Absentee blogger

Hey everyone!  It has been a while since I last posted and I am sincerely sorry. A combination of general apathy, malaise and a crazy schedule have kept me from updating. I know I've missed tons of your own posts as well. Aside from knowing that I am long overdue to update this, I don't have the energy to say too much.  I'm on the couch in my jammies right now, down with a cold. I did get my butt out of bed this morning and muscled through my 22 miler, but it was an ugly one.  I am proud that I didn't walk, but boy I came close a few times. Last week's 14 miler wasn't much better, and between those two long runs I only ran 1 other time in the last 8 days. Awful, really awful. This is definitely not the ideal time for me to be falling down on my training.  MCM is 21 days away now, so damn close.  Honestly, I am so ready for this to be over.  I'm tired and overwhelmed. I hope my excitement for the day itself doesn't ebb, because I think I'd really miss out. I haven't sacrificed the last 18 weeks of my life to check out now. 

The new job is incredibly intense. I can't think of a better way to described it.  I feel like I have been thrown right into the fire and I have no clue what I am doing.  The firm has all these "onboarding" new employee training modules that I have to complete in addition to specific reading and training modules that my particular program requires me to complete. This first week was mostly spent in a program-wide training called a "No Fly" with all the staff from across the US here in DC, in a conference room, getting updates on all kinds of topics related to IDAS and the Global Grants Program.  Being new, a lot of it went over my head.  I followed along as best I could and took a lot of notes. The upside to the whole week was the opportunity to meet everyone in my program who would otherwise be across the US in their home offices. Everyone seems really nice and I'm looking forward to working with them. We did some fun team building stuff at the end of the week as well, out at a farm in western VA. This next week should be easier, I hope. At the very least I should have some time to knock out more of these required modules so I can move on to real work. My PML (boss) wants to get me a few clients as soon as she can, and that both excites and terrifies me. 

School.  Yeah, it isn't going well.  Between training and the job transition my class has really suffered. I was already having a hard time getting interested in it and now I'm almost completely apathetic. I have a paper due next week and my rough draft was graded very poorly. I went to the library today after my run to find some articles for my critique but I didn't last long. Their research database was down so I was severely limited in what I could look up.  I'll probably have to go back tomorrow and hope that the system is back up. I meant to stay longer and write a bit but I was feeling pretty awful so I just left. Back here at home I'm waiting for the cold medicine to kick in. There are cookies in the oven (no, not from scratch) even though I won't be able to taste them. Considering it is already after 3 I think I'll be foregoing my nap today and just go to bed early. I'll be chasing a glass of wine with some Nyquil at about 7 pm and that should do it. Tomorrow is another day. If I can get a few articles read before I pass out tonight I might be able to get some writing done tomorrow. Once Monday comes it will be back to business. I can't do school work at the office like I used to and my nights this week are full of running and band practice, so this weekend is my chance to knock the paper out. Fingers crossed for me, please.

All in all, I'm pretty overwhelmed. Not at a breaking point or anything, but I could definitely use any positive energy and motivation that you have to share. I miss your comments and I'm sorry it took me this long to post anything. I hope your runs and races have been going well and I'll try my best to catch up on your activities.  I'll check in again soon, I promise.