Spread the Love

Today my mom came to book club and in the context of our conversation announced that Frank the checker at the grocery store told her she'd been looking pretty hot lately.  Now Frank is a very nice man, and he knows who all of us are that frequent this particular Savemart.  The fact that he took the time to let her know he thought she looked great got me thinking.

I have lots of things I don't like so much about myself and the way I look.  As women, I think it's fair to say, that we all do.   Now I won't go on to list all of them, because I am hoping you might just overlook these flaws if I don't draw attention to them, but for the purposes of this post I will tell you two.  One of them is my smile. Again, I won't go into why I don't like it, but I just don't.  Recently I  have been stopped by 3 different strangers telling me what a great smile I have.  Not gonna share the details there either except to say that each of them had a little more to say about it, and it was very sincere.  Each time, it really surprised me and caught me off guard.  I don't like my smile any better now than I did then, but I can say, that it totally made my day!  For a complete stranger to give a genuine compliment, requires them to step out of their comfort zone a little.

While out with good friends a few weeks ago, the song Just The Way You Are, by Bruno Mars came on.  (It's the same one that plays when you open my blog right now if your sound is turned on)  There is a line in the song that says "Her laugh, she hates, but I think it's so sexy".  My friend turned and said, "Jen I always think about you when I hear that line.  I know you hate your laugh, but I just love it!"  This compliment from a sweet friend had the same effect as the ones from the complete strangers.  Totally made my day!

How often do we see someone who looks great, who handles a situation well, or has a generous nature, and we just think about it to ourselves or maybe mention it to a friend.  How often do we stop and actually deliver the compliment?  What stops us from doing that?  How great does it feel to be on the receiving end?  How much better still, to realize that you just totally brightened someone else's day?

Just so that we are clear here, I am in no way trying to solicit compliments here.  I'm not into that. In fact, I even have a tendency to withhold a compliment from someone who is fishing for one, just because it rubs me the wrong way.  Totally immature of me I know, I'll work on that.  In the mean time, what I am suggesting is that we all step out of our comfort zones and start telling those around us how great they are, whether we know them or not.  Make somebody's day, spread the love!!!

Muddy Mayhem

 I suppose I have a teensy defiant streak in me... I'd love to prove you wrong.  Find me something I can't do, and I'll show you just how well I can.

I love shopping and manicures, chick flicks and the color pink.  I am a hopeless romantic and I cry at commercials, but if you've got  something heavy that needs to be moved or fixed I just might be your girl.  I am a girlie girl through and through, but I'm not taken down as easily as one might think.

When I learned about the Warrior Dash to be held in Hollister this October, I knew it was just my kind of fun.  It was a 3.5 mile course riddled with 10 different obstacles similar to what you might find at a boot camp, but a little edgier.

Kristie found the race and recruited her neighbor Julie, and Rebecca and I to join her.  From everything we had seen and read, we knew this event was more of a party than anything else.  More runners than not were in a costume of sorts.  I liked the idea of doing a tough event in something frilly.  Always one for the contradiction.  Kristie and I went out Friday and bought the supplies.  Saturday as we drove the girls worked on their tutus.  We blared our music and psyched ourselves up.

We wore knee high sports socks and used a tube of mascara for eye black.

We tied tulle in our hair, around our wrists, and in our shoe laces.

The festive atmosphere and anticipation had us all a bit giddy.

Our next task was to pick up our viking helmets we got just for registering!

Our costumes were mild compared to others that we saw.

We felt a camaraderie with others we saw wearing tutus, and they happily posed for pictures with us.

As we were waiting for our wave to start, we stopped by the mud pit and watched as runners from earlier waves of the race dove, jumped or belly flopped into the goopy thick mud.  Watching got us so excited we decided to run in an earlier wave, just so we could get in there!

Flames blew up into the air marking the start of our wave.  We sang silly songs as we started the run through course.  The first obstacle we came to was a scramble over demolition cars.  The next was a climb through a web of bungee ropes, later we went up and over cargo nets, and eventually crossed over a ravine on beams.

 We crawled through a tunnel and over bales of hay.  We climbed a steep hill and slid back down on the other side through  soapy water  while on our tummies.

The two obstacles that I was anticipating the most were leaping over flaming hurdles and the muddy crawl to the finish.  From the moment I registered for the event, I wanted to do my irish jig over the flames.  When I did, the event's camera man caught it!

When we reached the edge of the mud pool, Kristie and I stopped.  The crowd was chanting,"Tutu chicks, tutu chicks!" We curtsied, smiled and waved real pretty and then we belly flopped into the mud!  It was so thick and seemed to suck us deeper and deeper into the goop the further we went.  By the time we scrambled out, my tutu looked more like a loin cloth!

We waited about 7 or 8 minutes for the other half of our group to get to the mud pool so that we could cheer them on.  And then of course, we helped make sure they got good and dirty in the mud.

After we decided all were sufficiently covered, we crossed the finish line together.

There was a huge stage near the finish line, and they were playing the best music.  None of us could resist.  Rather than join the long lines of runners waiting for some of the water from the fireman's hose to semi rinse ourselves, we went for the dancing.

For a while we had a little audience and eventually we had a huge crowd of mudddy runners who joined us.  A few even asked if they could have their picture taken with us!

When we finally got hosed down we were still covered in mud.  A little less mud, but now we were muddy, wet and cold!  The rain started just as we headed into the parking lot...

We flew home while comparing our battle wounds and planning our next run.

Warrior Dash So Cal 2011, here we come!  You coming with us...?