Last you heard from me, it was September 2013 and I was a week away from moving to New Jersey. For what it's worth, I accomplished the move and now, thank God, I am leaving. Next month, I'm moving BACK to DC (well, Northern Virginia). It's just four years short of when I left for Seattle and I've learned a lot in the time I've been gone. I fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and learned to love trips into New York City (only good reason I can think of to live in Jersey, frankly). I've had two jobs in my chosen field and am now making a lateral move that makes a lot of sense for my long-term goals at my organization. Most importantly, being away also means that I learned that DC is where I feel most at home. I have incredible friends with whom I have stayed close over these four years and, frankly, when I'm in DC, I'm surrounded by other nerdy people (many of them lawyers) who believe in changing the world. They're my people.
I feel like this is a good time to write something on my poor blog, because today was the start of my 18-week build-up to the New York City Marathon. It's such a long training cycle, but I'm in terrible running shape and I'm really going to need the structure of a plan to keep me on track and running frequently enough through the end of summer in the fetid swamp from hell (as I like to call DC). Today was only three slow miles (and, top tip, don't eat the snack of jerky before the run or else it will be awful and barfy), but it's a start. Tomorrow, I'll start updating the "potty training chart," as I like to call my printed marathon plans, with stickers (this is pretty much the exact method that my mother used to potty train me). In lieu of the stars that I used for London 2012, I have stickers with Cars characters. Seems appropriate.
So here's to new beginnings: new training cycles, new jobs, and new homes! I'm pretty excited about all of them.
