Status check

Radio silence around here lately because there hasn't really been much to report. 

Life is just ticking along.  Working, running, all that stuff. 

Work is actually getting better.  The new attorney hired into our group in early January has taken about 3-4% of my caseload, but every little bit helps.  Especially since three of the ones she took are in active litigation, and two of them have upcoming mediation settings (in Indy) in the next 60 days.  That's a big relief for me.  The other thing that has helped is that the flow of incoming cases seems to have abated a little.  I feel like for the last month, each Friday morning, my email inbox is less of a disaster than it was the week before.  It always tends to blow up on Fridays and over the weekend, but if I can actually reduce the number that sit needing attention each week, I feel like I'm making progress.  Right now, the number is down into the mid-50s.  A lot, yes, but way better than the 80-110 that it seems like it's been since we came back from vacation several months ago and I was in the thick of overwork.  I've been doing better on the getting big reports drafted on schedule, though I still drag my feet a bit in getting going on the ones that require the most work.  I'm totally staying on top of voicemail (I have one message that's a few weeks old that I need to return, but I've been doing the behind-the-scenes stuff necessary to return it).  And the two unpleasant cases I've had in the last few months (also pretty much just these two ever), seem to be getting a bit better -- one settled, and one will hopefully settle. 

Running is also slowly getting better.  I'm not losing weight, and I'm kind of still in an eat-some-crap-every-day rut, but at least it's not getting worse.  I think giving up liquids (other than water, morning green smoothie, and nuun on long runs) is helping.  I've been surprised how much I alcohol and soda.  I almost never drink soda, but crave it when I can't have it.  And I don't drink much, but I seem to want that too.  I'm not at all surprised that I'm missing espresso and tea...  Anyway, back to running.  My times have been getting stronger, but I still have a lot of work to do.  I ran my favorite 5k of the year this weekend.  Two good miles, and then I slowed by about 40 seconds in the final mile.  I ended up only about 90 seconds off a course PR for me, and only about 2.5 minutes off a PR.  That's a lot for a 5k, but at the same time, it's not as bad as I would have guessed it would be.  I put it in a race predictor and it has me about 7 minutes off a re-Q, but maybe with a flatter course...  The downside to two pretty good miles -- I feel like I tweaked my calf.  Super tender to the touch.  Had it checked out on Sunday (ummm, after I ran 13 miles), got instructions to take a few days off, ice, light massage.  Anyway, aside from potentially a few days off now, I've at least been showing up for my runs and I feel like that's the biggest step.  If I keep doing that, the work will eventually pay off.  I never really committed to a spring half, so I may just not run one unless I come across something good.  I'm considering the Lakefront Marathon in Wisconsin for the fall.  I really wanted to run Steamtown, but I think given our schedules, we're going to be flying over to Europe on October 8, so once again, travel choices leave me with limited marathon options. 

Travel for fun has been non-existent since Mardi Gras, which was already exactly one month ago.  We were thinking about trying to combine a work trip that I have in early April to SoCal with a trip up to San Fran to see my new nephew, but thankfully, we hadn't banked on that because now it looks like the work trip will fall apart.  I have been travelling for work, but mostly just overnight trips every couple weeks.  Philly has been horrendously cold!  But April has a lot of work travel on the books -- a couple Philly, one SoIll (does that work like SoCal?  Southern Illinois?), and maybe the SoCal trip.  In all, looks like I'll be on the road most weeks, but hopefully mostly short trips.  So now we're trying to plan fun trips for May, which should be better work wise.  We're planning on DC and Charlottesville for my reunion and to see my bestie, and then maybe San Fran and wine country around Memorial Day. 

So I don't really know how to report I've been filling my time other than working and working out.  Last week I finally was better about doing some running commutes to and from work.  Of course, last week was the week I got back on the horse -- because it was spring break so it looked like traffic wasn't bad.  Oh well, it was good for me.  Now I just have to sustain it! 

We've been watching far too much TV in the last month or so.  What we've been watching lately:
Bosch (detective series on Amazon Prime, we both read and love the books), just finished
The Bachelor (guilty pleasure, husband watches it with me to be nice), just finished
Amazing Race (more me than my husband), in progress
The Americans (both love it), in progress
Better Call Saul (just me), in progress, 1 episode on the dvr
House of Cards (both love it), waiting to watch season 3, our netflix isn't showing up on the tv and I don't like the idea of watching it all on the computer (which we did with Bosch).

Anyway, that's the current status of things here!