the honest bride: with a little help from my blogs

I’ve been to two weddings (that I can remember) where cute and helpful baskets of necessities such as tampons, tylenol, and tums were placed in the venue bathrooms for the comfort of wedding guests. Yet, while planning my own wedding, the concept escaped my mind completely, until I was reminded of it via a blog the other day.

Thank goodness for wedding blogs.

As a girl who didn’t spend every day of my life from the earliest age dreaming of my wedding day, sometimes I need some help.

Thank you to the following blogs/sites:

WeddingBee.com - Blessed be the Bee. Seriously, this community of several women planning their respective weddings and blogging about it is great, full of helpful advice and awesome photos of their journeys.

Theknot.com - The second you get engaged, it seems like you’re ordered to sign up at theknot.com. While the site isn’t my favorite (it’s slow as hell to load 90% of the time, and much like most bridal magazines it seems to be assumed that you have $25,000 to spend purely on catering) but as a general site it’s pretty cool – if you ignore things like the checklist that insists you book a calligrapher.

Offbeatbride.com - When the first thing you see on a site is a message that reads “The average American wedding costs over $25,000. I encourage brides to find innovative, thoughtful ways to reduce their bridal budgets, and if you do choose to spend money, spend it on independent vendors and thoughtfully-made merch…” you know you’re in good hands. Ariel, your host, celebrates those brides who might (for example) not want to get married in a church.  Some of the Offbeatbrides will make you laugh, but most are completely inspiring in how they made their reception/ceremony about them. Good times. Great read.

TheBrokeAssBride.com - Clever ways to save some bank.

Beau-coup.com - All the favors and anything else you could ever want. A good jumping off point.

I never thought I’d be one of those girls who read wedding blogs, but I’m not gonna lie – It’s fun, and it’s relaaxing. No matter what you’re worried about or thinking about, chances are strong that someone before you has worried or thought about it – and, if you know where to look, blogged about it.

2009: A theatrical year in review

I saw a heck of a lot of theatre in 2009. 

My resolution had been to see a play a month, and I far exceeded that – 41 shows in 12 months.

Whew!

I’ll start with the bad…

*Banana Shpeel (the last show I saw in 2009) was a clunky trainwreck, whether or nto Cirque du Soliel’s name is above the title.  If I hadn’t had free tickets, I’d have wanted my money back.  Prior to seeing Banana Shpeel, I’d have said the worst thing I’d seen all year was The Hypocrite’s Frankenstein, but the jankiness of the Shpeel made me appreciate that – at the very least – Frankenstein had a plot. I still think it was an uber-pretentious show, but it was NOT the worst piece of theatre I saw in 2009. That honor goes, hands-down, to Banana Shpeel.  Don’t see it. Do anything else with your money.

*Also in 2009, I  learned that (don’t hate me, Chicago theatre scene..) I really don’t care for short play festivals. Though I have great appreciation for directors, writers, and actors who can make a complete play in less than 10 minutes onstage, I have never been to a short play festival that didn’t contain a big chunk of filler.  I think in 2010 and beyond, I’ll just stop pretending I enjoy evenings like this.

*Oh yeah, and… there was the show Eric and I left at intermission for being banal, cliche-filled and badly-written.  But, you know, it was bound to happen sometime.

But, there was so much good…

 

*The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Victory Gardens Theatre/Teatro Vista) would probably win my “best show of the year” award, if I was bothering with that.  This incredibly smart and wickedly funny satire of media and wrestling and race made me laugh and think, and Desmin Borges gave a powerful and astonishing performance in the lead role of Mace.

*The Broadway in Chicago offerings I saw this year – Xanadu, Spring Awakening, Legally Blonde, Cats, and The Addams Family – were all shows I enjoyed tremendously. I’m so looking forward to seeing the tour of The 39 steps when it rolls around next year. While we’re on that note (of not-really-Chicago-theatre) while in Vegas in May I saw both Cirque du Soliel’s Mystere and the resident Vegas production of Jersey Boys, both of which were simply wonderful.

*The Marriott Theatre’s production of Hairspray was a jubilant joyride. Bob and I loved it so much we saw it twice. Aside from one major casting mistake, the ensemble was flawless and E. Faye Butler gave me chills BOTH times I heard her sing “I know where I’ve been.”

*The House Theatre’s The Rose and the Rime was one of the most beautifully staged shows I’ve ever seen. So clever.

