what a weekend!
i suppose this weekend helped to provide me with a taste of what's to come in february, but that didn't make it any less hectic!
after 2 extra days without marshall, i finally was able to welcome him home thursday afternoon. i cam into work to attend an early morning meeting and take care of a bunch of stuff before taking a long weekend. i got to the airport right when marshall's flight was scheduled to land, but since he had to go through customs, i figured i had plenty of time to park and make it to the international arrivals lobby. i had to ask one of the TSA guards how to get from the parking garage to the terminal. it was fine getting there, but finding my way back was a little confusing. anyway, i found out which exit marshall would be coming out of and stood there for almost an hour waiting as flights from seoul, hong kong, narita (japan), and paris came through. finally, amsterdam showed up on the information board above the exit and i got in place at the front of the group. i saw a lot of french men with large noses, blonde-hair-blue-eyed dutch families (as well as all the light-blue-clad crew members from the plane) go by, but i didn't see marshall. finally, he walked through the gate. it seems cliché, but i ran under the railing to him and jumped in his arms. i hung on to his neck as he walked away from the middle of the exit area and i stood with my face buried in his chest for i don't know how long. even though i had talked to him almost every single day he was gone (sometimes twice a day), nothing beat having him in my arms and i in his. i was so happy to have him home.
i took the rest of the afternoon off. unfortunately, i hadn't eaten anything before picking him up at the airport, so i was starving. he could eat, too, and we decided to keep to tradition and go to victor's taqueria, near my mom's place, for our celebratory "coming home" meal (we ate here when we got back from london). marshall enjoyed finally eating spicy food, not to mention mexican food, of course (when you grow up in california, mexican food is as "american" as a cheeseburger). i was just happy to eat. at least we made it home and i helped him unpack and get his dirty clothes sorted and we stated laundry. there wasn't as much as i originally thought. by the time dinner-time rolled around, both of us were still full from lunch. so, we opted out of dinner that night. marshall was trying to keep himself up as long as possible to help stave off really bad jet-lag. he made it to 9:30, which is pretty admirable.
we both slept in friday morning. marshall thoroughly enjoyed a breakfast that didn't consist of ham or pork products. he was still pretty wiped out from his trip, but we needed to get some shopping done before he went to work for the afternoon and i headed to my nails appointment with BFF-sarah and her mom. our shopping took us to the mall. i needed a few underthings for sarah's wedding and marshall desperately needed a new suit (his current one was from his sister's bat mitzvah 7 years ago...). we took care of mine first, which didn't take long. everything i needed was right there on the floor. i also picked up some new line-reducing panties, which turned out were REALLY comfortable. after that we headed to express and found marshall a great new suit. he'll get lots of use out of it, especially for a few of the wedding activities coming up, not only for OUR wedding but future friends' as well. plus, it's always good to have a suit on-hand. we enjoyed lunch at pizza my heart and came home. i was able to fit in a swim before we both had to go our separate ways.
my nails appointment went well and was really relaxing. plus, i got to have some alone time with sarah, which was great. it was the first time i've gotten a manicure since almost high school. i think maybe i got one for my brother's wedding, but that was still 7 years ago. i love getting pedicures, though, and i found a color nail polish that matched my dress! :) after we got our nails done, we rushed back and i ran home to get ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. the rehearsal went very smoothly and the dinner afterward was delicious. it did kind of suck not being able to bring along marshall, but whatever.
saturday morning, the big day, started off like any other. marshall and i met up with the rest of the breakfast club and we headed for breakfast. paco was finally able to join us (he's been either out of town or had to work the past few weeks). it was nice and relaxing, even though i regretted having a BLT with onion rings the morning before having to fit into a dress that was just a little too small. anyway, i had some time to kill before heading over to sarah's. even then, everything was being taken care of that there was little for us to do until an hour before the limo came to pick us up to take us to the church. we enjoyed some sparkling apple cider and a few toasts. we had a lovely time just sitting around and chit-chatting. finally, the time came for all of us to get ready. we threw on our dresses and helped sarah get into hers. she looked absolutely gorgeous. we took some pictures and then the limo came to pick all of us up. we packed in and headed out. we got to the church a little early and waited while the majority of the guests made it inside without seeing the bride. we also had to keep a keen eye to make sure mike wasn't around.
