Hi everyone! It’s Friday again, and this week’s Friday Five linkup with Eat Pray Run DC, You Signed Up For What?!, and Mar on the Run is a free Friday. So this week I decided to take a look at some future things that I’m excited about! As most of you know, my future is a bit up in the air – I’m done with my current job in Seward in a month and I’ll need to find a job and an apartment in Anchorage in that time. Everything seems pretty uncertain but I’m happy to report that in the past week I’ve discovered some exciting things on the horizon!
1. We FINALLY bought our plane tickets to the lower 48! Andrew and I are done with work in Seward on September 14 (how do I only have 1 month left?!) and we are going to be visiting Andrew’s dad in Seattle and the rest of our family in Philly before the grand finale: being a bridesmaid in my best friend’s wedding on October 4! We are so excited about the trip and feel that we definitely deserve a 3 week vacation 🙂 The tickets weren’t too expensive, and we don’t need to rent cars or hotel rooms so it’s not going to kill my bank account! Plus I get to see Bella again! God I miss this dog!
I will be cuddling with her 24/7. Gotta make up for lost time!
2. My next half marathon might not be a total hot mess. I skipped last week’s long run due to some crazy stomach issues and then it rained all week (yes, so many excuses!), so last week’s 8 miler is being moved to this weekend! I took a look at my calendar and I think with the time I have left I should be fine getting up to 10 or 11 miles before the Beat The Blerch Half. I’m banking on some of my “fitness level” sticking around from the Her Tern Half, plus hopefully my new addition of hill repeats and more frequent runs will help get me there! No matter what, this race is Blerch themed so as long as I can beat my own Blerch, I should do great! And I will earn Nutella at the end 🙂
3. PSLs are coming back!!!!!! Okay, I know what you’re thinking – didn’t I give up coffee in an attempt to get my weird heart pain/palpitations to stop? Well in not so exciting news, they haven’t stopped. They even happen when I’m not stressed or thinking about anything, which is slightly scary but I’m still going to blame it on stress. I’ve been missing my afternoon coffee so bad, and seeing so many “coffee is healthy” posts on Buzzfeed and Facebook is making me wonder why I’m even giving it up. I think just 1 cup a day (which I’ve done forever) will help me more than hurt me. And today, I mentioned PSLs and the entire office went crazy. One of my favorite coworkers even called the Starbucks inside the Safeway here in Seward to see when PSLs are coming (he must be new because he replied “October?”and hung up) and then she called one of the Starbucks in Anchorage where they confirmed the rumors online: PSLs are back on August 25! To all my haters out there, no it is not too early for pumpkin stuff. I live in a place where it feels like fall for half the summer so I can totally justify it too 🙂 #PSLsalldayeveryday
Throwback to last year’s first PSL of the season. I think it was 90 degrees that day!
4. I finally chose my big amazing dream vacation half marathon for next year! I haven’t actually registered yet because if you read this post you’ll know that I can’t ever pull the trigger on race registration. Plus I’m pretty poor right now. But it’s one of the 3 on that post and I am DYING because it looks amazing! As soon as I register I will let everyone know which one I chose!
5. It might stop raining this afternoon…or possibly next week. It’s been raining here nonstop (literally) for a week now and we are all slowly going insane. I’m not talking normal rain either – I mean cold, hard, nearly horizontal, monsoon rain. Umbrellas are useless here. I have worn my rain boots to work for the past week and I have given up on doing anything to my hair. All of our long boat tours are either cancelled or are turning around before reaching the open ocean because everyone is getting seasick from the 13 foot waves. And I’m going stir crazy – I’m all for running in the rain but this is ridiculous. Wednesday night it stopped for a few hours so Andrew and I went hiking out to Tonsina Point, where it quickly began raining again as soon as we took the picture below. I am so excited to get my next long run in on a possible partly cloudy/drizzly day next week! I know that Mobile, AL is the rainiest city in the US but I feel like Seward was overlooked!
The ocean + the mountains + fog = a really pretty hike!
We got a glimpse of sunshine yesterday! Excited for more soon!
It’s nice to feel like I’m looking forward to something again – for a while there my future was really stressing me out. Even just buying those plane tickets made me feel better because now I have a real timeline for the next few months! And some PSLs and sunshine would cheer anyone up 🙂
What exciting things are going on in your life this week? And who else is pumped up about PSL season?
Mom in the Mtns 
Look forward to hearing which race you chose. Sorry about your palpitations/pain, hope you figure it out soon, those are scary.
