The end of 2008

The end of 2008 is here. 2009 will bring me a bit closer to finishing school, which is supposed to happen May 2010.

I made it through year 1! Unbelievable.

Hubby made it to Spokane on Christmas morning. He left Portland by train at 4:45pm, but the train was held up for 4 hours after it left the station--not due to weather, as was anticipated, but by commercial freight trains (Amtrak does not own its tracks, so it has to cede the right of way to the freightlines that own the tracks) which were presumably held up themselves by the storms of the previous several days. He finally made it to Spokane at 5am, and took a taxi as far as he could to our house, but ended up having to walk part of the way. Poor guy got to our house at 6am. We slept for a bit as the snow continued to fall, and spent the rest of the day overeating and watching movies. It was pretty nice, all in all.

Between him having to work overtime for 2 weekends, and then the weather preventing travel, we were separated for a whole month before Christmas Day. Not really something I recommend to anyone. Hopefully this won't happen again. We are hoping he finds some work in Spokane...

On Monday, we both took the train back to Portland. Our 2:45am departure was delayed to 10:20am, and we arrived in Portland around 6:30pm. It snowed here quite a bit, but by the time we arrived it had pretty much melted, except for some dirty piles beside the roads. Which meant that yesterday, for the first time in 2 weeks, I was able to go run. It really did more for me mentally than physically, even though it was great to move. I was going to go run today also..but didn't...so will head out tomorrow again. And probably every day I am still in Portland. Spokane isn't going to be run-worthy for a while. The snowfall for December was 62" the last time I checked. Most of the sidewalks are not shovelled, so there's nowhere to run but in the street, which is pretty unsafe with vehicles unable to brake. So...it looks like I need to find a gym again. Suck!

Last year I went through this process of trying to find a gym. I settled for the Y in Spokane Valley, but the hoardes of screaming children in the locker room make me want to avoid that this time. I am thinking of just joining my university gym. Gonzaga's facility seems pretty nice, and it's $150 for a semester (Jan to May) for graduate students. There are no gyms in walking distance of my home anyway, and pretty much all of the gyms in Spokane are lame.

I'll be joining millions of Americans tomorrow by vowing to lose weight, although it's not a New Year's Resolution, but the continuation of my plan for the past several months. I'm looking to lose about 12 more pounds and I don't have a timetable for it. I gained some weight during my time being snowed in over Christmas (9 days total), but nothing terrible. Considering that I couldn't exercise and had all these goodies baked that I was going to give as Christmas gifts (but never was able to see my family), it could have been worse, and shouldn't be hard to get rid of.

Happy New Year everyone.