Thursday Thoughts

Good morning!

1. I. Am. Done. With this heat and humidity. Holy moly. I feel like I'm melting. Thankfully this week has been an improvement over last, but it's still a bit much. Our apartment has a built in AC unit in the living room but since our windows are large and slide left to right there's no [easy] way to put units in our bedrooms. Typically I'm OK with the windows open at night and a fan but last weekend we resorted to sleepovers in the living room. Yes, I'm totally serious.

2. *Crossing fingers* runs are still going well. I've been taking it the every-other-day approach with strength/cross training in between. Thankfully this weather leaves something to be desired for motivation to get outside and go, but I'm still so appreciative of the fact that I am running again in the first place that I can't wait to get back to a regular schedule and more miles.

3. The boy is still in California through Sunday. Apparently my coping mechanism for missing him is to bake/cook. I know, I do that a lot anyways, but for real this time. I've made this delicious popcorn, blueberry banana muffins, black bean burgers, these cupcakes (twice), and tested out popsicle recipes. That's not including regular dinners and lunches. I'm hoping I can at least share the recipes so you guys benefit from my craziness.

4. I'm headed home this weekend (I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately) to celebrate the wedding of one of my high school girlfriends. From teaching Model UN together and traveling Turkey and the Netherlands, to countless late nights and sleepovers, to commiserating over running and marathons, I'm so thankful for the memories I have with her. I absolutely adore this girl and could not be happier for her and her soon-to-be-hubby!

Lily and I our senior year of high school in Amsterdam. My apologies for the
filter, I couldn't find the original!

5. On a slightly different and much sadder note, Twitter and other local news sources were blowing up yesterday with the news of a local homicide.

Clearly any time things like this occur my heart breaks for the victims, their friends and their families, but this time the horrific incident hit far too close to home. Amy was a fellow Bentley grad and while I did not know her personally my Facebook and Twitter feeds have been overcome with expressions of disbelief, sadness, grief, thoughts and prayers. Further, she was a 24 year old young woman living in the Boston community that I and so many friends call home. Other incidents, similar in nature or atrocity, have riddled the news lately and I find it literally sickening to consider that there are human beings capable of doing these things to each other.

As a young female, as a runner, and as a member of the Boston community, I ask you to please, please, please be smart and be careful, wherever you are. Be aware of your surroundings and look out for yourself and for others around you. Runners, take heed of advice to change up your routes, run with a buddy off-hours and try running without headphones to increase your awareness. It's sad that it needs to be said but you truly never know what could happen, and the more precautions you take to protect yourself the better.

What safety precautions do you take, as a runner or in general?
I've gotten better about always having my cell phone with me, I never run with headphones outside, and I try to always be aware of my surroundings - places, people and things.