Thursday Thirteen Return

Thirteen Things about My Grandma I got a call from my mom last week telling me that my grandma had broken her hip. Knowing what I do about health and health-related topics - both from my mom's dinner table discussions of the day's surgical cases and from my current career - I know that when an elderly person breaks a hip, it's not a good thing. Not a good thing at all. Elderly people many times don't have the strength to recover from such a fall and surgery, and many of them don't live much past a year of the incident. My grandma is a very old-bodied woman who has had many physical and mental ailments since I can remember. Her breaking a hip is pretty much the last thing she can handle. The past week has been one of discussions on her status, what might happen in the next few days, what inevitably will happen in the next few weeks. When you've been close to a grandparent, and they are on the brink of passing away, you start to think about a million different memories from childhood times at their home. So, for my return to Thursday Thirteen after a few weeks' hiatus, I give you thirteen of my favorite memories of my grandma. 1. Her green nightgown. My grandma had the most beautiful dressing gowns you've ever seen. They were made of layers and layers of silk and chiffon. To a little girl obsessed with dress up and being pretty, nothing was better than dressing up in grandma's green nightgown and prancing around the house. 2. Her ceramics. When I was a small child, my grandma had a small business with her sister and a close friend. They molded and painted ceramics which they would then sell at arts and crafts fairs. I remember specific items that she let me paint with her - a small bunny rabbit, little brown teddy bears, Easter eggs. Painting the crafts was fun, but even better was when the kiln was opened and our crafts had magically turned from dull shades of pinks, greens and blues to vibrant splashes of fuscia, heather green, and cobalt. 3. Her baseball pancakes. My sister really holds the throne with this one, but it's one of my favorites as well. My grandma had (sister now has) this old pancake pan that would hold 8 to 10 balls of pancakes. She'd pour a little bit of batter into the hole, turn them over with the toothpick, and they'd come out in little baseball shaped pancakes. For some reason those pancakes tasted better than any other ones in the world. 4. Easter egg hunts. Every year for Easter, we went to my grandma's house for a huge Easter egg hunt. All of the adults would go outside to hide eggs while us little kids were stuck in a back room with all the shades shut so that we couldn't peek at all. After the eggs were finally hid, we tore through the yard trying to find the eggs. I remember the sound of my grandma laughing as she watched us run through the grass and climb up poles and dig through bushes for the eggs. 5. Her doll cakes. Back in the day, my grandma made the most beautiful cakes. The favorite, and the one requested every birthday, was the doll cake. She'd make a delicious angel food cake and place a doll standing upright in the middle of the cake. Then, she'd decorate the cake as a big Southern belle gown of the doll with different shades of frosting. She'd decorate the top of the doll with frosting to look like the top of the dress. Each year we got to pick out whatever colors we wanted, and she'd make use the doll cake of our dreams. 6. My trip to Florida. When each of us grandkids turned 10, our grandparents took us to Florida on vacation. I actually got to go twice - the second time was with my cousin Ashley because everyone wanted to make sure she had someone to go on rides with; gram and gramp were a little older by then. But my trip to Florida was really special to me, because I got a whole week of attention all to myself. We went to Walt Disney World for a week with my family, but then for a whole second week I went with just grandma and grandpa to the ocean. It was wonderful. We picked oranges from someone's backyard (don't remember whose!), stayed at a hotel with a pool and beachfront access, and swam around in the ocean. It was my first time seeing the blue vastness of ocean saltwater. 7. Christmas Eve. Every year, Christmas Eve was spent at my grandma's house. Some years we went to church beforehand or afterward, but Christmas Eve dinner and gifts were with my grandma. It was one of the best days of the whole year. The first thing we did was run to the tree to find our new ornament from the year. Each of us grandkids got a new ornament every year. We'd eat a big dinner with the whole family, and then the girls would clean up the kitchen in anticipation of gift-opening. No gifts were opened until after dinner was done and cleaned up. And then boy did the gifts flow! 8. Her tea cups. My grandma had a collection of a few different things. The most notable for the majority of the grandchildren is her Precious Moments collection. She has probably well over a hundred of those. But for me, the best collection was her tea cups. She had a shadow box hung in her house with about 25 tea cups sitting in each of the little windows. I always wanted to play with them, but that was one thing that we weren't allowed to touch. There are two in particular that I love - they have a solid colored saucer and outside to the cup, but at the bottom of the cup is a beautiful painted on image. It's like a little surprise at the end of a cup of tea. 9. Her Black Hills Gold. My grandma has so much jewelry it's ridiculous. She has a whole rubbermaid container filled with jewelry boxes that are filled with pieces of jewelry. Some of the pieces that I most remember are her Black Hills Gold rings. She had what seemed like hundreds of pieces of Black Hills Gold in her collection. 10. Her porcelain doll. My grandma had a porcelain doll sitting on her dresser for as long as I can remember. I loved her. I thought she was the prettiest doll I'd ever seen. She had brown hair in Shirley Temple-like curls and a frilly little pink dress. I haven't seen her in years, but I can remember very clearly what she looks like. 11. Walking to her house. From the time I was born until the time I was 6, we lived five blocks away from my grandma. As a very small child, I remember my mom making Walking Salads (cored apples with peanut butter and raisins shoved into the hollowed our core), and sending us up to grandma's house for an afternoon. We were lucky that she lived so close to us - it allowed me to have all of these great memories about her. 12. Ice cream in the freezer. I literally just remembered this one while I was writing this blog entry. My grandparents always had ice cream cones in the freezer. Always. They had those drumsticks with the vanilla ice cream, the peanuts on the top and the chocolate on the bottom of the cone. And they always had candy, too. Mountains of candy in the dishes. Each time at grandma's house was a sugar rush. 13. The smell of her house. I can remember the smell of my grandma's house if I just close my eyes and picture the living room. I have no idea what made up that smell, but it was a warm and comforting one. Happy Thursday to everyone. I ask that you keep my grandma and my family in your thoughts and prayers.

