the ragnar las vegas race report part 2.

ok im back! so we left off just after our 2nd leg and about 11p, it was time for food and sleep. we decided on buffalo wild wings because it was close and people could get whatever they wanted. we ordered in the bar and it seemed to take forver! we were out of there as fast as possible to scarf it all down at micheles. im pretty sure i was asleep on the floor as soon as my head hit the pillow at about 1a. i was so glad we werent sleeping outside or in the van!

do you think theyll kick me out for falling asleep at the bar??
no really, do you?

2 legs down, 1 to go!

wayyyy too soon at about 315a the alarm was going off again and we were up to head back to the exchange. thank goodness this was our last round cause man was i ready to be done! we were at the exchange by 415a to pick back up. i ran into my friend derrick at the exchange while we were waiting! he used to run with us on monday nights but moved to iowa over the summer. i knew he was coming back to run but i wasnt sure i was actually going to see him.

this last round was my shortest at 5.6 miles and right on time layna came through sending me off down st rose parkway at 430a. the wind had finally subsided and it was actually pretty nice outside. st rose was super flat and i was diggin it until i had to turn up the street into anthem, then we were back to straight uphill, really! the sun started to rise and i was actually feelin good. there were quite a few people walking this leg, you could tell the whole thing was starting to take a toll on everyone.

finally i passed the 1 more mile to go sign and was ready to officially cross of my 3rd leg. the girls were right there ready and i gladly gave fanny the bracelet wishing her off! afterward i felt like a rockstar to be honest! i never thought i would be able to do something like that. in just under 24 hours i ran 19 miles. wow! i finished the 3rd leg in 54:02. we stopped off at a starbucks to get everyone some much needed coffee and i was super excited to have my 1st peppermint mocha of the season:)

the conveted ragnar tattoo.
ended up lasting almost a week and started a few very
good conversations after the race was over...

our van continued on dropping off and picking up for the next few hours. we all had that same super satisfied, exhausted, rockstar look on our faces as we crossed off our final legs. the weather was becoming nicer as we got later in the morning and soon it was time to send michele off on her last leg! we headed out to meet van 2 and gladly let them take over and agreed to meet them at the finish line so we could all cross together. they looked rested and ready to go, more power to you haha.

hey van 2 teammates:)

afterward we headed to the clear other side of town to drop off 1 of our girls then decided we needed to eat stat. again, that being the 1st runner sucks for the food end of things haha. we headed to ihop still all a little in disbelief we were done and STARVING. i think about 4 or 5 bites of food literally fell on the floor while i was eating because i couldnt get them into my mouth fast enough haha. since we were on that side of town we decided to get mine and sandys car then meet everyone at the finish line together. i was going to head home to shower but then made a detour to sandys so we could carpool out to lake las vegas since we heard traffic was going to be terrible.

VAN #1 OFFICIALLY DONE!

when i was sitting on her couch the exhaustion really started to set in. after some confusion about finish time we headed out to the finish line a little early and wandered around only to find them sold out of my sweatshirt. see, i knew i should have bought it earlier friday morning! we found the rest of our van soon and before we knew it layna was running toward us and the finish line. she was like 15 minutes early and the rest of her van hadnt even made it yet. we wanted to wait for everyone so we could cross together! van 2 wasnt far behind and we all hobbled across the line just over 30 hours after crossing the start line the day before.

we grabbed our bling and took lots of team pictures before grabbing some of our free pizza. the original plan was to hang out for awhile in the beer garden really getting to talk. but once we were actually there we were just about all ready to go home. sandy and i hung out for a little bit but headed out soon after. walking back across the bridge to our car i ran into all my runner group friends!! and derrick was right behind us too. it was like a reuninon!!

that night i went to dinner with my parents at bjs and stuffed my belly happy full:) i went home to take a bath in epsom salt and a proceeded to take a shower after before falling into bed at 930p on a saturday night. i slept a total of 14 hours that night and probably could have slept more if i hadnt woken up hungry the next day haha. man i dont know how people do this race all the time! im already signed up for another one next year with friends in cape cod. i think i could do about 1 or 2 of these a year, but thats it haha. i also totally understand now what people mean when they talk about ragnar withdrawl! we were still all talking for the next couple days and it was weird to not all be together. i do have to say that i had an unintentional unplug from just about the world that weekend and it was quite nice. ragnar for sure came at the perfect time:)

team t&a completes in 30:30:54!!

