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Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Weekend Wrap Up!

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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.


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!

17 comments:

  1. Too funny about the supernova and medals! My stick got flagged when I was flying to Hawaii for my honeymoon. It was the day after a marathon so I would have cried if they didnt let me take it, especially on an 8 hour flight!
    Yay for Paul being done with treatments!

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    1. Man, self massage equipment is very dangerous these days, according to TSA!!! :)

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  2. I am so proud of you! Way to conquer your fears. When I travel alone I do meet people on my flight. I am such a talker and if I can have a nice conversation the time goes quicker. When Rick and I travel together we watch a movie on the iPAD but we generally offer the person sitting in our aisle some of our snacks :)

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  3. Aww that's so awesome that you met such nice women on your first flight. I don't think I've ever met anyone super cool while flying. I usually put my earbuds in right away since music/podcasts distract me during takeoff and then in most cases I fall asleep for the majority of the flight.

    One time Adam and I were flying to Texas to see a big UFC card. You know he lives and breathes MMA the way we live and breathe running. Several of the MMA guys were on our flight and he was super excited to get to see them but he didn't talk to them, haha. Side story: when we were in the DR this summer one of his favorite fighters was staying at the same resort and we saw him at the pool every day but Adam never said hi. He just admired from afar LOL!

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    1. Awwww that must have been so freaking cool for Adam!

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  4. That's great that you met some people on your flight. That really helps the time fly (haha, fly). I don't like to talk to people on the plane because that is totally "me" time. I bring about a dozen magazines with me, and spend the whole time catching up on my reading! I don't even mind when the rest of my family has to sit in another row... I'm all for that!! :)

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  5. Ha ha ha! You make me laugh. I love the kitty cuddling and epic goodbyes. I LOVE the "I'm going to die" face on the plane. I get that same look at my kids' Christmas concerts. Congrats to Paul on finishing up the treatment! That is def something to celebrate with some inappropriate cuddling.

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    1. My Christmas concerts are OVER and I am so relieved! Time to start preparing for spring. You would like my Christmas concerts. They are 15 minutes long hahaha.

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  6. Are you feeling less anxious now that you didn't crash? :P I'm amazed that you could pull of that kind of pace after taking Ativan! Truly amazing. I hope you enjoyed your trip!

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    1. Do you think the Ativan may have affected my race performance? I took a total of 2mg on Saturday between 6:00am-11:45am. The race was at 6:45 the next day. Does Ativan dehydrate you?

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  7. K, I am going to echo the words I said yesterday--I really would love to see your times on a flat course sans Ativan...It's got to mess with your system!!! I know that if I take even half a dose of something like Tylenol pm I can't shake it until mid-day...
    Paul rocks that he can have Sushi to celebrate his last day of chemo and rad-Does he have a stomach of steel?? I am so happy for him (and you) that he has finished this course!
    YOU NEED A MUCH deserved vacation--you know, the Christmas kind!

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    1. I did think the Ativan would affect me, I thought it stays in your system or 6 hours? Am I wrong? If so, no wonder 7:30 pace felt like a chore!

      Luckily Paul's stomach has only given him mild nausea during his treatments. :)

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  8. Lola and I have Epic goodbyes as well.Matt thinks I'm crazy because I always ball my eyes out. :( I love your plane face!

    Whenever I travel to a race I always worry that they will not let me bring my bling home!!!

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    1. Aw I bet you and Lola have the most dramatic goodbyes. :)

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  9. I had a really relevant comment ...something I remembered from the weekend I wanted to share and now I can't remember!!! I'm glad you survived all your plane rides and got to experience Florida!!

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