Hey, you know what’s not fun? Working 911 in a bay-side town that’s at sea-level during a tsunami watch. Nope. Thank god it was cancelled (but not before we fielded many, many panicked calls). Sigh. All’s well.
So, hi! How nice to see you! Did you miss me? Just a little? Where do I start? Here’s the answer: I don’t. I can’t catch y’all up on the vacation’s doings, because there were just too many of ’em. And they were good, and fine, and fun, and all of that, but you know how it is. You’re driving down the road on a lovely sunny almost-summer’s day, and you think, I’m going to blog this. I’m going to remember the smell, and the way I feel, and what it means to be right here, right now…. And then it never comes back, does it? Same with all writing, isn’t it? You wake in the middle of the night and have those words in your head — better get up and write them down, lady, ’cause they won’t be back to visit later.
What do I remember? I’ll just list them as they come to me, shall I?
(Ooooh — I missed you!)
Driving to my mother’s house for her birthday: They pointed me through the Oakland airport lot, past all the big kiosks for Dollar, Enterprise, Budget. I trudged until there were no more kiosks and very few cars, carrying my bag and spinning wheel (of course) and presents for the little mama. I walked until I found a little sign that said "Fox Rentals," and found a very small man vacuuming a car. He nodded and pointed me to my car, a Honda Civic Hybrid (score! they had run out of regular economy vehicles), but it was banged UP. I had no idea how a car with less than 10,000 miles on it could be in such bad shape, but there were dents on all sides and the right side panel flapped in the wind. I made great sweeping motions to show him where to mark "damaged" on the checkout slip, and he nodded and chirped at me. As I drove away, he said with passion, "Thank you for taking this car. Thank you. Oh, thank you." It wasn’t until I was ten minutes away that I noticed the ants.
Ants. Filling the car. Not just a couple of ants, but swarming ants. How do you get an ant colony in a car? It is an impressive mark of my inherent laziness that I did not turn around. I noticed that while the ants walked freely everywhere in the car, they weren’t on the seats. I guess ants don’t like faux velour (think about those two words), and they remained on the doors and sills and most annoyingly, the windows. I could block out thoughts of the ants until they meandered through my line of vision. But they were okay. We cohabited the car. Dude, it was fourteen bucks a day. What were my options?
Also, just because your rental goes way faster than your every-day eleven-year-old car, please remember that it’s a hybrid, and not meant to race a BMW and a Mercedes. Just sayin’.
Dad and I took the little mama out for a good Italian dinner and then Mom and I went shopping the next day. Now, I’m not a shopper. But apparently I got shop-happy that day. Really shop-happy. I can’t remember ever buying that many pieces of clothing in one day in my whole life. But have you noticed the prints that are out there? Sweet dresses and cute cotton skirts, all retro prints and just the right shape for me, too: lots of low vees and hourglass curves. Since this whole running madness, I’ve become more amenable to showing off what I’ve got. Really, at the age of 32, I’m happier in my skin than I’ve been since I was maybe 22. I don’t think that my body shape has really changed, but my confidence level has. It’s fun. Good stuff.
I signed up for the first half of the SF Marathon, and I’ve been training again. I ran six miles last week, which in and of itself isn’t a big deal. After all, in the last year, I’ve run at least eight half-marathons in training for the big one last December. But when you relax back into nice little 3-milers, even four is a jump. And the six? I realized when I was done that it was the farthest I’d ever run by myself. All those long runs were with other runners, with the encouragement of the AIDS Marathon staff. So six miles by myself felt great. I went from the Berkeley Marina down to the Emeryville Marina, all around the Watergate condos and back. I could have run farther. Gazelle day.
Then today I did a four-miler, and thought I was gonna die. Dude. Rhino day. I can’t figure it out. Okay, it could have had something to do with the fact that yesterday I ate Taco Bell for dinner and had two beers, and then got up and ran with no coffee and only cookies for sustenance, but then again, maybe not. Yay, sugar high! Boo, sugar crash. And I forgot sunscreen for the first time this season and have a smart pink burn on my shoulders. I hate that. I’m usually very good at sunscreen, too. Grrr.
It feels good to be back to blogging. I missed it more than I thought I would. So hiya. How are you?
I haven’t even met you, but you’re the one I thought of (and worried about) when I heard about the quake and the tsunami warning. Truly thankful all is well.
Welcome home! Sounds like a truly happy vacay–Yay! Sorry about the ants, though. Maybe the renter before you tried to have a picnic in the car?? Congrats on the 6-mile run!
heh. rhino day. that’s perfect!
keep posting about running, it’s encouraging.
I also love the new shapes for this season! I’ve always been in the middle of fashion – I have hips and breasts and nice shoulders, but a small waist, so skirts have too much room in the waist or are tight across the ass. Thank god for stretch fabrics, or curvaceous gals like you and me would be up a creek! 🙂 And congrats on running six miles, that’s quite an achievement.
SO much better now that I have this post!
Ants. You gotta be KIDDING me.
Ants can live in cars? Oh, I SO need to go clean out my car. RIGHT NOW. Ew!!
So glad you had such a nice vacation – some day, I want “real life” to be the exception, and “vacation” to be normal. 🙂
The antmobile! wow. I shudder just thinking of it.
