Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s been a long day. I got up this morning and ran the Gobble Gallop 5K in downtown Duluth. My time was much improved from my Trail run in October (about 10 minutes better). I still have lots of room for improvement. But I would have to say for someone that never thought of running a 5K until last July – I’ve come a long way.
The race was fun. My neighbor Mel ran it too. The race was set up so that we ran 2.5 K up one street turned around and ran back. I have to admit I was a little frustrated with shortly after I crossed the 1 mile marker I saw the leader on his way back. But I kept going and didn’t walk any of it. We also had gotten about an inch of snow this morning right before the race. It was just enough to make everything greasy and since it was a holiday and it wasn’t that much snow the city didn’t clear it off.
I guess I’ll have to start looking for another 5K to run in the near future.
Then I came home and started my contributions to the Thanksgiving meal down at my neighbor’s. We ended up feasting mid-afternoon with enough food to feed 8 when there were only 3 of us. Then I took a food coma nap on their couch .
I thought about doing the whole Black Friday shopping at 4 in the morning tomorrow. But then I remembered how I hate shopping with crowds and getting up at 3 AM. So I am going to sleep until the my regular time – maybe I will even sleep in for a little bit too.
All in all things are going well. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the holidays without Aaron around but I seem to be finding a way to get through them. I still miss him lots.
277 days to go.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Day 107
Happy Veterans Day!
I really like seeing that number getting bigger. It means that Aaron and I are just that much closer to being together again.
So I spent the past weekend in Rapid City, SD – and it was awesome. They had a blizzard the day before I got there – and had opened the airport only hours before my flight arrived. The roads sucked and there was lots of snow. My sister and I used to go shopping together. This trip I think we only left the house to pick up some groceries and go to church for mass and the baptism – and I liked it. I spent three days playing with my niece and nephew. George is two now, and it’s so cute how many words he has in his vocabulary. He knows his colors, and animals and sounds they make – even though his pronunciation isn’t quite right. For instance he calls me Wennie. It’s a name I usually hate to be called. It has a nails-on-chalk-board image to me. But from him, it was so cute. He drug me around the house wanting to play with Wennie. We played with his cat Dude. Again nothing can be cuter than a two year old chasing a cat around the house calling for Dude. Lucy was cute too. She is so big and drools lots. But she laughs and smiles. I can’t wait to see them again. I know at Christmas Lucy will be hitting new milestones - she’ll be up on her hands and knees and scooting around.
The only bad thing about this trip was leaving. It made me realize all the things I am missing. Since Aaron left, I feel like I am always teetering on the verge of tears. I feel sensitive. Venturing out of my safe zone left me exposed. I loved seeing my family, but it only reminded me of what I am missing in my life. I did good though. I made it from Rapid City to Duluth and to the safety of my car in the airport parking lot before the tears rolled over their barricade .
Well the night is getting late, and I have a book to read (Stephen King’s Duma Key)
293 days to go.
I really like seeing that number getting bigger. It means that Aaron and I are just that much closer to being together again.
So I spent the past weekend in Rapid City, SD – and it was awesome. They had a blizzard the day before I got there – and had opened the airport only hours before my flight arrived. The roads sucked and there was lots of snow. My sister and I used to go shopping together. This trip I think we only left the house to pick up some groceries and go to church for mass and the baptism – and I liked it. I spent three days playing with my niece and nephew. George is two now, and it’s so cute how many words he has in his vocabulary. He knows his colors, and animals and sounds they make – even though his pronunciation isn’t quite right. For instance he calls me Wennie. It’s a name I usually hate to be called. It has a nails-on-chalk-board image to me. But from him, it was so cute. He drug me around the house wanting to play with Wennie. We played with his cat Dude. Again nothing can be cuter than a two year old chasing a cat around the house calling for Dude. Lucy was cute too. She is so big and drools lots. But she laughs and smiles. I can’t wait to see them again. I know at Christmas Lucy will be hitting new milestones - she’ll be up on her hands and knees and scooting around.
The only bad thing about this trip was leaving. It made me realize all the things I am missing. Since Aaron left, I feel like I am always teetering on the verge of tears. I feel sensitive. Venturing out of my safe zone left me exposed. I loved seeing my family, but it only reminded me of what I am missing in my life. I did good though. I made it from Rapid City to Duluth and to the safety of my car in the airport parking lot before the tears rolled over their barricade .
Well the night is getting late, and I have a book to read (Stephen King’s Duma Key)
293 days to go.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Day 102
Wow. Triple digits. Now we’re just a hair over 25% complete with the deployment.
Aside from being 30, work stressing me out, and I think the dog ate something he shouldn’t have and has a tummy ache now – things are pretty ok. I’m headed to South Dakota for the weekend to finally see my niece. I can’t remember the last time I saw my sister and her family. I know it’s been a while. I think it might have even been my wedding which was over a year ago. Aaron and I are god parents and I’m excited. Except all the good baby stores have cleared the cute religious baby gifts off the shelves so they would have more room for all the baby Christmas stuff. I think its rather sad that we’ve all excepted that Christmas starts the end of October. My grocery store cleared out its collection of Halloween candy in their seasonal aisle and had Christmas Candy in its place the morning of Nov 1. When I went to Home Depot to get paint for my bed room in the middle of Oct - they already had the fake trees out - BTW I finished painting my room and have half the furniture moved back in - The color is super soft and soothing. It was good to change from the electric teal 1950s diner color to a key lime pie / soft summer green color.
Aaron is doing well. I can’t stress enough how nice it is to hear from him almost daily. I know in reality he is far far away, but being able to chat online for a few minutes or get an email a day makes him feel much closer – kind of like he’s back in NJ and not in Iraq. I still have my days where all I want is a hug and I just get ticked and mad and sad about the whole situation – but for the most part it feels like it’s getting a little bit easier.
298 days to go.
Aside from being 30, work stressing me out, and I think the dog ate something he shouldn’t have and has a tummy ache now – things are pretty ok. I’m headed to South Dakota for the weekend to finally see my niece. I can’t remember the last time I saw my sister and her family. I know it’s been a while. I think it might have even been my wedding which was over a year ago. Aaron and I are god parents and I’m excited. Except all the good baby stores have cleared the cute religious baby gifts off the shelves so they would have more room for all the baby Christmas stuff. I think its rather sad that we’ve all excepted that Christmas starts the end of October. My grocery store cleared out its collection of Halloween candy in their seasonal aisle and had Christmas Candy in its place the morning of Nov 1. When I went to Home Depot to get paint for my bed room in the middle of Oct - they already had the fake trees out - BTW I finished painting my room and have half the furniture moved back in - The color is super soft and soothing. It was good to change from the electric teal 1950s diner color to a key lime pie / soft summer green color.
Aaron is doing well. I can’t stress enough how nice it is to hear from him almost daily. I know in reality he is far far away, but being able to chat online for a few minutes or get an email a day makes him feel much closer – kind of like he’s back in NJ and not in Iraq. I still have my days where all I want is a hug and I just get ticked and mad and sad about the whole situation – but for the most part it feels like it’s getting a little bit easier.
298 days to go.
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