no title

I can't seem to think of a title for this post.

It involves all three points of interest to this blog.

1) I went for a wonderful run last night. it was a perfect night, the sun was setting on the south coast and i felt really really good. I went for 35 mins, following the slow and steady increase regime.

2) our wedding invites arrived! they are just great. at first i thought the writing was too small and our names took up too much of the card, but that doesn't really matter. hopefully we can start posting them this weekend, if Nick ever has time to do anything other than uni work...

3) as part of my internship i made a goal to post a blog at least once a week and to continue to learn new html and other fancy things. also, to run twice a week. so now that ive said that, i have to stick to it. Although right now I am not writing in html because im at uni and i have other things to do. i have just completed my first piece of assessment and shit it took me ages to get into it. i've known about it for weeks but only started on it yesterday pretty much. a critical review of an article, but only 400 words. often its more difficult sticking to small word limits than trying to meet large requirements. i felt completely out of the loop until finally something clicked and i was away.

Wedding

Time for an update on the wedding plans - finally have something to say on the matter! We have had some invites designed by a friend of nick's sister, whose website you can find here . I sent her a few other designs that I liked the look of and gave her a brief idea of what our wedding will be like and what we wanted the invites to look like and she got it spot on! It took a few emailes back and forth to get it just right, and to sort out the printing, which we did through vistaprint , but they should be arriving today in the post. and hopefully they look good! we're gathering a list of addresses so within a week, we should be sending them far and wide.

Here's a sneak peek of where it will be taking place...

internship

I have started my internship with Patricia as part of the BA internship. I have met with her a couple of times and last week attended a workshop with her in Lower Hutt, and her industry and business is so completely new to me that i didnt really know what i was going to be doing, but after our first official meeting yesterday, things are finally taking shape. I have just proofed edited an abstract for her, which i think needed a lot of work and which i think i did well. now i have to improve her website...

I left the meeting yesterday and my first thought was "what am i doing". I couldnt think of anything to say back to her cos its all so new and technical and i dont know anything about it, but after actually doing the proof, and improving it for her, it felt really good. and finally i am actually thinking "how am i gonna fit all this in?" because the so far at uni i've had nothing on. Because this internship is counted as a course, i'm only doing two other regular courses, for which there is no assessment for another couple of weeks. Nick on the other hand, is so busy and as much as i love spare time, ive told myself this year i will be busy and proactive because it's time to get the life that i want!

first day at the gym

today i started at the gym!

I signed up to the uni last week cos they had a great deal on - it works out at about $4/wk compared to les mills which is $20/wk. I love les mills, but i can't afford that at the moment. so the uni gym it is. it's great! totally fine. there are pump equivalent classes too so i will come to those and start working out again. it's been too long and my body has lost its tone, so time to change that. i ran 20 mins on the treadmill and that felt good. treadmill running is a good chance to concentrate on technique and breathing, both things that i need to work on. so yes, here we go, let's make fitness!

running

How did I run 10k two weeks ago?? I went for a little one yesterday, in the sunshine and the wind along the south coast, and I only went for 15 minutes. I felt sluggish. It felt like I was starting from scratch, even though just two weeks ago I did a 10k race! oh well it's ok, I'll just start slowly again. After my run I walked up to uni wearing my sandals from Miss Selfridge, the ones that I walked in for miles around eastern europe and Istanbul last year. They don't exactly look like they're made for walking but I was surprised at how comfortable they were for lots of walking back then. Obviously I haven't worn them in a while because when I got to class, I had a massive blister on the bottom of my heel. It's about the size of a 50 cent piece, the old ones. It is so painful. Nick was working and there's no bus from uni to home so I had to walk home and made it worse. So I don't know when the next run will be.

I'm conscious of how often I write 'I' on this blog. That is the 'me me me' aspect of a blog that always put me off. My friend Pamela doesn't capitalise her "i"s on her blog which you can find here and I think it looks quite nice actually. Like, less emphasis on the ME . oh my god this is so exciting i'm writing in HTML. I did a little bit on codecademy. Now I will make my words in bold . i can manually add in a link to google here . i can simply make italics . fun!!

First blog post

My very first blog post. I'm nervous. I don't know where to begin. Just write.

I have toyed with the idea of a blog for years now, but I have always decided that it was too egocentric for me and therefore never went through with it. But this time is different. I am in my final year of uni and face the prospect of finding a job next year. NEXT YEAR. From next year, I can no longer give the reason (excuse) of being at uni for being 30 and not yet having a 'proper job'. And that is scary cos now that I am actually looking into jobs and things, I think I have even less of an idea. I kind of have an imaginary job in my mind, but it doesn't seem to be advertised on Seek. Anyway, the area I am interested in involves writing, research, and that word which I think means something else to me than it actually is: communication. And these tend to include the internet. So that is why I am starting this blog - to learn something new, something that may prove useful later on.

The topics of my blog will be these:

1. Trying to run a half marathon
2. Being a mature student and trying to start a completely new career at 30
3. Planning a wedding

Half marathon - I have probably been thinking about doing one of these for as long as I've been thinking about starting a blog. Late 2011 I signed up for the Wellington Round the Bays which was to be held February 2012. I should mention I've always been a casual runner. It has always been my exercise of choice and I did it regularly, but never long distances. So it wasn't like I was starting from scratch when I started training for RTB, but it was definitely the most running I'd ever done. My longest run was one where I left my house in Mt Victoria and went down Adelaide Rd, through Berhampore and Island Bay to the coast and along the coast to Lyall Bay and back to Mt. Victoria. It was amazing! Just about 14km. I felt like I was floating, I think they call it being 'in the zone'. I was fit, I lost 7kgs and I loved it. On my next run, my calf muscle felt like it tore in half. I was by the NIWA station in Evans Bay so I had to limp home. I went to physio and that experience prompted the memory of doing the same thing when I was at school, after my calf muscle went while I was playing hockey. So I figured it was an old injury that never healed properly and I don't know much about muscles but I imagine that if they don't heal properly the first time, they may not ever heal completely. At least, that is the conclusion I've come to after this same calf injury happening again and again. I didn't run that half marathon. One great positive outcome of that time was the free trial at Les Mills that came with registration, thanks to their sponsorship. I started going to the gym for the first time in my life, and became totally addicted to Pump! Jeeeez, I love it. That was the best shape I have ever been, fit from the running and toned from Pump. I will get that body back...

Anyway, I really want to run a half marathon. I know I can do it, if my calf muscle can.

Study and career - As stated above, I am in my third year of my Bachelor of Arts majoring in Linguistics. I love it. It's so interesting and is fulfilling a passion and curiosity of mine. I just don't really know what to do next. Most students say this, especially those doing a BA. One day I would love to become a Speech Therapist but this would require me to do a Master's in either Christchurch or Auckland and that is not something I am ready to do at the moment. I just want to get a job and work for a year or two. I've been poor for too long!

Planning a wedding - yay! Nick and I are getting married next February at a campsite in the Marlborough Sounds. That is all we have planned at the moment, so there is plenty more to come with this topic!