Hi!!! I’m still here! We FINALLY got internet yesterday afternoon and my clothes are officially unpacked, so -dare I say- I feel a weee bit more settled than say Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s pretty nice that I’m on the taper for my 50 miler because there is no way that I’d be able to handle any crazy training schedules right now. I’m excited for my upcoming race solely because I’ll just have the entire day to RUN. You know things must be a bit hectic when running 50 miles seems, well, easy. At least my new run views here in Maine are pretty spectacular.

You also know that it’s clearly a happening Friday night when you’re in your new ‘office’ writing blog posts, organizing your upcoming schoolwork schedule, and managing your finances. Ha. At least I’m setting myself up for success! Any other Type-A organizational people out there like me ENJOY this kinda stuff (super exciting to me)??

I also enjoyed coming ‘home’ to this balloon. So nice to have family so close-by again. Something that I definitely took advantage of previously. I’m also hoping that it will last until Alex arrives here in a few weeks… Mission- Procure the balloon!

The cats seem to be adjusting pretty well too! We lived in a MUCH smaller town home in Colorado, so this home is kinda like a palace to them. Most days, I have to really search to find them and they’re exploring more as the week passes. I’ve kept them mainly in my bedroom/ bathroom area for the first few days (so they can secure a ‘home base’) and they’ve started to explore a bit more of the second floor and some of the first floor. They clearly love the wrap-around porch (as do I).

I can’t remember if I mentioned this before, but we moved into my family home (my great-grandfather built it)! It’s an older farmhouse that needs some spiffing-up, but has so much charm. It’s amazing how once I arrived in Maine, it felt like a great big hug being welcomed back. I’ve also carried out about a million trash bags filled with trash from my teenage years and so many clothes to be donated.

I also can’t remember if I mentioned it, but I’m beginning the accelerated nursing program at the University of Southern Maine. My ‘big goal’ is to become a Nurse Practitioner (get my MS & someday my DNP), but this is my first step. It’s a 14 month program and is pretty INTENSE (i.e. 18 credits each semester)- it’s really weird going back to school, but oh my gosh I’m so happy. It’s always been my dream to work in healthcare and work with patients of some sorts, so I’m super happy to finally be making steps towards that. I picked up my scrubs and my very own stethoscope the other day -SO exciting.

SO, clearly I’ve kept this a secret so quite so time! And yes, it was hard to finally make the decision to move, leave my cushy-salaried job (where I had just gotten a promotion), and go back to school full-time. And no, it wasn’t hard because it just seemed like the RIGHT decision for ME. There have been many challenges along the way (um hello, I’m not going to be bringing in really any, if at all, INCOME for a year) including figuring out how to finance it (I financed my previous two other degrees with no help from my parents regarding tuition), if I could feasibly commute an hour to school potentially everyday, and where would that leave Alex and mine relationship. It was NOT easy and yes, I lost sleep over it. But, honestly, we’re both from Maine and wanted to return there at some point.

It was really hard leaving Colorado. I have so much appreciation for its beauty, trail systems, and outdoor recreation spaces, however I also had a really hard time finding my tribe of friends. Steamboat is a really seasonal town, so I would make really great friends and then they would move away after a year and I just got tired of making the effort of finding friends to just move away. I’ve found it’s SO hard to make friends as we get older (especially when you move away from your college-town)- so if you have any tips for me let me know!

We’ll be back to our regularly-scheduled programming here on Monday - I’ll also have last weeks training RUNdown ready for you tomorrow morning.

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-Tips for making a balloon last for a month?!?

-Tips for making ‘adult friends’?!? Ha.

-3 things you’re doing this weekend? Dinner out with my Mom & Grandmother, Bunch of Reading, Cleaning, and a trail run since it looks like it finally won’t rain!