Pendalton,

hello you. so warrior dash... rock! i unfortunately didn't take but 2 or so pics from my cellphone. in hindsight i wouldve taken a water proof cam with as i had time. but maryann will hopefully let me download some of the highlights so those of you not stalking me on facebook will be able to see them.

we got there early enough. the vibe was subdued but for a few rolicking types in full regalia sending out warrior cries with flowing beards. the rest of us weren't sure what exactly we'd gotten in to. and once we'd lined up to start doubly so. the first experiment is in pack mentality. it is enormous pressure to not run with the herd. to deliberately draw yourself back, and say, I will not run. I will not run. and watch them disappear in a literal cloud of dust. And as I encounterd each obstacle none of them were that scary. I can imagine the energy as lots of people mightve surged over the stack of haybales but by myself i smirked and clambered over with no competition in sight and the asian girl volunteers stopped tweeting long enough to be all, like, woo! and you can do it! and then went back to looking bored. clambering over the vehicles, no problem. and my breathing was good as i took some water at the 1/2 point, and complained to the guys that a 3ft wall, 3 in a row, regardless- sucks. granted had it been taller i would've actually had to face the question if i could pull myself up it, but maybe another year of training (or 2) i can face a truly scary course like 'the camp pendleton mud run' which has a time limit of 2 hours and 45min in which you must traverse over 6 miles. it sounds like you might actually have to dash this course in order to do it.

but back to my race. half way through i found it shockingly curious i had not been overcome by the 2nd wave. I'd gotten far enough, about the 1/2 way point and should've faced another pack of people battering their way through the cardboard tube that i shuffled through and then some more lovely landscape of blooming heather in this flat field of a landscape, moored by rolling hills and green grass, birds overhead and a golf course nearby, but none came to challenge me. It was gorgeous. But still as I went over the gully of sharp rocks on a plank, which did require balance and then up and down the loose rocks to then yes, leap over some tumbleweeds, still not overtaken, I was nearly there. I hit the not so vertical rope wall and only then some very tired 2nd wave folks came by, but few. And then after I vanquished the upthehill tire obstacle, i stopped to chat about the race with a curious volunteer and then turned the corner to yes take a running start at the wall of fire. which as it billowed its smoke and blackness, the flames funneling toward you because of the wind, i felt a sensation of being warm as I did in fact leap over it, and then jog walked down the bank into the cold water and as i lifted my leg on the first one nearly lost my shoe in the silt, but luckily with a little height advantage managed to make it over the next 2 no problem. i admit some humourous shots were taken. and heard as i dove into the mud, which was more like a watery loam-like compost, the cheers of my friends who had finished the course, filled me with humor, i made it with good spirits through and then ran the rest of the .08 through to the finish line.

Hazah!

i then had a banana, which you know in doing anything really taxing its totally a good thing to do. (did not help as my calf was seizing as i walked toward the car however and is still strangely sore today-) i then capped it off with water and gatorade and then went to frolick in the water channel nearby to clean myself off proper. (more excellent pics taken here) and then found out later that the 2nd wave- and this is epic- went 2 (two) miles in the WRONG direction. All of them. The whole fast running lot, like lemmings off a cliff. And were only after a bit, tracked down by a person in a golf cart and told to turn around. mwah! awesome.

by then the happy endorphins of exercise and fun had kicked in and all of us were pleased to be walking around dirty, tracking down our free beer, buying turkey legs to eat, (which i like way more in theory then in actuality) and then we all got stuck in traffic on our way to chick-fil-a. were more giddyness abounded as we wore our newly aquired viking helmets, medals and t-shirts... it is quite possible the next day at church we showed up in the hats, but that is only rumor.

m,

How was dashing with the other warriors with braids in your hair? While you were slogging through the mud and leaping over fire, I was getting reacquainted with Lazy. It involved a lot of beautiful weather outside, some attempting to muster enthusiasm re: bike riding (the children are resistant!) and Mario Karting. We were on a mission to unlock some new characters and carts and bikes. And we did. I’m so sad you can’t meet Bowser Jr. at this time.

I did clean the fish tank this evening, and was an activist earlier in the afternoon while sipping Zen tea and eating a cranberry/brie/turkey croissanwich. And, I did research some, which I can’t seem to stop myself from doing? It’s beginning to be an annoying habit, so this week, I am praying for contentment. Like, researching is a fine habit, but past a certain point it is no longer productive. (And it cuts into rest time, which eventually yields true productivity, and so therefore it is not logical to never rest.) So while being Lazy, I still wasn’t fully able to entertain this rare guest. Which is sad, because she loves cookies and tea, chocolate and wine, and a lot of *soaking up* of life, and I didn’t quite deliver. Must learn to quiet the mind.

