Crawfish Tales

Picture this:

3 pounds of crawfish!

It's senior year, and I just got back from boarding school for the summer. School for me ended way earlier than that for my friends here, so I got to attend a lot of the "School is DONE!" parties. I'm sitting at a picnic table, catching up with people I hadn't seen since Christmas break. The party is a crawfish boil. (You buy huge bags of live crawfish and dump them in drums of boiling water...a la lobster, but lots more of 'em.)

Anyway, I'm sitting there...innocently eating my crawfish, and some jerkwad boy comes over and puts a live crawfish in the midst of all the dead, boiled ones. Now, I know crawfish are really just bugs and they don't have 'thoughts' and it really didn't matter to the little thing. But. The sight of that crawfish crawling all over it's dead brothers and sisters....well...it turned me off of crawfish for quite a while. Sigh. I'll even admit that I screamed like a girl and ran away from the table.

3 pounds of crawfish, eaten!

The good news: I'm over it. I enjoyed quite the crawfish feast last night. (3 lbs of the little buggers! plus...potatoes, plus corn....plus gumbo beforehand...and bread pudding afterwards...and oh yeah...2 beers. yikes. Somehow though, I wasn't overly full. yikes again.) We didn't end up going to the previously mentioned Hawk's because it wasn't open (it's not quite hard core crawfish season yet), but we went to Gator Cove, an awesome place on the outskirts of the city. Yes, they serve alligator. Yes, I've tried it before (rubbery). No, I didn't eat any last night.

the restaurant's prize 'Gator

Anyway, dinner was obviously awesome. It was great to go out with just my parents (My devil of a sister* is getting back tonight and I will no longer be the coveted 'only child'.), and the food was SO worth waiting a year for.

Today I ran 5 miles in the morning with my dad. Can you believe he was running 14 minute miles before, and we did an average of 8:50 or so today?! All that improvement since Saturday! He was loafing though...just wants to get the miles in and doesn't want to feel pain...I'm working on him though...He doesn't know what pain is, right? :)

Then, I swam 1600 in the afternoon...felt good to finally get that double workout in. My plan for vacation is to keep up the 5 miles in morning with daddy dearest, and then either spin or swim in the afternoon. Tomorrow there is a double spin class, kind of (there is a 40 minute break inbetween, but I figure I can lift some weights then.)...I'm pretty pumped to try that. Everyone else keeps talking about these double classes, and my gym in Cleveland doesn't allot for that, so I'm excited. It can't be that bad, and I at least have a valid excuse to not be able to do them on a regular basis, eh?

I've officially negated the Mardi Gras marathon. I'm going to do the half with my mom and dad instead. I'm bummed, because I really wanted to do it, but the bottom line is that I didn't do the training. I kept waiting for someone else to tell me what to do, and that's never really a good plan...I should have been more proactive. Lesson learned. I need to figure out a good early marathon to do though, because I still have a need to finish the damn thing. Maybe I'll just do Cleveland, although it is a bit too soon after Wildflower for my liking. I need to figure it all out soon though, so that I can train properly this season. No making the same mistake twice, right? By New Year, I'll have it figured out and posted. Hold me to this, okay?

Flute-wise, I'm really getting going again. I've been holding off hard core getting the Yale repertoire in shape because I don't want it to get stale...the audition isn't until the end of February. But, I think it's about time. Those piece aren't easy, and I want to be way beyond prepared. Goal for this break is to feel solid with all of the repertoire, after working on it each day...being able to play it without having to work on it each day will come in time...I also need to send my stupid lack-of-resume to a couple orchestras that have job openings. I don't know why I put that kind of thing off. It really pisses me off, actually. What do I have to gain by waiting? And how hard is it to print something out and address an envelope? Not hard. Get your act together, Curly. Argh!

Oh! I can't believe I almost forgot! My new pedals and helmet came in today! But, like Wil...they were taken away from me until Hanukkah. I don't even have a bike here...they are of no use to me...but still...I wanted them. No tantrums this time around. I've grown up since 5th grade. [I mentioned this on Wil's comments, but in 5th grade I received a sewing machine for my birthday, and was convinced I was going to be able to make an outfit for my birthday party if my mom would just let me use it before my birthday. Little did I know sewing machines were possessed by the devil, and I would not only not be making any sort of outfit, but I also would not be making much at all.] Aging in general scares the crap out of me, but in this case, I think I'm glad I've matured.

Ahhh...I'm obviously a little too verbose tonight, so it's a good thing I'm getting called to dinner (nothing so extravagent tonight!)...then, off to the airport to pick up my little sis.

*My sister isn't actually a devil. We're good friends these days, and I love her. She just had the bad luck of being born 3 1/2 years after me, and I'll always yearn for those lost years. If only someone would have told me my time of complete attention was limited...oh, how I would have taken better advantage!