Weekend Review {4/10}

Last month, Teh PT Wife invited me to a ladies weekend that she had planned in Asheville and I was like, DUHH YES.  This past weekend, it went down.

FRIDAY

While I could have been a nice person on Friday and called in for my meeting, I didn't.  Instead, I flexed my hours and slept in and didn't give any fucks about work (after deciding that I wasn't interested in doing work).  I had intentions on going to the gym, but after sleeping in, getting dressed (to include putting on my shoes), and getting downstairs, I realized that I'd have to rush to get ready when I got back if I went to the gym.  Boo.  Instead I sat at the kitchen island and ate a bowl of cereal and did my morning internet routine.  Eventually, I got up and started packing.  While I was in the bedroom, Phil decided that the loft was a good place to pee and I got a little ragey at him for ruining my relaxed zen and making me have to run the carpet cleaner.  The only good thing about the situation was that I caught him in the act so I was able to scold him.  For punishment, I put him outside until I left.

I left Teh German a sappy note...
Which he didn't notice until Saturday afternoon.

We were leaving Charleston at 11, so at 1050, I walked my stuff the 2 doors down to get loaded in the car, went back home and put the dogs in their crates and locked up.  After the car was loaded, we headed to Summerville for a "quick" lunch at Wendy's and to the bank.  Due to traffic, we didn't manage to get on the road until almost 1.  Oops.

The biggest excitement of the drive was when I spilled almost an entire xxlarge cup of tea in the center console because the lid came off as I was putting it back in the cup holder.  We had to pull off at the first exit so I could clean up my mes.. Fortunately, no one was super wet by the splash and the cup holder caught most of it.  Pretty sure I/we used most of a roll of paper towels to soak up all that tea.  Excitement box checked, we continued tracking to Asheville, arriving 5ish.

Teapocalypse

YAY NC!
The state line sign never fails to make me feel giddy.

We got into the house (an Air BnB find) and got the car unloaded.  We had one other person driving in from Raleigh and she had hit some serious traffic.  While we were waiting on her to arrive, we went on a field trip to the grocery store.  We were obviously starving and super thirsty.

There had been talk of going out dancing and I explained that I didn't bring any fancy clothes with me (turns out, I also didn't bring any bras with me either, so I got to wear the same bra from Friday to Monday and when I took it off on Monday night, I could hear it weeping).  Additionally, there were only 4 towels in the house and we had 6 people, so we needed to pick up 2 towels.  Conveniently, near the grocery store, there was also a Family Dollar.  We stopped by and picked up towels and I also happened to find 3 cute "fancy" shirts.  We also walked around the thrift store before we headed back to the house.

After our final posse member arrived, we all decided we were pretty tired and opted to order Papa John's instead of going out.  Since it was a Friday night, it was a 30 minute wait, but it worked out fine.  I went with Teh PT Wife to pick up the pizzas.  When we got back, it was pizza and drinking and chatting until we all agreed it was bedtime.

I discovered as I was getting ready for bed that I had forgotten to bring bras, which made sense, since I knew I was forgetting something when I left but couldn't figure out what it was.  I definitely felt bad for the bra I wore on Friday since it was going to see a lot of action all weekend long, since none of it's siblings was there to give it a break.

My big news on Friday was that I finally joined the Snapchat world.  I'm seriously no good at it and the rainbow mouth filter is my favorite.  I even talked Teh German into signing up purely so I could send him Snaps.  Things I'm sorry for: NONE.

SATURDAY

Saturday was the big day.  We had planned a trip to the Biltmore House.  We slept in, had cereal for breakfast, and started getting ready.  Everyone but me is into makeup/hair, so I was feeling a little under-dressed.  One of the ladies is a hair dresser, so she blow dried my hair and curled it for me.  I went the extra step and borrowed some mascara to put on and I was "Megan fancy."  We had to stop by guest services to have our tickets printed which took a few minutes, but we were able to get into the house right at our time, 1130.  Walking through the house was great because I was with people who had never been to the Biltmore before, so it was super exciting for them.  Having been there before, I've seen the stuff so it's not as exciting for me, but I love experiencing other people's excitement.  I was containing all my excitement for the flowers.

I sent this photo to Teh German asking if this could be his next Crossfit box.
That rowing machine though...

