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It was 3 below when we woke up this morning. And I am sick.
Category: Elsewhere
(Almost) Wordless Xmas
…and this is why I will never be a successful blogger.
Just got back from CA, and I stayed off the computer the entire time. Hope you’re enjoying the holidays as much as I am.
Wicked Pissah
Someone went to Boston for the first time and got a hat for the occasion. First time on a plane. First time out of Kentucky. First time meeting family. First time with the duck boats.
Despite a few massive BMs when going through security, she was a champ during both flights.
danger TSA, explosions likely
This was a trip to see family, so it involved lots of chaos and yelling (happy yelling, that’s just how this side of the family talks to each other) and food and, of course, beeah and the Pats.
poser
(At one point Paul actually asked me, “Wait, why is there a Dunkin Donuts on every corner?”)
HH also got to meet her great granny.
They bonded over not having any teeth.
Now we’re back in Kentucky, it is really dark and really rainy and I am feeling really uninspired (if that isn’t obvious). ALTHOUGH! The office advent calendar is out again! Of course! Right next to my desk! Because it’s Advent! Which means every morning there is a gathering right by the entrance to my cube.
This morning’s gathering turned into a verbal confrontation between a Catholic coworker and another coworker who is the wife of a Baptist minister. Apparently the Catholic woman stole the Jesus out of the Baptist woman’s nativity scene that she set up by her desk, because Jesus hasn’t been born yet. This is the ADVENT. We’re waiting and preparing.
Anyway, the theme for this year’s calendar?
Angry birds. I built the green pig.
More energy to follow.
Going back, going back…
First, I would like to thank everyone for their condolences for Michele. The outpouring of love has been remarkable, she would have been so touched.
This weekend I went back to college for our 10 year reunion.
Reunions are weird.
And not just because sometimes things like that happen.
It is so fantastically awesome to see old friends
and hit up old hangouts
in a place you used to call home.
But it’s weird to feel that connection, those little emotional tugs you have as you walk down certain hallways and see certain people, and simultaneously distanced from what now feels like another life.
I always walk away from that blur of a weekend (and yes, it’s a blur, even when you are dead sober for the whole thing) physically and emotionally exhausted, part of me wishing it had lasted longer, that (some of us) had more time to spend together, but also slightly relieved that I survived and we don’t have 3 more days of graduation festivities go through.
Because now we are old. And I could definitely not handle that (I could barely handle it 10 years ago).
the chapel, ready for baccalaureate
Getting older is strange.
graduation seats ready to go, from the stage at nassau hall
So while it’s nice to be home and sleeping in my own bed, I’m already missing people and counting the days to the next time we see each other. Even if it’s not for another 5 years at our 15th. I’ll definitely be back.
Glad news, sad news
No joke, I saw one of these walking home from work today. A real live groundhog in the WILD…of our neighborhood. It looked like a really fat cat with no legs and no ears. I wanted to bring it home with me.
Guess where they don’t have groundhogs.
The same place I was last weekend.
The beach! Or at least CA. For a beautiful wedding.
It was great, but the trip out there and time difference knocked me on my BUTT for most of the time I was there. So…this week has been mostly spent readjusting and checking back into reality.
Exciting stuff, I know.
2 more weeks until the outdoor pools open.
And, on a much sadder and completely unrelated note, NASCAR legend and Paul’s favorite driver has passed away.
Yes, that’s him smoking a cigarette while racing.
RIP Dick Trickle.
Neew Yooooooork
Last weekend I headed to the big city for the the NYC Road Runners Half Marathon.
The reason I signed up for this race was first and foremost to run with Emily…who, incidentally, did not get a spot in the lottery. Crap. Secondary reason for running it: to stay on a training schedule through the sad, cold, depressing months of late winter (which, up until about 3 weeks ago, I did). And because it’s freaking in New York City. And when you live in Kentucky, you grab onto any chance you get to go see your friends in NY.
Margaret! One of my New York friends, who was there for my last half in New York 2 years ago (when I wasn’t 5+ months pregnant).
