Yoo 313 - 180 On A No Good Very Bad Day

(a bowl full of candy. this is what my day was NOT.)

I wish all days would flip a 180 like today did. It started out as a no good, very bad day.

I was soundly asleep at 2:30 this morning, like most of civilization around me, when the Katiefriend decided her packing and preparation for a trip could be procrastinated no longer. I was awoken by the rumbling of my bed as the washer in the next room hit its spin cycle.

It's a rather vicious spin cycle.

Couple that with the bright hallway light beams streaming in around the door, a running shower, and rustling about with doors opening and closing...try as I might there would be no further shut-eye.

While I was all ANGRY BEAR about it at the time and for most of the morning, I can be reasonable once given enough hours to calm down and return to rational thought.

And I'm pleased to report that I'm over it now. Sometimes the Kyoo does dumb things. Sometimes the Katiefriend does dumb things. We move on and laugh about it later.

And so move on I did. Right to work before 5am. (new record)

I figured I might as well be productive while I was wide awake.

Those early hours in the office were seething. Nothing was going right with my code and I wanted to be in bed.

I couldn't stay awake during my later morning meetings.

And everyone was nagging me for this and that.

Hello people! I'm in bitter Kyoo mode! Headphones are on and human contact is to be kept to a minimum! All non-emergency inquiries can be postponed until Monday!

No one got that memo.

But then, after a lengthy walk with the Alishafriend, I commanded ABOUT FACE! And do you know what? The day listened, of all things!

I popped a handful of cinnamon bears into my mouth and felt sunshine return to the void. Then I got to spend the afternoon just chilling with a couple of my favorite pups. And the evening bike shopping with my Gregcyclist. (he's now the proud owner of a shiny new road bike, for the record).

But. BUT! The bestest of the best was coming home to discover that I, really and truly, had won a giveaway. On Nat The Fat Rat's blog, no less. (scroll right on down there and you'll see my measly entry...how i actually won i will never know). Nat's blog is a random one I read often because it's funny, helpful, and, honest to goodness, I can even get thru the more lengthier of posts while still enjoying myself and thinking "she speaks the truth!". Which is saying a lot.

And this time it done won me a beso limited "shopping spree" of sorts. I think?

I felt pretty stupid throwing my "dream" collection of compression running shorts, drymax socks, and a penquin biking jersey into the mix of collections with trendy clothes and spring kitchen must-haves, but it happened.

And it was worth it! Which got me thinking...maybe I should have purchased a lottery ticket this week. What with it being at $650 million and all...

(kyoo mom i am just kidding!)

Really though, why can't all bad days end like that??

(i must confess, the day did end with a little of that ^ too. but then, isn't that typical for a no good, very bad day?)

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 312 - A Love For A Thousand Years

This post could also be titled "Why You Should Disable The Show Preview Setting On Your Text Notifications".

But that's kind of long.

I bought a new (used) iPhone a couple weeks ago and have been slow to restore it to all my preferred settings. There's something kind of refreshing about a "factory default" iPhone, you know? Uncluttered and simple. It's a new start.

But specifically, I'd been too lazy to disable the "Show Preview" messaging notification, which leaves all of my text messages, word for word, emblazoned across the screen as they come in for all to read. I normally just have a simple alert pop up but I hadn't had a reason to change it.

Enter reason.

So the Gregromantic and I had been jesting back and forth this morning about Christina Perri's song "A Thousand Years". Lyrical jabs, sappy jabs, it's stuck in my head jabs, and so forth.

It was in the middle of all this banterous talk that I had my phone sitting on my desk and was quite intently focusing on my work computer when one of my coworkers walks up to me and sees the following banners glowing on the screen:

Text #1 - "I have loved you for a thousand years"

Text #2 - "I will love you for a thousand more."

Coworker immediately starts laughing. "Hahahahaha I caught some good ones!!"

"Whadawhat??" My head spins around. I immediately start blushing when I see what he's read.

"We were poking fun of song lyrics!!!"

He wasn't buying it.

"Song lyrics, I swear!!"

I started to read off the texts sent before that but the damage was done.

Is that awkward or is that awkward? (the correct answer is mortifying).

