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10K race report

I did the Turning Stone Casino and Resort 10k (there was a 5k on friday and also a half marathon, I did the 10k length).

I woke up way earlier than normal, Mom was picking me up at 6-6:30am to go to the race, get my packet and all that. So of course, i had a really bizarre dream right before the alarm went off that I couldn't find my socks, Mom was late, and a bunch of other wierd stuff. So that had me waking up with my heart beating out of my chest.

I made the mistake of trying to eat my banana as soon as I woke up, so my stomach felt a bit off. Then Mom kept asking me if i wanted food before I set off, and I ate 1/2 a clif bar so she'd see that I had eaten something and would stop worrying.

Then it was time to get all set into the corral like cattle and soon we'd be off. I told Mom to have fun gambling and that I assumed I'd be done around and hour and a half after starting. We all got into the shoot and set up by pace time. They had signs for 6 minute pace, up to 12. I stuck toward the back because I was nervous and being trampled wasn't high on my to-do list for this race.

The gun popped and we were off. it was nice that they don't start your time until you cross the start line, so I didn't have to worry about charging out of the gate. I set myself at a decent pace and plodded along for the first km or so before taking a small walk break. After all, I wasn't out to win, just to finish.

I ended up playing leap frog with a woman, and it got to the point where we started talking. And that was my downfall. I enjoy talking, having a fun time, but it ended up hurting my time. We walked a lot more than we ran, and all of a sudden she said that we were almost done and it had been close to an hour and a half (she had on a garmin, I just had my ipod keeping track of time but it was pretty useless while we were talking because I wasn't going to put my earbuds back in. I felt like it would be rude to start a convo and then put them in and zip off.

We got back onto the casino grounds and I told her I'd catch her at the finish. Sure enough, she was right behind me as I raced my little heart out to the finish. My time was 1:38:21. Not what I wanted, I was hoping for 1:20 or under. But I got my medal and found Mom, who said she just came out a minute ago and saw me finish. She had been inside gambling, which was fine with me because I didn't expect her to sit around for me in the humidity.

My overall feelings are that the rain probably would have been nice, and that the course was more hilly than I expected. Only one real kind of steep hill, the rest were smaller, but it seemed like there was a lot more uphill than they led on.

Now i just need to survive my half in October and I should be all set.

Bye-bye credit card

I feel like I'm losing a friend. My husband and I decided it's best if we shred my credit card. It sucks because it's only in my name and it's something that's just mine. However, it sucks when he can't use the credit card to order something on-line without having to rummage through my purse or ask me the number.

Instead, we plan on getting a joint credit card. That's a big step, since we essentially have nothing other than our son in both of our names. All bills are in his name, and we don't share a bank account. Some people see that as a form of control and I agree, it's controlling the money we have so I don't spend it all on crap. Let's face facts here, I am horrible with money. I already have the birthday money I plan on getting half spent in my head, and my birthday's 2 months out. So the plan is to get a joint credit card and see how that goes, and then hopefully getting a joint account where extra money will go into so I don't have to ask for money.

Is it odd that I am almost mourning the loss of the credit card? I have a feeling it is, but if you know me, you know that I'm not a normal person.

Holidays and drama

It always seems like family drama comes with the holidays. This year, I may have started it. I made a joke that a lot of the people in the family would have laughed off, but this person just completely flipped out. It was quite ridiculous.

Of course, it became a pity party for her and I became the monster in the situation. It doesn't matter what this person has done, one comment made me the monster. But anyways. Why does it seem like any time family gets together, there's an argument about something? It can't just be my family, I've seen it happen in a lot of other families as well.

On of my aunts brought up that we should just try to get along, since it's the holidays. Makes sense, but you can't just play nice during the holidays and then fight during the rest of the year. I prefer to go with ignoring people unless they insist on talking to me.

What do you do during the holidays when you're forced to be around family members that you'd choose not to see? Do you just resist going to family functions, or how does it work for you?

Thanksgiving and shopping

I was told recently that if you aren't ready to pull your hair out, you aren't doing the holidays properly. I am pretty sure I agree. Most moms spend the day cooking, cleaning, entertaining, and everybody else sits back and relaxes. Don't you agree?

I woke up fairly early on Thanksgiving (early for me anyways, I had baked the day before so my portion of dinner was done) and set out to go shopping. I believe I've mentioned before that I don't drive. So I walked a mile to the store to go shopping. I may have mentioned before that I wouldn't shop Kmart again after my last fiasco with them. Well, I lied. I walked there in 26 degree weather to go shopping at 8am on Thanksgiving morning. I walked out about 45 minutes later with close to 30 pounds of stuff, ready to walk back home. So by 9:30am, my arms and shoulders hurt, great start to the day.

