I'm Back

I'm back. Now that August is more than half over, I don't have as much to whine about.  The weather is a teensy bit more bearable (well, this weekend was grossly muggy, but only 94, not 104). And I have, or will have as soon as I get them off the camera, pictures.

Benjamin starts teaching again this week, and I am trying to get myself back into school-year habits as well. It's funny - I am not in school any longer, and the only way it really touches me directly is that Benjamin is up earlier in the mornings, but I still structure my life around the school calendar year. For example: I am trying to get myself out of the house earlier than I have been for the last 3 months. Now, in part this is because everyone else in the area is also getting out earlier because school has started everywhere and parents are dropping kids off and whatnot, but partially it is because I recognize that I have let myself slide, because it is summer. It isn't fall yet, and I refuse to say it is until late September - I am a stickler for the actual solstice-defined seasons - but it is school time now, so I have to behave accordingly.

Anyway, school-time habits include being a better blogger, as well as getting back into a proper schedule at the gym. I ran about 3.5 miles this morning, after not running for over a week. The first mile was hard, physically, and I walked for a few minutes after it, but I plugged along and eventually it got easier. Mentally, i knew I could do it, since I have already done it, so it was really just a matter of not stopping. Yay!

The reason I didn't go running, and another reason I took a break here, was that we were in Hawaii last week. Benjamin had been there for 3 weeks already at a sort of summer school for professors when I joined him.  Everyone asks how the trip was, and when I say "It was pretty good," they all want to know why it wasn't absolutely fabulous. Short answer? Too many other people, everywhere. Yeah, I probably should have expected that, since it is Hawaii, but the problems caused by so many people still caught me by surprise. But since I doubt you want to hear my rants about tourists and bad civil engineering decisions (seriously - who hides the entrance to a freeway like that?!), I will restrict myself to showing you pictures of all the fun stuff we did. Once I have the pictures off the camera. Hey- I got back on Thursday, worked on Friday, and was busy this weekend. Give me a break! It's on my calendar for tonight...