Week in Review- Part 1

Let's see, last week I mentioned that on Friday I would be helping out at the YWCA Leadership Luncheon. We ended up setting out a bunch of things on the tables (there were almost 100 tables with 10 chairs each!), then when people started showing up, we directed them to their assigned tables. Pretty straightforward, but it was nice to be able to help out, plus I saw a friend that I haven't seen in forever. We were best friends growing up, but when my family moved (when I was in high school), we sort of drifted apart. We tried to keep in touch with letters (this was before email, folks), but they weren't all that frequent. And since it was long distance to call on the phone, we kept in touch less frequently. Fast forward to now, and we rarely talk, if ever (yes, even in the email age). We usually send each other an email once a year for birthdays, but the last time I saw her was Feb of last year at her brother's wedding. So it was a nice surprise to see her and to catch up a tiny bit (I found out that she is working for a different company, and has bought a house).

Regarding the lunch we were supposed to get afterward for helping, well that didn't turn out as I had hoped. Let me set the scene. I was supposed to be at work at 8:00 or 8:15, so I ate breakfast right before I left the house. There was a major disaster on the freeway that happened about 10 or so cars ahead of me (a gravel truck dumped dirt and huge rocks all over the freeway, and a car up ahead of me spun out on the gravel and crashed into the cement barrier, causing everyone in my lane to slam on their breaks meaning that I narrowly missed hitting the car in front of me, and the other 2 lanes were covered in debris, which shut down the freeway for 2 hours- luckily since I was there right when it happened, we could drive very slowly over the rocks to get away from the mess... but it was still somewhat traumatizing). But that has nothing to do with the lunch.

After we helped set everything out on the tables, we had about 90 minutes before people would be showing up, so instead of just hanging out doing nothing during that time, our HR manager decided we should do brunch at the hotel restaurant (the event was at the Grand America, which is the swankiest hotel in town), instead of doing lunch after the event. Great plan in theory, but remember that I had just eaten breakfast less than 3 hours prior to this time. Since I hadn't brought a lunch to work, I figured I might as well eat something, so I did indulge. The food was good, but I ended up having french toast, and a tiny waffle (it was the size of a mini bagel), and I think all the butter and syrup didn't sit well with me- too much fat and sugar for what essentially ended up being my lunch.

Later on in the day, it came back to bite me again. It was 10:30 when we had brunch. I had to work until 4:00, then drive down to Provo (which probably took about 45 minutes in the traffic). However, due to other delays, and then wish-washy decision making, it was about 6:30 before the Hubs and I and his sister headed out for dinner before our movie at 7:30. That means it was 8 hours between meals, which for anyone is bad, but I also have issues with hypoglycemia sometimes (my brother has it really bad), and add to that the fact that I was totally PMS'ing (which wasn't confirmed at the time), and it was not pretty. I wasn't the nicest person to be around Friday night. By the end of the movie, I was almost falling asleep, so we went straight home (meaning, back to my in-law's place) and I went to bed (it was probably 10:30).

I had taken all of my running gear with me in anticipation of either running on the treadmill (the condo complex has a nice workout facility downstairs), or running around the neighborhood. I woke up around 6:30 Saturday morning, but laid in bed for about a half-hour. I finally decided to get up and try running outside (since the weather seemed okay). I planned to do around 4.5-5 miles, and there were several major streets nearby and it was pretty flat. So I had a granola bar and a banana before leaving, then headed out. I ended up doing a rectangular loop over, down, over and back up that was about 4.8 miles. And it was a pretty good run. I had to walk a few times in the last mile and a half, but overall it was pretty good. I finished in about 45 minutes, so my pace was around 9:21.

Saturday ended up being much better than Friday night. After my run, I showered and got dressed, then read a magazine on the balcony until the Hubs got up. The weather was starting to look a little questionable (still warm, but lots of wind and dark clouds)- I had even seen some lightning far off when I was running. The game started at 1:00, but the Hubs was going shopping with his dad before that to pick out his birthday presents. We headed over to the mall and it started raining. It came down pretty hard while we were in the store, but then it slowed a bit. When we got back, we dug out our ponchos and jackets to take to the game (we were walking to the stadium from the condo- so convenient) and headed over. We planned to eat lunch at the stadium, which worried me a little, but I figured after having a good run, I had some calories to work with. When we got to the stadium, the weather started clearing, and it warmed up quite a bit. In fact, for most of the game it was pretty hot (around 80 degrees), and it was humid, too. Luckily I was wearing a white shirt and not navy blue like most other people in the stands (ha ha).

Here is a view from where we were sitting. Our seats were in the upper level, but we could still see pretty well, and they're close to the 50-yd line. Plus, being higher up meant that as the sun moved across the sky, we were in the shade by half-time (hallelujah!).

This picture is me and my sister-in-law (the Hubs' younger sister). Don't you love our blue false eyelashes? She is a mega-BYU fan (she actually graduated from there), but me- not so much. Like I've mentioned, my family is University of Utah fans. The two schools are arch rivals (think Yankees-Red Sox, Vikings-Packers), so it's really pretty weird that I would even go to a game. But the team is good, and I figure any chance to get free tickets to a football game is worth it (the seats are worth $75 bucks!). And it was a fun game, although a little one-sided. They ended up beating Wyoming 44-0. The week before they beat UCLA 59-0. They last time BYU football had 2 shutouts in a row was 1985- and what's even more weird, is that the scores of those 2 games were 59-0 and 44-0. (spooky, huh?)

Okay, I have to tell a funny story about the shirt I'm wearing. I hope it doesn't seem to blasphemous or sacrilegious. Yes, it's a white t-shirt, but it is actually a BYU shirt. Every year in August, they hold a women's clinic where you sign up and get to meet the players and tour the facilities and then go to classes to learn about football (they have beginner, intermediate and advanced, 'cause some women know a lot more about football than others). Anyway, 2 years ago my MIL signed us up for it (me, her 2 daughters, and a friend). So the shirt has the BYU logo on the front and says Womens Clinic, and the back has the logo (bigger) and says BYU Football. We were able to get our shirts signed by some of the players and coaches. When I took my shirt to have the head coach (Bronco Mendenhall) sign it, I folded it up to leave a spot for him to sign- the spot just happened to be front and center on my chest (just to clarify- I wasn't wearing the shirt). Am I a horrible person? But it's funny, right? Ha ha- the coach "signed my chest".

Okay, this post is getting really long, so I will have to divide it into at least 2 parts. Part 2 to come soon.