the ceremony went off without a hitch. it actually sailed by rather quickly, as it always does, and before we knew it sarah and mike were officially married and we were outside taking pictures! the ceremony went by so quickly that we were done well before we originally planned. no worries, though! we just got to the reception early and made do. we got to have a few appetizers before we were all announced into the reception. the rest of the reception went as smooth as silk. the food was delicious and the venue looked beautiful. the weather was also perfect - we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. even though i was nervous about giving a toast, i managed to not sound like an idiot (at least i thought so). a toast usually is very sentimental, and i don't find it easy to put my feelings into words. anyway, everyone had a wonderful time and mike and sarah looked like they were having the greatest fun. i can't wait to see more pictures from that night. :) unfortunately, marshall and i had to cut our evening short, because...
...our triathlon was the next morning. marshall and i woke up at 4:45am. i was feeling nervous and stressed out, so i barely managed to eat a half a bowl of cereal. i also felt the same at sarah and mike's wedding and didn't eat a whole lot then either. we got dressed and put together all our supplies and headed over the hill to santa cruz. we got there a few minutes after the registration booth opened up. we found a spot in the transition area, checked in, got our packet, and stared setting up our little area. i'm glad we got there that early, because they didn't have NEARLY enough bike space for everyone. the ref overseeing the transition area kept saying that each rack would hold 8-10 bikes, when it was CLEAR they only could hold 6-8. we had 7 on our rack and there was NO ROOM for anything else. we had a lot of time to kill, though, so we stood in the sun to warm up and chatted with a few of the other athletes near us. marshall went down to the water around 8am and i stayed behind and watched a few stragglers get ready. i only noticed one other relay team and it seemed i was the only one left behind. since i didn't eat much breakfast, i downed a "gu" packet with some water and that really helped calm my stomach and get me energized. pretty soon, i started seeing the more "expert" guys out of the water getting into the transition area and speeding off on the bikes. marshall wasn't too far behind and soon i was on my way. i knew the course well enough, so finding my way wasn't a problem. because of all the excitement, i started to hyperventilate. it took me a while to get my breathing under control and once i did i was just sailing along. i managed to pass up a few people and still had time to wave to my parents watching from the sidelines. i got back to the transition area, handed off the time-chip to marshall and he was off on the run. i walked around a bit and drank some more water. then i hung out at the finish line and cheered on the runners coming in. i got to see the first woman finish, which was pretty cool (while on the bike course, since my relay partner was in the first wave in the water, i kept getting cheers for being the first woman out of the water...). marshall came in and we looked at our time. we finished in 1hr and 28mins. not half bad for being on a team with a first-timer. looking at our times compared to marshall's times last year, it seems we shaved off 6 minutes. since we were able to transition really quickly, that saved time. what's weird, but cool, is that the time savings compared to last year were because of me. pretty neat!
after the race, we met up with my parents for brunch. we chatted for a while about the race and a few other things. i was feeling really accomplished and good about what i had just did (i'm really not an athletic person, so doing this was kind of a big deal), until my mom opened her mouth. after we ordered our food, she turned to me and said "okay, michelle, starting monday we're on diets. you need to lose weight for your wedding." i explained to her that what she said really made me feel bad, especially after what i had did that morning. i told her that it wasn't like i was stopping my training, i was going to continue with what i had been doing for the last 10 months with sights on doing my own triathlon next year). i said that, yeah, i don't certainly want to GAIN weight for my wedding and that i wanted to look good. then she said "well, i wouldn't say it if it wasn't true." cuz that makes things SO much better. *sigh* my dad and marshall kept tell her to shut up and she just wouldn't listen. finally, my dad said she really needed to stop talking before she dug her hole any deeper than it was (providing an example of the cartoon dog digging a hole so deep you don't see the dog, but you still see the dirt being dug out of it). unfortunately, i NEEDED to eat something but by the time my tuna melt arrived, i wasn't hungry. i ate half my sandwich and didn't touch my potato salad. i said "well, since i have to watch what i eat, i probably should stop while i'm ahead..." it just put such a damper on what could've been a really good day.
marshall and i headed home after brunch, showered, and took a really long nap. we slept for almost 4 hours before marshall finally said we needed to get up. we dressed and went to pick up a chicken for dinner. i made a batch of yummy chicken enchiladas and we spent the rest of the evening watching the DVDs of the simpsons. we eventually both fell asleep in front of the TV before finally making it to bed.
