Crazy Is as Crazy Does

To say the last five weeks have been crazy would be probably the biggest mis-representation of my life (and I like to exaggerate, so that says something). I haven't gotten to talk about my new job a whole lot, but the jist of it is as such:

At most universities, all freshmen (and new transfer students) are required to attend a new student orientation. At Cal State, it's no different so I have spent the last three weeks (and two more to go) welcoming 425 freshmen at a time at any one of our given 8 sessions. That's not including the six sessions we had with transfer students at 600 students a pop! 13-19 hour days have been brutal, but really, the key part of it is that I love my job.

Selfies with 1/8 of the freshmen class!

 It took (what felt like) forever to get here, but I finally feel like I've got a place that I can settle into for a few years, take it all in and know that some how I've made a difference. My students leaders are amazing, I love getting to work and interact with freshmen, and I feel like I'm beginning form the starts of a community for myself on campus. It's all happy times. 

Photobooth fun at our late night carnival!

Truth be told, though, the struggle has been the exhaustion and the lack of motivation to do anything except work, eat, and sleep. Running has been the last thing on my mind - which, frankly, might not be a bad thing. It's allowed me to focus on work, getting settled and adjusted in learning how our orientation program works - by the time I started in April, the summer's logistics and dates had been long-set and formed, so I really jumped into to a virtually pre-planned program already. Much to learn, still, which keeps me on my toes!

Knowing that I have a pretty good race and pacing schedule set up for fall, having this summer's six weeks of shenanigans is also not a bad thing - a little rest time before I start jumping into these halfs. A number to pace, and a few I'm running for fun and good times. More on that later this week!

That super low number in July kind of scares me, but as of today, I'm only 461 miles shy of my 1,000 goal for the year and 144 days to make that happen still (an average of 3.2 per day). With IERC long runs gearing up (16 miles this coming week), I've got no worry that it's going to happen! And then I can finally earn my IERC 1,000 mile pin - even if it is on December 31. It's happening.

In the middle of all this, I spent 35 hours on the ground in Chattanooga, Tennesse, for my sorority's annual convention. I sit on the national board and go every year, but this year was insanely more hectic than average, given that I took a red eye out Friday night, got to Chatt-town Saturday morning, got back Sunday night and Monday was our first group of freshmen - can you say insane? It's always lovely seeing my sisters but man... that was exhausting.

Pretty city.. but I do NOT miss that Southern humidity!

Soooo that's where I've been. More coming, as I'm finally wrapping up these sessions, getting back into 'real' life and will get caught up on all the blogging finally! I miss y'all!