This morning at 11am CST, registration opened up for the Star Wars Half Marathon that will be in Disney World in April. If you've never entered one of these before, then the process will seem crazy to you. And it is indeed crazy - but it must be done!
So today at 10:55am CST, I was ready. I had logged into my Active account (for entering races) in case that helped things along. I was logged into my DVC/AP websites, because that's where I would get the link for the early registration for us special people. As you can see, I had two computers with several browsers ready to go. So, as soon as the magic hour hit, I was on it like lightening, and completed my registration. However ...
Molly was on a Southwest plane to Phoenix. Sure, there was internet on the plane, but the internet speed was somewhat lacking (remember dial-up anyone?). It was very important that she get in this race. She and I were messaging back and forth (that form of communication was not as slow). She was unable to get on the registration site, so I said I would register her.
Except when I tried to register her, the site said that the challenge (another story for another day) was "on hold." But you could refresh the page in hopes that the "on hold" would get unheld and you could register. So I spent the next 25 minutes refreshing the pages on two computers every three seconds. And I got Molly registered (actually I'm giving all the credit to God, who can do all things)!
And then I tried for another 30 minutes to get Steve in, to no avail - the early registrations got sold out. Oh well, at least I have two weeks before I get to play this game again during regular race registration!
Thankful today for: two miles with KB; race registration; some wal-mart-ing; seeing photos of MB's grilled cheese day; chatting with Marilyn on the phone
This is Rambo. He is Molly's dog. Molly has a fenced in back yard so Rambo can run around. However, Rambo can climb the chain-link fence. Molly tried an electric fence, but it didn't work so well, either. Molly has spent a lot of time putting slats in the fence so Rambo will not climb the fence and escape. However, Rambo is very good at finding un-slatted places so he can climb out. Lately, though, Molly has discovered most of his climbing spots and slatted them. Until today, when Molly is out of town and driving back home. This morning Rambo found a spot and climbed out. He followed some man and his mother while they were out on a walk and apparently went home with them. The man's wife looked at Rambo's tag and called Molly who then texted me and I had to go pick Rambo up from some stranger neighbor on another street. Looks like more slatting in Molly's future!!
Tonight the Miss America pageant came on tv. This is NOT the Miss USA pageant, which is another kind of pageant animal. Donald Trump is in charge of that one, so that says a lot. No, I'm talking about good old Miss America. You know, the scholarship pageant.
Growing up, watching this show was a huge deal. We would even have ballots to vote for our favorites. Of course, most of the top ten would be women from the South. Just take it from Suzanne Sugarbaker ...
Anyhoo, back to tonight's show. I was flipping through the channels and happened upon the broadcast. It was a few minutes into the program, so I missed Vanessa William's song, but I did get to see a Miss America Official Dude apologize for the organization that took her title away a long time ago (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you're probably too young to fully appreciate the pageant anyway). Well, once I started watching the show, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It was amazing and odd and mesmerizing. I didn't have my ballot, but I really thought it would come down to Miss Mississippi or Miss Tennessee. Miss Mississippi got first runner up (in case Miss America cannot perform her duties, Miss Mississippi will take over) and Miss Georgia won. Anyhow, if you didn't get to watch it, you missed a lot, so I thought I'd share my highlights ...
Vanessa Williams apology - she deserved it. It's just too bad it came so late.
The judges - I didn't know several of them. Thank you google!
Every few minutes, the camera would pan to a face of a judge. And every time, that particular judge looked like he/she was in pain. Except for the Shark Tank dude - he was always smiling. Zendaya, who is a Disney Channel star, had on the enormous glasses - maybe she was trying to look smart (she's 19, so she probably has no idea what Miss America is about).
They had a short segment where a bunch of former Miss Americas were on the stage. As a former Miss America watcher, I wanted to see each one of the introduced. Instead, they had a camera fly-over with no names mentioned. Maybe they weren't even Miss Americas, but some residents of a local assisted living community.
Talent - my favorite part. There were singers who could have chosen better songs, Miss Mississippi played some fancy fiddle song - where was "The Devil Went Down To Georgia"? - there were a couple of dancers , a pianny player who played some Opus Something, and the nurse who told a story (and then got ripped by the ladies on "The View", who then got a whole lot of backlash over their stupid remarks. Oh, and there were a couple of ladies who didn't get to perform their talent, which leads me to ...
The elimination process. So there are 52 to begin with. Then they whittle it down to maybe 15. Then they strut their two-piece swimsuits, and knock off three. These 12 walk in their evening gowns and then they get ready for talent. Except they only call 10 to do talent - two more are off the list.Then it's time for the scary questions, but only seven get to answer a question, so three more get eliminated. Finally they announce the runner ups, and three are left - two will get nada while the other will be Miss America.
Everytime a girl got announced as a finalist, she would bend her knees and bend down like she was doing a squat. Which I'm sure she did plenty of to get her body is Miss America shape.
During the question phase, each judge had a question to ask. Too bad some of the judges didn't bother reading their questions. So maybe then the judge would have a chance to ask someone or google what the question was about. So maybe the judge would understand the question he/she was asking.
Apparently Phyllis George came out to crown the new Miss America, or so they said. They used their fly-by camera to show some woman walking out on the stage - who knows who it really was.
Anyhow, the show was fabulous. I texted Maribeth, Molly, and Lynnette during the entire show, because it was so fascinating that they needed to hear about it. Although none of them bothered to turn it on.
No matter - I taped it, and we're having a Miss America rehash party on Friday!!
Today I went for my regular blood donation at the Red Cross. It just happened (or maybe not) to be scheduled on September 11. It seemed to be the appropriate thing to do on this day. Apparently it was the thing to do for a lot of people, as it was pretty busy at RC HQ. As I was waiting in the lobby, one lady came out saying that it was an hour wait to get checked in, then another 30 minutes to get your blood sucked out. Since she was on her lunch hour, she couldn't stick around to finish it. I considered rescheduling my donation for later in the day, but since I really didn't have any plans, I decided to stick around. And it wasn't long until my name was called and I got checked in. I did wait awhile for my blood-giving turn, but was entertained by others who were also waiting.
When I sat down in the blood line, there were four men already waiting for their bloodletting. A lady sat down after me. I waited for the men to get called, and then the tech called for the next person. The lady and I both stood up, and then she told me to go ahead - like she was ahead of me. And so I did. Even though I was really ahead of her. I'm not sure if she thought she was really ahead of me in line, which she wasn't, so I went ahead. She was having fun chatting with the college kid who was giving blood - he told her that he wanted to be a dentist, but he hates shots, so when he's a dentist he will just have his nurse or tech do that part. And he has two other sets of teeth in his jaw, so if he's ever in a car wreck and loses all his teeth, his other sets will just move down.
It was a day to do something positive in honor of a day when we lost so many people. And as we all sat and waited to do our part, it was a day to remember that indeed we are in this together.
