I'm a Person of Wal-Mart

We've all seen the people of Wal-Mart site, right? Since I occasionally shop at Wal-Mart, I guess that makes me a person of Wal-Mart. It's stupidly cold here right now. Yesterday, I started the day in a sweater dress and tights. I was cold, so put on my fun Valentine's Day knee socks. Still cold a while later, so I put on a fleece. Still cold a while later, so I put on a pair of velour lounge pants. What I ended up wearing for most of the day could best be described as a get-up. Once I had on my full get-up, I only left the house once. It was to my porch, because a CFS buyer had arrived with her $1 to buy some crap for me. I'd imagine that upon seeing me in my get-up, she felt better about giving me her $1, since I looked like I'd gotten dressed out of the bag intended for thrift store donation. If I'd gone to Wal-Mart yesterday afternoon, I'm sure I would have ended up on the people of Wal-Mart site in my get-up.

Cozy. Fun. 

I really only shop at Wal-Mart for one thing. Bras. Judge away! I buy cheap bras. I don't wear the cheap ones all that often. They're sold as sports bras, but IMO, they're not supportive. I wear them when I don't want to wear a regular bra, and I'm not going to be working out. A friend told me about them when I was pregnant and wanted a comfortable bra for around the house, errands, etc., pretty much anything but exercise and going to work, church, out, etc. They're made by Danskin and I love them. They were great bras for breastfeeding and pumping, too. I haven't bought any in almost two years. They're not my primary bra, so they don't wear out fast.

I went to our local Wal-Mart last week intending to pick up a nice two-pack of my favorite Danskin non-supportive sports bras. Yeah, that's how fancy my bras are. They come in a two-pack. I was saddened to discover that they no longer make my bra without padding in my size. I could only find it unpadded in XL and XXL. Huh? They're sold as sports bras. Who wants padding in a sports bra? I couldn't find anything, made by any brand sold in our local Wal-Mart, in the style I wanted, in my size, without padding. Not even the "lightly lined" padding that's in a lot of regular bras. These sports bras all have soft cup foam padding in my size and desired style. I don't get it. Pads in a sports bra? Pads to get soaked with sweat? Gross.

Customer service at Wal-Mart was great. The woman in the lingerie (that word just makes me laugh) department helped me look for bras. She was sympathetic to my disappointment when it couldn't be found, and called the Customer Service desk at the front of the store for me. I went to the front desk, where another helpful employee looked online with me for what I wanted, both in the super-secret stock only viewable by Wal-Mart employees, and on the regular Wal-Mart site that I could order from online at home. Nothing. My best option was to buy the padded bras and cut the pads out. I bought them, haven't cut the pads out yet, and will return them. I'm afraid they'll fall apart after I cut the pads out. After deciding to return them, I did some more interweb scouring looking for the perfect sports bra that I won't use for sports. Geez. It was worse that what was in stock in Wal-Mart. Who works out in these things?

These don't look comfortable for exercising. Pads, plunge? Eh, to each her own. 

I don't even remember which one I read the reviews on. Fascinating.

Anyone else an occasional person of Wal-Mart? What do you buy there? 

Anyone have some great bra shopping stories to tell? C'mon, bra shopping is fun. Almost as fun as bathing suit shopping.

Crap For Sale!

While honeymooning in the Caribbean, my husband started calling out on the beach "Crap for sale! Cheaply made crap for sale!" This is response to the vendors that walk around on the beach selling crap. It's cheaply made crap. Tourists like cheaply made crap. This post is not about the Caribbean, or about cheaply made crap. I just like saying "Crap For Sale!"

I've been doing some online yard sale-ing. Have been for quite a while, but I've been more active than usual lately because one of my friends is selling her crap, good crap, for cheap prices. Facebook with a few of my friends has been a ridiculously silly chatter about online yard sales for a few days. We all have some hilarious stories to tell about the flaky sellers, the ungrateful wretches who get mad when you already gave away your free crap, and the ones who ask eleventy billion questions about the $5 item they want to meet you in BFE to exchange crap for dollars. Then there's the woman who was selling a nasal aspirator, and told the buyer to bring a shovel and bucket. Nasal aspirator, compost... what's the difference? You say potato, I say pohtaytoe.

A few of my non yard sale-ing friends have been fascinated by this crazy world of buying and selling, and have asked what some things mean. Here's a primer. Feel free to add to it.

CFS: Crap For Sale. I've decided that they're no longer called online yard sale sites. They're called Crap For Sale sites. Obviously someone else on the internet has similar feelings, because I found this picture. So articulate.

Photo Credit to some Random Person

NIP: New in Package

NIB: New in Box

NWT: New With Tags

EUC: Excellent Used Condition

GUC: Good Used Condition

Cross posted: Listed on multiple CFS sites. It might sold on a site different from the one you're looking at. Don't get bent out of shape when you don't get it, because a buyer on a different site committed to buy it before you did.  It's just crap anyway.

