Inane Chatter

John is carrying me off to a Canadian Brass holiday concert at the Kennedy Center tonight.  So this is the only update you get today.  (Work was actually really busy.)

We had a really nice Thanksgiving.  Erik, Margaret, Greg, and Amanda came over in the early afternoon, and we had dinner around 3 or so.  Very yummy.  Greg brought his Xbox and Rock Band, so we played after dinner.  Love that game!  I’m really bad on the guitar, but drums and vocals were lots of fun.  We eventually moved on to Grand Theft Auto, another game I’d never even seen.  That one is just as much fun to watch (and heckle) as it is to play.  They stayed until around 11.  It was a long day, and we were super tired, but we had a really good time.

We didn’t get up as early as we’d planned Friday morning.  We’d hoped to get John’s parents’ house by about noon, but since it was after nine before we got up, that wasn’t possible.  (It’s a three-hour drive.)    We dropped the dogs off at the kennel and hit the road just after eleven.  We had a really nice couple of days in PA.   It was just the immediate family, so it was really low-key.  We had a late lunch when we arrived, and then John went to help his dad spackle and I took Emily and Molly to get movies and buy wine.   I always enjoy spending time with the girls, so it was nice to have errands to run.  Molly gets funnier every time I see her.

We rented two movies (P.S. I Love You and Dan in Real Life), but by the time dinner was over and we were ready for movies, we really only had time for one.  Emily wanted to see me cry, so we watched P.S. I Love You. It was…okay.  I did cry once, during the scene where she goes running to her mother, but otherwise, no tears.  Sorry, Em.  I’m sure the book is better.  John and I will try to watch the other movie soon.

Tom and Tania (Tanya?  I’m not sure) arrived just as the movie was ending (shortly after midnight Friday night).  We didn’t see as much of her as you might think since she has a test on Monday and spent most of Saturday studying for it.  She has to pass this test so she can start student-teaching and get her certification, and she was pretty stressed about it.  But we enjoyed the time we did get to spend with her.

We spent a couple of hours (no, I’m not exaggerating) Saturday afternoon setting up this year’s Brewer family picture.  Pat bought a giant inflatable Santa Claus that sits in a chair, waves, and talks.  We arranged ourselves around it, put on our Santa hats (sequined for the girls, furry for the boys), wrestled Mabel (the dog) into position, and then took picture after picture until we got one in which everyone was smiling, everyone’s eyes were open, the dog was looking (mostly straight ahead), and Molly wasn’t making a face.  We did eventually get that perfect picture.  And then we had Thanksgiving dinner.  Again (for everyone.  The Brewers had Thanksgiving dinner at Barbara’s house on Long Island on Thursday.).  But it was good, again, so it wasn’t a bad thing.  🙂

John and I left to come home around 9:20.  We made one stop (for Starbucks) just east of Harrisburg, and made it home in almost exactly three hours.  It didn’t feel that long, though.  We were in bed and asleep before 1am, totally exhausted.

Got up today about 10:30, after a very lazy morning listening to the rain.  We went out to pick the dogs up from the kennel, and we haven’t left the house again.  The fire is still going, John is still doing homework,  and I’ve been reading in between paragraphs.  It’s been a very pleasant day.

Today is the best kind of winter weekend day.  It’s been raining off and on, it’s chilly outside, and we don’t have to go anywhere.  John built a fire, and we’re both sitting on the couch with our laptops.  He’s doing homework, and I’m doing, well, this.  We have classical music playing in the background, cheese and crackers on our (makeshift) coffee table, a glass of wine, and two dogs curled up on their beds in front of the fire.  Perfect.

Thanksgiving was a success.  Wait, let me back up a little more.

John and I ran in a 5K in Ashburn Thanksgiving morning.  It was really cold (low 30’s), but sunny and not windy, so still a big improvement over the Herndon Turkey Trot.  The 5K started at 8:25, and the start took us by surprise.  We were standing in the crowd, didn’t have watches on, and everyone was talking and stretching.  The start (was it a starting gun?  maybe one of those blasts from a bullhorn?  I don’t remember) jolted everyone around us and the crowd started to push across the starting line.  John noticed that the clock already had 19 or 20 seconds on it by the time we crossed the official line.  But whatever – that’s not really all that unusual.  These things always start out in a crush like that, and not everyone can be in the front.  It makes the official times a little less trustworthy, I guess, but, again, whatever.

