Hello November

Oh hi there... going to give this NaBloPoMo thing a good go! Life has been pretty interesting over the past few weeks. I'm on day 47 of my 90 day challenge, by the way! I can't believe I just past the halfway point, and if this many events occur in the next 43 days that have occurred so far, well, I'm in for quite an adventure.

So let's see... where to start? Well, this whole goal to lose weight is ongoing. I lose a few pounds, then gain back 2, then lose 1, then gain 2... keeps going like that. So in the end, I feel like I'm only about a couple of pounds down from when I started. Super annoying, but I know that I've been doing hard work, so I can't beat myself up too much! I have stuck with the Couch to 5k program, and haven't missed a workout as of yet! I went from running one minute intervals and being totally nervous that there was no way I could do it, to yesterday I ran two eight minute segments back to back! I didn't stop in the middle of my runs, and I am so proud of myself. Basically for this leg of the progam, I had to do a brisk 5 minute walk, followed by an 8 minute run, a 5 minute walk, and another 8 minute run. I know 8 minutes really doesn't seem like much, but that was a HUGE accomplishment for me!

I'm pretty nervous because my last workout for this week wants me to run for 20 minutes without stopping! I already run at a slow pace, so I'm not sure how I'm going to manage this one. I plan to do this workout on Saturday and run with the boy I've been seeing, hopefully he can give me some moral support. Everyone who does Couch to 5k freaks about this sudden up in the workout, but apparently it is supposed to challenge you mentally... seeing as I already ran for a combined total of 16 minutes, physically I should be able to handle 20. Mind over matter, I suppose?

And now I mentioned the boy. We'll just call him E. I don't exactly know what to say... we met on Chemistry, and he might be the nicest guy I've ever dated. And he seems to be crazy about me. And... I don't know. He's super nice, but I just don't know yet. He's cute, professional, somewhat charming, and sometimes utterly clueless. While our personalities mesh well enough, I'm not sure we have enough in common. Part of the problem (not so much of a problem as it is an explanation of sorts) is that he was raised as a Mennonite. So... in simple terms, modern Amish? As in, had electricity and cars... but lived very simply. While I actually admire being able to live in such a fashion in today's crazy world, it does make for some difficulties. Like he has almost zero pop culture knowledge. Zero. For example, we were in a book store, and he asked me if Stephen King was a "modern day author?" And he doesn't watch sports at all... he asked me if Tina Turner was a singer... and the kicker was we went and saw Argo and he asked who Steven Spielberg was!

He's no longer a Mennonite, but I definitely see how that upbringing still influences him quite a bit. He finds TV to be mostly pointless (okay, so what if it is, I enjoy a good pointless hour in my day), doesn't see the "point" in fashion, and I definitely see how my sense of humor sometimes goes right over his head. So yeah... I'm going to keep giving this a try, for now, because like I said, he is the nicest guy I ever dated. But... I'm realizing it takes more than just being nice, unfortunately. So anyhow, I'm sure I'll have more to say on this subject later... so to be continued.