Mother, Run, Hike

I don't think I need to repeat that I love Harry Potter, and have read the books multiple times again, right? When I found out there was a Harry Potter Festival near by, we put it in the plans of places to visit this fall.  Festival cups were sold out. Sold out seemed to be a theme for a lot of things Parking We headed out there late morning on Saturday. We got stuck in traffic for a long time as we got close to the festival. Eventually, I kicked Roger out of the car while he went to find a bathroom and I went to park the car. He doesn't do well at being stuck in traffic, and I use the opportunity to sing in the car, and paint my nails.  Parking was not available anywhere near the festival, so I ended up parking about 1 mile away. The Festival I walked with many witches and wizards to the festival, saw a Hagrid, students from all houses, but mostly Gryffindors. This was amazing! I know a lot of people love Harry Potter and seeing them dressed up, declari...

I read for the same reason that I run... for my mental health. I have turned to TV and books for a change of scene when things get difficult to deal with. For me, reading books and watching TV is about seeing that many others have dealt with many more difficult situations, and that maybe I can learn from that. Here are some of my favorite books that helped me deal with life.   The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - This is a book about Charlie, who is going into High School. He is an introvert, and the book is letters that he is writing to a "friend" about his High School experience. I wanted to crawl inside this book and live in it.       Harry Potter by JK Rowling- The entire series If a Teenager can beat the Dark Lord several times, with the help and love of his friends and family, I can get up and deal with life.       Born To Run by Christopher McDougall - I highly recommend this book to anybody interested i...

I've been divorced for 4 years now. And Alternate holiday weekends still suck!! For any of you who are not divorced, and don't have to memorize a Custody schedule for your child... let me give you a brief explanation. Shared custody of a child means that my son summer holidays get alternated year to year.... last year he was with me for Memorial Day, and Labor Day. This year he goes with his Dad and  I get him for 4th of July. This was supposed to be my weekend, but instead, my son gets to spend the holiday weekend with his Dad. I'm sad about it, but the only thing I can do about it is deal with it. So I'm planning on running a couple of races to stop torturing myself psychologically , and push myself Physically instead. Roger and I will be driving out to the beach for the weekend, but not before I can have some more torture. A baseball game was cancelled two weeks ago, and the coaches picked the Friday before the holiday weekend to make it up..... Yes, because nob...

I have a job that keeps me sitting at a computer for most of the day, with little social interaction. I mostly enter number in a computer and audit files. I have done this work for years, so my brain doesn't find it challenging and I get bored. I have to distract my brain, and keep things challenging, so while at work I listen to books. I don't freely admit to many people that I listen to books, because some would say that listening to books is lazy, but to those people I ask "When was the last time you read/listen to 3 books in one week?". And every now and then when time allows it, I read real books, I'm currently finishing The Things They Carried. And I need to point out that if I don't listen to books, my day ends up being spend reading random race recaps on blogs... can't help it, I enjoy random race recaps from strangers. Back in 2014 I had started listening to a lot of books, after finishing the Harry Potter series, I was quickly running out of bo...

Christmas Wish list I just finished putting together the Christmas list for my family. We have grown up a lot in the last 5 years and have made our list about things that we can / will use; which prevents wasting money for all of us and hoarding for others. Last year somebody even asked for a bottle of Ketchup, it was a joke but it ended up being used. In other years I have asked for things that I don’t use. For some reason that I don’t understand now, I asked for a deep fryer and a food processor one year. I lost the fryer on my divorce, but I’m glad to not have the fryer anymore. Other years I asked for work out leggings and I got an awesome pair of bright pink capris leggings. A color I would have never bought for myself, but that I love. Last year I didn’t ask for many things, I asked for a DVD/CD combo of my favorite Artist, Enrique Bunbury and a few movies. I was fortunate to get a pair of super awesome Adidas Hiking sneakers, an iPad mini and socks. Those sneakers wer...