November and December

Yikes. Two months and no posts. Here's what's been going on.

At the beginning of November my mom and I went on a mother-daughter cruise to the Bahamas. This was definitely the most fun I'd had in a long time. The cruise was the Carnival Fantasy out of Charleston and was five days long with two stops in port and three days at sea. Because the ship left out of Charleston, it was so easy. No long drive to Florida or over-night stays in hotels. Just a quick ten minute drive downtown and within half an hour, we were running around the ship, cocktails in hand. We laid out in the sun when we could, but the entire trip was a little overcast unfortunately. Weather was in the 80s though and no rain, so it wasn't bad. For dinner each night we sat at a table with six people we didn't know. One of the couples actually had a daughter that went to Wofford, just a year or two below me. Small world! 

The cruise went to Freeport and Nassau. In Freeport we paid $15 to access a resort beach and several pools. The weather was pretty mediocre but we did our best and enjoyed the sandy beach. After a few hours, we walked around the straw market and then found a frozen yogurt place (obviously) for lunch. In Nassau we took a bus ride to a chocolate factory and got a tour. We even got to work in the kitchen and make our own chocolate bars and chocolates with fruit, nuts, and candy. Even though the tour itself was kind of pricey, it was something different and we had a blast. When we weren't in port, we played trivia, bingo, laid out, played some Casino games, and just relaxed. I managed to run every day but one on the cruise. There's a tiny outdoor track on the top deck and something crazy like 11 laps around equals a mile, so I was able to keep up with my training... just had to do 2371930483 boring and windy laps to do so. (I also met my soulmate, but he was married...so then I decided he probably was not my soulmate.) Here are some pics.

judy and i at the sail away party. cheers!

black on black. dress up night.

chocolate factory tour

we make these hair nets look GOOD

cool floor at the chocolate factory

the toppings/mix-ins for our candy 

my masterpiece

show off

i'm basically a pro

Atlantis

cuties

The Kiawah Half Marathon was a couple weeks ago, three weeks after the cruise. And it was good. The weather was nice at the start but too hot by the finish. 55 degrees and then 70. I did much better than last year and didn't experience any back or foot pain. So I did better, but not my best. Finished around 2:08. My mom was out of town, so my dad came and watched me finish. He said he could tell I was tired near the end. Duh. I think 10 miles is really my threshold. I felt so strong those first 10 miles and maintained a solid pace that I was happy about. And then out of nowhere, with a 5k left, I just totally ran out of gas. Those last three miles were killer. In my training leading up to the race, I had run a little over 10 miles 2 or 3 times and was very happy with my pace. I've always read that if you can run 10 miles, the additional 3.1 is nothing. But this was not the case for me. When I do another half I know I'm going to have to train the full 13 miles, not just 10. I'm also looking into more 10 mile races too. I think there's a good chance I can crush those. Stay tuned.

Kiawah race day attire

This year I ran a total of 1317.1 miles. This included the Palmetto 200, Cooper River Bridge Run, i5k, Turkey Day Run (my fave!), and the Kiawah Half. I didn't reach my goal of a 24 minute 5k, but then again, I didn't train for it. I did do the Turkey Day Run in a 8:13 pace, which I'm happy with. 

I can't believe Christmas came and went already. Say whaaat? It was hard to really get into the holiday spirit this year, because it was over 70 degrees, even 80 all month. #notChristmasweather #notcoolreally

Regardless, the fam did all of our typical Christmas traditions like the festival of lights and lots of movie nights throughout the month. We watched Home Alone which we hadn't seen in so long. I'd forgotten how funny it was. We also saw the play of A Christmas Story downtown at the Dockstreet, which was so so good. I love the movie, but the play was something new and I really enjoyed it. Christmas Eve and day was spent at my parents' house. The night before my dad read us The Night Before Christmas (like he has since we were born). He has the same book that his father read to him and his sister growing up. It's really worn and falling apart and has a 25cent price sticker on it. We all pile onto one bed, dogs included, and he reads us the book--always reminding us that it's the actual book his dad read to him. It's a special family tradition that never grows old. Here are some photos that help document some of the mentioned traditions and all the Christmas day happenings.

See ya, 2015!
 

my favorite light at the festival of lights 

our baby christmas tree 

naughty Brinkley 

my parents' Christmas tree

Brinks and Emma enjoying their toys

Merry Christmas from Preston and B

Brinkley trying to sneak into her stocking

too cool 

Christmas is hard

father-daughter Christmas morning run

the BANGIN' cinnamon raisin bread pudding i made 

my new Garmin forerunner 25

Flooded In (Is that a thing? Like snowed in?)