I miss PSLs but make my own completely fake ones – and I wait longer than $bux does to bring them into the fall season. 🙂
Ummm how do you do that?!?! Recipe please! Although you shouldn’t wait to have such a good thing 🙂
Whoop Whoop! Way to go chick! That’s really exciting! You have an awesome positive attitude and I love reading about your progress! I’m sorry you still are feeling awesome, I’ve been thinking about you. I hope it works out soon.
Aww thanks! I don’t feel very positive most of the time but the announcement of PSL season perked me up this week!
Glad to hear that you’ve got a lot of exciting things going on! I can’t wait to hear which race you chose. And you totally deserve a three week vacation. I can only imagine how great it’ll be to catch up with all of your family and friends in person!
Btw, I nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award! Be sure to check it out!
http://dancingtorunning.com/2014/08/13/very-inspiring-blogger-award/
Yay thank you! I’ll try to do this soon, I love these things!
Sounds like you really need your vacation and a visit with your family. Enjoy! A little coffee never hurt anyone!
Haha I know! Now that I know it’s not the trigger to my heart problems, I’m going to start drinking it again. I missed it!
I’m so excited to hear where your destination race is! I have a problem pulling the trigger too… which is why I’m glad I finally just signed up for Savannah! 🙂
Yay congrats for signing up! I’m dying to do it but also scared because once I buy it, I’ll have to buy plane tickets and hotel rooms soon too! It’s so tough planning a destination race but so exciting too!
So sorry to hear you’re not feeling well even after giving up your coffee. I don’t like coffee, but I’m excited for all the pumpkin coffee lovers out there! 🙂
Haha thanks for your support of our crazy obsession 🙂 Do you like any other pumpkin stuff? It’s such an exciting season for food!
Kristen, the hubs & I are DEFINITELY doing the Yellowstone Half next year; it’s to celebrate my 40th (GAH!) birthday and it’s a bucket list place for us. You are going to have to come now… 🙂 I am very excited about PSL season, as well; thanks for sharing the date update – I’m adding a reminder RIGHT NOW! Great post; hope you have a great weekend!
OH MY GOD NO WAY!!!! I wish I had known that! Without giving it away totally, I did not choose that race 😦 We were not really excited about leaving Alaska in June because that’s one of the best times to be here. I was thinking about doing it in 2016 though! I can’t wait to hear all about it, I couldn’t find any race recaps on it so you’ll have to write a post! And yes, put PSL opening day on your calendar!
I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never tried a PSL. I love the Peppermint Mochas and never have strayed. Glad you’re feeling more positive about the future, change is always hard but fun too!
Haha that’s okay, I’ve never really tried a peppermint mocha so we’re even 🙂 They are really good if you like cinnamon flavored stuff, so hopefully you get to try one this year! Change is definitely hard and there’s so much of it, but hopefully I’ll get everything figured out soon!
Enjoy Seattle and the rest of your vacation! Definitely make a little time to check out Discovery Park!
I have never been there! Can I run there? I need to get some short runs in before the race!
You can and should! The park has forests, tall grass meadows and cliffside trails. A must-see.
I just posted a comment on Twitter about how my scale is groaning with the thought of PSL season starting up 🙂
Haha sooooo true. I will definitely have to step up my workout game when I start drinking them!
exciting that you’ve booked your tickets. i love being a bridesmaid — so much fun!
I’ve never been one before and I’m so excited about it!!!! I’m sad I had to miss her bridal shower/bachelorette party since I’m so far away but I’m looking forward to being there for the big day!
A three week vacation that includes family, friends, and a wedding sounds great! I hope you have so much fun! Can’t wait to hear about which race you chose to sign up for 🙂 Have a great weekend!
Thanks! I can’t wait to finally take a vacation and see my family again!
I’d go insane with nonstop rain too! Now I’m off to see what the 3 half marathon choices were… 🙂
Haha have fun with that post! It was so hard to choose! And there are 4 other ones on their website…I want to do them all right now!
I can’t wait to see what half you chose! I’m the exact opposite about race registration. Once I make a choice, I can’t stand not being registered.
For some reason I’m always second guessing my choices. I need to just pull the trigger but that comes with all the flight/hotel bookings and I’m too stressed and busy for that right now! I will definitely be registering by the end of August!
So much to look forward too, that’s awesome!
Racing for Nutella is such a good motivation. 🙂 One of my coworkers bought me a jar this week as a “housewarming gift”. Yum.
I can’t wait to see which race you chose!
Also, those last couple pictures are amazing – seriously, it looks like a professional photographer took them.
Yay for Nutella! And believe it or not those pictures were taken on my iPhone!
Yayy for vacations! Can’t wait to read which race you choose!
oooh – excited to hear which race you choose!
PSL are coming back even earlier this year!!!
Mmmm PSL… Sounds like you’ve got a lot of great stuff coming up!