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Sex and the City

I watched a couple of episodes of Sex and the City last night for the first time in a while, and I thought that I'd do a little post on reasons why it's one of my favorite shows of all time.

It's a show that transcends generations of women and can be appreciated by all women. My mom, my sister, my friends - we all watch it. I know that someday (thanks to season on DVD), my daughter and her friends will watch it. And I'll probably watch the whole thing all over again with them.

It's a show that has given me some great memories over my years. I can remember really hot summer nights in college, laying in bra and underwear, and my roommate and I would rent disk 1 of a season on DVD, watch the entire thing, and then run to the video store minutes before closing to get disk 2. I remember another time when the snow was coming down so hard it was difficult to see three feet in front of you, but we braved it and drove to the video store in search of Sex and the City DVDs.

It's a show that makes women relate to the characters in a way that I've never experienced before in my life. I remember discussing, as I know many other groups of women did, which character we most identify with. Most women probably identify at least a little bit with each character, but there is always one character that resembles each woman the most. I'm definitely a Charlotte. I identify with her optimistic outlook on love and finding the true love in life, even if that does make me a hopeless romantic. I identify with her classic and feminine sense of style. I identify with her realization after meeting Harry - that love might come in a different, and far better, package than you ever thought it would.

So, ladies of the blogging world, help me with my ode to Sex and the City. Share a favorite Sex and the City memory in the comments, and also finish the line for yourself:

I'm a ...

Would you please SHUT UP!

I love going to the movies. I might even call myself a movie buff. And going to the movie theater to see a high-action blockbuster, a smoky romance, or a laugh-out-loud comedy is one of my favorite things to do. At least it used to be.

Very few things bother me more than noisy, inconsiderate people at the movies. Sometimes, I can go to the movies and block out the sounds of other people talking - to their dates OR on their cell phones. Other times, like this past weekend, I just can't seem to get past the rudeness of stupid people.

