10.22.2008

It's the Principle of the Matter!

Well, the day has finally come. The Purple People Eater is no long mine (THANK GOODNESS).

It wasn't a great car, but it certainly served it's purpose. It got me from A to B with minimal resistance. Except this summer. But that's a whole other can of worms. We took her over to Vehicles for Change this morning, and hopefully she will be accepted into the program. Then she can go to some poor fool who's obsessed with the Ravens, and make their day.

Of course, this transition was not without one, final problem. Since Jordan bought his pimp new car last week (an '08 TL, not an '09), and since we kept his Contour and Joey is living with us (STILL) that means 4 cars at the house. So we parked the PPE in the street in front of our house, left the new car and the contour in the garage, and Joey's car in the driveway as usual. No big deal. Saturday Jordan got up early and washed the PPE and we cleaned out the last of the crap, and then used the gas station vacuum to make her SOMEWHAT presentable (there's only so much you can do to a '97 PURPLE Neon, ya know?). Took her over to Carmax for shits and giggles ($250, no thanks). Brought her home and put her in the street again. Jordan washed his car on sunday or monday, so he was out there and didn't notice anything unusual.

So imagine my surprise when today, as we're driving to VFC he calls me (he was in his car since obviously we needed 2 cars to make the donation and get back to work) and says "Who hit your car??" Um, I have no idea what you're talking about. "There's a huge dent in the side of your car!" Um, I still don't have a clue.

Normally, I'm a pretty dang observant person. Except it seems, with the cars I drive. I NEVER notice a new ding, but Jordan can spot one 500 yards away. This morning I was all sleepy, so I can explain missing it that time. And I think when I was walking to the car in the work parking lot I was fumbling with my keys. But really, there's no excuse. The dent is HUGE! Like, replace the whole damn door, HUGE. (I'll add photos tonight, work has blocked uploads to photobucket.) I have no excuse for missing it.
Photobucket

It HAS to have been the neighbors across the street from us (who, are the weirdest people ever, btw). Jordan has apparently seen the wife backing out of the driveway, and she's the worst driver ever. Apparently she backs straight out of the driveway until she hits the curb on our side of the road, and then she turns. Totally. Unnecessary. And the dent isn't a sideswipe kinda dent. It's a "backing up, backing up, backing up, BAM" kinda dent. Now all things considered, we wouldn't care about the dent. It's an 11 year old POS car, and accidents happen.

BUT THEY DIDN'T TELL US!! How on earth do you back into your neighbors car and leave a huge ass dent, and NOT SAY SOMETHING?!?! I mean leave a note for cripes sake!

So, Jordan is printing out pictures and going to talk to them tonight. I mean we donated it and it's gone (as long as it gets accepted into the program, which it should), but still. It's the principle of the matter dangit! If we really wanted to we could've turned around and not donated it yet, confronted them, and possibly gotten money from their insurance, not to mention the old "hit and run" aspect of it all.

I mean seriously. What is wrong with people??

Jordan's parents decided to come visit this weekend. His dad wanted to help with some house stuff, but Jordan pointed out that the stuff he needs help with is a long weekend kinda thing, not a 1 day fix kinda thing. But, they're gonna come down anyway. So tonight and tomorrow will be spent tidying up the house, which I just LOVE to do. I don't have to cuz I cleaned last weekend, but I still feel like I should. His mom has even said to me "Please don't EVER clean just because we're coming to visit." Her mom and MIL are the kind of women who subconsciously bust out the old white glove to test the cleanliness of the house. His mom spent the whole WEEK cleaning their house the last time they visited, and she still didn't think it was clean enough, she was just tired of cleaning, lol. I think it's just a woman thing, to want a clean house to present to people.

I think that's all for today. :)
Have a good one!

