Gettin' R' DONE.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is just step back a bit, you know?

I haven't had much time for blogging lately. Or returning emails. Or facebooking and whatnot.

But you know what?

I'm gettin' it done.

What I have been doing, is supervising 32 students in a sea of 2,500 high school students from around the world, in the same hotel, in a huge city, for four days. Kind of a big freakin' responsibility. The kind that keeps you up all night wondering if they are really where they say they are, and gets you up early as your phone is ringing and texts are buzzing and the door is knocking. But, the kind that allows you to see a few amazing friends, a super-awesome friend and her equally awesome fiance, have a long long theraputic discussion with one Nutter who I am so proud of, and even go for a run on the Lakeshore with another Nutter I'm lucky to have as a friend. And, even run into one Ironfriend on his way home from work amidst thousands of Chicagoans on Monroe Avenue while I snuck out to do a quick "sanity run" after a less-than perfect, Murphy's Law kind of check in scenario on the first day.

8 out of 32 students of mine walked home with awards amidst some serious and international competition, and I'm crazy proud of them.

I've been snuggling with my Bug as much as I can, since leaving him was NOT EASY. At all.

I've been celebrating Matt's 34th birthday and Valentine's Day, with his respective gifts of Cavs/Pistons tickets for 2/22 and Tribe Opening Day Tickets for Good Friday since we are both off. I know. I'm a pretty good wife. ;)

I've been trying, rather unsuccessfully, to un-bury myself from a huge pile of work and issues that have built up on my desk this week. But I'm getting better at walking away and trying to exhale and say, "It'll all get done somehow."

And I've been training. A LOT.

New Orleans is 7 weeks from tomorrow, and I'm feeling pretty good. I don't know what's going to happen as far as heat and humidity and things that I cannot control, but I do know that I am doing all that I can on my end.

I'll have this body as ready as it can be.

I'm kicking my own butt every Thursday at a 2 hour, intense like nobody's business, sweat-dripping-off-my-nose-and-chin crazy interval hill insanity of a spin class geared towards triathletes and roadies. And let me just say that I've never felt so good on the bike at this point in the season in my LIFE. Hopefully the weather will turn a bit so I can bundle up and get outside to test my fitness. My running is coming along--today I did just under 11 miles and felt great. Negative split the thing in the snow. My light lifting has allowed me to strengthen and see a few little muscles if I move certain ways which is kind of nice. The pool is harder to get to, but when I do, I make it count. I'm making peace with my swimming and know that my slightly-better-than-mediocre swim is still pretty good, and also to understand that I have the biggest amount to gain not in the water, but on the run.

Seven weeks away, which means it's really like mid-to-late June in my normal season. Time to focus in for a few more weeks as best I can, and balance as much as I can as I enter my busiest time of the school year--state testing and the final 3 months before the AP test. Right about now I'm wondering why I thought this was a good idea...really, April 5th, you IDIOT?!?!?! One month before the AP test, DURING our final Model UN Conference, and with most of your training in the DEAD OF THE OHIO WINTER? Brilliant.

But I'm reminded that I do my best work under a bit of pressure. I always have, and somehow I'll make this work. My lowest grade point average in college came in the semester when I had the least amount of credit hours and didn't work at the library.

(It was a 3.4, by the way. Because TRISARATOPS = A HUGE NERD.)

So load me up with these final few credit hours. Somehow I'll get there, and I have a whole new sense of what matters. I've been forced to readjust and cut out a few things, and am still learning as I go how to let go of what doesn't matter. Aren't we all, right?

The race will be fun, but the real fun will be testing myself, exploring a city full of history and music and food and my friends.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go snuggle with my Bug. :)