After we finished walking through the house (which took longer than I expected), we were famished, so we found the first food place that would take us and ate lunch.  After lunch, we walked through the shops at the house.  I couldn't contain myself anymore and broke off to get a head start on taking a mabillionty photos.  #worthit

Eventually the other ladies joined me at the gardens and we walked through the Consvatory and we started to walk to the pond but got tired and turned around.  We did see a bride taking her bridal portraits and we did the, "congratulations, when are you getting married?" chat.  I can't remember when she said, but she did say she was mildly embarrassed to be doing the photo shoot with all the people around and I told her to embrace it and explained how awkward we felt in downtown Charleston kissing and looking at each other as randos passed us. 

When we got back up to the house, we walked to the end of the yard for pics in front of the entire house, which happen to be on my camera... oops.  Here's a selfie instead.

After we got back to the house, we jumped on the shuttled and headed to the car.  We had planned on going to the winery for the tasting.  On our way there, we got distracted by the baby sheeps where we learned that I speak sheep.  Every time I would "bahhhh", one of the adult sheep would "baaahhh" back.  This reminded me of the screaming goats videos on YouTube, which I happily disseminated the link to since no one else had heard of it.

After the sheep stop, we finally made it to the winery.. except first we had to go visit the petting zoo to see the baby goats.  I won't lie, they were kinda cute, but I was super thirsty.  It was a miraculous discovery when I was washing my hands after the animal area and there, in a golden beam of sunlight (or maybe that sunbeam was fabricated in my mind), was a water fountain.  I seriously made a poor life choice when I opted not to bring a Turvis or my Camelbak with me.  #Meganfail 

We did finally make it to the wine tasting.

I endured sips of wine, but mostly just passed off my samples to the other ladies.  The one that I did enjoy was a German wine, imagine that.  While the other ladies were buying wine, I walked around and noticed the Asheville Half Marathon commemorative wine which made me sad about not running.  Eventually, I headed outside to take a few more flower photos (because golden hour is important).

After the winery, we decided we were done with Biltmore and headed to meet the other ladies who had been downtown all day since they hadn't want to visit the Biltmore.  My gang was super awesome and stopped for me to take pics of the canola fields.

I'm probably most proud of this photo of the 500 I took.

We met up downtown at a bar that didn't have food and quickly moved on to Asheville Brewing Company so we could eat dinner.  A random guy ended up joining us for dinner, which was an awkward thing.  I watched the end of the Hurricanes vs St. Louis hockey game while we ate, which we lost in a shoot out, BOOOOOO.  My wings were so spicy I couldn't eat them, but the tater tots were delicious.

After dinner, we headed to Hookah Joe's since most of our posse hadn't smoked hookah before.  After walking around Biltmore all day, the last thing we wanted to do was go out dancing, so chilling at a hookah bar was perfect.  We were able to get drinks too, which made it extra perfect.  After 2 hookah sessions, we finally left around 0030 and headed back to our house for bedtime.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning was lazy/relaxed/shopping day.  We weren't in a hurry, so we took our time getting ready.  I had a snack because I had learned on Saturday that "getting ready" is a process that takes time.  I even laid down and took a quick nap since I was ready well before everyone else.  Once everyone else was ready, we headed out to Biscuithead for brunch. 

Biscuit, pulled pork (of course), with a poached egg and bacon.

Things I was disappointed by: 1.  Disappointment that was food related: 0.

When I took my first bite of bacon, I felt something hard in my mouth while I was chewing and I managed to fish it out and threw it on the ground and I didn't think anything of it.  After consuming that mound of deliciousness, I was cleaning out my teeth (since bread really like to stick around, espceially behind my molars) and when I stuck my finger behind my molar (like the lady I am), I noticed that a piece of my tooth was missing.  W.T.F.  It didn't hurt, so I didn't even notice.  I didn't even notice while I was eating. 

One of the ladies is a dental hygienist so she tried to look at it but said that since it wasn't sensitive it was probably fine.  But seriously, ya'll, my damn tooth broke!  This was jarring to me because nothing like this has ever happened to me before.  I've had some cavities, but nothing serious like a piece of my tooth falling off.  I take care of my teeth!  This doesn't make it seem like it.

After we all finished eating (and I tried to supress my freakout), we walked through a consignment shop and then headed to the car.  We went to the Biltmore shopping area and walked around and checked out overpriced stuff.  I tried on some bras at Soma, but none that I tried on really did it for me.  #moneysaved

We headed back to the car to drive downtown to peruse the downtown stores.  After walking through a few stores, we stopped by a wine bar (water for me, kthx) where the bartender/server had a rat tail.  Oh you think I'm joking?  NO.  The female server had a rat tail.  You'll have to click the pic to see it.

