Weekend Review {04/15}

FRIDAY

Work, German class, more of that stupid Cybersecurity project, back to work, to the gym, then home.

On my way home, I called the tattoo place to make an appointment for next tattoo.  I couldn't really articulate what I was looking for and the lady asked me to email them my idea.  With the task put upon me, I was better able to determine what I actually wanted vs what looked cool.

While my drawing abilities are poor, ask me to edit a photo for you in PS.

When I got home, Teh German and I agreed to go to Sesame for dinner since we had a free appetizer to use (you can get these too, just sign up for their once a month email).

We both got the special burger which was a blueberry something with brie and it was fucking delicious.

Remembered to use my silicone straw!

My burger was so delicious, I ate the entire thing and brought home a majority of my fries.  When we got home, I finalized my tattoo concept and emailed it off.  Then it was bedtime.

SATURDAY

I always have the goal of sleeping in, but Meri never shares that goal.  She was up at 0715 and I finally gave up and got out of bed by 0800.  We sat on the couch trying to plan Italy adventures... well, ME planning adventures, Meri perimeter gazing.

Teh German got up shortly after and we Skyped with Mama G.  We were given a list of items to bring from America, which was expected and exciting.  I love a good hunt.  We need to bring a special Charleston lotion and Oshkosh baby clothes since we have an outlet here.  I was unreasonably excited about buying baby clothes for our nephew and a cousin.  I/we didn't send any baby gifts for either kid since we didn't really know what to send/what the parents had.  My usual baby gift is books and something useable like diapers, but that doesn't work for German babies, who probably won't ever read children's books in English and to ship diapers is kinda ridiculous.

After our Skype session, we got ready to leave since I had scheduled Pax and Meri's annual wellness visit for Saturday morning so Teh German could go with me.  Taking both beasts in public usually is more overwhelming than it's worth for me, unless we're not getting out of the car, so it doesn't happen unless I have backup.

Pax SAT at the vet's office, proving that he CAN do his trick in a different environment, which means he is READY for the picnic talent show!!

Heart-splosion

After the vet, we stopped by Wendy's for lunch.  We were going to get the dogs ice cream, but my meal came with chicken nuggets I wasn't going to eat, so that was a suitable ice cream replacement IMO.  After lunch, Teh German started setting up the new inside cameras he purchased.  I finally gave in and agreed after I spent 45 minutes cleaning Pax's vomit from the carpet last week.

We can see the camera feed on the Amazon Spot.
This kind of integration brings me a LOT of joy.

After lunch, Meri and I snuggled on the couch.  Going anywhere in the car is pretty exhausting for Meri, but add the vet + I had them do her nails.. she was pooped and extra snuggly.  We napped for a while and it would have been the cutest picture of us nose to nose, but I didn't want to ask Teh German to take the photo since it might have roused her and a selfie wasn't possible and also I didn't want to ask him on principle, I just want him to WANT to take a picture of his cute wife and doghter snuggling together on the couch due to the overwhelming cuteness (which I understand is completely irrational, tyvm), so I took a memory photo of our cuteness.

After a decision-less debacle, it was finally determined that we would go to My Father's Moustache for dinner with the Neighbor Besties.  I wasn't impressed and felt that the 3 stars they have on Yelp is an accurate review.  Service was slow and the food was ok.

Baby R got to try her first lemon.
Turns out, she loves sour.
She'd make that sour face but would be super smiley afterwards.
She wasn't a bit upset when she got more.

After dinner, we headed back home.  Teh German went to Teh PT House for cigar time and I got ready for bed and laid in bed with my laptop planning Italy things.  Teh German came home while I was still working and he fell asleep well before I closed the laptop.  There's just so many different wheels going for Italy and I'm trying to align them all before cementing the plan, so it's a little tedious, but I'm sue it will be fine.

SUNDAY

Again, my goals to sleep in were disturbed by Meri at 0715.  That girl is like clockwork.  Teh German got up with the beasts around 0730 and I laid in bed on my phone for 30 minutes before finally getting up.

We did slow morning things for a while to include a nap for Teh German and homework for me, then around 11 we agreed to go to Sake House for half off sushi for lunch and swing by the outlets to pick up the requested items for Nephew J.  Again, a disappointing choice since no eel rolls were on the half off menu.  Then, the eel roll I did order cost $11 for a TINY roll that would have cost $7 anywhere else or it would have actually been a BIG roll for $11.  This was the size of a california roll, not a specialty roll.  Teh German didn't fare as badly as I did, so it was a wash.

