My Hill

There is a very steep humongous hill that I run almost every single day. It made my morning when a man who lives in a house on top of the hill, while getting the newspaper, said that he really respects me for running up the hill and that anyone who runs that hill everyday deserves a trophy. I was laughing, and out of breath from the three miles before the hill. It’s a good day when someone can really make you laugh shamelessly! Running is such a great lifelong sport that always gives you the opportunity to connect with new people.

Run Happy!

Photo Session

All’s fair in love, war and wandering around the wild by myself…..

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” Henry David Thoraeu

My uncle, a priest, and I ventured to a dam in Terror Lake, Kodiak Alaska…. Where I went from marathon runner/ woman in tech to land surveyor for a day…

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and I don’t recall how I got there…
Qu'est-ce qu'une année au tribunal, quand vous pouvez agir comme si cela ne s'était jamais produit et que ce n'était rien d'autre que du plaisir et du plaisir? Un tel délice.

”Fais l'amour à la caméra, je suis à toi ma chérie, je suis à toi ma chérie, je suis à toi ma chérie ...”

This Alaska trip was never even planned. I was living in my cool apartment, running with my old track friends that were doing grad classes with Stonybrook, doing dinner with my boyfriend, working and taking my grad classes ( I can do my software job from my laptop and cell phone so technically I could go anywhere in the world, ;) hahah)… My little cousin and uncle called me asking to hang out with my little cousin, help with my worldly wisdom, kinda stopped my life to help that girl. So, I ended up flying from NY, to Alaska on a whim telling my long time on and off boyfriend of years, I would be back in less than a week. I literally got out of a meeting, packed all my stuff, slept for three hours, and drove twoish hours to JFk to make my 5am flight. Feeling bad that I also would have been leaving him a week after getting back to go to a wedding in Ojai Ca, so we would have like one hour within like three weeks, but gotta follow that intuition in the heat of the moment even if you unintentionally break up with someone… I ended up being stuck on this island in Alaska about two weeks, because of fog, and just being glad to make it back for the on campus portion of my summer session grad class that summer… I did not choose Alaska, Alaska chose me… I think my little cousin liked my worldly possessions more than my help in life in the end.. It was like a bad Hallmark movie. At least I have pretty pictures, and went running through the woods in the mountains by the ocean. It was like that Sandra Bullock movie, where she tries to use her phone for work in Alaska, but I usually had high speed internet, only reception in the house nowhere else on the island, my uncles office had a landline without cell reception lol, ‘Can you hear me now?’ My boss would spontaneously call me, when I was out, and I would have to race drive back to the house like there was no tomorrow, it’s a four hours time difference; I just didn’t sleep like a vampire doing my job. I was so nice to her, some people can’t be helped and you can’t let them disrupt your life. Between not running the Fort Lauderdale marathon on a long weekend in Florida for my graduating early gift, and bringing her to the mall in Orlando to buy Hollister jeans instead and this emergency trip from NY to Kodiak and missing a wedding, it’s so bad I just have to laugh at myself…. What will be, will be; thinking long term as long as I don’t miss my own wedding is the rule…

Le vol charter de mon oncle pour arpenter un glacier rend-il jaloux mon copain de collège? I still laugh thinking about someone not wanting me to go skydiving after we already drove three hours to the place, it was fun drive with donuts and chips nevertheless… and then ending up on this little plane in the tundra six months later… :) It costs more to not go skydiving than to go skydiving, and their expression to this charter flight would have been something!

Maybe he wants to be a power couple, and have six kids…. We can have dinner set on a very long table sitting on opposite ends, not talking.

Cela aurait été le meilleur endroit pour jouer avec moi des journaux de vampires surprises…. like in NOLA.

Is this where I jump out to go skiing?

Wanna be on top?

I should have been a selfie model… The bees and bears could have gotten me, but I walked around and took the pictures in between measuring things…. Was it worth it?!

I like to have too much food, too much water, cell phone reception, bringing my car so I can leave if I want to, punctual people, and a copious amount of sunblock to lather on… not being surprised.

