Adventures of Rachele

Tomorrow I'm doing my very first Duathlon.  I've done one sprint distance triathlon in 2005, so at least I know what a transition area is.  This will be two firsts for me: first duathlon and first time to Wenatchee.  It's only a 5K run, 17 mile bike ride, then another 5K run, so it shouldn't hurt too much, right? :/ 

Well, Bill is picking us up at 5am, then we'll swing by to pick up Lily on the way.  Oh, that means that our glass of wine with dinner and still being awake isn't the ideal way to prep for the race.  Ha!  I love that I "balance" my activities.  I still very much enjoy my work, enjoy my friends, and enjoy my training.  I can't ask for much more than that. :) 

So, my race bag is ready.  I've already laid out my "mini me" (This is a race trick for me.  I lay out my whole race outfit on the floor.  My shoes, socks, shorts, undergarments, shirt, watch, gloves and hat) so I can jump right into my outfit tomorrow.  My shoes are near the door.  All I need is a good night's sleep and a simple breakfast.  Oh, it's past my bedtime.  We have to tear ourselves away from crying as we watch "Glory" with Mathew Broderick.  Goodnight!  and wish us luck!

Yes, it was a landmark birthday for Heidi...30!  I had visions of grandeur.  My 30th was fairly low key, so I was going to make up for it by throwing a party for Heidi.  The theme was 70's and we were going to bring back our childhood and do a scavenger hunt.  Well, I was overly optimistic with what I could accomplish that week.  Between work, spending quality time with friends, and exercise, I didn't leave much time to dream up a fun scavenger hunt.  I was already living off of borrowed sleep time.  So, Lily and I were the only ones dressed in 70's garb.  Oh, and the scavenger hunt was ditched.  It just didn't seem like fun in the heavy rain.

I must say that hosting this party was a breeze.  I am blessed with such wonderful friends and they all helped so much to make this an excellent birthday party.  Mel & Richard brought in all the equipment and supplies for the bar.  And everyone helped out.  The strange part of the evening was when we decided to make an appearance at The Parlor.  The place was packed!  There was even a waiting list to get into another local bar.  I have never seen that happen in Bellevue.  So we ended the evening back at my place, watching figure skating before going to bed.  Since Heidi skated competitively, it seemed like an appropriate end to the evening.

Don't worry, the scavenger hunt idea will be used again.  You haven't heard the last of this one!

Today is officially the first day of Spring.  Yes, it's cold, but it's sunny!!!  And it's 6:50 pm and there is still daylight!  As I was walking between meetings downtown, I noticed a lot of people carrying daffodils.  People from the Pike Place market were handing out flowers to people on sidewalks.  Now, that feels like Spring.  I don't like the scent of daffodils, myself, I'm more of a rose-girl.  I know, a little cliche.

Here's another funny thing I noticed today...I don't remember the last time I've been to an event or party (business or social) where I haven't known at least one person there.  And even when I do only know one or two people in the room, inevitably, I'll find out that some of us have mutual friends or contacts.  Seattle is such a close knit town.  What would be fun would be to take a complete stranger off the street and see how many questions it takes to figure out you have someone in common.  So, this is taking things a little further than the idea of six degrees of separation.  I'm guessing that if you've been in one area for a few years and are fairly social, you are probably only 2-3 degrees of separation from strangers on the street.  Any guesses on how many questions you need to ask? (This reminds me of an old commercial: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Lollypop?)

After 9 1/2 years (September 1997), I'm finally retiring my Classic Size Franklin Planner.  I still have notes from my planning pages archived back to January 2000.  I'm sure I don't need to keep seven years of notes, but shredding earlier years will be a different process.  I'm still a little scared to downsize, but I'm tired of lugging around my planning binder with all my other stuff.  If you've seen me in meetings, you know this is a huge step for me...I wouldn't be at a meeting without my black planner.  It's how I've remembered names and details; done countless hours brainstorming; and recorded bits of information that I'd reference in the future. 

Now, my Blackberry has replaced several functions of my planner and I feel the need to find something that will fit in my purse.  Since I love streamlining, this should be a good change for me.  So, why does my chest feel tight? :/

Today was the St. Patrick's Day Dash in Seattle.  It's not an official distance and ends up being approximately 3.5 miles.  The start is near Seattle Center and the finish is outside Safeco Field.  Since the course is only in one direction, you need to figure out the logistics.  Typically, people park near the finish and take a designated bus to the start.  However, I prefer not to rely on any additional transportation.  There have been too many times, where the buses have been delayed or everyone arrives at the same time and there are huge lines.  Yes, the furthest I've walked in a race was 6 1/2 miles away from the start line, just so I wouldn't have to depend on the bus schedule.  This year I just bummed a ride.

The weather today was supposed to be nasty.  I figured it couldn't be worse than the last Seattle Marathon, so I decided to just go.  Plus, usually when the news gives dramatic weather predictions, the worst part of the storm hits another area (not us).  It did drizzle.  There was also a little wind at the end, but it was the perfect temperature for a run.  I felt comfortable in short sleeves during the race.  Every other time I've done this run, it was sunny.  There were also 3,000 more (that's what I was told, but I haven't verified it) participants this year than last year.  There were several elite/competitive runners striding out before the start.  Then the rest of the pack was pretty dense, so it was difficult to run a fast race.  That was a good enough reason to take this one easy.  Most of us ran long yesterday, so this was just a "fun run" for us.  We also have our secret meeting place, where it was easy to find each other after crossing the finish.  Really, this race was an excuse to "earn" our post-race breakfast at Kell's.

As a side note, I was happy to recieve another gift today.  I still love presents and celebrations; I don't think I'll ever outgrow them.  Of course, my friends love to give me gag gifts.  They are getting more and more creative and I may have to give one of them an award at the end of the year for outdoing each other.  Right now, my cousin's paperwieght is in the lead for Best Gag Gift.  I just think it's interesting that three people, independently decided on giving me the same gift.  It actually is the perfect size for my tea, and I've used one of them already.  Thank you Lily, Kristen and Richard.  I'm glad you got a good kick out of this, and I'm sure y'all are still snickering at the inside joke.

Yes, I was babysitting my friends' 18-month old daughter, Elise.  I'm never around kids, so it was pretty cool just hanging out with her.  Of course, Bethany stopped over to supervise me. :)  We tried playing with toys and reading. 

Then I thought I'd teach her a new trick to use on her parents (it's fun being the crazy aunt).  I know one day this is all going to come back at me.  My friends are going to have a lot of fun (at my expense) when I have kids.  So, what trick did I want to teach her?  I thought I'd teach her to carry a purse.  So, I went into my closet and brought out a mini flowered tote bag for her to carry her toys in.  When her parents called to check in, I mentioned that I was teaching her to carry purses.  That's when I found out that her mother already taught her to do that and she already like to try on shoes.  Oh, goody.

We opened the door to my closet and her eyes lit up.  Then she said "Shoes!"  As soon as I gave her a nicer purse and matching shoes (it's scary that she knew the difference between a cheap tote and Coach shoes/purses), she started strutting around.  We let her pick different shoes from my shelves.  Then we even let her wear a tiara (which she LOVED!!!) and a flashing, pink sash that read "Princess."

Girls are so much fun.  Bethany and I had a great time playing dress up with her.