One at a time, or all at once

I can only be one Barbie at a time, it seems.

Every day, and more nights and weekends than I care to discuss (work/life balance is another blog for another day), I strive to be Career Barbie. I am proud of the work I do and I love my job, but it does leave me feeling neglectful of the other important things in my life.

When I try to stay on track with my fitness, by running or giving myself an hour of Pilates, I take away time from making dinner with E, socializing with friends, and quite often my bedroom ends up strewn with dumbells and a balance ball that terrifies my poor cat!

I wish I got more pleasure out of taking care of my home. I know you're out there, you lovers of cleaning, but I can't claim to be in your ranks.

I'm a grudging caretaker of my Dream House!

And when I'm doing any of the above - taking care of my career, my body, or my home - I'm missing out on the friendships that used to be so easy to maintain.

And cuddling with the man I adore.

Not to mention my Master's Thesis!

Aaaaand I'm done.

Image sources: http://www.barbiemedia.com/

Frank 5K

Today I ran my very first 5K. (Well, if you can call a 12-minute mile and getting passed by ladies with strollers "running.") Sarcasm aside, this is a pretty huge accomplishment for me. Some thoughts I had while running:

1. Somewhere between mile 2 and 3 I realized that this was the longest I'd ever run without stopping. It was a nice feeling.

2. I never want to run more than 5K.

3. I can do anything with Kanye in my ear!

4. Frank Lloyd Wright's home is a good reason to slow down.

5. I'm grateful that Erich will run with me, even if it is half his normal speed.

What is this thing?

I have decided to follow the advice of Gretchen Rubin, whose blog "The Happiness Project" I've been following for quite a while. Among the sage advice she gives, Gretchen lauds the idea of a One-Sentence Journal.

One of the reasons I rarely blog is my own verbosity; I feel like I could write so much about so many things that the task becomes insurmountable and I do nothing.

So as a personal project, I'm aiming to keep a Brevity Journal. I won't hold myself to one sentence, if two or three will do. And I won't punish myself for missing a day. I just like the idea of accumulating snapshots of my life over the next year - which will be a big one: A wedding, a puppy, job changes, a master's thesis...and not necessarily in that order!

It begins with a sentence:

Today I'm doing something.