Interested: Means nothing. Say "I'll buy it." Say "I'm interested, let me check the measurements on, blah blah blah. I'll get back to you by blah blah blah..."

Pass: I changed my mind. I don't want to buy this crap.

No-show: A jerk who doesn't show up to buy the item at the agreed upon time and place.

BUMP: Bring Up My Post (moves it to the top of the feed in the group)

BUTFP: Another one of my invented acronyms. It doesn't stand for Bring Up This Fabulous Post. This is used when your friend is trying to sell an item, and you're sick of seeing it in your feed. You bump it for them, so the crap has a better chance of getting seen, sold, and out of your Fing feed.

PPU: Pending pick up. The item has been sold. If the buyer doesn't flake out, it's gone. Don't bug the seller about it. Wait for them to post that the item is available due to a no-show or someone passing.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

We're having chicken for dinner tonight, but I'm not giving away a chicken dinner here. I just like the phrase because I first heard it in a great movie. I can't remember which one. Slumdog Millionaire maybe? I don't know.

I'm giving away the tiara medal hanger from my blog post on Friday. Only two people even entered the giveaway. Guess you all don't want second hand used stuff, even for free?

My process for choosing the winner was very scientific.

First I did this:

Took quite a bit of work and planning.

Then my daughter chose.

She can't read yet. There was no chance for bias.

And the winner of not-a-chicken-dinner is Kelly! Kelly, I'll get in touch with you to crown you with the medal hanger tiara.

Since I mentioned Big Sur in the comments on my last post, let's talk a little about destination running. I've never been a destination runner. I mean, I run from one destination to the next, often filling up my pockets with the mail (we have a PO Box), or the stroller with groceries, and I've even been known to run home, stroller-less, with a quart of heavy cream in one hand. I needed to make (eat) those cinnamon rolls, and I needed to run. Both priorities were of equal importance. Destination running... travelling to a destination, specifically to run a race. No. I don't do it. I live in an area with plenty of races, my husband doesn't care about racing, so I don't spend our vacation money on travel expenses to places we wouldn't ordinarily choose, just because I want to do a race there.

One exception: I've run the Bolder Boulder and Boulder Backroads. The two races were about as different as races can be in the same city. Both excellent races, because my sister lives in Boulder, so I visit there anyway. Sadly, Boulder Backroads doesn't exist any longer. Loved the course. Almost entirely on dirt roads, very small crowd, and my 2002 introduction to Boulder born Izze. Bolder Boulder is huge. Amazingly well run, and a fun way to spend the morning in the city. The citizens' heats are well spaced out. I don't think I even went to my corral at the start line until about two hours after the first citizens' heat started. The elites run a smaller course, after the citizens, that is laps around several blocks, so spectators can watch them go by multiple times.

I have a short list of races I want to do because they get great reviews, the courses look amazingly gorgeous, and I wouldn't mind vacationing there anyway. On my list:

1. Big Sur Marathon
2. New York City Marathon. I'll probably never do this one, because it's crazy expensive and the logistics are nightmarish at best, according to people I know who have done it.
3. Boston Marathon. See #2. Will probably never it for similar reasons, plus I have no intentions of becoming a fast enough runner to qualify. I don't want to train hard enough to run fast enough to qualify.
4. Prince of Wales Island Marathon. My husband would like to see Alaska via cruise. I wouldn't. I've been on one cruise, he's never been on one. I prefer land-based vacations. So our compromise, if you could call it that, is not visiting Alaska. Everybody loses, yay!
5. Honolulu Marathon
6. Athens Marathon. I would tolerate crowds and logistics for this one, without question. It's a classic.

What's on your list? What should I consider adding? I don't like crowds. I don't like complicated logistics. I only even do Cherry Blossom or Army Ten-Miler when my running friend from Ohio is in DC, and then I meet her to run together. (Ohio friend, if you're reading, I hope you're touched that I push aside my dislike for crowds and complicated logistics to see you annually. ;-) )

A Giveaway!

We all regift. Why should blog giveaways be any different?

I won this fun medal hangar from a friend's blog a couple years ago. When we turned our office / craft room into the baby's room, I not only lost my beloved crafting space, but also my I Love Me wall. No place to hang my degrees, the picture of me running my first marathon, the nice collage my then boyfriend, now husband made of my first time running MCM, and no place to hang my race medals. I had so many medals, though, that I'd thrown away a bunch by then, and just had the really cool ones displayed. The one with the spinner, the one shaped like a crab, the one with my state flag... they're all shoved in a box in the attic somewhere.

Perfect for your own I Love Me wall.

Someday, we'll finish the basement, and maybe then I'll have an I Love Me wall again. But someday, we'll also replace the kitchen back splash, refinish the Adirondack chairs, power wash and reseal the back fence, and build a walkway along the side of the house from the driveway to the front yard. After 12 years in our house, I'm not sure when someday will come.