We saw a LOT of interesting hair styles in Asheville.  A lot of things that made me uncomfortable.  Eventually, we left the wine bar and headed to the chocolate shop. 

Cell phone pic I'm most proud of.  Look at that set up.  #foodie  LOL

While we were walking around downtown, I sent Teh Running Bestie this photo with the caption: Why do we want to run an Asheville race again?  She quickly responded that she would be promptly removing Asheville from her running list..

After the chocolate shop, we rushed over to Mast General Store which most everyone hadn't heard of before.  I tried to explain the history behind the store, but we all kinda split up to explore the store since it closed 20 minutes after we arrived.  I tried on a few tops, but nothing worked, so more #moneysaved. 

We had dinner reservations at 7, so we started to make our way back to the car while looking for a bathroom since I was about to pee in my pants.  Several shops spoke of this mysterious public bathroom that took me forever to find and then it was closed because Sunday.  I was ready to shank a bitch.  We managed to find a bathroom in a bookstore with a cafe, #praiseAllah.  Since we weren't in a super hurry, Teh PT Wife and I perused the bookstore, which brought me so.much.joy.  I didn't buy anything because library and Audible, but I probably could have spent all day in there. 

We passed this place and I had to get a picture to show Teh German.

Eventually the group caught up with us and we made it back to the car.  We headed to Copper Crown for dinner.  It was "fancy" but only kinda.  The food was good, even though the brussel sprouts (not pictured) were fried and gave me super horrible indigestion.

scallops

adult beverage with Sailor Jerry

After dinner, I spied that the Hot Now sign was on at Krispy Kreme, so we stopped and picked up a dozen.

Finally, we headed home for a "quiet" evening of drinking and playing Cards Against Humanity.

MONDAY

Monday was a slow start.  We were lazy.  We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast since we knew they wouldn't last the drive home.  We were out of the house by 1050, 10 minutes before "checkout" time.  We had to play tetris to get the back of the car loaded.  #challengeaccepted

Teh PT Wife wanted to stop by the mall, which did.  I bought a dress at Belk since it was on sale.  Teh Dental Hygienist bought a super cute pineapple shirt (a real unicorn) that I would have bought if I could have found another one, but it wasn't for me, despite checking the racks and at other stores.  I reminded her several times that I'd rehome the shirt if she decided she no longer wanted it one day.

We left the mall by 1:00 to head back to Charleston.

Teh German was home when we got home and helped me move back in.  Phil and Meri were super excited to see me, which is unusual.  Phil was velcro-ed to my side throughout the evening and Meri's springs were extra springy.  We were lazy for the rest of the evening.  I made sweet carrots and we had those with sandwiches for dinner.  There were leftovers from the cookout Teh German had hosted Sunday, but it was easier to have sandwiches for dinner than eat the cookout leftovers and have to figure out something for lunch on Tuesday.

_____________________________________________

Overall, an amazing weekend.  I was able to hang out with some amazing women who tolerated me for 4 days.  They all deserve many gold stars. 

I have a super sexy rash around my mouth and nose and starting on my neck, which I assume are from the face wipes I had purchased to travel with.  I deduced this since this same thing happened when we went to NC in March and I used these face wipes.  Said wipes have been thrown in the garbage. 

I was a good fiance and I gifted Teh German with a new pint glass (not that it was pretty, but that it said "Asheville"), NC coffee, and a cigar.  I tried to barter a back massage out of it, but we'll see if that turns out.

This week and weekend are currently empty, which I'm sure I know how that will turn out.

Phil update:
He pissed in the loft before I left, but Teh German said he had no accidents all weekend.  He's taking the doxy, but I'm still on the fence about his BP meds.  I will probably start him on them this week and monitor him very closely.  We haven't done any diet changes because I'm just not certain about kidney failure. 

Hip update:
I spent a lot of time sitting and walking around during the weekend and my hip still hurts.  At this point, if the cortisone shot was working, I'd be feeling no pain.  This is disappointing, but expected news.  I think I may call the Ortho on the 21st to be like, "This shit ain't workin'," since he wanted to give it a month.  I want to expedite this process to get my recovery started as soon as possible. 


Reminder: I have Snapchat now.  Send me funny things.

