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| Me with my siblings. We've all only gotten together 3 times as adults. |
Knowing I have really shitty luck, I'd the be the one death from it in 2018. No thanks! John didn't even want to swim in it. He said it looked gross. I'm with him. I'd rather swim in a chlorinated pool...even though I didn't. Haha. It was just an odd trip. My parents booked us all rooms at a hotel right on the lake, which was nice of them, but it left us all isolated from each other half the time. We still had plenty of family time, but I was also really bored a lot of the time. All-in-all, it was good trip, but definitely not the destination I would have chosen for the summer. Haha.
It was nice having a down week from the extra hours, even though I still never really caught up on sleep much. Running stayed about the same, still under 30 miles, but included 2 days of spinning. My last two days of spinning at the gym. 29.2 miles for the week. I'm happy that I've kept it under 30 miles for this 3rd week in a row. Although not all of my runs are smart ones, I think keeping the mileage low IS smart right now. Plenty of time to build up. No need to destroy my tendons again or else all of this "rest" would be a waste. I have to say that they are improving much quicker than I expected. They didn't even feel this good a year ago! Seriously. So I'm happy with the progress AND happy to be back running again and taking Strava course records in Texas. Haha.
Monday, June 25, 2018- A somewhat quiet day at work. Took a zero from running and spinning. Got in a 2.2 mile walk and some abs just before bed. Calls weren't crazy, but we had one in the middle of the night which meant yet another night of lost sleep.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018- Kind of a big running day for me. I drove right to the High Watch Trailhead after work and ran Green Mt up and down 3 times using all the trails that went bottom to top. The last time I did this was in 2015 back when I was super fast... or so I keep saying. I remember it being on a really hot day after work, and today was still on the cool side so I'm sure that made a difference, but I ran it 6 minutes faster today! I did start on different trails so that could have also made a difference. I don't know. It felt slow to me, anyway. Ran up High Watch, up and down Dearborn and then up and down the Jeep Rd Trail and then back down High Watch. 1:51:02 moving time. 8.6 miles. 3,602ft of elevation gain. I actually ran into a guy and his dog on the Jeep Rd. That's a first for me with seeing people. I talked to him a bit; he and his dog were both nice. Good run overall. Happy to be back running mountains for sure.
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| #boobsweat |
John and I spent some time at Conway Lake for the afternoon then I took him home so he could do his thing while I was at the Whitaker Woods trail race. It was pretty humid and warm today for the race. Whereas last week was cool and I felt like I wasn't going all out, tonight in the humidity I felt like I was going my max and ran 13 seconds slower than the week before in 21:26. It felt like a struggle, but I'm sure the mountain run in the morning didn't help my legs out much. Still very happy with the run. It's decent "speed" work and also fun to catch up with people. Finished 1st female again.
Went home to get John and take him to his last ninja class until the fall. Yay! It's bittersweet, though, since I will actually miss seeing him in the class. He's always enjoying himself there. His instructor brought them ice cream for the end of the season, which was nice.
On the way to ninja class I had to call 911 on somebody. As I was driving up East Main St, a car was just sitting in the middle of the road in a 50mph zone! As I got close, I see the driver is slumped over in the driver's seat so I immediately threw on my hazards, stopped my car and got out. He honestly looked dead, but when I approached the car and yelled, he woke up. His window was down. I realized immediately that he was totally hammered. He had a nice tall can of Natty sitting in his cup holder. He must have stopped at the stop sign at Stark Rd, passed out and then rolled right into the main road. He started to drive and yelled at him to try to stop him but he drove away. I immediately called 911 and followed him to get all of his information. He turned around to go the opposite way as me. I have no idea if they caught him or not, but I hope so. He could seriously pass out again at the wheel; that's how drunk he was. I continued on to ninja class.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018- Got up early once again to hit the gym for 30 minutes of spinning before work. This would be my last Wednesday of spinning before work. I was still debating whether or not to bite the bullet and commit to the year membership. The monthly fee was only $33 with my First Responder discount and the join fee was only $19, but was it really worth that when I know I will be decreasing my usage of the gym? I still kept thinking about how much I would save if I could buy a spin bike of my own so I started looking at those and found I could get a cheap one for $129. Yes, I know. Cheap is usually cheaply made, but if I'm not using it everyday, it would probably suit my needs. And better than $415 for something I might use 2-3 times a month. Having my own bike would mean I'm more likely to use it. Still couldn't decide, and I didn't have to since I still had time left to come here one more time.
