sometimes Always

I’m so very happy that it has finally stopped raining for the time being. After a week and a half of not running because I’d managed to twist my ankle a bit and then screw up my back, on top of the Ark-worthy rains we’d had, it was good to go out the other day and get almost 4 miles worth of running. Of course, it was snowing at one point, but that doesn’t matter to me. Snow, I can handle snow. I just hate running in the rain. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be in the 50’s, so I’m going to try for another 4 miles, which will put me at just about a third of the way towards my goal of 13.1.

And right after I post this, I’m going to pour myself a Coke Zero, add something to make it into an adult beverage, and find something to watch on the tube.

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Me [watching that Geico commercial out now that has an executive talking to the gecko about new ad ideas]: Do bees even have knees?

Eddie: [just looks at me with that "Are you high?" look]

Me: And if they do have knees, what makes then so awesome anyway?

Eddie: If I had some poo right now, I’d fling it at you.

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The longest workweeks are those right before and right after a vacation. This week was no exception.

Fortunately, this past week wasn’t so terribly bad. It was a little busy at the beginning, and finished off with a super-slow Friday that resulted in me getting to leave 40 minutes early. I don’t think that we had anyone really messed up enough to write about, although FlakeyTech did tell me that the color of my hair made it look like the back of my head was on fire. We also found out that our district has been pretty much dissolved and new districts have been laid out, so we no longer have our awesome pharmacy district manager. On the plus side, we also lost our terrible loss prevention manager, and the front store is getting rid of their terrible DM.

I’m making a huge effort to run outside when I can. This week I did it twice, both nice three mile runs, one through the back roads and one along the main road. Both were pretty good and neither of them made me feel like I was dying at the end. I’m going to try to do at least 3.5 miles on each run while outside next week. I’m loving my Garmin because I can see how far I’ve gone without needing to try and plan out a route to get to a specific distance. I know that even though I have…. (checking Eddie’s site and its countdown)… nine months and 11 days to work my ass off and be able to run the race in Las Vegas, I also know that I’ve never been one to really push myself. If I don’t push myself, I’ll never make it to five miles, let alone the 13.1 I’ll need to complete the race.

And, speaking (writing?) of Vegas, while it feels awesome to know that I’m registered and the hotel and flight has been booked, I fear that I’m going to be dealing with nine months and 11 days worth of emails from Expedia telling me that something has changed with our flights. Last night I received an email telling me that some had changed, and the entire tone of the email was one of OMG YOU NEED TO CALL OR ELSE SHIT WILL GO DOWN. I called, and after 10 minutes of waiting for someone to pick up, I was told that yes, my original flight from Greene Airport to its layover in Minneapolis was canceled. This would be fine, but that flight had been changed the day after I booked the tickets and had already been switched to a layover in Detroit. So the girl I spoke to put me on hold for another 10 minutes and came back and told me that she’s switched us to a different flight. Unfortunately, my Expedia itinerary won’t reflect this, and I’ve got no confirmation that any of this has gone down except for an emailed itinerary forwarded from the airline’s site.

And, to make matters worse, an hour after this phone call was finished, I received another OMG CALL US NOW OR WE’LL TURN YOUR GRANDMOTHER INTO A VAMPIRE emails. This time Eddie called, and got someone who did the exact same thing, told him that there was no way to “confirm” anything, but gave us a reference number we could use to call back later and just verify things. Yeah, lovely. Just what we want to do is sit on hold for 20 minutes waiting for them to either pick up or confirm things with the airline. I just jumped over to Delta’s site and confirmed everything is fine.

And no, the kitten on the desk has nothing to do with this post at all.

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Eddie and I can’t resist buying shit for ourselves on Black Friday. He usually picks up some of his store’s crazy deals on DVDs, and I sometimes will grab some sort of gadget or DVDs for myself. Last November I was looking at some of the deals available online and picked up a couple of new running skirts for a steal.

The biggest deal that I bought was the Skirtchaser Racing Skirt from Running Skirts. I think that I snagged it at around $10, and to prove that I can wear running gear that isn’t just black, I picked it up in bright red. And it really is a very bright red. Attached to the skirt are some gray shorties. The store describes it as silver, but they’re definitely gray and not shiny, and they’re made of a sort of mesh. You have to wear something under them, because they’re meshy and you don’t want to be showing off your lady-garden. It also features a pair of pearly snaps in the front, designed to stylishly hold your race number without the use of pins; alas, they neglect to think about the lower corners of your bib, which I imagine will blow up and flip the whole thing over.

You see that big note on the product description that says “This skirt runs larger than our GymGirl and MarathonGirl Styles, please size down one full size for optimal performance“? They’re not kidding. I figured that since the skirts are made of a stretchy material, to keep it from being quite so butt-hugging I ordered it in what would be my regular size. I’d say that the skirt borders on being almost two sizes too big for me. I can wear it, but Eddie has to safety pin it to my shirt to keep it in place. I’m not entirely certain how much this sizing has to do with the two things that I don’t like about the skirt, namely the fact that the shorts are really loose and the skirt is very “swishy”. My other two skirts don’t blow around nearly as much as my red one does. I’ll probably buy one in the proper size at some point to see if that changes my opinions, because it’s not a bad skirt.

I also bought myself their Marathon Girl skirt, which I found that I like a lot more. It fits me without being super snug sausage casing, and the skirt part isn’t at all swishy. Unlike the SkirtChaser, this skirt has a pair of full-coverage spankies built into it, which I didn’t expect to like as much as I do. While it’s a way too cold to wear it without my running tights under it, it’s nice that I’m not constantly pulling shorts out of my crotch. It has a decently sized pocket situated like a tramp stamp in the back. It’s also a bit shorter than the SkirtChaser.

The only complaint that I have about either skirt is the velcro that holds the pockets closed. All three of my skirts have velcro closures on the pockets, and I hate them with a passion. The black skirt’s pocket is in the back, making it difficult to get the damned thing open in the first place. I either can’t run and separate the two bits of velcro at the same time, or, in the case of one skirt (not by this company), the velcro is so badly sewn on that it’s still on the skirt only because of the grace of God and the fact that I can’t put anything in there unless I want to rip the closure off to get it out. I’m aware that newer models of this company’s skirts feature zippers instead, but those weren’t such a fabulous deal on Black Friday.

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