I heard on SNL that Scrabble is updating its rules to include proper nouns and such as acceptable in play? Psssssssh. That’s what I have to say about that.

The flowers continue to blossom and bloom, the lantana are growing, the jasmine still looks cheerful, and the chaste tree is proving to have been a good pick. It has leaves now, and seems happy out there in the sand-soil front yard. I want more trees, lots of them. And then it will be time to move. In the garden beds, zucchini/squash are coming up for certain, the cabbage looks grand, and we think spinach has sprouted, although how long it will last in the impending mega-heat, no one can say. I have yet to confirm the presence of tomato, bean and eggplant shoots, so stay tuned. We may buy small plants if those suckers never show.

I did manage also to entertain Lazy on Saturday evening with a chick flick, one that I recognized as essentially horrible from the start, but the actors had good chemistry, at least, so I persisted till the end. I can’t say I’ll ever watch it again, but I don’t want that 96 minutes of my life back. It was relatively well spent.

xo,

pen

Penforgov,

hello foot walker. i'm sitting here waiting for the to edd call. technically it did just roll over to 3:01 and they have another 2hours and 59 minutes to call but whatever. the important part of today minus the annoying part was that i printed out my biola essays and shipped them off. and i bought a knee brace. hopefully i bought the right size.

i just dazed away and its now 3:06. chewing some gum, drinking some tea. ho hum.

did i mention i finished my essays?
3:07.

i've also developed a lis--
3:09
hummm.

3:12! THEY CALLED!

3:14... uh, i mischecked a box on the mutha'fuckin'form.

*sigh.
let the govt. cheese continue!
with the full knowledge that if school- this mythical thing that danica believes in- i applied for is to happen- that eventually i will have to cut myself off? God is going to have to cut me off? Some sort of cutting off and onto something else? Is in order? Maybe?

ok, now i can focus on hiking and ironontransfer paper. totally expensive by the way!
m.

Pen,

Just a few fav pics from NY...

m!

I forgot to show you the Easter eggs, Russian-style. To be honest, the dyes themselves could use a little work because they never comes out perfectly solid, but what can you do. I haven’t done these in years, and it will def be reinstated as an annual tradition. J.Lo made the tools for me (nail on a stick, basically) – next year, I’ll request a smaller nail head for finer lines. But overall, it worked. I melted down some extra votives for the wax in a jar lid, kept on low heat, and the line creation came right back to me.

Voila.

 

 

-pen

Penelope,

A few winsome photos of kerry and i on easter, aka impromptu photo shoot. i think it captures the special something of the day... blue sky, blooming flowers and all the rest.

Penelope,

Hello you.
I yoga'd with my fav teacher just to find out she's leaving again. Whatevs! And I do only have one more class left in my series and need to decide what to do. Also i was very brave and returned things to actual stores to get some pittance back, and even complained to michaels about the inferiority of a product and they took it back! Rock. I capped it off with a salad to erase the memory of the bad salad of last night. Though props to the bar keep for a tasty watermelon martini. And I said no to: more shopping at Ross, a caramel apple, and a latte.

Yesterday in addition to bad salad, I walked 3 miles to prep for my warrior dash. I won't be dashing fast. I could get to maybe a 14.31 minute mile, but will probably be able to sustain a 15min mile and then add the obstacles. I credit swimming with giving me stellar lungcapacity that if I could I would try for a solid 13 or 14mins if I could run. But as it is I can feel my thigh getting all twitchy and I need to figure out what sort of gear i need to buy/procur to protect myself from the tumbleweed field, the haybales, the rope obstacle... not to mention the wall of fire and mudcrawl. I'm thinking my dad has some gloves... hum. I would wear my rollerblading gear but thats a tad cumbersome i feel. Kerry is totally making a warrior costume which she is trying to get me to wear but i said only if she walked with me, and she's not willing, so i win. I will braid my hair, because that will look totally cute. Oh do tell me about you walking barefoot for a couple miles, how that goes and all. Because that in itself is your own activist dash. Though it'd be way more awesome through miles of sand. ;) or chocolate or a coal walk like pam on theO. But anyway our WD, there's about 20 people from church doing it and there's a hubub and carpooling excitement afoot. (oh and ps. have totally lost 30lbs total).

And in other yesterday news my new/old battery is completely lame. Not holding a charge and i don't know if its my ipod or the battery. But that the whole thing is entirely lame because it dampers my assembling techgadget victory. I hang my head. Who wants to start over? Suck.

Also I read about your chocolate post. Totally fixated now. Lindt gets a semi-sweet rating. I can't do dove anymore but i do occassionally sneak peanut m/n/ms but i pay for it. So bitter has been ruled out by natural selection. Poor cocoa slaves. I forget ben/jerrys... again, i love the newyorksuperfudgechunk but when i eat i pay the price. rash, hives, allergy. Stupidfrickinsoylecithin. I'm having trouble letting go of dairy. Thou betrayer.