Work was different today since I would go through 3 partners, 2 of which I used to work with regularly...and they hate each other. Haha. I couldn't wait for them to cross paths at their shift change. Heehee.When Dale showed up, he refused to come in until Michelle left so we decided to mess with him. She stayed an extra hour and half while Dale just sat in his truck waiting. He kept texting me, but I only replied, "Ok," over and over even when it wasn't the appropriate response. When Michelle finally walked out she purposely walked over to talk to him. I watched from the bathroom window laughing my head off. Haha.
I had one call with my morning partner, Mike. Then Michelle came for 9a-7p. We had no calls. Then Dale showed up at 7p, and we had 2 back-to-back calls. One of our calls had 4 of us getting a heavy guy up the stairs in his house. He had just had surgery on his leg/foot and couldn't walk at all. I have to say that was the heaviest and most difficult lifting I've ever done on this job. I thought Dale and Scott were going to have heart attacks. They were both sweating and out of breath. Scott was beet red. I swear I've never felt the strain in my back like I did with that one. He wasn't really obese or anything, but we had to use the stairchair which added a lot of weight, and the guy was beefy. I was so worried I was going to wake up the next day with a hurt back, but fortunately I didn't. I was so thankful for a full night's sleep finally.
Thursday, June 28, 2018- It felt nice going home today since I'd been working so much the last few weeks. It was pouring rain today, and I just didn't feel like running in it. Plus, I knew I would be running the next 4 days in a row. Seemed like the perfect day to do my one final spin at the gym. This time I did an hour and it really kicked my ass...as always. Amazing how spinning never gets easier since the whole point is to keep making it harder. Haha.
My paycheck direct deposit was late today so I hung around the house until the afternoon when it finally came through. I had bills to pay and errands to run. Money was flying out of that account almost quicker than it went in. Haha. I had so many little things I needed for John and me and for our trip to Texas. I wasted my time driving around to different outlet stores looking for sandals for John. Finally settled on a pair I found at Famous Footwear. I'll admit that I gave in and spent frivolous money again. I got my nails done. After cutting them off a month ago, I kept looking at them and hating the way they looked. Such a silly thing, but I felt like I lost something important to me. Just stupid fingernails, but I really love having them done, and I worked my fucking ass off the week before so why not just do it, so I did. Now, can I keep them up? Not sure. Haha. If I have to cut them off again, then I will, but I'm going to try to keep them going. They do have a function which was also why I got them done. I can give a good back scratching. Haha.
I took Phoenix on a bug-hell walk in the Green Hills and then finally went home for the night. I did an upper body and abs workout then packed my suitcase. I think I had as much stuff packed for the weekend as I did for Hawaii! Haha. I can't believe I ever lived out of a backpack and then a van. I'm like the opposite now.
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| Phoenix on our walk |
I got up at 6:30am and ran on the road from home. I had planned 8 miles, but I actually struggled today and turned around at 3 miles. Part of it is the boredom of this run, but 6 miles just felt hard. That's not a good sign since I have a 10-mile trail race and a 12-mile mountain race coming up in July. Haha. Oh well. I did run this pretty fast but had to make an emergency pit stop in both miles 4 and 6, which definitely slowed me down a bit. Haha. 6.1 miles in 44:56 (moving time haha). 7:18 pace when I was actually running. Maybe it wasn't really the distance, but the speed I'm out of shape for.
Since most things were packed, I was able to take the rest of the morning at a leisurely pace. I got all of my things in the car and John up. He packed his suitcase and we were ready to go. The hardest part was leaving Phoenix. :( Chill is fine since Bryan actually likes him. He hates Phoenix so it was hard looking in her sad face as I said goodbye and shut the door.
Flying out of Portland is so much better than Boston. It takes only minutes to park and walk in. The airport is small and way less busy. I think it was only 30 minutes from parking to sitting down at Shipyard for drinks. The beer wasn't very good, but it was better than most airport beer.
Our flight was completely full, and we had to actually wait for seats. I lucked out with an aisle exit row, while John got stuck in a middle seat 7 rows ahead of me. He didn't care since he's small still. I spent the whole flight reading my book and reliving all of my life's regrets which I do every time I fly Delta. My Delta flight attendant career would have me at 19 years right now if that had gone as planned. If September 11th hadn't happened and if I hadn't followed along with someone else's life for 13 years after that. I do feel a pang of sadness every time I fly. I don't regret everything in my life, of course. John, my running, the people I've been able to meet and get to know the last 17 years, the life of an Army spouse, living in places I would never have. It hasn't all been bad. I chose my husband poorly, but a lot of good came out of it. But STILL, I can't help but think of the what if's every time I fly.
