A First For Everything

My parents used to always say that, "there is a first for everything", which was probably their way of saying, "just try it once! You may like it!" (aka don't knock it until you've tried it) or maybe it was their way of saying, "Make the most of your first one, because you only get one first one". Whatever their meaning was behind it, I took it to mean that I should try new things AND try to have fun and make the best of it, whatever it is!

In 2010, I went to the Himalayas for the first time. I hiked higher than I had ever hiked before. I loved it.

In 2011, I ran my first marathon. I am currently trying to figure out when my next one will be.

Yesterday, I went to my first live hockey game! This has been on my life list for a while, so I am very excited about it. It was a lot of fun and I now have several new heroes. These guys are awesome! Except for this guy. All he does is start fights, but even that is kind of "fun", or should I say entertaining?

And today, as you are reading this post, I am probably trying this for the first time:

source

Except without the dog. Or the sunset. But still, I am really excited about it, and am sure I will have tons of photos (or not, I mean, what if my camera gets wet?) I love trying new things, even if it's just once and I hate it, how will I know if I don't try?

+++++++

Last but not least, the other day, I ran Move it Momma's Spring Fever 10k. I had a great time running it; I did it on the trails near my house and actually found a new one just for this race (another first!) I finished in 1:00:51, which is a 9:52/mile. It was a beautiful spring day and I love getting out and finding new running routes!

Here is my bib. Lucky number 13!

What things have you tried for the first time this year? Did you like it? Do you like watching sports?

Run Home Barry!

They announced it on the radio. In order to get tickets you had to go to the stadium and get a bracelet. Only 5000 people would get one. I didn't think there was a chance in you-know-where that I would get one. I was at work and luckily I had an awesome co-manager who let me leave work to go see if I could get a bracelet.

I have been a Giants fan since I was a kid. However, the last couple of years had been especially good ones. Luckily our company had seats that they didn't always use for clients and if we begged the VP we would sometimes get the left over tickets. If they didn't have tickets, we would buy them. It was only 9 dollars for a standing room only ticket and you could almost always find an unoccupied seat to borrow. In those days they didn't even check tickets. We would often go down to the third base line right near the dugout. We went whenever we could.

This is a real Polaroid! I mean, it was 1990!

The year before, Barry had broken the home runs per year record. I was at the game where he beat McGuire's record. It was great! The ball went right by me! I *almost* had 450,000 dollars (how much the ball was sold for later). It was an exciting time.

But now, the Giants were going to the WORLD SERIES! And here I was, only a few miles from where they were giving out bracelets that could put me in the middle of the action. I had to get one of those bracelets!!! My friend John and I went down to the park and it was a hive of activity. However, surprisingly, there were not as many people as we thought there would be and we both got a bracelet after all.

The next step was this: the bracelets were numbered 1- 5000. They would draw a number from a hat and whichever number they drew would be the first person in line to buy tickets. It would be announced the next day. I was number 4947. John was 4948.

Once again, I had to work and I was at work when the news came out that the numbers were announced. The first person would be.... 4899!!! And the tickets went on sale in a half an hour! I begged to get off again and ran down to the stadium as fast as I could go. Actually I had to take the train and let me tell you, it seemed to be moving REALLY slow that day. I got to the stadium and the line was outrageous. I finally found my place in line by asking everyone what their number was, only to find out that....I was too late. My number had already gone by! I was TOO late! However, I could go to the end of the line. Since I DID have a bracelet, I was entitled to my 4 tickets.

The wait that day took about 8 hours. But finally, I, the last person in line, got to buy my four standing room only tickets. For 60 bucks each. I could have turned around and sold those tickets for twice or three times their price. But I had stood in line all day and I had fought for my right to see my team! Nobody could keep me away from that game. Nobody!

Signs, Rally Caps and Face Paint! October 2002

Have you ever wanted something so bad you would stand in line all day (or all night) to get it? (I have heard of people doing this for Chick-Fil-A.)

This is a Throwback, which may or may not be a re-occurring feature.

Xerostomia

xerostomia 1: abnormal dryness of the mouth resulting from decreased secretion of saliva [syn: {dry mouth}](source)

Okay, I know you are wondering why the weird word? Well, I started the A-Z blogfest and was supposed to be done by April 30, but I didn't do it in time, but I am determined to finish anyway! So...I needed an X word, so I looked it up. What I found was that most X words have to do with medicinal terms or scientific terms.  And they are pretty weird. For example, the above, also linked in family with anything else starting in xero- means "dry". Basically. But that is not what I am writing about today. Today, I am going to talk about....WORK. If you looked at my pictures I put up earlier (HERE) you will already know that my work days have not been DRY.

There is always work to do, even when you don’t have a job. If you are me, you not only have family and friends who need help with things, but you also keep an overly full to-do list of things that you probably won’t get to in years, but always have on your list anyway. And you make work for yourself by adding to this list daily. Organize photos. Clean out storage area. Put all old VCR tapes on DVD. Bake cookies. Eat cookies. Bake more cookies. The list goes on. And usually these things, even if you do them once, still need to be done again by the time you get back around to completing things on the list. So you just leave them on the list all the time.

I have about a million things on my list. As I mentioned before, I wanted to have a little fun before starting on my chores. After visiting with some friends and going fishing with my brother, I had a really great time at the Giants game with my old buddy Jack, who I used to work with in San Francisco. 

Jack and I at ATT Park. Go Giants!

Then my grandma and I drove to my parent’s house, which is about a 4 hour drive (for me – I think it took her about 6). Of course we had to stop at the Roach Coach and get a “real” (read: California. The one with the cheese and sour cream) burrito on the way. 

Gma + Roach Coach

Man, I really missed these!!!

Then we had a wee small birthday party for moi, where I received gifts wrapped in duct tape (classy!) and got to visit with my oldest friend and her son. We've been friends since we were born, basically. 

The gang's all here! (birthday fun)

Starting him off early

After that, real life took hold again and the work began.

Since then, I have been scraping, priming, caulking and painting. I have used every kind of power tool in the 5 tool set. I helped replace windows. I used a rope to climb up on a roof in order to scrape paint from the fascia. I taped so many squares of newspaper over so many window panes. It’s been a busy week. A very busy week. 

work clothes

primed and ready

What I have realized is this: Carpenters are my heroes. It is hard work! Plumbers are even more heroic. I mean, who wants to dig around under someone’s house looking for a leak in a pipe? Or fix things having to do with sewage? Yuck. Don’t even get me started.  Even painting, at least the scraping part, is a pain in the butt. Inhaling paint chips all day is not fun. So, hats off to all those laborers out there.

The second thing I learned? I am out of shape! Just scrubbing a wire brush back and forth has made my back sore. Standing on a ladder looking up has made my legs and my neck sore. Bending over to scrape has made my knees sore. It’s not like a kick butt boot camp sore, just a little bit every day, but still…wow, I am out of shape.

So. After I finish this round of home repair stuff, I need to find myself a carpenter boyfriend and start running again.

Just kidding! I already have a carpenter boyfriend. Now, about that running thing…