My Life as a Crazy Person

I just got back from a lunch-fest of geekery. We talked about Harry Potter (movies & books) and Buffy Season 8. I really enjoy being a dork sometimes. I just finished re-reading HP 1-6 in preparation for Saturday (and I have an event Saturday afternoon/evening, so I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be able to finish the book in one day as I have the last couple times).

So – geekery aside. As usual, I am busy. And, since I know that no one else is busy EVER, I command you all to feel sorry for me, send me some gin and come vacuum my living room.

The weekend was full of crazy – the architect got on a train Friday night to head to Seattle so he could do the 204 mile STP bike ride. I picked him up Sunday afternoon at about 3 PM – and after eating an entire pizza and taking a few naps, he seems to be recovered completely. My plan is to participate next year.

Saturday, a group of girls descended upon my home to be taste-testers in the first monthly mixology contest between myself and my friend Bianca. The premise of the contest is to create a drink based on a drink name – this month was the “Pink Zebra”. The contest is judged (more or less) 50% on taste, 25% on originality & 25% on presentation.

My drink was a pomegranate vodka martini (made w/ stoli, pomegranate vodka, and muddle cherries for a bit of sweetness and to make it pink).

Hers was African pink tea, absolut vodka and Godiva chocolate liqueur.

They were both good – although quite different.

However, the real winner was the hybrid drink: pomegranate vodka, pomegranate liqueur & the Godiva liqueur. That was a tasty, tasty beverage.

So – after much testing & much drinking & eating of cheese, we headed to Pix for Bastille Day. I thought it was pretty lame, but we did have some champagne, some wine & some cake. I was expecting more, I guess – more organization, etc.

Sunday, very very early, I got up & went to the Zoo. For an 8K on the trails. I finished in 62.5 minutes, which was a disappointment, as I was shooting for under an hour – but, as I keep reminding myself, this was a trail run with some decently serious hills. Also, I did the last mile in 8.45 minutes – which is a very respectable time (and it wasn’t ALL downhill – I just kicked it into high gear). That reassures me that I can be faster, I just need to work on it – so my workout schedule is going to have to change to accommodate some speed work as well as my distance goals (7 miles this Saturday – pre-Harry Potter, of course).

And, since I have my half-marathon coming up in just over 2 months, I do want to work more on distance now than speed, but am going to try to do speed/treadmill stuff over the winter. Because next year, my most ambitious year yet, I am planning to do

1. STP (204 mile bike ride)

2. Portland Marathon (26 mile run)

3. Women’s Triathlon at Blue Lake (1.5K/.93m swim, 40K/24.8m bike, 10K/6.2m run)

4. Climb Mt. Everest (29,035ft)

5. Win the Iron(wo)man (3.86K/2.4m swim, 180.2K/112m bike, 42.4K/26m run)

6. Cure cancer

7. Bring about world peace

8. Write the Great American novel

9. Swim the English Channel (very wide, I’m assuming)

10. Win the Nobel prize for everything (although my focus will be physics)

What do you mean I’m crazy? You’ve got to have goals, right? I’m reading up on string theory right now!

*****

So – I’m fairly certain other things have happened. I have worked. I am getting my hair ‘transformed’ tonight. My garden isn’t a complete loss (just 50% or so). I have cuddled my kitties.

So – things are good. Just busy. And in just over a week, I’ll be in Chicago. Claire – when do you want to get together?

ha – speaking of Chicago, I have to tell this story, even though it makes me look like the biggest moron ever, and I wasn’t going to share.

I bought my tickets to Chicago a while ago. And yesterday, gave them to my finance manager at work who needed them for some…financial reason, I guess. Later, he made a comment about me being in LA the rest of the weekend after I come back, which made me go “huh?” So I double-checked, and indeed, I had booked my ticket in & out of LA. My theory is that after I found the ticket I wanted, I went to United.com to buy it (for the miles) and they had my default home airport as LA still. So, I found the flight times that I wanted (and they were nearly identical) and just booked it. You know, without double-checking to make sure that I was flying out of the right city. So, yesterday, I talked to a wonderful customer service person at United (after I finally got the fucking computer person to transfer me to a real person) and he helped me (with a minimum of snark involving the length of time between when I had purchased the ticket & noticed the error) find new tickets for only $268 more [$100 for the change fee]. I put it on my own credit card, because I’m pretty sure that’s the moron tax.

I almost just bought a round-trip ticket to LA, but couldn’t find one for less than $400 – and for 12 hours in LA, that seemed a bit steep (sorry Brad – you really are totally worth it).

So – I am flying to Chicago next Wednesday, and I am leaving from Portland. So – yay! Also pleased that I didn’t find out next Wednesday that the flight was wrong.

So – I am stupid. The end.

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