Late Every Day

I need to be to work in less than 45 minutes. I'm not showered and on the sofa. Not sure if I'll make it on time, but here I am, typing away.

The boyfriend and me are both tired and run down after this crazy week, the busy weekend and both not feeling well. So tonight, I'm not going over there. Kind of looking forward to that a little. I'll miss sleeping next to him and waking up with him there, but I need a night of nothing.

I love that we are in a great place and in the same place. I love that he wakes up and says, "I love you baby." What a great way to start my day! He's an amazing guy.

I really have never had something like this before. I've never had such a great, happy, honest, caring relationship with anyone. And we are both in the same place. We both know this is a great thing.

We can and do talk about anything. Even when he kind of put me in my place the other night.... last night I said something to him about it, thanking him for how he handled it and let me be a brat. :) He laughed at me but got what I was saying. He just gets it and gets me. And I love that. I've never had anyone ever get me like this before, anyone.

I've had friends who knew me well, but no one has ever just gotten me. I've never felt this safe to be me, to do or say anything. He gives that to me. And I know how lucky I am. I'm grateful that I found him. That we found each other. :)

This morning when leaving his house, he gave me a kiss and said he loved me. I pulled him closer as he was walking away and said, "I'm not seeing you tonight. I'll need more than that to hold me over!" :) And then he gave me a much bigger kiss!

I'm so happy with everything. Life is continuing to move in the right direction for me. So many things keep getting better and better for me. Any little bumps in the road are getting easier for me to deal with whenever they hit. I know my trigger points and when to back off.

Ok, 5 of 8. Time to move and get in the shower. At least I have my clothes already picked out! LOL!

I am SO tired this week! I can't believe there are still 2 more days until the weekend. I was so busy all last weekend with Girls Night, the wedding & the Pats game, I never got in time to just rest and relax.

Then this week hasn't slowed down. Work all day, then Monday was my running group, a quick shower, then the boyfriends house & Tuesday was yoga, then the boyfriends house. I wasn't home for more than a hour and a half each night.

Tonight I'll be home a little bit longer. I got home from work about a half hour ago, had something quick to eat, vacuumed, and I'll be leaving in another 10-15 minutes to go to the track for the running group. THEN, home for maybe an hour before heading back over to the boyfriends again.

I am SO looking forward to tomorrow night. I have NOTHING going on. I can't wait! LOL! I just want to go home from work and change and lay on the sofa and watch tv. That's all. Just been so busy, I'm just spent.

BUT, I'll be over my boyfriends house each night. Funny, I've had 3 people ask me when I'm moving in and ask me about my lease and how much money I'd save if I lived with him... since I sleep there every night anyway.

I'm not ready for that. I love my space. I love having my apartment and I'm not ready to give that up. And besides, I only left my toothbrush there not very long ago! One thing at a time! :)

I'm fine and very happy with how things are. This works really well for us. I sleep there at night and leave with him in the morning. Then I go home, do my thing, hang with the cats, check email and all that, and then get ready for work. And at night we both do our own things for a while, then I head over when we are both done, usually around 9 or so depending.

But I'm really happy with him. Not with an idea of him or an idea of what I want this to be, but with him. Who he is, as he is. I don't want him to be anyone else. He just makes me happy as he is. And I am just so happy.

Funny too, cuz he can call me out in a good way. Last night, I got to his house around 10 past 9. A movie started at 9 while I was on my way over that he was watching. I hate starting to watch movies late, I have a hard time getting into it, so I didn't want to watch the movie after missing part of it.

He was sitting on the sofa, watching it. I was standing up in the kitchen playing on my phone, checking email and facebook. I walked over to him when I saw my cousin's post to show him and I sat next to him. He told me that he was keeping it on and watching this movie.

After another 10 or 15 minutes, I was confused about what was going on and complaining that I missed the beginning and that's what I hate to watch movies after they start. He said, "You missed him going on a date. You didn't miss anything about this. All of this was on while you were in the kitchen being stubborn."

I couldn't even say anything because he was right. I was standing in the kitchen being stubborn. He let me stay there. He let me be stubborn. He never said a word until I started bitching and just calmly called me out. It was SO funny. I had nothing I could say about it either. Just made me laugh.

I think that's another reason why we get along so well. We know how to handle each other when we are just being stubborn, bitchy or pissy. SO funny.


Ok time for me to get my butt in gear. Still in my work clothes and I need to be at the track in about 10 minutes!!!

Best Weekend Ever

Friday night out for Girls Night was a BLAST! I had so much fun. I really do have great friends. We had so much fun and everyone is already asking me when we are doing it next! :)

Saturday we headed up north for my cousin's wedding in Maine. Here are the Bride and Groom heading into the reception as Mr & Mrs. How cute are they??? Really!


Then at the end of the night... a shot of my boyfriend and me.


He is just such a great guy. I have never ever been this happy or secure in a relationship. He is amazing. He's so good to me. I've never had something like this before. And I love that he thinks the same thing and realizes we have something really great. He's just a great guy! I'm so unbelievably happy with him.

Funny cuz the last 2 weekends we were at weddings. He doesn't love weddings. But both nights after those weddings, we had great heart to heart talks. After my friends, I felt so good after that talk. Not that I didn't feel good in the relationship, but I felt even better after talking to him that night.

Then was my cousin's wedding this weekend and the talk we had after that. That was just amazing. Things I never expected to hear... I am just so happy. We really have something great. I'm not worried or insecure or anything like that. I know I'm not going to mess anything up with this.

I can and do tell him anything, without any judgement at all. There are very very few people who have come and gone in my life that I felt like that with. Only a very small handful of friends. Even some of the people who have been closest to me, I still kept things from them or didn't feel comfortable saying different things. I knew and felt when I was being judged or looked down on. He never does that. Ever. I can say anything at all.

He completely accepts me as me. I am all of me, good and bad, with him. I can't even say that I am a better me with me, because that's not really it. I'm just ME. No holding back, no reserve, no best behavior, just all me. And he accepts me like that, without anything or any judgment. I have never felt more comfortable being me around anyone ever.

He makes me smile when I think of him and makes me laugh all the time when we are together. He is so good to me too. So caring and thoughtful and kind. (he'd kill me for that! LOL! Not his image!) :)

I know that no one in this world is perfect, but he is absolutely and completely perfect for me. He is absolutely everything I have wanted in someone and could never find. And this is just SO easy. There are never issues or problems or fights or worries. Its just EASY!

If I get stressed or ticked off, I know its me. I know that isn't about him. Things between us are amazing. It is just so crazy and so hard to describe. He is so good for me and we are in a great place together. He makes me so happy.

I love that we have our own things, do our own things, but still love spending our time together. This month is over on Friday. October starts Saturday. I have spend all but 2 nights with him this entire month. All but 2! And one was Friday night after I was drunk on Girls Night! And I called him around 2am that night too! :)

I hate sleeping without him next to me. I love laying in his arms and waking up next to him in the morning. I love watching him iron his clothes for work in the morning as he gets ready. I love that he pops an extra 1/2 a bagel in for me when he toasts his own in the morning. The little things are amazing.

I am just completely happy!

FRIDAY!!

Only a few to quickly write. SO much to do in under an hour. Home from work & already picked up a bit, plus made the bed FINALLY. Close are out, so is jewelry and the shoes. Just need to update the purse.

