NIP (Nursing in Planes)

So this weekend, Derek, Lorelei and I went to a wedding in Panama City Beach, Florida. (It was his old college roommate getting married.) Let me break down the travel for you:

It was SUPPOSED to be Cleveland to Memphis to Panama City. But it ended up being...

Cleveland to...wait, up in the air a malfunction was discovered. Emergency landing in Louisville. Wait an hour. Get to Memphis with 15 minutes to catch connecting flight...have to wait for stroller at gate. RUN like a mofo (well, at least I got a workout in!) across the whole airport only to find that the plane had already left, and it wasn't even time yet. And it was the last direct flight to Panama City. Apparently, they now have to leave ten minutes early. Well, then why not make the departure time ten minutes earlier? Rude.

We got on another flight, but to Atlanta and then Panama City. Same gate though! So same plane. Cool. Until there was a gate change, and we had to gather all our stuff yet again. We finally got to Florida after four planes and five airports. Then of course we had to drive an hour to the hotel in the pouring rain! Nope, Florida was not warm and sunny. It was cool and soggy.

I figure, if I could survive that with a baby, then I can survive any travel hell.

I think if there were any positive that came from this, it was my ability to become slightly more comfortable with nursing in public. Or, in this case, nursing in planes. I pretty much got it down to a science by the end, where nobody really had to see anything (and, by the way, if they have a problem with it, then they can look away. They don't HAVE to stare at me!).

I think the worst part of traveling with an infant was going through security. I thought that was a pain in the ass before....wow, nothing compares to having a bunch of your own stuff plus baby crap. That has to be folded or collapsed and shoved through the scanner, all the whie somehow holding your child.I also got the "Do you have her formula?" question a bunch of times from the security agents...when I said "No," they looked at me like I had three heads. WHAT? No formula? Haha.

"Watching" the superbowl tonight, which pretty much means I'm on theipad and eating while everyone around me is screaming at the TV. Fun!

Happy New Year!

These last few weeks have been filled with family, friends, cooking, shopping, and traveling. Some are better with a baby....and some aren't!

Being home again feels good. My own bed with my own pillows. My own shower and clothes that don't come out of a suitcase. All of Lorelei's stuff at hand instead of in bags. And she gets to "sleep" (ha ha) in her own crib too, instead of a pack and play! (Although she does enjoy the pack and play.)

Well, I guess it's 2011! What?! And time for some "ideal situations" (I wouldn't dare call them resolutions, and I really don't even want to call them goals, because then if they're not met, then they're just disappointments).

My Ideal Situations for 2011

• Get the hang of this whole baby thing. Or at least get a little better at balancing no sleep with all I have to do during the day.
• Run more races. A 5k to start, some 10ks, and 1-2 half marathons.
• IF and only IF I get into the NYC Marathon lottery, consider doing that one (or perhaps defer for  a year).
• Lose some/all of the "baby weight." Ideally: 15 pounds. But I'd settle for 10.
• Blog more. I like it, and don't usually give myself time to do it.
• Meet new people in the Cleveland area (ideally, other moms and/or runners).
• Look into a career change. That one, I have only recently been thinking about. Not to say that I definitely want to go back to school right away, or that I even definitely want to leave teaching, but...I want to consider other options, especially since I feel like I started teaching spontaneously (NYCTF program after college) without having a lifelong desire to do it. And I'm not totally sure that's what I want to do for the rest of my life. So anyway, I want to explore my options this year.

Here is a recent picture of Lorelei (although, seriously, there are SO MANY from over the holidays that it was hard to pick just one!):

And...it's STILL February!

..But not for long!

I don't know about you, but March just sounds, and feels, so much better to me than (shudder) FEBRUARY. Ugh.

