a necessary evil

My life is like a Tide commercial, everyday is laundry day! As I've been reflecting on my life I've come to the conclusion that I do laundry more than I do anything else. If we were to break down my life into a pie chart, I venture to say that 35% of my time is spent doing laundry! That is far too much! I think half of the problem is that the majority of my clothes require line drying, and this is quite the process, there's the initial hanging it up on a hanger, hanging the hangers on the shower curtain rod, then shuffling the clothes around to accommodate for showers in the morning, hanging them back on the rod, removing them once they're dry, blah blah blah, folding and putting away. The whole thing is annoying. This excessive laundry has caused me to think a lot about my situation. "Am I a super dirty person? Am I a clean freak? Do I have too many clothes? Do I not have enough? Do I like to change outfits a lot?" What is the deal??? All I can think is that this laundry explosion is going to have to settle down before I get a family of my own and have to do everyone else's laundry as well. I'll need 3 sets of washer and dryers! :) If you have any ideas I'm open for suggestions, but until then... I'm off to go put in another load of laundry!

The first mile is the hardest

So I've never been much of a runner. I have been known to say "I hate running" and I actually mean it! There are just so many variables that go into running. You could get half way through a run and all of the sudden have to go to the bathroom and there's nowhere to go, your lungs may hurt, your legs may hurt, the weather may change, your ipod battery may die, your muscles may cramp...the list goes on and on. But I decided last fall that I wanted to become a runner, I wanted to run a half marathon. I entered me and a group of friends into the Canyonlands Half Marathon lottery and hoped that we would be chosen. We were, and began training in January. I'm not gonna lie, it was one of the hardest things that I've done. There were many afternoons where I was like... "uh... do we really have to run today? I'm so tired, or busy, or not motivated." But we would go. A lot of the time I felt like it was a test of my dedication and mental will power. I had never run more than 5 miles before this whole thing, and it was amazing to me to see that once I told my body that I could do it, I was able to. A lot of sweat, and hard work made for a successful experience. Right before the race started on March 20 I caught myself thinking that the race we were about to run was not the most important run, it was just the icing on the cake. The most important run, was a culmination of a bunch of different runs. The ones that we did by ourselves in the cold, in the dark, or with each other when it was so hard and we wanted to give up and walk, but we didn't. All those little experiences made me able to run like a champion on race day. I learned about finding joy in the journey. I've felt a runners high. I've crossed a finish line and knew that I did my best. I've learned that the phrase "no pain no gain" actually has a lot of truth to it. I've conquered a fear. I've learned that I can do most anything I put my mind to. I like running! And that's enough of victory for me!