3 Sisters 7 Days

Wedding Planning Part I: Wedding planners see Black and White and are very structured, aka vultures.

Seriously. A vulture is a person or thing that preys.

That’s what I feel like right now.  The drama that goes along with wedding planning!

I don’t understand why companies feel the need to squeeze every single dime out of you because “it is your wedding.” I am finding that it ISN’T your wedding at all!

Yesterday, my sisters Jeanna, Juliann, and Francine went to see my reception venue and to sign all the paperwork and finalize the date of my wedding.  All is good. They also had the opportunity to discuss in detail some of the choices I will have for MY wedding, including (pardon the paraphrasing):

Okay, here are the colors of the linens you can choose from. If you don’t like these colors, then you can go to an assigned outside vendor and pay more out of pocket to get the “right” color for you. Oh, you don’t like the beer we provide? Well, we can provide the beer you want and charge you extra. No, we won’t refund you the open bar tab that you are already paying for.  So, I am paying for an open bar and for beer that no one will drink? I will bring in some drinkable beer and you will charge me for AND charge me for the beer you provide? Oh, okay. After all, it is MY wedding.

I just get so upset with companies taking advantage of my emotions.  We want choices! Yes, it easier to get a whole package deal and this place is affordable, near the beach, and accessible to Jeanna, who’s pregnant and handling my out-of-state wedding planning.  But it’s already over our budget, and I can’t imagine spending more money to make it better.  Why can’t I provide some necessities and they can give me a refund on some of the services I won’t use?

Stay tuned for more wedding planning woes.

Side Note: I do appreciate everything Jeanna is doing and I do trust her, I am just a little emotional right now.

This past weekend was exhausting. I worked the whole holiday weekend – including two 12-hour days! My patience has been low, along with my energy. It has taken everything out of me to get in my runs with Sammy and a little bike riding (long work days aren’t going to deter me from my cross training).

Maz, on the other hand, had a three day weekend AND he gets home at 2:30 everyday! Then why am I doing everything? I just don’t know.

Conversation One:

Me: Can you go to Costco?

Maz: What do you need?

Me: Well, coffee for starters.

Maz: I think you can go a day without coffee.

Me: Yes, I can but I need you to actually run an errand – point blank. Just because I don’t have time to go to Costco today doesn’t mean I will have time tomorrow. Have some freaking confidence; I think you can do a Costco trip on your own.

Later in the day…Maz was showing off his confidence by giving me the details of his shopping trip. The last thing on my mind was how he couldn’t find the mushrooms, so he decided not to get them.

Conversation Two…following another long day for me, while Maz got home at 2:30:

Me: Maz,  when you get home early everyday, I really need you to clean up the kitchen and empty your lunch box. I don’t want to see a full lunchbox on that table again (for those of you who don’t already know, Maz takes a lunchbox the size of a carry-on suitcase with him to work everyday).

Maz: Okay, but today I fell asleep.

Me: It’s called a NAP, and I am glad one of us has time for it.

Me (while doing the dishes): Can you take the bathroom trash out & put it in the kitchen trash, then take the kitchen trash out because tomorrow is trash day?

Maz: No response.

Then I start to see movement…Bathroom trash is gone, kitchen trash is gone, BUT there’s no new bag in the kitchen trash can.

Conversation Three…about ONE hour later:

Maz: You know, I took the trash can to the curb; I didn’t just put the house trash in the can.

Me: What, do you want a gold star?

Okay, Juli and I have convinced ourselves that there is NO OTHER WAY to increase our running abilities than to cross train.  We can’t imagine adding anymore running miles to our training log. Seriously, I think we are exhausted just thinking about running more to do better in our marathons. Our solution is to cross train and develop “other” muscles.

So, yesterday I had this amazing idea to go actual mountain biking.  Right now, I use my mountain bike mostly for road riding and groomed dirt trails.  I actually thought mountain biking could be fun…WRONG!  First of all, the bike I am using is one step up from a Huffy you can get at Target.  Add to that, I don’t know how to use the gears; my back brake doesn’t work; and the thing is so heavy.  I didn’t know it was so heavy until I found myself carting the bike around up and down rocks and boulders for most of the ride.  I was more exhausted from the 4 mile bike ride than running 13 miles!  We couldn’t even do the whole trail because I just couldn’t do it.  I was ready to leave the bike behind and run the trail.  It was so bad…I just wasn’t prepared.

I have a whole new outlook on people who mountain bike; they are intense and extremely fit.  I mean, I just ran 26.4 miles at a pretty decent pace but I couldn’t mountain bike 4 miles! Now I’m torn; I have tried an activity that I didn’t enjoy because I it killed me. Do I continue and prove to myself that I can do it? Or do I give up and stick to road and groomed trails? It’s a little more expensive to get better, considering I’ll have to buy a new bike. (My current bike is now retired from ALL real mountain biking.)

Maybe this summer will be road-riding and trail running. Next summer – mountain biking.  I don’t know. My mind changes daily and sometimes hourly. We’ll see what happens next.

This is probably the best picture out of my/our entire stay in CA.  Maz has been to the beach before, but not like this past trip.  We actually spent a good amount of time at the La Jolla shores (my favorite place) and snorkeled.  Neither of us had ever done that before, but we had a good time.  I think the trickiest part is learning how to get in and out of the water with fins. Well, at least Maz was able to keep his fins on…

I know this weekend’s race isn’t my first marathon, but it’s stressful nonetheless. I have been thinking about it all week, but today it hit me.  I finished my shift an hour early at REI today, leaving nothing to think about but packing for my trip…and with the packing comes thinking about the race.

