What does Rebecca need?

This has been floating around... I noticed it on Krista's blog this morning.
All you do is google "your-first-name needs". Here's what I need:

1. Rebecca needs enlightenment!
2. Rebecca needs support around her educational goals
3. Rebecca needs a family that will provide her love and support (already have that!)
4. Rebecca needs a family that is structured and consistent
5. Rebecca needs to find out (I guess I need to find out what it is that I need to find out first!)
6. Rebecca needs your help today!
7. Rebecca needs just one good meaty, dramatic role, and the chances of her skyrocketing into fame will increase tenfold
8. Rebecca needs to choose a database (huh?)
9. Rebecca needs to vent (LOL...don't we all, sometimes!)
10. Rebecca needs some love and prayers (don't we all, sometimes!)
11. Rebecca needs a very specific kind of learning environment
12. Rebecca needs to go back to the drawing board
13. Rebecca needs to have a serious think about her job (boy do I feel that from time to time!)
14. Rebecca needs a french or spanish companion.
15. Rebecca needs the receipts from each chapter's recruitment chairs (apparently, unbeknownst to me, I am the president of a sorority?)

Sounds like Rebecca is a very studious and family oriented girl. So I tried to figure out what my alter-ego needs and turns out she is very different...

1. Becca needs a boyfriend
2. Becca needs a prom date
3. Becca needs friends, especially as she doesn't go to school
4. Becca needs to wear fur coats ALL the time!
5. Becca needs excitement
6. Becca needs...(oh dear, better not put that one here as sometimes my Grandma reads!)
7. Becca needs to find the sum of 34, 46 and 108
8. Becca needs TiVo
9. Becca needs to be left alone
10. Becca needs to clear the house of evidence of her son. (Better do that before David returns, LOL!)
11. Becca needs to decide on which guy she wants (another one that would be best to do before David's return ;) )
12. And Becca needs to get over herself.
Hmm... I don't think I want to read anymore about Becca's needs.
Oh, and I'm sure somewhere on the other pages of results it must've said Rebecca needs a new Jordana Paige Knitting Satchel. Becca probably needs one too... it would look hot with her fur coat and probably catch her that boyfriend!

Baby goodies. And, I deserve it

Because no month would be complete without a baby shower (I REFUSE to drink the water here...this baby stuff seems to be highly contagious!), here's the latest little items to come off my knitting needles.




After making baby blankets until my fingers ached and repeatedly frogging sweaters, this little hat and booties were delightfully fast--I can measure my time spent on these in hours rather than days, weeks, months, or years *blush*.
These were for one of the special education professionals at school. She's expecting a boy, so it was a great excuse for me to use the "back-up yarn" I had bought just in case my friend Stacy's ultrasound was wrong. I definitely got my ooohs and aaahs at the shower after school today. The great thing about babies is that they don't know how to mind wearing a hat with a bunch of goofy little I-cords hanging off the top. (And I can NOT wait for one of my good-humored friends to have a baby because I've already picked out a pattern for a hat that looks just like a sprinkly sweet and delicious cupcake!) I only hope babies still wear booties...


And now, on to the next portion of my post. I want one of these Jordana Paige Knitting Satchels Probably in the cappuccino color. Although I also like the Cypress green. But the red is so fabulous too. But I think you can't go wrong with brown. Unless you're all in black, in which case I'd need the red. Anyway, everytime I look at them my heart goes all aflutter (and I've been looking at them for a long time...should've asked for one for Christmas like I wanted to in the first place) They're gorgeous. And large enough to double as a "personal item" on my flight to Cabo. A book, magazine and a couple of socks to knit (my airplane project) would fit comfortably. Plus there is a little zippered pouch that is removable which I could put my passport/tickets in. Can't you practically HEAR this bag calling my name?? Yikes about the price, though. But I've been sitting here all by myself for over 2 and a half months and I think that warrants me getting a fantastic bag. I don't think it's too much to ask...

If bruises looked like the things that caused them,

I'd have four new lime green, fuzzy bruises on my body! Last week I got hit in the mouth with a tennis ball. As if that wasn't bad enough... tonight I got hit in the head (twice) on the back (once) and on the arm (once). I also had several near misses. Very near misses. Like, "duck and cover" near misses. So I ask this--- is it that I'm a bad tennis player that I can't hit the ball? Or does it mean that the people that I play with--the ones hitting me with the balls-- are bad at tennis?

I don't know whether to be flattered or irritated...

How ridiculous is it that I seriously could have RUN A MARATHON in the amount of time I was on the phone with Expedia today? If I would have known I'd be on the phone for over four hours (and on hold for amost half of it) I would've packed a lunch and possibly a bed pan. I hope Dreams Resorts Los Cabos has lots of Mojitos prepared for me... by the time all this travel-schmavel stuff is over, I'm gonna need 'em!

12 of 12, right on time!