~Col

10.21.2008

Truthful Tuesday #4

Morning bloggers!! I'm kinda combining TT and MM into one post today. :)

  • Truthfully, I hate being cold. Thus, this whole temp in the 30's overnight nonsense is not sitting well with me. Thank god for monkey slippers! (Which btw, both my mom and my sister also have!)
  • Truthfully, I'm conflicted over the election. I can't wait for it to be over, but at the same time, I'm scared of the direction our country will take after it's over (and that's true for when EITHER candidate takes office).
  • Truthfully, my heart aches for my friend and the little boy I wrote about yesterday. I really hope the new actions my friends are taking will make a difference.
  • Truthfully, my mojo needs to get back here ASAP. I'm feeling way behind on CT schtuff. I might have to give in and drop a team. BLEGH!
  • Truthfully, I'm tired of empty promises. Don't tell me something is mine, and then take it away, like "oops, sorry, just kidding". It's just mean.
  • Truthfully, I might actually be on the ball for Christmas presents this year. AND I might even get our cards ordered this week (but that relies on the mojo resurfacing). Shutterfly has a deal going, so I'm hoping to get SOMETHING ordered to take advantage of it, lol.
  • Truthfully, as mundane as my job seems sometimes, I flippin love it. And in these trying times, I'm so very thankful to have such good job security.
  • Truthfully, I want to go back to bed. I was so comfortable this morning, it was awesome. Damn alarm ruined everything. :p
Today I will leave you with a silly "From Our Blog To Yours" courtesy of SSD :)



Your Ice Cream Personality:



You like to think of yourself as a fairly modest person. And it's true that you don't talk yourself up... but you're also pretty happy with who you are.



You are incredibly cautious. You rather miss out on something than make a mistake. No one would ever call you wild... but they would call you responsible.



You are a somewhat open minded person, but deep down you're fairly conservative. You don't like trying new things very much. And if you do find something new you like, you stick with it.



You are a natural multitasker. You feel alive when you're doing more than one thing at a time.



You can be a big dramatic and over the top sometimes. You are bold in every way



Ok, 2 silly quizzes :P


Halloween Candy Quiz


Halloween Candy Quiz


You are a Pumpkin Cookie


Like the pumpkin cookie you are both sensible and always welcome


Find out which Halloween Candy you are at Quizopolis.com




10.20.2008

A not so misc. monday

Time for another edition of Miscellaneous Monday. Any excuse to ramble is a good one to me :P

I'm 100% not ready for fall. It appeared all of a sudden, and I'm not all about it. I don't like being cold all the time. NOT cool. The bedroom is always freezing now in the morning, which makes it that much harder to get out of our super comfy warm and toasty bed. No good.

ETA: This started out as a Misc. Monday post. And then I got way side tracked with an issue a friend is facing. So, I apologize in advance for the rant.

I'm so angry at the court system in MD right now. Tell me how, with this history, this woman has ANY right to this boy. (Preface to say, during times she did not have custody of 1st child, he was with friends of mine, which is how I know all this, so I'm mildly biased.)
Drug addict and prostitute.
Gets knocked up.
Continues drugs and alcohol.
Goes to jail.
Gives birth. Baby is born addicted. (Little boy that I know.)
Serves her sentence. Gets out. Gets custody of child back.
Sells childs diapers for drug money. Leaves child in crack house surrounded by other prostitutes, drugs, used needles, etc while she goes out to turn tricks or cop more drugs.
Gets knocked up.
Continues drugs and alcohol.
Goes to jail.
After months in court, custody of first child awarded to my friends. She has zero visitation rights, as she's in jail, and that's a BIT traumatic for a 3 year old to visit mom in jail.
Gives birth to child, child born addicted.
Serves sentence. Gets out. Gets custody of 2nd child back. Custody battle for first child ensues.
Gets first child back.
Starts using again. Starts turning tricks again.
Gets knocked up (are we SEEING A PATTERN HERE PEOPLE?!?!)
Goes to jail.
1st child goes back to my friends.
Gives birth to 3rd child, not born addicted, but used through 7months when she was locked up JUST so the baby wouldn't be born addicted.
Gets out. Battles for custody of 1st child again.
Gets visitation rights for every other weekend. No stipulations on supervision, where she can take him, anything. No short visits for a trial period. Nothing. Right off the bat, visits every 2 weeks.
Then gets full custody.
Knocked up, but tells 1st child she "got rid of it". Awesome.
1st child with her for 2 months. Goes on drug bindge, leaves him with longtime boyfriend and new hubby. After 2 weeks, hubby drops him off at her mothers, saying he can't take it anymore. At some point during those 2 weeks 1st child is beaten with a stick until it breaks. Mother is physically unable to care for him. Calls my friends. Emergency custody is granted to them.
During time before she dropped 1st child off with new hubby, was taking him into awful parts of the city to get drugs. Tied a string around his chest, and tied other end to her wrist so she wouldn't lose him during her drug highs. Back to turning tricks for money. Would leave 1st child sitting on front porch tied to a railing while she turned tricks. Unless she was totally high, and then would BRING HIM IN THE ROOM WITH HER. Yea, totally healthy for a 5 year old boy to see those sorts of things.
Last week, was granted visitations again, every other weekend.
Had 1st child this weekend.