Allright i'll stop babbling. I totally should be working on my essay. Totally not. It's so shiny and lovely outside. Sigh. Next time i'm going to talk about you being a warrior for the light.

m.

m&m&m,

It’s chocolate time again! I’ll have to work on building up my tolerance, because I’ll be honest that a lot of it was quite a shock. Consumed: some new M&M – peppermint – I think it’s called Thrills? homemade chocolate PB cheesecake, a Dove PB egg and also a Butterfinger egg. Oh and a robin’s egg, the Whopper kind.

The day began in the best way possible with sunrise service on the beach. I did not feel disgustingly tired waking up at 5:45, as originally imagined, and was able to slip out the door, stepping around the trail of eggs some clever bunny deposited in a trail down the hall, but somehow it never occurred to me to bring a chair? I saw all these people with chairs, thought d’oh and *almost* headed home. But then I braved the unknown and walked up to the beach and over the foot bridge, where bagpipes and drums played. Oh yes. A simple cross set up with its back to where the sun would rise, and it eventually did by easing up through the mist over a mostly calm sea. And birds flew overhead in v-formations multiple times throughout the service – did they pay those birds? The music (not bagpipe) for the rest of the service was more subdued, lovely (the solo singer) and cool (the small folk group). Cat Stevens pre-Yusuf might have been sung, which is another cool thing I like about this church, how they incorporate modern works with a message that corresponds to the day’s (otherwise very traditional) liturgy, acknowledging that spirituality continues, isn’t frozen in time. Anyway, next year I’ll bring a blanket or chair and possibly sneakers instead of flip-flops, even though I reject that idea on the surface. My toes were cold. But the sunrise was rad, yes it was.

Happy Easter to you my friend,

pen

Pen,

I just got back from a Good/Holy Friday service. It was a little overproduced by I do love the writing our sins on flash paper and burning them up on the cross, and I'm a sucker for darkness and candles. It seemed appropriate also to the culmination of my meditations. Technically I have 2 more to go- tonight is a meditation on the last judgement and tomorrow is a meditation on hell... humm. *sigh. I may just be done with them. Or am i not willing to wait the agonizing hours to the promise of Christ risen? I'm simply tired of it too. Though today while writing I thought, the place where the enemy attacks is in weakness- where there are already foundational cracks. It seemed obvious once i said it, and appropriate to the last week. But maybe even though you think, ugh, sin and death and the fall of man again, it doesn't mean God isn't going to show me something.

In othernews I'm drinking hotchocolate and wearing my mourning necklace. I also had a pretty relaxed day of reading, writing!? part of my essay and getting a tan. So that was win/win. I hit a point where I just didn't want to think about my spiritual journey anymore- just at the point where it gets good- the current landscapes, healing and what not. But the fact that I started is very good news. Tomorrow I plan to work on it till I finish?? Maybe too ambitious as Rita is coming over and I'm helping her paint some mountainous landscape... most likely for the tomb or some such?

Also I got my ipod battery in the mail today. It looked not-new. Which sucked and the redwire was out of the little plug. So after watching the demo online i disassembled the ipod, looked at that battery, fixed my notsonew battery and right now it seems to be working. I felt very tech savvy, right to the point of wanting a medal or a photograph taken. And as every sunrise has some darkness behind it i got some letter from the edd about a phone interview, and not releasing my benefits until then, or if at all? Super awesome. There was some other sort of grim thing, like my stomach not liking the chocolaty/milk of the hotness i just had, or the fritos like led in my stomach earlier today, and needing to actually start walking for warriordash, or that one job i actually did want, is still hiring which means they dismissed me outright even though i'd be sort of awesome for it. But maybe its the awesome if i were someone else and not me, who makes necklaces and other things of the artistic not totally awesomely lucrative types... but did i mention my ipod? triumph? and maybe another bouquet in the works... sure i have to call her back, but now i have an ipod i can wander around with, while I think about calling her back, and write myself notes and lists saying: call her back, transplant the vine, finish the essay, etc etc.

m.

m,

Is it the full moon that accounts for these wackadoodle dreams? Last night, you, me and a sunny day in NYC – escaping the authorities. Somehow you seemed quite knowledgeable on the subject, leading us toward Central Park, where we lost them in accordance with your plan.

Whatever we did to incite the chase remains a mystery. We stayed that evening in an expensive hotel with IKEA-esque decor. You seemed assured and even cheerful – like this was something you did every day, while I was a bit more internally frantic. And then K.Lo woke me up.

pen