Deck the Halls

The halls are decked, the presents wrapped. Two pans of potatoes prepared and ready to cook in the morning; turkey is in the brine and will be cooked in the morning as well. One more hour and then off to sing at the Candlelight service. I can't believe that Christmas arrived so quickly! Looking forward to spending Christmas Eve with Heidi, Adam and Carlos (if Carlos is still awake) then tomorrow will be all about food, family, fun and festivities (ooh and presents, I think I did okay this year with the buying. Hope you all have the most joyous holiday ever! Peace.

December starts with a bang

December got here rather quickly don't you think? The first weekend was certainly a busy one. Saturday morning in 40 degree temps and a light rain I ran my first 10K.


It was over the Talmadge bridge twice (a 5.5%) grade 1.4 miles span; the race went through downtown Savannah and over the bridge - down the off ramp, under the bridge - back over the bridge and ended in front of the civic center. I was happy to have finished without stopping and I was just over my average mile per hour on flat land, so it was a pretty successful first 10K. After grabbing my towel and a couple of oranges I was in a hurry to get out of the cold. I came home and changed into warmer clothes before heading out for dirt and mulch to fill in some big puddles in the yard as I was also hosting an oyster roast for about 30 people that evening and the yard was a swamp. I got that taken care of, finally took a shower and then got everything set up for the party. We were celebrating two birthdays.



My Mom's 70th and my sister's 45th. It was a fun time! We ate all the oysters, a huge pot of chili, all but about 3 pieces of birthday cake, and a pot of oyster stew. Our friend Jerry brewed a lovely porter for the party and that was a perfect accompaniment to the cool night and the oysters. All had a great time and the evening was topped off seeing Georgia Tech edge past Clemson for the ACC Championship title.



Lots more pictures on Flickr if you want to check them out

Camilleas

Camilleas
Originally uploaded by lyricalmezzo

These are supposed to bloom in February - or at least that is what is traditional - oh well - some nice November blooms are certainly welcome.

Nearly Perfect Saturday

The day started with a 6 mile run in perfect November temps. I came home and showered and ate and then hit the grocery store (the ickiest part of the day). I decided to drive out to Skidaway Island and walk along the river at the Oceanography Institute. Wow - what a perfect day. The sky was absolutely cloudless and there was a nice coastal breeze lifting the smell of the marsh into the air...ahhh. To top that off - Georgia Tech beats Duke to book a place in the ACC championship game!!








More pics here.

Working it out

November has started much like any month this year. I have been quite busy with school and with trying to keep up with running - the real key of which is motivation which I often lack and when I get motivated to run I have to battle the demons in my head. While running my demons will such supportive things as "stop, you can do this tomorrow" (this is when the demons are still being nice). When that fails to work the demons go deeper "you aren't doing yourself any good, you aren't even loosing weight, what is the point" (this starts to work on my psyche, but usually against the demons as I will push a bit harder). Now the demons are really pissed off but I try to run through it. Now they go into reverse psychology mode. "You're doing great...especially for someone like you" (they aren't specific about the "like you" part of this nag). I ignore this voice and push a bit longer. I have really ticked them off now. This is usually the point where the demons work with my nervous system and cause all cooling abilities in my body to completely shut down causing me to get hotter and hotter and turn interesting shades of red and eventually turning to purple. When this fails to stop me the demons conspire with the universe and send the very elderly past me in a whiz of perfect running form...this starts to work as my legs are throbbing and my head is starting to hurt from the impending heat stroke. I find the water fountain. I cool my head and legs and catch my breath - the demons believe they have gotten me to stop and I am thinking the same thing. I start to feel slightly human again and just begin to mentally award myself for pushing through the demons and getting in a work out. This is when the universe sends a series of runners by with 0% body fat and perfect hair and beautiful white toothed smiles. This is the one and only time in the process when my demons and I agree and in a unison chorus of anger and resentment we start the run again. Turning toward home for the remaining 1.8 miles of the run, the battle cry "skinny bitches" echos through my head and co-mingles with the music in my i-pod. I arrive home somewhat satisfied but know that the demons are lurking for the next day when I lace up my shoes again.

zombie pumpkin

October09 044
Originally uploaded by lyricalmezzo

So - my friend Heidi called me this afternoon to see if I wanted to come over and carve pumpkins and eat dinner. I carved a zombie pumpkin, Carlos drew one of his own and Suz made a goofy faced pumpkin. It was fun to pull all the goo out of the pumpkins and then Heidi roasted the seeds for a tasty snack. I thought the zombie turned out pretty spooky.

Early October - Mixed Bag

October has come with alarming quickness. It started with a taste of fall temps to come which has been swiftly replaced by the muggy remembrances of summer. Allergies run rampant as usual for me this time of year so eye drops and Kleenex are always at hand. The month began with what I hope is not ominous of things to come. Enjoying the sneak at fall temps, I went for a nice run and came centimeters from putting my foot right through a rotting rat carcass that was on the path. After almost jumping into traffic and getting run over, I resumed my run with the occasional shivering reminder of the creature. I ran inside the next day just to make sure there was no repeat of that activity and then the muggy heat came again and banished me to the indoors for a few more days. Feeling better and almost forgetting the rat, I sat down at the computer to find that I had a special offer to “find my match” on senior singles.com – well, ain’t that a slap in the face! Normally I would laugh this off and in the end that is what I had to do, but since I am an October baby, jokes about age are not always easy to slough off this time of year. And since I am approaching my countless birthday as a single – it was especially unwelcome! But I managed to rise above it an thoroughly enjoy one of Savannah’s best annual events, Picnic in the Park. This year’s theme was Johnny Mercer music.



There were themed picnics, great music (mostly) great food and wine and lots of merriment with 10,000 of my closest friends sans, of course, Mimi who was particularly missed. As the end of the second week of October looms, I have to wonder what treasures, surprises and insults await the later half of the month. I sit and wait for the other shoe to drop humming Van Morrison’s Moondance and hoping for more treats than tricks.