the ornament party.

a few weeks before thanksgiving we had decided to have our very first christmas party.  i was super stoked, always wanting to have my own place to throw a party.  richard was equally stoked to show off our place now that we had lived there over 2 months and to have so many of our friends together.  there was of course a great debate on which weekend to have it, as finally settled on the 18th of december.  i had decided not to put up a facebook invite after we got home from our thanksgiving weekend because i thought it was too soon and people would probably forget by the time the party rolled around.  other planning was beginning to come together though.  we thought about doing a secret santa, but that would be hard with such different groups of friends not knowing each other.  then we thought about white elephant, but werent super excited about that so we decided to just make the decision when it got closer to time.

when we got home from thanksgiving richard went over to hang out at matts house and found out that he was also planning some kiond of holiday party.  richard told him we were thinking the 18th and they said no problem, they would figure out a different weekend.  a few days later the facebook invite showed up in my requests folder while i was at work and i knew this was not going to be good.  it was also for the 18th.  now mind you, we had not sent ours out yet because i thought it was too soon, guess not.  the invite had said they were flexible and realistically so we were we, we hadnt set the actual date yet.  i received a text from richard asking what we were going to do now and see it hadnt been too early for the invite.  i suggested we talk to the matt and see what other weekend they were thinking and then go from there.  while i emailed matt, the we should have sent it out turned into a quick downward spiral into maybe we just shouldnt do this at all because it wouldnt be the right weekend.  after emailing a few times with matt i realized how loose their plans were and knew that we could easily figure this out, richard however was not at all convinced.  while on lunch that day i called him to tell him what matt and i talked about, but he was still not convinced and the spiral was going farther down.  luckily matt actually walked into the lunchroom at that moment and he and richard ended up talking about the whole thing and figuring it out in about 2 minutes flat.  we would keep the 18th and he would take a friday either the day before or the weekend before, problem solved!

planning continued and we finally decided on a theme for the party!  since it was our first year in the new place our tree was a little sparse and we were trying to come up with ways to fill it.  with help from jodi we decided to make our theme an ornament party.  instead of spending money on a secret santa gift, guests would take the money and purchase an ornament for our tree that would remind us of you and that we would keep for seasons to come.  we had also decided to do appetizer/dessert foods so that people could come and go as they needed to.  the weekend was getting closer and closer and we just had to buy the last few things to be completely ready.  i didnt have to work that morning, but did have a 2 year-old birthday party to attend that afternoon for a family friend.  my plan was to get everything baked, cleaned, and put together before i had to leave so when i came home i had very little to finish up.

it all sounded like such a great plan, until you actually put life in there.  richard did errands in the morning to finish his things up, and nothing was going right.  he couldnt find the things he needed and people were in the full christmas mean mode of shopping.  i ended up staying about 45 minutes too late at the birthday party, which meant i was late getting home.  he was upset cause i lost track of time, i didnt think it was that big of a deal as long as i got everything done, which was going to be tight.  he offered to help put the last minute food things together so i gave him the punch detail.  as he was combining things together we realized there wasnt enough alcohol for the punch recipe, and all hell broke loose.  he was mad at me because i didnt tell him the right amount.  i was mad because he didnt look at the recipe i gave him.  he was mad because i stayed at the party too long and didnt plan well enough.  i was mad because the last minute things were taking too long.  both of us stomping around mad at the other, richard decided to go get the alcohol and i decided to stay and finish my things.  i finished a few minutes before he got back so i decided to take out the trash to help.  on my way to the dumpster i passed him and he wouldnt even look at me.

