Ready to Run

I mean this in a couple of ways.

First of all, I'm tired of being injured. Between a stress fracture 8 weeks before my marathon (hence not training for it and downshifting to the half-marathon) and a bursitis problem for the past week.

Two miles today. I feel like a wuss.

Goal: April 30 -- Louisville Derby Marathon. Let's hope 6 months is enough time to let this heal.

Impulsive

I've been very impulsive lately. Usually I'm a heavy-duty planner, going all out with maps and schedules and budgeting, etc. Not so much recently. And I really, really love it. The last month has been completely full and it's been completely spontaneous and completely incredible. I've also signed more waivers in the last few weeks than I have in a while. Totally worth it all.



Lady Luck has been following me around as well. I have a feeling it has something to do with the company I've been keeping.

And my most recent impulse:

Turning Limes into Pie.

I don't want to really say anything too soon, but I think I've been able to turn my poor June luck around. The summer of 2010 has gotten off to an incredible start. Between meeting new people, having fun adventures in the mountains, getting a promotion at work and possibly checking off one of the big bucket list items this upcoming weekend... I've stayed busy. And it's been the best kind of busy. :)

I need to get back on a real schedule for my marathon training though. I did well last week with early morning workouts, but this week was not so good. Must. Change. This.

And I do believe I have perfected my key lime pie recipe. With an addition of macadamia nuts in the crust and coconut in the whipped cream, it's the perfect summer dish.

Last weekend was Father's Day. It fell on June 20. Six years ago, my paternal grandmother passed away on June 20, on Father's Day. Two years after that, my 13 year old cat died on the 20th. This is one of the bad June days. Luckily, I was able to successfully wish my father a happy day and tell him I love him. I guess I can't wish for much more than that.

Once I complete my bucket list item, I'll post it. I don't want to jump the gun in case the plans fall through. I get excited just thinking about it. :)

June Sucks.

It's officially June. I have a poor history with this month, so I'm hoping it flies by. Luckily, I have some good things planned. I'm officially on vacation this week which was celebrated this afternoon by the pool. I'm driving back home to Tennessee in the morning where I'll get to spend some quality time with family and friends there. And our garage sale. (Not looking forward to that one.) I'm hoping to spend a good day on the lake and a good day hiking on the AT. I miss the mountains.

I'm traveling tomorrow - which is why I'm still awake. I always get a little anxious or something the night before I go somewhere. I'm incredibly OCD when it comes to getting things ready the night before and making sure I'm ready to go.

I have also decided that I need new music. Not just stuff to download - Glee gives me plenty opportunities to get new stuff on a weekly basis. What I really need is something to hook me for a while, much like how the Avett Brothers got me through last summer.

If I was the type of person who...

I heard an inspiring story the other day. I was listening to (watch out: nerd alert) NPR's 'This American Life' and the final story in the series was, in a roundabout way, a story about faith. In a nutshell, this man had strayed from the Catholic faith in which he was raised because they taught him that he was a sinner by being gay, that who he was is wrong. However, in a time of crisis when his mother was dying, he found his way back into a church. He wasn't the kind of person who could really have faith in something that scorned who he was. But somehow, he decided that if he was the kind of person who could believe, he would go through the motions. Much like if his mother was the type of person who would curse, she'd say "Fuck" when she found out that she wouldn't survive the night.

I know that probably doesn't make sense, but oh well. Just download the podcast on iTunes, the episode is titled 'Return to the Scene of the Crime.' You'll understand.

Anyhow, the whole reason for me writing about this is that I've decided that I think if I was the type of person who could believe, I would. My rational thoughts all tell me that there is too much hypocrisy and human error to make it logical. Or real. However, the familiarity and the rhythm could be good for me. And for my faith. I have a feeling that I'll need something in my life in the next couple years that will help hold my foundations and give me something to trust when things get rough. Because they will. I can count on my family but there's only so far they can take it.

So I return again tomorrow. I'll walk over to the neighborhood Anglican church and see how it goes. Maybe I'll become the type of person who can believe.

Things I Get to Eat Because I'm Training for a Marathon.

Sort of. This is what Shannon and I came up with as a theme for this blog baby of mine. (I'm obviously a terrible mother). Because I love to cook and I'm crazy enough to want to run a marathon, we thought I should marry the two ideas together into one. It might turn out that way since I have a feeling my life is going to be governed by training schedules, logging miles, and eating. I might as well have a good time while I'm at it.

