Texas Lou

A while back, a good friend was poling her friends on facebook about their favorite roller rink songs from back in the day.  She asked me if I was old enough to have experienced the roller rink craze.  My answer:  OF COURSE!!!  And for those wondering, my most memorable roller rink song was Come and Get Your Love by Real McCoy.  I have great memories of skating in circles, trying desperately not to fall, and thinking I was soooo badass to the beat of this song!

The conversation between my friend and I lead me to wonder about those who had not had the opportunity to skate like no one was watching as a kid.  I quickly thought about the city that I currently live in.  Charlottesville doesn’t have a roller rink.  I wondered if they had one in the past.  I quickly dialed Ben’s number to ask him what seemed to me like the most important question (but probably seemed to him like a pointless one).

Ben’s answer was no, Charlottesville had not had a roller rink in his twenty-seven years as a resident.  This saddened me.  All of these Cvillians, and I’m sure countless others hailing from small town, Anywhere, had been deprived of the roller rink experience.  They had no roller rink songs, no memories of skating beneath flashing neon lights to the beat of some one hit wonder while trying to impress their friends.

But then I realized, what they lacked in roller rink experiences, they made up for in other ways.  For example, I never experienced a snow day living in south Texas, but Ben’s childhood was filled with them (especially from the blizzard of ’96 that I hear about so often).

I still hope my kids get to enjoy the roller rink experience someday, or the twenty-first century equivalent.  Hover boarding perhaps?

My sister signed up for the Team in Training Houston chapter and will be running the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco with me.  This makes me so very HAPPY!

Running is one of the hobbies that she and I are both interested in and I am so excited that we will get to share this experience.  Plus we will have each other to share fundraising and training tips with.  I also kind of like to think of it as a free sisters’ weekend as well.  Although it’s not really free since she has to raise $3500 and I’ve got to raise $3900.

Thanks to Team In Training, we will finally get to run together!

If you’d like to make a donation to my sister, Carrie Elsaifi, check out her Team In Training website located at http://pages.teamintraining.org/txg/nikesf10/celsaifi.

And don’t forget to donate toward my effort as well (http://pages.teamintraining.org/va/nikesf10/leslieelsaifi).

Last week, I joined an organization called Team In Training.  I have been researching this organization for a while and am really excited to finally become a member!

The way that Team In Training works goes like this:  Team in Training sponsors runners, cyclists, and triathletes by providing them with training, coaching, and inspiration and funding all of their race expenses (race registration, airplane tickets, hotel rooms).  In return, the athletes raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Team in Training is now ” the world’s largest endurance sports training program”!

I wanted to join Team In Training not just because it seems like such a great organization in all aspects, but because I wanted to do something good with my ability to run long distances.  When I ran the Shamrock Half Marathon (my first half marathon) back in March, I did it just to prove to myself that I could finish it and also for the free beer.  Now that I know I can reach the goal, I want to do it for others instead of just for me.

I signed up for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon which will take place on October 17, 2010 in San Francisco, California.  I’m really excited about this race and also extremely glad to be traveling to San Francisco since I haven’t been there since I was five years old and therefore don’t remember much from the trip.  I am also super motivated to reach my goal of raising $4000 by October.

I’m asking every person who reads this to PLEASE donate toward my goal by going to this website.  Even if you can only donate a small amount, please do because every little bit really does count!

The way I see it I’m getting so much out of this experience:

• The opportunity to meet, train with, and become friends with a great group of people
• The opportunity to travel and spend time in a beautiful city
• The opportunity to raise money and awareness for a wonderful cause that can help save so many lives
• The opportunity to prove to myself and others that running the one half marathon wasn’t just a one-time lucky shot

I hope you will check out my page at http://pages.teamintraining.org/va/nikesf10/leslieelsaifi and donate toward my goal.  And please check back often to see my progress.

Thanks for the support!

I now subscribe to 125 blogs.  It is absolutely impossible for me to keep up with them all so I have to pick and choose what I skim and what I actually read.

Lucky for me, a great deal of those blogs are mostly comprised of pictures!  🙂

Last night, I attended my weekly softball game with my work team, the VGT Lucky 7’s.  When you put a bunch of software engineers, quality assurance engineers, and software project managers together with a bunch of softballs and bats, the outcome is not always so great.  As a matter of fact, the VGT Lucky 7’s have a history of being one of the worst teams in the league.

But not yesterday!  Yesterday, we played an AMAZING game.  We were down by two, and came back in the final inning to take the lead by 5 points.  I made 2 runs!  It was the first time I’d ever made it all around the bases and back to home in the 2 seasons I have been playing softball!  What an awesome feeling it was to score a run AND win a game!  I guess this is why they say sports are good for one’s self esteem!

I was reading an article on MSN last night entitled The Fattest Cities.  Five of the top 10 heaviest cities were Texas cities!

The Heaviest Cities:

Every Texas city I have spent a significant amount of time in is on that list!  At least my hometown got a D- instead of an F.  And it makes sense that after Ben’s first trip to Texas, I asked him what his favorite thing about the vacation was and he said, “the food”!  I guess everything really is bigger in Texas, including the appetites, portions, and bellies!

In honor of Cinco De Mayo, I present a very festive picture from my college days:

Hope you get to enjoy a margarita and some good Mexican food today!

I always cry when I have to leave my family (or they have to leave me) after a visit, and I spend the rest of the day depressed and wondering why I live so far away.

When my sister and brother came to visit me a month ago for Easter weekend, I woke up Sunday morning (the day they were leaving) with a heaviness in my heart and a lump in my throat.  I had had such a great time and didn’t want them to go even though I knew that they had to.  I cried to Ben, “Why do I have to be this way? I wish I could be one of those people who doesn’t get sad about stuff like this!”  Ben replied that I didn’t really want that and he comforted me the best that he could.

This past Sunday in Dallas, my cousin Megan began to tear up at the thought of the family leaving at the end of a very fun weekend.  Megan and I joke that we are practically the same person because we have so many similar character traits so as soon as I saw her visibly upset about saying goodbye to everyone, I knew it would hit me too.  I told her not to cry because she would make me cry and then we’d both be crying, and I was already trying my hardest not to let that happen.  Of course I teared up saying goodbye to her while giving her a hug, but looking back I am somewhat glad we are the way that we are.  I’m a passionate person and while it hurts at times to care so much, it’s part of what makes me who I am (and Megan who she is).  And I like who I am, so without those tears, I’d be a different person, and who knows if I’d like myself.

I guess the point of all this rambling is that I’m proud to be me even though my crazy tendencies drive me nuts sometime!

I’m heading to Dallas this afternoon to spend the weekend with friends and family and celebrate my cousin Megan’s wedding shower and bachelorette party!  I’m SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!

Here are the things I am most looking forward to this weekend (in no particular order):

• TEXAS
• Mexican food
• Spending time with family that I rarely get to see
• Getting to see Megan’s new house for the first time
• Meeting my cousin Leigh Ann’s two little ones for the first time
• Going to a Dueling Piano Bar
• Getting wild and crazy and forgetting my troubles for a couple of days

It’s sure to be a blast and how could it not be;  I’ll be in my favorite place with some of my favorite people!

During the past couple of months, some people have commented that they heard a song that reminded them of me.  I’m not sure why, but I was flattered by these remarks.  Maybe it’s because I am a fan of the songs that reminded them of me or maybe their statements just say that they were thinking about me and its nice to be thought about.  Either way, it makes me glad that people can relate to me through music.