Things I learned today (on my run).

1. Running home from work in rush hour is faster than driving home from work in rush hour, though infinitely more sweaty.

2.70 degrees does NOT = summer. Not to self: do not wear sleeveless shirts and skirts to work if it is under 80 degrees. It took 30 minutes of running for me to thaw out sufficiently.

3. I run SLOW at the end of long runs. It hurts.

4. People are obnoxious. When running over a bridge that crosses the freeway, why must people honk? Is this amusing? I am going to start bringing water balloons on my runs to drop on them and scare THEM.

5. 8 years goes by fast.... July 11, 2003. A day I'm likely not going to forget. It seems so long ago and so not so long ago all in the same breath. Isn't that strange how that happens?

More to come soon on the events of our weekend.

A typical thursday night.

Last night I met one of my friends Linda for happy hour. I help her to get a little organized with her accounting (she has her own business) and then we drink wine. Great plan, right?

Yeah WELL.

Not such a great plan on Friday morning. Just saying.

But then again, maybe I retract that. Maybe it doesn't really matter a whole lot because a) it's friday and b) there is nothing better than friends, good conversation, and good wine. It's always worth the next morning. Well, maybe except for that one Thursday night a few years ago where it wasn't so worth it and I had to show up to work the next morning in the clothes from the day before. But, it's been a few years since then and I was in a pretty bad place in life at the time. Now, I am so much wiser and smarter.

So yes, good friends, good wine... life is good.

Even when Friday morning it feels like your head is not fully attached to your body...but hey, your boyfriend enjoyed the rare form you were in the night before and was amused by your antics when you got home so maybe it still is a win-win?

1974.

1974 was a good year. It was the year Justin was born. It was also the year that my parents got married.

37 years ago, today, my parents tied the knot. And have been a walking testament to a lasting marriage ever since. It took me a while and a couple of tries to find what they have but in 37 years from now, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to pass that same lesson along to my kids.

Happy anniversary, mom and dad!

A brilliant idea.

Today I decided that I didn't want to be at work past noon.

It was 80 degrees, sunny. It was the day after a holiday. Work just didn't sound like fun.

Plus, we were taking Oliver to Seattle around 2pm so that he could ride the bus home. I wanted to be there, too, to say goodbye.

When I left work (before noon), I decided I wanted to work out. But what? Nothing sounded fun. I think I was having issues. Called: being whiny.

So, my boyfriend proposes an idea: "Why don't you run home?"

He thought he was being cute. It's 8 miles. In the sun. Could be hot. Could be FUN.

I'm in.

I did it.

It was fun.

What was a whiny, unsettled morning became a perfect day. Just like that. Perfect workout in the sun. Perfect boyfriend who thinks of these great ideas even if he was just joking. This is why I love running (and my boyfriend).

The fourth of July...2011 edition.

I've talked before on how I'm not such a HUGE fan of this holiday. (see here for my post in July 2010). But, Seattle weather actually cooperated this year and it was sunny and hot mostly all of the 4th of July weekend this year. I KNOW, I couldn't believe it either. It actually reminded me of how a true 4th of July should be, well, how it was for me growing up in the midwest. We had a family BBQ with the boys and Justin's mom on Saturday, and pretty much laid low the rest of the weekend. Meaning this:

Justin worked on this bike...

And some more... while I laid on the back porch in the sun and read. It was fabulous. In between, we played tennis, and basketball, and football with the kids... mid-afternoon, in the evening. Lots of fun.

Then, on the morning of the 4th of July, we went on 6 mile run, straight through the parade route in downtown Kirkland which, by the way? Absolute mayhem. It was kind of cool to see everyone out, though. I could see how it would be a fun event for kids.

Then we played more basketball...

And one more...  I'm not sure who was the reigning champ of horse, but it was not me. And, we definitely sweat our butts off. Seriously, it was HOT (which was awesome). We opted not to do fireworks this year since they didn't start until 10pm and we are lame old people who had to get up for work the following day at 5am. It was probably something we will regret for the next 10 years, the amount of time it will take for Seattle to be 80 degrees and sunny on another 4th of July. All in all, successful day. Despite all that's going on in our country, I still think it's a pretty damn good place to call home. 

The lady next door.

I shall call her Grace.

Why, I don't know. It's just the name that popped in to my head and I don't know her name. So, Grace it is. Luckily, it's a pretty name because this is a pretty damn sad story.

So, May 18, 2011. What a weird night. I haven't mentioned it because, well, it just seemed weird until now. It still is weird. (lots of "weirds" in this sentence).

