In search of Balance

I am in desperate need of some balance in my life... Lately I feel like all I do is work, and workout... in a constant never-ending cycle. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, and I know right now I am basically defined by my job, and I might bitch and moan from time to time about the long hours, and the sometimes downfalls of being the only salaried employee in the company, but at the end of the day I am still ecstatic about where I work and who I work for, and I know that I would be miserable working anywhere else.

It has taken me two and a half years to figure this out, but I've finally realized that the best way for me to be able to spend time with my friends is to hire them on weekends. I feel a little lame sometimes, but its really a win-win for everyone. I get competent help for Events, my friends get to make a little extra cash, and we get to catch up with each other while moving tables, busing wine glasses, and making sure that wedding guests aren't smoking in the building. This might not be the most ideal way to get some balance between my work and social life, but its a step in the right direction.

I am currently less than a month away from my first half-marathon. This means that when I go out for a run, its not just a quick jaunt around the block. Seriously, on a day off, by the time I sleep in a little bit, get up, go for a run, take a shower, and get ready for the day... it seems like most of the day is gone. I'm still trying to figure out why I thought training for a half-marathon was a good idea. When I signed up I was thinking I would need a good distraction from the fact that I didn't get into graduate school, and doing something active seemed like a healthy distraction. And it is... but as it turns out, I'm too busy at work to really care about the grad-school thing, and after I registered for the race I enrolled in yoga school, and so between the outside reading, the additional classes, the extra work hours, and the running, there isn't a whole lot of time for anything else. Ok, so there is, but I'm at the point where I've been working for 12 days in a row, running when I can, writing book reports, doing yoga, catching up on laundry, and in my down moments I don't want to think, I don't want to move, I don't want to read, I just want to veg. This has been made worse by the fact that I just broke down and got Netflix...

I knew this was going to be a slippery slope... I kind of can't believe it has taken me this long. It all started out innocently enough, I really just wanted to watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (the first disk came in the mail today!) But of course somewhere between Friday evening, and right now, I became addicted to the show Weeds. The watch instantly feature is pretty dangerous, as I discovered last night at 3:22 as I was debating weather or not to watch another episode. It's pathic, and yet so so delicious.

Clearly this has been a year of polar opposites for me. I become a vegetarian only to go on a hot-dog eating binge at Fenway Park. I give up TV for a month, and at the end of it become a couch potato, I loath running and then randomly decide to pay $80 to run 13.1 miles... I'm hoping that in the next few months things begin to even out, and can find myself back in a healthy balance... A little less tv, a little less running, a little less work, and a little more productive personal time.