Thing 8: Run a Race

I've wanted to be a runner for a long time. I watch all the major marathons on TV and I follow a lot of running blogs. But I never actually put in the work to make myself a runner. But a wise person once said that if you run you're a runner. So it's been a goal of mine to participate in a race for a while.

Once again, I spend a lot of time talking about things and much less time following through. As I did with climbing Mt. Monadnock, I signed up for a race the night before I participated.

On a Saturday morning, with my sneakers laced tight and a water bottle strapped to my hand, I trekked 2.62 miles through 90 degree heat. The race was a benefit for Jeff Bauman who was severely injured in the Boston Marathon bombings.

I was nervous having never participated in an organized race knowing that I was going to walk most of it. But I put on a brave face, showed up, and finished. 

I was so slow because it was crazy hot and humid, but it wasn't about a finishing time.

This was a chance to walk/run for those who were not able to. It was about donating time and money to a good cause and challenging myself in a new way.

Local Field Trip: Boston

On our second day in Boston, we started out in Cambridge at Harvard University. They wouldn't let us in because we weren't smart enough or something.

We wandered Harvard Square and scouted out an ice cream shop for breakfast ice cream at 11 am. (Let's not pretend that any time of day isn't the best time of day for ice cream.)

Coffee oreo...nom.

After ice cream for breakfast, we rode the T. 

We headed to Fenway to walk around the park and take some pictures. It was HOT!

After trekking through the beastly heat, we headed to the Public Garden to ride some swan boats.

While we waited in line, we passed the time by taking horrible self portraits.

Exhibit A.

Exhibit B.

After the swans, we took some senior pictures and visited the ducklings from Make Way for Ducklings fame.

Onward!

Before saying goodbye to K & M, we high tailed it to the Boston Tea Party. M brought tea and headdresses all the way from Michigan to Boston just to reenact the Boston Tea Party. We couldn't let her down!

We got lots of strange looks!

M and I raced across the city to make our scheduled, sunset duck tour. We boarded the Fenway Fanny and toured Boston by land and by sea.

Because it was our last night in Boston, we visited the waterfront and dined like fancy ladies.

Chowder and shrimp and crab cakes and bon bons!

Read about A&M's other adventures here:

Freedom Trail

Salem, MA

Maine

Concord, MA

Movies in the Park

Way back when, I used to do things and blog about them. It was a way to document the times that I decided not to be a hermit and joined the real world. As of late, I do things and don't blog about them. But tonight I had one of those movie nights. Nothing epic or life changing, just a night that in the movie of my life would have made it past the cutting room floor. Naturally I came home and wrote in my diary blogged about it.

With just one week left before school starts, I am trying to hoard my lazy days. I really wasn't inclined to put on pants today but today's lunch date turned into a dinner date in the big city.

M and I drove into Boston to meet up with some of her friends for dinner and a movie. We drove in circles around the Common until we found a place to park deep in the financial district. Every now and then things looked familiar from my earlier travels and adventures in Boston. We ate delicious burgers and I made conversation with new people...always a frightening task but I survived!

After dinner we walked over to the waterfront to watch The King's Speech outside in the park. The grass was wet and my ass got soaked through the beach towel we brought but it was such a cool thing to watch a movie on a giant blow up tv on Long Wharf in Boston.

It has finally cooled off here and tonight called for the first sweatshirt since March/April. Fall is just around the corner!

#Hoodies FTW

   

Where I've Been

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...so here are 17,000 words worth of what I've been up to.

 

By The Numbers: Summer Vacation Edition

This picture pretty much sums up the shenanigans that occurred in Boston.

By The Numbers:

2 - The number of new friends made.

471 - The number of churches + redheads counted.*

5 - The number of times ice cream was consumed.

338 - The number of photos I took.

6 - The number of days I got to see my red-headed Michigander friend.

674 - The number of miles driven across New England.

3 - The number of states visited.

15ish - The number of blogs I owe you about my Summer adventures.

*This may not be entirely accurate.

Morticia

Not the Addams family, but a plant.

Boston is all in a tizzy because the Red Sox can't get out of their own way Morticia the corpse flower is blooming.

The flower is 4 feet tall and only blooms once every 15 years! When it does bloom it wilts after 48 hours. Talk about making every second count. 

The thing about the corpse flower is that when it blooms it smells like rotting flesh. Disgusting but awesome.

File under: #things that amaze me

     

This Post Is Going To Make Me Some Enemies

Let me preface this by saying I know this is going to sound sacrilegious...especially to my Boston Brethren.  Okay...here we go. 

I couldn't care less about the Bruins.

Before you freak out and start commenting that "OMG they haven't made it to the Stanley Cup in 200 years and it's just like when the Red Sox were in the World Series in 2004", let me explain.  I don't follow hockey.  At all.  Ever. 

The only things I know about hockey are:
My home team is the Bruins.
I think a Bruin is a bear.
But their colors are black and yellow...which seem more reminiscent of a bumble bee.
Skates, pucks, nets, and helmets are involved.
It happens on ice.
Men are allowed to legally assault each other in public...and they get paid for it.

At what point do hockey players start taking boxing lessons?  It's all very Gladiator.  The crowd starts cheering and gets all lynch mobby while the ref stands by watching the fight, stopping them only before the blood hits the ice because I imagine at that point it would become a health code violation and they would have to stop the game to prevent the spread of HIV.

I've only been to two hockey games in my life and both were college games.  If my life depended on naming three hockey players I would be dead.  I can name Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe (only because I've seen the movie Never Been Kissed a million times) and even then, if I didn't Google their names before typing this post I would have spelled them: Wayne Gretski and Gordy Howe.

I know that being in the playoffs extends a sports season but seriously...it is June 9th!  It is 327 degrees out today...any sports involving ice should have ended by March...at the latest!