FMM: Unforgettable Moments

Oh, I love not working.  Even though I love, love, love my job, wow, I loved having four days in a row mostly off (defense counsel in NM had to file something on Friday, so I worked a bit to review and approve the document and strategy). 

Thanksgiving was great.  We did the 8 mile turkey trot as always.  Hubby missed a PR by less than 4 minutes (so less than 30 seconds per mile, which was great).  I ran with a friend who wanted a PR, which we got -- by about 8 minutes, so 1 minute per mile faster than she had done before.  It was an ugly new course, but let's be honest here, I don't really care.  The new course was kind of a loop so it had to be essentially equal uphill and downhill, but defying all odds, it felt like it was almost all downhill except the last mile.  After our run, we cooked for a little while and then went over to my old boss's house for a large meal.  I ate soooo much that I actually went with his wife (one of my best friends) to lay down and watch lifetime in their bed for a while after dinner.  Haha.  It was so much fun. 

Friday we went with my godson and his family to see ice sculptures, and it made us want to go back to China Country.  The ice sculptors come from Harbin, which was someplace we didn't have time to visit in China.  After the ice sculptures, we went to lunch, then we helped them decorate their tree and played board games.

That meant we didn't put up our tree as we usually do.  Oops!

Saturday was lazy -- highlights sadly were getting the ornaments and boxes to the second floor, addressing envelopes for Christmas cards, making a photo book to give my husband with pictures from our trip to Germany and Italy, and ordering pictures to put in our Christmas cards (as well as a bit of online shopping). 

Sunday was a 16 mile long run with a friend who's also running Houston.  It was nice to have her company, and I felt like I had a solid 12 or so miles.  The last 4 miles (mostly uphill) kind of sucked, but 2 weeks after a marathon, that's not unreasonable.  Then I went to brunch with a friend, then my neighbor and I braved the outlet mall.  It wasn't too crowded and we had a lot of fun being together.  We walked about 5 miles doing all that shopping!  I finished buying for a couple people, and got good starts on several others.  And I learned that my neighbor almost always wears beige underwear.  I tried to talk her into buying something crazy like black or pink (or god forbid red), but she wasn't having it.  It made me laugh. 

So now we have to find some free time in the evenings this week to get our tree up and decorated, which is going to be extra-hard because I think I'm going back to Philadelphia to work.  Oh well, since we keep our tree up for the 12 days of Christmas, we'll still get to enjoy it for a while. 

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Unforgettable Moments

 

1. Share the details of your first kiss.  Outside a roller skating rink, and though I didn't know it at the time, to my horror, witnessed by my parents, who were in the line of cars to pick me up.  I think I was in 8th grade, but maybe 7th. 

2. Did you put your foot in your mouth in 2013? If so, tell us about it.  Nothing comes to mind right now, but I'm bad about thinking before I open my mouth in general, so I'm sure it happened. 

3. Share the story of one of your most embarrassing moments.  I ran a PR at our big St. Pat's 5k race one year.  It was fairly warm, but not hot.  I was wearing green shorts and a white short-sleeved shirt (and a shamrock face tattoo!).  I definitely know that sometimes I feel like I pee a little when I'm running at max effort.  But I have no idea whether I actually do or not.  But after that St. Pat's race, I had either peed a little or I had a VERY unfortunate sweat pattern on my shorts and a friend took pictures -- I was oblivious!  Thank god she cropped it before posting it, but we had a good laugh about it.  I'm still paranoid about wearing those shorts and I only wear them now for very easy runs when it's pretty cold out. 

4. Tell us what it was like when you traveled outside of your home state or country for the first time.  I don't remember the first time I left my home state, I know I did plenty as a kid.  The first big trip I remember was Alaska and Hawaii when I was about 5.  I also don't remember the first time I left the country -- I know I went to Canada several times when I was little.  The first airplane foreign trip was to Jamaica in high school for spring break with my family.  We stayed at an all-inclusive resort and I was terrified to see how they drove -- even by the end of the trip, I wasn't certain what side of the road cars were supposed to drive on!  But that trip was enough to hook me.  Later in high school, I went to Europe for the first time with 9 other girls and our vice principal and her husband (a journalism teacher).  And then the country count began!  I've been dreaming of traveling more and more ever since. 

5. Share something that forced you outside of your comfort zone in 2013.  Can I come back to this one?  I'm stumped.  I mean, I worked hard on running short distances in the spring and longer distances in the summer/fall.  I made big progress on some cases that were challenging at work.  I'm very happy with our financial position right now.  We travelled, but I don't think Europe counts as outside my comfort zone.  The only thing that comes to mind are maybe some attempts to purge clutter at home?  I hate throwing things out (or even donating them) if I think I could use them later.  So that's my answer for now.

6. Tell us about a gift that you received that meant a lot to you.  Diamond earrings for our fourth wedding anniversary!  I've never been a big diamond person, which fortunately my husband knew since he didn't consult me on rings and I was surprised by his proposal (complete with a sapphire ring), but there are times that diamonds are just lovely and really, how many diamonds produced today really result in that much suffering in Africa?  Anyway, I love them...

7. Share the details of the best date that you’ve been on in the last year.  When we were in San Francisco, we went out for two different and very memorable meals.  First, we had dinner at the French Laundry -- all dressed up, a spectacular meal (I took photos of all of it, I need to share that soon!).  And second, we sought out traditional Chinese hotpot, which was not to be found in Chinatown.  But we found it elsewhere and were the only Caucasians in the place, which we took as a good sign.  It was awesome and reminded us of our Chinese travels. 

8. Describe one beautiful moment that was not captured by a photo.  Haha, is it sad to say that it was a mediation in April?  One of my biggest cases to date was not in litigation, but we retained outside counsel given the severity of the case.  All parties agreed to non-binding pre-suit mediation.  I was on board because I figured if they brought suit, the case wouldn't get any better (or worse really) for us -- I had a solid handle on the facts, but litigation would have meant paying a lot more in defense costs.  So at the mediation, I drove a hard bargain and we successfully settled the case!  It made me very happy and earned me a lot of pats on the back at work. 

9. Share one important thing that you hope to accomplish before the end of the year.  Getting our tree up and decorated!  This is the first year of my "adult" life (i.e., out of law school) that I haven't had my tree up and decorated by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.  Even when I lived alone, I still put it up, it just makes me feel so festive, and I really miss it right now! 

10. Tell us about one defining moment of 2013.  Definitely the Berlin Marathon in September (still need to post the race details, I'm way behind).  It was a PR, and while it wasn't my goal time, it was an awesome feeling to know I'd held my goal marathon pace for as long as I did.  It was months and months of training, all coming together for some defining hours, minutes and seconds.  If I never beat that time again, then I'll live with it for the rest of my life, and honestly, that wouldn't be the end of the world, it's respectable. 

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions. Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments. Happy Monday, friends!