Back in the Saddle Again

I arrived back in Birmingham Sunday and, needless to say, am still ridiculously jet-lagged. Last night in my three hour stage combat class I almost fell asleep three times. Thank goodness we spent the first half holding rapiers and daggers and the last hour punching each other in the stomach and kneeing each other in the groin. This morning is proving to be even harder. Song class is usually a great hour of my life, but today all I wanted to do was sleep. I'm currently sitting in the library on campus and seriously debating if anyone would notice if I took a quick kip behind one of the stacks. It's a college, they wouldn't mind, right?

The flight here was uneventful. As I get older, I'm finding my love of flying ebbing sigificantly. I will always fly, I will always travel. But more and more I have painful anxiety when we take off, I have awful flashes of panic when we fly (How are we 30,000 miles over the ocean right now? How are we not dropping into the deep?), and I am always eternally grateful when we land safely. I'm not certain where the next few years will lead me, but I am thankful I don't have to do any 10 hour flights for at least 7 months.

I am so happy to be back at school, but I am hate being so far away from the people I love. I miss my family so much. Don't be fooled, it was so much easier to leave LA when I wasn't seeing anyone. I didn't mind the weeks away because I was excited for a change and ready to live a different life. I also knew I was coming home in 10 weeks and I know I can survive almost anything for 10 weeks. This time I left and the man I love is still in CA. Long distance relationships SUCK! I want nothing more to see him every day and I am not going back to LA for at least 9 months. That is a LONG time! (I can have a baby in that time! Instead, I will get my masters. :)

A rambling blog of some rambling thoughts from a jet-lagged woman running on too much coffee and not enough veggies. Reminds me that I need to go grocery shopping tonight! I promise, the next blog will have life changing thoughts and probably a few interesting stories about what I totally forgot I love and loath about this city.

Until next time........have a GREAT day out there!

Vying for Disasterella

www.disasteronheels.com

I came upon this blog through a friends Twitter account. (I love social media so much!) I fell in love with the name and then the writing. I realized I had found a kindered spirit in the blog-universe and someone I wanted to get to know, even if it remained a one-way relationship. I'm kind of used to those.

Then on Tuesday she posted her Walk of Shame video and a reminder she was still taking submission for Disasterella. Disasterella?!!? That is ME! All that was needed was a good Walk of Shame story. Well, if nothing else I have at least a dozen WOS stories that display my love of living life to the fullest.

I email her four options and ask her which one she wants to hear. She emails back that afternoon with palpable excitment, telling me she loves my stories and any one of them would work. And maybe she would like all of them to do a feature about me on her blog. Shut up! Yes, please!!

Here is what I sent her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wake up and look at the wall next to me. It takes me a minute to realize I don’t recognize it. At all. I slowly turn my head to the side in an effort to get my bearings. I see the tell-tale bars of a hostel bunk bed. I wouldn’t have known this before last week, but since this is the seventh hostel in as many days, I’m getting used to memorizing the color of the beds. I’m pretty sure I’m still in Brussels, home of the blue-railing hostel. As I roll over to my stomach, getting on my hands and knees in an effort to keep my head from spinning, I feel my shirt stick to me. I realize with a frown that I am wet. Sopping wet, head to toe, along one side of my body. And I’m not wearing pants.

What?

I am not wearing pants. And I have to pee. I slowly move over to get off the bed when I see that I am on the top bunk. I look over the side, hoping my pants will be lying-in-wait for me to rescue them from their leg-less existence. My cursory look with blood-shot eyes reveals I have nothing there. Not my backpack or my purse…..or traveling companion. I take a deep breath and realize with a smack of confusion that I am in the wrong bed, in the wrong room and I’m still not sure if I’m even in the right hostel.

I peel the sheet off me and assess my situation. I have to get down the bunk bed ladder, preferrably without vomiting everywhere. I soon discover there is no graceful way to do this. I crawl down, ass in the air, praying quietly no one would wake up to my decending thong. I see 5 people in their beds, all sound asleep. As I pull my clothes away from my body- Why am I wet?!!?- I double check that my travel companion is for certain not in the room. He is not. There is nothing for me to do but walk through the hostel and hope to find him. In my underwear.

