Gunner blog-jacked me

Hi guys!  Gunner here.  Kristen doesn't particularly feel like blogging today, so I promised that I would give everyone a tour of where I've been staying these last few weeks.  Ammon and Kristen sure are friendly to let me stay with them, even though it means there are 4 of us in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment.  This is the front door, where we get ready to go for walks.  Kristen says the water isn't always there, but that she got it for me just in case the flooding made the tap water go away.  She gets really worried that I won't be able to adequately fill my slobber ducts.

This is the living room, where we all hang out.  Kristen really hates it when I take her spot on the sofa, and she makes me lay down on the floor instead.  You can see here that she loves her flannel snowflake pajama pants and "Orange is the New Black".  Also, that coffee table... I don't like it at all, but Kristen likes it a whole lot.  She says her dad created it out of salvaged Redwood he got while in college in Humboldt County, CA.  You can also see "my crib".  Which sounds totally juvenile, but much nicer than "crate", which is what mom would have you believe it's called.

And from another angle.  Kristen loves her teacups, cookbooks, and other "pretty things".  I just think it takes up space that could better be served by big fluffy dog beds.

 YET another space that should just be made into a giant dog bed.  They put food they don't want me to have up here.  Joke's on them, though, because when they aren't looking, I'm all up in it.  Beckham eats this special kibble, and it's sooooooo tasty.  They really need to understand that he told me we could share it.

Kristen doesn't let me have any of the good things that are in here.  It's very mean of her.  I tend to lose my feet on the floor, and I don't like that part.  I like the smells and the things she accidentally drops on the floor, though.  It's worth getting yelled at to lick them up.

The freshest water bowl ever, AND a box of candy.  It's true what they say about good things coming in small packages, I guess.

I'm the only person in the family who doesn't sleep here, and that just isn't right.  Look how soft and pretty it is!  One night I jumped in when Kristen was trying to go to bed, and I landed right in between her and Ammon.  I was so cute that they let me stay for a whole 5 minutes.  That 5 minutes is paving the way for my ultimate domination of the bed.  Forget Queen size... it's Gunner size.

This is the always messy office.  Beckham built a FORT in Kristen's crafting stuff.  It really isn't fair how he gets to do all of the cool stuff, and I'm stuck chilling in the crib.  To show how awesome I am, I've started climbing into Ammon's lap when he's sitting at his computer.  That'll show them who is the best lap dog of them all.

Oh, hey nemesis food sharing buddy.  You look so joyful right now.

Did you like the tour?  Did ya?  Did ya?

Oh good... Kristen says that I'm a dang expensive tour guide.  Whatever.  I'm off to get paid in kibble, kisses, and chew toys.  Until next time, friends of Kristen. 

I think I'm going to call you Dandelion

Monday mornings are always the best time for me to evaluate where I am when it comes to meeting my goals.  It seems like I tend to set a lot of goals for myself, but I really have a lot of challenges when it comes to meeting all of the goals I set for myself.  So when the #Blogtember challenge called for a "life lately" post, requesting that we talk about what's going on in our lives, and how we're doing at meeting our goals.  The fact that this post is falling on a Monday makes me so, so incredibly happy.



Lately...

...My energy levels have been complete and utter poop.  I wake up tired, drink 2/3 of a pot of coffee, try to keep my eyelids from getting it on with each other all day at work, slog through a pathetic workout, then park myself on the couch with the dog and cat for the rest of the night.  Rinse and repeat, every single day.

...I have consistency issues with working out.  It has a lot to do with the flagging energy levels I'm experiencing.  And in theory, I COULD work out in the morning, but then I would have less time for morning blog reading and coffee drinking.  Also, running in the mornings causes me to have tummy trouble sometimes, and I prefer to avoid that at all costs, whenever possible.

...I haven't been great at eating healthfully.  I just want some sugar, dang it!  My weekend eating has been a total mess, and my weekday eating has only been mediocre.  My weight is up a couple of pounds, and I know if I don't put that on lock-down soon, it's going to spell some big, big trouble.  So that's something that probably needs a little bit of extra work... planning and executing a meal plan I can stick to without hating my life, especially on the weekends.

