Trapped

This past weekend Grace and Phil got married. Grace is one of most dear friends from high school and Katie and I had the pleasure of being in her wedding party. Overall the wedding was a blast...beautiful, elegant, fun, and very reflective of the bride and groom--I mean who else would have a treasure chest of costume props for guests to take polaroid pictures with for the guest book? Tons of fun. 

Yet, one of my favorite moments of the weekend was not at the wedding, but the night before, because something chaotic must happen for every wedding. I seriously think it's a part of the wedding check list, but one that got accidentally cut-off due to the printer. 

Wedding Dress? Check

Flowers? Check

Something totally crazy, unexpected and involves a little bit of panic? Check

After the rehearsal dinner we all went back to the Best Western Loyal Inn in downtown Seattle. As her last night as a single girl, Grace wanted to go to the bar and play pinball. Fair enough. The whole bridal party was staying on the 4th floor (top of the building), so we all piled in. Doors shut, elevator moves a floor, and...stops. Nova. No go. Nervous giggle by everyone.

Now when I say everyone, I literally mean all 16 of us...like sardines. Yep, 16 of us thought we could pile in and that if we went over the 2,500 lb limit, the elevator would beep, or not move, or something safer than just stopping between floors two and three. After a minute of staring at each other and giggling, we pushed the panic button (well someone did, b/c truthfully you really couldn't see past the person two inches from your face). The conversation with the frontdesk kid went something like:

Best Western: Uhh...are you guys stuck?

Collective 16: YES!

BW: How many of there are you?

Elevator: (with hesitation)...umm 15?

BW: Are you serious?

Elevator: ...well...16...but that is beside the point...We're STUCK!

BW: Um...okay, that's probably the problem.

Collective 16: Thanks genius.

Silence...

waiting..

taking pictures to try and pass the time...

wave at the people outside...(thankfully one of the walls was clear and looked outside, otherwise i know there would have been pandemonium).

waiting..

anonymously entering our weight into a cell phone to see if we were over the limit (83 lbs over to be exact)....

calling loved ones...

Finally, we pushed the panic button again.

BW: Oh-yeah...the fire department is on the way.

Me (in my mind): Oh-gee thanks buddy. Thanks for keeping those stuck in the elevator up-to-date on what is going on...I mean couldn't you have told us that after you called them....hate being stuck in this elevator...is there enough oxygen, will Erin freak out...get us out!

After 20 minutes in the elevator, the fire truck rolls up-and for future reference, they don't come sirens blaring-you'll just have to sit and wait. Lights off. Power off. Doors pried open. Nice, oh so very nice, firemen pull us out. Many thank yous...and then on to pinball with a good story to tell.

The fire department shut the Best Western elevator down until they installed specific safety features. Regardless, if it worked or not, I took the stairs the rest of our stay. 

After the fiasco, Grace and Phil had a marvelous, chaos free wedding.

Poop on my Leg

I should just leave the title and not offer an explanation. I mean, doesn't the title tell the story? And, I'm not sure why someone would tell this story about themselves, but hopefully wherever Pablo is, he'll get a good laugh.

Last week I went to school and then to the gym. Upon leaving the gym in my workout gear, including shorts, I hadn't noticed that it started to rain (aka pour), so I sloshed my way to the bus-stop kicking water and mud up my bare legs. The bus ride home was the same as usual, walked the five blocks home, said hi to Ben, and headed for the shower. 

Now before getting into the shower I noticed a particular large clump of mud on my calve...or so I thought. Innocently thinking I would wipe the big clump away, I did just so...and noticed a rather un-mud-like consistency. 

This is when I started to dry-heave because as the title implies there was poop on my leg.  I'm not sure how it got there, because it wasn't my poop and there was no poop on my shoe to think I had flung it up there on my travels. My guess is that some sicko wiped poo on the lower seat of the bus, where my calf innocently rested, waiting for some poor drenched girl to take it home. Gross. And come-on...who does that happen to? Me. Lame.

Watch where your legs lie...or suffer my poo on the leg fate.

Pablo Remembered

A lot has happened since my last post, which I will write about another day and time. Today I would like to celebrate a friend who passed away this last week Paul "Pablo" Reiter. He was a remarkable man, genuine, funny, kind-hearted, and loved his wife of 21 years and son of 16 to an amount greater than any other. He will be missed, and our hearts and prayers are now with Lori and Zach.

Jen put together a blog of photos of Pablo if you want to see this great man in action.

http://pabloremembered.blogspot.com

Good Sport

The day we got back from California, Ben and I had an engagement photo session with our wedding photographer. Truthfully, this is something neither of us had heard of, and we were going to swap it out of our package deal, but our photographer told us it was a good way for him to get to know us and vice versa so the wedding day would go more smoothly. Fair enough.  At the time, Ben was all for it, yet as the day grew closer he grew more weary.

As we walked down to meet Sean Morrison, a high school photography teacher in Vancouver, and an all-around nice guy, Ben kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to do this. I reassured him everything was going to be fine knowing he a) really doesn't like his picture taken, b) really really doesn't like his picture taken for two hours and c) really really really doesn't like his picture taken for two hours in public, making lovey dovey faces at me.

We started in China Town, made our way to downtown Portland, stopped by the Ace Hotel to use their photo booth, circled back to the park blocks and then finished in Pioneer Square. Overall, Ben did really good for hating every minute of it and the pictures turned out pretty good too. There are a few when you can tell he's over it and there might have been once or twice that I told him if he looked away from the camera entirely, it wouldn't make this go any faster. I'm proud of him and glad we did the photo session, because more than anything it made me feel more confident in our photographer and I'm excited for our future wedding pics. 

You can see the photo session  here:

http://flickr.com/photos/sanblaspdx/sets/72157607221495376/

Happiest Place/Race on Earth

Ben and I had a fun filled mini-vacation in Southern California. The two big highlights were running the Disneyland 1/2 marathon and then of course, going to Disneyland and running from ride to ride.

This is the 2nd year I've done the race, and the first for both Ben and my aunt Darla. We got up at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday morning to join around 15,000 other runners and walkers. The course starts in Downtown Disney, goes through both the California Adventure and Disneyland, through the streets of Anaheim, around the baseball park, back through the Cali Adv. and finishes in Downtown Disney. Overall, it's a lot of fun.

However, there are moments during the race when you mentally question yourself on what you're doing mile after mile and then, for me at least, a moment around mile 10 when your left knee starts to question what you're doing. I have never in my life had a knee pain like this, the kind that shoots up to your hip. Ben was great. He ran a solid race, felt good the whole time and was a wonderful motivator. When my knee said no more, he reminded me we were almost there...just a few more miles.

The last mile for me is always one of the toughest. You know you're almost done...that it's almost over...but the steam just isn't there sometimes. What will make you crank it up a little bit is looking at your watch and realizing you are so close to one of your goals.

Goal #1: Finish

Goal #2: If possible, beat last year's time.

Goal #1 wasn't a problem, but I wanted #2 also, so I dug deep and Ben and I cruised the last 1/2 mile. Finishing time? 6 seconds faster than last year. (I'll take it).

We cheered other runners on until we saw aunt Darla powering through to get her medal. If you've never met her, she is truly amazing. Once she says she'll do something, she goes in full speed ahead and never looks back. Last year she told Ben that if he ran the race with me, she would do it too...and there she was...kicking 13.1 miles worth of ass and taking names.

We had a great weekend and earned every trip on Space Mountain.

4:30 a.m...early but excited

All done!