Video from the Red Sox Game

Drunk Boston Fans getting a little frisky...

CA Part 2: It Was the Best of Times.

By this point it was about 2pm and we hadn't done anything that we'd planned on yet! And, we were starving. Enter In-N-Out Burger. Hooray! Nothing like a good burger and fries to drown some frustrations. Another reason to love In-N-Out: they have Dr. Pepper. I don't know why I felt the need to have it every day of this vacation, but something about all the stress just made me think that I needed caffeine. Katie's introduction to In-N-Out was a success, whew! (not that there was really ever any doubt)

Then we decided to go check in at Paradise Point and hit the private beach outside of our little cottage room. It was just like heaven. Not exactly the 'beach' that we'd planned on going to, but we walked out the patio of our room right onto the beach. You can't complain about that! It was on Mission Bay, so it wasn't the "real" beach but it was very sunny, we were the only ones there (except for the couple in the sailboat in the water trying to figure out how to sail the boat without falling in...it was good entertainment!), and we could just relax and take a breather from everything that had been going on! Finally.

Then we got ready for the baseball game. Just before we left, there was a knock at the door, where we were met with a tray of champagne and two glasses. Thanks Sandi for taking care of us ... ;)

I was glad that Jason told me not to go all the way to the ballpark to find parking, but to get off near his office and find street parking - which is exactly what we did, and we ended up only a few blocks from the stadium. Perfect! Friday night was 80's Retro Night at Petco Park.

The Padres wore their 1982 vintage uniforms. All the concessions workers wore mullets. We even got some ourselves. A former Braves pitcher, Greg Maddux pitched for the Padres, and Daisuke Matsuzaka (affectionately known as "Dice K") pitched for the Red Sox. The game was great - the Red Sox won 2-1 ... which you may think would be hard to take since we were on San Diego's home field ... but at least 80% of the stadium were Boston fans. I really felt like I was back at Fenway! Everyone right around us was from Boston, accents, beer, and everything. There was a huge Asian contingency behind us, complete with a Japanese flag and everything. The drunk Bostonians kept turning around egging on the "Dice Guys" to get them riled up. Boston fans are great. It was hilarious. I took a little video to capture some of the craziness - though I am not really sure it does it justice! I'll try to post it. We ate the "Padre special" pizza - buffalo chicken, and the guy who sold it to us kept asking what kind of perfume we were both wearing because he wanted to buy it for his wife. Funny. After the game, we walked through Downtown San Diego past lots of cute shops and restaurants - and plenty of drunk people at bars. Then we went back to our cozy resort and crashed.











Saturday morning we got up and went to the San Diego temple. I'd been there to do baptisms but never for a session yet - it is absolutely stunning! Katie's college roommate Des was being married that day, but we didn't know what time, so we kept our eyes out for her. Imagine our surprise when she and her fiance were sitting in the celestial room when we walked in! We chatted with them for a few minutes and then a temple worker came over to us and told them that the sealing room was ready and told Katie and I to take the two empty seats ... um ... Des & Lars welcomed us if we had time, so we went to their sealing. Random? Yeah, kind of ... but also kind of cool. We saw them coming out of the temple after we'd grabbed a bite to eat in the cafeteria, and waited around to take some pictures ... there were tons of weddings, so we had to wait for awhile before the crowds dissipated!

Then we were off to La Habra, where we were lucky enough to stay with Kristin & Kurt (thanks guys!). Traffic wasn't bad once we passed the accident on "The 5" (as Californian's call their highways) and we made it there in enough time to relax a little before heading for Downtown Disney where we met up with Jeanine, Nate, & little Beckham. We chilled outside for awhile, before our table at the Rainforest Cafe was ready. It was so much fun to see everyone again and catch up! Beckham is soooo cute - he was having fun crawling around and entertaining us. Once we made it to our table and decided on what we were going to eat, the waiter laughed when 5 of the 6 of us ordered the fajitas ... they just sounded so good and its always bad when you think something sounds good but you don't order it because everyone else is and then when your food comes, you really wish you would have ordered it! Anyway ... after dinner we walked around and found ourselves stopping at Haagen Dazs to get ice cream. Yum! Nothing brings back good memories of college quite like ice cream does :) Hanging out with Kristin & Kurt and Jeanine & Nate made me wish that I lived closer to them so we could do it more often!

