A lot can happen in three weeks

How can you not love this face?

Wow, it has been a while since I posted on here. And it’s been a while since I’ve been in the mood to be on Twitter a lot. I go in spurts. Sometimes I’m just about addicted to Twitter, other days I don’t want to really get on there, especially during lunch because 20 minutes later, there I still am, typing along with  my thumb and pointer finger (I know, I’m weird, I can’t really type with two thumbs.)

Anyway, what have I been up to since the Claddagh 4-mile race? Well, I was supposed to run a 5-mile race the following week, on March 14th.  Unfortunately that also fell on Day 2 of a 3 day deluge of rain, during which our area got 10 INCHES  of rain.  We are now in the middle of getting somewhere between 4-6 inches again.  Mind you, some folks have not stopped pumping water out of their basements during that time because we’ve had a few normal rain storms in between.  Lovely.

I feel like a wimp, but I just didn’t feel like running that race in a downpour, with 25-30 mph wind gusts.  I hated to disappoint my friend Meg, and I really did want that 3rd medal, but I guess for me, the third time (next year) will be the charm and I’ll finally get all 3.

Let’s see – I went to a Celtics game on St. Patrick’s Day, thanks to my husband who won seats just 14 rows off of the floor.  Nothing like being in Boston on a day that celebrates the Irish.   Then I took a few personal days and took it easy.

Penny and Terri at the tweet-up - finally we met!!

During my personal time off, I traveled to NYC.  I am so happy to report that I FINALLY met Penny, aka @southbaygirl on Twitter, of the PlanetYnnepRunning blog (she recently had to protect her blog so you have to request the ability to be read it).  She was in NYC to run the NYC Half Marathon, and asked if I could come down from the Boston area to meet her. I figured it would likely be the closest we could ever get to each other, so I went down and stayed with my brother and met her at a tweetup, and then again on Sunday at, and after, the race. She is, quite honestly, one of the most generous and genuine people I have ever met. And I felt like I’d already known her for quite some time. Because, in a way, we have. We’ve read each other’s blogs now for almost 2 years. Amazing, huh?

While I was in NYC, I had a great run with my brother on Sunday night (in SHORTS, no less.) Oh yeah, did I neglect to say that while I was there, it was also about 70 degrees? I know Penny was aggravated/frustrated by that, but for my part, I was LOVING it. (Especially since it went back to the 30s this past weekend her in MA.)

Penny and I, with @tinyjenna, @followjocelyn, and @katiemiller at the NYC Half Marathon

What’s on my horizon?  Um, a lot.  Work this Sunday, April 4th (volunteered to work without realizing it was Easter. Sigh.)  A big legal research teaching event on April 9th. A  5 mile race on April 10th.  Packet stuffing for the Boston Marathon. Then, the Boston Athletic Association 5K on April 18th, the day before the Boston Marathon.  Oh, and I’ll be meeting Lindsay, of Chasing the Kenyans, or @lindsaydecken on Twitter, the weekend of the Boston Marathon – hopefully she’ll be able to stay with me at least part of the time without having an asthma attack (the animals could do it.)  Yay!  (She’s another person whose blog I’ve been reading for at least 18 months now!)

Oh, and there will be more dog training classes in our future. We broke down and have taken Ruthie twice, to get her more acclimated to being around other dogs. We now realize it’s out of fear that she gets into fights. She even got into a fight at the dog school this past weekend. It was suggested we get her a muzzle – it will still allow her to breathe, of course, but sends a verbal cue to owners and other dogs that she is not one that plays well with others so much.  She loves people, though, and she really wants to be friends with our calico, Callie, so things could clearly be much worse. But doesn’t she look so sad?  (Bill petted her the whole 2 minutes this muzzle was on tonight and then she got a treat right after we removed it, so she wouldn’t feel like she was being punished.)  We’ve been told to put it on her at random times so she doesn’t just associate it with dog school.

Ruthie and her muzzle, looking so sad

Oh, and I have also been writing a lot more lately. Thanks to @ridgeley on Twitter, who was extremely generous with her time and advice, I bought myself a Toshiba netbook a few weeks ago. I absolutely love it.

toshiba nb305-450 - picture from newegg.com

The battery power is great, the screen resolution is wonderful, it weighs almost nothing.  And, I LOVE the keyboard. I feel inspired just looking at it.  I’ve been taking it to work and am able to write on it almost every day at lunchtime.

