I’m just enjoying life as best as I can lately. I have a lot on my plate these days and my goal is just to try and keep my mindset in a Zen, happy place. Nobody wants a Scrooge around right? Here are 5 things to keep me happy lately:

1. Running: Of course! I ran on Friday around the neighborhood for an easy 3 miles. Saturday was a special run. It was the Big Chill 5k held on the campus of Rutgers University. Over 8,000 runners and walkers donate toys as their registration fee and then run. I got to see Jane and Mr. SOTSS ran as well.
   

   Me and Jane

   

   The entire back wall eventually is totally filled with donated toys

   

   Me and Mr. SOTSS….It was super sunny and I was squinting just a tad.

   While I didn’t pay the extra fee for a timing chip, my Garmin let me know that I ran a 9:26 pace and finished in 29 minutes! That’s pretty unbelievable considering A. I’ve been so slow lately and B. there were so many walkers to dodge and weave that I for sure wasn’t able to run freely leaving me to believe that my time would be much slower.In addition to running I also registered for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler lottery. It’s a very popular race held in Washington D.C. in April. After the Big Chill, Mr. SOTSS and I joined Jane and her posse for breakfast and we made the decision to enter the lottery. I’m looking forward to it if I get in. I want 2016 to be the year I run lots of shorter distances and 10 miles has always been a favorite distance of mine yet I’ve never run an actual 10 mile race.

2. Getting in the Holiday Spirit: Yup, I put up my tree and decorated a little outside while Duncan napped. That’s about right.
   

   Woke up for the picture

   Boy do I enjoy revealing all my ornaments each year that have been in hibernation for a year. And I had a new ornament to put up. The one I bought as a souvenir from my trip to Jamaica this past summer.Each ornament brings back warm fuzzy feelings. Totally made me happy.

   

   Why yes! May ALL your miles be merry =)

   

   Running chick!

   

   marathon ornament

   

   Doodle ornament

   

   My cute lil snowman

   

3. Spending quality time with my honey: We spent lots of quality time this weekend which culminated in a lovely hike today with the dogs.
   

   The boys in my life

   

   Even though it’s December it is still officially Autumn. 50s and sunny.

   And speaking of doggies….

4. Cute doggies!: I’ve had to do a large amount of freelance work today and seeing them cuddled so cute around me makes me happy.
5. Family dinner: This past Thursday my mom and dad had me over for dinner and homemade apple crisp. It felt really good to tell them all of the things in my life lately….the good, the bad and the ugly. They are so supportive and just want me to be happy….so….I’ll try as hard as I can to keep this mindset that way.

So how was your weekend? Can you tell me 5 things that have made you happy lately?

Hi. How goes it?

I have been so ridiculously busy with work stuff. But I’m not complaining. It’s wonderful to have so many freelance opportunities. I basically have a day job and a night job at this point. I even took work with me while I was out on Long Island. I can rest easy for the time being knowing I’ll be able to keep kibble on the table for Duncan and I. 🙂 

After my terrible long run on Monday I  took a couple of days off. But yesterday morning I had planned to get a 3 mile “keeping myself honest to mid week short runs” run in and at 4am I woke up to the sound of the loudest thunder ever. I thought about taking my run to the gym but by 6:45am it was just a downpour without the thunder and I saw some sunlight trying to peer through so I just put on an older pair of kicks and bolted. 

This weekend I am going to be really pinched for time. I thought I was gonna try for 17 miles this Saturday but decided to swap with next weeks shorter 10 mile long run (yeah, only). I just have too much work to do and need that extra hour and a half that I would have been running those last 7 miles 🙂 I’m moving the 17 to next Saturday so it’s not a loss.

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Today is September 11th. My Facebook newsfeed is filled with posts about it. A real contrast to what it looks like on National Pancake Day that’s for sure :(. I thought I’d share with you guys how September 11th, 2001 unraveled for me.

I was commuting from Staten Island to Manhattan on the bus and we were in Brooklyn just about to enter through the tunnel that brings you into lower Manhattan. Mind you my husband had died 2 1/2 years prior. I was looking out the window of the bus and saw this wild explosion by the Towers. I literally assumed it was special effects for a movie being filmed. When you’re in NYC it’s common that there are blockbusters being filmed. All of a sudden someone on the bus screamed as they received a phone call from a loved one in that building. We never made it through the tunnel that day. We spent hours on that bus just sitting on the highway. There were papers that had blown across the water from NYC all the way to Brooklyn and they were landing on the highway. These papers were from the desks of people in the towers. That is how forceful the impact was. My bus driver started to collect them saying this was part of history. Eventually we got off the bus and walked around Brooklyn—we being me and a bunch of fellow bus commuters. We ended up at an electronics store (Like Best Buy) where we first saw that the Towers had fallen. We watched them on about 100 TVs simultaneously. I was so worried about my dear friend Susan who worked in that building. Thankfully she was running late that day and was also still on a bus in Brooklyn. But the saddest feeling I had that day was knowing there would be some many new young widows. I knew so many wives wouldn’t see their husbands again. I eventually got through to my family to let them know I was ok. By about 1pm they finally opened the Verrazano Bridge again which was locked down as soon as it was apparent this was a terrorist attack. I jumped on a bus that got me back to Staten Island and a friend picked me up and brought me home. Later in the evening my brother and his coworkers who had been running away from the towers as they fell arrived at my house because they couldn’t get home to NJ. I washed their dusty clothes and we got take-out from the diner for dinner and sat in front of the TV with our mouths wide open. We were all still in shock.

