I hate this month. Why, you ask? Because work makes me want to put a bullet in my head nearly every day. It’s too busy right now. So busy, in fact, that because there is just so much to do, I don’t want to do ANYTHING.

I should enjoy this month much more. School ends for the semester, my birthday, summer is well on it’s way…all things that I enjoy. And yet, all I can do is hope that it goes screaming past me so that the madness just ends.

And now that school is over for the next 3 weeks, I think I’ll take some time to remember some of what happened this month.

First, we went on our first hiking trip of the year, but to Cub Lake in RMNP. It was absolutely beautiful and we got to share it with M,P & H, which was a lot of fun. It was a good way to break in the new boots and gear up for the season. I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy this a lot. And as I’m writing this, I’m pretty sure that I’ve already discussed this in a different entry. Ah, madness is slowly setting in.

Next came my birthday. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I remembered that my birthday was upon me. The day just comes and … that’s that. This year, it was on a Saturday, which was glorious. Todd took me for breakfast at one of my favorite restaurants in our old ‘hood, Kyle’s Kitchen, and I got to have an English muffin and cream of wheat with brown sugar…a personal favorite (really, I just love hot cereal…mmmm….)! Then I spent the afternoon alone cleaning up and putting some finishing touches on a school project. By late-afternoon, it was time to head to my pin-up girl photo shoot, which was spectacular! I felt so ANTM…and got a lot of really nice photos of me done…then it was off to M&Ps house for Cinco de Drinko with lots of good friends. Party lasted until about midnight which was purrrrfect! It was a ton of fun and just nice to relax and laugh with people I love.

School ended for me officially on Tuesday, but the semester is *actually* over on Saturday. Whatever. I’ve been done since Tuesday. I think I did well on my final that night and hopefully that will pan out in the gradebook. I really enjoyed all my classes this semester, ass-kicking as it may have been. It felt good, most of the time, to be challenged the way that I was. But don’t kid yourself…I’m way ready for a break.

I’m teaching myself how to run, as well. Todd and I are running the Bolder Boulder this year, which is one of the biggest 10Ks in the state. It’s on Memorial Day so I have one more week to get into shape for it. I did 6.2miles this evening in 1:13:30 which is about 7mins faster than I was predicting for myself. But damn did my right leg start hurting toward the end. I walked the entire last half-mile, which will be totally unacceptable at the actual Bolder Boulder. I think I would have completed my run faster tonight had I not gotten a horrible cramp in my right foot. Boo hiss. But really, the fact is, I finished 6.2miles…a feat I have never even dreamed possible.

I’ve been wanting to do the BB for several years now, sort of in honor of my mom. She ran every year for as long as I can remember and then her knees just gave out on her. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to do the BB at least ONCE before mine do the same. I have terrible knees so while I’d like to run the BB every year till I’m at least 35, I won’t be surprised if I can’t. So this year is it. And the BB is on my list of things to do this year and I’m very excited for it.

Turning 29 this year has been hard on me. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Yes, I forgot…again. Sort of. I mean, I know that tomorrow is my birthday, but I typically always just let it slip my brain until that day.

Today, I walked into my office to find it covered in all things pirate. I asked “What inspired the pirates?” and my office-mate said “Because of your cruise!” (to Alaska…in August). It’s hilarious. Chandra looked up all kinds of pirate-y phrases and then some random quotes from Pirates of the Caribbean…and my window and desk are covered in photos of Johnny Depp. What a tragedy *wink wink*

It is absolutely outrageous…I love it! haha!

And Sue got me a nice card with a gift card to Starbucks and well-wishes for “happy studying”…she knows that I eat lunch at my desk every day so that I can spend my official lunch hour studying at the Bux…very thoughtful of her…

Tomorrow will be a glorious birthday, starting with an early morning run with Todd, then breakfast at a favorite old haunt, then relaxin’, then birthday present time from Todd, then Cinco de Drinko with the crew. Weather be damned…tomorrow is going to be spectacular!

At least it won’t be snowing!

It has come to my attention, in recent months, that I am not a “winter” Colorado girl. Rather, I prefer the warm. I love when it’s blazing hot in the city and 70-75F in the mountains. I love tooling about by Boulder Creek and going to Blackhawk for picnics and camping off of Hwy 285 (no idea where, but I’ve been there twice and it’s perfection) and while I bitched heavily about it when I was younger, I do enjoy hiking.

