Run, Eat, Date, Sleep

I am definitely  moving to Florida! I am packing up the truck in less than two months as move-in day is June 1st! I chose one of the apartments in Celebration. It’s actually been a dream of mine for at least 10 years to live in that town! I received and signed the lease yesterday and paid the security deposit. I’m super ecstatic and terrified at all the same time. I’m moving back to an area I lived in for 3 years, so I’m not nervous about that. I’m just afraid I’m making the wrong decision. Like what if my life is supposed to be in Delaware? And I’m going to miss the people, especially my parents, a lot! I’ve been working day in and day out with my parents for the last four years. I don’t know how I’m going to adjust to working at home alone without them.

So the plan is- I’m keeping the same job I have now with my family’s mortgage company, but I’ll be working from home in Florida. And I’ll be picking up part-time work at a restaurant, preferably for Disney where I worked for a few years. It will take about 4 months for me to receive my mortgage broker license and my license to start a branch of our mortgage company there, but I hope to use that time to really market the business so it will be up and running quickly.

It all seems so surreal to me still.

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In other news, I was hoping my next big run would be the Broad Street Run in Philadelphia on May 2, but it’s already sold out. So I’m looking at the following races and hoping to sign up for a few of them:

• Disneyland Half Marathon on September 5th. If I do this one, I’d qualify for the Disney Coast to Coast Challenge and earn this pretty medal.

This one is from 2008

• The Inaugural Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon on October 2nd. It starts at 10pm, and there’s a party in Epcot afterwards. My parents are thinking of taking a Disney vacation during this time so that they can be there to cheer me on.
• The Philadelphia Half-Marathon on November 21st. My friend Holly, who traveled to NYC with me a few weekends ago, is planning on doing this one as her first, and I hope to fly up there and do it with her!

I need to sign up for a race to get my motivation back. It’s still wavering. I actually spent most of my day napping on my couch. I haven’t had a chance to sleep in for over a month, so it was nice to not feel guilty for sleeping. I obviously needed it, but I know I should have been out running or something. My weight keeps going up. Ugh!

Tomorrow is a new day. I will really focus on what I’m eating. I will clean my house. I will run.

I got up at 5am on Friday morning, got ready, headed to Starbucks, and got to class a little bit before 8am. I really thought this class was going to be a breeze because I’ve been in the mortgage business for 4 years, and the class is geared towards newbies. Well, the first class was all about Florida law. Class was from 8-4:30, but we got an hour break for lunch, which I spent at Celebration Town Tavern. I had a mug of Lobster Chowder and a small house salad. During lunch, I was emailing back and forth with my dad, who told me he really thinks I’m an important asset to the company. And while he wants me to be happy, I think he wants me to stay in Delaware. My heart just sinks knowing my parents don’t want me to move, but I think moving back to Florida will make me happy. So this just set my mind on fire with ideas on how to logistically move to Florida and what exactly I’d do for a job.

After class, I headed right on over to the Celebration Hotel to check in for the next few nights. Can I just tell you how much I needed some luxury in my life after driving around in a crap rental car and staying at the jail cell that was my La Quinta room? Love this hotel!

The scent of the lotion, conditioner, and shampoo is absolutely amazing! I’ve been stashing them away every day just so the housekeeper will give me more. Hehehe

I was still so tired from not sleeping before my flight, so I laid down for a nap, which turned in to a full night’s sleep.

Saturday was another full day of class, but it moved on from law to the more basic mortgage stuff, so it turned into a pretty boring day for me. However, when it came time for lunch, I discovered the rental car’s battery died. So, I had to hunt down someone with jumper cables, and thankfully, the car parked next to mine was my teacher’s, so she was able to help. But, I only had 30 minutes left of my hour break, and I couldn’t turn the car off for fear the battery might die again. So, my only option was to go to a drive-thru. Bleck!!