I started running.  I was concentrating on keeping my breathing even, and breathing through my nose to warm up the air before it got to my lungs.  I could also tell that my right shoelaces were getting loose.  Every time my right foot hit the ground, I could feel them loosen more, until, inevitably, my right shoe came untied.  I hadn’t been running more than 5 minutes at that point, but I knew that if I stopped to tie my shoe, I’d have a much harder time finishing the race.  I had the momentum I needed and I didn’t want to lose it.  For the rest of the race, I concentrated on my stride so I could make sure my left foot never hit the ground close enough to land on my flapping right shoelaces.  My time for the first mile, according to the guy with a stopwatch, was 9:38.  I felt pretty good about that, but because so much of the first mile was uphill, I was hurting.  I slowed down a bit during the second mile, but managed to keep running.  The time at the end of the second mile, again according to the woman with the stopwatch, was 18:23.  She shouted out the time as we went by, and I actually said, out loud, “That’s not possible.”  The women around me agreed with me.  If it were true, it meant that I ran my second mile in 8:45, which is something I have NEVER done.  But even knowing that it didn’t sound right (since I KNOW I slowed down for part of that mile), I had no reason to think the woman was wrong, so as I started my third mile I had hope that I could beat 29 minutes.  (False hope.  John told me later (and it makes sense) that if a time doesn’t sound right to me AND it doesn’t sound right to the people around me, it probably isn’t right.)  About half of the third mile was on a path behind a neighborhood north of the Broadlands shopping center, and as we came off the path and back onto neighborhood streets, there were spectators telling us we were almost there.  And then we had to climb another hill.  It’s just MEAN to put a hill at the very end of a race.  But we climbed the hill and then I could see the finish.  Kind of.  I could see where all the people were, and I could see John waiting for me, but I couldn’t actually see the finish line or the clock.  I was running towards the finish, looking for the line, picking up my pace to finish strong, and then John was next to me, telling me I had to stop because there was a line of people waiting to cross the finish line.  I couldn’t make sense of what he was saying.  It might as well have been another language.  But then the people in front me stopped running, and there were race organizers telling us to line up in the order we finished.  But…we hadn’t finished!  Had we?  Turns out the chute wasn’t long enough and there weren’t enough people working it, so the line to turn our race numbers had backed up onto the course.  It really means that when the official times are posted (and they haven’t been posted yet), they won’t mean anything.  I could estimate my total time based on the time called out when I finished my second mile,  but I’m pretty sure that time wasn’t right.

Official time (or lack of it) aside, I felt pretty good about this race, and I think John did, too.  It was a beautiful morning, we ran three hard miles, and then we were going home to put the turkey in the oven.  John says that even though I say I’m not competitive about running (since while I’m actually running I’m mostly just trying to convince myself to keep my legs moving), my annoyance about the race clock and mile times AND the fact that I refused to stop to tie my shoelaces mean that I can now consider myself a real runner.  Just in time for me to figure out how to keep it up over the winter.  So if official race times ever get posted, I’ll let everyone know how it turned out.

Just a quick note to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  We got up this morning around 7:20 and ran a very cold 5K.  Who knows what the official times will turn out to be, but I’ll get into that later.  Enjoy the day and don’t eat too much!  🙂

I’ve used my new electric toothbrush twice now, and the verdict is…I don’t know yet. It makes my whole head vibrate, but I’ve been told I’ll get used to it.  We’ll see.  I do like how it makes my mouth feel once I’m done, though.  I feel super clean.  I just need to learn the tricks, I guess.  When I used it last night, I put the toothpaste on the brush and turned it on before it was in my mouth.  Toothpaste flew everywhere.  I didn’t turn it on until it was against my teeth this morning.  Much better.  Is there anything else I should know about?

I think shorter posts are probably a good thing.

I got my corporate credit card today.  I’ve been working for this company for two years now.  John got his when he was hired.  My boss has shown surprise at hearing I didn’t have one, but it’s been months since the subject came up, and it’s never been a big deal.  So is this a sign that I’ll be doing some traveling soon and may actually need it?  Or does it just mean it finally crossed the right person’s desk and got done?  I’m assuming the second thing, since if I were going somewhere, someone would probably have told me.  Maybe.  Especially since the project I’m on right now doesn’t even have the opportunity for travel.  I’ve already made this more of a big deal than I’m sure it is.  And I’ve babbled enough for one day (see last post).  I’m going to bed because I REALLY have to run in the morning.  I have to remind my legs how it feels so I can make it through the 5K on Thursday.

