thankful thursday 1.31.13

hello jellybeans - how are you on this fine thursday morning? tonight i have a dinner meeting with the ceo of my charter school district. i'm nervous about the meeting so i'm hoping i can keep a positive attitude today. sometimes when i'm nervous i get cranky and rude with others. i wanted to get up early and workout to get it out of the way before the day started. whenever i work out in the morning i end up in a great mood, but 4 am is just kind of an obscene time to wake up regularly so it's not something that happens a lot. i'm okay with that but i like that i can use it as an option once in a while if i have after school events that mean i can't fit in a trip to the gym. this morning i was SO committed to waking up early but somehow my 3 am self woke up, changed my alarm and went back to sleep. i have no recollection of doing this but alas, it happened...so i may or may not get my planned tempo run in later tonight after dinner is over. probably not. oh well. 

i feel like it's been a while since i participated in jessie's linkup (really it hasn't been that long but i didn't participate last week and i missed it!) so this week i'm back. that seems to be a theme for the week as i made my triumphant return to baking this week as well. head on over and check out everyone else's posts as well! get thankful - it feels great. 

this week instead of being thankful for a few random things - somehow i settled on four in my previous posts...not sure where that number came from - i'm just going to go with one. and this one? it's a doozy. or more accurately: she's a doozy. 

it's laurel's birthday tomorrow and i wanted to give her a big old heart, sole & cereal shout out. i can't express how much i love this broad. she is my best friend in the world, and i say that without any trace of shame or insincerity. 

we talk almost every day on the phone and whenever i don't talk to her i feel like something about my day is off. yes, i'm 26. no, i don't think this will ever stop. 

my favorite thing about laurel is what an awesome role model she is. i grew up in a house with a mom who had an unbelievable amount of self-confidence, fierce independence and an astonishing level of commitment to her family (er...my family too i guess). somehow i managed to genetically inherit all of my father's emotional neediness and lack of confidence, but i still am lucky to have laurel as a positive force to slap me in the face when i get too down on myself. not literally slap me...well, except for a few times in my youth but as i've recounted here on the blog i was an enormous brat and deserved it completely. 

laurel is also a great race fan. i stand by the fact that i think spectating for long races is as hard as racing, at least on the actual race day. sure, the months of training are super hard, but the day of the race is full of adrenaline and excitement and it almost carries you through on a cloud (clearly i haven't raced in a while - those are some rose-colored glasses if ever i've seen them). not so for the people holding the signs and going from place to place with their pockets full of gus and cell phones. laurel is an absolute champ and when elvis and i are off running around she's the best at making sure she stakes out the best spots and is always exactly where she says she'll be. tex could learn a thing or two from her (ahem). 

this was a complete cheese fest, so i'm sorry, but i really cannot express how thankful i am for my mother. happy birthday, laurel, and thanks for constantly amazing me, day after day. 

also random aside that is tangentially related - she has started bikram yoga and is looking for a pair of long leggings (she doesn't like shorts because her hands slip off her calves when she tries to grip them in certain poses - or so she says, i wouldn't know as i've never tried bikram, so i have to trust her on this) that are lightweight. anyone have any recommendations on thinner leggings? i know for the most part we all look for thick leggings (i know i do - gotta rein in that cellulite, ya heard?), but does anyone know of any thinner or more lightweight ones, either a brand or a specific pair? then i can give her that recommendation and call it her birthday gift since i failed on getting her anything else. don't worry, i'll cite my source. thanks in advance for any advice!

<3