Seahawks, My Sister's Wedding, and California Updates

Hi!

It's  been a while. I'm writing this from the deck (!!!) of my apartment in Orange County. Currently, Sourabh and I are sleeping on a cheap mattress on the floor because our furniture has not yet arrived from NYC. But our furniture arrives Monday and I start work the Monday after that, so we'll finally be able to get settled!

It's been a whirlwind month. I basically had Labor Day weekend to say goodbye to friends before Sourabh and I flew to Seattle for my sister's wedding.


Seahawks Season Opener

We managed to squeeze in the NFL season opener, Seahawks vs Packers, which was AMAZING. We couldn't afford Super Bowl tickets so it was great to be at the first home game for the Seahawks.

That's Marshawn Lynch (AKA Beast Mode, AKA Skittles). He kept pacing around like a total diva. I love him.

SUPER BOWL CHAMPS!!!

I think I've successfully converted Sourabh into a Seahawks fan... also, yes, my shirt says Legion of Boom. It is awesome.

Priyanka's Wedding

After the game, it was full-on wedding mode through Sunday. My sister and her fiance husband, Jason, put together a really beautiful celebration. It was wonderful to meet more of his family and so great to see many of my relatives that I haven't seen in years!

The newly-minted husband and wife!
(My uncle officiated and gave a really lovely speech.)

Jason was feeling good pre-wedding, Sourabh was skeptical, and I was ... hungry? a ghost?

Adorbs.

Sisters <3

Also adorbs. 

I was told I had to make jokes. I tried. And failed.

My godmother!

Gettin' down.

Sourabh wanted attention. 

It was a beautiful day and I am so happy for Priyanka and Jason! They're such a beautiful, sweet couple. 

California Updates

The day after the wedding, Sourabh flew to Orange County with Mason and my dad and I flew to New York to pick up the cats and oversee the movers. So in two days we flew the length of the country twice. #jetsetting

Shortly after, we got a car! I've loved MINI Coopers for a while and am SO excited about this one. It gets great gas mileage, has some pretty sweet pick-up, and there is no missing it in the parking lot. I'm in love.

Last Thursday, I had a friend from NYC visiting the SoCal area, so we headed to Joshua Tree National Park. It was a weekday and close to sunset, so the park was really empty, and the silence in the stark, empty desert was incredible. I hope to go back soon and get more of a chance to climb the rocks and explore!

The eponymous Joshua Tree.

Mason was not a fan.

Where's Waldo the MINI?

Running (?)

I actually went for a run this morning! It's been a while since I've been getting in any kind of consistent mileage. I ran in Washington and did a good bye tour of Central Park, but I haven't been running regularly other than some cardio at the gym. I'm a person who thrives on having things scheduled, and the lack of a schedule the past two months has been a bit rough for my running. So I'm looking forward to getting settled here and setting up a schedule.

One thing that sucks about not running that much is that you don't make any forward progress and, instead, you tend to get slower. I enjoy an easy run to clear my head, but I also love the whole working-hard-toward-a-goal aspect of running, and I'm eager to get back to focused run training. I'm hoping that by the end of this year I can be back where I was fitness-wise at the time of the 2014 NYC Half, and maybe even make some progress. We'll see!

There are two early 2015 half marathons that I have my eye on (including Surf City, which looks pretty awesome -- it's almost entirely on the Pacific Coast Highway). I want to use the next two months to build up a solid base and then start training. So hopefully this will be back to being a running blog in the near future!