*The Strange Tree Group’s production of The Dastardly Ficus still stays with me as the loveliest piece of morbid theatre I can remember – and kudos to the three brilliant performers: Carol Enoch, Scott Cupper, and the amazing (and still quoted in my house) Nancy Friedrich… “But I love cake!”

*The Theatre Mir production of The Arab-Israeli Cookbook was also awesome, and I left the theatre so incredibly hungry since all the food was cooked onstage. It’s not every show that makes you laugh, cry, and literally jump out of your seat.  (Bombs’ll do that.)

*The two most chilling shows I saw this year were Redtwist’s The Pillowman and Hubris Productions’ Bent.  Both should be held up as examples of how to create an atmosphere where, though you don’t know what’s going to happen, you know it won’t be good.

Regrets?

Not really.

Though I am going to hang up the “See a show a month” resolution for 2010. Not because of not wanting to see theatre anymore, but simply… because between working full-time, going to grad school, and planning my April wedding, I don’t know that I’ll always have time, and really don’t want to feel obligated when I’ll already be under pressure. I’m sure I’ll still see theatre (I already have a date with Bob for a January musical!) but just not quite at such a breakneck pace.

It’s been fun, though.

Brittany, Interrupted.

The speculation around the cause of Brittany Murphy’s untimely death yesterday has already begun.  Anorexia, drugs, shady activity by her husband, whatever. “Natural causes” is the coroners initial ruling, but when someone so vibrant dies at the age of 32, people toss around their theories.

Let’s pause and remember that this gal was talented.

I first noticed Ms. Murphy when she appeared in Clueless, but the performance that most resonated with me was her work as Daisy in Girl, Interrupted.  Daisy and her chicken-picking stunned me.  It was a risky, fearless portrayal of a young woman with a serious problem.

A short clip:

It’s always sad when promising young talent flames out too quickly (Heath Ledger, anyone?) Though her career had stalled a bit, despite her weight loss and reinvention as a romantic lead, she had 5 projects in post or pre-production according to IMDB.  Murphy was a bubbly and effervescent screen presence, and who knows what she would have done next.

Brittany Murphy and the Pussycat Dolls – “Oh, so quiet.”

 

Cirque du Soliel’s Banana Shpeel….

Banana Shpeel is bad.

My Cirque-adoring heart aches as I type that, but it is.

For a show that started with so much promise – Broadway Stars Michael Longoria and Annaleigh Ashford in a new Broadway-bound Modern-Vaudeville musical created by Cirque du Soliel! – The final result is really confusing, weak and disappointing.

It all began when, shortly after a (solid) performance on ”America’s Got Talent,” it was briskly announced that Longoria and Ashford, along with their romantic plot line, was being cut from the show because there was too much plot going on.

Let me say this:  

Having seen the show, I would have appreciated some plot. 

There are only fragments of what I assume at one point was a plot, which leaves a disjointed series of acts, strung together under the guise of auditions for Schmelky’s Spectacular.

Though, while acts are auditioning, the show is actually happening (I think? I mean, dancers in sparkly costumes were performing production numbers?) so.. yeah, I’m not really sure what was going on.

When Dan saw the show, he said “Less Shpeel, More Cirque,” and I couldn’t agree more.

The clown scenes (of which there seemed to be hundreds, all of which were unfortunate) dragged on endlessly, and weren’t that funny.  This isn’t  all the fault of the performers, who are obviously talented and doing the best they can, particularly the two main clowns.  Being dragged down by lame material, including a painfully unfunny dinner scene, isn’t their fault.  Who knows? Maybe they’re as confused as I was as to what’s going on?

There’s a chorus of ten dancers who show up a few times to do big routines in clever costumes.  Though they’re all obviously talented dancers, the choreography is sloppy at times.  More than once I noticed a dancer or two completely not in synch with the other dancers, and overall the dancing doesn’t look polished. Again, maybe the poor dancers are just trying to figure out what song is next?

The only things that got serious applause from the audience were four acts I would describe as typically Cirque.  The first is a young man who juggles hats, and he’s a blast to watch.  The second is a couple.  He throws her around in the air.  It’s very impressive – though they took a tumble during our performance.  The third is a flexible young woman who twirls things on her hands and feet. (They might be placemats? I’m not sure.) And the fourth, and most impressive, is a beautiful young man who contorts himself while swinging around and holding himself on a spinning pole. These three acts are undoubtedly the highlights of the evening, and the only remnants of anything Cirque.

