Meet Roxie!

Several weeks ago, I met my dad about 40 minutes from my house where he was meeting a family who had chihuahua puppies. He has been devastated since last fall over the death of my brother's dog, a chi who was more like my dad's pup than my brother's. My dad's been through a lot of physical stuff this year, and getting a puppy of his own was something that I knew would breathe new life into him. My mom finally agreed to it, so my dad and I met this little cutie, as well as her mom and dad, too.
The minute my dad held her, I knew he had to adopt her. We made the arrangements and planned to pick her up just before Christmas -- right after she'd had her first shots.

She hadn't grown too much since we'd seen her, but she seemed to take to us fairly easily.

In fact, as much as she loved to be held, she seemed to prefer climbing her way up to this perch to nap.

And over the next few days, through Christmas and the blizzard, she continued to get more and more acclimated to life with my parents in her new home. She is hysterical to play with -- such a tiny little thing (2lbs, 14oz!) with a ton of energy.

She's bouncy and cuddly and super cute. We'll train her well so she's not yappy and annoying like some chi's I've known. I know she'll bring my dad lots of love and companionship and joy. I can see the difference in him already, and that's the best gift I could have.

Christmas at the beach

Christmas day was crisp and clear. I snuck out for an 8 miler between gift-opening sessions. It was a long day, but good family time. The next morning, as I ran 5 miles, the snow began to fall. After my run I snapped a few pics that show just an inch or so of snow on the yard and on the beach:

Overnight, however, the snow fell like crazy. The 30+mph winds created drifts that were chest high in some places, and the plowing that was done would lock us into place:


This is the same front yard as the first pic. See the top of the little Christmas tree?



After a LOT of back-breaking shoveling, and some help from some boys that drove by, I was able to eventually get my car out. My dad's truck, however, will be buried for a while. (See it to the left of my car?) My mom's car was across the street in a friend's driveway, so we dug her out, too.


With my car out, a path dug to the front door and back, and my mom's car now able to be driven, I felt ok to head home. I cautioned my parents to not try to drive anywhere because the plowing didn't really clear the roads. As I headed home, I would see just how bad the roads were.

This is the ocean road in front of my parents' house. I am looking south, with the ocean on the left of the picture just over those dunes.

I was able to eventually get my 4-wheel drive Jeep through the ocean road and down to the main boulevard, which looked like this:

It was a crazy drive off the island. It's a good thing the temps are warming up this week -- they're going to need all the help with snow removal that they can get!

Lunar Eclipse

For the first time since 1638, a total lunar eclipse coincided with the winter solstice. The position was perfect for North America viewing, and the clear skies we were forecasted to have would make it easy to see. Since I haven't been sleeping well anyway, I snapped a picture of the bright, shining, full moon, and then went to bed telling myself I'd like to wake up watch the eclipse.

I woke up on my own at about 2:30am and went out on my deck. The moon was partially shadowed at that point, so I snapped a pic and then went inside and settled myself onto my sofa where I had a perfect view.

I watched the moon become fully shadowed until it was a red, soft-glowing version of the earlier full moon. I went outside and tried to snap another pic, but my camera wouldn't show it. Here's what it looked like at that point:

(from mashable.com)

I settled back on the sofa for a bit, but the moon stayed shadowed long enough that by 3:40ish I knew I needed to get some more sleep before my alarm woke me for work at 5:25am. Though I had really wanted to see it unveil, I headed up to bed. When my alarm woke me a short time later, the moon was back to its full, shining, glow.

What a cool thing to see. A once in a lifetime thing, actually. Though we won't have to wait hundreds of years for another total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice, the next one, according to NASA, won't happen again until 2094.

My (sick) view.

This has been my view for the better part of the past few days:

That's the view from my sofa.

I've been using a lot of this:

And today I got to watch (and be jealous) Oprah's Favorite Things show (part2):I was feeling better on Saturday -- got a wheezy, slow, but completed, 5 miler done in the morning, then worked all day at the running store, then headed into the city for my friend's birthday dinner at one of the restaurants in midtown. I decided not to go out for drinks after -- the couple glasses of wine I had at dinner was enough for this sick girl -- and I was home and in bed by 1am.

