and the Pinterest addiction has begun

On day 9 of her 25 Days of Ornaments, I stumbled upon Belle on Heels' post for a fun ornament using curled lines from a wedding invitation to fill a clear ornament.  She found the idea on Pinterest.  Of course, I had to explore!  Here is the original:

Source: christyrobbins.blogspot.com via Dawn on Pinterest

Well, of course my little toe-dip into the world of Pinterest sparked a renewed addiction to things crafty, fashionable and innovative and gave me a great Christmas gift idea for the $5.00 and under gift exchange!!  Woohoo!!  Two birds, one stone. Need I say more?

Luckily, the AB lucky enough to have me as her Secret Santa shares a love for holidays and crafty-ness; unfortunately she isn't getting married again or having more babies anytime soon, so the whole invite or announcement idea wasn't going to work for her.  After a tremendous amount of thinking and back-and-forthing with the almost-semi-significant Anonymous Beloved, I decided to use Christmas songs printed on appropriately colored paper to fill the little gems.  I have to say, they turned out super cute and my AB LOVED them!  Even my a-s-s AB, who originally thought the idea would be lost with a less personal filling - the subject of all of the back-and-forthing - thought that they turned out well.  

"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" in red, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" in blue, and "O, Christmas Tree" in green

I'll call this a win!

warmest wishes

Only one more sleep until it's Christmas morning and I've managed to get myself and the man-eaters safely to my home town in a land far, far away.

So far so good.  We're all settled in, gifts are wrapped and under the tree, and I've finally figured out how to use my mother's "new" coffee maker.  All is well and my short Christmas vacation has officially commenced.  

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and general warm wishes to all of my beloveds out there! 

where have all the flowers gone?

The hardest part about being a 30-something single woman is that most pretty much all of my Anonymous Beloveds have significant others, signifiant children, significant obligations ... ugh, you get the point.  

Don't get me wrong, I'm kind of loving this part of my life where I get to explore the world without feeling awkward and insecure.  I can list so many things that are cool about where my life is at right now: 

I can try on different identities because most people think I'm crazy anyway;

I can pick up and move to another state, city, house without having to worry about uprooting anyone and ruining their lives;

despite my age, people still occasionally card me when I buy vodka at the grocery store;

I am not ashamed to say that vodka occasionally makes it on to my grocery list (or that I regularly make a grocery list with, gasp, coupons);

I can go to bed at 8:30 and no one calls me old, and if they do, I'm too old to care :)

But, not every road is paved with butterflies and roses ALL of the time.  Today I just seemed to have stubbed my big toe on a big fat tree stump in the middle of my rosy nature walk.  I hate that.  So, my stupid proverbial toe hurts, my ego is a little bruised, and I kind of want to cry -- all because I wanted a little piece of undivided attention.  I am not too old to stomp my feet and throw a little fit; but old enough to absolutely know how to do it right!  Ugh!  

Ok.  Well, now that I've gotten that out my system, its time to quit whining and pull up my big girl panties and keep moving until I find those butterflies and roses again.  

Happy moving forward, ya'll!

life. in training.

When you train for a race, you do it for a lot of reasons: the crowds, the energy, the challenge, the finish line, the medal.  For every race that I have run, I have been lucky enough to have at least one member of my Anonymous Beloved Cheering Squad on the course to cheer me on and waiting at the finish line to share in my joy.  Race days are special, they are like my personal princess-for-a-day holidays; training days, however, are often times a different story.

We all have struggles, things in our lives - sometimes minor and sometimes earth shattering - that attempt to bulldoze us off of our path, knock us out of our comfortable chair, and turn our lives pear-shaped.  What jars some people doesn't even phase others and sometimes, what seems petty to us in other people's lives can leave us breathing in a paper bag when we are presented with it in our own.  Training days are the ones where struggles seem ginormous, where we doubt whether or not we have what it takes to keep going, where sometimes just putting one foot in front of the other is a success.  There are no finish lines on training days and many times the people who will ultimately be there to support us are the first ones to point out our short-comings.  Training days can be discouraging.

As I diligently mounted the treadmill and trotted through my warm-up, I could not help but to let my mind settle on one of my Anonymous Beloveds and the rough string of training days she's been having recently.  Today, each interval seemed to be just a bit more difficult than the last and my AB's story hung just a little more heavily around my shoulders.  We have had our share of turmoil; done things, knowingly or not, that has left the other burned and broken; and we have supported each other at times when it seemed no one else could or would.  It was with each thought of her story, my story, and ours together that my resolve to see the weighty run through with strength, courage, and serenity so that I can help her do the same.

Today, as my mind carried her and my heart tried to comfort her, it occurred to me that maybe training runs aren't just necessary for race day, they are necessary in order to make it through the next training day or to help an AB through theirs.

Of course, they ain't Tiffany's...

...but then again, sometimes a good run can be even more adorning than diamonds.   My run on Monday left me and my shins feeling like someone's skin looks when they wear cheap silver on a hot day.  But these turquoise beauties seemed to do the trick!  

Getting back to running has been quite a little process!  I'm finally running more than I'm walking during a workout and feeling pretty good about the pace I'm able to sustain.  It looks like surgery and all those weeks of physical therapy are going to really help me meet my sub 2 hour half marathon goal!

Until next time, happy running :)