This past weekend was pretty busy.  (And I’m feeling much better, thank you.)  I need to stop scheduling one thing right after another, though.  I hate feeling like I’m always running late.  I could just get up and get started earlier, but then I wouldn’t enjoy my weekends at all.

Saturday turned out to be windy and FREEZING.  I went out to Toys R Us to buy Colin a birthday present and I could barely stand to dash from the car to the store.  By the time I got back, John and I had just enough time to eat a quick lunch before we had to change for the race.  Speaking of lunch, though, we had the BEST sandwiches.  I got them from Spicy Pickle, on Waxpool, and they were SO good.  We both got the Englishman (roast beef, horseradish cole slaw, thousand island dressing, and cheddar (I substituted provolone)).  Yum!  Anyway, we stopped by Christina and Will’s place on our way to the race so we could at least make an appearance at Colin’s birthday party, wish him a happy 1st birthday, and drop off our present.  I wish we could have stayed, but again, that’s what I get for overscheduling our weekends.  Although it’s really not my fault that Colin’s birthday happened to be the same weekend as the Herndon Turkey Trot.  And I had already registered us for the race when I found out about the birthday party.  But that’s not the point.  We got there and found the apartment crawling with toddlers!  🙂  Wendy and Eric were there with their two boys, Will’s brother and his wife were there with their two boys, Will’s mom was there (with no additional children in tow), and of course Colin was crawling around all over the place.  In the last week, he’s added a new facial expression to his arsenal of adorable tricks.  He didn’t do a lot of smiling while we were there, but he scowled!  So cute.  He furrowed his eyebrows and glared at us.  Just the cutest thing.  Hopefully Christina has pictures of him doing it.  We left after about 5 minutes so we could get to Herndon for the race.

John and I participated in this race last year (he ran and did very well, and I walked it with Jess, gabbing the whole time), and I think there were more people last year than this year.  Maybe the awful weather scared them off.  There were still a lot of people, though.  The wind died down some.  Well, it was still blowing, but it wasn’t constant.  Gusty, I suppose.

The race itself was just okay.  We found Manpreet and Doreen (from work) in the crowd at the start of the race.  Manpreet has been running a lot (she runs in the Army Ten-Miler every year), and Doreen was planning on trying to keep up with her.  As usual, I didn’t see John once the race started.  Actually, that’s not true.  This race starts with everyone running down a road in one direction and then making a 180-degree turn and running back down the same road.  So I did see him after the race started, since he doubled back way before I did.  I started with Manpreet and Doreen right behind me.  The crowd took forever to thin out.  It was like a bottleneck for much of the first mile.  I don’t know exactly how long it stayed crowded ’cause I never saw the first mile marker.  Which was annoying.  I didn’t get any sense of how much further I had to go until the end of the second mile, when I saw the marker and heard some volunteer calling out the time.  It was 19:55 when I passed the marker, and I was really annoyed ’cause that pretty much meant I wasn’t going to beat 30 minutes this time.  And John (sweetheart that he is) told me that at this point I should be ashamed of myself if I don’t break 30 minutes in a 5K.  I decided I could always use the fact that I had just been diagnosed with bronchitis as an excuse.  I kept recognizing landmarks along the course from last year, but without any sense of how far along I was.  That is seriously frustrating.  And just when I’d feel warmed up, the wind would sweep around a corner and cut through all of my layers.  And then, in the third mile, I started to feel a stitch in my right side.  I really wanted to walk, but I hadn’t seen Doreen or Manpreet pass me and I REALLY wanted to beat them.  I wasn’t expecting to (in fact, every time I felt someone at my shoulder, coming up to pass me, I thought it was them), but I really wanted to beat someone I know in a race.  Since I can’t beat John.  🙂  I knew they would definitely pass me if I started walking.  So I managed to keep my feet moving.  Breathing wasn’t really an issue, but the cold was really wearing me down and that stitch in my side was threatening to knock me down.  I made it to the last leg of the race (the last tenth?  I don’t know – never saw the three-mile marker either) and I had nothing in reserve.  I couldn’t pick up my pace at all.  I was trudging towards the finish line.  John said I was scowling just like Colin.  The finish line clock said 29:51, 29:52, 29:53, and I somehow found enough energy to pick up my pace just enough to cross the line around 29:27 or something.  I can’t find the official time.  I don’t know if the times haven’t been posted or if I just can’t find them.  I’m pretty sure that I finished officially under 30 min, so I don’t have to be ashamed of myself. 🙂  And I can still use the bronchitis excuse.

