Talk About Being Worried

The Hills
Last night it was all I could do to get home from my after work meeting and get on my PJ's and lay on my couch in a soon-to-be Tylenol PM induced coma. I have just been so tired lately. Why the Tylenol PM you ask? Ahhh, self medicating is a wonderful thing, I mean, er, I had a headache.

At any rate, I started to queue up my FauxVo (ha! all these months you thought I had TiVo but I really have the Comcast DVR and I have, just at this moment, coined the phrase FauxVo!) ((Depression DOES spark creativity!)) Anyway, I was queing it up to watch So You Think You Can Dance, to further self medicate, but I just couldn't stand all the movement happening on the screen due to the actual eye headache I had going on and decided to watch The Hills.

The Hills is my new favorite show. I know nothing about it other than I was intrigued by the teasers while watching Run's House. (I know, I know). [Upon further research I have just discovered that this is a spin-off from Laguna Beach.] The Hills is about Lauren who moves to LA from the OC to pursue her dream of becoming a fashion designer...or something. At the very least to go to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. She moves in with her friend Heidi, who is also attending FIDM (and who is also highly irritating and very shallow).

What I like about this show is it is so well acted that it is hard to tell if these people are acting or not! Is it reality? Is it scripted? Who knows. Lauren is also awesome! You can really tell that she has her shit together, that she wants to do the right thing and definitly knows when someone else is doing the wrong thing or has the wrong priorities and is constantly evaluating (not judging) her friends who only seem to want to hang out and party. Lauren is funny, she's real, she's smart and she definitely knows what she wants to do with her life and is on the right path.

The Hills airs Wednesdays at 10pm on MTV and is incessantly rerun all week long.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Remember last year when I wrote about the five best shows you aren't watching?. Well, thank you Baby Jesus, F/X has brought back It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia! I just loved this show so much that I wanted to marry it. Each episode was like a great boyfriend. Original, ridiculous, smart, cute and amazingly funny and I was laughing out loud at so many things. If I ever drank milk, it woulda been shooting out of my nose each show.

One thing interesting about this new go around is Danny DeVito seems to be in on it now. I wonder how that is going to work out since I really felt the chemistry between the four main characters was pretty awesome and it seems that, to have Danny DeVito in the show would almost detract from the awesomeness that is already there. That we would totally expect the show to be funny just because Danny DeVito is a well known funny man. Or maybe it will end up sucking to most because he IS a well known funny man with a specific kind of humor that people will be looking for his comedy. Kinda like the Hippies on The Amazing Race, they acted weird because it was expected of them TO act weird and maybe not necessarily, how they would've really acted. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Heh.

Anyways...

I'm sure the netsearch will suggest that DeVito rescued IASiP because it was everything most half hour sitcomes are not; funny. And this should be a good thing. I hope he doesn't fuck it up.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia airs Thursdays at 10pm on F/X.

Oh yeah, my main point before I started in on a TV show review was, during the latest episode of The Hills MTV had our dearly beloved Wolfmother on the 10 Spot rotation! Every commercial break they played videos, songs, and made up graphics. Weird!

Total Ridonkulousness

hitler cat, originally uploaded by hezcatt.

Klicken Sie hier

Weekend: The Ark, Lesbians and Pride

Where do I even start?

On Friday I met Misty, Ted and JoJo at Taqueria Castiliahblah at Market and 16th for some pre-show nachos and then on to Lucky 13 for primer drinking before we headed off to Cafe du Nord to see Swedish Metal Meisters: The Ark. To say that they were awesome is not enough. They were a ball of fabulous metalness with costume changes and cute boys. If it weren't for the annoying amatuer audience members, this might've been a perfect show.

We missed the first band but caught Mon Cousin Belge. I don't know how I feel about them. I appreciated the singers' voice (sounding a lot like Craig Wedren of Shudder To Think but in French (?)) but that is about all I remember of their music...the singers' falsetto. Nonetheless, I wanted to get some photos so I made my way to the front. Soon JoJo, Misty and Ted were there and we hung around until The Ark started.

I had never heard The Ark before, but when Misty told me a few weeks ago that I was going she assured me that I would love them. And I did! They were a mix of The Darkness, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and um, awesome music! I couldn't stop taking photos as Ola, the singer, was such a showman! There were about 50 annoying 12 year olds in the front and JoJo even got into a fight with one! Honestly, this girl was just pushing her way in front of everyone and we were behind the people who were at the stage, therefore, she was trying to push us out of the way. Yeah, that isn't gonna happen. JoJo was all, you ain't pushin me bitch! Then she tried to butt her way in front of me and I wasn't having any of that either. Then she told us to chill and not be so uptight. WhatEVER! She had cute hair tho. So lots of vodka tonics, rock and glitter later...it was almost 1am and I had to skeedaddle!

Saturday
Up I was at 7am to get ready for The Big Gay 5k. It was very difficult and a few snoozes later I was ready to go. Pevil and Becky picked me up and we drove to Golden Gate for the 27th annual Pride Run. I haven't done any type of exercising since my triathlon so it was nice to be up early and running around, even tho I was hungover! We had a great run and came in at about 37 minutes, which is slightly faster than my usual speed. Sweet! After the run there was a picnic in the polo fields and I ate a hamburger and had a diet coke...at 9:30am. Everyone should eat burgers at 9:30am!

