November Review

This might be a first ever--doing the month in review on the last day of the month.  It appears as though this will actually get published on time.  That's what a 4 day weekend will do for you.

Miles Run--45.9

This makes me a little grumpy cause one more run and I would have had three 50 mile months.  I do still have time, it's only 7:00 p.m. and I could go out to get that last 4.1.  But I won't.  I did 5 this morning in 17* and that was good enough.  If it were 50* out, I would totally go, but 15*?  nope.  I'm badass but not that badass.  Who am I kidding?  I'm not even a little badass.

Minutes on Bike--170

I've been slacking on the spin bike a bit since the weather has gotten colder.  I haven't quite gotten to where I'm heading to the Y on a regular basis to get on the spin bike.  I should be much better with this in the next month.  A friend of mine is teaching a 5:30 a.m. class on Tuesdays that I'm really going to try to make it a routine to get to.  It's nice to get that out of the way for the day.

Swim--9000 yds

I love that the Y is open on Sundays again and also they have extended the lap swim during the day so that I don't have to hurry after work to get there.

Tennis--6 hours

They've asked me to be on a tennis team….. I'm not sure what I think about that.  I don't really love playing tennis when it counts.  I just don't have that competitive drive to win matches.  I play well, but just get in my head if I start playing poorly.  I'll let you know what happens with that.  I'm not even sure I'll have time to do it anyway.

Weights--45 minutes + just starting a squat challenge.

I don't think it takes too many minutes, but I've started a squats challenge where day one was 30 squats, 35, 40, 45 and today is 50.  (or 55, I can't keep track)  Check out the team tough chik page if you want to join us.

Races

Nothing major or even timed, but we did do a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving.  Our local Y organized a Turkey Trot again this year.  It's untimed, no water stations, no medals or prizes.  Just show up, donate money to the local food pantry and run.  No frills, just fun.

I wanted to go this year dressed as a turkey and had been working on an outfit for the past couple of weeks.  My kids were mortified and refused to take a pic with me or even run with me.  Party poopers. I wanted them to dress as pilgrims and chase the turkey (me), but nope.  Maybe I'll bribe them next year.

that's a pretty epic turkey if I do say so myself. note the wattle.  there's a beak on the visor that you can't see very well.

I have no idea how fast I ran it.  It was untimed, as I said.  I also was ahead of my daughter and turned around to find her and run with her a bit so I ran a little over the 5K.  Great fun.  Great day.  Great amount of money raised.  We raised over $2100 with around 160 people showing up on Thanksgiving morning.  Good stuff.

Songs I love:

Am I too old to love Ke$ha?  Cause I pretty much love all her songs.  Although, technically, this one is Pitbull's song but Ke$ha makes it.



Other Notable Events in November

Root canal went just fine.  Really, a piece of cake.  In fact, it was much much easier than the original filling for the cavity in that tooth.  I just have to go back in a couple of weeks to have it finished.  Then the crown.  Then I will have no money in my health savings account.

Danielle and I are hosting a challenge on instagram called the #holidayselfiechallenge.  It's just a little thing to get you in the mood for the holidays.  Or to show how grinch-y you are.  Either way.  Just post a selfie on instagram doing some holiday something or other, tag me @ltlindian2 and Danielle @RTdanielle09 and use the hashtag #holidayselfiechallenge.  Now through 12/5.  Or longer if you want.  Whatever.  No prizes or anything.  Although I might come up with something for the picture that makes me laugh the most.

Join us.  It's fun.

The Many Ways This Tuesday Blows

Tuesday is the day my friend teaches spin class at 5:30 a.m. at the Y.  Last week I managed to get my ass in there for that class and it was great.  Nice to have the exercise done before most of the world is even awake and bonus that I didn't have to run in the freezing cold later that night.  So I had fully planned on getting up again today to make that same class.

I even called myself out as attending on Facebook.  (mistake #1)

So I didn't bother to shower last night (since I would need a shower after spin class anyway), got my clothes all set out and put them in the hallway so I could find them at dark o'thirty and not wake everyone up in the process.  Then I went to bed at a reasonable hour.  Yay me.

I proceeded to sleep like shit and wake up at 1 a.m., 3 am. and 4 a.m.  And then 5:40.  

Fuck.

The class started at 5:30 and ends at 6:15.  

Needless to say, I didn't go.  

