Fat Biscuit

Mostly It's Been About Sickness

This week has been rough.

Some odd combination of mildly irritating circumstances (my son being home sick for 3 days, the darkness, my lack of exercise, the miserable shopping trips) have conspired to bring me down. 

But, tomorrow begins our Christmas break, and I'm going running with friends in the morning. 

And, despite my grumpiness, I've still been doing my nightly pushups. In fact, Owen yelled at me from upstairs not too long ago to remind me to do them. (He likes to actually witness me doing them so that he can make sure I'm not cheating.)

I'm not cheating, but I'm also not getting no guns either. Maybe next month, I up it to two sets a day?

Owen's sickness has made him strangely contemplative . . . 

Owen: Mommy, what do they do if you're sick in jail?

Me: Oh, they have a clinic.

Owen: That's good to hear.

 

Random Friday Facts

1. The other day, Owen told me I was the "honey badger in our family." Interpret that how you will.

 

2. Pet peeve: I curse every time I have to peel a sticker off a piece of fruit. Walking over to the trash can just to throw away that tiny little scrap of paper is irritating.

 

3. In March I'm going to register for the Marine Corps Marathon.

 

4. I always put off changing blades on my razor because I remember how expensive those suckers are.

 

5. I do not like Wasabi. My husband loves it.

 

6. I used to obsessively attack my black winter coat with a lint roller to remove every single bit of fuzz. I was unable to relax wearing it. This is yet another quirk that was successfully eliminated with just a tiny dose of SSRIs.

 

7. Yesterday I registered for a free Webinar about nonprofit budgets. Once a nerd, . . . 

 

8. We watched Cook's Country on PBS last night. They were making a souffle version of spoon bread. All I could think was no food dish is worth that many (wo)man hours.

 

9. The following books have scarred me for life: Death on the Installment Plan and Maldorer. I've heard that American Psycho has had a similar effect on some, but I've not read it.

 

10. Have I mentioned that I hate Charlie Brown?

December: Month of Pushups

For Christmas, I've decided to give myself the gift of biceps. Every day in December I'm going to do at least one set of 10 pushups in order to test a hypothesis:

Is doing pushups every day enough to make a  noticeable difference in my slightly jiggly upper arms? 

I've enlisted my husband and son in this project, because they are both well aware that what Ceri does everyone must experience, too. Taylor, poor guy, was tasked with taking the "before" and "after" photos. (He really is a very patient man.)

Owen is my nightly coach, who counts my pushups for me and records them on the easel in his bedroom. In fact, Owen made a point of staying up late on December 1 so that when I returned home after bookclub, he could witness the inaugural set. 

If this hypothesis proves false, well, then I shouldn't ever waste my time with pushups again.

 

 

The Race That Wasn't

Well, add my name to the long list of people who did not make it to last weekend's Hot Chocolate 15K/5K. It was disappointing, for sure, not to race or consume yummy chocolates when I had paid $65 to do so. However, I'm clearly not as angry and resentful as some of the racers who left comments on the Hot Chocolate's Facebook page. At some point, you just have to move on. That said, here's my experience.

My friend and I carpooled and paid for the National Harbor parking ($10). We left an hour before the 8 am race start, figuring that as we live just over the bridge on the VA side, we should have plenty of time. We were wrong. As we turned right onto Richmond Highway from Fort Hunt Road, we came to a complete stop. A seemingly endless line of cars stretched in front of us. Nobody was getting onto that Woodrow Wilson Bridge. 

We noticed a VDOT sign set up next to the exit ramp: "Accident on 295 N, Exit 2." We tried to stay positive, but I resigned myself to missing the race as soon as I saw that sign.

If we had immediately turned around, headed to Belle Haven Marina, parked, and trekked the ~3 miles to the race start, we probably would have made it. However, I now know that we would've also had to wait an extra hour before the race started. That would've sucked hard. So we just drove away.

And went to Georgetown. We parked along the C&O canal and ran 8 miles. Unfortunately for my friend, I had not brought my iPod, so he was forced to listen to my chatter for about an hour and a half. Oh, well, at least we got our run in.