this is the one i printed out and took around on tuesday:<\/p>\n
Happy birthday Dad!<\/b><\/p>\n
\tToday, May 3rd, is Dad\u2019s birthday. We asked what he wanted to do for dinner, and he said \u201cI\u2019m not telling.\u201d So, we\u2019re meeting at Mom and Dad\u2019s house at 6:30, for Dad\u2019s surprise party that only he knows about. <\/p>\n
\tThis sums up my Dad; you never know what he\u2019s going to do next. <\/p>\n
\tDad is the most creative person I\u2019ve ever met. He and Mom met at the University of Illinois, in Art School, when they were both painting majors. Dad taught art at Jefferson Middle School for 12 years, but said after a while it became more like babysitting instead of teaching, so he quit. He\u2019s done various things since then, including working for the phone company, and then starting Ruby Sled Antique Store, which my brother now runs. <\/p>\n
\tBut mostly, Dad is about all things creative. I\u2019m sure he was a fabulous art teacher, and I wish I\u2019d been able to sit in on one of his classes. He\u2019s made jewelry, he paints, and he makes prints. Sometimes he\u2019ll take an art class at Lincoln Land, just to have some studio space to work in. Mom recently talked him into joining the <\/p>\n
Prairie Art Alliance, so he always has a painting hanging there. But Dad\u2019s always been about the process of creation, not about the selling aspect of things.<\/p>\n
\tIt\u2019s not just art pieces that he creates, either; he does everything in a creative way. When we were little, one year after a particularly heavy snowstorm, he helped us build a giant snow\u2026chicken. Dad loves to cook, coming up with strange and unusual flavor combinations. He was in lots of shows at the Springfield Muni and the Theatre Centre, back when it was called The Theater Guild. He was in \u201cGeorge M,\u201d playing the father, and had to learn to tap dance for the part. He mastered it. He was in \u201cBest Little Whorehouse in Texas\u201d the last time they did it there, and I\u2019ve always regretted living far away and missing his performance. There\u2019s a picture of him in the show hanging on my parents\u2019 wall, and you can tell he was a riot. In \u201cThe Most Happy Fella\u201d at Muni, he played the goofy comic lead named Herman, and I love to hear the story about how, right before he had to go onstage and sing a song, he slammed his hand into a nail sticking out of a cart. He went on and did the number, full of his usual wit and comic energy, despite his excruciating puncture wound pain and gushing blood.<\/p>\n
\tI convinced Dad to play a part in the movie I made, \u201cHope\u2019s Happy Birthday.\u201d He gave it his all, despite the fact that part of the time we shot in intensely humid 100-degree heat in Austin, TX. He played a crotchety grandpa, but Dad is anything but crotchety. He\u2019s the most kindhearted, gentle and good-natured, easygoing human I know.<\/p>\n
\tThe only time you\u2019d doubt me on this is at a restaurant. Dad, like lots of naturally thin people, loves to eat. I\u2019m sure any wait staff who have encountered him firmly believe in the crotchety thing. Dad takes his time eating, savoring every bite, and inevitably an unsuspecting server will try to take his plate. DON\u2019T TOUCH THAT! Dad will cry. He\u2019s never actually threatened to stab anybody with his butter knife, but they quickly learn to let him eat in peace. <\/p>\n
As long as you don\u2019t try to take his food away from him, Dad is kindness personified.<\/p>\n
And today is his birthday, so if you see him, please wish him well.<\/p>\n
Besides Dad\u2019s birthday, the other big thing in my life right now is completing my first-ever triathlon on Sunday May 1st. I say \u201cfirst\u201d triathlon, but that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019ll be another one. The experience was actually not bad, at least thinking about it now. It was a little triathlon, the \u201cTry the Tri\u201d which took place at the Fit Club South. 150 yards of swimming, 5 miles biking, 1.25 mile run. This is nothing compared to other triathlons, which are more like a 600-yard swim, 28 mile bike, 5k run. Or even more, in some triathlons. Last year, after watching a certain MNB compete in one of these grueling events, I vowed I\u2019d never, ever try that.<\/p>\n