I dropped some dollas at Oshkosh because Auntie Megan is ridiculous.  They specifically asked for overalls, but I have no will power against cute baby clothes.  #SorryNotSorry.  I haven't been able to do this very often, like once or twice before for friend babies, so this was like being unleashed.

After we got home, Teh German worked on fish tank things and I eventually started working on dinner since I knew it would take a while.

This silly Monkey makes me giggle.

Dinner was meatloaf (bison and sage sausage + stuff to bind it, as I don't like ground beef) with mashed potatoes, green beans, and mushroom gravy.  Usually I do a ketchup based meatloaf, but this time I skipped the ketchup topping for gravy, making the gravy from scratch since I had some beef broth on hand that needed to be used.  I ended up doubling the recipe and had to also add a chicken broth, but it was fine.  Except for the part where it took for.fucking.ever to cook down.  After over 30 minutes of trying to get the gravy to reduce, I said fuck it and we had "brown mushroom juice" instead of gravy.  As soon as it cooled, it started to look like snot.  FUN.

I held back on the mushrooms.

TOTALLY 100% worth the effort.

After getting the kitchen cleaned up, we hit the couches for VIKINGS!  When we had gotten ready to go out for lunch, I included the Vikings theme song in the get ready music, thus reminding us that we had episodes to watch.

It was as delightful as I remembered, once I was mentally caught back up.  There was no "previously on..." before the first episode, so we were a little lost.  We watched 2 episodes, then it was bedtime.

______________________________________________

After the CF that was last week, a slow paced weekend was much appreciated.  I was expecting homework to be assigned, but it never happened and I'm not sorry.  I do have one programming assignment I could have worked on, but it's not due until the last day of class, so I gave myself this weekend to slow my roll.

I bought a comic book? graphic novel? called The Mental Load for myself for my birthday (with a birthday Amazon gift card, so kinda not from me), and FINALLY took the time to finish it on Friday/Saturday.  It was as good as I wanted it to be.  5 stars, would recommend to everyone ever.

I also finished the German book I was reading for German class, ensuring I would complete all homework assignments for the semester, even though I considered not doing the homework because my grade would be fine if I skipped a few.  It's not in me to NOT do them.

Italy is still not fully planned and I realized when I shut my computer down last night, I did not save the itinerary that I had edited.. soooo now I get to redo that.  Fun.  I probably would have ended up redoing it anyways, sooo whatevs.  I'm hoping to have Italy finalized by the end of this week or by the end of the weekend.  We'll see what this week brings.

The calendar looks deceptively quiet.  I say deceptively, because I know that quiet weeks usually end up being not quiet.  I get my hairs redid on Saturday.  Sunday we have Easter lunner (lunch-dinner) with Teh PT Fam.  I'm making mac and cheese again, by request of Teh PT Kid who insists that I make the BEST mac and cheese and that kid LOVES mac and cheese so that really touches my heart.  Also in things that melted my heart?  When Teh PT Kid took to calling Teh German, "Uncle [Teh German]" which meant that I became "Aunt Megan".  It's the small things, even if I did just come with the package, lol.

Teh German has a short week since it's Easter next weekend, but it's regular schedule for me.  The Citadel DNGAF about anyone's federal/religious holidays.

2 more homework/projects to complete + 5 final exams to take.

12 more days until Spring 2019 is completely finished.

18 days until I'm in Germany.

21 days until my language course starts.

Five on Friday #190

EINS - Random Shit

-#ShareYourUgly:
As the end of the semester never comes, I find myself frequently feeling tired or exhausted.  Except those aren't actually the correct adjectives.

I am not actually tired and I'm not actually exhausted.
I'm rundown and I am weary.
I have started digging into the reserves to chug through this season that is dragging so slowly and the reserves constantly feel dangerously low.

I tire of feeling this way at the end of each semester and I long for the carefree days of no school and wonder why I continue to inflict myself with this choice and this struggle.  I tell myself that my struggle is for the greater good, that's there's only one more year left of this garbage struggle.  That if it wasn't this, it would be something else.

