Monday, January 19, 2009

A blur...

So much has happened over the rest of the week/weekend that it's all sort of a runny blur. I'll try to get it all in, though. What happened to Thursday? Where did it go? In my memory, it's just a hole.

I remember Thursday morning I had a lovely breakfast of kolaches and donut holes and DELICIOUS coffee with my Oracle. We talked about EVERYTHING both of us has been going through. She and her spouse split up since the last time I saw her and while breaking up sucks, this one was a good move. He was passive-agressive and pretty toxic for her. I'm sure he would have made SOME docile woman very happy, but the Oracle really is a powerhouse of strength and energy and deserves to either be alone and blossom or to find someone who ENHANCES who she is. I mean, I'm glad she was with him for a time because I think he presented her the opportunity to learn to really love and appreciate HERSELF (through no major effort of his own, though). Anyway, she's also onto a new spiritual path and shared it with me in the form of a sort of head massage which put me almost instantly and desperately into a deep sleep.

The one thing I definitely remember about Thursday is that I met up with the Lesbians for dinner. I hadn't seen them in SO long. And their daughter, W, has grown into a little LADY!!! When did THAT happen? I just saw them Christmas before this past and it seems like she was just a little curly-headed girl. Now, she's all manners and twirly skirts and flowing (but still curly) silken hair. Silken everything. This little girl is just downright edible. The first thing she did when she saw me was give me a bookmark she had made in "school" that day! We all went to a great South American resto called Cafe Red Onion where I had a Brazilian Chicken which was a PILE, no, a TOWER of food. It was a huge patty of eggplant--breaded and fried and topped with cheese and a jalapeno, under a thin breast of grilled chicken which was topped with another kind of cheese sauce, and this was under aNOTHer breaded eggplant patty and topped with a handfull of baby greens fastened together with a long thin slice of raw zucchini. It was DELICIOUS!

We caught up on all the good stuff. They let me go on and on about the farm and all my hippy craziness and then they jumped into the Prius (a.k.a. The Spaceship) for a ride around the parking lot.

Oh YEAH!!! NOW I remember what happened to Thursday. Shannen worked from home because Morgan wasn't feeling well. I met up with them later for lunch and took them to the Tomato (the real name is Sweet Tomatoes) and then to Old Navy where for once in my lifetime, I tried on maternity clothes in a store and they actually FIT ME!!! woo HOOOOO! In the past, I have always weighed over 200 pounds when I GOT pregnant. I usually have to order that stuff on-line. This was my first time to leave a maternity section with clothes on my arm. In fact, because so much was on clearance, I got about 8 shirts and two pairs of pants for a hundred bux!

Friday, my friend (well, she's also my ex-boss at the library) drove all the way down from Temple, TX to have lunch with me. We went back to our favorite Tex-Mex resto who has this AWESOME avacado sauce that they serve with the salsa (and NO it's not guac, though it resembles it). We caught up on all that has happened since we saw each other last. She's a librarian, of course, and at her new job has much more personal freedom than she had where we used to work before. I'm so jealous and happy for her. I wish I could describe what a light E is. First of all, she's breathtakingly GORGEOUS. She's like six feet tall (maybe even taller) with crystal blue eyes and a blinding smile. But that's not all... She is RADIANT. And not like the pig in Charlotte's Web. I mean, the room literally does light up when she walks into the room. And as she walks across any space, all heads turn. She's one of the most graceful people I have ever met. Not that pretentious ballerina shit. She just has this mesmerizing carriage. I can't describe it with any success, I guess. I give up. But, there's MORE. She's just grit. She looks like a statue, a model, a beauty queen... but she's a RAGING feminist and though her voice is all sweetness and southern drawl, there's nothing sweeter than when she says "fuck" in a sentence. I'm tellin' you. When she gets all excited because Gloria is the keynote speaker at the Texas Library Association (TLA) conference this year... Priceless.