...I have been trying to figure out how to meet my running goals.  Last Tuesday, I did 3.1 miles with Mr. Gunner in about 36 minutes.  I plugged that into a pace calculator, along with my goal half marathon pace, just to see how far off the reality of my current half predictions are from what I would like to see happen.  It isn't pretty.

Right now if I keep a 36:40 5k, my 1/2 marathon will be a 2:49:46.  9 minutes slower than what I am looking to run at the Shiner beer run in November.  However, if I can get my 5k down to a 34:33, I will be on track to meet my half marathon goals come race day.  My next official 5k is on October 12, so I'll be looking to beat a 34:33 that day.  Hopefully I'll have some good news to share on October 14 with everyone!

...I have been loving hanging out with Gunner.  He makes my day all of the time.  He does the most fantastic tail/butt wiggling dance whenever I walk in the door, even if I was gone for just 5 minutes.  We took him to the dog park over the weekend, and it was a blast.  We tried a new dog park, and this one has a cute little pond for the puppies to frolic in.  Gunner pushed a timid dog in, it was pretty funny.  He just wanted all of the other puppies to have as much fun as he was having.

We also learned that this puppy really loves champagne.  I looked down, and he was drinking out of my glass!

I know he's only licking the side here, but trust me... his tongue was inside the glass at one point.  He's a high class dog.

...Have gotten really good at moving stuff around and calling it cleaning our apartment.  The dog rescue we volunteer with required a virtual photo home tour, and I spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon meeting that requirement.  I'd been putting it off for a little while, because I knew it would be a lot of work.  It was.  On the bright side, I can finally give you guys a tour of our little slice of reality in the near future.

...I just got finished marathon watching all of the episodes of "Orange is the New Black".  Holy cow is that show intense.  Crazy Eyes is my favorite.  She's just so creepy, yet sincere at the same time.  Plus, home-girl isn't afraid to throw her pie for the one she loves.  Now if only they would stop showing so much naked lady bits, the show would be perfect.

Via

And with that, have an amazing Monday!

It's a psychological test, this post

Let's play a round of word association, yes?  The word of the day is comfort.

Comfort is a hard word for me to define with words alone.  It takes more than a word, or two, or even two thousand to adequately define what comfort really is.  It's a state of mind, a state of being.  It's a thousand small things about a moment that contribute to an overall fantastic situation.

Flannel snowflake pajamas and simultaneous husband and puppy cuddles.  Not shown:  the delicious beer sitting just to the left of the picture.

Triple chocolate cheesecake with triple chocolate ganache.  It has that whole "I'm chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate" thing going, but it isn't too sweet, so you can eat the whole slice without dying.

Comfort is the perfect Mexican meal, complete with a whole lot of salsa from the salsa bar.

Comfort is knowing that I am with this guy for life... and that he is well aware that he signed up for 3 consecutive life sentences.

A very short story.

Today's blogtember topic was to write a very short story.  We were given the opening line, and told to run with it.  I forgot to write mine, and so I threw it together this morning.  I hope you enjoy!

To say that I was dreading the dinner party was the understatement of the century.  Pinpointing the source of my dread was another manner in and of itself. We had been friends for well over a decade by now, and there was no reason for me to dread being around these people.  They all cooked like they were on "Chopped Champions", and in that circle, there is never a lack of wine and signature cocktails.  I didn't even mind that every single dinner party we did had a theme; Roman, Greek, Tuscan, French Riviera, Fiesta... we had done them all.  And along the way, my best friend, the ringleader of the group, and her husband would turn the whole affair into an "old-fashioned slideshow viewing party".

Oooh, there it was.  The source of my dread.  The dumb slideshow.  That was easier to figure out than I had thought.