I tire of feeling like the last month of the semester, I am a burden on all My People because all I do is constantly bitch about school things or how "tired" I am.  I am weary from putting in so much of me for so long.  I remember my first undergrad experience and I never recall feeling this way.  I would feel overwhelmed from having too much to do, but I was never weary.  And generally, I was overwhelmed for self-inflicted (aka procrastination) reasons.  Yes, I feel overwhelmed, but I'm older and I can cope with that.  I manage my work tasks and my school tasks with as much efficiency and care as possible.

But for everything I do, I try to put forth my best.
And my best is draining.
My best is making me weary.

I find myself searching for the motivation to carry on, because I know I can and I know I will, but sometimes, I need to find my own encouragement and my own way to replenish the stores.

I need to determine where and when to step back and say, "This is good enough." 

My lack of perfection is not failure.

Ultimately, I am the source of my own weariness, in the same way I was the source of my feelings of being overwhelmed all those years ago.  Back then, I didn't prioritize time management as a way of mitigating my stress.  I didn't know.  I wasn't old and wise, like I am now.  But now, I do know.  Now I do not feel overwhelmed with ALL THE THINGS that need to get done.  Now, I feel overwhelmed by my inability to accept anything that is less than perfect from myself.  This is causing my own weariness and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to stop the cycle.

Last week, I talked about my spiral of negativity when I was feeling like a failure.  I talked about how I was able to come back from that on my own.  This feels deeper than that.  This is not a find awesome quotes on the internet and pep talk yourself back into the game (I mean, that might help, but it won't solve the problem this time).  This is a, you must endure this knowing you will endure this again.  You will prevail, but it will make you weary.  Weariness disguised as exhaustion and tiredness. 

-I skipped all my classes on Wednesday.  I hadn't planned on skipping German, but I was working on a project for my Cyber class and I was afraid that if I signed out of what I was doing I would be locked out.  So rather than potentially be locked out, I kept working through class.  THEN, after finishing the project that had been frustrating me for too many days, I said, FUCK THIS SHIT, and skipped the class.  The usual way the class goes when something is due is that students as questions and the instructor vaguely answers or implies that we should have known how to do that and then berates us for not spending enough time on it, blah blah blah.. and I didn't feel like being berated.  I just didn't.  My attendance in a class doesn't matter like a Cadet's attendance, so I'm not penalized for skipping, so I did.  It was one of my best decisions all week.  We'll say it was in the name of #SelfCare.

-Let me explain about this Cyber project.  We had to harden a system, which is probably jibberish to many Gentle Readers and that is ok.  We were given extremely old systems with default installs.  This would not be a problem, but I was working on a 2012 domain server with ZERO updates on it, and those are considered vulnerabilities and have to be corrected.  I spent hours on Monday downloading updates.  I spent the entire day on Tuesday, downloading updates.  When my afternoon class ended on Tuesday, I checked on the system (as I had been doing throughout the day), and this was the screen I got:

I almost lost my motherfucking mind.  I was prepared to just say fuck it if another attempt on Wednesday morning was unsuccessful.  I left work early on Wednesday to go to school to work on this stupid project that was due at 2:30 that day.  I worked on the system from 0915ish until noon, when I felt confident that I had done my best.  Magically, the updates had installed themselves overnight.  I had updated the firewall settings and changed passwords and changed account settings, and miraculously, when I finally restarted the system as the notification had prompted me to do an hour prior, I was still able to get into the system when it rebooted.  *all the praise hands emojis*

The worst part was asking Twin Dad about how to do these things, since it's his job at work to do these tasks and he was like, "Why don't you just do this simple solution that we use in the real world?"  EXACTLY!  EXXXXXXACTLY!!!!  Why don't we just do that?  Instead of jumping through hoop after hoop.  Because college is about doing it the most difficult way "for the sake of learning" and being overly frustrated at something that definitely should not be that fucking difficult.  That is how this entire class went the entire semester.  No wonder I'm so fucking weary.

*Update from the end of the week:
I was told on Thursday that the instructor had extended the deadline to Sunday and I went blind with rage.  Like literally, I couldn't see anything.  Apparently, he had told people what they needed to change in class and the 2 other people in the class with the same task as me were told that they didn't do what they needed to do, which ultimately meant that I didn't either. 
I just want this fucking class to be done with already.  More than any other class ever, including discrete math, which made me CRY multiple times.  Sad frustration is one thing.  Anger frustration is a different level.

