home again home again, jiggidty-jig

sorry again for the belated writing! believe it or not, i was away for new years eve and enjoying the snowy lands of cape cod in wintertime far too much to get myself sitting infront of a non-fire-based activity. truly though, it has been a wonderful vacation. or rather, was a wonderful vacation. now, as always it is back to the old pulse and grind. is that a saying? or did i make that up?

i flew up to cape cod early on new years eve day, sitting with a crying baby behind me and a parent that apparently thought it was a good time to teach the child a lesson by allowing her to cry and cry and cry, instead of comforting her or telling her to shush. now, i understand, parenting is hard and of course you want to instill values in your lil' uns. but not on a plane, and not with a cranky 2 year old who loves to kick the seat in front (i.e., moi). we landed to see a dusting of snow coming down in boston, but it very quickly became a torrent of snowfall, leading to parts of the drive that equaled "white-outs", where you couldnt see anything in front, except maybe every once in a while, the dim headlights of a car about 2 car lengths ahead of you. kind of scary. youd have to ask someone else, however, about the details of just how scary it was, because this kid was asleep in the backseat. i tell you, its something about me in backseats, warm and toasty, i always fall asleep. i used to even do it in the passenger seat. im like a little baby, rock me away.

anyway nye was lovely and calm, benjamin made a delicious dinner and we sat infront of a fire and i think we managed to avoid any nye television until about an hour before the ball dropped. the rest of the weekend was lovely as well-- a brunch on new years day with some family friends (including adorable playful children of all ages, and an odd concotion called 'bennies', their take on eggs benedict that involved, instead of hollandiase, a pool of butter all over eggs/english muffin/plate. talk about intense); walks in the snow; candlepin bowling and drinking at 2pm on friday; thrift-store hopping; diner-breaksfasting; take-out dinner-ing; and marathon-watching of anthony bourdain's show on the travel channel, no reservations.

back in miami, back at work, remembering what it feels like to get frustrated at myself and my writing, have minor hissy fits (internally) before i just either let it go until the editing stage later, or just take some deep breaths and deal with the trouble in question. its not bad to be back, its just been a long day. one gets used to the long hours of sleep and rest and nothingness and afternoon beers for a while, and then pow... back to reality. i suppose i can look on the bright side but right about now, the only thing rushing me along is the threat of more and more work, piling up, until the end of the month. alas, what is one to do. i remain thankful that its about 5.30pm and still sunny out, and that when i walk out of here, instead of bundling up more in clothing, i will be able to take sweaters off and roll windows down.

my little halfsie marathon is in about 3 weeks, im pretty excited and right about now, its the only thing thats getting me running. that, and i finally have a replacement nike/ipod chip to run along with so that lance armstrong can whisper, "you've just set a personal record!" or perhaps paula radcliff can send a congratulatory, "you just had your fastest mile!". yes, they do insert such comments, and yes, i look forward to them.

new years resolutions? do people still do those? ive got a myriad including:

(a) practice spanish more
(b) run more races
(c) volunteer some free time.

item (b) i am confident i can do, since it only involves a momentary "oh that doesnt sound so bad." items (a) and (c) on the other hand, involve some serious comittment, i.e., kind of like my constant new years resolution of "lift weights." i make it every year. its good for me. but i honestly am so bored by it. well, what can you do. tis the nature of the beast to always think we can accomplish something new with a new year, break up the monotany of winter time, make changes to ourselves. in the end, i think its just a distraction to help us remember that we will not die in the abyss of seasonal affective disorders and clouds and that we, in all likelihood, have seriously eaten too many cookies in the past few weeks and need to get back to normal. enough depressing talk.

im off to finish up some last minute work; ill write again if my internet magically reappears at home although right now, i am sadly thinking it wont happen... please, cant someone de-securitize their wireless?

xoxoxo