Snow Days!

Happy Monday! Only a week into the new year and I am already off work from SNOW. We got about 8 inches (this is my guesstimate as I did not even bother measuring) from a big winter storm on Saturday. It has also been freezing. We hit 0 degrees last night and have not seen anything above 32 degrees since briefly on Friday afternoon. I love cold weather but I draw the line at single digits! This is Virginia after all. I didn't NEED a snow day just yet, so I really hope this isn't it for the season. Usually mid to late February snow is very much needed and appreciated :).

Since I have mainly been snow bound besides snow walks/runs (thankfully my condo's treadmill is in working order!) and a quick trip to the grocery story yesterday because I desperately needed kitty litter, I have done a lot of lounging and TV watching (Westworld anyone?)...and drinking. Ha! I only wish classes had started and I could get ahead on the semester...oh, well. I DID do most of my planning for the class I am teaching, so I guess that counts?

The kitties enjoyed the snow!

I love my neighborhood:)

I also had a very exciting Thursday and Friday...I sold my condo! Pending good home inspections this week, I will have a new house in February! This has all happened very quickly and pretty much down to the wire (I had a contingency contract on a house where I needed to sell my condo and the owner got another offer the same day I got an offer on my condo), so I am hopeful all will go well and things will continue to work out. I have LOVED my condo (and I still do!), but having more space and more room to make a place my own, have a yard and live a little more privately is so exciting to me! I have a backyard! A porch! An upstairs! I have already begun decorating in my mind:)

That is all for me...I hope you are staying warm!

A Random Week

It was a random week, that's for sure.

I taught again at VCU on Monday, went to a Massey Cancer Center Fundraiser on Tuesday (donate to my team!), had class on Wednesday night and then we got ice/snow on Thursday (so I went in for half a day), and got another snow day today.

And I also started rewatching Lost. STILL. SO. GOOD.

Yay for more winter running...j/k.

I was still sore/stiff from my 20 miler when I did my 8 miler on Monday (I had to do it a day early due to weather), but I wore my new shoes and took my recovery serious. I love compression sleeves.

I got my hair cut at work on Wednesday by a Cosmetology student. She did a great job! I have thick hair so it is always a long cut!

It was a bit warmer Wednesday so I enjoyed a leisurely stroll around VCU before class.

And I got new glasses for driving! I got Lasik 4 years ago but have lately noticed that I have a hard time seeing at night while driving or while looking at certain screens from a distance. My eye site isn't bad (20/30....from 20/15 right after Lasik) but enough for needing a little help in terms of sharpness and glare. I still had my frames from before my surgery which saved some cost (glasses are expensive)! Hopefully this is all I need and won't need to get a touch up procedure down the road! My eye site used to be so bad, so I am still very satisfied.

Today I am cleaning and doing laundry before potentially running (?) before meeting a friend for her birthday happy hour. I am looking forward to seeing friends this weekend for a baby shower in Virginia Beach and WARMER weather coming! Too bad my long run (12 miles) will still be cold and icy:(

Have a great weekend! What are you up to?

Snow Day & Friends

Happy Snow Day! This feels like the first official snow day of the season even though the students have had two days off already (mainly due to ice and a well-timed brief burst of snow). We got about 7ish inches in my area, but that is all a guesstimate as I found out this morning that I do not own a ruler! Snow came in yesterday afternoon and ended before sunrise. I wish it snowed more during the day so I could have watched it!

On my walk to Ellwood's for lunch and company.

This is why VA freaks out over snow!

Not good for driving!

It is nice to see how quiet the city is when the snow falls. I also love living where I can still go places when it snows, unlike growing up in the suburbs where I would be snow-blocked for days.

I also made it up to D.C. on Sunday, since we had Monday off, to visit some friends from growing up and college. I only took one picture but had lunch with my friend Meredith and then went to dinner with a group of college friends and their significant others. 

Friends since 7!

