Recently a boy asked Naomi how many pairs of shoes she owns. She had no exact number, no real idea, so she counted. Thirty-five (or was it thirty-eight Naomi?). I figured I must be somewhere around the same considering Naomi has a significantly higher number of heals and dress shoes than me. Plus I don't feel like I have a lot of shoes. I started counting and then stopped counting after 50 because then I was embarrassed.
I know I have asked friends before how many pairs of shoes they have but I don't remember now the outcome. But with Naomi bringing it up again, I'm curious again. I know there are extremes on both ends of a lot and not a lot, but I'm wondering about the middle...mostly because I think Naomi's in the middle and I'm in the middle. Right?
This has been a wake up 15 minutes before I have to leave for work week, all week long. So in case you've seen me, it also means it's been a week where I look like I woke up 15 minutes before work, all week long. Anyway, I've been tired because I've been having a reasonable amount of fun everyday that has kept me up too late.
For example on Monday, Christasha and Morgan and Katie and I went to Red Mango late and Katie admitted that she watches Reba. And we made her hang her head in shame. Then I went to a midnight showing of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on Tuesday. Or as I like to call it Transformers: Mostly a Piece of Poop (I will discuss further later).
I got together on Wednesday with a few old friends and all of their babies and husbands. And I took comfort in the fact that though the conversation topics have evolved and we have all changed in the past 10 years, we still ended up on Shawni's mom's couches talking until late. And there was last night, when I was at the AIGA booth at the Art's Festival helping people make bags all evening. The project is really cool, we had cut up vinyl billboards and used the pieces to make no sew vinyl messenger bags. For $10 you can stop by through Sunday and make your own. I'll bet there at 3:00 on Saturday so if you're there at least stop by and say hello. So I think that after work I will lay on the couch and watch Michael Jackson videos on BET all night tonight instead of anything that requires me to either move or stay awake past 10:00.
It's Wasatch Back picture time! Last year I posted like 20 pictures so I made some major cuts and got my numbers down to 19. great job!
preparing the Ted Danson van most of van 1 at the first exchange Dainon running into the exchange with Megan Aaron ran his whole first leg with his fashion sunglasses on...impressive! Kristen taking Snow Basin Garrett came to watch/sleep and Rod volunteered night time! 1:30am Megan to Aaron exchange 5:30am Rick to Kristen exchange tired and more tired and the mailbox I wanted to punch even though this only looks like a slight incline, this is Logan gaining 1,400 feet of elevation in 3 miles and even though this looks practically flat, this is Rick gaining 1,600 feet of elevation in 4 miles finished! the full Ted Danson With Wolves van 2 and of course, a humpty end to a 31 hour race As usual, we had a great time. But Ragnar better still give out jackets next year if you've done the race for 5 years, cus at this point, that is the motivation for this old body...
I really meant it when I said I'm poorly prepared for the race tomorrow. In January when we signed up I wanted to challenge myself, and assuming I would train properly in the 6 months between me and the race, I ended up with a 3 mile uphill leg and then 2 nice 5 mile legs. I'd usually rather run 8 miles that are slow and steady or flat than any distance uphill so I was excited for the challenge.
Except I mostly crapped out.
I had my last semester of school this spring and was preoccupied with that and then at the end of a too long college road I turned into a totally lazy mess in the month since school has finished. For the first time in a long time I had time to sit, weekends with no homework and the relief that I'm done. And that's been nice, but it did nothing for my training schedule.
I've tried half-heartedly the past few months, always with the worry in the back of my head that I was already too far gone to be ready. Last night I went for a final pre-race run to remove some of the anxiety I feel about staring this in the face tomorrow: (I realize 800 feet in 3 miles is not nearly as difficult as the 1,400 and 1,600 feet Logan and Rick gain their last 3 and 4 miles respectively, but I'm a baby and they are not)
It was rainy out and quiet and I started my 6 hour long running playlist halfway in at songs I don't ever get to (I dont know why I have a running playlist that is 6 hours long...in case I have to run to Provo someday maybe?). Instead of starting in on myself for being a buttfor, I thought about enjoying it. And I did enjoy it. I realized that I have been doing some training and I could probably let my body trust it's 9 years of running to remember how to do it for a race that it's done 3 times before and always survived splendidly. And yeah, maybe this won't be my best but I'll do it and and do my best.
So I ate a cookie and ice cream when I got home because, hey! I'll be burning all those calories this weekend! And I made three separate running playlists specifically for each run because, hey! I have 6 hours of running songs that have been underused! And most importantly...I'll be having so much fun because, hey! We're Ted Danson With Wolves!
This is one of the forgotten favorites I ran across last night...
Remember how in February Mike and Katie moved to New Zealand? Kristina and I decided that it would be a good idea if they had something to take with them to remind them of their friends, but not something that would add to their suitcases weight limit. Enter photograph messages. Kristina set up her fish eye lense in the spare room and as people came to the going away party we threw, I snagged them and took their photo. After the party (and after she deleted perhaps an excessive number of Logan self-portraits), Kristina burned a disc. And volia...memories! These are like 1/5 of the total pictures, but they've been sitting on my desktop forever and are some of my favorites.
