As we get ready to ring in a new year at the stroke of midnight tomorrow, I feel the need to take a minute to look back on the previous year. I went into 2016 full of hope and optimism for what was in store this year.

But by year's end, it seems like I might be one of the few people who didn't think 2016 was completely the worst. Yes, in many ways on the national level, 2016 seemed to have a lot more downs than it did ups. Some of those downs will probably have some longer lasting ramifications that I am more than a little nervous about, but I'd like to try to end the year on a positive note.

So with that in mind, I thought I'd share some of what was good about this year for me.

1. I graduated from grad school earlier this month. My two and a half years in my MBA program were stressful and challenging and made me sacrifice basically all of my free time, but they were worth it. Plus, I finished with a 4.0 GPA, and I'm pretty darn proud of that fact.



2. I traveled the world. Until this year, I had never stepped foot outside of North America (depending how one defines North America -- I am counting Mexico here as part of the North American continent). But in 2016 I went to Japan, Ireland and the Dominican Republic on the international front.











I also traveled a bunch domestically -- some for work and some for fun.



I visited

• Columbia, SC


• Charleston, SC (twice -- once for work, once for play)


• San Antonio, TX


• Boston, MA


• Auburn, AL


• Rehoboth Beach, DE


• Philadelphia, PA

Many of these trips were with good friends that I'm grateful to have (both as friends and as travel buddies).

3. I moved apartments. I now living walking distance from my office, five blocks from my best friend and just in general closer to almost everything. The move was back in August, and I've mainly settled in, though I still have a couple of empty walls that I need to figure out what to do with.

4. I read some really good books.



I didn't have as much time to read this year, but I still managed to read a decent amount of books, and now that I'm finished with school, I have a large stack of books just waiting to be read. I promise to share later what some of my favorites were from this year, once I get organized enough to pull that list together!

5. I made new friends, strengthened old friendships and spent quality time with my family.



Despite my school stuff taking up most of my free time, I still managed to find time for some of the things I love, like playing softball, tailgating with my friends and of course, spending time with my family.









This year I got to celebrate many nieces and nephews birthdays (at Star Wars themed parties), play on a flag football team with my cousin and have my brother make a surprise appearance at my 30th birthday party.







I got to celebrate friends' engagements.



And then party at friends' weddings.





I worked really hard, played moderately hard and overall feel like I made the best out of this year. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but sometimes it's just nice to focus on the good things.

My training for the Rock N Roll DC half marathon kicked off today. I went to bed last night really excited to wake up and run this morning. It's been so long since I've had the time and mental space to actually focus on training well for a race.



I ran a couple of half marathons during grad school, but the training always ended up being pretty pathetic. I would start with the best of intentions, but then schoolwork would become overwhelming, and I'd struggle to get even the most minimal amount of running in.

But now that grad school is over, the only true responsibility I have is work. And while yes, my work responsibilities have certainly increased over the years, I'm still pretty lucky to have a schedule where I can work from home a few days per week, which will make it easier for me to get my runs in.

So today was run number one -- a basic three miler.



It was cold and dreary when I left my house this morning, and I got a not-so-pleasant reminder of how much cold air burns my lungs until they have time to adjust to winter running.

But my legs felt pretty OK, which I figured was good news, since my running has been far from consistent the last several years.

I am using a beginner training plan this time around since I don't have a strong base to work from. I've got four scheduled runs per week. The weekday runs range from two to five miles, while the weekend long runs start at four miles and build up to 10. There are also a couple of days of cross-training as part of the schedule each week, and I'm thinking I'll do a mix of spin class and yoga on those days.

So, that's the plan, and I'm really excited to have a plan again. It will be great to get back to training and racing in 2017.

When I had about two weeks left in this last semester of grad school, I decided I deserved a nice, relaxing vacation to reward myself for the last 2.5 years of blood, sweat and tears that it took to get my MBA (with a 4.0 GPA, I might add).

So, I found a silly cheap deal on CheapCaribbean and booked immediately.

And then last Sunday, I hopped on a couple airplanes and parked myself on the beach until last night.



It was glorious and perfect timing since DC got hit with a polar vortex while I was gone. (Stepping off the airplane last night back in DC was a brutal reality check).

I'd never been to the Dominican Republic before, and I will say, I didn't see very much of the country on this trip. In fact, I never left the all-inclusive resort where I was staying. Unlike my other international trips this year, this trip was never really about the sightseeing.