we came back upstairs and didnt even speak to each other, oh except for him to ask if i was going to take a shower because i stunk, which definitely helped my mood.  i finished my appetizer things and left for the shower still not talking.  after getting dressed i knew we had to at least figure this out a little bit because all our friends were coming over in about an hour.  i finally broke the silence and apologized for running late, well that just opened a whole door of pent up things.  we had a pretty serious discussion the weekend before because i was pretty upset and thought things had been resolved, guess not.  he had said his piece, i felt about 3 inches tall, but knew we couldnt have an all out argument because we were running out of time.  so i kept it all in and finished getting ready.   he seemed better once getting it all out and was helping set the table and arranging food so i ran with it.

the party was a definite hit!  everyone really got into the ornament buying and had to find the perfect one.  they loved the food and could not believe how many decorations we had for just being our first year.  it was a small party, which was fine with us, but it was definitely a good tradition to start.

that same night there was a pretty big ufc fight happening, which i was afraid was going to totally derail the party plans.  but the guys had been big thinkers and taped the fight to watch once the party was over, thank goodness.  (ufc fighting is just not one of my favorite things, im not so good with that stuff.  but richard loves it and so does his friends.)  right around 10 everyone was pretty full and the guys were ready to go watch the fight.  i stayed home, gladly, to clean up and hang out with the newest girl in the group (had to feel her out).  i think it was one of the best things for richard and i to spend a few hours apart anyway, still not super settled on our fight.  we hadnt really hung out a lot during the party, both keeping busy on purpose with others.  this was our first really big fight since we moved in together and we were trying to figure out how to do all of this.

girl time with heather and a very drunk lora is exactly what i needed.  mike and lora had shown up right as the guys were headed over to matts to watch the fight.  so we kept lora with us and mike went with the guys.  i was going to take heather home later and pick up richard when they were done with all their manly things.  the girls talked about so much and i got great advice from lora.  like i said, it was exactly what i needed.  i realized some things i definitely had done wrong and was able to clear my head so that richard and i could talk about them later and not be defensive.

as the guys finished the fight lora left to pick up mike while heather and i stayed for awhile longer.  the original plan was to drop heather off at matts and pick up richard at the same time when he was ready.  after both of us falling asleep on the couch we decided to just take her home and i would go out again later and get richard.  i was trying to give both of us space and had no problem going out again later.  right as i was getting home he called.  he said he wasnt quite ready to come home and anthony would actually bring him home later.  i was a little sad, but so glad he had called, i knew that everything would be ok.

once he got home that night i was already asleep and he was not feeling good.  he woke me up to let me know he was home and then he started getting sick.  he hadnt really eaten that day, then drank all night, and we had a pretty big fight.  i immediately got up and tried to help out anyway that i could.  it actually was a blessing in disguise.  we both started openly talking and being very vulnerable to each other.  we both apologized and admitted to those we had done wrong.  we realized in that night that the newness had really worn off.  we really lived together and were starting to find out a whole new level of the other person.  a friend had told me the first year is the hardest thing ever.  the second year is so much easier, and the third year is amazing.  up until this point everything had been so easy.  i really thought we had skipped the hard part, definitely realized we were not any different than any other 2 people who lived together.

the holiday party was a great success, even with all the things that went awry.  we definitely figured out a little bit more about each other and that it was ok to fight and then take space.  as long as we came back to the table and could talk openly with each other.  and we had a whole new set of fantastic ornaments added to our tree!

the schedules.

when i was younger and thought about growing up and living with a boy-now mind you in this interpretation i would be married to him lol-i always believed we would get up, get ready in the morning somewhat together then come home and be together in the evenings.  while the being married to him changed so did quite a few other things.  the biggest thing to change was the schedules.

i work in higher education, have a fairly normal weekday schedule and the occasional saturday.  i am usually home between 630p-730p with one day a week come home after 8p.  richard works at a shipping company in their warehouse hub in the evenings monday-friday.  he goes in somewhere between 3p-5p and is home between 11p-midnight.  he has had this job the whole time that we have dated, so we talked at nighttime, usually when i am in bed and he is driving home.  this has definitely messed with my sleep in the past, but it got to the point where i couldnt sleep through the night without it, it was our routine and it worked for us.  this definitely made us make the most of our time together, as we spent most of our weekends together.  not seeing him during the week was tough, some weeks where definitely tougher than others, but we always seemed to make it work.  as we began to seriously talk about moving in i wondered how this routine was really going to work.