When I got home I called Misty as we had tentatively planned to do some pre-pride shopping. I was super tired but had a full day planned. Misty said: Ted and I will meet you at NBF's, then we'll go shopping, then we'll come back to your house, then we'll meet JoJo, then we'll go to dinner and then we'll go to The Castro. I was all, is there a nap in there anywhere for me? No.

I walked over to NBF's and picked up some mimosa ingredients. When I got there everyone had the same idea as the fridge was full of champagne and OJ. Quiches were made, cupcakes were brought, and mimosas were drunk. Misty and I then headed off to the t-shirt store to have our very special T's made for the night. While they were being made we popped into La Rondella for an afternoon Pacifico, then we hit BART and headed downtown to do H&M, Macy's, Forever 21 and Claire's. Somewhere in there I hit a wall. Misty suggested I get a diet coke and I asked, is it a nap in a can? So tie-tie.

We headed back to JoJo's to drop our stuff off and to get ready for the evening. We were very tired and were so slow and grumpy getting ready. We walked to a Chinese restaurant and all zoned out over lemon chicken, beef and broccoli and pot stickers. Heh. We then headed to the Castro and Misty was a little chilly so we hit the fashion mecca of Walgreens to look for something. Suited up, we made our way into the throng of things. I was just so blah. Very tired and very sore from running all over the place all day. I decided I would have one cocktail and then call it a night. Um, 5 cocktails later I was dancing at Harvey and unsuccessfully avoiding a lesbian who wanted to make out with me.

Yes we closed the street.

I walked home and fell into bed where I had a dream that I was on a group trip as part of a snowboarding team...except we didn't actually use snowboards! I was a pro at getting down the mountain just using my body. Hahaha. After the competition, my team got on our bus and it went out of control on the mountain road! Misty was on the bus too and was screaming, no!no!no! and I woke up to Ed outside my window meowing for attention.

Friday pics here
Saturday lesbo brunch pics here
Saturday in the castro pics here

Wednesday Night Pool Party

My Woodside friends, Laura and Jason, invited me up to their compound for an afterwork pool party and BBQ. I couldn't get there fast enough as it was about 900 degrees in the 'lo (Menlo Park) and not having a/c in my car makes it difficult to get around and stay comfortable when its 115 degrees inside your auto.

Who's a good dog?

When I arrived a neighbor doggy greated me at my car and escorted me down to the pool where I immediately got in my suit, grabbed a beer and jumped in the pool. Dan the Jew showed up and we all hung in the pool til about 8pm and then started dinner.

Jason and Laura cooked up some fabulous salmon, green beens and the most amazing couscous I've ever had. Oh? Did I mention the wine? Oh my god. Once again. Hi? Totally wasted.

After dinner, cookies were made and we busted out Scrabble and I can't even remember who won (obvs it wasn't me ;) And then because it was so hot and stuffy in the house we all ran out and jumped in the pool. Sans clothing. What the hell? I don't think I've ever skinny dipped in my life and now I've done it twice in the last two weeks.

Drove home. Screamed Metal at the top of my lungs. Fell into bed. Woke up. Hated life for 8 hours. Came home. Laying on couch watching So You Think You Can Dance.

Pictures here.

Greg Dulli Makes Me Want To Be His Girlfriend

The Twilight Singers show was last night. I don't know what it is about him but I am so in love with Greg Dulli. I think I've mentioned this before, how I can fall in love with a songwriter because they are so fucking brilliant. It's how the words are all interwoven. How they fit with each other. It also has something to do with the timber and cadence of his voice (see Dave Sardy). I think, on the other hand, that it makes me wish I had someone who wrote songs like that for me. Misty mentioned that he looked like a townie from Chicago, and I might admit here that I also love townie-looking-men. Heh.

I missed the first band, Jeff Klein -- who was totally cute with his goth-boy hair and turquoise guitar but was later dimished in my eyes when I saw his ho GF. I saw most of the second band, After Hours. At first, even though I liked the big guitar sound, I thought they were a little pretentious what with the cop-sunglass-wearing-bassist, the moustachioed viloinist, the dangerously-close-to-dreads-guitarist, the frickin' death-metal-woodwind-instrument player and the goddamned candleabra on the amp...but then I found out they were from Italy and it kinda excused all the eye rolling options because, Europeans? Sometimes they just don't know any better.

The Twilight Singers completely rocked for me, oddly enough since I don't own any of their records, I'm not sure why that is, and therefore am not extremely familiar with any of their songs. Though, when Bagel Ted plays them on Bagel Radio, I instantly know who it is. The Great American had on their calendar that Mark Lanegan was on the bill and I almost thought that him showing up wouldn't happen since I couldn't imagine he might tour with or come to SF for the opportunity to play with TS and then not come out til the encore. But that is what happened. Of course Lanegan rocks, even if he is just standing there. But when he sings? Awesome Mark Lanegan = The Voice. And thank you for growing your hair back.

I bought a shirt.

