All the in Between

To my dismay real life has taken priority over internet documenting for the past several months.

These happenings have captured all the time...

January brought my first trip to Hillsborough, North Carolina for the year. The most adorable baby graced this planet in early December; at seven weeks, we met. Baby R.J.F. continues to grow in both adorable-ness and size. Life thankfully brought more time with long eye-lashed Baby R.J.F. in April, July, August, and December.

January, Hillsborough, NC

July, Hillsborough, NC

August, Round Hill, VA

December, Hillsborough, NC

Later that month brought a full-speed combination trip to visit my charges from the college era in New Haven, Connecticut--crossing CT off my '50 States before 50' challenge, dwindling the list to single digits, and R.D.S. in New York, New York. "My" little people are now now quite big--turning seven and double-digits over the summer. The visit, despite the brutal temperatures and time shortage, was an excellent escape.

New Haven, CT

New Haven, CT

New York, NY

Strand Book Store - New York, NY

After all the busing, driving, planing, and training, I stayed in in February as it snowed... and snowed some more. We also escaped to Jamaica for a wonderful retreat with P's family.

Treasure Beach, Jamaica

We moved in March. And we had special visitors from both Atlanta, Georgia and Lesotho. On our first hike of Spring, on a day with temperatures leaning more Winter than Spring, Boyfriend became Fiancé at Great Falls National Park. Two weeks prior, my brother proposed to his girlfriend!

Washington, DC

Great Falls National Park

Great Falls National Park

April had me traveling back to NYC to celebrate R.D.S., though she was deathly ill through it all. If she had to be sick, we were all thankful it was during her bachelorette weekend and not for her big day. By her wedding day, she'd made a full recovery and I headed South to commemorate her nuptials. She was a beautiful bride and the weekend itself was busily wonderful.

New York, NY

Columbia, SC

I also finished twelfth (in a field of 3000 women) at the George Washington Parkway Classic 10 Mile race at the end of the month. My 6:55 pace shocked me! The 1:09:06 finish time wasn’t for lack of training, but holy smokes--speedy.

To complete a hectic month, Fiancé and I went on our annual Cherry Blossom walk, clocking eight miles before we arrived at work.

I married Fiancé first thing in May; he’s now Husband and I wife. Weird? Very weird. We jetted off to Nashville, Tennessee to celebrate and had a great, great time doing so. Nashville was followed with weekend in Baltimore with K.A.B. before her departure to South Africa. I thankfully had a bonus weekend with her on my third trip to NYC for another wedding. Another beautiful bride. And way too much fun for a girl with a strict 9:00 pm bedtime.

Washington, DC

Nashville, TN

Long Island, NY

June brought a weekend escape to Asheville, North Carolina--just husband and wife. We mostly got poured on, though we managed a couple scenic waterfalls strolls. To call these mile jaunts hikes would be misleading. I then spent time in Jacksonville, Florida with my mom, where beach strolls were our thing.

Wicked Weed - Asheville, NC

Devil's Courthouse - Asheville, NC

Blue Ridge Parkway - Asheville, NC

Little Talbot Island State Park - Jacksonville, FL

My company treated Husband and I to stellar seats at a Nationals game where it proceeded to rain and rain and rain for two hours straight. The game was not canceled but the mood was certainly dampened.

Nationals Park - Washington DC

What February dumped in snow, June tripled with rain. The soggy month ended with Book of Mormon for the win. The two years was certainly worth the wait and the great seats were worth the price!

The Kennedy Center - Washington, DC

I spent 4th of July at my parents’ home cuddling puppy dogs and eating. Ready or not, this holiday weekend rebooted the marathon season. And as soon as Husband was back in the states, we caught a flight to Portland, Oregon for an extended vacation in the Pacific Northwest.

We spent time with H.J.W. in Portland and further South at Diamond Lake and Crater Lake before catching the train to Seattle, Washington to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday. The highlight of the trip was definitely the day we spend in Mt. Rainier National Park. Two family vacations in one year is a feat in and of itself, having my mom's entire family gathered was nothing shy of a miracle!

Watson Falls - Umpqua National Forest

Crater Lake National Park

Diamond Lake - Umpqua National Forest

Seattle, WA

Ferry to Bainbridge Island 

Mt Rainier National Park

I also squeezed in another weekend in Asheville for J.L.W.'s bachelorette weekend in late July.

Asheville, NC

August my parent's hosted our non-wedding celebration. To have all our family and friends gathered in one place for us was both exciting and overwhelming. The night was as near perfection as I can imagine. I hope to remember the night for years to come.