When I finally do get out of bed at 6:30 (cause now I have to shower since I didn't do it the night before...), I look out the window to see snow.  !!!!!  Seriously?  I'm positive that the meteorologist did not even mention snow for today.  LIARS.  IDIOTS.  

  just enough snow to make driving a clusterfuck

Mind you, my snow tires are not on yet because my car guy is in Florida until next week. asshole  So I have to wait until then and drive my van of death along with every other idiot who's not prepared for this snow.  

Surprisingly, the drive was pretty uneventful for 80% of the way.  I slid a few times while trying to stop but never came close to hitting anyone until I was about a mile from work.  We were driving through town and the car in front of me puts on his blinker to turn left.  I am not tailgating so I have plenty of time to stop (so I think) but my shitty non-snow-tires think otherwise and I proceed to slide towards his stopped car.  I'm not going fast at all, but I'm positive I'm going to hit him so I turn my wheel to the right to try to hit the curb instead.  My car finally stops about 8 inches from his bumper.  Phew.  At which point, this ass decides that he really doesn't want to go left at all and starts going straight again.  ?@!!**?@%  What the what?  

Oh and as an added bonus, I get to work late tonight.  

Woo.  

this pretty much sums up my day thus far

courtesy of my cyber-buddy sarah

On a happy note, I was able to get registered for the Mid-Winter Classic 10 miler that sold out in about 4 hours yesterday.  

Is your Tuesday going better than mine?

A Few Things For Friday

It's kinda like Three Things Thursday only a day late.  Because I'm almost always late.

Except for a race.
Then I'm early.  Way early.

So a bunch of stuff happened this week.  Nothing too earth shattering so don't get too excited.

The day of the root canal finally arrived.  It really was pretty darn easy.  Most of the time there was spent either waiting for him to finish up with the patient ahead of me or talking about what was happening and what he was going to do.  The actual root canal work took about 20 minutes.  It was a pre-molar so only one root, lucky me.  Part one cleaning and putting antibiotic in is done.  Part two occurs in December.   I would totally recommend seeing the endodontist for any root canal work rather than your regular dentist.

This is mid-root canal.  I took a pic so I could see what I looked like but it's really too damn funny not to share.  

My Princess had a project at school where she had to write about her role model.  This is what happened:

It is pretty fantastic.  I'm not sure why she thinks I'm a good baker, but hey, whatever.  I'll take the accolades even if unmerited.  I'm also glad to hear she thinks I do a "pretty good job" of raising them.  Phew. 

I think I have the turkey trot outfit pretty well finished.  Princess and I made the tail feathers last night so now I just have to figure out how I'm going to attach them to me.  Next up is figuring out a beak and maybe a wattle.  My oldest daughter is mortified.  That must mean I'm doing something right.  he he

Anyone with OCD out there?  The asymmetry of the tail was totally irritating my eldest.  She had to leave the room.  

Orange skirt, brown tights and brown shirt, white under armour, brown gloves and turkey tail.  This will be my first time dressing up in a costume for any race.  

Have you ever had expensive/painful dental work?

Ever dressed up like a turkey?

Why I Love My Home Town--Revisiting Monday Listicles

Good gosh I haven't done Monday Listicles in such a long time, I had almost forgotten about it.   I'm still trying to get back into the blogging mode and truthfully, I'm just not that exciting that I have much to talk about, so thankfully, Northwest Mommy gives me the topic.  Phew. 

10 Things I Love About My Town

1.  Let's go with the obvious:

People come from all over the world to look at the views I get to see everyday.

2.  The YMCA is fantastic.  We have a brand new pool, a large field house and almost every activity offered that you could want to do.  Living in a cold environment 6 months out of the year, we are so lucky to have a place to go to exercise and be involved with the community.

3.  Beautiful trails to run and walk on for people and dogs.  No fees.

4.  I am able to practice optometry to the fullest.  Primary care doctors come to me for care and send patients to us for care.  WE are the go-to eye doctors in our area.   It's a good feeling to know that the medical community trusts you and thinks you do good work.

5.  Small town 9 months out of the year with 3 months of summertime craziness.  I love the small town (most of the time).  I love that my kids don't have to be a super star to play sports here. even though they are.   Our school is so small that if the majority didn't play more than 1 sport, we would not likely be able to field teams year round.  (small school = 250 in high school grades 9-12)

Small town also means that everyone knows who you are, who your kids are and most of your business.  Good and bad.  So far, mostly good.

6.  The high school kids are so used to being around the younger kids (they ride the same bus, take band at the elementary school etc) that they are often mentors for them.  The teens in our area are unusually (at least in my experience) kind and caring to the younger kids.  They volunteer to be coaches, reading buddies, and helpers at the Y.   Which brings me to my next reason:

7.  When kids grow up doing things in #6, they end up doing things like this as a senior.  Read about it HERE.  You might have tears.