WTF is wrong with the system?! There's ONE family court judge in our county apparently. ONE. AND, said judge has a druggie daughter who's given birth to 2 children born addicted, 1 of whom he adopted himself (I believe). SO WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING JUDGE?!?!?

I'm all for second chances. But not 3rd, 4th, 5th chances. Every single time 1st child goes with druggie mom, he comes back to my friends with more emotional issues than Heinz has ketchup. Apparently at the hearing last week, when the judge made his ruling the childs social worker was in complete and total shock. Could not believe the judge and felt awful. She KNOWS this child is getting more and more screwed up every time he goes with her. He doesn't WANT to go with her. He was in tears when my friends told him his mother got visitation rights and he'd be spending this weekend with her. Which btw, how the fuck is THAT legal? They didn't even have time to file an appeal or do ANYHTING before her first scheduled visitation. AND the judge asked how long she'd been clean, and she reponded 2 weeks, and he said ok. Like that's totally normal, to award visitation to a woman with a HISTORY of drug use and prostituion, a smal child.

It makes me sick. I know this was supposed to be a miscellaneous monday post, but this is at the front of my mind right now. He's the sweet little boy, and it sickens me to think about what could happen to him. She's supposed to have him for Halloween too. So pretty much, think of your closest city, and then think of the absolute WORST part of that city. Then magnify it by about 5, because Baltimore is the dirtiest, grossest, worst, most dangerous city in the entire country, and that's the kind of area he'll be in. On Halloween. With a probably drugged out mom. Yea, totally safe. Way to go MD Court System!

::Sigh:: I can't think about it anymore, it makes me want to cry.
Sorry for such a depressing monday post.

~Col

10.17.2008

TGIF! For Serious!

So thankful it's friday.
So thankful for the weekend. We actually have nothing to do for once! After going nonstop for the past 6 weeks or so, it'll be so nice to just chill out and enjoy the beautiful weather and get things done around the house.
I do need to do some minor cleaning around the house. The boys have made a mess of the kitchen again, so I'll need to clean that. (Sounded like I have kids right? Nope. A 25 year old and a 29 year old. Awesome.) My craft area is a disaster. I never fully cleaned it after we added Jordan's desk and desktop to it. His desk is a disaster and I keep waiting for it to turn into toothpicks before my very eyes. He wants to get a "nice" L-shaped desk for that area. Too bad those run about $1k. And he bought a pimp car this week. And I'm trying to save money. I'd much rather spend $200 on an Ikea desk similar to the one I have, and call it good enough for the time being. Plus, he'd want like, a cherry desk and that so does not go with the vibe I have going in the master suite (beachy, calm, relaxing - thus the white desk I currently have and the light wood Ikea furniture I've always had but fits so well).

He has decided to go to Ikea this weekend though. This, is a major accomplishment. Last time we were there (many moons ago when I needed a replacement desktop since mine broke in the move) he saw some wood blinds. Now, he's obsessed. So he wants to go buy those for the bedroom and the spare room upstairs. Plus I want to do something like Tara Whitney did in our dining room. I loooooove the big photos, and I think it'll work really well with the vaulted ceilings. I'm thinking of stepping them (1 frame, 2 frames, 3 frames). And maybe putting 1 on either side of the big gaudy golf print that Jordan loves so much :P Of course when the new Pottery Barn catalog came in the mail the other day, I fell in LOVE with a dining room buffet display (the 20x20's would be above the buffet) that had a huge mirror. Which, would also look amazing if I do say so myself. I mean, the white with the deep green walls looks fantastical, and I'm ALL ABOUT various flower holding devices and candle holders. Heaven, I'm tellin ya! (Sidenote, I also REALLY want those hanging lamps shown in image 2 - but I KNOW Jordan won't go for that cuz they're $220 a piece on sale, oops. And naturally I want the starburst cut ones, which are more expensive)

Regardless, I'm going to pick up a bunch of the frames at Ikea (fingers crossed they have them). I mean, they're like $7 TOPS. I'm sure I can find a creative use for them around the house/my scrap area :) Another idea I JUST this second thought of, doing a 3x3 square with the frames, and put a mirror in the middle....... (see what I mean about crafty ADD?!?!?!).