I have a fleeting thought that a shower might be nice, but since I cannot find my pants I’m certain a towel is not in my near future.

I open the door out to the hall, positioning a random shoe in the automatically-locking doorway in case I have to return. I walk down the hall, my urge to find my pants trumped by my need to find a bathroom. I succeed in finding the ladies room and splash some water on my face. The shower taunts me, but I tap the door with resignamtion and continue on my search. With newfound determination I head out to find my companion, and my pants.

Three doors, and room searches later, I find him, sleeping soundly. On the top bunk. At this point I am so happy to see him I no longer care that I have to climb, ass out, up to see him. This time with the tell-tale stirrings of people waking up so I’m certain the thong show was seen in all its glory. I also am too happy to see him to consider that he might not want a soaking wet, pantless, hungover girl crawling in bed with him. He didn’t. I was greeted with a groggy “Why the HELL are you wet?!!?”

I answer him with a pat him on the cheek and ly down next to him, squeezing myself next to him on the twin-sized bed, slyly stealing the covers from him. He tells me my pants are in my backpack, which is on my bed underneath us. I smile and tell him to wake me when it’s time to go. He laughs sinisterly, tells me the train leaves in 45 minutes and to get my pants on.

45 minutes? Apparently my hangover will follow us to Bruge.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There you go. I hope she likes it. I hope I win. If nothing else, this might lead me to a double sided-relationship and a new blogging friend. There are worse things.

Postcard From Greece- Day 2- The one where Amie sleeps a lot.

I wake up in the room and realize I've missed the afternoon run. That's okay. I'm in Greece and I'm on vacation. And my body has no idea what time it is. I'm pretty sure it's Thursday, but I check in with CNN to be sure. CNN and BBC are the only English stations we get here, so I know that by the end of the week I will be fully up to date with current events. I go back to sleep. I wake up to my phone ringing at 8pm. Ben, one of the travelers from San Diego, and his friend Sarah are going to dinner- do I want to join them? Well heck yeah I do!

So off we go into the Athens streets. We walk up toward the Acropolis, which looks gorgeous lit up by flood lights and regally sitting atop the highest point in Athens. Little do I know that this landmark will serve to get me home on more than one occasion. We marvel at the people who get to live in view of this icon every day. The apartments are so cute! We walk back down the path and decide it's time to start looking for food. And boy do we find it! Lots of little restaurants open for late night dinner. We stop into one that promises live music and good food. You can't say no to that combination. I'm glad we didn't. We sit down at a small table and I order a carafe of wine. There is a man playing guitar and singing "Fools Fall in Love". I immediately feel at home and yet very far away from everyone.

I order a plate of gyro, meat that is marinated and then roasted vertically over a fire. It is delicious. It is served with pita bread, onions, parsley and tadiki. I fall in love with the yogurt spread and dip the pita as well as the table bread in it as I chat with my companions. I finish everything on my plate and sit back to enjoy my wine and the music. Not too soon after that one of the waiters invites me up to dance. I of course join him. I, along with two other ladies, shuffle through a traditional greek line dance and soon we are all laughing.

We leave the restaurant with full bellies and smiles. Thankfully we have a nice walk back to the hotel to digest. I get up to my room, with a good night to Ben and Sarah, and run a hot bath. I can't tell you the last time I took a true bathtub bath. I put in the bath salts I brought from home and settled in for relaxation. My body is very thankful for this. I'm not sure it has forgiven me the 24 hour sleepless travel. I listen to my Greek lesson on my iPod and zone out, thankful the day is done and that sleep is sure to follow. I go over in my head the day I had what is planned for tomorrow. When I finally lie down in the comfortable and warm bed, play some bejewelled and close my eyes, I realize that being a true citizen of the world is feeling at home no matter where you go. And I feel right at home.

Postcard from Greece- Day 1- The one where Amie travels to another country

I have quartet rehearsal tonight and thank goodness my soprano (Becca) is awesome and lets me use her credit card to book my shuttle. Time just got away from me and I realize that if I don't book my shuttle right now I am going to have to walk to LAX. I might as well have, when I see what time the shuttle is coming to get me- 3a!! For a trip that takes only 20 min without traffic. But I book it, sing some carols with my peeps, cry a little bit, and then head home to pack. Because it's not really a trip until you wait until the last minute to pack your things.

