Soundtrack for My Sanity

Okay, so I never ever ever thought I'd be one of Those People. You know the ones: they act like exercise is fun. Maybe you're one of them. As though sweating and gasping for breath is not only good for you (which it is, of course), but also enjoyable (whatever). They look forward to muscle stretches and aches, to leg cramps and stomach cramps and ruddy faces and stinky pits.

There is a reason I carry extra weight--and have for a long time, on and off, but mostly on. I like hostess treats and real Coke. I enjoy a creamy sauce on my salty meat. I like vegetables and fruits, but I also like butter and pie crust. Perhaps all this would be acceptable and not show up in record time on my belly/arms/chin/thighs/etc, if I liked exercise. But also, I am not one of Those People.

At least I wasn't. Until recently. You may recall that I started running, even though no one was chasing me. I think I have always secretly wanted to be one of Those People, and most of them are runners. I equate their affinity for running with the inexplicable love of tomatoes and olives that some people display. People who like tomatoes LOVE them, they wax eloquent about them. I have always wanted to like tomatoes--I have tried them over and over again, without success--so I could love a healthy food like that. Make 'em into a sauce or heat them up mixed with other items (disguising them), and I will eat them. But alone, raw, cold? No. I digress.

Back to the running. I've struggled. I used a lot of excuses not to do it as often as I should. Got really off track when we moved to VA in late August. But now I am back on it. And, dare I say it, I actually like it. A lot. The weather has been outstanding since we moved here, and I LOVE being outside, running around the lake, into the woods, through the neighborhood, where I very fortunately do not know anyone. When it's a little chilly, I love it. When it's hot, I love it. When it's rainy, I love it. Ohmigosh, I have become one of Those People!

Caveat: I am not at all good at it. I am not fast. I take walking breaks. I recently was baptized by bird poop as I ran, a pretty good indicator that I wasn't moving much faster than a parked car. Since I run for time, not distance (so far), I have no clue how far I am going, but when I drive my running route--which is probably a little longer than my footpath distance with the curves and all--it's about 3 miles. I have now achieved the 30-straight-minutes-of-running goal, which conventional wisdom indicates I should now be able to run a 5K (3.1 miles).

Also, it's not a pretty picture when I do this. When I sweat, I smell like stale popcorn. My pits are insanely wet, my chest is bright red, my face is lobster-like, my back sweats, my hands swell. I use big fat padded headphones, circa 1989, because ear buds fall out of my ears. They work just fine, thank you, but they look 100% ridiculous. I have ZERO desire to run with others. Which brings me to the title of this post. Running is now, officially, my sanity. My Me Time.

Just for fun, and to see if anyone has other suggestions, I thought I'd share my Running Playlist, comfortably stored on my rhapsody app on my iPhone (which I wear on my arm, adding to the above-described pretty). Some of these are songs that I would not normally listen to in real life, but I like them all in this context. I am generally a folk-rock/classic rock kind of gal, mellow, sing-along songs. But Iris Dement & John Prine are, frankly, not very motivational. So I dug deeper, channeled my inner-angry-girl and found some music with evergy. Some are warm-up, cool-down and the rest move-your-booty motivational. So here it is:

Warm-up:
Beautiful Day-U2
Hey Soul Sister-Train
Bring Me To Life-Evanescence

Move it:
Headstrong-Trapt
Suddenly I See-KT Tunstall
So What-Pink
Thanks for the Memories-Fall Out Boy
Empire-Queensryche
American Girl-Tom Petty
My Life Would Suck Without You-Kelly Clarkson
How Far We've Come-Matchbox Twenty
American Idiot-Green Day
Born to Run-Cowboy Mouth (Springsteen cover)
Dirty Little Secret-The All-American Rejects
The Distance-Cake
Get on Your Boots-U2
Go-Blink 182
Goodbye to You-The Veronicas

Cool Down:
Pump It Up-Elvis Costello
All These Things That I've Done-The Killers
Call Me When You're Sober-Evanescence
Dreams-Van Halen

Despite my new membership in The Club of Those People, I will try to refrain from acting like others are insane for not buying my crap. Sedentary lifestyles can also be fun and rewarding. I'm not too far gone to remember that. Life's too short to force yourself to like tomatoes. The important thing is to keep trying new things.