The Dream
This morning I woke up way before my alarm but not before the climax of my dream. I dreamt that I was pregnant but that a test came back positive for a possible birth defect. I was there with my boyfriend/husband who I didn't recognize from real life. I hardly saw his face. Though he had blond-ish short hair, was wearing a red-ish t-shirt with a long sleeved shirt underneath, faded black jeans and a chain wallet. I was laying back in a dentist like chair and the nurse was explaining that they needed to redo the test to see if they got the same results and then I would find out if my baby was ok or not. This test required a giant needle being stuck into my stomach so they could draw blood from the fetus. I was freaking out, to say the least, but not more than my boyfriend/husband who was off the wall. There was a TV in this doctors office and he was totally fixated on this music video. It was a Death Metal band. More like Sepultura than Opeth or maybe Slayer since I woke up think singing: "Reign in blood, bow to the kingdom of the damned." (Those aren't actually the lyrics, by the way). The music in the video and the screaming of the singer was perfectly matching what was going on inside my head and was freaking me out. I turned toward my boyfriend/husband and said: "If you don't turn that off now, I am going to kick your ass!" Then he moved next to me and held my hand and I waited for the needle to go in.

Then I woke up. And I, um, felt kinda weird. There were so many feeling going on in that dream, mostly fear of the unknown and knowing that I would have to make some huge decisions. Maybe sadness. Maybe dread. But also love.

FYI -- To dream that you are pregnant, symbolizes an aspect of yourself or some aspect of your personal life that is growing and developing. You may not be ready to talk about it or act on it. This may also represent the birth of a new idea, direction, project or goal

Weekend of Awesomeness 2006

Before I get into it, I need to get this out of the way...



Ok, now that THAT is done...on with the recap!

Friday
I left work early to head to the Presidio Sports Basement to pick up my bike that spent longer time in Hawaii than I did. Time window for bike pick up? 4pm-6pm. Time bike showed up? 7:fucking:15pm.

I threw it in my car and raced to Lyne's house for a dinner party she was throwing for her friend Jo who was in town. I woulda loved to have made it home, dropped off my $2,000 bike and changed out of my work uniform before the evening started, but alas, I did not have time. As it were, I arrived at Lyne's with work all over me and a very expensive bike in the back of my completely break-in-able hatchback.

Dinner was amazing and Willo, Jim, Bill and Scott were treated to the culinary expertise of Jo and Lyne. We had fabulous roasted tomatoes on bread with cheese, salad and mussels and lots and lots of wine. We were pretty much all wasted by 8:30pm. All night Willo and I just kept saying to each other: :oh my god I am SO wasted!!" It was a great night and I am totally stoked that I made the A-List for Lyne's dinner party. I can't even tell you what time I left, but I basically put my car in neutral and rolled from Noe down into my neighborhood, parked and made it in to bed. The next morning I woke up and was all, hmmm...did I bring my bike in!?!? I did have vague memories of dragging a giant bike box across the sidewalk but that does not mean it actually happened. At about 8am I tentatively walked out into the living room to see if it was there. AND IT WAS! Woooo! Success!

Saturday
I was pretty hurtin' on Saturday morning but had to be up around 9am because I had an encaustics painting class at Fort Funston and because I was heading over to my neighbor Tom's house to rummage through his plywood scraps for some wood panels to paint on. I have no idea how I did it put I pulled my shit together and actually made it to Funston by 10:30am. I had never been in the complex before and it was really cool! I even got to see some chumps on some weird Sequeway powered tour. Hiho Silver was there having a sample sale and I so desperately wanted some new silver rings and they were so kick ass, but I just couldn't do it. I have so many rings that I never wear. My class was 11am-5pm and I held it together til about 4pm where I was finally done. Clap-Clap: I'm out. I made some cute pieces though one is not nearly finished. I wish I had more days available to me in the studio with all those supplies. The great thign about encaustics tho, is that a painting can be changed or reworked even 100 years after it's done. Here is a photo of my first painting but because encaustics is so versatile it actually ended up being completely different. Amazing.

After class I ran an errand and got home about 5pm. June was immediately on the horn with me trying to convince me to go to the Team in Training season closing Victory Party. I just wanted a nap to prepare myself for Willo's Party All Night party, but had no time! I got myself ready and headed over to Fucking North Beach to the Dragon Lounge to party with people I made absolutely no connection with. Heh. I scored a SWEET parking spot right outside, waited for June and her husband Chris to show up and ventured inside. I did get to spend time with the loverly Elizabeth who is my NBF (new best friend). I cannot wait to hang out with her! I had one vodka tonic and was about half way through my piece of pizza awesomeness when Chris runs up to me and says: Your car is next in line to be towed! I thought he was kidding but he said he wasn't. I threw my pizza in his lap, grabbed my jacket and bag and ran out the front door. Sure enough, I was ticketed and tagged to be towed and the tow truck was 5 cars away! What the hell! I mean, I was in a commerical zone but it was after 6pm! I hopped in my car and drove up the street a little to an actual metered spot and a cop was standing there and he shook his head. I rolled down my window and asked if I could park there and he said no because they were towing the whole street. Weird! I can only assume, since there were no signs indicating that parking was prohibited, that it was for the North Beach neighborhood festival. I pulled into a parking lot but when I found out the cost was $15, and I knew I wasn't going to be there for more than an hour, I made an executive decision to just leave. I felt bad that I just ran out and didn't get to say goodbye to...um...hmmm...Elizabeth. But I called June and left her a message. Regret? I wish I got to finish that yummy pizza!

