Small Success

Just finished my first, individual paper for my econ class. It's not due until Monday. I'm considering this a particular success since I was having MAJOR writer's block on this! I'm going to send it to the TA tomorrow for criticism to make sure that I'm not waaaay off the mark. As the baby of the class I find this to be an ever-present possibility; hopefully I can avert it most of the time. Aside from some reading and lecture reviewing I'm in good shape for this weekend in Chicago. I think it will be worth my present state of exhaustion. 21-miler Saturday morning in Chi-town, yikes!

Bad Day

Today was a little rough on the uptake. Work was slammed, my run during my lunch break was awful. It was only 6 miles, but you would have thought it was 26 (oh wait, that's the marathon, um-- yikes). It was one of those days where I looked at the clock in my office and I couldn't get it to slow down. When I looked at the clock on the treadmill I couldn't get it to speed up. My day was capped off by a 5:00 e-grade update from my quant professor telling me via Windows media player that I needed to work on my grammar in my quant memorandums. Talk about devastating. I have always prided myself on good grammar and above-average-writing skills. If I can't even do those things right in my quant class... well, I'm in worse shape than I thought (and the shape I thought I was in was pretty bad to begin with!). Feeling overwhelmed, slow, sore, and dumb. Outstanding.

All of this was drawn in sharp contrast to the gorgeous evening I had last night. Eric and I went to dinner at a new acquaintance's home. We had one of the most fun evenings I can remember as of late, so today was quite the letdown by comparison.

Sigh, perhaps tomorrow will be better.

Allow me to introduce my new "best friend", Guilt...

So I've touted my blog to friends and family as a way to check in and make sure I'm still alive, despite my constantly-on-the-run absence. You know, the issue with this comes in when you don't have time to make posts and your cousin calls you in a loving panic, opening the conversation with "You haven't posted anything in a week, are you still alive!" It's a sad state of affairs when you can't find five minutes to leave a post-- something as simple as "still alive, too busy, sigh". There are definitely times I could have made a post, but then my 'best friend' Guilt sits down next to me. Guilt is my new, constant companion. She comes with me everywhere. Out to dinner with friends, to my soccer games, to the games for the girls I coach, in the office, with Eric and I on our very occasional 'date night'... everywhere. I don't like my newest companion. She is most unwelcome; I never purposefully invite her along, but there she is, everytime I turn around. Guilt likes to tell me things like "Did you finish your paper yet?" "You know you still have two more lectures to listen to." "Buzz, Buzz, your black berry now has 14 new messages, you really should take care of those." "The dog hasn't gone on a walk in a day and a half-- it's not her fault you signed up for too much." "Your long run is tomorrow, and you have not drank enough water today." Round and round we go. I expect that Guilt and I will become well acquainted with one another over the next several years, but hopefully with some prioritization I can send Guilt on mini-holidays for the sake of my own sanity and all parties involved.

In other news, I did my 18-mile long run on Friday before work. Yes, I started running at 4:45 in the morning and finished at 7:45 in the morning, only to then come home, shower, and go to work. Most people do their long, training runs on a Saturday or Sunday morning, for the simple fact that they take SO much time. I prefer to do mine on Fridays. I already know that I'm going to have to get up early for work, what's a few hours earlier to maintain some semblance of weekend 'freedom' (a term I use rather loosely, given the addition of Guilt)? It's worth it; although, I will say that 3 hours of running by oneself is a bit of a grind. I made it all the way to mile 16 feeling pretty decent and then the last 2-3 miles were AWFUL, tortuously boring-- accomplished by one, plodding step after another. Next weekend will be my last long run before the marathon; a 21-miler with Julie up in Chicago. She's going to roller blade with me along the lake front with a supply of gels, water, and the most important element-- the support of a best friend. Almost every single run up to this point has been by myself (even the shorter runs). This is the first long run I haven't dreaded up to this point, despite the distance. I believe Saturday night will find us out and about on Rush St. or something of the like. No doubt that Guilt will be there too, but with any luck (and probably a few glasses of wine), she will take a hike; leaving Julie and I to a Saturday night of actual fun.

A Celebrated Weekend

Well, the camera was forgotten in Indianapolis, so no pictures to commemorate the weekend... visual enhancements will have to wait for a different installment, the dog's heartworm medicine was also forgotten on top of the fridge (hopefully the doggy version of CDFS isn't reading this, she did get her medicine when we got home), but overall it was an outstanding weekend on the river. A good time seemed to be had by all; it was certainly had by my little clan. I'm pretty sure Kappa's idea of heaven involves being around as many people as possible 24/7, which is exactly what happens to her down at the river. Right now she's blissed out, dead asleep on her bed.
Saturday afternoon I took the wave runner out for a spin by myself. It was fun, and, in an odd way, liberating to be out skipping across the water by myself. With only one, relatively small person on there, that thing can really move; although, on the flip side, one, relatively small person does have enough weight to keep the wave runner in the water very well so whenever I hit other boat's wakes I had to slow down or go airborn. I have fun jumpin around, but it's not my wave runner so I think it best to be slightly more cautious than not. I don't know what I'd do if I broke it, and logistically speaking, I don't have the foggiest idea how I'd get back to the dock. Regardless, it was a great way to start off the weekend down at the river. When I came back I got on the boat with Eric and his family for a little afternoon float. (Again, wouldn't it be nice to have pictures to go along with this entry???)
Sunday I got up and went over to downtown Madison where, to my great surprise and supreme relief, the coffee shop had wireless access. Welcome to the life of a B-schooler. I studied there all morning and then came back for another afternoon out on the water. I wish every weekend could feel so sunny and celebrated. Saturday night everyone gathered for a big Labor Day meal and a fun evening of miscellaneous summer activities including, of course and much to my delight, the aforementioned s'mores.
This morning, Eric, Kappa, and I came home to rest and regroup before the start of another insane week. I'm studying, Eric's playing on the other computer, and Kappa is completely passed out, probably dreaming of all the fun she had this weekend. More studying for me this evening, but it sure was a great weekend.