Detour - an Unexpected Road Trip!

Oh, boy, you guys... okay...

So, around the winter of 2019 and into the beginning of 2020 (remember that time? Nothing was crazy? People were dying from regular stuff, not from the WuFlu? Good times...), The Kiddo and her friends were planning on finding an apartment to rent together here in town. The friends (lets call them Jo and Mimi) had already been living on their own with other roommates, but due to some heavy drama surrounding the main leaseholder, they wanted out as soon as possible (they eventually even moved back into Jo's parents house to get away from this psycho!).

However, we live in a college town, and our apartments cater to a college crowd. This generally means that either you pay per room for a shared apartment (even if all the people are renting together), or you pay per room to share an apartment with strangers, or you pay a huge amount of money to rent an apartment on your own. Here's just a few of the typical apartment complexes in town:

The Enclave ($2,816 for a 4-Bedroom)

Integra 24 ($2,275 for a 3-Bedroom)

Campus Lodge ($2,100 for a 4-Bedroom)

The Niche ($1,796 for a 4-Bedroom)

They were hoping to rent a house, in a similar neighborhood to the house they recently rented. All of the Kiddos worked in the same area of town, so it made sense to stay where they were, geographically speaking. Plus, Jo wanted to stay where she was because her cats were used to the area, she said. 

So, for months, they looked for houses. They looked for apartments. They widened their search area. They upped their monthly rent budget. It was slim pickins out here for places to live. No sooner would they find something than it would slip from their grasp. Once, because the property owner took it off the market. Once, because someone offered to buy the property outright. 

Then Covid hit in earnest. Students left in droves, which should mean that they could find a place to live, right? Nope. Many apartment complexes just kind of shut down for a few months, waiting to see what the university would do for the next semester. And, many of the private home renters stopped any new rentals as well, because cooties. 

Around April, Jo and Mimi went up to Wisconsin to visit a friend who was having some personal issues, and after a few weeks, they told The Kiddo that they planned on staying there! What a kick in the balls for The Kiddo, I was heartbroken for her. Not only did she lose the option to move into her first place with her best friends, she lost her best friends altogether! She was in a funk for quite a while, though she never really said anything out loud. I could see it though. She was going through motions and nothing brought her joy. 

Close to Labor Day, she casually asked me my thoughts on her moving to Wisconsin. She and the friends had been talking and the friends would be coming down to visit their family here, and invited her to just pack up and leave with them! Uh, no... We had a long discussion about thinking things through, rather than acting impulsively, but a spark had lit up her eyes. 

Fast forward to Thanksgiving, and she was again talking about moving. Things were sounding more concrete this time, and the Mommy in me began to worry that I would actually be losing my daughter for real this time. Many nights we had discussions over dinner about what that type of move would entail, details she had to think about, actions that would need to be taken. In the end, though, by New Year's, we knew that she'd set her heart on The Badger State. 

As we went through January and into February, she and the girls made plans, tried to figure out the best way to do this... The girls were going to come down to visit family "at some point" and when they did, they'd load up Jo's HHR with all of The Kiddo's stuff and they'd just drive all the way back to Wisconsin. I listened to the plans, knowing full well that they had no real idea what they were doing, but attempted to keep my mouth shut. They seemed to think they had everything under control, and when I'd point something out, The Kiddo would say, "oh... we didn't think about that..."

Sigh....

And while I didn't say a lot to her, Hubby and I would often have discussions in bed, and more than once we joked (half-joked really) that, in the end, we should be prepared to drive a moving van to Wisconsin.

Fast forward to the end of February. I'm driving the Kiddo to work, and we're talking about the slowly-forming moving plans, and she was hemming and hawing about how it will be difficult for them to drive the HHR and a U-Haul, with only two drivers. They'd have to pay for hotels, pay more for gas, blah blah blah. So, I looked at her and said, as "mom sweetly" as possible, "do you want us to drive the van to Wisconsin?"

She was so thankful she almost cried! The three of them were thinking of ways to ask me to drive, while at the same time not wanting to inconvenience me. I told her that I'd already prepared for the task, and that, as long as she was going to pay me back for all expenses, I had no problem doing some driving. 

Oh, and right about the time we were having this discussion was around the same time that Winter Hell had been unleashed upon the nation (remember Texas!)

(Typo aside...) I am not built for single-digit negative temperatures!

Oh, finally! Wind chills above zero!

Oh come on! How is this Florida Girl supposed to drive in snow-covered roads?

Well, me being me... or more specifically, we being us, Hubby and I turned this into a whole thing. He was originally open to the idea of flying home, which was amazing (he's afraid of heights), but after a few days of discussion, we nixed the flying and opted to drive home. Kind of a trial run for whether or not we like doing road trips. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have about 2 weeks to plan a 10-day road trip vacation!

Santa Suits on the Loose - Virtual 5k Race Report

I'd tell you to click to sign up for 2021, but, well... we all saw how 2020 went...

 

In January 2020, I registered for the December 2020 Santa Suits on the Loose 5k. I've done it a few years now, and I love it, because where else can you see hundreds of people dressed in holiday attire or Santa suits running up and down A1A?

 

Ah, January 2020. What a simpler time. All was right with the world. People didn't wear masks. People didn't hide in their homes. People actually ventured out into the world and participated in sporting events. 

