Back in the Seattle groove

It feels good to be home, and back to my routine. It’s a new routine, but I have gotten used to it, and it has become familiar when everything else familiar has been wiped away. I had so many amazing homecomings yesterday: First, I was welcomed home with huge smiles and outreached arms from the twins. Then, I was greeted with smiles and excited kicking from baby H. And last, but certainly not least, and what I was most looking forward to, lots of kisses and purring (yes, my dog purrs) from Pablo. I sure felt loved and missed yesterday. 🙂

So, I am on week 4 of training for the half marathon. PLEASE everyone, I am only 30% to my goal for fundraising, and less than two months away! Please spread the word to help a good cause, and thank you, thank you to everyone who has already donated. http://main.acsevents.org/goto/julie.granahan

Tomorrow, I go to yoga. The first time in nearly two weeks. Boy, am I excited. I need it really, really bad. I need to regain the clarity that seems to have decreased over the past couple weeks. It’s amazing how much yoga has an impact on my mind. I can definitely tell I haven’t been in a while. I also run 8 miles on Sunday. Please don’t rain, please don’t pour, please don’t be windy…

 

Goodbye warm, sunny South, hello wet, cool Northwest

Another early wake up this morning, although I slept better last night. After breakfast, we headed for St. Augustine, FL, the oldest city in the nation. http://www.oldcity.com/history-information.cfm It was first sighted in 1513, by Spanish explorer, Don Juan Ponce de Leon, and was founded in 1565.

It was a beautiful day. When we arrived in St. Augustine, we went on a short tour (it isn’t very big). We went inside Memorial Presbyterian: http://www.memorialpcusa.org/. We also took a tour of the Oldest House. the González-Alvarez House is the oldest surviving Spanish Colonial dwelling in Florida. The site has been occupied since the 1600s and the present house dates to the early 1700s. Since 1893 visitors have toured the house to see evidence of the Spanish, British and American occupations of St. Augustine and to learn how the residents lived. In 1970 the U.S. Department of the Interior designated the house a National Historic Landmark: http://www.staugustinehistoricalsociety.org/. The house was…old!

We drove through town, and by Flagler College, which was originally built as a luxury hotel in 1888.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagler_College

We also drove by Lightner Museum (which used to be Alcazar Hotel):

http://www.lightnermuseum.org/main_lightner.html

Also, Casa Monica Hotel:

http://www.casamonica.com/

We stopped for lunch at Harry’s Bar and Grill, and ate outside in the perfect weather: upper 70’s, sunny, and a nice breeze. We noticed a statue of a bulldog on the patio!

They sure love bulldogs in the South!

Before we left, we checked out the fort:

 

We drove to the Jacksonville airport, where I am now…exhausted! It was amazing, and quite a treat to be able to see this part of the country and learn the history, but I am TIRED, and I miss home, and my puppy. 😦 I will miss the weather, here, however. It has been wonderful having a very early summer, and coming home with a tan. 🙂

**I forgot to mention: when I was in St. Simons Island, GA, I had the most amazing peach ice cream. Hey, I was in GA, I had to try it, and I am so glad I did…yummy!**

Also, here are some beach pictures I took while on Jekyll Island yesterday. Beautiful, huh? I thought so.

 

Fried green tomatoes

Bad night sleep again, unfortunately. 😦 Up early to go on a tour of Jekyll Island. It was beautiful out! We went on a tram tour of historic homes and the Jekyll Island Club. Most notable, was the Rockefeller house, Indian Mound Cottage. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Mound_Cottage) 

It was built in 1891 as a summer home for William McKay (http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/mckay/mckay.html), and purchased by the Rockefellers in 1905. It was originally over 9000 square feet, and the Rockefellers added over 3000 square feet. It is now over 13,000 square feet! Yes, massive.