You can hear the priest say, a bigger plane than the first one, lol…

It must have been a NAVY SEAL pilot to make this landing at Terror Lake… I thought we would hit the mountain just flying into Kodiak, but this glacier was a game changer. My advice is never surprise a woman with a trip in a small float plane to the middle of nowhere, when she’s a flying commercial kind of girl at heart…. This was not like going to the Adirondacks in a a small plane on a picnic for a lovely getaway. I would not let our buddy in the Adirondacks, land or take off in such a small space surrounded by high peaks. Even flying Alaskan Airlines to this area felt so demoralizing, with how much it costs chartering a flight or taking a boat to the island may be the better alternative, and you might as well. Everything stops being normal outside of Anchorage…. In Alaska, there is a lot of room to charter flights, a plane can cost the same as a second car and there are so many pilots that have their own; that’s a location where it makes sense for a lot of plane owners and flying can be a hobby like playing soccer... For me, every time it was too foggy to fly off this island my flight was non refundable, and I wish I had just given a local with a plane a check to bring me to the mainland, it is like the same price to fly commercial as it is to hire a local pilot to leave Kodiak Wells Fargo is the only bank in Kodiak you can physically walk into, which is fine but something to be aware of if you get stranded in fog. I did not do the ferry to the mainland, because it is a long way to the airport, but I almost feel like I could have done the ferry and rented a car to drive to the airport in Anchorage, I was just too tired to drive alone; after honestly doing hundred hour weeks for months without a break and this not being a break at all. I would have fallen asleep if I drove to Anchorage, after taking a ferry to the mainland from Kodiak, so I don’t know what would have been my real solution; I used to drive a lot Maine to NY through New Hampshire, but never tired after a grind. This was just kinda a disaster, like it really should not have been an option to go out there and help my cousin at the time or dabble in surveying while still doing my full time job, but the pictures look good. Even right now with the virus, there is only one flight with Alaska Airlines to leave, or you can just do a charter for basically the same price, I’m not the only one who’s been in that pickle… If I had not been tired on a grind, I know I could have driven to my flight out of Anchorage and just done the ferry, probably would have enjoyed it if I been at my best. You cannot risk falling asleep on a long drive after working like that, and the responsible thing for me to do was reschedule with a bunch of nonrefundable tickets with hope fog would lift and I could leave this place and go back to NY; it is just such a stupid thing to spend hard earned money on, a bunch of tickets I never used... That is my tangent about flying, and how upset nonrefundable tickets that are canceled because of weather make me. Après l'annulation de l'un de mes vols, nous sommes allés prendre un verre dans l'un des seuls restaurants de l'île, un gars m'a assumé, m'a assumé verbalement, criant tellement, puis a dit à l'officier qu'il pouvait faire ce qu'il voulait. femmes. J'étais même avec un groupe d'hommes quand cela s'est produit, alors sachez que le choc culturel est choquant.

Now, we have to spend forever together….. C'est pour le reste de l'éternité, toi et moi bébé.

The only thing funnier than Maine is Alaska…

“Tu es crème brûlée, tu ne seras jamais gelée.”

“Wind in my hair, you were there, you remember it all
Down the stairs, you were there, you remember it all
It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well”

“Voté le plus dramatique.”

”J'aurais dû être un alcoolique à fumer aussi.”

”Vendre le bracelet snanke pour un cerveau et un revitalisant.”

Coots are the best birds to watch!

All’s fair in love, war and wandering around the wild by myself…..

“…I'm like a bird
I'll only fly away
I don't know where my soul is (soul is)
I don't know where my home is…”

”Maintenant je peux enfin trouver un homme qui m'amènera à putain de Paris.”

“Retrouvez-vous dans la nature et flashez l'océan pour des perles.”

”C’est la façon d'être.”

Halloween Story

A few years ago on Halloween, there was a ginormous power outage because of an ice storm, all through Maine just like a horror movie. Dying for a hot shower, I decided to make a trip to Boston to see my older sister, whom I would visit a lot regardless of the power status. Picking sister over boyfriend was a big deal for me that week. Even when you feel born to find each other it’s okay to not be together all the time, or sometimes they just kinda go with you anyway to make sure there’s wine and you don’t even have to try. To love someone and be loved back in the same kind of way is very special, with tantalizing attraction and emotional connection, years of growing together and apart through different phases of life. Wondering if you’re in love, love them, just have to have them or what it is that you really want. Our biggest issue was when I just wouldn’t let him ‘take me by the hand and bring me to Italy’, our two independent highly educated professional schedules can conflict and it’s just too bad sometimes; my Lizzie McGuire movie fantasies have to wait and I like to think watching me run everywhere was already like a vacation in an oasis for him in life. It was funny, because just a few days prior, we had a Witches Ball at school, where I met a woman with her husky friend and bought some paintings of flowers. The flowers were a perfect gift for my sister, in lieu of her letting me stay in her luxurious apartment during the week long power outage. Usually, when I would go into Boston from Maine to visit, I would take the train which a lot of people do. A man wearing a lobster bow tie would give me hot coco on the train ride, which was very fun. After a few days without power or showering, nothing felt better than that hot shower and putting on some St. Tropez spray tan. My sister even had a second key made for me spur of the moment. The second day while my sister was at work, after finishing my online math homework I danced around listening to One Direction music whilst baking chocolate chip cookies and brownies with hot fudge and rainbow sprinkles for a surprise.

