Little victories

Sometimes, it really is the little things that keep us going. In the midst of an unseasonably cool, rainy week, my continual pledgeship in Broke Fi Broke (they haze hard), and hot flashes so intense they wake me up at night, I thought I’d take a minute to think of all the things that have gone my way in the last little while. Here’s a quick list:

1. They took the scaffolding down off my apartment building! Yes, this really is the first thing I’m excited about. I’m so excited about it, in fact, that when I came home after work one day and saw that it had been removed, I actually did a DANCE in my living room/kitchen (this is NYC, apartments are small and rooms are combined) and said “YAY!!!” out loud. It may seem like a small thing, but IT’S HUGE, YOU GUYS. The amount of light I get nearly doubled, and there are no more strange men stomping around outside my window at 7am.

2. I ran a 5K (3.1 miles) in 28 minutes! My personal record is somewhere around 24 minutes, but after six months off, I think that’s pretty good for less than a month’s progress! I also ran a mile in 7:54. (PR is 7:15.) I’ll take it. I’m planning to run a 10K  – like an actual, sponsored 10K with a bib and course and everything – on September 22. Since I’m up to 4 miles at less than a 10-minute-mile pace now, I think 6.2 will be very doable. My 10K spilt when I ran the half was 51 minutes, so I doubt I’ll beat that, but stranger things have happened. I’ll be happy just to finish.

Also, I think sometimes people maybe heckle me/shout to me when I run bald, but I don’t know, because I run with loud music and I generally just give a thumbs-up to anyone who stares at me because I am full of endorphins and good cheer out there, so YAY EVERYONE! EVEN HECKLERS! The other day, I was running in my Virginia Track and Field shirt and I passed a guy who was ALSO running in a Virginia Track and Field shirt and I was like HEY COOL SHIRT and he was like (this is my interpretation of his facial expression) HEY THAT CHICK IS BALD! No one notices your fashion when you have no hair, alas.

3. I didn’t blast my budget to pieces in July! July was my first full month in NYC, and living here and not being a gajillionaire can be a challenge. I managed to slip by under my budget with a couple hundred bucks to spare. So now I know that I can afford those extra couple of trips to the falafel place down the street. MMMM FALAFEL.

4. Gordie and I are going on vacation tomorrow! I can’t wait to unwind at the beach for the weekend. The forecast looks lovely, and our destination (I’m keeping it a secret, in case you’re stalking me) is supposed to be quite romantic. Gordie: “I don’t care what you say, we’re getting ice cream sundaes. Don’t try to fight it.”  Me: “Like I would fight an ice cream sundae.”

Small semi-non sequitur: The other day I wanted some fro-yo, and I was home alone, and it was like 10:30 PM. But I had this craving for fro-yo that just would NOT go away. So I left my apartment and walked a couple of blocks to the fro-yo place and filled up a cup with cake batter softserve and topped it with a bunch of cookie dough and brownie bits and Reese’s Pieces, and if you’re one of those people that gets plain yogurt and tops it with kiwi and granola then just DO NOT EVEN TALK TO ME RIGHT NOW, because the crushed up Butterfingers are MY LIFE. Anyway, after I came out of my fro-yo trance (which is what I call that state when I am SO INTENT on getting fro-yo that I’m not paying attention to anything, people could be giving away free puppies and having a live Luke Bryan concert in the fro-yo place but I’d just be like WHERE IS MY CAKE BATTER BEFORE I HAVE TO SHANK SOMEONE), I realized that everyone else there was with a friend. But I was alone. So I texted Hailee and was like, “Is it not socially acceptable to get fro-yo by yourself?” And she replied, “Girl, if that is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.” So I will continue solo fro-yo-ing because YOLO.

5. MY HAIR IS GROWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t use a lot of emoticons on this blog but this calls for a :). And another :). 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m planning an entire post about this, but I want to get a little further along in my hair-growth progress before I unleash it on y’all, dear readers.

6. I pet a bodega cat yesterday. He was so FLUFFY! Doesn’t he just look so OVER everything? He’s like, “Ugh, this bodega doesn’t even have air conditioning, yet you’re going to buy those Hostess products that have been on the shelf since before Y2K. Enjoy your food poisoning, you basic betch.” Whatever, bodega cat.

7. The internet broke in my apartment! I’m actually including this in the “little victories” section because I’ve been finding a lot of ways to amuse myself without it, and since I sometimes feel like I spend too much time staring at screens, I actually think it’s nice to be forced to disconnect for a bit. In the four days I’ve been living without at-home internet, I’ve done a lot of running, exploring the greenway, seeing old friends, catching up over happy hour, listening to buskers in the park, riding my bike, and reading my AMAZING book. I’m reading the Lord of the Rings because, despite being an English major and a very voracious reader, I’d somehow never included it in my canon, and when I told Gordie that he told me it was unacceptable so I immediately got it on my Kindle and dove into it. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t know the plot – I’ve seen the movies – but I think virtually all modern high fantasy is derivative of Tolkien and it’s easy to see why. The book is incredibly engrossing, and I think even if Time Warner got their ish together and FINALLY fixed my internet, I’d ignore its siren song to finish Frodo’s journey to Mordor.

8. I made fajitas! That’s all. I made them from scratch, and they were DELICIOUS. It’s always nice to find an easy, tasty new weeknight recipe.

So what are your little victories, readers? Bodega cat wants to know. Look at that face. You better tell him. You wouldn’t like bodega cat when he’s angry.