On Sunday morning, Kurt made waffles for all of us before we went to Sacrament Meeting with them. Afterwards, Katie and I packed up our stuff and headed to Anaheim ... to Angels Stadium. I have never been to a baseball game on a Sunday before, but since that is the reason we went to Cali in the first place, and things hadn't quite gone according to the plan, we felt like it was ok! It was an absolutely perfect day for a game ... we walked around the stadium to pick up our tickets at will call, and then headed inside for the fun. The Pittsburgh Pirates were the visiting team, and it was a good game. The stadium itself was nice, and had lots of entertainment around the perimeter of the field. I think they had more food choices than any other ballpark I've been to! Katie had California Pizza Kitchen and I had Panda Express. And of course we had to continue the ice cream trend with chocolate milkshakes from Ruby's Diner. The Pirates tied it at 3 in the top of the ninth, and when the Angels couldn't score in the bottom of the inning, they sent it into extra innings. The Angels hit a ground roll double in the bottom of the 10th to score the runner on 2nd base, and won the game. And with that, stadium #20 on my list is officially checked off :)

So now its about 4pm and we're not really sure what's going on the rest of the day until we have to return our rental car and check in at LAX for our red-eye flight back to DC (what were were thinking taking a red-eye flight anyway?!? I am not 22 anymore!) ... we sat in the parking lot for a little while looking at maps trying to figure out what we could do before we had to head back.

My friend Mike and I had been texting off and on throughout the day trying to figure out if/when we could meet up ... we talked and planned on meeting in Newport, but then Katie & I got concerned that it was too far away and we wouldn't have time to make it back to the airport in time. We were paranoid about missing another flight!! Mike was nice enough to come meet us ... we decided to head towards each other and meet somewhere along the way ... which ended up being a random parking lot in Diamond Bar. ha ha Luckily, he had a GPS that actually worked (amazing what a charger will do!) and we found a park just a few minutes away that we went to. He's really into photography (he photographs weddings with his dad and brother-in-law), so he brought his new camera for an impromptu photo shoot.

I'm going to have to get those pictures from him so he can't blackmail me with them! I actually met Mike when he and his sister Karly were in DC on vacation a couple years ago, so I guess its only fitting that I saw him in CA when I was on vacation! Since we hadn't planned anything ahead of time (and he didn't want to skip church to come to the game with us, ha ha), we didn't have much time, but it was still fun to catch up a bit with him while we were there. Next time we'll have to plan a bit better!

Off to the airport we went ... we dropped the car off and got on the shuttle and headed for LAX. It was busier than I'd anticipated it would be at 9pm on a Sunday night, but we had plenty of time. We checked in, waited through security (which was very slow - I thought they'd have more than 2 lines at a huge airport like that!) and went to our very crowded gate. I asked the agent if it was a full flight, he said yes. I asked him if it was overbooked, and he said yes. I asked if they were looking for volunteers to be bumped, and he said they might be. He took our names and we waited. We weren't quite sure if that meant we'd just given up our seats or not, but when we went to ask he reassured us that we'd get a choice. Well when they informed us that they had overbooked the flight by 16 passengers (doesn't that seem a bit high??) he gave us our options of flights we could take on Monday ... when he threw out First Class on a non-stop to Dulles, our eyes got a little wider. First Class, meal vouchers, hotel vouchers, and a voucher for a free round-trip on United. Sold! We collected the vouchers and boarding passes and were on our way.

The meal vouchers had to be used - and the only place still open that would accept them was McDonald's. The vouchers were $15 each. That's right folks, we had $30 to spend at McDonald's. GROSS. We each got some food and then started racking up other things on the bill ... 2 bottles of water, 2 bottles of orange juice we could have in the morning, 2 more bottles of water, a hot fudge sunday, and 2 more bottles of water. We didn't quite hit the $30 mark but close enough. So we took our bag of drinks and sat down to eat! What else are you supposed to buy at McDonald's after a weekend of eating crap and not really being hungry? What is it about free food that compells you to eat what you otherwise would never even touch?!? I haven't quite figured that one out yet.

