Gosh it's been a while...

Since I posted. Sorry. Here's a few random goings-on...

1. I'm still keeping up with working out. I can't believe I've gone at least 6 days a week for a month now. I think this is the closest to a "routine" I've ever gotten in with working out. I think the trick was to keep my expectations low. I'm not demanding instant results, and I'm not pissed off at myself if I can't finish a certain amount of time on a machine or whatever. I also bypass the trip home after work and go STRAIGHT to the gym, which seems to help on time. I can blow off work steam doing whatever class I want, or I can do any one of the workouts I've collected from a few sources. It's going to get harder, though, because...

2. I'm going to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC in late October. I've always wanted to do it, it's a fast, fairly flat course, and the weather's usually nice. I have to run a 10K on the 28th of March to get early registration (the MCM fills up FAST), but I think I can at least tolerate that. I found a few programs online to help you get in shape, and I have to kick it up until the 10k, then I have about 30 weeks to train for the marathon, adding no more than 10% a week. It's not impossible, it's just work. I'm just trying to keep an 11 minute pace in training with the hopes that I'll be able to stick somewhere around it during the actual marathon. While there's no time limit, you have to maintain a 14 minute pace in order to get to a certain point before they make you hop a shuttle bus at mile 19. I will DIE if I have to do that. I'm not aiming for a time, though - I ONLY want to FINISH.

3. I got a RAISE at work! I waited until I SAW last week's paycheck, but it's awesome. My boss was really good about it and fought a lot for it with many different people, and actually got me MORE than I even asked for. I was really surprised, and it's nice to feel like you're actually rewarded for working your butt off.

4. Dan comes to Charlotte tomorrow! I'm excited. We've got a nice weekend planned - cleaning out my storage unit (yuck, but it has to be done. Luckily it's only a few things, 2 trips, tops.), going out to dinner with Meghan and Matt (yay!), taking a day trip to Lynchburg on Sunday to drop off the Colonel at my mom's, who will be watching him while we're in Texas, and trying to keep up with him when we have to go running. He's running the 10k with me (he IS a Marine, after all...it's held at the Marine headquarters in Quantico and he ran the Marine Corps Marathon last year), but he's faster than me by FAR and has legs literally like twice the length of mine. I'll probably put him in serious pain simply because he can't possibly run that slow. If you're wondering, no, he will not be running the marathon with me, and I'm 99% sure he won't even be able to come watch me...it's right when he'll be getting deployed, dammit. It's part of the reason I decided to do it - I needed something to look FORWARD to around that time instead of dreading his departure.

5. I'm VERY excited about going to TEXAS in two weeks. I need a vacation, and I've been stockpiling work that can be done from home while I'm there. I've been checking out the SXSW website and am completely lost as to which shows to go see. Check out the website and let me know if you have any recommendations. I like all kinds of music but am probably not going to a ton of mosh-pit style shows. Not that I don't enjoy some good old Dropkick Murphys every now and then (I did live in Boston, after all), but a 100-lb girl does not do well at those sorts of things...and I don't want my boyfriend to have to play bodyguard the whole time. Also getting to see a friend of mine who I haven't seen since MIDDLE SCHOOL. She moved to Texas right at the end of 8th grade and we found each other last year on myspace, of all places. We were good friends back then, and she seems to be happy as a clam down there, she's a makeup artist and seems to have all these cool eclectic experiences.

6. I feel like I need a #6. Hmm, let's see. I went to Target tonight. I bought an alarm clock, a magazine, running socks, two folders (they were 30 cents a piece, and they had beagle puppies on them, I had to) and random odds and ends at the dollar spot section. Man, how I love the dollar spot. A few years ago when they started it, they sold all this St Paddy's Day stuff, and since my sister's birthday is that day, I bought like everything in it and sent it to her where she was teaching English to children on a French Caribbean island. She brought it all in to show her kids what holiday is on her birthday (despite a heavy Catholic majority, most Europeans and European colonies don't really celebrate it, except the Irish) and I think they thought she made it up or something.

That's about it, but the picture is one taken of me and Dan at the wedding he was in back in December. I may have posted it before, but I was reminded of it because his mom printed some pictures for me and mailed them to me this week and this was one of them. The story behind this? Well, a few years ago, I developed this alter ego...Tawny Kitaen. Yes, from the Whitesnake video. I was at a Delaware bar, and we were watching a band play...in the rain. They played the Whitesnake song, and of course, if you tell me after a few beers to give my best Tawny Kitaen impression, well, I ain't getting in some crazy unladylike pose, but I've got some long thick hair to toss around. Dan heard about Tawny and loves to try to get Tawny to come out on the dance floor from time to time. I was well-behaved (I was, after all, at the freaking National Shriner's ballroom), but I did throw a little bit of hair around later in the evening. Nothing out of control, but hey, when a 6'5" man wearing all them medals tells you to do something, you listen.