Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Best Friend

As many of you know, I am a person of obsessions. I glom onto something and literally become obsessed with it and think, eat, sleep, dream about this one particular thing. I have written about my various obsessions before. They are numerous and varied, encompassing many ranges of interests. Just thinking about them all makes me laugh.

Anyway, my current obsession is Twitter. I have been a Tweeter or a Tweep for a long time. I have two personas: Coach_Jenn which is generally where I discuss running-related issues and promote my articles and other items of interest to other runners and endurance athletes. For those of you that go to my actual blog page (jennifergill.blogspot.com), you can read my Coach_Jenn tweets. My other persona is simply JennGill where I'm, well, me. I haven't tweeted (i.e. posted) in a while as JennGill because I always was Coach_Jenn. And it's confusing. But over the weekend, I was sick with a yucky stomach ailment (to be polite) and I went to my JennGill page on Twitter to see what was going on. I decided to follow all celebrities using my JennGill persona. You'd be amazed at how many celebrities there are on Twitter. I now know a lot of what these famous people are doing throughout the day and I have to say it's quite fascinating. For example:

  • Mark Hoppas (Blink-182 band member) does not sleep well and wakes up very early in the morning.
  • Margaret Cho (comedian) really really loves animals and has a dog named Ralph whom she took to the vet this morning to have a lump looked at (it's nothing).
  • Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster) had a business meeting this morning and asked what to wear: jeans or a dress (I responded to her and told her to wear a nice, but not-too-nice, dress).
  • MC Hammer (sort of rapper, wearer of very baggy pants) had a birthday yesterday.
  • Perez Hilton (gossip monger) loves Cadbury Eggs (as do I).
  • Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are currently in the South of France (how horrible for them).
  • P.Diddy calls himself Ptwitty (ha!).
  • Snoop Dog only "tweezles" after 11 AM.
  • Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) thinks he's developing man boobs. And they are an A cup.

You get the idea. I also follow Lance Armstrong who tweets A LOT. He's more obsessed with it than anyone, and clearly admits it. For instance, he just tweeted that he's picking up his kids from school at the moment. Such regular people!!

I highly recommend you get on the Twitter bandwagon. It's so much fun. If you do, be sure to follow me (JennGill for randomness and Coach_Jenn for running stuff)!

By the way, today's song title chosen for my blog post title is by a band named Tweet. Get the connection? Good...

Happy Twittering!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Circus

It has been a busy couple of weeks! I don't even remember what happened last week, so I can't really write about it. I honestly think I have some early dementia or other neurological problem developing. How bad is that? I can't remember a week ago!

I do remember this weekend being fun. Saturday was the National Marathon and Half Marathon, for which I coached a group. John also ran the half and I had some friends and a client run it as well. Keller and I were down there for the whole thing. It was great. I bought this giant smiley face balloon to use so people could find me before the race and as they were running. And when I say giant, I mean giant. It worked well because everyone could find me and some other random people were telling their friends to meet them by the crazy person with the giant smiley face balloon. It was a little breezy and it kept hitting people in the face. One woman was smashed in the face and John told her she was "kissed." HA! John and I were looking through the official race photos last night and there were tons of photos with the balloon in the background. It was hysterical. We found a new race necessity.

So, race start was at 7:00 am and it was freaking cold. I felt bad for everyone, but I knew it was better than being freaking hot. In fact, it turned out to be a beautiful day for running. Keller and I hung out at the finish line the whole time, which is always fun. We had our cow bells and were screaming our heads off. I always laugh when Keller screams at a race. It's so amusing to me. At first it was general "woo hoos." Then he starting yelling, "Where's my daddy?" I just laughed. And then John came in and all was right with the world. I have to say, while I normally get choked up when my people cross the finish line, I was especially emotional at this race. And not just for my runners, but for everyone I watched at the finish. Because I could really see the range of emotions on their faces: pain, the realization they were at the finish, pride, elation. It really got to me because I know how they feel. It was nice to see. Anyway, all my peeps did really well, I was so proud.

Sunday was the circus. It was a lot of fun. I'd only been to the circus a couple of times in my life and (surprise!) I don't really remember it. But we had a good time, Keller really enjoyed it. Especially the popcorn and sno-cones. He wasn't a big fan of the cotton candy, which just left more for me. He was completely overstimulated after a while and we had to leave a little early. Which, overall, was fine with us.

I actually started feeling sick on Saturday, which hasn't really developed into anything. Well, it's in that in-between stage. Just enough to make me feel icky but not enough to make me stay in bed. I'm actually feeling a little better today, so that's good.

Speaking of today, I had a dentist appointment this morning. I normally see this one hygienist, who I've become pretty friendly with over the years. She's out on maternity leave, so I was with someone else. And this person was quite nice, but too nice. You know how you get completely annoyed by really nice people? You know, they're so sweet and talk your ear off, call you Sweetie and all that? Well, that was this person. "Go ahead and spit, Sweetie." And I feel bad being annoyed, which just adds to the annoyance. Oh well. At least my teeth are well. I have perfect oral hygiene, you know.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Nice to Know You

I was home with Keller today. He woke up with a bad cough that sounded a lot like croup. So, I wanted to take him to the doctor and get him started on the steroid if it was indeed croup.

We had a nice morning before we went to the doctor. Just cuddling and playing. I didn't even have to fight him to go to the doctor. The doctor (whom Keller told was 'silly' the moment he walked into the exam room) said it's not croup and just a bad cough. Good. I couldn't get over how good Keller was at the doctor. He hates being examined, especially his ears, and he was just fine today.

After the doctor, we came home for lunch. He managed to eat two sandwiches. He can definitely pack it in. I put him down for his nap, and did some work.

