April Showers Bring Paolina Flowers… :)
Every year when spring hits I hear my mother’s voice in my head cheerfully saying in 2 octaves higher, “April showers bring May flowers…” No, it’s not spring yet, but this morning I received a GREAT email from Paolina (Allan) which has me now eagerly anticipating spring.
She started with (I copied & pasted from her email: Are you looking forward to the Timex camp? Who are you rooming with, can you believe this I actually feel quite jealous that you will be rooming with someone else, sharing a room, telling stories…”
Polly was my roommate last year at team camp but this year will be in Scotland getting married during camp weekend. I will miss her, for sure. I know Hager and I will miss her during our morning 1-mile walk to Starbucks – last year they were ritual for the three of us and we would chat our mouths off!
So… Polly then asks if she can come and stay with me in April to train!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
(Are you sensing I am not happy about it?)
While I think she is INSANE for wanting to come to ATLANTA to train … ??? … I realize she wants to escape the freeze of Toronto and do some riding in the hills to prepare for IM Lanzarote. Plus, of course, it is so much cheaper to stay with a friend than having to rent a house for weeks on end. It adds up! Pro triathletes look out for each other in this way. I cannot wait to have her here.
To add incentive to let her stay (as if she needed to!), she told me she would be my cleaning lady. I about fell out of my chair laughing at this. To me, there is always something really wonderful about the teasing that goes on between REAL friends. I knew she was taking a jab at me for being such a slob and I thought it was hilarious.
Last year at camp, our room was the butt of constant jokes between us. Polly had these meticulous, organized piles of stuff, things stacked geometrically, nothing out of order. I think she even color coordinated her stacks. The ENTIRE rest of our room, literally, looked like there had been some sort of clothes/product EXPLOSION. We called it, “Tornado Sharpie”. All of my stuff was everywhere, even on her side of the room. 
When I walked into our room I would deliberately kick over one of her neat piles, just to get at her. When she came in she would just reorganize, refold, and go about her business without even being fazed. I would shake my head and laugh.
Polly was extremely tolerant of me, bless her heart, and we definitely laughed about it all. It was definite Felix and Oscar, for sure.
I mean, I am not a SLOB, but I am certainly not a neat freak. I have piles of things everywhere in my house; organization is sadly NOT my forte’. It is one of my least favorite qualities in myself, actually…. but, you know, I’ve learned to find compassion for my failings. I will never be the ultra executive assistant who can color code appointments, create graphs and charts galore, and have every scrap of paper perfectly filed away. I completely envy these qualities but I probably will never be this ultra organized assistant… however, I may be the Executive who GETS the assistant!! Ka-POW.
It’s all about utilizing the best skills we have, not trying to constantly improve the weaknesses. Shine the good stuff, baby.
So while my bike may not be the cleanest on the bike rack at the race… you may not get the chance to see it again until the race is over.
I’m cool with that.
FUN! Always fun to have friends come…also, April is a great time of year for Atlanta! too bad she will have to drive hour+ for the gaps, but at least it is worth it once you get there that is for sure! have a safe trip to FL girl!!!