Woah-she speaks

I got motivated to blog this morning when I realized two things:
~Two of my friends here in Garden, both of whom I greatly respect and admire, were managing to balance being married, having and raising a beautiful baby, working multiple jobs between them and STILL blogging and keeping current on current affairs;

~I hadn't updated since the night of The Breakup (it's a proper noun) and it was probably time to do so.

Life since August-
~I've had bronchitis twice. Every time I finally get on a habit of working out, bronchitis rears its ugly head. The first time, I nearly ended up in the hospital in Ada, Oklahoma.

~I've had the stomach flu twice and ended up dropping close to 20 pounds that I've kept off. I stayed hydrated, but not eating for 5-7 days at a stretch wears on a hypoglycemic.

~Friends+family= framily. Humans need companionship, and I thank God for the ones He provided me with here in this desert. I may not be in a relationship but I have deep, meaningful relationships with people I respect and care about. I can't ask for much more than that, can I?

~I lost two people whose love has been some of the most constant in my life, but not nearly as celebrated as it should have been. The first, who I lost on November 29, 2010, was my paternal grandfather. He passed away on a Monday, and I left Garden that night for home. Garden to Topeka, Topeka to Lansing, Lansing to Pittsburgh, funeral and family, then Pittsburgh to Columbia, Columbia to Garden, 6 days. The first Christmas without Pap really wore on my dad, I think, and it was hard for me too. My friends and students were amazing support over this insane week.

~Ashly. I remember first semester freshman year at Albion; I was wandering Wesley, trying to find matt and mike, my math buddies. We were going to go over the problem set together. And SMACK I ran into Meg and Ashly. We were friends from that moment on. Ashly's life was never rosy and blessed the way mine was, but she was a ray of sunshine in my life. As juniors, we were both RAs in Wesley, and she introduced me to my Ted. Some days, I'm not sure if I want to smack her for that or not. As seniors, we RAed together second semester, and then Ashly went back to Chicago while I settled in for student teaching. We spoke when we could, which was never enough. Christmas 2009 she was diagnosed with leukemia. I got to see her in June 2010, and if I'd known it would be the last time, I never would have left. On Jan 7, 2011, following a brief stint of remission, Ashly passed away at 25 (and just barely). This is the first friend of mine who has died, and it is hard saying goodbye. I was sick with the second stomach flu and couldn't get back to Chicago for the funeral, which broke my heart. In memory of Ashly, I am going to run a marathon, which brings me to my last post...

~Running. I hate it. The impact with the ground, the movement of my chest pulling at me, the awkward breathing, the inability to do it for very long all frustrate me immensely. I'm going to smart small on my marathon goals, and try to run a 5K. The eventual goal is to do one for Ashly, maybe with Linds, who does them for her brother she lost way too young to leukemia.

Okay. I'd better get back to my homework-oh, wait! I forgot! I'm a SPARTAN!!!! YEAH Online learning!!!