Highlights of the week:

• it was actually really nice last weekend, so Claire and I went out for a 4-mile run in Rocky River! Yessss!
• ...followed by blecchy flurries, followed by another huge snowstorm! (or maybe two? I can't count, but we definitely got over a foot of snow in the last few days).
• So, my parents had scheduled a visit to good ol' Cleveland Thursday (which, by the way, is supposedly the "most miserable U.S. city" according to Forbes), but their flight got canceled. :(
• Derek left on a business trip to NY Wednesday...and got stuck there too! Wah! Now, my whole family is in NY and I am here in Cleve-o.
• Um, as if that wasn't bad enough, our heat went off late Thursday night and I had to sleep in like five layers!
• Drove to work and back in a blizzard. The Cleveland schools were all actually closed for once, so it woulda been a good time to be a teacher.  Our office was open, so....oh well!

But, last night I went to dinner in the neighborhood with Rob and Claire, and then slept over there last night. Today, we went to "Skinny Bitch" class at Studio 11 (yikes! I feel so out of shape). Derek made it home today, and our heat is thankfully back on! Bring on the weekend!

And bring on March!

The 'rents rescheduled for the weekend of the 20th, so...I am crossing my fingers for good weather!

That's all for now.

Back from Vacation....

...and boy, did I need it!

Ok, I guess I always get the winter blues.  I try not to, but it always creeps up on me!

So I was extremely excited when my husband was sent on a business trip to Orlando, Florida and I was able to tag along for a few days!!!

Plus, we still haven't taken an official honeymoon (yet), so we kept calling this our mini-moon. :)

Here's the summary:

Thursday - flew down, felt warm sun on my body for the first time in months! Hung around the hotel and just soaked it all in while Derek was at a meeting.  At night, went to Trevi, an Italian restaurant inside the hotel.

Friday - ran at the hotel's fitness center in the morning (I would have definitely taken advantage of the warm weather and gone outside, but the path was around a golf course and I didn't want to get in anyone's way!), then went to Magic Kingdom! 

Afterwards, took a drive a bit north and went to BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse for dinner.  We also toasted our mini-moon with a mini bottle of champagne that Derek picked up for us!


Saturday - played tennis at the hotel with Derek, then had brunch at Trevi.  After a shower, tried golf for the very first time!  I sucked, but it was fun.  Then we took a drive to downtown Orlando midday and ate our fair share of fish and seafood (um, and drank a whole lotta beer) at Cityfish.  A nice, laid-back way to close out the weekend.

Sunday - ran on the treadmill again (man, I really dislike treadmill running now, which is ironic being that it's how I started running and how I almost always used to run), then packed up all our stuff and headed to the airport.

In the airport I listened (or, tried to listen because there was so much hustle and bustle around me) to Obama's speech at Vermont Avenue Baptist Church commemorating MLK Day and just commenting in general about all that's going on right now.  He closed his speech by reiterating that, though we are experiencing a "dark winter," his faith keeps him calm.  Interesting to think about.  Even though religion doesn't play a huge role in my life, I do occasionally think about faith and how trusting in the good of humanity can do wonders for your state of mind.  Although I'm mostly a cynic, I also hope for the best and try to stay optimistic about positive changes for the future.  And with this in mind, I think of Haiti and keep those who have suffered in my prayers.

Here's hoping this week is a good one for all.

NYC Marathon Recap: Pre-Race

Hey Folks!

For the sake of time, and also giving myself a break once in awhile, I have decided to do this race report in three different segments: 1) the weekend travel, including Saturday pre-race stuff; 2) the race itself; and 3) everything afterwards.  So if you don't wanna read about what happened before or after the actual race, you can skip the first and last post and just read the race report itself. :)

So I'll begin with Friday. We took a 7:20 pm flight from Cleveland to New York and...I'm serious...no delays, no problems...we even boarded early!  I took it as a good sign.  I had obsessively packed my bags, including packing all my racing gear in a carry-on (of course), just in case.  I even anally packed my duplicate pair of sneakers in case something happened to the ones I was supposed to wear on race day.

Got to NY without a hitch, and Mom and Jack picked us up at LaGuardia.  It was great to see them, as well as their new addition...a soft-coated Wheaton Terrier named Cody!!!

Isn't he frickin' adorable?  I mean, come on.

Derek and I were pretty hungry when we got in, so we had some bagels and just hung out with my folks for a while before going to bed.  (By the way, I was still working on the "dedications" page at that point, which I STILL have not finished, and I'll have to post it post-marathon now. Oh well, the sentiment is still there.)