This year was extra awesome because people who do not live in NY, including my sister and Joe, came out to play. It was a mini reunion. Which made the weekend so, so great.
An NYC weekend visitor all the way from LA, dealing with the cold and wearing one glove
But aside from me, most people probably don’t want to hear any more about how great my friends are.
Race Prep:
The night before the race we went to Buttermilk Channel in Brooklyn (fun fact: Buttermilk Channel is an actual place in NY Bay, sounds delicious), and my god it was good. And we may or may not have sat at a table next to Seth Green, results were inconclusive.
That night I stayed with Emily, who lives on the upper west side, about 3 blocks from the starting line. Clutch.
The race info said that the starting corrals would be closing at 7, with a start time of 7:30. That is a long time to be standing around in the corral in your running gear. Plus we didn’t get to bed that night till 11:30ish. So I decided I was going to chance it, sleep a little longer, and get to the starting line a few minutes late. 20 minutes of standing around in the cold sounded like enough for me.
The Race:
St. Paddy’s Day!! Alarm went of at 6, got up, drank a little coffee, ate some oatmeal, took care of business, and was out the door by 7. I was at the start by 7:05.
…and cold it was. 23 degrees. When I arrived the sun was just starting to come up and the corrals were totally packed with people wearing green (I wore black and pink, oops). And everyone was absolutely. freezing.
They let me into the corral, even though I was a little late. Plenty of people were still showing up.
Race went off at 7:30. I crossed the starting line at 7:40 (and I was in the front half of the crowd.) The course was one lap around the park, spitting us out around 64th Street and into downtown, through Times Square, all the way down to the tip of the island, cutting east, and finishing on Wall Street (I can’t find the map online, too lazy to keep looking).
the starting line
The first 6 miles through the park was mostly spent defrosting. Cups of water at the aid stations were frozen over with a layer of ice, and spilled water and gatorade on the ground around the aid stations was also turning to ice. Cuidado.
My toes were numb the first four miles, and my fingers didn’t fully get feeling back until mile 8. Fortunately, Superman was there to save the day.
As we left the park I came across the best gift I’ve ever received mid-race (even better than the DJ blasting Pitbull at mile 8 of the run in Hawaii): Emily and Vanessa waiting to join me for a few miles.
I was so, so happy (if you can’t tell from the above picture). Needed the moral support. We ran out of the park and straight into what was probably my favorite part of the run: Times Square.
Very Vanilla Sky. And yes, 29 degrees over an hour into the race.
Once we got out of the park, the course flattened out which, for someone who hasn’t been training in over a week (me), was awweeeesome. Emily and Vanessa stuck it out along the south part of Manhattan, then hopped out as we approached the Financial District.
the chute
And then it was over. The finish line was a madhouse.
Those are just runners. It was also windy and really, really freaking cold.
I’ve never been so happy to be hit in the face with the hot, piss-flavored subway air than I was when we entered the Wall Street station. The rest of the afternoon was spent in sweats and compression socks, in the heat of Emily’s apartment, eating baked goods from Levain Bakery and watching Bravo.
I flew out that evening. Sad.
Thank you to everyone who housed me and/or came and supported me on the run. It was such a wonderful trip, these runs are always such a good time. Can’t wait for the next one.
Austin, Massachusetts
Got back yesterday from the first awesome trip I’ve taken for work (besides Harlan, Kentucky): SXSW (just the multimedia/tech part, not the music.)
It was in the 70s and sunny, there were tacos and BBQ, some of the talks were really, really awesome (Elon Musk, Tina Eisenberg, Joe Peacock, Matthew Inman…) and they showed us some pretty awesome stuff (like this), and one company had bananas you could play Ode To Joy on like a piano (you just touched the banana and it played a note.) I mean really, what more could you ask for.
Guess what my favorite food truck was.
The only problem was I left Paul alone for almost a whole week with the farm. Glad to report there were no casualties.
And now that I’m back from a week of BBQ and tacos and no exercise…tomorrow I am off to NYC!! 3 hour half marathon here I come.
