Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Talkin bout the REAL thing!

August 6, 2008

in About Me,Me to You

Some may call it a sickness.

Others may think of me more as a loyalist.

It all stems back to an experience I had as a middle schooler.

Who knew that a trip to the grocery store could have such a lasting impact on a girl?

I was shopping with my mom one day when I was an early teen and they were conducting a blind taste test for Coke and Pepsi.  Before this time I’d drink either, never really seeing a difference or a big deal.

Then I took one sip, and literally my life was never the same.  Ok, actually it was two sips.

They had the cola beverages in dixie cups behind a cardboard sign.  Very official stuff here people.  I drank from one dixie cup.  Pause.  Sipped from the other cup.  I picked one and… drum roll please… turns out I preferred Coke to Pepsi.

Now I am 29 years old and a Coke snob.  I will not drink the other guy.  Don’t care how badly my body is craving that bubbly, sugary, caffeinated goodness, if they only serve Pepsi, I’ll take water.  I actually don’t understand why places serve Pepsi.  Last week my husband and I went on a date to Applebees and all day I had been looking forward to bottomless cokes at dinner.  You can not imagine how shocked I was to learn that they only served Pepsi products.  That’s ok… I took my water and consoled myself that I could then drink a soda at the theatre.   I was so excited as we went to the movie b/c  I was going to get my first drink at a movie theatre (we never cough up food money at the theater but this time the tickets had been free).  I was outraged to learn that they too only served Pepsi.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?  Do people really, actually prefer Pepsi?  I was shocked and appalled.  Scott said that Pepsi is the hip drink of the new generation.  Coke, he says, is for romantics and loyalists.  (I’d be interested in your opinion on this one)

 

My love for Coke runs deep and wide.  When my husband and I were on a cross country trip a few years ago, I got an incredible craving for a cold Coke during our drive through Utah… the desolate, never ending salt flats of Utah to be precise… not a lot of rest stops here.   But as we were driving we did see one and I was ecstatic… delirious with joy I tell you.  Not sure if it was the caffeine or the 12 hrs of riding in the car, but we needed a break and thought it would be fun to take some pictures.  Here are our pictures of me in the salt flats enjoying that sweet nectar. 

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These are pictures that I am kind of embarrassed to admit made the scrapbook.  Oh, the mocking my children will do to me when they get their hands on these later…

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I still can’t believe I actually did this, and made a scrapbook page about it none the less.  I am such a dork!  In my defense it was a REALLY long day on the road.

For more potential black mail, visit We are THAT Family.

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Thanks for the Advice

August 6, 2008

in About Me,Goals

Thanks to all of you that wrote with song suggestions last weekend to help me Pump it Up as I ran 7 miles on Sunday.  Some of you asked me to let you know which songs I picked so here goes…

  • Bootylicious-Destiny’s Child (b/c when I run I think about looking good for my hubby )
  • Can’t Get Next to You… Temptations (b/c KP you were right I love the oldies so I went with some Temptations, picked the song b/c I liked to imagine I was running soooo fast no one could get next to me… ha ha)
  • Unbelievable-EMF (You were right StellaG this song totally brought me back to middle school)
  • Getting Jiggy Wit It– Will Smith ( b/c I really like Will Smith and it is just so fun)
  • MMMBop-Hanson Bros  (again thanks to Stella for a trip down memory lane)
  • Straight Up-  Paula Abdul (took KP’s advice and went for an 80s–maybe it is early 90s not sure… tune I remember singing out loud in the old days… ya know before American Idol)

 

This wasn’t the only music I download on my MP3 player though… my friend Megh had made me a mix CD for Christmas of fun, upbeat Christian songs… I took them and combined them with my 6 new tunes for a fabulous running soundtrack.

For anyone who cares, here’s the lowdown on the run…

I left the house listening to Shine by Newsboys… so pumped… ready to run farther than I’ve ever gone before.. loving my music…. this was followed by Gettin Jiggy Wit It.  It was all I could do to keep from raising my hands in the air and dancing while I was running.  I am sure I looked like an idiot be bopping down the road.   Next up was "Tell the World that Jesus Lives" (not sure what the title is really or who sings it but it was great)  then a little DC Talk… Lean on Me… man I was having a really hard time not dancing to this blast from the past.  Anyway, I was loving life dancing and praising and running along until…

 

The Day The Music Died

 

No, "Bye, Bye Miss American Pie" was not one of my downloaded songs… my batteries died on my MP3 Player at about mile 3.  I was so bummed.  But like Forest, I kept on running.   Much less enthusiastically though.  Every now and then I’d try again incase miraculously my batteries started to work.   

At around 4 miles I spotted my minivan and heard my husband and kiddos screaming, "Go Mama"   Scott handed me some water out the window and said to just throw the cup in the grass, he’d get it.    He then passed me a few minutes later and said to look for water at the school.   Sure enough when I got to the school they were there again.  I was so thrilled.  I grabbed some water, threw him my MP3 player and my map (I had printed off a map of my route so I’d know where to go, but by this point I was back in familiar territory with less than 2 miles left to go) 

I figured this was it, but as I made it to my 6th mile they were there waiting again with water and a little note of encouragement attached to it.  (He totally scored points for speaking in both my and his love language)!

As they passed me on their way back to the car hubby yelled out the window, "You’ve now gone farther than you’ve ever gone before!"  (see Stella G’s birthday gift from her hubby here to get the meaning behind this)

As if all this wasn’t enough… as I walked on my cool down portion at the end there was a glass of cold water on the side of the road with a sign that said, "For Crystal… please don’t touch if not Crystal"  so I drank ice water on my cool down lap as I came home.  When I walked in the door Scott and my older two kids were cheering and Unbelievable was blaring on the stereo.

So I am asking, "Do I have the greatest fan club in the world, or what?"  Seriously, I couldn’t even begin to tackle this goal of mine if it weren’t for my incredibly sweet and supportive hubby.  I felt like I was on cloud nine after that run.

Course when I tried to snuggle up with my sweetie after the run to say thanks he told me, "You reek!  You have gotta take a shower!"   

Even still… I think he’s the best.  I’ve got 3 miles left to go…. August 24th is when I run the Annapolis 10 Mile.  I think I can, I think I can….

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