10 Things Thursday

1. I still adore the treadmill. I ran a fabulous 5K on it last night and watched the Rays vs. Red Sox game (Yay, Rays!).

2. Because of my new-found love of the treadmill (and the gym in general), I really want to join one. But, I wonder if it’s worth it. I run with my running group the majority of the time, so I probably wouldn’t use the glorious treadmills that often. I do like having other cardio options and not feeling like heat stroke is eminent, though.

3. I haven’t worn anything besides gym clothes in four days. I also haven’t worn any makeup or done anything to my hair besides piling it up on top of my head. This is what happens when you work remotely by yourself and only go to the gym, take your dog for a walk or go to Target (sorry, people of Target). You’ll be happy to know that I do make the effort to brush my teeth and put on deodorant.

My office look for the last four days.

4. There are many things I miss about working in an office (people, supplies, phone headset), but one of the things I miss the most is a decent chair and desk. This recliner and end table setup I have going on is not doing my back, neck or shoulders any favors. Ouch.

5. Dogs sleep A LOT. I become aware of this when I’m at home all day. Lazy girl does nothing all day. I can barely get her to open her eyes. I will not feel bad when I have to leave for work again (well, feel bad about leaving Chloe …).

You're interrupting my 18-hour nap.

6. My boyfriend stocked up on all my favorites while I’m here visiting.

What more does a girl need?

7.  Are you looking for the best damn race? Well, I suggest you check out the Best Damn Race. It's Feb. 1, 2014, in Safety Harbor, Florida. I ran this race earlier this year, and I had so much damn fun. If you want to join in on the fun (and you should), you can use the code BDRBLOG to save $5 when registering (it's good for July and August).

8. I have some Amazon gift cards saved up, and I realized the best way to spend these is on running shoes! Duh, right? So, I started looking at the Brooks Adrenaline GTS (my love), and I found these beauties ... just not in my size. Now I'm stalking Amazon waiting for my big-foot size to be in stock.

Source

9.  I continually confirm this, but I keep doing it: I hate long car rides. Any drive that takes more than two hours needs to be flown in a jet. So, I'm really looking forward to the 8-hour drive back to Florida. GAH.

10. I adore Twitter and Instagram. If you want to follow me there, I'm behold_turtle.

Do you belong to a gym? What's your favorite piece of equipment? What two favorite items would you want someone to have around if you were visiting? Do you like road trips?

Road trips: you're not as bad as I thought

For all of my dreading, the road trip wasn’t really that bad.

Even though this is the view I had for 9 long hours (thankfully I was off by 2 hours on my driving time – I thought it was 11 hours), at least I car danced my way through it. Car dancing makes anything more bearable. Well, anything in the car I guess. 

Chloe is not into car dancing as much as me, but she likes looking out the window and sleeping. And snoring. Loudly.

Why did you wake me up for a silly picture?

But, the long trip was worth it to see this girl graduate.

The awesome graduate and her mom

I’m so proud of her and so glad I got to spend a long weekend with her. She rocks!

Aside from all the graduation festivities, we did plenty of exploring around South Carolina. For those that didn’t know, it’s beautiful.

Chloe loved going for walks and checking out the new smells, but overheated.

I'm going to stop on a random driveway, slobber and cool down.

And, we played mah-jong. Lots of mah-jong. I won $20 the first night and thought I was the stuff, and then I proceeded to lose $20 the next night. 

What used to be their daughter's room is now my boyfriend's
parents' mah-jong room – always ready to play.

So, road trips are still not my favorite, but this one was totally worth it. 

But, it's also a lovely feeling to be back home and back into a routine (that includes running).

Road trips: you're not my favorite

I'm currently packing and cleaning and getting ready to start driving to South Carolina. I'm not excited about it. I hate long car rides, and this one is double-digit hours. So while trying to avoid the inevitable, I decided to be random.

• Yay for Jessica Simpson and her baby girl, Maxwell Drew, being on the cover of People! I'm getting it to take on my road trip. Oh, wait ... I guess I should focus on driving. I probably can't be trusted with it in the car.

I love them! (source)

• Speaking of road trips, I loathe them. (Did I mention this? Well, it's worth mentioning again and again.) I'd fly everywhere if I could. Chloe appreciates me driving, though.

• I want to like road trips. They sound like they could be fun. Maybe with the right people, music, snacks and destination? I don't know. I think I'll still find sitting in a car for hours and hours and hours tedious.
• If you're asking yourself, "Didn't Jina just return from a trip?", you'd be correct. I did. I wouldn't plan it like this, but you can't schedule graduations when you want. 
•  I struggle with running while traveling. I prepare. I pack my running clothes. I schedule when I'll run, and then ... nothing. I know most people love exploring a city by running. That scares me. I like knowing where I am and how I can get back to where I started (the safe way).
• Back to Jessica Simpson (I find myself saying that constantly), as predicted she joined forces with Weight Watchers to lose the baby weight. She is so darn smart, even if she thinks buffalo wings are from buffaloes. 

Taking a break from breaks

After a two-week break from work, I’d like to say I’m refreshed and renewed. But, it would be a lie.

Unfortunately, along with my two-week break from work, I took a two-week break from blogging, an almost two-week break from the computer, a two-week break from eating or drinking anything remotely healthy (OK, that's not entirely true, but I ate a lot of crap), and a one-week break from running. So, now I feel like crap. But, with the new year comes a new me (or so it seems like the thing to say).

Prior to being new and improved, here’s what happened:

I never really got in the Christmas spirit this year, and I don’t know why. I put up the Christmas tree late. I started listening to Christmas music late. I never watched Christmas Vacation or Elf. I didn’t send out Christmas cards. Any gift I sent was late, and I still haven’t sent some (oops). I’m even still waiting on one of my brother’s gifts to arrive so that I can send it late.

I did receive this awesome Elvis ornament from Rachael (Thanks!) via Jenny’s Christmas ornament exchange. It rocks! And it arrived on time (unlike the one I sent). Sorry, Rachael.

Christmas was nice, but I still wasn’t in the holiday spirit. I even slept the latest on Christmas morning. That never happens. Well, every other day it does, but not that day.

After the Christmas festivities (and after family left town), I still had a week of vacation. So, we decided to take a trip. A dreaded road trip. I hate road trips. I hate sitting in the car for much more than an hour. So, an 8-hour car ride is my idea of torture. But, driving meant that Chloe could come with us. I guess she’s worth it.

This is at the Hard Rock in Biloxi. Chloe likes Billy Idol, apparently.

Family photo on the beach. It was cold. Like 62 degrees!

After spending a few days in Biloxi, Mississippi, we headed to Destin, Florida, to spend the new year with friends. After celebrating last New Year’s Eve out with sparkley hats, noisemakers and champagne, I was ready to do it again. Unfortunately, our friends were not. They claim New Year’s Eve is amateur drunk night. They are probably right, but I was a bit disappointed. So, we hung out at their beach condo (not a bad deal, I guess), grilled steaks, drank lots of wine (and champagne at midnight), watched fireworks and rang in 2012.

After getting home (finally … I still hate road trips), I had a day to put away the Christmas decorations, do laundry, watch some pretty awesome bowl games (although the best is yet to come … Cotton Bowl on Jan. 6 – go Cats!), relax (and not get in the car once) and try to head off the looming doom of returning to work.

Even though there is some reluctance about returning to work (not that work is bad (most of the time), but if given the choice, I’d rather not work), I am ready to return to a schedule. A schedule that includes running on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings. I’ve missed it.