Hello...

I still live, everything is fine, and I'm feeling really guilty about leaving this blog to wither and die.  I need to get it together and catch up a bit, but it's difficult to know where to begin. I've been kinda focused on the treason shit and the midterms. It's only the future of our country at stake.

I will share some happy updates: Sophie is fine, though getting a bit grayer, which makes me sad. She turned 9 in April.  Ellie is lovely and a perfect cat. 

We had a family visit to NC at the beginning of July, and the girls got together for a few days, and it was loud and fun.  We stayed at a farm and hiked to waterfalls, and the girls had a blast. Delaney milked a cow, and the farm cat had kittens, and really what more could little girls need?  The visit was too short, but honestly, City Grandma had just about enough of the farm cottage after a few days, it was cute but...rustic.  Grandma likes her comfort, like a good mattress and a bathroom bigger than a closet. But it was a fun whirlwind visit, and my daughter wants to stay at the cottage again. I'll stay nearby, but elsewhere.  :-)

I got to spend some time with the granddaughter who is practically a stranger, and OMG she's my son all over again. She doesn't look like him as a 3 year old, but her personality, OMG. She's articulate way beyond her years, and her diction and delivery are uncanny.  I remember strangers' heads whipping around when my son would speak in public; Willa is just like him.  She's three and a half, and can hold a conversation like she's 7.  One small example: we were at their house and it got insanely loud, and the rain that was threatening appeared to be moving off, so I went to my son and suggested a trip to a park.  We agreed this was a good idea, and when Willa rocketed past me on one of their insane shrieking runs through the living room, I said, "I talked to your Daddy and we're going to go to the park. You all are getting really loud in here."  And she said, "Oh GOOD! I was just thinking, 'I wish we could go to the park!"  and her diction and delivery were years older than three.  She's a spooky little kid and I can't wait to see her at 6.  

Her older sister is a serious girl, and I've given up on picking out books for her, I just ask her what she wants, her tastes are eclectic.  She's starting third grade soon and loves school. She attends what my son calls a "hippie charter school" which is very flexible about learning styles and big on parent involvement, so she's thriving there.

And Miss D started first grade (damn that October birthday, she's the tallest and one of the oldest in her class) already, and likes her teacher much more this year.  And grandma feels vindicated, because I'd been saying that she needed to be screened for gifted since she was around a year old, and I got crap from my daughter for years: "Oh grandma, you just want her to be gifted...." and I said I didn't really care, but I'm telling you right now that she is, and she's going to need the extras that the label provides. 

So she was screened over the summer, and the screening session took a really long time, and my daughter texted me when it was over, and I was mature and didn't scream "I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!" because this isn't about bragging rights, it's about getting her what she needs to not be bored off her ass and become a discipline problem and waste her brain.

She's starting first grade reading at at least 4th grade level, it's hard to tell where she is because she just DOES it.  Now she is teaching herself multiplication, and has figured out how negative numbers work, on her own, after watching some YouTube videos. When she was here last week we speculated about how to build a playground with materials cool enough for the Florida sun.  (We gave up; I don't think that stuff has been invented yet.) So anyway, the gifted label means they will sit down and figure out enrichment for her so she won't be bored off her ass, and that's good.

Oh, and she's now on the big kid dance team, and is rehearsing a solo and a small group dance. She lives for dance, and my daughter is an accidental Dance Mom.  But seriously, this child was pissed that she couldn't take classes every day of the week.  It's her world.

So I've had my little I Told You So moment where Miss D's concerned. I'm less happy about my other one.

 I hate being right. I said this in April of last year.

Two Freaking Months Since My Last Post?

I'm sorry, I'm not dead or even wounded. I'm fine. I have no excuse to not update more often, (or EVER) other than I stare into screens all freaking day and...grandma's tired, y'all.  I've been busy with other things, but all's fine. My day job is very technical and... while it's interesting in a "this is making my head hurt" way, I feel like I MUST step away from the keyboard when I leave.

I'm 60 days from turning 60, and I'm on a mission to get there in really good shape.  That Disney 5K totally turned my walking switch back on. I've discovered the world of virtual races, and am dying for a sloth medal.  Seriously one of the races has a sloth medal.  I want it.

Tomorrow we're going to Epcot Flower and Garden to do the scavenger hunt with Spike the Bee, and walk through the butterfly garden, and enjoy the topiaries and the fun foods.

