Summer: Almost Over

 The kids start school on Monday. I can't believe this summer is almost over. More catching up:

We went to a Pirates game with Andrew a couple of weeks ago. We stayed longer than usual (usually when we go with him we leave after the pierogi race) but not till the end, which he was horrified by because it ended up being a really close game. We tried!

Andrew and the girls went to Baltimore overnight last weekend to see an Orioles game with family friends. I stayed home with the pets.

Graduate Orientation was last week, the culmination of months of planning and preparation. It was exhausting but all went well. Now back to regular working life.

We've all been running. Andrew, Lucia, and Greta all ran a 5K last Friday (Lucia was with her team and Andrew and Greta registered as well) and all did great. Lucia came in 2nd in her age group, and Andrew and Greta got medals for their age groups as well. Now that Orientation is over, I'm back to running as well, though it's been hard to regain the progress I'd made throughout the summer. But I'm back up to two miles and will keep at it.

I have to say, I feel like a corner has been turned with my running. I hated it so, so, so much when I started at the beginning of the summer, but I began liking it more when I began running in Frick Park while Lucia is at XC practice. And I loved running on the boardwalk in Cape May. I'm sad that this is the last week of evening Frick Park runs. To my surprise, despite being a morning person, I've found that I don't really like running at 6am. These evening runs have been much more pleasant. I'm not sure how to make this work once the school schedule starts up again.

The political whirlwind has been energizing, and the kids are following along through the Times and whatever news clips they can find on Pinterest; Greta has been watching the DNC with us. How amazing it is to feel this optimisim.