 We had lunch at the Crane Cottage, which is part of the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. It is my favorite building of the hotel, and it is BEAUTIFUL.  (Stucco and tile roof…my favorite). http://www.jekyllclub.com/meetings.asp?id=114

I had a fried green tomato sandwich for lunch, and it was delicious! I told myself I had to have fried green tomatoes before I left the South. It was in a sandwich, but it was green, nonetheless…and fried…and yummy! 🙂

After lunch, we sat on the piazza of the main hotel, and relaxed. We then went back to our hotel, and I went for a 4 mile run. I felt like I was in Hawaii, running along the palm tree-lined road parallel to the ocean. It was beautiful. I had a lot of company on my run: dragonflies and butterflies everywhere! I had to make sure I kept my mouth closed so I didn’t swallow any. 🙂

After my run, I went down to the pool to lie out and go swimming. I also went down to the beach, which was directly behind our hotel. Breathtaking. For some reason, being on the beach stirred up a lot of emotion for me.

I then went back to the room to get ready for dinner…our last dinner of our trip. We went to Driftwood Bistro. I don’t recommend it.

Tomorrow we go to St. Augustine, FL, before getting on a plane at 6PM and heading back home.

I am heading to bed early to try to get a good night sleep so I can feel normal. Good night y’all. 🙂

 

Parasitic Mistletoe

Today I got up EARLY. Well, early for vacation. I had to run before we left for Jekyll Island since there wouldn’t be any time later. It was gray and muggy, and I was half asleep for my run. It was a short one…just three miles. I was soaked when I got back to the hotel, both from sweat and rain. It started to rain about halfway through my run.

After breakfast, we headed south for Jekyll Island, GA. It was stormy! I don’t know if y’all (look, the south is affecting me) heard about the tornado in Mississippi, but apparently the storm we felt today was the tip of the storm they had in Mississippi. It was nasty all day. On our way to Jekyll Island, we stopped in Midway, and went into Midway Church, built in 1756, burned during the American Revolution, and rebuilt in 1792.   

We then stopped at the smallest church in America, in South Newport, GA: It is still an active chapel. It was built in 1950, measures 10 ft x 15 ft,  has room for 13 people,  a shrimpy pulpit, pews and a stained glass window.

Before we got to Jekyll Island, we stopped in St. Simons Island. http://www.stsimonsisland.com/ It is a true beach community. It measures 12 miles long, by 2 1/2 miles wide. Unfortunately, the weather was still pretty bad, so we didn’t go down to the beach.

We finally arrived in Jekyll Island, and went to dinner at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. http://www.jekyllclub.com/ The hotel is BEAUTIFUL! Dinner was pretty good.

Tomorrow we go on a tour of Jekyll Island. I will be curious to see where we go, since I feel like all Jekyll Island is made up of is the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. We shall see…

** Trivia for the day: Mistletoe is found in live oak trees, and is actually a parasite. http://www.theholidayspot.com/christmas/history/mistletoe.htm**

 

Deep in the South of Savannah

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL BOY, PABLO!!!

(Saturday) We woke to cloudy skies and drizzle, and MUCH cooler temperatures, which was just fine for our morning tour of downtown Savannah, Georgia’s oldest city. The city is quite beautiful filled with beautiful gardens. The downtown area is made up of many squares ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squares_of_Savannah,_Georgia) because of the grid system of the streets.

We went inside St. John the Baptist church. It is BEAUTIFUL. http://savannahcathedral.org/index.php/virtual_tour 

We then went inside the Andrew Low house: http://www.andrewlowhouse.com/ 

We drove along River Street, which runs parallel to the Savannah river. http://www.riverstreetsavannah.com/ On St. Patrick’s Day, you will find the second largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the nation, and Savannah’s largest celebration: http://savannahsaintpatricksday.com/ We were able to experience “Fine Arts on the River” while we were in town. http://www.riverstreetsavannah.com/events/fine-arts-on-the-river/ 

