Well, it’s official.
In just eight short months I’ll be heading back to Orlando to run through some Disney parks. This time there will be quite a few more people and definitely fewer miles.
Kind of.
I’ll be short by 7 miles or so. Basically the same amount I walked in January. Works for me.
10k Saturday, half marathon Sunday, and the whole weekend with some absolutely incredible ladies!
I can’t wait!!!
Check out some of those awesome ladies!!! Lo, Kelly, and Angela.
Up until this morning, every single waking second since my marathon has been spent with me fighting to keep my eyes open, to keep myself upright.
Apparently running/walking for 26 miles makes a person tired.
Getting sick-ish on top of that was just a bonus in the “how tired can Ann get” game.
Really tired, apparently.
I was going to spend this past weekend doing absolutely nothing but laying around my apartment, relaxing, catching up on sleep, etc, but then late last week I got a very special email. Remember my hockey blog? Right, well, remember that last year I got to go hang out at the Cardinals Winter Warm-Up complete with media credentials from the Cardinals blog in the network? Yeah, that happened again. So instead of my very relaxing weekend, I spent it on the motherfucking GO. All three days of my three day weekend. Gogogogogogo.
I could hardly keep my eyes open all day yesterday.
So last night I went to bed at 930. I hardly woke up when GCB got home (close to midnight….I think) and slept straight on through til 7am. I was supposed to get up around six, but I reset my alarm and kept right on snoozing.
Today? I feel FANTASTIC. This is the most awake I’ve felt in WEEKS. You know what not being tired does to a person? Makes that person HAPPY!!
This is not to say that I haven’t been happy, but oh my goodness being rested just started my day off so well.
Add that to the fact that this morning I spent a little time filling out my part of the application on an apartment for GCB and myself, plus tonight being a girls’ “wine and Magic Mike” night, well, I’ve been damn near giddy all day.
Guys, there are BIG changes ahead. Big, awesome, incredible changes that I am just so anxious to get to.
Today is a great day.
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| Team “Will Run For Beer” |
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| Pregaming |
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| Three Amigos! |
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| www.dicktowel.com |
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| My love |
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| Red Solo Cup |
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| Four kilometers, four chug stations, one full beer at the end, a bottle opener medal, and one awesome day. |
Random thought: It’s been almost two years since my trip to Los Angeles to meet Josey. I am SO thrilled that she and I have been able to stay as close as we have. That is all.
Hey Jos, bring that husband and adorable baby with you and COME SEE ME.
Some days serve as reminders. Some days all it takes is a conversation or a picture or a song to remind you just how lucky you really are.
Today was that day.
Scratch that. I’ve been reminded of this daily for a while now. There’s just something about today though that’s making it that much more evident.
I’m struggling to come up with adequate words right now other than “I am one lucky, lucky lady.”
I have a family who has banded together more in these last few weeks than I ever knew was possible. There have been phone calls and texts and emails and visits and hugs and reminders of the unwavering support system that is in place for if any one of us falls. I am so grateful for them. Today my uncle finalizes his adoption of his wife’s children. HIS children. It’s been a long time coming, and I could not be more thrilled for their whole family. They live in Arizona, which is where I’m headed in October, and I CANNOT wait to see him, his family, and the rest of my aunts/uncles/cousins who live out there.
I have a job, an apartment, a car, and independence. I’m healthy and have the ability to workout and train for races for the lone fact that I like it. Though I’m incredibly sore today, it’s a great feeling to have been sweating for a reason OTHER than just walking out my front door.
My friends are THE best friends in the entire world.
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| First names start with A. Middle names are Marie. We could start a club. |
They are there for me no matter what I need. They are who I want to spend time with. They are family. It took a while for my core group of friends to be built in St Louis, but now that it has been? I can’t imagine it being any other way. I am beyond fortunate to know such an incredible group of people.
And to top it all off, I have the love of my life to go home to every day. Some nights it’s my home, some nights it’s his home, and next spring it will be OUR home. Today I had a couple conversations that reinforced just how incredibly fortunate I am to be with someone who is as kind and thoughtful and generous as he is. He shows me he loves me as often as he tells me. He makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. I honestly can’t imagine life without him. I am SO LUCKY to have him.