Getting picked up in an hour to head out for girls night. I think 14 of us will be the total, if everyone ends up making it at some point. Now 8 of us are meeting at 8 to get food first. SO excited about it! Love the band and it will be SO much fun to see everyone out having a good time. Just really excited.

Tomorrow is my cousin's wedding, so hung over maybe, I'll be getting ready and need to leave here at 11:30 to go pick up my boyfriend to drive to Maine for that. URGH. That'll be a LONG day. ALMOST packed for the overnight. Just some shower/get ready stuff and then the actual clothes. But most is ready to go. Plus the list is made.

Sunday, FOOTBALL! I'm cooking at the boyfriends on Sunday too. Already shopped. The fridge stuff is at my house still, but I brought everything else over already.

This weekend is going to be SO much fun. I have the camera ready to go and lots of pics will follow. Between tonight and tomorrow... I'm gonna be WIPED OUT! :)

I ended up getting into a better mood last night, eventually. Just chilled out at home for a while and my boyfriend ended up skipping his class at the gym too. His words, when we finally talked, "Why don't you come over now and we can be miserable together." LOL! Yeah, we were both cranky.

Today was ok at work. Still catching up but made a big dent today. Just grateful to see it all progress this much. Still not thrilled with it all, but it is what it is and right now this is my paycheck.

Tonight my yoga class started again. I LOVE this class. A friend of mine went with me this year, so that's cool. I really love this class. I feel really good right now. Of course, I'm STARVING right now.

Its about 9pm right now... waiting for another 10 minutes or so to head out to my boyfriends house for the night. Just need to stop for gas on my way. Looking forward to a really good nights sleep.

I already started cleaning my house for this weekend. I have girls night on Friday night and a friend of mine will be crashing at my house that night. I need to do some more cleaning and make my bed. I have a bit more to do over the next two nights.

I'm cold, tired, & cranky. I canceled the running group since only one person was going. My house is freezing. My wrist hurts too.

I'm just cranky overall. :(

FOOTBALL SUNDAY!!

I'm a little on the tired side and might end up taking a nap for a few. I already set the alarm on my phone just in case.

Last night I was out with the boyfriend to see Contagion. It was ok. I didn't love it, but it was ok. We were home and in bed on the early side. I had to get up SO early for a Sunday.

I was home around 7am, fed the cats, had coffee and breakfast and was out the door at 7:50am! WOW was that early! But we had a 5K race today... the Jeff Coombs Memorial Road Race. This was the 2nd year we did this race. Jeff died on September 11th and today would have been his 53rd birthday. It was a great event and pretty moving post race event.

One picture of all the girls that came out really cute... and this is AFTER we ran! :)


After I start moving and shower, I'm heading over to the boyfriends house to watch the Pats game at 4:15. He already got munchies for the game and decided he wanted sausages. I called him on my way home from the race and he was food shopping. He's bummed cuz he's already behind on time. He wants to make a sauce. Damn, I picked a good one! LOL! He's the one who cooks.

And seriously, he's cooked for a me a few times. I still have not cooked for him once. I'm going to, but he's allergic to my cats and almost never comes over to my house. I have no problem cooking at his house, I'd love to cook in his kitchen! Its BEAUTIFUL! But he's so freakin picky with his diet. Low carbs, no crap, and its been summer so I don't want to make something too heavy. Now that its getting cooler, I can make something for us that's more winter.

That's about it... oh except for a new picture of me. I updated my facebook profile picture with a picture I took of me last night before going out with the boyfriend. I think it came out pretty cute.

I really like having long weekends. I think I should do this every week! :) It was nice to chill yesterday, do my errands, then slowly take my time getting ready to go out.

It was a long ride to get to the wedding, in some traffic. The boyfriend was very hungry and, well, he's cranky when he's hungry. Add in, I'm not good when I'm in a car for long periods of time. My max is about 45 minutes to an hour. SO after an hour in the car, he's looking on his phone trying to get me somewhere so he can get food. I don't know where I'm going and we are both pissy and snappy. After we hit a drive-through for him and were about to get to the wedding, we were both fine and things were good. I don't want to say it was a fight, cuz it really wasn't, but we were both PISSY, yelling and snapping. Almost funny if we weren't both so aggravated!

So we made it to the wedding and it was beautiful. She looked beautiful. COLD as hell for outdoor, long winded ceremony. No seating plan, so that was weird, and a TON of extra space. We ended up at a table with one other couple, a friend of the groom and his girlfriend. They weren't what I expected and really nice. She's a runner and I ended up giving her my email address in case she's interested in running the marathon. She's done a bunch of halfs already.

Dinner was good, but overall it was just different. Not like any other wedding I've been to, from the ceremony to the whole reception. Just very different. I thought it would have been more traditional, just knowing her. But I think it made it almost better that it wasn't, since the boyfriend doesn't love weddings and all. Either way, we were back to his house around 11, so it wasn't too much of a late night.

I got some great pictures from the wedding and finally uploaded a few others from this month too.

The Bride and Groom:



Me with the Bride:



Me with the boyfriend at the wedding:




And no wedding is complete without a picture of the wedding slut... please note the beer bottle, neck tie and dress so short I'm sure people caught views they shouldn't have at a wedding!




Other pics that were still on my camera for the first half of September were....

When my mom had everyone at her house when my cousin was in town & for all the birthdays.... This is me with Sammy, how cute is she?? :)


Here are pics of me with my cousin Jen and with my cousin Lisa



Then Uncle Joe with his granddaughters doll. LOVE this picture!


The last pics I had on my camera were from the night of my birthday, after dinner out and several glasses of wine with my boyfriend. I really like these pictures of us.




With all of that, and going through all the pictures again, September is turning out to be a great month. Work is the same. All that bs is there and I'm just trying to not let it effect any other areas in my life. I'm really grateful that so many things are going as well as they are in the other areas of my life. My friends are great. My family relationships are great. My boyfriend is amazing. I'm figuring out what I want to do with my future. I'm just happy. Its kind of nice!

Last night after we were back from the wedding and in bed, I had one of the best and most open conversations with my boyfriend that we've ever had. Actually, we had another one earlier, before the wedding too. He opened up to me in ways that he hasn't before and it was really nice.

I know he was really messed up after his last relationship. I get that. It was four years of his life with someone he loved, someone he was going to marry. And it didn't work out. I get that he had a hard time with that. I keep letting him know I'm happy with how things are and where we are at. After he opened up more last night, I told him that again. I said I don't want to put any pressure on him for anything and reminded him that he knows how I feel and that I'm here. It was just nice to hear him open up like that.

Things with this are great for me. It is going at the right pace and I'm with the right person for me.

Another week and now Fall?

WOW was it cold out this morning! I can't believe that fall really got here overnight, but it seems like it did. Cool, crisp and sunny. Nice day, but just REALLY chilly! Not even 60 degrees out yet this morning.

Monday morning I headed back to work. This week I realized how hard it is to write on here on a workday. My life is so busy and all over the place. Anyway, back to work. When I got there, my 4 days off resulted in 131 emails waiting in my inbox. It was Wednesday before I could get to Monday! Talk about being overwhelmed.

Monday afternoon I had a meeting with several people. Our head in-house HR person, my boss, and the company president. They got my email about the sexual harassment thing. It was 20 minutes of bs. My thoughts on "no contact" were not their thoughts. They said "no DIRECT contact" which to them means no one-on-one calls. A conference call is ok though because others are on the phone too. Transparency. Whatever. All bs if you ask me.