Too late, and too much on Saturday, I guess, because I barely slept at all that night and by Sunday morning I was feeling awful. Head congested again, nose and breathing a mess. After deciding I couldn't get my aching body to go for a run, I went for a short walk with my sister and nephew (he wasn't well, either). That was enough. I got home, discovered I had a 100.4* fever, and spent the rest of the day and night on the sofa.

I went to work today, but left during my prep and got some meds from the doc, and then came right home early this afternoon and spent the rest of the day on my sofa again. I'm over this. It's a nice sky view, but I want to feel better. I want to run.

2 miles

That was my run today, and I barely made it that far. Two days ago I came home from work feeling achey and sneezy. I went to yoga anyway, and that near killed me. The heat, the constant head up and down, and my lack of strength made me consider leaving the class after 15 minutes. I stuck it out, but it wasn't good.

I went to work yesterday and that was a bad move. I was miserable. Sneezy, eyes heavy, and yep -- a slight fever that I confirmed when I got home. I didn't run, swim or bike -- I basically crashed on my sofa for the rest of the day.

So today I stayed home from work. I was feeling a bit better -- no fever, way less sneezy -- and thought a short easy run might clear me out. Nope -- my lungs were not working at all. I had no strength. I even felt a bit dizzy.

So my easy 3 miler ended after barely making 2.

I've gotten my Christmas shopping done -- yay for free shipping with online orders! I've gotten some laundry done. And I've gotten a whole lot of laying on the sofa done for the past 24 hours.

I just need my lungs to work better. I want to run tomorrow!

Alone.

I was alone for 8 miles this morning. It was great. It was weird.

I normally see a bunch of other people out there on a Sunday morning. It was rainy, so maybe that's why I was the only one out there? Whatever -- I didn't mind it today.

I've been thinking a lot about pulling away recently. From people, from talking, from interactions.

Nothing good is happening with my interpersonal relationships lately. People not being straightforward, people putting words in my mouth. It's frustrating, and I'm just feeling like if I just pull away and not talk to or interact with anyone for a bit it might make things easier. Go to work, visit with my sister and nephews (family isn't the problem), do my workouts, keep to myself.

I don't necessarily like to be alone, but I'm just tired of dealing with other people's issues.

On my windy, rainy, warm (shorts!) run this morning, I was alone. I ran around the river, and I was quietly taking it all in -- this year, the empty path, where to go from here. This time a year ago I was super happy. I was enjoying living. Today, I miss that.

So I think I need to just be alone for a bit. See where friendships fall. See where life goes. Let 2010 fade away.

I need to get ready. Because I have to believe 2011 is going to be my year.

Laps

While running circles around my development in the peaceful quiet of 5am, I counted. Three times past my house would equal a mile. Three more circles, another mile. I'd do that 12 times this particular morning.

As I counted, I was struck by the similarity of this experience with the one I'd had swimming just the day before. In the pool, I usually swim 2000 yards. Some days a bit less, some days a bit more. Every day, I count my laps in 5's. 10 laps, 500 yards. 10 more, 1000. Do 20 more laps and I've hit my 2000. Back and forth, back and forth. I have a hard time keeping track of my swimming laps most days.

Funny, I rarely lose track of my running laps.

But then I started thinking about how my whole day is a lap. Wake up, go to work, go home from work, run/exercise (some days this happens before going to work), eat, bed. (And yes, there's showering, errands, and lots of other stuff in there on any given day, but you get my point!) Repeat that lap tomorrow. And the next day.

Even within my work my life is a series of laps. Monday through Friday, repeat. I'm a teacher, so September to June, summer break, repeat.

It's an intriguing concept to me -- this idea of a life of laps. Part of it sounds like I'm living on a hamster wheel, the other part sounds like there's an element of familiarity in my daily life and activites. Some days those laps feel tedious, other days those laps bring comfort.

Am I living on a track that I feel unable to step off of? Maybe at times. Not all the time. Sometimes not at all. Because even within those laps there are new experiences and new interactions and new people and new views.

Finish one lap, then turn around and run it in the other direction.