I found Manpreet and Doreen after the race.  Doreen said she couldn’t keep up with Manpreet, and Manpreet said she was behind me.  She identified me by my scarf, which was apparently flapping behind me in the wind.  So I beat them!  Hooray for me!

Oh, I forgot to mention that I was wearing just about the most garish combination of colors I could find in my closet.  Not on purpose exactly.  I mean I was aware that what I was wearing was just about as ugly a color combination that you can imagine, but that wasn’t my goal.  I wore my bright red running pants, my nice autumn gold long sleeve t-shirt from the Purcellville race, and a turquoise sweatshirt.  And my purple running shoes.  It was terrible.  I think Manpreet was being nice when she said she identified me by my scarf.  She probably meant she saw my awful clashing outfit and knew immediately that it was me.

Last thing about this race.  We didn’t feel good about it.  I mean, when John and I finished the last 5K, we both felt great.  It was a good race, we’d done well, we were exhilarated.  We felt good.  This one, though…it was cold, it was hard – it hurt and there was no satisfying feeling when it was over.  Neither of us really felt like we had done a good job.  So that kinda sucked.  But it was over and we had other things to do that evening.  And I will go into those other things next time.  This post is long enough.

I’m off to my second of five dentist appointments before Christmas.  I’m in the middle of writing a post about the weekend and will get it posted soon.  Wish me luck!

So I was just about to head for bed when I realized I haven’t posted today.  It’s not the end of the world if I don’t post every day, but I think it’s too early in the life of my blog to start skipping days.  I should be so disciplined about my running.  Of course, I can post any time of day, from almost anywhere.  With running, I have this narrow window in the morning.

Wow.  I’m watching TV, and I just saw a preview for Four Christmases.  That looks really stupid.  I mean, I like Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, but there have been way too many holiday movies made about awful family visits, most of them bad.  We don’t need any more.

Well, this counts.  Pretty much all I can think about right now is how much I want to go to sleep, so babbling on my blog is a lower priority.  Good night.

So I just cleaned the kitchen while listening to Van Halen.  Loud Van Halen.  And thanks to Christina and Ross having birthdays near each other this month, I am about to eat leftover Indian food for dinner.  Yay!  Also, I took Sudafed this morning and it seems to be working.  🙂

AND John cracks me up.  In response to this email from Greg,

“Not even sure what mulled wine is, but I’m in.”

John responded with

“It’s wine that you think about for a long time before serving.”

So yeah, I laughed.  Out loud.  A lot.  🙂  It’s another reason I keep him around.

I spent most of today trying not to talk.  I cough less when I don’t talk.  Also, today has been better because of Delsym, I think.  Advertising companies should love me.  I saw a commercial for Delsym (it’s a cough suppressant) and then went out and bought some when I went to the store.  It seems to be working nicely.  That or I’m getting better.  It’s hard to tell.

I spend much of my time trying to figure out how I’m going to get everything done in time.  In time for what?  For whatever is happening next.  Here’s two for instances:

1. Colin’s birthday party is this Saturday.  I meant to go to Toys R Us to pick out a present for him this past weekend, but I was feeling pretty sick so I didn’t do it.  Now I need to do it this week.  Or maybe Saturday morning.  That’s an idea.  I just hate waiting until the last minute.

2. Winter running clothes.  I really want some moisture-wicking running leggings that I can throw on under my running pants when it’s really cold.  We have a 5K this Saturday, but it’s in the afternoon, so it won’t be completely freezing.  However, I just signed us up to run a 5K at 8:30 in the morning on Thanksgiving Day.  THAT will be cold, and I will definitely want the extra layer.  So when I do I buy those?  This weekend?  Well, Saturday is pretty packed, what with shopping for Colin (see?  I’ve already penciled that in), going to his party, going to the 5K, and then hanging out with Jess and Chuck (who are coming out that night – yay!).  Then Sunday…I might have time on Sunday.  But Sunday is also when I will be doing as much advance shopping for Thanksgiving as I can.  Fortunately, there is a Target right next to Wegman’s.  I might have time for this after all.  🙂

All that really says about me is that I need to have something to plan for.  A birthday party, a race, Thanksgiving, Chrismukkah, oh crap, Chrismukkah is coming.  I really wanted to have most of the shopping done before Thanksgiving.  Not going to happen.  Great.

