Brown Christmas, Kinected, Losted, 10??
So my mom came out to our place around 11 on Christmas eve. Before she arrived I had been out and about with a stop at Home Depot and the grocery store. Ali had to work on Friday so it was just mom, the dogs and I. I decided to make burgers on the grill for us for lunch. After we ate I got busy on mom’s Rav 4, I told her I would wash and wax it for her.
While I was outside doing that mom was inside keeping busy, cooking up some potatoes we had lying around for the dogs as well as baking a couple batches of cookies. Mom’s car was pretty dirty since the last time it was washed was probably last Christmas when she came over. Mom must be afraid to go through those complicated automatic car wash places.
I diligently scrubbed, sprayed and wiped until I had the 1996 Toyota looking about as good as it can. The coating of wax made the white paint shine brightly.
Mom had laid down for a nap. The dogs were laying with her as well. I started feeling tired with a hint of nausea. I told my mom I was going to lay down as well. Well I laid in bed for a good two hours but I didn’t sleep for2 seconds. Instead, I laid there feeling more and more sick to my stomach. It almost felt like an instant replay of my food poisoning episode. How can it be?
Eventually it got to the point where I found myself bent over the toilet, feeling like it was time again to barf. Well the vomit never came but instead I was greeted with a rash of explosive diarhea that was not enjoyable at all. As I sat there I could not believe I once again felt sick after eating a burger. I cooked them well. Mom didn’t get sick, the dogs didn’t get sick but there I was once again feeling like my guts were tied in knots.
When Ali got home we gave her the news that I apparently had another adverse food reaction. I had no appetite and missed out on our Christmas Eve dinner of vegetable lasagna. Instead I had two pieces of plain toast and sipped some Diet Sprite. By the end of the night I did feel well enough to eat a few Christmas cookies.
We watched our first (and last) Christmas special of 2010, Home Alone 2. Ali has been so busy with work and other stuff that we just have not sat down and watched any Christmas shows this year. It has helped contribute to a holiday season that didn’t feel very holidayish.
So I was very tired from my stomach ailment and so were mom and Ali. We retired to bed early although I wound up staying awake till midnight watching Lost episodes.
I awoke Christmas morning at 6:30 to no fanfare, just me and the dogs. I ate my pop tarts and played WoW until mom and Ali came out. We probably didn’t start opening presents until after 8. Hell there were years when present opening began at 6am, I used to be so excited about it.
Although we don’t have kids, the dogs do their best to fill that role on Christmas morning. They genuinely get excited as we open their presents and have a blast playing with them. Despite the normal pledge to not buy much for each other, Ali and once again had plenty under the tree.
I got a number of cool things, the most noteworthy being the Kinect for the 360 along with some additional games. We got my mom a number of smaller things. My sister stole the gift I was planning to get for my mom, a starter e-cigarette pack.
Ironically out of everything mom got it seemed the thing that intrigued her the most was the negative ion bracelet we picked up as stocking stuffer. We know some people that have them. The reports we heard were that their owners have been surprised that they actually have felt better since wearing the simple rubberized bracelet. Mom is constantly complaining about one physical ailment or another so I thought it would be worth a shot.
I got Ali some cool things, the highlights being a nice Kodak camera with 26x zoom and more features than you know to do with as well as a gift cert that will allow her to upgrade her phone to an Iphone 4 in mid-January when her contract runs out. I even surprised her with a pink Snuggie, the gift that I have publicly mocked forever.
After everything was torn open we ate our traditional french toast breakfast that mom prepares. Then the never fun clean up / organizing process began. As we were picking up we got calls from the rest of our family where we exchanged holiday wishes. When I was talking to my brother Pat he mentioned a hilarious picture they took of my dad the other day. He was nice enough to send it to me. Wow Dad, time for some personal grooming…
Luckily for me, I look much more like my mom than my dad. 🙂
I didn’t waste much time before I hooked up the Kinect to give it a try. I had no idea that the camera was robotic and moved to track you. I thought it was stationary. In a few minutes I was in front of the tv, gesturing and jumping, interacting with the 360 with no controller. It was really cool. Later on in the day I got Ali in front of it as well to play some games with me. It’s really a lot of fun.
