Life lately [brain + photo dump]

Hello loves!

I keep telling myself I'll keep up with blogging better once my comprehensive exam is done, once classes are done, once I graduate... but the fact is, life is BUSY. I finished my comprehensive exam over FOUR weeks ago, and classes ended Monday...

So, I hope you'll just be happy to see me when I'm here and not miss me too much when I'm gone. Like your favorite flaky friend who is oh-so-hard to make plans with but whom you love dearly. :)

Here's a glimpse at my life lately. (that is, the part of my life that wasn't work + papers + presentations + job applications...)

I attempted for a while to walk or run a mile a day in May. That fell apart pretty quickly (#postmarathonslump), but I did manage to convince Pat to take a walk with me on campus one evening!

He took this sneaky picture of me while I was taking the first picture. (#bloggerproblems)

I celebrated my last Capstone class on a patio with my lovely friend Ashley.

 I ran a 5k that was 19 seconds away from my best time ever. (I'll take it!)

My wonderful friend Sam visited, and we went disc golfing! (aka the boys golfed and I walked around and talked at them :)

 This is what a disc-golf walk ends up looking like:

And finally, I had my last college class this Monday. These lovely ladies and I started together and now we're finishing together. (also, you can see in this picture that I chopped my hair off :)

Upcoming in my life: Me and Pat are both graduating this weekend!! Which means -- The Meeting Of The Families. My little sister, Anna, has met Pat's dad and aunt, but they're the only ones who have met. So my parents will be meeting his dad and aunt and everyone will be meeting Pat's sister. It should be exciting!

We also each have three ceremonies!! Luckily, two of them overlap for both of us. Pat and I will each miss one of the others' ceremonies (does that make sense? his business ceremony is at the same time as my hooding ceremony. booo).

And we're also having a graduation party Saturday! SO MANY THINGS.

And then next week, we're taking offffff on a trip to Oregon and Washington. I'm SO excited. We're going to hike Mt. St. Helens, meet Shauna and Tim and see my friend Jacque and do lots of cool things.

I am not sure when I'll be posting again. :( If you want to keep up with me, I'll be on Twitter and Instagram -- find me there!!!

Lots of love,

Who do you spend your time with?

Hello, friends!

How's your Wednesday going? I'm happy to be halfway through the week that Pat comes home! He's my favorite human to spend time with :)

Which is a GREAT transition to today's post. My blogging bff Tamara is hosting a thought provoking link up for the next forever -- 30 topics in 30 weeks, inspired by these two articles about things to do for yourself and things to stop doing to yourself. Because I know everything Tam does is awesome, I decided to participate.

And today's topic is based on the first two pieces of advice:

Stop spending time with the wrong people and start spending time with the right people.

This topic is actually quite timely for me, as I am trying to sort through some friend feelings right now. And feelings are the worst.

Over the years, I've had a few friendships that aren't so great for a little while. One of us does something to hurt the other's feelings, or one of us drops off the face of the earth for a long time. Sometimes I'm the bad guy in these scenarios, and sometimes I'm not. But, mostly, we've always gone back. There has almost always been a final push to say, hey, you're really important to me, and I want you in my life. And then we've rebuilt a healthier relationship.

So currently, I'm struggling with a friend. And it has been probably about two years of not-great friendship. But recently I took some steps to repair it. (based on the logic that someday, I'm going to get married, and I always pictured this person at my wedding. maybe dramatic, but it pushed me to pick up the phone.)

Already, though, I'm feeling anxious about this relationship. You know that cheesy saying, don't make someone a priority when you're only an option to them? I have always kind of rolled my eyes at that one, but it's pertinent to this situation, I think. I have felt like an option for so long. A back up plan. I don't want to just be an option anymore. Because that's not how I operate, and it hurts when someone treats me like that.

So how do you know when to cut the cord? When to wash your hands of someone and move on?

The inspiration article says, "Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you. If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you. You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot. Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth."

I hate the idea of giving up on someone. I love people, and I still love this friend. But trying to force a relationship when it makes me feel crappy and anxious? I don't want that either.

What do you do when both the relationship and the idea of giving up make you feel bad?


I don't really know where I'm going with this. This whole post is probably vague and obnoxious. But I guess I'm curious --

Have you all ever had a friend who made your heart hurt, but you couldn't let them go, either? What did you do?

Birthday weekend!

Hi friends!

I turned 25 last weekend! Wooooo! I'm old! I decided to visit home over my birthday, and had a great weekend!

Saturday morning I ran a 10k. I wasn't going for a PR as I'd just done a long run the day before for marathon training, but I made it in 1:04:02 , which is only about a minute and a half slower than my PR for this distance. So I'll take it!

(In other running news, the fact that I was able to run this so fast-for-me makes me think I'm doing something wrong with my long runs -- walking too much or taking it too easy. Going to work on eating more so maybe I'll have more energy to run them better. Any tips from seasoned pros?)

Later that day I saw Divergent with my bff from high school, Meleah, and her bro and husband and my sister and her bf. Got all that? I was a dummy and didn't take any pics with Anna, my sister, but Meleah's husband took a bunch of pictures of me and Meleah when we weren't ready yet. (14 in all!) I think they show our relationship pretty well!

I told Meleah I have more pictures with her than any of my friends because she always remembers to take a picture! Unfortunately, all the recent ones pretty much look just like this -- haha. Very posed and on purpose. So I kind of love the extra ones Ricardo took!

At home, my mom made me a cake! Anna decorated it. Isn't it lovely? (The candles are in an A shape.)

Other highlights from the weekend include spending time with this little furry face and my other pets and getting to see one of my bffs from college, Layne, and her girlfriend for lunch. :) It made for a couple really happy days!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes on Instagram and Twitter! They made me smile all day long :)

I'm still mostly here.

Hello friends.

I had a big, "I'm still here" post planned for the beginning of this week, but then I landed on the struggle bus and have been trying to hold things together -- final papers and projects and everyday work tasks have grown infinitely more difficult in the midst of the tragic loss of a friend.

Anthony, Brenna, Gianfranco and me -- part of a photo scavenger hunt in RA training in 2009

Gianfranco and I have known each other for about four years. This picture was taken when we'd known each other maybe a week. He was a genuine, kind, warm and funny friend -- the type who always thought of others before himself. He has most certainly been there as I cried and any time I needed him and was there for so many of my best memories of college. He has touched many lives. He'll be so very missed, and I will be very sad to never yell "Gianfranco!" again as I always did when he walked into a room.

I know, though, that this space is a huge source of comfort and stress relief and friendship, so I'm looking forward to posting more regularly again.

So, with little ado, I'll be returning in full force tomorrow with a post about Dance Marathon I wrote before anything happened with Gianfranco. I hope you'll forgive my long absence, and hope you'll join me again as I attempt to balance all things and manage to post on this blog.

Hug your loved ones, friends. Life is too short.