Gooooooood Monday morning to you, friends, and happy new week! I’m exhausted, but in a nice way; it was one of those busy weekends that I love so much. In fact, when I sat down to write this post I had to think for a minute in order to remember all the way back to Saturday morning – we’ve been all over the place.

Anyway! On Saturday morning I was up early to squeeze in a couple of miles in my running shoes before the day really got started. I’m in the middle of a few challenges that have me running a lot, and I love it. (I’ve read that the more you run, the more you want to run, and the less you run, the less you want to run – and I definitely think that’s true. I’m on a streak of running 5+ days per week, which is definitely too much, but I am enjoying it so much that I don’t want to stop.) I got home with just enough time to shower and throw on real clothes, and then Peanut and I headed out to a play date with her BFF, S. S and her family recently (well, not that recently – a year ago, so “pandemic recently”) moved into an adorable house in Arlington, and we hadn’t seen it yet, so Saturday was the day. We spent several hours there – the girls rushed off to play Barbies and watch “Gamer Girl,” while S’s mom – my pal Rachel – led me on a tour of the house (while I gasped at everything; it is an absolutely beautiful house!), after which we caught up over La Croix and broccoli quiche. Peanut is definitely old enough that I could just drop her off, but I never will. I think Rachel and I may have had more fun than the girls, which is saying something. Anyway – we reluctantly tore ourselves away mid-afternoon and met back up with our boys for kayaking. Nugget is into racing right now, which I hate. He spends the whole time yelling at me to paddle faster.

Sunday was supposed to be “productivity day.” The weather forecast wasn’t as good as it has been recently, and the house is trashed, so we decided that we were going to spend the day cleaning up all of the camping gear from last weekend, giving the house a major overhaul, building my new desk – all that good grown-up stuff. To get my steps in, I snuck out for four miles on the local bike path first thing in the morning, and came back ready to work. Unfortunately (for my productivity agenda) Nugget was at the door when I got home, whining to be taken on a bike ride. I know I shouldn’t respond to whining, but, honestly, biking sounded more fun than building an IKEA desk. So… I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Six miles on our new favorite trail, followed by climbing on a W&OD railroad caboose because why not? I did put in a few hours of work around the house when we got back – got the laundry folded and some of the camping gear cleaned up and stowed, so that’s better than nothing, right?

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Reading. With two weeks of reading to recap, you’d think I would have more to report, but – I don’t. More about this on Wednesday, but summer is my slowest reading season and you can tell. I finished up Landscape in Sunlight on July 5, and started James A. Michener’s Chesapeake the same day – while camping on Chincoteague; it felt appropriate. As with all Michener, it’s hella long, and I’ve had to set it aside to tend to some library deadlines. First up – Arsenic and Adobo, which is a fun mystery about a Filipino family who are suspected of murdering a food critic who’d recently written vicious reviews of their restaurant. I’m nearly done as of press time, and then I’ll turn to my other library checkout, Tokyo Ever After (both Arsenic and Tokyo are non-renewable and due back soon) and then I’ll have to decide whether to turn back to Chesapeake or read through some of my summer stack and save Chesapeake (on my kindle) for travel later in the season. I haven’t made up my mind yet, so if you have an opinion do share.

Watching. It’s been all sports, all the time around here – and mostly cycling, between nights with the Tour de France (I was on the edge of my seat watching Sepp Kuss in Andorra, holy hairpin turns Batman!) and highlights of the Giro d’Italia Donne on my phone during the day. (My all-time favorite cycling team, Team SD Worx, swept the podium! YESSSSSSS!) We did take a break from cycling to watch the end of England’s heartbreaking football loss. That was devastating. Thank goodness for Kuss in Andorra that same evening, or we would have gone to bed depressed.

Listening. I’ve been bouncing back and forth between podcasts (all my favorites – The Mom Hour, Tea or Books?, Shedunnit – have been in my ears this week during evening walks) and my summer music playlist, of which I am unreasonably proud. I’ve covered the true summer classics – Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic”, Simon & Garfunkel’s “America” – detoured to the ’80s with R.E.M. (“Gardening at Night”; “Letter Never Sent”) and Nena (“99 Luftballons”, obv), I have my high school summer fave Rusted Root represented (“Back to the Earth”), made sure to include that messed-up classic of early 2000s hilarity, “Stacy’s Mom”, and so much more. It’s a work of art, really.

Making. Well, not much cooking – I’ve made a lot of salads, does that count? – but I made a good amount of work product last week; things are getting busy, which I love! And I made progress on getting the house in order, but it’s still a long ways to go. My goal is to have it completely clean and organized before summer travel.

Moving. All the moving! According to Garmin, in the last seven days I have logged four runs, three walks, two bike rides, and one “other” activity (that would be Saturday’s kayak “race” on the Potomac). I feel like I ran more, but Garmin doesn’t lie. Also, apparently I make a smirking face when I run? Who knew.

Blogging. I teased this above, but on Wednesday I’ll have a post about summer reading – or not-reading, in my case. And on Friday, the promised Chincoteague pony photo dump! Check in with me then.

Loving. It really is a little soon to declare victory, but so far I am absolutely loving my new job. It’s getting busy, but it’s the kind of busy that I find really engaging – lots of problem-solving and helping people. A friend recently DMed me on Facebook (about something else) and congratulated me again on the new job, and I gushed to him: “I love it! I had no idea it was possible to be this happy!” and I said something similar to my manager during our weekly one-on-one videoconference. Her response, in addition to being delighted that I was so happy with my new role and with the company, was to note that when she tries to explain to lawyers in private practice what this job is like, no one really understands, because they are miserable and hating life but can’t imagine it any other way. But – “For the right person, who likes being busy, this is the best life ever.” I’m only about two months in, but I feel like I have a whole new lease on life. I’m sure there will be stressful moments, as there are with any job, but I can’t imagine ever going back to private practice or ever wanting to leave my current company, I am so blissfully happy – finally – and at peace.

Asking. What are you reading this week?