May, 2010

This post is delayed a few weeks due to the untimely death of my hard drive. I happened to be in a legislative committee meeting about school finance and I was not too thrilled about losing a few hours worth of notes as well as hundreds of photos, clips and songs I didn’t back up. (As well as photo editing software, so pic quality is lacking.)

A few weeks ago, I joined some newish friends for a birthday camping weekend extravaganza. The site: Miracle Mile, a stretch of the North Platte River praised for its excellent fishing. What’s left of my camping stuff is scattered among closets and storage spaces at my mom’s house. Luckily, Carol lent me a sleeping bag and let me stay in her tent.

We drove out Friday night, the last 20 miles or so on two-tracks (dirt roads), and set up camp in the dark. Saturday was chilly — about 45 degrees — and overcast. Most of the Friday night crew went back to Casper, but a few of us stayed and went out to the Seminoe Dam and reservoir.

Seminoe Dam

We climbed a little to get a better view.

Seminoe Reservoir

Back at camp, I put my Girl Scout skills to use and built a fire that ended up being our nighttime fire too. Ranchers still let their cattle roam, so we had visitors to our camp.

moooo

Saturday night was much clearer. We saw so many stars we couldn’t make out constellations. Saturday night was even colder. Of course we left the next day when the sun came out and everything was starting to warm up.

Happy Mother’s Day!

me and Mom, Oct. 25, 2008. I hope I look this good in 20-some years.

I wish I were able to spend today with this lady.

late-night, post-wedding Waffle House, May 3, 2008

We weren’t always friends, but we are now. She used to be “The Apple Pie Mom” who brought extra blankets to cold softball games. She was at nearly every one, even when I didn’t want her to be. Didn’t realize it then, but I was damn lucky to have a terrific cheerleader behind the dugout, in the audience and next to me during my many, many extracurriculuar projects.

Then I moved to New York. Maybe it was the distance or that I was now “older,” but we started to get along. Calls were frequent. She became my personal adviser on anything, especially creative projects such as party decorations and Halloween costumes. Her creativity never runs dry, even after a week of teaching preschool, planning lessons for the college class she teaches and living.

Her energy, kindness and patience amazes and inspires me to be a better person every day. Thanks, Mom, for everything. I’m so thankful to have you, even if it’s over the phone.

I’m into the stage of training where I’m tackling longer distances and need to put more thought into where and how I run including refueling during the run.

Today’s plan was to run 8 miles — 3 miles out and back and then a 2 mile loop around the neighborhood so I wouldn’t be far from home if my knee blew out something happened. My hair has grown and falls out of my ponytail too easily. Today I tied it up and wore a headband.

I also planned to stop at 2, 4 and 6 miles for water/gatorade and chew on Sharkies during mile 4.

And all went as planned, almost too good. I finished 8 miles in 1:24 (not including the brief drink breaks). I could feel my hips tire out in mile 7 and now that I’m rested, my calves are a little tight. I’m definitely going to order a Bondiband or two before the race. It’s so much easier to run when my hair isn’t whipping in my face.

I usually chew gum when I run but it still felt weird to eat chew and swallow something. I’m going to try other foods: saltines, graham crackers, jelly beans, Shot Bloks, GU. I’m also looking into water bottle belts — planning runs around pit stops will get annoying. I’m also going to get a new iPod. I really shouldn’t be running with my heavy old clunker sans armband.

I’ve found that when I miss regular runs during the week, I hit the longer weekend runs harder. So maybe I shouldn’t run for like 3 weeks before the half-marathon.

ps- It snowed yesterday — weird, ball-shaped hail/snow.

pps- I ordered another pair of 769′s (on sale, free shipping) for when these wear out in a few months. They’re pink.

I have not had time to write (sorry, Grandpa and Grandma!) because I’ve been, um, writing.

Writing for work, that is. I took a look back and I wrote almost 30 stories in the past 3 weeks. One of those involved a 12-hour day of driving and reporting. Another took a few days and a little trust-building.

Three stories were rewritten by the AP, then rearranged for an AP “update,” then rewritten in NPR reports — childhood obesity rate low in WY, state superintendent candidates meet, WY names lowest 5 percent of schools in the state.

Scattered throughout were quick hits — a cupcake sale and kids in court.

Next week looks just as busy with school board meetings and college and high school graduations coming up. For now I’ll enjoy the weekend. Don’t forget — Betty White is hosting SNL tomorrow!