I've been back from vacation almost as long as I was actually on vacation, and boy do I wish I were still at the beach.



Living is just a little bit (or a lot) better there.

I'm always amazed how at the beach I can wake up every day at 5:30 or 6 a.m. without an alarm, but once back at home, I struggle to drag my butt out of bed by 7 a.m. I'm going to bed at literally the exact same time, if not earlier, back in DC, and still find waking up to be a challenge.

Such is life I suppose.

Anyway, while I was on vacation I had really big plans to do nothing but relax and catch up on a ton of reading, and that's exactly what I did.



Here's a quick look at some of the things I read (in the order I read them):

Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee



I've been wanting to read this book since I heard it was coming out. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all-time favorite books, and I felt like I had to see how the story progressed, even though this book was probably never supposed to be published. And I'm glad I read it, even though I didn't love it. The book tackled a complicated subject, but I felt like the ending was just too neat and basically a cop-out.

The Rocks - Peter Nichols

This was one of my book club books and spoiler alert, I hated it. The first 50 pages and the last 50 pages were kind of interesting. I thought the 300 pages in the middle were way too long and drawn out, focusing on stories and details that I felt didn't really add anything to the book.

Summer Secrets - Jane Green

This was another book that I really enjoyed. It's the story of a young alcoholic woman, who struggles time and again to get sober and in the meantime learns some secrets about her family and her past.

Saving Grace - Jane Green

I love Jane Green and her books. This told the story of Grace, a woman who is married to a famous author and seems to have the picture perfect life. But in fact she doesn't. Her husband is emotionally abusive, and when his assistant leaves and they have to replace her, all sorts of problems arise. Spoiler alert: The new assistant is a con artist who basically tries to steal all the family's money and steal Grace's husband too.

Grey - E. L. James

Feel free to judge away friends. I definitely picked up the trashiest book I could find at the library because it's not a beach trip without one trashy book. This book had slightly more plot than 50 Shades of Grey, but I mean, it's still a 50 Shades of Grey book, so yea.

China Dolls - Lisa See

Out of all the books I read on vacation, this one might have been my favorite. The book is told from the perspective of three different Asian women living in San Fransisco before and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The women are all trying to make careers as performers, while dealing with the negative perceptions and attitudes toward Japanese people (one of the girls is Japanese, two are Chinese). One of the girls is sent to an internment camp and the relationships that were built between the three begin to crack and crumble.

Nantucket Sisters - Nancy Thayer

This was the last book I read on vacation, and I'm actually glad I saved it for the end. It was a pretty easy read. The story follows the lives of two girls from opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum who met on Nantucket when they were five years old and were inseparable as children. Throughout the book you get glimpses of their lives as they grow up, move away, marry, have kids, face deaths in the family, and become their own people.

So that's all the reading I did at the beach. I also hit up the bookstore at the beach and grabbed a copy of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which came highly recommended from a coworker.



And just so you don't think I keep my nose buried in fluffy fiction all the time, I'm currently reading Ghettoside and it's fantastic. (Though I'm only 130 or so pages in. My reading rate plummets when I have work and stuff to deal with).

For the last several years when I've been on vacation in Rehoboth Beach, I've taken advantage of the fact that the local running club puts on a five mile race the second day of the trip.

Last year, I even placed first in my age group!

This year, I signed up for the race again, and my mom decided to do it too.



The Seashore Striders always put on a really great event. The day-of entry fee is $25 and gets you a fully supported course, a nice tech shirt and all the watermelon you can eat at the end of the race.

It was a lot hotter and way more humid this year than it was last year, so I wasn't really sure I'd be in the running for any age group awards. I mean there was a heat advisory after all.

The first two miles of the course are pretty shaded, which I really appreciated. My goal was to go out and see what I could do on such a hot and humid day. I was dripping with sweat by the time I hit the first water stop around mile 1.5. I chugged a cup of water and dumped some over my head to try to cool off.

It was pretty early in the race, but I could already feel myself overheating.

By the time we came out of the first neighborhood and hit the sunny stretch of road, I knew things weren't going to go well the rest of the race.

When I hit mile 2.5 I slowed down to take a walk break. My face was beet red, and I felt like I was melting. I legitimately walked a full half mile until the third mile marker.

The second neighborhood the course loops through is definitely not well-shaded, and by the time I hit water station two, I was desperate for the race to be over.

The last 1.5 miles were sprinkled with lots of walking and running. At this point in the race, I wasn't concerned about my time or any age group awards. I just wanted to get to the finish line safely.

