R2R

After all that carbo-loading, we were up bright and early for the 20 miler! For those of you not familiar with the route, it starts at Foster, heads up to Hollywood and then down to the South Shore Cultural Center at 71st Street. It began with some warnings (yellow/moderate), but my runners were ready to go (or at least they pretended they were)!

I of course felt the need to practice actual marathon conditions. And as you all know, this means finding beer along the course! You can see that some tailgaters gave me one...
That's right, 11.5, with Soldier Field in the back ground, and wearing a pacer's shirt...I stopped with some tailgaters to have a beer. I'm sure someone in the CARA office is very proud.

Sometime after 10:30 the flags were changed to red/high risk level. I slowed my pace down about a minute per mile for the last 5 miles, but I still finished in about 4:07. I'm so proud of all the runners in my group! They all did so well--especially in this heat!

We did have one runner go down...Melissa finished and headed straight to the medical tent. She was suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration. We got her to the ER and 3 liters of fluid later she started to feel better. While I was pretty much useless in the medical capacity (Let's face it, I was trying not to puke every time she was stuck for an IV), I did try to entertain her by singing her songs and trying to find all the possible impressions I could do with the mylar blanket. (You'd be surprised how many you can do with that thing...Elvis, Chipotle Burrito, Batman and my personal favorite Jiffy Pop!)

Aside from the massive amounts of time in the ER and missing the Bears game it wasn't too bad of a day, it certainly was a memorable!

R2E Pasta Party

Clearly I was being a social butterfly, because this is the only photo I thought to snap all night...
At least the food was good! The Fab 12's are going for it at the R2E (Ready to Eat) Pasta Party, in preparation for the R2R 20 Miler tomorrow!

Good Luck Runners!

And save the date...Friday, October 10th...Marathon Party at Casa de Bethie--BE THERE!

Froggies of the Past

I bumped into a froggie I hadn't seen since High School. We did the usual small talk stuff, when he says to me:

"Ya know, I still can't believe I never asked you out."

Now, this would not have annoyed me so much if a) he didn't just say he was MARRIED and number 2) I didn't remember (very clearly) the fact that senior year he had said:

"I would have asked you out sooner, but I was afraid of what the guys on the football team would think."

I'll just let ya'll have the field day with those comments because I just don't even want to get started.

Fake Baking

I hate to sound like a grinch, but when I go to a wedding reception there are two important things that I look for: Open Bar and Wedding Cake. (Clearly, I'm a woman with priorities.) Sure, I dig the whole two people are in love gettin' together thing. The first dance is lovely. I oblige and laugh at the Best Man's embarrassing speech. I run from the bouquet like it's a hand grenade. But I get all in a tissy when I see couples smashing cake in each other's faces--really, it's unnecessary and waste of perfectly good butter cream frosting! But I digress...

Anywho, when I heard about this concept, but I didn't believe it until I Googled it (and if can be found in Google, it must be true!). There is a service where you can rent a wedding cake! Apparently, the cost of baked goods have "sky rocketed" and instead of paying for a nice cake, you rent one that looks amazing, but it's made from styrofoam. Then there's a special section that has a secret compartment for the cutting of the cake part of the reception. Finally, fake cake is wheeled away and a cheaper sheet cake is served to the guests.

Now, I love wedding cake (ya'll know I have a major sweet tooth!) but you don't have to fake me out. Have a little cake that you use for the reception. Do the cake part and save the rest for your first anniversary. No biggie. I'm certain you can find a cute little thing to show off. I have no problem eating a well made sheet cake (with kick-ass frosting of course!) Don't lie to me (it makes me feel so used!)

Not that I've researched it, but really, how much does a wedding cake really cost? These fake cakes things sound expensive to me! These things start at $150.00 and the cost goes up. Plus you add the cost of the sheet cakes to the mix for your guests. Several hundred dollars for fake cake? Plus a $200 security deposit (which cracks me up--that's like insuring cigars against fire) Are you kidding me?

I want to make it clear, there is no edible part of the cake. In fact, according to the website, there's a secret compartment in the back of the cake that holds "three pieces of Twinkie(R), fit perfectly." Call me a princess, but I really don't want to indulge in a Twinkies on my wedding day (because nothin' says "I love you" like Twinkie the Kid).

This just sounds too bizarre to me...really has anyone actually seen this in real life?

From the mouths of babes...

My 6th graders are studying pre-historic art. When asked to describe "Prehistoric Art" one girl wrote:

"Prehistoric art is old art. Such as cavemen art or 1997 art."

I was 18 in 1997--does that make me a cavewoman? :)

Grossness!

I'm not the sort to enjoy things involving blood and guts. I won't even watch horror movies. So it amazes me that I know so many people in the medical profession. It's even more mind boggling that these very same people want to tell me their gross work stories, even though they know that the mere thought of an IV makes me gag.

It's also funny that what I consider gross for my job compared to gross for someone elses job. For example:

Gross at my job: Kid sticks red crayon up his nose.
Gross at Barb's Job: Festering, puss filled boil on ass that spurts four feet.

Gross at my job: Kid picking his nose. Not only that, he was stringing the booger out and touching it to different places on his face.
Gross at Amy's job: Finding hanging victim swinging from a tree in their back yard.

Gross at my job: Kid eats paint, paste and assorted other supplies used in that day's project.
Gross at Ken's job: Woman attacked with acid causing her body to disintegrate and turn green.

Gross at my job: Cockroaches infesting a trumpet case and running all over the band room. (OK, so it happened to Sarah, but it was still at my place of employment!!)
Gross at Melissa's job: Various medications improperly given, killing off surrounding tissue and a as a result being able to see the the person's bones.

Yuck, yuck, yuck!!

Is this a hint?

First of all, I want to thank everyone for a wonderful birthday, I had a great time!

Second, I want to thank the 2 people who sent me the Philosophy Bubbly scented shower gel and the Philosophy You Are My Sunshine shower gel and lip gloss. It was a fun surprise in the mail. I have to thank you on my blog, because neither package had any note!! The Sunshine package only had a card that said "Happy Birthday, Beautiful!", and the other had none.

So, unless people are sending me a subtle hint saying "Dude!! Bethie, you really need a shower!" Thanks, whomever you are!