Off to the Crowne Point Hotel we went. But not without a near-fight on the shuttle from a woman yelling at the driver ... and then her husband got involved and they sent security to take care of it! I wish I would have taken a video of THAT! The whole shuttle clapped and cheered as we pulled out of the airport ... it was hilarious. We checked into the hotel and went up to our room. Of course our luggage was already on its way to DC, so all we had were our purses and magazines for the plane. The hotel gave us little toothbrushes, toothpaste, and combs, but other than that we were pretty helpless. It did feel good to just relax though and get a good night's sleep. Unfortunately my first First Class experience would be done in yesterday's clothes, with a wet ponytail and very minimal make-up (thanks to Katie who had a little in her purse) ...

We went downstairs to the little restaurant at the hotel to use our vouchers for breakfast. I ordered the french toast (might as well start and end the trip the same, right?) and Katie ordered the waffle. When they brought it out (after I went up to our room to get our oj's), Katie's strawberries had a bug on them ... gross ... so she sent it back to the kitchen and they made her a new meal. Then we waited for what seemed like an eternity for the shuttle to pick us up to take us back to LAX. We met Mike, a pilot for Midwest Airlines, and he helped pass the time. Of course United was the very last stop on the shuttle, and I was a little worried about the upcoming security line we'd have to wait in ...

Just about then is when I realized that I could really get used to flying First Class. You have your own entrance. You have your own security line. You even get on the plane through a different line. Yeah, it was pretty nice. We were right at the front of the plane, so I was able to watch first-hand as the flight attendants warmed our mixed nuts in the oven before bringing them to us in little glass ramikins. Drinks in glass tumblers, with refills without asking. Tray table covers (like mini tablecloths), hot towels, a choice of meals (just after they announced the $5 snack purchase items to the main cabin), and pretty much anything else you wanted. I ordered the teriyaki chicken rather than the lasagne, and a few minutes later the flight attendant asked me if I was set on it, because another passenger had allergies. Sure, that was fine, I'd trade. Later she offered me a bottle of wine for being so accomodating! 2 bottles of wine in one trip ... not too bad ha ha! The food wasn't that great, but how nice is it to hear "I hope you saved room for ice cream!" when they clear your tray? And then a few minutes later a cart with little bowls of ice cream comes down the aisle, and you are asked if you'd like hot fudge and whipped cream on it? You can't complain about that! The movie was "Shooter" which I'd wanted to see when it came out but it was rated R ... I love airline-edited movies! It was a very entertaining movie - both the story and Mark Wahlberg!! The rest of the flight was non-eventful, which was fine by me. We didn't have to wait for our bags since they'd been there since 6am, so we just grabbed them and hopped in Jenny's car and got away from the airport as fast as we could! I have never been so glad to arrive back home in my life - back in my own house, sleeping in my own bed, showering in my own bathroom, dressing in my own clean clothes ... I didn't realize how good I really have it!

I think I'll wait awhile before I cash in my free flight on United so I can recover from this trip! I am already plotting where to use it though ... at the moment, Seattle is at the top of my list ... a trip to Safeco is in order! We'll see though ... I am going to Detroit next week but after that I don't have any trips planned. I'm not sure how long that will last!

CA Part 1: It Was the Worst of Times. (ie What Can Go Wrong, WILL)

"Trip" defined:

1. a journey or voyage: to win a trip to Paris.

2. Slang.
a. any stimulating or exciting experience: The class reunion was a real trip.
b. a period of time, experience, or lifestyle: Those early years in college were a bad trip.

My extended weekend trip to California definitely fits the definition!! And as Charles Dickens wrote in "A Tale of Two Cities," ... "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I hope by the time I finish this (and be prepared, this is destined to be my longest post yet!) you will see what I mean! Where do I even begin?!?

In my quest to visit all the MLB parks, I have to do a little research to the parks that are close. That means that a little planning has to be involved, and a little flexibility to be able to make it work. I checked the schedules when they were posted in April, and determined that last weekend was my opportunity to get to both the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles at Anaheim Angels (I've already been to the LA Dodgers). So, Katie and I booked our trip there. The plan: fly into San Diego Thursday morning, get there in time to rent a car and drive to Petco Park for the afternoon game vs. the Baltimore Orioles, go to the temple, then head up to Kristin & Kurt's. Friday night we'd go to the Angels game, which included fireworks, and then we'd see the LA Temple and hang out with friends and on the beach for the rest of the weekend. In theory, a great plan. In reality, however ... not so much.