On their trips, without fail, Shelly would take picture after picture after picture.  When they got home, her husband Rich would compile every single picture, the awful ones included, into a 3 hour long power-point presentation complete with a 5 minute intermission and music "appropriate" to the pictures of them standing in front of places that they only half remember, or of "hilarious" moments that still crack them up, but they are unable to explain to anyone else.  It was sheer torture sitting through them once every six months or so, when Shelly would get incurable wanderlust, and require that Rich sweep her off her feet and send them someplace "romantic and fun and relaxing".  Her words, not mine.  Shelly knows what she wants in life, and doesn't hesitate to spell it out for people.  It's the thing that I love most about her.

I looked down at the shiny piece of technology that was currently trying to shake my hand away from the rest of my body.  Why cellphone providers thought their "vibrate" function needed to be as powerful as to permanently sever ones appendages, I will never understand.

"Hello?"

"Hey Claire, it's Shelly."

"What's going on, Shelly?"

"It's about the dinner party tonight."

"Are you guys cancelling?"

"Well, no, not exactly.  It's just... we need a favor..."

Famous last words.  As soon as I heard them, I should have shut that whole conversation down.  Then again, this was my best friend and her husband.  Saying no to them was almost as bad as having to tell your sweet elderly grandmother that you were living in sin.  It just wasn't something you did... the telling part, that is.  You just pretended to Granny that you two maintained separate residences.  Almost as if the words came from someone else entirely, I hear myself ask, "What is it that you need?"

"Well, you see, this morning our main line clogged, and our house filled with... that's not important.  Our house is disgusting right now, and Rich really doesn't want to reschedule.  We were hoping we could move everything to your house???"

"Shelly, I'm not sure that's such a good idea.  My house isn't exactly clean right now, and I'm not sure it could really fit all 12 of us comfortably."

"Oh, come on, Claire.  We're all friends, and have been for a long time.  Nobody is going to judge you, they are just going to be so glad that we can still have the party."

No they wouldn't.  They hated the slideshows as much as I did.  However, we all were dead set on having the favorite dish of the party every time we got together, or the favorite signature cocktail.  If you had to suffer through 3 hours of torture, you should at least do it with good food and drink in your belly.  "Dave really wouldn't like it."

"Since when do you let Dave dictate what you can and can't do?  For Pete's sake, the two of you are married... we all know that means that you tell him what's happening, and he goes along with it.  Just tell him that I'll be over at 5:15 to help you clean and set up."

"Shell..."

"Okay, thank you so much, Claire!  I owe you one.  See you in a few hours!"  And just like that, it had been determined:  Dave and I were now hosting the slideshow party from Hades.  The very thought made me feel dirty and uncomfortable enough to want to take a shower.  With a sigh, I looked down at the project I had been working on for my boss, and put it back in my inbox.  I guess I was taking a personal day today...

When no words are needed

The dog days of summer

Tuesday the 17th.  That's today.  How is that even possible???  I feel like I just got married 3 weeks ago, not almost 3 months ago.  Shoot.  Anyway, today's Blogtember topic:  a memory you would love to re-live.



You will be so proud, I'm not taking the easy way out and pretending that it's the day I got married.  I think we all know that I would be lying if I said that.  The day after, maybe, because that was lots and lots of fun, but not the day of my wedding.  No sir or ma'am.  And since I ruled out that, I decided to also rule out Ammon's and my first date.  It was too easy, and I've told that story more than once.  I'm sure some of you could tell it better than I can at this point.  No, I went way back in my archives, back to the "dog days of summer" for this one.  **HINT:  That was foreshadowing**

I was 12 at the time, and it was summer.  My dad was out of town, and we'd just gotten our very first puppy:  a Chocolate Lab puppy that my dad would train to be his first hunting dog.  We'd barely had him a week, but already, we all loved that soft little fluff of fur named Bruno.