I got an email earlier thanking me for auditioning for the Broncos and that if I am getting a call back, it either will have already happened or will happen today. So far, no calls.

Maybe it’s because I’m extremely tired and overworked right now, but I think I could cry over not getting a call back. I know I said that I could handle it, but the sheer amount of exhaustion that I’m experiencing right now is almost too much to handle.

I had a co-worker ask me today if I was doing all right and if I needed to go out for lunch/drinks with her to discuss anything, completely off the records. I appreciated her sentiments more than I could express. I just really need for May to be over…for reasons related to both work and school. So far, I have been able to manage the stress remarkably well. But the last few days/weeks have been overwhelming in ways that I can’t possibly describe.

Maybe it’s the mark of maturity and/or responsibility, but the idea of getting completely trashed next weekend for Cinco de Drinko sounds far less than appealing. Having a good time with my friends, absolutely. But I know that I need to wake up the next morning and finish off the semester and I’ll likely need most of the day to do that.

I mostly just don’t have time for fun anymore. Todd and I are going cabin-ing and hiking with M, P & H this weekend and I already know (and have told everyone) that I have to bring my laptop and homework with me to finalize two very significant projects, which are due on Sunday…and I most assuredly have to be home by 7pm at the very very latest so that I can post the assignments to my online classes.

Just thinking about it is stressing me out.

One year ago today, we adopted our pups, Leo & Suki…and what a great year it’s been! Road trips and hotel stays, garbage eating and hiking, treats, treats and more treats!

We’re so glad we adopted the little boogers and can’t wait for many many more years with them!

The weather was a little too crappy yesterday to take them to the park for their birthday, but since they’re dogs and don’t know that it’s their birthday, we’ll just go next weekend when it’s a bit warmer…or whenever… :o)

Saturday proved to be a rather miraculous day. Not only did it not snow (which I am ever so grateful for…not a fan of snow in the spring), but Todd and I were able to heavily de-clutter our “office” and get rid of / donate:

1 giant box of books

1 giant box of knick-knacky crap

2 baby gates (formerly for use with the pups)

1 box fan

1 giant bag of clothing

Several misc. bath towels

2 pillows

1 bed comforter

1 ironing board

And finally, 1 enormous bag of trash and misc. crap that no one would want or need.

Our office is starting to look more functional than just a space to store our junk. There’s still a lot of stuff in there to go through but you wouldn’t believe how sparse it looks just with all the above out of there. It’s amazing!

I’ve been wanting to de-clutter our house for a really long time and the office was a good place to start. We just have way too much stuff. It’s nice to get rid of things that we just don’t use or need. I would like to continue this mission by tackling my closet. Oof. There’s a LOT of stuff in there that I probably don’t need.

De-cluttering the house might be my new favorite stress release.

I have some concerns about going to Japan. Not enough to make me not want to go, but they are concerns, nonetheless.

First, I don’t know the language. Usually this doesn’t bother me, but the only other countries I’ve been to have been Spanish speaking, except France, but my mom (who is fluent) was there so no worries right? Plus, most other countries speak functional English (and probably more correct English than most Americans, if we’re honest).

The food REALLY scares me. Again, not enough to only eat McDonald’s (because what kind of crappy tourist does THAT?!), but enough to warrant some concern. Mostly about how it’s going to affect me, internally. Also, I hate mushrooms with the fire of a thousand suns and they’re in everything in Japan, so sayeth my brother. I also really don’t want to mistakenly eat fish testicles. I’m just sayin’. But sushi? Bring it on.

I worry that I’ll struggle with non-western bathrooms. It’s too hard to describe them, so here’s a picture.

Glorious, right? How the hell does a chick use one of those??? Enough said. But the merciful thing is that most places in Japan have at least one western toilet in every women’s bathroom. So I’m really not that worried.

Getting around is going to be interesting. Walking is always a preferred mode for me when I’m travelling, but it’s also supposed to be rather rainy when we’re there so taxis and trains are going to be ideal for those times. I have no idea how an AMERICAN subway works, let alone a Japanese one! It’ll be hilarious, to say the least.

But my biggest concern?

Not having enough memory in my camera for photos. Scares the hell out of me.