due to the fun-filled weekend, marshall and i both took yesterday off. we enjoyed ourselves and had pancakes and bacon for breakfast and met up with paul to see julie & julia. it was a great movie and i enjoyed every bit of it. i thought one or two scenes felt disjointed, but overall i loved how they transformed the book into the movie. meryl streep was amazing as julia child and i simply love stanley tucci. amy adams did a find job playing julie, too. i totally recommend it, especially if you're familiar with julia child. i loved watching her as a kid and knowing more about her makes her that much more amazing. after the movie we walked over to have lunch at michi sushi. we spent the rest of the afternoon as we would any other sunday afternoon. we exchanged our broken cable box and got a new one (which still hasn't connected properly - we need to call again tonight) and went grocery shopping. it was really hot, so marshall and i decided to hit the pool. it was crowded, just as expected for a hot evening, but marshall and i found a spot to call our own. we hung around the pool and played a little. marshall taught me to do a forward flip and we practiced doing shoulder-launches. it was really fun. last night we met up with nicole, jesse, scott and a few others for dinner at rock bottom brewery. we definitely had a good time, but we were both still pretty worn out from the weekend.
we still managed to go for a run this morning. even after 3 weeks of running on the treadmill, i did just fine on the pavement. i had to slow down a few times, but i kept returning to my regular pace. i still plan on getting in a swim sometime tomorrow. if marshall isn't up for one in the morning at our usual time, i might just sleep in and fit in a swim before lunch. either way works for me. :)
so, that was my weekend. i came back to work today with a busting inbox with emails to answer. in the end, it didn't take me long to get back on track. today has felt like a normal tuesday, really. before i left on thursday, i emailed my boss to inform her that i was applying for that open position in the other production group. she apparently had a really busy day thursday and didn't get to my email until friday. she wrote me back apologizing for getting back to me so late, but that she was, despite how i originally thought, quite happy to hear i had applied for that other job. she said she would love to talk about it in more detail. i think she suggested talking about it during my personal review this afternoon. so yeah, everything worked out well there! :) let's see what happens with all of this.
after 2 extra days without marshall, i finally was able to welcome him home thursday afternoon. i cam into work to attend an early morning meeting and take care of a bunch of stuff before taking a long weekend. i got to the airport right when marshall's flight was scheduled to land, but since he had to go through customs, i figured i had plenty of time to park and make it to the international arrivals lobby. i had to ask one of the TSA guards how to get from the parking garage to the terminal. it was fine getting there, but finding my way back was a little confusing. anyway, i found out which exit marshall would be coming out of and stood there for almost an hour waiting as flights from seoul, hong kong, narita (japan), and paris came through. finally, amsterdam showed up on the information board above the exit and i got in place at the front of the group. i saw a lot of french men with large noses, blonde-hair-blue-eyed dutch families (as well as all the light-blue-clad crew members from the plane) go by, but i didn't see marshall. finally, he walked through the gate. it seems cliché, but i ran under the railing to him and jumped in his arms. i hung on to his neck as he walked away from the middle of the exit area and i stood with my face buried in his chest for i don't know how long. even though i had talked to him almost every single day he was gone (sometimes twice a day), nothing beat having him in my arms and i in his. i was so happy to have him home.
i took the rest of the afternoon off. unfortunately, i hadn't eaten anything before picking him up at the airport, so i was starving. he could eat, too, and we decided to keep to tradition and go to victor's taqueria, near my mom's place, for our celebratory "coming home" meal (we ate here when we got back from london). marshall enjoyed finally eating spicy food, not to mention mexican food, of course (when you grow up in california, mexican food is as "american" as a cheeseburger). i was just happy to eat. at least we made it home and i helped him unpack and get his dirty clothes sorted and we stated laundry. there wasn't as much as i originally thought. by the time dinner-time rolled around, both of us were still full from lunch. so, we opted out of dinner that night. marshall was trying to keep himself up as long as possible to help stave off really bad jet-lag. he made it to 9:30, which is pretty admirable.