8.  I get to eat this year round and it's no big deal.

we do cook it first

9.  My commute is 20 minutes, but I live 16 miles away from work.  No 30 minute commutes for 3 miles.  No stoplights.  No traffic.  No highways.  Just trees and ocean.  No Wal-Marts, Targets or any big box stores for 20 miles.

10.  I am 2-3 hours away from everything you could want.  Skiing?  1.5 hour drive.  Beach? 10 minutes.  Lake beach? 30 minutes.  Mountains to climb? 30 minutes.  Big ass mountain to climb? 2.5 hours.  Boston?  3 hours.  Best foodie restaurants?  1 hour.  Outlet shopping? 40 minutes.  Visiting a former President? 40 minutes.  Hunting?  backyard. Boating, fishing? 10 minutes.   You name it, we are close enough to drive to it.

I guess Maine and specifically, Boothbay Harbor, is indeed the way life should be.

Hello? Is anyone out there?

So, hey!  How are things going?  Long time no see write.  It seems like when you get in the habit of writing a blog on a regular basis, that's just what you do.  When you get in the habit of NOT writing the blog on a regular basis, well, that's what you do too.

I always feel like I don't really have anything important or inspiring to say, but then I remember that isn't why I read blogs.  I read blogs because I like to hear about people's lives.  The 'boring', the 'dull', the regular shit stuff.  And what I really love is when someone can take something yawn-inducing-dull and make it funny and interesting.  Sorry, you don't get much of that here....  So I thought I'd get back into it again.  Even if I'm the only one who ever reads it.

Anyway, there has been plenty of stuff going on here in Maine.  Outdoor field hockey season is over and the oldest kiddo has moved on to the indoor club season.  She has made one of the U16 teams--we are still waiting to hear which one.  They have 3 teams A, B and C.  A being the most skilled and going down from there.  She doesn't really care which one she is on, she's just happy to be able to continue playing.

Junior high basketball has also started for Big Sissy.  I love junior high sports at our school.  All the practices and games are sometime after school and there is never anything scheduled on the weekend!  Yay!  One less thing to worry about finding the time for.  And the season is super short--it ends somewhere around the second week of January.

Manimal won his division at the Maine Skirmish again this year.  Pretty exciting stuff!  His last two matches were down to decision both times and the final even went into overtime!  Somehow, the little guy won again.

black gi, on the left.  1st-4th from left to right

just before decision--pure grit and determination

Photos courtesy of Central Maine Photography


Oh oh oh!!!  I can't believe this wasn't the first thing I wrote about---I FINALLY GOT AN IPHONE!!!   Can I get a whoop whoop!  I think I might be the last person on this planet to get one, but finally (thank you sweet baby jesus) US Cellular started carrying them.  Somehow I had the insight to call and reserve them so I wouldn't have to wait to get it.  Ok, actually, it was one of my patients earlier in the week who told me to call and reserve it, but whatever, I'm so glad I did!  They ended up selling out of them and some folks had to wait a week to get it!  #firstworldproblem

Yellow!  Is the color I chose!  And yes!  it is just this pretty.  Actually, it's even better in person.  It's so simple to use.  I feel like I'm finally at home.  As Phil Robertson would say, "happy, happy, happy"!

Work has been crazy busy this week and some of last week.  I think the word is out that we are on this vision plan that is popular around our area and folks have come out of the woodwork to get their eyes checked and pick out glasses.  This is good in that we are busy, and it would be great if we were getting paid by the insurance company.  Still waiting for those claims to come through.  I'll feel so much better once we get that first check and I know that we are billing properly and payments can be counted on.

Princess is still going along with her dance.  She is improving, it seems, at a rapid rate.  I really see where she is looking like a dancer now.  Right now they are preparing for The Nutcracker (like every other studio in the world).  I'm looking forward to that being over with and having a break for a little bit.  Her dance studio is about an hour away and classes at her level are twice a week.  I really don't even want to know what I spend a month in gas.  No, I really don't.


I've got two fun runs coming up for the end of this year.  Last year our YMCA did a 5K run/walk Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning and this year they are doing it again.  There are no fees but only request a donation of money that they will donate to the local food pantry.  Last year we raised $1600 so maybe we can break $2K this year!  So fun!  They are also going to do an Elf Run on 12/21 with all donations going to the Yarts club and it's trip to Atlanta.  The kids and I are going to dress up like elves for that race.  I'm considering going as a turkey for the turkey trot....