I get home, put Harry Potter 1 in my dvd player (I WILL watch all 6 movies before 7.1 comes out) and start on my list. I have been obsessivly making lists for the past month. Didn't want to forget anything important. Lists about what to pack, what to buy, where to buy it, how much money to bring, budgeting out what I get to spend and where. Luckily I have a job that affords me such time luxuries!

I finish packing at around 2a and start in on my International Marketing homework. My goal is to get everything done so I didn't have to bring anything even resembling homework with me on this trip. That means doing a weeks worth of homework and class worth for both my classes in two days. I succeed! I get everything done (including sending out a transcript request for grad school aps) A few last minute freak outs about remembering everyting and I'm ready to meet the shuttle at 2:45 when it pulls into my driveway.

Thank goodness it's so early! Read the sarcasm there. We get to LAX and it's EMPTY! Just me and about 50 other people waiting for the gates to open and the day to start. I find a chair in the corner, put my feet up on my suitcase, wrap my arms around my carry on and put on my Greek lesson in my iPod. And promptly fall asleep. At 4:30 I wake up to find the airport much busier. I check in, hand over my bag to the Gods of Delta and procceed through security into the gate area. And I still have 2 hours before my flight leaves. So I find another corner, put my iPod back in and close my eyes one more time. I wake up in time to hear the first boarding group being called. I quickly step into the ladies room, then fill up my water bottle at a water fountain and I make my way on the plane.

A flight to JFK where I sleep through most of it. An hour lay over in NYC then on the flight for Athens!! I settle into my seat and see that there are movies right in front of me. I have my own little theater to watch movies and TV shows. This flight is going to fly by. I should sleep, but I spend the time catching up on all my Netflix movies that I have wanted to see. "Just Wright", "Letters to Juliette", "Twilight: Eclipse" (which I put in so I can sleep through it, which I do. Thank you Stephanie Meyers for writing such droll plots so I can get some sleep), and then "Knight and Day" which was much better than I thought it was going to be.

I only freak out once. This freaking out when traveling is new to me. I didn't ever freak out with flying before, but as we pass over the Atlantic Ocean I start to get a little panicky and have to stop thinking. The idea of being suspended over the ocean really bothers me and I can't wrap my head around the logistics of it. When we start to fly over the dry land of Europe and make our way south to Greece I can feel myself physically relax.

We land and I start to wrap my head around the idea of being in a foreign country. I'm in GREECE!! I make my way through the airport, through passport checking (where I correctly said "good morning" and "thank you" to the agent in Greek) and to the currency exchange. I now have Eruos in my pocket and time on my hands. I meet up with the people from Marathon Tours and we make our way to to hotels. I learn there are 900 runners with the tour and lots of people from all over the US. I meet a guy and girl in from San Diego and we commiserate about the long flight.

We get to the hotel and check in. There is a run at 4p and I am certain I am going to make it. I need to run after sitting for 15+ hours. But just a quick shower and nap. My hotel room is small, with no window, which I am still battling. I do not like not being able to see outside. It really bothers me. But I take it as a sign I need to be outside my room more!

So here I am in Greece. GREECE! And I'm taking a nap. Finally. My body ius quick to remind me that it hasn't slept more than 4 hours in the past 48 and maybe lying down is the best thing. But there is nothing cooler than napping in a foreign country with the thought that when I wake up, anything is possible.

Greece Before....

My phone just rang and an automated voice came on to tell me that my shuttle was 1 hour and 15 minutes away. My suitcase is packed and in the corner, my flight is scheduled to be on time, Harry Potter has kept me company for the past few hours and I have brushed my teeth. I've been awake all day and am running on the pure adrenaline that only comes with the thought of getting on a plane in 4.5 hours.

I also have been crying for two days without any reason. Well, I'm sure there is a reason, but it seems to come from nowhere. I'm about to get on a plane to a country I've never been to. I'm going alone and I'm not sure what I'm walking into. I"m tired of traveling alone. When I booked this trip I truly thought I would be going with a boyfriend, someone to share this experience with. Yet again, it is me and a camera. And some Greek yogurt, I'm sure. And there are deeper things. I miss my father and wish he was here to talk to about this. I wish my mother was coming with me. I would love to have 10 days with her. Or my sister, either of them.

