Thankful Things Thursday: Running & Puppies

I was in a pretty foul mood this morning. Life is so hard.

I got to bed late last night, so I chose not to go to yoga this morning as planned. I was stressing over my schedule and trying to figure out how to get everything done on time, and then Ellie was being a bit of a diva on our morning walk, further delaying the start of my day. Wah.

In other words, nothing is wrong, everything is fine, but I’m in a funk. Probably because I’ve eaten nothing but straight sugar for the past two weeks (OK, actually for the past “since September 26“), and I feel like crap. Nothing fits, I’m not really working out, and I don’t feel good about myself. Oh, and I’m not doing anything about it — except complaining.

Brian is lucky to have married me and Ellie is lucky to have me as her human. I am a ray of sunshine and joy!

Enter: Thankful Things Thursday. The ever-reliable cure for ditching the drama and getting grateful.

Inhaling good stuff. Exhaling brattiness. Onward!

I’m thankful for my girls. I have a lot of great girls in my life. (People get so mad when you call grown women “girls,” but I do it and I am not offended by it. “Sorry.” —Justin Bieber.) I’ve had multiple girls’ nights in the past two weeks with different groups of girlfriends, and it’s been so nice to stay in, hang out, drink wine, and gorge on cheese and guacamole. (See aforementioned paragraph about my clothes not fitting. Weird.)

I’m grateful for girl groups in all different circles of friendships: my November Project girls, my Wine & Cheese girls, my runner girls, my yoga girls, my college girls, and my work girls. I feel lucky to be surrounded my lots of love, laughter, and silliness at all times.

I’m thankful I got back on the run! After a few days without knee pain, I decided to try a test run by jogging the mile-ish to November Project yesterday morning. The verdict: I was 20 minutes late to the workout (oops), but I had no pain! I jogged a bit during the workout, too, and a few blocks afterward because I was cold and wanted to get into a hot shower.

I iced my knee as soon as I got home, just to be safe, but by last night a little bit of the pain had returned. So who knows. I don’t have any races on my calendar until November (New York City Marathon, YAY BEST DAY EVER!), so I have plenty of time to give my knee some TLC and to let it properly heal up.

And still, those few precious moments of running? They were so good while they lasted.

I’m thankful Ellie loves school! She started puppy classes two weeks ago, and she loves it. There are six puppies in the class (it’s for the owners, too, so we’re there), and it’s Puppy Level I, so we’re learning the basics. We had already done a private training session with Ellie beforehand, so she knows the basic commands, but it’s good to reinforce them.

She’s the biggest pup in class (by far) — then there are two goldendoodles (Finn and Trevor), a black pug (Moxie), a cavapoo (Maisy), and Pete, who is a corgi pup the size of my hand. Pete is amazing. Sometimes he falls asleep during play group.

After class, there’s an hour of puppy play, which is the cutest hour of my week. There are around 15 puppies all running around, playing and wrestling and learning from each other. I like that it’s supervised (by our puppy class teacher) and that all the puppy owners are pretty chill. I have quickly learned that dog owners are an interesting array of characters. Some are great and cool and others are not so great nor so cool.

Ellie has two best friends: One is Harper from puppy play. They are exactly the same size and they are obsessed with each other, and this week when Harper left early, Ellie sat by the door, staring and crying and so sad that her bae had to leave. Her other best friend is Ollie, a five-month-old black lab mix who lives in our building. They like to wrestle by the elevators.

I’m thankful for a busy week. Freelance life = the busier the better. Because when you’re not busy, you don’t get paid! And it’s boring. Some shameless plugs:

• Sugar is keeping you up at night—literally. (But I still eat it all day, every day.)
• Does a gluten-free diet make you a better athlete? (No. But maybe it would help my pants fit better? JK, all my pants are stretchy. We’re fine.)
• You basically have no idea what’s in those supplements you’re taking. (This investigation is staggering and scary. See? This is why being healthy is impossible.)
• Your Complete Guide to Mindfulness. (It’s basically just being present. Buzzword alert!)
• How to Train Like a Superhero. (This is great stuff!)

I’m thankful for hot showers on cold days. 

I’m thankful for bookstores. I love Amazon, but nothing compares to browsing a bookstore and wandering the aisles and getting a little lost and escaping the world. And, if it happens to be Barnes & Noble, also using the public restroom.

I’m thankful for stunning winter sunrises. 

I’m thankful for Ellie. My little best bud. Even when she’s naughty (she does something to make me cry almost daily), even when she’s difficult and wants to sit down in the middle of Park Avenue as the light’s about to change, and even when she’s surrounded by delicious toys and treats but only wants to chew on my arm, leg, or inner thigh…I love her. And I love the infectious joy she’s brought into this [very] little [slightly over-crowded] household.

I’m thankful for Central Park.

I’m thankful for you. Always! Thank you for reading this blog, supporting me, and always being cheerful and lovely. I think you’re simply the best. Tina Turner wrote that song about you.

GET GRATEFUL WITH ME! Tell me something for which you are thankful today.