Ain't nobody gonna slow me down (...oh no, I got to keep on movin...)

Last week, I tried to remove my flash drive from my computer only to get this message:

The device 'Generic volume' cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later.

You go, 'Generic volume,' I will not try to undermine your awesomeness again. I only wish I were having a day like that.

Confession

I am having a ridiculously lazy Saturday morning. Not just that though, it seems that most of my Saturday (and Sunday) mornings have become absurdly lazy recently. After spending all summer waking up long before dawn to get miles and miles of running in before the sun warmed up, I'm not sure if it's refreshing or disheartening that I've spent most of the winter sleeping in (in a way I haven't done since high school) and then don't seem to get out of my pajamas until I'd normally be thinking about an early lunch. If I'm honest I might admit it would feel less depressing if I were still running miles and miles every week. Sigh. Can anyone guess what my New Year's resolution might be (or had better be)?

What about you? Does anyone have good ideas for getting yourself up and moving even when you know it's freezing outside and the nasty air will probably kill you faster than laziness (and when you also happen to loathe treadmills)? And do you believe in alarm clocks on Saturdays (those of you without children)?

A Chance to Help

I'm grateful this morning that family in Haiti is safe. I'm also touched to be reminded of how in a world that can seem so dark at times, we still stretch our arms around our brothers and sisters in need. Please help as you choose - here are a few ideas.

• From the White House Blog:
  
  For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.
  
  Or you can go online to organizations like the Red Cross and Mercy Corps to make a contribution to the disaster relief efforts.
  
• LDS Humanitarian Services donation page.

Where I've been...and Merry Christmas!

...well, here, really. But I've neglected the virtual world for several reasons.

1. I took the GRE (yes, after nearly a year of talking about it, I finally just buckled down and did it. It wasn't so terrible after all.)
2. Took a fabulous trip to Florida with the husband and mother - it was a mostly relaxing week with family spiced with one brief segment of fear-facing adventure, but more on that later.
3. Interviewed for and got a new position in training and development at work (yay!), and then did two jobs for a couple of weeks until my replacement could be trained (yeesh).
4. Family time at Thanksgiving - I love family. And cranberry sauce, I love that too.
5. Picked out and put up a Christmas tree. This year that meant me sawing off the bottom of the trunk with a hand saw in my kitchen and getting locked out of the house without shoes on when I went to empty the pine-needle-filled vacuum. (You know, that week it was 2 degrees in Utah? That's when I decided to lock myself out.)
   
6. Edited lots and lots of papers with Steve leading up to finals week.
7. Steve's laptop finally exploded (yes, an actual explosion, including smoke and mysterious black ooze), making us a one-computer family, and during finals week I went completely Internet free after work.
8. Threw a successful surprise party for Steve's graduation (thanks everyone who helped keep it a secret)!

I also stopped doing a lot of things since my last post - like exercising and eating sensibly. Which brings me to my next point - MERRY CHRISTMAS! To prove I have at least mostly found the holiday spirit, here's that tree I worked so hard on. It makes me happy.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

This morning I overslept and my favorite pants weren't clean so I was late and I had to wear the black ones that gather lint. I hate being late.

At work I was scheduled to move to a new desk, close to the window, with one short wall and a glorious view of the outside world. They got my PC and phone moved and I had started unloading my boxes when someone showed up with a bunch of tools and informed me no one was allowed to have short walls anymore. I had to stand by and watch the glorious sunlight be slowly and surely obstructed from my seat. I hate dark cubicles.

Then I had to scrunch all my belongings to one corner while they disassembled my entire desk to put up the new walls, even though no one has been sitting there for weeks and they could have made the change long before all my things had been moved in. I had a lot of work to do and none of it got done because I spent most of the day without a desk or computer or phone. I hate wasting time.

When it was finally time for lunch, I was excited to eat a turkey sandwich with honey mustard. I love honey mustard. When I asked for it, the server told me there was no honey mustard today, only plain old mustard. I'm sure they never run out of plain, stinky mustard. I hate plain mustard.

Then I was late for a meeting, my pen ran out of ink, someone ate the last chocolate, and when they moved the shelf in my cubicle all my books fell on the floor.

I finally got my desk back, sat down, and saw that my phone extension had been changed. They changed it back but acted like I didn't know what I was talking about. I hate when people act like you don't know what you're talking about.

When I got home, the house was cold, I remembered I hadn't cooked chicken to make soup, and I had to eat lima beans for dinner. I hate lima beans.

It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. But I guess some days are like that. Even in Australia.

I did it!

On Saturday I ran the St. George Marathon. It was my first marathon, and I entered the race lottery mostly because I didn't think I'd get in this year. I wasn't really convinced a marathon was something I wanted to do. I love half marathons, but pushing your body 26.2 miles is a whole different level of crazy. I did get in (obviously) and I spent the first two months of training looking for an excuse not to run it. But after running the TOU half in August, I got my race motivation back. I spent the next month worrying that I wouldn't be able to run. (And naturally, because I'm a hypochondriac I found 900 things wrong with myself. I was sure I had a stress fracture when my calf hurt during one run and that I was getting swine flu when my allergies flared up one day.)

I expected a marathon to be hard, but it was even tougher than I expected. I'm kind of proud of that, because I know part of what made it so much more difficult than my past races or training runs was that I pushed myself. So much so that when it was over I didn't have anything left - I just planted myself on a random patch of lawn until I could walk again. But I made my goal of running the whole time - no walking - and I shattered my "reasonable" goal of a 4:15 time. I even broke my "ultimate" goal of 4 hours and finished in 3:53! It was physically painful some of the time and I had to play mental games to keep myself motivated, but I did it. There's such a sense of satisfaction that come from conquering truly tough stuff.

I've had a couple people ask me if I was disappointed in having missed qualifying for Boston by mere minutes (well, 13...that's kind of a lot to shave off, but anyway...). I'm totally not. First of all, 3:53 is way better than I ever expected to do and you bet I'm proud of myself. But second, if you qualified for the Boston Marathon, wouldn't you feel like you should run it? I'm glad I ran this one, but I'm definitely not planning to make a habit of it. Now if you're looking for a half-marathon buddy on the other hand...give me a few weeks and let me know :)

Pink ribbon and kissing

OK, so I haven't actually taught a Primary lesson yet, but I'm completely in love with my class. There's nothing like hearing little voices belt out the first verse of "How Firm a Foundation" (yes, they're like 5 years old) to win your heart. We're going to be just fine. Thanks everyone for the kiddo advice. As a side note, this week the kids taught me that parents have to sleep in the same room because their beds are stuck together. And apparently some parents KISS! Oh the scandal.

Finally, I bought pink ribbon for my hair today and am now officially ready for my first-ever marathon (gotta have that bow)!