[Note: I'd even like to be able to call some of these hard-working performers by name, but the audience is not given programs. If you want to find out who's in the show, you can pay $10 for a souvenier program that features photos of actors who are no longer in the show - Michael Longoria and Annaleigh Ashford - in scenes that don't exist in the show.]

The show has gone through many changes – and is apparently still changing.  Bob saw the show a few weeks ago and said what we saw last night was way different ( including songs in new places and new acts.) 

For example, the first act ends really strangely.  It’s a big “Magic” routine, with disappearing girls, and the entire cast swarms the stage suddenly, and for some reason one of the clowns is in a tiger suit, and there’s a big song that keeps saying something like “Schmelky, You can’t do it alone.” 

In the back of my head, I was thinking “What can’t he do alone? I don’t understand. This is like a finale.”

Then Bob leaned over and said “This used to be the finale.”

Also, there’s a whole elaborate set-up to a scene from “Romeo and Juliet” even though the set piece says “Hamlet” that is a whole lot of lead-up so an old man clown can walk out and say “A whore, a whore.. My kingdom for a whore..s.”

Yep. That’s the entire joke.

And there’s also an audience volunteer, who might be a plant? She’s in the press photos, and Bob says she’s the same girl he saw get pulled onstage last time.  If it’s true, it doesn’t make sense why it can’t be an audience volunteer – as she just gets led around for a while. Odd.

If the producers of this show want it to not bomb on Broadway, serious revisions need to be done. Perhaps stopping for a moment to figure out what the point of the show is would be a good start. Is it a musical? Is it a Cirque variety show? If it’s a musical, it needs a ton of work. If it’s a Cirque variety show, it needs more than four acts.

Banana Shpeel is, in a word, a disaster.

It’ll be interesting to see if it even makes it to Broadway. And, if it does, what the heck show it is by then.

Save your money.

Or, for the price of one ticket to this show, you could see about 5 storefront shows in Chicago. 

Go See Redtwist’s The Pillowman instead.  While there are no musical numbers, it’s a heck of a lot more engaging.

It’s Turkey Lurkey Time!

(from the 1968 Tony Awards.)

I feel like it’s my obligation to post this during the holidays at least once.

Musicals = Joy.

the honest bride: i love my wedding venue. a lot.

Here’s how I know we did something incredibly right by choosing Catalyst Ranch as the site of our wedding.

Seriously, I can’t not smile when I think about the place.

I’m so excited to get back in the space and see people’s reactions to how non-traditional it is, and – by that token - how perfectly us it happens to be. We wanted a loft, which Catalyst is (a gorgeous one) and we also wanted something that didn’t need intensive decorating efforts. We saw a loft prior to Catalyst that we would have had to have booked every chair, table, light fixture, and curtain in.  Catalyst came along in all it’s quirky glory and we haven’t looked back.

So, some photos!

(All of which are stolen with love from Catalyst Ranch’s Facebook fan page. I’m a fan.)

(Please note: Catalyst is generally used for corporate outings, etc, so the photos below are not how the space will be set up for a wedding. They do weddings often, and the set-up is super cool.)

First, The Mambo Room. This is where the actual ceremony will take place. You can’t see it (as it’s behind the photographer) but there’s a wall of windows which the bride, groom, and bridal party will be standing in front of for the actual wedding.

Then, guests will depart The Mambo Room and head down a hallway to The Jitterbug (which is behind those green doors.)

 

On their way to The Jitterbug, they will pass the all-important bar.

And finally (a whole 60 seconds after leaving The Mambo) they will reach their destination: The Reception in The Jitterbug room.  Complete with food stations, a dance floor, and all the purple you can imagine. Again, this photo can only show 2/3 of the room, but it’s an adorable space and has a wall of windows as well.

I can’t even contain my excitement – 129 days to go!

On the American Family Association

The American Family Association scares the crap out of me. 

(I’m not linking to their site. I don’t want to promote them. But if you’re curious, it’s not hard to find.)

Described in their mission statement as “a Christian organization promoting the biblical ethic of decency in American society with primary emphasis on TV and other media,” their main focuses seem to be to restore the word “Christmas” to it’s former place front-and-center of the holiday season, to hold up the “standard of traditional marriage,” as well as to criminalize homosexuality and eliminate pornography.