we both slept in friday morning. marshall thoroughly enjoyed a breakfast that didn't consist of ham or pork products. he was still pretty wiped out from his trip, but we needed to get some shopping done before he went to work for the afternoon and i headed to my nails appointment with BFF-sarah and her mom. our shopping took us to the mall. i needed a few underthings for sarah's wedding and marshall desperately needed a new suit (his current one was from his sister's bat mitzvah 7 years ago...). we took care of mine first, which didn't take long. everything i needed was right there on the floor. i also picked up some new line-reducing panties, which turned out were REALLY comfortable. after that we headed to express and found marshall a great new suit. he'll get lots of use out of it, especially for a few of the wedding activities coming up, not only for OUR wedding but future friends' as well. plus, it's always good to have a suit on-hand. we enjoyed lunch at pizza my heart and came home. i was able to fit in a swim before we both had to go our separate ways.
my nails appointment went well and was really relaxing. plus, i got to have some alone time with sarah, which was great. it was the first time i've gotten a manicure since almost high school. i think maybe i got one for my brother's wedding, but that was still 7 years ago. i love getting pedicures, though, and i found a color nail polish that matched my dress! :) after we got our nails done, we rushed back and i ran home to get ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. the rehearsal went very smoothly and the dinner afterward was delicious. it did kind of suck not being able to bring along marshall, but whatever.
saturday morning, the big day, started off like any other. marshall and i met up with the rest of the breakfast club and we headed for breakfast. paco was finally able to join us (he's been either out of town or had to work the past few weeks). it was nice and relaxing, even though i regretted having a BLT with onion rings the morning before having to fit into a dress that was just a little too small. anyway, i had some time to kill before heading over to sarah's. even then, everything was being taken care of that there was little for us to do until an hour before the limo came to pick us up to take us to the church. we enjoyed some sparkling apple cider and a few toasts. we had a lovely time just sitting around and chit-chatting. finally, the time came for all of us to get ready. we threw on our dresses and helped sarah get into hers. she looked absolutely gorgeous. we took some pictures and then the limo came to pick all of us up. we packed in and headed out. we got to the church a little early and waited while the majority of the guests made it inside without seeing the bride. we also had to keep a keen eye to make sure mike wasn't around.
the ceremony went off without a hitch. it actually sailed by rather quickly, as it always does, and before we knew it sarah and mike were officially married and we were outside taking pictures! the ceremony went by so quickly that we were done well before we originally planned. no worries, though! we just got to the reception early and made do. we got to have a few appetizers before we were all announced into the reception. the rest of the reception went as smooth as silk. the food was delicious and the venue looked beautiful. the weather was also perfect - we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. even though i was nervous about giving a toast, i managed to not sound like an idiot (at least i thought so). a toast usually is very sentimental, and i don't find it easy to put my feelings into words. anyway, everyone had a wonderful time and mike and sarah looked like they were having the greatest fun. i can't wait to see more pictures from that night. :) unfortunately, marshall and i had to cut our evening short, because...
...our triathlon was the next morning. marshall and i woke up at 4:45am. i was feeling nervous and stressed out, so i barely managed to eat a half a bowl of cereal. i also felt the same at sarah and mike's wedding and didn't eat a whole lot then either. we got dressed and put together all our supplies and headed over the hill to santa cruz. we got there a few minutes after the registration booth opened up. we found a spot in the transition area, checked in, got our packet, and stared setting up our little area. i'm glad we got there that early, because they didn't have NEARLY enough bike space for everyone. the ref overseeing the transition area kept saying that each rack would hold 8-10 bikes, when it was CLEAR they only could hold 6-8. we had 7 on our rack and there was NO ROOM for anything else. we had a lot of time to kill, though, so we stood in the sun to warm up and chatted with a few of the other athletes near us. marshall went down to the water around 8am and i stayed behind and watched a few stragglers get ready. i only noticed one other relay team and it seemed i was the only one left behind. since i didn't eat much breakfast, i downed a "gu" packet with some water and that really helped calm my stomach and get me energized. pretty soon, i started seeing the more "expert" guys out of the water getting into the transition area and speeding off on the bikes. marshall wasn't too far behind and soon i was on my way. i knew the course well enough, so finding my way wasn't a problem. because of all the excitement, i started to hyperventilate. it took me a while to get my breathing under control and once i did i was just sailing along. i managed to pass up a few people and still had time to wave to my parents watching from the sidelines. i got back to the transition area, handed off the time-chip to marshall and he was off on the run. i walked around a bit and drank some more water. then i hung out at the finish line and cheered on the runners coming in. i got to see the first woman finish, which was pretty cool (while on the bike course, since my relay partner was in the first wave in the water, i kept getting cheers for being the first woman out of the water...). marshall came in and we looked at our time. we finished in 1hr and 28mins. not half bad for being on a team with a first-timer. looking at our times compared to marshall's times last year, it seems we shaved off 6 minutes. since we were able to transition really quickly, that saved time. what's weird, but cool, is that the time savings compared to last year were because of me. pretty neat!