It was only about sitting on the beach in the 80-degree weather in the sun, reading some books, going kayaking and sipping some fruity drinks.

Oh yes, and I also fit in a trip to the resort spa for a much-needed, de-stressing massage.

It was just what I needed after an especially long semester and a really long 2.5 years of grad school work.

And now that I'm back in DC, I've got about a week of work left until Christmas vacation when I get to start planning how I'm going to train for my first post-grad school marathon (I got into Chicago whoo!) and half marathon (RnR DC in March!).

Hi friends....does anyone still read this thing?

After my sporadic blogging over the last 2.5 years, I wouldn't be surprised if the answer were no.

But, I finished grad school last week (praise the Lord!) and so I should have some more free time on my hands for fun things like workouts, reading, trips and writing about it all.



I can't promise I'll go back to blogging five days a week (who has the time to read that much anyway?), and I'm still trying to figure out what a good cadence of posts would be, but I would like to at least blog more frequently than once every couple of months.

In the meantime, let me bring you up to speed on what I've been up to the last couple of months (other than school).

So since we've last touched based, I've visited and run in four different states: Texas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Alabama.

I already covered my running adventures in Texas in an earlier post, so I won't rehash that for you.

Then I was up in Boston for work in early November and got to do a chilly morning run along the Charles River. The views were gorgeous, but I probably should have packed warmer running clothes. My long-sleeve tech top was not cutting it with the wind. I am not made for New England winters.



I also took a trip to see the Boston Marathon finish line...because how could I not?



I was home in PA for Thanksgiving, and while I mainly focused on wrapping up MBA coursework, I did manage to squeeze in a short three-mile run around town. This run was the beginning of a large body of evidence proving how out of shape grad school made me.

Then lastly, I was in Alabama last week to finish my MBA and present on my Capstone report. I hadn't ever stepped foot on Auburn's campus before that, so I wanted to do a run around campus to see the sights. Guys, let me tell you, I can get on board with December weather in Alabama. I did my run in capris and a long-sleeve top and was so warm by the end I was rolling up my sleeves and ripping off my ear warmer.



Auburn's campus was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Maryland's with it's old stone buildings and quads. The football stadium though was juuuuuuust a bit bigger than what we've got in College Park.



So that's what I've been up to on the running front. Other than those four runs there hasn't been much happening. I have lost a lot of my fitness (though oddly enough, haven't really put on weight), so I have a long path back to where I was prior to grad school.

I'll have a couple posts in the next couple days that talk a little more about my MBA program and my fitness/running plans going forward, but for now, just wanted to give a quick update on what's been going on this semester.

On Saturday Meghan and I headed to President Lincoln's Cottage to run the Freedom 5K.



This race is in its third year, but this summer was the first time I'd heard of it. I always get excited when I find a new race in the DC area to run. After living here for more than a decade, it's rare that I come across a new race to try.

President Lincoln's Cottage is a bit off the beaten path compared to other major DC sites, and I had never been there before, but getting to race on the grounds was really cool.

We had the perfect weather on race morning. It was cool and sunny, but not too hot.

The course started right near one of the guard's houses and looped the entire property. I sort of felt like I was running through rural wilderness. We passed lots of open green space, a driving range and even ran on some gravel roads through the woods.

It was a gorgeous course.

It was also a pretty challenging course. The entire first half of the race was downhill and the entire second half was uphill.

I ran the first half in 12 minutes. That is crazy fast for me, and I was thinking, "Man if I can just hold this pace for another 12 minutes I'll finish with a new PR."

Well, I did not hold that pace for the remainder of the race. I slowed down considerably in the second half. Those hills were no joke.

I ended up finishing the race in 28:something, which was good enough to make me the 14th female finisher overall (it was a pretty small race).



Overall, I love this race (despite the hills), and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

When I'm on business trips for work in new cities, one of my favorite ways to see the town is by going on a run. So when I was in San Antonio last week for work, I was really excited that my hotel was kind of right downtown on the riverwalk.

I'd heard the riverwalk was really pretty, and when I took a stroll on my first night in town to find a place to eat dinner, I enjoyed some of the sights and sounds.

Plus I had a little friend join me for dinner.



However, on the walk back home, it was starting to get dark and the riverwalk was starting to creep me out. Part of it was pretty isolated and dark, and I noticed some questionable characters hanging around.

I made it back to the hotel without any incident, but it made me a little nervous about my run in the morning.