I related this story to a friend (who shall remain anonymous...) and she argued that having someone at work yesterday point out that her fly was unzipped was worse.

She might be right but that's a hard "Would you rather...?"

At that moment I might have opted for the wide-open fly.

In other news, should I have bought this bear? Yes?? It was only 30 dollars at Costco! Can you imagine the happiness this thing would bring to my condo?? So cute and soft and cuddly!

It pretty much stabbed my heart but I had to put down my foot and command the Gregbear to leave it. (we take turns being the adult...).

He was pulling out the "It would be almost as good as having a puppy but it wouldn't poop" arguments.

Ugh. Again, I ask, should I have bought this bear??

(this is why you never aimlessly wander the aisles of the costco...)

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 311 - As Cool As It Would Have Been, This One Isn't About The Band

 
This post has nothing to do with bluebonnets either.

This post is about Kyoo's Cleaning Pride Cycle. Very similar to the pride cycle, with a few adjustments. Let's review.

The Pride Cycle:

Blessing and Prosperity

This is when the Kyoo condo is clean. The dish towels are freshly laundered. I get home from work and excitedly put my shoes and bag away. The trash gets taken out regularly. I devote at least half an hour every day to sorting the mail and tidying up odds and ends. My shower is not a slip-n-slide. Et cetera.

This stage might last up to 3 weeks.

Pride and Sin

This is when I start to get lazy. The mail gets left on the table one day. The dishwasher doesn't get unloaded and consequently dirty ones start piling up in the sink. But it's ok. Because these are just little messes. It'll all get cleaned up later, I tell myself.

But later I'm busy and then I'm too tired and then a new week begins and the dish pile gets bigger and the shower gets slimier and the recyclables start towering perilously in the closet and the laundry doesn't get put away. I do like having a clean house so there's a certain amount of disassociation that must occur. I develop some kind of immunity or blinders to the mess. "Nanananananananaaaaa I can't see you I'm not looking!". That kind of thing.  I usually make an effort here and there but it's just a few chisels at the iceberg of disarray, really.

This stage can last up to 2 months.

Chastening

Eventually, I can no longer ignore the messes. Either I'm compelled (someone's stopping by unexpectedly) or I compel myself (the Kyoo subconscious sits in work meetings all day playing out homemaking fantasies of organizing the food pantry and mopping all the floors and placing fresh-cut flowers on the dining room table).

Right now I'm feeling that rumble. That rumble that wants to strip my condo naked, give it a good shower, and dress it just so.

This has been going on for 3 weeks. I don't know how much longer I can put this off.

Humility and Repentance

The Kyoo condo gets cleaned.  Mostly. This stage deserves a bit more attention. Allow me to review what happened last time:

It all started with French toast. I'd made this delicious French toast, you see, and obviously I wanted to eat it. But my table was covered in mail and newspapers and magazines and more mail and a couple boxes and a water bottle and a shirt.

It was a mess.

And as I stood in the kitchen, eating my French toast on a plate over the sink in refined bachelor(ette) fashion, I could no longer procrastinate my "repentance".

Suddenly my blinders were removed. The floors were covered in food and shoe debris and the mail was staging a riot on the dining room table and the bathrooms were cultivating the next generation of deadly bacteria and the Christmas tree was pining for it's storage bin and MY WHOLE LIFE JUST STARTED SCREAMING FOR ORDER!

It was overwhelming.

I put on my cleaning clothes and set to work. It started in the kitchen. I loaded up the dishwasher. But then I had to run upstairs for more Clorox wipes to clean the counters. And while I was upstairs I noticed the bathroom needed more toilet paper. So I went to the laundry closet where I store it and got distracted folding a load I had left in the dryer. Then I started pondering about when the last time I'd washed my sheets was and soon I was ripping those off the bed and stuffing them into the washer. That's when I remembered why I'd gone upstairs in the first place and retrieved the wipes and returned to the kitchen.

The kitchen counters got cleaned but I realized I still had my Christmas dish towels out and suddenly had the desire to start putting Christmas decorations away. That task proved daunting and after storing a few wreaths and my nativity set, I found myself back upstairs organizing my filing cabinet.

