Quick (and smug) Update

Just a note to let you know that I did indeed make my miles for the week...in fact, I was actually over by about a mile and a half because I got lost on a new route today. I managed to make it home thanks to the mapping app. on my Blackberry. What was it they were saying about no phones allowed?

No Crappy Excuses

Here, it is our job to make progress, not excuses.

My students have heard these words countless times from me; a sort of mantra, I guess. So I am going to live by my own words and despite a crappy week, I am going to meet my total miles for the week as determined by the 3-day's "Suggested 16-Week Training Schedule". However, that does not mean I am not going to kvetch about the crappiness that has kept me from a good training week.

Monday, I got stuck at work and only had time for a crappy 2 mile walk. This happens sometimes and I love my students so it is most often not a problem - but on Monday, I got held up because of crappy paperwork. Paperwork makes me cranky.
Tuesday, I managed 3 miles. Not great, but not bad.
Wednesday's training was replaced by a visit from what seemed like the entire Framingham fire and police departments (see my last post). This was the crappiest day of the week.
Thursday, continued the stomach bug which also started on Wednesday - I decided to spare you that crappiness in Wednesday's blog.
Today, I barely squeezed in another crappy 3 miles.

So, if I am going to make progress, even though I think I have plenty of legitimate excuses, I will need to get in the suggested 10 miles tomorrow and 6 on Sunday. Crap.

Tomorrow is a pretty full day. My son has baseball practice, a baseball game, and baseball team pictures. I am also chaperoning the Jr. Prom tomorrow night (what the crap was I thinking?). Therefore, I may need to switch up the days and do 6 tomorrow and 10 on Sunday. Crap.

If nothing else, this blog has helped keep me honest and accountable and I am hoping that now that I have posted this crap, I will actually follow through. If so, by the end of the weekend, I will have completed the 5th week of official training and will have walked 95.5 miles. Holy Crap!

I'll be back on Sunday with either news of my progress or some really crappy excuses.

Thanks for reading. More later...

The Irony of a First Aid Kit

So I was going to try to keep this post light and cheery since I am still waiting for Kierkegaard and Nietzsche to comment on that last one. Tonight, I was going to tell you about how funny my daughter is. I was going to share stories about a recent trip with her to the mall and tell you how a three year old can really put you in your place. Here is a little of what I was going to post…We were walking through the mall and she was telling me about all the things you can do and see there, like Julie your cruise director.
The conversation went like this:
A: [passing Sephora - with a flourish] “…and this is where you can go to get your make up done.”
Me: “Oh yeah?”
A: “Yes. You can come here to get a new look.” [pause] “You should go there.”
Me: “To get a new look? I thought I already had a new look.” [posing, showing off my new figure.]
A: “Yes. But you don’t have a stylish look.”
Me: “Reeeally?”
A: “Yes. Really.”
Then she gave me the head shake and shrug that says, “sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but…” Do you believe this kid? Conversations like this happen all the time when she is around. She is quite a character. She is also a very good girl. She has always been our “easy” one.

This goodness and easiness may have led to today’s 911 call. Let me first say that everyone is fine but we did have a bit of a scare. Today after school, my son had a friend over. They were playing ball in the backyard. I had been pushing my daughter on the swings and chatting on the phone with my son’s friend’s mom. My daughter and I headed into the house. Like I said, she’s the easy one. She’s always been able to entertain herself and I never worry about her getting into things she shouldn’t. I do get flashes of nervousness when she gets too quiet and I also hide scissors because of the fear that she will one day give herself a “stylish new look” – but for the most part, she goes off and plays and I do my thing.

So I am straightening up in my room, still on the phone, and I hear her start to cry a real cry. Moms know what I mean – not a fussy cry, but a something’s really wrong cry. So it turns out that she has gotten into a first aid kit that my mother-in-law brought over for me to put in my car. In it was an ammonia inhalant capsule – you know the kind you snap to activate for revival purposes? Well, she activated it all right – with her teeth!

Here is what I want you to ask yourself right now. Do you know your local poison control number? As a new parent, we had all those important numbers posted in perfect penmanship on the side of the refrigerator. Now, even if it had still been posted on the fridge, I would have had to find it under layers of alphabet and Leap Frog magnets, baseball schedules, birthday invitations, and artistic masterpieces. 911…9-1-1…9 - stay calm - 1- should I make her puke? – 1… “911. This call is being recorded. What’s your emergency?”

