It's Alive!

Let us skip my pithy excuses and get to the good stuff: Concerts I will be attending this summer!

First! Owl City!

Second! The Goo Goo Dolls!

Third! The Doobie Brothers!

This summer is going to be awesome! In just a few days, I will make a trek to Seattle where I will stay with author extraordinaire, Tominda Adkins, and see my cousin graduate from high school. After that, HH's parents will be staying with us. I'll be seeing Owl City during that time with the fantabulous J*Rock and another friend. HH and I will see the Goo Goo Dolls in June, and my mom is coming to see the Doobie Brothers with me in August. I need a concert for July, just to round everything out.

Also, got an iPhone. I'm trying to figure out how to do photo sharing from the phone to here. Updates soon!

Every Other Day?

Maybe I should shoot for posts every other day.

Ah, anyway, here is a song I wish to share for today!

Mumford and Sons! They have a fascinating and rather beautiful sound, I think. Please enjoy!
Also: 

That is a french bulldog. Best picture ever.

Police Week

On the 12th of May, I walked up the metro stop at Judiciary Square and into a remembrance week for fallen police officers. Last week was National Police Week: "In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week. Currently, tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from around the world converge on Washington, DC to participate in a number of planned events which honor those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice."

The week draws between 25,000 - 40,000 attendees. It was rather quiet when I was up there, you should recognize the pictures from the National Police Memorial. That post is right here. It was a very neat living memorial for all the officers who have given their lives during their service. I got a little teary-eyed; it's very sad.

Police week this year had several different memorials, a pipe and fife competition, and a 5K, among other things. Here is a link to the National Police Week website. There you can find a roll call of officers lost and see the schedule. 

Also, I went camping this weekend. I will give you a preview of the pictures you will see tomorrow!

Avril

What kind of name is Avril? According to the internets, it might mean "April". So, the young rock/pop(?) star, Avril Lavigne, could be April Lavinge, had she lived in the states and not been a crazy Canadian. Avril does sound cooler.

Anyway, I have this song stuck in my head, so I must share.

Lordy!

That's a dumb title, but it's the first thing that came to my mind. You'll have to forgive the lack of updates lately, sometimes the world just comes up and bites my ass. My natural inclination, when my ass is being bit, is to find a book that requires next to no thought and only sinful enjoyment, and speed read it. I guess its my defense mechanism, or perhaps I have an addictive personality to books and sweet things. Ah, what a great way to start back Lindsey, by psycho-analyzing yourself. Fantastic.
We really must get out more often.  (Where have I been? Procrastinating with school, moping about work and a disturbing skin condition, and then getting over it.)
And with no apparent segue, running!

You may have noticed from the ticker on my sidebar there, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure has passed us! I went home, the drive was no worse than usual and I may have maintained a slightly illegal speed the entire time, which made it better. It was super fantastic to see my mom in person. In fact, I'm going to take a moment to wax lyrical about how great it was. Especially because Mother's Day coincided with the race (or vice versa). About six years ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I am pretty sure that I went into some sort of denial because I was not home as much as I should have been for her chemo treatments. I don't think Mom realized it either, because she was never upset and just bulled through everything that was required. She may have been in denial too. I'm not sure she ever cried about it (at that moment) and she was just...Lois. She went, she chemo-ed, and she was done. And she's been in remission for at least six (or is it seven?) years now. It strikes me now, so much later, that I could have lost her then. But everything went well, as far as breast cancer goes. But thinking about it now, with some perspective, I'm just so incredibly thankful that she had the surgeon and the team that she did and that she never stopped to think that she wouldn't be fine. Because she didn't, I never did either. She would be fine. And she is fine. So, as each year passes, it means a little more to me. This year, I did the training and the race, and Mom helped me raise money. In total, I/Mom raised 700.00 for breast cancer research and early detection. That was an awesome feeling. My friend Jeremy agreed to run the race with me with absolutely no prompting. Being part of something so large and having my mom there to see it too: super, amazing, awesome.

Highlights of the race:
1. Neon Pink sweatbands for myself and my running buddy, Jeremy.

This is after the race. You will notice Jeremy looks fresh as a daisy, I am ready to die. Something wrong with that boy.

2. My mom being there to take pictures and generally be awesome.

She's shrinking. I find that hilarious.

3. The crowd of survivors that grows every year!

4. The start of the race with all those people around you who are strangely HAPPY to be doing this on a freezing spring morning.

You can see mine and Jeremy's hot pink bands as we go by! I noticed Mom at the last second, as you can see.

5. The end of the race, where Jer and I sprinted to the finish line. Our total time was 33:34, with an overall pace time of 10:45. That's pretty excellent for me.

You can see me, because I'm the only one with a VA abbreviation!

Jeremy, "Oh, what a lovely day." Lindsey, "OHMYGAWD."

6. Cake and a VIP Tent(for money raised)! (I did not have any cake and totally missed the VIP tent until it was done.) 

7. Having Mother's Day the very next day!

I always bring her flowers. There were other things, but these were pretty!

All in all, I must say, it was a personal victory!