After our guided tour  of the city, we walked around River Street, got some ice cream, and then I walked back to the hotel to go for my run. I am supposed to do my long run Sunday, but our day is very busy, and I won’t have time, so I switched my Saturday and Sunday runs. I mapped out a 6 mile run, and headed out, not really knowing where I was going. I wanted to go for my run before it got too hot, and I picked a perfect time to run. It was about 70 degrees, and drizzling. It felt wonderful. I ran downtown, and through Forsyth Park, where 100’s of artists had claimed a section of sidewalk to create art directly on the sidewalk with pastels, chalk, etc. There was live music and a lot of people. And, the park is beautiful, too!  I kept running, with slight concern about where I may end up. I was in a strange city, felt (and looked) like a foreigner, and really didn’t want to run through any shady neighborhoods. Everything ended up being okay, and my run was great! One of the best runs I have ever had, actually! I had a lot of energy, and the drizzle felt really good.

When I got back to the hotel, I went for a swim and a soak in the hot tub, which felt really, really good.

For dinner, we went to Pirate’s House. It was built in 1753, and connected to the restaurant, is the oldest house in Savannah, built in 1734. http://www.thepirateshouse.com/history.html I had salmon, which came with a green salad and biscuits. It was okay. At the end of dinner, I struck up a conversation with a 70 year old woman. The conversation was just what I needed: it was eye opening, validating, and an ego boost. I told her about my life, my goals, my hopes and dreams, and she complimented me and told me she commends me for working with children and being so passionate about it; it is admirable, and rare to find. She said I was… “quite a catch.” 🙂 It was absolutely wonderful speaking with her.

After dinner, which was finished quite early, I decided I wanted to go out downtown. It was Saturday night, and I was in Savannah! The city was busy! We went down to River Street, where we sat outside at Rocks on River Street, and had dessert and beer. AMAZING apple pie!  It is part of the Bohemian Hotel. http://www.bohemianhotelsavannah.com/dining/dining.asp It was a great place to people watch, and it was right on the river. There was also a fireworks display! They do it every Saturday night. It was incredible! After dessert, we walked along river street, which is filled with bars. It was crazy to see people walk out of the bars with their drinks in hands! There was live music in a lot of the bars, and we stopped at one bar to listen to one of the bands. We then walked a little more, and MORE live music! There was another band playing across the street (closest to the river), and there were beer gardens, and art stands set up, and a LOT of people having a great time. The band was playing Carolina beach music. We hung out there for a while.

Savannah reminds me a lot of what I picture New Orleans being like. It definitely feels like I am in the deep south, where Charleston feels more east-coast like. Actually, Charleston feels more European. When we had dinner at Muse, I felt like I was in Europe! Both cities are very different, yet they have tons of history and character. It’s hard to pick which one I like better. I would need to spend more time in each city.

Tomorrow we head to Jekyll Island. Get ready for your history lesson…

 

Saved by the bell

(This was my day yesterday).

We got up early this morning for our trip south to Savannah. On the way, we stopped in Beaufort, SC. Beaufort (pronounced Byoofort, like beautiful) is a VERY small town (13,000 people). When we got there we kind of wondered why we stopped in this town, but once we went on a carriage ride, and learned the history, we understood the appeal of this small town. First off, many, many films were filmed in Beaufort: Prince of Tides, Forrest Gump, Forces of Nature, Rules of Engagement, Jungle Book, White Squall, Something to Talk About, The Legend of Bagger Vance, GI Jane, and The Last Dance.

We drove by a cemetary, and our tour guide gave us a bit of history of it. Back in the 1800’s, there was yellow fever. People got sick, and slipped into comas. Back then, no one knew what a coma was. They thought they were dead, so they buried them. They noticed a lot of the coffins had scratch marks on the inside, and realized they were burying people alive! So, before they buried anyone, they tied a piece of string to their finger with a bell on the end that stayed above ground. They then had someone sit by their grave site for two weeks. If they heard the bell, then obviously the person was still alive, and they would dig up the grave. This is where the term, “saved by the bell”, came from. And, the person who watched the grave site? He was on “graveyard shift.”

