Showing posts with label People. Show all posts

Uptown

So this past weekend we visited my daughter and walked two miles to the Greek Festival going on nearby. You can read about that here.

After we left the festival she wanted us to see where she worked. Each morning she will get on the monorail and ride into town to work, but since she is only a little over a mile from uptown where she works, we decided to walk. We wanted to get our exercise in and walk off some of those sweets we ate at the festival. 

As we were walking we could see the Bank of America Stadium in the distance. Home of the Carolina Panthers.


It was a nice little walk into the city. The streets were busy and I saw lots of street vendors, beggars and homeless people sleeping on benches. I live in a town full of homeless people, but most are just drug addicts looking for a fix. Here in the big city, they looked really homeless sleeping on benches without shoes. Everything they owned was stuffed in trash bags and used as pillows. It broke my heart. 

I told my husband that we only live 20 minutes from uptown and in 49 years, I have never been on the streets of Charlotte. I have never seen inside any of the buildings. My daughter was exited to show us where she worked so she took us on a tour inside some of the buildings and I was in awe. 


They were as beautiful on the inside as they were on the outside. I would love to show you her offices but for her protection, I’d rather not. They were very modern and looked like something out of a magazine. I could only dream of having an office like hers. 

These little scooters were everywhere. 


You download an app on your phone, scan the code on the scooter and it will charge you 2.00 to ride until you put the kickstand down. Then it’s free game for someone else to grab. So if you take it to a store and park it, most likely it will not be there when you come out. No worries though, you can just use the app to locate the nearest one. They were just all “Grab and go”. I though it was just the funniest thing. 


People were riding them everywhere and they were pretty fast. I could not get Nick to try one. (For the record, neither did I).

I gave this man some money while he played a tune on his guitar. 


As I walked away, I looked back and saw him lay the guitar down, but the playing kept going. Why? Because he wasn’t even playing! It was all on a music box. I was tricked! But he was obviously getting rich from it. I had sucker wrote all over me. 

We spent almost all afternoon exploring uptown and all it had to offer but I still would not want to live there and I still fear for my daughters safety every single day.

Before we headed home, we stopped at the ice cream shop for a snack. 


I order a scoop of blueberry cheese cake and Nick had the Pistachio flavor. My daughter walked next door for a smoothie instead. 

It was a fun day and I walked 10.23 miles and 21,615 steps that day according to my fitbit. 

Just Doing It

Since I lost 50 lbs on Nutrisystem three years ago and reaching my weight loss goal. I had set another goal for myself. I want to complete a 5K race. Not a one mile fun walk or a Marathon, but a three mile (5k) run.

This was my plan last year but as soon as I started preparing myself, I began to have complications with chest pains and continuing inner ear problems and vertigo. The chest pains were so persistent that I ended up having every test out there to determine the cause. It was not my heart, or my gal bladder. I was left undiagnosed and I have learned to live with the pain. During my last visit to the gynecologist, I told her about it and she suggested that I probably have costocondritis. It's were the cartladge between the ribs and breast plate become inflamed and painful. Flare ups are commonly caused by exercise and take a long time to heal. I just went with that and have learned to accept the pain I still suffer. I do not talk about it to my husband anymore because I'm sure hes tired of hearing it and he does not need the worry anyway. 

After that, I gave up on that goal.

Until the other day. My best friend from high school asked if I would like to do a 5K race with her since she knew I wanted to try one. It was close to home in the town we grew up in. “It will be fun” she said. So I thought about it and accepted the invite. I registered and paid my dues. My bib number is 832. Nick hasn’t said much to me about it, he is not on board. He worries that I can’t do it. He also refuses to do it with me even though he is an avid walker. 
It’s ok though. After 24 years of marriage, I understand his ways.

This is something I want to do for myself and nobody else. It may seem small to many, but this is a big deal for me. I’m nervous. I’m scared. So much is going trough my mind. “Can I do it? Will I come in last or in the middle? Do I wear shorts or leggings? What if I have to pee? Will I get trampled during the start? What if I get those chest pains half way through? What if I get vertigo? What if I pass out? Are my shoes good enough? Will I embarrass myself? Will I finish? Will I fall?......What if???”
Wait.....Run? I can’t even run to the end of my driveway!!

So this Saturday, rain or shine, I will get up early and head across town to start the 8:00 race I have not even prepared for. I am only used to walking about 2 miles a day. I’m afraid that since It’s so close to race day, that if I try to prepare now it will cause me to be sore. I plan to walk some and try to run as much as I can. It’s ok. I’m not in it to win it but to finish it. There will be no one there to cheer me on and no one at the finish line to celebrate my victory. The race will end and I will leave. I may not even talk about it much when I get home but inside I can be proud of what I did. Wish me Luck!

To Be Continued......





People Are Rude!

Sometimes I wonder if people are more rude than ever or if I'm just turning into an old fogey.

We went to a restaurant this past weekend because I really wanted some crab legs from Duffy's Seafood Shack. Don’t let the word "shack" confuse you. This place looks like a shack but the food is delicious and the prices are high. It’s more expensive than I usually will spend on a meal but since we were on a little short vacation, we thought we’d splurge a little. 

The restaurant was not quiet as crowded as it usually is and we were seated fairly quick. We placed our order and nibbled on some peanuts while we waited for our food to come out. As soon as our food arrived, so did a group of ladies. Twelve of them to be exact. They looked high class as they were all dressed in designer clothes and fancy pocketbooks. 

They were really having a good time and I think that's great but they were so loud! They were terrible! Seriously. They screamed at the top of their lungs back and forth at each other and laughed like hyenas. I could see other people doing eye rolls as they too had to hear the obnoxious behavior. 

We were sitting at the table beside them. I could not hear my own voice much less Nicks. I think I swallowed my food whole as I was a nervous wreck. Not only were they loud but we had to hear all about pet surgeries, PMS issues and bad pedicures! I was disgusted. If our food was not already at the table, we would have asked the waiter to move us.  

Needless to say, we did not get to enjoy our 50.00 meal. The girls got the stink eye look from me as we were leaving. Nick told me to leave it alone. It was obvious they wanted to make a scene and wanted someone to say something to them. It was not my place to say anything, or was it? I understand they were having a good time but really??? People are just rude!

What would you have done in this situation?