Recipe: Crockpot Ribs

A greyhound friend shared a recipe for slow cooker ribs on her FB page over a month ago and I filed it in the back of my mind to try.  I have a slow cooker.  I love ribs...  For your pleasure I have included the actual directions and the Megan directions.

Megan Directions:

-Buy rack of ribs on sale forget about them in the freezer for a month.
-Remember them after making a pizza for dinner because you were too lazy to try.
-Decide to put ribs on weekly menu.
-Thaw ribs.
-Remember the night before that you don't have root beer.
-Swing by the grocery store and buy a 2 liter of root beer that is most on sale.
-Start to prep the crock pot before leaving for work.
-Cut ribs in half since the whole rack won't fit in the pot.
-Place ribs in crock pot.
-Remember that you were supposed to salt and pepper them.
-Add "enough" salt and pepper kinda covering the ribs.
-Pour in root beer until ribs are 95% covered (prob could have just poured in the whole bottle, it was only $1).
-Set crock pot to cook on low for 5 hours.
-Come home 11 hours later.
-Prep veggies for roasting, place everything on roasting sheets, place in oven at 400°F.
-Drain all the juice from pot (preferably with help because ribs are fragile and will break apart if you're clumsy like me and try to remove them from the pot).

-When most/all of the liquid is drained, add "enough" bbq sauce (of your liking) to the ribs and set to cook for 1 hour on high.
-Go walk dogs.
-Come home and stretch.
-Yell at fiancé to get out of the bathroom because he's been in there too long (is this what having kids is like?).
-Pull roasted veggies from oven.
-Oogle ribs in the crockpot.
-Serve and enjoy!

#Ididthat

Internet Directions:

Slow Cooker Ribs

Ingredients
3 pounds pork side ribs (about 2 racks of ribs)

2 12-ounce (355 ml) cans root beer

2 cups (500 ml) prepared BBQ sauce

1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt

1 teaspoon (5 ml) pepper

Directions

-Remove silver skin from the back of the ribs. This can be done by pushing the back of a spoon just underneath it, and then working it up and off the ribs with your fingers.

-Sprinkle the ribs generously with salt and pepper, and place them into the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Pour the root beer over top.

-Cover and cook on low for 5 hours or 3 hours on high.

-Remove ribs from the slow cooker, setting aside on plate. Discard liquid from slow cooker.

-Place the ribs back inside, along with the barbecue sauce. Be sure to coat ribs in bbq sauce. Cook on high for another 1 hour.

-Gently remove from slow cooker and serve with sauce.

Confessions {4/5}

-The concept of creamers that don't require refrigeration freak me out for 2 reasons. 1- They are a dairy product (or not) that doesn't seem to have a shelf life.  2- WTF are the chemicals in those things that keep them "good"?  #ThatCantBeGoodForYou

-When we ran off the Bridge and started the portion of the run through downtown, there was a group of men (white, which is relevant) with their big trucks parked in an empty parking lot.  They were standing on the sidewalk holding up flag poles with various Confederate flags.  Rage fueled me for the next mile.  I wouldn't have been pissed off if there had been an American flag on display as well, but there wasn't.  Additionally, we were blocks from Emanuel AME (that church that Dylan Roof decided was a good place to practice on live targets) and I just felt like the whole thing was in poor taste.  I almost made it past without a reaction, despite telling Teh Running Bestie I wanted to boo.  Then someone else booed and I sure as shit joined in with them.  I'll believe it's about heritage when it's not just whites standing there holding flags.  I just wanted to go up and push all their flags over and start shoving the guys standing there then set the flags on fire.  Might have been a bit irrational, but that's how I honestly felt.  I'm a true southerner, born and raise in western NC.  Never once have I felt the need to represent my beliefs by embracing something (the Confederacy) that so many found so repressing (to my knowledge).

-Color me surprised when I noticed another Confederate flag set up at the Flowertown Festival last weekend.  I'm not sure what the organization was, but I wasn't disgruntled about this situation when I noticed that there were people dressed up as reenactors AND there was an old black man with them leading a sing along.  THAT is heritage and history.  

Update: there was a news article in the newspaper about people being offended by the group on Sunday at the Flowertown Festival.  Turns out the town couldn't do anything about it since they were set up on private property.  Except that they were handing out confederate flags to little kids... #complicated

-The term "Obama-era" sounds like 50 years ago, not 1.  #isitjustme

-The fact that DoD websites tend to work best on Internet Exploder is absolutely infuriating.
DoD: I have a great idea!  Let's use the most unsecure browser for all our needs.  Let's make sure our certificates don't work properly and you have to log into most websites with your CAC even though there is really no security need.