A few weeks ago Charleston experienced historic rainfall. I’m talking 24 inches in some places. And because we’re on the coast, historic rainfall + high tide = no good. And because I live right on the marsh…things got real.

Preston, my brother, Matthew, my cousin , and I were trapped in our neighborhood from Saturday morning at 8 am until Thursday afternoon… for those of you counting that’s five full days. Here's a play-by-play...

Saturday Morning: I wake up and it's already raining pretty heavily outside. I was supposed to work at Glazed that morning, but it was closed because Downtown was expected to flood. (And it did.) At this point, I'm thinking I'll just have a normal Saturday. But then at 8 am MAIN ROAD CLOSES. Wait, what? Like the one road I need to use to get ANYWHERE? The one road that I need to use to get off or back on Johns Island—to go to the grocery store, gym, work, my parent’s house, Target, the frozen yogurt place—is closed…? So basically I’m cut off entirely from civilization. Ok, that’s fine I guess. I’ll just be productive and do some fall cleaning in my closet and around the house. That kept me busy until noon. Shit. But whatever, I’m thinking this will all be over in 24 hours and my Sunday will be delightful and normal. 

Sunday: The rain did not let up at all. Main was still closed and under at least a foot of disgusting marsh/rain/sewage water. Yes, I said sewage. The news report said that sewage lines had backed up and it was likely that the flood water was contaminated. The weird thing was our house and neighborhood was fine, obviously wet, but definitely above water and unharmed. But Main Road, our one entrance and exit, was impassable. Soooo…another day stuck at home. I did some (a lot) of online shopping. #thankyouloft #40%offsale #justtakemycreditcard

Around mid afternoon, we realized the monsoon outside wasn't going anywhere. So we made the arduous journey to Publix for nourishment. We wore old clothes, strapped on book bags, and walked down Main Road with water sloshing up and over our knees to get to the grocery store. (Remember that part about the sewage water? Yeahhh...didn't feel so fresh and so clean clean.) Success though, no signs of Giardia AND we got food. We also took some photos with a car that had made the poor decision to try to drive through the flood and got stuck. There was also some skipping. See photos at end of post. 

Monday: Back to work! Well, sort of. Main was still closed and no one is legally able to enter or leave the island. Luckily I was able to work from home, but Preston and Matthew had to miss work, meaning I got another day trapped in the house with two boys who only want to watch boring things on TV and chat like excited school girls about their fantasy football teams. Regardless of how annoying that whole situation was, the day was OK. We survived by making jalepeno beer bread that my parents brought back from their trip out west. It was dynamite...and not in a good way. I mean it tasted like a dynamite exploded on my tongue.

Tuesday: Is this some sort of joke? Why was the road still closed? At this point, on day number four, Main Road is still under about six or eight inches of water at high tide. Policemen blocked both sides of the road to show they meant business. However, my brother and his girlfriend hatched a sneaky plan for him to get out... but it required him to walk through the flood zone again to meet her at the end of the road where she was parked. So they did that. And then we were down to two. Matthew and me. We made grocery store trek number two that day to restock. UGH. #showersfordays

Tuesday was the night I begin to truly lose it. After walking home from Publix around 6 that night I called my parents in a state of stir-crazy delirium. My dad agreed to drive down to see just how bad Main Road was and assess the possibility of escaping. He parked at the intersection, sweet talked a cop, and walked through the flood to get to my house. We managed to escape with Brinkley in my brother’s old SUV and I spend the next two nights at my parent's house until the road finally opened on late Thursday.

After all this complaining, I need to say how thankful I am that we were safe and still have a home at all. We were inconvenienced for several days, but that's about it. We didn't lose anything and everything is back to normal for us. And that's not true for a lot of people who were hit by this same storm and flooding. Gotta look on the bright side.

poor Range Rover

about $85 grand down the drain

yeah...

skipping cousins

thankful that's not our car

obligatory sibling picture

the trek

Main Road

coming back from the grocery

entrance to the neighborhood

Brinkley, totally over the weather

Meeting Love

(The Challenge: Write a story in which every sentence is only five words.)

When Love arrived, I sank.

I was a college sophomore.

It was a wet January.

I watched him walk over.

My window pulsed with rain.

Heartbeat, rain in my chest.

Love wasn’t what I expected.

Skinny, like I never knew.

Love was still and quiet.

Love drank gin and smoked.

Love smelled of green pines.

Love had sad, green eyes.

I was nervous at first.

I drank before going over.

Tried to calm quaking knees.

I gave Love my favorites-

Slaughterhouse-Five and Chuck Palahniuk.

He dog-eared the pages.

In the dark, we spoke.

The clock ticked for hours.

We only heard each other.

Love was honest and mine.