After class, I went to look at another apartment in Celebration. This one was a bit cheaper, but it was only a 1 bedroom with a den and 1 bathroom. No garage. There was no one living in this one, and the agent just gave me the code to get in by myself, so I had plenty of time to look around and take pictures.

living area and sunroom

Master bedroom

Street view

Although this apartment is about $300/month less than the other one, I didn’t fall in love with it. Plus, the other one has a garage and a second bathroom. And the other one felt more sunshiney (I know that’s not a word). After looking around the apartment, I headed back to the hotel, changed in to running clothes, and headed out for a walk/jog. I spent about 40 minutes mostly walking with a little 10 minute easy jog. My left knee is still bothering me, and my right hamstring feels pulled. I took a few pictures while I was out roaming around the neighborhood.

After my run, I enjoyed a small dinner at the Tavern again. It was full of young people, which gave me more hope that Celebration is more than a retirement community

After dinner, it was time to soak in the hotel’s hot tub. I was only in there for a few minutes before I was joined by a young couple. How awkward.

Sunday was our last day in class, and by this time, we all had become friends and exchanged business cards/phone numbers. I look forward to seeing how they all do in the industry. We took a one-hour lunch break, and unfortunately, the decision was made to go to Golden Corral. At least it was easy to make vegetarian choices there. The class ended with a practice test of 100 questions, and I only got 5 or 6 wrong. Woohoo!

I went over to the Market Street Cafe again for dinner and had a cup of mushroom soup and a taco salad. The soup, which I had on Thursday as well, was delicious, but the salad just didn’t taste right. But the service was much better than it was on Thursday.

So here it is Monday, and I’m checking out of my hotel in a few minutes, which leaves me with a few hours to kill before I head back to the airport. So, I’m going to go see Remember Me and catch a small lunch at T-Rex or Rainforest Cafe.

I’m excited to get back home and talk to my parents about the decisions I need to make regarding my move to Florida.

Catch you back in Delaware!

When my family took our Christmas vacation to Disney World a few months ago, my father had the great idea of me opening my own mortgage company in Florida. I couldn’t resist this opportunity! Like I’ve mentioned before, I used to work for Disney World for several years, so the Orlando area is pretty familiar to me and feels more like “home” to me than Delaware. So, I’m here in Orlando for a few days to take the required mortgage broker class to become licensed in Florida to do mortgages.

I left on Thursday morning, and I actually didn’t sleep all night because I had to leave my house at 3am, and I wasn’t even packed when midnight rolled around. My plane left at 7am, and I arrived in beautiful Florida around 9:30. Unfortunately, there was an issue with the car rental company, so my day started off with me crying on the phone with my mom and me leaving the airport with a really crappy car. If you’re in the market for a car, I’d forgo the Suzuki Forenza if I were you.

Once I was finally in a car, I could head to my hotel, which was a La Quinta. Unfortunately, the price I paid was directly related to the cleanliness of the property. I actually got sick staying at this hotel. I woke up several times during the night crying in pain because my throat hurt so bad. Now I know it was the hotel because my sore throat disappeared whenever I left.

But anyways, my room wasn’t ready when I stopped by at 10am, which was fine because I wasn’t expecting it to be ready. So, I headed on over to Celebration to have lunch at a soda fountain place my mom and I saw the last time we were in town.

I ordered the cream of mushroom soup and the tuna melt. Not exactly the healthiest choices, but I was having a crap day. Crying at the airport= diet out the window!!

I really enjoyed sitting outside and people watching.

I finally went back to the hotel and was able to check in. I immediately stripped down and took a long nap because I still hadn’t been to bed yet. I had an appointment with a leasing agent in Celebration at 5:15, so I headed back there. The current renter still lives there, so I didn’t take any pictures for his privacy, but I took some pictures of the outside.

Neighborhood fitness center

Neighborhood pool

It was a gorgeous 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment with all tile floors, a small patio, French door entrance, and large living area (big enough for my enormous sectional). I wish I could have taken pictures!

After looking around, I knew exactly what I wanted for dinner… Pizza Fusion! I did a repeat of the blogger meet-up! I ordered this delicious salad…

And I customized my own pizza with pesto sauce, crimini mushrooms, roasted red onions, and mozzarella cheese.

And then, Menchies!!!

I was so excited to check out Whole Foods Market. We don’t have anything like this in my part of Delaware, so going to a healthy place like this is heaven!

I picked up some bananas, Larabars, a small piece of chocolate, some crackers, and a gallon of water for breakfasts and such.

