i almost published without a title

I have been Obamafied. Officially. Yesterday Christina and I traveled to Muskegeon (good LORD that town is sad. Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad!) where we met a whole mess of people from the West Michigan area who appeared to be as insane as we were. We also did make quite an impression as superstars, but that's just because we are superstars. As of right now I'm some sort of Canvassing Leader but I suspect I'll be doing a little bit of everything. For example? I've agreed to run Friday night meetings at the office to fire people up and strong arm them into volunteering. I suspect I'll be fairly good at that.

Training is going well. Yesterday I ran 4 miles faster than I thought I could and only wanted to throw up once. I do feel like I'm coming down with a cold which is a drag, but as long as it stays in my head I'll be okay. My exploits involving biking to the beach and climbing the stairs seem to have paid off despite having screaming calves for 3 days. I'm sort of hoping to repeat that little adventure tonight as it is perfect beach weather and any moment I can have to myself these days is fairly precious.

We had the excellent fortune to have an unusual pipe break on the exhaust system of the Honda which means we're even more supremely broke than we normally are. Good times. Unfortunately we couldn't put it off as Peter doesn't own a bike to get to work and he has to get to work in order to pay for the car so we're currently playing the what-bills-can-we-get-away-with-not-paying-game. He might be thiiiis close to tossing the whole car after our Great Christmas Trip To Vermont. Quite honestly? I would have no problem not having a car. We have an okay public transportation system and friends who live close by who, for a little financial reward, would be more than happy to let us tag along on errands. I did just finish skimming the book How to Live Well Without a Car and found it more than compelling. As someone who spends most of her time biking around this town I've got to say I don't feel as though I'm missing out on much. Winters could be tough, but again, we're less than a block from a bus. The amount of money we could save on insurance and gas and unexpected ridiculously expensive repairs would be staggering.

Work is insane as we've had 2 people unexpectedly leave. I'm on desk alot, the phone rings off the hook, and people are impatiently waiting in line just about every second of the day. I am working extra for the next 2 weeks which definitely helps financially, but doesn't do much for my mental health.

Thankfully?

I have my bike. And the beach. And Peter. And running. And I have some new poems up here and here.

Life is still pretty good.