Squirrel Hero

You know how you take a day and a half off of work to enjoy your birthday and view an eclipse, and then return to work to find that everything has become a big shit storm and you find yourself working all the hours you missed - and then some - to make up for it? No?

Ah well, South Carolina was worth it. So much to recap though. I will try to do it as succinctly as possible:

• I thought sticking with my food plan would be easy. It wasn't. My in-laws were committed to celebrating my birthday with all the usual trimmings, like cake and candy and dinner at Italian restaurants that haven't heard of gluten-free diets and breakfast at diners that still put feta in your spinach omelet even after you tell them 'no cheese' (but it doesn't matter because the coffee is undrinkable, and they don't have dairy-free alternatives to make it more palatable, so you have to go with cream anyway). It's cool, though, since I've had no problems getting immediately back on plan since I've been home.
• I will no longer complain about being a runner in St. Petersburg, FL, in the summertime. Southern runners on the Atlantic coast have it SO. MUCH. HARDER. Perhaps it's the fact the sun comes up just a little bit earlier to beat you down. AND if you aren't running fast enough, bugs will eat you alive. AND after five minutes, you are drenched in sweat because you can practically drink the humidity right from the air. So my "long" run in Pawley's Island only lasted a miserable four miles. Gulf coast, I heart you and I am so happy to be home.
• That eclipse was pretty sweet. I didn't buy special camera equipment, just took mental photos. For most of the day, my husband and I agonized over the weather forecast. They predicted rain, then no rain, then no rain but clouds, and it just didn't seem like things were going to cooperate with us. But I had to remind myself we weren't just there for the eclipse... we were overdue for a visit with the in-laws, we had a great mini-vacation, and I'd get another chance in seven years to see one if I wish to travel north to do so. (Also, there's one coming through my hometown in 2045. You can RSVP for my Eclipse-viewing party on Facebook.) BUT the odds were ever in our favor, and things stayed clear for us throughout the afternoon for us to bask in the awesomeness. 

My favorite part of the weekend, though, was that our drive to SC took us past Jacksonville on Saturday, home to friends Ben and I made while on a Disney cruise in January. When you aren't cruising with a giant family, Disney does a pretty good job of finding like-minded (read: 30-something childless couples who are also Disney addicts and happen to love Star Wars and runDisney) people to sit with at dinner. We've kept in touch with our friends on Facebook, and invited them out to lunch with us on Saturday since we'd be driving right past them. During our reunion, we realized they were just as excited about the eclipse as we were, so we extended the invite to them to bring their dog along and come with us to my in-laws house - and they accepted! We had a blast catching up with them all weekend. I learned they are signed up for quite a few runDisney events coming up, including the Princess Half, so I know I'll see them again soon.

Today while on my run, I saved a squirrel from becoming breakfast for two osprey. I'm not really sure why I did it, though. I kind of hate squirrels. Nothing sends me into a murderous rage quite like seeing a squirrel on my bird feeder at home. I'm all "That's not for you, buddy." But I was far from home, and just felt bad for the little guy, cowering in a bush while the osprey surrounded him. I chased them off, and gave the squirrel my most sincere "you're welcome."

So naturally the "You're welcome" song from Moana was stuck in my head for the rest of my run, and I had to listen to it when I got home. I searched for it in YouTube but a funny thing happened - I found this instead:
Man, people are so freakin' creative.