They like to boycott companies who are not in line with their values.

They like to boycott a lot.

Some of their past targeted companies include 7-Eleven, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Airlines, American Girl, Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Calvin Klein, Carl’s Jr., Clorox, Crest, Ford, Hallmark Cards, Kmart, Kraft Foods, S. C. Johnson & Son, Movie Gallery, Microsoft, MTV, Mary Kay, NutriSystem, Old Navy, IKEA, Sears, Pampers, Procter & Gamble, Target, Tide, Walt Disney Company, and PepsiCo. (PepsiCo was boycotted for controversy surrounding Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video. You know, the one where she kisses the black Jesus and crosses burn?)

Oh, and they hate Marilyn Manson, too… but really, like that doesn’t have “duh” written all over it.

Currently, they’re after Tiger Woods. Tiger, watch your back. (And thanks for being yet another shining example of how much straight folks revere “the sanctity of marriage.”)

In 1989, AFA boycotted Waldenbooks for selling Playboy and Penthouse. In turn, Waldenbooks and some other companies sued the AFA for violating an act that allows businesses to conduct their business without harassment or threats. Go, Waldenbooks.

Some of my personal favorites (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

“In 2005 the AFA boycotted the company American Girl, seller of dolls and accessories, because the company supported the charity Girls, Inc., which the AFA called “a pro-abortion, pro-lesbian advocacy group.”

(Girls, Inc. - in case you’re curious.)

“In 2007 the AFA orchestrated a campaign to petition Congress to forbid the opening prayer of Congress from being given by Rajan Zed, an interfaith leader from Nevada. The AFA stated in electronic messages to members that “since Hindus worship multiple gods, the prayer will be completely outside the American paradigm, flying in the face of the American motto One Nation Under God.”

“On April 16, 2007, following the Virginia Tech Massacre, the AFA released a video titled The Day They Kicked God out of the Schools, in which “God” tells a student that students were killed in schools because God isn’t allowed in schools anymore. The video claims that the shootings at Virginia Tech, Columbine, and many other locations, are the result of, among other things, decreased discipline in schools; no prayer in schools; sex out of wedlock; rampant violence in TV, movies, and music; and abortions.”

“In December 2008, the AFA issued an “Action Alert”  which called for members to protest about the Campbell Soup Company, which had purchased two 2-page advertisements in the December 2008 and January 2009 issues of LGBT magazine The Advocate. The Action Alert included the statement “(Campbell’s) …sent a message that homosexual parents constitute a family and are worthy of support.”

…And just in case they weren’t prejudiced enough - they might also be Anti-Semitic!

“Media Matters claimed an article in the March 2005 issue of AFA’s Journal insinuated that raising children as Jews would lead to criminal lifestyles, and that it required a conversion to Christianity in order to make them productive members of society.”

Oh, and it’s been admitted that on their news page, they change all appearances of the word “gay” to “homosexual,” which triggered this delightful cartoon.

 

Groups like this, scarily enough, wield influence over politicians.

*Shiver*

Stuff like this is actually happening in the world.

Just wanted to mention it.

Alice in Wonderworld

The state of the world is… crazy.  It’s like a dark Wonderland full of strife, passion, pain, and joy.  There’s war happening and diseases taking lives, and it all looks kind of bleak – but the sense of change a’comin that holds firm in the air.

This is the stuff that weighs on my mind a lot recently.

For example, I’m a straight female, and the rulings against gay marraige technically don’t directly affect me.

Except that they do.

Three of the people I am closest to on this earth (and a number of other friends and acquaintences) are gay, and for the life of me I cannot see any good reason to deny them the same rights my fiancee and I have, just because between us we happen to be one man and one woman.

The Bible? Fine, if that’s what you believe, but I don’t remember America being a nation in which it’s mandated we all share the same religious beliefs. And pardon me for saying it, but I thought that was the point.  If you believe the Bible to be the direct word of God, cool. You’re free to believe what you want – just the same as I am. And just the same as my gay friends should be.

I find the “sanctity of marriage” to be a ridiculous concept, thanks to what 2009+ years of straight marriage have done to it. Why people are trying to claim marriage is a universally revered thing is nonsense in a world with arranged marriages between nine year old girls and sixty year old men, and TV shows where strippers compete to marry a washed-up rock star.  Not to mention, we’ve got so many cheaters and affairs we can’t even talk about them all. Some even make national headline news.  If you asked me to name the most stable couple I know, I’d show you Bob and Gator.  They’ve been together nine years (which is longer than my parents were married) and they’re simply a nice couple with a condo and pets. 