Katie and I got up bright and early on Thursday (actually dark and early - 5am) to make it to the airport for our flight. Jenny dropped us off, and we waited in the LONG line for United check-in. I was already apprehensive about flying United, since last time I flew that airline, they lost my luggage going to Boston, but they had the cheapest - and direct flight to San Diego, so that was the obvious choice. Finally it was our turn at the check-in kiosk. I swiped my credit card, verified the passengers, and hit "check in" ... "We are sorry, you cannot check in. Please see an attendant." Um ... what? Apparently if you are checking luggage (which you basically have to now with all the regulations), TSA requires you to do so no less than 45 min before your flight. We were at 44 minutes. Seriously - ONE MINUTE late. Apparently all the people who are always saying "if you have a flight before x time, come now" were not working that day, because no one informed us of that.

Ok fine, they told us to go to the 'future reservations' desk and they would help us. We waited in that line. The lady told us we were in the wrong line - well after me telling her that is where they told us to go and what had happened she finally said that she could help us. That was nice of her. That was the only nice thing she did though. She put us on a standby for a flight to LA at 9:30, and then hoped we would make it on a flight from LA to San Diego, or we could just drive if we had to ... and told us if we didn't make it on, then we could pay $100 to change our flight to one that left at 4 something. But she reassured us that we were at the top of the standby list. Well, the flight to LA was overbooked, we found out that we were really #7 & 8 on the standby list, and even people who were confirmed on it didn't make it on. We went back to another agent and the most we could get from his mumbled tones was to find out that the first lady had lied to us. There was no 4pm flight, but it arrived in San Diego at 4:30, and it was totally full, so we couldn't pay $100 to get on it. We couldn't pay anything.

Finally we met a very nice United woman who helped us out. She put us on standby for the San Diego direct flight at 2:40, but confirmed us on a 5:40 flight that connected through Denver. So we were sure to get a flight out. There wasn't time to leave the airport because we had to be back by 1 for the 2:40 flight so we could wait through security and everything, so we went to Harry's Tap Room for breakfast. French toast and omelets. Yum. Then we walked around the airport. I got a Diet Coke. I needed some caffeine - and there was no Dr. Pepper to be found in the entire airport, only Coke products. Then the 2:40 flight was delayed until 4:10. So we waited. And waited. It was very boring. And then that flight was overbooked, no chance of us getting on.

Back to the United counter to get our boarding passes to Denver. There we were met with an extremely rude ticketing agent who informed us that the other agent had booked us on a flight with an illegal connection. I guess you can't confirm anyone on a flight that has less than a 50 minute connection, and ours was 30 minutes. Luckily the gates were close, so they figured we would be ok. At this point I didn't care - I just wanted to get out of the Dulles airport!! She told us we were very lucky, and that if it would have been her, she wouldn't have helped us, because she 'follows the rules.' Well, we were glad that she wasn't there earlier then! ha ha She reworked everything so we had boarding passes for both flights, and we were on our way. Not before I received a very long lecture on not missing our flights and how we should have been charged for the changes - the $100 change fee PLUS the fare increase ... "You might as well just sleep at the airport if you are not going to be able to make it to your flight on time next time." Wow. Ok we WERE at the airport on time, in fact, over an hour early. If your airline would have people actually helping customers, this wouldn't have happened. If, if, if - there are a million what-if's that we finally stopped thinking about it because it wasn't worth it. It was just frustrating that everyone assumed we were irresponsible and talked to us in the most condescending and belittling tones possible!

Back to the terminals at Dulles. We walked through every terminal in the airport. We met a nice woman on the people mover who worked at the jewelry store and she told us where some good restaurants were. We browsed around Brookstone and I found a massager that you strap around your stomach that we played with for awhile. We were very bored, obviously. We visited all 3 Borders stores. We each bought a book that I can't remember the name of because a few chapters into it I realized that I didn't want to keep reading it. I returned it and the lady laughed when I told her that it only took me a few minutes to realize that it was too trashy for my liking. She didn't argue with that and gave me my money back. I spent the next little while on the phone - with the car rental company and the hotel, informing them that we would be there later than planned on. Of course this now meant that we were missing the game in San Diego since its was an afternoon game - and we bought our tickets online from Ticketmaster, so that now became a sunk cost of the trip (yet another one). We had lunch/dinner/whatever it was by that point at Potbelly's and then headed over to catch our flight.