Who are those people who spend their spring breaks drinking, dancing and doing other things that will most likely end them up on Girls Gone Wild? My 12 pictures show a pretty accurate reflection of how I've spent MY spring break this year. In fact, it's pretty much how I've spent all of my spring breaks.

9:15- Pajama Day

The whole week has been full of pajama days!














9:45- Keyhole Tank, 8.75 inches.

This is my latest knitting project. I'm actually working on a little baby hat for a shower I'm going to as well, but I've focused on this this week. I started it on Monday, after taking apart another sweater I had started with the same yarn. The yarn was originally supposed to be used for a baby project, but since I ordered online and didn't have a color card, I didn't know until the yarn arrived that it was really just not babyish. So I'm making a sweater with it. Not that I really want to wear this color either, but I do have a white skirt with yellow/gold embroidered flowers that it will go with. It'll be good practice.




15:30- Time to shower.

Perhaps the greatest thing about spring break is not having to shower until I feel like it. In fact, I didn't really feel like showering this afternoon. How bad is it that I think the secret reason that I did not shower is because by the time I would get out of the shower, it would be too late for me to go to a killer strength/conditioning class at the gym?




16:10- Party Prep

Eek! I'm hosting a Pampered Chef party next Saturday and haven't passed out my invites yet. I wrote some out today so I could take them to the ladies in my tennis class. And don't forget, you too can be invited to my party, even if you're not going to be in the neighborhood! If there's anything you need to order from the catalog but don't know anyone hosting a Pampered Chef party (and I'm jealous of you if you don't know anyone hosting a party, seems the ladies here have them every other week!) click here




17:00- Tennis, anyone?

Actually, this picture was taken when I returned from my hour tennis lesson, so probably closer to 6:15. The bad thing (if it's possible) about not going to work is that I don't think all the pistons in my brain were fully functioning. So today's tennis lesson wasn't as great as last week. The best thing about tennis today was actually hitting the ball over the next a couple times. The worst thing was my cat-like reflexes NOT activating in time to save me from being hit right in the mouth by a speeding tennis ball.




18:30- Putting off til tomorrow...

I had really intended to go to my classroom today, and stop at the post office to drop off our class penpal letters on the way. I also was going to stop at the library to return the book I finished Tuesday night too. Maybe tomorrow... My Sister's Keeper was a great book, by the way.







19:00- What happens when I don't plan ahead.

Yuck. This is what I had for dinner. I didn't feel like eating Stuffed French Toast for the 100th time since Sunday, so I dug through the freezer and found this. At least it was a good excuse to have some condiments. I love condiments! Tartar sauce, ketchup, mustard & ranch. Yum.




19:18- Stop voting for Sanjaya!

Here's the bottom 3 of American Idol tonight. (forgive the hot spot) Chris Richardson, what??? I love him. He's a good singer. He's not at all creepy. He is positively hot. So how come he's in the bottom 3 and Sanjaya, who gives me the heebie-jeebies, is still going strong?




20:53- Carthaginians, Start your Engines!

That's Chuck, the one in the upper right corner. I think he graduated a year behind me. He was on the track team. He was my roommate's boyfriend for a little while. And now he's making me feel like I'm one of just a small handful of Carthaginians that hasn't been on tv. (One of the Deal or No Deal girls is a Carthage grad and some guy who graduated way before me is doing an MTV show called Juvies, which takes place in my hometown) Oh, the show is called Bull Run, on Spike TV. At the end of tonight's episode (which is two weeks or so behind the episodes in the states), his team is in first place! Go Chuck!




21:20- Cirque du Celine

Yes I know I watch entirely too much tv. But really, it's just on in the background while I do other stuff. I was planning to watch the newest Lost episode, but I saw Kathy Griffin on Bravo and couldn't pass it up. I've watched this particular act 4 or 5 times but always crack up during the Celine Dion segment. I love Celine Dion. I saw her concert at Ceasar's Palace(which Kathy's act centers around), her CD has been in my car CD player for a whole week now (I can't listen to it at home because I'm afraid my neighbors will hear me belting out and, of course, come downstairs in search of Celine's autograph) but the things Kathy Griffin says are just too funny.




22:40-Let the Armhole Shaping Begin!

Not as much progress as I wanted to make today, but I was happy to make it to the armhole shaping.





23:40- The Opposite of Progress

Arrrggghhh. I should've quit an hour ago. Notice that my work in progress is now an inch shorter than it was earlier. Knitting and not being able to keep your eyes open do not mix. I ended up with a giant hole, some ladders and some weird portion of the row coming undone even though I was knitting away in the middle. So I started taking it apart and this is where I ended up.

From the kitchen of the Grilled Cheese Queen

There was a time when the only things I was willing to cook were grilled cheese sandwiches. Grilled cheese plain, gc with tomatoes, apples, mushrooms, peanut butter, ham, you name it, I experimented with it. The summer before I went to college, I lived on grilled cheese sandwiches--after all, I had to prepare myself for the move up to the land of cheese!