He's been up for a while now and he's just been such an angel. I really love the person he is becoming. He is outgoing and friendly, extremely smart and observant, and so sweet. Yes, he has his moments of ugliness, but who doesn't? I don't know why this is hitting me today, I guess it's been a while since it was just me and Keller alone together all day without any other distractions. I've been able to focus on him.

The other night, John and I were looking at some of the photos of Baby Keller we have in the den. In most of them, I can see a tiny little bit of the Keller that he is today but for the most part, he's changed so much. He can do so much on his own now, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not so good. Like when he took the eggs out of the fridge because he was going to make himself breakfast. That was a mess. But at least he tried.

I think I'm going through a mid-life crisis or something. My tiny baby isn't so tiny anymore. He can tell me what's wrong and what he needs. Not to mention when he tells me to leave him alone. I'm sad that he's growing up so quickly but at the same time I'm excited to watch him become this pretty cool person. I hope I remember this when he's 16 and telling me how I've ruined his life. :)

Monday, March 9, 2009

Plans & Reveries

I love the weekend.

My parents came into town this weekend, which is always a nice time. We didn't do anything, but it's just awesome to spend time with them. We haven't seen my dad since Christmas because he was sick and didn't come down with my mom last month. It was so good to see them.

Saturday night the crew went to the Rock and Roll Hotel to see Black Gold. The front person, Eric, is the brother of our friend Marc ("Mr. Mawk" according to Keller). It was a lot of fun. We all had babysitters and basically let loose. And the band was awesome. Such a fun night.

On the way there, we saw a pod of tourists on Segways. Really? A Segway? How do I know they were tourists? It was not just one person trolling DC, but a gaggle of people. No self-respecting DC-area resident is going to ride around on a Segway. It was really quite amusing and pathetic all at the same time. Ever since our former president was filmed falling off a Segway, anyone riding one is automatically deemed a dork. Sorry. By the way, I mentioned this for Susan. Hi Susan!

There was a terrifying twist in events last night. We went out for dinner and as we were getting out of the car, we heard what we thought were gun shots. In Germantown. We then see 3 guys tearing through the parking lot. We went into the restaurant and, coincidentally, Keller threw a fit. He wanted to listen to music in the car. No one wanted to deal with it, so, we left. We go back into the parking lot and the police are all over. We told them what we heard and saw and hopefully something came of it. There weren't any ambulances or anything, so we don't know if anyone was actually shot. I really think a move will be in our not-so-distant future.

On a happy note, my new No Boundaries 5K training program starts tonight and my latest crop of runners will have a wonderful night for their first run. I am quite excited because I love spring running programs. And my friend Kerry will be helping me out with this group, so it should be a fun time.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Jury Duty

I never updated from Monday. I think I'm still in shock.

After I updated my blog, the legal supervisor from the grand jury came into the waiting room and said that, most likely due to the weather, not enough people showed up for grand jury duty. So, they took about 10 of us up there (myself included). Well, after a scientifically sound way of selecting the grand jury (the judge simply picked), I was selected for grand jury duty. What does this mean, you ask? Well, I need to report to jury duty every Thursday for the next 3 months. Yes, 3 months. Not good.

I'm trying to stay positive about it, but really it's not a good thing. This has thrown a wrench into life since John will need to being Keller to school every Thursday, I have to reschedule a few things with work, and then the whole question of if I'll be able to get paid. I'm not happy about it but at least it's not everyday.

On a completely different note, Keller has been a giant pain when it comes to getting dressed in the morning. He usually wants to stay in his pajamas. So he fights us to get dressed every morning. Then he wants to pick out his own clothes. Which is fine, but he keeps picking clothes that either don't fit or are not appropriate for winter (sue me, I haven't packed up his summer clothes or clothes he's grown out of...I've been busy). Today his shirt is fine but he's wearing some serious high waters. I told him that they were too small and his pants would be too short and he said he liked it. Go figure. When he was a baby, I promised him that I would never put him in high waters. But I didn't pick these pants out for him, so I don't really feel like I failed him. He just has to make these decisions for himself.

Monday, March 2, 2009

It's a Mad Mad World

Guess where I am...I'm sitting in the jury lounge waiting to find out if I'll be on a jury. But I'll be waiting longer than most. Why? Because Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the richest counties in the country with resources up the ying yang, delayed its opening 2 hours because of the snow and neglected to inform anyone until 40 minutes before we were supposed to be here. We civic-minded folk left early because it's snowing and we wanted to be sure we'd get here on time. Which means we missed the announcement. So we all nearly killed ourselves to get here only to sit and wait for 2 hours to see if we even need to be here. Our tax dollars at work.

So, yes, it's snowing in DC which means the world is coming to an end. At least for today anyway. You know, they've been talking about this snow for days but do you think they plowed? No. Side roads, of course not. But even the interstate was terrible.

Speaking of terrible, on my way here, I nearly hit a dog because some stupid lady let it off the leash. Why are people so stupid?? I turn out of my neighborhood and start towards the main road. I see a dog run out into the street and then turn around and go back. So I continue down the street. I see the dog squat and do its business. Do you think the owner put it on a leash? Nope. I guess she didn't want to disturb the dog. So the dog then darts into the street. I swerve to avoid the dog and run up onto the curb. Not even a half mile from my house. I put down the window and yelled at the lady. I know it was silly but it made me feel better. All I said was, "Could you get your dog, lady?" She said she was trying. Yeah. Looked that way.
And now I'm here. I guess I could be happy I'm not trying to go down to work right now. But I'm in the mood to complain. I'm definitely having some wine when I get home tonight.

Stay tuned, I'm sure I'll update throughout the day.