4 states in 2 weeks

Going into this travel season, I thought it was going to be relatively quiet. Man, was I wrong. I did the math - over a 16 day period, I'm staying at home only 2 nights. Ugh. Wasn't supposed to be that way but we had a little SNAFU at work. I went to work Tuesday morning thinking it would be a normal day, but I was sorely mistaken. At 9:05am I bought a ticket to Bloomington, IL, was on the flight to Bloomington (by way of Atlanta!) at 12:15pm for a 7:30pm LCN. The fair was a bust and I was up at 4:30am yesterday to catch a flight back to Minneapolis (again, through Atlanta). Once I got home I unpacked, repacked, fed Sheba, cleaned the litter box and the toilets and hit the road headed for Willmar, MN, which is where I am now. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. This week follows a 12 day period that started in Seattle, WA for the NACAC conference followed by a trip to Denver, drive to Aspen and back to Denver where I spent over a week. I thought I'd have a few days at home before driving to western MN for the Morris and Willmar MEFs, but then came the Bloomington LCN.

What a trip the Morris MEF was this morning! It's been about 6 years since I've done the MEFs, but it felt as if no time had passed. I was surprised to see many familiar faces! Jodi from Mayo and I carpooled to Morris this morning and after the fair spent a couple hours at Lulu Bean's Coffee Shop in Willmar. After that I was exhausted and slept for almost 2 hours! More of it tomorrow.

Thank goodness I have nothing planned for the weekend!
Ready to be home,
Jilli

Heart of the City Half Marathon

Even though it's been a few months since I completed my first half marathon, I figured I better add some photos to the blog ... especially considering the fact that the title of my blog has the word "running" in it. :)
Jill, Erin & Christy before running the Burnsville Heart of the City Half Marathon.

Erin and I made it in 2:08, which was 2 minutes under our goal time!

We had some loyal supporters who made beautiful signs for the race!

After completing my first half marathon, I felt incredibly proud... I set a goal and met it! While I was running, I decided that I don't ever need to run a full marathon, 13.1 miles was plenty.

Proudly yours,
Jilli

grilled cheese

I'm totally having a Melisa moment on the road. I finished up a college fair a little bit ago, was too tired to be social with other college reps so came back to my hotel room and ordered room service. Trying to be a good steward of the college's money, I ordered a kid's grilled cheese ($9 instead of the quesadilla which was $19!).

By the time they delivered my grilled cheese I was starving! Too bad it was not only the most expensive grilled cheese I've ever ordered, it was also the worst tasting one! And with all the charges, the total was $15 ... for an awful sandwich!! I ate it anyway. What choice did I have?!

Wishing for a chocolate chip cookie,
Jill