Rambling

nico rosberg intently studying his racing gloves and socks and cutting off every unnecessary bit and piece to make his race starts flawless.

nico rosberg hiring a harvard sleep psychologist to ensure he doesn't waste time being jet lagged because of constantly shifting timezones.

nico rosberg going for runs at any time required even if it was 3am or 4am to ensure his body clock adjusted to the timezone of the country he would be flying to several days in advance before the race.

nico rosberg sleeping in a different bed from his wife and not talking to his family for months because he would devote every waking second to his training.

nico rosberg giving up cycling, an immensely important form of cardio, so he could lose leg mass to save him 0.03 seconds of time and winning one of the most critical races of his career by those 0.03 seconds.

nico rosberg locking himself inside a hotel room to force himself to push harder after he lost the championship to his teammate three times in a row.

how he was once just a young boy who wanted to make it in f1. how he was supposed to be the chosen one because his father was a world champion so he was inevitably expected to make it to and succeed in f1. how he ended up being teammates with one of the best drivers who has ever raced in the sport. how they grew up constantly competing with each other, as teammates, but also as best friends.

how growing up, all the people around them and their karting bosses would always say lewis was the faster driver.

what that would have done to a little boy.

sometimes i think about nico rosberg being unable to eat anything but kelloggs frosties, his favourite cereal that he shared with his childhood best friend and rival a week leading up to his last race in f1, and the last battle they would ever have together.

nico rosberg immediately retiring once he finally won.

nico rosberg's first championship also being his final one.

how even after their worst fallouts nico told the interviewers lewis would always be his best friend. how when the interviewers told nico that lewis had said they weren't friends he refused to believe lewis had said that. how nico's heart dropped when lewis called valterri his favourite teammate. but what about me?

Granted after a certain point, birthdays are kind of just a day, but Dad went back to hospital Monday night, and my mother spent most of Tuesday at the hospital with him, so I figured my day would mostly be watching Encanto on my phone in bed, but then the doorbell rang and it was a little old lady with a big beautiful bouquet from Gautam and Kristina and I almost cried.

And then nearly every person in my department sent me birthday wishes over text, including our most recent newbie who didn’t even have my number, which in the ten years I’ve worked there has happened…never before yesterday? And then my dad called from the hospital because he insisted on singing “Happy Birthday” to me regardless of whatever else was going on. And then at the end of the day I got a call from one of my closer friends at work asking if I was at home because she was outside with balloons and cookies for me and wanted to make sure I got them before the raccoons did and then I did cry.