Here are a few more questions to ask yourself. Do you live in a town where they send an ambulance, a police cruiser (or two), a fire truck, AND the fire chief (you know, the guy in the red SUV?) when you call 911? Do you have a lot of caring neighbors who are home at 4 pm? Have you ever had to call a parent to say, “Sorry to end the play date early, but I just poisoned my daughter. Do you mind coming to pick up your child?” Awesome.

So what is most important is my daughter is perfectly healthy. She did have some irritation on her lips and in her mouth and her top lip was also a bit swollen from the pop of the capsule. Mostly she was scared and embarrassed. She kept saying, “Don’t tell them what I did.” So I told her that Mommy made a big mistake leaving that there where children could get to it. She thought this was funny and asked if I thought Daddy would be mad at me. I do need to reflect on why this type of stuff happens on my watch and not his.

Needless to say, I really had to think today about all the other dangers around my house. Because we have never really had to worry about the little one, we have become a bit complacent. Not good. After the dust settled and I apologized to all the neighbors (“Thank you!” wave. smile. “Nothing to see here!”) and promised my son’s friend’s mother that I would only try to poison my own children and it was safe to come back another day, I began re-childproofing the house. Luckily the other mom is a friend of mine who has 3 boys – she totally gets it – and my neighbors did not ask the police to further investigate my shaky parenting. We have had 911 calls in the past but it has been almost 5 years since our last one – another stellar parenting moment – when I locked my keys in my car on a 90+ degree day, with my then 2 year old son strapped into his car seat (the keys were on the seat, not in the ignition with the AC going). I actually drove to the hospital on the day that I shut my daughter’s finger in the public bathroom door at the craft store – so no 911 that day. We didn’t have to call later that afternoon either when she removed the cast herself. “Here, Mama. I don’t like this.”

So as I file away my Mother of the Year Award, I hope that you will take a look around your house and just make sure you are keeping your kids safe. And if your kids are friends with my kids, don’t worry. I am better with other people’s children. They even let me be a teacher.

Again, my daughter is just fine. My son and his friend continued playing ball in the back yard and were unfazed by the whole fiasco, and with some counseling, I will be just fine too.

In case you were wondering, I DID NOT train today.

A lot to think about

This week finds me thinking a lot about life…it’s beginnings, how we live it, and how it ends. (anyone want to bail now? this is a long one and it only gets deeper from here.) On Monday, my new niece, Emma Grace, came into the world. She is just gorgeous, with cheeks that absolutely drip off her face and the fullest head of hair I have ever seen on a newborn. This is child number two for my husband’s brother and his wife who also have a little boy. My kids just have the two cousins so they were excited to meet the new baby. My daughter loves babies and was over the moon – despite a few days of disappointment when she learned that Auntie Mimi and Uncle Kevin did not name the baby Rainbow Sunflower as she had requested.

This week I also learned that friends of mine from work are expecting. I was able to see the pictures from their first ultrasound and we talked about what fruit size the baby is this week – a lime? a lemon? Amazing. I am thrilled for them and welled up a few times watching their excitement and joy. They will be remarkable parents. Of this, I have no doubt.

I also chatted, this week, with another dear friend who is pregnant with her second child and on bed rest. (This is my friend who ran for the bus with me…see “Peas & Corn” 3/17/09) Her son was born prematurely and there have been some signs of possible preterm labor, so she is on bed rest and doing her best to stay pregnant. She is incredibly optimistic and enthusiastic about this pregnancy and I envy her strength. I also question, knowing her inability to not be busy, whether she is actually in bed right now. Rest up, DG! ; ) You’re remarkable!

Also this week, I have needed to take pause and think about the end of life. On Thursday, I learned that the mother of two of my childhood friends passed away last weekend. Their family owns the greatest pizza place in my hometown and I have the fondest memories of her, seated at a table, greeting all the regular customers as they came by. I always loved the way her kids called her “Ma” and can picture her daughter standing behind her with her arms draped over Ma’s shoulders. She would reach up and hold onto her daughter’s arms but would not miss a beat in the conversation. When I was 8, her oldest son, a teenager at the time, promised to marry me when I got older. Ma winked and gave her blessing. Years later when he did get married to his beautiful wife, I reminded him of his broken promise and my broken heart. We still laugh about it sometimes. I am thinking about you, Georgia and Harry, and I hold your mom in my heart. Rest in peace, Zoe Triantafilles. You will be missed.

