Out With the Old...

Otherwise known as... A Most Expensive Chew Toy

She's doing it again.

I always know I'm spending too much time in front of my laptop when Aiko-chan, my trusty feline companion, takes it upon herself to use the top right corner of the screen as her new favorite chew toy. 

She may be right, but this habit makes me crazy.

At the moment life has settled into a new normal of the busy-ness of work,  (Course selection, impending graduation, and everything else...) and the busy-ness of academic life.  That is... reading, reading, and more reading.  Then thinking about the reading.  And writing about the reading.  Finally, talking about the reading with my comrades in all things educational at Stetson. 

I love being back in school, and the positive changes it has brought into my life, mainly getting to spend each and every Saturday with like-minded, hard-charging people.  Not that I don't spend Monday to Friday with those kind of people, but the Saturday group widens my circle!  They are shiny and new, and our conversations exhilarate me to the point that I have trouble falling asleep on Saturday nights.

It's true.  

I hate admitting this sad bit of information.

As for training, despite the fact that I proudly proclaimed excuses are pathetic, I continue to use them to get out of running. 

It's too hot.  (Really-- 80 degrees in February is ridiculous.)

It's too windy.  

I'm tired.  

I have too much to do.  

The truth of the matter is... I just don't want to.  At least, not right now.  In the wee hours of Sunday morning I'll be getting up to catch the Disney bus to the starting line.  I will run 13.1 miles.  It won't be easy but it's not supposed to be. 

I will surely be hobbling most of next week. 

I will take the hobbling as my punishment.

Because at the end of the day, it's about getting out there, and conquering demons.  Goodness knows I had my share this past year.  Goodness knows they were overcome.

***

Sunday I traded in my speedy Scion for a Honda hybrid.  I have wanted a hybrid for a long time, and found a deal I couldn't refuse.  Especially once I figured out that my car was worth A LOT more than I owed on it, and could get a good trade-in.  I walked into Carmax and three hours later drove away in a spiffy silver car.  I have been smiling-- broadly--  ever since. 

Out with the old, in with the new.