Home for the Holidays
Yessir, back home for the holidays. It’s true, you don’t get a white Christmas if you spend it in southern California, but you do get a little bit of swimming outside in the sun…
…and a little bit of running outside in the sun…
…and a little drinking with friends outside in the sun.
So, I mean, it’s a trade off.
Not to bore everyone (too late), but I was kind of in love with some of the gifts I gave to family this year. First up:
The Roo (gifted to my mother, modeled by Paul). I originally saw this on Garden Betty, it’s a frickin great gardening/fruit picking/any sort of harvesting tool.
The MonkeyLectric M210 LED Wheel Light. For Paul when he rides his bike to the breweries at night. He tested it out last night, works great. A driver may feel compelled to pump up the disco music (or seize) when they see his bike, but they will most definitely see it. Plus you can program it to be any number of different patterns and colors. WHEEEEEE
In addition to an emergency hand-crank tornado radio courtesy of my mother (who also insisted we go over how it works before we left…she’s worse than I am when it comes to bad weather), Paul and I also received an anatomically correct chicken model.
If you take the plastic off you can see all of the innards, including an egg. Paul spent about 45 minutes painstakingly putting it together.
And for a special gift to me, NY Road Runners decided to award me a lottery slot in the NYC Half Marathon in March. Horray.
Trying to enjoy these last few days before the new year kicks into gear…
What’s up
My coworker is out of town for a week. Me and my XXX cubetree are fishsitting for him while he’s gone. Come back from traveling to all sorts of responsibility. Life is rough.
In other news, guess who passed boards and started rotations.
…and guess who doesn’t care in the background. His first round is OB/GYN, so he’ll be getting to deal with all sorts of prolapsed whathaveyou and whatnot. I’m hoping his notes from boards that I found laying on his desk one day will help him out.
This has been a busy summer for me. The past few weekends have looked something like this:
I am not complaining. At all. This past weekend in DC celebrating Kristin’s 30th was amaze. But I am tired. And the Olympics won’t let me go to bed before midnight. But there’s nothing that can be done about that, it’s just going to be a minimal sleep week.
Speaking of the Olympics, I am really hoping that Lochte getting trounced on the anchor leg of the 4 x 100 free relay and again in the 200 free will be enough for him to ditch the grill on the podium. Bring the tool factor down a notch.
Californ.i.a.
This week has been pretty ridiculously busy, and I’ve spent a lot of it being Cranky McCranksterpants. So it’s probably best I didn’t do any sort of commentary. Last week, though, was amazing.
Started out flying into LA and renting the cheapest car possible:
Fiat 500. Booyah. Every time we saw another one the driver would give us a thumbs up.
First up was a 20-hour trip to SD, where I visited my old friend Jen. We hit up Comic Con…
…and ended the night at a gay bar with everyone was dressed like superheroes with inflatable flamingos everywhere. There was some carnage the next morning.
Kind of tragic.
After that it was up the coast to Santa Barbara
where we ate some good produce from my parents yard
enjoyed local brew
and binged on Blenders and burritos. Lots and lots of burritos.
There was also Red Rock
and some kayaking
and Hendrys.
It was a pretty fantastic week of relaxation and sun.
Then it was up the coast again to Carmel for a really spectacular wedding.
Instead of a traditional rehearsal dinner, Alix and Christian threw a rock legends party where everyone had to dress up like rock stars.
The blushing bride.
The wedding itself was out on a reserve
and the reception was held in a barn.
Alix and Christian run the Lazy Parrot CSA, and our tables had basil plants and all sorts of fresh produce to make our own bruschetta. That was awesome. As was the dance floor.
It was a spectacular weekend. The next morning we drove up the coast a little further to SF, which isn’t a bad place to recover with friends and fish tacos.
Then the red-eye back to Kentucky and right into the week from hell (OK, it wasn’t that bad, but it was busy.) I’m still exhausted. And tomorrow, assuming the weather mellows out, I’m on another flight solo out to DC for Kristin’s 30th.
But for now, enjoy the picture from our front porch tonight before the deluge began.
Rambulatory Ambulatory 