Weekend Review {3/30}

FRIDAY

Friday was the perfect ending to such a crap week.  It rained and traffic was horrendous.  It was so fitting that I just sighed and laughed a little and went on with my in-car dance sessions.  I managed to make it into work super early (although I was almost foiled by Nemesis Train #2 but I pulled a u-turn in the middle of the highway and hit 526 to the next exit and vowed that if Nemesis Train #1 started doing it's thing as I was approaching, I was just going to jump the tracks since I know how slow it goes).

When I left, I went straight to the coliseum for packet pick up and my magic roller stick.  On my way, I passed a section of the interstate that was completely covered in mulch, thankfully that was NOT the direction I needed to be going, but still, it sucked for those people that were stuck on the interstate going NOWHERE at all.

The drive for Teh MD Adult Roomie was pretty horrendous so she wasn't able to join me for the expo and packet pickup, but I still was able to peruse the expo and get free samples of Firefly Moonshine and some vodka beverage and then a free beverage of the vodka stuff.  I could have used Teh MD Adult Roomie's free beverage ticket, but I knew I needed to drive back home.

Teh MD Adult Roomie finally arrived and Mr. Scrooge finally made it home completely drenched (since he'd made a poor life choice and decided to take the motorcycle out for his errands).  We ended up leaving soon after we all sat down and got comfortable for dinner at Graze.  I had called and made a 5:30 reservation at 5:05, so I told the guy we'd be late.  What I didn't realize was HOW late.  Since 526 was being mulched (ha), everyone was taking I-26 to get to Mount Pleasant, which means that we hit serious bridge traffic.  The cool thing was that Teh MD Adult Roomie was able to get a preview of the bridge we would be running across 12 hours later.

Apparently, we weren't the only ones late for our reservations since there were plenty of empty tables when we arrived.  Dinner was delicious, of course.  One of my coworkers had suggested that we park a car downtown so we could escape downtown after the race and not have to wait on the shuttle, so we dropped Yurtle off at the parking garage after dinner.

Rainy evening in CHS.

We came home and relaxed with the dogs for the evening.  Since Teh MD Adult Roomie and I had an early start, we went to bed fairly early.  But not before Olive made her princess-self at home in my bed.  Love her.

SATURDAY

5am came sooooo early.  Teh MD Adult Roomie and I headed out to the coliseum to catch our shuttle to the Cooper Bridge Run (10K).  I think it's something about race shuttle drivers, they have to be a little crazy.  Our driver for the Divas run had NO idea where he was going and we almost got hit by an 18-wheeler.  This time, the lady blatantly ran a red light, but we were the last bus in a 7 bus train and I can't be sure she had any idea where we were going.  Then again, I'm not sure any of the drivers had any idea where we were going since we ended up having to turn around at a gas station. 

When the bun finally stopped, I whimpered, "Can we please just stay and hang out on the bus?"  I didn't realize it was as loud as it was, but everyone around us heard me and cackled.  It was a whopping 40 degrees (F) and 98% of us were prepared for a sunny day 6 mile run, NOT standing around in winter conditions for 2 hours.

Overall, I'd give the entire race an A.  Not an A+ because the after-race stuff was terrible in my opinion.  But the most impressive thing ever happened BEFORE the race.  Around 0730, we noticed these 3 things in the sky.  At first I thought they were little drone things with American flags hanging from them (it made sense to my freezing brain at zero dark thirty on Saturday morning).  As these objects got closer, we realized they were actually parachute-ers with American flags hangings from them.  At which point, I started to hear someone singing the National Anthem.  Out of habit, I stood at attention.  What's the protocol for my behavior now that I'm not in the military anymore?  Apparently, I really suck at being a civilian.  While the singing of the National Anthem wasn't the best, the presentation of the flag gave me chills because of how awesome it was.

Finally, the sun came up and the crowd started moving forward.  We'd started stretching our cold, tight muscles after the National Anthem.  As a lover of the cold, I'm not really going to bitch about standing in the cold, but I am going to bitch about how tight my muscles were from standing for so long in the cold.  The crowd refused to crowd together to keep warm, which sucked.  Apparently, everyone was enjoying their personal space.  Teh MD Adult Roomie would hide behind me when the wind would blow and I'd find someone to hide behind too.  We got caught several times doing this and people around us would laugh.  #notevensorry

Start line!