Round Hill, VA

I also started a new job in August. While I continued to focus on building my career, I also began the building of a lot of running mileage this month.

In September, I kept on running. P and I traveled to Michigan to visit my extended family unable to travel to Virginia for the "I Do BBQ." My grandparents were delighted to meet P, and it was hands-down one of the best trips to Michigan in recent memory. Later in the month, we took another l-o-n-g road trip back to South Carolina for J.L.W.'s wedding. Despite a disgustingly rainy, wet weekend, the bride was stunning and the night was wonderful (though quite chilly). I very much enjoyed the company of my brother and his fiancé throughout the weekend, including an indulgent Waffle House breakfast prior to our drive home.

Southfield, MI

Livonia,MI

Taylors, SC

 

In October, Louis and Toby came to visit for a long weekend. Though it rained for four straight days, we managed lots of long walks! We finally managed to scramble Old Rag, the hike of Shenandoah National Park. October also consisted of the end of the marathon cycle... and a disappointing marathon finish. I still can't quite wrap my head around how it all went wrong after the successes I had earlier in the year and consistently throughout my fall training cycle. I suppose that is the challenge of the marathon. There will be more races to run.

Old Rag - Shenandoah National Park

In November, we had another long weekend with Louis and Toby. This time we went to Northern Virginia, our country escape. We re-outfitted Husband at the Premium Outlets, we hiked Raven Rocks, and exercised the puppies silly. We celebrated Thanksgiving at home. This was my first year contributing to the menu, which was an absolute fail.

We kick-started our holiday season with new and old traditions in December. We saw the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Ravens in Baltimore, Maryland the weekend before we headed to Boulder, Colorado for Christmas with Husband's family. We celebrated Christmas (again) on New Years with my family in Northern Virginia. The highlights include lunch at Bar Taco and shopping in Reston Town Center, a tailgate party to watch the College Football Playoffs (including two of our four teams, Clemson and Michigan State), a tried-and-true Christmas morning on New Years Day!

Baltimore, MD

M&T Bank Stadium - Baltimore, MD

With changes on the horizon, I head into 2016 grateful and hopeful, thankful too.

This is the phase that never ends.

I write this post from a bad place. I need to rant. And I need something to blame. I am going to blame weddings for my unhappiness, when I know this funk is a result of my job. On a public forum, I absolutely cannot vent about my current work situation. That would be real dumb. And I have not lost my mind... yet.

So with warning, my head, heart, and mouth are not on the same page--tread lightly.

This weekend I am going to Boston, Massachusetts, hometown to Boyfriend, for a wedding I have (unfairly) been dreading. (Have I before mentioned Boyfriend is from a cultish town where everyone has been best friends since birth?) At one point, I was very excited for this wedding. My own unhappiness has vastly altered my perspective. I will not know anyone outside Boyfriend's immediate family in attendance. I will have to meet a majority of his friends while still allowing him space to have fun. There will be more small talk than I care for. There will be wasted calories on wedding food. And I will be dressed in a 'non-me' outfit, feeling woefully out of place. Though Boyfriend has not been dragged to many of "my" weddings, he has listened too much venting on the front. I owe it to him to attend this wedding. And to put on a smile while there.

Here begins the 2014 wedding series. And a recently engaged friend added a second wedding to the 2015 spring agenda. With each friend taking that next step, my own poor situation is amplified. But, as a result of this funk, now is absolutely not the time for Boyfriend and me to pursue engagement. I want that time to be the happiest in my life, not a Band-Aid on my current situation.

My mom keeps telling me this back-to-back-to-back wedding trend is just a phase. Well, I want to debunk her theory. My first non-family wedding took place in February 2009, my senior year of college, and the “phase” is guaranteed to continue until May 2015.

Some stats:

• I was 21 when I graduated from college.
• I will be 27 next month.
• I have been in two-thirds of the weddings I have attended, estimated to be on the low end.

That is six years of wedding-ing.

Now, some basic math: divide 6 by 27. And we can conclude 22.2% of my life has been spent attending weddings and, for better or worse, wedding related events. The financial burden for these nuptials have been insurmountable. I have honestly enjoyed next to none of it. Sorry, friends.

 

(It is important to note, there will not be a wedding "for" me. The idea is nauseating, in my humble opinion. I warned my mother years ago. And I think we have compromised on a celebration of the life event that does not involved standards or traditions. You are all invited. You are most certainly NOT obligated to attend.)

I cannot count the number of weddings I have been in and/or attended at this point in my life. I am not kidding. I get weddings confused. I often cannot remember whether or not I was in certain weddings. On the upside, I have traveled to Florida, Kansas (twice), Massachusetts (twice), New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina (five times). I am sure I am missing some. 