I had nightmares for months. I still get anxious every single day I commute to work.

I’m thinking of all those who perished on 9/11 and their families and all the men and women and canines, too who worked so hard for months and months as part of the recovery efforts. Let’s all remember the amazing acts of kindness that day. There were so many.

Hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend. I have looming deadlines for some freelance work that I must get to but I wanted to at least give you a little recap of my weekend, including my slowest training run ever!

I spent Saturday and Sunday on Long Island, NY with Mr. SOTSS visiting with some of his family. Saturday morning we walked with his mom and of course the pooches in a beautiful park by her home. After that Mr. SOTSS and I drove out to Shelter Island which is an island in between the north and south forks of Long Island to spend time with his dad and his dad’s wife on their sailboat.

Waiting for Mr. SOTSS’ dad to come out to get us with the dingy and take us to the sailboat.

sand, water, boardwalks, blue skies, and my honey

We left the pooches at Mr. SOTSS’ mom’s when we drove out to Shelter Island. This is how they spent the day

It was so peaceful to just sit out on the boat in the marina. We caught up a bit, walked all around the island and then had dinner at a restaurant nearby.

Enjoying the day

Of course a glorious sunset on the water.

At night we drove back to Mr. SOTSS’ mom’s house. Sunday was spent with his mom and her husband. First Mr. SOTSS and I walked the dogs for an hour and then his mom and her husband joined the fun. We took a ride out to Robert Moses State Park where you can walk to the Fire Island Lighthouse and then continue to the National Park section which connects to a small town called Kismet.

I swear I didn’t use any filters. The sky was that blue

There are no cars in Kismet, only walking/bike paths to get around and they have 2 restaurants. The Kismet Inn and Surf’s Out. We chose Surf’s Out.

The weather was phenominal both days. I enjoy being by the water/beach so much. I’ve always lived on the East Coast and it’s just part of my life. Mr. SOTSS not only has the same love of the water but he also was quite the sailor. He got his Captain’s license and piloted a ferry from the main part of Long Island out to Fire Island. We took a fun drive through his old neighborhood and he showed me his childhood home, schools and where the ferry that he worked on was. Pretty cool!

a little map for context…

We covered about 10 miles of walking each day. Good food, good company, great views. It was a superb weekend. Mr. SOTSS dropped me off about 11 pm last night and I took a shower and jumped right into bed.

This morning I was up and out the door at 7:20am and somehow covered 15 miles but it wasn’t pretty.

15 miles DONE!

I walked a lot and just tried to keep it together. I had a side stitch that lasted the entire time. I can’t remember the last time that happened. I stopped at a playground for a few minutes hoping this rainbow might give me some positive vibes…

I think I was delerious!

But 3 hours and 15 minutes on my feet is what I really need to take away from this run. It’s priming me for race day. And it’s ok to have a crappy long run. I’d rather have this happen now than on race day right? While I was in nostalgia mode I decided I’d run past my old elementary school. I also ran through my favorite park.

my favorite spot in my favorite park

My elementary school

Oh and how sweet is this note? It was at the register at the Dunkin Donuts by my house.

OK better get cracking on those deadlines….I’ll pop in toward the end of the week. Have a great one!

Have you ever just just stalled out while running? Hit the wall? Felt like your legs just couldn’t go one more step?

Do anything fun this weekend?

Hi and Happy Monday (and Happy Birthday to my friend Stef!)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I told you about my Saturday already. On Sunday, Mr. SOTSS and I met up with our hiking group for a hike with the pups. It was hot but luckily a little bit cooler underneath the shade of the trees and by the water.

Scales big rocks like SuperDoodle!

like a painting

The very beginning of our 5 mile hike.

that face!

Hot days mean I get to see his cute pink tongue more =)

me and my loyal companions. (photo: Papillon Photography-cbabin.smugmug.com)

It was a slow 5 miles. Took a couple of hours but we were happy we did it and felt good knowing the dogs got in one last good outing before we leave them for 5 days. On Wednesday we’re headed to another destination wedding! This one is in Jamaica. I’m really excited! I finally get to use my passport that I renewed back in 2009 and then got a puppy instead of traveling. 🙂

Today, I made my attempt at that 12 miler that I didn’t do on Saturday. I got a late start (it was after 9:30am) and it was HOT! 90 degrees with 75% humidity.

I am the queen of blurry self-time shots.

I ended up at 10 miles…..my first double digit run since completing the NJ Marathon back on April 27th!

double digits!

I’m happy with 10 and not disappointed at all that I didn’t make it to 12. I was feeling the heat a lot and walking more than I was running the last mile so I figured I’d wrap it up before dying. I was on my feet for the same amount of time I would have completed 12 miles if it were cooler and my pace would have been faster so that’s good.

The good news is on the injury front. My knee is feeling so much better thanks to my intensive foam rolling. I’ve been really committed to that and it’s paying off. The hamstring is slowly getting better but wasn’t an issue at all while running. I’m aiming for 12-13 miles next Monday when I’m back from Jamaica. And while I’m away I’m just going to try for a few short runs on the beach.

I’m not going to be able to blog while away so feel free to keep tabs on me via Instagram which I’ll probably manage to post a photo here and there…and I’ll be back to blogging next week!

Have you ever been to Montego Bay, Jamaica?

Destination wedding?

Do you own a maxi dress? I just bought my first one to take with me on my trip

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front (sorry about the weird face—i’m terrible with mirror selfies)