The Early Bird Gets... A Lot

The standing joke at bedtime is hubby asks me if I am getting up early for kickboxing. I typically answer, "Well, my alarm is set for later, but if I happen to wake up, I'll go."

When does one just happen to wake up for a 5:40 a.m. class? Well, today actually.

For some unknown reason I accidentally woke up at 5:19 a.m. Went to the bathroom and decided what the heck, I might as well stay up and go to class! I think the instructor just about passed out from shock, but other than that, it felt great to be kickboxing – with full use of my left leg and now healed psychotic nerve, no less.

Of course, I stopped at Kwik Trip on the route between class and home to get a Red Bull. I told the cashier a million-dollar idea: They should have a drive-thru for people who workout early in the morning and don't want to be seen by the general public! I think she took it under advisement. I was in too much of a hurry to get out of there before I ran into someone I knew!

Was awake enough for work today but the day dragged on. Probably because I could not wait for the end of the day.

Early last week, through some communication on Facebook, a longtime friend of mine and I realized we would be only 15 minutes away today when her daughter played softball in nearby Plover. Laura and I (and our friend Kristin, now living in Seattle) were a pretty tightknit trio of trouble, I mean reporters at the newspapers in Marinette and Menominee (Mich.) in the early '90s. We had a lot of fun, and it didn't always involve beer. Cross stitch, Friends and Knots Landing were also high priorities!

Here are the three of us (Kristin, Laura and me) after a heated broomball match amongst a bunch of newspaper people, circa 1993 maybe. I just know I could hardly get out of bed the next day. Ouch! (Oh. And my hair was not cut short, just in a pony tail of sorts.)

Fast forward to 2016 and we realized we had not seen each other since probably when I stood up in her wedding in 1994. Maybe we saw each other in1995, but either way, it's been 20 years.

So I raced over to Plover after work and got to watch her daughter Emma (a recent grad like Carter) win her softball game while Laura and I caught up on each other's lives, reminisced about old times and yes, thanked god there was no social media back in the day!

We did make sure to take a selfie to prove we haven't aged a bit AND to let our friend Kristin know that maybe this dynamic duo will make our way out to Seattle some day. Lord, is the West Coast ready for that? Not sure Northeast Wisconsin has recovered.

After our enjoyable but brief visit, I headed back to Rapids to meet up with Jim and his parents at Golden Sands Speedway. Our nephew Colin was racing tonight.

He did not have the best outing, with some mechanical issue right at the end of the feature. Still, it was good to see family, friends and this...

Yes, the early bird gets the worm, but she has to stay up to get all the great gifts during the day, plus a sunset.

Still not going to may a habit of this early rising business. But if was definitely worth it today!