-The #1 thing I forget to do to most of my work documentation: spell check it.  I have a routine I do before I send a document that includes updating the date, version, version control box, and table of contents, but I frequently fail to spell check.  #itsnotthathard

-We didn't make time to go see Beauty and the Beast so now it's highly unlikely I will see it in theaters.  I'm the worst at going to the theater.  #Ihavepauseathome

-I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast before I left for work this morning.  When a coworker asked me if I wanted to walk to Bojangles for breakfast, I said ok.  Things I regret about that 2nd breakfast gravy biscuit: NOTHING.  #thisiswhyIrun

-I waited an HOUR yesterday on the Ortho to see me.  I was pretty passive aggressive when he finally came in but figured it wasn't worth my hostility since he was the one that would be stabbing me.  The Ortho had to use the sonogram machine to make sure he was putting the injection in the correct place and I made sure to ask him if it was a boy or a girl.  The cortisone injection didn't hurt nearly as bad as the contrast injection last Friday for my MRI.  Holy balls. 

-I told the Ortho and his (female) assistant the story about the radiologist asking if I had kids or not during my injection and they both agreed it was super rude.  #validation

-When the Ortho offered me Valium for the pain since the Tramadol isn't really doing the job (and gives me a horrible Tramadol hangover where I get the Tramadol stupid) and I said yes.  #notsorry

-I believe that all the medications and injections are making me itch from hip to hip.  This includes my ass and my junk.  I'm like a fucking monkey over here scratching myself the day away.  #soclassy

-So far my hip hasn't hurt too much, but I'm expecting Teh PT Husband to bring the pain at my appointment this afternoon.  #hurtssogood

-If this injection is successful we won't have to do surgery, but the tear won't repair itself.  The goal is to strengthen the muscles around the area to compensate for the tear.  I'm not sure what my preference is.  Part of me wants shit fixed.  Part of me doesn't want to deal with being on crutches and rehabbing.  Yet, a deep dark part of me is like, "Think of all the attention."  WTF, 8yo Megan needs to sit the fuck down with that shit. 

-Last night I slept like absolute shit but movement that hurt me on Monday night didn't hurt on Tuesday night, so I have high hopes for this injection.  #woot

-This weekend is Asheville and from the group text, I think this is going to be a spectacular weekend.  There's going to be drinking and the Biltmore house (which I charged my camera batteries for last night) and maybe a spa and I'm not driving.  #BRINGITON

-There's a list of wedding things I we should really accomplish but I'm just not motivated.  Getting the invitations addressed would really help me solve many problems, but it's just sooo much woooorrrkkkkk.. #hearmewhine

-I think I'm going to DNF my quotes book because it's not as interesting as I wanted it to be.  That's always a disappointment.  As someone who loves language history and technology, I was excited to see those things combined.  Turns out, it's not that interesting after all.  That said, word etymology (history of a word and why we have/use the words we use now) is where it's at if you ever get really bored, I have some good suggestions for books on word etymology in English.  #readingproblems

Weekend Review {4/3}

I started a Friday post, then the day ran away from me and it was a fail.  Do not worry, I am here to catch you up on all things hip, Phil, and the weekend now.

FRIDAY

Teh Running Bestie arrived on Thursday evening.  Friday morning I headed to work like normal but my heart just wasn't in it (and I'd hit 40 hours by lunchtime) so I headed home.  There was this fun situation where a dude that works for the company we sublet from parks like an asshole frequently, so I made sure to return the favor. 

Don't fuck with my bike.  Or get too close.  And don't fuck with me.

Back story: On Thursday, I rode Bagheera into work.  When Twin Dad pointed out to me that Axeman (our name for the driver of this truck) parked like this, I was pretty ragey.  To include actually yelling out, "IF YOU CAN'T PARK A BIG TRUCK IN A SINGLE SPOT, PARK IN THE BACK OF THE LOT!" while only 5 people were in the office (2 of my coworkers, me, Axeman, and the FSO who doesn't park like an asshole (and drives the black truck and couldn't hear me yelling)).

But I digress.  Before heading home, I stopped to pick up Phil's new medication.  Let's back it up again...

