Ahhhh...sleep

Finally. Last night - a whole eight hours. For the first time in weeks. Stress related insomnia is partially responsible for the lack of sleep, but I fear I may also be way too in love with summer. What else can explain getting up at the crazy hour of 5:30 am on a weekend? Every weekend. Just to pack it all in.

1) Friday night, a group of co-workers and I went out to celebrate Bernie's birthday. It was my first time at the Tamarack Brewing Company. With a banana Hefeweizen and a warm sweatshirt, I settled in for some entertaining stories and a whole lot of laughs. This week was my one year anniversary of living here and six months at my new job, so I was also relishing time with good people who have quickly become friends. Despite the creepiness of one of my work situations, I love the fact that my job is a perfect fit and I get to hang out with people who just "get it." I have no idea how to explain that.

2) Unfortunately - fortunately, I had to be in Whitefish early Saturday morning for the Glacier Challenge. I had been recruited to run the 5k portion of the relay for a women's team I didn't know. The race logistics were quite impressive, as were some of the participants. My friend Leanne and her husband did the entire relay as a team and did awesome. Other friends from our running club and elsewhere also participated and did quite well. My 5k (a 3.85 mile 5k - what's up with that?) portion was not pretty. By the time I ran, it was noon and I was ready for lunch. I started too fast, got a sideache, and wanted to be done after about one mile of ugly pavement. The Qdoba and beer afterwards was pretty tasty though.

3) Saturday night, I helped Emily and Jason with entertaining Oliver and packing the U-Haul. Moving is never fun - not even with pizza and beer as incentives, and I did not envy their stress a bit. I left after 11:00 pm and they were still moving stuff.

4) Sunday morning, Leanne, Callie, Danni and I met up at 6:30 am to run 22 miles at the Blacktail cross-country ski trails. It was a perfect day for running. Sunny, warm, with a cool breeze. We brought plenty of water this time, all the sloshing in the back of Leanne's vehicle proved it. Danni had planned to add on another 14 miles with a run back to Herron Park. I considered it briefly, until I realized I was almost sleep-running. We were nervous as we dropped her off at the trail, hoping she'd make her way back ok. She did, but with a few glitches. Read her post if you want to learn more about her bravery.

5) And so I exhausted myself enough to finally sleep.