I ended up bumping my running start time back the following morning to wait until the sun was all the way up. I had a pretty unsettling feeling in my gut about running around San Antonio in the dark.

The run itself was fine. But I didn't listen to music and I was hyperaware of my surroundings. I only passed a handful of other runners the whole time, and I couldn't shake the eerie feeling of isolation and vulnerability.

That evening when my work stuff wrapped up, I walked the 10-15 minutes from my hotel to the Alamo to explore.



The Alamo closes pretty early, and I was heading back to the hotel around 5:45. I should note it was still broad daylight, and I was pretty much right downtown where there were lots of other people -- basically a place you'd feel pretty safe normally.

I was walking along minding my own business when a very aggressive, very shady character approached me and asked me if I had money for drugs. True story, didn't even pretend like he wanted the money for food or something. Points for honesty, I guess?

I was also catcalled at multiple by creepy old dudes in cars or on motorcycles. I have never in my life felt so harassed or unsafe in a city.

Perhaps needless to say, the next morning I did my run in the safety of the hotel gym. The treadmill is awful, but it seemed a lot better than the alternative.

Let's just say, I'm really happy to be home.

Oh hey friends. So it's been more than a month since my last post because I'm the worst blogger in all the land. I could make a million excuses for why this is, but really it's just that I had a lot going on and when I didn't have to be at the computer for work or school, I didn't want to be anywhere near one.

But I've had lots of fun stuff happen in the last month so I figured some quick updates might be in order:

1. Running.
I was on a pretty good streak there in July and early August, but alas school has started back up again and I'm struggling to even fit in a handful of runs per week. But! I did sign up for my very first post-grad school half marathon -- Rock N Roll DC in March. I'm super looking forward to having the time to legitimately train for a race again. I've missed it.

2. Travel.
After getting back from the beach, Meghan, Michelle and I spent a nice long weekend in Charleston, where we ate a lot of delicious food, spent lots of time at the beach and I tried stand-up paddleboarding for the first time ever and totally loved it.


Meghan, me, Michelle





I also did a couple of really nice runs when I was in Charleston. Once through the Citadel campus and some of the surrounding parks and neighborhoods and a five miler through downtown.


Citadel campus



I've got a work trip to San Antonio at the end of the month, which should be cool. I'm presenting at a conference during the day, but hope to sneak in some time to explore the city in the evenings since I've never been.

Meghan and I also booked our next international adventure. We're heading to Iceland in 2017!

3. Moving!
Three days after getting home from Charleston, I moved! It's safe to say I'm pretty in love with my new apartment and the fact that I can walk to literally everything (including work).


New keys!

4. Softball.
For the most part, my softball season has come to an end. I still have two tournaments left (one this Saturday, one the following), but honestly, this is the first year ever I'm kind of OK packing up my cleats for a while. I may have burnt out a tiny bit on the softball front with all my coaching and commissioner-ing.



In my alumni league, we made it all the way to the championship game a few weeks ago and lost on a walk-off run. It was a little heartbreaking, but I suppose there is always next year.



5. School.
Ugh yea, that's a thing that's happening again. At this point, it's just soul-sucking and I'm pretty over it. Talk about being burnt out. I'm taking my last two classes this semester -- one on HTML/CSS/Javascript, which will be super practical and useful, and then my Capstone course.

As much as I'm burnt out, the Capstone course seems cool. We basically spend the semester working as consultants for a company helping them answer some of their big business questions. My team is assigned to a company that works with veterans, so it's near and dear to my heart, plus one of their big questions is marketing related, which is my bread and butter.

6. Tailgate season.
Tailgate season is back, which means football is back! Whooo! I spent last Saturday in College Park with all of my favorite tailgate friends and then got to watch Maryland stomp Howard.



I've trimmed down my fantasy football leagues this year from three to two. That seems much more manageable. I'm so excited for Eagles football on Sunday. Curious to see how the Carson Wentz era starts. Don't let me down kid.

7. I turned 30!
And my friends put my face on a cake and got me a crown that I wore all night. It was a pretty awesome celebration and so far my 30s have been fabulous.





Ok, and I think that's all I've got. Maybe I'll try to do a better job of staying on top of the blogging stuff in the coming weeks. We'll see how things go with school/work.

It's become an annual tradition that the first Sunday of my family's beach vacation in Rehoboth I run the Seashore Strider's 5 miler.



This tradition started five years ago when we happened to rent a beach house right on the course. I figured how could I not run a race that went right past the place I was staying.