5pm - 11 hours after arriving at Dulles airport, we get on a plane to go to Denver. We have seats next to each other, and we're off. Well - after a 40 minute delay because of some thunder & lightening around us. It was a pretty rough start to the flight and I felt very nauseated. Then I felt like I might pass out. Ok maybe it wasn't really that bad but I was doing my best to keep it together and not have to illicit the help of the tiny barf bag in my seat pocket! I was fine though - deep breathing and ginger ale helped :) Of course since we left late, we were late getting into Denver - where we already had a tight connection. We RAN off the plane and to the next gate, got on the plane, where they closed the doors shortly after we arrived. Then we sat there for 45 minutes while we heard "Hi folks, this is your captain ... we are having some computer problems and the mechanical team is running some diagnostic tests to see if we can run with only 1 or 2 of our 3 computers ... we will keep you posted." That is comforting! We did take off though - and despite some plane shaking (I was really scared for a minute!), we made it. But that still meant we were - not surprisingly - late landing in San Diego. But we were there - finally!

We were very excited that we didn't have to wait for our baggage to arrive since it preceded us by a good many hours. Then we found out it was at the commuter terminal in another building because it had come from a flight in LA. So we had to get our rental car first, then come back to the airport and get our bags. Whatever. We got our rental car - they were oh so nice and upgraded us from a Ford Focus to a PT Cruiser ... wah-hoo, right?!? ha ha Then back to get our luggage, and off to the hotel. We were hoping to meet up with Katie's friend Jordan that night, but after all the headaches of getting there and the delays, he ended up getting home from his night out before we even made it to our hotel!

We pulled into our destination - Paradise Point Resort & Spa (a great Hotwire find!), and felt like finally, we were going to be able to relax in a nice place and get some much needed R&R! We waited our turn in line and Katie gave them our information. Here's how the conversation went: "Actually, we had a large group extend their stay through tonight, so we are all booked. We have made arrangements for you to stay at another hotel this evening." Um ... I laughed. Right then and there. Of course they were full! Why would we possibly think that we were actually done with this ordeal already? The hotel they sent us to was called "The Sea Lodge" in La Jolla - about 20 min away. We were not the only ones they sent there. The lady in front of us was ranting and raving and asking for the manager's business card so she could talk to him. We were so done with fighting people that we figured we'd deal with it the next day, after a good night's sleep, since by this point we'd almost been up for 24 hours.

The MapQuest directions they gave us were incomplete - it was like a screen shot that they forgot to expand. So luckily we had my GPS and found the hotel from the address they provided - luckily, since the name of it didn't register anything. We pulled up to the address and couldn't see anything that said "Sea Lodge" anywhere ... it said "La Jolla Shores" ... I asked one of the bellmen, who informed us that they changed the name about two months ago. That information would have been slightly useful ... they were nice to us when we checked in, and gave us keys to our room. There was a man behind us who was in the same predicament. His name was Richard and he was a lawyer (as was his wife, who was in the car with their 2 year old) - he gave us his cell phone number and told us to call him the next day so we could talk about what happened and get to the bottom of it.

Off to our room for a good night's sleep - finally! Except that the beds were hard as rock, the walls were paper thin, and there were lots of people coming in and out (probably from the hotel that overbooked us all) for another hour or two. But it was a bed - and Paradise Point paid for the room and contacted Hotwire to refund the money we had paid for their hotel. So, at least we were not out any money!

Friday Morning. Wake up - its a beautiful new day and we are ready to have our luck turn around. A good night's sleep does wonders for the spirits in these kinds of situations! So we got ready at the hotel. I made a few phone calls - to the Padres - to find tickets for the night's game. Unfortunately for those seeking tickets, this was the first time that the Boston Red Sox had ever come to San Diego (thank you interleage play!) and the entire series was SOLD OUT. Those are the worst possible words I could hear at that moment in time. I kept my cool though, and tried on the Padres Ticketmaster website from the hotel lobby. The site kept timing out and I couldn't access it. I later found out this was because they released a select few tickets at 9am on Friday morning - apparently I was racing the masses to get our hands on those tickets. Once I did get the site to work, however, the hotel security and firewalls blocked the ticket search from working correctly. So, I decided that we would deal with it after the temple.

