All posts in Daily Life

hello again

I should get ebb&flow tattooed on myself, but it would redundant to anyone who knows me ;)

It’s been a while because sometimes I don’t know what to say, or I feel like what I have to say is banal that no one will care. But I miss writing some days, and I like my archives and think I should keep adding to them.

This weekend was as low-key as I wanted it to be. After spending parts of the last 2 weekend flying, and with some big changes on the horizon at work tomorrow, I was anxious to do a lot of nothing, and I excelled at it.

On Saturday morning I went for a long run – 10ish miles, which is the longest I’ve done since the half-marathon. I wasn’t sure I had it in me, but I managed to help myself by zigging when I should have zagged and ended up not where I thought I should be. But a nice couple pointed me in the right direction, and the mileage ended up perfect and it was a nice, if hot, day. And I got to see lots of doggies as I ran next to the Mighty Texas Dog Walk.

Then there was much laziness and watching of bad movies (Pet Cemetary II) and so-bad-its-good tv-shows (Knight Rider) and lots of smarties and laughing. And I downloaded and love “Ticket to Ride” for the iPad, so I played that while totally paying attention to the aforementioned shows.

Today, I slept in, then made these Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes and a no-bake lemon cheesecake for Easter, and we hung out before deciding it would be nice to head downtown to check out REI.

Now my night is winding down, and this post seems run-on and boring, but I’m hitting Publish anyways.

So much for the dailies

I’m easily distracted, and work has been busy and frustrating.

and I can’t update because mostly I feel like the same emo girl I’ve been since I was old enough to introspect, rehashing the same shit I’ve always been rehashing.

Current Obsessions

Popcorn
Long slow runs
Pineapple vodka
Vampire Diaries
Lemon icebox cake
Purple everything

Dreaming

incoming_tide_1

I dreamt last night I was on a beach with my dad and husband. At dusk, I took off for a run down the hard, packed sand – past pretty girls trying to get into bars, moms with unruly kids, and teenagers with drama. And I felt like I always do when I run, like my hair isn’t so bad, and it really is all going to be okay.

Stay home and drink

I sold my tickets to see TMBG/Coulton on Craigslist today because, and I quote myself here “They say I should live every day as if it’s my last, and if it’s my last day on earth, all I really want to do is stay home, eat cake, and have a drink.”

Rabbit Rabbit

I rarely say ‘rabbit rabbit’, but my dear friend Melanie, who challenged me to post every day of February does – so it seemed fitting.

January was busy, but good – but I’ll save a recap for later.

February is off to a mellow start, but promises to ramp up. I’m showing my geek and age by seeing TMBG w/ Jonathan Coulton on Friday, and I’m showing my half-crazy by running a half-marathon on the 19th.

These are big deals if you know how lazy low-key I usually am :)

Fail better

It’s been a lazy but not relaxing or restorative weekend. I’m not doing very well with my only NY resolution of living more deliberately. But tomorrow is another day, another week, another chance to try again.

Thanksgiving

This year I am so thankful for Thanksgiving itself. Actually I am thankful for about a zillion things — life, health, family, job, friends, pets, running, the internet, etc! But since this was my first whole year working with fairly limited PTO (my last job was differently structured, and I always had lots of theoretical time, even if I couldn’t take it) I’m pretty darn grateful to have a 4 day holiday :D

Since Christmas is going to be busy with travel and family, the husband and I decided to take it easy this Thanksgiving and just do our own quiet celebration. His 2 requests for dinner were potato casserole and jello poke cake, and I wanted pumpkin pie and stuffing. And we bought a whole little turkey breast – it was perfect sized. I enjoyed the cooking, and I enjoyed that he volunteered to, and practically strong-armed me into letting him, clean up the kitchen.

Everything was delicious and I somehow managed to lose weight – woot! I think the key was that I ate heartily all day, but decided to stop eating completely at 5pm. I ended up staying up too late and was pretty hungry at 10pm, but I shockingly did not die of starvation, and the downward nudge on the scale this morning was awesome! :)

I feel like the weeks between now and Christmas are going to be crazy, so I’m very much trying to enjoy these few days left of the long weekend. I hope that you’re getting to enjoy your days as well!

Unplanned rest week

I took a slightly unexpected rest week. On Monday evening I had a toothache, and on Tuesday I went to dentist to find out I need an extraction, which is scheduled for this coming week. The whole thing really got me anxious and down – I’m too old and anxious for this crap. So I had a few days of pity party and didn’t do much of anything. I skipped my Wednesday run and didn’t do any strength training, but I did go walking most evenings.

I thought about skipping my run today, but I made myself get up and go. The weather was warmish, but overcast, but the run started out great because my husband ran the first 20 min with me, and then, instead of turning around at the short run turnback, I decided to just keep going around the loop, and was gifted with this lovely view – the picture doesn’t even do it justice.

The rest of the run was simply lovely. I let myself go pretty slow (not that I ever go any other way) but I really tried to find some zen and enjoy the views and the act of running.

I just have to keep that feeling with me through this week. It’s going to suck to have to have my tooth pulled, especially right before Thanksgiving, but I’m hoping it’ll be nice to have the extra time to nap and rest and eat soft delicious things like potato casserole and jello poke cake. Hopefully I’ll be feeling better and ready to run again by next Saturday – and get in some good training miles before Christmas!

Wrapping Up and Looking Forward

I keep thinking I’m going to post and keep getting distracted, oops! So let’s see what I can brain dump before the next shiny thing comes along.

Here’s my Oct wrapup and Nov look-ahead just a few days late.

Total Distance OctoberI broke 100 miles last month! Since I don’t swim or cycle, 100 miles is pretty impressive for me.  The red is walking, the orange is hiking.

Now that it’s getting cooler, I’m not sure how realistic it is that I’ll be able to repeat it, but it’s a fun goal and with my half-marathon training coming into play, we will see!

I survived Halloween with minimal candy. So I ate pizza twice in one week, the candy thing is still a pretty substantial win. Thanks to my husband for taking one for the team and eating all but 2 of the kit-kats, and saving me out 2 white ones and saying they were ghost kit-kats so they had no calories. hee!

Looking forward to November, I’m not too stressed out about holiday eating yet. We’re staying home and having a just us 2 Thanksgiving, and that should make it easier to stay on track. Also, 4 days off with no real plans, yes please! I’ll probably lose 3 lbs just from lack of stress :) I’m getting pretty close to my intermediate goal, and might take a break from actively trying to lose weight for a bit, but it’d be nice to lose another few months this month so that I’ll feel better about letting go a little in Dec when we are visiting both of our families. With two 12-hour car rides, 2 animals in tow, and more lack of routine than my brain wants to comprehend, I know it’s going to be a challenge!