I believe it's "jogging." Or "yogging." It might be a soft "j." I'm not sure, but apparently it's where you just run for an extended period of time.

I am not exactly what you would call "built for running." I have disproportionately short legs, not a lot of lower body strength, and a hype-extended epiglottis that makes is difficult to breathe when I'm exerting myself. My running form is terrible and is best described as "running away from nothing drunk." But I also like being healthy, not being fat (need to offset my sugar addiction somehow), and I really like a challenge.

So when my boyfriend announced he was going to get back into running, I decided I would run with him. After all, I worked out with my girl Jillian Michaels 4-6 days a week and I was no stranger to torturing myself running on the treadmill.

Here's the thing. In addition to the physical challenge running presents for my short, weak, hyperventilating body, I also hate it. I loathe running. You know all those people who carry on about "runner's highs" and how if they don't run every day, they're just miserable and depressed? I want to shove those people's Nikes up their pooper. I definitely do not think of myself as a "Runner," nor do I ever plan to become one of Those. I call myself "A Person Who Runs." It's how I sleep at night.

So I'm not really sure why it is that I have decided I must do the running. I like challenges, but I also like not running. But to be completely honest, with no classes and no job, I need something to do. I am a person who picks some Thing, commits, and then does not give up on that thing, no matter what. For the past three years, that Thing has been school. Now that there is no more school, there is no more Thing, and I just can't live without a Thing! (That's what she said, Brady.)

Brady and I started Project Running around the middle of October. We started out running and walking up and down Rio Solado, then to a park near Brady's house. Mulder had been joining us, but after the third trip or so, it became clear his short little corgi legs were not going to be able to keep up, so he stays home and gets my glass of wine ready for me when I trudge in the door. Not really, but I wish.

We've been doing the whole increasing distance thing and acting like People Who Run. When I moved home, I was worried I would just stop running on my own. I've actually managed to keep it going, though. Brady comes over and we run together a couple nights a week, and when he isn't here, I challenge myself to run faster by doing faster/slower 30-second intervals. Counting keeps my mind off how much I dislike what I am doing. I also ran farther today. I have a Nike+GPS app on my phone, but I don't use it, because that means I have to buy an armband, and I'm worried that spending $30 on something I will use only for running will take me out of the "Person Who Runs" category and put me firmly into "Running."

I'm not sure how I have gone from "NOIAMNOTGOINGRUNNINGWHATISWRONGWITHYOU" to "hey, are you coming over to run with me tonight?" I think it might have something to do with not wanting to give up while Brady is still truckin' away, like a jerk. It might also have to do with the fact that running is actually getting easier. I still do Jillian Michaels, and ever since I added her new "Killer Buns and Thighs" into the mix, I've found running not so painful. Thanks, muscles! So there's that. I could not run without Jillian Michaels.

So anyway, there you go. I am a Person Who Runs, pretty regularly, more than a mile. I've promised myself that if at any point, it hurts or I start to seriously loathe it. I will not do when I do not feel well, but I will do it even when I just don't feel like it. And I just checked Amazon, and it looks like a passable armband is less than I thought, so I might just suck it up and invest. Then you guys can check my distance and time on Facebook and cheer for me! You can validate me, but do not call me a Runner. That Nike and "up the pooper" thing applies to you, too.

Mulder: Not a Runner. He's a Prancer.

Favorite/Least Favorite

Welp, whether I am ready for it or not (I am not ready), the "holiday season" is upon us. I firmly don't believe that Christmas decorations should be sitting on shelves while Halloween candy is still on sale, but I am apparently in the minority. It's not that I don't like Christmas! I do! I really like Christmas. But there are a lot of things that I don't like about it, too, and two solid months of the things I hate makes me build up resentment for the holiday as a whole and the things I like are usually crushed by all the things I hate about the 12th time I hear Feliz Navidad.

Favorite Things:

• Cute Christmas crafts
• Candles
• Fires in the fireplace
• Coffee Christmas morning while gazing at the tree all lit up in the dark (with the dog fence around it because we still don't trust those beasts not to ruin everything while we sleep)
• Decorating
• Christmas lights
• Watching "A Year Without a Santa Clause," "A Christmas Story," "Christmas Vacation,"  and the claymation "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" while baking Christmas cookies with my mom.
• Eating all the Christmas cookies.
• Putting Christmas clothes on the dogs "to keep them warm." Not because it's cute as heck! That's not why at all.
• Making gifts, keeping in mind things I am good at - cooking and embroidery. You will receive no oddly-shaped scarves from me.
• Eating and drinking with my family members all afternoon.

Least Favorite Things:

• Christmas music everywhere. 
• Christmas music starting any point before Thanksgiving, although I wish it were only played the week before Christmas.
• Inflatable characters in front yards. It drives the poor dogs crazy.
• When it looks like Christmas had a stroke and then puked all over someone's house.
• Finding gifts for everyone, but mostly people I know well enough to buy them a Christmas gift but not well enough to know what's perfect for them. Uuuuuugh, so stressful. 
• How everyone behaves in public. I thought it was a time for CHEER, not shoving your shopping cart towards my car after you unload all your crap, having meltdowns over whether some stupid toy is on sale, or storming through a store like a tornado and literally mowing people down when they wander into your path. I pretty much hate leaving my home during this time of year.
• Wrapping gifts. If this is your favorite thing, I hate you. Maybe if you got stuck wrapping everyone's gifts for everyone but you on Christmas Eve night, you wouldn't love it so much, you jerk.
• How Thanksgiving totally gets the shaft. It's only the best holiday of the year, because it has all the fun of family and food and drinking but it's not nearly as expensive or stressful, but all of the turkeys and squash and pumpkin pies get trotted out in the middle of all the baubles and sequins and buche de Noel of Christmas, totally don't fit in, and then just kind of sulk off into the cardboard box from whence they came while everyone is making turkey and cranberry sandwiches the next day. Poor Thanksgiving.

So? Am I big communist jerk for the things on this list or what? What are your thoughts on the holiday season?