Attack the Mack(inac)!

Two weekends ago, I joined the boy and his family on a vacation to Mackinac Island, Michigan.

Fun facts about Mackinac Island:

• It is located between the northernmost point of Michigan's "hand" and the southernmost point of the Upper Peninsula (where the "yoopers" live)
• Spelling withstanding, it is actually pronounced "Mackinaw" island (though I found myself accidentally pronouncing the "c" ending a few times! It just felt so wrong otherwise.)
• On the main land nearby there is an actual Mackinaw City, pronounced the same way. Go figure.
• There are no cars on the island
• The island is famous for fudge
• There are a lot of horses on the island
• And subsequently, a lot of horse poop
• The horse poop is constantly being scooped/cleaned up from the street every night...
• ...and every morning fresh new batches of Mackinac's famous fudge appears in the sweets stores...

Just kidding - the horse poop is used for compost. Or so we were told.

Much of our first day was spent in transit to actually get to the island. To do so, we parked our car, took a ferry to the island, and then hailed a "taxi" (horse-drawn carriage) to our condo. The taxi ride felt magical. I spend so much time in rapid, stressful transit - cars, planes, trains - that it was wonderfully absurd to find myself being pulled along at a whopping four miles per hour through winding trails in the woods. The horses' slow, steady clip-clopping was a relief from the sounds of engines revving, their languid gait a welcome respite from rage-inducing inter-city commuting.

A typical taxi.

The boy, his brother and I were the last to arrive; upon doing so, we received our vacation t-shirts (an annual tradition). This year's featured a nippled, lazy-eyed, big-of-belly horse licking an ice cream cone in front of the Mackinaw bridge, all mapped upon lush blue cotton, courtesy of Ann Arbor Tshirt Company. A triumphant piece that will stay in style for many seasons to come.

Once we'd settled in and finished exploring our (very cool) condo, we headed outside to play before the sun set while a tasty salmon filet sizzled on the grill.

We approve of the condo!

Blue-shirted volleyball

Oberon and salmon, a very Michigan meal indeed.

After dinner, we celebrated the boy's 27th birthday by opening up presents and singing Sto Lat! Does 27 make him too old to be called the boy on this blog?

Happy birthday, cutie.

Mustache glass complimentary of yours truly.

The next day we slept in, had breakfast, and set out for kayaking. It should be noted that almost all of our commuting here on out was on foot as our condo was two miles away from the downtown area. I really enjoyed walking; not only did it provide an opportune time for conversation, we also enjoyed some beautiful homes and views throughout our languid strolls to and fro.

A quirky back yard we passed by on our way downtown.

$10M lakefront mansions.

Goofing around in front of the West Bluffs viewpoint.

Entourage.

We went kayaking along the coast of the island, which offered some stupendous views of the water and shores. Perhaps more stupendous though was the arm workout I got.

In the afternoon we spent some time in the downtown area, which was very touristy (think fudge shops, ice cream and souvenir stores that sell t-shirts with jokes on them). We also popped by the one and only grocery store to grab ingredients for dinner, which was a grand affair of a guacamole brushetta starter, shrimp pasta, summer vegetables, and fresh berries for dessert. And champagne, of course.

We also pulled out one of the boy's new presents, Bocce Ball, and gave it a whirl in the yard:

Bocce ball was only a warm-up though for the real competition that was before us: the J family games! We competed in a series of mini challenges, including see which duo could throw/catch an unboiled egg the farthest distance, who could toss a frisbee into a designated area, who could mark the most of our 48 continental states on an empty map of the US, and who could score the most in a very random game of trivia.

Despite not getting any frisbees in the landing zone (no motor skills ever), I managed to win the egg toss with the boy as my partner in crime, tie his brother in naming 41 of the 48 states correctly  (my strategy for the ones that stumped me in the midwest was to label them all as Kansas), and win the trivia game, culminating in me becoming the ultimate champion of this year's 2013 J family vacation games and recipient of a highly-envied Starbucks gift card - huzzah!

