Ready for Travels

It is way too early for me to be up but a cute black lab by the name of Annie decided I had slept long enough and it was time to play fetch with her new toys. Now that I have that out of her system, I can squeeze a blog in before I play in the garden.

If I had a rose for every time I thought of you, I would walk through a garden forever.

 So, it's obvious to tell I survived my half-marathon and birthday weekend. I was super sore after my run but it was a good pain. I like to think of my pain as a feeling of accomplishment (although I may complain about it for awhile). So, i bet you are dying to know my time for a 13.1 mile run. How does this sound for a first timer?  1:46:18  By the way, I beat a girl from my high school (who thought she could walk on the XC team senior year and be good) by over 24 minutes!! HA - I could have run another 3 miles before you finished!!!! That makes me feel so good. Here are my official stats from the race:

Overall, I finished in the top 15% which is more than I thought I was capable of.

So after recovering from my half marathon, I went out for my birthday. I would call it a success - I even made it back to Lena's place and brushed my teeth before falling asleep. BONUS - I didn't have a hangover the next day either :) Some people would say that's a failure of a 21st birthday but I am calling it a success. The drive back to dad's was a little boring by myself but I made it!

Free drinks at the Nitty. Yes, I loved the green balloon.

This is why I love my friends - thanks Kiley for the photo :) xxx

What else have I been doing? Kayaking...that's about it. I finished packing and there is barely any room in my bedroom for me to sleep!! Oh well, in 11 more days I'll be hitting the road. Yes, I"ll be leaving some of my closest friends but I know I'll be seeing them soon enough. If Anna and I can make it work with a freaking ocean between us, I don't think a rolling mountain range and a few hundred miles will be any challenge. I found this quote somewhere a long time ago and I guess it would work in this situation:

We are together; never apart.
Maybe in distance; but not at heart.

So in 11 days I'll literally be packing my life into 2 vehicles and driving into the darkness with only the stars and moon to guide me to Raleigh. Then I'll be driving into the sunrise once the sun decides it's a good time to show her face again. It will be goodbye to everything I've ever know and hello to grits for breakfast. *Grits aren't nearly as good as oatmeal and look disgusting. All I know is that Raleigh feels like home to me already. I could feel it when I was visiting NCSU for graduate student recruitment weekend. It wasn't an overwhelming feeling that I got when I first toured Madison, it was something totally different. As I stood on campus, I felt like I had been there my whole life and it felt right - like there was no other place in the world for me to be spending the next few years of my life. That's good because I have to be there now for awhile!! As long as a certain 3 people come visit me (you know who you are!!) whilst I'm becoming a Master in my studies, I think life will be pretty damn good.

Now off to entertain the Tank again. It will be her birthday on Friday. My little puppy that slept in my arms now takes up 2/3 of the couch. Happy First Birthday Annie <3

First day we got her :) Little Tank

Needless to say, Annie isn't this small either. Now I have a full-fledged Tank at a whopping 70 some pounds.