I got to Willo's just before 9pm and was so happy to be there. We had a raucous evening of drinking (surprise), dancing (again, surprise) and screaming 80's metal at the top of our lungs (again?). My voice was so hoarse by the end of the night that I could barely scream my Triumph after party CD on the way home in my car. I got home close to 4am. Huzzah! Crashed in bed and woke up at 11:30am just in time to pull myself together for brunch with Carlo at Luna. Yum!

Right now? I'm such a mess. I am really looking forward to just relaxing on my couch and maybe catching up on this weeks' So You Think You Can Dance? episode. And, maybe, finally get to eat some pizza!

Friday pics
Saturday Pics

Nokia 9300

I am totally dying for this phone. But first, I want to actually see it live and in person and no Cingular store has it available for me to look at! Wahh!

I am also looking at the Treo. Honestly, I really don't need either of these "phones" because all I really want to do is just make phone calls and occassionally check my email. Except, it's not like I need to check my email.

What the hell am I doing? I think I need to revisit The Compact.

In other news, I started freaking out yesterday because my January Howard Stern shows were running out. Mario gave me a disc of the month about 5 months ago and I listened diligently for weeks (it takes about 2-3 days for me to get through one days' show) and then I got kinda burnt out and I went for months without listening. Now I am back on it again and am listening to my last show of the month and horrors of horrors Danny "I'm going to rock your foundations" Bonaduce is sitting in on the show in the first week of February and crap! I'm out!

So I spent all of yesterday researching Sirius Radio again. I can't do it tho, not until they have a fully portable satellite tuner. You may remember from my research about 5 months ago that the S50 is advertising itself as portable, and it is, but it does not receive a live satellite feed. Its main feature is that it has about 1GB of space to store recorded songs or talk shows but it has to be docked in your car or at home to actually receive a signal and record those things. That blows. Right now that might be fine for me since I travel to the South Bay for work and would, technically, have it docked in my car to listen to Howard. But what if that changes (like in the near future ;) how can I listen to Howard on the go!?! Plus it's, like, a bazillion dollars. It is really pretty tho.

Then I emailed Mario and was all, hey, can you get me more Howard? And he was all, wow! You totally blew right thru that last disc!?! And then I remembered that he gave me February-April on a DVD for my birthday. THANK GOD. And yay for MARIO! The Bonaduce train wreck starts next week!

In other related news, while I was downloading the new Howard shows to my computer to dump into iTunes my laptop gave me the heart stopping message that I was dangerously low in my GB space. What the hell!?! I have never used up a hard drive so fast (a year) with so little stuff in, like, ever! I mean, alls I gots on there is music, photos and little vids. There is NO WAY I have 40GB's or more of music on the thing...I mean, my iPod is only a 30 gigger and that is not even full. Other than that it's just photos...it's not like I am storing feature films or CAD designs on it. Heh.

So, I panicked because everytime I downloaded an email I got a message that my antivirus didn't have enough space to take care of business if it needed to. Then I ordred a 160GB external drive at Costco. Saweeet!

Return of the Rock

Not much rocking has been going on with this girl lately what with all that training. So, I decided last minute to go to the Eagles of Death Metal show at Slim's last night and started searching around for a ticket on craigslist. To my surprise the ad I answered turned out to be this girl I know via LA Scott and Lisa, -- Kerri -- who lives in Sacramento and she had an extra ticket! We met up and the rock ensued. Shortly, Darren and his friend Bill showed up and we partied like it was a Wednesday night.

I missed most of the first band, The Giraffes, but saw enough to make me think that I would really like them. I love that dirty, grungy, metal-y guitar-y kinda band sound. Plus the singer was really cute. Though, I think the best part was afterwards, he was walking through the crowd and right past me and he was much taller than he looked on stage. Usually that is never the case. They always look tall and then when you see them they are like 5'4". It surprised me so much that I grabbed his arm and yelled: OMG! You're super tall!?! He looked at me and said: Stupid tall? Hahaha.

I am still trying to figure out which settings take the best rock show pictures on my camera so I spent some time messing with that. Then EofDM came on. You know, it's all about Josh Homme for me. Drool. So I was sad to see that he wasn't there. Nonetheless, they still rocked. I just love their Type O Negative bass player. He just stands there. You'll notice in some of the pics that everyone else is blurry excpet for him. Heh. Jesse was awesome strutting around on stage and, at times, looking rather Freddy Mercury-ish. I totally loved that tho and also thought that with his glasses off he resembled Brad Pitt. Weird. It was an 18+ show so there were lots of kids there. I love that I was standing next to teenager and am double his age and we were both rocking out.

At one point some asshole shoved his way through the crowd and elbowed me and I shoved him back and he shoved me back and I told him off and there was Darren patting my shoulder telling me to settle down. Hahaha. I hate idiot concert goers. Don't be an ass.

For the encore they played some Ramones, BTO (or maybe Grand Funk?) and Rolling Stones. Bought a shirt. Then Darren and Bill walked me to my car. Love that.

