• How to Live a Year in One Week

    On Saturday morning, I sat in a veterinarian’s office and held my sweet, crazy Gracie as she took her last breath.

    That night, my fiancée put her arms around me as I lay in bed next to her crying while talking about my dog.

    On Wednesday morning, I sat in a realtor’s office and held my fiancée’s shaky hand as our agent explained disclosure forms and other legal documents to us.

    Later, I stood in front of my fiancée on the sidewalk outside of that office fighting back tears of joy. We just submitted our first offer on a house together.

    “I just want you to know that I’m proud of you. I know how anxiety-inducing this process, along with the accompanying uncertainty is,” I said.

    She wrapped her arms around me and planted a big kiss before telling me, “I love you so much.”

    Later in the day, we received a call from our agent: The sellers accepted our offer.

    If everything goes well, we’ll be moving into our house by the end of the month.

    And that is how you live a year in one week.

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  • May 20, 2019: Gratitude in Action
    1. Using my ADHD superpower of hyperfocus for good – namely obsessing over a creative problem until I came up with a creative solution for a work project 💪🏻
    2. Texting stay-in dinner prepping and plans with my fiancée 🍽
    3. Remembering that I’m at my best when focused more on process instead of end product (be that a personal goal, work project or target marathon)
    4. Informal group runs begin Tuesday evening 🏃🏼
    5. A running friend group-texting pictures of his newborn grandson and his other months-old grandson 👼🏼
    6. Receiving multiple updates from my mother and sister about my almost-three-year-old niece using the potty. I loved the pride they exuded about as much as my niece’s developmental milestone 😍
    7. The number of old friends who I have not spoken with in a long time whom have contacted me lately
    8. Daydreaming about summer activities
    9. The return of spring temps, if only for a couple of days
    10. Coming home late after a long day of work and still finding the desire to write this list
  • Gratitude is Attitude:      April 30, 2019
    The Taste of Cincinnati kicked off along Fifth Street, Downtown, Cincinnati Saturday May 26, 2018. Detail shot of Pompilios Tiramisu Cannoli. Photo by Joseph Fuqua II for WCPO

    1. Pre-boiled hard boiled eggs – Sometimes, I just don’t have the time to boil fresh eggs.
    2. Audiobooks – I listened to Meb Keflezighi’s 26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life from My Marathon Career during my morning commute.
    3. My public library system – I was able to check out Meb’s audiobook through the Libby smartphone app with my Kenton County Public Library card (Support your local library!).
    4. Inspiring interviews – I get to hear and share the story of a local man who has trained to run his first marathon after receiving a heart transplant last fall. I’ll share the story here as soon as it hits the air and online.
    5. My own running – The butterflies I’m starting to feel as the Flying Pig Marathon weekend approaches. I’m running a one-mile sprint, 10K, 5K and half-marathon over three days. It’s called the 3-Way Challenge with Extra Cheese.
    6. Another chance – I’ve set a few new personal health and financial goals. I only partially met some of those goals yesterday. I’m grateful for the chance to try to meet them again today.
    7. Smart Planner Pro – Related to those goals, I’m glad I persisted in using the Smart Planner Pro journal that I purchased last week. Using it felt a bit overwhelming at first, but now that I’ve gotten the hang of it, it is really helping me stay on task.
    8. Dressing up – I wore a pair of black dress pants, a blue-and-white checkered button-down shirt and black dress shoes to work. A co-worker said I looked like I lost weight and I feel more confident thanks to what I’m wearing.
    9. Free food – I get to sample a bunch of free desserts as a guest judge for this thing called Best of Taste, which is part of the annual Taste of Cincinnati food festival held each Memorial Day weekend in the Queen City. (Hopefully, I still look slimmer after eating all those sweets 😋)
    10. Morning texts from Tirza – Around 9 a.m. each morning my fianée texts me a positive good morning message. Today’s text, “I hope your day is good! I still love you even though you didn’t get the Justin Timberlake May meme.” I still don’t understand the JT May meme.
  • She’s the One For Me

    She’s the One For Me

    Myself and my fiancée at Swamp Rabbit Brewery in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, after we both completed our last legs of the Ville to Ville Brew Tour Relay on Saturday, April 13, 2019.

    I can’t remember what prompted her to say it the first time. It was early in our relationship.

    Being human is hard

    Song listened to while writing this post

    Perhaps it was during a conversation over drinks when I shared concerns about my nephew’s occasional challenges in social or familial situations.

    Maybe it had to do with another family member or a friend or coworker or something reported in the news that day.

    The first time I remember her saying though, I knew she was the one for me.

    The sentiment reflects so much of what I love about her and the reason why I asked her to marry me this past February.