Thinking Out Loud #82

Happy Thinking Out Loud Thursday! Since this is an entire post of life catch-up, I’m going to skip the small talk and dive straight in. Let me know what’s happening in your life and mind in the comments and have a fabulous day!

1.) I went on the roughest long run Saturday. Or, roughest for me. It was the perfect day for a run. Pretty and all that. I was feeling kinda reluctant to get out there, but I figured that it’d be no problem once I did.

Wrong. Two miles in, I felt all sorts of bad. When I called my dad crying, I realized that if I knew nothing about me other than my average pain level, it was how I would expect to feel when I run. That is, I’m tight and stiff and in pain all day long, but usually that goes away when I run or work out. This was me trying to run with that pain. Ugh ugh ugh. Ultimately, I decided to keep going because I knew it would be better for me mentally to have done something. I’ve been running faster than I expected, but I knew this run was going to be slow. I turned off my tracking app and just decided to get through it. 

{The lake faded right into the sky. So perfect and peaceful.}

I stopped 6 miles out to reassess, stretch, and take pictures. I knew doing 12 would be stupid, so I headed into downtown for a total of 10 and then walked to Trader Joe’s. Not a resounding success, but a success nonetheless.

2.) My last few miles were not helped by the music playing. Due to a Pandora issue, I ended up running with just my music, which hasn’t been updated in years. Due to the fact that I never use my music app and don’t know how it works, I ended up listening to the same song for about 4 miles. It was a fun middle school flashback to hear Shake It the first two times, but then I wanted to die.

3.) Yes, I could have stopped to fix this issue, but I’m not sure I would’ve started running again. When I did stop, the first thing I did was Google how the heck to fix it. I love Google.

4.) On Sunday, I went to the final yoga class taught by the teachers-in-training that I trained with. They’ve completed two levels of training in the past three months and I could not be prouder of them. They’re amazing and inspiring, and I love them.

5.) I feared for my safety on the elliptical on Tuesday because the girl next to me was straight-up dancing. Her arms were flailing all in my space and she was in her own little world. Upon further investigation, I determined she was trying to mirror the music videos she was watching. How about… no?

6.) My International Econ teacher is adorable. Most teachers don’t get particularly excited about econ (do you blame them?), but you can hear the smile in his voice when he teaches. And then there’s his squirt bottle. Every other teacher casually wipes the blackboards with their hands when they need more space, leaving behind chalk marks that confuse the meaning of the new models they write, but he pauses class and very deliberately squirt the boards with water to make sure they’re totally clean before he refills them with Greek letters and graphs. I now recognize this isn’t as funny when you don’t see it happen each class, but I promise it’s oddly endearing in person.

He also gives some of the most ridiculous(ly challenging) problem sets, which makes him significantly less adorable.

7.) I’ve never felt like I could teach a class at this school, but when I was looking at the courses for next quarter, that changed. Big Problems: Anxiety… I mean, I’m an expert, y’all.

8.) I have so much respect for people who write poetry. I don’t always love it or get it, but I appreciate the creativity and manner of seeing the world required for it. We’re doing writing workshops in Crime & Story right now, where a few people write short fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry each week and the rest of us critique them. Only one person so far has chosen poetry, but it’s disturbing and beautiful.

9.) In case you need some happy reminders this week or ever:

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10.) And now I want to leave you with some of my favorite recipes & reads from the week.

• Tacos are great. Mini foods are great. These are the greatest. –> Mini Taco Cups
• Veggie fritters are seriously SO FUN. –> Cauliflower Fried Rice Fritters
• Making this with my mom’s mini skillets over spring break. –> Fudgy Paleo Skillet Brownie for Two
• I’m obsessed with this whole hygge thing. –> The Art of Creating Coziness for Yourself
• I cried. –> Why You Don’t Need to Be 100% Healthy to Be 100% Worthy of Love

Your turn:

What’s on your phone’s lock screen?

How was your Valentine’s Day? Full of work and chocolate. Typical.

Anything else I should know?