2014 - A Blog in Review

Happy dwindling days of 2014! It's been...an unbelievable and unexpected surprise...and I've spent so much time planning, and prepping, and looking towards 2015 already, that it feels strange, and yet fittingly, to put on the breaks and acknowledge that, "Oh yeah! A whole year just went by!"

2014 saw the "Heels or Sneakers" become "Going the Distance," as I struck out on a new adventure...a new job...a new home...engaged...and planning a wedding. A million little twists and turns played out along the way, and you were here for all of them, but just in case you too need a recall of the unimaginable adventure of 2014, then it's time for the 4th annual (I can't believe I've been writing this crazy thing for 4 years!) Blog in Review!

January - 2014 kicked off with everyone's new favorite winter buzzword - the polar vortex...and the most read post of the new year ->CLICK HERE<- told of the highs and lows of being confined to one's couch for the day because of the -45 degree temperature. We could have put that post on a "rinse and repeat" cycle, as winter 2014 didn't get much nicer!

February - For the second year in a row, February was the month of the Indoor Ironman, and for the second straight year, the Indoor Ironman recap got the most hits for the month. ->CLICK HERE<-. This year I have a new gym away from La Crosse, with no indoor race on the horizon, so we'll see if I get motivated enough to track it myself!

March - For whatever reason, the blog post that got the most attention in March, was the blog post that admitted I wasn't blogging enough in March. ->CLICK HERE<-. Maybe everyone came back all at once to see what the hold up had been? Truth be told there wasn't a hold up beyond my own busy schedule. Highlights of that include the Galesville piano recital, my sister's birthday, and coming up with vague monikers for "semi-anonymous man friend" who graced the posts of "Heels or Sneakers" as any number of things before taking on his permanent title, "J Word."

April - April brought the A to Z blog challenge, and with it, a host of new traffic to the site! In a landslide, the most read post of the month was on interval training, which I can only imagine happened because I somehow got tagged to a google search, or listed among people's common interest or recommended reads on Facebook, because I just can't imagine everyone is soooo in love with interval training. Still, even with the added blog traffic, it won out by over 100 page views so, if you missed it, now's your chance... ->CLICK HERE<-.

May - Fittingly, May's big announcement of a new job and pending move got a lot of attention, so much so that it earned top honors for the most view post of the spring! ->CLICK HERE<-

June - ...and following May's "I'm leaving" announcement, came June's goodbye, and my tearful speech for the last time from the G-E-T stage, which earns honors for most viewed post of the summer. (Because let's face it...I just didn't blog in July!) ->CLICK HERE<-

July - See above!

August - August saw the turn from "Heels or Sneakers" to "Going the Distance," but it was actually the kick off of the Friday Fives that saw the most attention. To relive the first one... ->CLICK HERE<-.

September - Starting a new job and going back to school in September provided many interesting challenges, many of which made the blog...and some of which you people seemed pleased to read. 2014's back to school post was the outright winner with twice as many page views as any other September post. ->CLICK HERE<-.

October - The return to Chicago wins out as October's event to remember. Round two race recap ->CLICK HERE<-.

November - In November, I actually titled a post "I think I'm losing my mind...", but it did not get the most attention. Instead, it was the pre-Thanksgiving/Black Friday writeup ->CLICK HERE<- that took the top spot.

December - Which brings us back to December, where fittingly, it is the Ten Things I've Learned from My Year ->CLICK HERE<-, that have drawn people back to the blog.

And there you have it...the full year as it's been...and it's been a whirlwind! Next year doesn't look to be slowing down, so stick around for the stories and shenanigans. And as always...

Happy Trails,

The ten things I learned in 2014

Happy Christmas Eve Eve Eve. Here it comes! The last two weeks of 2014, weeks packed with holidays, and celebrations, and family, and friends, and lots of reflecting about the year that has been. Facebook has launched their year in review picture montage; Google has released their year in searches; DJ Earworm has released his year in music; and the list goes on and on.

