Long Time, No Blog

I know, I know. I'm a bit behind on the blog. Cut me some slack. I had a long week/weekend. For starters, I went to my hometown for the Tulip Festival - primarily to run the Festival 5k with my family. Well, the good news is that I was the fastest one in my family, but only because everyone backed out except my 45 year old sister-in-law and her 12 year old son - who has a touch of asthma. So my 25 minute 5k certainly wasn't my best time, but it wasn't my worst either.

As a result of my recent racing times, I'm on this hardcore diet regimen for race season. I call it "2000 in 2005". I can only consume 2000 calories a day until I get back to my racing weight. Well, you know what that means... I couldn't enjoy all of the delicious Dutch treats - which were everywhere! Dutch Letters, poffertjes, you name it... I couldn't eat it. Yes, I even had to help my mother make homemade Dutch Letters (which are a delicious treat if you've never had one), but I didn't get to eat any. Oh well. Speaking of my mother, she LOVED the sharktooth necklace for mother's day. She even wore it proudly with her Dutch costume. I should hopefully have some pictures of that soon. It was too funny.

So my life is a bit on the crazy side lately. Just to mention a couple of "interesting" things that happened this weekend...

1. While I was gone, my friends decided to "Queer Eye" my bathroom, and put in NEW FLOORING and a new toilet. I mean, it's one thing to add a photo or paint the walls, but to tile a floor? I had no idea it was happening. Let's just say, it was quite the surprise. It looks awesome, though. I love it. Now I need to buy new towels to match the new floors.

I guess I should be used to things like this. The last few times that I've left on vacation, I come home and my friends have redecorated a room in my house. One time, as a joke, they actually tried to sell my house while I was gone. NICE. I don't need a new house, I need new friends...

2. So I attended my first (and hopefully last) birthday party in a funeral home this weekend. The party was great, but... drinking Miller Light around dead people... well... it's just a bit odd. I was assured that there were no dead bodies at the actual funeral home during the festivities, as the dead kind of freak me out. (Sidebar, I run a lot of races which cut through cemetaries, which totally freaks me out - anyone else feel this way?)

Yes, I know that I wear dead men's clothing that I buy at the Salvation Army, but that's for sport. It's not like I'm actually taking the shirt off Uncle Mark's cold, dead body. I just don't like to be around dead people. I don't know if it's more respect for the dead or fear of the dead. Either way, I'll pass on partying in the funeral home. All night I was having flashbacks of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video, and it was freaking me out. Not because the zombies are so scary... but because Michael Jackson is. Yikes.

Oh, and for a little OCD update: Since the truck is in the shop, I drove my car to my hometown this weekend, which is 110 miles each way. Well, I'm happy to report that my car didn't blow up. (Don't ask, I have this crazy fear that my car is going to overheat and blow up while I'm driving it. Which is exactly why I bought the truck. Rather than confront my fears, I chose to live in denial, thanks.) But I drove my car, and I didn't completely freak out... which means I'm getting better with this OCD thing... well, at least I think I am.

*Runs to the kitchen to unplug the coffee maker*