Tonight was the perfect example of this. I spent a good 90 minutes at the gym, and 60 of those were in a truly ass-kicking spin class. Great music, great (and very muscular, very cute) instructor, and lots of sweat. What more could I ask for? I come back so Shannon and I could then prepare a glorious meal, primarily based on fats. Pure love.

At Last...

Oh my. I'm embarrassed. This is just sad- over two months later, and I'm finally back on the wagon. So much has happened in the last few months.. I don't even think I'll do a recap, except for some highlights.

For one, I will officially be taking an additional year off school to work and save dollars. This is mostly by choice, but I know that by next fall, I'll be ready to be back in school. So this upcoming fall will focus on scouting out law schools and applications. Very exciting, I know.

Another thing is that I successfully completed the Lexington Half Marathon back at the end of March. Finished in 2:19:33, which was a little slower than I'd hoped but I'll happily blame the weather. Sideways wind and rain along with a chilly day did not make for a fun run. Luckily I had a great friend who ran it with me (although I know he could have smoked me) and helped me along. Dad was waiting at the finish line and it was a great weekend. For some reason, after all this, Dad and I thought it would be a good idea to sign up for the Columbus Marathon in October. So we did. Dad actually has a good shot of qualifying for Boston, which is HUGE. Columbus is a fast race and October is the perfect time to run. Our race is a week after my sister will run the Chicago Marathon so I'll get to travel up there to watch her. I think that if I'm able to keep this up, I'll start planning my travel destinations around races. There are some great places to go and I'd love to travel the world running half marathons here and there. And there's plenty of celebrating afterwards!

Enough of running. I could probably go on for hours about that.

New thing three: I have officially been hired on part-time at J.Crew. I know, it seems strange for me to get a retail job when I have a perfectly good, well-paying office job with benefits. I'm definitely holding on to that one. The J.Crew thing is just something on the side to make a little extra cash here and there. And the discount is serious. Like, dangerous. Deadly. I've already used it, and I was barely there for four hours. But I guess that's why it'll be "extra" money. :)

I suppose that's it for now. There's lots more (like how I've finally redone the disgusting bathroom in the new place, got a brand spanking new car, the wonderful world of first dates, etc.) but those will come later.

I think I need to come up with a more unified theme for this little blog of mine, I have no clue what to focus on, and my life only seems to get interesting when I'm not writing about it that often. However, I think it would be good for me to jump back on and really pay attention to it, even though no one is actually reading. Ah, the glories of the internet.

So long for now. Hopefully it won't be another two months before I get back on here.

Dear Josh Blair

suck it.

No but really, thanks for calling me out on not posting anything for an entire freaking month. Things have been completely nuts, and since I didn't think anyone was actually paying any attention to my little ol' bloggy-poo here, a month off didn't seem so wrong or offensive. Apparently I was wrong.

On that note, I don't think Josh should have ditched me around my birthday weekend. I mean, I'm glad you got into the Mexico program and all, but Alice in Wonderland was fabulous, especially with pitchers of beer. You must come visit me in Lex very soon, young man.

As I mentioned, I've been quite the busy bee lately. Since my last post, I've changed addresses. Across town. My once $30 cab ride to my favorite bar is now less than $10. My once 25-35 minute morning commute is now 10 minutes, 15 on a terrible day. I'm pleased, to say the least.

Half marathon training is going... ok. Successfully completed a wonderful 10-miler last weekend only to get the flu for 3 days this week. But I'm finally feeling like a normal human being again and I'm going to attempt a short morning run tomorrow and another long run for Saturday. I'll try not to kill myself. But after this long run, I'll be in taper mode until race day so I can take it easy and just focus on tempo.

I guess that's about it for now. I haven't been writing between the busy-ness (I never really like the spelling of that as "business") and the sicky-ness. And frankly, I haven't thought that anything has been that exciting. I turned 23 but that isn't such a big deal anymore. I might just start celebrating every other year and make it absolutely ridiculous. We'll see how I feel about that next year around this time.

Until next time.. hopefully it won't be April by then and I'll have something thoughtful to say. And spring will be here.

So Predictable.

