Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Burnt out

Halloween is normally one of my favoritist (is that even a word?) holidays.  But this year, I have no desire whatsoever to decorate or even get in the 'spirit'.  Everything seems like a monumental task lately.  We have had literally no downtime since June (May, maybe?).  Every weekend is filled with activities, and the weekdays are now becoming busier as well, with activities and meetings and sports.  We signed up for swim lessons, and already missed the first two lessons because we were out of town.  Even this last weekend, we had plans only for Friday night/Saturday morning.  I thought for sure we'd have time to relax during the rest of the weekend.  But instead, we ended up super busy again.  Rushing to get the boat into storage (and off our street - see last post), running to the market for food for the week, running to Target for basic supplies... the list goes on! 

Part of being so busy is my training for this half marathon as well.  I'll be running in the Santa Barbara half on November 10th.  I am already regretting signing up for this.  I've come to the conclusion that I am not meant for long distance running. I enjoy the 5k's and maybe even a few 10k's, but a half marathon is just becoming a PITA.  Especially because So Cal is having a heat wave.  In October!  I have been waking up at 4:30am on Saturdays in order to be running by 5am and be done before 8.  Because by 8am it's already 80 degrees.  It's becoming more of a burden than fun.  And this last week I started getting super sick, so I've done 11.5 miles a few weeks back, and didn't get in 12 last weekend.  I am running a zombie 5k/mud run this weekend (www.runforyourlives.com), so I'm going to try for 13 miles next weekend.  If I don't get it in, then I'll be running 13 miles for the first time at the half.

I also think this whole running thing is better for addictive personalities.  I am not sure I am one of those.  I have never understood things like smoking.  What do you mean you can't just stop doing it?  I suppose I can say I'm a little addicted to sugar, but even that I gave up in order to lose weight a few years ago (and have kept it off).  So I am starting to think I just don't have the "addiction" gene in me.  I've been running for coming up on 2 years, and while I can say I enjoy it, if I don't run for a week, it's not like I miss it.  So, after I finish this half, I am done running the long distances.  I'll do some 5k's for the fun of it, but I do not enjoy the long runs at all.

So after Nov. 10 I am taking a break.  From everything.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Neighbors

We live in a city.  I know this.  So I suppose I shouldn't be upset that our neighborhood isn't like the one I grew up in the Suburbs.  But I am.  It upsets me that kids aren't out playing in the street until they get called in by their parents.  It upsets me that I can't walk outside and see other moms I can lament with.  Don't get me wrong, we do know several of our neighbors.  But I feel like they're not nearly as friendly as the group I grew up with in the "Valley".  We've lived here for almost 8 years, and I just barely met one of our neighbors this summer!

Anyway, the whole reason this came up is because one of our neighbors seems to have it out for us.  Our new boat doesn't fit into our backyard, so we've been parking it on the street in front of our house since January.  In order not to inconvenience anyone else (everyone in our neighborhood parks on the street), I've been backing my truck into the backyard instead.  So really, no one is inconvenienced, see?  We use the space in front of our house that was previously used by my truck, for the boat, and I park my truck in the backyard.  Well, starting about 3 weeks ago, parking enforcement trucks started showing up.  We got chalked twice.  The second time, Mike happened to be home, so he went out to talk to the guy.  Turns out one of our neighbors is calling and complaining about an "abandoned" boat on the street.  He can't tell us who, but he told Mike when the call was made.

What irks us both is that this SOB hasn't said anything to us.  You can't leave a neighborly note on the door if you're too cowardly to come say something to us in person?  And really, what does a boat parked in front of OUR house hurting them?  Like I said, we've done our best to minimize the impact to anyone else, yet someone is still complaining.

So much for neighborly neighbors.