Sophie is fine. She's not down with this walking business though, she's sure mommy's lost her mind. I take her for her short stroll and put her ass in the house to go walk without her.  I need a pit bull who can do three miles and love it.

Ellie is also fine and remains Best Cat Ever.

Delaney is also fine. She's an amazing reader now, her grades are fabulous and of course she's a dancing machine.  Her dance team will  be performing in Daytona next weekend, and she's going to try out for the "big girl team" this summer.  I think we can assume she'll be on the big girl team next year.  My daughter is adjusting to her new life as a Dance Mom. 

And now I must step away from the screen and do Friday Evening. 

Grandma's First 5k

I promise no rants ahead!😁

Yesterday was the Disney Princess 5k,  and I'm still on a "walker's high." I can walk a gazillion miles, but where other people have knee cartilage, I have crushed potato chips.  I have to stick to low impact.  I've never been able to run so I have never paid a lot of attention to races.  My daughter got back into running a couple of years ago, and did this race last year.  After she told me I absolutely could do it, I signed up with her to do it this year.  (She's also doing the half marathon on Sunday, because she is a Real Runner.)

The race started at 5:30 a.m., so I had to pick my daughter up at 3:30 a.m. to get there, park, and make our way to the starting point in the Epcot parking lot. It was already crowded with runners.  Thousands of runners, or rather, a few thousand runners and a herd of my fellow walkers. 15,000 people registered for the race.  There were 6 corrals, grouped by time, and those corrals were turned loose in groups of 4 or 5, so it wasn't a mad stampede.  This is not the kind of race where you go for a personal record, because if you didn't start in the front of corral A, it's not possible to maintain any sort of speed in the mob.  (We were in the middle of the pack in C.)

While the winners do get the glory, most of the participants are there for fun, and it is hugely fun. Some people wear amazing costumes, others are just funny, like the tall, balding man around my age who was dressed as Snow White, while his daughters were dwarfs.  The winner of the race was a guy they'd interviewed on the stage (jumbo screens and music and and a coffee truck and entertainment keep you busy while waiting to start) who was in full Rapunzel regalia, including the long braid wig, and a few days of facial stubble.  He was there to "get in touch with his inner princess," and the crowd loved him, it's cool that he won.  (His winning photo shows that his princess gown was slit up the front and he had some serious, muscular runner's legs underneath.)

It is a timed race, and as you pass each mile marker a digital display shows your time, but I can't even remember what ours was by the end.  After a while, dodging around the people who were walking at window shopping speed got too frustrating and we slowed down, took a few pictures, and made a restroom stop after mile 2.  As I said, not a place to worry about your speed. 😆

I hadn't walked much since signing up for this race and had been mildly concerned that I would be one of the slower participants, until I got to the race Expo Thursday evening to pick up my race bib and shirt.  The Expo is at the huge Wide World of Sports complex, which I'd never visited.  As I was walking in I saw people of all ages and shapes picking up their race bibs, including a few who appeared winded from walking in from the parking lot.

Don't get my daughter started on people who lie their asses off about their running time. This race doesn't require proof of time, so if you ever want to do it, just do what everyone does - make up a number.  I passed a number of groups of women around my age who appeared exhausted by walking from the parking lot to pick up their race bibs, and imagined their conversation:

"So we have to put how fast we go on the registration. How long do you think it takes us to walk a mile?

"Oh, I don't know, maybe 10 minutes?"

"Okay, we'll say 10 minutes."

Yeah, there's a whole lotta that going on.

I don't have a ton of pictures because did I mention it was 5:30 in the morning? Yeah, dark. Beautiful, but dark.

The Epcot Flower and Garden Festival is getting underway, so there were tons of great topiaries to admire (in the dark).

Obligatory selfie at the halfway mark.

I could get addicted to runDisney.  The event was so well organized, tons of staff,  and everyone, the participants and the volunteers from Children's Miracle Network were just so happy and nice!  Definitely worth doing if you ever get the chance. I'm looking forward to the Wine and Dine in November.

I promised there would be no rants in this update, but I'll leave you with this happy thought:

So, I'm really failing at this update more often thing.

I put a note about "update BLD" on my to do list every day. And then somehow I can't, because I'm so full of rage right now, and spewing it here would be somewhat satisfying but ultimately as useful as "thoughts and prayers."