Keeping with that, Wednesday afternoon we go an email from the company president that they just closed a HUGE deal they have been working on for the past year. Since its all a confidential thing, I've removed parts of the email, but here's some:
*************************************************************************************
GREAT NEWS to share…..we have just been approved as XXX for XXXX business! They are a HUGE player in the marketplace and this means a great opportunity for "US" and all of our employees. This news is still confidential and MAY NOT be shared outside of the company at this time! We are working with XXX on a nationwide marketing launch of this relationship and will keep you posted on our progress.

I want to take a moment to thank all of our staff who were instrumental in helping make this happen, most especially, my thanks and accolades go out to "SVP Dickhead" for bringing this relationship to us and managing the year long due diligence process. Great job everyone!

Regards,

Company President
*************************************************************************************

Really? Thanks and accolades? How's that for a slap in the face? Makes sense why they didn't fire him now. I can't even explain how pissed off I was got this email on Wednesday. So many things make so much more sense. They keep changing the rules on this crap. I'm still on the fence, but considering talking to an attorney to just feel out my options at this point. I mean, why am I busting my ass for this company who rewards this guy with an email like this to the whole company after everything else he has done???? That's just absolutely bull shit and nothing more.


On other notes... The meeting on Monday afternoon was at 5:10. I stayed late to talk to them. I was fine when I walked in there. While talking (sitting in a chair, no pen, no paper, no nothing in my hands, just me, sitting around a desk with the other 3), my hand started to hurt.

By the time I walked out of that office at 5:30, my right wrist and hand were bruised and swollen. No idea what I did. My boyfriend thinks it was the stress of the meeting. I'm not disagreeing that was part of it.

This is the same wrist I broke 3 1/2 years ago. I pulled out the old wrist brace, started icing it and taking some prescription anti-inflammatory meds I had from June for my back. Tuesday it was worse, and with typing and using my mouse, my hand was in more and more pain as the day went on.

I left work at 2:30 for the urgent care clinic. She gave me more and stronger meds, told me to keep using the brace and continue to ice it but sent me for x-rays and wanted me to see an orthopedic because of my history. The x-rays didn't show a break or anything abnormal (which I knew), and my ortho appointment is Monday morning at 7:45.

As the weeks gone on, my hand has gotten better. The swelling is almost gone, bruising gone, but the strength and range of motion are not completely back. More in my right thumb than anything else. I think it was tendons or something soft tissue, which is what I originally thought (even before the x-rays... knew those would be a waste of time).

What else???

My boyfriend has been so good to me with my wrist and everything else. He's just such a great guy. OH! Sunday night we went to dinner with my parents and that went so well. I know they like him and are now more comfortable with him. Kind of good he went with us then because of my cousin's wedding next Saturday.

But he was really kind to me all week. Wrapping the ace bandage around for me to hold the ice in place, carrying things for me and just being even nicer than usual. He's just really sweet.

I'm still over there ALL the time. I haven't slept in my own bed in September. I've been at his house every single night. Monday and Wednesday nights I had the track, then went home and waited for him to get home from the gym before heading over. Tuesday and Thursday nights I was home (no pilates with this wrist!) and just went over around 9 each night when he got home from the gym... he's been there every night this week.

I get there, we hang out, watch a movie or tv, or a game or something (last night was the special on the NFL Network about Bill Belichick, SO good!), then go to bed. My phone alarm gets us up at 6:15 and he lets the dog out and hops in the shower. I'm usually up between 6:30 and 6:45, put on the news, brush my hair and teeth and we leave together around 7 when he goes to work and I go home.

Then at home, I feed the cats, give McGraw his shot, have some coffee, check my email, watch the news and hang with the cats before showering and getting ready to head to work. That's been my week, well more my month! :) And no complaints from me! I can't even imagine NOT sleeping in his arms or next to him or wrapped up in him every night. I don't want to sleep at home.

I love my apartment, my stuff, my space and I don't want to get rid of anything here, but I love sleeping at his place each night. This is working for me and for us. I'm not looking or asking him to change anything. I like taking my bag back and forth each day, my meds/vitamins, cell charger, had and anything else I need. Just toss the bag on my kitchen table when I'm home, refill what I need and grab it on the way out the door at night.

Tonight will have lots more. I have to leave here at 2:30 to go to his place for the wedding tonight. I'll be dressed up and need more clothes, shoes and everything. But I'm looking forward to being dressed up with him. I can't wait. :)

Not too much else going on right now. Hurt my wrist, bs at work, 2 nights at the track and no pilates this week. A wedding tonight and today off of work. Should be doing some errands, but enjoying being lazy right now! :)

Tomorrow I'll chill, maybe catch a movie during the day. Not sure what I'm doing with the boyfriend tomorrow night. Chinese food has been on his mind. Maybe that and a movie together (I want to see The Help, but I'd see that alone or with a friend. Contagion with him if we go tomorrow night.)

Sunday morning I have a 5K race bright and early. Not sure yet what I plan on doing about the wrist, if I'll wrap it or not. I don't know. Then the Pats game is at 4:15. I already told mom it'll be too crazy this weekend and I won't be up. I'm not sure what time the race post party will be over and too much on a home game to run around like that. Besides, next weekend is my cousin's wedding and I'm sure we'll be sitting with my parents and we are staying up in Maine at the wedding overnight too.

Next week will be more of the same. At the boyfriends house, I'm hoping, at night. Not 100% about Sunday- Wednesday night. Me staying there just sort of happens, we don't talk about it in advance. Thursday night is part 2 of the Bill special, so I know I'll be there then. I don't have the NFL Network at home.

I most likely will be sleeping AT HOME next Friday night. I'm planning a girls night out as a belated bday thing. So far I think we have almost 15 of us going. Not sure who's doing dinner, but we'll be hearing this great band at a bar nearby. I can't wait! Should be a blast. But it'll be hard, especially after drinking, to sleep in my own bed alone. :( OH well. The next day is my cousin's wedding anyway.

Ok, so that's it for my book today! LOL! Almost 10am now and I REALLY need to start moving. The post office, supermarket, maybe try to find black sandals, home, shower, toss in a mani/pedi on my own. Busy day! And be completely ready and out the door by 2:30. At least I filled my tank last night. OH crap, need to hit the bank for cash for the wedding gift too! Lots to do! At least the list is made. :)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

This vacation was everything I needed it to be. I got to relax. I needed down time. I needed to rest and regroup. I needed to just chill out and enjoy myself. I had the best week!

I was lazy more than anything else. I slept at the boyfriends house every night. Seriously, every night this month I have slept at his house. I washed my sheets last weekend and they are still sitting in the laundry basket, not on my bed! LOL!

I didn't sleep as much as I wanted, since I stayed at his house every night. He's up early on work days, and I would leave with him when he went to work, around 7am. So I never got to sleep in. But that's ok. Today I actually woke up before him around 8:15.

Some exercise happened this week. A few walks, a couple of runs, pilates and elliptical once. But I got ideas on what I want to do for more fitness as well. Which is SUPER important to me.

Then I spent some time on my goals for next year and my birthday intentions. My review of year 36 was great. It really really was a great year. I still can't believe everything that happened, ups and downs, plus all that I accomplished. My single biggest accomplishment of year 36 was crossing the finish line for The Boston Marathon. That's something I ALWAYS wanted to do and actually achieved! I'm proud of me for that.