after the race, we met up with my parents for brunch. we chatted for a while about the race and a few other things. i was feeling really accomplished and good about what i had just did (i'm really not an athletic person, so doing this was kind of a big deal), until my mom opened her mouth. after we ordered our food, she turned to me and said "okay, michelle, starting monday we're on diets. you need to lose weight for your wedding." i explained to her that what she said really made me feel bad, especially after what i had did that morning. i told her that it wasn't like i was stopping my training, i was going to continue with what i had been doing for the last 10 months with sights on doing my own triathlon next year). i said that, yeah, i don't certainly want to GAIN weight for my wedding and that i wanted to look good. then she said "well, i wouldn't say it if it wasn't true." cuz that makes things SO much better. *sigh* my dad and marshall kept tell her to shut up and she just wouldn't listen. finally, my dad said she really needed to stop talking before she dug her hole any deeper than it was (providing an example of the cartoon dog digging a hole so deep you don't see the dog, but you still see the dirt being dug out of it). unfortunately, i NEEDED to eat something but by the time my tuna melt arrived, i wasn't hungry. i ate half my sandwich and didn't touch my potato salad. i said "well, since i have to watch what i eat, i probably should stop while i'm ahead..." it just put such a damper on what could've been a really good day.
marshall and i headed home after brunch, showered, and took a really long nap. we slept for almost 4 hours before marshall finally said we needed to get up. we dressed and went to pick up a chicken for dinner. i made a batch of yummy chicken enchiladas and we spent the rest of the evening watching the DVDs of the simpsons. we eventually both fell asleep in front of the TV before finally making it to bed.
due to the fun-filled weekend, marshall and i both took yesterday off. we enjoyed ourselves and had pancakes and bacon for breakfast and met up with paul to see julie & julia. it was a great movie and i enjoyed every bit of it. i thought one or two scenes felt disjointed, but overall i loved how they transformed the book into the movie. meryl streep was amazing as julia child and i simply love stanley tucci. amy adams did a find job playing julie, too. i totally recommend it, especially if you're familiar with julia child. i loved watching her as a kid and knowing more about her makes her that much more amazing. after the movie we walked over to have lunch at michi sushi. we spent the rest of the afternoon as we would any other sunday afternoon. we exchanged our broken cable box and got a new one (which still hasn't connected properly - we need to call again tonight) and went grocery shopping. it was really hot, so marshall and i decided to hit the pool. it was crowded, just as expected for a hot evening, but marshall and i found a spot to call our own. we hung around the pool and played a little. marshall taught me to do a forward flip and we practiced doing shoulder-launches. it was really fun. last night we met up with nicole, jesse, scott and a few others for dinner at rock bottom brewery. we definitely had a good time, but we were both still pretty worn out from the weekend.
we still managed to go for a run this morning. even after 3 weeks of running on the treadmill, i did just fine on the pavement. i had to slow down a few times, but i kept returning to my regular pace. i still plan on getting in a swim sometime tomorrow. if marshall isn't up for one in the morning at our usual time, i might just sleep in and fit in a swim before lunch. either way works for me. :)
so, that was my weekend. i came back to work today with a busting inbox with emails to answer. in the end, it didn't take me long to get back on track. today has felt like a normal tuesday, really. before i left on thursday, i emailed my boss to inform her that i was applying for that open position in the other production group. she apparently had a really busy day thursday and didn't get to my email until friday. she wrote me back apologizing for getting back to me so late, but that she was, despite how i originally thought, quite happy to hear i had applied for that other job. she said she would love to talk about it in more detail. i think she suggested talking about it during my personal review this afternoon. so yeah, everything worked out well there! :) let's see what happens with all of this.