You’d need a Ronco Weekend-Pak-o-Matic

In order to pack any more things into this weekend, I mean. Too much to do. Where to begin?

Big wedding yesterday, nice but not overboard formal to-do. I’m trying to figure out if there’s some kind of moratorium or cooling-off period before it’s cool to mention that the Gov was at the reception. Kinda expected he would be, but it was cool of him to come. Of course, it’s always very important at a wedding not to upstage the bride, but that’s kinda hard to do when you’re the Governor. Lots of people wanted their picture taken with him. It was very sweet. Anyway, the wedding was lovely — this priest let the wedding party sit down during the readings, which I thought was very progressive and practical, but it takes away some of the endurance aspects of being in the wedding itself, tottering on heels unable to breathe for an hour, unaware that if you take about two steps back you’ll fall into the first pew. Reception also lovely, lots of people I knew and was able to converse with about things other than work. But that and ferrying the kids to grandma’s took up the entire day, and in the evening all we could do was eat chocolate and watch episodes of Buffy.

Today, back-to-back Nutcracker auditions. Bekah went for and got her second year as a clown. Lee took that shift. There’s nowhere for parents to sit, so we pray for good weather so we can all congregate out on the sidewalk in one of the iffier neighborhoods in Albany. While they did that, Hannah and I did a couple of grocery runs. I just can’t say enough good things about fresh-killed free range chicken, by the way. But I don’t normally shop on Sunday mornings — my favorite time is usually 8 or 9 at night — so I really didn’t fully appreciate the madhouse that is the Hannaford on a Sunday morning. We got what we needed and got the hell out. Then, I was going to go for a bike ride while Hannah had her auditions, but at the last minute she got nervous and wanted someone to stay there and wait for her. Sudden shifting of gears (well, not literally, obviously), grab a charged iPod and my French texts — Lee, who had not had such foresight for herself, thoughtfully gave me a folding chair to take with), and off we go, she to wrack up her nerves worrying about getting a part, me to sit in the clouds/rain/sun/breeze (this day had it all, baby!). In the end, it was all worth it — Bekah got the clown part, and Hannah moved all the way up to Party Child. You cannot imagine how important that is in the Nutcracker hierarchy. It’s second only to Clara.

Then when we got back, wife gave me a well-intentioned shove out the door for my previously aborted bike ride. It was raining more than a little bit when I started, and I figured I’d do about an hour and take it easy. I lie to myself like that ALL THE TIME. I bombed the hills of Schodack for two hours and came home pretty strong, though I did pick a flatter route back. It rained for most of the ride, and I have really never been wetter, but it was a warm rain, I had on my wrap-arounds so water wasn’t getting in my eyes, and I hadn’t had a ride in more than a week, so I was going for it, baby. Kicked ass, did 30 miles in 2 hours, and now I can barely climb the stairs.

Got Ed Burke’s book on long distance cycle training. I’m thinking I may stop not running in the mornings, and not ride my bike instead. Wish me luck with that. Seriously, I’ve been both unmotivated, unhealthy, and unable to get enough sleep to roll out of bed at 5:10 like the old days and run for an hour. It’s a shame, because the cardio benefits can’t be beat, and I can eat like a horse when I’m doing it, but this year I just can’t get there. I DO think I can get on my bike at the drop of a hat, even if it’s just to spin around the lake for 40 minutes or so. I’ve gotta get something going on, or this season will really have been something of a loss. I’ve done a lot of bicycling, but not in any organized way, and I’ve done just about nothing else.