As soon as I got back to the hotel, I fell right to sleep. I was exhausted!

The rest of my trip to be continued…

I wish I could write a big ol’ post, but my hotel doesn’t really have free wi-fi, and my class doesn’t allow for laptops. But I just wanted to check in and say how much I appreciate all of the emails and comments regarding my NYC Half Marathon.

This trip, up until today, has been pretty rough. I don’t want to go in to details, but I’m hoping today is a better day!

Ok, time for class!

Today seemed like a good day to put my wishes out there on “paper”. I’m a strong believer that once you “put it out there”, it will come to you.

So as most of you know, I’m moving to Orlando by June 1st (crossing my fingers it will be June 1st and not later!!), and I’ve been envisioning my life down there. I’m big on envisioning things you want, and this is what I see…

Rent a home in the Celebration area

I'll be enjoying lots of bike rides...

and runs around the neighborhood.. hopefully with a dog

I’ll be working from home in my Carrie Bradshaw-esque home office… these pictures are for inspiration

Love this desk!

I’m going to be working on a new “page” for the blog of my wishlist of running gear and miscellaneous stuff.

That’s all for my first “Wishful Wednesday”. Tonight I’ll be posting some progress pics. Don’t miss it!

I really haven’t talked about my recent and past relationships on here, even though part of my blog title is “date”. But, here goes a little bit of it.

I dated Jeff for about 4 and a half years. We endured a 2-year long distance relationship and a 2-year somewhat long distance relationship before he moved to Colorado and I moved to Delaware. After spending a few months of him living in Colorado, we ended things. It was a long time coming, but I was severely heart broken. He was the man I was going to marry. I thought for sure he was “the one”. I spent every night for about a month in the fetal position in my shower as the water poured over me as I sobbed for hours no matter how cold the water had gotten. It’s been almost 2 years since our break-up, and we’ve actually developed quite the friendship. I just got off the phone with him, and it was one of the best calls I’ve had with him. We were hysterically laughing together over something really silly but would only be funny to us.

This made me realize that no matter how bad you ever think life is right now, it will get better. You’ll find something that will eventually make you smile. You won’t forget about what made life rough, but you’ll get through it. And it may take months or even years to realize it, but I’ve found that my rough spots are usually blessings. And in the case with Jeff, I often think about what would have been had we stayed together and I sometimes think that no one will ever measure up, but I know that our break-up was probably one of the best things to ever happen to me.

So with that said, I may need to come back to this post and re-read it often after I leave Delaware.

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On to other things, today was another really good day at work, despite the fact I put in a 10-hour day with no lunch break. Luckily, we’re really busy, which is reaaaalllly good for being a small town mortgage company right now. Don’t I look busy? Two computers and files everywhere!!!

Hard at work or hardly working?

I started the day off with a whole grain English muffin with PB Loco Dark Chocolate peanut butter… mmmm.

And I ended the day with chips, salsa, and guac! This Newman’s Own Peach Salsa is the most amazing salsa I’ve ever had. But the guac just wasn’t appealing to me. I usually get Wholly Guacamole, but the grocery store only had this stuff. It was missing something!

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My mom was looking at plane tickets for me today to go down to Florida for my mortgage broker classes, and she said “we” like she was going, and I snapped back “we?” I told her I thought it was just going to be me. This whole moving thing is for me, but I shouldn’t have said I didn’t want her to come along. I feel bad now   I’ll tell her tomorrow I want her to come along, but I still feel bad. Bad daughter! But I’m really looking forward to her coming along with me for the Disney Princess race. I’m hoping it made her feel good that I wanted her there to take care of me if I am injured, crying, and/or pooping/puking all over myself after the race. That’s what moms are for, right?

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My friend, Julie, had some questions for you all. First, how do you get in the habit of taking pictures and uploading them to your blog every day? She’d like to spice up her blog with pictures, so give her some ideas! Also, if you have a blog yourself, which do you prefer- WordPress or Blogger? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both?

Good afternoon! I’m very happy to see that yesterday was a record-breaking day for my blog for views. Thank you all so much for reading and following along. Love you!!!