Do you have an iphone or android?  

Do you ever dress up for running?  Any ideas on what I should dress up as for the Turkey Trot?

I was thinking something like one of these:

October Recap

One wouldn't know it's November by my choice of clothing today or the weather.  It's a balmy 63* here in Maine.  Crazy.  This fall has been so fantastic, we are going to be spoiled for all other falls.  Pretty sure we won't ever get another one like it.  The only fail was Halloween when it rained.  Pissing on your parade.  Well, pissing on your Halloween.  Whatever.

A collage of pictures from my run this morning.  Maine, on November 1.  #notnormal

Anyway, it's time to recap the past month.  Here goes--

Run Miles--55.5

This might be my highest mileage month ever.  I know that's pretty lame for most of you, but 50+ miles is pretty damn good for me!  Here's hoping I can keep it up in the coming months.  It's going to be a little difficult with the time change but if I keep myself going with races, that will keep the number up.

Tennis--7 hours

Swim--5500 yards

A bit lame but not entirely my fault.  The pool is finally open on Sundays now so that will make it so much easier to get my swims in.  It seems like something happened every Friday that prevented me from getting out of work early enough to get to the pool before it closed at 1.  If I can't leave work by 11:30 then it's not worth going.  Next week they are going to be keeping the pool open until 2 so I shouldn't have any excuses for not swimming on Friday.  Even if I get stuck at work.  #noexcuses

Bike--40 minutes

Eek.  Pretty lame.  Probably is time to move the bike inside on the trainer and it might get used more.  Again with the kids schedules loosening up now that fall sports are over, I should have more time to get to a spin class or spin at lunch time.

Weights--10 minutes

I just didn't make it to the Y very much in October and if I don't get to the Y, I don't do weights.  My core and arms are showing it too.  That one day I worked on my arms and abs, I could barely do 20 pushups when I had been up to 40 without stopping.  So weak now.  There really is no excuse for my arms becoming that weak since you can really do pushups anywhere.  I don't need to be at the Y to do pushups.  I should make myself do 20 before bed each night.   That won't take any time at all and no equipment needed.

Races

I raced the Maine Half Marathon at the beginning of the month and even though I didn't do as well as I hoped, I did beat my previous best time.  And I got to run with a really cool girl.  And I met a new friend.  And I saw an old friend.  And I was inspired by her.  There may have been some tears.  By more than one person.  And it didn't rain.   And I had a finish photo.  Even if it was not very good.

But it was worth it to make this meme.

Things I'm Loving

~The weather continues to be perfect.  I can't remember a fall that was ever this perfect.
~ USCellular is going to be carrying iPhones in one short week!  I can now join the cool kids!!! #cantwait
~I love my hair all brown.  I darkened it last month and stopped trying to be blonde (I'm not).  I have gotten so many complements on it and how nice it looks.  Makes me wonder how crappy my hair looked before.  You know when you get those complements--Oh I love your hair!  It looks so much better!  You look so much younger!  Translation:  Wow, you finally did something with that rat's nest you had on your head before.  Good thing because you were really beginning to look like an old hag.  Now you only look 50 rather than like you have one foot in the grave.  Now pull out those chin hairs and you'll be doing something.

Things I'm Hating

~I guess I'm not really hating it per say, but I really don't care for all this beard crap this is going around. Like all men everywhere forgot what the heck a razor looks like.  Can you imagine the uproar if woman all over stopped shaving?  Please men, give us a break and shave your damn beard.  I get the team unity and superstition thing with the Red Sox, but none of those men are nearly as handsome as when they shave.  And really that's the only reason to watch baseball as far as I'm concerned.  Please, Jacoby, hear my plea!

~What does the fox say?  Who the fuck cares.  That has got the be the stupidest song I have ever heard in my life.  And they are actually playing it on the radio.  Those people who made that song should be shot.  Or maybe they had too many shots.   But seriously.  That song has got to go.  And if you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself very lucky and don't google it because you'll regret it.

~Turning the clock back.  Oh, how I hate that.  Well, I do like the extra hour of sleep that seems to last for the whole week, but darkness at 5:00 really sucks.  I think I complain about this every year so I'm sorry if you've heard this from me before.  I need to move closer to the equator.  That would solve the problem.  Or move to Arizona.

~Still waiting to get my root canal.  I think even though that totally sucks, it will be so wonderful to have relief from the pain of this tooth and the TMJ it is causing.  18 days and counting.

How was your October?

What are you loving and hating this month?