I am full of rage.  I have calmed down a bit since the latest horrific massacre of schoolchildren, just the other day - and major love to Rachel Maddow, who used the words "mass murder".  Watch the language, and who uses it.  It's an "incident" a "tragedy" a whatever, like the fucking roof collapsed or a tornado hit the school.  Like it's an act of God, who could have seen it coming, let's turn the topic to mental illness!  OMG I feel my blood pressure rising, so I will stop here.  I will say that we have an opportunity to change this course in November, and it begins and ends with voting out every fucking Republican we can, and mop up the rest of those fuckers in 2020.  That party needs to die.  This isn't a failure of "Congress" this isn't "both sides," this is the party in control is not only covering for the puppet installed in the White House by a hostile foreign power, but doing a ton of really awful shit just because they can. 

While we were understandably distracted by the murders of a bunch of 14 and 15 year old kids because a 19 year old could legally buy an assault weapon, those vile, evil Republicans were busy gutting the Americans with Disabilities Act.  WHY would anyone do something so just plain shitty?  The ADA has been around for decades, it's useful and I'm pretty sure everyone agrees it's a good thing. Make life harder for blind people and deaf people and people who rely on wheelchairs to get around and work and just live, because their lives are already too easy? Why did they do it?  Because they can. And we need to stop them and fix this shit.

For my entire adult life, and I'll be 60 this year, I've listened to these people, as they wrapped themselves in the flag and proclaimed themselves to be the people who Love This Country and are all about Personal Responsibility and OMG the DEBT IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM EVER, and everything bad is the fault of the eebil libbruls.  Yeah, that was bullshit and if you bought it you might want to do some soul searching while you catch up on what's going on.  The economy is about to take another dive, when the reality of what's happened finally sinks in on Wall Street.  We're in the Trump chop shop, being sold off for parts. 

And meanwhile, there's the woman who got 3 million more votes, being berated and told to shut up and knit while the animated corpse of Mitt Romney rises to run again.  Misogyny.  A topic for another rant, and something that actually is "both sides."

I'm sorry, that really turned ranty.  Tomorrow I'm doing a long walk.  Next Friday is the 5k, and I'm stoked and ready for a fun morning.

Hello, I'm not dead!

Though this was apparently disappointing to at least three work acquaintances.  Stand by, I've been storing up a LOT of rants. We'll start with this one:

I had the flu a couple of weeks ago.  A perfectly normal, unexceptional case of the flu, fever and aches and OMG I coughed more that week than I have in the last DECADE, but otherwise, eh.  Other than not getting much sleep because the aforementioned coughing pretty much destroyed sleep, I drank fluids and rested and was better in days.

And when I made the mistake of mentioning to my coworkers that I was getting over the flu, no fewer than THREE responded thusly - please note these are acquaintances who work on my floor, not friends:

Them:   OMG!!!! YOU HAD THE FLU???  DID YOU GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM???

Me:  No, I just rested and took OTC meds and lots of fluids....

Them:   BECAUSE HEALTHY PEOPLE DIE!!!! FROM THIS FLU!! OMG ELEVENTY!! IT'S SO SERIOUS??  YOU DIDN'T GO TO THE HOSPITAL??

Me, thinking:  Ookay, I am standing in front of you, obviously not, yanno, dead...so your point would be....?

Them:  MORE DRAMATIC RANTING ABOUT THE FLU, OMG....it is apparently a miracle that I survived.

Me, thinking:  Um, could you like, get the fuck out of my cube now? Because I'm wondering if I somehow let you down by not requiring intensive care for a mild case of the flu. Maybe next time I'll die, just for you, you fucking freak.

Anyway, I'm totally fine.

And I'm excited about the Princess 5k which is just two weeks away! I'm feeling like a slacker because I don't have an amazing themed costume, but I'm just there for brunch at The Wave afterward.  It's so crazy, but after nearly 40!! years of visiting Disney World, I've never been inside the Contemporary Resort!  My daughter and her friend did this brunch after another race last year and she loved it, so I'm excited.

We're all fine here. It's a freakish 85 degrees and I am covered in baby mosquito bites, because those little bastards hatched hungry, like teeny vampires, and this isn't strange at all for FEBRUARY.  God, I'm so scared of summer.