Hey, guys! I just wanted to stop by for a little weekend fun.

I mean, I was awake early and everything…

Why, you ask? A true labor of love. (I’ll get to that in a second.)

Today is the epic finale of the Kansas-Missouri basketball rivalry — and I mean epic.

Not only is Kansas’ eighth consecutive Big 12 title on the line, but this is the last regular meeting of Kansas and Missouri before they wimp out and move the the SEC. It really must be depressing to lose that consistently for so long…

Because basketball is like religion at the University, there’s a lot of competition for seats in the student section. Fortunately, Dan managed to land a ticket for this game and a spot in a camping group. Unfortunately, the only open camping slot was for 8 a.m. on Saturday morning — when he had work.

I know how much going to the game and landing a good seat meant to him, so I decided to fill in for his camping spot. So, bright and early, I showed up at the Fieldhouse to claim a spot for Dan’s camping group.

(This probably sounds confusing to a lot of people. I don’t know how the systems operate at other universities, but I imagine they aren’t as intense!)

I hung out for two hours until the next member of the camping team arrived to take over. The whole thing was pretty bittersweet — although I’m glad that Dan gets to go to the game, I’m a little jealous!

Oh, well… ROCK CHALK!

I’ve got to admit that sometimes it’s bittersweet to hear of my friends’ plans for the future. Some are going off on summer-long trips in Europe. Others are moving across the country to pursue jobs. More are still undecided, but totally open to going wherever.

Although I am happy for all of them, it’s strange to know that I’ll be in the same place for the next couple of years. I’m used to being the one who moves around!

But, then, with help from Dan, I realized how short-sighted I was being in all of this envy. Someday — in fact, in just two years — Dan and I will be in the same situation as our friends. We will be able to travel. We will be able to move for jobs. We will be able to decide on a desired location and find a nearby job (thankfully, Dan’s career will grant us that freedom). We will even be able to decide if we are content where we are and want to stay in Lawrence.

(One of my all-time favorite quotes.)

It is all a lesson in patience for me. But, it’s also part of a fun, beautiful journey.

Now, for a little bit more travel inspiration…

Best of all, I get to go with my best friend.

That’s worth waiting for.

Question: What’s on your travel wishlist?

I really want to go back to Germany with Dan, so that I can show him around. I also want to go to Italy, Greece, South Africa, India, Australia… Actually, it might be easier for me to say where I don’t want to go.

On Sunday I went for one of those the-angels-are-smiling-down-on-me kinds of runs. I was in the zone and felt good. As a result, six miles went by before I even knew it.

Today, though? That was another story.

The sun was shining and the temperature was more appropriate for mid-April than late February.

I was seriously excited to run. Then I started and the excitement faded.

You know the saying “the hardest step for a runner is the first one out the door”? That wasn’t true today… The hardest step may have been around mile 0.4, when I was still “warming up.” Or, it could have been around mile 1.5, when I realized that I was going too fast. It could have been at mile 2.9, when I was just ready to get to an even 3 miles and be done.

Although the total was a little less than half of what it was on Sunday, it sure felt twice as hard — and for inexplicable reasons.

Honestly, this happens to me every now and then. I think it happens to everyone who runs consistently. But, that doesn’t make it fun when you are ready to go out for a great run and quickly realize it’s going downhill (and not literally — that would probably help the situation).

Sigh.

Here’s to hoping for a better run tomorrow, because for every bad one there is almost always a run similar to Sunday’s.

That’s what keeps me addicted.

How do you bounce back for subpar workouts?

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Worth Talking About Wednesday post.

Good news for you: That just means I have more to talk about! (Yay!)

Houdini Dog

Everyone thinks his or her dog is smart. But, I know Tracker is…

A few months ago, she managed to escape from her kennel, which has a mesh door with zippers. It wasn’t a big deal because we actually retired the kennel around the same time. Well, since being back in school and being away from the house for longer periods of time, we decided to set the kennel back up.

Apparently Tracker didn’t like the idea, so she broke out of her kennel every time — no matter how we did the zippers. Eventually, we decided to stage a little experiment by catching the whole thing on camera: In a matter of minutes, she used her mouth to pull the zippers far enough apart so that she could squeeze out.