Friday I woke up to a phone call from my mother-in-law, asking if I wanted to go shopping. I don't turn down deals, so I went. The longest line I stood in was about half an hour for children's clothing. That honestly wasn't bad for Black Friday. I've decided people lie about Black Friday to keep other people from joining in the fun. My arms and shoulders were still sore throughout the day, and weren't helped by the bags I was lugging around. About this time I decided they need to have people to carry your bags for you from store to store.

This morning (Saturday) I was again woken up by a phone call about shopping. This time it was my mother, hoping I could give insight on what to get my son, nieces, and nephew. I ended up getting stocking stuffers today, which was a good thing to do. So when I got home, I found the stockings and stuffed them with the things I bought, realizing that my son's stocking was overfilled, my husband's was half-filled, and mine was empty.

How is Christmas (or other holidays based on what you celebrate) shopping going for you? Let me know your favorite Black Friday deal or story, if you ventured out.

My trip to Blairsville, GA

Over the weekend, I surprised my best friend for her wedding. We had fallen out of contact as life got in our way; school for her and family life for me. Her mother helped me set the whole thing up, including picking me up at the Atlanta airport and getting me there and back (about 90 minute-2 hour drive each way).

Her mother said something that stuck with me. She asked if it was like we had just seen each other the day before, even though it had been 5 years since the last time we saw each other. That's kind of how it felt, like we knew we hadn't seen each other for a long time but it didn't feel that way.

I have a feeling I drove her new husband crazy, but that's my job. I had to make sure he could deal with me or the marriage just wouldn't work. OK, that's not true, but he was fun to torture. I let him know before the wedding that I thought he was a good guy and that if I didn't approve of him, I would not have made the trip. I enjoyed meeting his whole family, and spending the weekend with everybody who came to the wedding. It was an intimate wedding, about 25 of us total, including the pastor and photographer. We spent the weekend in the mountains, and woke up to an amazing view every morning (the picture included).

My short version of my thoughts for this post: if you have a friend that you have fallen out of contact with for no real reason, make the effort to catch up with each other. You will not be sorry for making the effort to at least see if your friendship has stood up to everyday life. In my opinion, if you miss out on the chance to catch up, you may not get a second chance and you will spend a lot of time wondering what could have happened.

My 'fun' shopping Kmart on-line

I was chosen through Cafemom to buy things from Kmart and review their services. I bought most of my stuff in the store, and then had a little bit of the gift card left that I used on-line.

The stuff that I bought in the store was for my son's birthday party. I had a hard time finding decent party supplies. He was having a Cars party. There were no napkins and one pack of each design. I had enough cups and party bags for what I needed. I asked an associate and she said that they were re-stocked by a different company, and they come in about once a week. So you would think that a week later, there would be more in the store, right? Nope. Nobody replaced any of the party decorations in over a week. About 30% of the wall was completely bare, and a lot of styles had maybe one pack of each thing. I ended up having to mix the two Cars designs to get enough plates and cups. There were no napkins that had Cars on them and I ended up using plain colored ones I had. No cake plates at all, but they had a ton of invites if you needed them.

So onto my on-line experience. On November 7th, they had a family and friends event, most of the stuff was 5-20% off. I ordered 6 items: a Cars teaching clock for my son, a zhu zhu pet for my niece, a pair of jeans for another niece, and 3 shirts to also go out as gifts. Their site would not let me order so I had to call and do it that way. I talked to a nice woman who barely spoke English. She helped me through the process to order the 6 items and cash out. That was an interesting ordeal, but my stuff all got ordered.

As soon as I get off of the phone, there was an e-mail in my inbox asking about my experience. I answered that and then checked to find another Kmart e-mail. 2 of the shirts I ordered were not in stock. OK, whatever. I can find 2 other shirts or get other gifts for those people. More than 3 days later, I get another e-mail from Kmart. The Cars clock that I really liked for my son was no longer in stock. It took them long enough to figure that out. If I had known, it wouldn't have been such a disappointment, but the clock is supposed to help with learning to tell time, and they didn't have it in the store.

I got 2 more e-mails saying that items had been shipped. On the last one, they had a copy of my order. The zhu zhu pet was also canceled and they didn't let me know. I called the customer service line and the woman asked if I wanted to re-order. I told her that I would just go to Walmart instead and get the same items for cheaper. I was ordering form them to finish out my gift card that I was given. Why should I waste time trying to order from a site that can't seem to figure out how to let people know whether or not things are in stock?

I am not the only person who got a gift card from Cafemom who had issues with the store or website. I read multiple similar accounts of the stores being poorly stocked and dirty or disorganized. I also heard from multiple people who had a hard time trying to order on-line.