Monday, March 10, 2014

Being lazy is not bittersweet


A few notable things happened this weekend.

First of all, an after work errand of the utmost importance.

My excitement level is exactly the appropriate level for a 30 year old.
Then I did all my grocery shopping, since the theater is in the same plaza as the nearest Wegmans. Also, I heard cool people do their grocery shopping Friday night. Or at least people who don't want to have an aneurism trying to fight past an army of shopping carts Sunday afternoon.

As soon as I got home, I had to start baking. You'll see why.
 

Can you tell what's in these cookies?
 

CADBURY MINI EGGS
 It's hard to tell because I was trying to be all artistic and get a close up in the above picture, but there, the plate is fairly full. I had two for dessert. When I woke up in the morning, the plate was slightly more sparse.
 
 
But I can't really blame anyone, because we all know Cadbury mini eggs are like little colorful drops from heaven, and the dough recipe for these cookies is unreal. I highly recommend making it.
 
Saturday morning, I went on a 7 mile run downtown with Lily. I spent the rest of the day doing productive-ish activities before driving down to Kara's house. I've professed my love of sleep many times, so it should come as no surprise that the spring ahead portion of daylight savings time isn't my favorite holiday. I thought we'd head to bed early, but between toddler performances of Frozen, chatting, Chinese food mishaps, and naughty pillow fights, we didn't go to bed until 10:30. We had a 5:30 but feels like 4:30 wakeup call to fulfill our role as race volunteers.
 
The guest accommodations were extremely comfortable, but I couldn't sleep all night. I had some sort of city mouse visiting country mouse syndrome going on. Since moving to Baltimore in 2005, I've had a bedroom window facing a busy street, and I'm rocked to sleep each night with the comforting sounds of traffic, ambulance sirens, crazy people screaming, and the never ending glow of bright, fluorescent lights of local businesses. I've gotten pretty used to this over the past 9 years, so I find it very disarming when I turn out the lights and have to use my phone as a flashlight to find the bed. Also, all I could hear was silence. It's a lot like that first scene in Scream with the popcorn popping and no one around to save you from the killer.
 
Anyway, after only a handful of hours of disjointed sleep, I felt pretty ill equipped to run packet pickup on race morning. Kara insisted she was completely drugged and unable to function, but to me it seemed like I was the weak link. Also, the race director's truck fell into a ditch while she was putting out mile markers and she was MIA, so it was pretty much us running the show. Somehow, all the bibs and t-shirts got handed out and the race began on time.
 

If you wear headphones, a child will be sent after  you on a scooter to disqualify you. Truth.
The Lower Potomac River Marathon is one of my favorite races, I've run it the past 2 years, and would definitely do it again, but training for and running a marathon is contrary to my mission statement in fat lazy 2014. Still, I thought it would be bitter sweet to be there but not running, but I can't say I was jealous of the marathoners. Waking up and sitting at a table seemed exhausting enough. I certainly didn't miss having to perform the perfectly timed routine of coffee/body glide/compression shorts/breakfast/bathroom, or the stress of taking off on a 26.2 mile journey.
 
I did get assigned a pretty stressful task. The time machine. Great Scott!
 

 
I was placed in charge of recording everyone's finishing times. I instagrammed it and everything. Luckily, I think word got out that I was barely awake and tend to get really awkward and uncomfortable and annoying under pressure even in the best of times. I was reassigned to a job better suited for my mental abilities.


Holding the finish line banner up for the winner to bust through.

 
Obviously, in any marathon I'm running I'm never going to see the elites finish, so it was very exciting to be at the forefront here. The course also passes by the School of Seamanship (ha!), aka the start/finish where we were, so we got to cheer on the runners for awhile at mile 8.8.
 
I was highly concerned about my drive home, but caffeine came through for me like it always does, and I'm pleased to report that I'm now more than halfway done with Fire Study. When I got home, I took a nap while Eric cleaned the house, and life was good.

How much sleep does it take for you to function? 6 hours is generally my minimum. In my early 20s, I would close down the bars at 2am and then be at Starbucks at 5am to open the store, so I think it's safe to say that things are different in my early 30s.
 

7 comments:

  1. I can't wait to make more of those cookies. I almost didn't share with Faith, but then mother guilt made me do it.

    If I was a good hostess, I would have played you recordings of sirens and traffic noises so you could sleep better. :)

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  2. Lately, no amount of sleep is enough. I feel like complete shit 90% of the time. I had a baby at 20 so I never had those nights of little to no sleep by choice.

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  3. Those cookies look amazing. Daylight savings is kicking my ass, that and my coughing children, seriously I can't wait to go to work today just to quit listening to them cough, can winter be over already and can we fall back to normal time.

    Nice job holding the banner, looks like a tough job :)

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  4. Don't lie, you just couldn't sleep because I wasn't there with you and memories of last year were so glorious, you couldn't stand to be there without me.

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  5. Those cookies look delicious! Daylight Savings Time is totally kicking my ass this year...I've overslept for the last two days! And I love sleep. I get 6-7hours/night, but if it were up to me, I'd probably sleep 9 every night. That sounds amazing. I've got to start going to bed earlier.

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  6. Why no headphones?

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  7. I did most of grad school on about 6 hours...sometimes 5. Nowadays, esp. working in fitness, I find I really need a little bit more to function. This is probably for two reasons (at least):

    1. More working out = more tired = more sleep. Seems to make sense?
    2. More dealing with people = more patience required. I'm more pleasant and patient when I'm rested. Otherwise, my introvert self overreacts, get grouchy, and lots of other lovely things when forced into too much social interaction.

    And then, of course, there's that 'getting older' thing...

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