Oct. 31- The Finish LIne

I crossed the finish line tonight both with my first ever 5k race and with my month of challenges...yeah me! It was such a good feeling tonight after the race was over. I was very anxious all day long worrying that I would fall, throw my knee out, or collapse. But none of those things happened and I did finish. I've never been a runner so starting at age 50 has been by far my biggest challenge, but also my most rewarding in so many ways. As for the other challenges this month, some were hard for me and I don't think I'll do them again (drive over the sunshine skyway brige) and some were simple and fun and I'm glad that I learned them. My favorite new thing is to text because it's pretty easy and kind of fun. It's perfect for those times when you just want to say something quick without making a big deal out of it. As for Facebook, it's probably going to take a backseat for me. It's too time consuming to do everyday so maybe I'll catch up every week or so.

I did much better than I had expected with the race as my adrenaline and slight competitiveness were running high. I really thought it might take me an hour since my knee has been really painful this past week but I ended up coming in second place in my division (that's the little plaque I'm holding) with a time of 40min. Maybe I'll make it a tradtion to run every Halloween. A big thank you to Tom for being my cheerleader and my photographer during the race. He would pop up at different places along the route to cheer me on. He's also been very supportive of my quest this month even though I've been spending more time on this computer than with him in the evenings. You're the best Sweetie :)

For all of my faithful followers a big thank you for caring enough about me to tune in daily and read my blog. It's been fun for the most part but I have to say, it's been a long month and I'm kind of glad it's over. I'd like to challenge all of you to do something every day that scares you just a little (boo!) because that's what keeps us all young at heart. Happy Halloween to my family and friends...you're the best!

Oct 30- The neighborhood Halloween Party

We got the invitation about 3 weeks ago and I thought to myself that this would be an excellent challenge. I've not had much of a chance to meet our neighbors so the idea of meeting them for the first time, all at once, while dressed in costume, sounded like torture. So I made Tom RSVP that we would be there.

Last years Halloween Party was in Colorado with a group of my co-workers and that will more than likely be nothing like tonight's party. I can't pre-judge since I don't know a soul who'll be there, but from my casual observations I'd say that the crowd was going to be middle aged and ready for bed by 10pm. I was half right, they were all between 40 and 50 with teenage or college age children, but they were not ready for bed when we left at 11pm. Some were heading to other parties and others were going to a local brew pub for a costume contest. What's wrong with us...we couldn't get home fast enough to get to bed.

We kept getting introduced to everyone like this, "have you met Colorado yet?, they're actually normal". So finally I had to ask and was told that everyone else who has moved onto our street has not been normal. For the next 2 hours I heard about every freak, drug addict, jail bird, womanizing neighbor who is apparently living just a few houses from us. How have I missed all of this gossip living and breathing around me? Why is this the first time I've heard about our semi crazy neighbors who share a street with us?

Oh, and everyone else is from Buffalo. I guess you move to Tampa from Buffalo because it's a huge upgrade but if you move from Colorado there must be something wrong with you. We were asked that too. All in all I did feel like we met some very fun and interesting people even if they were from Buffalo. Neighborhood gossip is part of the fun of living in burbs, right? I'm just a little more paranoid now about "Jimmy" who is due of out prison anyday now and has been known to pick fights with the woman in the neighborhood. Where have I moved to? I know it's Florida but it's still the USA, right? So bizarre.

Oct. 29- Cooking Challenge

I don't cook. I bake, but I don't cook. I hate it actually and it really intimidates me to have to cook for other people. I even hate the grocery store because it overwhelms me with all the choices today...seriously how many different kinds of canned tomatoes do we need? I get so distracted at the store that I usually end up leaving with very strange combinations of things and nothing to really make a meal out of. Lucky for me Tom cooks and he's quite good at it. He even likes to go to the store which is why he's really my night in shining armor.

It's my turn to bring in breakfast for the morning crew at work tomorrow which is about 10-12 people. I would normally run to Panera and grab a coffee cake and some fruit and call it done. But since I'm trying to force myself to do new things this month I must try making a real recipe from scratch. I didn't want anything too hard so I searched for a recipe on the Food Network and found a breakfast casserole from Emeril Lagrasse. I had none of the ingredients so my first step was to make myself go to the store. UGH! It took forever because of course tonight is the night when all good parents are running to the store for those last minue Halloween treats for the school party tomorrow. Long, long lines at the check outs almost had me backing out of this challenge, but I stayed on task and made it through.

The recipe called for cooked sausage and I don't ever touch or cook meat because If I have to watch it cooking, I can't eat it. So I cheated a little and asked Tom to do this part for me. I did do the rest though...cracked the eggs, shredded the cheese, chopped the green onion and sliced the bread. I assembled it all in a large casserole pan and placed it in the fridge for overnight. Tomorrow when I get up I'll bake it and take it to work. I don't know yet if it's going to be edible but I did my best. My co-workers are expecting Panera so I hope I don't disappoint. Maybe I can step up to a dinner party next...nah, probably not.

Oct 28-For my friends in Colorado

I don’t normally allow myself to be goaded into anything, but when I was back visiting my friends in Colorado a few weeks ago they gave me a hard time about something. After a lot of thinking and pondering the situation, I took it to heart and decided that they were right. I did need to throw caution to the wind and allow myself a little raunchiness in the privacy of my own home. So, for all of my fellow Crate Crazies who thought I was nuts for not having done this sooner…this is for you. I’m about to strip down to nothing, turn off all lights out by my pool and very, very quietly slip into the dark water. Yes, I’m going to go skinny dipping in my own backyard! Yikes! O.K…wish me luck, here I go!

