Monday, March 24, 2008

Saturday Recap

Most Saturdays, Eddie and I fight for prime space on the sofa while watching tv and/or napping. This past weekend though, Saturday was a whirlwind of errands, at least for me. Eddie was still in bed when I left the house at 11am. It would be nice if I could accomplish everything locally, but more often than not I need to trek into OC or LA to get whatever it is I’m on a quest for at the moment. This past weekend was no exception. I started off by heading out to Brea to visit the O-family. I see Mrs. O quite frequently throughout the week, but I hadn’t seen Mr. O or Baby O for almost a year. I was blown away by how much Baby O had grown. He lost that baby-faced look and looks like a true toddler now. Baby O’s amazing kitchen counter climbing skills also blew me away. Omg – I didn’t think someone so small could do that. Obviously I don’t spend enough time around small children. Even though having kids isn’t on our agenda for at least a couple years, I don’t mind being around small children, so time passed by rather quickly while I was visiting the Os. Before I knew it I had to be on my way.

My next destination was the reason I initially decided to head out to Brea. I needed to get running shoes so that I could start training for the Nike half-marathon. A Snail’s Pace had been recommended by several of the running Nesties. My sales assistant, Callie, was excellent and didn’t laugh at me once during the fitting process. Believe me, if she had chuckled, she would have been completely justified. The fitting process started with me jogging inside the store while wearing a generic, neutral pair of shoes in order to determine whether or not my feet and ankles pronate. The verdict? I don’t merely pronate, I have *extreme* inner pronation. Perhaps this is why I have such trouble getting deep outside edges when I ice skate? I digress. Anyways, after trying on several different pairs of stability shoes, I ended up with these. They weren’t the prettiest pair, but they felt the best on my feet.

With the shoe issue resolved, it was time to move on to finding a good sports bra. I had done some research beforehand, so I had a good idea of the brand(s) I was looking for. Yes, if you have a chest like mine, you need to do research on undergarments. I was pretty thrilled to see that one of the ones I had been eyeing online was in-stock at the store. Although I pretty much had my mind made up that this was the sports bra for me (it has a 5-barbell rating!), Callie insisted that I try it on just to make sure I could deal with all the hooks. What proceeded to happen in the fitting room was sheer hilarity. I had to literally wrestle “the girls” in there. Then I had to delicately try to hook everything up, lest I stab the girls with the hooks, while trying to keep the girls in place. The girls didn’t like being strapped down and were desperately trying to escape as the hooks were being latched. Too bad Eddie wasn’t with me; I really could have used an extra pair of hands in there. I finally got it completely on, jumped around and confirmed that it does indeed live up to its 5-barbell rating.

After leaving A Snail’s Pace, I briefly pondered heading across the street to the Brea Mall, specifically the handbag department at Nordstrom. Then I looked down at the receipt for the shoes, sports bra, socks and visor I had just purchased and decided that maybe my debit card needed a little rest. So onwards it was to the next destination: a fundraiser car wash in Anaheim. The fundraiser was for the current Delta Sigma Pi pledge class of the CSU-Fullerton chapter. Eddie and I have both been District Directors for chapters in the region for a few years, but this spring I am also serving as the pledge educator for the Fullerton chapter. It’s a position that is usually held by a collegiate member, but to make a long story short the chapter violated certain rules and policies. As a consequence for the chapter, I was asked to take over and oversee the pledge process. It’s been a rocky transition for the pledge class, so it was important for me to go to their fundraiser and show them how much support and encouragement I really do have for them. Plus my car was super dirty (darn birds!). The pledges did a superb job of making my car sparkling again and seemed to be having a lot of fun along the way. Naturally I tipped them very well for their efforts and brought them lots of water and Gatorade since it was about 85 degrees that afternoon.

That concluded the bulk of my errands, but I still had to stop at Trader Joe’s on my way home and pick up a few things for dinner. I have never been able to leave that store without purchasing more items than I had intended to buy while going in to the store. What I intended to buy = butternut squash, milk and greek yogurt. What I ended up buying = the aforementioned plus wine, haricot verts, dog treats, meal replacement bars, a baguette, cereal, beef jerky, chili spiced mango slices and a pizza. Trader Joe’s is like crack to me.

Oh yeah, when I got home Eddie was still half-asleep, sprawled out on the couch, fighting for prime space with the dog.