wandering sails: 08.2006

8.28.2006

the sound of mud up my nose.

it's moments like this that make me glad i don't work weekends.

the osseo school district has converged upon us and the sound is deafening. i cannot imagine trying to do what i do on the weekends during services. crazy.

but it benefits you. since i can't concentrate on my work, i am forced to blog.

saturday morning, my youngest brother, ben, met me at my house to go biking. we rode over to ney park to ride the route lori and i ran in the race. since i knew the route, he wanted me to lead, which was fine. the morning was foggy, the trails muddy. really muddy. we went up, we went down, we went up. a lot.

on the descent of one hill, ben coasted past me, which was fine. until he spit up a chunk of mud that amazingly made it's way into my nose. not just on my nose, or near my nose and some of it found it's way inside. no. just one solid chunk up my nostril. yes, he has been known for his aim, but seriously. that was ridiculous. the size and force of it was enough for my head to fly back and cry out.

lucky for me, i'm a planner. when i got to the top of the next hill, i stopped, reached into my pocket and pulled out a kleenex.

lucky for me.

posted by julie @ 9:48 AM 0 comments

8.23.2006

mmm, ice cream.

last night was our annual meeting. as staff at church, it's a required meeting. we go and listen to all the budget stuff and plans for programming that we've heard before. and usually one fights the sleep off. because, hey. it's the annual meeting.

but not last night. last night, they decided to have an ice cream social after the meeting. it went over really well and will likely become a tradition.

i didn't go to the meeting.

i got out of it because i plan ahead better than they do. michele, sandi and i were three of the four people excused from the meeting. because we had american idols to see. and our tickets were already purchased. the seats were decent, and the show was a lot of fun. fun enough to take over 600 pictures.

it was the best annual meeting i've ever had.

posted by julie @ 1:09 PM 2 comments

8.22.2006

the race.

25 8 W20 Julie Steiskal, 28* 1:20:15 12:55

so there it is. that's how i did. i ended up walking a lot. more than i probably needed to. and that's why i'll likely let my ankle heal, finish training and run another 10K before winter. and i think i'll find a flatter course. i couldn't believe how incredibly steep-hilled this route was. there was one hill, in fact, that was actually pretty impossible to run up. it was more of a climb. that, the holes in the ground from the horses, and the mud were enough to make a person never run again. and if i hadn't done so badly, i likely wouldn't have. but i will. if not this fall, next summer. i'm determined to have a better ending than this. it's that crazy competitive piece of me that drives me bonkers.

let me leave you with the bit of fortune i received with my lunch.

you will see the great pyramids in egypt.

isn't that great?

posted by julie @ 1:22 PM 1 comments

8.18.2006

just a couple shoots.

here are a few of the things that have been keeping me busy this summer...

like maggie...

and halle...

and now i'm off to carb up to run tomorrow. have a great weekend!

posted by julie @ 4:32 PM 3 comments

8.17.2006

the julie.

in general, i'm a planner. i like to know what's going to happen and i like to know it enough in advance to be prepared for it. take this weekend, for instance.

saturday morning, i will run this 10K. then, i've invited everybody over to my house afterwards for brunch. my mom is making the egg bake and cinnamon rolls, i am providing the fruit and drinks. my mom will assemble the egg bake at my house and put it in the oven just in time to make it to the race, after which, it will be done to perfection in perfect time. this week, i've been working on my list of things to do around the house. aside from my basic cleaning, the lawn needed to be mowed and the porch floor needs to be painted. i also need to have my dad bring over a picnic table to ensure that i have enough seating for everyone. and i need to keep my ankle on ice above my heart to help along the healing process so that i can actually run on saturday.

but the other half of the cocktail is a little different. it's the half that gives my life the kick. tuesday morning, i decided i was going to paint the porch floor since the weather would be good for it. i already had the paint, so all i had to do was go home, eat supper and paint it.

but i found myself way out of the way at home depot buying paint. and not porch paint.