On Thursday Phil's vet called and said she believes he's in the early stages of kidney failure.  I had held it together up to that point and then I kinda lost it.  The vet agreed to fill the Doxy prescription I had requested earlier in the week (because she agreed with me that 10 days wasn't long enough (which made me want to punch her in the ovaries)) and she also put him on Vasotec, a blood pressure medication, which is helpful in some way. 

Friday I shared Phil's lab results with SHUG to see if anyone had any opinions on the situation.  YAY for second opinions.  Over the weekend, I got some feedback on those labs from "I don't really think that's kidney failure, I think it might be polycythemia." to "Did they do a blood pressure check before prescribing him blood pressure medication?" Both of these were super helpful for me because I didn't even think of the blood pressure check and I would have never known about the other condition.  Funding issues could lead to a delay, but that sonogram is probably in Phil's future...

Anyways, after I got home, I realize that I had left my lunch at work.. UGH.  Since there wasn't really anything in the house, Teh Running Bestie and I headed to Mex 1 for lunch.  My ortho appointment was at 1.

The Orlando Solar Bears ECHL team was in town this weekend.
Apparently some of their players needed some sports medicine work.

From the MRI, the Ortho confirmed that I definitely have a labrum tear.  Our plan of action is to do a cortisone injection this week and then wait 1 month and see if the injection and PT help reduce the pain.  If after the month the pain continues, then we will go ahead with the surgical repair.  We are on a reduced timeline because limping down the aisle isn't anyone's desire.  The only reason we didn't do the injection on Friday is because we were doing the Bridge Run and the Ortho said I'd probably be sore from the injection.

After the doc, we headed to the expo to pick up our race packets and check out the expo.  We ended up buying socks and shirts and I also picked up a pair of clearance shoes for walking around.  We also signed up for the 2018 Charleston race.. Teh Running Bestie wants to run a marathon and she picked the Charleston Marathon as her marathon race, so I committed to a half marathon, so we're running "together".  We're excited, but our injuries can really throw kinks in our plans, so fingers crossed.  After the expo, we headed back home and went on a pack walk. 

We noticed this kamikaze when we got back to the car.

Around 6, we headed downtown to drop off Yurtle for a parking garage slumber party.  This would enable us to just be able to leave downtown without dealing with the shuttles after the race.  After Yurtle was tucked in for the night, we headed back home to meet Teh German at our neighbor's "informal gathering" (they are from the UK, so we like to give them crap for their formality even when trying to be informal).  We stopped by the house and picked up smores ingredients and chairs (just in case) then we headed over.

Abby (black) and Ted (brown) are our hosts' spaniels and they are awesome and snuggly.  Pretty sure I accomplished the ultimate dog lady goal on Friday night when this happened:

Me at a party.. hanging out with the dogs.

We ended up heading home around 10:45 since we knew we had to get up early for the run.  Also, we were tired because we're old.

SATURDAY

We were up at 0530 on Saturday morning.  We were on our way to the drop-off/start area by 0700.

We made it to our corral by 0730 and proceeded to wait and stretch.  Fortunately, it was in the 50°s, which was a little chilly, but definitely not the 38°F from the first year we ran it, BRRR!  Last year was also a little chilly, but this was perfect running temps.

Because of our injuries, we knew we'd be taking it slow and even planned to stop and take photos along the course, which I usually wouldn't do because I like to get to the end, kthxbye.  Our final time was right at 1:25, which we felt was pretty good considering our original time was 1:06.  The big push this year was that they were giving out a medal for all finishers for the first time ever.

The race was enjoyable because I wasn't alone (unlike last year), despite the hip.  Honestly, my hip doesn't hurt while I'm running (for the most part), so I wasn't overly concerned about it.  I did notice it starting to tweak out by the end and I could tell a difference when I ran on roads that slanted to the left vs to the right, so I tried to stay on the left side of the road after I realized.  The other thing I've learned is that if I stop to walk, it hurts to start running again.  Instead, I will slow down to a trot, while maintaining a jog.  This was perfect since Teh Running Bestie could just walk along beside me when she needed a break.

"Bandits exit here"...
in front of a church, lol.