We got in the car and headed to the temple. About 5 minutes later I realized that I had left the temple cards in my bag at the hotel - so we turned around. This was about the same time that my GPS decided to run out of battery juice. No problem, right? I had my car charger, plugged it in, and we were off ... or not. Apparently Fox Rental disengages the cigarette plugs in all of their cars to stop people from smoking in them ... and also stopping anyone from charging anything in their cars. Good thing I brought my regular phone charger rather than my car charger! So we were GPS-less, and headed back to the hotel, figuring we could call the temple to find out how to get there. At that point we decided to check out of the hotel so we didn't have to come back. Katie called the manager of the Paradise Point Resort, Sandi, and sweet talked her into giving us a room that night for $99 (regularly $400) for all the hassle we'd had to go through with them changing our hotels and everything. We hadn't talked to Richard the lawyer yet but figured if we could get a night out of them, we'd call it good. While Katie was on the phone, I was frantically searching San Diego's Craigslist for anyone who had tickets to the game. I called a couple, and finally got ahold of a guy named Jason who had 2 amazing seats for $90. He couldn't hold them for me, so I told him I was on my way - he gave me directions, I grabbed Katie (who was still on the phone) and we headed downtown to meet Jason at the Wells Fargo building.

He and I met in the street, he told me that the tickets were $90 each, not for the pair, so we walked over to the ATM (since he didn't want to take a check - and I can't blame him for that one - its easy to get burned on craigslist) and we made the exchange. He was impressed that we'd come so far for baseball games, and was very sympathetic to the trauma we had been through up to that point (I gave him a very Reader's Digest version). Thanks for the tickets, have fun, see ya. As I'm walking back to the car, I look at the tickets and notice that they are for Sunday afternoon's game. Uh oh. I called Jason and told him what I'd discovered. He was shocked, told me he'd come back and meet me and get the right tickets. I met him in the street, he took the tickets back, and pulled out his wallet. I was confused for half a second until he pulled out his driver's license and handed it to me as collateral so I knew he would come back.
Smart. And trustworthy - I appreciated that. It would have been a great scam for him to pull to take my $180 and give me tickets to the wrong game and then run off! But he was a good guy, so we were ok. Until he called and said that he didn't actually have the tickets for that night's game. He was a season ticket holder and had them all on his computer - but for some reason he couldn't access his home email account at work because of the servers he had to go through. So ... we had some options ...

1. We could take the tickets and go on Sunday ... we wouldn't be in San Diego anymore.
2. He had tickets to Saturday's game ... we wouldn't be in San Diego anymore then either.
3. He could give me my money back, give me gas money, and phone numbers for other Craigslist listings for the tickets ... that's what we settled on.

He met me back on the street and gave me the money back, money for gas, and a sticky note with a couple other phone numbers on it. He felt awful and apologized profusely. Then he gave us directions on how to get out of downtown, and we parted ways. I called the first number - the tickets were gone. I called the second number - and Mark had 2 ticktes in right field, but they were kind of obstructed view from the old building out there. Ok that's fine, we don't care at this point! He told us where he'd be that we could pick the tickets up and we tried to find it. Only after we returned to the car rental and worked with the mechanic to test all of the cars on the lot to see if any of them would work with my charger. No dice. So we got back in our PT Cruiser and met Mark at a Starbucks to make the ticket exchange. Whew. We had tickets to the game. We were going. Hallelujah! Maybe our luck had finally turned around ...

Cingular Commercial - 'BFF Jill'

I don't know why, but I think this commercial is hilarious! It makes me laugh every time I see or hear it.

The Tyson's Corner Experience.

I went to Tyson's Corner last night before our FHE BBQ at the Bishop's house. Why? To go to the Genius Bar at Apple ... my ipod has totally been acting up ever since the triathlon and that is just not going to fly for me. I keep getting messages saying my ipod is corrupt and that it has no battery power. So, this was the first time I could get into the store to have it checked out.

I had a bit of time on my hands before my appointment at the Apple Store, so I stopped at Ann Taylor Petites. They had the cutest shoes that I bought - and since they were on sale, it evened out with the things that I returned to a couple other stores. Its always nice to go to the mall and walk out with a new pair of shoes and more money in your wallet than you walked in with!! (I wish that happened more often.)

