Becoming a Colored Person....

If you visited the actual blog site and scrolled past the title of the post, then you saw that there was a countdown to a significant event on the right bar.  Do you even remember?  It's fine.  Kinda.

Anyways, I was counting down to The Color Run!  Totally, totallyyyyyy worth it.  Seriously.  It really is the "happiest run on the planet."  

Ok, lets start from the beginning..

Thursday evening, Teh Stepmom and Teh Dad arrived.  Dinners were consumed, bedtime came.

Friday was a lazy day.  We woke up, I made breakfast (eggs, bacon, and toast, which isn't cereal or oatmeal, so I impressed myself), eventually we decided it was time to do something.  We decided to go drive around base so Teh Stepmom could see the planes.  We may or may not have stopped at the end of a runway to watch the planes come and go for a bit.  They got to see an Osprey take off, which was pretty exciting (even though I was driving and didn't get to see it).  We also got to see several other types of aircraft, which is always awesome for people unlike me who take it for granted.  Teh Parents are on this ridiuclous eating schedule, which mostly includes not eating.  IDK, it seemed pretty ridiuclous to me, but since we had a late, big breakfast, I wasn't hungry at lunch time, and we were occupado until 3:30ish, so dinner that early would have left me starving at bedtime.  

Instead of full dinner, we went to Rita's and had dessert.  I had a Strawberry Shortcake Blendini.  DEEEEEEElichious.  That was able to tide me over for a few more hours, when we decided that I didn't want to have to deal with cooking/dishes, so we should order pizza.  I got a super special on way more than $15 worth of stuff from Dominoes.  I called the neighbor friends that were still in town for the night (others had went out of town because they had the Tough Mudder run on Saturday) and invited them over for pizza/dessert/dominoes (which is usually ran by a couple that went to the Tough Mudder event).  We got through 8 rounds of mexican dominoes because we are awesome!  I came in 2nd this time, barely.  Bread Eater won, I think it was because I wasn't intoxicated.  I would have won if I was intoxicated.

Phil panted, "Teach me too!"

 Around 11:30 we finally called it a night, which was good since Teh Stepmom and I had to be awake at 3am to head to VA to pick up new Greyhounds for GEGR.  After getting a few hours of sleep, we rolled out of the bed and headed to VA to meet the hauler.... which was 2 hours late.  Good times.  We had a Waffle House Parking Lot Picnic... which would have been better had we not been getting continuous whiffs of urine.  Eww.  Finally, the hauler came.  We got our Greyhound fix while driving them to GHC ((GEGR's) Greyhound Central).

Greyhound owners always have an extra blanket in the car!

We came back home, packed our stuff for DC and headed out after Teh Stalked Neighbor's picked up Teh Phil-boy.  He stayed with The Stalked Neighbor Family for Saturday night while Teh Parents and I headed to DC for a sleepover so we didn't have to get up stupid early to drive to DC on Sunday morning.  I let Teh Dad drive so I could take a nap, since I was Le Tired.

We miraculously made it to NGA for the family day tour with Danielle in under an hour and a half.  While I was impressed with Teh Dad's "going with traffic" rate of speed, I was also disappointed that my nap time was minimized since he was "going with traffic" and we arrived in DC at the speed of light.  There might have been some mishaps with the parking situation, to the point that we thought that Security was chasing us through the parking lot, but we later learned it wasn't us that warranted Security.  The NGA tour was awesome.  Pretty sure that NGA is still my dream job and going there didn't affect that any.  The new building is awesome.  We got to see the watchfloor, in it's unimpressive, sanitized state.  We got to see how polygraph tests work.  Super cool.  After our NGA tour we quickly found food since most of us hadn't partaken of lunch.  Waking up at 3am really throws off the schedule, yo.

While we were at the Mexican restaurant, Miss Reflective and I both received simultaneous emergency alerts from our super awesome Droid 4s.  We were actually more confused than anything else at all the extra noise, but apparently we were told that a tornado was coming.  A few minutes later, we received another warning about this impending tornado with the final statement of the warning, "GET INSIDE NOW."  Thank you, Google, thank you.  We were watching the rain come down sideways outside, but luckily, no tornadoes approached Yurtle who was waiting patiently in the parking lot.  Not too long after the 2nd warning, as we were finishing our meal, the power went out.  It flickered on and off for about a minute before finally going out for good.  The staff had to total our meal manually..  Intense.  We finally left to head to the store for packet pickup then to hotel for Teh Parents and I to check in.  What should have been a reliatvely easy trip was wrought with craziness on the roads.  Lots of leaves and branches scattering roads and yards, lots of lights out, and lots of cars on the road.  We made 3 u-turns at one crazy intersection just to make a right turn then a left turn, that would have been easy if the police would have allowed traffic to make left turns.  Le sigh.