My childhood best friend was over, and we were hanging out, as we always did.  She too, was already in love with Bruno, and his enormous paws.  For years to come, she and I could never say "Bruno" without immediately following it up with "big paws".  Anyway, she was over and we were hanging out.  Suddenly, the dog went missing.  Oh dang.  For those of you who might not know, purebred hunting dogs, even untrained, are worth a lot of money.  Once they're trained???  It's like a national disaster if one goes missing.  So childhood best friend and I take off through the neighborhood in search of this precious puppy.  We searched for over an hour... the neighborhood we grew up in is large and sprawling, and surrounded on 3 sides by open space.  When dogs get loose in that area, it can be a huge challenge to find them.  Despite our worry, the two of us had a blast trying to find him.  We got to talk, and run around, and look in stuff, and call out in loud voices for that tiny little puppy.

My mom found him sleeping on the cover for the grill when we were out looking, and since in those days, cell phones were not what they are today, she just had to wait for us to turn up at home empty handed and dejected that the puppy still hadn't been found.

I would relive this memory over and over for so many reasons.  The first being that Bruno was a stinking adorable puppy who I loved with every fiber of my being, until he stopped being a puppy, and started being a bonehead (his aptly coined adult nickname), at which time I decided I loved him 85% of the time.  I would relive it for the relief of knowing that precious life was safe, and that my dad wasn't going to kill all of us in a blinding fit of rage.

Mostly, though, I would relive it to have those extra moments with my best friend.  We were at a high point in our relationship as friends, during that tumultuous early-teen time when friendships are rockier than a mountain range.  We had no way of knowing that in another year, her whole family would move to Singapore, and how that would change our lives.  We had no way of knowing that from that moment on, we would never be in the position to see each other, or talk on the phone every single day, ever again.  At that moment, as long as we wanted to see each other, we could.  As long as we wanted to talk to each other, it was available.

As the years have gone on, this friend and I have remained in touch, to varying degrees of success.  But one thing I have always felt a keen sadness about is the fact that we aren't close like we used to be.  That if we had to run off chasing a dog for an hour, there would be awkward pauses, and perhaps some starts and stops in the conversation.  The easiness simply isn't there like it used to be.  To re-live that, to recapture that... it would be a true gift indeed.

Thank you

To all of my dear friends, family, blog friends, readers, instagram followers, or those who have stopped by my blog in the last few days:

Thank you so much for all of the care, concern, and love you have showed.  We have never in our lives experienced anything like this flooding.  It has impacted our lives in a big way, and there really is no telling how long the after-effects will continue to alter our world.  In the midst of all of the confusion and worry, we have known that there were people who were thinking of us, and wishing us well.  Luckily, we were spared the worst of the flooding.  We feel so blessed that we are safe, as are our possessions.  We didn't lose water or power, which were major concerns.  We were able to obtain safe drinking water to use in the event that fresh water service was lost.  We had the opportunity to prepare for the worst, but have the best possible outcome.

We are so lucky.  But there are a lot of people who were not nearly so lucky.  Entire towns were evacuated, or worse, isolated with no means of escape.  Dams overtopped, or in some instances, failed.  Several people have lost their lives, or are presumed dead.  Hundreds of people are unaccounted for.  It's sobering to realize that rain did this.  Mother nature did this.  It's easy to forget what nature is capable of until you see it firsthand.

These are some pictures I caught Saturday as we were driving to my parents' house.  They don't really do the situation justice, but I hope they help you understand even a fraction of what has been happening here.

So I write this love letter to you all today, but I write it also as a plea.  Thank you all for caring about my state, for caring about me and my loved ones enough to check in.  From the bottom of my heart I give you my thanks.  But I beg you:  please help us stand back up from this.  We know how to recover from fires and tornadoes.  This is the biggest flood in state history, and it won't be an easy thing to recover from.  Agriculture is the #2 source of revenue from the state, and many farmers an ranchers lost substantial crops, livestock, and equipment.  Our railroad tracks have been heavily damaged, and many roads have washed out, or had massive sinkholes open up.  Getting goods transported is becoming a major concern, especially with winter weather looming on the horizon.  There are already hundreds of ways to contribute, to help.  There are hundreds of charities that will plead their case for your time and your hard earned money.  I ask that you please support them, and help to re-build with us.  Because we will re-build.  We will come back from this, and we will be stronger than ever for having done it.

