Monday, June 9, 2008

Five Things on the Fifth - from the Road

I'm a bit late in posting these five observations..I've been in Texas this past week, travelling and eating and scrapping and hanging out with friends..what could be better than that. I had a really fun fifth to report on:

1- Back in Texas - it's 95 degrees before 9 a.m. but the sun is shining, the Texas flag is flying and I love Texas!
2 - Shingles on the ground - oh yes and the 50 mile an hour winds are here too which means you feel like you are in the whirling inside of a convection oven. Tony and Amy lost about half the shingles on their house and Tony got stranded on the roof when the ladder got knocked down by flying shingles. You can't make this stuff up!
3- Scrapbooking Heaven - in our lives the word "scrapbooking" covers many kinds of evils - cards, stamping, paper, stencils, glue, glitter, embellishments, fabric, photography. Amy & I went to the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington and spent two and a half days walking up nine aisles, SHOPPING till we dropped, doing make and takes, stamping, stenciling, glittering, and then staying up till midnight working on pages and stuff. Utterly relaxing.
4- Chicken Burrito - the Chicken Burrito was actually part of the GASC experience but it deserves mention on it's own. A HUGE chicken (and actually steak too) burrito with chicken that was marinated and cooked in a special broth and had corn, onions, black beans, rice -- OMG. Not quite as good as a Freebird burrito but darn close and available in the Arlington Convention Center. Rock on!
5- "Heavenly" beds at the Arlington Sheraton -- huge, big, fluffy beds with tons of pillows and this amazing comforter which was great because my BFF friend Amy needs the air at 62...two glasses of wine and the comforter and I was out.

Who knew the Fifth could give us so much fun!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

I finished






Today we got up -- literally -- before dawn and made our way to Lincoln Park where along with 3999 of my other best friends I did a 5k Run/Walk (some of the more enterprising souls did a 10K). Okay I belong to 2 gyms here but go to neither. I have not taught swim classes in three months. So I am not in shape. I started deliberately at the back of the pack....thinking "do not become absorbed by others...take your pace.....breathe...". A mile in I thought i would die. My ankles started burning. I thought,....there is no shame in doing a mile and turning back...no one knows or cares and you still have the (nice) Nike tshirt. Somehow, someTHING kept me moving forward. And....I FINISHED. Almost nothing in my life is finished right now. Lots of messy, untidy, out of control, unfinished things. (Job, home, life, etc.) So it is was truly validating and fulfilling to finish something. Tomorrow I will likely have difficulty walking. But today...I watched the lions bask in the sun, sipped coffee at dawn with a bus of United people, and ran/walked (much more walking) three miles. Not a bad way to start the week.