Love the Life you Live, Live the Life you Love

I'm in a wee bit of a funk right now. Any triathletes who can offer some kind words of advice, a bit of encouragement, or maybe just a "get off your ass" one-liner would be most appreciated. I'm not sure if it's because since I got to Utah my times have significantly dropped and left me feeling fat and slow (I'm now running a 24 minute 5k - w.t.f. mate?) or if grad-school classes and clinicals leave me so mentally drained at the end of the day that I can't even think about doing anything but going home and napping, but I've quite literally become a bump on a log. At least in my book. It's really not that bad, yesterday I biked 40 miles and today I ran almost 10, mostly on trails. But it's the whole 'motivation' thing that's tearing me apart. I literally have to trick myself to get out the door. And then when I'm actually out there it takes all my will power to actually stay out there and not turn right back around, put on my X...

I looked today and saw that I have 9,999 page views! Who will be the lucky 10,000th person!? Probably my mom. Also, I had an epiphany in the shower. A pen-pal is called a pen-pal because you write to them with a pen, presumably in a letter. WHO KNEW!? For the first 23 years of my life I had no idea why pen-pals were called pen-pals. I always thought they should be called mail-pals, or letter-pals. But pen-pals has a nice, phonemic ring to it so I let it go. Then there I was washing my hair and - lightbulb!- it clicks. Guess what, I just made another neural connection in my little bean. Go me. So, if you write to someone in an e-mail, do you have a key-pal? A type-pal? The world may never know. I'm still laughing about it. Pen-pal! Brilliant!

Look what Chris did to my puppy! How adorable is he? Poor Henry, his cuteness gets taken advantage of a lot....

Today I saw rattlesnake number 3 *shudder*. I swear they're following me. Who am I - Harry Potter??  Away with you, slithery demons! You give me the creeps! My first rattlesnake encounter was on the river path that goes up Logan Canyon. I was just struggling up a hill as per usual, came around the corner, and I saw a horrified mother clutching a little kid while 2 older guys poked around in a bush with a stick. The mom told me there was a big rattle snake in it. HERE'S AN IDEA, BRILLIANT UTAH FOLKS! Let's poke around in a bush that a rattlesnake is in. Sounds like fun, right? Excuse me, sir, were you born under a rock? Haven't you seen Steve Irwin? Jeff Corwin? And what were you getting at with the stick thing? It's a full 2 feet long and I'm pretty sure you'd be just as successful getting bit with that as your would just reaching your own arm in there. You're also completely leaning over the bush like it's a barrel of candy. And by the way, fanta...

Today is my last day as a 22 year old and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I feel like 23 sounds a lot older than 22. 23 is 2 years away from 25, which is halfway to 30 - now that's a scary thought. But a lot of GREAT things happened when I was 22, so I can only expect to keep the ball rollin' at 23. At 22 I got accepted to grad school, graduated college, moved across the country, and got a dog. At 22 I bought my first car, put a down payment on my first big-girl apartment, and mountain biked. At 22 I ran my 2nd marathon, went on a whale watch, and PR'd in my 5k time. I worked on a farm in New Hampshire, lived with Chris for the summer, had an internship at a hospital, ran half of the Boston marathon course, and decided I want to get my PhD. At 22 my parents put my childhood home up for sale, marking the end of an era and my entrance into adulthood - where now my house, not my parent's house, is my "home." At 22 I saw my first rattlesnake, my first...

It has comes to my attention that I will just have to accept that my blog posts will be few and far in between. But due to recent demands, and that Chris has given up blogging altogether, I have decided to make a sincere effort to blog today. I can't keep my adoring fans waiting with bated breath. Most recently my life has been consumed with: clinic, my cubical (aka "the cube"), clinicals, my adorable squishy new client, balancing mountain biking, road biking, and running, and my small but fabulous group of new friends, Lizzie, Meaghan and Brynne. Other than that, I try to find time to eat and sleep. I'm really living a charmed life here in Utah, and I"m still waiting for grad school to drive me tears. It hasn't happened yet! The key is to-do lists, calendars, plans and sticky notes. And obsessively checking canvas for new assignments. I just decided that in stead of doing comprehensive exams at the end of my grad school I'm going to do a thesis inste...

Finally a laid back weekend!  This is the first weekend I truly got to kick back, relax, and enjoy my stunning new home. It's about time. Thursday I didn't have class I just had clinical orientation so I went to that for 2 hours and then did some errands. After that I picked up Lizzie, her friend Lindsey, and Meaghan and we road-tripped to Salt Lake City to drop Meaghan off at the airport - I was bummed to see her go! Then I got to pick up my new baby, Rex, in Salt Lake, which was like giving a mother her brand new baby. I got the new mom glow written all over my face. Then I got to explore Salt Lake! It's such a gorgeous city. We went shopping (aka looked stuff), ate lunch, and walked around Temple Square. The Mormons sure know how to do it right- their tabernacles and temples are GORGEOUS! Before I got here I was a wee bit weary of the whole "everyone in Utah is LDS" thing but now that I'm here, it's honestly not a big deal at all - in fact I could c...