Running Makes Me Feel Old

One of my favorite road races is the Jim Kane Sugar Bowl 5 Miler. First of all, it's right in Southie, although it technically starts/ends in Dorchester at the Bayside Expo Center. Secondly, there's an awesome raffle. Each runner's bib number is automatically entered; one year, my friend won a free pair of sneakers. The best thing about this race though, is the race t-shirt. Over the years, I've donated quite a few race tees to the Goodwill, but I always keep the ones from this race because they're tank tops. Tank tops with the arm holes that go halfway down your ribcage. These shirts are awesome for hot summer runs.

Last week we received two applications in the mail and as I was just filling them out I realized that I would no longer be able to check off the 25-29 Division box! This year the race is being held on July 16th, which also happens to be my 30th birthday. I'm not sad about turning the big 3-0; however, it was definitely a little strange checking the 30-34 box. It made me feel old. Now I'll have to start acting my age bracket.

Farewell, sweet youth!

Boston's Run to Remember

What a gorgeous day! I just walked over to the Seaport Hotel area to pick up our bibs for the half marathon tomorrow. We've run this race every year since it's been around- 2005. The first year Nick and I had only been dating about a month, and I ran the half marathon having never run more than 7 miles at once before. I wanted to keep up with him (and I finished) but felt like crapola afterwards. That race made me realize that I hadn't been pushing myself enough though. I love running this race every year with Nick; it's our little tradition.
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Falsely Accused

When I was in 6th grade, my parents confronted me about my "addiction." They thought I was sniffing White Out. My friends and I would decorate our 3 ring binders with crumbly white designs shaped like flowers or phrases like "What's [arrow pointed up]?" In 6th grade, I also started wearing contacts instead of the glasses I had had to wear since I was about 3. Due to my astigmatism, I cannot wear soft lenses and the gas perms I have instead tend to leave my eyes red. My parents saw their 12 year girl with red eyes all giddy about correction fluid and came to the conclusion that I was sniffing White Out, and my container was confiscated.

To be honest with you, I'm not even sure I knew at that point that sniffing the stuff to get a high was even an option. My parents, to this day, still think I was doing it. There's only so many times I can deny it; however, I stopped trying to convince them years ago. After all, it gives me a small badass edge to my otherwise honor-roll-making-detention-free school years.

Since then, the accusations have gone from ingesting illegal substances to petty theft.

A few years ago, I was home in Connecticut for the weekend and my mom calls me on Monday saying she couldn't find her hairbrush and suggested that I took it with me back to Boston. I didn't have the brush, but for weeks afterwards the missing brush would pop back up into conversation.

This past weekend, Nick and I were back so I could attend a wedding shower and we could both help my brother celebrate his birthday. Well, yesterday my mom asks me if I took her razor out of her shower. I told her that I had my own razor and not hers, but she would respond with statements to indicate that she was already convinced that I was wickedly shaving my legs with her powder blue Venus Breeze in Boston. "Well, I would like to know where it went!"

My guess is that the White Out, brush & razor are all hanging out together somewhere.

P.S. I would like to add that it's a damn shame Adam Lambert didn't win last night! Mark my words, Kris Allen will be a flash in the pan.

New Blog Feature: Advice from Home with Michele

From time to time, my mom sends me an email with bits of motherly advice. In the spirit of sharing this information, I've decided to start a new blog feature: Advice from Home with Michele

Here is today's entry:

I bought this thing called the Furminator yesterday. You would not believe all the fur it gets off the animals and helps prevent shedding. It is addictive. I think I overdid Carmen a bit. You should get it for Dwayne; it is expensive but worth it.

I would buy this based on the name alone. Click here to watch a video of the FURminator in action. It reminds me of the Flowbee.

What is this woman thinking right now?

Click here to order your own FURminator starting at just $16.79 from Amazon.com. My mom wages a constant war on pet hair (with 2 dogs and a cat at home), so if she's happy with the FURminator then most people probably will be too.

That's it for today's Advice from Home with Michele. Thanks, Mom!

Wanna Get Away?

We are stuck behind this traffic disaster on the corner of Otis and Summer Sts in Downtown Crossing. All traffic is blocked, and frankly, I think the driver is screwed. Hopefully this clears up soon...
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An Ode to my Favorite Fruit

Sweeter than a strawberry

More fun than a plum

Apples blush in your presence

Without you, I'd be glum

Easier to slice than a pineapple

Honey dew isn't as compellin'

Classier than a cantaloupe

Give it up for watermelon!

Orlando Magic

My mom and I took a trip down to Orlando last Wednesday to play some golf and visit Disney World. The two of us visited about 10 years ago, so it was great to make a return trip with my mom! We managed to plan our flights from Boston and Hartford, so we'd arrive early Wednesday morning. On Wednesday afternoon, we sat by the pool for a bit and took some bikes around some trails that ran throughout our hotel's property and that evening we headed off to the Magic Kingdom.

We were the only 2 people over 4 ft waiting to have our photo taken with Goofy

Thursday morning we woke up bright and early to play some golf, and later in the afternoon we headed over to EPCOT. EPCOT is my favorite Disney theme park, and we ended up spending about 8 hours exploring Future World and World Showcase. There was no line for Spaceship Earth (really no lines in any of the parks), so we hopped on that ride first.

There have been a lot of changes to this ride since I was last on it; most notably, Walter Cronkite has been replaced by Dame Judi Dench as the narrator. I missed Walter Cronkite, but otherwise the ride was great. They take your picture at the beginning of the ride, only to insert your photos in a short cartoon that's played on the screen in your cart at the end of the ride.

The future looks like a scene from the Jetson's

Friday morning we headed over to Animal Kingdom. I had never been there before, and really enjoyed all the attractions. Aside from Expedition Everest, my favorite activity was the Kilimanjaro Safari tour.

We saw baby elephants

I thought this rhino was going to hop in the car with us...

That evening we went to dinner in Downtown Disney and browsed in the shops afterwards. LEGO's were my favorite toy growing up and there's a store dedicated to all things LEGO there.

A history of LEGO people since the beginning. This was really awesome & I wanted to play with all of them.

Over the next 2 days, we played golf a couple more times and made a return visit to EPCOT. On our final golf outing on Sunday, we learned that Tiger Woods shoots some commercials for Nike on a short par 3 that features an island green.

Hopefully Tiger didn't lose as many balls here as we did...

We had a great trip, and it was so much fun to spend time with my mom and get out of the city for a few days!