Whatever. ;-)

Pickin' and Grinnin'

It's fall y'all! Mom and Dad came up for a visit and to celebrate Amelia's 3rd birthday. I was on call last weekend (and was a busy midwife!), so the party was this weekend. We headed out to Crooked Run Orchard to collect some red and green lovelies.









Sunday was Amelia's little party. Our new friends/neighbors joined us for cake and ice cream, Pin The Hair On Dora, and presents. Amelia sang Happy Birthday to herself in the bathtub that night over and over. I think she loved it!

Amelia is 3!

Happy, happy, happy birthday to Mimi! Can't imagine our family without this little redheaded fireball. She is hilarious, giggly, feisty, loving, determined, chatty, friendly, smart and super sweet. Can remember her birth day and its immediate aftermath like it was yesterday!

We went to our town's Fall VillageFest this evening. Amelia thought the whole set-up was in honor of her birthday. And who are we to contradict that? She's worth a whole carnival for sure!

The Road Less Traveled

Labor Day weekend. Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship. Purcellville, Virginia. A big ol' family hike, dog included. Perfect weather. Perfect scenery.

Greetings from Virginia, Y'all!

Okay, we did it. Somehow, miraculously, with the help of some of the greatest friends in the universe and thanks to Peter's anal planning of how to efficiently pack the truck, we fit our HUGE amount of stuff into the moving van. I don't think even a toothbrush would've fit by the time it was all done. With the assistance and company of my dad and Brian and Victoria, we caravanned across TN and up through Virginia. We have arrived. We have unloaded. We have unpacked. We have already taken advantage of the community pools. We even took a weekend trip to Hershey Park (compensation for the fact that our Disney trip had to be postponed due to the timing of this move). We are officially residents of Ashburn, Virginia.

The only major casualty of the move is that my beloved camera is gone. We had a party with lots of friends at our house the weekend before we left; that was the last sighting of the camera. Was hoping it had been packed last-minute in a box. But alas, it is not here anywhere. All the August pics are courtesy of my dad or my iPhone.

A Memphian's Lament

A series of events and divine signs have led us here. Peter's employer wanted him on-site in the DC area more. We wanted him to travel less. My job situation had become tenuous, and the commute was not healthy for our family. We prayed a lot. We researched a lot. Peter told the company he'd move to the DC 'burbs. Suddenly, I had a job, too. A great job in suburban DC. A whirlwind from "let's start thinking about this" to "I guess we're doing this." So many aspects of this transition fell into place, so I know it's right. We have a townhouse to rent there, which we rented sight-unseen (scary and VERY uncharacteristic of me), that we then saw on a pre-move visit and turns out, is perfect. Mine is kind of my dream job in many ways. The changes with Peter's position will be almost certainly positive. We're moving in two weeks to northern Virginia, and it will be great!

So why, why, why, does this hurt so much? When I moved away for college, I always said I'd never move back to Memphis, and then, 13 years later, I rolled back into town. I complain regularly about Memphis and all its problems--the culture of racism, the mostly bad schools, the apathetic majority, the hot summers. But there are SO many things I love about Memphis. And I kind of don't wanna leave. There's BBQ and the Tigers and the Redbirds and the Levitt Shell. Downtown and Main Street and midtown and Lakeland and Shelby Farms. The museums, the ease of travel, the zoo, the local music scene. Our church, our neighborhood, our school, our friends. People who are making a difference and who care about changing the things that suck into the things we can be proud of. Can't change the hot summers, but we sure can suffer through them together, cooling off in pools and sprinklers, drinking cold beers together while we grill out, finding respite in the air conditioning of each other's homes.

