Home Sweet Home

On Wednesday night, I took a two hour flight from Charlotte to St. Louis, Missouri. I'm not actually from Missouri, but this is the closest airport to my hometown of Carbondale, located in the heart of Southern Illinois. My sister flew in from LAX around the same time, so my parents picked us both up around 930pm. Of course, we still had another two hours to drive from St. Louis to my house, so by the time we arrived at my childhood home, it was 1am North Carolina time.

Typically, coming home can be characterized with eating too much really good vegan food, running solo or with my high school coach, and playing scrabble. This year, all of the listed above did occur, but with the addition of my cousin Michelle, who I hadn't seen since our family vacation to Hawaii in 2007.

On Friday, Michelle and I went on an investigative walk to see if a new neighbor was building a house in the field across the way, she played the guitar in the living room, and we went to the Sunset Concert to see southern Illinoisans in all their drunken glory. My mom got us all tickets to a really good comedy at SIUC Theater called Unnecessary Farce, which was absolutely hilarious! I must have laughed the entire time from the way my abs ached this morning. I was also impressed with the acting skills of the students in the play.

This is fortunately a down week for me in terms of running, which is great because I've gotten so spoiled running with people from the Charlotte Running Club, that I find it more and more difficult to run solo. Luckily, I pulled my high school coach out for a run with me on Friday morning, but he needs to get into better shape. Here's a picture of my driveway:

I'll be back in NC on Sunday night, but it will be sad to leave my family. I'll also miss the quiet that is typical of living in the country...I slept like a baby with the sound of the crickets and toads to put me to sleep.

Better late than never...

My dad received his joint father's day/birthday present from my sister and I today in the mail. He received all of his favorite fruits (both dried and fresh) in a nice little package today unexpectedly! I get there tomorrow night, so I'm crossing my fingers that he'll let his two favorite daughters try a bite of the California Mission Figs that were in that tightly packed box! Although he received this two weeks after his birthday and two days after Father's Day, it's better late than never...and let's be honest, his best present of all will be a visit from three of his children this weekend! I'm looking forward to the food that my mom is going to be feeding us!

In anticipation of my weekend in Carbondale, the heart of SO ILL, I worked out this morning by myself. It was rather peaceful and also happened to be the first time that I had worked out on my own in quite some time. I did a simple little fartlek of sorts - 5-5-4-3-2-1 - with half rest of what you just ran. Indeed, it went quite well most likely because I wasn't timing it. I wanted to just get out there and enjoy the workout in the humid morning air. I'm in the middle of a down week, making it actually very important since it helps keep my mind and body fresh, ready to peak in October. If I don't find time to work out this weekend while I'm at home, it will probably be for the best...to give my legs a fresh start for next week.

Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 96...the hottest temperature this summer. I'm hypothesizing that this summer is going to be a brutal one. By the time fall comes around, we'll all be tough as nails.