that would be us this weekend. 

after the bridge run on thursday, a few of us met up at a local restaurant/club for their last “little black dress party” of the season.  having never been, it wasn’t what i expected.  we’ve eaten at the restaurant and it’s a nice place.  i guess i expected the little black dress party to be a more sophisticated wine-type affair.  it was… a meat market.  don’t get me wrong, we had a good time with our friends but it just took me by surprise.  we made it an early night, getting home just after midnight. 

friday night, we were invited to dinner with shaw, a british guy in town for a couple months with the royal navy.  he’s been doing the bridge run with us the last couple weeks.  after dinner, we came back to our place where scooter and his wife met us for some mariokart fun.  when scooter and sunny decided to call it a night, us two and shaw headed out to our favorite hangout for some live music.  the place was dead but the music was decent so we hung out for a few sets.  we took shaw back to the naval base around 01:30 and made it back home by 02:00.  hubby was asleep almost immediately.  i stayed up until after 05:00 working on converting the website for our running store.  mello is now the proud owner of a nice looking, dynamic, and interactive website, if i do say so myself, for his store. 

saturday we ran a couple of errands before picking up shaw at the store so that he could reclaim his car from our parking garage.  hubby and i then crashed on the couch for a few hours before getting a call from mello and shaw inviting us to hooters to watch ufc.  there were a few good fights before the snoozer that was the main event.  we managed to make it home just after midnight. 

this morning, shaw came over and he and hubby went for a beach run.  when they got back, i made a big breakfast for all and we three walked down to the plaza to see a movie, where i felt personally violated by the new matinee prices.  shaw took off after the walk back home and hubby and i spent the rest of the afternoon holding down the couch.  it’s tiring to be social!

my oh my, today yesterday saturday (am i ever going to finish this post and publish it?!) was a busy day!  the alarm went off at 06:00, which was definitely the low-light of the day.  especially since i actually had to listen to it and get up out of bed.  that sucked.  but, by 07:00 we were at our favorite plaza helping our running store to put on a benefit race.  it was a 5k race with proceeds going to medical costs for a ten year old girl who suffered severe burns over 80% of her body in a house fire.  the girl was there, wearing #1, but i didn’t actually see her as i was hard at work.  i helped register people and hand out bib numbers until the race started.  once it started, we worked a water booth, filling cups and handing them to the runners as they raced by.  it was so funny to see the little kids’ faces light up when they saw those water cups.  the whole thing was a lot of fun (once i got past being awake so early), especially since i didn’t have to run!  and the turnout was awesome!  they said that most local races only bring 80-100 registrants but we had over 400.  i think mello said they were able to raise about $5,000 for the little girl.  after the race was over and the awards handed out (overall winner was an out of town guy who finished in sixteen minutes or so), a few of us got together for a much needed breakfast.  we then headed back home where our friends from ga were waiting for us.  they spent a few hours hanging out on the beach and at the pool before packing up to make the long trek back to atl.  i spent quite a while making an angel food cake trifle desert to bring to the bbq that mello was hosting for all who had helped with the race.  i tried to get a thirty minute nap after our guests left and before it was time to head to mello’s but my body does not react well to being timed so it was more of an eye-resting.  the party was a blast.  there was a great turnout and i got to talk a little with everyone so it was wonderful socializing.  i love having people to hang out with again!  we need to make it happen more often.

the crowds arriving

mello being interviewed by the local news

at the start line

the overall winner

mello awarding the female overall winner

to my friend, jenny, on becoming a first-time homeowner today!  when am i going to get to see pix???

i tell ya, give the girl the flu and she just stops ranting altogether!  what can i say?  last week was totally miserable.  i’ve never in my life been hit that hard by the flu.  i’ve never run a fever for five days straight and i wanted to die a bit.  i am thankful that it was just the flu and strep throat because if i had had a stomach bug on top of that… i may have had to swan dive off the balcony.  so, though i had no energy to post here, i did have stuff to say.  snippets of posts that never were:

• we followed up our wildy young work-night with a friday night at our favorite hangout to see a band we hadn’t seen there before.  they were craptastic.  i won’t even call them a cover band as they were purely karaoke – no original sound whatsoever.  the lead “singer” hurt my soul when he started doing the axl rose mic-stand-dance during sweet child o mine and i was appalled when gives you hell came on and i remarked at how much they sounded like all american rejects just to realize that none of them were singing.  not even lip-syncing.  they were just playing their instruments in the background while the cd played.  we only stayed until midnight, two sets was all we could take of music mockery. 
• the next morning, i set my alarm (on a saturday!) and got up early to go to the mall group run.  i remarked to hubby how i felt strangely flu-like because my neck and shoulders were stiff and i hadn’t swum laps in days.  i brushed it off figuring that i had just slept wrong.   the group run was just me and mello (hubby had a board meeting at our condo) and he was having sciatic pain so we mostly walked.  i’m glad that i went because he’s a trainer and it gave me the opportunity to have some one-on-one time with him to get some pointers on my running.  i felt much better about things after talking with him for that hour.  by the time i got back home, i was shivering cold and wrapped myself in two blankets on the couch.  a few hours later i realized that i was running a heck of a fever and hubby was packing up to go to bama for his mom’s birthday.  my flu was to be a lonely journey.
• i totally expected to be better after a couple days.  we had already planned on taking last tuesday afternoon off for the all american rejects concert and i was really looking forward to it.  instead of having fun at a concert, i found myself breaking down and going to the dr tuesday afternoon.  it was day four of not being able to get my temp below 101°.  it sucked laying in the back of the car right across the street from where the concert was taking place while hubby was in filling my prescriptions.  stupid friggin flu.
• steroids rock – my throat and ears felt so much better that night after just one dose.
• when my sissy relayed to BIL that i was waiting in the car while hubby was in the pharmacy he assumed i was pregnant.  i don’t follow the logic there but sorry to disappoint.
• i’m amazed that i had a one-day work week last week and it was the longest week of my life.
• after being cooped up all week, i finally felt up to a walk to our mall sunday.  we walked down there, had a yummy dinner (solid food, no more soup!!!), walked around the plaza a bit, and walked back home.  it was fabulous to get out and get some fresh air finally but i was exhausted by the time we made it back home.  energy replenishment promises to take a while.
• the cough and sinus congestion refuse to let up as well.
• it was a gorgeous, cool, open-window weekend.  perfect for airing the germy stuffiness out of the house.
• hubby abandoned me again monday.  he’ll be back friday and i miss him like crazy.
• prayers are needed all over including:
  • my dad’s wife totaled her car monday.  thankfully, she’s okay other than seat-belt bruises but she’s sore and shook up.
  • my friend katie’s 7yo son is recovering from yet another brain surgery yesterday.  it was unplanned but, fortunately, “minor” (can brain surgery be minor?!) and he came through with flying colors.  he’s such a trooper!
  • my 8yo niece’s friend is battling cancer.  that’s just wrong on every level.  no, the kids don’t know.
  • the wife of the youth pastor at my sissy’s church is fighting lower-body-paralysis (hopefully temporary) after childbirth. 

for years now, i’ve been saying that i want to do the 3-day walk for 6reast cancer but something always seems to get in the way and i say, “maybe next year.” 

well, an old friend of mine, jori, seems to have much better commitment than me.  she has registered and will be walking and raising funds to help 6006ies everywhere.  folks, i know that times are tough right now, but this is such a great cause!  i don’t know many people who haven’t been affected in one way or another by 6reast cancer.  every dollar counts when fighting cancer so even if you can only part with five or ten dollars, you can make a difference!

and, one of these days, i really am going to do the 3-day walk myself.

spring break season is officially in full swing around here and i’m loving it.  it makes swimming laps in the pool nearly impossible but it sure does liven up the place.  last night we went to our favorite hangout to watch our favorite local band.  the band is good, but it’s the guitarist that amazes me.  his energy level is incredible and he does this back bend thing while playing that just makes me go, “how the heck does he do it?”  they just put on a great show and their original songs (we’ve bought two of their cds) are just as good as the covers they do.  there was a great crowd of spring breakers to dance with and watch.  i had a couple of boys start dancing with me but they always backed away when they shouted introductions into my ear and i’d shout back my name  with an additional “and this is my husband.”  spring break boys are actually very funny.  hubby and i were dancing side by side when one boy came up behind me and started dancing with me.  i completely ignored him while jumping around with both hands in my pockets.  he kept trying to hold my hand but when he started to reach around to my tummy, i pulled hubby over for some makin’ out.  hee hee.  😀  the boy backed off rather quickly but stayed there watching with a “wtf?” expression while i wrapped my arms around hubby so that my ring could be displayed.  he then went away.  i was highly amused, as was hubby.  it was all a lot of fun..we ended up staying through the band’s last set and didn’t get home until around 03:30.