But, grilled cheese probably wouldn't have been a big hit at my Easter breakfast, even though I do make the very best. You can even ask my mom. So I made somethings that I thought would be more pleasing to my guests. Just 2 guests, one a very picky eater. I have plenty of food to feed a lot more people, but I didn't want to dust off my extra chairs!

Here's the menu: (click the links for the recipes!)

Stuffed French Toast I have tons of this leftover! It was filling and delicious. I used frozen blueberries and raspberries, but as I was picking little raspberry seeds out of my back molars, I wished that I had left them out!

Spinach Salad with Strawberries & Grapefruit This was tasty and refreshing! The grapefruit I bought was so incredibly juicy and delicious!

Garden Vegetable Omelet Wreath- This recipe was from the Pampered Chef cookbook, All the Best. Hey! I'm having a Pampered Chef party this month... if you want to order this cookbook and everything else you need to make the delicious garden vegetale omelet wreath, you can order from my party by clicking here You get your stuff shipped directly to you, and I get hostess credit.

Carrot-Raisin Muffins- The recipe was from another Pampered Chef cookbook, Stoneware Inspirations. See above if you want to order that cookbook and help me get a half-price panini press ;)

Citrus Brunch Punch Nobody drank any of this at all. I made Mimosas too and Jill & Scott live less than 400 meters away, so they walked here...and that's why I have no Mimosa and a whole pitcher of citrus brunch punch!

Mimosas- Champagne & O.J. 'nuff said!


Lemon Pudding Cheesecake I had to run out to the BX in the rain an hour before they closed to buy a springform pan in which to make this cheesecake. It was worth it!
Sky High Brunch Bake and Peppered Bacon Twists Okay, I actually didn't make these things, although I bought the ingredients for them. Due to the fact that I drank 3 and a half frappuccinos the day before (see below), I had a bit of a tummy-ache when I woke up and my carefully planned preparation schedule went a bit off kilter. That's why I didn't make the bacon twists. I didn't make the brunch bake because I didn't have a second springform pan. I had enough cash for either 2 springform pans or one pan and the April 2007 Creating Keepsakes magazine and I went with the magazine. I'll make these things next weekend or another day this week.

Here's my table centerpiece/party favors. That's why I had to drink all the frappuccinos. Notice how the Easter eggs (except the pink one) match my tablecloth! My guests forgot to take their party favors home!

The Return of Brown Bunny

Yesterday I was just crabby. I got plenty of sleep- I had gone to bed at 6:45 the night before!- but still I was just crabby. On my way home from work, I stopped at the post office and picked up this package:



Now who could be crabby when that little bunny (and all that candy!!) shows up? My mom is great! I've been getting that little brown bunny for years, but I always seem to forget he's coming until he shows up! Did I mention that I LOVE Reese's Pieces and Whopper eggs too???? The only thing that would've made the package even better would've been a Cadbury Cream Egg. Haven't found any at the commissary/BX. Hint hint... :)

Dear Phil C.,

Ok... this morning, I was absolutely giddy. And all it took was ordering 24 plastic shoe boxes in which to store my 35+ pairs of shoes. The leather shoes here get moldy---ew. And all shoes no matter what are totally dusty. This place is dustier than a desert, I tell you! Plus, with the invasion of my little roach friends, I've become a bit neurotic about my shoes (amongst other things). So I was just thrilled. All day I was imagining myself in less than 2 weeks, stacking up my beautiful shoe boxes. Everytime someone said, "How are you?" I said, "I'm getting plastic shoe boxes!"

Then, I checked my e-mail. And Phil C. from Customer Care says I can't have my plastic boxes. What??? He says The Container Store won't ship to APO. Grr...show some patriotism, Phil.

If Phil knew me, he'd know better than to mess with me on a Friday. All the week's worth of stress is all piled up and just ready to be ranted and raved right out And what better way to channel my stress than in an e-mail to the mean man who's going to try to deny me my plastic boxes?

So, if you want a laugh, if you want to raise your fist in the air and encourage people to fight for those who fight for you, if you are having one of those days and you need to know that someone out there is a little bit more maniacal than you are, if you've ever had a run-in with some customer care person who seemed like he really didn't care at all... read on.
Ahem...


Dear Phil C.,
Due to the fact that I reside in Japan, there is no alternate address to which I would like the items shipped. What is the reason that you do not ship to APO? The same shipping rates apply as they would to ship stateside. The only difference is that one would need to fill out a customs slip including the addresses being sent to/from and a brief description of contents: "plastic boxes" would suffice.

It is highly disappointing that your company does not ship to APO/FPO. Overseas troops and their families are not afforded many of the "luxuries" that the general population takes for granted. We cannot run out to Target or Wal-Mart...and certainly not to The Container Store... to pick up plastic boxes in which to store the shoes that are gathering mold and dust due to the climate here. Our Base Exchange is very limited in selection and is frequented by over ten-thousand troops and their families, so you can imagine that, during the blue moon when there is something that one would want, it goes out of stock rather quickly. It's our only option for American merchandise!
I apologize for being so harsh and negative, it's just that it's rather tiresome to think that not only can I not see my family for years at a time, not only can I not see my deployed husband for over a third of the year, but also I can't even have some plastic shoe boxes. I wouldn't think that that would be too much to ask for.

