Catching Back Up

It's been a while since I've done a proper life update post! With the Richmond Marathon and Thanksgiving taking my full attention over the last two weeks, I've been too busy to sit down with a cup of coffee and update y'all on how things are going. Time to get all caught up!

{source}
I loved this comic because the dog's name is Poppy and this is exactly what our Poppy does!

The week after the marathon was so insane at work. It happens every year - the two weeks before Thanksgiving Break and the two weeks before Spring Break just seem like EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING AND EVERYTHING IS 10X MORE IMPORTANT, when in reality, people are just stressed and need a break. :P That being said, I did have to deal with quite a bit more ~drama~ at work that week which is never fun, but something I've dealt with many times in the past so not something I'm not prepared to handle. It did make the week fly by, though, and I honestly can't remember much that happened that week (aside from it SNOWING OMG), so let's fast forward to the weekend! 😂

Snow + sitting in Boston traffic = my idea of a good time! #not

The 17th & 18th was a #ReadYourFaceOff weekend (if you're unfamiliar, the book club I host on GoodReads does a 24 hour readathon every month) and I was so excited to just sit and read and not deal with the stress of travel! I read (and finally finished!) The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin which I'm super happy about because it had been on my currently reading shelf since JULY. I also started in on Nice Try, Jane Sinner (which I finished early on the following week) which was a super fun YA contemporary about reality television. So, you know, right up my alley. :P Brett and I also went on a little birthday shopping spree that weekend. He had a bunch of gift cards from his birthday that he wanted to spend so we made several stops around the area to get him good and spoiled. You're supposed to be spoiled on your birthday!

Last week was, of course, Thanksgiving week, and luckily I only had to be at work on Monday. Our Director decided to let everyone choose either Monday or Tuesday as a comp day, and the university was closed on Wednesday, so I chose to take Tuesday off and get my vacation started a day early. Tuesday wasn't super relaxed as I had to take my car into the shop. It had been making beautiful scraping sounds any time I hit the brakes. Lovely! New brake pads, tires, a new ball joint, and $1,000+ later, Dory was good as new and we were on our way. I say it all the time - cars are sadly a necessary evil in my part of the world. Yikes!

Wednesday was very low key. We spent most of it at home relaxing and headed over to Millis to spend the night before Thanksgiving. We hung with Brett's Mom, sister, niece, and nephew and enjoyed some pizza while relaxing for the evening. Yum! Because of my weird AF work schedule, and because I had to be up for a Turkey Trot the next morning, I was passed out by 9:30pm. #grandma

Despite the 12° degree weather, I dragged myself out of bed early Thursday morning for the Holliston Turkey Trot. Brett was a trooper and drove me to the high school where the 5K was happening. We froze a bit before the race but I think that worked to my advantage - I ran FAST to get out of the cold and I managed to run a sub-30 5K which is something I haven't done in YEARS!!! I realized around mile 2 that I could run under 30 minutes so I really pushed my pace to the finish line and came across at 29:43!!! SO PUMPED!!! They had bananas, donuts, and water (albiet some of the cups of water were frozen solid 😂) at the finish which was so nice to reward myself with, and on top of that, Brett and I made a stop at Muffin House, one of our favorite local bakeries, on the way home after the race.

Brett deserves the Supportive Boyfriend of the Year Award for coming out in the cold this early!

Thanksgiving was great as always, packed with tons of people, tons of food, and tons of cheer. Thanksgiving (and the holidays in general) can be very overwhelming for me as an introvert, and this year was no different, but it's always nice to spend the holidays with others. :) I hope everyone else had a great Turkey Day as well!

Friday we headed home to relax for the rest of the weekend. I spent most of the weekend laying in bed, reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and playing Hearthstone which is my new obsession. We also squeezed in two trips to the gym, so I'd call that a successful weekend! It's honestly all I ever want out of my time off, tbh.

Aaaand I think that just about catches you all up to where I am now! Unfortunately I've been battling a cold for the last few days. 😩 It's right on that level of being annoying enough to distract you throughout the day, but not bad enough where you need to take time off to rest in bed. THE WORST KIND OF COLD. (JK, I'd probably hate it more if I couldn't get out of bed. I'm just whining. But what is a blog for if not to have a place to whine? 😂)  Hopefully I can shake it off ASAP because Saturday starts December and the busiest month and a half EVER! No seriously, I'll be traveling every weekend in December (as most folks are), including a 3 week period where I won't be home at all. I'm excited and dreading it all at the same time. 😂

Anywho, this weekend Brett and I are planning to decorate the apartment for Christmas. I asked Twitter if they would be interested in watching a live stream of Christmas tree decorating on Saturday and I got a unanimous YES, so that's a thing that will be happening. I'm not sure what time on Saturday I'll be streaming, but I'm guessing sometime in the afternoon, so keep an eye on my Twitter/channel! I'll also be running a half marathon (the Half MerryThon, to be exact) on Sunday, so we'll see how that goes. 😂 With the way I'm currently feeling with my cold I'm really not looking forward to it right now, but hopefully I feel better before race day.

ALSO - I will be doing Happy Vlogidays again this year! I will be aiming to post weekly vlogs through Christmas & New Year's, hopefully on Saturdays, so keep an eye on my channel for those. I will post a playlist of all of this year's vlogs on the blog once it's all said and done, but if you'd like to see vlogs as they go live, check out my channel!

