Hills, Or: The course that goes up must also go down.

I ran a new course on May 8th.

As with all (but one) races that I've run, it was actually a new-to-me course, since this race has been run for about 20 years or something. It was also a new-to-me distance; I got an automatic PR for the 11 mile. Excellent. Really, this race was my idea of the perfect half-marathon: one that ended when I wanted it to end, and not 2.1 miles later.

So! Mile 1 was the pace I was going for, Mile 2 was about 2 1/2 minutes slower. No prizes for guessing where all the hills were. Yep, mile 2 was straight up out of the canyon. I kept moving, but only barely. Mile 3 was a bit faster than mile 2 (I was still recovering), but every mile after that kept getting a teensy bit faster. I wish I could do that at every race!

I had no real goal for this race except to keep a sub-12 minute pace. I verified with a board member before we started that there was no cutoff time for this race (I was a bit worried about that), so I knew that all I had to do was keep going.

Race highlight: There was a woman who goes to South Plains who was out with her son watching; apparently, there were enough people she knew running to make it worthwhile to come out & cheer everyone on! It delighted me to get high-fives from Cathy & Eli.

And then, the downhill came. I love that downhill. It was fantastic to run down as fast as I could, and also to get a break from the crazy wind, thanks to high canyon walls.

I beat my office manager by about two minutes! That was kind of exciting. We totally should have had an office pool.

We can be heroes!

So, that was April. One of the most exciting months of my life, and yet hardly anything happened. Cool.

We started teaching in Journeyland for the first time at the end of April. Up until now, we've been Journeymen-- that is, we go from room to room with the same set of children for the entire rotation (8 weeks). This time around, we are staying in the same room and all the children come to us.

And that room iiiiiiiiis-- the craft room! What other room could we possibly do? Okay, Chad would like to do the Geography room, but he would be doing it without me, because I am a crafty woman. Geography, not so much.

We are studying Heroes of Faith, and our section is women of Acts. So on Sundays, we talk about how we usually can't think of many women in the Bible, and we go over some of the reasons for that, with an emphasis on how much women were serving behind the scenes. And then we make slipper socks, as a reminder of the women of the Bible making their own clothes.

Wednesday night is when we get specific about Lydia, Priscilla and Tabitha. We talk about their faith. We talk about their hospitality. We talk about their service. And then we make key chains, which the kids have to give away in the same way that Tabitha gave her creations away.

We're now in the last week, because this is a short rotation. We've loved it, but Journeyland is nearly at an end for us forever. And I'm pretty sad about that.

Sock and key chain pics to follow!

I knew him well

While channel-flipping a few weeks ago, we ran across a scene with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart both in it. Of course, we stopped.

Said scene was the end of Hamlet, a brand-new version starring the aforementioned fantabulous actors, as well as a bunch of other equally talented people. It was only just released in the US, and it is won-der-ful. Even if you aren't all that into Shakespeare, it would still be worth watching just for the joy of seeing David Tennant really, really get into this part.

So, we borrowed the DVD from Hastings the moment it came available, and I had an enjoyable evening with a couple of friends watching. And then an even more enjoyable time watching it with Chad.

There's an advert on the DVD for more Shakespeare by this group. I think I'm a fan.

Run for the Legos!

I believe I left off, intrepid readers, with what was one of the most exciting weeks of my recent life. Most exciting, in fact, since... um... mumblemumblemumble.

So I capped off my week o' collegiate glory by taking a day off. Sorta. I already had a day off planned for after the OKC marathon, ended up not doing the OKC marathon (sniff!), so I moved my day off to the day before the monthly local race: The Race for the Arts.

This race coincides with the Lubbock Arts Festival. I would like to point out that I love that Lubbock has an Arts Festival. I think everywhere should have an Arts Festival. I really, really like the idea of an Arts Festival... but I personally have had very little to do with its practise.

You see, I am an Arts Festival nightmare. I go, I peruse every booth, I talk to the artist, I ooh and aah over the really cool stuff that is produced... and then I walk away. Without handing over any cash. Not what the good Arts Festival folks were looking for. Sorry, Good Arts Festival Folks!

So, this year's theme was "Life. Lego Art. And the pursuit of happiness." I love Legos. I think most kids would be better off if their toyboxes were filled to the brim with Legos and nothing else. And, wow, did the Lego artists outdo themselves in the stuff they produced. Unfortunately, I have no pics, but there were life-size people, a bicycle (half a bicycle, to be exact; the other half was an actual bike), various buildings... I can't even remember them all. I was totally wowed. Also on display was a tremendous Star Wars Lego scene, and a model railroad, complete with Lego village. It was brilliant.

The race... was less brilliant. It was cold. It was raining. It was windy. There were not enough layers of clothes in the known universe, and certainly not in my closet, to keep me warm that day. But I survived, and even managed to have a little fun.

I skipped a day, though, didn't I? I took Friday off work to help woman the running club packet pickup at the Festival. It was raining & cold on Friday, too. And I think I managed to cement in the minds of many that the only job I am truly capable of doing for the running club is handing out water. I have managed to completely screw up every other job I have ever undertaken. Oh, and cut up fruit & bagels. I'm pretty good at that, too. Registering people, taking money, clicking the finish line clicker, collecting tags-- I can't do any of those. And I'm not all that great at handing out awards, either.

The running club may be happy to see me go.

My, how time flies.

I knew it had been far too long since I'd updated my adoring public on my uber-exciting life, but the fact that it's been a month is news even to me. My apologies to all, and especially to Ruth, who apparently has lost some of her will to live since she hasn't heard all the interesting bits of my life lately. Never mind that she was there for most of them.

Anyway! I'm sure there is someone out there who is dying to hear all the details about my acceptance to the University of Texas... oh, you haven't heard? You are reading the uncharted rantings of an almost-university student at this very moment.

So, I applied in December, had all my paperwork in (including the transcript from my reluctant previous college) by January, and then had a couple of months of sitting around being anxious before the application deadline on March 31st. And then the anxiety level kicked up several notches, since the UT website promised that "outstanding" applicants would be notified early on, and the general public could expect to hear back by mid-May. Since I was with me all through high school, and I graduated from a community college, I didn't expect to be in the "outstanding" category.

In the meantime, I got a courtesy email from the financial aid office at UT letting me know that they had received all my paperwork and would begin processing my application once I was accepted. Good to know, thanks.

I checked the website about six times a day the first weekend in April, then decided that was a bit over the top, so restricted myself to checking every Friday, which I did the following week, followed by a little anxiety-relieving dance around my living room when I saw that I was still being reviewed.

On the following Tuesday, I innocently checked my email in the morning & found a message from the financial office that they were about to begin processing my file. The speed at which I put two & two together will probably stand for the rest of my life as the fastest time I ever managed to do maths. I'm not exaggerating when I say that my entire body went numb and I sat there for a minute starting at my screen after I closed the email.

Then I decided that I couldn't wait until the evening to find out-- I had to know then. So, I raced to the back of the office (this was still all unknown to most of my coworkers) to check my status. And it was probably the longest three minutes of my life while I located my login credentials, navigated away from the page by mistake, located my credentials again, and then finally found my status check page, where I saw the magical words: "Congratulations! You have been accepted into your first-choice major..."

And that's all I saw, because that's when I began shrieking, jumping up & down, and hugging everyone within reach. And smiling so hugely my face almost cracked.

It was Friday before I got my letter in the mail, and finally got to take the picture I'd been planning since last summer:

So, we're moving to Austin. Wish me luck!