Our flight landed early, but the jetway broke leaving us stuck on the plane for probably another 15 minutes. We only had a 44 minute layover and had to go from the B gates to the E gates. We hustled and made it just as our zone was being called. I'd much prefer that close call than waiting around for hours. This flight was much better since we could watch free movies and had seats together. I watched "Game Night" which was pretty funny. By the time it was ending, we were landing. Yay!
The yay was shortlived when we walked out into the Dallas heat. GROSS! We had a shuttle to Granbury, Tx which turned out to be a couple in their own vehicle. Haha. They were super nice, but the drive was excruciating since we hit Friday afternoon traffic. 2 hours later, we finally arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn in Granbury. It was actually very pretty, and I have to admit that after sitting in the freezing a/c for 2 hours, I was happy to feel the warm air. It was almost 7pm so the air wasn't as hot and a nice breeze was blowing over the lake.
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| The hotel |
Dinner was actually really nice. I was a little nervous at first when Brandon and his girlfriend walked out of the hotel with vodka tonics in their hands. I immediately thought of the visit with them in Boston in April. Although they did drink them the entire time, everything stayed ok. No Boston incidents. Haha. I actually drank a lot less than I expected mainly because we ate way too much food and I felt full the whole time and also because the beer wasn't awesome. Haha. I did enjoy this first beer in Texas by Revolver Brewing. You can get a 25oz glass here. I was starving this first night and got a grilled cheese filled with mac & cheese and even ordered dessert! Fried peaches. I sent a pic to Tony Wild since he's from Texas and would appreciate the pic. Haha.
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| My dad and sister-in-law, Claudia |
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| Fried peaches! |
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| My dad being funny |
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| My brothers, Jason and Brandon |
I kind of caused an abrupt end to dinner by saying how awful Trump is. Haha. Claudia, my sister-in-law, and I were the only ones there who aren't Trump supporters. I just don't get it at all!! I never hold back, though. He's a scumbag, and I'll happily proclaim that. Haha.
We went back to the hotel after that and everyone called it a night.
Saturday, June 30, 2018- I slept in as late as possible, had coffee and then headed out for a run. I really wanted to stay out of the sun and run at the State Park, but I was the only one without wheels and couldn't get myself there until Monday morning. So it meant a run from the hotel. The high for the day was showing 103, but when I walked out of the hotel, it was 79! Cool, right?! No! Not right. The blast of humidity was unexpected. Omg. Between that and the sun, I knew this would hurt. Fortunately, I only had to run a short stretch by the road before jumping on the Moments in Time Bike/Hike Trail that started right off the town square. The first part was shady, but after that it was in the sun. The humidity kicked my ass, but I purposely ran this as fast as possible. It wasn't long at only around 2 miles each way. I made it down to the turn around fine, but right after that, I had to make TWO emergency stops. On the second one, I forgot to stop my watch. Ugh. I'm not really liking how this is just becoming the norm for EVERY run. Would steroid treatment be worth it after all?? I just don't know! Anyway, finished up 5.5 miles in 41:31. 7:29 pace with the stop included. Haha. Still managed to snag two Strava CRs on the way out. Woot.
When I got back to the room I let John sleep in. I realized I had no access to food or water. I tried to drink the water, but just smell of it made me gag. I asked my parents if they could drive me to a grocery store. My dad drove me to HEB which is where I used to shop when we lived in Texas, but omg, this was bigger than a Super Walmart! Way too overwhelming! I got water, chips and salsa and some muffins. And then wow, how did I forget my favorite thing at HEB? The fresh tortilla stand?! It was what I would buy every time I shopped and it had completely slipped my mind! I bought two fresh packs of hot, buttered flour tortillas and lived off of these things for the next 3 days.
I woke John up when I got back. There was really nothing for him to do so he got on his computer. I showered and then realized I was super bored. The party wasn't until 2pm and my brothers were hiding in their rooms. I was starting to twitch from no activity so I decided to take a walk to the liquor store to see what Texas beer I could find. It was 102 degrees when I stepped outside. I made it to the bridge (about 3/4 of a mile). If the strong wind blowing down the lake hadn't been there, I would have turned around. The heat was nearly unbearable. The walk was only 1.4 miles, but it felt like 3. I walked in the store pouring in sweat. Haha. It felt so good in there! The beer selection was extensive, but it honestly didn't appeal to me much. The one beer I wanted to get was an empty shelf, of course. So I walked back and forth until I settled on a Double IPA. I really just wanted a few singles, but they didn't sell any. I paid for it then stepped back out into the oven. It was awful. I couldn't wait to get back to the hotel.