So on to the Genius Bar. Apparently my ipod has been corrupted. How? I am not sure. Something to do with the software and the external 3rd party charging mechanism. Hmm. So he restored it for me and told me to take it home, charge it on my iHome, and then transfer all my music back to it. I was able to do that ... now it just permanently shows the battery on the screen like its charging all the time. Strange, yes, but if it works, then I'll take it. The true test will be when I go running tonight. I just hope it doesn't stop 5 minutes into my run! (or 5 seconds like last week). I've got my fingers crossed! Although I do have my eye on the 8gb special edition Red nano that they have out right now ... its a pretty penny though so I hope mine takes to the fix!

I still had a little while before the BBQ by the time I finished up at the Apple store, so I decided that I'd go to Nordstrom. Probably out of laziness more than anything, seeing as how Tyson's is one of the largest malls in the country and has just about every store known to man! I'd parked at Nordstrom though, so it seemed the logical choice. I browsed through the lingere section and saw a woman (if I can call her that - she definitely younger than me) and I asked her if she would fit me. So she took me into the dressing room, got out her measuring tape, and proceeded with the fitting. Then she got a 'fitting bra' which was hideous, and then took like 10 minutes to find a few others that she thought I would like. (None of which I really did, as a side note.) She went to get a few more, and I was bored out of my mind in the dressing room. I have no idea what was taking her so long. It kind of reminded me of my What Not to Wear experience, standing in front of a mirror, staring at myself, with nothing else to do. Then I heard her shoes flip-flopping down the hallway and she came back in with more. Of course she loved the one that I had on - 'its a perfect fit!' and just like the one that she has (go figure she is an A at best...), and went to find just one more in a different color. Maybe she had to go into the inventory room (which doesn't exist) to look or something, because it took longer for her to pick a couple bras than it does for me to choose a kind of ice cream at Cold Stone!

This whole process was taking MUCH longer than I'd anticipated, so by this time I am totally late for the BBQ. I was trying to figure out how I was going to make my escape, when I heard her shoes coming back in with another customer - she told her that she'd be right in to fit her after she gave me this bra. So, she came in, gave the bra to me, and told me she'd be in the next fitting room if I needed anything. I told her that I was going to try this one on and then take a look at the other colors in some of the styles she'd brought for me to try. That's what she thought. What I really did was as soon as she left, I hurried to put my own bra back on, threw on my shirt, and hurried out of the dressing room as I heard her giving the other woman the results of her bra fitting. The escalator is in the middle of Nordstrom, and I practically had to run to make it so I was at least halfway down the escalator - out of sight - before she came out of the dressing room and saw my bright orange shirt escaping her little commissionable self! I am sure it was quite the sight to see ... my disheveled mess of a customer breaking out of the dressing room and making a beeline to the escalator like there was a fire or something! Luckily my skirt was still in tact and my slip wasn't gathered up in the back like it could have been ... next time I have a few mintues to kill at the mall, I should do something a little less stressful!

Ohio State - Michigan ESPN commercials.

A couple of my all-time favorite sports commercials ;) dating and sports ... what a great combination!

Sailing on the Chesapeake

Yesterday we had a Relief Society sailing trip on the Chesapeake Bay ... a few of us went to Solomon's Island to the little shops in the morning and then went back for lunch and an afternoon sailing trip.

It was a perfect day, not too hot and humid, and a little breeze for a relaxing sailing trip with good girlfriends in my ward. And thanks to Becky's dramamine, I didn't get sea-sick like I did in Mexico :)

Pocomoke Triathlon

What is Pocomoke, you ask? Pocomoke, Maryland is just what it sounds like ... a little po-dunk town in Maryland. When I set my new year's resolutions this year, I decided that I wanted to do a triathlon ... so I set out to find one. Well, as races generally go, they were all on Sundays, so I did a lot of research before finding the Pocomoke Triathlon on June 2. I roped a bunch of friends into it with me and we all set out to "train." I, of course, had my issues with passing out and my back, and the training didn't go as well as I would have liked, but I was signed up and I wasn't backing out.

