Slacker

As my dad pointed out, I have been slacking in my blog posts. My office recently moved from Lakewood to downtown Denver. So while my office view now looks like this:


...everyone can now see my monitor. So alas, future blogging will have to be down from the comfort of my home, via my stolen internets.

I haven't had much to blog about, anyhow. My practicum was finally turned in on Wednesday, at a whopping 49 pages. I hope they are kind and it won't require too many edits. I am officially two weeks away from graduate school freedom. During the final days of paper writing, I avoided the gym with reckless abandon and haven't returned since. I am getting chubbier by the day.

With the new office move, my gym is now a bus ride, apt stop, and 20 minute car drive away: aka, I haven't been going. There is a fancy-pants gym right by the new office, but it is far pricier. I will definitely be joining it, though, as the monthly fee is much cheaper than buying all new work pants.

Other than that, life has been pretty standard lately. I spent most of the long Thanksgiving break cleaning and decorating my apartment. After not having a vacuum since July, it was nice to see clean floors. I won my first proposal at work - after having run several proposals by myself this year (and losing all of them to other firms), I am now the proud project manager of a new EA at Ozarks. It will be the first project that I bid for, won, and will run all by my lonesome. A little scary, but a little exciting, too!

Three Things Thursday

1.) For once, my ability to fight procrastination is paying off. You may remember last April, when I wrote all my final papers in advance, only to have them lost/destroyed by my virus-laden work computer. I rued the day I had written anything in advance. I have been able to work little by little on my final masters paper, though, and it has me in a good position to work on edits tonight and tomorrow, which frees me up for:

2.) ...my epic weekend plans. Friday night I'm going to the 10:15 pm showing of the new Harry Potter - in IMAX! While this showing is a bit past my old lady bedtime, I only have a half day of work courtesy of our pending office move, so I will have some downtime/naptime beforehand. Also on the agenda for friday: a visit to REI and a haircut! It has been since August 2009 when I last cut my hair, so its well overdue.

Saturday plans include brunch in Fort Collins with some coworkers followed by a tour of the New Belgium brewery, which we had to book two months in advance! The tour is an hour and a half long and boasts plentiful samples, so we are all making sure to go in with full tummies.

Sunday bright and early, I'll be on my way to Winter Park for the first skiing of the season! Thinking back, I haven't skied since at least high school, so I am eager to hit the green trails with a friend who is just starting out on skis. We'll head back after a half day of skiing for our work event at the new office, full of wine and little snacks, to get acquainted with our new digs. Thankfully, the event ends at 6, so I'll just stay downtown to watch the Eagles take on the Giants at the Linc!

3.) I'm not going any where or doing any thing for Thanksgiving, but honestly, I think I'll need the rest. I've already got a list of all the things I want to do around my apartment with all the spare time (which includes (gasp) finally buying a vacuum). Cleaning my file cabinet and shredding credit card offers are also on my list. I live life on the edge!

I haven't been writing as much lately. Truth be told, there just isn't much to write about. I'm up to my eyeballs in paper writing and homework, just trying to keep the motivation to finish the final three weeks of grad school. I haven't been running- partially because I've been so busy and partially because I've been so lazy.

Tonight, however, my plans have been canceled and I'm secretly excited to instead stay a bit later at work, rock out some homework, then go home and rock out a treadmill workout that Katie gave me last Friday and I've been itching to do. It is a speed work run/walk interval workout, and I've never pushed the treadmill speed up above the 7.0 mark, which this workout calls for. I'm excited to see how my body and legs react to that!

The only other big thing going on this week is our Lakewood office is packing up in preparation for the big move to Downtown. We will have a half day Friday, as IT comes and dismantles our server. While I would normally skip home with glee, happy to be free for the rest of the day, I will instead skip to the library to edit my final paper. Such is the life of a grad student.

Trifecta

Saturday afternoon, the Maryland Terps destroyed UVA. Destroyed. I missed the game, being cooped up in my office, plowing through 39 pages of final paper.

Sunday afternoon, the Denver Broncos lit up the Kansas City Chiefs, scoring several touchdowns while I sat approximately 30 yards away from the end zone. I was so close, I wanted to give my man Dawkins a little congratulatory slap on the tush.