One of my favorite daily perusals on the internet in Thought Catalog. If you've never looked at it before, no worries...there's a healthy dose of it scattered within my "Friday Fives." I hit the highlights for you, but if you have more time to kill, by all means, check them out and browse away...just make sure you have 30 minutes or so to lose! Anyway, Thought Catalog is great about year in review stuff, but not just at the end of the year. They're posting lists all the time. "The things you learn when you online date"..."The things you learn when you live with 8 cats"..."A reflection of the 10 worst things that happen when you grocery shop at 2AM"...they exist, and they're kind of funny. Buzzfeed follows a similar model; and Buzzfeed is a wildly popular, successful, and well known internet space. 

And so, as my tiny, mini market blog bobs along in the waters of internet media and entertainment, I present you my own 2014 list. The list of things I learned in 2014, and where it's taking me in the new year. 

1. I don't like change (and I don't expect that to change...) However, my "gut feeling" about the "right kind" of change, is very good. - I've never been good about changing and major life transitions. I like the comfort of my routine, and generally reject things that threaten that. I distinctly remember a conversation once where Mr. Dr. asked if I was ready to leave La Crosse to find "the next phase" of my life, and I rejected it out of hand. And yet, that changed very quickly after meeting J Word. It was very difficult to say goodbye to La Crosse, and admittedly, I cried in my apartment the day we packed up the last boxes and dropped off the keys. But as much as I hated leaving what I knew for the thrill of the unknown, deep down, I never really doubted that it was the right choice...and my gut feeling has turned out to be very very right. 

2. Sometimes, big questions have easy answers. - I am an overthinker by nature. It comes with the territory of having an overactive imagination. When faced with life's big questions, I can reason out every possible situation (good and bad) and play out any number of consequences that might come from my potential choice. It's a gift and a curse. This year, however, I've learned that sometimes, the big questions have easy answers. Sometimes, those answers correspond to situations discussed in item #1. I riddled out a lot of potential scenarios when considering taking a new job and leaving La Crosse. At the same time, telling J Word I'd marry him...easiest answer ever.

3. Dating multiple people at once is... - I was once told that it was OK to see someone for lunch, and then go to dinner with someone else. After the last year, I'm not willing to say that approach is flat out wrong, but I will say that approach is flat out complicated. As part of my online dating experiment in 2014, I never went to two dates with two different people on the same day, but I did have dinner with as many as three different people in the same week. It wasn't a disaster, but it was confusing. I found it hard not to compare the guys, sort out how to follow up, and schedule things around each other. I also felt weird about when the right time to tell guys A and B, that I was more interested in guy C. (In all actually, it didn't work out with any of them...)

4. Dating multiple people at once is... - Dating multiple people at once is also a little thrilling. It feels good to be desirable and attractive, and in the online meat market that is internet dating, it's even restores a little faith in humanity that there are still decent people out there when you can score three dates with three different, relatively normal people in the same week. That is, until you realize that the guys you're dating could also be seeing two other people in the same week...in which case it all starts to feel weird. 

5. I wasn't wrong when I said... - On the heels of my online dating adventure (and subsequent failure #1), I told a good friend that I was over the first date thing, and really what I wanted was the 6 months in relationship, when I didn't have to be dressed and pressed in order to be attractive or happy...but rather, I could sit on my couch in jeans and a sweatshirt on a Sunday afternoon grading papers, watching football, and have someone to hang out with who wasn't mortally offended to see me in a ponytail sans makeup. I wasn't wrong; it's pretty great! 

6. Who you are is who you are, regardless of the circumstances - When I lived by myself in La
Crosse, I would have defined myself as a writer, reader, runner, who liked to cook myself good food, hangout with my friends, and get occasionally lazy and binge on Netflix. Now that I live in Rochester I would define myself as a writer, reader, runner, who still likes to cook good food (but now for two!), hangout with friends, and get occasionally lazy and binge on Netflix. As stated in #1, life changes are scary and hard. What makes life changes less scary and easier?? Being true the awesome person you already are!

7. Hold on the awesome people in your life, but also make room for new awesome people! - I have been blessed with amazing people in my life, people who I know will always be there for me. Once upon a time I heard that we only get three people in our lives that we can genuinely rely on no matter what, and by that measure, I'd have already been done...but I like surrounding myself with amazing people, and I know some of the best! Take a risk...meet someone amazing. They don't have to replace your other amazing friends. But who doesn't want to just have a group of amazing friends?!?

