Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Laziness...
So I was going to get so much done on my days off in between jobs - ha! So far I've gotten absolutely nothing done. Unless you count 2 loads of laundry which I haven't even hung up yet. Yipe! I had envisioned getting all sorts of productive things done - cleaning & organizing my place, organizing & purging my paperwork & files, doing touch-up painting that needs to be done, purging the extra things I have & downsizing my belongings... why oh why can't I find the motivation to do these things? I think I need to have activities on my calendar in order to get myself to accomplish things. Otherwise, there's no pressing reason for me to tackle certain tasks, so I don't do that. Ay yi yi. Okay, I'll post this blog entry, and then try to get something accomplished here. Or else get a maid! :)
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
St. Patty's Day Dash Report
I participated in the St. Patty's Day Dash this past Sunday, in pouring rain that made for a miserable final mile. I had registered to do this event with my friend Naomi last year, but hurt myself snowboarding the night before and couldn't do it. (I had hurt my tailbone pretty badly and was on pain pills.) This year I was bound & determined to do it, and had even talked my sister into doing it as well. Naomi was also on board - she ended up doing it herself last year.
So the first drawback to this year's event is that it was the first day of daylight savings time, my least favorite day of the year. Thank you Congress for moving that day up three weeks for no apparant reason. My sister spent the night at my place to be closer to the event, but upon awakening at 6:30 a.m. (which was really 5:30 a.m., bleh!) she informed me that she hadn't slept all night, so it didn't appear that she was in any shape to do the race. Oh well. I went ahead & got ready anyway. She had purchased some lovely green feather boas for us to wear, along with armbands, green leis, and some lovely leprechaun earrings. I also donned my green wig for the occassion (photo is of me in the wig from last summer), not really thinking that perhaps my baseball running hat might be more appropriate for the weather (more on that later.)
I had called Naomi around 7:00 a.m. to make sure she woke up with the time change, and it's a good thing I did because she had remembered to change her clocks, but not to set the alarm. Amazingly, she made it to my place by 7:25 a.m. We were able to get a great parking space, and jump on a shuttle bus to the start at Seattle Center. Of course, we had a bunch of time to kill as the race wasn't scheduled to start until 9:00 a.m. We headed over to Uptown Espresso for some coffee & pastries (mmmm.... morning glory muffins!) and so had a few other race participants. Luckily we scored a table, so we were able to hang out there for a while.
I was signed up for the "yellow" walk/crawl wave, and Naomi had signed up for the "red" timed wave, but since we were there together she convinced me to start with her, since I wasn't being timed anyway. The race was delayed by 10 minutes, so our wave didn't start until 9:20. The weather was sort of holding out, and I was hoping we could make it to the finish line before the skies began to dump on us.
The race route starts on Mercer, then turns right and loops back around & dumps us onto Highway 99 (northbound lanes) and into the Battery Street tunnel. 15,000+ people were registered for this run, and it did feel like rush hour on the highway. There were several people wearing amusing outfits - one woman was in a lobster costume - I couldn't quite figure out how that related to St. Patrick's Day. Lots of green boas, a few green wigs, and lots of green hats. My favorite was a group of guys I saw run by who had rigged this headgear that hung a can of Guiness in front of thier faces as they ran. One guy kept on waving his arms like he was trying to grab the can - pretty funny!
All was well until we came out of the Battery Street tunnel, then we were on the top level of the viaduct. Now it was raining pretty hard, and here I was wearing my glasses, wearing green eye makeup and my lovely green wig. With no baseball hat to keep the water off of my face, my glasses were covered with water. The rain was getting into my eyes as well, and making them sting. I seriously could not see out of both eyes for the last mile of the run. I was in fear of being ran over by the numerous baby strollers that were being pushed on the course (why do they allow that?) and contemplated just grabbing someone's arm & having them lead me in. (Not really, but man was I miserable.) I couldn't wait to get to the finish line.