We saw a lot of beautiful homes, and amazing trees. There are live oaks everywhere. They call them “live” oaks because they never “die.” They drop leaves, and remain green year round. We saw one live oak, which is 800 years old! A lot of these live oaks are covered with Spanish moss. It’s actually not moss, it’s an air plant, an angiosperm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_moss

The highlight of our tour, for me, was our mode of transportation, Gilbert. Gilbert is a horse. And he was adorable. As soon as I got on the carriage, I wondered if Gilbert enjoyed his job. My question was quickly answered by our tour guide. She said Gilbert lives a very good life. He works three days a week, eats 20 pounds a feed/day, and numerous carrots. He never works two days in a row. He will retire in five years and live the remainder of his life in a lush pasture. They will never sell him. Our tour guide told us Gilbert is the only man in her life, and she shares all the snacks she has each day with him. Some of his favorites are: Coke, Gatorade, Salt and Vinegar potato chips, and ice cream. Hearing all this made me happy. 🙂

After our carriage ride, we had lunch on the waterfront at Luther’s. We sat outside, and the breeze was very refreshing. It was warm today.

We arrived in Savannah about an hour later, and it was HOT! We checked into our hotel, walked around for a bit, and then got ready for dinner. (No running for me today. It was my day off. I did check out the Bikram Yoga studio, but I missed the last class of the day).

We went to dinner at Lady and Sons. It’s Paula Deen’s restaurant, for all you Food Network groupies. http://www.ladyandsons.com/ It was true Southern cooking: collard greens, fried chicken, creamed corn, how cakes (it’s a pancake made with corn meal), biscuits, country fried steak, mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas. Honestly, the food was okay. We did the buffet (which had all the mentioned food), and I liked the mashed potatoes and the how cake the best! The mac and cheese was NO comparison to my homemade mac and cheese. For dessert I had a piece of gooey chocolate chip butter cake, but by the time dessert came, I was so stuffed I could barely taste it. I think it was good?

One interesting thing to note about Savannah. There are no open container laws. Everyone was walking the streets carrying their drinks.

Tomorrow morning we do a tour of downtown Savannah. Stay tuned for my commentary!

 

Sassy or slutty?

I had weird sleep again last night. I fell right to sleep, then woke up 20 minutes later, started thinking about anything and everything, and could not fall back to sleep. It was very frustrating. Maybe my body thought I was only lying down for a nap? (because it’s used to Seattle time still) I was exhausted, yet I could not shut my mind off. I FINALLY fell asleep an hour and a half later, and when it came time to get up this morning to go on the tour of some plantations and gardens, I couldn’t do it. 😦 I needed my sleep. So, I fell right back to sleep and slept until 10:45! Wow. I needed that. I felt SO much better.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day. Cloudless skies, and low 70’s already. I got out of bed, and because I had missed breakfast, I went hunting for a Starbucks (I gave up caffeine a while back, but I am back on it…small amounts). I wanted to find this cute Starbucks we had passed a couple of times. It’s in a cute white brick house. I couldn’t find it. I went up and down the streets by our hotel, but I could not find it. After walking for 30 minutes, I gave up. So, I found one on King St, the main street downtown. I grabbed a coffee and a scone, and walked leisurely back to the hotel, planning my day in my head.

I headed out for an easy 3 mile run. I felt SO much better than I did yesterday. I actually had spring in my step. 🙂 The run went well, and when I got back to the hotel, I changed into my bikini and headed down to the pool. It was a perfect day to lounge around by the pool.

After about an hour by the pool, I started craving a smoothie, so I googled smoothie places in Charleston, and found one about a mile away: Planet Smoothie http://www.planetsmoothie.com/. I got a yummy peach, berry, banana smoothie with protein powder and walked back to the pool. There were a lot of young people by the pool: I met some interesting people from Nashville and some very nice people from Baltimore. They were here for work and for a wedding, respectively. There are a lot of people here for weddings, actually.