I've done the race every summer since (except for the one where I had a stress fracture in my foot).

I've had varying degrees of success in the race. It's usually pretty hot and miserable, so I'm certainly not putting down my fastest times, but despite the weather it's a race I've come to really enjoy and look forward to every year.

Three years ago, when the weather wasn't the best (rainy and overcast) I actually placed first in my age group -- my very first time winning an age group award. And this summer, the five miler marked my last race in the 25-29 year old age group.

I knew going into the race, I certainly wasn't in my best running shape, plus it was hot and humid at the start. But I took off with the rest of the pack, enjoying the shaded neighborhood the first half of the course weaves you through.

When I turned back onto the main drag, I saw my parents had come out to watch. Gave them a wave and kept running.



At that point, the sun was starting to get to me and I knew there wasn't going to be a ton more shade the rest of the way. I took a quick walk break to re-group, dumped a cup of ice cold water over my head at the water stop and gently picked up the pace again.

With about 3/4 of a mile left, I didn't have too much left in the tank and I was really looking forward to a nice cold bottle of water at the finish line. I kept plodding along and finished in 46:59.



I didn't really think that was good enough for an age group award of any type, but as I was looking around at the finishers, I noticed there didn't seem to be too many around my age, so I figured I'd hang around and see if maybe I'd gotten lucky.

Turns out I had. When they posted the results, I finished third in my age group and got a nice little medal.



Not a bad way to close out my time in the 25-29 age group!

Man it's been a long time since I've done a book update -- in part because I've been lazy, but also in part because I haven't been reading nearly as much this year -- which makes me a little bit sad.

But I just got back from my beach vacation where I read a ton of books, so figured it was time to do another update!



Books I Read in April

Devotion by Adam Makos
I really like the first book I read by Makos, and I might have loved this book even more. Here's the description from Amazon: Devotion tells the inspirational story of the U.S. Navy’s most famous aviator duo, Lieutenant Tom Hudner and Ensign Jesse Brown, and the Marines they fought to defend. A white New Englander from the country-club scene, Tom passed up Harvard to fly fighters for his country. An African American sharecropper’s son from Mississippi, Jesse became the navy’s first black carrier pilot, defending a nation that wouldn’t even serve him in a bar.

This was an incredible story to read and many times the book had me tearing up.

Books I read in May

In the Woods by Tana French
This was one of our book club books, chosen because it takes place in Ireland, and this timed kind of perfectly with our trip. This book was long, but I could not put it down. It was the first book in the Dublin Murder Squad series and I'm looking forward to reading many more of French's books.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
This book might be one of my favorite fiction books of 2016. I could not put it down. It's a story set far in the future when the real world has gone to hell and so everyone pretty much lives in virtual reality instead. In this virtual world, players are racing to crack a code left by the world's creator and save it before evil forces take over and ruin the only happy place people have left.

Books I read in June

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
This was another book recommended by some of the girls on my Ireland trip (it also was a movie). I'm not sure what I expected out of the book. I don't think I expected it to be as much of a love story as it was -- I thought it was more going to focus on the story of an Irish immigrant girl trying to find her way in America, and while it certainly did that, the love story undertones were strong. Also, at one point in the book I got so mad at the way the story turned I wanted to chuck my Kindle across the room. So this book will probably make you feel stuff.

Then We Came to The End by Joshua Ferris

This book actually made me want to stab my eyes out while reading it. It was just that painful -- which I guess was the entire point. The book is a satire of typical office life in America, which yes at times can be pretty painful. A friend let me borrow this book so I wanted to see it through to the end, but I should have stopped after about 50 pages. I just couldn't take it. As another friend told me, "Life is too short to read bad books."

Anchor in the Storm by Sarah Sundin
I checked this out on a whim from the library mainly because there wasn't a waitlist. It was a story set in the 1940's as World War II was ramping up. It's the story of a Navy sailor and his best friend's sister, who is a pharmacist, trying to figure out where men on the Navy ships are getting their illegal anti-anxiety medicines. For a book I didn't expect too much out of, I actually really enjoyed it.

Books I read in July (and on vacation)

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
This was another book club selection and while it was insanely long (600 pages), it was a really, really good read. It's mystery/suspense/thriller, and while it was really good, because of it's length, it took me a solid three weeks to read it. I've recommended it to a lot of people, so if you have the patience for a book this long, I think it's worth it.