lunchtime:

obstacle course swimming.  it wasn’t too bad when i first got down there, only three people (adults) in the pool.  after my first few laps, there were a couple more people to navigate around.  by my tenth lap, there was a group of children.  i managed to get 20 laps (1/3 mile) in before it was just too difficult to navigate anymore.  i totally mowed down a small child in water wings on my 18th lap or so.  he attempted to get me back by unsuccessfully dive-bombing me on my next lap.  i just couldn’t do less than twenty.  and that’s the fewest i’ve ever done.  oh well.  the water temperature in the gulf is 60° today but i’m anxiously watching for it to get warm enough to swim my laps out there.  where’s global warming when you need it?

since we didn’t make it to ihop yesterday for free pancakes, i’ve had the strangest craving for… well… pancakes.  so tonight’s dinner was peanut butter chip whole wheat pancakes and scrambled eggs.  it was yummy, yummy comfort food.  sadly, i was already tired and dragging from the lunchtime swim and now that i’ve got a belly full of breakfast, i am downright struggling.  but it has been a productive night.  we’ve done a good bit of straightening up and hubby’s got the laundry room cleared out and ready for me to start painting.  it’ll have to wait a couple days because tomorrow is the bridge run but the laundry room should be painted, and reorganized this weekend – a long overdue project.

during the brief time that i was asleep last night, i dreamt.  in my dream, i walked into a hospital and stole two beautiful newborn twin babies.  i have no recollection of why.  the strange part is that by the time i got these two infants home they were no longer babies, they were tiny ducklings.  i cuddled them and loved on them and didn’t seem to even notice that they were originally babies.  how messed up is that?  to make things even more fun, the babies i stole from the hospital were specifically targeted because they were my cousin’s.  and she was my roommate.  so after i got home with the ducklings, i was frantically trying to formulate a plan (can we say too late?!) for how i was going to keep them hidden from her when she got home so that she wouldn’t know i had kidnapped ducknapped them.  i woke up when i saw her element (way more futuristic one) pull up in the driveway.

saturday night our running group had plans to go to a concert some sixty miles away.  they are friends with the band and were very excited about introducing new people to their music.  so, we drove six and a half hours friday night so that we would be home to go with them this weekend. 

we met up at scooter’s house where we finally got to meet his wife.  we hung out for a bit and had a small snack when mello showed up and piled into the car around 20:00.  the other group had already hit the road before we got there because they wanted to stop for dinner so we would just meet them there. 

we arrived at the bar shortly after 21:00 and were introduced to the band members.  it was about another hour of hanging out before the first band hit the stage.  i couldn’t tell you their name but they really weren’t very good.  the music was alright but the vocals – he sounded like a leprechaun.  i’m pretty sure they only did three or four songs before shamefully stepping down.  the next band was better and stayed on stage a good bit longer. 

the b@st@rd suns were definitely the big attraction.  the crowd around the stage easily tripled when they started.  they reminded me of an irish-influenced slightly stoopid.  they were much more fun than the two starter bands and a large mosh pit formed in front of the stage.  hubby and i stayed back enough that we just had to push people back in every so often.  i was happy to jump around a lot and bang my head around.  i also had some fun conversations with mello, cargo, and passion throughout the night.  mello was talking to me about his days in iraq and somalia and it’s possible that i freaked him out when i put my arms around him and hugged him tightly while thanking him for his part in protecting our freedom.  what can i say, i get emotional about those who fight for us.

we stuck around for a few minutes after the band played to show our appreciation and were back in the car around 02:30.  by the time we drove back to town, dropped the others off, got home, and got showered (why do people have to smoke?!), it was after 04:00 when our heads finally hit the pillows.  therefore, i have no idea whatsoever why i was awake again at 07:00.  my eyes and sinuses were killing me from all of the air pollution.  it’s really a shame but that’s the whole reason we stopped going out to places like that; i feel miserable for several days trying to detoxify my lungs, sinuses, and eyes.  not to say it wasn’t worth it because we had a great time but we certainly don’t do it often.  that’s why my favorite hang-out around here is an open air bar.  people smoke but it rarely bothers me with the nice gulf-breeze breaking it up.

sunday was definitely a shot day.  we laid around and that was about it.  there had been talk of hubby and scooter doing a bit of kayaking but that got called off around noon and was quickly replaced by more laying around.  about the only productive thing i did was a load of laundry, out of necessity, and i swear i can still smell the smoke.  and i put the new sheets on our bed so that i could take a nice comfy nap.  heavenly, they are.

