Ireland goes Ghetto

Well, the hoodies made it to Ireland. Husband bought hoodies for the Shinkins side of the family too. And here we are, all gangsta.

Boston

Today is our last day in Boston. Tomorrow we pack up and head to Ireland. I love Boston, actually I love cities, especially old cities. They have so much more character, history and personality then the shiny new ones. Boston also reminds me very much of Dublin. The layout is very similar, messy. There is no real logical grid system like that of New York, so I am guaranteed to get very lost. But it’s only through getting lost that you find yourself in places you didn’t expect or even think to go to.

This is what happened to husband and I on Christmas Day morning. We got up early to go for a jog…. crazy? Maybe, considering there was snow everywhere and it was cold. But off we went. We headed towards a jogging trail that ran around the perimeter of a reservoir. Once we got there, we discovered it was mostly snow and ice. There was the odd stretch of a dirt and grass path peeping through, but not enough to get a good run. So we decided to just walk. At one point we spotted a big football stadium and waddled across the ice to have a nose around.

It took us a minute, but we realized we were in fact on the Boston College Campus. Home of the infamous “Doug Flutey Pass”, this will only make sense to my American friends. As you would expect on Christmas Day, the place was deserted. We had the campus all to ourselves. Huge stone buildings, giving a very serious, intimidating impression of the type of people and education that might go on here.

Close to the stadium was a long set of stone steps, all clear of snow and ice. So this was going to be our workout for the day. Running repeat steps. Which was a great idea, until you are on your 13th run up, then your starting to question your own logic.

But I managed to get some nice photos, I rarely go anywhere without my camera these days. Love the camera.

(me trying to get in agressive football stance on Boston College

Football Field)

Big Pimp'n

Here is the 2007 Christmas Family shot. Well, it’s husband’s side of the family, so technically its half the family. But if your wondering why we are all dressed in hoodies, its cos husband thought it would be a perfectly good idea to get us all hoodies for Christmas and in turn, we thought it would be perfect to wear them in our family shot. So there you go, Doyle family, gangsta style.

Only thing is, he didn't get one for himself, oops, spot the odd one out.

Donald Trump'n It.

We are currently en-route to Boston but had to make a connection at Newark, New Jersey..... booooo. But to put a positive spin on things, I am tip tapping on my slap-top (lap-top) from the Presidents Lounge. Yes, I am a high roller for a brief minute. Husband travels so much, that he has accumulated enough air miles to allow himself and a "friend", me, access to all the fancy schmancy lounges all the airports have to offer. So at least for today, I am not sitting at the gate waiting for my flight with the "common folk". I am sitting on a big comfy chair, with internet access, snack access, beverage access (alcoholic and non) and reading material access, to help ease my transition through this grueling Holiday travel process.....nice.

Excess Baggage

Days away. Christmas is just days away and in true Shinkins style, I am last minute riddled.
Husband and I are taking our show on the road this year. Christmas will be spent with his family in Boston. Then it’s onwards to Ireland to spend New Years with my family.

We’re not actually flying up to Bean Town until Christmas Eve, so right now our plan of attack is to finish getting all the gifts for his family, then worry about my family after Christmas. That and we really don’t fancy lugging suitcases full of gifts from one continent to another. Especially me. I am a serial over packer. I have never, ever learned to travel light. Which is weird, cos I travel a lot. But I’m forever bringing stuff “just in case”. For example, I better bring 3 pairs of jeans, 1. casual pair, 2.skinny, fancy going out jeans and 3. comfy travel type jeans. Honestly I would bring more but I really try to limit it to 3. Then there’s the shoes and boots. They really need a bag all to themselves there’s just so many. I have to have the ankle boots with the perfect rounded toe for my casual jeans. Then the knee-highs, its winter, I need my knee-highs, in both black and tan and lastly my Ugg type boots. Perfect for traipsing around a mall or city, basically whatever will require me to be on my feet for long periods outside in the elements. Then I may throw in a token dress, just in case husband and I end up getting a last minute invite to something that requires me to wear a dress. But I also must pack a second option, just in case its too cold or the event is too fancy for casual, but not fancy enough for a dress. So this is how my brain operates when faced with the packing.

