Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Went from a week of so-so sleep to a night of no sleep Friday and it absolutely wrecked my Saturday. Couldn’t nap to save my life, didn’t do any of the errands I’d wanted to do, and I was a snarling, irritated mess. Thankfully I was able to spend the majority of it alone, and did get better sleep last night, which meant I was able to run those errands today, but didn’t do a lot more than that.

Part of the sleep thing is that MG is a restless sleeper, and I’m not the deepest sleeper in the world, so when he’s tossing or talking, it can wake me up. I may have to try ear plugs or something. He’s told me to wake him up, but that’s not my wont. Something will have to be found, and I’m sure we will, but working it out in the meantime has left me irritated.

Did take the time to make a good batch of soup today. I’d bought the veggies earlier this week and just hadn’t gotten around to making the soup itself. And let me just say, whoevver invented curry powder has my undying gratitude. Love, love, love the stuff. Combine it with peanut butter and I’m in heaven. Folks who’ve been to my previous soup night parties will have had this, the African Bean Soup. So had good soup, put some in the fridge, and several servings in the freezer.

I’m also thinking it’s finally time to have a soup night party soon. Haven’t had a get-together in the new place yet, so sometime after the new year I’ll have one.

It’s hard not to feel bitter this morning since I’m not out there racing the Marine Corps Marathon. The knee did not improve sufficiently over the week to feel comfortable doing a race of this length, and discretion is the better part of valor, or however that goes, and so I’m skipping the thing this year. There will be other races, and my ego was not so invested that this is a crippling event psychologically, but it’s still disappointing after all the training.

Not helping the mood is that I just paid out the ass so I can not listen to/watch a bunch of useless Continuing Legal Education courses so I can keep my law license. One does like to stay employed, but one wishes it weren’t so expensive, nor such a waste of time (there are no CLEs in my practice area).
Did sit down this week and look at next season’s races. I’ve picked several that I think I can do. Unsure as to whether I’ll sign up for another marathon (did put a half marathon in the mix, early in the season), but picked out a couple of triathlons, and I’m seriously considering doing a half ironman toward the end of the season (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run).  Added into the mix this year has to be more serious weight and core training. The IT band troubles I’ve had this past week are the proof of that, and I’d really rather avoid this sort of thing again if at all possible. The weights and core work will help stabilize stuff, and I’ve known that (intellectually), but not really felt the need for it (emotionally). Well, now I can’t afford to neglect it, so back to the weight room I go.

Thankfully, for the runners, it’s a gorgeous morning here in DC, and it looks to stay that way through the entire race. You couldn’t ask for better conditions. Which will make going out to watch pretty nice, too.

Got up this morning totally Mr. Cranky Pants. Did not want to get up, did not want to go run, did not want to see anyone, did not want to do anything. Sat around, pouted, read the paper (they’ve been delivering it regularly since Tuesday), pouted some more, and was generally in a horrible mood. Was feeling like I’m tired of training for the marathon, I’m tired of feeling like I waste an entire weekend day doing the long runs, and a lot of, “Why am I doing this if it’s not fun?” Of course, I do it because it is fun, I do enjoy it, it’s just that I was feeling a total lack of motivation this morning. Was also missing MG, who’s been away for work this week. And, as I said, just feeling a big dose of the blahs. Must’ve had something physical going on as well, stress-wise, this week, because my eczema’s flared up as well.

Thankfully around mid-afternoon I snapped out of it as I did massive amounts of floor cleaning (yay swiffer wet), did laundry, even ironed (which is a measure of how blah I’d been feeling – I never iron). Feel much better now. MG’s headed back to town tonight, and will wander over. In the mean time I’ve lit a bunch of candles, popped in a movie, turned the lights off and am relaxing. It’s not quite meditation, but it’s much more restful than I’ve been of late. Hopefully the long run tomorrow will be better for excising Mr. Cranky Pants from my system.

In other news™, I had an unexpected surprise yesterday when I pulled up my leave and earnings statement. Evidently the beginning of the month was an anniversary at work because I went up a step for the paycheck that hits next week. Extra money is always nice, especially unexpected extra money. Oh, and my parents now know about the new neice/nephew, speaking of expectations, and also that my brother will be teaching sixth grade starting in the next week or so. Good news all around (which made the attack of the cranky pants all the more bizarre).

It appears that I wasn’t the only one, but yesterday evening was just one extended freak-out. After the plane stuff in the afternoon, my little brain decided it would be a good time to start stressing over pretty much anything and everything that it could, leading to absolutely no sleep until I finally hopped back out of bed at 1-something (I think), gave myself a reality check, and went back to bed.

Slept really, really poorly, so called in to work (that’s why they give us sick leave!), went back to bed until about noon, then got up and was a total slug.  The most productive thing I’ve done all day was read the paper, once I finally realized delivery had started today (I ordered a subscription to the newspaper earlier this week; how retro). Oh, and registering my DS games with Nintendo. Whee. Hopefully I’ll sleep better tonight, but there are times when it would be nice to just be able to turn off the lizard brain and stop it from freaking out, especially when I realize it’s completely off-base and freaking out for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

In Other News™, the cult co-op has put together a committee to pick a new general manager. We’ve finally driven the latest one nuts enough that she’s quit, though she thankfully has given us to the end of the calendar year to find a replacement. I think this means #7 in 6 years or something like that. Fun! I was asked to be on the search committee, and said yes; the list of folks on the committee was distributed today by the management and I’m on it. Will be interesting to see how this goes. For those of you in properties with property managers, what would you want to know from a candidate for the position?