I slept in pretty late today, but I woke up to the sound of a plow… on my street! I got up, weighed myself, got a call from my mom, and straightened my hair. My mom was letting me that we have an appointment for March 5 at 3:30 to look at office space in Orlando! I’m so very excited!!! We also chatted about some work stuff, and she told me we probably won’t be open tomorrow either. And then we’re expected to get more snow on Tuesday night. So we may not have work on Wednesday either. While I love not working, I miss my routine… work, run, eat, date, sleep.. ya know?

So I made my way downstairs by noon, made some Starbucks, and opened my garage door to see that it’s going to be very easy to make my way out later today to stock up on some more groceries. I heard a nearby Wal-mart’s roof collapsed because there was too much snow on their flat roof. Crazy!

Remember my post when I asked you to “Ask Me Anything”? I got a few questions, so here’s the answers…

Q. What got you in to running?

A. Honestly, I’ve always liked to run. I started running in high school on the cross country team when I was a sophomore. I only lasted one year because I thought I wasn’t good enough. I was always in “last place” or close to last. Whenever I try to lose weight, I turn to running because I know it works. And now finally, I’m running not just for weight loss.

Q. What’s the best part of losing weight?

I’ve actually been thinking of an answer to this question for a few days, and I really can’t come up with one answer. Weight loss has given me a self-confidence I’ve never had, which has especially helped me in the dating arena. I used to refuse cuddling because I didn’t want a guy to feel my rolls. I now feel very confident laying next to a man. Another wonderful thing about losing weight is the compliments I’ve received from friends, family, and “strangers”. There’s been a couple of guys at the gym who have approached me and said “slimming down, aren’t ya?” I guess they’ve been watching me for a while. Kinda creepy, but so nice.

The two top things about losing weight:

1. Being able to run faster. When you’re lighter, there’s less to move, right?
2. Inspiring others! This is by far the best part of losing weight. I can’t tell you the number of emails I’ve gotten from friends saying that I’ve inspired them to start exercising, running, and/or eat better. And some of them have started blogs themselves. There are some people who are just acquaintances of mine on Facebook, and when I run into them “in real life”, they tell me “oh hey, I’ve been following you. Great job!” I didn’t even know they were reading along. I never in a million years thought I’d be considered an inspiration!

Even though no one asked, I do have a “worst part of losing weight”. I no longer fit into my clothes. My “skinny pants” are too loose, and I’m afraid I look like I’m wearing clown pants. I only have a few outfits I can wear to work without looking frumpy. And now my yoga pants are falling down at the gym. So I bet you’re wondering why this is bad. I’ll be honest. Money’s tight. Real tight. I do have a wonderful, well-paying job, but there have been a few things recently that have hurt my wallet pretty bad. I might be hitting up some thrift stores soon!

Feel free to follow this link to ask me more questions. They’re anonymous, so ask me anything!

Snowstorm Thought Of the Day- Why complain about digging out your car when you have a long driveway? Why not park the car at the end of the drive and just walk out in the snow to it? You’ll have less to shovel.. duh. Thinking outside the box here.

25 days until Disney World!

It’s seriously been months since I took a nap, but I ended up taking a 3-hour long nap today. It was lovely!!!

I woke to several emails from some cute bachelors on match.com and some messages on Facebook from friends who wanted the link to my new blog. I didn’t even know some of them were reading before. Makes me feel special Now I’m just watching the Grammy’s, catching up with Google Reader, and I’ll attempt to do some laundry later.

Women’s Health Magazine is giving away a sports bra today. Check it out! They give away something every day, and for the whole month of February, they’re giving away some intimate products… oooooh la la!

On a completely unrelated note, I was all set to splurge on some running gear and a nice hotel room for the NYC Half with my tax refund. Yeah, no refund. I actually owe $3000. WTF. I keep telling myself “it’s just money”, but I’m still pretty upset. Looks like I’ll be marketing the crap out of myself to get more clients.

On Friday, I signed up for my Florida Mortgage Broker Licensing class for a weekend in late March. I have to take the class in order to do business in Florida, and I’m really excited I’m going to be a broker! I’ll feel like such a success!

Ok, I’m setting my timer for 15 minutes to get some housework done!