(this is a riveting play by play, i know).

So almost an hour later, there I sat in my room, leaned up against my ottoman, completely surrounded by my piles. The "keep" pile, the "throw away" pile, the "shred" pile, the "move this somewhere else" pile. All these piles springing forth like small suburbs.

It was in the midst of this reorg that I fizzled out. Afternoon hit like a train and I couldn't make important decisions like "do i group product warranty papers with instruction manuals or keep them filed separately?" anymore.

I had started no less than 16 odd cleaning projects around my house and hadn't finished a one.

And that's when all I wanted to do was pop a bag of popcorn and bake up some sweet potato fries and watch Big Bang Theory.

So I did.

At least ten episodes.

And a nap.

I eventually roused myself from the couch and tidied up a few loose ends, but the day ended with a massive "To Do" list.

It took me another week to whittle that list down to just a few tasks I was ok with procrastinating.

Those tasks are forever entombed on my whiteboard, for the record.

Now, I think where I was going with all this is, first, I have cleaning ADD. And second, I'm feeling that rumble/getting bit by that bug. Spring cleaning! My condo is in chaos and I am DREAMING about cleaning it. Maybe not the cleaning part but the having a clean condo part. I'm fantasizing about a behind-the-oven that doesn't house forgotten cooking spoons and food chunks that have slipped off the counter. I wistfully stare at my food pantry with organization ideas buzzing in my head. I long for my desk to be clear of papers and mail and old bills. And I hope for the day I will no longer fear being toppled by recyclables upon opening my utility closet.

I love having my own condo and I love when it is clean and organized and just so.

It's just, no matter how hard or what I try, I still go thru the cleaning pride cycle. And I still haven't conquered my cleaning ADD so that repentance stage is such a long, painfully drawn out and complicated process. It's going to happen this weekend, I know it is, and the only goal I'm setting for myself is to come out of the whirlwind with a "To Do" list that's smaller than the one I start with.

Maybe I should add each of the shows I'll probably end up watching to that list before I start...

And that's that. Blogging excitement right there.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 310 - Race Recap: Lyndon B. Johnson 100

It's fast Sunday and since I'm fantasizing about food and blogging in an attempt to keep myself out of the kitchen until church begins (i have mixed feelings about afternoon church...), let's review. On Saturday morning I ate:

• 3 1/4 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• 2 packages of GU chomps
• 7 orange quarters (you do the math)
• 1 banana
• 1 Stinger honey waffle (sooo good those are)
• 6 vanilla creme sandwich cookies
• a raisin

 In between that gorge fest I also biked 85 miles.

And worked on my tan lines. They're progressing quite nicely. Neapolitan legs? Back in style here.

When I signed up for this bike tour, I really had no intention of biking the 85-mile route. There were 10-mile and 20-mile and 30-mile and 42-mile and 62-mile options, as well.

I've never biked more than 30 miles in one day so 42 seemed like a manageable stretch goal.

SALAD.

But it was perfect biking weather and there's this little voice always screaming in my head that I'm convinced hates me. Yesterday it was all nagging like "Why can't you go 85-miles? Where else do you have to be? That lady's biking the 85-mile route and she's at least 40 years older than you. It'll be like you're cheating yourself if you don't at least try...". 

It's really the most ridiculous, irrational of voices. Yet it won again.

You know what else is ridiculous? The fact that I bought cycling gloves specifically for this bike tour, the night before, and then forgot them yesterday.

These were beautiful, gel padding in the palms, and everything else that is goodly and lovely about cycling gloves, gloves.

My hands were so tired. My whole body was so tired of being on that bike. But especially my hands. Oh how I wanted those gloves!

HILLS.

Was the narcissistic Kyoo in love with the fact that they printed her name on the bib??

YES.

That one's going in the keepsake folder.

Sometimes I wish I could turn that voice off. And sit on the couch on Saturdays watching Netflix.

But then I'd miss out on fields of bluebonnets and port-a-potties and the camaraderie of 1500 bike nerds.

And driving on RESTRICTED tarmac on Lyndon B. Johnson's presidential ranch (now a National Park).