The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan
This was the first book I read at the beach, and I was glad I started with this one. Here's the description from Amazon, which I think sums the book up nicely: A rich, layered, exhilarating novel spanning nearly a hundred years, The Engagements captures four wholly unique marriages, while tracing the story of diamonds in America, and the way—for better or for worse—these glittering stones have come to symbolize our deepest hopes for everlasting love.

I really liked one of this author's earlier books, and this one also did not disappoint.

Brothers Forever by Tom Manion and Tom Sileo
My dad recommended this book to me back in the winter and I bought it right away, but finally just got around to reading it. It's the true story of two roommates from the Naval Academy, one who went on to become a Marine, the other a Navy Seal. They both died while serving in the Middle East (Travis in Iraq, Brendan in Afghanistan) and they are buried side by side in Arlington National Cemetery. If you want a book that will make you sob your eyes out, this is it. No kidding, I was sitting on the beach Monday with tears leaking out from behind my sunglasses as I read this book. This story will rip your heart out. (Also the book is written by the father of one of the boys).

The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand
After reading such a serious book on Monday, I knew I needed something lighter on Tuesday. I was on a beach vacation after all. Enter this book by Elin Hilderbrand. I love her books for their excellent stories and light-hearted style. This book looked at the secrets held within a friend group, and what happens when two members of that core group die. (OK that makes it sound a lot more morbid than it is). The stories of each of the people really suck you in.

A Girl's Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber
I loved this book and it might have been one of my favorites that I read while on vacation. It tells the story of a mother and her daughter-in-law who both leave their marriages when their husbands cheat on them. (Awful starting premise to a story, why do I keep picking books that start in such depressing manners). The book is about how they both move on trying to rebuild their lives and the rules they established to help them do that.

The Last Mile by David Baldacci
A former college football star is minutes away from being executed on death row when suddenly someone else confesses to the crime. That's how this most recent Baldacci book starts and from there it takes you on a wild ride as the characters try to uncover who was really behind the murders that sent the football star to prison. I like all Baldacci books, but by the end of this one, I just couldn't put the book down. I sat on the porch delaying dinner for a solid hour while I tried to get to the end of the book so I could figure out what happened.

The Last One by Alexandra Oliva
I picked this book up from one of the "featured books" displays at the library, and wasn't totally sure what to expect. It's the story of a contestant on a reality show similar to Survivor. The cast is out in the woods filming and going through challenges, while in the rest of the world, a virus (perhaps weaponized Ebola) is killing off nearly half the population of the globe. The contestant doesn't realize she's not actually on the show anymore and keeps thinking things she's finding are "part of the game." This was a great book and now it's one I'm recommending for my book club (and for anyone else).

So there you have it. Those are the books I've read in the last several months and while on vacation.

I'm not sure what my reading levels will look like in the coming weeks. I have another mini-vacation coming up that involves some air travel, so I'm hoping to do some quality reading then and may be able to knock out one more book in the month of July.

But after that I move and then have softball tournaments every weekend and then my last semester of grad school starts. So yea...my lovely relaxing month of July is about to rush into an insane August and what I can only imagine will be a really busy fall. I'm thinking that means reading for fun might go on pause until I can officially get grad school all wrapped up.

Long weekends go too fast. Or I just try to cram too much fun stuff into them -- this one was no exception.



I ended up taking Friday off and spending the day at the pool with Emily before we headed downtown for an event at the Air and Space Museum. The museum was celebrating it's 40th anniversary and was throwing an all-night party.



Emily and I got there around 9 p.m. hung out and listened to the Air Force band and then wandered around in some of my favorite exhibits. My coworker who was there too offered me two tickets to Top Gun on the IMAX. Top Gun is pretty much my favorite movie, but the showing wasn't until 5 a.m. and there was no way I lasted that long.

Emily and I probably ended up heading out around 11 p.m.

Saturday I hiked the Billy Goat Trail out at Great Falls. I've done Billy Goat a couple of times before, but the group I was with on Saturday was way more interested in "off-roading" than staying on the actual trail.

I think our hike turned more into rock climbing than hiking. It was a ton of fun -- and there were only a handful of times I was afraid I was going to plunge over the edge of the rocks and break my neck.



Luckily that didn't happen, and the views of the Potomac were pretty much worth it.

The rest of the weekend was spent at various cookouts/BBQs/crab feasts.



And now, I'm going to need all the caffeine in the world to help me make it through this day. Less than two weeks until my beach vacation. I'm definitely counting down the days.