The Year of 10,000 Miles

I've been a horrible delinquent blogger lately, and I really do apologize profusely. It's funny; I love reading other peoples' blogs, and when someone doesn't update for a while, I think, "Jeez, why won't they hurry up and update? I want to know what's going on in their life!" And I do realize that anyone who actually reads my blog has probably been saying that for weeks now.

It's just that time goes by so quickly! So very, very quickly! February was over far too soon, with the big conference we hosted on campus, and then me getting to deal with organizing and filing receipts for us to get reimbursed from our various sponsors, and now suddenly it's March and the rain is probably over until November, and I have to start really actually studying for my M.A. exam, and soon it'll be graduation, but I have so many papers to write and things to do in the meantime, but it'll all get done somehow. In other words, the rest of the semester is going to be busy busy busy.

There's lots of good news to report, though! For one, Roger finally got his raise! It's been so great having some spending money the past few weeks. I do really know that money isn't everything, and I really don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because we've been getting along just fine for past 18 months. But we have furniture now! We got an extra bed for our guest room, and some book shelves so we can put some things away and have some surfaces to set stuff on. I also got a weed whacker and went to town on the front lawn, so we didn't have a replay of last year. :) Although I really don't think the people in this neighborhood would care if our yard got a little out of hand.

Sidenote: our neighbors were blaring Michael Jackson today. Nothing like people rocking out to "Man in the Mirror" at 2:00 on a sunny Sunday afternoon! I like it that people around here do things like... play music. And have cookouts. And say hello to people walking by on the street. I think gentrifying areas are the place to be... such an interesting mix of all kinds of people, all living in the same few blocks.

Anyway. In addition to getting a raise, Roger's company is settled in San Francisco now, so it only takes him 40 minutes to get to work instead of an hour and 40! His commute is now a 10 minute walk, a 20 minute BART ride, and another 10 minute walk. That certainly makes me feel better about it, and I know that aspect of work is less draining for him now at least. This is not to say that I've been seeing him any more; on the contrary, they're working on signing another big contract, which means he's been getting home as late as ever. (I'm pretty sure he didn't make it home before 9:30 at all last week.) But I guess I should be getting more work done anyway, so I'm trying to just roll with it.

This past week was fun for me because we had our prospective students visiting. The people who were admitted for the incoming class in the fall were here, checking things out and seeing how they like the department. I really enjoy prospie week because I really like it here, and it's fun to meet new people and be able to honestly tell them that this is a great place to be. We had a girl from the U of I staying with us (which was the major impetus for us getting a guest bed last weekend), and I think she had a really good time. We also had a few people visiting with interests quite similar to mine, very lab-by types, and it'd be great to have more of those around. There was also a really sweet French guy who speaks a ton of languages, and I told him somewhat sheepishly that I selfishly want him to come here so I can keep my French up. His English was really phenomenal, too, and he seemed like he liked it here, so we'll see. I may be able to go back to actually actively improving my French instead of just trying to maintain it as best I can, and that would be nice. I feel bad for talking about him like he's some French language robot, though! He was actually a very nice guy with like, a personality and a sense of humor and everything. Not just a little help-Melinda-improve-her-French automaton...

Okay, that paragraph got away from me. Time for some running talk. I'm running the Oakland Half Marathon two weeks from today! It should be really fun, I think. I haven't done a race in a few months, and I haven't done a half marathon in a few years, and it's such a great distance. You're totally spent afterwards, but not totally trashed. It's a really satisfying level of exertion, as opposed to a crippling one. :) I guess I also need to hurry up and decide if I want to run San Francisco again this year. July will be here before I know it... maybe I'll wait and see how Oakland goes, and then sign up if I catch the Big M bug.

But running. While I was running yesterday, I realized that this summer will be my 10th anniversary of starting running. I've been at this craziness for 10 years! With varying degrees of intensity and commitment, of course. That first summer I ran every day. Then I kept it up regularly throughout high school, then trailed off for little spurts at a time during college, and only managed to run once or twice a week while I was in France. Then of course I got back from France, and we got Huck, and I started running with that little bugger alllll the time and ended up doing my first marathon.

So I was thinking about my mileage over the past 10 years. It definitely varies a lot... generally creeps up into the 30 miles per week range when I don't have anything better to do (over breaks, the summer), tends to sink down around 12-15 when I'm really busy or fighting a cold. But my guess was that I've probably averaged about 20/week over the past 10 years. That might be a little on the high side, but we'll go with 20. For 50 weeks a year, that's 1,000 miles per year! And for 10 years... that means I've run somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000 miles!! Whoa. I mean, whoa. I really don't mean to toot my own horn (although this is my blog, so I guess I can say whatever I want and all), I just had no idea I was anywhere near that. I had no idea I'd been running for almost 10 years now, either.

Which brings us back to the fact that time is flying. It is freakin' flying, and I'm going to be 26 this year, and I already have little smile lines around my eyes and gray hair, and before I know it I'll have a PhD and we'll be moving away from California to god-knows-where.

Ferris Bueller totally had it right: Life moves by pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.

The last good news thing I have to report is that I'm finally starting to run some subjects on my first real, full-scale research project (the one with the kids' voices and looking at the differences between boys and girls). I already have 7 people scheduled for this week, so I think I'll have fun data to play with really soon! (Yay data!)

Well, I have lots of reading to get done, so I should probably call it a night. I'm thinking about going home to Illinois in June before my crazy five hours-a-day Spanish class starts, so I'll keep y'all updated on that. Much, much love from the Golden State!