This week also brought news that an esteemed colleague is very ill. Bob is, perhaps, the smartest, most intriguing man, I have ever met. Often I have been intimidated by his brilliance, but once you get to talking with him, you find out quickly how gentle and kind to the core he really is. I would describe him as eccentric, extraordinary and a real cool cat. He has wispy, white hair which lands at mid-neck; he walks quickly, has a broad chest, and is clearly physically fit; he wears shorts through the winter (a colleague told me he does it in deviance of winter – a refusal to let winter win); he always has stacks of books near by, if not tucked beneath his arms; and his desk is an absolute avalanche of paper. He is an award-winning teacher of Latin whose students adore, respect, and miss him. Another colleague recently visited Bob in the hospital and he shared some of Bob's thoughts. He asked us to “focus on doing what you can for each other.” He also wanted to know if people were thinking of him. We are.

I think because this week has brought a lot of news about births, illness, and death, I have also been thinking about Bridget. For those of you who do not know her story, Bridget is a college friend of mine, who lost her short but courageous battle with cancer in August, not long after the premature birth of her second child. If you have followed my blog, you have heard me mention Bridget and the strength of her friends and family. Bridget’s husband, Steve, has really been the inspiration behind my blog. He has kept a blog since shortly after Bridget’s diagnosis (nearly one year ago). His blog has been many things to many people and I thank him for sharing.
You can read more about Bridget here: http://www.evening4bridget.org/Homepage.html

Evening for Bridget raised money for Dana Farber and for Bridget’s daughters’ schooling. Here is an excerpt from a letter sent by one of the organizers:
We are very pleased to report that we have donated over $47,000 to Dana Farber Cancer Institute in the name of Bridget K. Slotemaker. As a reminder, these funds have been earmarked to Dr. Ann Partridge, who founded the program "Young and Strong". Ann is a remarkable woman who is incredibly committed to the fight against cancer, especially for women 40 and younger. In addition to the clinical research components that Ann leads, this program also serves as an incredible support resource for patients and their families. We believe the Young and Strong program is a very fitting recipient from monies raised from "An Evening for Bridget", as we support the brave and courageous young women and their families battling this horrible disease.

I encourage you to read more about Dr. Partridge and the Young and Strong Program.

Speaking of Young and Strong…this weekend also marks Sherri’s 3-year Cancer-Free anniversary. Her diagnosis, surgery and treatment sometimes feel like they happened yesterday and sometimes it feels like a million years ago. But one thing is for sure, I am grateful for every second of these 3 years. I am thrilled to be taking this journey with Sherri. You rock, girl!

All these things flooded my thoughts today as I walked my longest training walk to date. Our training schedule called for an 8-mile day yesterday and a 6-mile day today. Since I wanted to attend funeral services yesterday, I walked just 4.5 miles. Therefore, I decided to make it a long one today. Tommy and the kids dropped me off in Newton Lower Falls and I walked the Boston Marathon route back to Framingham. A whopping 10.5 miles! I’m sore, for sure, but feel great.

The thing that kept me walking today was not just the thoughts of birth and illness and death and survival – but about the choices we make when we are able. I feel blessed to have my health and so I am trying to make the most of it. I am blessed with a beautiful family and so I want to be around for them and I want to enjoy them totally. I want this for others too. I had on my “training my butt off” t-shirt and a woman who was out running with a jogging stroller, stopped at an intersection to ask what I am training for. “It’s a good thing you’re doing,” she said. “Keep going.” She’s right. I thought about Bob’s words. It is important to focus on what we can do for each other. It is also important to let others know that you are thinking of them. We all want to know that others are thinking of us. Bob was brave enough to wonder aloud. So tell someone you are thinking of them. You don't have to walk 60 miles to make a difference. It's the little things.

Thanks for thinking of me. It makes a difference.

Tracy runs on Dunkin

I just had a terrible thought. How am I going to walk 20 miles per day without any Dunkin Donuts? I have got to talk to Sherri and find out how we can make this happen. I got up extra early this morning to walk and it's raining pretty hard. So I went to DD, got my coffee, and I am now sitting in my car waiting for the gym to open. (YMCA does not open until 7 on weekends-a pain in the butt).

In all that I have done to get healthy, the one thing I was not able to stick with was giving up the caffeine. I did at first and went a whole 6 weeks without coffee. I guess I should take the time now to publicly apologize to anyone whose head I may have inadvertently bit off during that time. Even after the initial freight train headache laden withdrawal time was up, I still could not manage the addiction and I am enjoying a turboshot-ified cup of liquid bliss right now. I know that coffee is not good for hydration and I should be drinking water, water, water but I NEED coffee.

Sherri, I can manage the 60 miles, the sleeping in a tent, and even showering in a truck. I am looking forward to the 3 days of bonding. But there must be coffee and can it please be Dunkin Donuts?

Gym's open...gotta go.