Mom headed out a little after 1pm for her drive home. She had a dinner she was going to at her friend’s house. We spent the rest of the day playing with our stuff mostly. It was a nice relaxing way to spend our Christmas day, a far cry from the days where Christmas was filled with stops at 3 or 4 different places.
As I mentioned, before in this post and for many years prior, Christmas is a pretty pale holiday now in comparison to the glory years. Yea I still put up the lights and the tree but there isn’t all that much more to it for me. Christmas comes and goes very quickly as a 43 year old adult and in the process all of the old anticipation and excitement that accompanied it goes along with it.
On Christmas night I finally finished up Lost, watching the controversial series finale. I, like everyone else had tons of questions after it was all over. Some stuff just didn’t make much sense at all to me. I tried to fill in some gaps by reading some informed opinions on the web. I also watched the 12 minute post finale webisode that answered a few of the questions. Despite the holes in the story, I enjoyed the finale and loved the show in general. When Jack laid there in his final moments and Vincent, the lab settled in next to him, it choked me up. I have no doubt if I was about ready to check out my dogs would be my side as well.
So on Sunday Ali had committed to go do the Bagel Run, an informal run sponsored by the running store. It is meant to be part of the training program for the half marathon in mid-January. I told Ali I would come with her and run since I wanted to help battle the holiday bulge that affects us all from eating too much.
When I stepped outside Sunday morning before we left (oh did I mention the run started at 6:30 am?), I was smacked in the face by a nasty wind. Running long distances in windy conditions is not fun at all. The temps were in the low 60’s. I brought long pants and shirt but I intended to run in shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt.
We got on site early and had a chilly half hour waiting for the running to start. Ali had loose plans to run 10 miles. Christy was there as well and she planned to run less than that, maybe 5 or 6 miles. They both asked me what I planned to run and I said I had no idea.
We took off at a very sustainable pace. I had a little gremlin inside my head that was telling me that whatever Ali was going to run, I should run. After all, I am a man. When I verbalized the possibility of running with Ali the entire way Ali said it wasn’t very smart, something I already knew. You see the farthest I have EVER run in my life is a 10k which is 6.25 miles. I had only done that once and that was a few months ago. I generally don’t do long distance running because it feels like a crap shoot with my knees. Well Sunday I felt like rolling the dice.
Christy turned around at the 3 mile mark to head back leaving just Ali and I to plow ahead. My body didn’t feel too bad for the first half of the run, the second half was a different story. I had various things hurt along the way. Some of them came and went like a pain in my left hip, some came and amplified over time like my hamstrings.
During the return run a friend of ours that we hadn’t seen since she moved to DC caught us from behind and talked to us. Before I knew it we had covered two miles during the conversation which was great. Keeping your mind from thinking about the effort of running is a big help.
The last 3 miles or so were pretty tough. My legs started feeling like they were filled with cement. The wind was now in our face which made things less enjoyable. We kept moving. As we ran I said to Ali I remembered very clearly the days when we started running together at the middle school track. I recalled how Ali would struggle mightily just to complete a mile or two. And now here she was doing a 10 mile training run.
Finally the end was in sight. I made sure to not stop my GPS until it had clicked over to the 10 mile mark. It was an odd sensation when you try to stop your legs after running that long, they want to keep on running, almost via muscle memory.
I was quite happy with my accomplishment. Inside I had pride as we enjoyed our post race coffee and bagels. I had just increased my running distance max by 66% in one shot, something unheard of and unadvised as well. The weird thing is it was just a spur of the moment decision. I had no plans or goal to run 10 miles in my lifetime. If anything it was more of my ego kicking me in the ass saying if Ali can do it, you can do it.
The rest of our Sunday was very productive even with a reasonable amount of relaxation thrown in there. We got everything down around the house that needed to get handled even with allowances for Ali’s naps and my goofing off with electronic diversions.
I am home today yet for the last day of my 4 day weekend. I have no huge plans. I shot one brief pull up video to be used in next month’s Bar-barian challenge and I think I am going to give the ass busting 6 pack challenge another go here shortly.
Christmas has come and gone. Although my personal connection to Christmas has faded, my hope is the general kindness and good that is cultivated during this season can extend beyond just the last two weeks of December. If you want to see all the pictures I took at Christmas go here.