-It's hockey playoff season!  Hockey playoffs and the end of the semester is really an unfortunate alignment of the stars.  This is for multiple reasons.
1.  I'd like to enjoy some playoff hockey, but, unfortunately, I still have homework to do.
2.  While trying to do homework when playoffs are on, I have to wear earplugs if Teh German is watching the game as his yelling is quite a disruption and distraction.

That said, we watched the Hurricanes vs Capitals last night and it was awesome.  Mostly the being on opposite sides.  Teh German is a LOT more vocal about when the puck gets near the net and he'll do a single cheer when his team scores.  I'm pretty quiet until we score and then I'm obnoxious.

Know who does not care for our hockey shenanigans?  This girl.

That's her "our bedtime was an hour ago and please stop yelling and let's go to bed" face.

-I'm strongly considering a tattoo before going to Germany if I can get an appointment.  I've been thinking about it for a long time, so I'm going to finally pull the trigger, hopefully.

-I asked our gym owner about suspending my gym membership while I'm in Germany for the study abroad.  I was told that they only suspended accounts for medical or military reasons.  After he said the part about medical reasons, I said, "Huh, too bad no one told me that 3 weeks ago."  He quickly looked away after I called him out on that.  So essentially, I can cancel and then when I come back I will have to pay the higher rate or I can just pay for the time that I'm not here and keep my lower rate.  Here's the thing, my lower rate is $70 a month.  It will prob be $80 when I come back.

But here's the other complicated part.  While I enjoy going to 9 Rounds, I do not get as much out of it as Teh German.  Ironically, the gym owner made sure to point out to me that Teh German has done 100 workouts at the gym since we joined in July 2018.  I'm probably at half of that, maybe a little more than half.  Because I have school AND I do the running thing, things Teh German does not do.

I just fear that if I stop going, Teh German will also stop going.  And also, I bought all the gear.  What am I going to do with it if I don't go?  But, NOT paying a gym membership for the next year appeals to me because I have such money guilt when I don't go and I know that my workload for school, at least, will increase over the next year.  If I didn't have a 9 Rounds membership, I would restart my city gym membership so I could go elliptical the shit out of an hour.  At $50 a year, I have ZERO guilt about not going.  IDK.  Decisions are hard.  Money decisions are infinitely more difficult.

-I have to confess that after asking for recommendations for legit laugh out loud funny book recommendations, I realized that either 1- I'm a book snob, or 2- my friends do not understand my reading tastes.  It's probably actually a mix of both.  I'm sure that the books my friends recommended are good books, but from reading the Goodreads reviews and summaries, 80% of the suggestions are books I wouldn't touch. 

Fun facts about Megan's reading preferences:
-I don't do zombies.  I don't care how much you care about the zombie apocalypse.  That shit seems stupid to me.
-I don't like to reread books unless I absolutely LURVED it the first time around.  Like, didn't stop talking about it for at least a month after reading it, loved.
-If a character is stupid or lacks the ability to make decisions or good decisions for the sake of character development, I will hate them and be annoyed for the entire book.  This is one of the pitfalls of Young Adult books that I barely tolerate.
-I can enjoy science fiction, but generally I prefer fantasy over sci-fi.

ZWEI - Money Shit

-Bojangles for breakfast.  Some people get coffee every day.  I get a gravy biscuit at least once a week.  #PickYourBattles
-On Wednesday morning, someone let me in the drive thru line in front of them (at Bojangles).  So I paid for their meal.  #GoodDeedOfTheDay
-$200 deposit for the beasts to get their teefs done while they are with their Other Momma.
-Groceries
-Page's Okra Grill dinner
-Laser appt
-Bagheera's taxes
-New carpet cleaner, which didn't actually hurt my heart since the old one was from 2013 and the water release trigger was broken so you ALWAYS had to use SUPER CLEAN ALL THE WATER mode.  I have Mr. Scrooge to thank for that....

DREI - From My Phone Shit

Got mah teefs did.
Well, my toof.
Half of my face is numb in this photo.

#CleanPlateClub after German food for lunch!

Spring has sprung..
I mean, it's been trying to kill me for over a month now, so I'm glad I finally have something to enjoy for my struggles.

:)

Teh Running Bestie needed a small container of applesauce for a recipe she made.
This was the smallest container I could find.
She only had to use like 1/2 a cup or something.
Since this applesauce is super runny.. I have been partaking of it randomly as a "sweet treat".
Please, feel bad for Teh German, who obviously lives with an unrefined heathen animal (singular, not plural, thus this does not imply Meri and Pax, who are actually Goats, not dogs.)

