night before!

So, a miracle happened. The nail lady, and my blessed saint of a hair dresser both worked on me at the same time. My entire head is now ultra violet, and my nails are "black tie optional", a dark purple. I am a goth princess! Or something.

I had a great time with A&A at the Greek Festival, and we noshed on some yummy stuff. Then I ran (almost literally) to the bus tour. The bus seemed to have very few folks from Portland on it -- most had traveled for the marathon, including the Silicon Valley chapter of Asha for Education (a secular organization which raises money towards basic education in India in the belief that education is a critical requisite for socio-economic change). I sat next to a Portlander, and we talked about the route, races we had done, how early we were getting up, etc.

It was a gorgeous day, even with Mt. St. Helens erupting, and the tour was rather depressing. It freaked me out, and kinda stripped me of my calm "I'll take it as it comes" attitude. There was the awful Front Ave out and back... St. Helens road where the bridge never seems to get any closer... and then the St. Johns Bridge itself. I felt a bit better that my seatmate also seemed freaked out.

Later, my sweetie and I were at my favorite pasta joint, happily munching salad and talking about where to meet up tomorrow when the people next to us asked if we were talking about the marathon and was I participating, blah blah blah. They both gave me a huge pep talk about how it's a great marathon with great support and I was going to do great, and that awful Front there and back was all entirely flat. They were both experienced marathoners, and had done the Portland, as well as others, multiple times. It was nice--I felt very touched by how kind and excited they were.

Now, I think I have everything done and set. Well, I need to set up my splits bracelet. I've ironed the initials onto my shirt, I've put the chip on my shoe, I've attached the bib to my skort. I'm done enough for the night.