So yea. I'm hoping to convince him to let me get the Ikea desk. Then I can clean out the craft area, get it uber organized, and situated the way I want it. Which really means flipping the current furniture arrangement so I can actually watch tv while I craft. Cuz right now, my back is to the tv. And that means I'm either crafting, or I'm turned around watching tv and not being productive. So I need to remedy that.

Man, sometimes I just ramble on for forever huh?
I'm still obsessed with the new Jack's Mannequin cd. "Spinning" is definitely my favorite. I could listen to it 8908492 times a day right now. Not totally sure why. I think sometimes my subconscious finds something about songs and latches onto them. I don't need to understand, I just know I love it :)

And as an aside to yesterday's blog post let me say 2 things.
1) I'm thankful that the people that DO read this blog, can do so while still being respectful. Not a single angry "wtf is wrong with you, you're a moron" comment to be had. I'm sure people wanted to say that, but instead, they just didn't comment. THANK YOU!! (I know there are many women I know who probably read this after coming over from SSD, many of whom are rather conservative. So again I say thank you :) Reason #8695048543 why SSD rocks my socks.

2) My sister turned me onto www.dooce.com and Heather Armstrong. She has a great post today relating to the abortion issue. The comments on her blog, and the blog posts and comments she references are fascinating.

A few interesting things I gained from said posts/comments (and I make the following statements assuming I was pregnant and facing such decisions):
Who gets to decided when my life is sufficiently in danger? How "bad" do I have to get before they will save me?
Pro-abortion is the most absurd phrase I've ever heard in my life.
If I do decide to go full term, is there any guarantee my baby will have health insurance? Nope. Awesome plan then, thanks so much!

Again, I have no idea why I find this election so intriguing. Probably because the last one was an easier for me. This one forced me to do a lot of research, and I've learned that I LOVE hearing other people's opinions. LOVE IT! I don't have to agree with it, but seeing the reasoning behind people's opinions absolutely fascinates me.

I think that's enough rambling for today. Since I started writing this post a good 7 hours ago. Thank you notepad.

Have a glorious weekend everyone!!
~Col

10.16.2008

Feel like rambling

First off, please look to your left. You will notice a new addition to my sidebar.
WEDDING COUNTDOWN!!! WOOT!!! I'm so flippin excited it's not even funny :)
Jordan started working on the guest list for his side of the family, and my mom has sent me about 9839028432 different lists (I think I need an update on that actually - Mom, expect an email :P) so we're rolling on that. We looked at numbers, and it looks like the people I thought Jordan was going to fight me on will be able to fit no problem. And, he put up practically no fight. So we might make it through the guest list without too much fighting! YAY!!

Warning: For some reason with this election, I feel the need to state my opinions. For someone who previously avoided politics like the plague, this is strange new territory. Bear with me. It'll all be over soon anyway.

Last night's final Presidential Debate was another disaster. Why do we even bother with them anymore? They don't answer questions, they talk over each other, the moderator is useless. All it does is bore the American public for 20 minutes before their minds go completely numb and they change the channel. I mean, was it really necessary to "discuss" their campaign ads for 15 minutes? All the ads are mean and evil. No shit sherlock, that's friggen politics now a days! And I'm so over the ties between Obama and that 60's terrorist. You're making shit up, the man was 8 years old! LET IT GO!

I did pay attention, and I did yell at the tv, and I did "keep score" in my head. McCain moved ahead when he stated he'd cut ethanol subsidies (I haaaaaaaaaaaate ethanol), but Obama evened the score when he talked about solar/wind/etc. I'm still not convinced nuclear is the way to go, so I couldn't give another point to McCain. It went back and forth a few more times. Until McCain made a statement that pretty much shot himself in the foot for me.

"We have to change the culture of America. Those of us who are proudly pro-life understand that. " (About 3/4 of the way down in the transcript, McCain speaks on Roe v Wade, then Obama speaks, and it's in McCain's counter.)

