How to make your long commute suck less

I mentioned a couple months ago that my job was changing and my commute was getting longer. I'm surviving the commute but there's no getting around the monotony of driving the same 47 miles, twice a day, four times per week. (I work from home on Fridays.)

But I found a way to make it a little bit better! Stop for a run on my way home. Bonus: meet up with a fellow running blogger / friend, Kelly [the Culinarian].

Speaking of meeting up with running bloggers ... are you coming to the Chicago Running Bloggers meet-up on Saturday morning?

I realized a few weeks ago that my commute might make it convenient to meet up with Kelly for a post-work run, but yesterday was the first day we were able to meet. We had a lovely 5.75 mile run through the Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve, talking mostly about food (Girl Scout cookies, chocolate cake), work, graduate school (not that I've been) and other topics. We also complained about the bugs. Then we realized that complaining about bugs while running in the forest = first world problem.

I used my trunk as a tripod for this shot.
Note to self: take all future self portraits from this angle.
Hellooooooo legs. 

Also (because you care) I got to try out the shorts I bought for the marathon (yes, the one in October). I'm a fan. They didn't ride up in places where you don't want your shorts to ride. With a little Body Glide, I had no chaffing issues. Yaysies.

And I inadvertently discovered which nail polish I should wear for the marathon. Sidenote: I have a newfound nail polish addiction. Granted, I stick to the cheap stuff ($2-4), but it's definitely an addiction. I can't walk into Target, Jewel, Walgreens, etc these days without checking out their selection. By the way, I think this color is "Times Square" by New York Color.

This photo was awkward to take.

By the way, could my blog get any more interesting? I'm pretty sure when I took "Intro to Online Communication" during undergrad, we discussed blogging about your nail polish color. OK, maybe we only discussed blogs and chat rooms and our professor's BMW motorcycle, but still. This is riveting stuff, no? Actually I find it pretty humorous what "online communication" methods were worthy of classroom discussion in 2002. A lot has changed on the interwebs in 10 years.