Next up is another trip to South Carolina in August, Georgia in September, back to South Carolina in April (2015), and New York in May (2015).

And before these weddings, let me fairly account for the three trips to Michigan for the weddings of my cousins. Thankfully, I only have four total cousins. And the last one, well, he just turned 15, so I will be most excited and ready to attend his wedding should he opt for one many, many years from now.

My savings are soon to be depleted soon. This phase continues...

Low, Part A

Low. That is my life right now. The sleepless nights have returned. The sporadic eating habits. The uncontrollable emotions. The immense hatred towards all things not Starbucks and M&Ms. The breaking out like a sixteen year old. I am an unfortunately miserable being.

Why? My job is dumb. And because office tales are boring for all people uninvolved, you will simply have to take my word for it. Not only is my job dumb, a problem I could handle, I hate the work. And not just a whiny-complainy dislike, this is a full-blown hatred. As a result, these past few weeks have been a horrid blur of awfulness.

I suggest you quit reading now. Life is about to get real. There may be some grand, wonderful things I could write about, but I am numb to those things. Awesome as they may be, they do not feel so awesome in that moment. They feel forced. They feel like out of body experiences. Oh the fun! 

The recap I do not actually recommend you read.

Monday, 4/28 – Miserable day of work, followed by an exhaustive evening of a full apartment scrub-down. 

Tuesday, 4/29 – An exceptionally miserable day of work, followed an evening of cooking. And meal prep for the week, two days behind schedule.
Wednesday, 4/30 – A solid eight hours of awfulness, followed by trivia. Our hodgepodge team, scrambled up minutes before the start of trivia each week managed to continue our winning streak, taking home victories for best team name, half-time shots, and first place gift certificate—a clean sweep, one might call it.

Thursday, 5/1 – A plain, miserable May Day, followed by drinks with K.S.D. at Carpool. Drinks that went very late into the night... on a school night.

The calm, quiet weekend I envisioned was anything but. After a real long day at the office, which included an extended lunch with my not so beloved New Boss. (I shant complain too much as we dined at District Taco on Fish Taco Friday.) To extend the day further, I walked home from work in hopes of absorbing Spring weather. Then I sprinted to Eat Bar to celebrate A.J.S.’s new (and greatly improved) position at her employer of choice. And revel we did with a happy hour that went until I hit the sack.  Saturday, I had some time in the morning to make myself a breakfast of eggs, beans, and sweet potato fries before Boyfriend and I were off to volunteer at the Library Book Sale. We had so much fun organizing books. I do not kid. We literally plotted ways to improve upon the sale next year. So much fun. If you doubted my love of books before, the doubting should cease now. There were some gems—beloved childhood books to all my favorite current reads to the History of Nations, Volume 19: Africa, Boyfriend’s pick. We could have filled a library (or two). There were SO many to choose from.

(It should be noted that I might love organizing more than books. The overwhelming excitement I experienced by spending my free day organizing books. Well that, I cannot explain.)

When we finally left the book sale, hours after the end of our shift… we met friends for some loitering around our neighborhood. And in doing so, we hit up a thousand free samples—Yappy Hour, Whole Foods, Starbucks Frappuccino Hour, Grateful Red—before finding an establishment to settle in and complain endlessly about work. Actually, I think that was just half the group. But it was my half so it shall be documented. The conversation gradually improved to things like food, specifically ice cream sandwiches. Even more specifically to homemade ice cream sandwiches. Naturally, this was our next move. The necessary ingredients were gathered and the baking of cookies ensued. Turns out, ice cream sandwiches require ample (i.e., a lot of) freeze-time. From what I remember, we enjoyed cookies while playing Mario Kart and thought about how great our ice cream sandwiches would be the next time we all get together. That will be in an approximate month, if history repeats.

On Sunday, I ran 14 miles. I like to feel accomplished. Proceeding those two hours of nonsense, I showered. You are more than welcome. Then I immediately ran (yes, more) to Brooklyn Bagels for—you guessed it—bagels. And maybe an egg. And onion. And cheese. I also brought an apple and left over sweet potato fries because I knew the aforementioned simply would not be enough. From breakfast, I convinced Boyfriend a bike ride would be fun. (I can convince him of such fun precisely once a year. This was a BIG deal.) He was sold on the Gravelly Point destination. 

We pretty much sat on a blanket eating snacks as we watched the planes come and go from Reagan National Airport for the entire afternoon. Blissful it was, as I recall. The rest of the night was rather uneventful; I was asleep before 9:00 pm.

Life continues...