Did you think I had gone the way of the do-do?

Is that even how that is spelled? Whatever, that doesn't really matter, you get the point. Nice that it takes a total stranger making a comment about a post in my blog to get me to start writing in it again. I should do it more often. Since the title of this blog relates to running, I suppose I should write about that. I've been doing a lot of running lately. Actually, that's a lie. I DID a lot of running over the summer training for a half marathon in September, and I've been pretty lazy since. I'd never run a race any longer than a 5k, so this was a HUGE jump for me! While I was really spent by the end of my training (not to mention the race itself), I find myself looking back and missing it... so I'm now "training" (I'll use that term loosely) for a 15k the first weekend in November. So when you're running a bigtime race, they tell you that there will be race photographers on the course and you should smile for them. They're pretty hard to miss, they're the people sitting along the course with neon yellow/green vests on with cameras. So I posed for EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Probably not the best idea (I had visions of pics being posted where I look really great running, happy and all, but instead, I look like a total dork). But one picture that was taken of me was taken very close to the finish line. I had been running the whole race with my running buddies, Natalie and Chris, and they were in front of me. I didn't want to finish far behind them, so I poured it on with everything I had left in me and just powered through to the finish. The picture that was snapped of me: of ALL the people at the race, of ALL the photographers, the one photographer I didn't see, where I wasn't even looking at the camera, who is in the background of this picture? My mom. She was trying to take a picture of me with her phone (she missed the shot, only got my shadow), and she was in tears. Good tears. I had to buy the picture, it was that sweet of a moment. So whether I'm running for myself, either for the mental or physical benefits, I will always have that picture in my head that I'm also doing this to make someone proud of me. Good luck to all my marathon-ing friends on their race this upcoming weekend: I'll drink to you from poolside.

You can't make this stuff up.

You can't make this up because no one would believe it if you did. It would be like the movie Armageddon where it just keeps getting worse and worse. But at least that has Ben Affleck in it, my morning, unfortunately, did not.

So, it FINALLY snowed here yesterday. It had spit snow on occasion, so we had put 2 shovels on the side of the house, one kid one and one adult one. Yesterday, T.J. asked if he could shovel the driveway after school. Well why look a gift horse in the mouth? Of COURSE you can shovel the driveway! This was my first mistake.

I should have known that his attention span for shoveling the driveway was extremely limited. Our neighbor, Daniel, came outside, and any hope for unsupervised shoveling was lost. But I was ok with that, since I knew that it would have to be done again anyways, it was still snowing and blowing pretty hard outside. I had to go to work last night, and by the time I got home (at 9:40) I was in no mood to shovel, and again, it was still blowing and snowing quite a bit, so what the heck would be the point? Then I realize: T.J. never put the shovel back. He's left it out in the driveway, yard... somewhere. Wonderful.

Woke up this morning, not too much earlier than usual, but a bit earlier, knowing that I'd have to find (somehow) the shovel that had been left out. I went outside at 6:50 (I leave the house a couple minutes after 7am) to start my car and look for the shovel.

The car won't start. Well, it starts, but won't stay running for more than 3 seconds or so. I tried 4 times before I finally got it to stay running. Phew! That was a close one. So I close the door of the car... or at least TRY to. The lock is frozen OPEN. I can't get the door to latch shut. Fabulous. I'm slamming it, fiddling with it, you name it, I'm trying it.

Tom is now outside and trying to get the snowblower working in the garage (having about as much luck with it as I was with the car). I love how prepared we are for winter weather here. At least I knew where the kids boots and snow pants were. I go to the neighbor's house (he's out shoveling his driveway) to see if he has any lock de-icer (not that I would know where to put it if he did). Nope. He says try rubbing alcohol. I go inside (Tom is now blowing the driveway)... FINALLY, a bit of luck. We DO have almost a full bottle of rubbing alcohol! Score one for Jen... in theory.

So I go back out to my car with the door that won't close and dump a bunch of the rubbing alcohol on the handle, the latch, the thingy on the inside of the door... yeah, still doesn't work. Tom (now back inside) thinks that pouring hot water on it is a better idea. My limited knowledge of the freezing/thawing process tells me that in a cold environment, hot water gets cold before it evaporates. But I don't know, that's just me. So I'm not very pleased with the idea of pouring water on my car's lock and handle, but at this point, I'm not going to argue. If I get stuck in the iced-shut car at work a custodian or something can come help me out, right? Sure.

Did I mention that in the course of all this I find out that our travel mugs for my coffee are all dirty? Yeah.

Of course, on the way to work (which I'm now already late for) I get stopped by a train, and EVERYONE AND THEIR BROTHER has to drive their kid to school today, so I'm now stuck in traffic with all the late kids.

Miracle of miracles, I can get out of my car at school, I'm not iced in. I end up only being about 30 seconds late!

It actually gets much better from here: I explain a whole bunch of chemistry concepts that I'm only remotely familiar with but the kids seem to get what I'm saying (that's always a plus), I learn about arcs and chords in geometry, then I get to go home!

All in all a good morning, despite a crazy start. Oh, and Tom was snowblowing the rest of the driveway later and came across the shovel. Yay! Life can get crazy again in 45 minutes when the yahoos get home from school.