it's june

Lets just not get into the whole, "I haven't blogged in awhile, ba-derp-a-derrrr..." You know, I've documented my life in various places online, and inevitably, I return to them, read or look back over and hate how I look/sound/come across. It's just funny how times change, how people [I] grow.

I was recently talking to Rebekah about how it's hard for her to focus her food blog because she likes too many different kinds of food. I can't even begin to dream of focusing a blog on even any one subject. I've thought about creating blogs about...

• food: this one would be kind of a, "Oh, look how I struggle, and how I really hate this" kind of blog/project. I've gone through spurts in cooking. The first was in college, when I first lived on my own and first figured out how to make more than instant mac & cheese and frozen pizzas. The second was when I first really lived on my own in Michigan for three months. I didn't have many friends. I didn't want to eat fast food or go to restaurants by myself, so I started getting in the kitchen a lot more. I mostly made various kinds of casseroles to eat throughout the week. My current spurt may be unending, because I live with a boy now, and boys eat a lot of food. ;) It's just a lot more fun to cook for the two of us than just for me. Aaron helps me out when he can, and he's always more than appreciative of my efforts.
• books: I love to read. I love to read more than I love to do just about anything. I've recently been watching a few book-tubers on the Youtubes ... and reading book blogs and keeping my Goodreads account meticulously updated. I could do what they do, right? Meh. I'd really mostly rather be reading than talking about reading...but still, maybe.
• fitness: because I've been doing a ton of this lately ...working out. Since January I've been lifting, running, climbing, swimming, practicing yoga and taking aerial silks classes (correction - I took one aerial silks class, but I'd really, really like to go to another one soon, so I'm adding it to the list anyway). Wouldn't it be fun to follow my fitness progress? Maybe. But, if I were to write a fitness blog, it would mostly just highlight my athletic mediocrity. "OMG, guys I totally flailed on this 5.10a today. ... Sheesh, a 30-minute 5k. Speedy, huh? ... I swam faster than the fat, old man in the lane next to mine! Go team!" Yup...crossing this one off the list. Still, I'm not competitive, except with myself, and it feels good to be moving a lot!

Anyway, forget all of that. There's no way I could ever write a blog on one subject. I like too many things. "Jack of all trades, master of none, blah blah." So, I give up. This is what you people get to read ...if you're still paying attention.

And if you are, here are some updates:

I still love writing - even though I don't get to say it's what I do for a living anymore. I've still been doing plenty of writing and editing. I'm in the final stages of editing my national novel writing month novel from this past November. It's going well, except for that somewhere between writing it and this round of editing it, I've lost a semi-important 2k chunk of the story somewhere. I'm starting to feel pretty unorganized. I might take a break. I decided two days ago that I'm going to camp ...and participating in the summer writing challenge. Why not? I think it'll feel good to get some new ideas down on (virtual) paper.

In other creative news, Aaron and I shot our first wedding together. Two of his friends got married two weeks ago in downtown Little Rock, so we hightailed it back home for a whirlwind weekend. I think we did a pretty good job of it. I'm not sure if it's something we'll make a habit of, except for friends and family. But, I liked playing assistant and capturing some special moments. Maybe I'll post some photos here or on flickr soon.

In more fitness-related news, I have a goal I finally feel ready to share with the world. I'm "training" for a half-marathon! Specifically, I want to run this half marathon, which takes place the weekend before Aaron and I plan to fly to Montana for an almost week-long climbing trip (which I couldn't be more excited for)! I'm up to nine miles. I'll make an attempt at my first 10-miler sometime next week. For those of you who know me - or more specifically - who went to elementary school with me and remember me being unable to complete a .25-mile-ish run around the playground - this is HUGE. I've always hated running, and I still do, to be honest. The only good part about it is the runner's high after it's over. I'm shocked every time I meet a new distance goal, and I've never felt so thankful for my health and just being able to move forward than I do after a run. I'm still ridiculously slow, but I'll deal with that later ...maybe ...ugh.

There's lots of good, new music out lately. I love the new Jack White album ... Sigur Ros ... Edward Sharpe ... etc. A few months ago I read an article in the amazing Garden & Gun about a cajun band called Feufollet. We've been jamming to them ever since. Incidentally, their music is pretty awesome to run to! The way I've listened to music has also changed with the advent of Spotify. I'm late talking about this, but I wasn't late to the game! I got one of the first U.S. accounts, and have been loving it ever since. I have a playlist called "albums I want" instead of buying them on iTunes. Crazy. Music, though, is still a love that's been kind of pushed away, semi-recently. Listening to music throughout the day wasn't possible at my last job, but it now, and for that I'm thankful. Recommendations are always welcome and appreciated.

On a more timely note, today is Aaron's 27th birthday! 27 sounds old, huh? Aaron doesn't seem old, though. He seems just the right age. I'm planning a cake, gifts and a trip to our favorite local haunt for dinner. I'd love to find some good ice cream or gelato. This post from one of my favorite California-based blogs has my mouth watering for it. Last night, I remembered that we've been together for two rounds of birthdays now. It's officially a year and a half now. I tried to remember what we did for my birthday this year. It seemed uneventful. Then I remember, it was actually the first visit we made to El Ray, and I had a delicious mojito and some mushroom quesadillas.

Times like this do make me homesick, though. If we were home, we might go out with friends tonight and have a family dinner with Aaron's dad & co. this weekend, or in a week or two... but, we're all alone. Which is still not the easiest thing. And even though I've been here for over six months now, the new town still feels new. Nothing (besides our beautiful, amazing apartment) is settled in, really. Today, this feeling probably isn't being helped out by the gray skies and drizzly rain, which prevented Boone and me from going on a run. Oh well.

Sorry for all the words. I hope the links were helpful and interesting, and least, and hopefully whatever posts follow will at least be broken up by some pretty pictures. Until then...