Never say never

I guess I can no longer say I never win anything.

This is my first-ever medal. In anything. No, really.

I placed third in my age division at the Mardi Gras 5K this year. I'm pretty stoked. I know Mom would be proud, even if she would think we all make too big a fuss over her.

This year, it was sooooo much nicer to participate. The last two years have been sort of miserable. In 2010 it was freezing. In 2011 it was freezing AND rainy. Today it was about 50 and dry. The rain picked up as we were leaving after the awards.

The photo above is me all sweaty in the ladies' room of the gym of my old old high school right after finishing the race. They've redecorated it somewhat with MARBLE (or faux marble, anyway). I wish 51 was a number on the roulette wheel. I'd start playing it.

And speaking of my old old high school (I call it that because we moved to a new building when I was a senior)....

This is where we all gathered after the race. Wow, this gym brings back bad memories. But some of the best memories I have from high school are from that stage at the end, where we put on the musical ever year. Good times.

Play on, playa.

I'm not even sure this is worth a blog, but I couldn't quite wrap my brain around this.

I went home on my break to eat and feed the dogs. I turned on the TV, and Jersey Shore was on, so I left it, because I'm not home long enough on breaks to actually get into watching anything.

Two of them were having birthdays. One of them (Pauly D) mentioned that it was his 31st. I actually had to stop and rewind Tivo to make sure I had heard him right. 31? SRSLY? THAT'S MY AGE. I looked the guy up on the Google, and sure enough, he's 31. In fact, he's a few months OLDER than me.

Now, to be clear, I don't really approve of any of these people, but FWIW, it's awesome that he's able to hang with all these early-to-mid-20s guidos/guidettes. It also makes me feel somewhat justified in my opinion that we (my friends and I) are at prime partying age.

A couple of years ago a friend commented that she wanted to go out and party (while we were in St. Louis) but didn't want to go to the Landing with all the "barely legals." Um...my 20-year-old self could only dream of some of the partying I've done in my late 20s/early 30s (thanks, derby). We're finally old enough to have a little bit of self control and to have learned where that perfect drunk stage is so we're not sloppy and stupid (unless we choose to be). Dance clubs should love us, and we shouldn't be afraid to love them.

I might also add he's one of the younger-looking ones in the house. Guess all that hard living really gets to some people. So play on, playa.

TCB

Usually while Trace is out of town I get bored. I also am not used to sleeping by myself and therefore don't sleep as well.

But this time, since I knew he was going to be gone for so long, I decided to make it a point to keep myself entertained, or at least busy.

Hence, the Great Clean of 2012. I figured if I am going to be up late anyway, I might as well be putting the time to good use. I started with the upstairs hall closet since it was in need of the least amount of effort. I have since completed the bedroom, kitchen, two bathrooms, and TV room. I still have four rooms to go. In one of those I just have to remove wallpaper border remnants, so that won't be too terrible. He's only been gone since Friday, but I feel like I've gotten a lot accomplished.

Things the Great Clean has taught me:
1. Underneath the crisper drawers in the fridge is NOT where the cool kids hang out.
2. Those steamer mops work pretty well.
3. I have more shoes than I thought I did.
4. Part of the effort of the Great Clean was to be able to allow our dogs to sleep with us. Yeah, they don't get it. They only sleep for like 20 minutes at a time.
5. I really, really like having a clean house. I guess for most people this would go without saying. I have always been sort of a messy person (except at work). But after a while the clutter really gets to me and I HAVE to take action. So I've been very careful to not set anything down where it doesn't belong, to put things away as soon as I'm done with them, etc. I'm trying to train myself to avoid recluttering. Hopefully my Virgo-ness will take over soon.
6. Cleaning until 4 a.m. has the added benefit of making me super tired, so I fall asleep faster when I finally do go to bed.


Since he's been gone, I've had the exterminator come for the quarterly spray, watched two movies I've been wanting to see, started a new TV series, taken the dogs to the vet, had a derby meeting...in the next day or two I'm going around and paying off some bills.  I also have been skating and working on a winning chili recipe.

So generally getting lots done. That makes me feel good.

Also.... I'm not sure if this is related, but it might be.... There are three loose pens on the copy desk. They've been there for weeks and it's really starting to bug me. Because I know they're not mine, but the guy who sits next to me never uses them, either. But I don't just want to move them, in case they ARE his. So WTH?

FedEx. Like a boss.

After trying to buy an iPhone 4S at six stores Tuesday morning, I finally gave up and ordered one from Apple that afternoon. And ever since, I've been obsessively tracking the order's progress.

The phone spent an excruciating four days stuck in "Processing Items." It finally shipped Friday night and has made steady progress toward home since then. It hopped around a bit in southeast China, then landed in Anchorage this afternoon.

In all my guesswork about when it was going to end up where and how long each step in the process would take, I visited the Apple customer forums quite a bit. I used to think I was the only one who obsessed this way about packages in transit, thanks to some minor childhood trauma that has made me an incredibly impatient adult, but as it turns out, these guys had me beat. And I tip my hat to them.

My visits to the forum introduced me to a site called FlightAware. It allows you to track domestic flights. Using this site in addition to the FedEx tracking page —

Let me take this moment to say how thankful I am this particular package is shipping FedEx and not UPS. UPS can go piss up a flagpole.

— I was able to narrow down which flight I believe my phone will be on as it leaves Anchorage. This assumes it will be on a flight that leaves tonight. It SHOULD be destined for Memphis, then hopefully my hometown! It's scheduled for delivery on Thursday, but with the type of progress it's making, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it may show up sooner.

And while we're here, why doesn't Apple EVER make enough of its products to stock its retailers? I mean really. SIX STORES.

Beautiful strangers

When I came into work on Tuesday, this photo was in my inbox.




There's a lot that occurs to me as I look at this photo.

I actually remember posing for it. It was summer 1999, and we were on our senior trip.

All of us would start college the following semester. Four of us would graduate.

I miss various people in this photo for various reasons.

The girl on the left I miss because we at one point were best friends. She still lives in town, but I never see her. In fact, it's eerie how much I don't see her. You know how you'll be at Walmart or at a bar or something and run into someone from a million years ago? Never ever happens with her. Happens with her parents and her sister. But never her. May be just as well. I don't really have anything to say to her.

I miss the girl second from the end, sometimes, because she lives out of town and I just don't get to see her much. But we're still friends.

The next two still live relatively nearby, and I get to see them more often. I did briefly miss the girl third from the left when she moved to Florida, but she returned eventually. Now I just miss her because she's often busy with a daughter. Which is still weird to me. I don't feel old enough to have kids. She shouldn't, either. Neither should the girl second from the left, who is expecting her first.

The second from the right is me. I want to go kick my 18-year-old self's ass for ever being embarrassed about my body. I would try to get her to take that "Freshman Fifteen" seriously, but she wouldn't, because 1. She was as stubborn then as she is now, and 2. Her metabolism knew no bounds, so she had no reason to believe in it.

Two of us were already with our eventual spouses at the time this photo was taken. Three of the six of us are married now.

The four who had their arms linked had been friends the longest. Three of the four of them are still friends.

I went snorkeling for the first time the day this was taken.

The song "Beautiful Stranger" makes me think of this trip, and vice versa. I bought the "Austin Powers" soundtrack while we were there.

Several of us have lost grandparents. One of us has lost a parent. All of us lost the girl on the right nine years ago. NINE. It will be 10 in April. I can't believe it. We all miss her.

At least one of us still has the bathing suit they are pictured in here.

Our plane tickets cost $125. Round trip.