I lounged around the pool and went swimming. I was out about 4 hours, and I got myself a tan! Yipppeee! No more pasty white Seattle skin. 🙂 (I went and bought some sunscreen before I went down to the pool).

For dinner, we went to Coast http://www.coastbarandgrill.com/. It was an impressive seafood restaurant with an incredible menu. You must check it out: http://www.coastbarandgrill.com/menu/coastDinner.pdf. It had fish I had never heard of! We had a crab cake appetizer, I had an old-fashioned tossed salad with lemon vinaigrette, and the swordfish special. I hadn’t had swordfish in years! It used to be my favorite fish due to its steak-like texture (similar to ahi). Everything was delicious. I also had a Warsteiner. It’s a German non-alcoholic beer, which tasted like the real thing. 🙂

For dessert we stopped into a gelato place after dinner. All the flavors were a little too exotic for my taste, so I had a piece of marzipan shaped like a peach. 🙂 For those of you who don’t know what marzipan is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marzipan. You either love marzipan, or you hate it. It has a very unique flavor, which I love!

Although I didn’t do much touring of the city today, I had a much-needed restful day and enjoyed my quiet time. We are off to Savannah tomorrow, which is known as “Charleston’s Sassy little sister.” Well, our tour guide said, “sassy”, but I found “slutty” on the internet. So, tomorrow we go to “Charleston’s SLUTTY little sister.” I can’t wait! 🙂

**I forgot to mention something about Charleston: There are a LOT of churches. Charleston is often referred to as “The Holy City.” It seems like there is one on every block. It was one of the few cities in the original thirteen colonies to provide religious tolerance, although restricted to non-catholics. Charleston alone, has three synagogues.**

 

Charleston, you’ve aged nicely

(This was my day yesterday. Didn’t get around to posting it until this morning)

I got up at 8:00 this morning (5AM, Seattle time), which wouldn’t have been too bad except I slept horribly. 😦 I felt like I was awake every hour. I had weird dreams. My mouth was dry from the air conditioning. I had to go to the bathroom because of the water I was drinking to get rid of my dry mouth. It sucked. I felt hung over. Ugh.

We had a quick breakfast, then got on the tour bus for a morning tour of downtown Charleston. It was great! Charleston really is a beautiful city…and so old! It’s crazy how old all the buildings are. We stopped at the Joseph Manigault house. It’s a 10,000 square foot mansion built in 1803.  http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/topic.asp?id=19

We drove to the Citadel, and right through the campus. http://www.citadel.edu/main/

As we were entering the campus, we saw the highlight of my trip, so far:  

(Shout out to MY bulldog, Pablo!) We were on the bus when we passed this, so when we got off the bus, we ran back to get a picture.

There were cadets everywhere walking around campus (we were lucky enough to catch them between classes). The freshmen, who wore all black caps, had to 1) walk in the gutters and 2) salute the upperclassmen(and women). This was interesting to watch. I tried to make eye contact with some of the freshmen, but they wouldn’t look at me! (My mom said otherwise). They were stone-faced, stiff bodied and walking very fast. You could definitely pick the freshmen out of the bunch. The campus is beautiful, and the buildings look fortess-like.

We went into the gift shop where I bought a Citadel Bulldogs t-shirt, and a bulldog bobble head. 🙂

We then drove along the water to see the mansions that I saw yesterday on my run. We saw the oldest house in Charleston, built in 1780. It is MASSIVE.

And another huge mansion right next door:

Every building in Charleston that is 75 years old or older cannot be torn down. So, we saw buildings that have been “recycled.” We saw an old train station, which is now a grocery store. We saw another old train station, which is now a visitors’ center. I learned that the side porches on the houses are called piazzas.

We finished our tour up with a trip to the market. (OUR market, Pike Place Market, is much better, in my opinion). We had lunch at a little deli, and walked through the market.

When we got back to the hotel, I went to the pool to relax. I spent a few hours there, got some much-needed sun, and some quiet time before heading out for a 5 mile run.

