Thank you SD

Dearest San Diego,

I never thought we would be so close. I think I had a hand in sending at least 10 people your way and I knew I would have my turn someday and boy am I glad I did! A few things I will take with me about your lovely city.

-Your jacarandas are quite possibly the prettiest trees I have ever seen.
-The smell of the eucalyptis trees that I would always say a "yoooooooouk" in honor of the red sox each time I smelt you.
-Your countless dog parks and dog beaches and many restaurants that allowed Belle to sit with us.
-Your endless sunshine, I mean really that was too much.
-Your coastline, especially the 101 where whether I was biking, running or driving took my breath away each time.
-Your vineyards
-Your canyons and trails, gave me such a break from the roads(until I got too scared of rapists and killer bees)
-Your wonderful people who I got to swim bike run with, work with, and play with!
-Your crazy chargers fans who liked to yell at me many times for wearing anything patriots related.
-Your sunrises and sunsets
-Your many outdoor pools that were always nice and warm
-Your fish tacos, sushi and many breakfast nooks, and Croce's which was like a second home at many times.
-Your silly porn shops and smoke shops on just about every corner, kind of like a dunkin donuts
-Your palm trees, lily's, and hibiscus flowers
-Your crazy helicopters letting us know what killers were on the loose
-Your driving rules because it made everything so much smoother
-People who do not incessantly honk their horns
-Not letting me get eaten by any sharks or swept out to sea because there were a few questionable moments.
-your avacados
-and last but not least your CUPCAKES!

The list could go on dearest San Diego. Thanks for the good times and the memories. I hope we will be back, what a great place it would be to retire. Until them please take care of my wonderful friends I made along the way and I can't wait to see you again soon! I am so sad to leave you but I know there will be another time we will be together.

Love The Merrill's

its so haaaaaaaaaaaard to say goodbye to sun diego

My first week of vacation was fantastic. I probably would have been pretty bored if my college buddy did not come out to visit from the east coast. We had some silly times with too much wine and way too much food and very little packing. When you move 6 times in about 4 years you get to be pretty good at packing though so I am not nervous. At this point we are mostly packed up. All of the breakables are wrapped and what not and we are going to be good to go for our next move after this one with all the extra boxes that we have.
My car was picked up today and I have to say it was pretty sad seeing her go. While I know it will be there when I arrive in Boston, she will not be the same when she is covered in ice and snow. Ugh. I do have to say I am slightly looking forward to the changing weather, but talk to me in February.
In the meantime we had a super fun barbecue with lots of SD friends. I know we'll be back for visits but its still hard to say goodbye to such wonderful fun loving peeps.
Now its all about packing and cleaning. Not only did I have to say goodbye to my car today but I am bringing my bike down to the shop so I can have it safely packed so it doesn't get smushed in the treck back east. Not sure if I will have time to post again before our cross c0untry trip on Thursday but we will be sure to update as we drive across country. I am going to try to document all of our car fights. Its really the only time we fight and it is always because I yell out "brakes" or slam down my imaginary brake and hold onto the side of the car when Bri is well aware of whats going on. Then I have to tell him what a great driver I am, but not good enough to drive the full 10 hours a day that we have planned. I'll try to keep it zipped but its not easy when you are such a stellar driver and great trash talker like myself. OH speaking of trash talking I got into a fight with the traffic cop at the airport the other day. They do not like when you pull over to text and then say "come on what am I supposed to do, I can't text while driving and you guys won't let me pull over?! should I just have my friend DIVE into my moving car when she comes out?!" then they gave me a ticket. SUCK IT CALI COPS YOU are not getting my money!


I feel like this blog needs some direction instead of my random spatter.This always happens in the "off season" hmmmn any ideas?