Naomi was waiting for me when I crawled in, and we headed over to the now mostly empty swag area. It seems that many of the people who came in earlier had grabbed numerous bottles of water & bags of chips leaving precious little for the rest of us. Hmmm... We finally found some water, and opted to head back to my place to dry off, and then go to Hale's for breakfast. I was in no mood to hang out at the beer garden that was at the finish line. Besides, the line to get into it was horrendously long.
Things I learned - don't wear a wig in the rain. If it's raining, always wear a hat with a bill, and don't wear eye makeup or glasses. And try not to get ran over by rogue baby strollers!
Cheers!
So the first drawback to this year's event is that it was the first day of daylight savings time, my least favorite day of the year. Thank you Congress for moving that day up three weeks for no apparant reason. My sister spent the night at my place to be closer to the event, but upon awakening at 6:30 a.m. (which was really 5:30 a.m., bleh!) she informed me that she hadn't slept all night, so it didn't appear that she was in any shape to do the race. Oh well. I went ahead & got ready anyway. She had purchased some lovely green feather boas for us to wear, along with armbands, green leis, and some lovely leprechaun earrings. I also donned my green wig for the occassion (photo is of me in the wig from last summer), not really thinking that perhaps my baseball running hat might be more appropriate for the weather (more on that later.)
I had called Naomi around 7:00 a.m. to make sure she woke up with the time change, and it's a good thing I did because she had remembered to change her clocks, but not to set the alarm. Amazingly, she made it to my place by 7:25 a.m. We were able to get a great parking space, and jump on a shuttle bus to the start at Seattle Center. Of course, we had a bunch of time to kill as the race wasn't scheduled to start until 9:00 a.m. We headed over to Uptown Espresso for some coffee & pastries (mmmm.... morning glory muffins!) and so had a few other race participants. Luckily we scored a table, so we were able to hang out there for a while.
I was signed up for the "yellow" walk/crawl wave, and Naomi had signed up for the "red" timed wave, but since we were there together she convinced me to start with her, since I wasn't being timed anyway. The race was delayed by 10 minutes, so our wave didn't start until 9:20. The weather was sort of holding out, and I was hoping we could make it to the finish line before the skies began to dump on us.
The race route starts on Mercer, then turns right and loops back around & dumps us onto Highway 99 (northbound lanes) and into the Battery Street tunnel. 15,000+ people were registered for this run, and it did feel like rush hour on the highway. There were several people wearing amusing outfits - one woman was in a lobster costume - I couldn't quite figure out how that related to St. Patrick's Day. Lots of green boas, a few green wigs, and lots of green hats. My favorite was a group of guys I saw run by who had rigged this headgear that hung a can of Guiness in front of thier faces as they ran. One guy kept on waving his arms like he was trying to grab the can - pretty funny!
All was well until we came out of the Battery Street tunnel, then we were on the top level of the viaduct. Now it was raining pretty hard, and here I was wearing my glasses, wearing green eye makeup and my lovely green wig. With no baseball hat to keep the water off of my face, my glasses were covered with water. The rain was getting into my eyes as well, and making them sting. I seriously could not see out of both eyes for the last mile of the run. I was in fear of being ran over by the numerous baby strollers that were being pushed on the course (why do they allow that?) and contemplated just grabbing someone's arm & having them lead me in. (Not really, but man was I miserable.) I couldn't wait to get to the finish line.
Naomi was waiting for me when I crawled in, and we headed over to the now mostly empty swag area. It seems that many of the people who came in earlier had grabbed numerous bottles of water & bags of chips leaving precious little for the rest of us. Hmmm... We finally found some water, and opted to head back to my place to dry off, and then go to Hale's for breakfast. I was in no mood to hang out at the beer garden that was at the finish line. Besides, the line to get into it was horrendously long.
Things I learned - don't wear a wig in the rain. If it's raining, always wear a hat with a bill, and don't wear eye makeup or glasses. And try not to get ran over by rogue baby strollers!
Cheers!
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