Um, excuse me? The CULTURE of America needs to change? And only one group of people know and understand that??

For the record, I'm pro-choice. But only because NO ONE should have the right or the power to tell ME what I'm allowed to do with my body. I would never get an abortion, but that's not what this issue is about. It's about more than just determining "when" a fetus becomes a life to count. It's about the fact that unwanted and unplanned pregnancies happen every day in this country, and it's sure as hell better to have a choice about what to do. Otherwise you end up with women dying in back alleys after trying to abort. If a woman wants to abort, the law isn't going to stop her. She'll throw herself down the stairs, or break her own water, etc etc etc. Putting her own life at risk because having a baby and putting it up for adoption just isn't an option for her. So no, adoption isn't the solution to the abortion problem. Sorry McCain.

Seriously, that shocked the hell out of me. Not sure why it hit me so hard, but it did.
I wish I could take both of them, smush them together, and make 1 decent candidate instead of these 2 crappy ones. I don't like Obama's "spread the wealth" tax plan, I don't like McCain's stance on abortion (and I'm sure, on gay marriage so that's really -2 points for him). I don't think Obama has the experience, and I don't like his immediate withdrawal from Iraq. I don't like McCain's "nuclear is the only solution" attitude about energy. I think they're both idiots for wanting to open off shore drilling, cuz that isn't gonna solve anything (and I wish I bookmarked the article I read that explained it).

Oy. I'm sorely tempted to write in something absurd. Maryland is going to Obama, I have no doubts about that. Baltimore City and Prince George's County pretty much guarantee that. So I might as well have fun and write in something retarded if my vote isn't gonna count anyway. (I'm not actually gonna write in, but it pains me to have to pick from these 2.)

Ok ok, that's enough political talk for one day. I just had to get it out of my system.
There are some fun things in the works for Digital Scrapbooking Day on November 1st, so keep your eye out for that. I finished a really cute LO last night, but I can't share yet cuz it uses Traci's release for this week.
Work is work.
Life goes on.
That's about it :)

Have a good day!!
~Col

10.15.2008

Wordy Wednesday - Breast Cancer 3Day!

Ok, let me just warn you. This post is gonna be long as hell. I want to post about my 3Day experience in it's fullest so I'll always remember it, and I'll have this post to look back on. I walked with my friend Charlotte, and our friend Janine was part of the Traffic and Safety Crew.

So yes. Breast Cancer. Appropriate because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Have you been too wrapped up in the gloriousness that is fall and football? Then you might have noticed the pink ribbons on the NFL referees shirts. FREAKING COOL! And I noticed a few pink ribbon pins on NFL coaches as well. Very cool.

Back to the 3Day:
Friday was a loooooooong day. We got up at 4am and headed over to opening ceremonies at Potomac Mills Mall. Got there around 5am. Char got herself checked in properly, we dropped our bags off at the gear trucks, and then had about 3 hours to stand around. Not so good for the feet. Eventually I gave up and just sat down on the concrete (we were outside in the parking lot). During opening ceremonies we met a group of 3 girls. They were in front of us during the ceremonies, and we started talking to them. One of them, Melissa, was struggling to get a little clip thing back on her camelback, so I offered to help. Char commented that I was just trying to touch ppl's boobs. Now, a normal person, would've given us a strange look, turned, and run. Melissa however, turned to me as I was jokingly holding my hands in front of me in a mock boob squeeze, and walked her boobies straight into my hands. Can we say friends for life? That's what I thought.

