Thursday, July 17, 2008

10:20 a.m.

I've been up for, oh, six hours already.

It's probably a good thing that I'm totally out of it - because I don't really feel much of anything, not even embarassed about the near disaster that was my run this morning with Sen. Chuck Grassley.

It's not that I was intimidated by the most massive case of morning bed head I've ever seen. Naw, I wasn't put on edge by that 74-year-old man who sported long tube socks and a yeller t-shirt that read "Grassley 5:29." I even smiled a bit when I watched him put on that bright blue CAT farmer cap.

The man's a beast, no doubt, but I wasn't intimidated at all. Just forgetful. 3 times.

First of all, the run was great. Grassley keeps about a 10-minute mile pace for 3 miles, which he keeps-up nearly 4 days a week. Seriously, how impressive is that? The guy's 74.

We had one other girl with us, Mindy, 34, who is a lobbyist from Iowa and manages to make it out to D.C. a few times a year. She said she usually always tries to get over to run with Sen. Grassley when she's here.

Mindy was pretty neat - a real Iowa girl with an accent I probably have, too, when I am home. I started to feel myself twang this morning when we were talkin' too - a sure indication. Mindy's in decent shape, does weight-watchers, and chatted the entire run.

At one point, she must have been feeling great because she took the lead for awhile, running a few yards ahead on the home stretch. Grassley must have got a 2nd wind though, because we passed her right before the house.

"He's breakin' awaaaay!!" I turned to mouth at Mindy, who winked.

Then I made my first mistake.

I managed to announce that whoa! We just ran 31 minutes! That's awesome!

And I was seriously impressed and feeling good about that, until Mindy gave me the face and motioned for me to "cut-it!"

"OHhh well if I knew you'd have a watch on it well I could have done it in 30!" said Grassley.

Ahh man. Dang...

And Mindy tried to work him, saying, "Noo that was great, I mean you threw those two hills in there those were so hard!"

And then five minutes of puffing the senator ensued. I don't know, a 74-year-old man keeping a solid pace for 31 minutes is impressive to me. I forgot for a second that by nature, Grassley's gotta be super competitive. So what I said to him this morning was heard something like, "You're a minute SLOW, Senator." Auuughhh . . . and I could tell he was irked by it. The man walked up the street and touched a fire hydrant before turning around - that's how you know method matters, and a minute's a huge deal.

It probably didn't help my case that I forgot both my phone and my wallet, on 2 separate occasions this morning.

Mrs. Grassley made us all oatmeal for breakfast, which of course is my favorite. She even gave me a pack of cinnamon weight control oatmeal to take home. I doubt it was a hint, and just my curiousity on how she made it from straight oatmeal that got her to take interest in the discussion, and give me pack of her favorite.

After breakfast, Mindy, Mrs. Grassley and I loaded up the Lincoln, and I realized right as we were settled that I forgot my phone in the house. Mrs. Grassley had to get out to open the house again, and I grabbed my phone from right inside the door, apologizing once but no more (incessant apologizing is annoying).

Then my wallet fell out of my pocket at the metro. I realized it after Mrs. Grassley had pulled away and Mindy and I were about to get on the train. I knew it was in the car, so I called the Senator at home.

"Senator Grassley, it's Lindsey again! I think I forgot my wallet in Mrs. Grassley's car. It fell out of my pocket."

If I've ever felt like an airhead in my life, it was this morning. I told him I'd wait until they were ready and heading out for the day, and they could drop off my wallet if they'd be so kind.

So I waited at the Metro for 45-minutes, probably the least I could do after calling out the Senator on slow and managing to forget two things on two different occasions.

A good first impression, I'd say!