Nauseating sap aside, I’m so glad for days like this that I can look back on when a day isn’t so great.
It’s like I said earlier:
This morning I was sitting on the edge of my bed talking to GCB. I didn’t have my contacts in nor my glasses on which meant that I couldn’t really see anything. I told him that I couldn’t even tell if his eyes were open or not, unless he blinked. The following conversation occurred:
Him: Wait, so you can only see movement? Are you like a T-Rex?!?!
Me: No! I don’t have a big head and little arms!!
Him: You ARE like a T-Rex! You run like you have T-Rex arms!!
Me: …….dammit.
You see, months ago our friend and my marathon buddy Stephanie likened herself and me to the dinosaur statues in Forest Park. One day she sent me two picture text messages.
The first:
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| “This is the angry face I make when I’m running.” |
The second:
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| “This is your idiotic face of joy when you run…” |
The thing is, she’s not wrong. Not even a little bit. I grin like a maniac and hold my arms at my sides much like this picture.
Hmmm. I guess I am kind of a T-Rex.
I have been overly dramatic and worrying you lovely people unnecessarily. My apologies.
Good things from the past little while:
-Beers in a redneck pool with incredible friends.
-Being able to talk to all three of my sisters for over an hour apiece over the past few days.
-Three engagement announcements for some friends incredibly deserving of that happiness.
-Asking GCB for Gatorade and having him come back with four different flavors because he “knew [I] liked the purpley-blue one, but couldn’t remember which, so [he] just got all of them.”
-Hugs. From my cousins. My aunts. My grandparents. Some of those hugs came after the stampede ignited from my ringing the doorbell….from five cousins at once.
-Realizing that mine, Ali’s, and Alison’s middle names are all Marie. On top of that? All three boyfriends’ middle names are Michael.
-Beginning my countdown to my trip to Arizona. Smiling because GCB gets to go with me.
-Chocolate cake for dinner with my dad, which of course sparked the “Dad is great! He gives us the chocolate cake!!!” comments.
-The comments and emails from you guys. They honestly mean more than you know.
Good thing he’s cute.
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| This picture makes me smile like an idiot |
Today is supposed to be Wordless Wednesday. Right now, I am anything but wordless. Not for any bad reason or anything like that. I’m just FULL OF THOUGHTS.
Honestly, I’m always full of thoughts, but some of those are so random, so prime for making you all think I am a lunatic, that I usually keep most of those to myself. Not today.
Random jibberish commencing.
First of all, there’s this:
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| Impossible is nothing |
Last night I went over to Ali’s for some friend time and some laundry time….and some whiskey time. Yes, by Tuesday it had already been that kind of week.
We were discussing upcoming weekends when it dawned on both of us just how busy this summer is shaping up to be. Let’s take a look, shall we?
This weekend contains a baseball game on Friday then a trip to Kansas City to see my roommate from my freshman year of college marry the guy she’s been with SINCE then. I’m pretty pumped.
Next weekend is a 10k race and a winery trip.
The weekend after is Ragnar.
Then I’m taking GCB to Jeff City to meet the parents and baby sister and brother. There has been talk of maybe going to a beer festival this same weekend and also possibly to GCB’s parents’ for Father’s Day.
Then I’ll be in KC for the Cards/Royals series at Kauffman and to see my awesome friend Jamie.
Then there’s a float trip possibility.
Then Portland (I hope…come on flight prices, drop a little bit!) to see my dad’s side of the family (complete with sister/bro-in-law/niece/nephew).
Two weeks later is a baseball game and a Pub Crawl.
Then the Tap N Run.
Then a free weekend (if you’ve kept up, this is the first weekend in August).
Then a trip to the lake.
That brings me to mid-August. When I start training again for the two half marathons (in October and November) and the full (in January).
No, I’m not busy, why do you ask?
I ran a half marathon yesterday. Today I didn’t go into work. Not because I need to recover from the race, but because I need to recover from this week.
