Things That Make Me Oh-So-Happy

mood: sunshine-able
music: "Ice Cream" - The Music Man
random word: pahoehoe (it's a kind of lava! and it's pronounced pa-ho-ee-ho-ee! sweet!)

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So this weekend was like the highlight of my life. The tricky thing is that I haven't posted in forever so the pre-awesome-weekend stuff hasn't gotten covered yet. Hokay, here's where I do my best to catch everyone up to the most recent smile-highs on 4 Baskenridge Dr.

Smile-High #1: Chile Housing!

Here is the house I will be living in, complete with stately-looking Chilean señora. I'll be living with her, her husband, their two daughters in their 30s, and another Chilean student who is boarding with them. It says that they have a lot of experience hosting students in their house, so that's good news for me. They'll provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner, sheets and towels, laundry, use of telephone and Internet. And I get my own room and bathroom.

It gets better. Instead of in Valparaiso, where the college is, I'll be living in Viña del Mar, which is a resort city nearby. I looked up the address on a map, and it turns out that I will be a mere 10 blocks away from the Pacific Ocean.

Smile-High #2: Running (oh, and Sidney!)

Man, just look at that gangly couple go. Aren't they just the cutest?

So, I've run three road races so far this summer - one every weekend I've been home. I'm not a competitive runner by any means, but I like getting up early on Saturdays and bouncing along the shore for a little while and then bringing home a t-shirt to show for it. It's nice to be getting into shape, and I don't put too much pressure on myself with regard to speed. (Still, I tend to leave my dad behind, which makes me smile because he's Super Triathlete Man. Then again, he can go on forever and I'm pretty much done after 3 miles.)

Sidney came home a week ago (HAPPY!!) and we signed up to do the George Sheehan Classic 5-Miler in Red Bank. It's a nationally ranked race, which is cool, and there are Kenyans, which is cooler. We ran it together on Saturday morning and we did 8-minute miles for the first 4 miles until I had like...total body failure and crawled through the last mile (all crazy uphill) while Sidney sprinted ahead. Cross-Country Sidney's a little faster than I am. Who'd a thunk. I may or may not have wanted to rip his head off the whole race long. Still, I was pretty proud of myself - I ended up finishing 130th out of 600 women and 15th out of 60 in my age/gender group with a 41:19. Not super awesome, but faster than my usual jaunt along the shore.

Next week we're running a 5k in Allenhurt, but he's going to run ahead from the beginning while I bounce along as usual. I'm okay with that :)

Smile-High #3: Becky and Cata!!

Okay, so I know this post has been done, but I can't stress enough how awesome it was. Planet Smoothie runs, text messages from Michael, horrendous traffic, Sea Bright beach adventures, bowling with C and Frank and watching Cata school us all, late-night pizza parlor dates, avoiding death by glue, finger paint, and angry toddlers in the Dorbrook Park activity building, lying on the grass under a big blue sky in Dorbrook Park, racing home to pick up Ali at the Middletown Train Station, panini lunch at Zebu with Sidney and Joe, Billy Joel/Goo Goo Dolls/West Side Story/Shakira music shopping at Jack's, buying bags and books and cute new shoes at Funk and Standard, racing home to drop off Ali, the hour-long drive down to Ocean Beach, roaring and singing and dancing and stuffing ourselves with ice cream for dinner at the Music Man Ice Cream Shoppe, the "New Jersey" version of "Oklahoma!", toddlers wandering aimlessly through the cabaret, waiters impersonating toddlers wandering aimlessly through the cabaret, being the loudest and most enthusiastic miniature golfers in New Jersey, sunsets and shadows and lifeguard stands and bungalows and the moon shimmering over the water, the hour-long drive back and miraculously being able to lift ourselves off the couch to go to ImprovJam, not really being sure whether ImprovJam was funny because we were way too tired, eating waffles and french fries at 2 am at the Broadway Diner in Red Bank, waking up at noon on Sunday, Becky and Cata moaning "Loooooora!" and calling my cell phone from the basement, Becky's ABC and Mickey Mouse and snowman and smiley-face pancakes, and all of the heartfelt hugs before they drove away into the abyss of Parkway traffic.

Cata's bowling score: 153
Laura's minigolf score: 40 (par!)
Number of meals we ate at the appropriate mealtimes: 0
Hours of sleep: next to nil
Amazing memories: too many to count

Check Becky's picture site, honestly. Kodak joy abounds.

Smile-High #4: MAAARRK!

Okay, so I don't really have time to give this one justice because Sidney is on his way over, but about 2 hours after Cata and Becky left, Mark pulled in front of my house so we could watch the Tony's together :-D :-D :-D

All I will say is, my congratulations to the fabulous Drowsy Chaperone, my sympathy to the shafted Sweeney Todd, and every WHAT THE FUCK I can muster toward Jersey Boys. Honestly.

Mark and I consoled ourselves by watching Sondheim in Carnegie Hall and then stayed up all night talking about the future and how we're going to write a musical (he'll compose, I'll do lyrics) and thank MCMP in our Tony speeches. Got up early yesterday to drive Michelle to school, had breakfast with Mark, then saw him off. Then went to the MCMP Facebook group and used my administrator priveleges to change his officer name from "Administrator" to "Legend."

Sidenote: He's joining the blog :-D

Teensy Little Low:
Since I got no sleep and exerted every bit of energy I had in the last four days, I promptly came down with an awful cold yesterday (an excellent time to watch the new Pride and Prejudice. Joy!) and am trying to recover before heading to the Bronx tonight to see the Yankees.

So much love and extra squeezy hugs to all.