Tuesday Tidbits

• I’m two weeks out from my next half-marathon, and I haven’t been this unprepared and undertrained for one since my first one four and a half years ago.  I guess it’s a good thing I gave up any notion of racing this one weeks ago!  I ran 9 miles yesterday, the farthest I’ve run this training cycle, and I can sum it up in two words:  shit show.  It’s so aggravating for my long runs to be so awful when my short runs are so great.  I ran 3 miles last week at a pace 7 seconds/mile faster than my previously fastest 3 miles, which was at the end of a marathon training cycle when I was in pretty damn good shape.  (And this was the first time I’ve ever run a training run with a sub-9 average!)  Go figure.

• Less than 24 hours after posting about my new-found patience and level-headedness (relatively speaking haha), I had probably my most intense test.  I went into a “quick lube” place for an oil change and it took them TWO FREAKING HOURS to get me in and out of there.  There were only three cars ahead of me, and it’s not like there was anything going wrong… I could see them just moving at a snail’s pace!  The ol’ patience was wearing a bit thin!!!

• I just ordered some new running shoes.  Maybe that’ll help my long run?  HA!  They’re the new Brooks Cascadia 9s.  The only Brooks I’ve ever worn is the Ghost line.  They have been my last 5 pair of running shoes.  I hope I like these as well.  If not, there’s no loss, thanks to Road Runner Sports’ 90-day “wear ’em and love ’em” guarantee!

• One picture to sum up our Valentine’s Day evening.

• My mother-in-law is in Atlanta at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America this week getting a second opinion.  I’ve heard such amazing things about them, and I pray that they can work their magic for her too!

Hot Headed

I’ve been consciously working on something the past couple of years.  I’m in a really good place now, but it took a lot of conscious effort to get here.  Now I don’t even think about it.  That thing I’m referring to is not sweating the small stuff.  I used to have an extremely short fuse, and the most trivial things would light it.  I could go from happy to pissed off in 0.2 seconds.

Last Friday night, D called a pizza order in for pickup at Papa Johns.  They told us it would be ready in about 35 minutes.  We got there right about that time and it wasn’t ready.  They were CRAZY busy up in there.  (We thought we were being different by staying in for Valentine’s Day, but it would appear that was a very popular idea!)  I sat in the truck and waited since the dogs rode to town with us, and I could see D and everyone else standing there waiting.  Some were waiting patiently, and others were being very animated about their frustration.  It took an additional half-hour or so to get our order.  When D got back to the truck, he was telling me how ridiculous some of those people were being… one older guy in particular who made a point to tell everyone who came in, “I hope you’ve got a fucking hour to kill!”

It really made me think.  I feel sorry for those people now.  I know what it’s like to be that person.  I may not have been that assholish about it (although, trust me, I had my moments), but on the inside I would have been boiling.  After learning to let that stuff go, to not make such a huge deal about every little thing that doesn’t go according to plan, I’m SO much happier!  When you stop to ask yourself, “Will I remember this in a year?  A month?  Even a week?” it’s amazing how few things are really worth getting pissed about.  I really wish I could go back and tell twenty-something Pam that.

Do you have a short temper, or does it take a lot to ruffle your feathers?

I’m Useless

When I get something on my mind, it consumes me.  It’s all I can think about.  Sometimes it’s good things, sometimes not.  This time?  IT’S GOOOOOOOOOOOD.

For two freaking years, the bestie and our hubbies and I have been trying to get all our shit together and hash out a plan for the Best Vacation Ever.  The stars have FINALLY aligned this year!  Plans are made, rooms are reserved, and flights are booked.  This summer we are Dominican Republic bound!!!!  I’ve taken excited to a whole new level.  I just keep looking at the pictures on the resort’s website and daydreaming and envisioning us in them.  I mean seriously!  Look!

I cannot wait!!!

Do you prefer to travel with friends or with your partner/family alone?

What’s your dream vacation?  Favorite place you’ve been?

