Happy Monday!

This week and weekend flew! Let me tell you the highlights (and low lights)…

I returned to the office Wednesday after my Block Island weekend and boy was it busy! Thursday was another crazy busy day but in the evening my friend Lisa met me and Duncan at the boardwalk so we could get in a nice long walk. We covered approximately 4 miles and enjoyed the amazing cotton candy sky sunset with lovely views of the Verrazano Bridge. 12 weeks until the NYC Marathon!!!

FullSizeRender 3

walkin’

IMG_7349

pretty in pink

Friday I had plans to go to my parents house for dinner. I received a text from my friend Tara the day before telling me her dad had passed away and the wake was going to be Friday evening evening so I let my folks know i’d be late for dinner. Tara is not only a loyal reader of Sweat Out The Small Stuff but she is a longtime friend who I met in the 3rd grade. We spent a lot of time together when we were younger and through high school and college. As a matter of fact I made it my business to be at her house on Friday evenings because her family ordered pizza for dinner! Some things really never change because I still make it my business to be where the pizza is. =) Not only was the funeral home the same as where my husband’s funeral was but Tara’s dad was in the same exact room that my husband had been laid out in 16 years ago. This time though, I was not fragile. This time I was not scared. I walked right in there and gave her mom a big hug and then reminisced for a bit with Tara and her mom and some neighbors from their block. I’m so very sad for Tara and the loss of her dad way too soon (he was only 66). When moments in life like this happens it brings to the surface so much emotion, so much, history, so many memories. I ended up getting to my folks’ about 9 for dinner and I stayed for close to 2 hours so that we could catch up. Seeing them right on the heels of leaving the funeral home was a reminder of how important it is to share time with our family even when life is busy. You never know how much time you’ve got with them. I’ll be keeping Tara and especially her mom in my thoughts. I know how hard it is to have that quiet after the storm when someone who has been sick passes. It’s like being fired from your job of full-time caregiver and not yet lining up a new “gig”. I have always loved this saying “When one door closes another opens but it’s a bitch in the hallway”. The thing about that quote is that it relates to so much.

6 hours later I was driving into Brooklyn to meet my running friends. My training schedule called for 9 miles. I ended up at about 8.75 but I have this thing called the “ish-factor” which basically means I can round things up or down by a 1/4 mile or 15 minutes. So that 8.75 is really 9 with the ish-factor. And if I say I’ll be at your house at 7:30 then that means 7:45 with the ish-factor.

FullSizeRender 2

a new perspective on a view of 42nd street from Grand Central

IMG_7375

I realized today why I love this bridge so much. It's the first bridge I ever crossed. I was 2 days old when my parents brought me home from the hospital from Brooklyn to Staten Island over the Verrazano. =)

I realized today why I love this bridge so much. It’s the first bridge I ever crossed. I was 2 days old when my parents brought me home from the hospital from Brooklyn to Staten Island over the Verrazano. =)

Headed over the Brooklyn Bridge

Headed over the Brooklyn Bridge

Headed over the Brooklyn Bridge

Headed over the Brooklyn Bridge

The miles were tough and my knee and hammy were both hurting but my Brooklyn running peeps kept me going. To backtrack, I met Lisa and Mike yesterday morning in Brooklyn at 7am and we ran over the Brooklyn Bridge and into Manhattan to run up Park Avenue. This weekend is one of the weekends of Summer Streets a program that they run every year where they close the street off to cars until 1pm so people can bike, run, walk and stop along the way to play games and get freebies. I ran during Summer Streets twice in 2013. You can read about it here and here.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at a family get together with MR. SOTSS.

So happy to get to see him this weekend. Originally I thought I'd have to wait until Tuesday so this was such a wonderful surprise. =)

So happy to get to see him this weekend. Originally I thought I’d have to wait until Tuesday so this was such a wonderful surprise. =)

And here it is time to go back to work. LeSigh!

I’m tired this morning. How about you?