I hoped that 2024 would be the year I finally ticked off a full marathon but I planned to sit on the fence to see if I could get some consistent training going in the first part of the year. Entries for the Melbourne Marathon to be held in October sold out in the first two days after opening. That left the Gold Coast Marathon in July as my next best opportunity. I still hoped to be able to wait until late February to make the call but on the 21st of December Hubby forwarded the information that the marathon was 50% sold three weeks after registrations opened. I decided to bite the bullet and register. Luckily, because they sold out on December 31st. Maybe it’s a good thing that circumstances have pushed me to register? Now I’m hoping for a better run of training than I had last year.
I had my second internet-free day on Christmas Day. It feels like a bit of a cheat. I mean, I’m hardly going to be spending large swathes of Christmas Day scrolling, but I’m going to take it. The only tech things I did were text my friend to wish her Merry Christmas and take some photos, both of which did not use the internet.
We did not stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, our early night was upended by illegal fireworks being let off sporadically between 11:45 pm and 2 am. Every time someone let them off, all the dogs in the neighbourhood started barking including ours. The biggest lot was at midnight, so I went down to see Riley and comfort him. He was barking as I went in but as soon as he saw me he came over, whimpering and cowering near my legs. He settled down a bit, but never enough to go back to his bed. After about 20 minutes I left him and was washing my hands when another cracker went off. GRRRR! He barked, but I left him to settle on his own. In Australia letting off fireworks is illegal unless you have a license and a specific permit for the night and location. Of course, the lack of those two things does not stop them. Despite this, I can understand the ones at midnight. I just wish they would confine themselves to the timeframe 12 -12:15 am. Anything else is just anti-social.
We gave my niece some craft supplies as part of her Christmas present. One of them was a colouring book that included stamp pads down the side to do finger painting. Yesterday I sat with her while she worked on one of the pictures. We had a wet wipe to clean her fingers so she didn’t mix the colours. After changing colours a few times the wet wipe became a little bit of artwork itself. I wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’t pointed out how pretty it was. With each new colour added she held it up and admired it. I suspect in the end the painted fingerprints in the book became secondary to the coloured wet wipe. She saved it and bought it out this morning as she was going home for me to admire. How amazing to have a child’s perspective, where even a wet wipe used to clean paint off little fingers can become something wonderful.
Has FOMO pushed you to sign up for something when you weren’t quite sure you were ready? Did you stay up to see in the New Year? How do you feel abour fireworks?
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13 responses to “Random Things: Marathon Sign-Up, Internet Free Day #2, New Year Peeve, Perspective”
Illegal fireworks go off in our neighborhood ALL THE TIME. They go off for most major holidays (even ones that aren’t normally associated with fireworks) and usually go off for several days before and after said holidays. They absolutely go off for weeks around July 4th and New Years. And if a sports team wins something big? Fireworks all night long. I don’t know why people on our part of San Francisco love fireworks so much but it sucks. They drive me crazy and I wish people would stop.
I did stay up until midnight but did not watch any fireworks. We were up in Grass Valley with friends and no one up there set them off. We actually stayed up until 1:45am which is some kind of record for me since I had kids I think. 🙂
I’m trying to think if FOMO has pushed me to sign up for something I wasn’t ready for. Surely I’ve bought tickets to things (shows, concerts) I wasn’t sure I wanted to go because I worried they would sell out. But I’m not sure I’ve ever signed up for anything I wasn’t sure I was ready for because of FOMO. And I struggle with FOMO a lot.
THat must be painful having fireworks being let off so often.
Congrats on signing up for the marathon! With each half that I ran I had serious doubts, but I made it to the finish lines of all of them and had some good times along the way. The only way to really be sure that you’re ready to run a marathon is to…well, run a marathon.
I don’t do strict “no internet” fasts, but sometimes I take what I like to call PTO from the internet. Sometimes it’s a few hours, sometimes it’s a day, and sometimes it’s a few days of only going on for necessitites. My observation is that I’ve never regretted taking time away and the interenet seems to always be there when I come back.
Boo to your neighbors! We only had a few booms in our neighborhood, which was a surprise. I did stay up until midnight but it wasn’t planned. The book that I was reading was so good that I couldn’t put it down, and once I saw that it was past 11:30 I decided to roll with it.
I love that – PTO from the internet.
Congrats on signing up for the marathon! You can do this!
I just had to order some Adaptil for my dog because the fireworks are ceaseless at this point and she’s starting to refuse to go out in the dark and where I live right now, it’s dark on all our walks. *sigh* I also wish people would just shoot them off at very designated periods of time when I could turn up the music and tv in our house so the dog would never know what was going on outside.
Oh no, I’m sorry top hear that about Hannah. THat must be so frustrating.
Yay on signing up for the marathon!
Fomo… I don’t really get that. At this age, I giev absolutely zero fucks as to what I am missing. I know what I like and I go do it. I like to read so I go and read. I like to walk so I walk. I like to travel so I book a trip. Happy New year to you, Melissa!
THat’s the way to live!
Congrats and good luck!! It’s incredible to me how early some of these events sell out.
And love the wet-wipe story. A child’s perspective is so different, yet beautiful. They often see far more beauty than I do and it breaks my heart to think they/we all lose some of the child-like wonder as we grow older.
It is so hard to hang on to the child like joy isn’t it? I guess that’s why, if I have a chance it’s a good thing for me to slow down and take some time with my neice.
Psst. I am not saying it out loud yet but I am also contemplating my first marathon in 2024. I haven’t signed up, but I know that I have to do it rather sooner than later before it sells out. I know that is a real possibility. I am glad you just pulled the trigger and I hope your training will go well. I am here to cheer you on!
We did stay up until midnight (I just don’t know how not to) on New Year’s Eve, but there were no fireworks, just (probably also illegal) fire crackers in the distance. LOL I think it’s a waste of money anyway and could do without them.
I hope you do try for your first marathon this year, that will be exciting.
Don’t get me started on fireworks. This year its tsarted aroun 4pm and was still going on around 2am when I went to bed. I wished it was confined to certain areas and just professionals and ever since Covid there are big discussions going n in Germany but I truely don’t think the people will let go of this “freedom” as the call it. Sigh…