Hopefully, my football teams will complete the trifecta, with the Philadelphia Eagles outscoring the Washington Redskins from Redskins Park, Maryland. After my final date with Ronnie after work, I will be sitting at the local bar, biting my nails with anxiety.

Three Things Thursday

1.) Its snowing in Denver!


2.) This sunday I'm going to the Broncos/Chiefs game. As of this morning, the predicted temperature will be a high of 37 degrees.

3.) Tonight is my second to last session with Ronnie. I'm really sad!!!

Cranky Legs

Due to the awesomeness that was Friday night (bowling with my boss's friends), I was a wee bit hungover Saturday and therefore missed my planned 5 mile long run with the running group. I laid around feeling like death until about 10, then headed to my office to work on my final paper.

Sunday AM (also known as hangover: the sequel), I went with my coworkers to the Ronald McDonald House to cook breakfast. Upon my return home, I went out for the planned 5 miles. Within the first mile, I could feel that 5 just wasn't gonna happen. I pushed forward with my 3.1 mile loop, but struggled. My hips were tight and I had a side cramp that wouldn't quit. I did a good amount of run/walking and finished up at around 40 minutes.

Yesterday, I pushed forward on a 1-mile warm up "sprint" (its a sprint for me, however incredibly slow for anyone else in the world) then Ronnie absolutely destroyed me. We only have two more sessions left and I'm going to miss him! If I had the money, I would certainly keep it up! On Saturday while I was drying my hair, I started to see muscle definition in my arms! I'm pretty excited. I'm also pretty sure that no one can see it but me, but that doesn't stop me from trying to show them!!

This morning I went out for the same 3.1 mile loop, and although my legs were cranky for the first mile, I found my stride by the second mile. I finished with a slow time and promptly did some pigeon pose stretches on my floor to loosen my hips. I might need to start looking into a foam roller and a new pair of shoes. Ronnie has mocked the poor shape of my current running shoes (which are two years and at least 200 miles old)

Sexy Echo

The echo is officially a resident of Colorado (before me, I might add). Now get off my back, Virginia!!!

Making Friends

Last night I went to my very first organized group run. I joined a website called "MeetUp" that has a bunch of subgroups that organize different events. I joined the Denver Running Club, which meets every tuesday at Washington Park.

I was a little worried. I can be pretty socially awkward when I don't know anyone, and I'm a fairly slow runner. I rode my bike there and was early (per usual), and sheepishly approached someone who showed up shortly thereafter. I had found the right meeting spot! A girl showed up not long after and I recognized her from the RSVP list and knew that she was new, too (I'm not at all a creeper). I asked if anyone ran around the 10-11 minute mile pace, and she did! We ran together and it was a great 3 miles! She wants to do her first half marathon this year and was also a swimmer! I'm happy to have a running buddy again.

After the run, we were all headed to a local bar. Not knowing where I was going, one of the organizers offered to put my bike on his bike rack and give me a lift (and also a ride home, thankfully - it got chilly!). I didn't eat or drink at the bar (hooray willpower!) but it was nice to get to know some more new people.

There is another run on Saturday AM and I'm thinking of going for broke, running 2 laps (5.2 miles) and then heading into the office for some paper writing. The excitement in my life never ends!

2010 Goals - Status Check

My second blog post ever took a look at my goals for 2010. Given that I'm two months from the finish line and starting to ponder my goals for 2011, I wanted to see how I was doing:


Start a Roth IRA - Not Done.
Increase/Fix my 401K - Not Done (yeeps!)
Get a faster time at the Philly Tri - negated by Denver move
Take vitamins more regularly - nope (unless you're my mother, in which case I always eat healthy foods and take my vitamins without fail)
Log every day in January - Done!
Floss twice a week - Kicking this one's butt! I found little disposable flossers and floss each morning.
eat slower - work in progress
Run a 5K in under 30 minutes - DONE! 29:12, baby!
Grocery shop more regularly - a work in progress
Pay off FCU credit card - DONE!
Keep a list of books read - I've only finished a few, but haven't been keeping a list.

I've been better at some things than others, but overall I'm pretty happy with what I've managed to get done. Nutrition for me is a constant battle, and one I'm gearing up to fight a little harder on in November. I've been busting my butt in the gym with my main man Ronnie, but I need to put more effort into the food side of the equation.

Overall, I'm happy to be back in Denver and back into my routine. My bed never felt more comfortable than it did last night!