sonja | johnson

Tonight I met my nephew Elijah, or Eli for short.  He is such a little cutie!  He’s got the fullest head of hair you’ve ever seen; which has given him quite the reputation around the unit.  And this morning his nurses gave him a rockin’ mohawk.

I don’t know much about his personality yet, mainly because he slept the whole time, but I can tell you he makes the funniest squeaking sounds and is 8lbs 5oz of cuddly goodness!

This morning a I ran the first annual JazzFest 5k.

On the upside, I got a cool t-shirt and had an excuse to pull out the ‘ol ”jazz hands” whenever it suited me.  On the downside, the event must have been planned by band geeks; the run was miserable!

Granted, the planning committee couldn’t have controlled the weather, but it’s mid-July, some common sense would have gone a long way.  At 9am it was already in the mid 70′s with no breeze.  The course they laid out had literally no shade and water stations were not provided.  Not good for us poor saps getting beat on by the rising sun.

To prevent heat stroke, I stopped to walk, twice.  I’ve never walked in a race before (granted they were short stints), but I’m glad I did.  In mile 2 I was passed by an ambulance.  When I crossed the finish line I saw several participants lying on the ground surrounded by EMTs.

I seem to be in a blogging lull lately.  Not entirely sure if that’s due to a lack of subject matter, or the fact that dootdoot is now blocked at work.  In any event, here are some highlights for the last month.

• Musical Malfunctions: I’ve been having some technical difficulties lately.  After receiving my new Nano my ear-buds died, in the middle of a run.  After replacing them my Nike+ receiver died, right before I began a run.  I’m not entirely sure how to manually load runs to nikeplus.com, so I’m out those 3 miles.  Boo.  Now, I have a new receiver, but for some inexplicable reason it’s not syncing my runs to nikeplus.com.  Double boo.
• TV: Mike and I started watching Fringe.  I still maintain I love all things J.J. Abrams.
• I’m going to be an Aunt (soon): In conjunction with my sister and mother-in-law, I threw a baby shower for my other sister-in-law, Katie.  She’s due mid-July.
• Tour de Grandma: After my Grandpa passed (April, 2009), my Grandma spent the summer traveling around between her children’s homes.  This summer she is back for round two; now that the weather here in the North is a suitable temperature for her of course!
• Fireworks: Mike and I spent the 4th of July at Lake Poinsett with his youngest sister and her boyfriend.  Apart from a minor issue with a propane tank, we had a grand ‘ol time.  Drank some beers, microwaved some hot dogs and shot some fireworks.  Oh, and who can forget the incredible display the neighbors put on – love this holiday!
• Birthday: Mike turned one year older, but I’m not so sure about the wiser part, hehe.  Happy Birthday, Mike!
• Anniversary: Mike and I celebrated 3 years of marriage yesterday.  We’ve developed a tradition of working a half day and meeting up for lunch.  After our meal we hit up a matinee of Knight and Day (2010).  On our way home we picked up some Chinese food for supper and drank some wine on the patio.  Oh, and I got a sweet bouquet of gerbera daisies!
• Feline Frenzy: Both my mom and my in-laws have taken in stray cats this past month.  My moms is a beautiful black cat with green eyes whom she named Binx.  That’s right, as in Hocus Pocus (1993) Binx.  Mike’s parents took in a cute little calico they named Lucy.  We’ve considered adopting one or the other, but haven’t come to a consensus nor fully determined if we’re certain we want a kitty at this time.
• Yo Necesito Dinero: Lately, or always, Mike and I have been discussing the many places we want to go, the many things we want to do and the many things we want to purchase.  I suppose I’ll post about those things when and if they happen.

 Today I ran the Mickelson Trail Marathon relay.  My team, made up of friends and co-workers, finished in 4:20:05!  We were the 4th female team to finish and the 23rd team over all.

I ran the second leg; a distance of 6.1 miles.  In my previous post, I indicated my excitement for the race was waining as I discovered my portion was all uphill.  To be honest, it wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined.  Don’t get me wrong, it was no picnic either (I’m definitely sore), but it was manageable.  Turns out the incline was fairly gradual throughout the majority of the course, so I was able to maintain a decent (by my standards) pace throughout.  The biggest challenge for me was the elevation, oh, and the giant hill in my 5th mile.  I was a bit winded after that.

The run was beautiful, but I am a bit miffed that the relay finishers did not receive medals.  Instead, we are the recipients of a “wonderful” MTM pin - which is about the size of my thumbnail.  Lame.

Four more days until the Mickelson Relay Marathon and, truth be told, excitement is waining.  Yesterday I awoke feeling well prepared and ready for my vacation, then a teammate showed me the topographical map of my portion of the race and I realized I am running up hill; the entire leg.  That’s right, 6.1 miles of incline fun.  Blah.

My leg of the Mickelson Relay

Feigning illness or injury has occurred to me, but unfortunately I have 4 other people counting on me, so I’ve turned my attention elsewhere.  To keep my motivation high, assuming that’s possible, I’ve created a fun musical mix!

Mickelson Mix:

• Axel F (Crazy Frog (sorry Andy))
• Citizen Soldier (3 Doors Down)
• Cyclone (Baby Bash feat. T-Pain)
• Evacuate the Dancefloor (Cascada)
• Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)
• Finally Home (MercyMe)
• Fire Burning (Sean Kingston)
• Flight of the Bumblebee (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)
• I Gotta Feeling (Black Eyed Peas)
• Gasolina (Daddy Yankee)
• Headstrong (Trapt)
• Party In the U.S.A. (Miley Cyrus)
• Beatbox Harmonica (Yuri Lane)
• I Like to Move It (Power Music)
• Hey, Soul Sister (Train)
• I’m On A Boat (The Lonely Island feat. T-Pain)
• Uprising (Muse)
• Womanizer (Britney Spears)
• Imma Be (Black Eyed Peas)
• Laffy Taffy (D4L)
• Monster (Skillet)
• Naturally (Selena Gomez & The Scene)
• Can’t Get You Out of My Head (Kylie Minogue)
• Rompe (Daddy Yankee)
• Sexy Chick (David Guetta feat. Akon)
• Switch (Will Smith)
• Tik Tok (Ke$ha)
• Time is Running Out (Muse)

28 songs, 1.6 hours of music.