Eventually, we made it to the hotel, where Teh Stepmom was 1) relieved to be able to take a nap and 2) glad to be out of a car with either me or Teh Dad driving.  Miss Reflective was staying with Danielle and they had plans to do something, so I went back out with them.  We walked in the hotel room, set everything down, and I headed towards the door.  "Aren't you going to get ready or anything," Danielle asked.  "Get ready?  What are you talking about, I showered this morning, that's as ready as I ever get," I informed her.  Put on makeup or do something extra to go out in public?  Pffth.  We met Danielle's friend at Chili's where we were actually still full from Mexican a few hours prior.  I guess something about the dark keeps you fuller, longer?  Idk.  I ordered a delicious brownie and finished the entire thing myself, while everyone else talked about how big the desserts were and how they couldn't finish it alone, so how about we share it?  I'm guiltless y'all.  I was running a 5k the next day.  Bring it.  That brownie was amazing, by the way.

After Chili's we stopped by Wal-Mart which is where all the high-quality entertainment is in DC on a Saturday night.  We could barely get in the door because of all the people, which warranted an "I hate Wal-Mart" comment from me and a man standing in the customer service line with his wife overheard and agreed wholeheartedly, which made me giggle.  We acquired a white t-shirt for Danielle to run in (wearing a white shirt was the only "rule" for The Color Run, and it was more of a suggestion to get the most fun out of the race), dambanas (or bandannas if you weren't stationed in GTMO with us), and I found a pair of black workout pants with pockets!  We considered wearing t-shirts over our heads and faces like the TCN's in GTMO used to do, but not being able to breath while running killed the idea.  I survived checking out, after a close encounter with an Arab with a shopping cart who jumped in line in front of me by almost hitting me with his cart (seriously, I hate Wal-Mart).  After Wal-Mart we went to Bungalow.  I think that was the name of the place.  We got a booth and the other girls shared a pitcher of Blue Moon while I enjoyed a child-sized rum and coke.  When I stopped judging the size of the glass and took a sip, I realized it was definitely an adult drink....  Whew.  A little after 11 I finally asked if it was my bedtime.  I tried very hard to not whine about being tired (despite having woken up at 3am after only 2 hours of sleep and a minimal 1 hour nap).  Once the pitcher was done, we headed out.  Teh Stepmom and Teh Dad were all cutesy spooning when I got into the hotel room, which got an aww and almost a photo, but I was too tired to find my camera and didn't want to wake them up.  Instead, I brushed my teeth and went to bed like a quitter.

Sunday morning, I woke up to Teh Dad throwing his pillows on me.  I think he thought I needed more pillows to cover up my head to keep out the sounds/light?  Not sure.  Holiday Inn already had provided me with FOUR pillows on the bed.   I was good.  There was lots of light when I opened my eyes.  Apparently, they didn't get the memo about what it meant that the blinds were closed when I woke up...  The blind that I had purposefully closed before collapsing in bed.  After some whines, Teh Dad explained that it was a nice day outside and closed the blinds.  My nice level went up about 4 notches.  After Teh Dad explained to Teh Stepmom that there were other mirrors in the hotel room, she relocated so I could get up, get changed, and brush my teeth.  Apparently, I really am a minimalist when it comes to facing the public.

The Gaylord Convention Center from the bridge.

We left at 7:45 to get to the National Harbor for the run, which included us sitting on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge for about 45 minutes.  We made it to the start line by 8:45, where I waited anxiously for Miss Reflective and Danielle to show up.  They had to pick up their car pool girl on the way, then they hit bridge traffic so they parked right at 9.  Luckily, the race started in several waves.  We were able to get some photos in, then sneak our way up closer to the start line.  I was ridiculously excited and overly-cheery with my motivation.  I was pretty sure Miss Reflective and Danielle wanted to kick me in the shins about 1/4 of the way through the race when I was jogging up the biggest hill in the National Harbor area.  They wanted to walk and I was trying to motivate.  I'm pretty sure if I could have spontaneously combusted, that would have been their time of choice.  At each kilometer, there was a color zone where they squirted color at you from squeeze bottles.  It was awesome running up to each zone and seeing the literal cloud of color from where they were coloring people.  Also, all the volunteers at each color zone were they color they were throwing.  Example: they had on a blue shirt, for the blue zone, and they looked like smurfs because they were also getting covered in blue powder.  It was awesome!

Eventually, I jogged on, leaving Miss Reflective and Danielle behind.  Before I left them, I was chatting to them and said something about going slow and the guy that was running past us was like, "Are you calling me slow?"  I clarified, but then it became a running (haha, get it?) joke.  He ran past us then would slow down and walk.  When I had ran on alone, I caught up with him and then I actually called him slow.  He started running again and when he'd start walking I'd catch up to him.  We did this a few times and after we were almost at the start, the path started to get clogged with walkers (who didn't know the stay to the right rule, it also didn't help that most people were in fairly large groups).  I was on the left, so I told him I'd clear the way for us and he ran after me.  I found Teh Stepmom and Teh Dad almost at the end!  I offered to give Teh Dad a hug since I was covered in color.  He didn't take me up on it.  The "slow" guy sped ahead and, of course, I caught up to him at the last bend.  "Wanna make it a tie," I offered.  "Sure," he agreed.  We sprinted out the finish and high fived at the end.  WOOOOO COLOR RUNNERS!!!!!

