Happy Tax Day Uncle Sam

Its gloriously sunny outside today, still chilly enough to need a jacket (and scarf...and mittens) but the sunshine makes it feel refreshing rather than frigid.
Yesterday afternoon I went running in my cardigan sweater after work. That was a little ridiculous, but it was cold enough to need a coat (and I hadn't brought one appropriate for running) so I figured that my sweater might work--and it did, though it is certainly as dirty as it is ever likely to get(when its cold out my nose runs harder than I do).
I've been running most days for the past three weeks or so--I'm trying to make a habit of it, and so far the easiest way to do that is to run before I leave work for the day (even if I do it after the actual work day, I don't go home and then go running, I go running and then go home). Something about coming home at the end of the day seems to prevent me from getting a run done--this hasn't always been the case, when I was living by myself I think I was sort of in a routine of running before I did anything else for the evening, but living with roommates (several of whom are about as inactive as you can get) there seems to be a certain amount of inertia contained within the building.
I've read a couple of things on your friends and acquaintances impact on your health and size
and I understand the idea, I think: a lot of it has to do with the social norms you create as a group--whether or not seconds or thirds or extra poundage are accepted creates a way of eating and living that either is or is not conducive to weight gain. Its all about being creatures of habit. Which certainly we all are at least to some extent.
So I am trying to create in myself a habit of daily running--I've never been successful at it before--in the past when I've been training for specific events I have hurt myself every time I've tried to make the sessions daily rather than having a "light" day in between, but right now I'm not actively training for anything--and so some of my running days are very "light", but they're still days I run. I'm liking it a lot so far. I'm generally pumped to go out and do it, even if "it" is only three miles, I love that my weekly mileage is creeping up and my hips are disappearing (the more mileage I log, the smaller my hips seem to get, everything certainly tightens as a matter of course, but my hips specifically seem to shrink away-- I have no idea of exactly why, other than it is perhaps where I carry excess weight). I have more energy and am sleeping better. Its great! I suppose we'll see how long it takes me to hurt myself this time--I always seem to find a way!

Now you're singing from your socks!

It has been amazingly spring-like here for the last week or so, and in celebration I've been running almost every day for the last week and a half. I'm not usually a daily runner--I think I have more of a tendency to injure myself when I run everyday, but last week when there were two sunny mid-40s days in a row (with a possibility of snow& sleet(that didn't ultimately happen) on the 3rd day) I thought "I can't pass this up! What if it snows again!" and I've been sort of playing it by ear ever since: so far no new aches or pains, and my hips (which have been my problem spot--bursitis is a horrible thing, let me tell you) have been awesome lately! Yeah!
In other news-that-isn't-but-is-to-me:
I hosted a clothing swap at my house on Saturday: If you are craving spring new clothes but dreading the price of such things, I would have to say this type of event comes highly recommended by me: it was awesome! It totally fulfilled my springtime urge for new clothing and was a good way to get together with friends I haven't seen in awhile. I told about 15 people about it and only about 7 showed up, but that was plenty. I made some food, people brought wine and it was all the fun of shopping with a group of friends ("oh my god you've got to try that on!" "oh that color! what were you thinking?!", enormous amounts of giggling, et cetera) without the price tag! I spent about $40 on food (which will also last me the rest of this week, I made more than people were willing to eat while also trying on clothing) and came away with several new-ish pairs of pants and spring-ier shirts and light sweaters. When I invited one particular friend she said "Oh! a "naked lady" party!" and I thought that sounded sort of strange (and lewd) but once boyfriends and other males left there was indeed a fair amount of pants-less-ness going on in my living room as people decided to just try things on where they lay :) so now it does make some sense.
Also in money saving modes: My days of paying for rentals may be about over! hulu might be all I need: Generally when I do the netflix thing it is for the old tv shows or new-er movies, a lot of which seem to be on hulu--and since I already have internet access and don't mind watching on a computer screen (actually right now we don't have a working dvd player anyway so thats the only option in the house). So with the addition of some red box codes I might be able to stretch the "entertainment" part of my budget further than ever before! I am pretty excited about this, any ways I can find to trim a little $ means I don't have to worry quite so much about gas prices going through the roof before it is warm enough to start riding my bike in to work again.

waxing pathetic...I mean poetic

You need to write about the awesome.

So I know I haven’t done so well with the writing every day thing, for November. But I did write (I think) on the majority of days, and almost always was able to produce something on a day when I was in front of a computer for more than a half hour anyway. But looking back I think it was still good and worth trying to keep going: keep working on. I still haven’t actually submitted anything to anyone, I’m still all talk on that front. But I am at leas castigating myself about it (that’s the start of something, right?) and I know that it does help, so there is that.

About the awesome: often lately I’ve got that horrible stained thrown away feeling (you know the one, or would if you’d read anything from early in November I guess) and its bad in the crappy-getting-crappier kind of way, but if I look past it and try and find something good and fine and worth keeping, worth doing or looking forward too, there usually is something. And I have a feeling it would totally help the world view to write about the awesome instead of the crap-suck-a-potomous that is daily existence sometimes (well, except it feels so good sometimes to just write it all down, like blowing your nose: hah gunk! Now what are you going to do? Huh?). So yeah, the awesome: my best and least responsible friend from college has had a beautiful baby girl. She came to visit this weekend and called me at 7:30 on Saturday night because she hadn’t made plans for where they were going to sleep that night…its nice to know that babies don’t necessarily change people. Another one of my friends from college--who used to get rip roaring drunk and threatening to any and all comers, has a beautiful wife and a gorgeous one-year-old and he doesn’t drink at all anymore (his wife, actually, has never seen him drunk) and it doesn’t seem to matter--he is still fun and opinionated and insightful about things and he doesn’t miss it (well, he said sometimes he misses drinking Jim Beam at 1’o clock in the afternoon, but he gets over it)…so its nice to see that sometimes things do change and families make people feel whole in ways you didn’t know they needed to feel whole. I got fantastically farm-fresh produce today out of the back of someone’s mini van and was reminded how cool it is to participate in the local scene of something: you’re helping them and they’re helping you and there is really no downside because I have fresh cabbage and they have money to feed their chickens. And there is snow on the ground outside, and its new enough that it is still all white and stuck to tree branches in a decorative fashion and so I am loving it even though it makes it harder to run.

And its already Wednesday! How did that happen so fast?