Yesterday we took my Mom and Dad out for their 55th wedding anniversary (I think Mom said she calculated and when I’ve been married 55 years I’ll be 99 – !!!), and when we got home at 7:45 I was so wasted I just went to sleep!
The Friday workout at Crossfit didn’t really do H in, but it whacked me but good. It’s interesting what whacks him, what whacks me. This one, because it was mostly upper body strength (remember, it was burpees and pull-ups, plus the sprints) not only made me sore the next day, but just “exhausted.” I think that’s gotta be from my muscles ferociously tearing themselves down and building themselves up for the next onslaught ;-)
Today we’re going to (I think) go and test-drive cars again again again (some day we really will get one), and go to my friend Dot’s 60th birthday. No gifts, please, but bring something “gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free” to share ;-) I got some hummus dips, plus some sweet-potato chips and some blue corn tortilla chips. I know corn isn’t “Paleo” but it IS gluten/soy/dairy free. At least, I think it is – ?!? (Corn is a grass…hm. I think gluten is only in wheat, etc. but – yeah, lettin’ my ignorance hang right on out here…) We’re also supposed to bring our “favorite green smoothie recipe” so I got her a big bunch of purslane and will wrap it up with a bow and give it to her. (They sell it at the Thursday Farmer’s Market – and it’s a miracle food.)
So I said I’d go and get the questions that are posted on The Amazing Race/Cast list. All the “Cast” answered them. I figured I would answer them here. Then R can do it too. ;-) Right R?
Name: Sandra “Sandy” Shepard
Age: 51
Hometown: San Rafael, CA
Connection to your teammate: We met over 20 years ago when we were interns at LucasFilm. We have kept in touch since, but have only really “seen each other in person” about 6 times. So I think that we’d style ourselves “cyber-BFFs.”
Current occupation: Wife, lawyer, entrepreneur
Describe what you do: I support my husband in as many ways as I can think of (including coffee & breakfast in bed every morning – though he brings me “tea and truffles” (our name for my evening vitamins!) in the evening!); I am a lawyer for software/internet companies; I have a few other businesses that throw off passive income.
3 words to describe you: (1) What’s a word for the fact I can see the “funny side” of bad things and laugh at it and make others laugh? There’s gotta be a word for that. So that’s 1 word. (2) The next word would be a word for having “shiny penny” syndrome – meaning, I’m totally interested in things and dive for them, but I might get sidetracked by something else. I talk this way too. So you gotta keep up. Talking to me is sometimes like looking at a flow chart. I get tracked off in one direction but I can always leap back to the “Y” and go the other way. It’s probably exhausting to follow if, oh, you’re my husband ;-). (3) Um, the next word would be . . . I have a good attitude – I generally don’t let things get me down. But if they do – oh dear. I can get overwhelmed BIG TIME, so whoever I’m with has to know to basically tell me “it will be okay” and throw themselves into saving the situation. It happens so seldom that people don’t know that about me…though my husband does because we’re together so much, he knows that this can happen. How’s about them apples? About 900 words for the 3 words that describe me. Gotta hone that down LOL
Favorite hobbies: Being with my husband; cooking while watching old 80s shows (Magnum PI, Murder She Wrote); laughing (Pinterest; Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me; my husband’s jokes)
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? Probably my going from couch potato to Ironman in a year. I have a lot of things in my life that I should be super proud of, but that one is really one of the most amazing, still, to me.
What famous person reminds you of yourself? Lisa Kudrow. A LOT of people have told me I look like her – and her character “Phoebe” on Friends reminds me of me (I promise not to break out into a rendition of “Smelly Cat”). You’d never guess that “Phoebe” has a degree in Biology from Vassar, is Jewish, speaks French fluently, is an amazing director….”Smelly Cat….Smelly Cat….What are they feeding you?….Smelly Cat…Smelly Cat…It’s not your fault…” (Whoops, it just slipped out…)
What famous person reminds you of your teammate? Wow that’s a very good question. Right now – maybe because of the Star Wars connection – it would be C-3P0. He’d get others into a situation and then worry or “Eeyore.” Not meant in a bad way – just what comes to mind right now. He was smart, capable, but often would have things “happen to” him and then let them overwhelm him. Whereas R2D2 was sort of the “mighty might.”
What scares you most about traveling? Getting sick. R finding out I snore like a tractor-trailer ;-)
What excites you most about traveling? I love seeing new things – whether man-made or nature-made. I also look forward to finding out what makes people in other cultures laugh (and know that a lot of it will be something that ~I~ do that they find hilarious because I don’t know how to do something “so simple” to them)
Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: We have NO idea how we will work together. We have never done that. I think that’s why we will be an intriguing choice – because our friendship is basically based on liking one another “from afar.” Even when we were at Lucasfilm, R worked down at Kerner and I worked at The Ranch. I think we “bonded” because we were at least 10 years older than any of the other interns – then we just kept up the friendship.
Pet peeve about your teammate: Right this second, just that she got me excited about doing this about 5 years ago or so (I’d never seen TAR before she emailed me and said “We should TOTALLY do this!”) – and I am really really hoping that this 365-day thing will get her on the track of us really being able to feel confident enough to put in a video/application if not for the next season, then for the one after. (I think they do 2 a year, so the next one is going to be fairly soon – probably TOO soon – but the next after that should work.) We REALLY aren’t getting any younger – we’re already far and away older than the “average” racers. So NOW IS THE TIME – I feel that very, very strongly. And I don’t want to do this with another teammate, because we have a compelling “relationship story” that I really think could get us picked.