Well, the last week and three days.
Last Friday my girl Steph flew into town. Since then my budget and liver have both taken the most severe of beatings.
Let’s recap! I can’t believe how long this is going to be.
Friday was the final Blues home game, where we celebrated Steph’s birthday and her arrival into town, met up with bunches of fun peoples, and just enjoyed the evening.
Saturday was a Blues meetup for the final game of the season, some spectacular company, an unexpected introduction to a boy, and several rounds of delicious, delicious beers.
Sunday, being Easter, I actually spent down with some of my family, who are awesome, and then there was an unexpected late night ice cream date (!!!!). Yep, a date. I’ll call him Goalie Cop, since he is both of those things.
Monday I met up with my marathon girls for beers and to watch the Cardinals game, and we sat around laughing and drinking and joking about just how poorly all of us were going to do on this race, given how much all of us had slacked off on our training.
Tuesday two of those marathon girls came lifting with me. That’s right. We actually did work out. Go figure, right? But then we had cocktails and watched Goon, and we spread the love of the movie to Goalie Cop.
Wednesday was another date night (!!!!) followed by a meet up for the first games of the NHL playoffs, which kept all of us out late. Thanks West Coast. Thanks a lot.
That’s when shit starts to get crazy.
Thursday was round one, game one for the Blues playoffs. It was the first playoff game of any kind I had ever been to, and guys? I love playoff games. So very much. After the game, the marathon girls (sans one) and I went to a bar where it was ladies’ night and successfully killed 17 martinis between the three of us. No big deal.
Friday was the Cardinals Home Opener with April, which was followed by too many Irish Carbombs at the bar after, but I got to meet Miranda (WHICH WAS AWESOME) and seriously, even though we stood in the rain for hours, it was all so worth it.
Saturday led to some traipsing around the city looking for appropriate balloons and naps, but then more tailgating and the second Blues game of the weekend.
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| Yes, those are tall boys. |
We did great and actually went home and to bed that night. Go us, right?
Sunday we got up far too early and went out for marathoning. Steph and I realized that we had incorrectly thought the race started at 730am. Nope. 700. At least we were there on time. The race itself was ok. I ran with Steph, who was dealing with stress fracture issues, so we didn’t finish at a time I’d expected, but I’m ok with it. We spent the entire race discussing hockey and quoting Cool Runnings, which was thoroughly entertaining to those around us. Now, however, it’s time to focus on Ragnar.
Highlights of the race? Around mile eight and a half, running through the SLU campus, Steph and I at the same time started batting at each other. Why? Because standing on the side of the road were Blues captain David BaCkes and goalie Brian Elliott. We definitely yelled “Let’s go Blues!” at them and got in return some head nods, waves, and smiles. Being that I’ve loved BaCkes for just about forever, I swooned a bit. Running while going weak in the knees is difficult.
AND THEN. Then there was Mile Nine. The bestest mile in all the land. Not only were we floating because of having just seen two Blues, but then we got to the Darth Vader balloon, under which April, one of her friends from grad school, and Goalie Cop were standing to hand us frosty Budweisers. Yeah, we had a beer stop during our run. Best. Idea. Ever. Mile Nine was a good mile.
After the race there was the delicious lunching, the epic napping, and the staying up far too late to watch West Coast playoff hockey games.
And now here I am. Sitting at home, having done just about nothing productive (besides taking Steph to the airport). It’s noon.
I am exhausted and swooning my ass off and wondering just how much of my budget I’ve trashed this week and already missing Steph and wishing April could have stayed longer and finding myself beyond fucking hopeful about this guy. I will elaborate later as I don’t want to jinx this, but allow me to just say quickly that I don’t think this one’s going anywhere any time soon. Not if I have anything to do with it, anyway.
Phew. The upcoming week seems almost boring in comparison to the last.
Until Friday, when I head up to Chicago with April for a reunion with the girls we went to Vegas with last year.
Shit shows. I’m getting really good at them.
Life is really fucking good.
Are You the Gatekeeper? 