Pics that all look the same here.

Maui: Day Two, Race Day and (sadness) Last Day

I started to post this yesterday but it became so boring and pedestrian that it induced sleep...trying again! Thank you all for waiting.

What happened on day two?

They say, and studies have actually been done, that your race day is not affected by how much or how little you sleep the night before, but rather, the night before the night before. So, Friday night I was in bed by 10pm and up by 6am. June, who was staying at a hotel down the street with her husband, came to meet me at 7:45am and we spent $22.95 on a buffet breakfast that was just ok. Plus tax and coffee that was $56!?!?! For eggs and pineapple. Silly.

At 9am we had to go register for the race, get our number, swim cap and our swag. My number was 158 and my color coded by age swim cap was lime green. (June's too, thank god. I had gotten an email last week that said my age wave, 35-39, was leaving after June's, 30-34. Turns out that wasn't the case.) After checking in we all met at 10am for a quick 15 minute swim, bike and run. Hi. Hard. We swam about a half mile out and back to a bouy and back and I thought was gonna die. NOT a good sign the day before you have to swim .9 of a mile. The water was clear-ish and I could see straight to the bottom. Funny thing tho, when there actually was something to see besides sand I totally freaked out. Even if it was just some coral or rock formation I was like AHHHHHHH don't look! Don't look! I think mostly because I didn't want to see anything that I didn't want to see. Even the tiny little yellow and black fish waaaay down at the bottom by the coral got me all uptight.

After we got out of the water we rinsed off and then headed out for a 15 minute run down part of the course. Hi. Hard. It's amazing how much the heat really affects you when you aren't used to it. After the run we ran up to our rooms and grabbed our bikes and headed out for, you guessed it, a 15 minute or so bike ride. Yay for rolling hills! These were real rolling hills and not those "rolling hills" up at stupid Point Reyes. It was just awesome.

After our work out, I totally felt like eating a giant bowl of something and taking a nap. So Chris picked up June and I and we went to a nice little place for lunch and I had some fish, rice and bok choy. Then we made a pit stop at a store so I could load up on water and Gatorade. I surmised that I wasn't drinking enough water as we only got one 16oz free bottle a day with our room and I usually drink at least 96oz just at work. Plus, the sport drink of choice or this race was Heed and that shit is just nasty. So my plan was to fill my Camelback with Gatorade and just grab water from the aid stations. After shopping at the ABC convenient store (and htat includes some yummy macadamia nut, chocolate chip cookies) June and Chris dropped me at my hotel and she went off to pack her stuff up to stay the night in my room and also to get ready to leave since she was taking off right after the race.

When I got back to the hotel I had a message from my mom and dad and called them both. It was so nice to know that they were thinking about me and were so excited for me. Then I went out for a walk around the hotel since I hadn't really checked it out yet. I walked around the grounds a little bit and then down to the beach. Naturally I was acosted by some rednecks who were lounging ina cabana thingy (...oh cabana boy!) As I was walking by one of then yelled, "Damn girl! Get over here. Let me see those tattoos!" Sigh. Having tattoos gives strangers, mostly men, the permission to harrass you and, in some cases, touch you. I can't tell you how many times strange men touched my arms this weekend. Why would you touch a stranger? Anyways, I talked to the SIX of them and I think that one of them was secretly taking photos of me too. Mahalo. Ugh. I finally broke away and kept on walking and waded into the water a bit. Then I hung with the Koi who live in a lagoon in the hotel courtyard and watching them swim around, oddly, put me at ease. (Video coming shortly)

At 4pm we had a mandatory meeting regarding the race. Several other Team in Training teams were there. Florida, Texas, LA and Silicon Valley in addition to Redwood/Wine Country, East Bay and our own SF/Marin team. Basically the "race organizers" (and I use that term loosely) went over the rules and the route. It was comical to say the least. These are not professional race organizers but rather some guys who one day said: "hey! let's have a triathlon!" The maximum capacity is about 500 racers and TnT makes up more than half of those entrants.

That night we had a pasta party on one of the lawns at the hotel. I went up to change my clothes and then promptly lost my room key...in my room. What the hell? I met up with June and Chris and we went to dinner. On the path on the way in to the dinning area, all of of our TnT mentors, coaches, managers etc (who came to Hawaii) were there to cheer us in to dinner complete with noisemakers and cowbells. For some reason this really embarrassed me and made me shy. I got all goof and giggly and did that thing where I cover my mouth and laugh and look everywhere but at the people. We sat with these two awesome women Elizabeth and Jo, some East Bay people and then Spencer rolled in and took the last seat next to me. We had some speeches from TnT people and an awesome honoree, Matt. It was such an amazing setting sitting in the warm air and the sunset behind us and being there all together to make a difference. Dinner broke early and June and I were in bed by 8:30 since we had to be up at 4am. I tried to do some blogging but the wifi was wonky. So I took a Tylenol PM and was out by 9pm. Suddenly I woke up and was wide awake and ready to go and was thinking that it was time to get up until I looked at my watch and it was only 11:30pm! Woo! Four and a half hours to sleep! Back to sleep again and up one more time at 2:30am. In between I had really weird dreams about guns and dead birds.

