The story begins

Today I finally started the blog I have been threatening to for ages.

I was thinking about it early this morning as I was running - and yes, I actually ran for 1 hour today! It was slow and steady, but I didn't stop. It was a gorgeous morning for running - it hadn't started raining yet, and it was a little cool - although you can tell that the humidity is atrting to roll in. I am training to do a 10 Mile race sometime in the summer and hope to do the Army 10 Miler in the fall. I have not been running long - I started two years ago when I barely finshed a 5K in Annapolis. I have come a long way, but it takes a lot of work and I have had many setbacks. My husband, K, is going to run in his *5th* Marine Corps Marathon this year, and I started running to be able to share in this activity someday. I also started running because I am in horrible shape and needed to do SOMETHING - and for running, in theory, all you need is a pair of shoes. (All of you who actually run will go "HA!" at this, but for a very beginner, yes, all you need are running shoes.)

At the moment, I am also trying to finish two knitting projects that I have - one, a baby blanket that needs to be finished by May, and another, a wrap for K's Grandmother that I need to finish by end of July. The problem is that I get SO distracted with all of the other stuff I need to be doing, and when I do try to focus on knitting I am usually exhausted and fall asleep in front of the TV, rather than work dilligently on my knitting. But now I have deadlines and people to give the projects to, so that should put my fanny in gear. :-)

I was also approached on Friday to take B&W photos at an anniversary party in December where a co-worker of mine is going to renew her vows. I was extremely flattered and now extremely freaked out - I've never taken pictures for a "real" event before, and I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone. I haven't developed any pictures in months, but then I haven't had much time to practice. I work mostly with B&W film - I love working in the darkroom! - but K and I may have to invest in a decent digital by the end of the summer. In the meanwhile, I have many months to brush up on my skills and a couple of opportunities to do some event shooting before the end of the year.

What else is going on? Um, . . . K and I are still settling into the condo that we bought last summer. We are starting to list all of the improvements we need to make and things that need to be replaced - some sooner than later. We have no money to do so, but we'll get there some day. I have a lull in May where I have a bit of a vacation from teaching - I volunteer teach ESL in the area once a week, and the semester just ended and the next one starts in June. I love teaching - it is so much fun! - but English is . . . so hard to explain to people who were not born here. We have so many funky rules and exceptions and random words and slang and cultural references - I don't think I could learn a foreign language such as ours in such a short time - but most of my students are SUCH troopers!

Well, I hope that this is a good start, blogwise. Tomorrow, I may have to describe why I picked my Blog title . . .