I was so soaked in sweat that I had to take another shower. Haha. Then it was party time. It was great seeing my grandmother and my mom's side of the family whom I hadn't seen in a really long time, but the party was a bit too formal and on a timeline. I think something more laid back would have been better like at their house or something. Even my grandmother left as soon as she could. I never even got to talk to her! It was great to see my sister and oldest brother, Butch. And my niece and nephew, Lauren and Tyler. Butch was always the black sheep of the family, but has been sober now for two years. It was actually nice talking to him. His girlfriend was nice and down to earth. I guess that leaves me as the new black sheep. Haha. Lauren was pregnant with her second and Tyler is engaged and is soon-to-be a step dad. Crazy how everyone has changed so much. Here are some pics from the party.
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| John with Brandon's three kids and Jason's one (the tall boy) |
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| I don't think Jessica found me too amusing. |
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| My Nannie. I loved the cake. |
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| Me with my dad and Demere's boyfriend, Mark. |
On the way over, I got to ride with Demere and Mark in Mark's Tesla! It was pretty cool.
I was so stuffed and tired that I went back to the room to call it a night. I started getting texts from Jessica telling me to come down and join them. Um, after the Boston incident I had no desire to go get drunk with them. I kind of feel bad about it, but it just wasn't appealing. They did stay down late and got pretty hammered. The last message to me was "rookie". Yeah, rookies are hungover the next morning, which they were. Haha.
The next day was much of the same. I got up at the same time and went out for the same run. 79 degrees again when I walked outside, but the sun was already blazing hot and the humidity was once again around 74%. I decided to run even faster today to get the torture over with! I ended up beating my two CRs from the day before and taking another one. Could only snag 2nd for the 4th one. 5.5 miles in 38:52. 7:03 pace. Sub-7s for the last 3.5 miles which is pretty good for me right now.
I was so much hotter when I finished today than the day before. I had to crank the a/c in the room for 45 minutes before I stopped sweating and could shower.
Later that morning, we went to see the house my parents bought there. It wasn't anything unique. One of those cookie cutter gated communities, but they wanted to share it with us so we all went over there. Then it was off to lunch at a pretty nice BBQ place. It was over 100 degrees, but we still sat outside. Texas knows how to make the outdoors enjoyable even in that heat. Lots of fans and shade!
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| John, Copelan and my great-niece, Emma Rae |
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| Claudia, John and Copelan |
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| My dad at lunch |
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| Everyone at lunch |
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| Hush puppies!! |
On the drive there, I noticed a bowling alley and thought I would suggest that to my brothers and family as something to do that night instead of just hanging out at the hotel. I was happy they were game! I sucked so bad, but we had a great time. It was such a good idea. Everyone had fun.
As I said earlier, we ate way too much on this trip. I couldn't believe everyone was hungry after the lunch we had. Haha. We ended up at a hole-in-the-wall authentic Mexican restaurant that was really good. John made the best choice with the street taco. I got flautas and then felt like I was going to pop after that.
Once back at the hotel, all of the kids except John wanted to swim in the lake. He wanted to swim in the pool so I went down there with him. I felt so gross from all the food so I walked on the treadmill in the fitness room while he swam. The treadmill faced the pool so that I could see him. It was the perfect set up. I walked 2 miles and then joined him in the pool area. It was only a few minutes later when everyone else showed up from the lake and we shut the pool down way later than the posted hours. Haha.
Monday, July 2, 2018- I finally talked my parents into taking me to Dinosaur Valley State Park this morning. It ended up being really nice and they loved it! They walked while I ran. Before we got there, though, I ended up having a huge blowout over the phone with Bryan. The day before, he told me he was going to have an 18 year old kid stay in my house to take care of the dogs. Excuse me?! I pitched a huge fit over this and told him that no one was to be staying in MY house. The dogs aren't children and don't need someone overnight with them so I assumed he was trying to do some sort of favor for him. Um hell no. I contacted a friend who works in Carroll County dispatch to see if she or any of my other friends were working that night in case I needed to call and have a cruiser swing by my house. She said she was working and to just make the official call if I needed to. I told Bryan this. He assured me that the kid wouldn't stay at the house, so I never called the police to go by. But omg, did he all of a sudden turn into a crazed freak. Screaming at me over the phone. Paranoid that the police were going to be following him. WTF. I was never calling the police on him in the first place. He refused to let me get a word in. Fortunately, my parents could hear his every word and I had witnesses to the craziness. He was telling me I committed a crime and calling me all sorts of obscenities. The only good thing was that I had witnesses to what I had lived with when we were married. He said that it sucked that John was stuck with me. With ME?! ME?! Wow. Crazy person. Literally out of his mind. His last message was that he was blocking my texts and unfriending me on Facebook. Haha. Ok. Sounds good to me. I REALLY wish he'd get a CAT scan. His behavior is abnormal. I'll admit the peace and quiet has been nice, but there's even MORE for the next blog post. Leslie's drama is To Be Continued.... I have to keep you all in suspense. Haha.