So we start walking. And walking. And walking. Friday we walked 23.5 miles (although a rumor going around was that we actually walked 26.3). They gave us little cards with mileage on them, and when our pit stops were and lunch and such. At the bottom of the card was a tiny little asterisk with a note that said "Milage may not be exact." Oh the impact of those words! At the first pit stop Melissa advised us to slather our feet in vaseline, and holy crap if I didn't thank her 25 times by the end of the day for making us do that. No blisters after day 1! WOOT! I shudder to think how much WORSE my feet would've been if I hadn't done that. Not a pretty sight. (The vaseline helps cut down the friction between your feet and socks and shoes, and friction = blisters, so that's why it helped.) So we all stuck together for the day and had a blast. Melissa, Crys, and Becca were a RIOT! Everyone out on the walk was so fun and friendly. You would just walk and overhear someone saying something, and you could just jump right in with a comment or a laugh and it was all good. Like walking witn 3300 of my closest friends, LOL! Becca would randomly start singing a song, and people would jump in an sing along. At the intersections where they had to direct traffic, the Moto Crew (all on motorcycles, really awesome ppl) usually had music playing from their bikes so everyone would dance and sing along. It really was a fun time (which I can say now, looking back, cuz it's OVAH and my feet are mostly back to normal :P). Naturally, to end Day 1, we had to climb a MONSTER hill. We practically ran up that thing! Lol! It was a combination of trying to lose the creepy guy that had attached himself to us, and the knowledge that the faster we get up the hill, the faster we're done walking for the day. Plus, hills are good for buns of steel, and that right there is good motivation on it's own! So we get to the top of hill and we're all excited cuz across the road is camp! WOOT! So we start walking. And walking. And walking. And by now, I'm dead on my feet. My feet are throbbing, I'm just about ready to cry, and all I want to do is see the damn camp. Then we see the "1 mile til camp" sign. Sweet. 1 more mile. I can do this. Well, there's no way in hell that sign was 1 mile from the entrance to camp. No effing WAY man! I know I was a bit delirious at that point, but there's just no way. Everytime we went around a bend in the trail I was SURE we were gonna see camp. And it kept not appearing, lol. Finally though, we made it. Then we had to find our gear truck, get our bags, get a tent, find the campsite, and set up the tent. Awesome. So we get to our site, and I immediately sit down and take off my shoes for fear of my feet exploding if I left them on any longer. Immense relief once the shoes were off. So we start putting the tent together, which is pretty dang simple. It's one of those small-ish 2 person tents, where the long rods are all connected and all you have to do is thread the loops and pop the rods into the right holes. Easy = awesome. So we unroll our sleeping pads, and immediately fall over onto them in a heap. I look at Char and say "What have we gotten ourselves into?! Please don't hate me forever!!" and then we dissolve into giggles for a solid 5 minutes because we're totally delirious. So we set up our tents, and decide to put on our pj's to go eat dinner and then just bring clean undies to change into when we shower. So we go get dinner, which I can barely eat cuz I'm so full of water and pretzels and granola bars from eating all day long. Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. Not bad, but again, I couldn't bring myself to eat all that much. So we finish there, and trudge over to the shower trucks. Where we are 25 and 26 in line. Awesome. 50 minutes later we get into the truck and take fast showers cuz there are still 894038290432 ppl in line. Head back to our tents, and crash out.