Thank you for reading this today, and everyday.

Floods, Natality, and Portraits of the self

Dude... this week is INTENSE, y'all.  For those of you not in the know, CO is experiencing the worst flooding it has seen in 100-500 years.  No flipping joke.  The medium-sized town next to my parents' small village is split in half by a flooded river.  Multiple school districts have shut their doors, and CU-Boulder has sustained substantial flood damage.  Flooding is something that us arid-high-plains-desert folk are not used to.  My parents had one of their basement window wells breach, so they have been having tons of fun bailing out their window well and shop-vaccing the water that got into the basement.

It's a big honking adventure, and to make it more fun, it's my dad's birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite dad, my humor partner in crime, and a super-talented nature photographer.  I have a feeling that this year is going to be your year.

Fun story:  On or around my dad's 29th birthday, he told my mom he wanted a baby girl before he was 30.  Approximately 10.5 months later, his wish came true.  I like to think I'm the bestest present he's ever gotten.

Anyhow, let's talk about the Blogtember post of the day.  A self-portrait.


I took the most perfect self-portrait last fall.  It is still my favorite.  It is how I see myself on the inside ALL OF THE TIME.

Not quite all together.  A lot goofy.  Sometimes even just a smidge funny.

However, I felt like it was a cop-out to use my favorite self-portrait ever, so I took another one, as I am almost every day.  After work, still in my work clothes, on the couch and ready to study and/or blog and/or watch tv.  I like to multi-task.

Secret of the day:  I almost never wear makeup, and I don't heat style my hair.  I am super lazy about getting ready in the mornings.  And because the picture above looks far too normal...

Yup, that's about right.  Have a GREAT weekend, and stay dry out there!

Oops, I did it again

Via

I forgot to write a post last night, and thus it is 6:45, and I am kind of scrambling to write a post on the topic "discuss ways that blogging or social media have changed you".


I'm going to lead by acknowledging that I wrote about how I needed blogging and this community here, and why it is a challenge for me when I feel disengaged.  I don't want to spend a whole lot more time talking about it, because it really makes me feel incredibly socially awkward. 

I tried to write about Facebook for the last 20 minutes, but that just turned into an awkward recap of the evolution of Facebook, not my own personal story with it.  With the exception of blogging, I don't feel like I'm that "into" social media.   I stay off of Facebook as much as humanly possible, though it saves me behind with the birthday reminders sometimes.  I used to love twitter, but it's hard to keep up with.  I love the twitter, though.  It's easy and fast to say hey to someone (or everyone), and some really funny stuff happens sometimes.  I love people's pictures on Instagram, but have a hard time remembering to update my own.  That, or I have nothing of value or interest to post.  I don't tumblr.  I don't vine.  I don't snapchat.  I don't LinkIn.

I love knowing the technology exists, though, and that I can reach out and talk to people near or far in new and novel ways.  Just stop with the dumb games for Facebook already, that's all I flipping ask.  Is that so much?

Goodbye Geneva, Hello Gunner!

Guys... it's Wednesday already!  How the heck did that happen???  Today's Blogtember post had to do with favorite shops, and about favorite items in shops.  Let's be real:  I have never gotten super into Etsy.  I KNOW.  This makes me the world's worst blogger.  I'm totally okay with that.  So instead, we're going to talk about dogs today.

On Sunday, our friend Geneva went to her Furr-ever home.