Back to this past week... I started working on my goals for becoming a fitness trainer, reaching out to a few people who I thought could help me. I've gotten some really great and positive feedback from everyone I spoke to. I'm excited about it all.

Hmm... I cleaned my house a bit too. Not super clean, but yesterday I was on a roll and did the floors finally... one of the things I kept putting off. The kitchen has been great, bedroom too. I've pretty much kept up with the living room, minus the carpet. The back closet room was trashed. Its a little better, but really, with a name like "closet room", it isn't supposed to be super clean! I just need to do the tub, then the bathroom is good too... well, that and mop! :)

I took McGraw to the vet this week and he's doing much better. His levels are good and we don't need to go back for another month, plus his dose has been lowered as well. That makes me feel really good.

Friday, for my actual birthday, I had a great day. I stayed at the boyfriends house on Thursday night and woke up in his arms on Friday morning. He was funny when we were going to sleep. He had already told me that he might not remember first thing when we wake up that its my birthday and to not be upset if he doesn't say something right away. But around 10:30 or 11 when we were going to sleep, he gave me a kiss and wished me a happy birthday then with a "Happy Birthday Baby". Loved that. :)

He was right, he didn't remember first thing. He woke up and got up to get ready for work as usual, letting the dog out and hopping in the shower. I got up just as he was getting out of the shower and he wished me a happy birthday then and gave me a kiss.

I was home for my typical 7:30, and checked my email, had coffee and breakfast. After some phone issues (wasn't letting me type, but after downloading updated versions, its good now), I did my hair and makeup to go to the registry to renew my license. Need to have a good picture if I'm going to have it for 10 years!

After filling out the application, having the girl look at it and give me my number, I didn't even have enough time to send my boyfriend a text message before my number was called! It took longer at the actual counter than it did for my wait time! But I did the eye test, wrote out a check and got my new picture taken. They have to be really close up now for facial recognition software, so she told me. Otherwise, the picture looks pretty similar to the one I had taken 10 years ago. Got my temporary one and the real one will be mailed to me in 7-10 days. Nice $65 check. Since I have my motorcycle license too, it cost a little more to renew it. OH well.

After the registry I drove right to Wollaston Beach to try to get in a walk. But once I started, I realized how absolutely BEAUTIFUL it was out! I left the beach, headed home, changed, made a sandwich and drove to Hingham with my beach chair. I napped at the beach and was there for about 2 1/2 hours. Got some good color too! Just a great way to spend my birthday. :)

I left the beach, went home, and hopped in the shower. Took me a little longer to get ready than normal. I originally wanted to wear one dress, this cute little sexy red dress, but I don't have the right shoes for it. SO I had to change. I didn't love the first dress I put on, but ended up wearing a new one my mom bought me last weekend. Its cute... long sleeved, black, with swirls of blues, purples, plumbs, and greens and a scooped neck, coming to just above the knee. I wore it with plumb colored HIGH heels... about 4 inches! For one of the first times ever I can really say, damn my legs looked hot in that dress! Either way, my boyfriend liked how I looked, which was what I was going for.

He took me out for a really nice dinner that night. A great meal, couple of glasses of wine and dessert there too... he NEVER does dessert, but it was SO good!

I had already told him, insisted, that I did not want a gift from him. He is going to 2 weddings with me in September that he DOES NOT want to go to, and has to leave work early for one of them. Plus he took me out for a really nice dinner. I just wanted a card.

He knows I didn't love the card he gave me. Honestly, I was disappointed in it. Its all I wanted. He spent time picking it out... one he thought would be a great joke. I was hoping he would have spent the time picking out one that would mean something to me. OH well. He's a guy. I can't expect him to read my mind and I wasn't clear that I wanted a personal and meaningful card.

Yesterday, the day after my birthday, was crazy busy! I think I got home from my boyfriends house around 9:30, fed the cats, had coffee and breakfast, changed and met my boyfriend at the track to get in a run. I made the mistake of eating cereal before the run. NOT good. I had an upset belly all day after that! During the run, the cereal was sloshing around my belly and even my boyfriend could hear it sloshing while he was running next to me. I only ended up getting in about 1 1/2 miles.

From there, I headed home, cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed, did the dishes, showered, got ready, and went BACK to my boyfriends house. Originally, he wanted me to drive, but it was SO nice out yesterday. He has a convertible! It was just a top down sort of day. We are only going to have a few more of them, so take advantage while we can, right?

We hopped in the car, and headed up north. We were at Canobie Lake Park all afternoon, going on ride after ride. We started with the Corkscrew, then went on The Frisbee, then did all the twisty, loopy, fast, loose your lunch rides! It was fun!

When we were waiting on one ride that basically shoots you up straight in the air like a sling shot up, we saw another crazy new roller coaster. It was call "Untamed". HOLY COW! I couldn't even watch while other people were on the ride when we were in line. I had to apologize to the dad in the car with us before we started. I wasn't sure what words would be coming out of my mouth while we were on the ride! I kept it down a few holy shits, and only one or 2 f-bombs. It was CRAZY!

Here's a picture of the ride while we were waiting in line.


After going straight up like that, you go over the top, then shoot STRAIGHT down! Toss in a few loops and HOLY CRAP! It was crazy! But it was lots of fun.

After Canobie, we stopped by my boyfriend's parents house on the way home for a few. I really like his mom. She really is a really nice person. Real and genuine. I just like her!

From there we stopped at my house, while I fed my cats and grabbed a few things, then we went back to his house to watch a movie and crashed. I slept SO well last night too. I got a little sun burned, even with sun screen, while we were in the car with the top down and at the park. I'm glad I was wearing a tank top!

This morning, I was home around 9:45 or so, took care of and played with the cats. They were a bit neglected yesterday! :) I had been home with them so much during the week while I was relaxing, that it was weird to NOT be home most of the day yesterday. Then I had my coffee and some cereal and I'm back to my spot on the sofa, with my lap top, just chilling out.

I do want to go for a walk at some point today and get in a good leg workout. I've done some work on my fitness group, for events going on at the high school track now that school is back in session. And then I need to hop in the shower by 3 to get ready for tonight and leave my house by 4 to go get my boyfriend.

We'll be heading up to my parents house from there and I told mom we'd be there by 5:30. She made dinner reservations for the 4 of us for 6pm at a restaurant I love near them. We pretty much go there every year for my birthday. It'll be nice to have my boyfriend with us this year.

I guess I sort of want my parents to get that he's a big part of my life. By having him come out for my birthday dinner with us, and then in 2 weeks they will see him at my cousin's wedding, and this is after he spent a couple of days with us down the Cape this year too. They haven't met anyone I've dating a really long time, so I want them to accept and understand that he's a really big part of my life now. I'm just really happy with him.

This week overall might be tough for getting back into my routine. First, just going back to work and dealing with that isn't going fun. Monday will be CRAZY! Plus toss in having to deal with the issues about the sexual harassment thing that was going on when I left. NOT looking forward to that.

Then, the boyfriend. He was bummed out about his training. He really wanted to get in a fight this year and now it just doesn't seem like it will happen in 2011. He has to pick up his training and he'll be doing double sessions some days. That not only means his time will be SUPER crunched but he'll be absolutely exhausted! And this is going to be going on for a while.