We were in Shirlington, which is a really cute area outside D.C. in Virginia (and near Arlington) with apartments and a great downtown shopping area. We ate at Copperwood Tavern which is a farm-to-table restaurant...SO GOOD! I love it when I can go out to eat and eat meat:)

Shirlington Village

The cool thing about seeing my college friends (besides catching up with them and planning our travels) is being reminded of how much they have influenced my life! I was reminded at dinner how much I HATED running in college (we were talking about marathon training), but that because of two of my sorority sisters who always ran and did half and full marathons, I gave it a try after college. They are the reason I persisted. They influenced a total of four (?) of us to run and do half marathons- even those who barely exercised before. Look how much their simple influence changed our lives! So to Michelle & Jess- THANK YOU. You have changed my life more than you will probably ever know. I thought a lot about that as I was driving home...friends are just awesome:)

Now I am back to enjoying my snow week day :)

Thoughts This Week

You just never know what a week will bring, right? 

This week so far has been some sort of hodgepodge/blur and a lot of "meh". Monday was normal (from what I remember? It's crazy how days blur so much). I had to go down to VCU to meet a professor about being on a potential research team and ended up being stuck in traffic for 20 minutes to go .2 miles due to road work. That was fun. Then I got a weird feeling about the whole research thing and started my normal "oh my gosh is this what I want to be doing with my life?!" thinking. Le sigh. Welcome to practically each week as a doctoral student. Then I came home to drown my sorrows in more Netflix viewing. I started on Californication season 3. And reading for class....I think I did some of that this day?

I don't know what is better- an expected snow day or an unexpected snow day, but I think I would say unexpected! We randomly got snow Tuesday morning (the very southern part of the big nor'easter) so I woke up to a 2-hour-delay call (!) and then was told schools were closed. Sadly, I still had to go in (I am a 12 month employee, so I go in some snow days that students/teachers don't), BUT I got a lot done without students around! It was a fun day and only 6 hours long, which is a plus!

Three lone cars in the front parking lot.

I had to do my long weekday run on Tuesday after work (8 miles) and thankfully the snow was melted off the road but still falling, so it was pretty! It was an ok run. Not bad and not great- I really just wanted it to be done with. I really don't like running so late in the day but I don't have enough time in the mornings for runs above 5 miles unless I get up in the 4 AM hour which I refuse to. Afterwards I went over to a condo association meeting. I am in charge of creating a community blog- YAY! That coupled with wine and my low drinking tolerance made for an enjoyable albeit emotional evening. I'll just leave it at that. Meh.

On another hodgepodge note...I did find fun pictures in an album I was looking at this weekend! These are from my first and second semester at college:) I actually remember both of these nights well- isn't that funny how certain things stick out?

And to add to my randomness...from a Friday training last week- I found out I am an ESTJ...though I really think I am an ESFJ. It has been fun to think about and analyze people by their Meyers-Briggs personality type!

So....that has been this week so far. I am hoping for a better end and more good things rather than "meh!"

What is your personality type? How much snow did you get in your area? 

Ice Day

Hey there!

Just checking in quickly today as we had our first "snow" or ice day of the winter! I am thankful for the day off as I have felt "off" all week. We got sleet/ice for a few hours overnight and in the early morning hours, so school was canceled before sunrise. It definitely stinks to get the calls at 5 and 6:30 AM because it makes sleeping in hard, but no complaints from me! I was able to do a treadmill run and have a leisurely morning. It is tradition for my educator friends and I to meet at Starbucks on snow days, so that was fun! Roads were surprisingly bad near my place- usually the city roads clear fast, but I had to drive VERY slow. Ice is tricky!

Lots of accidents!

Sadly, I have to go to VCU tonight for class- the semester has officially begun! I don't have any negative feelings towards beginning classes again: I just hope it is the same work load as last semester, which was very manageable and still allowed me to have a life. I am excited to begin teaching/supervising graduate students this semester, though!

I will be doing my snow day dance for another day off (or at least delay) tomorrow! The county I work in is very large with rural areas, so those are the ones that usually get use closed:)