So many wonderful companies make our overseas duty stations feel a little more like home... why can't The Container Store be one of them? If you could only see our housing, Phil, you'd recognize the need for lots and lots of organization aids! I realize that, short of taking my package to the post office and mailing it yourself, there may be nothing you can do to drastically change The Container Store's policy on patriotic shipping. However, I do encourage you to forward this e-mail on to someone who can. The members of my social circles are downright frustrated with the number of online retailers that are unwilling to fill out a slip of paper for us (heck, we'd even fill them out and mail them to you if it meant getting merchandise that we want!) and believe me, when there is a store that IS willing to go that extra inch for us, word gets around.

Please consider changing your shipping policy, or at least bending it for me (wink, wink). As you may have gathered, I really want those plastic shoe boxes.

Cordially,

Rebecca S

12 of 12 already??

06:20- Skype w/David. The voice-over-internet thing is really great with David being away! We get to talk just about every night and all for the low low price of FREE! (Well, plus the $100 he's got to pay for internet...but that's reimbursed!)

06:45- This morning, I put all of my clean clothes away. I've been using my bed as a "I don't really feel like hanging my clothes right now, so I'll just set them here" zone. See the little bear with the Bears hat? Well, the bear was part of my valentine from David, and I wore the hat to bed last night so I could sleep with all of the lights on...see the 7:30 photo.

07:10-We got new neighbors last week or the week before maybe. I hadn't met them until they came ringing my doorbell at 7:05 this morning. Luckily I was already dressed and ready to go. Anyway, they needed their car to be jump started. The guy came and rang the bell and asked if I would jump start his car. I pulled up to their car and my new neighbor took care of the rest. I guess he didn't trust that I would be very good at car stuff. Maybe he got that impression when I couldn't find the little latchy-thing with which to pop the hood. But anyway...that's the heroine of our story there in front of my window (the reddish one). Notice that the parking space across the lot, next to the silver car is empty. Thanks to me and my unbelieveable auto-skillz.


07:30-I wasted no more time calling Entomology to get someone to come out and spray for roaches! I had never seen a 2-3inch roach in our house before David left. There were SIX dead ones in my house this morning. I never want to live in a tropical climate again. And I thought the Indiana variety black ants and elder bugs were bad...

18:30-I forgot my camera at home this morning. I thought about turning around to come get it, but I already feared I might be an hour late to work because I didn't know if I was supposed to change time(I wasn't). Anyway, the bug guys got here at 16:15 (and I forgot to grab my camera AGAIN!) and then I had to leave the house for 2 hours. So I put on my running shoes, ran a mile to the gym, went to some crazy step aerobics class, ran the long way home to make it 3 and a half miles. By that time, it was safe for me (but not the roaches!) to return inside.

18:45-Logging on to SparkPeople(dot)com. I heard some girls talking about this on Sunday and I wanted to check it out. Although I don't necessarily think I need to lose weight, this is a fun way to be more aware of what I'm doing and what I'm eating. You earn points and you can join "teams" and track your calories, etc. There's recipes and articles and it gives you exercise demos too. If you haven't been there yet, check it out! If you decide to join, tell 'em "BeccaSuze" sent you! (I'll get 10 points!)


19:18-Looks like this picture should've been taken 12 hours ago, doesn't it? Do you ever just want a bowl of cereal instead of eating something else? I do. Tonight I had breakfast for dinner and it was delicious.


19:30-On Sunday I started knitting my first pair of socks using the Magic Loop method. I took the beginning apart just once and now I'm this far, just finished the toe increases and ready to knit the body of the foot.

19:56- 60 Minutes comes on here on Mondays. I always think of my grandma when 60 Minutes comes on because I used to be at her house a lot at 6pm on Sundays I guess. I love 60 Minutes and all the other news-magazine type shows. But I especially love 60 Minutes because Andy Rooney cracks me up. And I never cease to be puzzled by the fact that Andy Rooney has looked the exact same age since I've been like 6 years old or something. Sometimes I wonder if they taped millions of Andy Rooney segments a long time ago and just air them now. But he does always have some hilarious things to say about George W Bush and other current events...so he must still be making the segments, he probably uses a really great moisturizer or something!


21:45- I'm calling knit a night and stopping here. I guess I made a decent bit of progress on my socks tonight. But still not enough... I'm going to have to wash some socks to wear this week because these just aren't going to be finished on time!


21:53-Picking out my clothes at night really helps my mornings go more smoothly. I used to waste a lot of morning minutes sitting in front of my closet wondering what to wear, wearing it, changing my mind about it and wearing something else. Sometimes I still end up changing my mind and wearing something else, like on the 13th, I wore that shirt (I love that shirt!), but not those pants (I don't love those pants).