I just got back from babysitting Colin.  He’s adorable, of course, and almost a year old.  I think we had a good time.  I did, anyway, and he seemed to be enjoying himself.  On my way home, I decided to get the essential grocery shopping out of the way (1% milk for John since my skim milk grosses him out, lunch stuff, and a toothbrush) so I wouldn’t have to leave the house again.  It’s cold and really windy today, and I’m still not really feeling any better, so I’d rather just stay inside where it’s warm.  I put High Society in the DVD player, and the Overture is playing.  I love musicals.  There are some songs in this one I could do without (“You’re Sensational” comes to mind immediately), but I love “Little One”.  Ooh, I forgot Saul Chaplin was involved in the music for this one.  I don’t how I could forget that actually, since a photo from a rehearsal with him and Grace Kelly is on the cover of his autobiography.  He was involved in pretty much all of my favorite Hollywood musicals.  I should reread that.  I think it’s hilarious that Louis Armstrong plays himself.

Aw, John’s a good husband.  He just went out and did cold yard things in the cold yard so I wouldn’t have to.  I guess I’ll keep him.

Grace Kelly is just TOO perfect.  It’s not fair.  And her clothes!  Again, not fair.  Maybe I should make looking and dressing like her my goal.  That’s unrealistic, but wouldn’t it be nice?  Okay, skipping this scene (“You’re Sensational”).  The song drags.  Change of pace is a good idea, Satch, thanks.  Except that this song (“Samantha”) doesn’t really do the trick.  But whatever.

Just ordered Thai food.  Yum!  I’m just gonna publish this because you don’t really need me to finish the movie first.

I spent the last few hours working on getting my photo gallery the way I want it.  You may notice (if you even noticed it was there, Mom) that nothing has changed.  I found some helpful pages and I think I know how to do it, but my first attempt failed spectacularly.  Okay, there was nothing spectacular about my failure.  But I don’t have the energy to keep going with it tonight.  I’ll try again tomorrow.

I know, I know, it’s boring to write about the weather.  I went for a jog this morning fully convinced that it was going to rain at any second.  According to www.weather.com, the humidity is 100% (which I can believe, now that I’ve been out there) and there is a 100% chance of rain for every hour of the day.  So I was just hoping to get lucky.  And I guess I did, since I didn’t get rained on, but it was like running in a sauna!  Sixty-five degrees, ridiculously humid, not enough wind to make a difference (unless I was running uphill, in which case the wind appeared and tried to shove me backwards down the hill), and then the sun came out (this must be a shock to the people at The Weather Channel) and steam started to rise from the streets, the grass, and ME.  Not my favorite running weather, though it is preferable to below-freezing temperatures in the pre-dawn hours.

There’s the rain.  Now that I’m safely inside.  Of course, we’re still going out in it today.  John and I are planning to do some window-shopping (and possibly actual shopping) in historic Leesburg today and then have lunch.  It’s time to get moving.

I finished reading Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides this morning.  I got the impression that I was supposed to think it’s one of the greatest books ever written, or at least be moved by it.  I wasn’t.  That’s not to say I didn’t think it was good, or that I didn’t enjoy it.  I did.  But it’s not something I would reread (which should say something to people who know me (who I’m sure are the only people reading this blog (assuming anyone other than Mom is reading), but that’s a topic for another post.  I need to get out of parentheses now.)) or even recommend wholeheartedly to someone.  It was very meh.  Shrug.  Whatever.  It was like there was something missing.  The narrator kept me at a distance, so I never really felt like I was feeling what the characters were feeling.  And if the point was that Cal/Callie was neither male nor female, but something in the middle, then why was the adult Cal so strongly male?  It seemed that he made a choice to be male, not female, and not something new or a combination of both.  And maybe it wasn’t a choice, really, but that characterization seemed to miss the point that I thought the book was reaching toward.  But maybe it was just me who missed the point.  Either way, I think that’s why I feel so indifferent to the book.   No biggie.  I’m sure I’ll enjoy my next book more, whatever it is.