I thought ice cream vans were extinct. If they're not, they should be.
Dangerous/Annoying/Creepy/Swine Flu Potential (probably)

The frantic music gives me the chills.

Anybody with me on this? Down with ice cream vans!

My Little 5K Adventure

• Strolled out my front door with Em, and our practice jog morphed into a full on sprint for Trax when we noticed it was already at the station. We managed to run to the wrong side of the train. Turns out that pushing the Door Open button a hundred times doesn't make it open.

• As we ran around to the "correct" side of the train, I waved to a girl in my ward who witnessed our shenanigans. The hilarity helped soothe my jangled nerves.

• Before the race, I was bent down getting our gear bag ready to go on the truck that would take it to the finish line for us, and a lady bounced her butt of my head. Thanks for deciding to run in place at that exact moment lady.

• Wished one of my students good luck.

• Got crazy nervous, then incredibly excited as we started counting down, high-fived Em a couple of times, and off we went!

• A guy passed us who was juggling three red balls while he was running.
  

• Spiderman runs 5k's?

• A couple of bikers tipped over and crashed right next to us. It was a combination of people not getting out of the way for them, and that dang little median that they would bump with a tire. It looked so painful, and they had the shoes that stick to their pedal, so they all went straight down. So glad they were wearing helmets.
  

• When we were close to reaching South Temple, Em told me to look back. Wow! There were so many of us!

• Picked up the pace at the end, and heard Dra call out at us. Best cheerleader ever.


• 

• Waited for Nat, Thurm, Ben, Maggie, and Katie to finish their races.

• High-fived another student who goes to my school, congratulated him on completing a half-marathon, and admired his medallion. He is deaf, but he said, "Thanks!" and signed thanks at the same time. I desperately wanted to hug him.
  

• Met Blaine and Dane from Biggest Losers! I sheepishly called out that my boyfriend beat their half marathon times, but of course I didn't say it loud enough for them to hear. What was I going to say to them?

• "Good luck at the finale!"

• "If you tie at the finale, do each of you get $50,000?"

• "How come Sione didn't run this with you?"

• "Is it weird that your fat made you famous?"

• What I managed was, "Can we take a picture with you? Promise we'll be fast. Thanks! Sorry we're so short." Ugh! Sorry we're so short? Yup, that's really what I said. They laughed really hard and bellowed (bellowed because they're ginormous) that they were sorry that they're so tall.

• 

Is anyone else a tad traumatized by the Seinfeld episode where Elaine is in charge of getting the guy to the race?
I refuse to set more than one alarm.

Here I come baby!

As I was running to my front door, I saw one of my hometeachers on his way up the sidewalk.

Homey: "Amy! Hey! Did I just see you coming from Trax?"

Me: "Yeah, I had a conference down in Salt Lake both yesterday and today."

Homey: "You ride your trax to work?"

Me: "No, I had a conference at the Salt Palace."

Homey: "Is your hair darker?"

Me: "Yup, and shorter."

Homey: "Yeah ... it definitely ... looks darker."

I start laughing and have to stop myself from slapping my forehead.

Homey: "No, no! What I mean by that is it looks good. Real good."

Nice.

Please let me be 

Bragosaurus 

for a Moment

A couple of months ago, my principal asked to see my resume. Confused and terrified since I haven't updated that thing since I got hired, I warily asked why. She confessed that she was nominating me for an outstanding teacher award through the Jordan Education Fund. I bit my lip, and told her that I was extremely flattered. It had been one of those days, and I need to hear those things more often than I do.

Thursday afternoon, after riding Trax home from a conference I attended at the Salt Palace, my eyes took a little siesta even though I was trying to read my book. My phone woke me up. Why was Eastmont Middle calling? Oh crap, probably something with my sub and how he had written on my promethean board with a marker. (I hid those dang markers on purpose! Where did he find a marker? I hope the kids gave him crap all day long.)

My principal: "Amy! It's Jan!"

Trying to mask my sleepy smoker voice was impossible.

My principal: "You got it!"

Me: "I got ... ?"

"You won the award! Of course I told you that you would!"

So she read the letter that they had sent her, and promised to bring my copy tomorrow to our conference.

Wahoo! What a great pat on the back. I also get some money, which my mom suggested using to buy a computer or laptop. Great idea, I was probably just going to pay off some more of my student loan. I am so excited to attend the fancy dinner at Little America. Unfortunately, Ben will be at training in California. I'll be the classy adult attending with her parents ...

Any suggestions on a dress?