This is a short entry and probably not the most thought out post I'll every write. But I'm here, I'm nervous and I'm heading out the door shortly. To Greece.

GREECE!

I'll update as I go. I'm running a marathon, having dinner with a college friend, seeing the ruins, shopping, eating, sleeping and going on vacation. Going on vacation. Ten days with no phone, no facebook, no internet, no texting, no homework.....just me and Greece. That is a great thought.

See you in Athens!

My Marathon Calendar for the Year

Every year around this time I start to get the itch to travel. And my hobby of running marathons helps satiate that. I am able to stay in shape, have a goal and travel to different parts of the country and the world. This year is no exception. Last year I went a little crazy. I had a goal to finish the Rock n Roll series because at the end of it there is an AWESOME medal. And I achieved it and I got the medal. I ran 4 full marathons and 3 halfs. I traveled to Nashville, San Diego, Seattle, Phoenix, Chicago, San Jose and Las Vegas. I stayed in neat hotels and met great people. I got to run some of them with friends and some of them just had people meet me at the finish line. Maybe I’ll devote a post per race…..that would be a good idea….gives me a chance to relive the fun!

This year I have two races signed up and three more in my head. I’m running Los Angeles on March 21^st. I signed up for this race in September when I had nothing but 30 weeks ahead of me to train. I had just opened “Steel” and thought my life was slowing down a bit and I could actually train with the LA Road Runners. Well that didn’t happen. I think I have run with them a total of three times in the past four months. Steel Magnolias took up my time, and then caroling started and that rehearses on Saturday morning when the LARR train. Then I booked “Merrily” which also rehearses on Sat mornings. I was out of luck but kept pushing towards the LA Marathon goal. I get the weekly emails and the motivation and the kind words. The race is in less than a month and I am so excited.

I never wanted to run LA. The course used to go through downtown and in a loop and through not amazing parts of the city. My thought was always, “I drive this road every day, why would I want to run it? Especially since I run marathons to see the cities they are held in.” Well this year is the 25^th anniversary and they changed the course. Now it goes from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica pier. It runs through Rodeo drive and Brentwood and is going to be really pretty. Plus it’s neat to be part of something that is in my own city, kind of neat to be swept up in the fun of things.

So I’m doing LA. Then OC is May 2^nd. I’m getting a group of people together to run/walk that one with me. It’s going to be awesome! That is only a half, though, so it’s done just for fun and to let people know they can do it.

May 15^th is Idaho. If I am not doing a show, I am running that race. I will get to see my good friend Sarah, who lives about 40 miles from Boise, which means I also won’t have to get a hotel room or pay for anything. All I need to do is the plane ticket and the race fee. I’m so there! And I will be able to knock another state off my list.

Then I would like to find one for August. Maybe Oregon since the weather would be amazing. And I love the drive up there.

And then there is GREECE!!! I am so excited for this race. It’s the 2500 anniversary of the original running of the marathon. And it follows the actual course and finishes in the Olympic coliseum, where the Olympians finish. That’s insane! I have me deposit down for two people and I am so very ready to go. The only sad part is that I don’t have anyone to go with. And I want someone to go with me. But it’s hard to find someone who can take a week off work or school and pay the $3000 this trip is costing me. I don’t expect anyone to be jumping at the gate. Well, okay, yes I do. But I don’t have anyone. I’m not dating anyone. I’m not married. I’m not in a running team where there is another runner as excited about this as I am. My friends can’t afford it, or already have their big vacations planned. My family is in the middle of a million things and can’t go. So it looks like it’s just me.

I’m trying to stay positive and keep my smile on. I’m trying to look at the good and the fact that I am paying for this whole thing up front, no new debt, and I have this amazing opportunity to run this. It’s something I have been waiting for since last August. And it is going to be amazing.

I have a great year of running ahead of me. This is something I love so much and want more people to do. And I wish there was some way I could make money doing this. Someday I will find a way. Until then I will work hard to make money so I can spend it on the awesomeness that is running races.