And then... COVID happened. You know my feelings about this, I won't go into it. 

It's a thing we have to deal with. 

I held out hope that by WINTER - come on, man, WINTER! - everything would be back to normal, but alas, it was not meant to be. I got an email at the tail end of September, announcing that this race (like all of my other races since March) had gone virtual. Damn. 

Awww, man... virtual...

 

So, I put it on the back burner, and kind of forgot about it. I'd removed it from my (basically empty) calendar. I'd get emails every once in a while, but it was definitely out of sight, out of mind.

I completely forgot to run during the race week, and unfortunately, I was unable to enter my results at that time. 

It's a cute medal! I sure would like to have it some time soon...

And since it was too late to enter them, well... I back-burnered it some more!

Christmas came and went. New Years came and went. 

Then one day, I realized that I never got my shirt and medal... Oh, lord, I hope I didn't have to enter my results to get my medal... I'd be pissed!

So, I reached out to the SAYS program to inquire of my medal's whereabouts. A few more weeks went by, and I got a reply saying that it may have been returned to them in the mail, they're so sorry, they'll make sure it goes out in the next day's mail.

Today is February 13th, and I still haven't gotten my goodies, so I reached out again. We'll see what the email says. 

 

I finally actually did this race on February 7th, enjoying some beautiful Florida "winter" weather (it was 66º and cloudy, according to Garmin). It felt great to just be OUTSIDE again running around Depot Park and enjoying the tired muscles after the fun (lord, I've missed the post-run lethargy!).  I didn't try to go balls to the wall, especially because I've not really run in like a year at this point, so I was perfectly happy with my time (okay, if it was 42 seconds faster, I'd be a little happier... those were probably the seconds that I deviated from the course to put my sweatshirt in the car!)

Darn those seconds!

And even though I didn't register my results, I would have been #53 on the board with my time (out of 71 total finishers). Not bad!

 

By the skin of my teeth, I beat Sara Britt!

 

I hate virtual runs. Just hate 'em.

Driving for Meridian - Miles for Meridian Virtual 5k

Hi, and welcome to 2021! It's exactly the same as 2020... are you surprised?

Last November, in what may have been a stupid or too optimistic decision, I signed up for a race. It's Miles for Meridian, which I ran February 2020. Even as I signed up for it, I was skeptical that it would actually RUN, but it had a few things going for it... 1) it was only $14, 2) it has an amazing medal, and C) FREE deferral to 2022 IF it was cancelled or changed to a virtual. 

"Run the race virtually with your shirt, number, finisher medal..." 

Just a few days into January, we got the dreaded update... it had changed to a virtual. I never got any sort of email update from them, which very much annoyed me... I had to find out from Facebook. I waited a few weeks, to see if they would say anything about deferring, but they never did, and by the time I realized they hadn't sent anything, I figured it was too late to do so. I sucked it up and decided to just run it virtually, which I did on January 31.

The last time I ran a 5k was November 8, for a virtual Walt Disney World Wine & Dine Volunteer Run (no blog post about it), so I wasn't expecting any sort of PR. 

Instead, I got a view of an amazing sunrise, which made the 1+ hour time worth it. 

I was just happy to be back outside. As I've mentioned before, I wasted like 8 months of this stupid pandemic sitting on my ass. I let the "fuck it" mentality get the better of me, and I've been fighting my way back to where I was before. I've been hitting the gym 5 times a week, but I've not been running much at all (okay, none), nor have I even been walking on the treadmill at home... the poor thing is dusty. 

I'm guilty of using it as a drying rack for all of my gym clothes

Anyway, the run (mostly a walk) was a lovely time. 

I reported my time to Meridian and the following weekend, headed over to Town of Tioga for the "Drive-Thru Celebration."  This involved wearing your mask (because, of course...) and pulling up to get your swag. We got a huge reusable bag with lots of goodies in it, they took your "finisher photo" and that was it. 

My headband says "Just Don't Be Last"

I picked up some lunch on the way home and then checked out my swag. 

Small lunchbox full of swag (Samsung Galaxy J7 for scale)

Water, snacks, 3pc candy, hand sanitizer, mask, and small calendar

Bigger bag with more swag (44oz water bottle in the background for scale)

Chip clips, pens, water bottle, stress ball, 3pc candy

Long sleeve shirt (very long!)

Sweet-Tasting "Medal" with Kiss for scale

So, a nice mix of advertisements, branded junk, and candy, though for a "candy-themed" race, I expected more than six pieces of candy. 

But the thing that burned my ass? The "medal." What medal? you say... 

Exactly.

There was no medal. As you recall, the in-person race was going to have a medal, and the original registration email said that if it went virtual, we'd still get a medal. 

However, when the race switched to virtual, all mentions of an actual medal disappeared. 

LEFT: Original advertisement      RIGHT: Updated advertisement

From Virtual Race registration page - see "sweet tasting finisher medal"

So, yeah, I'm mad at this race... kinda at myself, I guess. I should have reached out earlier to inquire about deferral. But because I was under the assumption that we'd still get medals, why would I have known to reach out? Because of this, I'm hesitant to sign up for next year, which sucks. It's a good race, benefitting a good resource in our city. I guess I'll wait and see what the fall/winter have in store, but right now, if we have to do more virtual bullshit, I won't run this one again.