Running is Good Therapy Too

I ran the DC Half and Half yesterday morning, a great race for a great cause. A friend's husband orchestrated the race as a fundraiser for a former student who now runs a scholarship program called Scholarchips for students of incarcerated parents. A fairly small inaugural race, the idea was to run from Carter Barron park to Ben's Chili Bowl, a DC landmark, eat a half-smoke and then run the second half of the half-marathon. I had never done anything like that before, but found I did fine, albeit some logistical difficulty.

At some point on the way back (after burping up chili dog a couple of times, thinking, "keep that food down; keep that food down!"), I realized I had not run back down this incredibly steep hill I had run up on my way to Ben's. I thought, "Oh crap! I haven't noticed any chalk arrows lately" when I realized I was completely turned around. I stopped for a minute, tried to call a friend whose husband was running the race, but she didn't hear her phone, so then I decided to use my maps application on my phone. Yeah, my old phone doesn't have the walking maps option, so the next thing I know, I'm running on the Rock Creek Parkway with some disgruntled car drivers honking at me. haha! Eventually, when it was 11:20 (and I had been running since 8:30), I decided it was time to hail a cab to get my butt back to the start line. I figured I had definitely run 13.1 miles by then. :) Staci (my friend I had called for directions) called me back and was so sweet -- she waited for me and as I came into the parking lot in a cab was clapping and cheering me on. haha! Thanks Staci!

I went home, tried to take a nap but was only able to sleep for about 40 minutes, and then got up and got some stuff from the neighbor. My neighbor is moving to Chicago, which is a shame because I only just got to know her, and she's a hoot and a half. The only silver lining is she is selling me a few things that I can really use for the condo. I have completely furnished my condo with used furniture from Craig's List, Goodwill or really cheap furniture from Target or Ikea. So, Kim (my neighbor) helped me move over a bunch of items. Then I showered and went over to hang out with my friend Natalie. I needed to stay awake until 1:50 a.m. in order to run the Anything is Possible 5k.

Natalie is a big fan of red wine, and I'm right there with her. Needless to say, at some point, I realized I would never be able to stay awake to do this awesome run in my PJs. So I texted Karen to say something like, "good luck! I'm not gonna make it!" I slept on Natalie's pull-out couch and she and I went for a walk and then pedicures today. Felt good to be pampered a bit. :) Then I went grocery shopping and to Target to buy Sofia some much-needed long-sleeved clothes before the X dropped them off at 7 tonight.

Gabe gives me the longest, sweetest hugs when he gets here. Sofia joins in too. Earlier in the week, I had made them a photo album of a bunch of the photos of the X and me and them, so we looked at that at bed time, and Gabe wanted to read me some of his favorite Shel Silverstein poems. He's so funny! Loves some of the same poems I loved at his age!

When the kids come over, they spend the first half-hour (unprompted) explaining all of the things they did and the things their father said over the last week. I won't get into the latter because it will just upset me, but suffice it to say that half the things he says to them are in no way, shape or form appropriate to say to children. Whenever I try to email him to tell him what they're telling me, he just denies it, so it's almost not worth doing anymore. I just wanted to tell them my exciting news about being able to take them home to San Antonio for Thanksgiving, but of course he had already shared my news. My favorite (*sarcasm*) is that he loves to ask, "What's wrong?" when he walks in to drop off the kids. I always say, "nothing" and I wonder why he thinks it's appropriate to ask me what's wrong in front of the kids. If he really cared that something might be wrong,  he might try asking in private or over email or something, but that's precisely the point. He doesn't care.

I want to take the kids to see Wreck-it Ralph. I hope he didn't already take them. It didn't occur to me to ask before putting them to bed tonight. Speaking of which, it's about time for me to hit the hay.

I don't know about you, but I'm super nervous about the election on Tuesday. I'll be taking the kids with me, like I always do, to vote. Just hope I don't run into the X, and if I do, he'd better not ask me what's wrong. He just likes to push my buttons. Always has. I'm so glad I don't have to deal with him on a daily basis anymore. C'est la vie.