Thanksgiving

After not being around for the holiday last year, I had high hopes that this year would be spectacular and I was not disappointed.  I had work through Wednesday afternoon and then Cat and I drove up to Sacramento.  It was a very long, almost 5 hour drive because everyone had the same idea as we did and were trying to get home, but we listened to music, took a break, and unfortunately for me, Cat also fell asleep a couple of times.  We eventually made it, with my brother coming in the door about 10 minutes after us.  My mom was at work but the rest of us went out to pizza for dinner, went to the store to pick up a couple of last minute things, and then came home and crashed.  We all had to be up early on Thanksgiving Day for the Folsom version of the Turkey Trot.  I had signed up my family but Cat was resistant until the last moment.  She finally decided to join in so we were awake at 7am and out the door not too long after that.

We arrived at the race site and Cat and I began to get jitters, reminding us of what it was like before competitions.  We had signed up for the race portion (my parents and brother were just taking the recreational walk) so the competitors in us were nervous and wanted to do well.  We tried to settle down by rocking out in the car (flashback to dance parties on SWG bus trips) and finally made our way to the starting line.  We had these cool little timers attached to our shoes so it didn't matter how many people we lined up behind because the time didn't start or end until you ran through the designated area.  We were near the front and I managed to stay up there but somewhere along the way I lost Cat.  There were parts of the race that were a struggle but I set a personal record for a 5K and finished 6th in my division...not too shabby :)  I walked back a ways after I was done, met up with Cat, turned around and ran the rest of the way with her.  We were both happy it was over and I'm actually excited to see if there is something similar coming to town around Christmas (I don't think I can say the same for Cat...she was a little traumatized).

The family met up at the house, showered, and then my mom and I began cooking.  We cycled through a couple of movies and everyone was pretty lazy but it made for a nice afternoon.  We were all looking forward to the evening meal and our tummies were grumbling but it was worth it because when we finally sat down there was a huge spread and we were all able to stuff ourselves silly.  Cat got to experience dinner with my family and she held her own as they cracked jokes, etc.  While we tried to get over our dinner coma we brought out the game Apples To Apples and somehow Cat whipped us all.  Dessert was set out and everyone enjoyed pumpkin bread, apple cake, and a pumpkin pie, though I'm pretty sure none of us were actually hungry at that point.  Kenny and Cat were able to stay awake through Ratatouille but the rest of us fell into bed and dreamed on full stomachs.

Yesterday Cat and I ventured around town after slowly getting up and eating breakfast (more like brunch at that point).  We visited my mom at work and had high hopes of shopping but we were both tired and ended up not feeling the mall so we left to go to Sutter Street in old Folsom.  It was much calmer and we enjoyed looking at all the little antique shops and finding a small café for a coffee break.  Cat had scheduled a massage for 3:30pm so I drove her over there and lo-and-behold they had a second appointment open at that time so she convinced me to take it.  We had picked up coupons after the race and one of them was for a 80-minute massage for $49!  It really was an awesome deal and post-race/after spotting for months and months it felt really good.

We got back to the house and had leftovers for dinner (woohoo!) while watching Elf with my parents.  Then we dressed in gloves and scarves and went back out to the Folsom ice rink, set up outside for the Christmas season.  We had a good time and there was a lot of laughter; though there were many close calls, luckily neither of us wiped out.  We tried to get a couple of people to come out with us afterwards (one of the guys currently on the men's team was in El Dorado Hills and then I have a former club teammate who's home from Utah) but that didn't work and so we just walked around listening to the various live cover bands playing in different bars.  We ended up heading back to the house and being that it was close to 11pm it didn't take long for our heads to find our pillows.

Cat got up really early this morning and hitched a ride back south but I decided to stay through the weekend because there are still some things I want to do; my mom and I are getting ready to head up to Apple Hill and then I will be meeting up with some former teammates for dinner.  I'll be hitting the road tomorrow, probably in the morning if I can get myself out of bed, because I'm hoping not to have a traumatizing experience like I did on the way up here.