22:04- And that's the end of my day.

No Idle Hands Here!!

My friend Stacy is having a baby! Stacy teaches 2nd grade and we've spent many of our prep periods talking and talking and talking...without realizing that we had used our whole 40 minutes talking and none of it working! She is so great.

When she told me at the beginning of the school year that she was pregnant, I knew I wanted to make her something special! Her mother-in-law is a scrapbooker, so I figured she'd take care of things on that end. I came across this adorable baby sweater pattern on knittingpatterncentral.com It's the Quickie Baby Sweater and it really was QUICK! I made it in one weekend, except for sewing on the buttons and weaving in the ends, which always seems to take me longer than the actual project to get myself to sit down and do it!

There would be a shower for her at school, but I would also be invited to her personal friends shower. So I decided to make 2 gifts! I started this blanket using the same yarn as the sweater so the gifts would coordinate. Here's how far I had gotten as of February 9th.


I put my knitting down for a while in a fit of housecleaning. I didn't have the energy for both, I guess. On February 25, the day of the marathon, I realized that Stacy's school shower would be in just a few days...and that her other shower was only 2 weeks after that! Well, the good thing about running a marathon is that your legs and feet hurt afterward, but not your hands. So I spent my recovery period on the couch with my feet propped up and knitted up this blanket. Actually, it took me the entire two weeks to knit the blanket and only a few days to recover. But it was still nice to hang out on the couch so much!
It was a close call, but I finished the blanket last night---the shower is today!



If any knitters out there are wondering, the pattern for the blanket is the Basketweave Blanket from the Storey Publishing book, Knit Baby Blankets. Yarn: Some Red Heart baby-type white, Patons Astra Hot Green, Lily Sugar n' Cream Rainbow. Same yarn on both projects. I used a total of 4 skeins Sugar n' Cream, 6 skeins of the green and about 1 skein of the Red Heart-the skein had been partially used before, and I did run out just before the top border of the blanket. (I spent over an hour removing the iridescent string from a ball of white/sparkly yarn to finish the project!)

Against the advice of my SV friends, I did ask Stacy if I could borrow the sweater back to give to her at her other shower. She doesn't know about the blanket! I want to give them together to up the "Wow factor". The shower is in about 2 hours... I can't wait!
And I hope my next project will be much smaller than a baby blanket!

More on the marathon

This is the shirt I wore in the marathon. It's not really that dark, but the shirt was soaking wet! Also pictured are my race number, finisher's medal and certificate. And the ever-important bottle of Ibuprofren that kept me moving before, during and after the run. The time on the certificate is the clock time, the chip time is listed below. I could've had my certificate laminated for 250 Yen, but decided to keep it real for the scrapbook!

Hopefully some of the other people who had cameras there will share their digi-pics with me so I can put them up. I did buy a disposable camera to leave in my bag, I didn't want anyone to swipe my new digital, but never actually used it!

One thing I was really surprised about in the marathon was all of the support from the crowd- not just cheering; these people had bought their own stuff to share with marathoners-water, sports drinks, candy, fruit, popsicles, etc. How kind! I prefer the cheering in the Chicago Marathon (only because the people in Chicago typically cheer in English so I know what they're saying) but I cannot imagine people anywhere else being so incredibly generous to strangers.
They even had this spray that was like Bengay. You just run up to people, hold your breath and close your eyes and they spray it on your legs. It felt awesome! (Except for when it went into my gaping open wound on the back of my heel!) I told myself it was "speed spray"!
Today I'm home from school recovering. I'll stretch out a little more and get some stuff done around the house. My toes are still sore and I need to find some Neosporin for my heel. My quads are really sore and my legs feel a little jello-y when I walk. But despite all that, it still feels good to be a marathoner!

3 months and 4 hours and 14 minutes

That's how long it took to run the marathon, start to finish. Three months of going to bed early on Fridays and waking up early on Saturdays to run between 7 and 20 miles and extra early on Wednesdays to run 5-10 miles before school. Three months of drinking water, checking my toes for new blisters, breaking in new shoes, scrubbing (or tossing) blood-stained socks, sampling a wide variety of sports drinks and gels, packing various body parts in ice...today was the day that I did all of that for. Today was marathon day!

PRE-RACE
It all started about 3 months ago... [[[fast forward to present time]]]

It all started about 28 hours ago. I hemmed the sleeves of the race-day shirt that the leaders of our running group bought us. I baked some carb-y muffins and packed a trash bag with clothes that I would want to wear after the race--but that I wouldn't cry if they were gone (stolen) by the time I got there. I bought some Oreos for my race-day breakfast, threw a water bottle and a Gatorade in the bag for post-race too. Gathered my race number, pins, charged the GPS watch and had everything ready so all I would have to do would be to meet my group at the USO at 6:45 this morning. Oh, I also wrote some inspirational words on the bottom of my shoe.
I got a good night's sleep once I asked my neighbors to turn down their music.