I was tired. My run was a struggle. It wasn’t very warm, lower 70’s, but the humidity made it feel much warmer, and I was hot. I think I might be jet-lagged. I know it’s only three hours later here, but I haven’t gotten much sleep, and the time change has messed with me.  It should be easier on me going home…hopefully.

I misran my route, which made the run much shorter than I needed, so I ended up running up and down streets downtown, which was slightly annoying because of all the people on the sidewalks, the cops on bicycles giving j-walking tickets (so I HAD to wait at each light…grrr). I did run through (yes, through…there was no gate!) a dog park. I watched an adorable fawn French Bulldog wrestle with a Min-Pin (they were both puppies). I ran about 43 minutes, which with all the stopping at lights, was a little less than my required 5 miles. I felt guilty for short-changing my run, but I was pooped. (Wow, it sounds like I am complaining. Sorry. I’m not, really).

We went to dinner at Muse. It is a very cool little restaurant with yummy food. (website on yesterday’s post) I had scallops with tomato risotto and a butter lettuce salad (hold the gorgonzola) with almonds and sherry vinaigrette. Both were amazing. I had an O’Douls and gelato for dessert, vanilla, caramel, and chocolate. Yummers.

I felt like we saw a lot of the city today, and learned a lot, too. The history is pretty incredible. The weather was great today for sightseeing, not too hot. The heat kicks in tomorrow…ooh, boy. We’ll see how I handle it…

 

Hello, Charleston

Here I am in Charleston, SC. It was a pretty easy day of travel, considering I have been up since 2AM. Yup, set my alarm for 2AM. That blows my 5AM wake up call for yoga Friday completely out of the water. I managed to get three solid hours of sleep, after I spent my evening at yoga and packing. I had to pull out all my summer clothes! 🙂

Yoga was really tough last night. The room was uber-hot. It was a warm, semi-muggy day outside, which led to an exceptionally hot, muggy day in the yoga studio. Not only was it hot, but I also was exhausted, both mentally and physically, and I had suffered an emotional hurricane minutes before stepping into class, BUT I am okay now, and I even started feeling much better as class progressed. I had to rest a couple of times, which I haven’t had to do in a while, but I made it through, even with some notable improvements.

Standing Separate Leg Stretching: My head is going to be on the floor VERY soon.

Standing Separate Leg to Knee: I kept my hands in prayer position the entire time, and I was able to straighten my leg completely when coming out the posture.

All the floor poses felt really, really good. My back was sore, so it felt amazing to stretch it out. I got a, “Beautiful, Julie” for my Rabbit Pose: It felt beautiful! And really good.

I could feel my 7 mile run, for sure, especially in the second part of Awkward Pose (coming up high on my toes):

My entire upper body was still a little sore, too. NOTHING compared to how it was over the weekend, however. I could barely lift my arms Saturday! Climbing for the first time in nearly a month, and then yoga the following morning, crushed my upper body…in a good way. It felt really good. 🙂

Unless I find a Bikram Yoga studio down here in the South, I won’t be going again for over a week. You never know, I might hunt one down. 😉

More about my day of travel: The 2AM wake up call was sinking in pretty badly by the time we got to the airport for our 6AM flight. I took some sleepytime medicine 🙂 and I was asleep as soon as the plane took off. I slept the entire 4.25 hour flight into Atlanta. 🙂 We had a quick layover, and then had a short hour flight to Charleston. I love the accents here! Everyone says, “Ma’am.” (although, for those of you who know me I prefer Miss, but maybe this trip will change my mind).

After we got settled into our beautiful room, I headed out for a run. I was not really sure where I was headed, I just ran.  As you can see, Charleston is surrounded by water, so the run was very pretty. But the water wasn’t the highlight. As I ran along E Battery St, the homes were breathtaking. Huge mansions with immaculate grounds. The gardens were pristine and the homes just screamed of money. There was so much to look at, I wish I would have been walking. Also, the sidewalks were cobblestone-like, and quite difficult so I had to pay attention to my footing.

