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Month: May 2016

begin summer

begin summer

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and so i enter my 38th summer. what are my summer vacation plans? 

  1. despite the upheaval, i want to be able to relax. i feel like i’ve been running around to no real end for the past month, and i’d like to have a moment to just be a normal weekend person for a bit. (my weeks will pretty much be upheaval; i realize that much). after my deck is finished, i’m hoping that this will be able just be a thing. i want a little peace.
  2. despite the upheaval, i want my garden to be a thing. so far, so good. my tomatoes are in, the peppers are in, cucumbers, dill, basil, and cilantro planted. this weekend i’m renting a tiller, and charlie and i are finishing up the back forty with sunflowers, and i’ve got to get the green beans in the ground. then some zinnias here and there. i still want to see things grow.
  3. despite the upheaval, i am going to my family reunion! i’m not going to let this be the summer that i don’t go (i have a 100% attendance record to maintain, after all). BIG LAKE. SUN. RELAXATION STATION. << especially that, haha
  4. despite the upheaval, i still love summer. i will take advantage of the warmth and the daylight and the greenery and the flowers and the growth and the frogs croaking and the birds chirping away. not the junebugs though. those things can die in a fire.
  5. despite the upheaval, i want MORE upheaval and someone to buy my house down south so i can commence the living like normal up northerly. it will be work, but it will be worth it. 

let’s go, summer!

two of everything!

two of everything!

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one downside of living like a nomad is i end up needing two of a lot of things. two bottles of soaps, two deodorants, two sets of cold medicines (ugh, i know; right?), etc., because i’m sure if i try to pack up every three days, i’ll forget something.
which means i spend a lot of time at target.
which means i spend a lot of money at target. 
fortunately, i got a nice 10% off coupon (essentially 15% with my red card) from target in the mail, but of course i used it on my least expensive trip. *sigh*
other than that, life’s been going. so far this week has been going immensely better than last week, in that i didn’t have to drive to cannon falls after work to get my ss card. 
in good news, my deck should, in theory, be done this weekend. it’ll be nice to enjoy it for a little bit!

where am i? what am i doing?

where am i? what am i doing?

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what is especially weird about this job/moving transition i’m doing is that at any given moment, i have to do a double-take: where do i live again?
when i was up in st cloud for my grandma’s funeral, i had a weird moment like that. nate and i were turning into the hotel, and i was thinking, hmmm, i wonder how long it’s been since liz has been to st cloud? probably a while – i wonder why she doesn’t visit me more often? then i shook my head: i don’t live in st cloud. why would liz be visiting me here?
it’s only gotten worse. it doesn’t help that half my FB friends live in st cloud and post about things in st cloud. one of them posted she went to joan jett at grand casino. i had heard that my supervisor at st cloud tech was going to see joan jett this weekend too. in my head, i’m thinking, whoa, that’s a long drive to go see joan jett from rochester. wait a minute…this is my supervisor in st cloud. 
oh man.
i didn’t have this difficulty coming down here; rochester was so unfamiliar to me that there was no question as to which was which town. but now that i’m familiar with roch, and the place i’m moving to is very familiar to me as well, this is bound to get really confusing.
so, if i’m looking off in space wondering where i’m supposed to be in the next few months, that’s the reason why. 

so it begins

so it begins

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for some reason, this commuting thing is already worse, and it’s only been six hours. it could be because i have a nasty sore throat that’s really dragging me down, but i miss my kitties and i miss my hubby already!! 🙁
so tomorrow i start my new job. i’m hoping i feel better than i do now. i remember being really anxious before i started at roch comm & tech , but i am not feeling anxious at all for this job. maybe tomorrow morning, but i feel like i’m just heading to another branch of mnscu, so it’s really similar. i hope i find coworkers as awesome as mine at roch comm & tech 🙁 wah i already miss my department.
BUT.
this is what i want. this is good. i just have to do this weird commuting thing for six months at most, and things will settle down again. rinse, repeat. 
maybe i’ll be able to blog a little more! now that i’m not cleaning 24/7 and running around like a chicken with my head cut off. watch for details!
on the plus side, i’m going shopping after work tomorrow (if i feel up to it), which should remind me how much i hate st cloud traffic. exciting!

how to run a half marathon

how to run a half marathon

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*runrunrunrunrunrunrunrurn*
after three months of training, the day for the half marathon was upon us last weekend. well, i trained for three months. i can’t speak for liz.
i’d run 10 miles at the most. that 10 miles was… not bad…but not awesome. i knew i could do it. i was relatively unscathed afterward. and they say that you can run 1/3-1/2 more of the distance than what you’d trained for. so i was (supposedly) good. 
the day before, i ate. a lot.
the morning of, i ate. a muffin. and used the bathroom. (no runner’s trots for me.)
Screen Shot 2016-05-09 at 11.15.43 PMthe time came. we started our half marathon. 13.1 miles.
we decided the best way to accomplish this was to walk a little bit each mile, so we ranranranranwalksranranranranwalked. liz took a picture at each mile marker. 
so things were going pretty well. it takes a couple miles to warm up, and after three miles it just becomes a blur, but then after about 7 (for me, anyway), things start to get hurty. after 9 miles they get really hurty, especially below the waist.  after 10, the bra starts chafing, and i have to make an effort to hold my arms away from my sides as i run to let the cool air flow over my chafed arms. at 11 miles, we stopped to stretch out the calves – OMG.
at this point, all those runners who’d been running fast then walking then running fast then walking were running really slowly. so liz’s and my “slow and steady wins the race” attitude passed all those losers. (said she who came in 112th out of 137.)
and then…the wall. the last mile was just torture. my hamstring quit on me. i took a minute at a street sign to stretch it out, and i barely got my leg 8 inches off the ground before it screamed at me to send it to guantanamo because that would’ve been less torturous than what i was putting it through now. after a couple kicks, it barely loosened up, but mind over matter, right?
right.
we walked a little bit, then decided it was time to run; it was mostly downhill at this point anyway, and the end was near.
Screen Shot 2016-05-09 at 11.22.46 PM
OH HAPPY DAY! MILE 13!!
liz decided she needed to sprint the last stretch, so she finished 10 seconds ahead of me, but i said screw it; as long as i finish running, i’ll be good.
and finish we did. 
so why did we do it? like i’ve said before, because, well, we can!
IMG_0597
then after that? i ate a lot.
the day after? i ate a lot. 
today? i ran again.

helloooo

helloooo

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well hello blogosphere. i have not forgotten about you. it’s just that there’s a lot going on. and somehow i’ve relegated blogging to the back of my list. bottom. finito. 🙁
it’s my last week at rctc. i’m both sad and excited – i’ve never before taken a job, really, as part of professional/personal development. it’s always been about the moola. this is the first time in my life where i’ve sat and thought, ok, do i REALLY want to leave this job? i like my job. i like my coworkers. i like my boss. i like the atmosphere. but, personal development really won out in the end. sure, it helps that i’m making more money, but given the opportunity with the same money? i’d definitely have to think about it.
anyway, tomorrow’s just one long party all day for me. time to get out my party dress and go to bed to get my beauty sleep.