Though I think we should've celebrated my championship with Cristal and EDM blasting into the wee hours of the morning, we hit the hay early that night as the next day required an early start. On our agenda were parasailing, lunch at the illustrious Grand Hotel, bike riding, and dinner at The Woods, an aptly-named restaurant just a few minutes from the condo.

I'd never gone parasailing before, so I took my camera and recorded some footage, most of which was comprised of me waving my piggies in the air whilst singing Justin Bieber.

Seeing the other members of the J family parasail was quite the photo opportunity. A big, colorful billowing kite with two tiny people attached to it against the big blue-and-grey sky.

Parasailing turned out to be a really fun and surprisingly relaxing activity - I'd definitely do it again. It's the closest sensation to flying that I've felt to date.

All of our airborne excitement had worked up some pretty grand appetites, so it was only fitting that we lunched at the historic Grand Hotel. The Grand is well known for its old-school grandeur and for its impressive suite of political and historical visitors. It was beautifully decorated and the service was immaculate. The lunch buffet was good, but not anything to write home (or in a blog) about.

After lunch, we strolled around the Grand's balcony and enjoyed the sunshine before walking back and grabbing some bikes to get a tour of the island.

Biking gave me a whole new perspective on Mackinac. Gone were the fudge and the cacophony of tourism; in their place, just empty, smooth trails, perfect for our bikes. I loved seeing the beautiful shorelines sprinkled with cairns. And I got a leg workout that rivaled the arm one I'd gotten earlier that day.

After a two-hour ride, we returned the bikes near the condo, happy and exhausted. The evening ended with dinner at The Woods, a restaurant located in its namesake. The dark ambience and rustic, old-school hunting theme reminded me of my experience at Next's "The Hunt" menu.

After scarfing down our thoroughly delicious meals, we walked back to the condo, settled into the comfy couches, and put on Somewhere in Time, an old Christopher Reeve film that was shot in the Grand Hotel. It was eerily familiar to see the scenes on the balcony and in the dining rooms where we had just been hours before. And in a classic Rose move, I fell asleep about fifteen minutes in the movie - I even beat the boy's brother, a sleep-deprived surgeon, to snoozeland!

As the saying goes, all good things have to come to an end. The next morning we packed up all our things, got on the ferry, and bid adieu to Mackinac. I think three days was the perfect amount of time to spend on the island. We got real lucky with the gorgeous weather, the wonderful condo, and the fact that everyone could be together to spend some time in this beautiful place. While I think I'd go crazy and grow startlingly obese if I lived on the island full-time, I'd definitely go back for another getaway (getaway).

Existence updates + 100 mile challenge

The past couple of months have been pretty hectic for ole Granny Rose, but in good ways. Among other things, I have been involved in Away Day 2013 both as a planner and a talent show contestant, transitioning from a Business Analyst role to a Project Manager/Iteration Manager position on my project, embarking on a series of mini-vacation/adventures every other weekend, and moving into the boy's condo - all while still traveling every week and nursing a broken hand, yowza!

The bad news is that my itty corner of the internetz got a bit neglected in all of this excitement. The good news is that much of the dust has settled and I feel mostly normal/inspired to blog again. Away Day is over (thank jebus), my hand is mostly healed, and both moving and role transitioning are going fairly smoothly.

Here's some fun footage from the Away Day talent show. Fast forward to the five minute mark to check out the act that I'm in, "Matrix Ping Pong."

In essence, my "talent" was to go up on stage in front of 500 of my colleagues in a full-body skin suit, crouch down with my face four inches away from somebody's butt, and half-blindly execute a complex series of movements, all while trying not to be seen, heard, or to pass out from the lack of oxygen. Huzzah!

As for the various vacations I've been on... well, they really deserve their own posts, and at least the most recent trip, Mackinac, will get one. So look for that in the near future.

Now that I'm splint-free, I've been really eager to get back into running. So much so that I've been pursuing something called the 100 mile challenge. It's very simple - the challenge is to run 100 miles in a month or any other 31-day time span, which averages out to roughly a 5k every day. What I like about it is that this challenge requires diligence and consistency, two qualities I want to improve in as a runner. 

