Facie’s Ramblings

I have a few thoughts on my noodle today, things I just don't get. Older kids and public restrooms Yesterday, as I was walking out of the stall in a hospital restroom, I saw a boy who appeared to be 9- or 10-years old at the sink with a woman. I tried not to stare, and if I had been feeling better, I may have made some off-handed comment. I really, really wanted to know the woman's reasoning behind bringing a boy that old into a woman's restroom. What does she think would happen if she allowed him to go into the men's restroom while she waited outside? Most boys I know don't even wash their hands, so he probably would have been in there for only two or three minutes... Hospitals and communications I spent about 10 hours at the hospital today, probably about 6 hours more than I needed to. I hung out with my dad until he went into surgery around 9:40 a.m.. The woman in the waiting room told me he would probably be done in 1 to 1.5 hours, the doctor would talk t...

Last week I posted about how I thought I should still be able to run as fast as I did a few years ago; I just cannot seem to accept that I am getting older and things don't work as well/fast as they used to. But my bigger concern is just how forgetful and absent-minded I have become over the past few years. Isn't 40 a little young to be losing your mind?! Case in point: As I was putting away groceries from the seventh circle of hell today (i.e., Walmart), I did not see my grapefruit juice carton that I had had juice from this morning in the fridge. I looked to see if I had left it on the table. I checked in the cupboard, as I have been known to put milk and juice in once or twice. I also looked to see if I put it on the baker's rack with the cereal. I even checked the garbage, even though I was quite certain the carton was still about a third full. But that juice was nowhere to be found. About 30 minutes later, hubby comes into the kitchen as I was unloading the dishwas...

I spent chunks of time today writing a post on this morning's Race for Pace. I would add more details and then take something way. Ultimately, I ended up boring myself, which means I would probably put most of you to sleep. So here is an abbreviated post, in a list. It was probably about 35-degrees at race time, but sunny (it was 29 degrees when I got there 45 minutes earlier). My attire of a long-sleeved t-shirt, a windbreaker, yoga pants, socks as gloves, and a knee brace (one of those flexible-stretchy things) from early this century turned out to be the right wardrobe. I was relatively pain-free the entire time (knee brace was a good call); even my feet hurt very little (though during the first mile, two of my toes were numb from the cold!) I started off strong, kept a pretty steady pace, struggled a bit near the end up the last hill, but "kicked it in" as best as I could the last tenth of a mile. Having my friend Diane there cheering me on really helped. As I ...

On Saturday, God willin' and the creek don't rise, I will be running in my first 5K in two years. I started slacking off on my running last year, pretty much all the way through the beginning of this school year. But when school started back up this year, I rededicated myself to running at least once a week, and I have done that, for the most part. So I decided to turn this running into something that "counts" at least once this year. And since I have done the Race for Pace before, and it is only a few miles from my house, it seemed like a good race to do. New for me this year is the age group I will be in: 40 to 44, which apparently qualifies me as a master. Huh?! What the what? Whatcha you talkin' 'bout Willis?! To me, 40 is not old to be a runner. I see runners of all ages. Granted there are many more younger than older runners, but just looking at the results from last year's race, I noticed that 42 out of 135 males and 32 out of 100 females were...

Over the years, Kohl's has been one of my favorite department stores. The biggest reason? It is a stand-alone store and not in a mall. Have I mentioned how much I hate malls? And shopping in general, for that matter? Back in August, I found a nice hooded navy cardigan for J that I thought would be great for school and that she actually liked (the non-hooded version she was much less impressed with). Unfortunately, the medium (8 to 10) size barely fit her, and there was no large. But Kohl's has this neat little kiosk in its store that allows you to order the size or color of an item that is not in the store, and said item will be shipped to your house for free. And for charge customers, it could not be easier to do. You just pop your Kohl's card in, and your info is already there; you just have to touch your way to the item you want. I ordered the large (12 to 14) hooded navy cardigan at the kiosk in about two minutes flat, and was almost excited when it arrived at my ho...

In Thursday's edition of the P-G, there was this article about a former borough manager who had stolen money from Braddock, a financially strapped community just outside the city limits. This woman has been repaying her debt very little by little (in about 1.5 years' time, she has paid $30 out of the $170k) because she has had trouble finding suitable employment, thanks to her felony conviction. That dilemma was quite timely for me as just over a week ago I posted a blog about giving people (criminals) second chances. In that post, I wondered if someone had redeemed himself, should he get another chance? And I had questioned, mostly seriously, if someone could not go on to get a job after prison, then what was the point of getting out of prison. But this woman's owing so much and paying so little was not what really struck a cord with me. Rather it was this sentence: "If she can't pay Braddock back in dollars, she should pay it in community service," Mr. Fett...