Back In the Saddle

It's been an emotional week to say the least.  I've been pretty consumed with the emotional aftermath of a senseless death that hits really close to home, so I've been angry, scared, sad, confused, over and over again.  I've been trying to take action with the community as a whole and also with the specific neighborhood in which I work.  I've found some good information and am happy to say that action has been taken where I work that makes me feel more comfortable.  I wish it was an off duty cop in the parking lot at close every night, but it's a creative solution that makes me feel like the chances of someone getting away in a situation similar to what happened at Standard are slimmer anyway.  We are getting wireless panic buttons.  Granted it's a reactionary rather than a proactive solution but business is slow, margins are slim and there's just no way they can/will justify hiring an off duty cop every night of the week.

I've tried not to put my life on hold during this time of emotional roller coasterishness.  Peter is coming January 25th for two weeks before he heads to the Yukon Quest to handle dogs for Dave Dalton.  Also, I've been running again and ran 5 road miles last Sunday and 5 trail miles yesterday.  I'm slower than I used to be, but the fact that I've kept in good enough shape to start back at that distance feels good.  The fall is such good biking and running weather and because my Graves Disease came out of remission I couldn't exercise until my thyroid levels went down significantly to avoid damage to my heart and thyroid storm and also because my body just couldn't.  I have to say my gym attendance has been suffering while trying to get this idea of customizable groomsmen gifts put together under a deadline.  However, I believe it will be worth it and once the packaging structure is set, I should be able to get more gym time in.

How about a lovely picture to make everybody feel better?

It's my new logo in the works.

Simple and Graphic.. just like my jokes.

I accidentally made a logo for my sudstress labels.  It's simple and graphic.  I like it.  I used my elementary skills on my pretendphotoshop software for a new etsy banner and found a way to incorporate it into my labels.  I had to start from scratch, but I'm plugging along, changing them all over.  Though I'm sure I'll go back and make some changes, I am pretty happy with how things are looking so far.  My goal is to have my soap labels completely changed over for my next festival this Saturday and the rest of the labels (scrub, shea & oil) by the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival at the end of August.  

Things got put on hold for a couple of days last week when I drove through Tennessee and Alabama to spend some short but quality time with Peter.  I went white water rafting for the first time!  Every time we see each other, things just get better and better.  It scares and excites me at the same time.  Seriously, look how cute we are together.

  

I also joined the best gym ever.  It's been entirely too hot to run and/or bike, and I'd been meaning to rejoin a gym anyway, so I checked out Core Body in Decatur.  I liked it so much that I joined the same day.  It's got such a good feel, people are there to exercise, not to judge.  Even the people that work there are my kind of peeps.  My friend Stephanie and I went out to U Joint on Thursday night and ran into Patrick who works at the gym (which Stephanie also left L.A. Fitness for, incidentally) and ended up hanging out with him for the rest of the night.  He had us in stitches until my lack of sleep caught up with me at which point I came home, stripped and fell asleep with my contacts in.  Oh, the memories...