Did I train enough with hills and without hills? Did I push myself too much or not enough? Can I run in the hot weather?  Will I wear a skort or shorts?  Will the house we are staying at the night before have coffee for me on race morning? Remember to pack Gu’s, water bottle, shoes, tanks, visor, and running sunglasses.  What if I start off too slow and am not be able to gain time later in the race?

Okay, Breathe.

I’ll be fine as long as I do my best and listen to my body.

Now, I just need to follow my own advice.

On Tuesday nights Maz is on his own for dinner and usually it’s hot dogs or chips and salsa.  Last night he decided to give in to his cravings: Double Bacon Cheeseburger. Since he was so proud of his creation ,he thought it was a Kodak moment.  I think Carl’s Jr. better watch their back…

It has been a miserable week. For the past week our refrigerator has been freezing EVERYTHING! We have no vegetables or lettuce. My Greek yogurt froze and our Brita water filter is a big block of ice. We have thrown away just about everything because of frost bite, and have been eating out or cooking only if there will be no leftovers.  We haven’t been able to buy anything at the store that isn’t freezer friendly or shelf stable.

You could say I’ve had my fill of chips, margaritas and peanut butter.  It will be nice to have a salad again….

Finally, we had someone come out today to take a look and replace the temperature gauge.  Yup, that was it.  The bad news is that it broke, but the good news is that we have a really, really old refrigerator that will last another 10-15 years (according to the repair man).  I think our fridge is as old as our house, 1983, and from what I gather they don’t make appliances like they use to (I know I sound like I’m 70 years old!). I just laugh when I look in the door and see Montgomery Ward printed on the information sticker.

Now I am off to the store to reacquaint myself with the vegetable and milk groups.

Yesterday was my day off for the week, and since I don’t have a traditional job, I don’t get two days off in a row, and never a whole weekend.

I started my day with a quick 30 minute run at 6:30am, then dropped a friend off at the airport; on the way home, I passed the Honda dealership, so I thought I would get an “express” oil change. One hour and a half later, I was out of the Honda dealership and on my way home. By the time I got there, it was just after 10am, so I sat at the computer to do some emailing while taking care of some calls I have been putting off.  Before I knew it, it 11am came and I needed to be across town in 30 minutes for a quick lunch with a good friend.  Okay, out of the house at 11:10 and then to lunch. Made it by 11:40, which is pretty much on time for me…After a nice and pleasant lunch I was headed to Costco and then to the store for last minute items for dinner (enchiladas).

I made it home from lunch and errands, and then I had to tackle the house – sweep and vacuume, then a deep cleaning in the bathroom , all while on the phone dealing with health insurance issues with the HR representative for REI.  No joke, yesterday was a day of multi-tasking to the tenth power.  Finally, the house was cleaned and I needed to shower.  By the time 3:30 rolled around, I was exhausted but clean.  I laid down for about 45 minutes without the luck of falling asleep and then Maz came home…

“Did you make the enchiladas?” were Maz’s homecoming words. I wanted to kill him! As I ran down my day, his comment was “Wow! you should have just gone to work.” My response? “I’m sorry but I don’t have 3 hours to clean a gun on my day off like you do.” He kind of went mute at that point.

On a lighter note, he did make a salad for dinner.  Too bad I couldn’t enjoy it because he insisted on adding a pepper/jalapeno – my mouth was burning by the second bite!

He ate my salad.

Juliann and I have been on a mission to figure out this whole running thing.  How little can we actually train and still cross the marathon finish line in good spirits?  Well, as it turns out, there are some shortcuts you can take in the beginning of the training process especially if you have run a marathon before.  Now that we have done our homework and have done the full 16 week training program in the past, we are ready to focus on the important long runs beginning 8 weeks leading up to the event.

June 6th is the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Marathon so this past weekend made it 8 weeks out.  At 8 weeks, we start the really long runs and we must do 3 long runs between week 8 and week 3.  I missed the 3 hour run this past weekend due to a 1/2 marathon and since I opted out of adding an additional hour to the 1/2 marathon, I need to run for 3 hours this weekend.  Since this weekend is full I set time aside this morning for the long run before heading to work. I was ready to go, I had my pasta last night, the alarm was set for early this morning and I had already planned out my before run meal (peanut butter toast with a banana and a cup of coffee).  Though it was storming last night with hail/wind/snow and rain, I didn’t think the storm would continue through the night- I had to run in the morning, there is no way the storm was going to stick around.

Well, I was wrong! It’s brutal out there.  I swear we are in January not April!

So, on to Plan B. Before this morning there was no plan B.  Looks like I will be squeezing 3 hours of running early tomorrow morning or Sunday morning…I am tired just thinking about it.

Yesterday Sammy and I went our for a run at Red Rocks Open Space, It’s a good run that would usually leave dogs and some humans exhausted (Juliann can vouch for that).  We just finished our 6.2 mile run and I mean we are doing a quick “cool down” walk back to the car and then Sammy does it.  She goes into a tunnel and comes out the other end. After calling her for several moments, I see her approaching me with her tail under and her ears back – all I see is black stuff all around her neck and she smells.  Unfortunately it is a familiar smell; we have been her before…it’s a dead animal.  That little turd found a dead animal in the underground tunnel and rubbed herself in it! No joke, it was so bad.

I had two options:

1. put her in my car for a 25 minute ride home and then straight to the tub

2. take her to a close dog park (Bear Creek Dog Park) that has a creek for her to bathe in.

I chose option number 2.  After getting her in the car I don’t think I could have handled the smell all the way home.  I mean, it was brutal!

My master plan worked for the smell and the nasty black stuff on her neck. I did run into a whole other set of problems at Bear Creek Dog Park.  I guess I had forgotten that water, dogs and dirt don’t always make  a good combination.  The picture above says it all.

Side-note:  The energy Sam demonstrated at the dog park made me feel like the 6 mile trail run was a stroll in the park.