I know this week I'll see him Monday night, cuz that's the Patriots opening game, but after that? I really don't know! This week I might not see him again until Friday. I know that's not that bad... just Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, but still, I've slept at his house every single night so far this month! And today's the 11? Literally 10 days in a row. And I know I'll sleep there tonight and again tomorrow night too, so 12 nights... then I might not see him for 3. I'll have withdrawal!

Otherwise, I'm making some progress on what I need to do about becoming a fitness trainer. I need to figure out a the costs involved and I've gotten some great responses from the people I've reached out to so far. Now I need to keep going on the progress and see where it takes me.

That was my past week and what I have coming up. Tomorrow is back to reality, back to my real life. No more vacation, no more lazy relaxing days where I shower at some point in the afternoon. Up early, work all day and take home that paycheck. But I got a better idea of what I want for my future and where I want things to go. Long term, I'm not sure where it will take me, but I want to be doing something I am passionate about and love. I am not passionate about where I am getting my paycheck from right now. I know it'll come. I also know it will take time. This is the start, and the first few steps. But long term, I know I can do this, and I also know this is direction my life should be going.

I'm on the right path. I'm going where I am supposed to be going. I've taken the lessons learned and I'm using them to continue to move forward to where I want to be and with the people I want in my life. I'm living like I want to live. Things just keep getting better and better for me. I really don't know if I have ever been in a place where I have been this happy.

More ideas for 37th birthday intentions

After I wrote earlier today, I really started to think about what I want for my 37th year. I wrote out pages and pages on a legal pad, trying to go from big ideas to narrowing it down and figuring out smaller steps to start with.

My overall goal? Not necessarily my goal for the next year, but more long term. I want to become a trainer and life coach and combine them along with nutrition to help others discover and achieve their goals.

To start smaller, I need to break down my goals. I need smaller goals I can meet to push me in the right direction. Now that I made my main goal, I need a plan. What do I need to do to get me to my ultimate goal?

Financially, I'll need to pay for the classes and certifications I'll need. SO first I need to stay focused on my own personal finances. I need to continue to pay down debt and live within my means and also put some aside to use for these classes and certifications.

I need to continue with my own fitness routine and expand on it. My focus needs to be there. No one is going to workout with a fat trainer! I need to do more weights, get more focused on my running and keep trying new exercise options, routines and classes. The more well rounded I am, the better I can be for others.

I need to reach other to others. Doing something like this is going to be a lot of work. I know this is something I do not know too much about. I need to reach out for help and for further connections. And I need to keep a list of my connections. Who knows what future contacts I could have and what I could learn from one of those connections?

To start small, today I sent out emails. First to my friend Kristin. I trust and value her insight and opinion. She's honest and smart, insightful and caring. Her words won't be harsh, but she'll offer valuable insight that will help me clarify my goals and help me find the direction I need to go.

Then I messaged a few people on facebook. Derrick and I went to high school together. He's a life coach now and recently. He always has positive and thought provoking status updates but I've missed them lately. When he was looking for information, he posted it as a status. I connected him with 2 people I thought could help. Since he's already done so much research and used 2 contacts I provided him with, I thought he could give some great information and share great ideas.

Then I emailed a trainer I used to work with who just opened up her own studio. She worked in the corporate world for years, but was laid off a few years ago. After being a stay at home mom and working out all the time, a friend of hers who was a trainer, encouraged Alex to get her group fitness certification, which she did. Now Alex is a personal trainer with her own studio. I'm so proud of her! I loved taking her group classes and had so much fun in her classes. Plus, she always busted my butt. Since she's done all of this within the past 3 years, I thought she could have some great direction for me.

Last, I messaged my cousin Krissy. She's a recent college grad who was working as a counselor in a prison when funding for the program was cut. She's since become a trainer and teaches classes at a couple of gyms north of Boston. She's young, fun and beautiful and full of energy. Having JUST gone through the certification process, know she can help! Plus, she was really interested in learning more about my marathon training too. She might be interested in running it in 2012, which would be a blast! :)

So my small steps today were to reach out to a few people. Tonight when I see my boyfriend, I'm going to talk to him about it too. He already knew that I had this in the back of my mind, but I want him to know that I want to pursue it more seriously now. I want his thoughts, ideas and opinions on it. He was very supportive when I first mentioned it to him 2 months ago. I know he'll be a huge support for me in this whole process. I also know that I'll need his support and encouragement along the way.

Now I need to work on the rest of my goals for this, how I want to structure this and what my actual birthday intentions are going to be for my 37th year. :)
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And some more thought, more writing and pages more on that legal pad. I've come up with four new birthday intentions. Some are tweaks to my last year intentions, but they were so good last year, that's it is that hard to just toss them completely out! :)

The four new intentions are:

1. I will take small steps weekly, tracking my progress, as I work toward the development of a new & fulfilling career path.

2. I will continue to surround myself with healthy, positive people who lift me up, inspire, encourage, & believe in me, and continue to bring more of this into my life.

3. I will keep fitness, exercise & health a priority in my life by working hard, pushing myself, trying new types of fitness and exercise and remembering to rest and recover as necessary.

4. I will live life to the fullest and be open to bringing in new experiences, adventures and characters into my life.

Good-bye to 36!

WOW! My birthday is tomorrow. I still can't believe I'll be 37. And worse, I'm still having a hard time with the idea of it. I'll actually be in my LATE 30's now! URGH! Not loving that idea. At least I don't look it or feel it. People are surprised when they find out my age and that makes me feel a little better.

But looking back at the past year? WOW! What a difference a year makes in my life. And every year too. Each year my life just continues to change so much, and in ways I never expect. This time last year I was sitting in a leadership training for work, a 2 day class, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I took Thursday and Friday off. This year, I just took the whole week off! :)

That leadership training, was when I was in a different department, working for a different SVP, and work was completely different. In mid-October, my job completely changed and this time, so much for the better. I've still have some bumps since then, but overall, work is really going well. I think I've proven myself and my worth over the past year. I bust my butt, work very hard and continue to succeed. Do I think I'll be doing this forever? No. But for now, I like what I do for the most part, and it pays the bills.

Socially, I was starting to make some new friends in the fitness/running group last year. I'm still friends with them and I've made even more friends through that group since then. They are great people and great friends. I love that we have so much in common and I love that they are all into fitness and trying new things. We are supportive of each other and just have fun. I really don't know if I have ever had such a positive, fun, supportive and encouraging group of friends in my life.

Financially... well, I am still not great with money, but I'm continuing to learn to be better. I say no to things when I know I can't afford it and do my best to stay within my means. I've worked hard at cutting expenses and trying to have some sort of budget. I've paid down lots of debt, paid off one loan and have 2 more payments on another loan. My car will be paid off within the next year as well. I'm just trying to make it all work as best I can and do what I have to do to get ahead.

Health-wise, I've had some more issues... more back problem- new ones, and some of the same old ones. Toss in my IT Band issue, plus other problems that came up as well. Things will continue to come up, that's life. But each time, I handled it and that's what I'll just keep on doing. Between tests and ultrasounds and more ultrasounds (damn... I had a few this past year!) I keep going with it and moving forward.

Fitness continues to grow too. WOW was 36 crazy for that! I continued to run more and more as I turned 36 and found a regular yoga class too. Then I started swimming laps, which is an amazing workout. I can't wait until the pool reopens next month to get back into it. I ran a 5K, a 1/2 marathon, then the Boston Marathon, with a bunch of 5K's tossed in as well. I started pilates, did so much more weight lifting, more cross training with the elliptical. I took some ballroom dancing lessons too! I keep trying new ways to exercise and adding more into my routines. And I LOVE it!! I have SO much fun with it all.