Saturday we got up at like 6:30. Had some breakfast, and then just hit the road. We left around 8 and saw Janine on our way out, so that was nice. Saturday I decided to wear different shoes from day 1. I can't even begin to explain the horrific impact that caused on my feet. Within 2.3 miles (which may not be exact :p) I could feel a blister forming on my heel. Another 2 miles or so and we hit a grab and go and got a snack and refilled our water bottles. I knew I wasn't drinking enough, and not drinking enough is ALSO bad for blisters. Super. It was 4 miles or so from that stop to the next pitstop. About 1/4 mile away from the pit stop I look over at Char and say "Something just happened to my foot." I managed to get a blister on the ball of my right foot, AND pop it, within 7 miles or so. NOT COOL!! So at that pit stop I waited in line for medical and had them fix up both of my feet. I figured I would have them do it once and pay attention and then do it myself the rest of the walk. We ran into the girls at that pitstop. Crys was all antsy, so they ended up leaving ahead of us, which wasn't a big deal. We passed Becca on the way to the next pitstop, and ran into Melissa and Crys. We decided to hit the road quickly and get to lunch so we could relax a little. As we were on our way to lunch we passed a few small unofficial cheering stations. SO nice. It really made me tear up to see people sitting out there in the sun and the heat, just to cheer us on and thank us for walking. Well forget it, by the time I got to the official cheering station we were almost 12 miles into the day, my feet needed some TLC and it was HOT. So when we turned a corner and saw 300+ people sitting at an intersection, I knew I was in trouble. I looked at Char and said "If all those people are sitting there to cheer us on, I'm 100% gonna cry. Game over." She naturally teases me, as she is incapable of emotion (it's a running joke :)). I start tearing up almost immediately, and then see a little girl holding a sign that said "Someday I want Ta-tas to save!" and is waving and clapping and thanking us. GAME FREAKING OVER! So now I'm speed walking through the cheer station, cuz I know I look like a moron, and people are like "awww she's crying." and I'm like AH! Stop making fun of me! (I knew they weren't, but still.) There were groups of people there with 3 generations to cheer us on. Totally crazy and awesome. So I speed through there while Char is petting all the dogs (we missed ours) and wait on the other side. Make out way to lunch, find a semi shady spot, and pop a squat. Felt SO GOOD to get my shoes and socks off, those puppies needed to BREATHE! Lol! Found the girls again, ate and stretched and then fixed my feet and took off again. 4 miles from lunch to the next pit stop. Except it was 4 miles, all highway, all in the blazing sun. I wanted to die. Made our way to the next pit stop, sat in the shade, and took our shoes off again. As soon as I sat in the shade, I was fine. The damn sun was just killer! Finished off Day 2 relatively strong, but still hurting. That day was 21.5 give or take. Got into camp at 5pm (That's a full 8-5 work day of walking in case you weren't paying attention), went back to the tent and chilled for a bit, called some ppl, etc. Checked out my feet. Blisters on the sides of both heels, the balls of both feet, the inside of both big toes (next to my index toe? I guess that's what it would be? LOL!), and then a smallish one on my right pinky toe. Super. So we got our shower stuff and went over to eat. We got to eat with Janine before she had to get back to work, so that was nice. Met Tom, the guy she made friends with while working. He has the same sense of humor as our little group, so that was a lot of fun. Overheard some girls talking about how this one woman got to back to camp at 1:00 or 1:30, and was complaining there was nothing to do around camp. OF COURSE THERE WASN'T!!! You're not supposed to RUN the course you dumbass! Went and took our showers, there was practically no line this time. I took FOREVER cuz the hot water just felt so good on my aching body, lol. Thankfully, there was NO ONE waiting when I got out, so I didn't feel bad at all :) We decided we wanted to go get matching shirts to wear on sunday (we matched the rest of the weekend, we might as well match sunday too, lol). Stop by the LaCroix tent and see the girls using the foot massagers, so we chat with them for a bit. The massagers didn't even feel that good for me, so that stunk. I didn't have clean socks, and I think that's why, didn't feel so hot on blistered bare feet, lol. They went off to shower, so we hit up the store and got shirts and pins, and then stopped at the post office to send a few postcards. Then went back to the tent and passed out.