moving on

Our time is dwindling. It is all about goodbyes right now, which sucks but I am so grateful for the lifelong friends I have met (yes you LG). Luckily alot of the people I have met have east coast ties.
Today was awesome. The weather was perfect when I woke up, which has not been the case here in Coastal Socal as of late. I got up early and drove to southern Orange County to check out a pilates studio that is using the new machines that I will use at my studio. The ones I am used to are the older model. The owner of SeaFit Studio in San Juan Capistrano was so welcoming and helpful to me today. What was even better was hearing from the loan guys that things are finally moving on that front. I have been apprehensive to share too much because I did not want to jinx anything, but I am getting really excited to bring this awesome workout to the Boston area. It will be epic. I forgot what a tough workout it was until I was shaking all over and sweating my buns off.
I got to chat to the owner and got some pointers from her. After that it was top down weather all the way down the coast until I stopped at In n Out burger. I mean it feels kind of gross after, but I know once I am back east I will hope I had more of it around.
Todays awesomeness also included a final massage from Roz my masseuse extraordinaire. She has become a great friend and is so knowledgeable on anything and everything especially when it comes to the body and how it works. I am so grateful for her and for helping me to realize the potential of my body when I take care of it.
My other awesomeness of the day came from a book. Right after I lost my mom I found myself in the good ole grief section of the book store. I wanted to empower myself and learn as much about the grieving process as I could. I recently found myself on Amazon and found a book that was the sequel to the one I read years ago. Although it does not really relate to me at the moment (its about raising your kids without a mother), it is the topic that scares me to death. After just a few pages I found it does relate to me, there are other motherless daughters out there who like me know what a tremendous loss it is, and are apprehensive about starting our own families in fear of how that loss could be magnified. I need to find these other freakshows and maybe just maybe I can get over it. Anyways in this section I was reading it mentioned a social worker who happens to run groups in Boston so I AM IN LUCK!!! I already emailed her.
While the fitness and training and fundraising has been like a therapy for me, I guess its time for some professional help. YAY ME! So please people, stop asking if I am having kids. You have no idea how messed my head is. God bless my husband.

all done

My school year FINALLY came to a close. Sick to see commercials for back to school when we hadn't even had our break yet but that is the life in a special ed school. School gave me quite a send off with a great day of eating and lots of visits and fun books and flowers and all that fun stuff. The real party happened at the end when I was just casually walking by a classroom. Now typically on peoples birthdays they get a pied, which is a platefull of whip cream or shaving cream in the face. I got through the 2 years without being pied. Instead I got a bucket of water poured over me superbowl style. My initial fear was that I was in all white on top and since we weren't on spring break, and I was surrounded my my high school aged students I was a little nervous but they also had a dry shirt for me...how nice.

After that I was on bus duty and I got proned. At our school for safety reasons you carry a whistle. A whistle only blows when something bad is going down and you need back up. They blew the whistle on me and proned me right on the pavement. Was pretty funny. I will have pictures of that soon because someone had a camera.

I am going to miss school very much. It was like a family for me and I have never had so much fun at a job. You have to have quite a sense of humor to survive. At this point I don't know if I will ever work at a school again. Life is COMPLETELY up in the air right now.

I have been interviewing and am still waiting to hear about loans for the pilates studio. I am excited to get back to the east coast but am really going to miss all the people that we met along the way.

One thing is for sure, San Diego will be a GREAT place to retire.

booooooooring

Really life is kind of whatevs right now. I am pretty much in limbo here in between here and there. My last test on Monday was pretty uneventful. The only fun this was checking into the hospital for the test. I was behind two guys in full out shackles and about 20 corrections officers with them. It was something else. The test was BOOOOOOOORING! At least with the colonoscopy I got to get loopy, this one not so much. I had to drink a sugary drink (oh and fast yet again) and literally sit, couldn't lay down, couldn't move around, just sit for close to 5 hours. Then a nurse would come in and I had to breathe into a tube every 15 minutes. At one point I was getting sooooo loopy it was close to 2 I hadn't eaten since the day before and was bored off my ass. I decided that trying not to sing was way harder than just singing so that is what I did. I was in the prep room for peoples procedures so they were all getting drugged up anyways. That left me amused for at least a half hour or so. I won't know if I have some sort of bacteria issue for another week. They have tested for everything so only time can tell. Most likely they will label me with "IBS" which is like when you go to the dr and they say you have a "virus." At this point I am over it and have come to terms with the fact that I am going to deal with crazy movements of the bowel nature for a long time and the only time it will be acceptable is when I am in a nursing home some day. ( I am well suited for a home, it will be just like college again....sleeping in a room with 3 other people, bad food, people pissing in weird places...its gonna be great.)

Anyways there is not a whole lot of "training" going on. Just doing the random run, biking and some pilates thrown in there. I did sign up for a half marathon in Boston in October to technically I am starting to run again. This is a good thing, because I start to go a little cookoo when not breaking a good sweat every day. I am not sure my body knows how to slow down. Exercise gives me way more than just the physical benefit. I mentally need it so bring it on!

We are just trying to get organized in life here. Come to find out its kind of a pain to move across country, all the while trying to start up your own business. I always did like a challenge. Looking forward to spending the next month here with all the people who have been our family the past two years. One more week of work (yes thats right there are already commercials for back to school and we have yet to start our summer vacation). Its not going to be easy to say goodbye to my coworkers and kiddos at school but i'm sure i'll be seeing them in the future..hopefully...

Ok enough of my booooring post. I will write more when something funny or athletic happens, but there is really a fat chance of that.