Then add in my dating relationships. I really did come a long way with that at 36. I learned so much along the way. I think just something as simple as having my ADD diagnosed and treated helped an unbelievable amount in all of my relationships. I learned more about me and how I tick and how that impacts my decisions and relationships.

I had a few random dates, dated someone for a couple of months that I thought was something big. Come to find out, even though it didn't work and only lasted a couple of months, it really was something big. I learned SO much from him and from that relationship and I am so grateful for it. As much as I took responsibility for everything falling apart, hindsight, I know it was a two way street. I'm glad it didn't work because looking back, he's not the type of person I would want to be with long term.

Because of what I learned in the relationships along the way, because of the work I had done on myself along the way and because I now know what types of relationships I want in my life, I was in a great place when I met my boyfriend. I was ready to meet him. And I really cannot be happier. He is just an amazing guy and I can't say enough good things about him.

He's fun, funny, outgoing, smart, hard working, focused and determined. He can do anything he puts his mind to and he's not afraid to try something new or to challenge himself. He's close to his family and has a similar family background as me. He loves working out and being healthy. He makes me laugh. He never judges me and I feel more than comfortable telling him anything. I have told him things about me that I have never told anyone. I can completely be me with him.

While I was writing this, he called me while he was on his way to get lunch. I had emailed him earlier about the wedding we are going to next weekend and reminded him about something we had talked about doing over the summer but never got around to... then suggested we do it on Saturday. Originally we were talking about taking his niece when we were first talking about it. But when he called me, he asked me the hours, then said even though we had talked about his niece, he thought it would be great if "we had some us time" then we can stop by to see his niece later.

He's just so good to me, and so caring. He's not a pushover and he can bust my butt and give me a hard time but he's always caring and respectful. He might push things now and again, but when I am clear about things I don't like, he listens. Like the HORRIBLE screensaver he had on the new flat screen in his kitchen. Since I said I really didn't like it, I haven't see it.

But I changed. I'm different in this relationship. Like I said, even though the last one didn't last more than a couple of months, I'm grateful for it because of what I learned. And I've taken those lessons and applied them into my relationship with my boyfriend.

I was always getting into my own head in past relationships, and ALWAYS feeling insecure. But now? He never gives me a reason to feel insecure. Last weekend we were out and talking about a movie. He thought we saw it together. I jokingly said, "No, that must have been with your other girlfriend." He laughed, but then said, "Yeah, like I have time for that." And really? SO true. He works all week, maybe stops at the store after work before heading home, goes home, eats, takes care of his dog, maybe gets in a workout at his home gym before heading to the gym for one of his MMA classes then he's home around 9 or 9:30. That's his Monday through Thursday.. and I've been sleeping at his house every night. Plus I'm with him every Friday and Saturday night and sometimes Sunday nights too.

He's just fun to be with. And the little things too. He makes sure his dog isn't too much on top of me when we are sleeping. He snuggles up with me at night and just automatically puts his arm out so I can lay on it and then he wraps his other arm around me. That's just my favorite way to sleep. Wrapped up in his arms.

SO yeah, 36 was a great year. I'm starting 37 in the best place I have ever started any year. I have goals and plans for so much and everything looks so positive! As much as I hate the number, I feel so good about what 37 is going to bring. I need to sit down and really plan out what I want and what direction I want things to go.

Where do I want my focus to be? I know fitness is so important to me and keeps becoming a bigger and bigger part of my life. I love inspiring and encouraging others to reach their goals. I really think I want to become a group fitness instructor and maybe a yoga instructor too. I've thought of becoming a life coach too. Long-term, I'd love to incorporate being a life and fitness coach into one as a career. In this market, something like that wouldn't fly to support me. But I could start with baby steps along the way.

I'm just really really happy. I don't ever remember so many things in my life all going so well at once. My job is good. Financially I am ok. My friends are amazing. My relationships with my family are great. I have a boyfriend who I am crazy happy with. I am healthy and fit. Things are just really really good. And I am happy.

I don't love the idea of being in my late 30's, but 36 was a great year and I am very optimistic that 37 will be even better! :) I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Lazy check in

Yup, this week is LAZY days. I did almost nothing yesterday. I took McGraw to the vet at 1 and up until then did NOTHING. He was doing well, and his levels are even lower... almost too low now. Originally in June he was over 300. They want him to be between 100-200. Last month he was at 87 and yesterday he was down to 75. SO... lower the insulin dose again. Now he gets 1cc once a day instead of twice a day. Just in the morning after he eats. That makes my life WAY easier too!

After the vet, came home and again did NOTHING. Sat on the sofa. Missed the yoga class I wanted to go to. I did get to the gym before 5, got in 30 minutes on the elliptical, then took the 5:30 pilates class. It was fun seeing Carrie and Christine there too.

I stopped, picked up dinner, looked up a couple things online, then hopped in the shower to get ready. When the boyfriend called, I was ready to go over.

It has been raining the past couple of days... I don't think the weather had anything to do with the accident right in front of me last night. This kid just barreled out of this side street, without stopped AT ALL. The woman in front of me couldn't do anything. He was just RIGHT THERE. The front end of her SUV hit the drivers side back door and rear quarter panel of his car, spinning him around. She also hit the rear drivers side tire with her bumper. Since her car was so high, it moved the top of the tire so it was at an angle. He couldn't drive the car.

I called 911, told him to put his flashers on and made sure they were both ok. I think he was on something. He was completely out of it, not making any sense. He said his neck hurt, she said her knee hurt. I wrote out my info, name, address and phone # for her and for the police. After the cops talked to both of them, the paramedics had them both heading off to the hospital, I gave my full description of what happened, passed off my info and asked if I could leave.

THEN I was on my way to the boyfriends. I got there and wrote out a description of what happened, so I wouldn't forget the details, we watched the news (all about the cop in Woburn being shot after an attempted armed robbery at a jewelry store), then we went to bed. He was exhausted after working out at home then taking his class at the gym.

I didn't sleep well though. It was nice to fall asleep in his arms again, but that damn dog! The boyfriend is great about trying to keep the dog away from me, but he just jumps up! I was cold and the dog was on the covers, so I couldn't pull them up. Then in the morning, when the boyfriend was up in the shower, the dog was running around the house. He SLAMMED up on the bed, landing on my right calf. 10 minutes later, my leg was still red. I know I'm getting a crazy bruise from it.

But today... another lazy day. I was home again around 7:30, fed the cats, had coffee, checked email, watched the news... now its 9:20. I have hours with nothing planned. Talk about completely relaxing days!

I'm just bummed about the rain. I really was looking forward to beach days. I'm hoping for Saturday, or even on Friday afternoon. Just to get in a little bit of beach time.

Tonight my mom is having something at her house for my cousin being here. I think she's rolling it into my birthday too. My parents, 3 aunts, 1 uncle and at least 2 cousins will be there. Should be fun. It'll be nice to catch up with everyone too. I want to beat the traffic through the city, so even though mom is having it at 6 tonight, I think I'm going to leave my house around 3 to head up that way.

SO that means shower by 2. And again, not 9:30 yet. Four and a half hours. Nap? Gym? Movie? Not sure yet. I'm thinking I want to go to the gym, but I'm just not ready to move yet. I'm SO tired.