Sunday morning came too early. We got up at 5am, packed our bags, took down our tents, and headed for breakfast. Saw Melissa, and they were already done and heading to the buses, so we said we'd catch them later. Got Melissa's number so we could all walk in to the closing ceremonies together. The walk was set for about 16 miles on sunday. Ate breakfast (mostly pushed the food around), stretched, hit up the medical tent for some moleskin, and then went to board the buses. They bussed us 40 minutes NE to Arlington. From there we walked through arlington, georgetown, passed the White House, did a loop near Union Station, and then ended at the old convention center (which is now a large parking lot called City Center). So I spent the whole bus ride fixing my feet. Get there, almost fall off the bus, pee, and off we go. Truthfully, sunday morning is a bit of a blur. Aside from the GIANT hill we walked up on Walter Reed, I'll never forget that! LOL! Again, we powered walked through that thing. Slower = harder on our feet! Pit stop at the top of the hill, pee, and we're off again. Hit the second pit stop and stop to stretch out a bit. As we're waiting in the line for drinks and food, Melissa finds us. She had to have medical lance her blisters and wrap up her feet, and Crys and Becca were to antsy to wait for her, so she told them to just go. (Running joke was that she felt like she was the 3rd wheel.) So she walked the rest of the day with us mostly. Made it through Arlington and across the bridge into Georgetown, around Georgetown and then to lunch. Find Crys and Becca. Am ready to cry my feet hurt so bad, and we've got another 8 miles or so to walk (I think). Becca tells me about these squishy squares you can put on the blister under the moleskin. They're lifesavers. Melissa waits for us while Crys and Becca hit the road. Eat, fix my feet, hit the road. Feet feel awesome for a few miles and I thank Becca profusely when we again meet up with them. Skip a pit stop cuz we're walking around tons of shops and stuff and figure we can just stop there. OOps, the route isn't along shops anymore. Awesome. Find a Fuddruckers to duck into and pee. Feel 10x's better. Walk walk walk. Pictures in front of the White House. Walk walk walk. At this point I'm starting to get really sore, and my feet are ready to give up. Still have at least 4 miles to go. Walking in front of Union Station, I notice a LOT of walkers on the other side of a park type block. This just about kills me. I would rather walk 943085943 hills than walk a circle. Walking in circles makes me insane. Tears start rolling down my face, but I'm trying to hide it. Becca REALLY has to pee. They go off to find her a place to pee, Char and I keep walking. I keep thinking the pit stop HAS to be close. It just HAS to be!! More tears. No end in site. WTF. Char says she wants to sit down at the pit stop and take off her shoes for a few minutes. THANK GOD. I don't care if she just said that to make me feel better, or if she really needed to sit for a bit. Get to the pit stop. Bathroom line 90394302 miles long. Sit behind a big tree, take off shoes, cry in relief, lay down and prop feet up to take some of the pressure off. Force myself to STOP CRYING DAMNIT! Char says that she's resigned herself to her feet hurting and being miserable for hte last 2 miles. Makes me feel better. Miss the girls as they come through the pit stop. Decide to just hit the road and meet them in a bit, wherever they are. Leave pit stop and immediately see.....AN ICE CREAM TRUCK!!! OMG YES!!! Char buys us treats. Chocolate Eclair. So delish. Walking walking walking. Only 1.9 miles from pit stop to closing ceremonies (not sure why I'm all of a sudden writing in fragments). Walk about a mile completely oblivious to the pain in our feet thanks to the ice cream. Pass Union Station AGAIN. See Melissa outside a bar we passed earlier. Meet up with the girls, stop for a pee and stretch break (no alcohol for us, we would've stayed there and skipped closing ceremonies all together). All of a sudden hear that we have to be done by 4:30. It's 4:05. OOPS! Speed walk the last mile. 2 blocks away the whole crown starts chanting 2 more blocks! 2 more blocks! SO FUN!! See the inflatables that mean FINISHED. SO happy. Lots of loud music and people cheering and high fives everywhere (we loved the high fives). Dance our way through. See Janine! YAY!! Get our long sleeves t-shirts that mean WE DID IT!!!

Jordan found me and brought his giant red MD flip flops. SO glad I called him and asked him to bring them. They're about the only thing my feet would fit in, they were so swollen. Take off socks and shoes to put on clean socks and see HUGE RIDICULOUS BLISTER on the ball of my left foot, and my right pinky toe is about 3 times it's normal size. Now understand why I cried for a mile. Hobble around and into closing cermonies. Really nice tributes, a few tears, but mostly just REALLY wanting to sit down. My legs really did not like standing still for very long. Say goodbye to the girls and promise to email soon (still haven't, WORST!). Hobble out and find Jordan, Janine, and Z together with bags. Decide to go eat and DRINK! Hobble a few blocks. Homeless guy tries to talk to Z, who ignores him. Homeless guy calls Z an "Axel Rose lookin Mother Fucker". Easily, funniest thing ever. Eat at Ruby Tuesdays. Have a captain and coke. Mostly just happy to sit down. Eat, drink, head our separate ways. Pass out in the car nearly immediately. Wake up in the garage. Almost cry thinking of walking into the house. Jordan carries me inside piggy back, and puts me on the bed. Snuggles with Tigah-now. He starts a hot bath in the whirlpool tub. Carries me into the bathroom so I can pee. Get into the tub on my own (barely). Feels amazing. Too hot water gives me a headache. Get out. Put on PJ's. So thankful for my super comfortable bed. Spoon with Jordan, pass out. Excellent end to the weekend.

So that's my recap, LOL! I warned you it was long!! Looking back, we had an amazing time. It was awesome to meet Melissa, Crys, and Becca. We shared SO MANY laughs and ridiculous stories. While I can't walk next year (the DC walk is the same weekend as my wedding), we're thinking of doing it again and recruiting my mom too (*waves* Hi Mom!). Maybe in 2010? We'll see, LOL! Next time I'll probably be a bit more diligent with my training (lesson learned!!!). I'm sure I'll share a few more memories and stories in the future. I just needed to sit down and get all this out! Lol!

Thanks so much if you read all this!
Have a great day!

~Col