Coffee Talk

Happy Friday! Right now I am totally consumed with the countdown to moving. I’m trying to not let the pressure affect me (after I had such a lovely break from feeling stressed a couple of weeks ago), but it can get a little overwhelming. So I figured I’d do a coffee talk post, just to get everything off my chest. Grab your coffee!

If we were having coffee right now…

I’d confess I typed out a list of all the things I needed to get done before the move. I also would tell you I included a few things I’d already taken care of. Then I used strikethrough text to cross them out. Then I printed the list with them still on it, but all crossed out. #whatevergetsyouthroughthemove

I’d talk about how weird it is to be leaving for good when you’ve lived somewhere for such a long time – nearly 15 years for me now in New York. The last time I made a move like this was from Australia to come over here. The strangest thing is knowing you’re running out of time to make plans to see friends one last time and realizing there are some people you just won’t get to see before you leave. What’s easier, do you think? Having time to say to goodbye, or just leaving without having to go through the farewell?

I’ve chosen to treat every goodbye as if I’ll most likely see that person again very soon, so I don’t get choked up. I had coffee (in person coffee! 😉 ) with a friend yesterday and as we parted, I said, “I’m sure I’ll see you again before we leave…” But maybe I won’t. I just didn’t want to have a sad goodbye.

It feels so good to be purging so much as we prepare for the move. I’ve become ruthless in the culling of what needs to come with us. I read somewhere recently that it’s such a hard task to get rid of your things because as you start going through them, you’re touching them and holding them, which actually reasserts the tie you have to whatever object you’re considering getting rid of. That’s why doing a closet clean-out with a friend can be so much easier – because they touch the things which makes you less likely to insist you need to keep them. While I don’t have someone to help me go through all the random things that have accumulated over 15 years, I am making a concerted effort to pick something up, decide immediately if it’s being kept or thrown out, then just doing it without second guessing my decision.

Speaking of trying to purge sentimental items… Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a process called photo developing. Back then, you would take photos on a camera that required something called “film” and then when you finished the roll of film, you could take no more pictures. (Imagine if your phone ran out of memory space and you were forced to go back and try to delete some shots to free up room, but you weren’t able to – that’s what ‘running out of film’ meant.) Then you would take the finished roll and drop it off at a store to be “developed”. Finally, you would pick up a little envelope of printed photos to keep. Actual, physical photos. I know!

Anyway, turns out, these physical photos take up lots of space and the sentimental factor is off the charts when you try to cull. This photo above, for example, is a view of the Hudson from the very first apartment I lived in Manhattan when I moved here in June of 2000. I look at it and have memories of my first couple of months in New York, but part of me also looks at it and is reminded of those boxes of photos from the 1940s and 50s you see in old vintage junk shops sometimes, you know what I mean? Like old photographs or postcards from 50 years ago and there’s no story attached, just smiling happy people, or a pretty landscape and you don’t have any idea of what you’re really looking at, but it’s oh-so-quaint.

If we were having coffee now I’d tell you I’d love to be a true minimalist when it comes to clutter and sentimentalism and I’m trying, but it’s tough.

In really positive news though, I had a workout on Wednesday which was a bit of a breakthrough for me. I think I was holding back a little, without fully realizing it, from pushing myself. Maybe it was some kind of after-effect from so many months of lightening up my workouts during pregnancy, but I don’t think I’d been challenging myself enough. But since finishing that Instagram yoga challenge, I just decided to try out heavier weights and see if I could. I could. And I did. And I feel it today, for sure (in a good way, you know the feeling I mean).

Before we finish our coffee, I’d want to share some of the things I’ve read recently that have resonated with me, so you can read them too.

Sarah from Run Far Girl wrote about what really works when it comes to running faster. This was a good reminder for me – it doesn’t matter where you start, or what you think your limitations are. If you work your butt off and try new ways of pushing through barriers, something is going to give. For Sarah, she got faster  – much faster – in her running and PRs. It made me excited to push further and harder in running, but of course you can apply this to any aspect of life, right?

Katie from Healthy Diva Life would probably be the first to admit she is a super positive, happy person. She also has a love affair with pink and sparkles. So when I read her post on her fears for her young son’s development and how she and her husband are in the middle of early intervention and testing to see if everything is okay, it reminded me that everyone struggles, no matter how little you may see of that on the outside, looking in. I also think it’s brave of Katie to share such a personal story in the hopes that it will help another family and from what little I know about developmental delays, early intervention does seem to be incredibly important. Please share her post as well!

Speaking of sharing an important story that could help others, my friend Christine from Love, Life, Surf had a post published on Scary Mommy (yes, that makes her a big deal and yes, she was also just published in the Washington Post and in print in Triathlete magazine, but I digress). Christine’s article for Scary Mommy was about how sometimes just the fact of being a mother does not mean you have it all together, or know what you’re doing, or feel like you can do it all by yourself. And that’s okay. Just ask for help. Recognize when you just can’t and know that sometimes parts of this motherhood gig aren’t immediately instinctual.

And finally I want to share two posts about running, both by amazing friends of mine who will be running the NYC Marathon in November. Okay, one of the posts is technically about a triathlon, but she’s a runner at heart, so I’m calling it a post about running. In case you missed it, Allie from Vita Train 4 Life was freaking out that she wasn’t going to make her goal of reaching Nationals with her triathlon last Sunday. She had that feeling that anyone who has raced competitively knows, that the A goal seems beyond elusive. And then, this happened. And I’m not embarrassed to tell you I got a little choked up reading this. I am so beyond happy for her, just goosebumps.

The other post is brutally honest. You may remember Nellie from Brooklyn Active Mama writing a guest post for me on how you have to believe in yourself and your own abilities before you can really even dream of succeeding at what you set out to do. In Nellie’s case, that’s running. She started running about a year ago and now she’s training for the marathon! And in a post last week, she confessed that sometimes it sucks. A lot.

I think it was the first time I remember a running blogger just coming out and saying everything feels like it’s going wrong and where is the joy in this? And I’m sure if you’ve trained for a marathon, you remember having stretches of time where every run does suck and you do wonder if the running naysayers are right and you’re crazy and running is stupid. I read this and thought, I love Nellie even more because she is nothing if not just completely honest about anything she’s going through AND I also thought, I’m so happy Nellie is probably about to have a cutback week and have one amazing running workout and remember all over again why running is so spectacularly joyful and wonderful. So proud of you, Nellie!

(By the way, that image is from heyrunnergirl.tumblr.com which is ALL Ryan Gosling runner girl memes so you’re welcome).

That was a long coffee date and I feel like I monopolized the conversation! Tell me what’s going on in your life, what have you been doing?

Is there anything you’ve read recently that really made you stop and think? 

Are you a sentimentalist, or a minimalist? Any good decluttering/purging tips?