I was happy to start running when we got to the park. It was on my mind the whole time. What do I do? I'm dealing with someone who is so night and day. His view of the world is so skewed. Ugh. I was glad to be running in a new place on different trails. I needed this right now. I made up a loop using the park map. I got super confused at the end since the map actually had a typo and had two trails marked the opposite of what they were signed. I finally figured it out, but not without a lot of initial confusion and constant stopping to check. Haha. I ended making a 7.3 mile loop in 1:02:58. 611ft of elevation gain.
My parents ended up walking down to the river to see the real preserved dinosaur prints. The pictures looked really cool. They were super excited about this place the next time they come back to Texas. For now, it's back to their regular home in Hawaii...where lava is spewing 4 miles away. Haha. Crazy.
We went back to the hotel. I woke John up, then showered and packed up our stuff. Our shuttle car was picking us up at noon for the ride to the airport. We came down and hung out with Brandon, Jessica and the kids and my parents for awhile until it was time for us to leave. I'm not sure when I'll see them all again, but it might be here in this town again next March when my nephew is getting married. Now, early March in Texas sounds great!! Much better time of year for it. Haha.
The ride to the airport was much better this time. We checked in and went through security. They pulled me aside to do the hand check while poor John was stuck trying to get all of our things off the conveyor belt. They were telling him he was in the way with all the stuff which was irritating. I was stuck in this holding box and there was nothing I could do. He did his best. Finally, they let me free so that I could help him then we walked over to TGIFriday's for lunch. It was going to be a long afternoon and night so I thought we should get food now.
We had seats together on the flight to Atlanta and more movies! Yay. I watched I, Tonya, and omg, it was so good! If you were a huge fan of figure skating at the time and were caught up in that whole story, this is definitely a must-see. It's not what I expected all. Really well done.
We had a few hours in Atlanta so I made us walk to our departing gate instead of taking the train. I needed to walk so badly after so much sitting. John really needed it, too.
We sat in the gate for awhile waiting for the flight to Portland. The flight was pretty neat since we flew right past some thunderstorms. We watched that for awhile. I read a little of my book, but I ended up using the free messaging wifi to chat with someone while John dozed. That was a first being able to chat while in the air. I'm weird and love turbulence which we had most of the flight. It nearly rocked me to sleep. Haha.
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| Lightning in a cloud and the sunset |
So pretty dull weak in general. Glad I had some Bryan drama to spice that shit up! Next blog post will have races again! Yay! Two of them. One I didn't mention before because I didn't want it out there that I would be in Worcester, but the USATF East Region and NE Masters Track Championship 1500m was on my docket, as well as the National Mountain Running Championships at Loon the following day. Plus more drama and some pouting. Oh vey! Hahaha. I'm obviously building you up for another boring post. 😀
I spent a sex-week period from late June to early August in Texas when I was in the Army in 1995. I hated everything about it, despite going in with an open mind and thinking I might be able to tolerate about 10 to 15 percent of the climatological, cultural and other differences between N.H. and San Antonio. As it turned out my mind was receptive to only about 3 to 4 percent. It was mostly the weather that was oppressive, but I was sucked into going to Dallas one free weekend and that place is just a collection of one million rednecks and empty-headed bimbos with falsies. (I have nothing against breast implants, I just criticize the hell out of anyone who has them. Wait, that doesn't even make sense.)
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of friends from there but the key part of that is "from there" -- they had the brains to leave. The state has 27 million people and it would be ludicrous to pretend all of them are ignorant Bible-thumping jackholes, but it's still an unmanageable number and if the U.S. could expel it from the Union we wouldn't even need national elections anymore and we wouldn't have that pile of shit in the form of a bloated human occupying the White House. But Texas, it must be said, has a solid economy and is thus not complete hapless and disposable like those other shitty states in the American South. I'm sure I'll endear myself to your many bumpkin readers with this shit.
Anyway, I think it's cool you got to travel for a change, even if it was to one of the layers of Hell. You need to create some relatives in this area for next time.