Seen on my run this morning

It is so hard to get out of bed to run, but I'm always so happy when I do.  I sometimes feel like I am the luckiest lady in the world!

Birdwatching!

While dating, I met a wonderful man from Costa Rica. We are not meant to be, romantically, but we make great friends.  He was a tour guide in Costa Rica, and knows so much about birds and birding.  A few weeks back, we went out birding  Unfortunately, I was stuck with the camera on my iphone, but we saw a Cooper's Hawk just lounging in the water!  It's about 1/3 of the way from the left and in the middle.  You can see its reflection in the water.

I went to grab my scope, and we watched her for quite a long time.  She bathed a bit; then she flew from branch to branch.  It was just magnificent.

When I was trying to figure out how to draw an arrow on the picture (obviously, unsuccessfully), I instead found a button that would intensify the colors in my picture:

More beauty:

We're hoping to get out a few more times this fall, and will take my scope out this winter to look for migrating ducks and other waterfowl.  I can't wait!

End of summer

I am so not ready for summer to come to an end yet.  I had such an amazing summer - a road trip with my sisters, concerts, movies, friends, etc.  I am slowly trying to wrap my head around the impending fall and winter.

I got this note in my fortune cookie, which my coworkers joked was place especially for me:

Made me happy that things are going so well at work.

Last month, I ran a 50K and wound up finishing 3rd in my age group.  Super pumped, and I received some nice prizes from that.  But perhaps the best prize was soaking my feet in an ice bucket while eating a cookie.

I volunteer at a nature center as the Treasurer, which means I spend way too much of my volunteer time inside!  Earlier this month, I was there to help with the financials, but finished early enough to take a hike.  Nature is so calming and beautiful:

Nature and Pride

June started with a 50K with my other best friend.  After a harsh winter and long spring, seeing greenery was so welcome!  This race, unlike most that start in the morning, started in the afternoon.  And since I was running with my friend, who is slower than I am, that meant we'd be running in the dark.  So we enjoyed the daylight as much as possible!

I'm trying to remain anonymous here so I can feel free to be open and honest (very few people in real life know about this blog), but here is a partial picture of me, in front of some trees:

We wound up finishing just before midnight, and had an amazing time.  We were singing on the trails, a la Weird Al, laughing, and having a great time.  Which was great because she got injured during the run, so I lost one of my favorite running partners while she rehabs and gets better.

The next day, I did a Beer Run -- about 2 miles with 4 mandatory beer stops -- though since I'd run a 50K the day before, it was a Beer Walk for me.  And I didn't officially finish since all of my friends were faster and ran back to the last beer stop to find me.  So it's taken me over 3 months to finish so far!

 

I ran into a guy I'd dated the previous year, which was a little uncomfortable, but we chatted and had a nice afternoon.  And then I had to leave because it was PRIDE!!!

One of the most amazing parts of my new beginning is the new friends that I've made.  Thomas was a loner sociopath who was isolating me.  I didn't realize it at the time, and I'm not so sure he did, either.  In any case, when he cheated and I left (well, he left first, for his mom-clone mistress, but then he wanted me back and I declined), that meant I didn't have a lot of friends.  Luckily my acquaintances understood, and became my friends.

Among my new-found friends is my coworker who, along with his husband, have welcomed me with open arms into the gay community.  Through them, I've made other life-long friends and had what has, so far, been the summer of my life.

My best friend and I went down to the gay pride parade, and it seemed like we were friends with half of the people there!

 

Then, we went out to dinner and had pie.  It was great.

I am so happy that I live in a time where people are more and more accepting of gay people.  I have two gay siblings, and it used to worry me -- that they would face discrimination, or mean-spirited people, be beat up, etc.  My mom broke down in tears when my sister came out because she was worried about what the future held for her, thinking of Laramie.  But now?  With all of the progress that has been made in the past few years?  There still is room for improvement, but I am so heartened for my friends who are reaping the benefits of those who came before.  There were so many people celebrating at pride! 

That my coworker and his husband had a wedding and invited everyone we worked with (he hid the fact that he was gay for the first 10 years he worked there since we work at a very conservative company in a very conservative industry.)  That so many coworkers came and celebrated.  That I didn't hear a single negative remark about it.  That so many people said it was the most fun wedding they'd ever attended.

This was just the beginning of an amazing summer.

Catching Up!

Despite what it may seem, I have not forgotten about this blog! I am still a bit angry with myself for not posting more often, as I'd love to be able to look back and see what's been going on in my life! Yet again, I will try to post more regularly...starting NOW!!!

But, first...I must catch up with the past few months. I'll miss a lot, but hit the highlights relating to pictures I took.

In September, I ran a 50K race with one of my best friends.  She's someone I knew before I found out about Thomas's cheating, barely.  We both volunteered for our local marathon, but I never became friends with her due to Thomas's weirdness and the fact that since he didn't have any friends, he begrudged me mine.

She really stepped up, and we've become so close over the past two years.  In fact, tomorrow we are going trail running, touring a winery, and watching our NFL team at her house as her boyfriend makes us vegetarian chili. Score!

Usually, I run my own race, but we agreed that we would run this 50K (31 miles) together.  It was so much fun!  Here is what we saw near the beginning:

It turned out to be a gorgeous day, and we became even better friends due to this experience.  We crossed the finish line holding hands and collapsed in a giant hug.

Two more pictures of what we got to see during our run:

In early September, Steve Earle came to town!  I've been a big fan ever since I saw him on The Wire (best show ever to appear on TV, in case you're wondering.  I am watching Season 1, episode 4 as I write this post.)  As an aside, on a terrible first date, I met George Pelecanos, one of the writers on The Wire.  He was absolutely amazing, and made me love the show even more!