After lunch, we met up with another librarian, another friend and another ex-boss (all the same person). We had a short coffee/catch-up at Starbucks before heading to Half-Priced Books (where they didn't have much--though I did get some swanky new calendars) and then to Borders where I bought almost $200 worth of paperbacks of their suggestion. I've been out of the library loop for a couple of years and since I DO still want to be a librarian right when we get back, I think it only prudent to stay up to date on what the kids are reading. And normally, I would do this through the LIBRARY, but since I live in France now where it's almost impossible to get English new releases...

Afterward, we said goodbye to E and TT and I went out for a quick dinner of Chinese food. As we chomped on sushi, spring rolls and yummy greasy lo mein, we caught up on what's up with her daughters--who, the last time I actually SAW them were still "kids" but who are now "young women" ... the eldest went off to college for crying out loud and the youngest is a successful freshmen in high school!!! I'm old!!! We talked a little about me, but the great thing about this blog is that it helps keep me from monopolizing EVERY conversation because peeps are already caught up on my going's on, yeah?

So, we make our way to the theatre cuz we're gonna go see Milk. Let me just preface by saying that I don't know HOW I can be such a fag hag (or as they're now calling us "fruit flies"--thanks Kat and Andy!) and not know who Harvey Milk was, but I didn't and I didn't have any idea what that movie was about. *sigh* Anyhoo, we get there and the movie isn't showing anymore. It was showing the day before. I checked the time. So did TT. And I even said to her the day before, "I've heard that it won't be here for very long," (because my moo told me it wouldn't be) and sure e-fucking-nough, it was GONE. I was furious!!!

I called Shannen and asked her to look it up and see where else it might be playing and she found it was only playing in one tiny theatre downtown. It wouldn't be playing until almost ten. Shannen said that FCO (sis' boyfriend) and Morgy (neice) were asleep when she got home and that she was bored and lonely. I looked over at TT and got the ok to invite Shannen. We jumped into the car and zoomed down to Shannen's place (and dropped off my books) and zoomed back down town.

We got there early, got our tickets and since we had a few minutes to kill, we went to the Buck. River Oaks is in a chic-chic part of town, but it's also a part of town where the locals are, how shall we say... a bit limp-wristed!!! MY KIND OF PLACE, in other words. We go to the Buck, and the barista starts razzing me about something and since you know how I am with the fruit, I gave it RIGHT BACK. He finally says, "I LIKE you." If I had a dime for every time a gay guy said that...

Then, we milled about, window shopping the vintage high-end consignment stores to kill time, discovering that instead of going to the crowded Buck with no chairs (and Shannen hates Starbucks' coffee) we could have gone to a cute little coffee house on the OTHER side of the theatre. Live and learn.

We go into the theatre and stand in line to get into the room when a trio of fruities come stand in line. Again, some razzing ensues and again, I dish back out and again, Head Fruit says, "Ooooh, I LIKE her!!!"

TT calls it my Streisand quality. I puff up and beam with pride.

Okay, back to Milk. Again, I say, I don't know who this Milk kid is or what this movie is about and I LIKE that because I like surprises. But let me tell you, I'm not sure if I've ever cried that hard before. Ever. I'm still shaking just thinking about it. I am now and forever in LOVE with Sean Penn and that's all I'm going to say about it.

I hated saying goodbye to TT, but feel lucky to have gotten to spend the evening with her rosy apple cheeks (just the best cheeks in existence, really)and her sparkling laugh. I just love the heck out of that librarian!

So, Saturday, FCO comes in after only having been gone for about an hour and says that he's been given the day off. PERFECT! So, I kidnap them all and take them out for a southern breakfast buffet we used to frequent on weekends. Piles of scrambled eggs, biscuits, gravy, hashbrowns and yummy Mexican concoctions! We were surprised and horrified to find out that the delicious coffee over which we were gushing was actually a liquid coffee syrup... GRODY!

