January was a pretty exciting month for me and full of highs and lows. On Monday morning, February 1st, I filled out the Monthly Tracker from my 5AM Miracle Blueprint and I felt pretty good about most of it. I still recommend this program to anyone who is looking to have more accountability in their life - you can buy the book on Amazon or check the No Meat Athlete website to see about affiliate information.
What were the Top Five Coolest Things about January? I'm glad you asked...
1. Kicking off the year with a Half Marathon
2. Celebrating my Birthday in Many Fun and Different Ways
3. Seeing more movies that I saw all last year - almost
4. Increasing my social media presence
5. Working with my husband to "move on" beyond some toxic things.
I want to talk about each of these things but first to make an observation about them. Three of these things are most decidedly social and/or leisure-related. And yet all of these things connect to what I am trying to achieve for myself in 2016. Basically I can say that I had a very positive January, in spite of what you will hear later were some significant challenges.
So let's talk about the Camarillo Half Marathon. Actually, I already talked about this in a previous blog post this year. So I'll refer you back to that - as far as I'm concerned, any half-marathon that sees me crossing the finish line and getting my medal is a good race. And it just occurred to me that I've ALWAYS finished my races since I became a runner. At some point, I should look and see if I ever wrote here about the 800 meter run at district championships during my senior year of high school. Still plagues me.
But I digress. I had a really great birthday this year!! Essentially I had three parties: one at work, one with the hubby, and one with my friends. Charles and I went and saw the "Obligatory Birthday Movie," as he likes to call it. We saw THE BIG SHORT and then went for vegan ice cream at a new-ish place in Pasadena. That was the lead in TO my birthday week, knowing that my actual party would be the following weekend. That's right, Kris McPeak extends her birthday as far as she can!
The girls at work surprised me with vegan cake and a nice card - and the video of that is pretty funny. I had just finished a pretty long meeting with my boss, we return to the office, and she calls me on the phone, "Can you come over here a second? I've got something else to talk to you about before you leave," As soon as I hung up I knew there was a party. What would Bobbi still need to tell me that she didn't already tell me? Ha Ha. The vegan cake was delicious and I really enjoyed the time with the girls.
On Saturday January 16, I celebrated with about 20 friends at our favorite local restaurant, Ranchero. I created a Facebook private event and invited almost every local person I knew - granted, not everyone would come, but I definitely wanted a "crowd". We reserved the banquet room at Ranchero and just ordered off the menu. Andrea, who is the owner's daughter and our FAVORITE waitress there, took care of our group with who I think is her little brother. AND - we played an icebreaker before we ordered dinner. I thanked everyone for coming and then introduced the game. I asked them to get in line in order of when they met me. I played this game with my friends in Vegas when I turned 40 - it was a fascinating game. This year's rendition was about the same - although we only went as far back as 2008 (unless you count Charles, but this was one game where he COULD be at the end of the line, LOL). A few of my WACUHO friends made the trip - i had not seen either of them since moving back south in 2013. I felt so blessed as they shared their comments on how they met me. It was really a fun and beautiful game. I love being validated, ha ha.
After dinner we went to The Boulevard for Karaoke. I was surprised at how many of my guests transitioned from dinner to singing; and a few new people joined us at the bar. Chris Williams and Sandi Day and I pretty much closed down the bar - Chris and Phoebe were the last singers. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed my big weekend.
In January, I'm pretty sure I saw THREE movies. And in 2015 I saw...I think...5 or 6 movies. I saw THE BIG SHORT with the hubby, SPOTLIGHT on my birthday weekend by myself; and then ROOM at the Laemmle, also by myself. All three films are Oscar contenders and all were enjoyable. Although - I will say - all three of these movies really stayed with me for a while once they were over. The former two being true stories (mostly), they did not have happy endings although the stories played out quite suspensefully and you are cheering for the supposed heroes. And ROOM...well....I've already written about that film. It was exceptional. Although February has just begun, I have another four day weekend coming up with President's Day - and I really need to see a few more Oscar contenders!
It's amazing what a few hashtags can do for you - I find that I am getting new Instagram and Twitter followers each day! I don't know why that's so important to me or why I think it's so cool...maybe because it means people like what I'm sharing and want to see more. Regardless, I think it's nifty that people I don't know are following me and commenting on what I'm out there doing. Makes me feel validated :)
Finally - in many ways, January was semi-stressful for me and the hubby - without going into too much detail, let's just say we have taken the advice from JJ Flizanes and her book, Fit2Love, by "cleaning the slate" allowing ourselves to move forward on a few things and choosing to let go of some other things. This has really help uplift us both as we moved into February. I'm feeling really good about this month and all the months to come.
P.S. I would be remiss if I did not mention the very fun LA River Night Run that my hubby and I did on January 24th,. Put on by some friends of ours who run Detox/Retox Events, it was a night 5K out by the LA River trail and for the first time EVER me and the hubby crosssed the finish line together. That. Friggin. Rocked.
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