My NEW lucky number!

Well, things are just trucking along right now. I feel oddly detached from reality - on the one hand I want race day to arrive NOW! (because its been more than two years since I signed up to do an ironman initially...and gosh darn it, I've been doing ALL my training and I'm just ready ready ready!), but on the other hand I feel like I'm in a slow moving train wreck. I know the crash is going to happen, I'm bracing for impact, and...

Your guess is as good as mine.

Other happenings? Well, race numbers were posted, and I'm number 2059. Can you guess what my NEW lucky number is? You would be correct if you guessed #2059. Oddly enough, when I learned they had been posted, I went to the Coeur d'Alene website and...searched...and searched...and searched. No numbers. I thought about sending in a question to the help desk or something - but what does one say, exactly?

Um, hello? I'm looking for my race number...can you help me...?

Yeah. Somehow I didn't think that would fly. Eventually I remembered that numbers were listed on the participant page. Brilliant. I felt just brilliant. Yes, even though I've been racing for a few years, I still make mistakes and forget stuff.

In other news, my passport arrived! YEA! And FYI for those of you leaving the country to Canada...getting OUT isn't the problem. Its getting back IN where the passport is necessary. Actually, this is a big deal, as I'm going on a post-Ironman cruise up to Alaska and the Pacific Northwest with the family.

Now that was a trip down memory lane.... A few weeks ago I dug out my old passport, figuring that it was still good. Nope - expired this past January. But I got to see my 17-year old self a la passport photo.

One word: ouch!

You know when you go through that phase...that socially awkward, nerdy, pimple-faced, coke-glasses, fat, double-chinned, weird phase that lasts from about 11-18...? Yeah, well - my old passport photo captured the worst of those years. I remember taking off my glasses for the shot - thinking it would help. Um, not so much.

But looking back - it DID remind me of a lot of the tough times I went through in high school (who didn't?), and how GRATEFUL I am for who I have become. Because if I could give the girl I once was any advice from her future self - I would tell her to hang in there, stay strong. Ignore the cliques, embrace the inner dork, and never loose that creative individuality or compassion for others. Times will be tough...but they'll make you strong, make you a better person, and ultimately, make you happier. And you'll be so much ahead of the game for having gone through it all.

Oh - but I would tell her to lay off the open faced peanut butter sandwiches late at night.... those certainly didn't help...

Fast forward ten years (or so) to the present day. The girl who once was is (mostly) grown up - and yes, the chubby cheeks have (mostly) gone away, but the inner dork still remains (proudly!). I was quite proud of my new passport photo, though. No blinking, my teeth aren't weird, the hair is (mostly) in place...

It was interesting to compare the two, though. Upon return home from the post office, I showed Nathaniel. His comment?

"Wow. You look tired in the new one."

Well thanks, Sweetheart.

Nothing about wow, you look great! now or gee, you've really grown up and aged well, or holy cow - you've only got one chin! Nope. He thinks I look tired.

Note to self: take passport photo when NOT training for Ironman.

Oh well. At least my drivers license is decent. And I whip that thing out a lot more often than I'm planning on using the passport - so there you go.

For now, that's where its at.

My big gets shipped out tomorrow...but I'll save that for...tomorrow. Right now, I'll just focus on the present. Today. And try not to think too much about what's around the corner. But whenever I do - I'll just think about how #2059 is my new lucky number.

And THAT is a good thing.