It all seemed like a much better idea in January when June 2 was a long ways away! As the time got closer, I questioned my decision making skills and wondered what in the world I had been thinking. Granted, it was just a sprint triathlon so it wasn't actually that big of a feat. The hardest part for me would be the swimming - since the only swimming I have done in the last 15 years (yikes!) has been purely recreational - no lap swimming. But I got a pass at the local rec center and set out to learn. The biking would be a challenge, but all the years of spin class would help out with that. And since I wasn't planning on using clip-in pedals, I didn't have to worry about falling off the bike. Running was my game. I am by NO means a runner, but I do run and though I am not fast, I can run and I know I can. So ... totally do-able. This sprint tri is a 1/2 mile swim, 14.2 mile bike, and 3.5 mile run. Not too bad, right?

Well the morning of the triathlon came. We got there and set up shop. Organized our equipment, put our time chips on our ankles, and prepared for the waves to start in the pond. The nasty pond. Seriously, I am sure there wasn't anything living in that pond to worry about because I do not think anything could have survived. It was unseasonably warm - 75 degrees - and since I was just at the Atlantic Ocean last week and knew how absolutely FREEZING it was there, I am a bit concerned about the temperature in this little man-made pond! They told us in years past that it was about 70, and lots of people wore wetsuits. Jenny and I rented wetsuits from a local shop here but after one swim in our pool decided that we would only wear them if it was absolutely necessary!

Of course I had to go to the bathroom after the pre-race meeting, so I ran in before we got in the pond. And just as my luck goes ... sorry to be so blunt ... but I had a friendly monthly visitor who decided that NOW was the time to come. Now? Seriously? Wow. Wasn't really expecting that one. But what can you do? Nothing. Just keep on going. So that's what I did. The swim wasn't actually that bad - other than the fact that I think I single-handedly swallowed half the pond! I felt like I was going to throw up when I got out ... but I didn't. I was just glad that I survived the swim - the rest was in the bag. Or was it??

I got out of the pond, threw on my bike shorts, socks, & shoes, strapped on my helmet, put in my ipod, grabbed my bike and I was off. 14.2 miles on a pretty well un-marked path. The first 2 miles were down a relatively major road but the rest were back country roads ... and when I say back country I mean that. The scenery pretty much consisted of chicken coops on one side of the road and corn fields on the other. Which made me feel right at home - it was like I had my mom one one side of me and my dad on the other, cheering me on! So I was pedaling along my merry way, and then felt my stomach start to hurt. I thought it was just because my shorts were tight around my waist, so I slid them down a little. Still hurt. Slid down a little more. Still hurt. About 20 or so minutes into the bike ride, about the time my ipod decided to stop working (which is really too bad for a number of reasons, especially since I had a great playlist put together for this race), my stomach pains were bad enough that I was in pain. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but this was bad. But what could I do? I couldn't stop. So I kept going, in silence, watching all the hard-core people on their fancy road bikes passing me by while I biked my merry way to the end of the course.

I thought for sure that once I took off my biking shorts and put on my running shorts, I would be set - and running was my thing, so life would be great. I got a drink and started off for the running path. Next thing I know, my stomach is hurting so bad that I am doubled over in pain on the side of the trail wishing more than ever that I could just throw up and be done with it all. But that was not to happen. I am ashamed to admit that I walked most of run - I kept telling myself that it was mind over matter and I could just run a little while and then the pain would go away. Yeah that did not work. I tried it multiple times and each time ended the same. I was so bugged. All this time of training and working up to this and then I have to go and get cramps worse than I have had in years right DURING the race? Come on! I did run with my friend John on the way back and that was nice to have someone else there to talk to - though the pain never went away. It wasn't like it stopped after the race either - I slept with a heating pad on it last night and it still hurt when I woke up this morning!

I guess when I said that all I cared about for this triathlon was that I finished it, I was setting myself up for this! I did finish it and I am proud of that accomplishment - but now I feel like I need to do another one to prove to myself that I really can do one without it being a half-hearted effort! I just have to find another one that's not on Sunday. I will definitely make sure that a few things are in order first though ... no nasty pond water, I will get a road bike, and I will make sure that nothing is going to stop me from running like I know I can!! Despite all of that - which is pretty much par for the course in my life - I am glad that I did it. It was a fun experience and now I can say that I have done a triathlon (and I didn't even pass out). And, I successfully accomplished one of my new year's resolutions! Whew.