possible retraction?

i cannot believe how many things i did today!  despite the cold, rainy weather, i got up (early) and ran the GW Parkway 10 miler classic (and finished in 1:35:39!), ate a delicious brunch in del rey with M and her fam, AND met up with cousin J (who i hadn't seen since i moved here) for delicious, celebratory beers at one of my favorite spots.  that was all before 3pm.  i was exhausted.  upon returning home i took a much needed shower and nap and then was out the door for church at 5 followed directly by needtobreathe at the 930 club.

i did all of those things and i normally don't like to leave my house in the rain.

i was thinking over my day and i realized that it would be hard to accomplish such a day living anywhere else.  i also realized that i've had lots of similar days in the recent past.  in fact, my weekends have generally been incredible.  thus, i may have to retract my previous claim of having a mundane life...

x!

life seems so mundane and i feel like a brat for complaining.

on this calm saturday evening, i've been sitting on my couch, sipping a tasty stone smoked porter and trying to update this here blog with stories of my current real life.  everything i begin to chronicle, however, seems so..... normal.

i mean, i do lots of fun things, i guess...  (although writing a follow-up sentence here is proving to be rather difficult) 

it's just that living here in arlington and working in the DC area is a life that so many other people are living.  not everyone can say that they've lived in italy and taught at an international school, or traveled to SE asia for 6 weeks, or driven the alaska-canada highway, so i've had a significant leg up in the realm of exciting life experiences during the last year and a half.  and now i feel that i've fallen so far...  maybe i'm still coming down from the high or i'm still struggling to adjust to staying in one place?  how long is reverse culture shock supposed to last? 

i struggle every day with my level of happiness.  i am enjoying my time here (all 4 months of it so far) but i just feel like such a cop out.  to be here seems like taking the easy way out -- i mean i already have friends here, family close by, to build a more long-term life here would involve almost no effort.  so that sounds great! what's the problem?  ugh! i don't know!  i find myself welling up with tears in moments of even the smallest confusion.  or when i'm stuck in traffic that i've learned to expect.  what is wrong with me? 

i'm teaching which is what i want to be doing.  i'm doing something good for the world -- not everyone is willing to work to educate those adorable children with whom i spend most of my time.  i have an excellent job at an excellent school in an excellent district with excellent funding with the best coworkers and an excellent class of students with supportive parents -- it just all seems too easy, too normal...

when i compare my current state of affairs to what i was doing a year ago, things aren't that different.  we took weekend trips to nearby places like slovenia, verona, and venice .  i still take day and weekend trips but they are to richmond, charlottesville, and other places in the great expanse of northern virginia -- it's much less exciting to write home about traveling across northern va for dinner than it is to tell of an osmiza adventure in slovenia.  i'm still spending most of my time at school with small children and much of my free time is taken up by reading, running, and drinking illy coffee.  and i'm happy.

i guess i shouldn't be complaining.  i have just told you how i have pretty much everything i could need or want as far as a job and a life go and the fact that it's not terribly exciting for every minute of every day is no reason to complain -- that makes me sound like a little bit of a brat.

ugh.  

reunion and my second half marathon!

a week ago, i ran my second half marathon!  the plan was concocted while i was in vietnam last november.  i'm not sure where the inspiration came from but all of a sudden, i remember thinking, "i want to run another race!"  so i did a quick google search, found the rock 'n roll half marathon in DC and sent an email out to friends.  who wanted to join me?! 

since we ran the bavisela together in trieste last may, it was easy to convince V and L and the plans were set.  march 17th, 2012 = reunion half marathon + early bday celebration for me and my quarter of a century! 

so how did the training go?  well i got into really good shape in december when i wasn't working.  i was lucky to have beautiful running weather at my parents' in roanoke, and not having a job gave me plenty of time to focus on the running.  unfortunately, when i did start working again in january - things got a bit hectic.  i was stressed and with minimal daylight hours, it was difficult to find time to run outside - and who wants to do a long run on the treadmill? definitely not me.  

thankfully, living near V again gave me extra motivation.  we started running together during the weeks and doing long runs on the weekends -- it's amazing how much more fun it is to run 11 miles with a friend than by yourself.  overall, things were much easier this go around.  i knew what to expect and i was more confident in myself knowing that i had run 13 miles before.  in addition to V, i knew lots of other people in the area training for the same race or another race so there always seemed to be people doing the same thing i was.  and running through the monuments in DC isn't the worst thing ever.  

as we turned the corner to march and the weather gods decided they weren't into winter weather, things began to heat up around here.  and by that i mean, temperatures very quickly rose to mid-70s and wearing a jacket was no longer necessary.  beautiful! wonderful! excellent! i first thought.  but then i went on a run and was super sweaty and the heavy, humid air was hard to breathe and WOOF i was not trained for this. enter, nervous emotions.  

my goal for this race (the one i told other people) was to beat my time last year (2:14) but my secret goal (the one i didn't tell many people) was to break 2 hours.  i was feeling really good and the times of my long runs made me think i could do it.  alas, neither happened, officially.  my official finishing time was 2:16 but i did have a 7ish minute bathroom stop in the middle.  so, minus those 7 minutes of standing in a line, i would have finished in 2:09 and boom! met my outloud goal.  

the race was a fun one.  there were SO MANY people running and going through DC on st. patrick's day made for humorous spectator circumstances.  there were lots of encouraging signs saying things like "beer: 5 miles ahead," or "hurry up so we can drink."  there was even a make-shift service station of good samaritans passing out cups of green beer to runners.  i may have taken a cup if they hadn't been positioned right at the bottom of a big hill around mile 8...

