I must get out of here. I am officially Over It and I must find a real job. I woke up in a reasonably good mood, in spite of the fact that it's cold and pouring down rain (and also in spite of the fact that my brain is telling me it's actually 5:45 am and what do I think I'm doing? Thanks, Daylight Savings Time, for real). But, the minute I arrived at Beige Office World, my mood went downhill. It's so freaking bleak here. Everyone's busy and nobody talks and it's unforgivably boring.

All of this is compounded by massive the temper tantrums that Milton's been having all morning. His phone has been ringing off the hook and he's completely lost it. He's been cursing, slamming file drawers shut, stomping around, sighing loudly and banging stuff around on his desk.

It makes me and everyone else tense, but nobody says anything. He sits directly across from the boss and she just ignores him when he acts like this. I will say, the anger is never directed at us, but it still affects everyone. Ugh, I wish I was home right now, curled up on the couch with a cat and a good book.

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Project Do-Over.

My weekend, on the other hand, was fantastic. Saturday I did a short training ride, then had a really good lunch at Stella's (marinated portabella sandwich w/ basil, fresh mozzarella and roasted red peppers) with Kate. After lunch I ran errands and did a little shopping. A good sort of day.

Sunday was race day. The weather behaved for once and the day was cool but sunny. My race had a rough start because some of the bikes got tangled and a bunch of us went down in a heap. It took me a minute to get untangled and then I had to charge after the lead group. I was a little shaken up by the fall and went out too fast, but I managed to moved up to second place about 1/3rd of the way through.

I passed Kenny at one point and he yelled "she's only 30 seconds ahead of you!" I was so tired, but I figured I'd go in for the chase. Near the end I caught up with the leader and we fought it out good-naturedly towards the finish line. Man, I had to dig deep to do it, but I passed her and won by 3 seconds. Then I thought I might puke, but didn't. Yay!

The greatest thing about mountain bike racing is how supportive all the women are of each other. The woman who came second gave me a hug afterwards and we kept telling each other how great the other did and I made a new friend. There aren't many women who mountain bike, much less who race and the ones I've met are all so damn nice. It makes things way more fun, as it's more about personal goals than who can beat who. Good stuff. Hopefully there will be some pictures posted on the race website soon so I can over-share even more.

Kenny did the Sport class race and came in 7th, which is fantastic. His field is much bigger and more competitive than the women's, so finishing in the top ten is damn good. I'm going to move up to Sport in the fall and I'll be lucky if I'm ever on the podium again, but that's okay. It's more about personal best than anything. (Though, I won't lie, winning is damn fun.)

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Books 'N Things*

So currently I'm reading Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, which I bought years ago and never got around to reading. I bought it because I loved the movie and the book is damn good too. It's basically a parody of the gothic novels that were popular at the time.

The only weird thing is that, while written in 1932, the story is set about 20 years in the future, which is a bit confusing (especially if you don't know it's set in the future) and completely unnecessary. Like, they apparently have television phones in the early fifties, but every thing else is exactly the same. Huh? I'm guessing it's part of the joke, but I'm not getting it. Unless she was just trying to make the Starkadders look even more antique? Anyway, it's an amusing ("diverting or amusing, never 'rather fun'") read and I recommend it.

*There's a restaurant in Virginia Beach called Waffles 'N Things and I always thought the name was hilarious, if a bit disturbing. "We serve waffles 'n....uh, things." What are these things? Are you going to eat your things? I just find it bizarre to refer to breakfast side dishes as things. However, I do live in the south, where, on some menus, fried apples, baked beans and macaroni & cheese are all considered vegetables.

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