Mark and I decided to go The Break-Up on Saturday afternoon. I am a big fan of Jennifer Aniston, and Mark really enjoys the crazy antics of Vince Vaughn. So, after some running around and errands, we headed over to Southdale Mall to take in a 1:30 show.

When we arrived at the theater about 20 minutes early, the place was pretty empty. As the show time grew nearer, however, the place filled to almost capacity. My anxiety was heightened as people settled in on either side of Mark and I, as well as directly in front of and behind us. We were surrounded by potentially rude people.

Now, let me digress for a brief moment. I'm not certain that I've ever explained to my millions of readers the experiences that Mark and I have endured at the movies. We tend to be surrounded by people who fail to remember that they are not in their own living room at home, but they are in fact in a public place where others have paid hard-earned money to relax for a night at the movies. There was Love Actually, where a woman screamed, clapped, and blew kisses at the screen every time Hugh Grant made an appearance. She also decided that a smelly, disgusting bologna sandwich was an appropriate thing to bring to the movies and eat during the film. And then there was Layercake, where a group of elderly women decided to sit directly next to and behind Mark and I, and proceeded to chat during the entire film, eventually leaving halfway through because, as I gathered from the conversation they were having, they had lost one member of the group! And who can forget The Chronicles of Narnia? We went to this movie on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. The theater was empty except for a very well-behaved family of five, sitting about six rows back from us, and that nice loud couple who decided it was appropriate to sit in the row DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF US and talk on their CELL PHONES during the ENTIRE MOVIE. And the list goes on and on.

Yes, we've had a fair amount of movie frustrations.

We’ve tried different ways to alleviate these problems. We’ve gone different times of day – afternoon, evening, late night. We’ve tried different theaters – downtown Minneapolis, suburbs, Saint Paul. Nothing helps. Rude and stupid people are everywhere.

So, you can see where my anxiety would come in as the walls of people started to close in around us on this particular Saturday afternoon. I had pegged the three chatty women in front of us for the problem group. Little did I know that it would be the loud, chauvinistic, offensive, brute of a wanna-be-frat-boy and his short, high-pitched, I'm-so-in-love-with-my-mush-for-a-brain boyfriend that would be our biggest problem.

As the opening credits rolled, shots appeared of Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn in typical couple fashion - on a bowling team, at a Halloween party, purchasing their new home. During these credits, I got my first glimpse of the problems I'd face during the film. SHE started with the "Those are so cute! It's just like us!" comments, and HE fired back with "We don't take stupid pictures like that. You'd never get me into a dumb costume like that."

I bit my tongue, hoping it'd get better once the movie actually started. I was very, very wrong.

I don't want to get into specifics of the movie for those who want to see it, but there are many typical fighting scenes that you'd see with any couple. And the COUPLE sitting next to me decided to make sure that the entire theater knew that they were in a relationship, and that they’d had those same fights. SHE continuously commented "That's just like you! You do that SAME thing!" And HE'D shoot back, "That's because that's what a MAN does." SHE'D say, "She hurt his feelings, see. Now he's feeling the pain, too." HE'D say, "Real men don't feel pain. They just go out and get laid." It went on like this the entire movie. On more than one occasion, I was completely distracted by this couple, as the theater erupted in laughter over a scene or a line that I had completely missed.

I don’t know what bothered me more, the fact that they were so ridiculously rude and loud and chatty, or that the man in that relationship was such a dick about women in general and yet the girl continued to cuddle up next to him and laugh at his “witty banter” like he was God’s gift. I swear to everything that is holy, if my boyfriend ever said out loud the things that this guy was saying, I’d kick his ass from here to Wednesday. As a movie-goer, I was pissed for myself and others in the vicinity who were disrupted by this couple. As a woman, I was pissed that there still exists young men who feel it’s acceptable to degrade women in the manner that this guy was, and that there still exists women who put up with crap he was spouting.

