Weekend Wrap Up!

What a whirlwind!!!! In the past couple days, I traveled to Florida, ran a half marathon, traveled home, and conducted two chorus concerts. I need a vacation!!! Hmmm... luckily Christmas vacation is not too far away!

Friday was NUTCRACKER DAY! I took the fourth graders to see Central PA Youth Ballet's production of George Ballanchine's The Nutcracker. CPYB does this educational performance at The Whitaker Center in Harrisburg for a very discounted price so we can take over 100 students. It is such a magical day. I love the ballet. The dancers are such strong athletes, and I spend most of the two hours admiring the MUSCLES they have in their legs.

 

 Friday was also Paul's last day of radiation and chemo!!!!! He rang the bell to celebrate!

When I got home from work, we celebrated with Sushi.

I spent the rest of the night finishing packing, doing some housework (so Paul could  relax), and loving on the kitties. I was going to miss them.

I also convinced myself I was going to die in a plane crash the next day, so I pretty much operated as if it was the last day of my life.

Oh, I can be dramatic if I want to be!

I woke up about forty minutes before my alarm went off (2:59am) so I took advantage of the extra time and dragged my ass out of bed to drink a tiny bit of coffee and relax before leaving for the airport.

Oh, there was also an epic goodbye. Not between Paul and I. Between me and the kitties.

Normally when I fly, I am hyper aware of everything that is going on. I feel like if I hear something wrong with the plane or detect something that is not right, I can save us all from disaster. Silly. If the plane is going to crash, there is nothing I can do about it. So I concocted a new strategy....

My new plan: 1 mg Ativan, hood up, neck pillow on, sunglasses on, headphones on, close eyes. I was not to open my eyes or take off my headphones to investigate any noise from the plane. I closed my eyes and had wonderful Ativan dreams. (Ativan dreams are when you are awake, but you see freaky shit behind your eyelids.)

That went well for the first flight, but we couldn't land in Charlotte as planned. We landed in Columbia, SC instead due to fog. And we were stuck on the plane from 8:22-10:30... At 10:30 we took off for Charlotte. This is how I felt about an extra plane ride:

That's my "I'm going to die today" face.

So we made it to Charlotte, but I missed my connection to Fort Myers. Luckily, I could get on an 11:45 to Fort Myers and nothing else horrible happened. I took another 1mg of Ativan and hunkered down with my neck pillow. Obviously, we made it to Fort Myers without crashing.

Ali picked me up at the airport and it was so fun to meet someone who to me is a blogging celebrity! She took me back to her place and I got to meet her husband Matt as well. He is also a blogging celebrity by proxy. As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, we drove to the expo, where I met ANOTHER blogging celebrity- Kristina! We got our race packs and took a picture at the finish line.

Kristina @ Blog About Running, Megan @ Meg Go Run, Ali @ Hit the Ground Running

Back at Ali's, her sister showed up to support her during the race. We all ate a big pasta dinner on the back porch. Hopefully that would fuel me for 13.1 miles, Ali for 26.2, and Matt and Steph for hours of cheering!

RACE DAY! You can read my race report here!

The short story: It was hot and there was direct sunlight. I wanted to PR but a side stitch and calf cramps said HELL NO, NOT TODAY! I still managed 1st in my age group and was the 7th woman overall!

Ali, Kristina, and I all finished are races upright and with a smile on our faces! Sean (left) PR'ed! You can read Ali's race report here and Kristina's here.

After the race we went back to Ali's and showered, then headed to a deli where I had a huge salmon sandwich with chips. I love eating big after a tough race and a long day!

The rest of the day and evening was spent relaxing at Ali's. A great way to end a whirlwind day!

Monday Bonus!

On Monday morning, Ali and I went to brunch where she finally got to enjoy the omelette she was looking forward to! I had some real Florida orange juice but could barely eat my French toast and bacon. I knew the terrifying task of flying back to Pennsylvania was just hours away.

Gabbing with Ali all morning definitely took my mind off of what was to come. We are both teachers, so we have a lot in common and a lot to talk about. I was so happy she welcomed me into her home for the weekend and let me share in the excitement of her second marathon!

I got to the airport a little early, but that was okay. I needed time to prepare. TSA took longer than I anticipated. I knew they would flag my bag and open it. On the way to Florida, they were interested in my Supernova ball. "It's for myofacial release," I told them. 

On the way back to PA, they were interested in my medals! I seriously was going to cry if they didn't let me take my medals home, but they did.

I was quite nervous for my first flight (2mg of Ativan is clearly not enough!), but I sat between two wonderful women. We got to talking. One was from Carlisle- 20 minutes from me! The other had just gotten done with radiation and chemo and has been declared breast cancer free. WOW! The three of us really bonded. "We have three generations of women right here," the older woman said. She was in her 70s, the other woman was in her 50s, and I was in my 30s. What a cool coincidence. It was a pretty rough landing and when I started getting anxious, the older woman reached for my hand told me "It's just the landing, this is normal, you are going to be okay." Wow. What a wonderful woman.

On my second flight home, I was waiting at the gate and I saw my elementary librarian! What a small world! I teach her granddaughter so I see her at the school helping out from time to time. Unfortunately, our seats weren't next to each other. I was sitting next to a very large gentleman who smelled really funky. I hoped he didn't grab my hand during landing. That was the roughest landing I ever experienced. I was so glad to be on the GROUND!

On the short drive home, I stopped at Wendy's and stuffed my face. I get so nervous to fly that I didn't eat all day. When I got back to my house, Paul had all the Christmas lights on and greeted me with a warm hug. Then I had a borderline inappropriate cuddle session with the kitties!

It was an exciting weekend, but there's no place like home!

Have you ever met anyone really cool on a flight?
Have you ever seen a good performance of The Nutcracker?
Tell me something fun you did this weekend!