To win the medal hanger, comment below. I'll randomly pick a winner on Tuesday, Feb 10, and notify the lucky one via email.

Like Ice is Cold

Last winter, my friend and I got together to make Christmas wreathes. Remember my post about going to buy supplies? And sweating glitter? Yeah, me neither. It wasn't very memorable. Here's another link in case you're bored enough to read it. Also, blogger fail. Crafter fail. Vain Pinterest user fail. I didn't take a picture of my wreath before giving it to someone for Christmas.

We had so much fun making the Christmas wreathes that we decided to get together to make Valentine's Day wreathes. I lured my friend in with the reminder that we're crafty like ice is cold. Only not in the Beastie Boys sense of being crafty like ice is cold. I just like the expression. And I like the Beastie Boys. Truth: License to Ill was the first cassette tape I bought.

For a few days last month, we sent each other links to ideas on Pinterest, made shopping lists, and pondered which one to make. Several shopping trips later, we settled down to make our crafts.

The haul from two of three shopping trips.

Armed with the knowledge that our kids wouldn't patiently play together while we crafted for an entire day, and that glue and paint take time to to dry, we both did some pre-work independently. We wrapped wreath forms and painted things red.

I learned that little wooden beads run away from spray paint, and cleverly corralled them in a cardboard box for painting.

Then we got together to socialize and craft. I'd like to say that the kids played quietly while we crafted, but they did require our attention a few times. My friend cleverly brought over some cool markers with stamp tops, which kept LEG and her son happily occupied for quite a while. One of these days, LEG will understand that markers aren't for coloring the palms of her hands.

Coffee, scissors, and hot glue guns at a toddler play date. Perfect. 

After about three hours of our kids playing with Little People, coloring, snacking, and taking hits off the humidifier, all while wearing fireman hats, we declared our wreathes awesome, and decided they were too much work to give away. 

What do you think? Pure awesomeness? Or too country craftsy cutesy? I think it's pretty fantastic, but am clearly biased.

Eating My Words for Six Hours (Last July)

Last summer, when I was all gung-ho about blogging, I started this blog post. I pretty much rewrote the whole thing this morning, though, because it was all OBE.

Anyway, there's this event called the Endless Summer Six Hour Run fairly local to me. For years, I said I'd never do it. Whenever one of my friends signed up for it, I went on about how they were begging for injury, heat exhaustion, or worse. Tick bites, lime disease, you name it, it was sure to happen on their six hour jaunt through a wooded park. Don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors, I love the woods and hiking, but six hours on a paved four mile loop? Ewww.

Then Mother's Day weekend 2014 happened. (Read all about it here.) Over coffee, one of my training partners put a bug in my ear to sign up for the July 2014 event. I pondered it for several days. I was tired of running races for distance and time. By then, I'd stopped wearing my Garmin, or any watch, on most of my runs. I was just running for enjoyment, with no real goals in mind. But I kind of wanted a goal, or at least an event, to train for. Six hours, with no real distance? Six hours, with the option to walk, or even take a break and sit down, whenever I wanted? Sure. I decided to give it a try. After signing up, I joked that I'd be eating my words for six hours. Years of going on about how it was a bad idea and how it didn't sound fun? Umm yeah, I'd be eating those words. For six hours.

May, June, and most of July went on without any unusual events. Also without much training. I went for a four hour trail hike one day in June. Surely that was sufficient training, right?

No

To say I was undertrained is an understatement. The first three laps were fun. Then the suck factor increased along with the heat and humidity. My walk breaks got longer. I sat down and rested a few times. (There were benches along the path, begging me to take a rest.) In a futile attempt to alleviate the pain in my feet, I changed into flip flops for my final lap. I completed 22 miles and change.

The day wasn't a total wash. The ride there and back was fun, Five of us kept each other company in the Van of Regret. I ran parts of several laps with my friends. The food was good. Unlimited gummy bears, M&Ms, and pretzels every 4 miles? Yes, please! There was a post-race cookout in a pavilion. Grilled burgers and more gummy bears? Cookies? Homemade blueberry cream pie, that one of my friends brought? Sign me up! And the race swag couldn't be beat. I got an awesome silicone pint glass and singlet. It did take me several weeks to wear the singlet and use the pint glass, though. I had to get over my regret. Plus, the race supports a very worthy cause, the Semper Fi Fund.

Worth running for six hours on a paved path for? Probably.

And look, now you know what my bed sheets look like. Creep away.

Last weekend, my friends started talking about this event again. Although the groundhog saw his shadow yesterday, July 2015 is right around the corner. This time, though, several of us are forming relay teams. While waiting around between legs sounds boring, it won't be. We'll have each other! Lemonade, magazines, and pedicures!

Maybe I'll still be blogging in July and you'll get a race report. I'm sure you'll be holding your breath for it.