Now, you might wonder why I didn't lean over and ask them to be quite. Or, why I didn't scream at them at the top of my lungs, rip her annoying little voice box out, and kick this man in the balls with hopes that he'd never procreate. Well, in my experience dealing with different sorts of people, I've found that generally speaking these people enjoy the attention, even the negative attention. I didn't want to start a whole big thing in the theater, and make it more disruptive for other people. Plus, I was afraid that I’d really go off on this guy and I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from telling him to climb back into the shit hole from whence he came.

Looking back, I wish that I would have said something polite. And, in my earlier days, I probably would have said something really nasty to them. But I think that as I've gotten older, I've mellowed out a lot, and I realize that sometimes, people suck and you gotta deal with it. It's either go out into public with the knowledge that sometimes people will piss you off, or become a hermit and never see the light of day.

I'm going to choose the sunlight. But it’s my blog, so I can still bitch and moan about it...

Mock Tri

Yesterday, as part of my training with Team in Training, I participated in a mock triathlon. The mock tris are set up as an opportunity for us to experience what a race day might feel like - from set up to racing to transitioning to crossing the finish line. Our mock tri would consist of exactly half the distances of our Olympic distance tri: a .5 mile swim, a 12-mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run. Well, I definitely got a glimpse of what to expect come race day, and I really liked what I saw.

The day started out early - especially for a Sunday. We were told that race check-in would begin at 7:30am, with the race itself starting at 8:15am. Being the nervous nilly that I tend to be, I arrived at the transition area at 7:15. I set up all my gear in my transition zone and began stretching to loosen up and get my mind focused. After race check-in, I got into my wet suit, which is quite the task! Those suckers are SO TIGHT! By the time I got into the suit, got my cap and goggles on, it was time to jump into the lake for a warm up.

Getting into the water for my warm up, I felt confident and prepared. The water felt good against my skin, and my nervousness was settling into anticipation. After the brief warm up, we were called back to the beach for a group start.

At about 8:15, our group stood, poised and ready, on the beach as our coach counted down from five. 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - GO!

As I ran into the water and began my swim, I realized that the confidence I had felt in the water just moments earlier had disappeared! I felt my breathing become irregular and difficult, my stroke become random and crazed, and my sight cloudy and impossible. I tried to remain calm and get my stroke back, but in the end, I wound up doing a lot of side stroke and back stroke. It wasn't exactly how I had planned, but it went ok. I was able to swim quickly and use the energy from my arms instead of my legs, which is the most important aspect of your swim stroke. I wasn't expecting to pass anyone, but I did successfully pass three people during the swim. I finished in only 17 minutes, a whole three minutes faster than I had expected!

Running out of the water, I decided to shake off the unexpected difficulties from the swim and focus on my smooth transition onto the bike. I ran to my transition area and already had the wet suit pulled down to my thighs by the time I reached my towel. I quickly pulled the suit off, put on my socks, shoes, and helmet, gulped down a race gel, and hopped on the bike.

As soon as I was on the bike, I felt my confidence and my speed come back to me. My legs felt strong and light, and I pedaled with ease. I did get passed by two people on the bike, but I let that roll off my back. I felt good and I was moving along well, so I kept my mind on my bike and I kept going.

Because of the bike route that we took, which was not the actual race route but instead was four laps around Lake Nokomis, I was forced to stop four different time at stoplights. That hurt my time by probably three minutes in total. My time recorded by the coach was 53 minutes, but my watch told me it was closer to 48:30. I was pleased with that time.

After I finished the bike portion, I quickly dismounted and raced over to my transition area. I ripped off my helmet and pinned on my race number, and then realized that was the only thing that I needed to do for this transition! I was on my way toward the final leg of the race - the running.

I started the run smooth but not very quickly. I knew that it would take a bit for my legs to adjust from the bike to the run, and I kept giving myself positive reinforcement and encouragement. I think that I actually talked to myself out loud a couple of times...