In the final stretch, I passed the EMTs helping a young kid (maybe high school age?) into the car because he had overheated, and I didn't want that to be me.

I managed to cross the finish line in 49:28, a solid 4 minutes slower than last year, but still good enough for fifth place in my age group. Given the weather conditions, that was not a bad finish at all!



My splits are hilarious though. Miles 1 and 2 were all something around 8:30 or so. Miles 3, 4, and 5 were all well over 10 minutes per mile. Talk about a positive split race!

My mom finished not that much longer after I did, and we both enjoyed plenty of nice cold watermelon!

I love kicking off my vacation with this race. It sets a good, healthy tone for the rest of the week!

I'm back from yet another blogging hiatus, though this one was very intentional. I was at the beach with my family for a week, and I tried my hardest to unplug.



I packed my laptop, but basically never opened it.

I peeked at Twitter a handful of times, and posted a couple of photos on Instagram, but other than that, I wanted nothing to do with technology.

It was glorious to get away. I need to unplug like that more often.

The beach itself was great! I had a fun time hanging out with my family and all my cousins and their kids. I only took a handful of pictures (that whole not paying attention to technology thing), but luckily my cousin Laura took some great pictures, so I've borrowed some of those for this post!

I got to Rehoboth early Saturday morning, grabbed breakfast and set up camp on the beach to dive into my first book of the week. (I read six total all week, I'll save the recaps for a separate post.)



Saturday was very low-key with everyone trickling in to town at different times. My parents showed up not long after me and my brother and his girlfriend got stuck in awful traffic and got there a bit later.

My aunt and cousins were staying in a house a few blocks over from ours so we went to visit them Saturday night. They had an awesome porch, and we spent a lot of evenings this week hanging out there.

The rest of the week was filled with days lounging at the beach and reading more books or playing with the kiddos. Abby was not really digging the ocean, but Johnny and the twins loved it!

On Sunday I tried to take Abby to the water's edge to see the dolphins, but she kept insisting we not get too close to the water. After some persuading I managed to get her to put her toes in the water.



I also spent some time burying the kids in the sand and digging holes for them to jump into.

We did a grown-up "kids" dinner on Sunday night while my aunt and parents babysat the little kids. I wanted to get a picture of all of us together, but uhh completely forgot. Such a fail.



We also did dinner as a group Monday night. My brother's girlfriend made fabulous lasagna for the group (because she's a saint), and my cousin whipped me up the most delicious drink ever for me. He named it "The Jess" and it was some combo of orange and pineapple juices, Malibu rum, ginger beer and some other stuff. Sadly I will probably never be able to recreate it.





Other highlights of the trip included:

Seeing a whale in the ocean! We see dolphins almost every day, but we've never seen a whale! It was huuuuge and kept coming out of the water and puffing air before diving back down.

The fighter jet flyover we got on Friday. The jets must have taken off from Dover AFB and were cruising right over the beach. They put on a quick show for us doing some flips and barrel rolls before heading on their way.

The Air Force rock band playing downtown on Friday night. The lead singer had the most amazing voice ever. In fact she was a contestant on American Idol before leaving the show to join the Air Force. Needless to say the hour long concert was amazing.



The twins can say my name...ok well...sort of. J is a really hard sound for little kids, so Jess sounds more likes yesssss. But it's pretty awesome! (Ok seriously this is obviously the best part of the whole trip!)



And now I'm back home, curled up on my sofa, not quite ready to face the reality of what my work inbox will look like tomorrow morning. Why do vacations always end so quickly?    

I'm bacccckkk. After a bit of an unintentional hiatus because my computer's logic board crapped out, I'm back to blogging.

So what have I been up to since I last checked in?

Well I've still be running here and there, sticking with my summer plans of running 3-5 miles between 3-5 times per week. I will admit, both of those numbers have been on the lower end. It's been a lot of 3 milers, about three times per week.

I met up with the blogger formerly known as Meganerd on Friday, and we did a nice run on a day when the humidity actually wasn't all that bad. Winning!



I've also been lifting a couple times each week over lunch. Megan and her coworker Laura joined the gym right by my house and started lifting twice a week at lunchtime conveniently on the days I typically work from home, so I've been joining them for some of their workouts.

The first day we did legs, and I couldn't walk for like three days afterward because my hamstrings were so sore. It's been a long time since I've lifted up heavy things and put them down.

I've also been playing lots of softball, hanging out with my cousins and working.


Speaking event for work

You know, pretty much the usual stuff, and now that I have a functional computer again, I will try to check in here more regularly.