When your cereal is overly powdery and it makes you angry,
you sift out the powder and put the remaining crisps in a bowl.
#MeganProblems

My view.

My heart almost exploded when I spotted this cuteness.

If you look closely, you can see the tracks of the Laundry Fairy coming to visit!
(the hamper has wheels, so the wheel tracks = Laundry Fairy visit)

Is this a dog that looks guilty for making me clean carpets by hand, thus prompting me to replace our non-functional carpet cleaner?  NO, NO HE DOES NOT.
Should he?  1000% MOST DEFINITELY.

I'm pretty sure I made a typo, but the fact that Google suggested this translation was worth sharing since it made me lol.

VIER - From the Internet Shit

FÜNF - Things that made me happy this week

1. The end of that Cybersecurity class stupid project..  Just fucking kidding, everything we did was wrong and the deadline was extended and something that was supposed to be over still is not and actual violence looms on the horizon.
2. Fun rivalry.  Healthy competition.  Whatever you want to call it.
3. Classmates that understand my frustration/rage and professors who know that I just need to vent.
4. Coworkers willing to teach me things so I can actually attempt to do school things.
5. MyHomework.com feeding to my calendar and generally coordinating my life.
6. Losing track of what day it was on Monday and that confusion lasting throughout the week meant that Friday arrived sooner than expected, despite the first half of the week taking 84 years.
7. Extra sporks in my Bojangles bag.  
8. 1 no homework night after many days and nights of homework hell.
9. Changing the password for my Cybersecurity project to s0s0s00verthisshit.
10. Extra long hugs from Teh German since he knows I've been weary lately.

6 more homework/projects due + 5 final exams to take.
15 more days until Spring 2019 is completely finished.
21 days until I'm in Germany.
24 days until my language course starts.
Happy Friday, Gentle Readers.

Weekend Review {04/08}

THURSDAY

Thursday was like a marathon.  Anxiety had me up at 0430 and I wasn't going back to sleep, despite my best efforts, so I got up, did the laundry, took my shower, and headed to school early to accomplish school and work things.  I had class, then class again, then I sat down to do "one quick thing" to my code which ended up being more like an infinite amount of quick things, so I stopped to go down and grab my lunch from the car, which I ate, while coding because when the coding bug bites, you accept it and you code.

I had actually planned to take a nap because I knew it was going to be a long day, but it didn't happen.  I worked on stuff through lunch and then it was afternoon class, then I headed to work to change into running clothes and wait for Teh Running Bestie to meet me (yay!) so we could run the i5k.  

I thought the race started at 6, but it actually started at 6:30, so we had to stand around for a bit.  BUT there was a greyhound there, so we were pacified.  The race went fine.  We did a walk/jog, nothing overly strenuous.  I was surprised at how little I coughed, and glad.  Coast was giving out free beer, so that was cool if that's your thing.  After the race, I grabbed a free beer for Teh German, since there were canned beers there and technically, I had paid for it, even if I don't drink it, and then we left.  

I dropped Teh Running Bestie off at her car, called an order in at Willie Jewells, picked up the order, and went straight home.  Since it was a little after 8pm when I got home, I didn't even bother bringing in all my shit, just the food.  We immediately ate dinner, then I took care of my shit.  Laundry, taking off my bra, putting shit away, gathering shit for the next day, and finally sitting down to finish my code stuff and letting it run overnight, and finally going to bed.

For real, when I rolled over in the bed, I don't remember closing my eyes.. that's how quickly I fell asleep.. and that's never how it works for me.  I didn't wake up once all night and it was a fucking delight.  I'm not sure the last time that's happened.

FRIDAY

Because there was no class on Friday, it was a work only day.  I went into the office kinda early since I had a laser appointment at 0900.  After my laser appointment, I went to the Chiro.  Since it was pouring buckets outside when I was trying to leave the Chiro's office, I talked him into escorting me to my car with an umbrella since "we're in an unsafe neighborhood" (which isn't actually untrue, lol).  He was a good sport and made sure I was mostly dry all the way to the car.  Then I went back to work for several hours until it was finally time to go home.

Olive-Walive is a boss at using a pillow.

Teh Running Bestie, Teh PT Wife, and I headed to the Bridge Run Expo around 4:30ish.  We picked up our race packets, perused the tables, then it was dinner time.  We decided on Page's Okra Grill, which was a risk since there is always a wait.  Fortunately, for a party of 3, it was only a 15 minute wait, and Teh PT Wife was able to handle that.

