What I Read in June 2022
I read 10 books in June - another big reading month! While I gave a bunch of books four stars, I would highly encourage you to check out Options are Power, which teetered for me between 4 and 5 stars. 5 stars: Thank You for Listening, by Julia Whelan: Sewanee is a former up-and-coming actress who was just on the verge of becoming a household name when an accident claimed her right eye, and ruined her career as she was forced to permanently wear an eye patch. Instead, she becomes a star audiobook narrator (not being into audiobooks myself, I didn't know this was a thing). While attending a convention in Vegas, she has a one-night stand with a book editor, Nick, which is super steamy... but then she's paired up to record an audiobook with the mysterious Brock McKnight (another audiobook narrator who goes by a pseudonym and has never been public about who he really is) and starts bantering with him via text / email. She feels torn between the two - how can she be interested in Brock when she can't forget Nick? No spoilers, but I loved this funny and sweet rom com, which was extremely satisfying, and also really enjoyed seeing behind the scenes of rom com audiobook … [Continue reading]
Race Report: Superior Mile 2022
Today was the annual Superior Fourth of July celebration, and it was quite a whirlwind this year! I had rebooked my COVID-delayed Run the Alps tour to do a trail running camp with champion ultrarunner Mimmi Kotka starting on July 5, and scheduled a flight to Europe as late in the day as possible... but that meant a very busy day before my flight. While I hoped to sleep until 5:15am, I instead woke up at 3:40am and pretty quickly realized I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. I tried to instead spend the time productively resting, and ended up finishing a hardcover book that I wasn't going to bring with me on my trip, so that didn't work out badly. Finally, I got up, got dressed, and had a power bar and a cup of (caffeinated) coffee to prep me for the race. Let's do this! Although I only had one cup of coffee, within about twenty minutes, I was feeling the effects of the caffeine - I was definitely very jittery! The coffee had the usual advantage of helping me hit the bathroom one more time before I left the house (an especially good thing when I had some GI issues with dinner the night before), but I hadn't ever had just one cup make me this keyed up before. I hoped it … [Continue reading]
Cultivating Caring
The last year has been rough. Burnout, depression, a massive wildfire, heartbreak, and the incredibly awful IVF experience that I still feel has ruined my life. I've been trying to come back from all of that, but for so much in life, I'm finding myself just not caring. There really hasn't been much keeping me going; I'm just focused on getting through each day without any end in sight. I was catching up on email this morning, and finally got to read Emily Halnon's July 2021 post, From the PCT to the Siskiyou Out Back. Emily describes going into the race without having real expectations for her performance: "I couldn’t remember the last time I started a race with a real time or place goal burning in my head and my heart. And with the intention to run my very best run that day trying to get it." But by the end of the race, her attitude had changed: "As I pushed up that climb, I felt how good it felt to try. And to care about what happened." I miss caring. I miss the feeling of wanting something so badly that I will work my hardest to get it. I miss waking up in the morning excited about my plans for the day, and bouncing out of bed with my brain full of all the stuff I get to … [Continue reading]
Race Recap: Reunion 5K
Earlier this month, I headed to Ithaca, NY for my fifteen year Cornell reunion. I cannot believe I have been out of college for fifteen years already! My five year Reunion was a ton of drinking. Makes sense... we were in our 20s. My ten year Reunion, though, surprised me by also being a lot of drinking. (Though that year, I at least made it to the Saturday morning Reunion 5K, whereas I woke up still drunk and skipped it at the 5 year.) This year, I figured that most people would be at Reunion with spouses and kids in tow, and assumed that it would be a lot more tame. Well, I was partially correct. I got to Ithaca on Thursday morning and took my work calls from my dorm room. But most people didn't arrive until Friday - which meant Thursday night was pretty quiet. As I was already coming off a work conference Monday through Wednesday that involved a lot of drinking, I was pretty strict about keeping Thursday low key, and had about half a glass of wine while meeting some new friends from my graduating class at dinner. The dinner (some wraps) was nothing to write home about, but a half dozen of us ended up wandering around North Campus and crashing the ice cream social … [Continue reading]
