Flu blues, Green beer and Orange County

Last Friday was another work crew gathering to say farewell to a couple more co-workers that are jumping ship. We went to Melrose and proceeded to get out of control again, however I managed to slip out around 9:30pm and promptly go home to bed. I slept in on Saturday, skipping my running, workout and anything else productive. Jeff and Matt came by and picked me up at 6:30pm and we headed to Lisa's St. Patrick's Day party in Chestermere. Jeri-Anne and Doug showed up before us, and Rachel and Marowshka showed up soon after. Lots of laughs and lots of food ensued.
Oddly, the guy who was so sick this weekend couldn't even get up for the pictures, and now, a few days later, I'm the one suffering with a bout of viral nastiness???

I was feeling the need to have a mental break this weekend which I think was a pre-cursor to catching the flu on Tuesday. I've been in bed for about 34 hours straight and managed to crawl into work this morning to get a few loose ends tied up before leaving on vacation tomorrow. The accumulation of OutGames planning, Synergy beginning-of-season management, training and work concerns have been too much lately. I think my body's finally had enough and said, 'screw you, dude. You're getting the flu and sleeping for two days, end of story'. Of course, it's obligatory that three days before vacation I get sick anyways, but all of this has been a perfect storm of sorts. Let's just say that even though this trip isn't happening at the best time, I'm glad it's here and after April 8th, I'll be so relieved.

I got my first haircut in, oh, maybe three years today? I'm starting to feel quite attached to my beard and just didn't feel right going back to the overall hairless look, so the beard got to stay a little longer and I splurged for a trim. Go figure that the only thing I got out of bed for yesterday was my waxing appointment. Weird harriness/baldness existentialism ensues...

Now the flu symptoms are turning to sinus congestion. Maybe it was a cold afterall, and not the flu? It's possible, and would make be feel a bit better that I continued to resist getting a flu shot again this year.

We leave for Los Angeles tomorrow evening and land at our condo in Newport Beach (on the beach!) late in the evening. Craig's been the main planner of the trip (which is a godsend since he used to live down there) and Reid, Frank and myself are tagging along as well as Craig's wife Karen. The guys have a Food Park Race planned for Saturday morning. We have rides along the PCH, Glendora Mountain, Temecula to Palm Springs and 2 or 3 days of training at the ADT Center Velodrome planned for the week. We have a day off next Wednesday, and we're trying to figure out what we could do that would be distinctly Californian for the day. I think it's going to be a day at Disneyland, which will be a lot of fun. I'll try to take as many pics as possible and write an update when I get back, but of course OutGames will be looming by then so that report might be delayed by a week. Nah...screw OutGames. Buh-bye! Ta-ta for now!