Up the bridge.

Down the bridge selfie!

At the finish line!

At the finish line "celebration"

Honestly, the absolute worst part was after the finish line.  There were no clear directions for participants on where to go and there were a million and a half people loitering around, which didn't help.  Teh MD Adult Roomie and I hadn't eaten breakfast and it was now 1000 and we had ran 6.4 miles (.2 extra from dodging walkers) and I was past hangry.  It hit me like a wall.  When I couldn't immediately find water and something to shove in my mouth, I was ANGRY.  I ended up almost accosting innocents asking them where they found water and a muffin.  We eventually found them, but it was a close call to bloodshed.

We located the muffins and didn't have to fight the water table crowd because I looked down and God had placed a crate of bottled water at the edge of the food table.  We then happened upon some stacked tables and we plopped down and washed down some blueberry muffins and stretched.  Semi-nourished, we faced the people and checked out the tents that were set up.  We took a photo together at this huge inflated red couch, which was hilarious on principle.  Mr. Scrooge was supposed to have met us near the finish, but he didn't make it in time.  When he did find me, we were on opposite sides of a fence and he started bitching to me about his having to enduring listening to a street preacher because of the location I had suggested we meet at (the first place I happened to see that was distinctive (Moe's)) and parking woes and before he could continue I cut him off with a still slightly hangry, "Oh, nice to see you too!  I woke up at 5am this morning and just finishing running 6 miles and almost had to slay people to get a muffin and a bottle of water and I'm glad you didn't burst into flames being in the presence of a street preacher."  He quickly got the point.

We agreed to eat lunch downtown since several places were having specials for race participants.  We ended up at Joe Pasta, but I think I want to try Virginia's on King next time we're downtown.  I had shrimp and grits because that's a thing down here and I've decided that's THE meal to make the determination if a restaurant is good or not, since practically every restaurant serves it here.

After brunch, Mr. Scrooge went off on a ride while Teh MD Adult Roomie and I went to TCBY and picked up her car at the coliseum and then made a quick stop at Target, then headed home for showers and naps.

Sharing a bowl was the perfect amount.  Why would this be a 1 person serving, ever?  Ugh, America, this is why you so fat!

 After naps, I got up and started making dinner since we were having people and dogs over.  My lasagna ended up being super wet (I think because the mushrooms were juicy) so it ended up looking pretty horrible, but I think it tasted delicious (a super healthy block of Velveeta cheese will do that).

After a while, we let the doggies in after washing their paws off.  We've taken to just leaving a bucket of water outside and dunking the dogs feet in it before they come inside.  Before we were just wiping off the mud with a towel, but the swamp yard has become a monster that is practically untameable. 

Desoto (galgo) and Tempe (greyhound) take naps after zoomies in the yard.

I was torn between the punny "sharpest tool in the shed" and "Space Jam on VHS".  Space Jam ultimately won because I'm pretty sure that would be what Teh Sister would trade 200 cigarettes for if she was in jail.

Olive was pooped after all her zoomies and terrorizing Meri.

 After all the company left, it was bedtime.  Fortunately, our friends have early bedtimes, so we were able to get to bed pretty early ourselves.

SUNDAY

There was a loose outline of activities for Sunday, but no specific time-frames which was nice.  Teh MD Adult Roomie and our discussed our trip to DW next Feb for the Glass Slipper Challenge (GSC).  We decided on doing the 5k on Friday, in addition to the GSC.  We also decided on staying at a resort on DW so we don't have to deal with traffic getting to the race, only catching a shuttle.  Our final agreement was on NOT doing the parks.  Neither of us feel like going to the parks is going to be high on our list after running 3 days in a row, especially for such long distances.  I know that Mr. Scrooge has never been to the parks, so I'd still like to be able to do that with him one day, but I don't think GSC weekend is going to be that time.

Eventually, we decided to get ready and head out to the bee expo.  I have been looking for local honey for a few months now since I'm allergic to the world and I hadn't been able to find it.  I KNEW that there would be local honey there.  We got to sample several different types of honey.  The best presentation was the booth who let us sample spring, summer, and fall honey.  I preferred the spring.  Mr. Scrooge preferred the fall.  I ended up getting wild flower honey from a different booth.  I also sampled the honey that I found online by the Savannah Bee Company, and it turns out their Charleston honey is delicious.