I woke up in a panic, because I had dreamt that I looked at my watch and it said 7:15. It was actually 5. I woke up and got dressed and ready to go. At about 6:37, I grabbed my keys and walked out of the house. I fumbled with the keys in my hand and, much to my absolute and total dismay, they did not feel familiar. They were not my keys! Sometimes it takes a sec for our door to fully close, so I thought there might be a chance that I could just open the door and grab the correct keys. Yeah... that would have been nice.

I tried to unlock David's van with the key, thinking that if I could just get myself to the USO and worry later about getting into my house it would be okay. But, the key did not open David's van. Oh, did I mention that it was raining??? Of course it would be raining...
I stood there, holding my wallet, ineffective keys and a garbage bag full of stuff wondering just how long it would take me to sprint the 2-point-something miles to the USO. Then I saw a light and some moving shadows in my neighbor's kitchen. You know, the ones who I had to ask to be quiet? I think they had just gotten home from the bars or something. But I had no idea what else to do... I knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. Right when some guy (not my neighbor) answered I took a deep breath and said, "I'm the neighbor and I'm running the marathon today and I just locked myself out of my house and out of my car and I need a ride to the USO to meet my running friends in 7 minutes."

So the search for a sober driver began. Some guy said he was alright to drive and that he wouldn't mind taking me. I still find myself questioning his sobriety--he came out carrying a Chalupa (the only time I eat fast food is when I've been drinking) and he told me not to worry...everyone's afraid of his driving all the time. After quickly praying to anyone who would listen that I would not be arrested for being in a car with this stranger on marathon day, I realized that the polite thing would be to introduce myself, so I wouldn't be in a car with a stranger anymore. So my driver's name is Gage (Guage?) he's been here 4 months, doesn't like it, and is leaving on Wednesday for Iraq. I told him this place might seem a whole lot better when he returns. So now we're not strangers anymore. He got me safely and legally to the USO-and at 6:46 no less, where my friends were shocked and amused by my story.
Jill drove the two of us to this gravelly parking lot with fishing boats in it. On the way there, she commented about this new guy, George, who had never run with us before but showed up and got a ride with one of the other runners. She thought it was totally bizarre that he would just ride with strangers, so I asked her if she thought I was totally bizarre, since not long ago I had said "Thank you SO much and nice to meet you" to my driver. She said it's not bizarre in an emergency situation. It was still raining and started to get chilly as we waited for the shuttle bus to Okinawa Comprehensive Park where the race would begin (and end). We set up our things on a tarp we put out yesterday and proceeded to prepare ourselves with motrin, water, bathroom breaks, etc. We also had our pictures taken a zillion times by an American reporter/photographer. We hung out there for about an hour and then lined up at the start. We enjoyed seeing all the costumes in the crowd- a guy with a tiger mask, a guy in a French maid costume, various wacky hats and an American guy with a mullet wig, sweatband and a cigarette tucked into the sweatband. He was definitely a fan favorite. I looked at the bottom of my shoes and of course between the rain and the walking, my inspirational messages had been erased. That's okay, I still remember what they said.

