Weekend

Where the hell does it go? One minute, it's 5 pm on Friday and the next minute the alarm clock is going off at 5 am on Monday! And, someone please tell me why my darling daughter will sleep until 8 am Monday - Friday, but only until 6 am on Saturdays and Sundays??? Anyone?

First, let me say that I did run 2x last week. Tuesday, I managed 3 miles on the treadmill. Wendesday, I headed to the park for a quick loop...my goal was to run the entire loop at a 10 minute/mile pace. And I did! Sort of - I did stop my watch for a few seconds to say hello to a friend who was walking part of the loop. My watch captured 2.85 miles @ a 9:58 pace. For the 1st time, I actually tried running with my cute, new ipod shuffle and it seemed to have helped. I found that Concrete Blond = faster pace! So anyway, I proved to myself that I am capable of running faster. And I have June to thank for that. In one of her posts last week, she mentioned that to run faster, you have to train harder. That's something that I already knew, but sometimes it helps to have someone spell it out. Kwim? Of course, I was breathing hard at the end and I did feel like I wanted to puke...but only for a second. ;-) I did the loop at that pace doing 5/1s. And, I am beginning to think that it would be easier to maintain that pace running straight through rather than walking for a minute and then trying to run faster to make up the time.

After work on Friday, I went to a happy hour at a little place that I like to call heaven. Okay, so it's not really heaven, but the margarita's are heavenly. This was my 1st happy hour in who knows how long. My original plan was to go to happy hour and not indulge at all, so I could do a quick loop at Memorial on the way home. By the time 5pm on Friday finally arrived, I was ready for margarita's! After the drama of giving notice at work (long story) and going through our audit, I really was ready for a margarita...or two. or few. :-) It was so much fun seeing all my friends from my former job (as in not the one I'm about to leave, but the one before that...confusing?)

Saturday, the hubby, kiddo and I planned to attend the company picnic for the company where I will soon be working. My future boss thought it would be a good idea, so I could start meeting some of the folks I would be working with. I agreed. Although I knew it would be a tad bit awkward, I figured it would be good to start putting the names with the faces...and see if everyone was nice...after all, I would still have time to change my mind and not work there if it didn't go well. :-) Everyone was great, so there were no worries there. We weren't sure if there would even be a picnic with all that crazy wind and rain. Fortunately, the picnic was being held west of Houston and the rain passed through much earlier and gave way to sunshine and gorgeous weather.

Sunday, I headed to the park for a "long" run. I originally intended to get there right at 7 am and run to Waugh and back. However, the kiddo was experiencing a bit of separation anxiety when I was leaving, so I stayed longer to make her muffins and watch a bit of Go Baby! with her. As soon as I started my run, my Garmin gave me the "low battery" message. So, I had no idea of my pace or exact mileage. Since I arrived late and had no idea of the time, I ended up running the longer leg of the park loop, down Memorial to Shepherd, turning right and then turning around at Kirby. My total mileage was only around 6.5 miles. I know I ran the 1st and 2nd miles straight through and then tried to only walk when I arrived at the water fountains or large puddles of water. After my run, I sat and chatted with June for a few minutes before heading home. I made it home just in time to shower and get the kiddo to playgroup right on time.

Sunday afternoon, the hubby and I took the kiddo to the Children's Festival downtown. It was pretty packed, which we assumed was because of the bad weather the day before. Our goal for the day - see the "Dance with Dora" segment on the Time Warner stage. So, we get there about a 1/2 hour early to stake out prime seating directly in front of the stage. About 10 minutes before the show started, parents start pushing their kids up to the front and all of a sudden there are a dozen or so kids in front of us. It only got worse! About 5 minutes before the show started, there were more pushy parents with their kids trying to get up to the front. It was crazy!!! Jeeze, parents teaching their kids to be rude and pushy. Or are they just teaching them to be uper aggressive? I don't know. All I know is that when Dora came out, and they asked for volunteers on the stage, I couldn't believe the pushing! For a moment, I was having flashbacks to my college days of mosh pits at punk rock shows at Numbers! I was halfway expecting to see someone crowd surf or stage dive! I placed the kiddo on my shoulders so she could see Dora and just tried to stay out of harms way. Luckily, she's not really old enough to care that much...she was just happy to see Dora and wave and clap to the music. What stank more than anything is that Dora danced to one stinkin' song! Oh well, like I said, the kiddo enjoyed it and that's all that matters. After the Dora fiasco, we enjoyed just walking around to the different activities, having lemonade and being outdoors.