I knew this would happen. I got on the blogging kick and stayed strong for about a week. Now, a week later I got busy and didn't even bother to worry about this. But I'm back, hoping to save this fumble.

Anyway, this past week has been good. Work was a little overwhelming at times, but my weekend at Centre definitely made up for it. I went down to help out with recruitment, and I have to say that I am so grateful that I'm done with that process. I loved being on the alum side of things, helping behind the curtains and then having the freedom to hang out with my other alum buddies. I wish I could always walk into a room and have about half a dozen people look up and yell "Dahlman!" since they'd be so excited to see me. That's what going back to Centre feels like. I gotta cherish it while I still know people there. After that, I can only rely on homecoming weekend for that sort of reaction.

In other news, I officially have the first 4 boxes packed for our big move. They're mostly just books, but it's a start. I also cleaned out the fridge as best I can right now, getting rid of those things that should have been gone a week ago. All in all, a relatively productive night, especially after my swim.

I decided that I'm going to come back from this injury much slower than the last time. A few weeks ago, when I thought I was back at 100%, I found out the hard way that I was not. So this time around, I'm going to do my long runs on the weekends then build up my runs during the week. I'll hop back into the group this Wednesday and Saturday morning. On off days, you can find me in the pool. :)

Finally, I guess I need to edit that neat little list of mine from my first post. I'd like to make an addition. One more thing for me to do this year: become a DIYer. That's right - a do-it-yourself-er. I want to find creative ways to decorate and have fun doing it frugally. I literally read a decorating blog last night for 2 hours. TWO HOURS OF DECOR. And I loved it. I went to a secondhand furniture shop today and I kept thinking about what I could do to change the pieces to make them work. This upcoming weekend I'll try my hand at it. I've decided to change my bedroom furniture (well, my dresser and nightstand) into something a little more modern. I'm going to remove the varnish, sand them down, prime 'em up, and put a little black number on them with some new hardware. I have high hopes. I dreamed of a staple gun and wallpaper last night - I think that's a good sign.



Well, I'm off to bed. I was completely useless at work today so I figure I ought to do something with myself tomorrow. So long!

Snow Day

I've decided to be willingly snowed in today. I rarely get a day where it is socially acceptable to lay around in my pajamas, so today is my day. I had some grand plans of being super productive this weekend, but that can wait.

I did get a chance to start on my taxes before I realized that I don't have all my paperwork yet for them. I got ahead enough to realize that it would be better for me to file on my own rather than as a dependent but I don't think that's going to happen - Dad wants to use me one last time. Oh well. My taxes are a reflection of 2009 in more ways than just my income. I had to go back through the year and was reminded how drastically things have changed for me. This time last year, I was a full-time student and completely dependent on my dad. Now, I'm a resident of another state trying to figure out how to move...again. I had to claim rental property income since my grandfather passed away in June and I inherited portions of his properties. I've been paying into my own medical care with my job at the law firm, so I have to deduct that. I can apparently claim expenses from job hunting which I did quite a bit of in May. I can only deduct my student loan payments if I file on my own - that's annoying. To say the least, things are only going to get more complicated from here on out and each year around this time, I'll be forced to go back through and recollect the previous year for all the good and the bad.

In other news, the long group run was cancelled this morning. But I still need to get in my 8-miler at some point this weekend. I can't really afford to get behind in my training with only eight weeks to go until the half marathon. I'm seriously considering a full marathon in October or November, depending on how my schedule works out. Running with people who have similar goals really helps with understanding my potential. I never thought that it was sane thing to do, running 26 miles in a single go. Now I see that the focus and energy would help balance me out a little bit. I've always had something to work towards - a degree, a job, etc. - so now that things are settling down, I need a new big goal. A half marathon is a big goal, don't get me wrong. I just like to aspire to bigger and better things. I'm a little nutso like that.

I like being "snowed in" this weekend. It gives me a chance to take some time for myself without feeling guilty about not getting out much. Time to make myself something to much on during the UK game. Go Cats!