As much as I love staying at the boyfriends house, I am sort of looking forward to the idea of sleeping at my house and just waking up when I wake up. No alarm going off. No person getting up, out of bed. No dog jumping all over the place. Just my cats, who most likely will end up waking me up, but that's still easier than the rest. I could actually sleep in past 7am! Two weeks ago when I called in sick, that was the last time I slept past 7am. And other than that, I really don't know. Maybe when I was down the Cape on vacation. Weekends, I'm at the boyfriends and he just does NOT sleep in ever!

So... now time to figure out my day. Just another lazy day!

Not a Work Day!

Everyone else is getting back into their routines, back to school and more traffic. Not me! :)

Yesterday was basically a lazy day. I was online for a while & watched some tv. Didn't do any cleaning, but that's fine. Its not like its going anywhere. I texted my friend Jill who was away over the weekend, and ended up meeting her to walk at Wollaston Beach. I like that walk, but not as much on my own.

The weather was really nice, and the air changed and breeze picked up while we were walking. After we turned around (2 miles down, 2 miles back), the wind started to pick up and blow right into us. It was good. Then we just hung out, stretching, chilling and talking at the park we left our cars at.

After heading home, I had a late lunch and again, chilled. Heard from the boyfriend about going over to his house earlier than he originally thought, but I still hadn't showered. I got there just before 7, he hopped into my car, and we went over to Papa Gino's to pick up a pizza for dinner. Back at his house, we watched a movie.

I really like nights like that. Just nice to hang in, chill, relax, and all that. I sat on the floor in front of him for a while and got a great shoulder massage. My neck and shoulders have just been so tight lately.

He was up early today... long before I heard any alarm. My alarm on my phone went off at 6:15 and I was up for good at that point.. between the phone, hearing him get ready, and the dog with me on bed. Then I was up, in the kitchen hanging out while he got ready for work.

I've been home since about 7:15 this morning. Since then??? I fed the cats, gave McGraw his shot, had coffee, cleared out my email, went on facebook... yeah, that's about it. Its 9:30 now. LOL! Another lazy day for me. :)

I'm still pretty tired though. I set my alarm for noon, just in case I fall asleep. McGraw has an appointment at the vet at 1 today for blood work. I'm hoping he can get off of the insulin at this point, and he'll be ok with his diet alone. Of course, I notice some crap on the back of his back leg today. Hopefully all will be good with that and I won't spend MORE money at the vet.

I'm expecting to be home by 2 from there and hopefully I'll have more energy. I just want to get the floors done and laundry put away. Vacuum, then the kitchen and bathroom floors. My goal from there is to leave my house by 3:30 or 3:45 to go to the gym. I want to do the elliptical for a bit, then take the 4:30 yoga class and then 2 of my friends will be meeting me for the 5:30 pilates class. I'll have a long day at the gym! But that's what I want. Stuff I can't do normally during the week when work gets in the way.

After the gym, I'll head home, have dinner, take a shower and chill for a bit. Then leave my house around 8:45 to go back to the boyfriend's house after his class at his gym. I'm kind of surprised that he suggested me coming over tonight. He brought it up this morning when he was getting ready for work, asked me if I wanted to come over when he gets out of his class.

WOW! This will be the 6th night in a row that I've slept at his house! Hmm... interesting. I was there Thursday night when we went out to watch the Pats game. Then Friday night we went out for dinner... him Chinese and me Sushi. I was over Saturday night and we went out for dinner then too and then early on Sunday for all afternoon and night. And back again last night for pizza and a movie.

Weird too... with all that time together, I told him I walked with Jill at Wollaston yesterday and that I like that walk. I said I was glad she said she'd go, cuz I as much as I like to walk there, I know I wouldn't do it on my own. He said I could have called him and he would have gone. After that much time together, he would have been up for going for a walk at the beach with me? Hmm...

SO yeah, things with him are going incredibly well. He's just a really great guy and really good to me. I have so much fun when I'm with him. I'm just me with him. I don't have to try, I don't put on any best behavior or anything like that. I'm me. And I'm just really really happy.

The rest of this week should be fun too. I haven't called for an appointment for a massage yet. Not sure if/when I would do that either. If the weather is nice, I'd LOVE a day or 2 at the beach. But per the weather, rain most of the week. Friday looks ok, Saturday too. SO I'm thinking I'll hit the beach by myself on Friday and maybe the boyfriend will go with me on Saturday.

My goal this week was to relax, and nothing more. Yoga, exercising, chilling out, not having a list of stuff to do. That was my plan. Today is my only actual appointment with McGraw. I didn't commit to anything else. My license expires on Friday, so I need to go to the registry for a new one at some point. :( I like my picture so I'm bummed to get rid of it. Oh well.

But that's my week! That's all I've got. Relaxing and chilling and more relaxing and chilling! :) Happy Stay-cation to me!

Another Race! & Labor Day!

Another 5K on Sunday. HOT and HUMID but fun and such a great post race party. I was basically drunk at 11:30 on Sunday morning, dancing in a parking lot. But it was fun.

One of the guys in our group got a picture of me crossing the finish line. Usually I look like crap in pictures taken during races. I saw his camera and really made it a point to try to smile! :) I think I succeeded in a decent picture of me running, for once.


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So I had all that up yesterday but then got a call and hopped in the shower and headed out last night. So posting all together now.

Labor Day today. It's already a nice day. I'm exhausted from the weekend though. Friday night I had too much to drink and was up early on Saturday. I spent Saturday running around. I was up at mom's for a while and we went shopping. I ended up finding a dress for my cousin's wedding, plus another dress too. Mom bought me both for my birthday. They are really cute!

I have backup shoes and jewelry I found at my house that I could wear for the wedding, but I still want to get a pair of sandals for my cousin's wedding. Just need a cute pair of silver earrings.

Then I went to my cousin's uncles wake on Saturday. I haven't seen my cousin in 6 1/2 years! Met her boyfriend too. He's flying home tomorrow but she's here until Saturday. My mom is having a cookout now on Wednesday night so we can all get together up at her house. That'll be fun.

Saturday night, after getting home, I headed over to the boyfriends house. We went out for dinner and I carbed up. I didn't sleep very well Saturday night and I was worried about not getting up in time on Sunday morning. I was up at 5:20 on Sunday morning! WAY before the alarm was due to go off. I just shut it off.

I headed home early, got ready and my friend Carrie picked me up at 6:45. We got to the T station and headed into Cambridge for the 5K race. I literally had sweat dripping off of me BEFORE the race started. I was standing near a tree, in the shade, waiting for the race to start and felt sweat dripping off of me. At 9am. It was gross out! But considering how horrible I do running in humidity and the fact that I walked close to a mile of this race, I'm surprised my time was 34:08. That's crazy considering I walked so much. I know I had a great pace for the first mile and a half or so. I can't remember where the water station was... I think it was around 1.75 miles. I started walking there to get the water down and walked to the mile 2 marker. Then I started running again for a little bit, but not too far. And then I walked until I hit the mile 3 marker and ran to the finish. SO hot and humid. But just over 34 minutes in that humidity with all that walking is a really good time for me.

I figure if I can get in a couple of runs over the next couple of weeks, and if the weather is ok with low humidity, I should have good times for the Jeff Coombs and the Forget Me Not 5K's that I have coming up.

Hmm... what else?