at the end of the race, we weren't greeted with jello shots like last year (we missed you, K!) but the race did have a giant expo with lots of free swag and live music! we did our best to hoard the free swag and milk the expo for all we could.   

then we spent an excellent day hanging out in DC, catching up, refueling, and yes, drinking our share of guinness to celebrate the holiday.  the race was fun and the reunion around which the weekend was centered was even more fun. 

i love the camaraderie of running races with friends -- luckily, i have a few more coming up!  in may, i'm doing a triathlon in san diego with my sister as well as tentatively running another half over memorial day weekend with lizzy in boston!  apparently i'm into being physically fit.  thanks to daylight savings, it's much easier to find daylight hours in which to train...  you know me, just thinking about running in the dark makes me nervous.

i'm still amazed with myself and my enthusiasm for running now as an "adult."  on every long run i took, i found myself thinking back to my high school track days and the passionate hatred i had for running the 400 meter warm-up lap that was required.... man how things change.

x!

reentry.

i'm alive.  yes, i've been MIA from the blogosphere for quite some time now (i believe my last post was in october? oops), but i'm back now.  i've just settled into an apartment in the ballston area of arlington, va with a lovely view of interstate 66 and i start teaching 3rd grade full-time on monday.  yes, as my sister says, i'm becoming a grown-up lady (sort of).

i got back from italy in late july, 2011 and have been flitting about the globe (of course) since.  i visited some friends in new york, california and then i took a road trip through alaska and canada.  in early october, i embarked upon an epic southeast asia adventure with longtime friend, A.  i was gallivanting 12 time zones away for 6 weeks and returned just before thanksgiving.  

and i've been in the states ever since.  that means i've been in america for 62 whole days - the longest period of time without leaving the country in about a year and half.  and oh man, am i still adjusting.  here is a short list of some things i haven't quite gotten used to again in the past 62 days.

my iPhone: in italy, i had a cell phone.  but only about 10 people had my number and i worked with all of them which meant there were very few reasons to actually call or message me.  that communication situation is drastically different than my current situation where my sister sends novels via text message (complete with pictures) and my mom likes to talk on the phone once a day.  apologies abound because i'm just not used to people calling me!  also, when i do use it, my usage skills are mediocre at best.  i'm almost certain that it doesn't reach its full potential.  i did have an ipod touch in my travels last year that i used quite well but something about adding the telephone capabilities have blown my mind.  i DO, however, have a neon yellow case for my phone, which makes me love it.

grocery stores: now, i love the grocery store.  i usually take a list with me but don't consult it very often because i love to go up and down every aisle and check out the selection.  when it comes to actually putting something in my basket, however, the anxiety sets in.  WHY ARE THERE SO MANY OPTIONS?! i've started reading the ingredients in everything for comparative purposes, thus, adding to the amount of time i need on each aisle.  and it doesn't really help me choose what to buy because almost all the labels include some chemically-sounding something that i have never heard of and couldn't try to pronounce if i wanted to.  do i really want to eat that?! so i usually end up choosing something that i'm less-than-thrilled about consuming and then i'm just unhappy.  now you're probably wondering how i have time to go through this process every time i need to buy some food.  i don't!! and i'm rarely completely satisfied with something i've bought, so it's not like i have go-to items that i can run in and grab.  i just don't know what to eat anymore.  for the record, comparable anxiety hits me in similar stores such as CVS, walmart, and target. it's awful (anecdotal tangent: my first day back in america last july, i was in target trying to buy shampoo.  i left the store in tears - and without shampoo - because i got so stressed out.  very traumatic).   

driving: i'm not totally sure what the problem is here but i know that i didn't used to dislike driving as much as i do now.  i've told you before that driving is not my preferred method of long-distance travel, but now i just don't like it ever.  i'm annoyed by needing to drive my car anywhere.  if i'm going somewhere close-ish, i want to walk; but people don't do that here - everyone drives everywhere.  it's nonsense.  this is more a cause of annoyance than something i'm not good at (not to say i'm an excellent driver, let's be serious).


in the coming weeks, as i'm continuing to adjust to life in america (and so close to the nation's capital!) and settling into my pseudo-grown-up-lady life, i'm going to be updating this here blog with things i left out of my travels last fall and even last year while i was in europe.  it will be all kinds of nostalgic to reminisce about travels and life last year especially as the weather here is so, well, january.

so, get excited because it's going to be fun!

x

check me out!

hello friends! guess what? we're featured in this months issue of the South Roanoke Circle - south roanoke's own neighborhood newspaper! 

you can download an electronic copy here and check it out (page 11)!

the article is a modified version of this post from last september, it's so crazy to think that was a whole year ago! 

x!

virginia is for lovers

to many of you, it may seem that i don't like my home state of virginia; i wouldn't be surprised if you thought this, since i spend so much time leaving it. 

however, virginia is gorgeous and i love it here. 

yesterday as i drove from richmond to roanoke, right through the heart of the state and some of the prettiest of the blue ridge mountains, all i could think of was the beauty of the lush, green mountains and the clear blue sky.  they say that the day after a hurricane is always the prettiest and that could have been the reason for yesterday's divine conditions, except that the blue sky indicates that today will be just as nice. 

i'd like to think that my little bit of virginia is always this idyllically beautiful.