Hey!

I ran a mile tonight!

First mile in two months... At this rate, I'm on track to have run twenty five miles by the end of the year.

: /

Small potatoes after logging 500 miles, a 10k, a half marathon, and a full marathon last year.

I need to get back to that.

Shark Week! (ooh-ha-ha!)

Shark Week has been one of my favorite television features for years, but since we don't have cable I don't get to watch it in real time.

Let's be honest, until they find a Megalodon, Shark Week is fairly predictable.

So these days, in order to get my fix, I'm binge-watching Shark Week episodes on Netflix -

in between watching all of Robin Williams' movies.

What a heartbreaking bit of news that was! 

I've always loved Robin Williams as an actor and as comedian.

He brought such life and vibrancy to each character he played, 

his movies made me laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time,

and he always seemed so genuine and human in his interviews.

I'm since quite close to people who have battled various addictions over time -

hearing the news of his death and how it occurred scared me.

It could have been someone I know.

Internal demons are terrifying, and sometimes we don't know how to overcome them.

I hope anyone and everyone I know who is having trouble battling their demons asks for help.

Robin Williams will be dearly, dearly missed,

and so would you if you were to disappear from my life.

-

It's been a week since my birthday.

This year doesn't feel much different from last year, aside from all of the ridiculously epic life changes that have gone on since then.

My first paycheck from my new job came in yesterday

so I went shopping : )

I've regained more weight than I care to admit since this time last year, which I suppose is only a natural side effect of going from running +30 miles per week to running zero miles per week. 

Most of it actually seems to be in the bust, I've only gone up a half size in pants (just enough to put me up a size when I go shopping now), but I'm up three cup sizes in my bras and I need(ed) more shirts that fit! 

It seems like all of my favorite stores are having very good additional discounts off sale items, and I've shopped at new-to-me stores for the first time lately, which brought in a grand total of seven new shirts for under $100. Woohoo!

Now I just need to get my butt out of bed when my alarm goes off at 0525 and get running again!

blogging? what?

no idea how so many people can work full time and blog simultaneously -

then again, maybe not everyone has a +60 minute commute?

i'm still getting used to work

the drive

the job itself

how different it is from Washington

I also seem to have developed a summer cold,

or my body is just being pissy as it adjusts to 0530 wake-up calls

and, since August 7 has passed,

I'm now a year older

wiser?

closer to being able to be a curmudgeonly cat lady.

It doesn't feel much different yet. 

work!

I am SO GLAD to be working again : )

The 75-ish minute commute isn't too bad; I've been listening to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring for the last week. Twelve hours in and guess what? They just got through the Doors of Durin and have entered the Mines of Moria. TWELVE HOURS of audiobook - two hours of movie. I suppose after I complete LOTR in full I'll have to go back and listen to The Hobbit.

I like my job, too, which is icing on the cake. 

: )

And I think I may be impressing my superiors by learning quickly, responding quickly, and not getting quite as flustered as my counterpart when being barraged with eight emails at a time about the same issue. (Don't get me wrong, I'm getting flustered, but I have mastered the Honey Badgerly art of making faces at my computer while I get work done.)