a lazy sunday

perfect weather (for the first all summer) + recovering from the first late late night I'd had in a while + hanging out with two amazing girls + reading up on the emerging GOP candidates because I am a dork + watching ridiculous TV shows + running + new music + finding out my car should be back by Thursday (fingers crossed) + lots of my little projects/long term plans coming together + great sermon in church today  = good weekend and the perfect cap to a wonderful two week vacation.

back to work tomorrow--hopefully it will go well and I will be able to come up with activities for the kiddos.

Listening to:

The Civil Wars. I've had their music for a while but I never got around to listening to them--they're fantastic. 

Also, I have this thing where I create playlists for very specific sub-genres of music. The songs have to fit a certain mood or have a feel to them that matches the others. I keep these four song playlists around for years with no change and then one day, bam!, I'll hear a song and go "Wow, that's absolutely perfect for my nordic lighthouse playlist!"

 One of my favorites I have christened "Bluesy Harmonica Put to Good Use". Most of the songs do have harmonica, but in general they're folksy-bluesy-alt rock songs with stomp to them that simultaneously remind me of Cold Mountain and taking a road trip through the Carolinas. And with my (re)discovery of the Civil Wars, there is a new addition! Fair warning, if you don't like the first track, you won't like the rest of 'em. 

Barton Hollow--The Civil Wars

Believer--Viva Voce

Follow Suit--Trent Dabbs

Wagon Wheel (cover)--Against Me

Complicated Shadows--Elvis Costello

Fault Line--Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Done All Wrong--Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

The Civil Wars--Barton Hollow

Running Nowhere

Disclaimer: I am not a runner. People always say that and add the "I mean, my marathon time is awful!" or "I only ran twelve miles yesterday!" I actually am not a good runner. The most I've ever run is two miles. But I started jogging in the fall and spring of last year because winter is so miserable that it makes staying inside and not exercising seem like a crime when the weather clears up. And so my short little running life has been quite pleasant. Until I got back to Georgia.

Several problems:
-Its 95 degrees outside.
-Lack of college friends who force me to run.
-Very tiring and time consuming summer job.

But I knew all of this going in. So, to compensate, I drank water, ate some protein a few hours before;

wore my lucky running top;

I should explain the top. My mom ran track in college, and this was her jersey. She gave me a bunch of her old tshirts to sleep in when I was about six. Most of them (including this one) fell apart, but I refused to throw this one away. Its really, really ratty and has been pieced back together many times:

but wearing it reminds me that even if I don't have a runner's stamina, experience, or endurance, at least I have a runner's genes.

So I put on my shoes, waited till the temperature dropped to the eighties, got my iPod set to good running music (Mumford today) and headed out. I hadn't even gotten halfway through my loop when my ribs started aching liked they'd cracked in half. Not just like a normal stitch in your side. Even walking jostled whatever it was. And so I walked the rest of the way, and then died at the top of the hill before my house:

Maybe I'll put exercise on hold until I'm back in a cooler climate.