sleeep

I'm tired, ya'll. Between getting up early to run and staying up late to read or be social or just because I'm stupid and waste time on the internet, I'm feeling a little sleep deprived.

But this weekend I got a little more rest in than usual. First, I didn't stay out Friday night past 10:30. That's something. But then I got up at 4:30 in order to be ready to run 30 minutes outside of town at 6:15am. The 13-mile run went really well though, so that was nice. After I was home and showered and had a little food, I took a nap. When the alarm went off I reset it and took a little more nap. Then I read history. And after a while it was time for another nap. Then some more history and dinner and grocery shopping, followed by more history reading.

This morning I set the alarm for 7:30 but snoozed it a few times and basically just kept sleeping until nearly 9. I needed it. Then I spent most of the day reading history, with some laundry and picking up around the apartment thrown in. Now I've been to church and had dinner and it's time for more reading. And hopefully I will go to bed at a decent hour so I can get up early in the morning to run and start the whole week over again.

beach time with the fam

I went to the beach! Two weeks ago. (Time flies.) My aunt and grandparents got a beach house at Sandbridge, Va., and my parents flew out for the week. Saturday I went to Richmond and met up with them for a six-car carpool. (Or five or four, depending on who couldn't keep up at various times.) First we stopped at the Virginia Diner for lunch.

Grandma's ready for the Beach!

The house was giant and right on the beach, but unfortunately there was a bunch of construction happening right in front of us. Which was noisy.

Kinda fun to see construction workers wearing swim trunks.

Layin' pipes.

The house did have two pools though, one indoor and one outdoor. The outdoor one had crabs, which were actually pretty cute.

Crabs in the pool!

And despite the construction, we still went to the beach. I took two walks with my cousin Sunni, and two with my parents. Beach walks are the best.

My parents. How cute are they? Very.

On one walk, my mom and I discovered we have matching feet. (Notice the right big toe leans in more than the other.) I reported this to Grandpa when we got back, who said he already knew that, and that Grandma has the same ones, too. I didn't check her toes though, we'll have to take his word for it.

Feet twins!

While at the beach we ate, played Rook, and they all watched movies while I had to read. (Grad school can be a buzz kill at the beach.) I also witnessed some karaoke in the living room.

That Monday was Sunni's sixteenth birthday. She and Dad and I jumped waves in the ocean, then she and I played around in the outdoor pool. Then a bunch of teenagers showed up to see her. Twelve teenagers. One of my favorite parts was when she and five other teenage girls tried to get all the crabs out of the pool. Hoo boy, that was hilarious.

Happy Birthday Sunni!

But after we ate her cake I had to leave. They all stayed at the beach for the rest of the week, but I had to get back to work. (Work can also be a buzz kill when you'd rather be at the beach.) It was a nice treat to get to spend two nights at the beach and hang out with family.

17-year cicadas

When I learned there would be a plague of cicadas coming up from the ground in Charlottesville I felt a little sick. I mean, they're big bugs and they would be everywhere. Gross. Also, I've never been in a place plagued with cicadas, so I didn't know what to expect. I just heard horror stories of big bugs littering sidewalks and flying into people all the time. *Shiver*

On May 13 I spotted my first cicadas. The minute I pulled into the parking lot at work I could see some on a lamppost in front of me, plus some of their gross brown shell thingies. I walked into my supervisor's office and said gravely, "they're here." She knew exactly what I was talking about.

For a couple weeks I didn't notice them very much though. And then the noise level outside at work raised exponentially. I specify at work, because I work outside of town near tons of trees in forests. In town, I don't notice them at all. I started to think that maybe the cicadas weren't all that bad. In fact, I kind of like getting to experience this 17-year phenomenon that even Thomas Jefferson made note of back in 1775. (Do the math...1775 was fourteen cicada plagues ago!) I get to hear them, but they're not littering my sidewalks or flying into me.

Recently they've perked up though. Not only do I hear them at work, but I look out the window and see them swarming in the trees. Kind of gross. And then today? Today I came home and found this outside my apartment window:

You guys are getting a little too close to home 17-year cicadas...

Old Rag

Ever since I moved to Charlottesville I've wanted to hike Old Rag. I've even had directions for getting there and a map of the hike just sitting on my desk for over two years. And today I finally did it.

My friend D picked me up and we drove the hour or so to the parking spot in the Shenandoah National Park. The hike is an 8.8 mile loop, and includes lots of scrambling around on boulders. Which was kind of fun. Luckily it was overcast and not very hot, though still humid and I was still plenty sweaty. But unluckily the overcast sky meant the views weren't really good enough for bothering with many photos. So here's what you get:

Me at the top looking over boulders and sporting a temporary tattoo.

And a slew of pistachio shells. We had many sightings on this hike.

 8.8 miles sort of seems like a lot, but it wasn't bad. Though I guess it did take us something like five hours. But a lot of time was spent waiting at log jams in tight spots among the boulders.

I'm glad I finally got out there and experienced Old Rag. I'd do it again.

best weekday ever. or at least in a long while.

Thursday was such a fun day. So. Fun.

I woke up at 5:45am and met up with two friends at 6 at a park by the river. C and I ran 3.5 miles together on a trail (with me slightly dying because she's so much faster than I am but I didn't want to slow her down), then we walked with A and her dog along another trail to the river, where we went for a swim! This was my first foray into the Rivanna River. I felt so adventurous, considering I'd just run on trails and was now fully immersed in a river all before 7am on a workday!

After our brief swim I hurried home to shower and get ready, then rushed to work and arrived at 8:l5. And that's when I and eight of my coworkers all climbed into two cars and headed for Lynchburg for field trip day! We visited two historic houses there. First was Sandusky, which is currently under renovation and had some neat archaeology going on. Second was Point of Honor, which is a really neat historic house museum. And between the two we enjoyed lunch at the Depot Grille. On the ride home I was so happy with our field trip and time together that I got a little sappy (unusual for me) and said "I'm glad I work with you guys. This has been really fun."

We didn't get back to work until 5:45, and that's when I rushed to the orientation meeting for the marathon training program I'm going to do this summer. My friend S was also at the meeting, and afterwards we went back to her place and she made dinner for us and the two girls I'd been with earlier that morning. So we had fun girl time over a great dinner, and ended the night with a little walk around downtown together.

I'm so grateful for the friends I've made recently in Charlottesville, and for my fun coworkers!