Running Into Joy

 Happy Sunday, internet people!  This week has been a blur of exhaustion, with Battle of the Fandoms continuing, Andy being out of town, and Azula being her usual energetic self.  I am beyond grateful that Andy is home from his business trip and that I was able to approach my bake on Saturday as a little me-time. On with it then, shall we?  This Week's Recipe: Little Pink Rose Cakes Cookbook pictured is Great British Bake Off: At Home The Prep This week's ingredient in question: edible rose petals.  I am not generally a fan of floral flavors, so when I saw we'd be using rose in this week's bake, I got a little nervous. Then I realized most of the flavor is chocolate and raspberry, and the roses are a garnish. Since we're approaching Valentine's Day, I resisted my urge to skip them altogether and began a search for where I might buy edible rose petals.  My friend found some great local recommendations for me, but between having Azula duty and generally a bad anxi

Hello, internet people!  Remember that time back in July where I wrote a reading recap post and it seemed like I intended to make that a consistent feature of the blog, except then I didn't?  So, round two! I haven't been writing much about books of late with all the blog-off going on, so I figured I'd get back to writing mini book reviews for what I read each month. Hopefully it'll be a fun way to track my reading for the year and also give you some good book recommendations.  Without further ado, here is my reading recap for the month of January! (*Full disclosure, the title links in this list will take you to my Bookshop.org affiliate page. I may receive a small commission should you choose to purchase the book through this link).  A Woman is no Man by Etaf Rum Format: Hardcover (Book of the Month Edition) Why I Read It : Tacking my physical TBR stack  My first read of 2021 turned out to be a real winner. I'll admit it, I bought this book back in 2019 and it

Happy Sunday, Internet people!  I write to you from my couch, where I’m curled up next to Azula. She’s chewing her bone, and I’m nursing incredibly sore, tired legs.  In the Fandom Running Club , we are three days in to one of our virtual race events: Battle of the Fandoms. Divided into teams centered around different movies, books, TV shows, etc, we walk and run as many miles as possible to move our team along a virtual race course in the fantastic Racery platform. It’s fitting that I managed to secure a spot on the Great British Bake Off team, Running Choux. Each race course gives us a virtual tour of someplace new, and this time around, we’re in Greece! In the past 2 days, I’ve walked and run 17.8 miles, and boy am I feeling it! Today, I’m hoping to achieve what we call a “cap”—hitting the daily upwards limit of miles allowed per person: 15. But before I get moving, I owe you a recap of this week’s bake, which I managed to squeeze into my 10 mile day!  This Week’s Recipe: Italian P

Happy Tuesday, internet people!  I know this post is coming to you a bit later than scheduled, but January has been, well.. a lot. The tension leading up to the presidential inauguration knotted up with continued exhaustion from the pandemic has underscored a slow start to the semester as students undergo entry testing, and I feel a bit like I'm floating outside of time.  In spite of having a three-day weekend to look forward, I reached Friday feeling utterly drained and lacking in enthusiasm. In spite of my low energy levels, I've continued with my New Year's fitness challenges of the Yoga With Adriene 30 Day Journey, Breath , and the PB21 program from Bad Yogi. This leaves my body feeling sore and strong, intermittently and sometimes simultaneously.  Last week, I also added in the beginning of training for the BadassLadyGang winter racing series , which sounds like a lot but I promise you they all fit together more neatly than you'd think with the staggered start dat

 Happy 2021, internet people, and welcome to the first bake of 2021!  As you may have noticed, this post comes a little later than the usual Sunday morning. I ended up taking a long hike with my fiancé and my pup that resulted in my being just too tired by the time we got back. So, my apologies for the delay, and without further ado, let's get on with it!  This week is extra special not only because it's my first Great British Blog Off bake of 2021, but also because I was joined (virtually) by my real life friend Mel, who writes the phenomenal travel blog The Scaredy Cat's Guide to Travel .  Mel and I watched many an episode of Bake Off together in our roommate days and were often inspired to bake (or grab dessert from the Whole Foods down the street) as a result. So, it seemed fitting to collaborate for a bakealong!  Since I began this self-designed challenge, I don't think there's been a week where I've thought less about the bake to come. This is mainly due t

 Happy New Year, internet people!  This is my first blog post of 2021, although I baked the cake on the last day of 2020. These past weeks have been slow and reflective for me, even more so than the usual still at the end of a year.  I wrote earlier about my intentions and goals for this fresh new year , and here I am, pursuing one of the biggest ones: writing. This blog has been my way of slowly returning to a more consistent writing practice, of feeling my way back to thinking of myself as a writer.  Towards the end of last year, I began working on my book manuscript, which I hadn't even been able to look at after my thesis board in 2018. It's taken me a long time to process some of the feedback I received, and I'm finally ready to return to the work and bring the past two years of learning and reflection into the draft.  It is scary to return to some of this material, and scarier still to bring in new ideas and consider the ways in which my material has shifted since I e