We had lots of phone calls from out of town relatives who heard about the tsunami watch and were worried about us, even though we are 10 miles inland! hee!
Hi! It’s great to have you back! I’m lovin clothes this season too…great colours, feminin cuts and details. Love it. Congrats on keeping up the running! I’m dealing with how to make sure I keep running after having done my half in May. Hubby and I are thinking of signing up for another half, just to keep it up. It’s a time commitment, but feels so good and accomlished in the end doesn’t it? =)
That was weird to see that National Weather Service warning on the TV last night! You never expect to have to worry about something like that, but living in OC, it’s something to consider.
And ants give me the oogs. I don’t know if I could have coexisted in the car with them 🙂
Your rental story reminds me of the time I had to get a rental because my car had to stay at the mechanic’s overnight. The car they gave me reeked, and I mean REEKED of stale cigarette smoke, but what was worse is they had tried to cover up with gallons of industrial-strength, oily smelling, lemon-scented air freshener. What’s worse is the smell would cling to your clothes and then YOU would smell like stale cigarette smoke and lemon oil and anyone who didn’t know you thought that those were your scents of choice.
BTW “sugar high, sugar crash” made me snort out loud. V. funny.
Glad you had a nice vacation, ants notwithstanding. I was reading about that tsunami warning last night – glad nothing came of it.
So happy you are back running because I need to get back running too! And I am so much better mentally if I can think of you running when I’m running alone. Makes it less lonely 🙂
GO RACH GO!
Happy to hear you had a good time 🙂 I don’t think I could’ve taken the ants, either. I think I would’ve watched that dude while he wrote down ‘damaged’, too. I’ve got a pattern for your next Lala sweater! Little dancing notes on a t-shirt from a 1956 needlework mag. He, he. No intarsia – duplicate stitch.
I didn’t even hear about this tsunami thing until this morning. And I’m glad, because I would have freaked out, unnecessarily as it turns out.
I’m beginning to think there’s very little rhyme or reason to the occurrence of gazelle days or rhino days. Just a state of mind or something, because most things I do to try to create gazelle days? No effect. But at least now when it’s one or the other I can think of myself as a gazelle or a rhino, thanks to you…
Whoa- ants? Yikes… really, yikes.
Welcome back! And yes, we all totally missed you. I didn’t hear about the tsunami watch… and my family lives right up there on the bay! Well, the don’t live as “right up” on the bay as we did during El Nino when the bay rose and our house flooded… but still, you’d think I’d have heard a little something. Glad YOU are keeping me posted- thanks! LOL.
Whussup with the ANTS? ANTS IN YOUR PANTS. Hahahahahahaa. I’m SO glad you signed up for the 1/2 marathon and thank you for injecting the SLO economy with some needed $$. Sounds like you had a great time!
I was so nervous about the tsunami warning! I live in Oakland (student at Mills) but I’ve been in Mexico for a few months…I was feeling bay area-sick and reading your post about running through familiar territory made me smile. Glad you’re back!
So I gotta ask: what are the 911 calls like in a tsunami warning? Is it just general freakouts or did they think they saw a wave or something? Not poking fun, just curious.
Welcome back! Glad you had a good vacation. I’m kind of wigging out about the ants in the car — I’m not afraid of bugs, but I don’t like them, especially in “people space” like cars. Ick!
Rachael’s back!
glad you’re back! Ants… ick. Good luck with the running – really glad to hear you’re keeping that up.
EW ANTS! Gross. Glad to hear you had a good time with the fam…
1/2 marathon? Ok, champ.
Did you miss me? Aw. I feel so special. I missed you too!
a rental hybrid? woohoo for the area of bay….
I’ll bet those ants were hitchin a ride cuz they heard about the tsunami…
hope you hugged that lil mama for us!
xoxoxox
missed you, of COURSE!
Welcome back! I missed you — though I’m on vacay myself and away from speedy internet. (In Maine, it’s 55 degrees and raining. But I’m not at work!) When I figure out how this blogging thing works, I’ll tell you all about it. 🙂 And I bought you a prezzie. You’ll have to wait until I get back to the office and mail to see.
I went running today too, and it was indeed a rhino day. Back to the Galloway thing for me, I think — it was the only way to get through the 3.8 miles today.
Wow – the first day back from vacation is the worst, isn’t it? Tsunami, ants… at least you have a good attitude about it all. Doesn’t that rental car make you shudder at the thought of people buying ex-rental cars?
so glad you had a lovely vacation! i love reading your blog but i never comment, so hi! good work running! i was excited to read that you ran a marathon with the National AIDS Training Program last year – i’m doing that now! i’m training for Dublin on Halloween. it’s pretty hard since i had never run more than a mile before i started, but i think it’s pretty great so far! and i’ll be out to cheer you on for your half since i live in Richmond! keep up the good work!
Yay for the running again! I identify with where you’re at on that because I haven’t gotten back on my bike for any substantial mileage since my big ride in April. For one thing, it’s stinkin’ hot here, but I think it’s really just a bit of fear that I’ll have lost “it” in the last couple of months. Keep it up!
Pretty good, thanks for asking. Glad you had fun, and glad you are back.
🙂
Oh, how I miss the running! Heal, knee, heal!!
Glad to live vicariously through your description of gazelle and rhino days, though.