RACE
The first mile was crowded. I had the lowest start number (based upon my previous time) of anyone in the group. But we all started together further back. It was tough to get out of the crowd. We just bobbed and weaved our way through the little openings until we made it to a less crowded space. I probably left Jill & Rhonda about the 3rd mile, deciding instead to give running with Rhonda's husband Mike a shot. He was trying to run under 4 hours, which probably would have given me a new personal record. I wasn't absolutely committed to the idea, but I figured if anything, running with him for a while would give me some "insurance" miles for later when I did slow down.
I sent Mike off without me at about the 9th or 10th mile. We had just come up a big hill and I realized that I needed to step back and run my own race instead of feeling pressured by his. Also, I had started to feel the back of my heel being rubbed raw and decided to take a quick stop to untie my shoe and pull the back of my already bloody sock up.
Right after the half, I started to feel disheartened for a little while. I kept thinking of my house key being locked in my house and almost bursting into tears. (After you run 13 miles and you know you have to run 13 more, you really start to think about how much you appreciate your bed/couch/pajamas). I also took a motrin at a water stop since my left knee was starting to hurt. Luckily, I ran into the guy with the mullet. The fans loved him, so hearing them cheer for him motivated me a little too. Besides, I knew I HAD to beat him... I just can't imagine this young Marine with a mullet wig going to bed early on Fridays to get in all of his long runs.
Around mile 15, I hoped/expected to see one of my students out cheering. But either I didn't see her (it was really crowded there) or her mom decided to stay home (she get sick a lot and it was rainy) or maybe I ran by there earlier than I said I would.
I saw this giant hill and said, "are you kidding me?" at about mile 17. About half-way up the hill, I realized that I was on a hill that I had already run in training twice before and that I needn't be discouraged. That was a good feeling.
Coming into gate 2 at 18 miles was great! There were tons of people out and I saw one of my students, Michelle, and her family. I waved and called out her name since she hadn't seen me. Right inside the gate my student Katelyn and her mom and brother were out there. They gave me some oranges and let me give them a candy wrapper to throw away. Katelyn hadn't really known it was me until I stopped right in front of her either! Once I turned the corner, I saw another student, Raya, and her mom. Raya, once her mom pointed me out, gave me a high-five. I guess I look different when I'm covered in sweat, tea, water, sports gel and orange pulp than I normally do in class. Passing the BX, I saw my teacher-friend Kathy and her son, so that was great too. Running on Kadena was awesome! There were tons of Americans there cheering, so I knew what they were saying. The back of my shirt said "Go Rebecca Go" and many of them shouted it!
Leaving Kadena just about mile 20, I entered untraveled terrain. We had run the first 20 as a training run. Big hills, thinning crowds, and just the fact that I had already run 20 miles made it really hard to press on. I started taking a 20 second walk-break every mile, in addition to walking through water stops. But I didn't do too badly in the last 6, even though I felt spent. Under advice from a friend, I dedicated each of the last 6 miles to someone important or inspirational to me. I had decided on my people last night, but I must admit that I did consider dedicating a mile to my new friend Gage, without whom I may not have made it to the marathon. But I didn't. It was very hard to choose just 6, and for various reasons, I chose: 21: Aunt Margie-9:53
22: Grandma-8:35
23: Porter, the son of one of the ScrapVillagers, he's pretty sick and undergoes lots of hospitalization etc. so I thought if he could do all that as just a little boy, surely I can run a few more miles.-10:27 (big hill!)
24: Josh-I picked 24 for Josh because that's how old he was when he passed away-9:41
25: David-I guessed that he would probably have been cheering somewhere around that point-9:06
26: Coach Hey-6:58. No I'm not that fast... there was a little malfunctioning going on with my watch and due to losing satellite reception several times throughout the race, the mileage my watch recorded was off and although the race was actually 26.44 miles, my watch reads 25.75 miles
At about the 25th mile, I passed Mullet Man for the last time. His cigarette was gone from his sweatband. I would've asked him whether he had smoked it or lost it, but I really wanted to conserve every last ounce of energy.
Due to my watch malfunction, I almost thought I had a chance of having a new PR (my previous best is 3:57). According to my watch, I finished in 4:03, but as I said that would be only 25.75. According to the clock, I finished in 4:18, and according to my chip, I finished in 4:15. I'm going to say I finished in 4:14, because I had to stop for at least 45 seconds when my watch completely lost satellite reception and I had to stand still for up to 1 minute while it relocated a satellite. It would have driven me crazy to not have it functioning.
And wouldn't you know it, that photographer was right there taking my picture as I walked off the track!
I'm happy to have finished with my 2nd best time out of 4. Had the race been in Chicago, I probably would have PR'd. (Relatively no hills) Anyway, I did set a personal best for this particular course. Maybe I'll do better next year...

POST-RACE
George was the only one at our tarp when I arrived with my medal and certificate. He was totally bummed about his "awful" time of 3:45. He was hoping for 2:55. Oh let's all take a moment to feel sorry for George (eye roll).
Mike came back all changed a few minutes later, he had finished 10 minutes before me.
Jill and Rhonda arrived very shortly after I did, they finished just 6 minutes behind me. Makes me wonder if I should have taken it easy with them at the beginning and then broke away toward the end. Or if the best thing is to save up those insurance miles because would I go slower in those last few regardless of whether I had run 9:00 miles or 10:00 miles?
I took off my shoes and put on new socks and sandals. My heel, sock and back of my shoe were covered in blood. My second toe had seriously turned blue. (Now it's back to normal coloring everywhere but under the nail and is tender to the touch...I really hope my toenail doesn't get ugly. Or fall off. Sick.)
We went to change in the bathroom, which took me a while because I could not get my shorts off. I was soaked to the bone because I kept dumping cups of water and squeezing sponges all over myself.
Jill and I went to redeem our coupons for free food, ramen and onigiri (a delicious ball of sticky rice wrapped in seaweed. Yum!) Then we waited a while until the next members of our group arrived, after 5 hours. More pictures, snacks (Jill's husband Scott even bought me a corn on the cob!)and even an appearance on Japanese TV! And more rain too...we decided not to hang out any longer, packed up and walked back to the bus area.
We rode on the bus back to the parking lot...only it didn't take us to the parking lot where we had parked. We were the only ones left on the bus so we told the guy "fishing boats?" and he laughed, but took us to where we needed to go.
It was almost 5 when we got home. Jill brought me to her house so we could call housing and then she took me to pick up my key. It was very easy. I let myself in the house, got cleaned up and went to return the key and set up my sub stuff for tomorrow. I also went upstairs to give a copy of our key to our other neighbors, just in case! What a day! Now I'm ready to crash... I will sleep like a log tonight!

Sorry that was SO incredibly long... just think, as long as it took you to read it, it took me much much longer to actually run it!
Tomorrow I'll upload a pic of my finisher stuff. I don't have any pics of the group yet, hopefully those will get e-mailed to me sometime soon!

