Post-Thanksgiving thoughts

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all of my devoted readers! I am truly thankful for all of you. You give me a reason to write. You make me feel like what I write actually matters. I appreciate all of your thoughts and encouragement about the blog. It really does mean the world to me. Please, please, please, keep reading! And please share my website with your friends! Maybe one day someone will buy my blog and I'll get paid to keep writing...wishful thinking.

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. In true Thanksgiving fashion, I ate entirely too much, drank entirely too much the night before, and did not exercise at all. Shame on me, I know. But I did have a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch with my family and my aunt, uncle, cousins, grandpa, and grandma. And let's not forget my amazing best friend who came down from Northern Virginia to stay with me and eat Thanksgiving with my family instead of her own. Now that is love!

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day! So, after sleeping in til about noon, I dragged my butt out of bed and went running with my mom. For those of you who don't know, we are running together in a 5k in two weeks! And unless I do some serious training before then, my mom is going to kick my butt! She is so dedicated and passionate about running. I envy her and wish I could find the drive that she has to go running everyday. When we first starting running together this summer, I did not like it at all. I prefer running alone so I can get "in the zone" and reflect on life for an hour or so. But I finally realized that it's not always about what I want, so I let my mom start running with me. Today's run was a ROUGH one for me. I felt like I was carrying everything I've eaten from Thursday until today in my stomach. I am not kidding when I say I felt like I was nine months pregnant with food. I couldn't find a good pace, I felt like my feet were stuck in cement, and my mom was leaving me in the dust, literally. So when I finally realized I couldn't catch up with her, I started to get angry. Angry with myself for not pushing as hard as I should, and angry that my 49 year old mother was in better shape than I was. But just when I was about to let the whole situation get the best of me, a young girl ran past me. She doesn't know me but I know her. I know her family. I know that she lost her mother this fall, and won't ever get her back. After I passed this girl I thought to myself, "my mom may be kicking my butt on this run, but at least I've got a mom out here to run with." And I ran, slowly, all the way home; following my mom and feeling truly blessed.