The run went rather smoothly. I kept focused and concentrated, and I kept running without a stop, until almost the bitter end. About two-thirds of the way into the run, I had an unfortunate situation occur - my body decided that it was time to haul-ass to the bathroom. I slowed down to a speed walk for about two minutes, and then picked up the pace again for the rest of the race. I did manage to pass three people during the run portion. I crossed the finish line with a run time of 33 minutes - and I just kept running until I hit the bathroom! Yeah, I'm going to have to figure out a solution to the problem prior to race day...

Overall, I was really pleased with how I performed during the mock tri. My race time was roughly 1 hour, 44 minutes, so I'm confident that I'll reach my goal of finishing the full tri within 3 hours, 45 minutes. It felt so great to get out there and actually experience a race. I've been training so hard for the past four months, and this helped me to understand why I've been putting myself through it all. I'm really looking forward to race day.

One thing that I must remember for race day, and the thing that I kept reminding myself of during the mock tri, is that I am here to compete against only one person: myself. If others pass me or if I pass others, it doesn't matter. I am here to accomplish a great goal that I set before myself: to cross the finish line. It doesn't matter who is in front of me or who is behind me. What matters is that I'm out there, and I'm doing it.

A Little Update on Life

So many things are going on that I just haven't had the time to post about them. I know, "the world is waiting with breath that is baited." (Know what this exact quote is from? Leave it in the comments to get a special prize...) Without further ado, I give you my life update.

Travel
Mark and I are heading to South Dakota! That's right folks, South Dakota!! We made a commitment a couple of years ago to take a vacation together every year, and to see all 50 states together before our time on this earth ends. And, because we don't have a lot of money right now and I don't have a lot of days off to take, we decided to make a road trip to South Dakota this year's trip. I have been wanting to go to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore for years. We're heading out on June 30th to see that and so much more! While in South Dakota, we'll be visiting Rapid City, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Wind Cave National Park, Custer State Park, Badlands National Park, Deadwood, the Mitchell Corn Palace and Sioux Falls. It's going to be so much fun. With Mark, how could it NOT be fun?!

Cars
I got a new car! My old Ford Escort Sport SE is still a great little car, but I needed something that would be 100% reliable and dependable, especially on those trips back to WI. My sister was looking to see her car and get something more family-friendly. So, I bought her car! It's a 2004 Grand Prix GT Special Edition. It's got all kinds of fun features - the two most important being a power sunroof and leather heated seats, etc. I got it at a great price, too. I'm so excited about it!

Weddings
I went back to WI (again!) this weekend for my cousin Tony's wedding. Tony is the only male in our generation, so it was really fun to see him married off! The wedding was held at Chapel on the Hill, and the reception was at The Parkway Chateau in Kenosha. It's always fun to go to family weddings.

Triathlon
Less than 6 weeks to go now! The training is going pretty well. I swam in the lake last Thursday night for the first time. I was nervous at first, but once I was in the water with my wet suit, goggles, and swim cap on, I was ready to go. It was so fun and very freeing. I got off course a time or two, but overall it went really well. I'm really confident in that part of the tri now. I bought new tires for the bike last week. I was getting frustrated with my thick tread tires, so I bought a nice set of thin racing tires. They really helped my speed. I got up and went for a long ride this morning, and it was great to get that fresh morning air first thing in the day. The run is coming along as well. I have succumb to the fact that I'll most likely walk for a bit of the run. During training, I've been running for 20 minutes, then walking for two minutes. It helps me re-focus, get a little break, and get moving again. Fundraising is going well - only $190 more to go! People have been very generous, and I've really appreciated all the support. I just can't believe that it's only 6 weeks away!!!

Summer
I love summer. I love that I can get up at 5:15 to go for a ride and it's light out already! And, I love that I can get home at 5:40 and it's light out for hours still! And so many fun things come with summer - weekends at the cabin, friends visiting from out of town, going on vacation, competing in a triathlon. It's going to be a busy one for Mark and me!

Mark
He's great. I like him.

I hope your life is busy and happy.