Weekend Blues

This weekend went by far too quickly. There were so many things going on, and it felt like we had to go go go just to do a few of them. Weekends are so much different than they used to be. In my mid-twenties I used to sleep in and casually go with the flow of whatever else came my way. In stark contrast, my thirties have been spent getting up earlier and earlier to squeeze in as much as possible. Nonetheless, we had a pretty awesome weekend — despite a few little hiccups.

Friday night started with kickball. If you caught my mention a few weeks back, I joined a kickball team to avenge my middle school non-athletic self. I was last chosen at everything, so I figured after two years of CrossFit, surely I’d be better at school-yard sports like kickball. Well, the answer so far has been “kinda.” While I can run, dive, catch and throw, I’m still really awkward.

This was definitely not helped by the wet fields from the recent rain. My right leg slipped out from under me twice while running to first base and then trying to catch a ball in the outfield and I pulled a muscle in my leg. With HOA in just over a month, I was nearly in tears as I pulled into the driveway and limped into the kitchen toward an eye-rolling husband.

Neil wrapped my leg with ice and made me coffee and I spent the rest of the night laid up on the couch watching Netflix feeling completely sorry for myself.

I got up early and dragged myself to the gym around 6. Esther and I had made an early workout date since we both had obligations later that day. Unfortunately we’d both injured ourselves, so our work was pretty sad.

I did easy snatch practice at 55 lbs and a 12-minute EMOM of alternating 3-5 reps ring dip and pull-up. To say I get easily frustrated at having to back off my training would be an understatement. As you can see, it reads all over my face.

After my pitiful workout, I headed home to shower and clean while waiting for our guests to arrive. Neil’s mom, best friend and wife joined us this year for the annual Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival. We’ve been going now since 2009, and it’s become a traditional way for us to celebrate the beginning of Fall.

This year, they moved the location from downtown to a local park, and while the official verdict is still out, we were not fans. The festival was tucked into the back corner of the park at the bottom of a hill, creating an accessibility nightmare for those with any physical disability. Additionally, there weren’t enough beer/food vendors for the amount of people they sold tickets to and seemingly everyone was smoking and littering the ground with cigarette butts. Lines for the bathroom were excessive, and the sound quality of some of the performances were terrible.

We heard staff remark several times that the festival drew 3x the people they expected, but then why not cap tickets? And surely you’ve looked at your past attendance to draw some sort of projected growth? If you’re not local, I apologize for the rant, I just had to get it out there!

The best part of the festival aside from so much quality time with friends and family was the Ozark Mountain Biscuit truck. Hands down the best food we had.

I opted for the ‘Sooie Pig’ — pulled pork piled on a biscuit with slaw and sauce. The contrast of the crumbly, buttery biscuit against the sweet and saucy BBQ and tang of the slaw was pure heaven. Tina opted for the Biscuits and Gravy, which was equally, if not more delicious. I’ve seen the truck around town, but this was my first time actually sampling the food. I’ve really been missing out.

Sunday was spent trying to catch up on work and getting ready for the work week. I did cover Open Gym hours at Fringe and of course ended up staying far longer than I intended. Caught some awesome footage of a few of our girls learning how to snatch:

Since I don’t have any real video/images from my early days, I love trying to capture as many of theirs as possible. The look on Tayler’s face when she does a few reps and then puts the bar down is priceless. I love being a part of such a great community, and it’s so exciting to watch them learn from the same person who taught me.

So I have a bum leg but we had a great time and have a lot of great stuff going on. Guess I can’t complain too much right?