Updates of All Sorts

I feel like life has been so chaotic lately, but this long weekend was exactly what I needed. 


I bought a car!  It's almost exactly the same as my old car.  Still a blue, BMW, 4-seat convertible.  The main differences:  Automatic headlights!  Automatic windshield wipers!  A radio I don't know how to work!  A big @ss key I have to carry on my runs or mess with pulling into pieces! 


I went to Chicago!  I had a major work presentation with my boss that I felt like went pretty well.  There were a few issues because I wasn't clicking my own slides and the woman who was kept skipping ahead, so I'd ask a question of the audience and the answer would already be on the screen behind me. 


Other relevant Chicago details:  I almost cried going to the airport because my pretty new car got wet (but fortunately, it turned out to be waterproof).  I got to run LSD one morning, one of my fave places to run in the world.  I got to stay at the Peninsula, which I would rank as one of the 5 best hotels I've ever stayed in (and one of the 2 best in the US).  I got to spend an afternoon with my nephew from San Francisco (he and his mom were in Milwaukee for the week and drove down to see me), and an afternoon and evening with my newest niece (born in August) (and of course my baby brother and my sister in law).  I got to have dinner at Shanghai Terrace, which was great.


We bought more plane tickets!  Technically, only one new trip on the books (Vegas in 2 weeks with my husband's boss and his girlfriend), and tickets within one already booked trip (round trip from Santiago to Easter Island in October). 


I'm less than two weeks away from locking in my airline status for next year!  That means I've still just over half the year to see if I can do it again, and thus lock in the next higher level.  Not sure I want to do that, since each trip seems to be such a beating, but it's nice to know I'm set with at least basic status for almost 2 years.  I've got to think about whether I'm going to go for segments or miles if I try for the next level up.  Right now, miles would be easier since I've made more progress on miles than segments, but segments are easier -- instead of taking my usual direct flight to Philly, I could book flights with a connection that will speed things up on the segment front.  But really, I'd rather make the basic level and then just stay home the rest of the year (except for vacation).  I have a bad feeling though that it's going to get to be mid-November and I'm going to add up my remaining trips and be something like 5,000 miles short, and then be in a quandry of whether to do some mileage runs or just let the higher level slip from my grasp.


I regained my beer mile title!  First overall female, but ... in my slowest beer mile ever (but incidentally, probably the best spring beer mile weather we've ever had).  But when I realized my main competition was really struggling (this was of course after blatantly accusing her of lying while we were in the drinking zone and I was sure she was pulling my leg claiming it was her third beer when I was on my fourth), I really relaxed pace-wise and my final lap was very slow.  More of a victory lap than the final 400 meters of a mile race.  The title will undoubtedly be hers again in December -- our marathon paces are I think more than 30 minutes apart right now, she's smokin' fast -- but I've got to take what I can get! 


Other relevant beer mile details:  My usual Philly attorney was in Dallas to meet with me and some of my co-workers and my boss.  When he was scheduling his trip, since beer mile race date had been on the calendar for at least 4 months, I told him I'd be free for lunch but that I had evening plans.  And then I thought it would be fun to invite him -- he accepted the challenge.  And he loved it.  He was rightfully very proud of himself for finishing it.  I told him he's invited back for the December iteration of the race. 


So now the entire internet is up to speed with my world!