whenever we did talk about moving in, i still had that togetherness idea in my head about the mornings and the evenings.  i had never really seen it done any other way, and wasnt sure i was really ok with this.  but when i talked to richard he always sounded really excited about our opposite schedules.  he always told me that i would be able to come home and have all this time to myself to watch my girly shows-i will admit most of them are pretty girly lol-and relax from my day.  he would still be there in the mornings and be able to get up with me while i was getting ready for work to start the day.  and he would have the time to himself during the day and see me when he came home, we could still talk about our days and spend time together at night.  i never had the heart to tell him that i wasnt really ok with this plan, because i knew in my heart there wasnt anything i could do to change it.  i think what bothered me the most was that i was finally going to see him everyday and go to bed with him at night, which i was really excited about, and all he talked about was the space.  

i got to the point before we moved in where i realized part of the reason he wanted "so much space,"  he had never really lived with anyone before or had to seriously share his space before.  he was an only child growing up and lived much of his life with his dad.  the closest thing he had to roommates was when we met and they were living with some family friends.  but even then, he was pretty much on his own, he had never really shared his up close/personal space with another person, much less a girl.  i had lived with a younger brother growing up and a family that would constantly walk in and out of my room at leisure.  i lived with many different roommates in college, fantastic ones in the end, crazy ones, naked ones, quiet ones, and loud ones.  i had figured out how to live with other people that i was and wasnt related too.  however none of the a fore mentioned roommates had been boys, that in itself i knew was going to make a huge difference. 

the first night i came home from work it was very eerie.  i didnt totally feel like i lived there yet, there were still boxes in the living room lol.  i wasnt really sure what i should do, so i did what i always do.  i changed out of my work clothes into my pjs and wandered into the kitchen to make dinner.  as i made dinner for myself i kept expecting other people to come home, but i wasnt really sure who i was waiting for.  i also wondered what was i supposed to do when richard came home.  do i stay up and wait?  do i go to bed?  i knew things were going to figure themselves out when he called that night to say he was on his way home.  i-being the huge overthinking girl that i am-wondered if he was going to, and i was so glad he did.

the next night i came home was my late night and i had already eaten dinner, so i had one less thing to do when i got home.  i still felt a little bit lost on what to do.  i had this i live with a boy feeling, but i dont ever see him.  when he does come home he is awake and ready to go.  he wants to talk and tell me all about his day, he asks questions about my day and the things i did.  he watches most of his shows at night and is up till 2 and 3 in the morning, this has taken some definite getting used too.  the hardest part is the fact that it is 11 or 12 at night and i am ready for bed/falling asleep when i finally do get to see him.  i dont really spend anytime with him in the mornings either.  my alarm goes off and as i am getting up to take a shower/make coffee he is rolling over to keep sleeping.  i always kiss him goodbye as i am walking out the door, while a little piece of my heart is sad that i cant get back into bed with him.  how am i going to get used to this?

a few days later it was like a switch flipped.  i came home from a particularly long day and was so ready to just flop on the couch and pass out.  it was so nice to come home to my own apartment and be able to do that.  richard was at work like usual and i was so relieved to have a few hours to myself to unwind.  when i was living at home there were a lot of times i wanted to do this exact thing, but it never seemed to happen.  i finally felt like i understood where he was coming from with the goodness of our opposite schedules.  there are still some nights where i wish he was home when i got there with his smile to make the perfect ending to my not so perfect day.  we are both trying to get better about the night time.  quite a few nights i have fallen asleep on the couch which actually turned into a good thing, because now i can stay up a little bit later chatting and watching tv with him.  he always gets sad when i go to bed and he is still up for a few more hours by himself.  we spend all day apart and then spend an hour, maybe at night together.  the best part is though, its so much more time than we used to spend together, and i am so grateful.  the mornings are still a little sad, i hate leaving.  nobody wants to get out of bed in the morning, and i especially dont now with him sleeping next to me.  but as i am leaving each morning, i still smile watching him sleep and am so glad that we made this moving in decision.  it has already brought us so much closer.