Finding peace and joy running up hills...

Hey, that title would actually make a good facebook status.
It's been a rough week since the awesome long run on Tuesday. The Jewish holiday of Passover is fast approaching. While I'm totally in favor of having 4 of the next 10 working days off, it's made for a busy work week. I described this week (the week before Passover) to someone who is not Jewish as, "like what we go through to get everyhing ready for Christmas but times a hundred". Since I'm a fairly lax cleaner by any standards, (and I don't have to clean my house) I contribute at the office by doing coverage for my colleagues. Which only added to the mayhem this week.

Thursday morning I had an awesome run with Beth. Even more awesome was when she said, "you're getting faster". Win! I spent the rest of the day remembering how early 5:00am is when you stay awake after it. By about 4:00pm I was ready to go home and crawl in bed. And then I spent an hour trying to leave the office. (Refer to the above note about coverage.) On the way home from work I swung by one of my co-worker's houses and saw first hand all the cleaning and cooking work she has to do. I had another helpful moment as she was cooking spaghetti sauce (homemade, she is such a good cook). I said, "how are you gonna use that?" And she didn't know. I suggested spaghetti squash which is actually a food that can be eaten for Passover (Hey, I'm learning) and she thought it was a good idea.

I stopped at Chipotle on the way home and went whole hog with a burrito plus chips and guacamole.

Friday I slept in because I had a short work day. (Win!) I had a really nice visit with one person. A KFC was conveniently located between her house and my office so I patronized them for lunch. (It's so bad but it's soooo good.) I kept my nose to the grind stone the rest of the day at work. Then, I cried uncle, turned my phone off and packed my computer.

And I went for a run. It can only be the hill route that's making me faster in all other running so I feel some incentive to keep it up. I didn't need to do 4.7 miles, I only needed about 2 miles but it felt cheap to just run up Montreal hill and then back down it. It wasn't actually 'till about mile 3.5 that I could feel my anxiety (about work) finally let go and leave my body so I'm glad I went the whole way. I still cannot run all the way up Montreal Ave but I do much more than the first time I tried. I usually walk a few steps under this pedestrian bridge which is a nice target and I usually get stopped at the Edgecumb light. (I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't stopped at that light because I usually count on that break.) Then I can make it all the way up to Snelling, no problem. What usually winds up hurting the most is the last two blocks of Bohland Ave that are super steep. But then I get to run back down Montreal Ave and I can get up a good head of steam. Today I paced a skateboarder going down the hill.

After the run I came home and did some case notes. Now that they're done I can relax for the weekend. Tomorrow I'm going to the Mall of America with Amanda, three teenagers and a five year old. I'll let you know how it goes but I think it'll be fun.

I am also still pleasantly surprised by Pandora. For some reason it plays commercials on my work computer but they're disabled on my home computer. I must have an extension or script on the home one that work computer doesn't have.