’ve done twice before and I was looking forward to doing it again, and get my t-shirt!

I got there about 7:30, checked in and got my race Bibb and tshirt, then started running laps so I would stay warm, it was very cold and rainy. I was pretty happy with my time for this race as I haven’t been running in about a week, every morning I have been getting up at 7, but to pack, I’m looking forward to the packing to be done so I can start training again! So, my time 41:51, very happy! I hit the 3 mile mark at 38 minutes, wahoo! It felt good to be back on the road, knee wrapped, no injuries!

Got my apple, banana, Lara bars (good source of protein) http://www.larabar.com/, got in the car, headed home, finish getting things ready for the Iron Man Movie Marathon.

Turns out a few neighbors still had the yard sale, actually a true garage sale, everything in the garages! I am actually amassing a nice pile of stuff for a yard sale! Salvation Army got a nice donation yesterday, got a jump on next years taxes.

The marathon: Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and The Avengers, then go to the theater to see Iron Man 3. It was going to be me, BG and TS.

BG showed up first, turns out his son, JG, woke up sick, so he had to be home by 5, so slight change of plans, we went to Studio Movie Grill to see Iron Man 3, skip the marathon. I won’t be reviewing the movie for you tonight, I don’t want to influence your viewing experience, especially opening weekend.

Be on the lookout, I am going to be creating a movie ticket blog, all the movies I have stubs for, it’s gonna be something!

TS and her daughter, KS met us there and we watched the movie. I’m not a fan of the new SMG, service was so-so, the experience ok. After the movie. BG went home and TS and KS came to my place and we watched The Avengers, TS hadn’t seen it yet. We got to catch up a little, which was good, I don’t get to see KS very often as she is off at college, miss seeing her, I’ve known her since she was a young girl and I have gotten to watch her grow into a bright, beautiful, intelligent young woman, a joy and honor to know.

They left and now I a watching Iron Man 2, looking forward to getting some sleep, possibly sleeping in and getting major work done on the house tomorrow.

Email Subscription

What was I thinking?