This Song is on Repeat Right Now

This song is playing on repeat right now.  Pugbear and I are dancing around the apartment with excitement.  Pugbear is a wicked smaht dansah, didn't you know?

May, The Light At The End of the Tunnel

When the students in the cohort ahead of us spoke to us at orientation last August, they weren't kidding.  "Your spring semester.... be prepared.  It's not easy.  You will lose your mind."  (Rough quote, of course).  The amount of major papers and projects that I have to complete during this month are kind of terrifying.

I'm currently counting down to May when I have an entire month off from school.  Every time I think of something I really want to do, read, see, watch, etc. I put it on my list for "To-Do in May."  Based on my list, you'd think that I didn't have to work in May, but you'd be wrong.

Currently my list o' fun includes:

• Reading Stephen King's 11/22/63.
• Watching Modern Family from the start.
• Pack my apartment for a move.
• Watching MadMen from the beginning.
• Volunteer at the library.
• Vampire Diaries?  (uh... maybe I accidentally started watching this while procrastinating a school project....)
• Pretty Little Liars?
• Watch Downton Abbey
• Attend a book club meeting.
• Run with friends as much as possible (May is usually the most awesome month for training, and lucky for me I won't be injured from a marathon this year!)
• Get in some biking miles.
• Hang out with all of my friends. I don't now how many times I've said, "sorry I can't, but get ahold of me in May I'll SO HAVE TIME TO BE YOUR FRIEND AGAIN!!"

Any other area of pop culture I should quickly catch up on?!?!  Get me caught up on 2011-2012 you guys!

Fall Race Plans + Alabama Orientation Recap

My running has been pretty boring this week.  Easy paced miles with low heart rate, and striders thrown in at the end.  My allergies are attempting to wreak havoc on my system, and after 3 nights of sleep, my insomnia reared it's ugly head the last two nights.  Meh.  I figured it was high time to provide you with my Alabama orientation recap.

But first, I wanted to share that I had made a decision regarding a fall marathon.  But wait?  You think to yourself.  Didn't you already make this decision?  Like...twice or so?  Yes yes I did.  School is going awesome, and it's a ton of work, reading, writing, etc.  Much like I imagined it to be.  Surprisingly, I am adjusting better than I expected.  However, the more research I do about marathon training and specifically heart rate training, I realize that my endurance is not where I want it to be for a go at 26.2 miles.  I'm sure the race would go fine, and probably better than my last two injury fests, but I want to really knock it out of the park, and I don't think a quick 5 week schedule crammed in to heavy study sessions is going to do the trick.

Instead, I'm taking on my back up plan race of the Fargo FM half on October 8th.  The course is super flat, and should be nice and chilly.  I love the half marathon distance, sand that's what I'm most prepared to run, so that's what I'll do.  And then because halfs don't destroy your body like fulls do, I can still run some fun local races in October before the blizzards arrive.  :)

And shockingly, I plan to employ a standard length of marathon training for my spring race:  my 2nd go at the Green Bay Marathon!  And during the frigid winter months leading up to that training program, I will be working my tushy off with heart rate training to get my endurance where it needs to be.  #yaycloud

Ok, on to the bama recap. :)

I arrived in Birmingham, AL on August 17th, and met some of my cohortians at the airport.  (There are 43 of us in my incoming class).  A shuttle took us to our hotels in Tuscaloosa, and we got to see some of the horrific tornado damage.  Interesting fun fact:  I got my acceptance email an hour before the tornado hit, so I was glued to my tv as if it was "my" home being undertaken by storms.  Yikes.  We went to the nearby restaurant/bar to meet some of the other students and professors.

Thursday morning orientation started bright and early and it was go go go for about 12 hours.  There was a ton of information to cram in to our nerdy brains.  I kept finding myself analyzing the group, particularly in terms of introvert tendencies.  Typically in the librarian profession, you see a high number of introverted individuals, and orientation was true to form.  It was interesting to see people need to take breaks from interacting with people to "recharge" and people that would need to move on from group conversations when the group became too large, and thus unmanageble for them. :)

I guess the next two days were fairly similar to the first two, with lots of information thrown at us.  We did get to have a night out on "the strip" where we all felt like old farts compared to the little 21 year olds.  I managed to take a sweet photo ID pic, and then the worst photo of all time for our cohort "directory."  I'll have to share that on a day that someone needs a major laugh. :)

So enjoy the random pictures from the weekend.  I left my camera batter charger at home, so I had my cell to take pictures with.  I whined about this 1200x.

running + tuscaloosa..... yayzies

Gorgas Library. Pretty, right?

Denny Chimes.

Cool tinman sculpture.

roll tide!

Denny Chimes from the Gorgas Library steps.

Sweet library/harry potter shirt?  check!

Librarian cardigan?  check!