LINKS I LOVED THIS WEEK

Confetti Bucket Bag from Packed Party

Brooks Released an Ugly Sweater Levitate 2 - Just In Time for the Holiday Season from Runner's World

A passionate battle is underway to support the least used emojis from Twitter

Woman Beats All the Men by More Than a Minute at the Boise Marathon from Runner's World

Dog relaxing at the beach from Bluenjy

First day of training for this seeing eye pup from Animal Planet

"Pokemon Grandpa" Has Nine Phones Mounted to His Bike's Handlebars for Playing Pokemon Go from Geekologie

When your dog decides the walk is over from The Dodo
Gritty experiences first snow with childlike wonder ❄ from Twitter

Happy Vlogidays! Week 2 (December 8-14, 2016)

I always forget how freaking busy this tim of year is! We are in full December mode in our neck of the woods with plans on basically every single day of the week. It is crazy. BUT it is extra fun and that's really what matters the most! 
On this week's episode of Happy Vlogidays, we find out about New Found Glory's 20 Year Anniversary Tour and IMMEDIATELY buy tickets, I run the Ugly Sweater Run with my parents in Boston, I have one of the biggest events of the year at work, and Brett and I celebrate our 4-year anniversary! I hope you all are enjoying these vlogs - they're some of my favorite to make every year! :) See you next week with episode three!

Run Over by October

It's safe to say it's October, considering what my calendars look like.

What my calendars looked like on the first of the month... they've since gotten more crowded.

This is the month where I typically completely forget I'm a student and am focused mainly on what I'm doing at work. That's not to say I'm not doing my homework, but I often have to remind myself "hey, you've got a 10 page paper due in 2 days... you should probably get on that". This is the month that Homecoming and prepping students for the NACA Northeast tend to collide and explode in a multitude of meetings, emails, Word documents, and more meetings. Oh, and mid-terms too... I guess. #SAgradprobz

I've been staying afloat relatively well this year. Last year, I kind of let it completely break me down, but this year I'm a bit more mindful of what needs to get done and how I'm going to accomplish it. I recently described how I deal with my busy schedule as "completely blacking out and just doing it then waking up and saying to myself 'what just happened'." I think that is the most accurate description I've given to date!

Me either, mystery person. Me either.

I've somehow been able to fit in some personal time in my schedule, and have actually been doing some pretty fun things lately! The weekend I went to NH for the marathon, my parents also ran a 5K called Footrace for the Fallen, so I ran support crew for them in return for running support crew for me the day before. There's so many fun short to mid-distance races in our area of NH, and they try to participate in as many as they can!

I've been making a serious effort to see Brett as often as I can as well. We're both so busy and on completely opposite schedules that it's hard to be able to spend time together that isn't spent sleeping or working on other things, but we've been making the most of it. We went out to froyo the other night (Brett's first time... his mind was blown) and we always have breakfast together in the dining hall at his school after his early morning work outs, so we still get a solid few waking hours together each week!

Yes, that is his school's logo in their waffles... incredible.

Other than spending time with Brett and my family, I've gotten a solid dose of time with my old pal Microsoft Word, cranking out papers like a champ. It's kind of gross that 8-10 page papers are second nature to me at this point when that seemed like such a daunting task a year ago. I'm actually enjoying the things that I'm writing about in my classes this semester, though, which makes it much easier to get through! I guess that's another clue that you're going down the right path, right?

Though October has been stressful thus far, it's been fun as well. We're smack dab in the middle of Homecoming at BSU and we've implemented a Spirit Week component to the mix this year which has been SO much fun! I'll post more about it next week. I'm also really looking forward to NACA at the end of the month. I know kind of know what I'm doing at conferences (I had never been to one before grad school!) and it's going to be a great opportunity to chat with colleagues at different campuses to get a feel for where I'd like to possibly work in the future. It's going to be a lot more than just taking it all in this year, and I'm excited for that!

I hope you all are having a wonderful October as well! (Can you believe we're already half way through? Where is this month going?!) I'll be sure to be posting in the next couple days, but here are two photos that are summing up my feelings on life at the moment...

Talk to you soon! :)

25 Before 25: Accomplish a Multi-Distance Race Series (#13)

Sunday I ran the YuKan Triple Threat Challenge in Rockport, MA with Louie and his girlfriend Rachelle! The Triple Threat is a race series that consists of a 1 mile, 5K (3.1 miles), and a half marathon (13.1 miles) totaling at 17.2 miles for the day. Not going to lie, I was extremely nervous to attempt this race. I haven't been going the long distances that I should be with my training this summer (the longest I went before this race was 9 miles) so the thought of completing 17.2 was pretty daunting. Brett was an amazing support though (I love when he comes to be support crew at my races!), and reminded me that I've run a full marathon less than a year ago, so I'd definitely be able to finish this challenge, no matter how painful it may be. ...and painful it was!

The 1 mile, 5K, and the first 9 miles of the half were fine, but those last 4.1 miles felt like death. My legs hurt, I was dehydrated, I had a headache, and I honestly thought I was going to be sick, but I made it across the finish line (with some breaks to stretch my legs and walk in between - not something I like to do during races for pride reasons, haha) and got my finisher's medal. I usually see medals as awesome souvenirs to remember my accomplishments by, and it's only once in a while that I actually feel that I earn the medal, but that day I worked my booty off and definitely earned it!

I would absolutely do this race again, with a bit more training under my belt. The area is beautiful (but pretty hilly, which may have been the source of a lot of pain), YuKan is a great company, and I always have a great time running with them, even if my legs feel like falling off at the end of the race!

Check out the vlog from the day of the races below!

*I'm attempting to reach 25 goals before I reach the age of 25! Want to see the whole list? Check it out here!

Foamy Family Bonding

Saturday I ventured north to Haverhill to meet up with my parents and run the Foam Fest 5K! An entry to this race was a birthday gift from my parents and I was so excited that they were running it with me! If you can't tell, we went with a superhero theme :P I'm going to save a review of the race for my running blog (be sure to go check it out and follow if you haven't already!), but here are some of my favorite pictures to tide you over. ;)