Thanks to Nora for hosting!
Things that have me reaching for the bottle of wine:
-Retirement accounts. I get SO. CONFUSED. by this kind of thing and trying to figure it out on my own doesn't work all that well. But last time I met with someone that didn't go all that well either. I know I can't just ignore it and hope it goes away but this is the last thing I want to deal with right now. It's just so intimidating! Why can't I just wave a magic wand?
-The secretary spread, and my complete inability to control my impulses/cravings. I cannot walk by a cookie/candy/cake without being all "oooh must have!" As you can imagine, that kind of treat is plentiful in the workplace. That, coupled with my complete inability to control myself, means I'm eating a bunch more junk than I need to be. Ugh.
-Coffee. Yep, still working on completely giving up caffeine. Again, for the nine millionth time. I should probably just give up on this resolution.
Things that I'm loving:
-Being car-less. Now that I take the bus to work and he bikes to campus, D and I have been able to park the car during the week and only use it on the weekend for trips that are farther away. When we lived in Chicago he drove around 50 miles round trip every day to work, which was a tank of gas a week (in a small, relatively fuel-efficient Jetta) and an almost hour-long commute each way. Now that we can take the bus or bike most everywhere, we've been able to save a ton of money on gas and significantly reduce the wear and tear on the car. I also feel good about reducing our environmental impact in any way possible. I was worried that since Pittsburgh is smaller and doesn't have as robust a public transit system as Chicago does that we wouldn't be able to rely on it like we did in Chicago but so far it's been a very smooth transition, which makes me very happy.
-Running. I seem to have hit a really good groove lately and have had some amazing runs. I'm trying to concentrate on the mid-distance runs, where I do about 4-5 miles a few times a week, and really aim to increase my speed (I'm pretty darn slow). I'm not sure if I'm going to do the full marathon in the spring (I've heard the Pittsburgh marathon is killer because of all the hills) but I would love to train for a sub-2-hour half marathon in the next year or so. Maybe I'll do a destination marathon and go run in Chicago where it is very very flat.
-Meeting a new friend, who is a U of C alum, natch. I'm excited that I now know two whole people in Pittsburgh. We're having lunch today and going to an alumni event next week, which I'm nervous about because that kind of thing is not usually my bag. I hope I can meet more young people because man, I need to branch out beyond Physics PhD students.
-Shopping. I need a few new pieces and I'm going to let myself go shopping this weekend, the first time I've been in several months. I'm really. excited. about this prospect. Now I just need to figure out where the good places to shop are in Pittsburgh...
