November 22-23, 2013

Mesa

My niece is super speedy and therefore runs in national competitions, one of which is held in Mesa every year so when that time rolls around, Nicco and I take a quick road trip for fun in Mesa and to watch Lucy run. Mostly just to watch Lucy run. Which is fun. For me.

This year I decided to make it a little more fun for Nicco too so I took him to the Organ Stop pizza joint. Organ Stop Pizza is "home of the Mighty Wurlitzer" pipe organ. The organ was originally built for the Denver theater in 1927, but then "talkies" were invented and the Great Depression came along and made it too expensive a luxury to go to the theater. Then there was a fire causing major damage to the organ. The organ was rebuilt and installed in Mesa.

Nicco was in heaven. A pepperoni pizza of his own, live music, flashing lights and bubbles, and Dancing Cats!

After dinner, we met Aunt Di and Lucy and her friends for dessert before turning in for the night to get good sleep before the race in the morning.

 Lucy is such a nice big cousin to Nicco, even when she's around all her friends. She took him by the hand (figuratively...Nicco doesn't hold hands anymore...) and helped him load up a bowl of ice cream and toppings. She indulged him by being "interested" in his bow and arrow. She makes me proud and pleased.

 It was a cold day at the races. 50s, cloudy, and rainy. At least it wasn't raining. That would have been bad. But still, we Arizonans suffered in the lack of sun.

 We watched Lucy warm up. She's like a gazelle.

 And we hoped for a top three finish. Really we hoped for a top two, but at this level of competition it's really hard to predict. Plus the cold... We were excited to see Lucy up there right where she belonged mid-race.

 Nike does a horrible tease at this meet. They give live updates for the first two miles but the course is a blind finish and they stop updating in order to build the excitement and anticipation. When the winner came around the corner we had to wait a few seconds to see who would be in second place. The suspense was brutal, especially on the Mama of Lucy. So the squeals of relief, delight, pride and pure excitement were pretty loud when our girl made the turn.

 The little Mama, trying to keep Lucy warm while she waited for awards.

 On the stand with all the top national qualifiers. Good girls!

 A cousin picture.

 A proud coach. Well done, coach!

 Lucy and the famous Cerake Geberkidane from Denver. Or Kenya. There is some subtle whispered speculation that this phenom from Africa where no reliable records are kept is not really 16, that he is probably much older. Who knows. He's famous. In his mind, at least, he will "Cerake Your World." So says the shirt he wore.

After the race and another race to catch up with our people on the highway to meet for lunch, we picked up some supplies in Phoenix and finally made the long drive home. It wasn't long before Nicco tucked himself into bed. I checked on him before I tucked myself into bed.

 

He's in there somewhere.