I would have been proud, if I didn’t have to worry about her terrorizing the house. Fortunately, Dan found an incredible deal on a more secure kennel. After setting it up, we were both shocked to see how much Tracker loves it. Seriously! She made herself right at home and even stayed in the kennel with the door open while we were working on homework tonight.

Ben Does Life

On Tuesday night, I had the honor of introducing Ben Davis, of Ben Does Life, to a group at the university as part of our Celebrate Every Body Week. It was great getting to meet and talk with Ben for a bit before the speech. I was even surprised by how many similarities there are in our seemingly different stories. We both just wanted to find happiness and balance in life!

If you haven’t checked out his blog or the Do Life Movement site, I definitely suggest it.

(And, now I really want to run a marathon!)

Sister Time

Did I mention that my sister was in town last weekend?

She was and it went by way too fast, as always. Thankfully, she will be living in this town next year so we can spend, like, every day together. (Right, Marian?)

Chico’s So Stupid Ad

Sorry, guys, but I have to rant for a second… The other day, I saw this commercial for “so slimming jeans” by Chicos. What annoyed me was that, as per usual, the model was a size 0-4. Of course the jeans are going to be slimming on her! And the “belly” that the jeans are supposedly masking? Non-existent to begin with.

It’s not as though I’m Chicos real target audience, but who is seriously going to be won over by that ridiculous advertisement? Maybe they can show us a few real women in addition to the professional model… Just sayin’.

So Long, Chocolate

For some reason, I had it in my head that Ash Wednesday wasn’t for another week or two. But it’s not. It starts today. So, that means for the next 40 days, I’m going to be without chocolate and without sweets during weekdays. (Here’s why.)

That also gave me an excuse to finish off this delicious dark chocolate-covered graham cracker from World Market today. The one regret I have is that those lazy Girl Scouts didn’t get my pre-ordered boxes of Thin Mints and Tagalongs to me in time. Why do they also deliver in the midst of Lent?

Now it’s your turn: What do you think is worth talking about this week?

P.S. If you want to link up to Worth Talking About Wednesday posts, grab this button and leave a link in the comment sections. I’ll link to your blog in next week’s post!

]]> http://pursuitofhealthfulness.com/?feed=rss2&p=7220 1 http://pursuitofhealthfulness.com/?p=7203 http://pursuitofhealthfulness.com/?p=7203#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:46:59 +0000 Emily http://pursuitofhealthfulness.com/?p=7203

This is the seventh post in my weekly marriage series.  In these posts, I document what I’ve learned, what’s surprised me, how our relationship has evolved, etc. Feel free to let me know if there are any topics you want me to address. You can email, leave a comment or ask a question on Formspring.

You can see my previous posts on my marriage page.

On Friday night, Dan and I went out to dinner together. Then, we parted ways, as I went out with a few girlfriends and Dan had a friend over to “jam” on their guitars.

While I was out, one of my friends commented on how Dan and I are two of the most independent people she knows in a relationship.

I thought it was an interesting comment, just because I never really thought about it before. To me, Dan and I have a pretty normal dynamic. We spend a lot of time together and love (most) every moment of it. But, we also have our own interests that occasionally take us in different directions. When we come back together, we have more to talk about and have a greater appreciation for each others’ company.

(Of course it’s fun to come home to those faces.)

The more I thought about it, however, the more intriguing the topic seemed to me. I mean, my parents met through work. His parents met during college when they were majoring in the same subject. I have journalism friends who are dating. At one of Dan’s pharmacy events, the speaker even joked about how many of the students end up marrying each other.

These couples probably end of spending more time together just by the very natures of their careers. That’s not too unusual.

But what about when work is over? Do they take the time to cultivate their own interests? Nurture their own friendships? Follow their own passions?

I can’t say for sure. I can’t even say that it is a negative thing if they don’t. I just know what works in our relationship and that is making some degree of independence a priority. Maybe that’s because “independence” is basically what our relationship was founded on: After just two months of dating, I left to study in Germany for a summer.

Even though we spent every single day together during the semester after that, we were on separate continents for a large part of our relationship before getting engaged.

I think that there are still vestigial flickers of the time we spent apart in our relationship — and I hope it stays that way because, although I like the sound of “we,” it’s important to also remember “he” and “me.”

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