8. Be happy...skip the news. - I like being up to date on current events, but honestly, I'd much rather get my updates from my daily CNN app headlines, Facebook news feed suggested reads, Buzzfeed current events spin, and Yahoo! I don't care if that doesn't count as "real news." Have you watched the real news lately? Sooooo depressing.

9. Everything costs money. - Here's another one I've known about for a long time, so perhaps I should rephrase. Everything costs money, and there are times when it's OK to spend it! I'm a habitual saver...and always try to err on the side of caution. Yet, this year I bought and moved a piano...paid off the rest of my car loan...and started planning a wedding. That's a lot of dollar signs, and a lot of potential anxiety for someone who flinches at dollar signs. But you know what, it's all been OK...and I keep going to work every morning!

10. Something will happen in 2015 that's completely awesome and unexpected... - Let it happen! There is no possible way I could have predicted my 2014. If you would have told me last year at this time, that this is what my life would be this year this time, I would have rolled my eyes, laughed, (and then probably had a panic attack because, oh my goodness, what if that was all true!?!). Life is going to blow your mind at some point...and it will likely be better than you ever could have imagined. Go with it! It's so worth it!

Happy Trails, Happy New Year,

  

    

#BookforaBook - Because Kindle share just isn't as old school

Once, before the age of social media, and instant messages, and texting, and all the other conveniences modern technology brought about, I received a chain letter in the mail. It was like pre-email spam, an actual physical letter that told me to pass it on to five other people on the bottom of the list, something that required a little effort, more than just picking the first 8 people that come up on your contacts, firing off the next link of email chain spam, and then hoping for 17 years of good luck and an unexpected phone call from your crush.

Oh come on...we've all gotten at least one of those in our early, hotmail.com email days.

I can't remember how successful my chain letter efforts were...which probably means they weren't very successful at all. I typically scorn such things when they come my way now. I'm not a habitual email forwarder...I've never been good at baking and passing on the friendship bread starters that have come my way...

However, when I happened to stumble upon this the other day:

http://thoughtcatalog.com/carina-sitkus/2014/12/bookforabook-check-it-out-here/

I was suckered back into the realm of internet chaining...mostly because it wasn't an internet chain!

In a world where my library account exists strictly for ebook borrowing on my Kindle (let's be honest though, this is mostly so that I can cross off the 'no library fines' item on my 30 before 30 list), there may have been something "romantic" about receiving an actual, albeit random, book to curl up with this winter. In hindsight, there may be nothing romantic at all about receiving a random book from a stranger. I'm not a full out germ-a-phobe...but what if the book comes from the apartment of an ebola patient? What if there are strange stains on the pages? What if the pages stick together? I'm not saying I'm really worried about these things...or that I even thought of them as I was signing up (they make for great internet paranoia though!). I'm just saying there's a nice element of the unknown here, and something that could make for a weird, yet hilarious, story.

What if the person sends me literary porn? It could happen! My new winter biking TV fad is Manhattan Love Story, a brilliant, witty little comedy that I'm relatively certain will only last a season but is fun while it lasts. In any case, in the latest episode the main female character, who's an assistant editor, just received her first solo book to work on. ...it's literary porn... It's funny... Until it's the random book that shows up at your house I suppose...

Should you so choose, you now have the link and can join me in this endeavor! If you're below me on the mailing list, I promise not to send you literary porn! I might even pass along something really worth reading. I have a great one going right now! Stay tuned for my thoughts on that, and on whatever it is that shows up in my mailbox weeks from now when I embark on this new literature adventure.

Happy Trails,

 

Friday Five

For the first time in a while I actually sat down for two blog posts this week! Did you miss the first one? No worries! It was short, to the point, and I'm not above shameless self-promotion, so seeing as you've made it to this post, let me start by redirecting you back to the last one!

Of course, if you just tune in to Going the Distance of Fridays for the 'five,' well...we're getting there!

Here you go...

1. Last week I talked about the Grammys, and this week I'll talk about the Golden Globes. In all honesty, I don't watch a lot of regular network TV, so that side of the Golden Globes means very very little to me. (OK...I admit to watching one episode of "Jane the Virgin" after a particularly bad day. I'm not proud of it...) I also haven't see many of the movies on the list, which makes me wonder why I wasted for these nominees at all. Well anyway...