Everything was going great until mile 5.25 when I was thinking about getting in the car and heading home.. I realized that I did NOT bring my car key with me.  If you needed an analogy about my month of March, this situation is pretty much the epitome of anything I could offer.  I show up ready to go without the most important thing to make shit happen.  I turned to Teh Running Bestie and just blurted it out, "I left the car key at home.  This is not an April Fool's joke.  I'm serious.  The car key is at home."  The only thing that moderately mitigated this situation was the magical appearance of unlimited Krispy Kreme doughnuts at the finish line.  #noshame: I had 2.

If KK was at every finish line, I'd probably run more races.
#NOJK

Things I did not want to have to do on Saturday morning: 1. Deal with a pissed off German.  2.  Call Teh German and ask him to come downtown for any reason.  Things I had to do on Saturday: 1 & 2.  FML.  The conversation went like this after we passed through the finish chute and got our medals:
Teh Megan: I don't want to have to call Teh German.
Teh Running Bestie: We could take the shuttle.
tM: We would still have to go all the way home and come all the way back AND the car needs to be out of the garage by 11.
tRB: Looks like you're gonna have to call him.
tM: Fuuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.
I call Teh German.
Teh German: Hey babe, what's up?
tM: Heyyy.. Soooo, what cha doin'?
tG: Snuggling with Meri.
tM: Well, I need you to snuggle into your helmet and bring me my car key.

We like to enjoy the "fun" stuff at the post-race "party".

We agreed to meet him at the visitor's center at 1030.  Good idea, in theory.  Problem: Roads were blocked.  At 1045, I call and ask where Teh German is.  He sends Teh Running Bestie his location (#applelife) and we start hobbling over towards him.  When I notice we have 10 more minutes of walking left, I call and say he needs to meet us and give him directions to us.

I knew he was less than a 5 minute ride away and a bit later, he still hadn't appeared so I called him again and asked where he was.  Drama ensued and I ended up having to hand the phone to Teh Running Bestie because otherwise my phone would have went through a window because I was going to throw it I was so pissed off.  Magically, Teh Running Bestie was able to redirect Teh German to us. 

After I got my key, we agreed to meet at Sesame for lunch.  We headed back to the parking garage.  Turns out, he hadn't followed my (correct) directions and he had went the opposite way.  For the record, I was right and he was wrong and I didn't point this out to him.  I DID point it out to Teh Running Bestie no less than 10 times.  Then we had some drama trying to get out of downtown when a cop was being unclear.  I went the way he was pointing and then had to do a u-turn after I had tried to clarify with him.  I don't usually go here, but the cop was a douche.  I got righted around and headed towards East Bay to hit 26.  As we were almostttttt to East Bay, we were on a street with these massive man holes (like a solid 1.5 feet mound) in the center of the road.  I was trying to avoid them and there was a car at a stop sign right as I was veering to the left to avoid the man hole who started to pull out into the road, which seemed to both of us like we were about to get t-boned.  I ended up hitting the man hole, panicking that we were about to die, and finally made it to East Bay.  At the red light, all the rage and emotions finally hit me and there were tears.  #HotMessExpress #cominthrough

We finally made it to Sesame and had lunch.  After we finished, we headed to the coliseum to pick up Teh Running Bestie's car.  As we were about to get on 526, I noticed a motorcyclist on the side of the on-ramp.. Then I realized it was MY motorcyclist.  We immediately pulled over behind Teh German to see what the problem was.  His clutch lever had come off (a known problem) and he just needed something to hold it on until we got home.  Things I will start carrying in my car: zip ties.  Just as Teh Running Bestie was about to pull out her shoe lace for him, I found a sunglasses bag with a string and Teh German found a piece of something on the side of the road that he was able to use to tie it on.  He came with us to pick up Teh Running Bestie's car in case something else happened, then we headed home.

When we got home, we stretched and rolled and then we went over to Teh PT Neighbor's house for a dog play date.  After an hour or so, we headed home for showers and naps.  After a 2 hour nap, I was right as rain.  I had put ribs in the crock pot with root beer before we left for the run, so when we woke up, we started dinner.  First we had to bake the bacon.  While Teh Running Bestie (wo)manned that, I chopped up the brussel sprouts.  There was more Teh German drama and I considered stabbing him with my knife, but felt like that wasn't a good idea since he was sitting our grey couch and blood stains are difficult.  While the bacon cooked, we headed outside and watered the flowers. 

We headed back inside and the bacon was done, so I swapped out the bacon for the brussel sprouts.  While the sprouts cooked, Teh German scooped poop in the yard and got everything ready for the neighbors to come over for a fire.  Once he was done, we ate dinner.

