Onto the Next, Second by Second

Okay, so I've been pretty busy lately filling my days with as much summer fun as possible before I head back to school for what is certain to be an unconventional and slightly challenging year.  Our building is completely under construction, and we are all in temporary rooms for the first few months of the year.  Then, some of us (my department included) will move rooms again, mid-year.  For this creature of habit and routine and order and type-A-organization, this whole process is BLOWING MY LITTLE MIND.  

(To say I'm a bit nervous is the understatement of the century.)

So I've been procrastinating thinking about it, and filling my days (and nights) with parties with friends, catching lightning bugs, early morning lake swims and runs, mid-afternoon coffee and blogs, trips to the skate park and the minor league baseball games, days at the beach, and running--finally!--kinda fast and sort of long(ish).

Love.

He asked if she could sit on his lap at storytime

at the new Cleveland Aquarium--very cool!

touching the horseshoe crab

Shark tank!

Proud of her hot dog

First game

Dollar ticket/dog/draft night!

My little sk8r boi

Night without kids = sometimes the best

Ana and I together on a rare moment we're not wearing spandex 

Focus

Me and my little Bean

Better watch out!

"Come back here, seagull!"

Because those days are about to be over.  And for that, I am sad.  I am already having some mid-night panics about it.  But howbuthowbuthowcanIdoallthisaggggghhh?  The answer of course, is one day, one SECOND at a time.  That's the only way.  So I am going to really, really try hard to stay in the moment, remember that everyone in my building is dealing with a bit of chaos this year (not just me), and that all that matters is that I am number 1 in Bug and Bean's book.

I decided to go out on a bang this summer and go hard at the Vermilion Olympic triathlon on August 19th.  There was a sprint and an olympic distance offered, and I know that the olympic is advertised as being significantly more difficult than the sprint--and than most races in the area.  But you know what? I've trained a lot this summer and I'm feeling pretty good.  Dr. Zak gave me the okay to start ramping up my mileage slowly, and he said a 10k should be fine in 2 weeks.  Part of me was trying to convince myself to just do the sprint.  But I think I've had too much fun riding and swimming this year to only spend that shorter time in the water and on the road racing, and if it means a slower race time and a slower bike split, then so be it.

I missed out on a lot of racing this year, so I might as well spend a few extra minutes on this course and have some freaking fun with it, right?

Especially the weekend before I head full-speed ahead into the whirlwind.

So that's what I'm going to try to do.  I'll head out for a ride tomorrow and hit a few hills since I know there are hills on this bike course.  I'll do a good Tuesday morning pool swim and a Thursday morning lake swim, and throw in a few good runs in there, too.  And I'll also pause this week to celebrate 8 pretty amazing years with my soulmate.

I feel like I get this look a lot...

August 7, 2004

This is what happened when the photographer told me to look at my flowers and "be serious."  My Evotri teammates also learned in Chattanooga that I quite simply CANNOT "be serious" in a picture....

So here's to staying in the moment, ignoring impending insanity, and taking it one moment at a time on that difficult course.  Because that's all we can really ever do anyway.