Steve's live show was every bit as wonderful as expected.  I went with my parents; I've become much closer to them throughout this ordeal, which is one of the many silver linings of finding out I was married to a sociopath and getting divorced:

This is the dessert at one of my new favorite restaurants.  I first shared it with one of my best friends (and fellow parrot-enthusiast) a few months back -- brownie with salted caramel gelato, nuts, cherry, etc.  I went back with another friend, and once I showed them the picture I had taken of my dessert earlier in the summer, they agreed to make it for me, even though it was no longer officially on the menu.  Yay!

Here's my good friend near finishing her first triathlon!  Surrounded by geese, which I loved.  Another one of our friends and I chased her around on our bikes with signs, cheering her on.  It was such a great day!

I had been on yet another bummer first date, followed by a lake cruise with friends.  I feel so lucky to live in such a fabulous city!  The views more than made up for the bad first date!

I cat-sat for my good friend and her husband.  Sprecher was watching me!

And the two of them, eating their food:

This blog was originally started to chronicle the antics of my parrots, so we will now enter that portion of this entry!

Here's Max, eating something (shocker!)  Andreas's tank is in the background.  Speaking of Andreas, he has become so much more personable recently.  He asks for me to pet his head!  I'm starting to think certain animals really can recognize evil people, which is why the parrots and Andreas are so much happier now!

And, Beeps: eating some food as well.

Calypso had climbed into Max's cage and was eating her food!  Since I always supervise, this situation was resolved without bloodshed.

Max, perched on some blankets on the couch.  She likes to be near me as I read after work.

Beeps, again.  He's actually not done as well in our new life.  I had begged Thomas to take him, since he never got along with the other birds and would prefer to be solo, but Thomas refused to take any of the parrots, or (not so shockingly), any responsibility for anything.  I had to figure everything out alone, and made what I thought were the best decisions for the parrots were at the time.  I think he feels abandoned, and hasn't rebounded as much as Calypso and Max have.

I'm still trying to eat healthy; here's a pan full of zucchini!

At my new job, I frequently have to go to fancy fundraising events.  This is a shot from a recent one.  The local professional hockey team were our servers; it was pretty exciting to be out there, sitting on the ice!

The meal (vegetarian option) was pretty, but not as tasting or filling as I'd hoped...

Also during the fall, I dog-sat one night for my closest friend and her husband.  They live only a few blocks from me, which is so convenient!  They currently have two boxers (sadly, one is nearing the end of his life.)  They have adopted me as one of their favorite humans, which is so fun!

I was trying to take a picture of Hans, but he jumped up on me and made a good picture impossible!

He always grabs a toy and tries to get me to play tug-of-war:

He wanted to go inside, but since I wanted to make sure they didn't have any accidents, I kept them outside a little longer!

So he decided to rest on their patio furniture, waiting until he could go inside again:

I tried, rather unsuccessfully, to get both of them in the photo.  The older one was coming in for some attention when the younger one pushed him out of the way:

HELLO!

A few weeks ago, some friends and I ran a 5K race that took place entirely inside a corn maze!  It was a lot of fun (though a bit hard on my knees, with the twists and turns), I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen for a year, and I won first place in my age group!  To celebrate, we went to a fabulous Mexican restaurant:

On yet another bad first date, I had some more macaroni and cheese:

I am not even kidding that I could write a blog about all of my bad first dates.  I've had some good ones sprinkled in, too, so no worries!

My dad and I have season tickets to a local NCAA team; the games started recently.  We went to almost all of the games together last year, and it was so much fun!  We're hoping to make all of the games this year:

Last week Saturday, I ran another 50K -- my third of the year.  I wound up third woman!  The race was established in honor of one of my friends who is dying of cancer.  I took what I hope is one of many annual pictures with my friend and his wife (another one of my friends.)  The wife (also my friend) and I will probably run Boston together in 2015.  I have run it before, but was with Thomas (aka "The Dark Cloud of Doom and Gloom") so it wasn't much fun.  Next time, it will be for sure!

Gorgeous picture of me and my race partner running up a hill, at about mile 30.7:

After this recent 50K, there was a campfire to warm us and make us smell delicious:

After the race, my plan was to hang out at home, drink beer, and sleep in.  But one of my friends had another idea in mind.  She's in the process of leaving her abusive partner.  Since I have recent experience with this, I have tried my best to be as supportive as possible.  We went to a haunted house (even though I am terrified of them) and then did a zip line, pictured below:

Today, my parents came up and helped me to winterize my house.  We cleaned the gutters, put some plastic on windows, took out my window air conditioning unit, and played some cards. It was a great evening! 

More to come, on a more regular basis!

Winter hiking

I went on a date this afternoon with a man who loves being out in nature as much as I do! His degree is in something nature-related, and he works in the local parks system. As I waited for him to arrive at the park, I was treated to three deer walking by the parking lot:

The sky was so blue today, it almost looked like it could be summer.  If only there were leaves on the trees and no snow on the lookout guardrail!  (Oh, summer, please get here soon!  I am already sick of the cold!)

At least the snow is beautiful:

So gorgeous:

And even more so as the sun began to set:

It was so fun to go out hiking again!  It had been a few months since I'd been out, and I've really missed it.  I have made it a goal for 2013 to spend more time on the trails.  Mr. Nature and I have tentative plans to go out hiking again.

We did see two red-tailed hawks circling and then swooping near us, which was fun.  He's more into plants than birds, but I told him that birds are much more interesting to watch!

It was so refreshing to have delightful conversation, and to be with someone who pleasantly greeted other hikers we encountered.  My new beginning reinforces all that I'd been missing out on this past decade!