After dinner was cleaned up, I put a sticky note on the door that the door was unlocked and paw patrol was on duty so the neighbors knew to let themselves in.  We had smores and the dogs even hung out with us outside!  It was glorious.  We are all old, so by 11 we had let the fire burn down and everyone headed home.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning was my sleep in morning.  Teh German was saved from dog duty by Teh Running Bestie (because she really is the best!).  We slept in and it was glorious.  We got a slow start and I worked on planning our day.  Teh German had motorcycle/brewery plans and we had "festival" plans.  I wanted to go to brunch so I scoped out a few places in Mount Pleasant (since there was an activity there I wanted to go to) and gave Teh Running Bestie some options.  We got ready and headed out.  We had some #languagebarriers in the form of confusion between the 2 restaurants Craze and Graze (#Engrishishard).  We ended up at Graze, which I hadn't been to for brunch, but did not disappoint.  Our server was garbage, but the food was good.  While we waited on food, we discussed some options for the rehearsal dinner/lunch and the post-wedding brunch.  Now I have calls to make... ugh.

After breakfast, we headed to the Bee and Honey Festival.  This is one of my must-attend events in Charleston so I can stock up on honey for year/summer.  After sampling honey from every possible tent, I finally picked my favorite and bought 3 bottles.  That should last me for a while.  After the Bee Festival, we headed to the Flowertown Festival in Summerville.  It was MASSIVE.  I didn't expect it to be so large!  We walked through almost all of the vendor tents and found Teh SC Greyhound Neighbor eventually since she was also a vendor at the event.  Around 4, we started to head back to the car.  On the way home, we stopped by Publix to pick up ingredients for sandwiches for dinner since I didn't have anything else planned.

When we got home, we relaxed some.  Around 5, we headed to the empty lots for dog photos with Roux's Humom.  After a taxing dog session (it was like herding cats), we headed home for dinner.  After feeding the beasts and the humans, we headed back out with the dogs for a pack walk. 

When we got back home, Teh German had cleaned up all the dinner stuff (since Teh Running Bestie had asked him to).  I thawed the last of the Dole Whip and distributed it and we ate it while watching Modern Family and playing with our screens.

It was bedtime around 9, because #oldpeople.

__________________________________

This morning was difficult and I just did not want to get out of bed.  I did eventually manage to rouse myself and I made it to work.  I called the ortho and scheduled my injection for tomorrow.  I still don't know what to do about Phil, who had an accident this morning at the back door because Teh German wasn't fast enough for him.  I'm hoping the Doxy arrives soon and that will help the most, and by help I mean before magic.

Sadly, Teh Running Bestie leaves tomorrow.  We have running plans now, which is always a plus.  We picked up information for several Charleston runs that I'd like to do, but I'm worried about the hip recovery stuff and committing to these races that I might not actually be able to do. 

Races include:

• Isle of Palms Run -October 7, 2017
• I didn't get to run this race last year, despite signing up since we had to go out of town for Teh Sister's last stand in NC.  Additionally, it was a month after the Disneyland run with my gimp toe and my toe was still not up to par (and it still isn't if you want the truth).
• James Island Connector Run - October 28, 2017
• This would be a pre-wedding run.  We've already discussing having "runaway groom" and "runaway bride" shirts.  How cute would be it be if we're "running away" together?  
• Turkey Day Trot - Thanksgiving 2017
• This was an easy 5k and made me feel less guilt about all the food I put in my mouth
• Although the shirt really sucked and there was no medal.
• Kiawah Island Half Marathon - December 9, 2017
• I figure if I can do a half marathon in December, the half I signed up for in January should be no problem.
• Charleston Half Marathon - January 13, 2018
• Teh Running Bestie will be doing the full, I'll be doing the half and Teh Soccer Mom will be coming down to cheer us on.  Teh German better join Teh Soccer Mom in the cheering section or run in one of the races after all the times he's said he's going to sign up for a race with us and hasn't....

We'll see how it all pans out.

We had intended to go see Beauty and the Beast this weekend, but we just didn't make time for it, which is fine.  I like a nice balance of go-go-go and relax time.

This week includes mitigating Phil's in-house accidents, maybe talking Teh German into a dog door, pack walks, hip injection and physical therapy, and on Friday I'm headed to Asheville for a ladies weekend.  I'm excited for a 4 day weekend and wearing earplugs to bed on Thursday night so I can sleep in.  #priorities