Vacation All I Ever Needed

Oh sweet vacation bliss. The last week has been a little piece of HEAVEN for me. I am stealing MA*'s term "staycation" to describe my past week. I definitely knew I wanted to take a week off from work before the school year started, but I also knew I had no money saved for traveling funds and no one to travel with. So my staycation began.

It was a week free of work, blogging and 6am wake-up calls. But it meant more time for home improvement, running, OLYMPICS, and friends. I had an amazing week and hope it was enough to get me refreshed for the '08-'09 school year. This will be my 3rd year at Xavier and I am excited for it, but I always feel a bit anxious going in to a new year (some things never do change). While I don't start my new year with a sparkling backpack and never-used crayons, I do still have a tradition of a first day of school new outfit. One week until all the kids come back to campus, but my vacation week has helped me prepare.

I did some fun home improvement/repair. I FINALLY decorated the living room with some oh-so-pretty wall decals from IKEA. These little babies (in the goldy-bronze) appear to be growing on my living room walls. It only took me a year to decorate that final wall! I also FINALLY (you may notice a theme, me putting off all things domestic) replaced my broken toilet seat. For months it has been a bit of a slip and slide ride. One side was basically unscrewed and you could lose your center of gravity very quickly. Several a drunken houseguest almost flew off the toilet when the seat went swishing to the side. I was so excited to break out my toolkit and replace the offending toilet seat. Sadly, I could not unscrew one side. I had to admit defeat (hate that) and ask Casey to take care of things for me. He even offered to put on the new seat, but I HAD to do it myself. So, I have acquired another new skill, toilet seat installer, woohoo.

I also learned a hard lesson in the world of running. My all-time favorite post-run treat is... cole slaw. Gross, I know, but so satisfying. I have had many a post-run meal complete with this little side dish of delight. I learned that this should only be a POST-run meal. I made the unfortunate mistake of having cole slaw before a run. BAD IDEA. My entire 4 mile run it felt like my lungs were full of the slaw. Not a good feeling. I will be sticking with what I know works, and only indulge in the slaw AFTER I have finished the run. Also finally got back to a long run, 17 miles on Saturday. The first 14 were wonderful, dare I even say, fun, but the last 3 were torturous torture time. I finished the run, collapsed for hours and just hope I will feel stronger going into the 18 this Saturday.

And finally, another first for me. I went to my first church festival. St. Mary's in HP had their annual church festival this weekend. I had never been to one before, so my expectations were high. And I was not disappointed. Highlight of the night/my life was the Berry-Go-Round. I love strawberries and was soooo excited to know this gem exists. Obviously I will be renting one for my backyard for my next milestone party. Sadly I didn't have a camera to capture this amazing ride, but I found a picture to share.

Overall a great vacation. It might not have been as exciting as going to the beach. But my apartment is the cleanest it's ever been, I have watched enough Olympic coverage to be a serious job threat for Bob Costas (lay off the caffeine Bob), and I have four new X's on my running schedule.

Back to work, back to reality...