Chicken livers, cornbread, sweet potatoes, hushpuppies, and some pinto bean corn "salsa".

I know our server was slammed with tables, but we didn't have silverware when our food was delivered and I had asked for a water and didn't receive it until I was halfway done with my meal... after I'd had to go up to the server station to ask for silverware.  Yeah, that wasn't my favorite thing.  We did see the dude after the race on Saturday, but didn't say anything to him.  I think Teh PT Wife and I were both surprised to see him out of the 30,000 people there.. and we lost Teh Running Bestie.. we happen upon our server from dinner the night before.  The world works in mysterious ways.

After dinner, we headed back home.  Teh PT Wife loves me and sent Teh German and Teh Chief Smartass home.  I was exhausted and wanted to go to bed and I knew if they came home after I was already in the bed, that would wake me up and I wouldn't have been able to go back to sleep and then I would be EXTRA stabby.

It didn't take long for it to be bedtime since we had an early start the next day.

SATURDAY

When the alarm went off at 0530, I was legitimately confused.  I quickly determined it wasn't a school day, but could NOT remember why the alarm was going off.  It took a solid 20 seconds to remember it was Bridge Run day.

We were on the road by 0615, headed to the Coliseum to catch a bus to the start line.  We did a car go the opposite way of bus traffic and I was in such a bitchy mood, I really wanted that person to get hit by a bus.  Based on our general disgruntlement throughout the weekend, I'd say that all 3 of us, myself, Teh PT Wife, and Teh Running Bestie were PMSing.  It was rough.

I tried to take a nap on the bus ride, but the radio was BLARING and then it was static once we got into Mount Pleasant, which was better to me than my ear drums busting since it kinda sounded like the brown noise I listen to while I sleep.  We got to the start area and then decided to jump into the furthest forward corral we could sneak into.  I was in D corral, but Teh Running Bestie and Teh PT Wife were further back and I didn't want to be waiting over an hour to start the race.  A nazi was bib checking every.single.person (as she should) that went into D and E corrals, but the oblivious dude at F corral wasn't really paying attention so we snuck in.  Then some twatty bitch made some comments when I decided to stop moving and stand in the space that was in front of them.  Yes, it was tight, but there's 30,000 people here bitch, STFU.  I'm not touching you, breathing on you, or otherwise harming you.  Get over it (which is ironically, also the motto for the Bridge Run, so HA!).

Teh PT Wife and I ended up going on ahead of Teh Running Bestie.  This wasn't ideal since we ended up almost not being able to find her at the finish line because fucking chaos.  When we went into Marion Square, where the post-race stuff was happening, there was ZERO cell phone coverage, so we had to move out into the streets to be able to text her and her location wasn't updating.  UGH.

Wut bridge?

We finally managed to get text messages through and met at the Krispy Kreme bus.  We had grabbed water and a banana for Teh Running Bestie, but she hadn't gotten our texts in time and already had to fight the masses to get water, which always makes us stabby.  Throughout the race, I had been telling Teh PT Wife that I was annoyed with the weaving between people we were having to do.  Then we got to the finish line and there was no water and we had to discover a new area of the map to find the water (you're welcome for that gamer reference).  Here's the thing.. when participants have to ask each other where to find food/water after a race, YOUR RACE IS BAD.

And so.. I have come to a conclusion.
2020 will be my final year running the bridge run.  I'm over the crowds, I'm over the hassle it is with Teh German to get my car downtown the night before the race, I'm over the fact that the day before it usually rains, making getting downtown even more tedious, I'm over shuttling to the start, I'm over the extra 2 miles added on to the length of the race to get to the start line and to get to the car.

Why 2020?  Because I can't do 4 years of a run.  I need an "even" number to finish on.  And because Teh PT Kid told his mom that he would like to run the Bridge.

So after finally getting to the car in the parking garage, we headed to Early Bird Diner for post-race brunch with Teh German and Teh Chief Smartass.  I had called them when we got to the downtown portion of the race so they could head there and kickstart the wait time for us.  #SorryNotSorry.

I was super pumped to see the Oatmeal Cream Pie ice cream on the dessert menu and super disappointed when it didn't live up to my remembered expectations.  There was no talking during eating time, so that meant we were all huuuungry.  After brunch, we picked up Willow from the Coliseum, then we headed home.