2. I'm working on whittling away my Christmas shopping list, but I'm always on the lookout for a great idea for the harder to shop for people in my life. The greatest gadgets of 2014 are all fascinating...and I hadn't heard of most of them. But, if you're expecting a box from me this year, you just may find yourself with a new toy!

3. I'm not a big cook by the cookbook kind of chef, but I appreciate good food, and this cookbook is apparently the hot foodie read of the New Year. Though I'm not sure it will grace the countertops of my kitchen, I can at least drool over the pictures and thoughts of decadent French food. 

4. Yes...Yes I can... Can you honestly say you've loved someone genuinely?

5. And last but not least, if you haven't already seen this adorable video of a toddler having a temper tantrum over a missed putt, well then, you're welcome for this little laugh for your Friday! 

Happy Trails, 

A Blog Post in One Act

Believe it or not, it's time for another round of theatre posts to start taking over the blogs spaces of Going the Distance. It's barely been a month, I know (TRUST ME...I KNOW!). In fact, we close Honk! exactly a month ago today. However, the second round of theatre-dom here in my new Minnesota adventure is the one act play competition, and that's rapidly approaching in January. So, ready or not, here we go again!

For what it's worth, though I'm still a bit burned out from musical land, I'm pretty excited about my script choice for one act. It's called "I Remember," and it's by the same playwright who wrote "Outside In," my first adventure in theatrical direction. "Outside In" was a great show...in fact, it's even one that I would do again, and they have a one act version that was VERY tempting when I was reading perusal scripts. However, so as not to ruin any further plans I may or may not have with "Outside In," I went a different route, and if all goes well, maybe it will be the dry run of doing a full length, Dennis Bush production in the future. ...anything is possible.

Happy Trails,

Something about December...

Well Happy December, and welcome back to the Friday Five.

Last Friday, as people clamored through stores trying to buy $99 TVs, and $2 PJ pants (some of you are now wondering where you missed $2 PJ pants...I don't think that good of a deal actually existed...but you get my point), I enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner with Josh's Tennessee family, then got in the car, drove across the state to spend the weekend with our Tennessee friends, then drove all the way back to Minnesota on Sunday, for a whirlwind holiday weekend road trip adventure. Thus, you'll hopefully excuse the brief blogging absence.

But now I'm back, and December is here, and the countdown to Christmas is on. There's something about December that is wonderful and magical...and I've always loved Christmas...so bring on the good times. I'm ready! Three weeks and counting!

And speaking of counting...let's count to five. Your first December Friday Five...ready?...go!

1. I like this list of the things that happy couples are able to talk about, mostly because I'm part of a happy coupleship that has talked about all these things! I'm not sure that it's the litmus test for healthy relationships, but I do feel good knowing that J Word and I are pretty much open books when it comes to sitting down for a chat.

2. 

Ok...this one is kind of fun and funny. J Word and I have been talking a lot recently about setting up our own Christmas traditions and what we want our newly co-mingled holidays to look like. We have a Christmas tree, and he laughed himself silly when I hid the baby Jesus (because he can't go in our manger scene until Christmas!),  and we've discussed any number of other holiday-esque things. St. Nick is one of those funny traditions that I've always known I would likely have to explain to a future spouse (as I've had to explain it to just about everyone who didn't grow up in a small sliver of south-eastern Wisconsin). So, when I recently mentioned to J Word that St. Nick fills stockings on Friday night, he gave me that small, sly smile I've come to know as the "I'm going to humor you because you're being a little ridiculous, but you're also adorable at the same time" look. Then he asked if he should expect candy in his stocking. I mention this because I've had to concede that, now living in Minnesota, any future children I may have will have little cultural context for St. Nick because none of their classmates and friends will have St. Nick. Thus, I might at a St. Nickless (that's a GREAT pun!) family. But I think J Word should probably leave his stocking out this week because everyone deserves St. Nick Day at least once!

3. Every year these come out as a end of the year review...and every year I kind of like them!

4. Oh yes!!! This pre-black Friday Target pep talk is one "This is Sparta" short of a empirical war. BUT, bonus points if you can also name the Shakespeare play alluded to in the speech!

5. And last but not least...Grammy nominations are out today, and though this is not something I'm normally excited about, I happened across them and consequently found myself elated that Taylor Swift does not rule every...single...category! 

Happy Trails,