at some point in my drive, i must have thought about spending more time laying on the couch, icing my ankle, in the livingroom with the paint that i hated. i really didn't like that paint. and in a decision that almost warrants a gold star, i picked out a color that i hadn't chosen a month before and left it's paint chip hang in the room so i could decide if i really like it at all times during the day. it was really scary.

and so, i found myself priming my walls on tuesday night with only one of the two cans of tinted, non-returnable primer the girl sold me and last night saw me painting my walls with only one of the two cans of non-returnable paint. and tonight will find me painting the front porch (barring rain, which is a serious possibility) and putting my livingroom back together.

and all of this because my personality can't decide if it wants to be anal or spontaneous. it's a bad cocktail of traits, it is. and so is my need for perfection and being unorganized. it's enough to make a person go nuts.

which would not taste good in a cocktail.

posted by julie @ 8:11 AM 1 comments

8.15.2006

39:27.

as part of our training, lori and i decided to run the hanover harvest festival 5K on august 5th. it was a little less distance than what we were meant to be running at that time, so we felt confident and it would give us a chance to get used to running together. and on top of that, we figured it would give us real race experience so we would know what to do when we got around to our 10K. you know, like that you're not supposed to pull off the tags on the bottom of your number or they won't have anything to identify you at the end of the race. i did that. but that was just the end.

lori and i planned to meet at 8 that fated saturday morning, so we could warm up together. i took a non-mapquested route, so i got there really early. i checked in, ate a banana, ripped the tags off my number and read all the literature they give you in your race bag. as it was creeping up on eight, i decided to switch from flip flops to my running shoes so i was ready when lori came.

huh. where are my shoes? seriously. where the flying flip are my shoes?

what ensued after this revelation, was a race home, attempting to make the 50 minute drive there and back to the hanover fire station happen in 35.

i didn't make it. it was more like 45, but only because i got stuck behind a sweet little old lady out for a morning drive going 45. and also, because it's really hard to drive that fast.

but i made it to hanover and as i was waiting at the stopsign, i saw lori go running by and we waved. having put my shoes on during the drive back, i hopped right out with my mp3 player and my number and started running. at the edge of the parking lot, this lady in a suburban obviously couldn't tell that i was already a bit late for the race stopped me to ask me where the end of the race was. when i told her the general direction, she asked for more clarification. so i just ran away after waving in the same general direction i had waved before. truth to be told, i had no idea where the end of the race was. i hadn't been there yet.

i had half expected lori to wait for me, since we were mostly running it to find our mutual pace. and because i would have waited. so i wanted to be sensitive to the fact that she'd already started, so i ran hard to catch up. up a hill. some guy at the first mile marker told me i was at 13 something. and since i started at least five minutes late, i ran the fastest mile i've ever run. and then i walked. because my body is not meant to run so fast and it was evident i had nothing to catch up to. i walked until i saw the 10 year old kid ahead of me. no way was the kid going to beat me. so i ran for a while more. and then i had to walk again. because i couldn't relax. it was always rushed. i would run for a while, then walk. then get mad that i hadn't gotten to sleep in and that i spent twenty bucks on a race i wasn't enjoying, so i'd run again. then i'd walk because i figured, what the heck? i don't care when i finish. and my ankle hurts. (i guess i didn't mention that i was running on a sprained ankle...) then the lady walking with her baby in a stroller starts to pass me, so i walk harder before giving in to running again. i finally finished to little fan fare, had the small mess with the tags and ate a few rolls.

mostly, the whole experience, while proving that the funny i had lost was hanging out on august 5th, made me determined to finish the 10K without walking.

so i quit running. i'm trying to let my ankle heal as much as possible before saturday morning. this is what i figure: i finished 106th in hanover. last year, there were 24 finishers in the maple lake race. i cannot do worse than i did in hanover.

posted by julie @ 3:23 PM 2 comments

wandering sails