The past 48 hours have been busy, but fantastic.

Sunday I woke up and took most of the morning to myself, relaxing before beginning the day and preparing for my spur of the moment trip.

Seriously, going anywhere without at least two weeks (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but not by much…) of planning is pretty unheard of for me.

I had my coffee and breakfast, and then went to the bike trail where I had a fantastic run.

On the elliptical I’ve been doing roughly 15 minute miles. When I run the trails I’m usually closer to 18 minutes.

Sunday I was at a 17 minute mile. That’s a 1 minute improvement. /flex

Totally proud of that.

My shins were pretty ok afterwards, too, which was even better. A lot of the soreness was muscle based, which I’m ok with.

I can deal with my muscles being sore. It’s a different matter when it feels like my bones are trying to twist in half.

I think I’ll wait until Wednesday to run again so I don’t agitate my shin splints. It’s nice being able to walk without pain.

I know myself though, and it’s going to be so hard to resist the urge to run tomorrow…

Once I was done with my run Sunday, I came back home and started on my weekend chores. I wanted those to be done and out of the way so when I came back from my trip there wouldn’t be anything that needed to be taken care of.

After spending 12 of 24 hours driving I knew I wouldn’t be much use once I finally got home.

The only thing I didn’t get to was vacuuming, which I was ok with. The apartment isn’t bad, and it’s more a habit than a need. If it really bothers me I can do it tomorrow morning.

Joshua helped me get Seth’s tank into my car, which was awesome.

I didn’t get on the road until 3pm, way later than what I wanted, but I left with the peace of mind that the apartment was taken care of, and that I wouldn’t be rushed to do anything Monday evening.

I drove the 6 hours to my cousin’s house, listening to Eldest most of the way there. There’s 23 hours in this audio book… I didn’t even make a dent…

I dropped Seth off with Travis and Mandie.

Travis was in instant love with Seth, so I’m really hoping that they bond. It was nice to know Seth was going to someone who knew snakes. We talked all sorts of facts, and exchanged snake info.

It was good conversation that I haven’t been able to have with anyone else in a while.

Lame non-snake people not wanting to talk about snakes and stuff…

After I left my cousin’s house I called my mom to let her know I would be home in about 30 minutes. Since I was out I offered to pick up dinner for both of us. She said if I ‘happened to find myself at a Checkers that she wouldn’t mind a burger…’

So I got her a Baconzilla and I had a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. I hadn’t really eaten anything on my trip up, so I was super hungry by the time I got home.

We chatted for a little bit, but I was tired from my busy day of chores, running, and driving. So I went to sleep around 11.

That meant I woke up around 8:30.

Mom was already awake. She most likely woke up a zero dark thirty or something crazy early.

We chatted a bit more then decided that it would work better to have breakfast together instead of waiting for lunch. So we went to Cracker Barrel.

Afterwards we went to a gas station close to the on ramp for the interstate and had mocha frappe-fdjalkfjalkjtalkl or whatever they’re called from McDonalds and stood around and talked more.

Any time I have to order a coffee from somewhere I always think of this Dunkin Donuts commercial.

Really, my trip was just a lot of social together-ness time, which was super awesome. I think we both needed a nice positive visit. Something to help ease the loss of Cleo.

We talked about her feelings about making the choice to put her down. The corrosive question of “Did I do the right thing?”

I think it helped to talk to someone, face to face, who knew the whole situation. Who knew Cleo personally and could share in the feelings. I feel like my mom and I have very similar personality types, and I think having understanding from someone else means a lot for her.

I think the trip home was the right choice and I’m glad I did it.

Mom was super awesome and gave me $25 bucks for gas. Since it only took me about $30 to get home, that pretty much covers half of my trip. She also sent me home with food stuffs since she loves couponing and gets amazing deals on different things.

I ended up getting on the interstate at noon, which was when I wanted to leave. But there was road work going on, so I didn’t really start making any progress until around 1…

That first hour sucked hardcore.

But other than that, the trip was pretty good. Light traffic, sunny day, good music. No complaints from me.

Grace and I were supposed to do dinner, but she had to cover for one of her Kendo instructors, so we rain checked for doing wings on Wednesday after my SAL lab at midnight.

Super late for most people, normal hours for my circle, though.

Right now I’m in SAL lab as Frank does another demo. My brain is a bit fried. I’ve uploaded my last week’s assignments to the discussion board. I’ve downloaded the content for this week and have looked at the assignments.

This week we’re moving into color theory and shading. The assignments look like a lot of fun. And I can’t wait to start the color assignment so I can play with my new tablet. <3

It’s going to be amazing. The thought of that tablet is doing things to my brain.

Mmmmm. Art… /mind wanders

Wait, blogging… right… back on track.

I have reading I could do for my assignments, but I don’t know if I have it in me to research / comprehend right now.

I have cross-stitching with me and even that seems like it would be too much for my poor mushy brain. Poor thing… all tuckered out.

Tomorrow is another full day. Jarrett is supposed to have money for me. Only $100 out of the $160, but that’s still a majority of it… if he has it. That’s at 11am.

I need to do laundry. Since the laundry mat I like going to is near Jarrett it won’t be too much of a hassle to work that into the day. Rebecca and I are supposed to have lunch at 1pm. I have lab at 5pm to 1am, so I need to find time for the gym before then, most likely around 3ish. If it starts pushing 4pm I’ll feel rushed and won’t have a very good workout.

I really aught to do strength tomorrow. Unless I wake up super early, I’m not going to be able to catch a class, which is lame.

I’m hoping after some quality sleep that I will feel more up to my coming day. Right now I’m wondering how I will survive it.