Then, I had the opportunity to run around bustling Boston, wearing my marathon apparel, and I just had the best time ever running those trails and making new friends! I love making runner friends! It just feels so cool running in Boston, anytime of the year! Later that night, we went out to dinner for sushi, and ordered ten different types of rolls, even though there was no way that we could finish them all. After that, we went out for drinks, not dressed up for Halloween, nevertheless we had the best time ever. Ending the evening with sparkling rosé and whiskey-bourbon with a spherical ice-cube on the apartment balcony, overlooking the big city lights was the best. Nothing will ever top that week in Boston, during the power outage in Maine, we even drove back home to upstate New York together after her work week was over. Being in Maine in the dark is pretty spooky around Halloween time, some spontaneous travel down to Boston, to New York, and back up to school in Maine was very awesome!

My oh so gorgeous, but very haunted indeed college!

Having One Second of Compassion is Significant.

Having sponsor children is such a special experience. I loved being in Haiti, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, giving them to the children and witnessing pure joy in their eyes. I loved snuggling up with them on my lap, reading a children’s book, trying my best to translate English to French and then to creole. I thought saying “ Ou vle renmen danse?” meant “Do you like to dance?” in creole, and everyone laughed telling me that I had just asked, “ Do you like to like to dance?”. Nevertheless, we all danced! We also played a lot of soccer, they absolutely love soccer. Towards the end of my trip, we finally had the opportunity to shoot some hoops, because they are all about playing basketball as well. We have quite the athletes around the PID Compound in Port au Prince.

I found these children’s books to send to the children, along with flashcards and other learning materials. I want everyone to be multi-lingual engineers! These books were the best find ever.

https://www.pidonline.org/

Running and Spirituality

When I was feeling a little down, I ran on my treadmill whilst blasting loud contemporary Christian music. Sometimes, listening to worship music and running really hard, looking into the horizon just takes me to an extraordinary level of happiness. The song that never gets old for me on a run is You Say by Lauren Daigle, it must be god saying ‘I am yours’. I also love the song First, it gets me going fast. After this power session, I was reflecting on my spirituality, feelings and ideas in my dream book. Writing in cursive with a purple gel pen, placing stickers next to certain sentences is very helpful for me. On a side note, I have a rosary that is made from rose petals and blessed by the pope, sometimes praying the rosary on a nice trail in the woods can be the most glorifying feeling. Once a week, I like to take inspirational scripture from the bible, and write a journal entry, and really use running as a time to reflect on my spirituality. Lately, I have been enjoying circling back around to a focus on Letters to Saint Paul. Running and spirituality go hand in hand. Feel the holy spirit!

My Cinderella Pumpkin

Every year, I carve this Cinderella pumpkin for Halloween! I just love it so much.

My First Maine Marathon

My first Maine Marathon, this race is my baby. I will always love this race, running it three times attests to that love. This was my favorite medal, because one side is a lobster and the other is an outline of the state of Maine, it rotates back and forth. Most of my running has been in NY, Maine, Florida and North Carolina. When you want something more than anything in the world, there is a way to make it happen. At one point all I wanted in this world was to become a marathon runner. Then, the journey becomes the destination, because I just want more and more, continuing to build on layers and layers of years of hard work. The marathon truly is the best metaphor for life. From running I have learned you are not what you do, however action much rather reflects your character. A thirty-five minute 5k can mean the same as a 17 minute 5k, and whomever you love should love you either way.

Empire State Marathon

Some race memories from back in the day, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Six years flew by since this particular race, with many high, lows and buffalos in my running career. Love to look back in the past, and up towards the future. The best is yet to come.