I ran the Prefontain Run run again this year. This is the third year in a row, and despite not training as much as I had in the past and gaining 20 lbs, I finished in good time. My times and race pace for the past three years:
2010-Time: 56:18 Pace: 9:04
2011-Time: 58:42 Pace: 9:27
2012-Time: 57:50 Pace: 9:19
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| TJ and Eric ran with me too. We all rocked tutus and had a fun time. |
Running the race helped me keep one of my goals for the year, which was to get in better shape again and loose some of the grad-school weight. To further this goal I am also signed up for my first half marathon later in October.
It's been exactly a year since Eric and I started hanging out. Or dating, or whatever you want to call it, since it took us a very long time to call it anything. Last year on my birthday weekend I was out climbing the South Sister with him.
We had planned to climb the mountain again this weekend but were prevented from it by the Pole Creek Fire and resulting ash cloud hanging in the air. Still, over the last year, him and I have managed to hang out at fairly regular intervals whenever scheduling has permitted it, and have had a lot of adventures while we were at it.
I haven't gone crazy and killed my family yet. I think this should be self explanatory. It has been a fairly difficult year for most my immediate family, and stressful for all of us I think. I react badly to stress on, top of stress, on top of stress, and that pretty much describes my year. I take too much out on the people closest to me, and sadly, that is mostly my family. Also, occasionally T.J., who has become like family to me.
TJ is still one of my best friends. Around my birthday last year, T.J. and I will still in the slightly delicate situation of managing to stay friends after having a relationship. A few scathing e-mails and some long discussions later we've really got the hang of the best friend thing. Which, unfortunately for him, means he has been elevated to the status of belonging to my extended 'adopted' family. See previous paragraph.
I got to raise two adorable baby bunnies. I almost forgot that this happened this year, but it was a major factor early in the year. The babies were born just before my birthday last year, but I'm still counting the raising and subsequent finding of good homes in this years reflection.
Due to my crazy changing life, I was unable to keep any bunnies after last winter. The babies were easy to find homes for but the two adults were surrendered to Green Hill Animal Shelter. I loved them both so much, and went out of my way to make sure that the shelter I took them to would not euthanize either of them because they were old or hard to find home for. I was a able to check the shelter website until they were both adopted, so I know that Optimus Prime and Elita One have found good homes how.
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| Optimus Prime, the day I caught him in my backyard. |
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| Elita One, the day I caught her in my garden. |
Grad school is still taking up the majority of my time. Period. By far the most memorable aspect of last year, as well as the one before, has been the work I have put into getting my master's degree. I'm still plugging away at it, and am able to focus more on the school side of things now that my job with the watershed is over. I'm happy to be a T.A. to get more of the traditional grad school experience, where previously my experience has been very non traditional.
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