friday night we continued our social trend for the week with a get-together with two other couples who own units in our building.  we met up around 17:30 at the unit a couple floors down.  i made richmond’s spinach artichoke dip, which was a huge hit.  there was also salad and pizza.  we drank wine, we ate, and we enjoyed great conversation.  unfortunately, sometime close to midnight i must have had one glass of wine too many because this was when i came to the inexplicable decision that dancing was a good idea.  hey, the other two ladies were doing it and appeared to be having a great fun.  so i joined in.  and anyone who knows me knows what a terrible idea this was.  i am SO not a dancer.  so my legs that were already aching a bit from the thursday bridge run got abused.  i really think that they would have recouped for this weekend’s runs if i hadn’t had such a lapse in judgement.  but my uncoordinated flailing, which i tried to pass off as dancing, was the proverbial straw.  yesterday morning i woke up and i hurt.  like pain my legs have NEVER felt before.  from the knees down, they just throbbed like crazy.  i spent the day popping advil, slathering on biofreeze, and keeping my legs elevated on the couch.  last night we went to the hot tub which felt nice.  i almost thought i’d be able to do the run this morning but they were back to throbbing when i woke up again.  today has been much the same as yesterday.  i smell like a geriatric.  i look like a cripple when i hobble around.  and it’s been three days since i got any kind of activity.  *sigh*  i guess i’m just paying the price for making friends.

since we moved here, we have had very, very few planned social outings (other than with house-guests).  we know several of the other owners in our building and we’ll stop and chat in passing around the building.  we have had countless conversations with strangers in the hot tub.  and yet, last night was the first time that we actually went out with people we’ve met here.  we met this couple in the hot tub sunday night and spent probably an hour talking with them.  last night we went out to dinner with them.  it was a little strange but we had a fun time with good eats and good conversation.  who knows, maybe we’re finally turning a corner.  i got us to join up with a running group which will hopefully also produce social opportunities that don’t involve torturing my legs and lungs.  and we’re starting to make more of an effort around our building.  at the risk of sounding desperate, perhaps… just perhaps… we’ll have some friends around here before long.  i’d love to have a weekly game night like my cousin has in orlando.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to see Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy. I really enjoyed the show, although I had actually assumed when I purchased the tickets that the show was affiliated with Cirque du Soleil. While Jungle Fantasy did have many common elements to a Cirque du Soleil show, namely the amazing acrobatics, the story and presentation were very different. It was the music that made me realize that there could not be an affiliation between this show and its more masterful name sound-alike. I thought that the instrumentals were fabulous – I may have even fallen in love with the violinist. The vocals were decently-sung but the songs themselves were not what I was expecting. The vocalist was the character of mother nature and the songs were almost Sesame Street-ish tunes teaching the main character to respect nature. I certainly don’t mean to disrespect Sesame Street by the comparison because while these songs were about personal growth, personality, and courage, the lyrics were all equally abysmal.

The set was simple. There were many “animals” that served no real purpose to the show, another thing that set it apart from a …du Soleil show. However, the costumes were stunning – even the emus and frogs. The performers were very able and impressive. From the fun and fantastic jump-roping tricks at the beginning to the beautifully fluid contortionist reptiles, from the incredibly balancing giraffe-men to the ginormous strongmen gymnasts, each act was a true visual treat. Overall it was a great show, although I wish I could have blocked out the horrid songs.

so the bad thing about condo living is that there is no shortage of people walking around with a key to my home (maintenance persons and such).  i can deal with this.  what i cannot deal with is these people just walking into my home whenever they feel like it.  there is a built-in deadbolt thingy on our door lock.  we generally keep it locked when we are here.  but the master keys that they have open it up.  i don’t see the point to this at all.  if the deadbolt thingy is locked, that clearly means that i am home and you have no business walking in on me.  simple right?  so hubby is at a dr appt this morning and the doorbell rings, which freaks me out anyhow because we’re certainly not expecting anyone and i’m alone.  while i am much less of a skeerdycat than i used to be, i still don’t like dealing with strangers when i’m alone.  so i jump up and am scrambling around for clothing that covers me so that i can answer the door.  but then i hear the front door opening and men’s voices.  half-dressed, i yell out, “is somebody in my home?”  and they answer that they are doing a fire inspection.  i hurriedly finish dressing and meet them on the other side of my bedroom door.  i asked them if it is standard policy to just walk into someone’s home instead of waiting for the door to be answered.  i followed the one man around while he did what he had to do and then made a point of walking them both out and immediately locking the door behind them.  i then called hubby and told him that we need to buy a true deadlock and put it on our door.  and i will.  this isn’t the first time this has happened but it was the first time that i was by myself and i also didn’t know either of the men that were here (we pretty much know all of our maintenance staff by name).  i’m so not okay with that.  and i think it is very poor policy on our CMA’s part to allow them to a) have the ability to override the deadbolt thingy and b) allow their people to walk in on people, especially owners.