What country and place would you most like to visit and why? Country? Hm. I’d like to visit Egypt because H has been there already and doesn’t really want to go back. Or Tibet because we both got SO altitude sick up in Colca Canyon in Peru that H won’t do anything “high” again. But I would also like to visit Sumatra – because it sounds exotic and that’s where my coffee comes from ;-) The one thing I would REALLY REALLY REALLY like to do REALLY (that TAR hasn’t done yet) is to dogsled to the Ice Hotel in Sweden and stay there overnight. I’m not sure WHY they haven’t done that, but I REALLY want to do that. HERE is a link to a trip doing this, sponsored by National Geographic. It has The Amazing Race written ALL OVER it…HERE is a link about “how to sleep in the Ice Hotel in minus 5 degrees [Celsius]” – my favorite part? “…Be sure to store your luggage in the locker when you go to bed. It and everythinng in it will freeze solid overnight.” LOL! This has TAR written ALL OVER it! (Some team doesn’t follow directions…goes to get up and…SURPRISE!)
What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other than winning one million bucks)? To have some ridiculous stories we can laugh about for years. To embody the motto “We don’t want to be first to the mat, we just don’t ever want to be last. 2nd-to-last is fine.” (That can get us all the way to the finish, of course…) And if, in reality, I suddenly had $ 1/2 million after taxes (so what would that be, about $250,000?), I’d go right back out and take my husband on some super-duper awesome trip to Greece/Turkey/Italy. We’ve always wanted to do that.
So having done that exercise, I know:
1. I have to figure out what those three words are.
2. I have to hear who R thinks she is like. And hope she doesn’t kill me at the reference that came to me – I’m perfectly willing to revise. ;-)
I went through some long, developmental periods in my 20s and 30s where I thought I wanted to be Princess Leia, then Luke Skywalker, then Han Solo. I woke up on day and realized who I really wanted to be was George Lucas. Hence film school, five years of freelancing as an editor, director, producer in Pittsburgh, and a leap to Los Angeles to pursue real movie-making. C-3PO was never on the list. Ha. Five years ago when I suggested TAR to Sandy I was still working full-time, and had started my first feature film project. I was laid off and was unemployed for three years. I thought I would never be hired again because of my age. I put my nose to the grindstone and poured out a second, then a third feature script, battling major depression, fearful that I was going to be homeless. I did not have a single drop of joy in me that would have allowed further conversation about TAR. I have been working again now for two years, and simultaneously in development on two of these features I wrote. I have my inspiration back for TAR, and now my body is kvetching. I know Sandy’s peeved at my seeming reluctance, but I have a feeling all I can manage this year is an occasional adventure, weight loss, a little more upper body strength and better diet and exercise to get me ready. Not much to blog about I’m afraid. But I will answer the questions!
naw, not peeved ;-) I know where you’re coming from – but I honestly believe we can do this, and I honestly believe that we’re not getting any younger. I think that the better diet/exercise/weight loss is going to make a huge difference, whether we make it on the show or not. I just believe that in another 325 days or so, we will be able to be “as close as we possibly can” to doing this, even if it just means doing “something” (a la downloading foreign language CDs) each day. ;-)
I know we can do it, too. My “each day” plan is probably not going to be “each day” though. Just saying.
BTW, Hannes says the word you are looking for is Galgenhumor! Nice and succinct! There’s nobody in Germany left who understand it. The immigrated to the US during the Third Reich and never went back.
ah-HA! :-) Galgenhumor – reminds me of the of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_xUIDRxdmc
I know re “each day.” For me, I have to do it or I get offtracked. But I think that one of us has to put on “the calendar” to check the TAR website like once a week for submissions, and I think we have to think about the video. Because that will take some time, and we do want to be ready. Did you see my thoughts on what we could put in a video? I think the more outrageous, the better. I bet that’s how Bingo Boys got on. I also had some other thoughts on that – if I’m going to be the “big bad lawyer” saying what we can’t do because of (c) maybe I can buy or find a Darth Vader helmet somewhere – and maybe you can pin some cinnamon buns to your head and wear a white toga for a few seconds. The more we can get them to laugh, the more likely we are to be the “old couple” that are picked (smile)
I bet the Afghanimals got in because they didn’t realize their sexist spiel would raise the ire of many in the audience. Good television, what ho. At their expense. Not that they would ever realize it. I don’t know anything about the website. Submissions? You mean they post the video submissions they get over the course of a year? Oh, man.
Re the videos: They don’t post them all, they do post some – yeah, you can actually go down a rabbit hole there that’s for sure….Re the Afghanimals – either that, or they thought they might be “borderline” – there are ALWAYS a couple teams that you’re supposed to hate – the girl with the pink hair (the “exs”) being the obvious choice – but these guys really are off-putting. There have been “guy/girl” combos (like last season) but it was a lot more…hm. “Endearing?”…than these guys which come off as super sexist. Then again, maybe it appeals to 20-something guys!