Running Into Joy

It's been a bit, I think, since I've done a more general update type of post. This week, I'm taking a week off running and doing low impact cardio instead because I've got my first injury of the training cycle: shin splints. Is it weird that this feels like a rite of passage, like part of being a "real" runner? Anyway, the week of rest combined with the fact that my boyfriend is away on business and my closest Pittsburgh friend is traveling means I've got a lot of introvert time on my hands. As I've had more solitude than usual, I've been reflecting on what I'm enjoying right now and figured I may as well share it. Part of taking care of yourself is taking time to do what fuels you (and not try to turn everything into a "side hustle" all the time--it's okay to like things just to like them!). So, I've been: Listening... To The Glass Cannon podcast . Admittedly I did a lot of that in 2019 (like, a lot ). This week...

Ahh, December. The perfect time to start reflecting on the year and thinking about what you hope to achieve in the year ahead. If 2019 has taught me anything, it's that no matter what you plan, life will surprise you. This year feels especially reflective as we come to the end of not only the past year, but the past decade. To be 27 at the end of a decade is a strange sensation. 10 years ago, I was a teenager in high school. In so many ways, that feels like a different lifetime. At 17, I was freshly out of a long, terrible, and tumultuous relationship the after effects of which I would feel well into my 20's. I was getting ready to graduate high school, with the grand adventure of college waiting out there on the horizon. At 27, things feel a bit more nebulous. I've written before about how this stage in life feels strange to me, without a clearly defined length of time in which to accomplish any sort of educational goal. On top of this general existential angst, 2019...

I don't know if I've mentioned it yet on this blog, but I am MOVING in a little over a week. Or two weeks, depending on if you count "moving" as the day my current lease ends or the day my new lease begins--there's a teensy bit of a gap. This is beyond a doubt my most complicated in-town move to date. Thankfully, UHAUL is amazing & gives you a month of free storage with the rental of a van, so the majority of my stuff has somewhere to live while I stay with my boyfriend for a few days in between leases. Still, it means moving everything twice and not getting to feel settled for an entire week. It means trying to clean while some of my stuff is still in the way, and having a carpet company come in mere hours after I finish getting everything into my UHAUL. Let's just say I can't be all that surprised that I've developed a headache doing all of this in 90 degree heat. I am trying to be gentle, take it slow, and embrace the uncertainty as part...

Lately, I've been thinking about "home" a lot. When you teach creative writing, "home" is often the chosen topic for a beginning class, an easy, accessible topic for everyone to write about. But is it, really? The other day, I saw a woman wearing a t-shirt that read "Home is where Yinz Are." (Yinz, for the non-Pittsburghers out there, is our version of "y'all"). It's a twist on the familiar "Home is where the heart is," the idea that the idea of home can be people, rather than a place. For some reason, this really caught my attention and made me think. I've lived in Pittsburgh for nearly three years now, and some would say that makes it home. In many ways, it does. Yet, if someone asks me where I'm from, I always say "Cincinnati" or "Ohio." I don't think I'm unique in finding "home" a complicated question. So many of my friends from college came to our University from ano...

Last week, I spent a long weekend in Salem, Massachusetts with a group of witchy women called The Sisters Enchanted. It was one of my many "let's make a leap right now!" moments, where I threw myself wildly out of my comfort zone in hopes of growing and learning something new about myself. I'll probably post more about the trip in the days to come, but the reason I mention it now is this: I spent a lot of time reflecting during the trip.  The drive from Pittsburgh to Salem (and back again) is over 9 hours, and my carpool companion and I spent a decent chunk of it quietly watching the road go by. It's been so long since I've let myself be silent. With podcasts, audiobooks, Facebook, Twitter, the world is so full of input. You can consume something every minute of every day, and I realized that I had been. I'd filled all the quiet spaces with voices, information, music, the works. And while I love this easy accessibility, it can create distance from t...

Today, I'm here to check in and recap on my first finished fitness goal of 2019: completing Yoga with Adriene's Dedicate, that 30 Day Yoga Journey your friends have been posting about on Instagram. I first discovered Adriene's YouTube channel while in college and fell instantly in love with her laid back teaching style. For me, it's the perfect blend of taking the practice seriously while also infusing it with a sense of humor. I was there for the OG YouTube journey, 30 Days of Yoga, back in 2014. That means FIVE YEARS of starting my January off this way! This year has been especially weird and wonderful seeing how much Yoga with Adriene has grown since I first joined the community. Where once, I was basically talking at myself about this online yoga thing, now it seems everywhere I turn people are posting about Dedicate . It's heartwarming to see Adriene garner this success and take on new projects. In that unique internet way, it feels like I've known ...

Hello, internet people! I'm currently cozied up in my warmest hoodie at the coffee shop, because the university where I work got a snow day ! It's in the single digits with a negative wind chill here in Pittsburgh, so it is cold. As much as I try to embrace winter, I can't help but ask "why do I live here?" any time the temperature gets below, say, 30 degrees. But instead of complaining about the cold, let's talk about those 2019 goals and some of the reasons behind them. First: run a half marathon. More specifically, run the 2019 Flying Pig Half Marathon. As I mentioned in my intro post, 2018 was the year I became a runner. Since my first 5K in college, I'd been flirting unsuccessfully with the idea, running for a little while before giving up when I didn't see progress or when it got cold outside. I loved the way it felt to finish a run, but I didn't feel like I could be a runner. I expected to give up before I even started. When 2018 tim...