4 Score and 5 Months Ago

Goodness, how time flies! It has been almost 5 months (minus a few days) since I last updated you on my happenings, and let me tell you--there are a lot of them! You can thank my unfortunate case of food poisoning (yes, on New Year's Day) for this post, as I really have nothing else that I want to be doing other than curling up with my laptop. Watching episodes of White Collar, my new Netflix obsession. Catching up on blogs from the past 3 days, during which I was in Philly with the bestie, Katie, and her husband, Tommy.

So what have I been up to, you ask? Let's see...

• I am officially employed with an excellent pharmaceutical company. It keeps me more than occupied during the week, and makes the weekends that much more enjoyable. Ah, welcome to the real world of grownups, Liz. I've been initiated into society, which I'm reminded of every time I look at my pay stubs and realize just how much money is being taken out for taxes--yikes!
• I have an AMAZING apartment in the Historical Downtown area of Charlottesville. If you are picturing an older house with amazing architecture, then you have hit the nail on the head. Think open rooms, plenty of sunlight, dark wood fixtures in the kitchen, clawfoot tub, bay window in the bedroom... Need I say more? What's nice is that it's at the end of a circle, so it's quiet, and it's the upper floor of an older house that has been divided into two separate living spaces. My landlord conveniently lives on the first floor, so it makes it very convenient for rent purposes, if things need repair, etc.
• I am back in the gym! Well...kinda. Crossfit has gone by the wayside. For now. I'm hoping to reincorporate it at a later date, but I had a period of time where I was getting acclimated to my job and the gym was just not as appealing as it used to be after a long day of driving. Additionally, I need to get my shoulder checked out, because it currently hurts to do any type of shoulder activity involving weights. This gets VERY frustrating, especially because my right shoulder is perfectly fine and IS able to throw around some weights, but the left just isn't having it. I can pinpoint almost precisely what happened that caused this, but it's kind of a boring story. And not really fitness-related at all. Which makes it that much worse, right?
• When I said I had a period of time where I wasn't much motivated to go to the gym, I forgot to mention that was immediately following my month-long running spree. 28 days, so even though it was February-long, the last time I checked, February is a month. Just happens to be the shortest of all of them. I would have gotten those last 2-3 days too if it weren't for getting a pesky bug at the end of it all. Could have been those 2 days that I ran through Hurricane Sandy's effect on the area, including rain and wind. But don't be fooled by how awesomely dumb that sounds--Sandy did not do much damage to my neck of the woods. She was more like a miserable, miserable storm.
• Speaking of running, I got a little crazy ambitious and registered for the Pittsburgh Marathon. Full marathon. My friends are doing the half, so I thought, "Why not do the full? You have 2 halves under your belt already, one being a trail run, so I think it's about time." Then I upped the ante by agreeing to fundraise for my registration (and then some) for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. As I briefly step up onto my soapbox, please check out my St. Jude Heroes Personal Page for a little more background as to why I chose St. Jude, and why I chose such a lofty goal of $1000. If you are able or willing to make a contribution, be it as small as you wish, I will love you forever, and dedicate part of my race to you.
• Pittsburgh Marathon is May 5, but what until then? Only 2 (potentially 3) more substantial races--the Charlottesville 10 Miler and the Shamrock 1/2 Marathon. Yes, ambition. I have it.
• I embraced the holidays a little too well, and because of that, I have a little ways to go to get my fitness level and my body to where it belongs. I chose to say that rather than "to where I want it to be," because that is such a relative phrase, and I am so self-critical that I would never be able to achieve that. I'm slowly cleaning up my nutrition, which is pretty darn easy when you have food poisoning. (Because you can't really eat... Because I thought that needed explaining...)

So as you can see, I have been and will be a busy girl! I have a few other goals that I'm working on exploring, but I do not yet want to verbalize them, because I need to set a foundation for them first. And I think some of these require pacing myself. I will keep you slightly less out of the dark than I have these past 5 months! Promise!

I fully intend on posting regularly (and with pictures next time, but I'm not too keen on them today for the sake of making this a little less daunting). I never meant to leave my blog unattended for so long, so please start holding me accountable, friends. P.S. Shout-out to Lacey who has already done so! Love you (and the rest of my small following)!

Hugs!