I got home yesterday around 1, still pretty buzzed from drinking and dancing in the parking lot at the post race party, and a little sunburned on my shoulders too. Chilled on my laptop for a bit when my boyfriend called about us going out. SO I hopped in the shower and got ready. He wanted to finish up some stuff at his house so we did a little shopping for that. Bought the new curtain rods for his kitchen and horrible curtains (he's going to be looking for different ones instead), a new pillow for his sofa that looks great in that room, and tried looking for shoes to go with my dress.

We ended up at The Ale House for dinner, sitting on the deck. It was so nice out. Then back at my house to feed the cats and give McGraw his shot. And back over to his house. I took a nap while he was doing some cleaning. And MAN did his house need it. I helped pick up and organize the crap he had all over the kitchen counters while he was doing some work on the bedroom closet. Then I cleaned the counters with the special cleaner stuff he has for the granite. It just looks SO nice clean. He even did the floors and cleaned the bathroom too! I don't think I've seen his house this clean since we started dating.

He already hung up, well, mounted the touch screen TV in the kitchen. Its pretty cool! The TV/computer will be tied to the electrical and heat in his house. He can adjust everything from the screen in the kitchen or from his phone. And the screen is really nice... flat screen, pretty wide and SO clear. It just looks great. The whole living room/kitchen area looks really really good. He just needs to get new curtains and the new bar stools for the kitchen island and I think it will all be done.

We went to bed pretty early last night, both of us were exhausted. The Direct TV guy was due to come between 8-12 this morning. Um yeah... he called at 7:10 and was on his way! Glad I went to bed early, but the dog kept me up a bit during the night. So it was just really early for me.

As the boyfriend was doing a couple of other things to finish cleaning up this morning, I headed over to dunkin around the corner and the TV guy was there when I got back. I hung out for a few and ended up leaving at 8:10. Really?? WOW, that was early.

But last night was so much fun. We were just out shopping for his house, hanging curtain rods and curtains and cleaning, but it was fun. How sick is that? He said it this morning too. I like things like that. I don't care what we do. Its just being together that is important to me.

He'll have cable at his house now... so we can just hang in and watch a Sox game or something on tv, instead of going out all the time. That'll be good for both of us. No eating out, eating crappy food and spending unnecessary money.

I can't wait until he starts doing more work on the house. He's going to be finishing up the downstairs apartment to have that available to rent out but at the same time he's working on that, he wants to do more work on his unit upstairs. He wants to raise the roof in the attic and extend it back to make a master suit up in the attic along with another bathroom. And then he'll extend behind his kitchen, put a spiral staircase going down to the basement instead of the weird staircase that is there now.

He has 3 bedrooms in his apartment, but its weird. Behind the kitchen is the stairs going downstairs, after going down about 8 or so stairs, and turning towards the right, you can keep going to the right to down stairs, or the stairs also go up to the left, another 8 or so stairs, up to the back 2 bedrooms. So when he extends the roof and the back area, he'll level that off, so it won't be stairs to go from the the kitchen to the back 2 rooms. I think that'll be cool. OH, and he's going to put in a back door and back deck off of that too. It'll look awesome when its done!

So that's where I'm at. Hanging at home now, still now even 10am. Had breakfast and finishing up coffee. Cats are fed and McGraw had his shot. Kitchen is clean. For cleaning my house, all I have is to vacuum and then do the bathroom floors and change the little box. Trash day is tomorrow, so I'll put everything, including the recycling out tonight. Then my house will be spotless for the week.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do much today or not. I'm exhausted, so nap would be AMAZING! I do want to get that cleaning out of the way so I don't need to think about it, and I need to get an oil change too. I'd rather get that out of the way as well. But I might head to the park to go out for a walk too, depending on how I feel. But its still pretty warm and humid out, so who knows. I could always go out for a movie too. I still want to see The Help, but I have all week! :)

Happy Labor Day and happy week off. :)

Vacation is HERE!

I was so grateful when I left work yesterday. I think I finally left around 3:30. It was so nice knowing I have 10 WHOLE days off! :) When I came home, I just relaxed, did a little cleaning, watched a tv show on demand, did my nails, then finally hopped in the shower to get ready.

Last night the boyfriend wanted Chinese which was great. I love this place down the street, they have AMAZING sushi! So we hung out there for a bit and I had a couple glasses of wine, then another beer back at his house.

My cousin was at the Sox beatdown last night and her and I were texting a bit. Her uncle on her dad's side just passed away. I talked my mom into going with me to the wake. I HATE going alone. I didn't really know her uncle, her parents have been divorced for close to 35 years, but its my cousins' uncle.

Her sister lives in Colorado and I just found out she's flying in too. Her flight lands today at 4 and she's going straight to the wake. Her boyfriend is here until Tuesday but she's here until Saturday. She called last night while I was in bed... she forgot about the time change and called around 11:30. I already mentioned the wine and beer, right? LOL!

I think I made plans with her, I can't remember. Works out great that I'm on vacation this week so I can catch up with her a bit. I didn't realize she hasn't been here since out grandmother passed away in April of 2005. 6 1/2 years! That's just crazy!

Right now I'm just starting to enjoy my time off. Woke up at my boyfriends house, came home and had my coffee. Now I'm just laying on the sofa. I am going up to my mom's today and she said she'd go shopping with me so I can try to look for a dress for my cousin's wedding in a few weeks.

I have my friend Leighann's wedding on Friday the 16th and I have a dress for that one. Even though no one will be at both weddings except for me and my boyfriend, I don't want to wear the same dress to both weddings. I could if I had to, but I don't want to. SO, time to go shopping to find a dress for my cousin's wedding the following Saturday.

Leighann's wedding, I know her. I don't even know him, her sisters or any of her friends. I doubt that we'll stay there very late. But I'm still looking forward to it. Then the following weekend, that's up in Maine. I have a hotel room for that one. The wedding is at 3:30, so we'll head up before that for the wedding. My cousin said they have a party bus after the wedding to head into town for bars and she invited us for that too. We'll see how we feel then if we end up going. She's 24, so I'm not sure if that'll be what the boyfriend wants to do. He's not a fan of weddings. Getting him to go to both is already a big thing. Dragging him out to bars after with my cousin and her friends? That's so much more! I can only ask so much, ya know?

And my birthday! I can't believe that is on Friday. I'm moving from mid 30's to late 30's!! That's freaking me out a little bit. Late 30's?? Really? How did that happen. How did I really get this old? 37 just sounds so much older! I know I don't look my age. I know I'm in amazing shape and I feel great. And I don't feel that age. But DAMN! 37!

All I know is that I am going to enjoy my birthday week. I just want to have fun, no stress, relax and enjoy! I just want to have fun! And no work, friends, my boyfriend and my cousin here.. I know that will happen. :) This week will just be a blast all around.

FRIDAY!!!

I'm very excited that in less than 8 hours I will officially be on vacation and I don't have to go back to work until the 12th. VERY Happy.

Yesterday sucked. Work was horrible. That sexual harassment thing will NOT go away. I started an email I'm sending to HR, making things VERY official and covering my butt. He needs to cut the shit. No contact means NO F'ing Contact! That means if someone conferences us in on a phone call, HE should hang up, I shouldn't have to. It means if he is walking around the building (when he is NOT supposed to) he does NOT stop and say hi to the other girl involved in this. It means no emails, and just NO contact! WTF.

But now... off for the shower to get ready for work. Then have my week off.

Other than this crap, everything else is great. Running more. Friends are awesome so is my boyfriend.

VACATION!!!!