Next time you're looking for a fun, well-supported bike tour in the Hill Country: LBJ 100.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 309 - Race Recap: DC Marathon

This race was the culmination of our "couple challenge". The Gregbeau's a reader. I'm a runner. We laid out the stakes for each other:

SHE would have to read the Book of Mormon (again), The Count of Monte Cristo, and Jesus the Christ.

HE would have to train for and run a half-marathon of his choosing.

I'm pleased to say I fulfilled my end of the challenge earlier this year and, as of this past Saturday, the Gregrunner has fulfilled his.

Now for all the nitty gritty details of race day.

Getting to the race was probably the most exciting part. We had to leave our hotel by 6am. The courtesy shuttle to the metro 0.7 miles away didn't start until 7am. Our solution? Call a taxi, it can't be that expensive...

Oh but it was. Any guesses? 5 bucks? Max? Haha! For a POINT SEVEN mile one-way trip it was $7.20. That's a dollar per tenth of a mile, people.

I died.

But there wasn't anything I could do about it.

Then the metro trains were packed like unto sardines and we had to wait for almost an hour to squeeze onto one. And by squeeze I mean, you are intimately involved with at least nine other people, squeeze.

It was quite the experience.

So we got there with T-minus 5 minutes to race start and thought "Hey! We're late already! Let's pee!". And that began a loooooong wait at the port-a-potties. And then a scurrying about to find the bag drop. And then a sprinting to get to our respective race corrals. The Gregrunner found his and there was a quick kiss and a "good luck!" and a"we'll meet at the 'W' check point at the finish" and a parting.

I briskly walked closer to the start, anxiously looking for corral 6. No such luck. That corral had started ages ago. I snuck in with corral 16 and waited a few minutes. Then. Then! It all began. With a grand announcement and earsplitting Miley Cyrus blaring thru the speakers, we were off!


This was the part where I ran 26.2 miles. But what else is there to say about that?

Pshaw!

Please. This is Kyoo here. I can type all day.

It started with mile 1. Hordes, hordes, and more hordes. Dodging and stuff. There were over 19,000 people running (not including the relay teams) so, yeah, people. The course was pretty packed but not unmanageable. We ran past the capital and then on streets past all sorts of buildings and then there was this block of really stinky trees wherein I turned to a stranger and said "Mmmmm don't these trees smell danday?!" and then he looked at me like you might look at your counter when you swear you left your keys there but they're not there.

I don't know why he looked at me like that but he did.

Can I tell you about the part of the race just 4 miles in where my new iPhone started doing all the tricks from my old iPhone?? The voice control is going to haunt me forever!! It kept interrupting my music and then telling me it couldn't find any matches and then I would tell it to go to hot places and it would remind me "No match found". Energy sap! No music during a marathon is a morale drain.

But then I saw a sign. A sign that said "Chuck Norris has never run a marathon". And I thought "Yeah! Boo-yah! Let's do this!".

And so I did it. I was kind of hoping for a 3:40 finish but, at mile 20, I realized I'd have to run the last 10k in a time faster than my current 10k PR and adjusted my hopes and dreams slightly.

It was a pretty hot race with a smattering of hills. I was pleased to cross the finish line in 3:53:30.

No, I was thrilled. There's nothing like a marathon and the feeling of giving everything. Leaving it all on the course. Pushing past mile 20 and then 21 and, ages later 23 on up. Each of those last miles gets longer and longer and you just have to keep telling yourself, "This eventually ends. Just keep going."

I started counting steps at mile 23. I counted every fourth step in this entrancing rhythm. Up to 100. Then I started over again. I don't know what it is about counting steps but it did the trick. Once I finally laid eyes on the finish I gutted it out at full speeded shuffle.

The finish chute at the Rock 'N' Roll DC marathon was something of a klutzy paradise. I got a really shiny, heavy medal. And then I spilled water everywhere because I wasn't coordinated enough to just pour it in my mouth. I tried squatting down to stretch my legs out a bit. But then I realized I couldn't get back up. So I had to rock back onto the ground and stand up on all fours like a 2-year-old.