I got out of my clothes, put on a robe, turned out every possible light source coming from the house, and slid outside and sat next to the pool with my legs dangling in. I noticed that it wasn't as dark as I had hoped because the night was clear and the moon was bright. It shone like a big bright beakon on our pool. Geez, give me a break! "Whoo, whoo, 50 year old naked lady about to get into her pool...everyone stop what they're doing and look" was what the moon was saying. I didn't let it stop me though.... I DID IT!! I threw off my robe and carefully slid into the slightly cold water and swam from one end of the pool to the other. It was awesome and invigorating and the most liberating thing I've done in years. But, it was chilly so I got out quick. I did it and that's all that matters.

Let me just say that I’ve only done this one other time in my life and I was much, much younger and slightly intoxicated. I still feel guilty about the fence damage we did in order to enter the neighborhood pool after hours, but boy what a memory! Those of you who are reading this and were a part of that night as well, we need to make a pact to let go more often and enjoy the little things in life…like skinny dipping! It’s good for the soul!

Oct.27-Exploring new territory

Today was my day off from work so I decided to make myself drive around in new parts of the city that I hadn't been in before. Since we still haven't found the perfect neighborhood to call home, I picked out two more to check out. The first one I went to was in the very southern part of the St. Pete's Beach area called Pass-A-Grille. I had heard that it felt like a small town and all the houses were walkable to the beach. I couldn't find any houses online that were within our price range which should have been a clue for me...but it wasn't. I went anyway and spent 50 min. just getting there.

It was a super quaint beach town with a few cute boutiques which I milled around in for a bit. There were a smattering of restaurants that were all mom and pop looking. The beach was peaking out from behind the tall grassy oats which helped give the town that old fashioned feel and there were no high rise hotels or condos. I'm not sure how much the houses were selling for but from what I could guess, not in our price range. I'm pretty sure that it would take at least 1/2 million to get anything decent. Yikes!!

So, moving on, I landed in another "quaint bay town" called Gulfport. In order to get to Gulfport you have to drive through several blocks of very run down neighborhoods and strip malls that were all about the pawn shop, cashing your check before you get paid and wiring money to other countries. Not really want I want to drive past on my way to and from work everyday. I should have known better and cut my loses before venturing any further into the abyss, but I persevered. Surely there's one town in Tampa that we could feel a kinship with. When I finally made it to Gulfport I was slightly surprised in the cute little town that finally appeared. There were a few blocks of boutique shops and restaurants along the edge of the bay. The signs hanging up said they had friday night art walks which sounded like fun. Realistically, there were obviously no neighborhood rules because about a 1/3 of the houses were decent and you could tell the owners took pride in their town but the rest were looking neglected to the point of looking abandoned. Probably not going to invest our money in that town either.

I did my due diligence and made the effort to scout out other areas of Tampa. I will go back to Pass-A-Grille to spend time at the beach and maybe do the shops again. I might do the artwalk at Gulfport too, but neither will be our hometown. I must keep looking.

Oct.26- No rita tonight

Tonight was mexican food night at the Shirkey/Porterfield house. I enjoy eating mexican food mostly because of all the melted cheese but I also enjoy it because it's usually being consumed alongside a refreshing margarita. But tonight, I challenged myself to have my usual cheese and tomato quesadilla with a side of chips and salsa and instead of sipping on the always easy to drink lime margarita, I forced myself to be content with water. Yes, boring ol' lukewarm water. The reason it was lukewarm is that we've been without a fridge since last friday when we came home from work to find ours leaking all over the kitchen floor. We did get a replacement delivered tonight, but the ice is not usable until it runs through a days worth of cycles. So, it was mexican food with a glass of lukewarm water to wash it down with. Yummo!

I gave myself this challenge because I am trying to get myself back in shape this month and we all know that one tiny margarita is adding a lot of excess calories to your meal. I don't know if this is true, because I've never really wanted to know the truth, but someone once told me that one margarita had about 600 calories...amazing! Isn't that about the same as a big slice of chocolate cake? Why would I ever pick the margarita when I could have chocolate cake?

So, I'm trying to be really good and limit myself to just a few indulgences of the tequilla kind from time to time. And, just because I'm having mexican food doesn't mean that I have to pair it with my favorite relaxation beverage. Even had I allowed myself to have the margarita tonight, it would have been sans ice anyway and how refreshing is that? Challenge accomplished!

Oct. 25th-Full exposure

I intentionally put this challenge off until later in the month hoping that my new daily work outs would make it more bearable...or rather, bare-able. Today I challenged myself to stand fully naked in front of a mirror for a solid 5 minutes without turning away or rolling my eyes. I wanted to do this because for the last few years I've had the hardest time getting used to how many changes have occurred to my physical appearance. The sagging, stretched out skin with the lumps and bumps in all the wrong places has been quite frightening.

This was going to be one of the hardest challenges I'm asking myself to do. I try really hard not to catch a glimpse of myself after getting out of the shower for fear I'll be horrified. As a pretty modest person I don't spend a lot of time walking around naked...I actually never do. But I've come to the realization that my body is only going to get worse so if I can't embrace it now how will I ever be able to?

So I did try my best today but I only lasted 3 minutes instead of the 5 I wanted to do and I did start doing leg lifts and squats to try and tighten things up while I stood there. I didn't roll my eyes at myself, but it was a tiny bit pitiful. Why don't I feel any different inside than I did when I was a teenager, but on the outside it's a whole different story? Mom always said that your mind might still be acting and thinking like you're 21 but your body is constantly evolving into someone else. Then one day you wake up and you're 70 and when you look in the mirror you can't really find yourself in the image at all.

I guess the best approach is to either throw away all of our mirrors and just focus on the person inside...or, age gracefully and accept that what's inside is much more important than what's outside anyway so why let it get the best of you.