Every other move for our family has felt right--right time to move on, ready for a change. With this one, though the pieces are falling beautifully into place, I feel so sad. I have a great extended family and so many of them are right here. I love that my kids see my parents so often, that Dad can call and ask if maybe he can just whisk 'em away to the zoo for the afternoon, that my mom can roll cookie dough with them for the holidays, that there are cousins two blocks away. Our neighborhood is fun and festive and full of kids. The children adore their school, and we're confident they're learning a lot there. We have friends--individual friends and couple friends and family friends, from church and school (old and new) and sports and the neighborhood and childhood and work. I know we'll keep in touch with our Memphis friends, but it won't be the same. We'll have Facebook and email and the phone and visits back "home" but it won't be the same. And that will be sad.

The closer we get to August 25, the more I cry--and not just because I hate to pack. Though I know a great adventure awaits, and that God has a plan for our family, I still mourn the loss of what we have in Memphis. It won't be the same; it will be different. But maybe, just maybe, it will be different in some really good ways. And we'll always have the memories of good times in The Bluff City with some of the best people in the whole world.

Staycation: Walking in Memphis

Peter left for Guatemala on a Mission Trip with our church, and I had the week off to be with the kidlets. I debated what to do with them, where to go, maybe a couple of day trips. But ultimately, I decided to explore our fair city with them. Things would be less crowded on weekdays, and I'd let them make the itinerary. This idea became even more brilliant when we learned we'd be moving away from Memphis at the end of August. All the more reason to take in the sights before we left. The Newtons met us on a couple of the days, which was fantastic. The girls got to hang out with Sage, I got to hang out with Jen and baby Hazel.

The girls really wanted to go roller skating, which wasn't a Memphis-specific event, but something they wanted to do. It had been a good 20 or more years since I was on roller skates, but I rocked the rink after a few wobbly turns around the place. The girls all eased into it, too, and did quite well. I feel really old even thinking this, but goodness, the music the kids listen to these days is just nauseating. Either sugary-sweet or crazy-skanky, but all repetitious and processed and, ugh. I longed for the "Oh Mickey" days of old. Would a little "When Doves Cry" have killed 'em? Jeez. In any case, we had a blast.





Mud Island was great--insanely hot. Jen sent me a text later that night saying the heat index had been around 112. We're such good moms for getting our kids out in that weather! In our defense, they were wading/swimming in the water and fountains the whole time. We took 'em all to Beale Street, to A Schwabs and to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. My kids' disturbing affinity for the Justin Bieber song at the roller skating rink was redeemed a little by their excitement at seeing the U2/Bono memorabilia at the Hard Rock.












One morning, we went to the Dixon Art Gallery. The kids went on an art scavenger hunt, provided by the nice docent at the front desk, and sketched their own drawings inspired by some of the gallery's collection. We met the Newtons afterwards at the Botanic Gardens for lunch at the cafe (seriously yum) and some big-time play-time at My Big Backyard. The Farmer's Market there is top-notch as well, and we were introduced to the best Italian ice ever, as well as natural honey sticks we couldn't get enough of. Saw the sign about wine-and-tapas night, a few quick calls later and Jen secured a babysitter for all the kids so we could return later that night for grown-ups-night-out. Fantastic!






Other requests from Molly & Rebecca were the Fire Museum & The Civil Rights Museum. Another great day downtown. We rode the Main Street Trolley from one to the other.






Spent one morning at Sun Studios, learning more about the Elvis legacy in our city, listening to some great old grainy tracks, and posing with the microphone both Elvis and Bono used when recording there. We had lunch in a train car at the Spaghetti Warehouse. That night, took all three kids to see Mary Poppins on the big screen at the Orpheum. Despite multiple trips out for the bathroom, we made it through the movie.




We headed down to Autozone Park for the Memphis Redbirds game. Our kids were the stars of the show--Molly got to deliver the game balls to the home plate umpire at the beginning of the game, and Rebecca participated in a promotion for a dental insurance company by dressing up as the tooth fairy, who uses a giant toothbrush to "clean" the bases between innings. They "called" the game from the Fantasy Radio booth with Papa. To top it off, Redbirds won with a walk-off homerun!







We were all wiped out after our Staycation, maybe even more than after a vacation, but my appreciation for what Memphis has to offer is multiplied, and we have lots of memories and pictures to treasure as we leave the city for new adventures!