I hope we can get to a place where I can tell my kids “When I was your age, homosexuals couldn’t get married,” and it’ll seem an unbelievable concept to them.

You cannot force your beliefs to become the beliefs of all.

As someone who grew up sans religion, I take the seperation of church and state very seriously. 

Your belief in God should have no bearing on my female rights to control every part of my body, and to do what I choose with it. I include abortion in this. (I describe myself as pro-choice but not necessarily pro-abortion, and don’t even get me started on abortions after the first trimester. ) However, I am not going to call down those who disagree with me as sinners and bomb their houses, you know? I’m also not irrational enough to believe that I can make everyone on earth feel the same way.  I mainly just want the ability to rule my own uterus, thanks. I’d like to pass some legislation that limits the testicles, and see how the predominantly-male Congress reacts to that. (Maybe I’ll even get a Bible quote to back up my stance.)

 I don’t want to wake up in a world like that of young girls in the middle east getting their faces burned with acid just for trying to go to school. I’m not into fearmongering, but making it harder for women to get access to care for parts of her body harder strikes me as so incredibly sexist I’d like to go chuck copies of The Feminine Mystique at the heads of certain members of Congress. (I will forever hold that if men could get pregnant, abortion would not be an issue.)

As a woman, I feel at risk with current pending legislation. 

As a friend of the gay community, I feel under attack by current legislation.

What’s someone with a uterus and gay friends to do?

I guess my best recourse is to stay informed. Informed about which candidates are making choices I believe in, and which elected officials are holding to their promises (Dear President Obama, I’m talking to you.) as well as supporting causes I believe in.

I feel bad for President Obama.  When you’re put on a pedestal that high, you’re gonna have to come back down to earth.  Faced with drama like the collapse of the banking system (which should have been addresses long before he got to power) it’s got to be rough trying to get your own plans going. I think, even if it’s misguided, he means well.

I wish this Democrat/Republican pissing contest could take a backseat to an actual conversation about the problems of the world, even for a few minutes.

I’d like to slap Carrie Prejean in the face.

I’d like to slap Perez Hilton in the face, too.

Ignorance goes both ways, and knows no sexual orientation.

I would like to believe we’re not raising a generation of narcissistic princesses and ignorant douchebags. However, if you watch MTV’s current shows Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, and Teen Cribs, holding out hope becomes trickier and trickier. Sex and fame and money are not what makes you special, and yet people in our “ME” society want attention so bad they’re willing to make utter asses of themselves to get it. (White House Crashers? Balloon Boys Parents? Jon and Kate? Lindsey Lohan?) Intelligence, Purpose, and Character are things worth striving for. Family, Friends, Love, Laughter… Those things will last you longer than botox, rehab, and TMZ exposure. 

(This is what people aspire to?)

I’d like to see Athletes make less money – and teachers make more. I’m starting school for education in a few weeks, as I’ve recently realized the difference I can make in the world isn’t through theatre, but instead through literacy. Really, Kobe Bryant makes $40 million a year? And there are schools that can’t afford textbooks?

I want to leave something more behind than a life long quest to wind up in paparazzi photos and to obtain fifteen minutes of stupid fame. (Better to be Angelina Jolie than Spencer & Heidi, right?)

I used to be a celebrity gossip news surfer, which isn’t something I’m proud to admit. 

Over the past year, I’ve given up on Perez Hilton and the snarky, mean-girl blogs I used to frequent and realized there’s more to the world than who from Twilight is shagging whom.

One of my new years resolutions is going to be to blog …better. Not necessarily more, but better.

I feel like quoting Bob Dylan – “The times, they are a’changin’.”

(Though I’ll let Bruce Springteen say it for me.)

Shpeel-Prepped.

My theatrical 2009 will end on Thursday evening, when I see the final show I’ll be seeing this year. (For those who missed it, on the sidebar is a menu of all the shows I’ve seen this year – This is the second year one of my new years resolutions has been to see a show a month.)

I’m seeing Banana Shpeel, the new supposedly Broadway-Bound offering from Cirque du Soliel.

I use the word “supposedly” because… people hate this show.

I’m not kidding.