Obviously, I will end up over my weight limit when I check in and it’s for that reason I need to choose the person I check in with very carefully. Experience has shown, at least MY experience has shown, that the male check in persons have always been more inclined to turn a blind eye to the odd 10 lb over the limit than the female persons. The men will listen to the sob story and take pity. The women will sit there stone faced, lips pursed tightly together and mouth raised a bit in one corner, waiting for me to get to the end of my lies and pleading and then say “that’ll be $75 mam, have a nice flight”. Bitch. Wait till she needs something from me one day.

So that’s where we’re at, stress all round. Last minute gifts and packing panic. I just want Christmas to be here already so the build up just ends and it’s too late. What ever we have is what we have. Then I can sleep for a few days and get ready to do it all again in Ireland!

Tuesdays

Tuesday has fast become my favorite day of the week. It’s a day off work, excellent start, but it’s also the day myself and my friend, Mike, drive down to Piedmont Park, Atlanta’s equivalent of Central Park and do a tough ass training session. And yes, I did mention that I am a “retired” athlete, so if that’s the case, why am I talking about training sessions?? Well, I have in fact retired from competing, but I’m not finding it as easy to retire from training. Initially, once I had actually decided to step away from competitive track (a horrendous, awful, emotional time in my life), I was able to hang up the runners, spikes and lycra and tell myself I was done, that I will never put that stuff on again, nor will I set foot on a track. Well, that might have lasted about 2 –3 months. When I started to lose the firmed and toned physique I had taken for granted for all those years of my career, then, I felt some sorted of action was necessary. That, and the fact that my “skinny” jeans were struggling to get past my thighs.

So out came the runners and lycra again, and living next to a National Park, I decided to start running some of the trails. Around this time too, Mike was flirting with the idea of getting himself back in shape, so we became training partners. Fast forward to today and we have competed in three 10k road races together and have plans to do some more, maybe even a marathon. So I guess you can say, Yes, I’m handling this retirement thing very well!

Anyway, on Tuesdays to mix things up a bit we head into the city and do a workout on a special half mile dirt running track they have laid out for all the active city folks. We do some repeat mile and half’s, followed by some 1 mile repeats, followed by some half mile repeats. Basically we work the crap out of ourselves, and we love it. We are not happy unless we are panned out on the ground with legs that give way once we try to stand. Adrenaline is so addictive. Parents, talk to your kids.

But as a big treat/reward for all our self abuse, we head to a little breakfast place called “The Flying Biscuit” and stuff ourselves full of eggs, pancakes and grits (creamy, sloppy, baby food type substance that I absolutely love. For all you Irish out there, it’s similar to porridge, but not exactly). We spend the whole brunch telling ourselves how much we deserve it and what an excellent, masochistic session we just endured. Once our buzz has settled and the reality of how f*#ked we are settles in, then we just wonder how we will get through the rest of the day? The answer is, in slow motion. We will be operating in slow-mo for the remainder of the day, cos all our energy was left in Piedmont Park.

But its our ritual and we love it.

Cyber Slap

If you've read my blog below, you will notice that I used a very festive picture to accompany my rant. Since I didn't have anything Christmas'y in my own photo collection, I did a "Google" search and was taken to a website where I found that adorable little Snowman, perfect, and without a second thought, I added the picture to my blog.
This morning I wake up and check my "comments". There I find the very first comment to be from a Mr. Rolf Hicker, giving me a good cyber slap for using his picture without permission.

Mr. Hicker, you are right, you absolutely deserve credit, if not an award for the cutest little Snowman I've ever seen. And know that in the future, if I need to "borrow" any other pictures for my blog, your website will be my first stop, but it will definitely have an accompanying shout out to the photographer.

So for all of you out there who love and appreciate good photos, I want you to go to http://www.hickerphoto.com/ and prepare to see some amazing shots.