We met Teh SC House Finder, Teh Architect, and 1st Grade Teacher Assistant at the bee expo since Teh Architect had left his jacket at our house on Saturday night.  He ended up coming to do go karts with us, which was awesome.  You should be aware that I still came in first place this time.  LIKE A BOSS.  The dude that assigned our carts said that 1st place was really determined by who had the best lap time, but don't play dude, the first person to pass that checkered flag is the winner and that was this girl.  I had the shortest lap time for about 75% of the race. 

Because we were the only ones in the place, our 2 races were combined and it felt pretty short.  Then Teh Architect suggested we do lazer tag, so we bought tickets and made the mistake of letting in the game master play on a team.  Yeah, poor life choice.  That would be Randy Olsen.  We were the red team, so I was pretty pumped about placing 2nd since the game master was on the blue team.  The Joker was me, I was awarded Trigger Happy.  Accurate.  I was sad that Godzilla was a gun that didn't get used because I would have liked to see who was actually the worst shot.

Terminator = Teh Architect, Spiderman and Nightwing = Mr. Scrooge (he had gun issues). Mad Max = Teh MD Adult Roomie, The Joker = Teh Megan.

Since we hadn't eaten lunch because Mr. Scrooge had made breakfast after I made muffins, we ended up having early dinner at Manny's with Teh SC House Finder and 1st Grade Teacher Assistant after lazer tag.  We were going to go to Sesame, but they were closed and we were all pretty crushed.  The hummus almost made up for the fact that I didn't get my adult milkshake, but then we had the discussion that the Manny's by the outlets wasn't as good as the Manny's in West Ashley because their menu's were different and they wouldn't take Teh SC House Finder's coupon... DUMB.  BUTTTTTTT delicious hummus.

After lunch, Teh MD Adult Roomie, Mr. Scrooge and I headed to Cycle Gear so Mr. Scrooge could buy new motorcycle tires, then he was a good sport while Teh MD Adult Roomie and I hit up Loft at the Outlets and Oakley because my sunglasses are pulling my hair, bleh.  Teh MD Adult Roomie and I bought some stuffs at Loft, despite my observation that they don't really make shirts for big boobs.  I needed some thinner/short sleeve tops to wear this summer (after this winter stint ends).

After shopping, we headed home and Mr. Scrooge mowed the lawn while Teh MD Adult Roomie and I did house work inside.  She INSISTED on vacuuming/cleaning my floors.  I tried to stop her.  Siiiigh.  To celebrate the weekend, I signed up for the Tarheel 10 Miler, sadly, I missed the "Crash the Party" sign up, but I'm hoping to pick up an NC State shirt at the expo (and if I can't find one, I'm bringing an NC State shirt anyways).  Teh Advising Sister has already told me she will let me crash at her place, even though she is going to be out of town, which makes me sad.

It felt like it should have been 6pm at 8pm, which is always confusing for me.  I managed to talk Teh MD Adult Roomie into doing puzzle with me.  We had allotted an hour to puzzle, but ended up being up until 10:30, which was an hour longer than we had originally said and 30 minutes after I said, "We'll stop after this song."  Yeah, OCD > will power.

The edge was already done, but we did get get some big chunks completed.

MONDAY

In the middle of the night, I woke up and smelled poop and pulled the covers over my head to block out the smell so I could go back to sleep.  I just couldn't.  When I did finally get up, I kicked the dogs out of the bedroom while I shampooed the carpets.  When I was finished, I was rinsing the dirty water reservoir when Teh MD Adult Roomie asked, "What is that smell."  I said, "Poop," thinking it was just the remnants.  Oh no.. Those asshole dogs had left me an additional 2 piles of poop in the living room and entry way because I hadn't kicked them out of the house or fed them.  Which meant that the first 45 minutes of my morning was spent cleaning poopy carpets.  Last week started this same way and I'm already not pleased. 

AND Teh MD Adult Roomie left this morning so I'm all the sads with my shitty morning.  I did decide to order a different food for the dogs, hoping that it will solve the poop issues my dogs are experiencing.  This is the most poop I've dealt with in such a short period of time, ever. 

Nonetheless, it was an absolutely fabulous weekend and I'd do it over again in a heartbeat.  I can haz more Teh MD Adult Roomie in my life all the time????