Adventures in Puppy-Sitting

I am very protective of my animals.  (That may qualify as the understatement of 2014.)  Going out of town has always been stressful for me because I don’t like leaving them.  The cat is easy.  Someone comes to feed her once a day, and she’s good to go.  The pups are a different story.  They need a place to stay. I used to have a pet-sitter, and then her homeowner’s insurance pitched a hissy fit about her keeping bully breed dogs (breed discrimination is SUCH BULLSHIT, but I won’t go there today), so she had to quit keeping them. There are a couple of vets in town that offer boarding, but their idea of boarding is just that–put the dogs in a kennel, let them out to pee a couple of times a day, and they consider their job done.  I can’t knock them for that–they are vets.  They have patients to tend to.  They’re busy with dogs that NEED their undivided attention.  Boarding is just a customer convenience that they extend.  There’s also one boarding facility here, but I wouldn’t leave them there if my life depended on it.  They have a HORRIBLE reputation.  So for the past few years, any time I have had to leave them for more than one night (in which case I had been letting the vet board them), I had been driving them two hours one way back to the town I used to live in where there was a nice boarding facility that I knew and trusted.  Yes, driving them that far was a pain in the ass, but the alternative was just not an option I would even consider.  Then I heard of rover.com.  I did a local search and found a lady that sounded fabulous  I took the dogs to her house one afternoon to meet her and her dog, and it was love at first sight for everyone.  She was wonderful, and my dogs and hers were instant BFFs.  She’s kept them for me a couple of times now, and this last time she kept them at Christmas, she refused to take my money and made another proposal instead:  I puppy-sit for HER when she needs someone!  Sounded great to me!  I’m all about bartering to save some money!  And I love giving my furkids the opportunity to play and socialize with other dogs.  Our town doesn’t have a dog park.  The nearest one is about 30 miles away, so we don’t make it up there as often as I’d like.  I got to make good on my end of the deal for the first time Saturday.  Gnash arrived about 11:30 and puppy playtime commenced immediately.  It was constant pounce, chase, tackle, rough, and tumble ALL. DAY. LONG.  I was seriously exhausted just watching them!  And Dear Lord, this dog is the barkingest damn dog I’ve ever met.  Finally… FINALLY… they calmed down around 5:00.  And by “calmed down” I simply mean “quit acting like mentally challenged Tasmanian devils on crack”.  Do you know how hard it is to take photos of mentally challenged Tasmanian devils on crack?!?!

These are the a few of the better ones.  I deleted the REALLY blurry ones.

I was able to grab a couple of decent shots after they calmed down a smidge.

Look at those blue eyes!

Turned out their 5:00 slowdown was just them gathering their resources and preparing for a late-night encore performance.  And then they recharged themselves overnight and got right back to it Sunday morning.  I ended up having to separate them for a while after they ate breakfast for fear of risking bloat.  Needless to say, everyone slept like logs when our guest left Sunday afternoon–myself included!  Puppy-sitting is exhausting!!!

Three Things Thursday – Snowstorms, CrossFit, and Wicked

1.     Twice this year we’ve been predicted to get about six inches of snow.  Both times they were wrong to the tune of approximately six inches.  We got our biggest snowstorm of the season this week.  See those three snowflakes on the shoulder of the road?

Tennessee Snowstorm

2.     I’ve always known I need to be doing some type of strength training in addition to running if I really want to see improvements and lose some fluff.  The thing is… I HATE STRENGTH TRAINING.   I’d rather run 10 miles than do 10 push-ups.  Because I hate it so much and because I don’t have anyone crawling up my ass to make me do it, I usually just don’t do it.  But now I’ve decided I hate being fluffy worse than I hate strength training, so I’ve joined a CrossFit gym.  The first month is what they call the “on-ramp” where they teach you proper technique and shit.  It’s mandatory before they let you join their regular classes.  The first class was Monday.  It was very elementary.  They really only showed us some equipment and went over some of the stuff they do as a warmup.  I missed the second class Tuesday night because the road the gym is on was closed due to flooding.  The third class will be tonight.

3.     My mother and sister and I went to Memphis to see Wicked on Sunday.  I’ve seen it once before, but it was just as good the second time around!

Another excuse to get dressed up!  I’m enjoying this!

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait… and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait…

I have some pretty huge-for-us news.  Remember back last year we were in the process of buying the collision repair shop that my husband works at?  Any reasonable person would have expected it to be a done deal way before now, right?  We have hit roadblock after roadblock, at times thinking that the whole deal just might not go through.  But after so much time being patient and my husband busting so much ass, we FINALLY closed on the deal on Friday!!!  We are BUSINESS OWNERS!  I never thought I’d be so excited about going this far into debt.  I’m so unbelievably proud of my husband and over-the-moon happy for him.  He has literally been working on cars and doing body work and restorations since he was a child in the garage with his dad and uncles, and to own a business in the industry that he is so passionate about is absolutely a dream come true for him.  So in one sense it’s an enormous relief to have our names on the dotted lines, but in another sense it’s kind of stressful thinking about everything there is to be done now!  But it’s a whole different kind of stress than the kind we’ve been under for the past year and a half (yes–YEAR AND A HALF!  Banks are STINGY now, yo!) trying to get to this point.  This is the good kind of stress, if there can be such a thing.  haha  I’m really stoked to see where this goes.  And, if nothing else, it’ll be nice to have a key to the building at the turnaround point for a 7-mile run!  Bathroom privileges Level VIP!

A very happy Pam, all spiffed up for a closing date with bankers and lawyers.

How Could I Forget That???

In my Highlights of 2013 post, I totally forgot to mention one of my absolute most favorite things we did!  We saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Nashville in December!  I’ve been dying to see them for years, and we finally has the opportunity, time, and funds (a very rare trifecta around here!) to make it happen!  D was skeptical, but even he was amazed by the performance.  It was three freaking hours of goose bumps and emotion and the first time that “O Come All Ye Faithful” has moved me to tears.  The raw vocal talent, the musicianship, the light show and pyrotechnics…it was all just so mesmerizing.  If you ever get a chance to go… GO!  You will not regret it!