Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Marathon!

Well it finally arrived. The marathon George has been training for. All the early mornings. All the aches and pains. All the long Saturday runs. It was here. I'm certain George was excited too.

We decided save a little bank and drive the 6 hours and get two hotel rooms. Sounded good at the time. (It was now in retrospect a great idea...)

So the 6 hour drive. First the DVD player died and then the ipods. Seems we were technically blighted. What's left but to travel "old school" with the kids? That's right, that's how we roll, "old school"! You know, no electronic games, no personal music, no personal space. Crammed in a mini van with no one/thing to look at or communicate with but each other.

When we were kids, way back in the day, my family would venture out most summers to Missouri to visit my Mom's folks. Can you say 15 hours, with no air conditioning and a sister who vomits (every single trip) about 6 hours in so all you can smell is puke, and a pencil and paper to play all the tic tac toe you can stand? Now that's family togetherness. Its what bonded us, in some sort of Co-dependent, walked through the shadow of darkness together and somehow survived kind of way.

Now some may think it was no big deal since our kids are older. We did have air conditioning and all. I mean they aren't toddlers anymore they should be able to entertain each other/themselves without mortally wounding anyone emotionally.

Nay, I say, Nay!! It only gets nastier when they are older. Here's what Mom looked like when we got to the hotel...



Can you say medication? Somebody needed it; either me or them. I'm telling you boarding school is under rated! Severly under rated.

We did eventually kiss and make up. We had a great time with my sister and her family. We headed out to the Dallas Zoo. I Hadn't been there in a while and it was a nice change from the Ft Worth Zoo.




























After that, left the kids with Auntie Jenn and I raced back to the hotel to get ready for some adult time. Most of my friends back in Dallas are still single or married with no kids. Talk about switching gears....but it's great.
Reggie always shows me a good time and its so great to reconnect with everyone. I miss them all already....my peeps, Reggie, Belinda, Rich, Chad, Traci, Valerie....Thanks for the great food, great conversation and basically just letting me peek in and out of your wonderful lives. Belinda, your house looks straight out of a "Pottery Barn" catalog; I couldn't be more jealous!

Race day came and the weather did not bode well; not well at all. Just ask the unfortunate 29 year old woman who died 3 miles from the finish line! It was too warm and the wind was blowing with 35 mile an hour gusts. It was fun to arrive there early and watch all the runners cross the finish line. What an accomplishment, 26 miles! I got to witness two people ages 71 and 73 cross.


Over all it turned out to be a great experience. I'm so proud of George and all the training and determination it took to get there. Even if he did have to pass some corpses...



Oh and one last thing.....


Suck it Avis Rental car! You can take your $25 coupon "for next time" and shove it straight up your ***BLEEP!!!!!***** But that's a whole other blog!








































3 comments:

Gillian said...

First of all, George ran a marathon??? Where have I been? I'm more than a little impressed.
I feel your road trip pain----and love that picture of you---and glad I wasn't in the car too. :0)
Glad you had a fun weekend---next time stop in and say Hi if you have time.
Congrats to George---but the corpse reference reminds me why I'm not running a marathon.

Jackie said...

I am still laughing from the "do I look like I'm joking?" mom look. So funny! Way to go George, you marathon runnin devil you. I miss you guys.

Bartlett Family said...

Love the pics!!!!!! And totally agree about Avis!!!!