And, for reasons I cannot go into, I have pulled myself out of, or begun to, anyway, pull myself out of a negative funk at work. I’ve decided to give more of the benefit of the doubt to some people and also to try to not let the stress of others affect me as much. I can try to help them and support them, but I can’t take everyone else’s problems and turn them into mine. It just weighs too much.

All of this, in addition to finishing Stephen King’s 1074 page tome, Under the Dome. And continuing to run in the early a.m.  I’d like to extend a  personal thank you to Turtlepower1 on Twitter for worrying about me. He got me motivated to write on here tonight!

Oh, and I have a few more products I can write about now – so stay tuned! (Nope, I didn’t forget about my cold weather running products, not at all!)  Hey, if you buy them now, they’ll all be on sale.

Yep, it’s been a pretty busy three weeks.

 

Chris got me thinking

I can see Chris’ face now – he has become the topic of a blog post! So this week, I was lucky enough to meet Chris, the Gibtown Runner himself, in person, while he was in town on business.  We went for a run last night along the Charles River, and now I think he’s understanding completely why I say that  Boston is such a runner’s town.  So many people outside running, day and night. 

But really, it was so nice to talk to him in person, and feel very comfortable doing so, like I’d known him for much longer than I otherwise would have after the first meeting in person.  We all know, there is so much stuff  you cannot say on a blog, for whatever reason, because once it’s out there on the Internet, it’s out there. You can never take it back. Chris, you now have a running partner whenever you are in Boston, if you want one!

 It could be that we’ve all been house and snow-bound for way too long, or maybe it’s because this city is going through a re-birth, as Anne put it when commenting on D.C. during the Cherry Blossom festival period of the year.  Literally, the tres have been developing buds and leaves over the last 4 days. The hostas planted around the outside perimeter of our front lawn have been growing by inches over the past few days, and I mean, literally, inches.   And our little tree that flowers for just 3-4 days per year, already bloomed earlier this week. (And yes, I did take a picture, I will post it later on today when I download it from my camea.)  Hey, Kara, maybe I’ll make that my Twitter icon image! (I need help, people, most of my images are too  large for  Twitter, over 700k, and I’m not sure how to make them smaller.  I know, get googling.)

Ok, so back to the topic of this post.  Chris asked me last night where I see myself in five years. I think I now know the answer. In the same spirit as Lisa wrote on her blog a few days ago, here’s my goal. 

• I want to be a published fiction writer in the next 5 years. I’ve now put it out there. 
• And I don’t just want to be someone who publishes a book five people outside of my immediate family read – I want it to be bigger than that.

To be a better writer, I have to get down to the “basic me” and try to not edit myself so much. It’s funny, but I have no problem with mentioning certain things on this blog.  Yet, when I’m working on a piece of my book, and Bill walks near the computer, I tend to close up the screen.  It’s my fear that he will read it and won’t like it, but won’t want to tell me that for fear of hurting  my feelings.  Because that’s what family is supposed to do, right? Support you. My mom tells me I am very lucky to have my husband. She’s right. (Yes, Mom, miracles do happen, even your daughter that made your life complete hell when she was a teenager, can agree with you while you’re still alive.)

Am I setting myself up for failure with this goal? Perhaps.  Am I setting myself up for disappointment? Perhaps. Am I happy with the way things are in my life right now?  Not completely. I would definitely like to feel more fulfilled and inspired on a day to day basis, and not feel like I am in so much of a rut.

Is it scary to admit this stuff to myself?  Yes.  Is it also kind of exciting? Yes. I remember the feelings I had 10 years ago when I decided that I REALLY did not want to be a lawyer. There I was, about 100K in debt (that number has since climbed because of my MLS degree, sad, I know), and I was absolutely miserable. Didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with my life, other than knowing at least one career I did NOT want to do.

I am trying to be more open to “signs” now in my life.  If I keep feeling like I am beating my head against a wall in certain aspects of my life, I am going to take it as a sign, to turn in another direction and try something else. 

And, honestly, I want to feel like what I do on a daily basis matters.

Anyway, thanks for listening.