Bama pride?  check!

Sweet ID pic.  aka I WIN AT LIFE.

Surrounding the Denny chimes are the captains names, hand prints, and cleat prints.

Back to School + Weekly Wistlist: Apartment/Home Edition

I will be the first to admit that I am terrible at decorating my casa.  I'd like to think that I have good taste, but since I rarely entertain it seems silly to spend the $$ on my apartment.  I mean... hello.... running shoes are expensive!  Anyway, I've been compiling this list for awhile now, and it's pretty much my dream place.  Hopefully the links are all still good!

My current bedroom is green (shocker!) but I love the soft whimsicalness of this pale yellow.  I had a yellow room growing up, but this is so much more chic.
Buy it here.

Buy it here. Painfully out of my price range, but I love the retro look, and obviously the color tones. #greenandyellow

Buy it here. I'm obsessed with book shelves (yet another shocker).  I love that this one doubles as shelves for books/nicknacks/ktochkes/whatevs.

Buy it here. In my world, these curtains totally "go" with the yellow bedding.  So we'll leave it at that, I guess.  Ignoring the fact that the window I have in my bedroom is ginormous and wouldn't fit this at all.

I am a faithful "fan on to block out the noise of life, all night long" sort of gal.  Have been since college and living in the loud ass dorms.  Eventually my beloved wind machine will die, and I would like one of these pretty lovelies.

Buy it here.

Speaking of home decorating, I actually got a chance to hang up some items in my apartment that I've had leaning against the walls for 2 years now.  Meh... good enough for me!  Kyle brought me over a desk to use for my online classes (rolltide!) and decided to bust out the hammer and help me out.  I was able to set up my little desk area, for the most part.  I have a few book-nerd-esque prints that I need to frame and hang.

He also hung up my sweet bib board that I've had done forever.  Seriously it's been done so long I have enough bibs to make #2.  I love seeing all the race bling hanging below it.

And finally, my gorgeous back to school bag gift from Jenn.  I heart her.  And this gorg bag.

I start classes tonight!  Good bye sanity and free time for the next 24 months.  ROLLTIDE!

Nerdy library shirt and librarian cardi...check!

ZOMG Back to School

Attention everyone:  I become a grad student in a week.

In related news:  holy shit!

About a month back, Kyle and I were in Target when I happened upon their back to school display.  Instead of being annoyed about a back to school display in the middle of the summer, I instead freaked out and insisted on back to school shopping!  Every fall since I have been out of college I have been very jealous of everyone who was doing back to school shopping.  I heart school.  In other related news, I’m a nerd.

I’m in the process of getting everything ready to go for school, I found a desk (shopping in Kyle’s parents’ basement FTW!), bought a couple of prints from Nan Lawson of two of my favorite literary heroines to hang at my desk, along with some previous prints I had bought from her.  Bought some great colorful felt pens and highlighters.  You know…. All of the FUN stuff.

Katniss

Hermione

All of the important stuff is still on my “to-do” list, and last night it almost gave me a panic attack.  As of Wednesday night I still needed to:

• Buy a headset (it’s online coursework after all)
• Buy books for course #2 that were just given to us
• Attend an hour session to make sure my computer is compatible with the software for classes
• Buy a suitcase since mine broke on the way home from Vegasssssssssssssssss
• Do laundry
• Pack
• Switch over car insurance
• Cancel cable (since I’m quitting cable, I figure it’s smart that I don’t pay for the 6 days I’m out of town)

Not to mention that in my head I THOUGHT IT WAS THURSDAY.  And Kyle’s birthday is on Tuesday the day before I leave, AND I HAD YET TO GET ANYTHING TOGETHER FOR HIS BIRTHDAY EITHER.

[insert panic attack here please]

But then I woke up Thursday morning and realized it was actually just Thursday and not Friday like I had originally thought, and I calmed down a bit.  Uh anxiety…. you’re a be-atch.

I’ll get all of the stuff done on my list.  I’ll get my 13 mile long run in Monday morning before work.  I’ll make a damn good effort at a 5k PR this weekend (apparently it’s been 14 months since I’ve raced a 5k….weird).  Kyle will have a great birthday.  And I’ll be the smartest person in my class.

Ok, that’s the other thing.  What if I’m dumb all of a sudden?  It’s been over 5 years since I’ve been a student.  Dear Brain,  Please still be smart.  Thanks.  Xoxo Jerbear

And I’ll leave you with this random tidbit, whenever the topic of school comes up when I’m talking with Kyle, we immediately break in to the Billy Madison “back to school” song.  We seriously sing it in its entirety trading off each line.  We’re the biggest dorks.  But I like it.

Tips for this back to school girl?  Alabama kids:  any restaurants I need to eat it?  Bars I need to test out?  Running routes to explore?  I need to make the most of my short stay down south!