Race Day
We got up at 4am. The wake up call scared the shit out of me. I hate waking up with a super duper fast pounding heart. The transition area was opening at 5am and we were advised to get there early to stake out our area and get our stuff set up. June and I ran around trying to get ready and eat something...anything. We headed out and down to transition. The first thing we did was set up our space. I put down a towel and laid out my bike shoes, socks, gloves, helmet, sunglasses, an extra bottle of water, electrolyte tabs, run shoes, hat and snacks...oh and my bike. Then we went off to get body marked with our race number. I was kinda curious about this body marking thing since they put your number on your upper arm. And you know, I have all those giant tattoos so I was wondering where they were going to put it. I get up there and the girl is like, ok...oh...oh! And then after a quick consultation with the volunteer who body marked the only other upper armed tattoo sleeve guy, she wrote my number on my forearms and on my left calf. Then we headed over to get our timing chip which velcros around your left ankle. Then we got to stand around and pee excessively from hydrating and, um, nerves.

Finally at 6:50 we headed down to the beach to start the race. We all gathered on the beach and were asked to place our right hand on the left shoulder of someone near you. A Hawaiian prayer was said/sang and then we sang the National Anthem. It was really powerful. I got kinda teary eyed.

Then I looked at the swim course and really started crying. Just kidding. It was shaped like a hanger (high-tech illustrations coming through!). We swim straight out to a bouy, then to the right and out, we round the bouy and took a left and then straight to the next bouy then a let turn and back into shore. The men's waves went in every three minutes. I was getting more and more nervous. June and I moved up to the shore line and suddenly we were in the front row of our wave holding hands. I looked at her and was like, um...I don't want to be in the front! But then the conch shell went off and we were running into the ocean and then diving in and then I was drowning. Hahaha, not really.

It just took me a long time to get my rhythm and because we all had on green caps I couldn't really find June and at that moment that was what I needed. I was having a hard time breathing and I started to get panicky when I put my face in the water. I got to the first bouy and before I knew it my breath evened out and as I headed towards the second I was doing fine. Then I got to the second bouy and saw where the third one was and was like, ohhhh shit. It was SO FAR OUT! I saw a sea turtle though. He was just hanging out at the bottom and looking up at us. It was kinda creepy. He looked all prehistoric and shit. Swim, swim, swim. On the way in to the shore we were heading right into the sun rising over the mountains and it was illuminating the water and lighting up the ocean floor. That was cool. Soon I could touch the sand with my hands and I stood up and ran out of the water. Coach Rand and Lydia were there cheering me in and urging me to get moving since the transition time started once I stepped on the timing mat coming out of the water. I swiped my arm at Rand as if to say, I'm getting to it! And he yelled: Don't brush me off! Get moving!!! I ran across the beach (after swimming almost a mile) and up some stairs and then I rinsed off the salt water in some jerry rigged pvc pipe
showers right outside the transition area.

When I got to my space I decided to just take my time, had some water, popped some gum in my mouth to get the salt water taste out and got my bike gear on. I had a hard time getting my pony tail through my helmet and I think I heard a specator yell: get that hair in there! Then I was heading out on the bike course and couldn't wait to just settle in to it. On the bike I can relax, eat, drink, and go fast! During the prep meeting they warned of us Diamond Hill, or sometimes called Heartbreak Hill, which is about a half mile long. I was a little worried about this. Not because I couldn't get up it but because hills suck. And at the meeting the bike guy was like, if you have to walk up it not worries. Just do it. As we headed into a turn and into an incline I passed a guy and was like, is this Diamond Hill? He said yes and I was all SWEET! Because the incline was less than 6%. That's practically flat. Then I passed him. The bike ride was nice. A little irritating since it was a 6 mile-something out and back and out and back again. It was HOT in places but so beautiful. June was a mere six minutes behind me so I got to see her lots of times on the turn arounds (we had three). Diamond Hill was a little harder the second time as I could tell my energy was kinda low. I pounded some Shot Blocks and pretzels. I finally got in and headed into transition to get ready for my run.

I was so not looking forward to the run. But I put on my hat, glasses and shoes and grabbed a bottle of water and dropped an electrolyte tab in and put a handful in my back pocket. Out I went and I forgot my race number. Luckily a volunteer caught me before I crossed the timing mat and I ran back to get my race belt. Back out again and ugh. So hot. Within minutes I could tell I was going to have blister issues on my little toes and my left instep. I was wondering when June might catch up since she is a faster runner than me. At about mile 1 she caught up with me and then was off. I could see her, tho. She was about 30 seconds ahead of me the whole time. At the rest stops we got handed sponges that were soaking in giant buckets of ice and water. We could grab as many as we wanted and I had one in my tank top strap taht I could just press on and water would go down my shirt eeeee!, in the back of my shirt and one in my hand to wipe my face to make it cool. At the second aid station I took my sunglasses off and put them on top of my hat but then grabbed some ice and put it under my hat and went off running again. About two seconds later I was all, where are my glasses...ugh. Lost 'em. But I figured I could ask around on the way back.