Seasonal Sacrifice

Although I go to church maybe twice a year, unless I'm at Camp Lawrence, and we go twice a week, I always select something to give up for Lent. Usually I do something major. One year I gave up shopping. All shopping except for groceries or shampoo or whatever. One year I gave up chocolate--I even experienced good old fashioned Catholic guilt when I was coerced into doing a shot of something that tasted "just like chocolate cake." One year I gave up meat, and not just on Fridays. Last year I gave up going out to eat. (Believe me, 40 days of not going out to eat leads to 40 or more days of not cooking once Lent is over!) I'm really struggling this year...what to give up? I don't smoke, very rarely drink, shop---come on, have you ever been in a BX? There's nothing to buy anyway!--- don't drink soda, don't eat much candy.
I thought of giving up hitting snooze in the morning. But at the time I'm hitting snooze, I'm really not coherent enough to make my own choices. (Like this morning, when I hit snooze about 15 times)
I guess I could give up chocolate, but I've already eaten a few Chocolate Truffle Hershey Kisses today. Those things are SO good!
I know that the thing you give up is not supposed to be easy for you, but the only things I can think of to give up are really kind of necessary.
So what can a girl who has no vices give up for Lent? I hope this counts--- I vow to give up going to bed when there are dirty dishes in the sink.

A belated 12 of 12

I just haven't had the free minutes to get the pictures off the camera yet! Plus, everytime I return to my blog, the link buttons are in Japanese. So I have to reset it each time and those extra few steps really discourage me from blogging!
Anyway, this is sort of a 'themed' 12 of 12---it was the first of five 12ths that David won't be here for.
05:45- Woke up on the couch. I've been sleeping on the couch since David's been gone. It's WAY more comfortable than the bed anyway!

06:45- I used my new shampoo for the first time. I bought it just because it's lavendar, which reminds me of the episode of Grey's Anatomy when Derek tells Meredith something good about the way her hair smells and she says, "Lavendar. The smell was lavendar, from my shampoo". I just love that show!

11:06- My lunch. Typically I take leftovers, but since David's been gone, I haven't been cooking--which definitely needs to change. One cannot (or at least should not) survive on Nilla Wafers for 120 days!

16:14- I mailed 2 letters at the post office. One to David and one to Britt.

16:20- This is the first time my car has needed gas since December 3! It is SO nice to work only 2.5 miles away from home! Typically though, David gets gas for me. This time I had to pump myself. As you can see from the picture, David's the only one who wipes the windows too!

17:52- I have been totally rockin' the Jeopardy Teen Tournament. People always think I'm still a teen, so maybe I could fool Alex and get on the show. David and I usually compete while watching Jeopardy (I usually win!) so it was a little disappointing not to be able to bask in all my genius-glory with him here.

19:13- Okay, before you start to think I'm so pitiful here by myself, I have to say that it's not actually that bad. Sure, some moments are lonely and the house gets rather quiet. But normally, I don't even mind the solitude...I enjoy it. One time when I don't enjoy it is when the dishes need to be washed. David usually gets suckered into doing that. So tonight I turned on the iPod and washed the darn things myself. As if I weren't bummed enough about washing the dishes, then "She's Everything" comes on. We joke that David actually commissioned Brad Paisley to write the song for me (I have yellow running shoes and used to drive a Saturn with a sunroof!) and just about everytime it's on in the house...it's almost too cute & corny to admit... we dance together. So tonight I had to dance by myself. At least I got a break from washing the dishes!

20:00- What else have I been doing in David's absence? Turning into a clean person. Actually, I think Feb. 12 was my first day of being a clean person. I did 2 loads of laundry that day, like these soft fluffy clean towels!

21:00- And just because my main Valentine won't be here to celebrate with me doesn't mean I can neglect my other 19 val-pals. So tonight before calling it a night I signed all the Snoopy valentine cards I bought for my students.

22:00- Remember a few hours ago when I said that there are definitely some lonely moments? Well, brushing my teeth is one of them. Doesn't my toothbrush look lonely there all by itself?

22:04- That's much better. I found an extra toothbrush that Santa meant to put in David's stocking!

22:31- bedtime! Back to the couch for me!

Waaaah.

Day 2 of being a single wife is almost over.
Lots of people say it's like being a single mom when a spouse is deployed. Which I know would have to be rough. But it sure would be nice to have some company!
I haven't turned on the tv/iPod yet so all I hear is the sound of clicking keys.
Last night, I ate some Nilla Wafers for dinner and fell asleep on the couch before 8:30. Before that, though, I positively freaked out when I saw a (thank you thank you thank you) dead bug larger than a double-a battery on the floor and realized that if I really planned to stand on the couch whimpering until David came to dispose of the bug, I'd be there an awfully long time. So I did my first life as a single wife thing and vacuumed it up all by myself. And I only screamed a little. But I probably would've been living in my car for the next few months if that bug had been alive.