now this is vacation

this morning, I was awakened by the boisterous yelling of a near-four-year-old, and made my disheveled way out of bed to pour some coffee. the coffee's always already made here when I wake up, because my dad generally rises well before me and makes a full pot (which seems weird to me since I only make it a cup at a time). it's been kind of cold up here since yesterday, but is supposed to warm up for the weekend. high 60's, low 70's during the day, in the 50's at night. makes for comfortable days and chilly nights. I'm sprawled out in front of the fire in the fireplace right now. usually this time of year we have bonfires and make s'mores outside. instead we're all hanging in the living room in front of the fireplace. but we've had beautiful, clear, sunny skies the past few days, so i'm not going to complain too much.

after sitting on the back porch, reading, and drinking my third cup of coffee for the morning, I decided that maybe it was time to actually do something, so I did some yoga (which felt great) and then got my 4 miles for the day in. I stayed on a hilly route, but kept it easy, a 9:40 pace. I actually ended up heading out on the side of the major highway here to get the whole 4 in. just as I was about to turn around, I noticed a woman pulled off to the side of the road up ahead. I quickly realized that it was a friend of ours. a woman who was our school librarian in high school, and who runs all the local road races and thus has gotten to know our family quite well. she had heard of my mother's passing, and saw me running, and stopped and ran over to me and gave me a huge hug, despite the fact that I was drenched in sweat and not smelling all that great. she kept telling me what many others don't really understand, "you just keep running. it will help you get through things." after sufficiently making me break down crying in the middle of the run we parted and I headed back.

when I got back I changed into my bathing suit and proceeded to go take a nap on the dock for several hours while reading. I was awoken by another set of family friends who stopped by on their boat and started yelling to me, despite my sleepy state. They had come to the funeral and had already expressed their condolences to us multiple times, but we still had the awkward "it's really hard being here without her" talk.

after they left, I headed back out to nap and read for several more hours. thank God for SPF 45, that's all i've got to say. I hate the sun. well, not the sun, exactly, but I hate skin damage. I did my fair share when I was young, and played in the water all day. now I'm ultra sensitive about making sure my skin stays nice and porcelain colored (unless I artificially color it), and thus cancer and as wrinkle free as possible. I think I did get a little sun, despite the constant reapplication of sunblock, but considering I was outside for hours on end, I guess that's to be expected.

my dad grilled up some of the best steak i've had in a loooooooong time tonight, along with a slew of fresh peppers, onions, and mushrooms. it was a great meal, topped off by brownie sundae's made especially for the rugrat. for the record, I'm still officially his best friend. but he reminded me that "best friends can change, aunt sarah." I'm kind of wondering if this was him trying to threaten me into not making him take a nap? the kid is clever, if somewhat annoying at times. :)

my dad got a call from my uncle JP himself today. he is doing well, and did in fact have a stroke, but they caught it early and it seems as though he was able to avoid any permanent damage. he'll be in the hospital for another day, but seems to be in good spirits, so we are all very relieved.

i'm off to crash. who knew that being lazy and laying around in the sun all day could be so exhausting?