Mundane Moments

A lot has happened over the past few months. Nothing really major or life-altering, but plenty of those little mundane moments that make life worth living. I might write more about some of them later; I might not. In the meantime, though, here are a few snapshots of what's been going on in my life.

• I've read. A lot. From books that were total trash (The Friday Night Knitting Club) to books that still haunt me weeks after finishing them (We Need to Talk About Kevin). I even forked over my $10 entry to join every woman in America and read Fifty Shades of Grey. While I can see why mainstream American housewives were scandalized, the prose is on par with my 7th grade Backstreet Boy fanfic (and I mean, I do watch Gossip Girl), so I haven't felt the need to purchase the second and third installments. An interesting discussion with a 75-year old woman who declared, "the first is trash, but the story really gets going in the second one!" may have convinced me otherwise, though. (ETA: Totally bought the second one).

[Source: Google Books]

• I went on my first real vacation in years. For three glorious, deadline-free days, Andrew and I cavorted around fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada, drinking beers in the streets and giving all of our money to a wizard on a slot machine in hopes of lights flashing and "Oh, Oh, it's Magic" blaring in our faces. For the record, I now totally understand why bluehairs spend so much time at the casino. I miss that damn wizard and I think about him daily.

Outside our hotel

• I got to spend some much-needed quality time with one of my besties and her husband and, with any luck, Andrew and I convinced them that New England, if not Boston itself, is the ideal destination for their next home. In approximately a month, she will be packing her car up and road trippin' to the beautiful state of VT, where she will embark on an adventure that I routinely cite as the One Thing I'd Do if I ever hit the lottery: obtain a graduate degree in English. 

Me and Cameron, the Anne to my Diana

• I'm currently 15 pounds lighter than I was on January 2nd, which was roughly the last time I cared about blogging. To some, 15 pounds in almost six months might not seem like a big deal, but for me, who has struggled with a 30-lb yo-yo for the past five years, it's a major feat. I'm having the same little struggle I always do when I'm at this weight, but it feels different this time. I usually feel like getting below this point is like prying Gollum from The Precious, but I feel as though if I could just buckle down for a week or so, I'd be well on my way to a new weight decade in no time. I have a really heavy work and social calendar the next few weeks, but in the meantime, I'm not worried about it. Which leads me to my next point, which I AM moderately concerned about...

Lighter than January, fo' sho'

• I trained for a half marathon. This weekend's Run to Remember, to be exact. I've been determined to claim my vengeance on 13.1 ever since our last bloody encounter, and training for the R2R has been everything I could have wanted it to be. I've spent the last seven months declaring my intention to smash my standing PR. Six weeks out, I had already hit 11 mile long runs. I dropped weight to get faster, cleaned up my eating, quit drinking during the week and added lower-body strength training into my routine. Everything I did was focused on slaughtering that abysmal three hours two minutes. I couldn't even get out of bed without giving it a crack. Literally. As in, "I gave myself a (probable) crack in my ankle bone"while bounding out of bed one Saturday morning for a run. Jury is still out on whether it's a stress reaction or an actual fracture, but the verdict has already been rendered: I'm not running the half this weekend.

So, that's that. Like I said, I'll probably elaborate on some of these topics (like the half and Vegas) in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, I figured I'd prove to the world that I haven't like, joined a convent or something. Just livin' the life, as they say!