Then I hit the food stands. Oh sweet bertha the food stands! Greek yogurt and snickers bars and bagels and fruit and gatorade and chocolate milk. Chocolate milk!

This marathon takes the cake on post-race food. Speaking of cake...that would have been nice too.

A kind man helped me open my chocolate milk box, too. Because I wasn't coordinated enough to do that either.

This was about when the Gregfinisher greeted me all triumphant-like having finished his own half-marathon. How excited I was for him! There's always this moment shortly after a grueling race where I have to choke back tears. They make me all emotional! And, hobbling towards him at that point in time, I felt the tears. The happy, elated, joyful, I-just-did-that tears.

The Gregrunner didn't have much to say about his race except that he finished in well under 3 hours. Which, let's note, beats my half-marathon PR. (I've never run one...). But he would like me to point out that he had to stop and wait at a port-a-potty, on the course, for at least 15 minutes.

Can you believe my 6 foot 3, 250 pound of a Gregman ran over 13 miles??  He did it! He didn't love every minute of it but he did it. And what did he talk about all the way home? Oh, you know, about how the next one we'll be better. He'll be faster and all that jazz.

It's a slippery slope this running marathon races is.

:-)


Good Stuff Eatery was on the menu for our post-race splurge. Toasted marshmallow shake with rosemary fries and the Good Stuff Melt chicken sandwich. It. Was. Divine.

I have eaten at Good Stuff a few times and I'm fairly certain I would fly to DC just to eat there.

Probably not but I had to say something for dramatic effect.

It was a burger well-earned.

As was that afternoon nap.

To my Gregdude, it was so fun sharing race day with you! Remember how you've finished a race distance I've never even done before?? I'm glad you've dipped into my world just a bit and can now join my woeful conversations about chaffing and sticky energy gels and people running in tutus, just like an old pro.

Now, before we tie up this hecka long post, can I talk about my socks? Those leprechaun tube socks up there?

Well. Those socks.

Are compression socks.

And, I can't say for certain yet, but I think they might live up to their hype. My calves are normally strung tighter than a violin after a race. But this time? Nothing. They felt fine the day after.

How's that for crazy? I'll let you know once I've tested them out a bit more.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 308 - We Bought A Zoo!

Ok, not really. That's just what the Gregtrekker and I were shouting at random as we rode the metro and hiked our way to the National Zoo yesterday.

Besides, that is not the zoo to buy, for the record. Everyone gets in free and it's on a HILL.

And walking up that hill in jeans in 80 degree weather gives you a mad case of the itchy legs.

But I digress.

So what was happening at the zoo?

Well, the pandas were the center of attention, surprise surprise. Humor me as I shamelessly dump these photos.

(eat it up).

"Hey there, I'm a panda."

"I just sit here and eat all day. Jealous?"

"Nom nom nomnomnomnom."

"Everybody loves me."

"Teeth."

Not quite panda material, though the sunglasses help, right?

Ho-hum, on to other exciting news.

We visited the small mammals but Timon was all "No I will not dress in drag and do the hula!"

And then I was like "But Timon! The lionesses are bored!"

And they were. But then, one started morphing into a leopard and things got a little more exciting. There must be something in that water...

Also, the Gregcat learned he was the same weight as an average lioness. That sparked a short debate about who would win in a fight. Short because, really? Do we have to ask that question?

Just thinking about it made him tired, so he took a nap.

After the Gregorilla woke up, we saw the tigers.

Not much to report there. Almost a bird pouncing but no such show. (they need to take a lesson from the pandas on how to entertain a crowd...)

The gorillas and the orangutans though? That was were it was at!

Babies chasing moms.

High-flying antics.

It's an acrobatic yeti!

Last but not least, I present to you, the the chameleon whisperer (though he hasn't perfected his skills yet).

And a llama lawn statue. Because where has it been all my life??

All in a day at the zoo. Not a bad way to wrap up DC, if you ask me.

Then there was this.

(fluffy clouds. organizing years of photos on joshvincet. the gregdude and the tiny airplane.)


And getting home at 2:30 in the am.

Oh reality, you are a cruel acquaintance today.

Have a great day :-)