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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The weather is warming up and it's almost time for summer! This means it's time for swimming, camping, bonfires and other summertime adventures. Speaking of summertime adventures, last July I had a little adventure of my own. See below.

Once upon a time, I was working on a film set in Alpine. We were up on the mountain and it took several windy residential roads to get to our basecamp. Every so often, I would have to exit our mountain hideaway and go into civilization to make copies of stuff.

One of these times, something strange happened.

I was in my super presh little jeep headed to copy call sheets and I was stopped at a stop sign. An SUV was coming so I waited patiently for it to pass so I could pull out behind it. As this SUV passed, though, I thought I saw something strange. Time slowed as it drove by, left to right, and I was 95% there was a cat on the roof. A cat clinging on for dear life, mind you.

I pulled behind the SUV and my fears were confirmed. There was a fluffy white cat having a panic attack on top of the car. After the initial "huh... that's a cat" wore off, I was struck with the definite possibility that this cat belonged to some precious child and it would be flung from the SUV on the highway and baby tears would be the only result. I decided this was not a good plan.

I started honking my horn like a psycho. What else could I do? I rolled down my window and waved my hands. After a moment, the SUV began to slow. It pulled over onto the side of the road. I pulled up next to it.

A mom and her 3 children looked at me like I was insane.

"Do you know you have a cat on your car?"

I pointed weakly.

The mom let out an exasperated sigh. I had a feeling this was a repeat offence. Wily kitty.

"Oh goodness. Thank you."

Having delivered my intended message and not really sure what else I could do, I pulled out. But looking in my rear view mirror as I drove away, I could see the kids getting out of the car and trying to figure out the best way to remove the terrified animal. I smiled to myself. Good deed AND super strange situation. Awesome.


That was one of last year's adventures. I hope this year will hold more and I hope you have some good ones too :).

Monday, March 14, 2011

Rex Lee!

So.... Hey!

I ran a 5K on Saturday. It was the Rex Lee Run 5K -- a run BYU hosts to help sponsor cancer research. I got a shirt and helped fight cancer! yay!

Now... I'm not a runner. This will come as no surprise to you. However, I don't want to think of myself as lazy and unsporty (nonsporty? insportatious?) because then I feel all sedentary and I worry that someone is going to use me as an example in one of those cynical documentaries about obesity in America. Hence I joined my track team. Hence I ran a 5K. Hence I try(ish) to limit my pizza consumption.

The race was Saturday so last Thursday I went to Gold's and did a test 5K. I jogged a lot and walked a lot and when all was said and done, my time was slow. But I had good feelings about Saturday. The 5K was do-able and with people around and a cool shirt on, I would probably be a bit faster.

I was gonna ROCK this 5K.

On Saturday morning, I woke up at 7am. The race began at 9am, but I wanted to get a good parking spot and ALSO be a bit early. Oh! Also I was tricky and put on all my running clothes the previous night. So all I did was wake up, brush my teeth, wash my face and go to the track.

I was like an hour and a half early.

Plus I had pre-registered so I already had my number and shirt. Needless to say... there wasn't really anyone else who was as enthusiastic about being retardedly early for the 5K. So I found myself wandering around looking like an idiot waiting for someone to entertain me. I pinned my number (in the running world this is called a "bib", which is weird and disconcerting) to my tummy then went and sat in my car, reading my book until it was an appropriate time to join the other runners.

But I had a rockin' parking spot, peeps. This was important because I figured running a 5K would be enough physical exertion and once I was done running I didn't want to have to walk an additional mile to my car.

At like 8:30, I left my car and joined the masses of people walking to the BYU outdoor track. We sat in the bleachers and listened to the sons of Rex Lee talk about their dad. Then we prayed and went to the starting line. There were a lot of people running the 5K. We all stood in a weird crowd, facing different ways, unsure of which way we were supposed to run when the shot was heard. I looked around at all the people I was up against. I was sizing them up, trying to decide if I would finish before or after them.

There were little old ladies, moms with strollers, super athletic people, super hot people, super hot athletic people, 8-year-olds, and people who looked kinda like me. People who were thinking "maybe I'll run a 5K today". But everyone, despite their athletic prowess, was startled and began to run when we heard the BANG!

I started jogging. I jogged and jogged. There were people lined up along the road, cheering us on and waiting for us to slap their hands as we passed. There were people taking photos. It was cool. I enjoyed being a part of the herd of people wearing a cool t-shirt and running for a cure.

Before too long I got tired and I started walking. I got passed by lots of people, but by this point I wasn't too worried about looking cool or athletic. I was doing the Rex Lee Run! And that was all I'd set out to do.

By the time I was pretty close to the end, I was tired and sweaty, but I felt good. I felt good about what I was doing for my body and what I was doing with the community.

However, it was around then that I was passed by a sweet old lady.

I then quickly forgot about my happy community feeling and decided that I needed to beat that old lady.

I pushed through my fatigue and ran. We were just a quarter of a mile away from the finish and I passed her. Then I ran through the finish, happy to be done running and happy that I was slightly faster than the lovely, genteel woman who came through the finish slightly after me.

Additionally I beat my test 5K time by 3 minutes. So basically I'm an athlete that gets faster by the minute. Look our for me, peeps.

Look. Out.

I then got in my very closely parked car and came home.

Now... I know 5K is nothing. People run this far and much farther everyday as part of a daily workout routine. Some people eat 5Ks for breakfast. But running much farther than a 5K makes me want to cry and barf. And cry-barfing doesn't sound very fun. So, marathon runners out there, I salute you!

Additionally, sweet old ladies, moms with strollers and 8-year-olds that run these things, I salute you. You are so impressive to wannabe athletes like me.

Run on, peeps. Run on.

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