Busy, Busy, Busy

I have no idea where the last 6 weeks went. Actually, that's a small lie. I've been squeezing out every last minute that I can when I get to see JJ. Now that he's back at school, and still working, we've been lucky to see each other twice a week. But when we do, it's completely magical. I'm falling head-over-heels in love. I want to run around and shout it from the rooftops. My usual very-independent streak that runs through my relationships has completely disappeared. We text through-out the day, talk for hours on the phone every night, and we're inseparable when we get to hang out. It's all so needy, and I can't stop craving it. The first time I catch sight of JJ, whether on Skype, or when he opens his apartment front door, my heart leaps and my breath catches in my throat. He's just so fucking gorgeous, inside and out. We just get each other.

And I love love love that he's a vegan. Before JJ, I was perfectly happy to date omnivores. Sure, it was a lot more work, but as long as they were open-minded, I honestly believed it wasn't something that mattered much to me. But in just 9 weeks, all that has changed. Food is such an important part of life to me - I think you can't get much more romantic than cooking a meal together. If I'm stressed and running hasn't eased my mind, spending a couple of hours in the kitchen either cooking or baking completely calms and centers me. I adore seeing the enjoyment of others when they chow down on some ridiculously delicious cake I've baked. And I know that when I finally have my own house, the kitchen will be one of the most-used rooms. When I lived with James, it actually offended me that we had to keep our food items separate in the pantry!

So yeah, food is a big deal. I've turned into Betty Crocker since JJ and I started dating. In the last 2 months, I've baked a few batches of chocolate chip cookies, a couple of batches of my Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies, cinnamon rolls (that were finally amazing!), oatmeal cream pies, blueberry hand pies, Carrot Raisin Spice Chewies and Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, a peach mango cobbler, and chocolate chocolate chip brownies. I've also made peanut butter frozen yogurt, and just this weekend, I created a totally vegan version of Ben & Jerry's Half-Baked ice cream (half vanilla ice cream with chocolate chip cookie dough and half chocolate ice cream with brownie chunks). I promise to post that recipe, or guide, soon! And I can't even begin to tell you about the joy of eating out. We're hooked on Green Sprout, and pretty determined to try everything off the menu. We've had the blueberry cornmeal vegan pancakes at Stone Soup Kitchen, and tried the Vegan Deluze pizza at Village Pizza (yummy, but too much faux pepperoni for my tastes). The Midtown Mellow Mushroom has Daiya, so now we're hooked on their pizza. Seriously, I dream about that crust (just be sure to hold the parm and garlic butter when you order it). And we cook for each other.

And obviously, it's not just about the food. JJ clearly is as passionate about the whole cruelty-free lifestyle as I am. Man, I told you I was head-over-heels. I can't stop gushing about him! Or stop glowing, for that matter. Now, before I completely melt in a puddle of hearts and rainbows, I'll fill you in on everything else.

Three weeks ago, my grandmother died. She was an incredibly strong and feisty woman, and she lived a wonderful 91 years. Other than when she birthed her four children, she had never been in hospital until the last couple of weeks of her life. And she was able to celebrate her 60th wedding anniversary with my grandfather before he passed away several years ago. When I think about growing old, I definitely look up to her. She never lost her sense of humor or her mischieviousness.

Because all of our family is still in England, we decided to fly back for the funeral. We only spent 5 days in England, and it was a total whirlwind. Despite the sad occasion, it was wonderful to see family that I haven't seen in years, and we got to celebrate my grandmother's life together. This was also my first time being back in England since going vegan, and I was incredibly surprised at how easy it was. We flew with British Airways, and they let you request a vegan meal on their website. Just be sure to do it more than 24-hours before your flight. When we checked in, my boarding pass even had VGML (the vegan meal code) printed by my seat number, and all of the food was labeled with the code too. I definitely enjoyed being served before everyone else! And the food was really quite good. On our flight out to England, I had a salad, a bread roll with vegan margerine, fruit salad, fruit snacks, and ratatouille with grilled eggplant slices and a creamy (soymilk) sauce. Flying back to Atlanta, I had roasted veggies with mushrooms and tomatoes served on couscous with another roll, another salad, and pineapple slices served with soy yogurt and chopped pistachios. While we were actually in England, we had an amazing Thai meal in Gosport (and they had an entirely separate vegetarian menu), and I had a fantastic vegetarian chili with baked potato at The Mermaid (an upscale pub) in Bexhill. At the grocery store, I was impressed with everything being labeled as "Suitable for Vegetarians & Vegans", and I actually picked up several packets of fake meat mixes that just require water to be added for about $1.50 each! Dairy-free white chocolate buttons are amazing too!

On the work-front, I'm still working my part-time job. I've had a little flurry of freelance work that's been keeping me busy when I haven't been spending time with JJ, and I actually had a really awesome interview with a creative agency in Atlanta on Thursday. They asked if they could send me small projects to work on while I put in my notice, so I'll be surprised if I don't get the job. I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed. Being able to work full-time again and have paid time off and health insurance would be me amazing! The company also does some really creative projects, so I could finally break out of just doing very corporate design. Plus, I'd finally be able to move out again, and live in the city... maybe even with JJ! This could very well be the break I've been waiting for.

And finally, my half-marathon is almost here. Yikes! October 3rd is fast-approaching, and I definitely haven't trained as much as I should have, thanks to my Memorial weekend injury. Although my ankle is totally healed now, I definitely lost some of my speed and my mental preparedness for long runs while I was down for the count. It's been a struggle getting back into it, and the trip to England didn't help my training much. I was only able to sneak in one 4-mile run while we were there. My original goal was to run my first half-marathon in a sub-2-hour time frame. In light of my injury, and my training since then, that's now become a secondary goal. At this point in time, my main goal is to run the full 13.1 miles without stopping for a break or to walk. If I'm keeping a steady pace, and it looks like it's possible to still run it sub-2 without injuring myself, I'll definitely strive for it. But, there will be other half-marathons, and plenty of time for me to be mentally and physically prepared to meet time goals in future races. I have an 11-12 mile run scheduled for this weekend, and a 10-miler scheduled for next weekend (with several shorter runs during the week, too). I can do this!