with a little help from the sun...

Well, I'm finally feeling like myself again. I think the sunshine helps.

I had a really phenomenal weekend, beginning with lunch on Friday. I finally made a friend in Beeville who is not married, has no children, is under 30, and is not super religious (no offense to my friends who ARE all of those things, but it's just nice to meet someone more on my level). She moved to Beeville because she got a job as a librarian at our public library. I interviewed her for the paper, she emailed me and asked me for a copy of the photo I took of her, and from there we got to talking and decided to have lunch.

I almost backed out of it. I was not having a good morning on Friday, and I wasn't sure I felt up to making conversation with someone I didn't know. But I went, and I'm so glad I did. It wasn't hard to talk to her at all; we never really ran out things to say. And it seems like we have a lot in common. I have to say, she surprised me. I was kind of expecting her to be this snobby, academic type and she isn't at all. She's funny and down to earth. We have plans to hang out again this week.

So anyway, after lunch on Friday, I was in a much better mood. Then, after work, I drove down to Corpus to see some old friends. I had had tentative plans with a friend I see fairly often there to see a play on the TAMUCC campus, and we ended up seeing the Vagina Monologues with some people from the Writing Center because one of them was in it. The monologues were okay, but it was really fun to see some people I hadn't seen in a loooong time and had even thought they didn't want to be my friend anymore. I'm talking about one person in particular here, and it turns out she had been emailing me at an old address. Who knew? So anyway, we got that straightened out and now we have plans to swim together during the week, like we used to do when I lived there. So after the show, we went out for dinner and drinks, and it was a good time. Sometimes it's nice just to act like a 20-something year old and not so grown up. I'm not as wild as I used to be (I don't have the time or the stamina), but sometimes I just want to let loose and party. So that was nice.

And, I'm proud to say, I got up the next morning and went for a 4 mile run on Ocean Drive. I was really excited about this because I used to run there a lot and it's beautiful scenery. It was a nice change of scenery from where I usually run in Beeville. I was proud, though, after having gone to bed after 2, that I got up at 9 and did that. I just really felt like I needed it, and the weather was too good not to.

So anyway, Friday night is a good night to go out if I'm going to, because then I still have the rest of the weekend to recover and get things done. I went home, did laundry, picked up a little bit, took a nap, went grocery shopping and cooked dinner.

When I started a small grease fire. I was making a tomato sauce with bacon in it, and you're supposed to slice up the bacon first (obviously). So I put the oil in the pot (because the bacon cooks first) and turned on the stove while I sliced the bacon. Well, I wasn't really watching it because when I went back to the stove to put the bacon in, the oil had turned black and was smoking. I quickly turned off the heat and picked up the pot, at which point the oil caught fire. Almost immediately, the smoke alarm went off. I, in a panic, opened the door, turned on the fan, and frantically searched for my phone (the fire was contained in the pot, but I knew you don't put water on a grease fire, but I didn't know how you do put it out). Finally, after turning my purse upside down, I found it, and called my mom. Unfortunately, she was at a work thing with my dad and didn't answer, so I thought fast and called my grandmother. She told me to put baking soda on the fire, I did, and it was out. By then, my pot was ruined, but I'm just thankful nothing else caught on fire during all of that.

I continued cooking, then watched I Am Sam on Netflix. What a great movie. Sean Penn must be one of the best actors ever. I've never seen him in anything where he didn't do an amazing job. I got a lot of reading/movie watching done Saturday and Sunday, which is something I've wanted to make more time for. I went to the club bike ride yesterday afternoon too, which was super hard seeing how I haven't ridden that far (I think we did about 25 miles) since right before Christmas. But I needed it. Right now, I'm just trying to stay in shape/get more in shape. When April rolls around, I'll think about training a little harder to do a triathlon in June. I reeeally want to do another one, and I think I'm almost there.

This weekend felt longer than most, in a good way. When I say I feel more like myself, I mean I'm back to doing all of the things that make me who I am (exercising, reading, watching movies, cooking clean healthy food, seeing friends), and more importantly, enjoying all those things and remembering why I do them.

The sunshine definitely helped me wake up again. It's amazing how the weather can affect you without you even realizing it.