The run was eclectic, to say the least. The run started off downtown through the city streets, then on to the massive houses, then 10 minutes later I was running through the projects, then 10 minutes after that I noticed a LOT of young people walking the streets. I felt like I was running through a college! Sure enough, it was…College of Charleston. Then I was back in the city…and a little lost. The streets were a little confusing to me, but I figured it out and made it back to my hotel. I ran 40 minutes. A little longer than I had planned, but it was a great run. It was in the upper 60’s, and there was so much to look at! Charleston is a beautiful city, and everyone is so nice. I had more people say hi to me on my run, than I ever have.

I got back to the room, showered, and then we went to dinner: Hank’s. http://hanksseafoodrestaurant.com/ It was superb! After a month of eating frozen dinners, Hank’s was a nice treat. I ordered a tossed house salad, and roasted salmon. The salad was perfect, and the salmon? THE best piece of salmon I have ever had. It was like butter. Delicious! I ordered  creme brulee, which was, again, the best I have ever had. The meal was amazing! If you ever visit Charleston, you MUST go to Hank’s.

Our walk back to the hotel was nice. We passed a fire station that was…here we go again…the cutest fire station I have ever seen. It was brick, and three firemen were hanging out front with a (fake) dalmatian sleeping on a dog bed.

Right across the street from our hotel is an adorable restaurant that we might try. Muse Restaurant and Wine Bar: http://www.charlestonmuse.com/websites/gallery.htm  (I’ll have to get a picture of the outside. It is great).

So, off to bed I go. It’s 11:00 here, and I have a full day of sightseeing tomorrow. Until tomorrow, Seattle, this is Charleston saying, “Goodnight, and sweet dreams.”

 

Eight dry months

Today was BEAUTIFUL! Summer really is just right around the corner! 🙂 I managed to get burned…really burned on my back and neck, actually. I didn’t think it was that sunny and that the sun was that hot yet, but I guess it is. Ouch. 😦

Week 2 of training…complete! It’s going great so far. I had a really busy weekend, but I had my priority: running, which I managed to fit in just fine…even a 7 mile run today. It was a piece of cake! I did it in a little under an hour, which is not as fast as my 8 minute mile pace for the 5 mile run, but that is okay. I took it easy since it was my longest run yet. I begin week 3 tomorrow (well, actually Tuesday since tomorrow is my day off/yoga day). All my week three runs will be run out of town. I am leaving early Tuesday morning for an eight day vacation to the South: Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, GA. I have never been before. It is HOT over there right now. 80’s and sunny! Yipppeeee!! I haven’t thought too much about the vacation since my life has been a whirlwind, but I have started to think about it the past couple days, and it really couldn’t be coming at a better time. I need (and deserve) some down time away from all the responsibility and stress of home. Hopefully this vacation will be a chance for me to relax, unwind, and enjoy visiting a new part of the country. I will miss the children I care for, and my dog (who will turn 2 while I am away, and this makes me very sad), and yoga, and some other things.  But I will soon return…return back to the chaos (not necessarily a horrible thing) of my life. 🙂

Oh, and today is the 8 month mark. It has been an entire 8 months since I have tasted a sip of alcohol.  It has gone by really fast, and it’s strange to me it’s been that long. Do I miss it? Not really. Nothing good has resulted lately with the consumption of alcohol, and I just don’t want to be a part of it at this particular point in my life. I have made myself a commitment, and I am fulfilling that commitment. Just like my training, my work, my friendships and relationships. It’s 100%. Heck, I gave up chicken for Lent, and I am still chicken-free…two weeks after I technically could eat it again. It’s really nice being completely clear-headed, AND having rock hard abs. 😉 I have no reason to not keep going! The one year mark is right around the corner, and the thought of that fills me with emotion since the day marks more than just a year of sobriety: sadness, happiness, nostalgia, satisfaction, doubt, confusion, and fear. But, most of all, I am proud of myself. Proud I have made this commitment to myself and stuck with it, and proud of the person I have become because of it.