I set up taco soup in the crockpot for dinner then piddled around the house doing random shit and finally showering.  I had debated taking a nap, I felt good, so I wasn't sure if I needed one, but ultimately ended up napping.  It didn't hurt my feelings.  When I got up, I shredded the chicken for the soup, then it was dinner time.

After dinner, I worked on a Cricut projects and Teh PT Fam came over to visit.  Eventually, it was late so Teh PT Fam left and soon after, it was bedtime.

SUNDAY

I wanted a late start on Sunday morning, but couldn't manage to sleep in once the beasts had been released, so I just got up and started working on homework.  It rained in the AM, but we still actually went through with our plans to take the beasts on a walk at Riverfront Park (where the i5k was). 

I had managed to clip Pax's nails before we left, without help, which was nice.. and I got a few of Meri's before I quicked her and she started bleeding like a stuck pig all over the couch, which set off Teh German, which set off Meri.. and I'm trying to hold her bloody foot.  It was as lovely as you can imagine.  Even with her anxiety meds and being exhausted from the park walk, she was NOT having more of my shit.  Teh Running Bestie tried to dremel her remaining paw and neither of us had ever been so scared that Meri was going to bite one of us, so we gave up.

Also, I do not have Mom Guilt because all of Meri's nails are black, which makes it extra difficult NOT to quick the dogs.  "Quick"ing is when you cut too short and the nail bleeds.  It doesn't last long, and it's equivalent to ripping off a hangnail for humans, but Meri does NOT like her feet to be messed with, thus why it is such a momentous event when nails get cut.

Back to the park though, we sent the beasts with Teh Running Bestie, who was going back home, so Teh German and I could accomplish the week's grocery store run.  We stopped at Sam's, Lidl, and then Walmart, unfortunately.  I had been hoping it was only a 2 store week, but I was not so lucky.  But it's fine because we were able to get all the stuff on the list instead of pushing it off... again.

When we got home, I put away groceries and then Teh German and I started working on German dinner: Hähnchenschnitzel (chicken schnitzel), käsespatzle (like mac and cheese), und Rotkuhl (red cabbage).  We started on dinner no later than 6 and we didn't eat until almost 8:30.  UGH.  But it was sooooo worth it.  This was the best time that we've done German dinner, Teh German and I agreed.

Front to back:
Rotkuhl, jaeger/mushroom gravy, Käsespatzle, Schnitzel

There was also "jaeger" gravy, but it didn't really come out right..
but the flavor was fine.. so I used it as a dipping sauce, lol.

After cleaning up dinner, it was bedtime.

______________________________________________

Sadly, Teh Running Bestie left on Monday morning.  That's always the worst, when she leaves me.  Even though we know we'll see each other again in June, I'm unbearably jealous that Teh German will get to see her in May when he goes to MD for the GEGR picnic, so before me.  I know, I know, I'll be in Germany doing awesome things.. but principle people!

Overall, a very good weekend.  I didn't get much done in the way of homework, which makes for a stressful week... Which can be determined from this post going live on a Wednesday afternoon...

Monday, I had a filling put on my broken tooth.  I have irrational dentist anxiety, but I managed.  The dentist said if the filling doesn't do the trick (eliminating the pain) or doesn't stay attached (since the break was at such a severe angle), a root canal is next. 

This is literally what my brain did when the dentist said that:

So this fucking filling better stay on.  That said, the lack of pain has been startling.  I didn't realize just how much it hurt.  Also, I no longer have to clean the tooth out with my finger when I'm done eating since it would trap food.  I'm sure that is Teh German's favorite thing about my filling, no more watching me pick food out of my teeth after we eat.  That said, it is very much a habit now, after several years of doing it...

Monday night, I thought it was Tuesday night and I was extremely disappointed that the week was already dragging and it was only Monday.

Finally, Teh Running Bestie and the Disney Hercules Facebook account peer pressured me into starting to play Disney Emoji Blitz.  I haven't decided if I will continue to play it long term because I have a very hard time not playing it at the wrong times and being grouchy while I am playing it if someone messes with me and causes me to score low.  Yes, I know, #MeganProblems.

2 MORE WEEKS OF CLASS.
I can literally drag myself through this.
I run half marathons.
I can survive 2 weeks of end-of-semester-itis.
For real though, wish me luck.  The struggle is real.