Love wrote poetry with fingers.

My lonely skin, the paper.

Love crept in that year.

White pedals wilted on magnolias.

They bruised on the street.

They got crushed under boots.

Indoors, I was never warm.

I tested the old thermostat.

I pulled my hood strings.

Love walked across the campus.

I watched him walk over.

His hands thrust into pockets.

Love wore a canvas coat.

Love’s glasses dotted with rain.

I kissed the frozen window.

But I didn’t feel cold.

Love came inside and stayed.

But Love did leave eventually.

Flickered like a frightened flame.

Then Love went out entirely.

When Love left, I choked.

I coughed, sputtered, sank down.

I thought I’d never float.

Love still calls me sometimes.

His voice low and sad.

I imagine his eyes, green.

Love begs and I listen.

We were a good team.

I cannot disagree with him.

We were a good team.

Then why did I lose?

Why were we always losing?

Maybe I’ll meet Love again.

I’ll watch Love walk over.

A Fast, Bright Blur

A Fast, Bright Blur

Inspired by Paul Allen

You can't grow up spending summers

on the north shore of Hilton Head

beside the one run-down,

but always popular

(line out the door,

snaking its way around the corner)

ice cream shop

and just a 60 second walk

across the scorching black asphalt

to the beach decked with

sun-burnt tourists

and children building drip sand castles—

without your hair getting lighter

skin getting darker—

without learning how to sneak out,

remember to leave your sandy flip-flops by the door,

go when the band’s still playing at the tiki bar

so when the lock on the door catches

your parents only hear the steel drums and laughter—

you can’t do all these things

without growing up too fast.

Each orange summer your family rented bikes

for five dollars a day from the place

at the corner with the blue awning.

You, your mom, dad, and older brother

would ride in a single line

one after another

down the shaded sidewalks

under reaching oaks,

the curling Spanish moss

skimmed your heads as you rode

through neighborhoods

with houses the color of the sand

and nestled up close to the golf course.

You and your brother made a game

of counting lost golf balls.

The ones that had been hit too far out of reach,

past the green fairways, off course,

into the wet arms of the woods,

their white shine catching your eyes.

You and your brother always competing.

One, two, three, four...

then there she was.

The brown doe.

Her body crippled and torn

like a soaked paper bag

used and flung out into the street

and then kicked back into the woods.

Smeared red and bruised black.

Her neck twisted behind her

and her belly flattened down

to her white shiny ribs.

On the drive home,

with the marsh on both sides of you

you try to remember the past week.

Where did you go?

What did you do?

What did you see?

The whole summer—a fast, bright blur.

You may not know exactly when or where or how.

But you do know that at some point along the way

your childhood ended like a bike ride cut short

in the middle of summer.

Reasons to Run 13.1

I've been looking for another half marathon to do this fall and my brother came across the Charleston 13.1. It starts and ends at Middleton Plantation, which is about15 minutes from me. We are currently planning on doing it. I'm excited but also a little worried because it's a trail run, which to me, are more difficult than road races. But we'll see. I'm excited anyway.

While I was looking for a fun half to do, I came across this article about reasons to go the distance. I love the last one:

13.1. It's there.

"Runners are explorers at the end of the day. As soon as we conquer one running goal, it's almost inevitable that we'll look toward the next one. Once you've logged a 5K, a 10K, and/or a 12K, it's almost inevitable the half marathon will beckon you to the starting line. Then, it may very well be on to the marathon." --active.com

1. So I started to think about why I plan on running 13.1, or really, why I even run at all. Here are some reasons that came to mind...
2. It's me time. No one else. Just me and the road. I can go as long or as short as I want and I don't have to answer to anyone while I'm out there.
3. It's a destresser. When I don't run for more than a couple days I feel anxious. I'm more irritable when I can't get out and run off my thoughts, frustrations, whatever.
4. It keeps me in shape. Self explanatory.
5. It's always there. I don't need a gym or any fancy equipment. I just put on my shoes and head outside. Simple.
6. I love the running community. Runners just get runners. We speak the same language. When we see another runner on the road, we smile and nod, wave, maybe even high five. If they're struggling we might pat their back because we've had days like that. We've been there. And don't get me started about race days. The positive and exciting energy at the starting line of a race is like nothing else.

There are zillion other reasons why I run and why I love it. But maybe I'm just crazy.

