Careful what you wish for!

Ah, May first finally came and went, and I did very little to acknowledge it, but I must say that I am glad that April is over and that May is here!

With its arrival comes, of course, lots of busy-ness, but some of it happens to be of the "play" variety, which makes me quite happy.  This weekend, of course, is Wildflower.  I will spend Saturday morning reviewing with students as they prep for their AP, and then we'll (we being Michael and I, not the kiddos) get in our car, fully loaded with fun items like BodyGlide and other stuff, and head to Paso Robles.  As each year passes, I seem to take Wildflower a bit more nonchalantly, or at least in stride, although it is still a BIG deal in a lot of ways.  What I mean about my laissez-faire attitude is that the first year, we went up on Friday and spent a really fun weekend up in the Paso Robles area.  Then last year, we went up on Saturday and I picked up my packet and bought a hat and got all excited about the race the day before it.  This year, we're not even going to the park on Saturday, but will roll in early Sunday morning and I'll do packet pick-up and race the same day.  Not a relaxing weekend getaway, but that's life.  We will enjoy a nice meal on Saturday night at Artisan, a kick-ass restaurant in Paso Robles, and I can't wait for that!  As for my more relaxed attitude, it might bite me in the ass on race-day morning when I discover that I've forgotten something essential, like my helmet.

As for Wildflower, I'm finally feeling excited about that race and about the whole "it's racing season" thing.  I'm an avid weather watcher, especially because last year's race was so hot and I suffered so much due to the heat, so I've been keeping my fingers and toes crossed, hoping that it wouldn't be hot as hell this year.  I figured that if the temperature stayed under the mid-80's, I would be okay.

Well, apparently my prayers to the weather gods worked because we're now supposed to deal with rain and wind.  I can't wait!  I realize that the weather channel is NEVER wrong, but this has dampened my hopes just a bit, certainly for the bike.  Now, I'm hoping that I don't crash on the bike and make it to the run.  I think, if I make it to the run, it should be a good one, especially if it's not too hot and rainy.  I haven't experienced a rainy Wildflower, so this should be interesting!

A belated May Day!

I'm a few days late to the "welcome in the month of May" party, which is fine because I was not in much of a welcoming or party mood on May 1st or even yesterday, both of which were grey, rainy, and just dismal days in general.  This wasn't an early showing of "June gloom" but all-day drizzle that put me into something of a funk.
Now that the forecast has cleared up and it's Thursday, I feel more prepared to embrace the month and all of its possibilities, good and bad.  Since my calf issue seems to be waning, I can spend some mental energy positively thinking about the weekend and the month.  Because there ARE more positives this month than negatives.
While I'd like to ignore the elephant in the room and not mention two "W" words at all (work and Wildflower), that would be silly.  So, in regards to the first topic, I will say that I feel something of a let-up in terms of stress.  I have tons of administrative crap to tend to over the next few weeks, but we're on the downward slide in terms of content and even school days.   Because of that slight sense that the end of the year nears, my thoughts have started to wander to June and a trip that we just started to officially plan, after talking about it for the past few months.
As for the second "W" which looms - Sunday is race day, and I'm finally over the mental and physical slump I experienced earlier this week and am now looking forward to it.  Michael has reminded me time and time again that I am at a different place than I was last year, in a positive way, and I'm now getting excited just thinking about the energy of the race and how beautiful it is there.  I admit that I've also planned out my dinner on Friday and Sunday night, and I can't wait for a nice meal Saturday night in Paso Robles.  Yah, we're obviously not camping after last year's aborted attempt!
Not that I'm looking too much beyond this weekend, but there is another race at the end of the month that will be a great way to almost-officially kick off the summer months.  Throw in a friend's weekend visit mid-month which will include good food and drink, I think that we are set!