I'm currently on day two and have exactly seven miles under my belt - so far so good! Both days' runs have been on the hotel treadmill and therefore logged manually on Endomodo. While I prefer running outside, it's just not really feasible here in Dallas in July when the feel temperature easily reaches 100+ F (37+ C) and there's a heat advisory almost every day. 

At the end of the challenge I hope to see some improvement in my 5k time. My best time ever was in the Austin Gorilla run (go figure) with a 23:01 5k, or a 7.5 minute mile average. Right now I'm easing into the routine with a pace around an 8.5 to 9 minute mile. But my goal will be to gradually increase that speed through some interval training and hopefully beat my personal best - and then some (I've got my eye on you, sub-20 5k!). But really in the grand scheme of things, even if I don't go super duper fast, just getting through all 100 miles without breaking any more bones will be something I'll be proud to say I did. 

Oh, and in anticipation of/as a reward for me completing the challenge, the boy has made reservations for two at The Girl and the Goat for the end of August. If that isn't enough motivation to get my ass on at treadmill, then I don't know what is!

well, scratch "broken a bone" from my "never have i ever" arsenal...

womp womp

my glorious return to my blog is predicated upon a rather unfortunate incident that took place yesterday afternoon on a quiet tree-lined street in wrigleyville. i was on mile 3 of a run with the boy when he asked me, "what is the most romantic thing that you can think of?" i furrowed my brow and thought deep and hard. and then i tripped and lost my balance.

in a decidedly unromantic effort to upend the gravitational forces pulling me towards the pavement, i more or less threw the weight of my entire existence on my left hand, which smacked into an iron railing/fence - hard. i caught myself and managed to straighten out but my hand was not having a good time. at all. it quickly swelled and after a few minutes, i found that i had a limited range of motion with a few fingers. i was still in shock - tripping is always so disorienting - and was alternating between laughing at my absurd clumsiness (who trips over air?) and holding back tears. in middle school someone told me that if you laugh and cry at the same time, you grow white hairs on your butt. i guess that happened then.

anyhoo, i walked it off with the boy, who was very supportive. we decided to stop by his brother(an orthopedic surgeon)'s place and have him check it out. by this time the immediate sharp pain had dissipated. there was still a dull ache and it was painful to flex my fingers but on the whole after the shock had worn off, i felt okay again - just with a gimpy left hand.

the boy's brother examined it and recommended i get it x-rayed. i decided to wait a day - after all, didn't real broken bones render people thrashing on the ground in crippling pain? that's what i'd always thought, anyway. after a thoroughly normal evening and next morning (which consisted of more running, painting, eating out, cooking in, showering, playing with Thundercat, and all around the same stuff i usually do) i thought it was probably time to get it x-rayed just to be safe. the boy and i walked on over to the ER at illinois masonic. lucky for me, it wad a slow day in the ER and i was seen almost immediately. the x-rays showed that i had a metacarpal fracture on the bone of my left ring finger. (i have the x-rays on a dvd, but my macbook air doesn't have a dvd drive! #firstworldproblems) the bone was not displaced, meaning that it was still lined up/that i wouldn't need surgery - whew - but i had to have the finger stabilized nonetheless. i couldn't believe that such a tiny crack called for a splint like this - it felt absurd to have my whole wrist and forearm swaddled - but i will see a hand specialist in the next few days and can hopefully soon downgrade to something less dramatic.

i should also add that i am no stranger to falling whilst running. in high school i tripped over an elevated sidewalk square and had to run home with bloody cut up knees. a few months ago i tripped while talking about spicy chicken jambalaya (i know...) on a run and smashed my phone's screen. this time it was an actual bone that i broke! all three times i think my ego was hurt more than anything else though.

all in all, i count myself lucky. lucky that i had the boy with me for support, that his brother happened to be an ortho resident, that i wasn't in much pain, that there was a short wait at the ER, that my fracture wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been, that it was on my left hand, and that my insurance covered the bill.

i guess the one thing i will complain about is typing with one hand - it's a ton of work and i feel exhausted from typing this! i better go ruminate over some badass reasons as to why i am wearing a sling in anticipation of questions from curious coworkers tomorrow. can't decide between i wrestled a shark and i punched my own rock-hard abs too hard.

i have three arms, bitches.