threadwalker

It's not a rock star's life, just my life. Sometimes I don't know why I blog; it's a pretty boring life. But I like to remind myself of what I've done, so I blog for me because as boring as it is, dealing with boredom is a life-skill. (I tell the kids that all the time, too! Learn to deal with it and life will be good).

Anyway,...

Thursday night was Cal-Shakes production of MacBeth. I had the pleasant surprise of seeing Etaine and Janos there as well. yay! Sitting w/ KLWilliams, HRJ and E+J, eating picnic dinner and hanging out was really nice. (Etaine made us the most amazing sandwiches and even though I've cut bread out of my diet, I had one and it was so good I almost swooned. good thing she only made one per person... nom nom nom) The play was also quite good. I know I'm always the one bundled up to ridiculous lengths and shivering in a parka when everyone else still wearing just sweat shirts, but it was pretty cold Thursday night. I shivered under my coat and blanket and I was really glad I had gloves and a scarf over my head. I'm going to be even MORE warmly dressed next month for play #4. None of this shivering stuff!

Friday we had off. Yay. I had to go to school and get the kids registration stuff while F and same kids were packing the car. We headed up to Placerville-ish to go camping with 40 of our closest friends. It was awesome.

There were games, hanging out, s'mores, camp fire, lake (with swim stuff), bottomless pitchers of adult beverages for those inclined that way, there was a paved loop the kids biked on from dawn til dusk. And a good time was had by all.

Me? I worked in run Saturday morning. (of course I did!) I had my new schmancy Garmin Forerunner which is full of useful monitoring information. I still haven't read the directions, but I know how to get it to tell me how far I've gone, how long I've been doing it for, and some semblance of pace. It's super neat although I need to figure out how to reset it because the milage just keeps going up. I ran around Sly Reservoir, which is a 8.2 mile trail run. Having the gadget was cool because 10 minutes into it - when I started to question my sanity-I was able to say, "hey, quit your whining, you're only 1 mile into this sucker and you have to do this 7 more times. You have a race in a few weeks and if you can't knock off 8 miles today, hang up your shoes."

The trail run was beautiful and I get why people do them. I spent a lot of time alone leaping tree roots, scrambling up hills, flying down narrow passages, and periodically dodging bikers. All that off-road stuff is quasi hazardous (I rolled my left ankle once and tripped a few times) and because of it you are definitely engaged in the run every second. Otherwise, if you zone-out you wipe out. It was also mentally stimulating because I couldn't see very far ahead and was in a state of wondering what was around the next turn, so I was very absorbed in my environment. However, it is also a LOT more exhausting than road running; the last 2 miles was all steep climbes and severe drops with rocks-roots-soft dirt. I even ran up at least one stone stairway cut into the hillside. My heart was pounding so hard during one of the last climbs that I thought I was going to throw up. So when I hit 8.2 miles and my feet were on fire, my knees were throbbing, and my calves were tight, my brain told my legs/feet that their end of the bargain was over; without thinking my system stopped. It's funny; no internal dialogue, no "should or shouldn't" or anything - I just quit running. I'd also found the beach line and I knew I was a couple hundred yards from our camp. But since I was approaching our camp from the water line and I'd never been down to the water before, I was lost-ish and searching for my tribe; it was a good time to walk and get my pulse under control.

The post run damage is so-so. My knees rebounded. My calves are quite sore, but it's a "good" sore. On the less than awesome scale, I have an obsenely huge blister on one foot and it impedes walking. Phooey. HRJ thought the culprit was my socks and I think she may be onto something. I think the shoes are old, too, and only good for another few months of treadmill runs. I could feel a lot of the rocks through my shoes when I was running.

On the way home today we stopped off in Placerville to lunch with the gang and then we poked around. Well, F and Super N poked; Miss E and I hung out in the air-conditioned embroidery store that F conveniently parked next to. I worked hard at keeping my weight off my owie foot and Miss E oohed and aahed over every cute thing in the store. In their ramblings F found "The Gothic Rose" and excavated me from my airconditioned retreat and dragged me off a block or so to delve into the Super Natural Creepy World of Victorian Goth. It was a really cool store. It was the epitome of gothic Victorian ambiance; mix of antiques and clever props. Period porcelain faced dolls dressed up in Vic. clothes but sitting inside oversized bird cages. Excellent staging! They even had a fortune teller booth in the back with hours posted. (The kids were spooked.)

We got home, unloaded and I was about to juggle kids into the shower, but Super N was busy unloading the ice chest. All on his own he decided to do this. I'm the luckiest mom ever! So when he asked for a s'more later of course I said yes. Here - eat the whole bag of marshmallows! go YOU!

Miss E and I retreated outside while the sun was still up and the weather was perfect. There we were, doing embroidery together. It was surreal. I always assumed the kids would be allergic to our specific hobbies, but she picked out a beginner cross-stitch kit in Placerville, so as I worked on Todd's piece, she has her piece. It was cute. I would do her first pass of counted cross stitch and then she'd do the return trip while I turned to the Pelican piece. It's important that it's easy and un-stressful for her especially since this is something I do a lot of and it would be easy for me to get crazy about her being perfect. It truly was relaxing and fun. I keep marvelling at how fun these kids can be sometimes. Which is good - I get tired of being the warden so I need some first hand fun, too.

Later Ermine_rat and family came over to enjoy the soothing effects of the hot tub on camp-weary muscles. It was like "Camping Part 2" without the dirt and fire smoke. Sooooo relaxing.

Yup. A rockstar would have had a jet ride to Italy and a weekend at a villa on a lake. Me? I had a great camping trip with the best friends in the world, which is something money can't buy.