Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

Aloha from Hawaii!

Remember me? I started off the year with a bold determination to get back into blogging...and then I let two months go without even trying to write a blog post. It makes me sad because I really do love this space and it's been hard to make it a priority for a long time now.

I wish I could say that this time, I've been away for a good reason - that I have so much to catch up on from all of the wonderful trips I've taken and fabulous things I've done over the last few months, but the truth is, I've been working a lot and I haven't really wanted to leave my house much because this winter has just been brutal.

But I'm exhausted. Until now, I hadn't taken a vacation in 5 months and this endless winter has just really worn me down. So a few weeks ago, I called up my good friend, Carolann, and asked her if I could come visit her in Hawaii, and I came as soon as I could.

Carolann asked me what I wanted to do when I got here and I told her, "absolutely nothing." We've done more than that but there has been a lot of down time and sitting on the beach, which is exactly what I needed. I feel immensely better. I was supposed to get home yesterday but one downside to the perk of being able to travel whenever and wherever is the risk of not getting a seat as a standby passenger. Getting out of Hawaii right now is proving a little bit difficult, so I'm working some immensely early mornings from here until I can get back home. 

Since it's been so long, let's catch up (over a steaming mug of Hawaiian blend with condensed milk, if you want to match my Aloha spirit!).

I turned 31 in February...and said good riddance to 30, the hardest and worst year of my life. The Pilot and I celebrated both of our birthdays, which are 1 week apart, with a road trip to Charlottesville, VA.

I haven't run a single mile in 2018... and its (mostly) been by choice, though the endless winter we're having hasn't made me miss running and I had a few doctors suggest that cutting back on running might be good for me. This isn't by any means a permanent thing and I think I'm going to start running again this month, easing back into it if (and only if) the weather cooperates. I'm over this 40-degree nonsense and I won't run in it in April.

I haven't been reading much lately... unless you count all of the reading I've been doing for work on education systems in West Africa and our current government's practical guarantee of another financial crisis. I haven't just skipped mine and Carolann's monthly link up because I haven't been blogging, I haven't been reading either. It took me almost the entire month to read the last book I read and I've been suffering through a horrendous nonfiction audiobook for 2 months that I can't seem to quit. I didn't even bring any books to Hawaii but luckily, Carolann has plenty for me to borrow! 

The Pilot and I are planning our next trip to Paris. We've gone to Paris every other year since 2012, merely by coincidence but on our third trip there in 2016, we decided to make it a routine. We want to add on to the trip either with some time om the south of France, or going back to Portugal, or seeing somewhere totally new. I have my heart set on Budapest but we'll see. 

I really miss living in DC. The Pilot and I both do. I fully expected this. Neither one of us ever really wanted to leave DC but the city's housing market is pretty inaccessible. I'm glad I still commute to the city a few days a week but I miss living there. I like Baltimore enough but DC is home. I have zero regrets about buying our home or moving to Baltimore and I hope I come to love Baltimore in its own way but I think I'll always miss DC. It's the first city I've lived in after London that I ever truly loved living in.

What have I missed in the blog world lately?

Have you taken any vacations lately? Planning any exciting trips?