Hello, Summer (July Happenings)

Soooo a few months back, Monty, my some what loved black Mercury Mountaineer let me know that he was about to call it quits. I mean really he was right about to hit the bucket. The transmission threatened to fall out on a regular basis. He had a tendency to run into things, like parking lot poles, trailer hitches, the back of trucks, anything really. He had a cracked front bumper this piece of plastic below the back window fell off years ago, exposing an always dirty, old gluey looking strip of more plastic. And the saying, "beauty is on the inside" or "it's what's inside that counts" really don't apply here. Monty's interior was busted too. His AC broke RIGHT in time for the literal heat wave of the summer, the CD player hadn't worked since senior year of college and is probably still holding an awesome Backstreet Boy CD captive. The leather seats were all ripped up and only three windows rolled down. Basically, Monty was a hot mess. But after two whole months of searching, disappointment, frustration, number crunching, tears, sweaty miserable rides to and from work in Monty, I found Summer. She's a 2012 Ford Escape from Summerville Ford and I absolutely love her. Car payments are now a real thing for me. #adultproblems

Meet my new whip, Summer.

So what else happened this month? My dad turned 60! Crazy, right? To celebrate, my family went on a harbor cruise with Spirit Line Cruises. The weather was great that night and we got to see the cityscape of downtown Charleston and cruise under the Cooper River Bridge. During dinner, dolphins swam right by our window. We all had a really good time. Usually we just do a nice dinner but this was different and I think my dad appreciated that. There are also ghost tour cruises that go out of the same place. Maybe we'll try that soon.

sibs

cuties

cuties redux

mahi mahiiiiii

my bro's shrimp and grits

CRB

why am i not a professional photographer?

June Jambalaya

Things that Happened this Month...

The Runner's World Race Streak continued.
This morning was my 36th day straight of running. I think I got something like 140 miles in since the streak started. I still have 6 more days to complete the official 41 days. It actually hasn't been bad. My normal days off have become 1-2 mile runs. It been fun, minus the really hot, hot runs where it feels like the dragons from Game of Thrones are breathing fire on you and there's no breeze or shade and the humidity is the equivalent of dunking yourself in a deserted kiddie pool that's been sitting in 2000 degree direct sunlight. But other than that, it's been great.

The Charleston Church Massacre created a new Charleston Nine. :(
The night of my birthday, a group of church members met at the AME Mother Emanuel Church downtown for bible study. A young man joined them, was welcomed into their circle and sat with them for an hour before he shot and killed nine of them, including the senior pastor.  The shooter then ran and was on the run for the next probably 12-14 hours until he was found in NC. He was a white man filled with racism and hatred and on a mission to ignite a race war. But luckily his actions did anything but that. Charleston united, all people, all races, to show their love and support for the victims, their families, and the Charleston community. There was a unity walk across the Cooper River Branch the weekend following the shooting. The event was hoping to draw 3 thousand people, but instead something like 10-15 thousand showed up. The following week was filled with lots of questions, emotions, fundraisers for the church and victim's families, and lots of support. There was a funeral this past Sunday and president Obama gave the eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the senior pastor, who was a personal friend of his. These past few weeks have been rough for the Charleston community but the way we responded shows how strong we are. It shows how much we do really love each other and that one man's hateful actions can't pull us apart. #CharlestonStrong.

Gay marriage was legalized nationwide.
Last Friday, the Supreme Court decided that gay couples have the Constitutional right to get married in all 50 states. That means states with bans have to issue same sex couples marriage licenses. And now we have #lovewins.

My 27th birthday came and went.
My bday was on a Wednesday, which is not the coolest. And I had to work...again not so cool. But honestly, it was such a good day. My coworkers are way better than your coworkers. I felt so loved and special. They gave me a kick-ass bday card that came with an inflatable princess wand, it's 22 inches, so that shit is legit. Then they treated me to lunch and one of my favorite spots on the island, Wasabi. AND THEN... there was ice cream cake. Say whaaaat?! Yep, a good day.
My family and I celebrated my entrance into my late-twenties (GROSS) and Father's Day with an amazing brunch at Rue de Jean. So freaking good. I also gave left my number on the receipt for our hot waiter. #rejected #pleasecallmeplease #atextwouldalsosuffice

I added part-time dog sitter to my resume.
The week of my bday, I dog sat for my friend, Shauna, while she was with her family vacationing in Pawley's Island. Her dog's name is Guinness, and he's a little fluffy poodle-y thing. He looks like this:
He had cancer last year, but based on his scrappy little personality, you'd never know. I'm also dog-sitting two more times in July for two other friends. Yay. #resumebuilder #multi-tasker

The awesome cake my mom got me for my bday. That's me running on it. (I'm black.) #cakewrecks

obligatory bday cake pose

again black running meredith

RDJ has a banging salmon salad

G-unit and me chillin' (my first and ONLY mirror selfie, i swear)

bday sushi lunch

my coworkers are the best

right before the cake slide onto the floor (jk, but it was close)