Afterward, we went to Goodwill where I got FUCKED out of $63... Listen, back in Charlotte, Goodwill is the place you go to get a good deal and help some folks out. Well, at this Goodwill, I paid more for some of those used items than I would have paid at Target. Ridiculous. I'm still fuming over it. The guy totally marked up the prices right there in front of me but because there was a huge long line behind me, I didn't stand up for myself. You all know how testy thrift store shoppers can get, right?

After that, we three girls went down to the Expo to pick up our race packets and then headed out to the airport to get Rachel. Then, all of us went back down to the our downtown hotel to drop off suitcases before going back to Shannen's.

I made sure not to stay up too late Saturday night but I couldn't help it. Shannen called me at one point and said, "I'm pinning on my race bib and packing my bag... I'm sniffling because we're supposed to be doing this together." I told her to get her ass down there to our hotel and that Rachel had already okayed Shannen to stay with us, but she said no again.

I did hit the hay around 9:30 (not bad) and only got up twice to pee (obvious uterine parasite related activity). Rachel and I met Shannen down at the GRB and then I went and joined my Fort Bend Fit family, took our group picture, said our group prayer and did our loud ass FBF "HOO YAH!" and walked away sniffling.

I thought the race was going to suck the big one. It was hot, I was over-dressed (but I didn't want to shave my pits and I didn't want my legs to chaff, so I wore long sleeves and capris), I was undertrained and pregnant. But, I was amply-hydrated and with two of my favorite people.

I told myself that I would start the race, do one/one's (run a minute, walk a minute) the whole race and see what happened. Shannen stayed with me until about mile 8 but I could see that she was tense... Like a horse who wants to run free. I told her to go on without me. "Are you sure you won't be mad?" I said, "If one of us is going to be mad, I think it should be me and that you should go and do your best." She almost cried but took off. With both of them gone, I actually think I sort of went into race mode, finally. I ran at my own pace and at my own comfort level and I didn't try to run two/one's but kept it at an even run/walk system. At one point, though, I thought I was going to DIE from the heat. My visor, though protecting me from the sun was actually causing me more harm than good. But my hair is just long enough to get in my way. I stopped at a medical tent and asked if anyone had an extra rubber band. Nope. Sorry. "What do you need it for?" A girl with wavy brown hair asked. "My hair." She reached into her pony tail and handed me her hair tie. I started crying. I'll never ever forget her. Ever.

I ran on. I beamed and choked up at friends who saw me and yelled my name telling me that I "looked good out there!" At strangers who are in Fort Bend Fit... newbies this year who I never got the chance to meet/know who still yelled out HOO YAH!!!

And then, I ran under a bridge upon which was written, "Only 1.5 miles to go."

WHAT? REALLY? I looked down at Gary (my Garmin) and saw that if I only had 1.5 miles to go, I was going to beat my time from the LAST time I ran this damn race all knocked up!

I tried not to sway from my one/ones... but someone called out "JOELIE!!! HOO YAH!!!! GO GET 'EM GIRL!!!!!" I smiled, picked up my feet and ran in the last half mile!

Undertrained, over-dressed and unprepared... I did a race PR (personal record) of 3:07:45 beating my 2007 time of 3:20:42.... As I stepped over the last mat, still whispering to myself, I realized what had happened and burst into sobs.

I want to go into how Rachel and I went out for a movie and wings, but that'll have to wait. I gotta hang with Morgy today cuz she doesn't have any school and it's getting close to time for me to go get her.

All I have to say it, "I did it. I ran that bitch." Enjoy your MLK day!

4 comments:

Laurel said...

Congratulations!!! Did R give you a hug from me?!?!?

Joelie said...

Hey L! She DID!!! And it was a great hug, thanks!!! Probably why I did so well! LOL!

Brandy Nelson said...

I'm so proud of you Joelie! I have been reading your journal since you began it. I feel like a cyber stalker because this is the first comment I am leaving! (More to come though!) You have kept me on the edge of my seat and checking back everyday to see your newest entries. I'm hooked!

Joelie said...

Awwww, Bran! Thanks!!!!