After the run, I waited on Miss Reflective and Danielle to finish then we headed to the color party at the end of the race, where I lost them again in my excitement.  I got to stand in the pit and get colored a few times, I eventually gave up on my ninja bandanna and just ate the color with everyone else.  I was lonely without my friends so I set out to find them or Teh Parents.  I struggled to find either.  I even walked back to Yurtle to see if Teh Parents had given up and went back there (Teh Dad had my cell phone, which was making me socially crippled).  As I was walking back from Yurtle, I saw Danielle and Miss Reflective standing on the hill to get back to the "after party".  I was sooooo relieved.  I called Teh Parents with Miss Reflective's phone and we finally were all one again!  As we were standing there figuring out our next plans, I was talking about getting blown off so we could be "cleaner" before we finally decided to leave and a group walked past us and one of the guys (who was black (which is relevant)) came up to me and said, "Am I clean enough?!"  I said, "YES!  You're so colorful!"  He laughed and said, "So are you!"  I responded, "We're the same color??!!  Who would have ever thought?!"  Immediately, I recognized the potential awkwardness of the comment, but he didn't take it the wrong way and responded with, "Well said!" before continuing on his way with his group of friends.  That was probably the best moment of the race for me...  the not getting beat up because I made a potentially racist comment.

Concentration was required not to explode powder everywhere.

We decided on doing another color throw and getting more photos of the 3 of us together, fully colored.  I still had my color packet so I opened it up and Teh Stepmom got pictures of me coloring us.  We headed back to the pit and coordinated a meeting place with Teh Parents for when we were finished.  While we were standing in the pit waiting to be colored, Danielle opened her green packet that she had caught.  I turned to say something to them and got a face full o' green.  It was hilarious.  We cackled and took photos. I'm sure it was payback for my "motivating" while we were running.  :)  We survived another throw, which literally shaded us from the sun like a cloud.  It was crazy.  We had such a blast.  We also sang along to Call Me Maybe, which we all know is my favorite song.  We finally decided we were starving and it was time to leave.  We headed to Alexandria and ended up at Applebee's so we could have lots of food options.  This was ironically (since I had mentioned it in the debate of where to eat) 2 building down the street from Krispy Kreme!!!  YAY chocolate covered kreme filled doughnuts (....we'll get back to this).

We got lots of looks in Applebee's.  Some people asked us if we'd been mud wrestling.  What mud do you know that is rainbow colored?  W.T.F?  Moving past the general stupidity, we explained that we'd just finished The Color Run where they throw powdered color on you.  It was pretty funny to see the reactions of people that were dressed up from church to see 3 crazy colored messy girls.  Some people wanted to ask, some people just gave us a wtf look and kept going, some people pretended they didn't see anything at all, some people outright asked.  After gorging on way too much delightful food, we decided it was time to head home.  Miss Reflective had a 4 hour drive and we had a 1.5 hour drive.  Before we got in the car, I walked to Krispy Kreme and picked up what I thought was 3 chocolate covered kreme filled and 3 original glazed.  I paid and we headed home.

I had Teh Parents drop me off at the Stalker Neighbor's house so I could just walk Phil home.  They managed to have a conversation with me, despite my colored state.  Teh Phil-boy had done very well and he didn't even want to leave.  We jogged back, so I totaled about 4 miles on Sunday.  Who's a hard charger?? Me.  I couldn't even stop to settle some because I was still covered in color (I had even put a sheet over the driver's seat so the color wouldn't get into the holes in the seat (for the seat heater/cooler)).  Upon taking off my clothes I realized a leprechaun had pooped in my cleavage.  The green powder that had been exploded in my face had apparently got me in other places as well.  During my shower as I was scrubbing all the color off, I yelled, "I'M WHITE AGAIN!!!  Mostly."  If Teh Parents didn't laugh, they should have.  I do have a green stained arm pit and slightly moldy looking cleavage from sweat+green powder being left on for so long.

Overall it was a delightful trip.  After my shower, I was starving and it wasn't quite dinner time yet, so I decided on a doughnut...  I had been given chocolate covered doughnuts.  As in, with a hole in the middle and NO KREME.  Gentle Readers, I was crushed.  I mean, to the point of tears.  I cried over how awesome my day was and that I had been looking forward to these doughnuts an unreasonable amount.  I live so far away from a KK and the last time I'd been in DC for my after surgery check up, I got a chocolate covered LEMON filled doughnut (I had ordered a chocolate covered kreme filled).  This isn't an option on the menu ever so I figured it was a fluke, but I was definitely looking forward to my doughnut this time around.  TEARS y'all.  Lets just say that next time I go to KK, anywhere, I'll probably take a bite into the doughnut to ensure quality control.

Despite that hiccup, the weekend was awesome.  I'm spending today recouping and sending Teh Parents off.    Once they leave its time to talk to Teh Bear and get Teh Phil's nails clipped and something else I can't currently remember.

PS.  For the pictures click here:  Color Run Photos