At mile 4 I hit the lava field. I had no idea what to expect and just assumed I was in it since giant black rocks were on either side of the road. And man was it hot. It had been mostly overcast on the run so far, but of course, once we hit wide open lava-ness the sun was blazing. I hit the turn around and started back and could see that I was getting closer and closer to June. When I got to the aid station I restocked my sponges, water, electrolytes in bottle and had them dump water all over me. (obviously forgetting that those electrolyte tabs are like alkaseltzer and they were explodingall over my back pocket...heh). When I got to the kid who was working the bucket where I lost my glasses, I asked: have you seen any blue frame glasses? He says no. I pick up more sponges, go to head out and just on a whim ask a guy at the end of the table and he is all, Julio! (or whatever) Get the glasses. And of course it's the kid who said no who hands me my glasses that were right next to him on the table. Little shit. I catch up with June and we make a pact to run the flats and walk the hills. Pretty soon man we're approaching the golf cart path which will lead us back to the hotel and finish line. Then we can see it! I say: come on June! Let's pick it up! We start to sprint to the finish. I get handed water and then gag. Hahaha. Spencer was there to welcome me in and was all, are you ok!?!? I was convinced my photo finish was of me gagging on the sidelines. Nice.

June and I quickly headed to the pool and ripped off our singlets and shoes and jumped in and just floated. It felt so nice. Then we hit the jacuzzi for a second. Then up to the hotel room so she could grab her stuff to head out. She had to catch a fligth to Cleveland in 4 hours for a conference. I took a shower and headed back down to eat. Outback Steakhouse had food for us and I had a yummy plate of cesar salad and steak and sat in the shade and watched the remaining runners come in. Man I needed to lay down tho! I headed to my room and tried to sleep but had the worst headache known to man. At 3pm I needed to be in the ballroom to disassemble my bike for shipping so I headed down there. Packed that bitch up. Then headed to the pool where I floated around some more. Then got a massage! Best thing ever.

I showed up late to our victory dinner and managed to cram some veggies, rice and fish in my face before downing two glasses of wine and whooping it up on the dance floor with Jo and Elizabeth. I came dangerously close to reenacting the Beyonce/Jay-Z grad party debacle but luckily, for me and everyone else involved, it was a remix and wasn't the same beats. Then I think it was me who had the grand idea to go skinny dipping in the ocean. Off we went with towels in hand and swam and got tossed around by the surf for an hour. We wrapped ourselves up and walked through the party to get to the hot tub where we lounged naked and wished we had some champagne. Some of the team ended up in the pool and were making a ruckus and got kicked out. The pool guys seemed to stay away from us. We think it was the nakedness because they would walk right by us and not even look in our direction. Heh. We took the hint and hopped out and walked through the hotel in our fancy shoes and towels. A lucky gentleman got in the elevator with us but spent most of the time looking at the ceiling. Bed.

Last Day
I got up at an obscene 5am. I had to pack up my crap though. Did that, took a shower, ran down to get coffee and came back to my room to enjoy my coffee on the balcony. I picked up my cup and it promptly spilled all over my last clean shirt. Asshole. Hahaha. This is why I wear black. Except I had on GREEN. Rinsed my shirt on the sink and blew it dry with the hairdryer. Threw out coffee. Met team downstairs for bus arrival at 7:30am. Drove to airport.

I like to sit in the front seat of the bus and because of that I got to hear Brian, from the East Bay team, chat up the driver. I learned some stuff about Maui and how the bus driver, orginally from Oahu, spent his life working in Silicon Valley and then was like, what the hell? He moved back with his wife, had a family and now drives a bus for a tour comany. He said: I love my reality.

Then I really had to think. Hmm. Do I love my reality? Could I say that and actually believe it?

Maui to Honolulu, Honolulu to SFO. Watched the most horrible movie ever made in the history of the world: Failure to Launch. Got home about 9:30pm where the kitties were waiting patiently at the door.

Unexciting pictures here.

Times
Swim 36:37
Bike 1:50:32
Run 1:21:26

Maui: Day One

This morning I woke up at 5am after going to bed at 1:30am! OMG, so hating life. I had a restless sleep as Jay-Z's "Can I Get A...?" song was on repeat in my head and everytime I turned over I was sleep singing, "Do you need a balla? So you can shop and tear the mall up?Brag, tell your friends what I bought ya." Damn that Jay-Z!

Dragged myself out of bed and did all the last minute stuff I needed to do but in a total panic as I was trying to beat the Super Shuttle clock. I was expecting them at 6:30am. At 6am Misty called me and when I heard the ring I thought it was SS and freaked out. Misty called to wish me good luck!

You know how Super Shuttle picks you up like, 5 hours before you actually need to be at the airport? Well, that is the case unless you have some total fucking idiot who makes the entire van late. I was the first to be picked up, then a quick stop near Bernal, then down to Bayview then up to the Candlestick View Apartments. We approached this guys' house and the van driver calls and the guys is all, you have to come in the gate, here's the code etc. So the driver turns around, stops in front of the gate, gets out of the van, punches in the code, drives to the guys' door where we sit for like ten minutes. The guy finally comes out with a bag and the driver hopefully says, is that it? And the guy is like, no I have one more. Back to his house he goes and we sit another ten minutes or so. ARGHH! Don't you think that if you live in a gated community that you're going to be ready to go and standing OUTSIDE your gate!?!? I am supposed to be meeting my group at 7am and it's 7:02 but this gives me the opportunity to call Megan the point person and say, "Hi this is Hez from the San Francisco team. I'm running late but I am on my way!" Heh. Show off.