From legit reviews to just folks talkin’, word on the street is that Banana Shpeel is a bomb.  It’s a show that’s had it’s issues from the start. For a while, Broadway actors Michael Longoria and Annaleigh Ashford were to star in the show, and their faces were pimped everywhere to promote the show. They even performed a number on America’s Got Talent. But then suddenly, one day, they were cut from the show.  Not just the actors – their characters, their storylines.  Huh. That’s probably not a good sign, right?

Here’s a brief spackle of some reviews:

“At one point—well, at several points, really—the two clowns who serve as the de facto hosts of Cirque du Soleil’s new proscenium-style show scream at each other to “Shut up!” “You shut up!” “Shut your face!” “Shut your hole!” If your experience is anything like ours, you’ll wish they’d each heed the other’s advice.” – Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago.

“For more than two decades, the inimitable artists of the Cirque du Soleil have beckoned us with the possibility of transformation. The flaps of a tent — or the doors from a Las Vegas casino — have opened, and we’ve been welcomed inside some profound manifestation of the creative imagination. Sure, the realms have varied. But there has always been art and heart. The key word there is “heart.” At “Banana Shpeel,” the cold, chaotic, clipped and cacophonous new show that the Cirque has bowed at the Chicago Theatre, you feel yourself slipping long before you get to any mat of welcome.” – Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune.

“Delete the clowns (or pare them back to the barest minimum of stage time). Begin the show with a big song-and-dance number. Hold onto the handful of eye-popping circus specialty acts. And compress everything else into a 90-minute show with no intermission. Only then (and it would still be a big “maybe”) might Cirque du Soleil’s new proscenium-style show, “Banana Shpeel” — which debuted Wednesday at the Chicago Theatre prior to a planned New York run — have a modicum of coherence and momentum. As it is now, this big-budget show, which plugs itself as “a new twist on vaudeville,” could very well give all that was delicious about the classic variety show format of days gone by (with such starry talents as Buster Keaton, Fanny Brice, Burt Williams and Eddie Cantor) a bad name.” – Hedy Weiss, Chicago SunTimes.

“I’m not quite sure what David Shiner and company did during those months in Montreal developing this show. The Cirque acts have no relationship with the underdeveloped crackpot clown scenes (at times, the ringleader clown guy would come out after a stunning Cirque performance and say “Wasn’t that AMAZING!” — and then introduce some lame, unrelated shtick). The entire affair felt slapped together. There was some attempt at a through-line with the clowns fruitlessly attempting to cast a Shakespeare routine, but no one around me seemed to know or care what was going on during these scenes.” – Robert Bullen, ChicagoTheatreAddict

“If I want to see poop, spit and penis jokes I can watch cartoons and Comedy Central. Kids in my local high school could and have done similar shows better. It’s a typical format, one we used in children’s theater. Put a bunch of skits together, make some ugly costumes, and put on a show for your parents. The parents laugh because they gave birth to you and they have to. I didn’t give birth to any of these guys, thank God, so I don’t have to laugh. And I didn’t. I am amazed and inspired by every Cirque performance I see. I go to every one in a several hundred mile radius of where I live. This inspired me to want to go have a drink afterward.” – Rebecca W, Comment left on ChicagoTheatreAddict

So yeah.

I’m a huge fan of Cirque du Soliel – “Mystere” in Las Vegas was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen onstage, and I cannot wait to see “Zumanity” in Vegas in February. And I always appreciate people stretching outside their comfort zone, but …

We’re having a pre-show drink. Sounds like we might need it.

Rudolph Ramble 8k 2009

Yes we did run an 8k on the morning of Eric’s birthday.

…and Yes it was a Christmas-themed one.

The Rudolph Ramble was a blast, despite some icy patches on the roads (I saw more than one runner bite it, and almost went down myself as I turned the final corner) The race officials diverted us around the worst patches of ice as best they could. (Cheers to Capri Events for yet another well-organized race.)

Fortunately for December, the weather was mild.  No fifteen layer outfits necessary. 

My goal was to finish in under an hour, and I just squeaked by.  I’m pretty sure my time will be around 58 minutes when official times come in.

We finished the race by watching the 4-5 year olds compete in a 50 yard dash. One little boy who began the race busting his butt eventually wore himself out and was passed by a kid who clearly knew the concept of pace. Runners, let that be a lesson.

Ah, running.

We really ran the race as an excuse to indulge in Eric’s official birthday dinner at Texas de Brazil. Let’s not lie.