My heart bleeded, girl

Erin and Nic got their marriage license yesterday. Erin was very excited when she called. She texted me a random list of stuff like "lights" and "poles" and when I asked her if we were in the middle of a conversation I didn't know about, she said, no, they were at the wedding venue and texting me was the only way to take notes. Anyway, she was happy and not stressed, which was both unusual and good. She left today for a seven day trip to Paris and Brussels for work and she's been convinced that being away that long right now means the wedding will have terrible omissions, or something. I hope she has a good time, even though it's a work trip. The A&F CEO is going too, and he and Erin don't get along at all, to the extent that her co-workers form a human shield around her when Mike is in the room. He's such an ass.

I cleaned out/straightened up the garage today. Larry is such a pack-rat and there's shit piled everywhere out there. Adam tried to do something about it before he left for Japan, but Larry's been bitching about what a mess he left it in !! and so he finally did something about it this weekend. Well, he was trying to paint his bird feeder and couldn't actually get to his workbench, so he did some straightening up. He claimed he "cleaned out the garage" although by my estimation he cleaned out 1/9 of the garage. So I worked on it some more today, although there are two areas of his shit that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. There were several blankets high on a shelf and when I pulled them down today, there were no less than *four* old bird's nests in them.

Firefox has been driving me insane lately. It's making my laptop so, so slow. The spinning wheel of color was starting to induce seizures of rage. I thought it was the computer, and it might be, but everything else, including Safari, runs just fine. I like Firefox, but I don't want to take a shoe to my laptop because of it.



There's a fine line between preparing for a long run (18 miles) and making such a big deal out of it that it becomes a Thing. I'm coming close to that line, I think.

Part of it is the heat, part of it is the fact that a run that long does require some planning, and part of it is that with the other two full marathons I've done, the training has abruptly ceased after my 18 mile run. (It's a jinxed distance for Ashley, too - she spent all weekend fighting cluster migraines instead of being able to run hers.) Shin splints, some weird quad thing, I've hurt myself both times.

I'm hoping that what with all the P90X, I'm stronger this time and can manage to do this without encountering disaster. I did 16 miles three weeks ago and that went just fine, even if I did have to walk the last 5 because it was 88 degrees out. Gah. This is only two more, right?

So being prepared will help insure it's a good run. Okay, maybe not *insure,* but it'll help. I've been hydrating and eating carbs all day, my Garmin is charged, my phone is charged and loaded with both a podfic of topaz119's "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" and Adam Lambert's "Trespassing." I got up early today so that I can go to sleep early tonight so that I can get up early enough tomorrow to be on the running trail by 6 at the latest, when it's still cool.

There's a 3 1/2 mile running trail/bike path close to me where people walk, run, bike, walk their dogs, push strollers, roller blade, shuffle along. It's marked every quarter mile and by playing with numbers and running different patterns, I can get any number of miles out of it that I need or want. It may seem monotonous to run 18 miles on the same 3 1/2 mile spur, but I find the sameness to be soothing. There are trees, deer, rabbits, other people, bugs, benches, a coffee shop with a BATHROOM where I can buy water, and a water fountain for free water that I can pour over my head and down the back of my neck if it gets too hot.

So tomorrow I'm going to run 3 1/2 miles up and 3 1/2 miles back to my car, where I can take a nice chocolate milk/GU break. Then 3 miles up and back, another break, then 2 1/2 miles up and back. Broken down like that, it looks pretty doable. Also, going back to the car a couple of times means if something hurts I can cut it short without having to hobble miles and miles to my car.

Then in the afternoon I have a massage scheduled, then Lois is coming over for dinner and we're having CUPCAKES.

I think the line is barely visible in my rearview mirror.