Update time!

First of all, thank you for all your kind words and encouragement. As planned, I took last week off from running (but still played four soccer games), and then managed to get in a pretty darn good long run of 10 miles on Sunday morning at a 10:29/mile pace. I originally set out with a loose goal of running 12-13 miles, but I DID have a soccer game to play later in the day, and I didn't want to completely obliterate my legs! Plus, it was freaking HOT out there. Or maybe it wasn't that hot, but it WAS hella humid! Wilson and I got up at 7:00 a.m. with the intention of being out the door by 7:15, but we didn't end up heading out until nearly 8:00 . . . whoopsies!

Anyway, the run went really well, all things considered. My leg was a little ouchy . . . but not so much so that I had to quit. So that is DEFINITELY good news. I really felt like I had at least 2 more miles in me when we finished up, but I really didn't want to make playing soccer later in the day more painful than it had to be. Plus, the park was PACKED with obnoxious people . . . and I was a little scared I might commit homicide. So yeah. You win some, you lose some.

After our run, we stopped by our friendly (not) neighborhood Dunkin Donuts for iced coffee and donuts. We returned home with our treats, only to discover that the cat REALLY likes glazed donuts. I'm not kidding you, she was going apeshit over my glazed donut. I thought she was going to claw my eyes out, trying to get to it . . . so I was nice and shared a little piece with her, figuring she would discover it wasn't meat and move on with her little cat life. Nope! This only fueled the fire. Has anyone else ever encountered a cat who loved donuts like that? I was seriously confused . . .

In other news, our landlord (yes, the same one who created the birdseed mess all over our apartment while we were away on vacation, and then didn't bother to clean it up) decided to jack our rent up by nearly 15%. GRRR. While I was originally up in arms about this, it is really a blessing in disguise. I think I was more than ready to get out of the ghetto and move into a nicer area, and my landlord's dillusional thoughts regarding how much her top floor is worth pushed us to finally take that step.

After all but promising our first-born child (seriously, the new landlord is ANAL!), Wilson and I managed to snag a great duplex apartment in Brooklyn Heights . . . AKA our dream neighborhood. Now historically, I have always been very anti-broker. Let me explain for those of you who do not reside in NYC. In NYC, many people find apartments by searching on craigslist. Also in NYC, these same people end up having to pay a BROKER'S FEE . . . sometimes up to 15% of the annual rent . . . to snag an apartment which the broker simply LISTED ON A FREAKING WEBSITE. Now, as you may or may not be able to based upon my excessive use of capitalization, I am NOT okay with this. I would never in a million years pay a broker's fee to some jerk who did nothing more than post a listing on a stupid website.

However, I tend to turn homicidal at just the THOUGHT of having to search for a new apartment. So this time around I figured, "Why not hire a broker, but actually make the guy WORK for his commission?" Well, this turned out to be a brilliant plan. Wilson and I showed up at this dude's office on Saturday morning not really knowing what to expect. We talked with the guy and explained our situation and price range . . . and he managed to convince us to extend our range by an extra $100, saying that a lot of extra places would show up within that hundred dollar range. Well, I'm glad he did . . . because the first apartment that he showed us (which was in our NEW range) was a sweet duplex with a huge private outdoor area!

Ha, it was the first time he'd seen the place since it had just gone on the market; and he was CONVINCED it had to be a mistake. He kept repeating, "now don't get your hopes up quite yet. I have to check with my boss to make sure this is the correct unit, and the correct price is listed." Well, luckily enough, it was all correct . . . and after turning in more paperwork than I knew existed, we got the news today that the apartment is ours as of August 1!! YAY! I'm pretty excited to get to run along the water . . . and do some Brooklyn Bridge runs! And I'm even more excited to live in a neighborhood that DOESN'T TERRIFY ME! YAY :) Perhaps apartment karma really does exist?

Oh well. I'm off to one of my many soccer games for now! I'm aiming for at least two goals tonight . . .