Life's Better with Company

Here I am, sitting around on my couch post-State of the Union. I guess I should write some thoughtful response to our President's address to the nation, but frankly I need to read a transcript to remember all of the major points and to make a thoughtful comment. My initial reaction: I did enjoy was the fact that he finally stepped up to the plate and seemed like a strong leader. He didn't shy away from the people that disagree with him, and I'm glad that he called out the Supreme Court for their decision last week on campaign finance. It was a direct shot at Kentucky's own Mitch McConnell when he said "Just saying no may be good short term politics, but it's not leadership." It's time for the Republicans to finally come to the table and stop being so damn personal. These people were elected into their offices to govern a country, NOT to ensure that this President fails and that healthcare reform "will be his Waterloo." (Thank you, Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina)...Enough of that.

In other news, I ran with a group for the first time tonight. I finally took the time to step out of my comfort zone a bit and meet new people here in Lexington. I had faint memories of my freshman year of college - "Hi, I'm Rachael and I'm new to the group." But it was fun, my pace time increased, and it looks like they want me to stick around for a while. Our course took us through my soon-to-be new neighborhood and I loved every bit of it. I'm going to love living in Chevy Chase. And I'm going to love running with a group. They'll help keep me motivated, accountable and on track. As George Clooney stated in a movie recently, "Life's better with company." I cherish my solitude and independence, but it's nice to have others around. Although I'm not prepared to figure out the whole "co-pilot" aspect of the rest of that movie quote..

Since I'm supposedly all grown up now, I guess that means it's about my bedtime. I haven't been sleeping well, and it's been nearly impossible for me to get up in the mornings. Hopefully I can rest up this weekend, get out for a long run (eek - 8 miles), and do my taxes. I need a couple of good, relaxing days before we start preparing for the move in a few weeks.

Taking the First Step

I suppose I've officially succumbed to the world of blogging. I've avoided it for a long time, not quite finding the time or motivation or dedication. I have always been terrible at journaling yet I love to write. My job right now doesn't allow me to think very creatively and maybe this blog will be an outlet for that. I don't have very profound thoughts, and what I write may not be all that interesting. But I've finally come to a point in my life where I have the time and motivation. Time will tell about the dedication.

As January comes to a close, I realize that I'm happy 2009 is over. It was a stressful year with both positive and negative changes. Yet all were dramatic in some fashion. I hope that 2010 will bring some stability, or at least some form of it.

I'm a goal-oriented person; without them, I don't seem to get anything done. Appropriately, I ought to begin my first blog with my list of goals for the year. These aren't necessarily 'resolutions' in the sense that it's a new year. These are long-term, character-altering changes.

1. Become a runner

Not a marathoner (although that is on my radar) but someone who is dedicated. I find myself enjoying my time on the roads, taking in my surroundings in a new light. My sister is my inspiration for this. Within a year, she was running a 5k at the same pace as me and less than 12 months later, she finished a marathon. Yes, 26.2 miles. Yes, at once. So being the competitive spirit, I signed up the next day for the Lexington Half Marathon. Tomorrow I start running with a group of people I've never met before. I'm both nervous and excited all at once.

2. Go back to school

I've enjoyed my time away from the daily grind of schoolwork but my mind is getting restless. I'm ready to learn again and not just on my own. Hopefully, I'll get into my desired Masters program for the fall. If not, I'll just put all my energies into applications for the next fall. No matter what, I'm determined to get back to the classroom in some fashion.

3. Learn Arabic

In conjunction with #2, I'm attempting the beginnings of this extremely difficult language. Accountability is hardly there, so I need to schedule real time to do this on a regular basis. This will hopefully help with my (hopeful) Masters and will increase my opportunity for careers later on. And I love languages.

4. Become a Wildcats fan.

On a more light-hearted tone, living in Lexington has had an effect on my sports loyalties. I've been an Ohio State fan for years now but I find myself looking for Cats games. For football, I believe I'll remain faithful to Old Ohio, but it's hard not to be a Cats fan in this town, especially this season. I write this as 20-0 hangs in the air against South Carolina. Whew, what a game.

5. Blog regularly

I suppose that this might be a given for the beginning post, but I realize that I should write it down and make it official. I won't get to it everyday (and let's be honest, my life isn't that interesting) but hopefully I'll be able to post something thoughtful once a week, or maybe twice if you're lucky. I'm going with the theory that things seem a little clearer once they get of your head, and maybe for those random people out there who might be reading, you can offer insights.

They always say that the hardest part is the first step. I've found that to be true in almost everything I've done so far in my short life, and this post is hopefully the first of many to come.