Slept really well Friday night (I always do at my parents' house...you know how it is) and then Saturday morning woke up to a peaceful pitter-patter of rain.  This, to me, was both good and bad.  It was bad because a) I was supposed to do a 2-mile jog that day to loosen my legs and clear my head, and b) we were supposed to head into the city to get to the expo and lug all my crap around, and I hate walking around in the rain.  However, this rain turned out to be a good thing, because a) it forced me to wear my "backup" shoes around the city, thus not wearing out my newer pair or getting them soggy for Sunday; b) I didn't do my jog that day which I think was good because it forced to me to rest a bit more, which I needed; and c) the rain came and went on Saturday....which meant the weather forecast changed: no rain on Sunday!  YAY!  Whatever rain was predicted for race day came early.  Good job weather.

And, in fact, the rain even stopped by mid-morning, which is when Derek and I got out of the house and went to the train station at Croton.

Now, I should mention that traveling, and crowds, and having to schlep stuff anywhere for extended periods of time on a time-crunch situation, gives me anxiety.  Not just normal-level stress, but close to panic sometimes.  It's weird.  So anyway, I wanted to make sure it was as painless as possible.  Not really likely, considering I had to carry ALL my race-day gear with me all day, including my extra pair of sneakers, plus my purse, plus we were getting into Grand Central and the Expo was wayyy the eff out at the Javits Center, yet Louise's is on the East side.  So, you ask, why didn't I just drop off my huge bag at Louise's first?  Well, because then I'd have to go ALL the way back to the west side, and THEN back to her place because that stupid pasta party wasn't letting us get in with bags larger than a purse.  

That being said: all was painless, starting with the free shuttle from Grand Central to the expo (nice!), where we spent more than half the time waiting on a dumb line.  I got my bib, my bag & shirt, my pasta party tickets and got the heck outta there!!

This "quick & dirty" ordeal was followed by lunch at 'wichcraft in West Chelsea a short walk away from the expo (27th and 11th) where we met up with Andrew, Kristin, Kelly, and her boyfriend Bill.  Great sandwiches, soups, and cookies.  Yum!  Then Derek and I parted--he went to stay with Matt & Sarah in Brooklyn, while I took the train to the east side to Louise's!  I finally made it after two transfers!  Ugh, the subway...how convenient and yet inconvenient you are.

Louise and her hubby Britt were such great hosts, and gave me my own little room.  Louise had even set aside little marathon souvenirs for me (pace tattoo, postcard, poster) in anticipation of my arrival.   We hung out for a bit and then walked over to the pasta party to meet Maria!

I can sum up the pasta party (er.. pardon me, the "Barilla Marathon Eve Pasta Dinner at Tavern on the Green") in two words: it sucked.  Will never do that again!  Waited in line forever, then were shuffled through

the entrance and food lines like cattle, the music was so loud that we couldn't hear each other, and it was like a bunch of dance music.  The lighting was dark, and there were even go-go dancers making a fool out of themselves onstage.  I felt like this was more of  a victory party but without the dance floor.  After experiencing the TNT pasta party, I was expecting something more inspiring, maybe with a speaker or a video or at least some peace and quiet.  No, not at all.  At least we got a picture:

Even though the pasta itself was good, we were all still a bit hungry after we finished, but we really did not want to go back through the entire line again.  So we grabbed our freebies (weird juice with fruit bits in it, 100 calorie packs of some sort, apples which I will be sure NOT to eat until they are properly washed, and Italian Ices) and booked it outta there!

We got back to Louise's place (cabbed it this time), and the three of us girls got started setting up our race-day stuff.  We put stick-on letters on our TNT singlets, pinned on our bibs, and attached our D-tags to our shoes while listening to our favorite "running songs" on Louise's computer.  It was so fun being with them again!

We tried to get to bed early, and remembered to set all the clocks back one hour - extra sleep - not that we'd be getting much sleep tonight!!!  All ready for the morning!

Stay tuned for...the race report itself!