Justin and I had gotten home from work and as far as I could tell it was a typical night. We made dinner, were sipping on wine, sitting down to eat and got a knock at the door. Justin says, "oh, it's probably someone selling something, I'm on it." And I'm all, "Do we really even have to bother?" He walks to the door and it's our HOA president. I hear him asking questions that Justin doesn't know so I'm summoned. We are asked things about our neighbor next door (aka: Grace)... Have we seen her? No. Do we know what she looks like? No. She was having her water turned off since she hadn't paid her water bills in 3 months, nor her HOA dues. Weird. Again.

In the two years I've lived in our quiet little neighborhood, she is the ONE neighbor I've never seen or met or heard. I've heard from the other neighbors that she's just reclusive, and never comes outside. She's always been like that but she's quiet and pays her bills and doesn't bother anyone. One of my neighbor friends said that in the 15 years she's lived in the neighborhood, she'd only seen Grace twice!

The HOA president tells us that he'll probably call the cops for a welfare inspection since no one is answering the door and no one seems to know anything about her and her bills are so late (and stuff is piling up on her porch), which had just started this week. We noticed papers piling up a week or two ago but then they were gone so we thought nothing of it.

A while later, the doorbell rings again. A cop. Same questions. Same answers.

Justin and I give each other a look, like WHOA. WHAT IN THE HELL??? Again, weird....

About a half an hour later, the doorbell rings again. The cop. Looking like he's about to yak or cry all over the place. UH OH. He says, "Um, ma'am, we're going to need to get your information, your neighbor has passed away."

Justin and I look at each other confirming a thought that had crossed our minds but just didn't seem fair or plausible to actually be REAL. I mean REALLY?

So we give him our information and I ask, "she was in there dead?" And the cop looking like he's still going to gag, "Um, yeah."

HOLY SHIT.

He asked us to come identify the body but since we'd never even seen her alive, that wouldn't have done him much good, other than he would have shared what he must have been feeling with someone else.

Justin and I both felt part guilty and, well, really, mostly sad for our next door neighbor Grace for the rest of the night. Not only did she die all alone but no one even knew for god knows how long. Probably at least 2 months, if not 3 (she hadn't paid anything since February). It seems so unfair and though it probably was the life (not the death) she wanted for herself, you'd think that at least SOMEONE should have noticed. Needless to say, we did not sleep well. It was so very sad. You think you know your neighbors and, generally, we do... we know them all, we play with our neighbors kids, we talk to our neighbors, we live in a safe neighborhood in the Kirkland suburbia...we thought we KNEW that our neighbor was just always quiet, reclusive. And we accepted it. Little did we know that she was actually dead for a long while and we didn't even think anything of it. Oh, and she apparently has 9 (yes NINE) brothers and sisters back in the midwest. Who had no idea she had passed. We still have never heard of why she died (she was only 50) and no one is still living in her house. In fact, they've done nothing to clean it out or anything (weird...again).

I'm not really sure what the lesson is in this other than that age old lesson that life is short, don't take anything for granted, most things that are seemingly "problems" really ARE trivial, and make sure to tell the people you love that you love them. Oh, and make sure you actually KNOW your neighbors. It certainly brought us back to ground zero and put everything into perspective since it was so (literally) close to home. We fell asleep wrapped up in each other that night. Sad lesson to learn but I guess that is the definition of what life is at times.

After the wedding day...

that I posted after in my last post, all we wanted to do was die, er, well, at least not think about wedding stuff again, ever. Or at least for a day especially days where it was supposed to be 75 degrees and sunny. So, we got up, vetoed all talk of wedding and wedding related items and headed straight to Bastyr/St Edwards park where we ran a 7.5-8 mile loop. It was gorgeous.

Not sure what the gray strip is here (perhaps a bad photo operator) but you get the idea of what it looked like when we ran by the water.

And a shot of Justin as we are getting ready for the "extrememly difficult" part as the trail tells us. It was difficult, per the usual. Though, it's not like a typical hike where it's difficult for 2 hours, it's a fairly short lived ten minute difficulty. With slugs. I hate slugs.

After our workout, we went home and immediately packed up a picnic to take to the beach where we plopped ourselves by the water for the better part of the afternoon. I'm not sure we said more than 10 words to each other as we were both completely mesmerized and fascinated by people watching.

A view from where we sat. Gorgeous. And not a cloud in the sky. Again, it's not even JULY. Sssh, don't say it too loud, it might ran for the rest of the summer if Seattle starts to act "normal."

And a picture of us blinding the beach with our whiteness but working on a bit of summer color (and, truthfully, we both even got a little pink)! Perfect summer day.

Wedding weekend

This weekend was filled with a ton of wedding activities... at least yesterday. Check out our blog (click here) for what we got done. Not only did we get a lot done but there was wine involved so it was a success by all accounts in my book!