Running - I forgot to mention that my time in the race was 15 seconds longer than it should have been.... my shoe came untied shortly after the start of the race and I had to stop to retie. Damn shoe laces.... and I found myself at the store today pondering over 3 different pairs of running shoes because I'm sure I have put so many miles on the first pair (saying that tongue in cheek) that I need another pair to rotate the first pair with.... but I am going to wait and use my dogsitting money over the week of Thanksgiving to get a REAL pair of running shoes.
Clothes - Well, as my mother-in-law can attest to (see Camping below), it was high time that I purchased a new pair of jeans for myself since the ones I had were literally falling off me last weekend. So, a trip to Kohls, and I'm the proud owner of new jeans - size 12, instead of size 14 - and I probably could have gone down to a 10.... but these will probably fit for a while after I wash them a few times. My favorite brand - Levi's, boot cut - one in a lighter blue and one dark blue.
Camping - My mother-in-law is a wonderful woman and I really hope that she and I will always be friends. I remember shortly after first meeting her that I thought she wasn't too impressed with me, but as I got to know her and she got to know me - we really found that we're both very good, hardworking, honest people and that we've got a lot of interests in common as well. One of the main ones being camping or staying at the cottages in Port Washington. She literally made my day when she emailed me a couple weeks back and said "How about we camp on the beach, I'll bring the stove if you bring the tent?" So, plans were made to camp on the beach just north of town near the family cottages and despite the cold weather at night - it was comfortable during the day to where I could put on a pair of shorts on Saturday to walk into town from our campsite. I drove up on Friday evening and in the near dark, we put up my tent and she helped me get my stuff across the creek from my car which I didn't think would clear the rocks in the streambed. She had driven up on Thursday and had brought her tent and rest of the camping gear with her. Over the course of the weekend, I've figured out two great gift ideas for her for her birthday and Christmas. We went out to dinner at Beanies on Friday night and after a couple drinks and some good mexican food, we went back to the tents and snuggled in for the night to read and to get some much needed sleep. I personally have to find the camping pads I have.... I bought a makeshift one and it sucked! I think I would have been more comfortable sleeping in the sand if it wasn't so cold. I was just glad I brought enough clothes and a good sleeping bag to sleep in layers and stay very nice and warm. Then Saturday morning came and my tent was pink with the glow of the gorgeous sunrise, which I peeked at from a slit in one of the tent windows and crawled back into the sleeping bag for another hour. After we were both up and dressed we got going on our walk into town - I would estimate it was about 3 miles one direction - and went to the farmer's market and then visited with Linda's friend Carolyn and made plans to come back and have dinner with her that evening. We walked back and chatted the whole way back to the tents. I changed clothes for the cooler evening temps and brought a bag of shower items with me as Linda assured me that I could wash my hair at Carolyn's instead of waiting for the water to heat on the stove to do a bucket bath. Well, she was right - not only did I get to wash my hair, but I did so in one of the most beautiful bathrooms I've ever seen. It had to be the size of the kids' bedroom in my old apartment - maybe bigger! After I was cleaned up, we went to eat at Newport Shores and visited for a while after dinner before Linda and I drove back to the beach. We retired to our respective tents for the night as it was pitch black out and I stayed up for a while and read. Apparently sometime while I was reading, Linda got up to go to the biffy (outhouse) and she said with the crazy wind that stirred up and the light from my lantern inside the tent, it looked like a living, breathing entity. That is something I should have gotten a picture of - that and the second beautiful sunrise the next morning. There is something about the smell of the air at the cottages and on the beach that I would know with my eyes closed and it smells and feels like home. I miss it already. On Sunday, again the sunrise woke me up - how can it not when it fills your tent with this honey pink glow and it seems like the beach, the lake, the cottages even have been holding their breath and then collectively sigh when the sun starts to peek over the horizon and begin to send rays of warmth over everything - even if the wind is still gusting to 25 mph. Linda and I ate a late breakfast of cappuccino, chocolate zucchini bread and an avocado. I love it when other people don't mind just eating something simple and easy for a light meal. My tent blew over at approximately 11:30am - while Linda and I were sitting on the deck of the cottage and just relaxing. We both ran down to the tent and saw that the wind had just finally won the war with my tent stakes and pulled three of them straight out of the sand! Linda suggested that I get different tent stakes for the next time we go camping there. She held the tent down while I climbed in and quickly packed up all my sleeping gear and clothes and got everything out so we could just take the tent down. Then after thinking about it a bit, we decided to pack up Linda's stuff and get her tent down also. We hung out for a bit to make sure we left the place the way we found it and headed out around 1:30pm. It was such a nice break for me from the usual and so very nice to have Linda to talk to that it was hard to leave. My mother-in-law paid me the greatest compliment I've ever received in my life and I'm forever greatful to her for the kind words - whether they be just something to make me feel better or if she felt it was the god's honest truth, either way - I'm going to keep her words close to my heart to help me get through all the tough days to come and for all the better days that will follow. Even her friend Carolyn made sure to give me her work and home phone numbers in case I ever wanted to come up to Port Washington to visit or meet her after work some night for a drink and to talk. The camping trip really helped a lot for me emotionally, it's too bad that my good vibe had to be ruined recently, but I'm sure I'll get in that mode again. I hope I'll be able to take Molly and Nate for a day of a weekend and go to Mazomanie closer to Linda's birthday and maybe all of us can celebrate her birthday with a cake, a gift and another good visit. The only problem with the camping trip? I didn't take any pictures!!!! Oh, and in reference to my mother-in-law commenting about my pants falling off me, she noticed this especially when I was trying to get all the camping gear back into her truck at the end of the weekend and nicely commented that I was going to lose my britches. That's what I get for forgetting to bring a belt.
I think that's it for now.... after all the talk about getting myself settled in for the night to read the running magazines, I took a long hot bath instead and then promptly fell asleep in the recliner while waiting for Saturday Night Live to come on. So, offline I go and time for reading for the rest of the evening. :D
Have a good night everyone. Love the one you're with. <3
Erin
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