On Second Thought...

After two beautiful nights of long, deep sleep and two days of not leaving the house other than to go for runs I have calmed down my panic for the quarter.

Yes, between work, school, commute and homework I am looking at an 80 hour week. However, people do that all the time for their jobs. Drunken, sour, miserable people but they do it nonetheless. I can surely do that for 10 weeks. The hard work part, not the drunken miserable part.

With my new rest-induced take on this whole thing I have decided this: I am going to make this quarter my bitch.

All I have to do is be hyper-organized. All clothes washed, ironed and put away over the weekend and laid out the night before so I can find them in the morning. Healthy lunches packed the night before and put in the fridge. Getting all the required reading done for the week done on the weekend prior and all appropriate lecture notes and slides printed out and put in binders ahead of time. Paying close attention to my schedule so I know when I have events scheduled and need to front load my studying. Putting no other social things on the calendar other than what is already there and can't be moved. Getting to bed at a decent hour so I am not sleep deprived and can continue to feel positive and energetic. Going out for runs a few days a week to keep my body moving and clear my mind.

The best boyfriend in the world has also offered to take on a disproportionally larger share of household chores, shopping, and cooking while I finish school. As much as I appreciate that offer I feel weird about accepting it. I hate inequality and feeling like I am not pulling my own weight. I truly appreciate him recognizing the challenges of the next weeks and for wanting to help out and be as supportive as possible. We'll see if I change my mind about the help as I get deeper into the quarter.

Back to the books!

Does Not Bode Well

I don't think it is a good sign when you come home from the first day of the quarter and you burst into tears when your boyfriend asks you how it went.

These classes seem like the kind that will actually require the recommended two hours of study time for each hour spent in class. I fear it might actually end up being more than that. Where, exactly, can I carve out 20 extra hours a week when I have already added 8-10 extra hours a week in commute? And that is before I added the longer school commute. My commute on school days involves 85 miles of driving.

This will all seem better after catching up on some sleep this weekend. Then it is time to nut up, hunker down and grind through this. I can do this for ten weeks.

Viva Las Vegas

Good gravy. The last four weeks have been insane and I have barely had time to catch my breath let alone write blog posts about what I have been up to other than embarrassing myself in the running arena. So begins the rundown for the last four weeks of summer.

Since it was so long ago I will be brief. We went to Vegas for four days in August to help a friend celebrate her 50th birthday. Wonderful people, wonderful food, good times. On this, my fourth trip to Vegas, I finally got to check "see a show" off my list when we went to see "KA". Well worth the money; really fabulous. I still have not achieved my other Vegas goal of receiving my free drink while gambling but then again I don't spend a ton of time actually gambling so there might be a correlation. Kevin and his friends did try their hands at the craps table and learned how to play the game and, in one friend's case, actually walk away with some decent cash.

We didn't get the nice, hot weather we wanted for lounging around the pool. In fact, they actually closed the pool on the day we had the cabana because it was raining. Sure sign you aren't in Seattle anymore. Even without the sunshine and hot temps we had a good time.

I have decided that I am going to make these guys my posse; my entourage if you will. Somehow I feel so much thinner when I am next to them.

When we got back that Monday night it was off to a Mariner's game and then two nights of shopping and trip planning until the wee hours. Thursday I continued the gambling theme for the week by taking my annual trip to the horse races with my friend Todd. I actually came out ahead on this trip and won a bet in every race but the last one.

Friday night was more wee hour packing for our early morning road trip departure. We wisely gave away our baseball tickets for the night so we could take care of all the last minute chores and tasks that are necessary when you are planning a week long road trip with six nights of camping.

Exhausted and over-scheduled, we headed out early Saturday morning. Stay tuned for tales from the road.

Iron Girl 10K Race Report

Meh. I am a Tin Foil girl at best.

Blah, blah...under trained..blah, blah...slow...,blah, blah...personal worst...blah, blah...seven minutes slower than when I ran this race three years ago..blah, blah...regression...blah, blah...no motivation..blah, blah...fat..blah, blah...sucked.

I am even more tired of hearing it then anyone else is. Time to step back and figure out what my problem is and why I can't get my shit together. I already have a pretty good idea what my problems are and how I am going to fix them.

On a positive note, Amber smashed her 10K PR and it was fun to have someone to hang out with ahead of time. All of my running friends are guys so I would have been running this one alone if she hadn't decided to sign up. Bonus (I think): I got a way too girly women's tech tee and an Aflac duck out of the experience.

Absence

It has been a whirlwind two and a half weeks and I realized I have neglected my little blog. Stay tuned for tales from four days in Las Vegas, baseball games, horse racing, eight day 3500 mile road trips, bison, national parks and the best dang Dave Alvin concert ever.