Never say never. This year, a fellow, let\u2019s just call him\u2026B\u2026casually asked if I\u2019d like to Try the Tri, since it was no big deal. I thought, well, since it\u2019s swimming in the Fit Club pool instead of Lake Michigan\u2026why not? <\/p>\n
I trained – swam laps in the pool, and rode my bike, along with running, and felt pretty good about trying the tri. The night before the race, though, I was wide awake at 11:30, worrying about that swim. It was a general, unspecified swimming fear, maybe dating back to flunking swimming lessons when I was seven.<\/p>\n
The swim was pretty bad. My problem was over-enthusiasm (I realize now that most of my problems in life are self-induced). I started swimming like a maniac, and by the second lap I was tired. The water, which had been smooth as glass when I practiced, was murky and more choppy than Lake Michigan, or maybe the ocean, with enormous waves created by the other zealous swimmers. I kept swallowing mouthfuls of water, and my goggles filled up. <\/p>\n
By the end, I was barely able to drag myself out of the pool. I ran outside to the parking lot to pull on clothes for the bike ride, and it was very cold and windy. I didn\u2019t want to take time to dry off, so I struggled into my long stretchy pants. I\u2019m sure the officials standing around were highly amused by my hopping all around.<\/p>\n
The bike ride was OK; at least I wasn\u2019t swimming. On the way out, there was a strong headwind, but I decided I wasn\u2019t going to kill myself, and coasted quite a few times. People passed me, but on the way back to the Fit Club, I managed to pass a few people myself.<\/p>\n
Finally, the run. Normally I run from three to seven miles a day, so 1.25 should be nothing. But when I got off the bike, my legs were like jelly. I huffed and puffed and complained my way around the course. There were 95 participants, but by this time were very spread out, so I didn\u2019t encounter many other runners. I passed a couple of women who had swooped past me on their bikes earlier. Ha! I had to stop and tie my shoe, which probably saved me, because even though I was gasping for breath, I didn\u2019t want to stop. Fumbling for the shoestrings gave my legs a needed break.<\/p>\n
B. stood at the sidelines, cheering me on, as I started running\u2026he\u2019d finished well before me. And there he was again at another part of the course, shouting \u201cYou\u2019re almost there!\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cEasy for you to say,\u201d I snarled. I kept running\u2026and running\u2026surely this was TEN miles, not one and a quarter. But then, finally, THE FINISH LINE! One final burst of energy, and I\u2019d done it.<\/p>\n
Whew. <\/p>\n
We waited to hear the race results. B. came in ninth overall! He\u2019s fast. He also came in second in his age category, and got a nice certificate that proved it. His age category is chock full of extremely competitive and fast fellows, so this was something.<\/p>\n
And then they read off the winners in my age category. Third place, second place, and I was idly speculating how fast these women must have run\u2026and then they announced\u2026FIRST PLACE, GRACE SMITH.<\/p>\n
B. kept saying he wished he\u2019d had a camera to take a picture of my face. I was sure there must have been another Grace Smith. I WON??? <\/p>\n
There weren\u2019t a lot of women in my age category, but B. said that doesn\u2019t matter, the fact is I beat the others. I do have to admit it felt good. I\u2019ve never won a physical competition; participating is a new concept for me. <\/p>\n
On one hand, I feel there\u2019s nowhere to go but down, because I can\u2019t imagine I\u2019ll come in first again in anything. But on the other hand, who\u2019d have believed I\u2019d ever come in first at all?<\/p>\n
Never say never. I do have a sudden feeling that I can accomplish anything right now, which is a novelty. I Tried the Tri, and I won!<\/p>\n
Ok then,<\/p>\n
Grace soon to conquer the world so you\u2019d better watch out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
this is the one i printed out and took around on tuesday: Happy birthday Dad! Today, May 3rd, is Dad\u2019s birthday. We asked what he wanted to do for dinner, and he said \u201cI\u2019m not telling.\u201d So, we\u2019re meeting at Mom and Dad\u2019s house at 6:30, for Dad\u2019s surprise party that only he knows about. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6JLYy-2v","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}