Sooo sleepy. I get on the plane and promptly pass out. I get woken up 15 minutes later by some announcement. I read one column of my New Yorker article on the use of medicinal leeches then I pass out again. I get woken up an hour later by some announcement. I read another column in my leech story and promptly pass out. I get woken up by ANOTHER announcement. They give us free food on the plane! (what an anomaly) Like real, hot food and not some overpriced box lunch. I eat. I pass out. I wake up and can't tear my eyes away from the forced tear jerker: Eight Below. Groaaan. We land at Honolulu Int'l and wait for our flight to Maui. We land two seconds after we take off because it's that close. We take a charter bus to our hotel.

June is waiting for me as I get off the bus and has a flower lai for me! Yay! Then the hotel lady gives me a lai made of shells. Yay! (June and her husband, Chris, got here on Wednesday) June is my hotel roommate but her and Chris are staying at another hotel so I get the room to myself...sneaky. Though she going to stay with me the night before the race. I check in and we head down to the ballroom to put our dismantled bikes together. Oy. Nightmare. Once that is done, June takes me back to her hotel where we meet up with Chris and we lounge by the pool, eat extra crispy chicken wings and drink $8 low carb margaritas.

After some souvenir shopping we head to Da Kitchen, a locals restaurant and get giants plates of MEAT. Yum! Now I am back in my room doing some last minute on line posting for my class and typing this blog! Yay!

Thanks to Misty for calling me this morning and wishing me luck. Thanks to Lynnie-Loo for calling me when I was at the airport in Honolulu to wish me luck! And thanks to Ali who just IM'd me semi-drunk to wish me luck too! I feel so supported!

Things that bugged me today: That stupid guy that made my Super Shuttle van late. Married hetero's who call their significant other their PARTNER. Dude, only the gays get to do that. It's like they want to seem hipper than their boring, married hetero self.

Things that were awesome today: Wireless in my room. Meeting Spencer on my team, who I have never seen before, who also can't stand the Marina Contingency. Humidity...yes. Humidity. Being warm at 8pm at night OUTSIDE. Putting my bike together all by myself and not being one of those stupid girls who say "I can't do this!!!"

Pictures here.

Seperated At Birth?

I've been meaning to acknowledge this for a long time...they have the same nose.

Jay-Z and Beyonce

Jay-Z and Beyonce, originally uploaded by hezcatt.

This is as close as I will get to actually viewing any of the Beyonce & Jay-Z performance video that JoJo and I felt the need to reenact at my grad party. Oy. When will I ever learn?

Alcatraz and Mimosas

Today June picked me up at 7am and armed with a box of two dozen muffins and donuts from Dianda's we met some members from our Team in Training team to watch the beginning of Escape from Alcatraz.

We sat along the breakwater and watched people jump off a boat and into the Bay and then make their way back to shore. We couldn't actually see them jump off or actual swimmers but we could see a line of white, which was a bunch of people kicking and swimming.

We brought the muffins and donuts back to June's care because, man, those people just do not know what.is.up. How can you refuse free donuts and muffins from Dianda's!?! After that we headed over to the bike transition area and got there just as the first swimmer was running into it! I had a prime spot to look for my team members and snap some shots. When everyone was out on the run, we headed over to the finish line and had another prime spot for more teammate viewing and photo taking. Pictures here.

I came home briefly and then headed out to Misty's armed with 23 donuts and muffins from Dianda's (heh) for a brunchy, rock and roll, family day. So much food and sooo many mimosas. We watched an acoustic set from Dino from Serene Lakes and from Hijack the Disco. It was awesome to see Misty's niece and nephew mesmerized by live music. Pictures here.

Ben in my car

Ben in my car
Originally uploaded by hezcatt.

I love this photo #2

D and Az

I love this photo, D and Az
Originally uploaded by hezcatt.

I love this photo.

Five Months Ago

Five Months Ago
Originally uploaded by hezcatt.

Five months ago I wrote this letter to myself at the Team in Training orientation. Hopefully you can read it. At the event, they suggested that we do this. That we will forget all about it and when they give it back to us we'll be really surprised.

Well, it was true. I did totally forget all about it. In fact, when I pulled it out of my pre-race day packet last night at track, I couldn't even remotely remember what I had written. I didn't read this letter until I was at work this morning and I was reading along fine and kinda thinking things like, oh the swimming...yeah I was worried about that. And running an hour...hahaha I just ran Bay to Breakers and signed up for the SF half marathon in July and am considering the NY Marathon. I even laughed at the first p.s. about stupid Chris Gage and how being HOT turned out to be NOT because he was all irritating. And then I got to the final p.s.s. and I read it and I burst into tears.

Yes, Hez, you DID get Lasik. And it's awesome and you're life has pretty much changed since then ,too, and even though you're feeling pretty crappy right now with that stuff that is going on, distant hopes come true. I love you, Hez!