Something's gotta give

Some of you out there might be looking at this statement and saying, "Well, yeah, I told you so." While others of  you might have no idea what I'm talking about.  If you've been following my blog, or our lives you might know by now that I have piled on quite a task load this year.  I made some quite New Year Resolutions, and then I made them public, partially in an effort to keep myself accountable, and partially to make them real goals as opposed to secret goals.  Keeping goals a secret can be useful for instance if your planning a surprise party or are planning on surprise attacking an enemy with water balloons, but when it comes to goal making, in general, telling people helps to consummate those goals into a reality.  The goals I made for myself this year were 1) study for the GRE 2) run a half marathon and 3) finish writing my personal project.  And as is typical in my family, I think it must be genitics, when one of us gets excited about something, we typically have to jump into the pool immediately.  No need bothering with nicities such as learning how to swim, or changing clothes from a sweater to a bathing suite, nope, those things just are barriers to getting to that finish line the fastest.  We get excited, what can I say.  And persistence is a blessing and a curse, depending on who you ask.  Ask my husband that question and he may answer you the later, as he sees my persistence in a different light- aka: annoying  and pestering. Regardless, that is exactly what happened this year.  I got really excited about attaining my goals, and instead of weighing them, and deciding which to begin first, I just dove right into the icy cold pond, and started swimming carrying all three behind me.  There were rocks in the way which I swam around, and blocks of ice with jagged edges, but until I came across the huge polar bear (bear with me on this metaphor, I know its kind of silly) I kept on swimming.  (On a side note, not in a million years would I dive into an icy pond, that is unless someone I loved was drowning, but even then I would probably think twice.  The cold and me, we aren't on great terms) 
What am I saying?  What I'm saying is, that while on the subway, studying the 260 page math section, and calculating how slowly I've made progress, inchworm style, I decided that it was time to let something go. The previous day, we had finished our fifth week of training for the half marathon and had just completed the 7 mile run (or what I hope is seven miles as there isn't really any way to measure the paths we run).  Considering that we run up this one particular hill with an incline made by Lucifer himself which looks like a straight 90 degree rise and I can never actually finish running up it, but have to stop and walk some of the way, it took us about an hour and thirty minutes plus a few.  Studying our schedule, and calculating the amount of time we would continue to have to devote to the training I realized that I had to prioritize and as much as it pained me, I was going to have to postpone the half marathon.  I decided that the half marathon could wait as the deadline for the GRE test was in June before it changes formats and becomes an entirely new test, one that I haven't studied for.  Previously, I discussed whether I should take the new version or the current version and it was recommended to me by advisers that the current one was a known factor while the new version would make guinea pigs of all it's takers.  Therefore the GRE test has a set deadline, where as there is a half marathon in Seoul EVERY WEEKEND, I kid you not.  If I wanted to run in a race every weekend of the year, I could find one here.  You'd never know if you weren't in the runners circle however, as I never see Koreans running, at least outside.  So there you have it, my confession. A part of me feels like a failure for putting the race off, a pansy, but the other part of me, the logical part that isn't such a bully, explains to me in a even toned voice that it was the right move for my/our future.  I'm thankful for Kyle for being so understanding. He's been fantastic at helping to support me in these endeavors (except for posting on the blog as of late) and I can't thank him enough.

P.s. ya'll might send Kyle an email or a shout out as his birthday is this coming Sunday.

Keeping goals

So, you might have noticed the slowness on the blog lately.  In a twisted angling of perspectives the fact that you've seen me post less is a good sign.  In general, a lack of posts means that other things are taking priority, and those other things happen to be MY GOALS!  You read that correctly, I have been steadfastly working towards my goals and/or New Years resolutions.  Now, I should say, in all honesty, I'm not keeping to my goals EXACTLY, but I'm constantly working on them so I'm feeling quite proud of myself.
This year, in an effort to stay on track and manage my time more wisely, I've made charts to help document the time spent on what project.

Writing- my goal each week is to write 4,000 words (off the blog).  This takes me close to 4 and 1/2 to 5 hours.
Studying- I know, I thought I was done with studying too, but turns out, you have to study for the GRE test.  Well, actually a lot of people don't study.  Some people don't need to study, others of us need help.  And God help because I certainly will need it. My goal here is less set. I had planned on taking the GRE in June so I had put a lot of emphasis on studying, but then I read on the website that they are implementing a new test in August and that the test is half off if you take it when it just comes out.  So I decided to go ahead and wait, but then I was advised that often times there are problems with the new tests because you are basically the guinea pig group, so I'm back to... I don't know. In the mean time, I'm trying to get in a few hours of studying each week at least. Generally I'm averaging 3 or 4 hours a week.
Running- We're in the third week of training for our half marathon.  I'm a little embarrassed to admit, however, we haven't yet signed up for a half marathon that we are already training for.  We did however, sign up for a 10k with an English Village crew consisting of at least 10 teachers on April 10th that is supposed to be a beautifully scenic run around the Han river, so honestly I'm more excited about that at the moment.  We could technically run a half marathon then, but I just don't think we'll be ready.  Our training schedule is for 12 weeks, and that is only the 10th week.
We're even working in runs at lunch time.  Because we live on campus, we slip on home, lightening speed change like superman entering the phone booth, turn our NPR podcasts on full blast on our ipods, and off we go.  Listening to podcasts has revolutionized my life, and Kyle's running.  I love that I can run, and listen to world news at the same time, I feel like I'm improving not only my body but my mind as well.  And Kyle says hes less distracted by the pain when listening to podcasts. Wow, we're waving our nerd flag high in the sky right now aren't we?

There are a few areas of my life that I didn't count on to take such a hit however.  I expected that I would blog less, and that has happened.  But I didn't calculate in cooking or cleaning.  Our house happens to be the "party" house.  Not because we are the coolest people on the block, although I would like to think that were the case, but because we've got a sound system and a BIG couch.  But having people over equals more dishes and more cleaning, which we're actually doing less of.  When I'm so focused on other things, I let the house turn into wasteland, and forget about cooking. Ha! Whats that?  Just because we spent $100 on a new little oven doesn't mean it automatically gets used.  Nope. 

So that's where we've been for the past month.  Stay tuned for more exhilarating posts about the mundane day to day of kyle and Vanessa.