Sunday morning Geneva and I got up early and headed down to Boulder to meet up with her new bestest friends, K and Pearl.  We stopped to get a coffee for me, and a pupuccino for her.  In Boulder, they use kids cups for the pupuccinos instead of the sample cups, so Geneva was sugar rushing by the time we made it to the park.  Geneva and Pearl hit it off right away, and I was surprised when K asked if she could take Geneva right away.  I wasn't sure how the process worked exactly, and to leave home with a dog, and come home without her was.... lonely.  While we knew that Geneva was not the right dog for us, we did quickly grow accustomed to the routines associated with having a dog around.  So we told our friends at the Mile High Lab Mission that we could foster again right away.  Sadly, they had a dog for us to take right away.  Someday, I hope they can tell us "we appreciate the offer, but all the dogs are safe, happy, and healthy".

Last night we went to get Gunner, a sweet 3 year old boy with lots of energy, and the cutest clubbed tail you ever did see.

He first came to the rescue with his littermates as a puppy, and has been adopted and returned to the rescue twice now.  It's never his fault, either, just the circumstances of life.  He is the softest dog in the history of life, and he loves to have his belly rubbed.  We're going to have lots of fun with this boy during the time that he's with us, I just know it.

My phone now auto-produces GIFs, and it's the greatest thing ever.

If you're in the CO area and looking for a dog, check out the lab rescue, or consider Gunner as your new friend for life!  He deserves to go to the best family ever.

You can be my hero

Do you ever get the sense that if things did not play out to the exactitude that they did, that nothing in your current life would be at all the same?  That every moment of pain and sadness has a perfect reason that only plays out in the future?  My life has many of those twists and turns of fate, where if things had gone a different way, I don't know that I would be in this place right now, with a cat sitting at the window, my husband sitting next to me, and a Korean drama on TV.  Today's Blogtember challenge was to write about one of those turns.

It was May 2009, and I had been dating Ryan for about 6 months.  We were contemplating moving in together at the end of July or August, and so we were looking for a place to live down in the Boulder area where I was living at the time.  I had scheduled several apartment showings for us that day.  I met Ryan at his place so we could go look at the places.  Suddenly, we were fighting.  I couldn't tell you what it was about, just that we were fighting again.  We fought a lot, and not in a good, healthy way.  Our fights crossed line after line after line.  Screaming, name calling, threatening break-ups, barricading doors, and physical restraint were all parts of our typical fights.  Each of us had our faults, and each of us did things that we shouldn't.  But that day, I just couldn't do it anymore.  I couldn't handle feeling that way, being trapped, having to physically push my way out of a situation that got too intense.  And after 2 hours of the most intense arguing of my life, it was done.  Over.  I was able to walk away from the single most destructive relationship of my life.  I felt so broken, so not myself anymore.  I felt lost.  I called my mom and met her at Costco, where I cried for about an hour as we walked down the aisles.  Then I went home with her and cried some more.  I don't know that I can explain or understand just what it was that I was crying over, just that I felt like I was failing miserably at everything I touched.
As a result of that break-up, I started spending more time with some of my work friends.  One of those friends invited me to go up to Fort Collins with her a couple of weeks later.  That night, I met Brad.  Brad and I hit it off right away, and just like that, I was dating again.  I started spending more and more time in Fort Collins, and quickly discovered a love for this city that I previously knew little to nothing about.  Brad encouraged me to consider finding a job and place to live in Fort Collins.  I absolutely agreed.  I was ready for a change, for a fresh start after my last relationship, and moving sounded like a great way to do just that.  But a rebound is a rebound, and only weeks after finding a new job, Brad and I decided to part ways.

It didn't matter though, because a week or so after that, a boy in the warehouse caught my eye.  We started flirting... and then on November 1, 2009, 6 short months after the hardest day of my life to date, I had dinner at Chipotle for the first time with my future husband.  If I would have known back that fateful day in May how my life would turn out, I doubt that I would have cried nearly so hard.  What seemed at the time to be my greatest failure quickly became the doorway that has led to my greatest achievement... marrying a wonderful man who always loves and supports me.  I am so thankful that this great guy who reminded me of Clark Kent when I first met him, chose to be my hero.

Half marathon week one and why I like science

I don't feel like it's appropriate that Monday is upon us again so soon.  I only just got caught up on blogs, returning emails, and laying on my couch

Last week was my first week of Training for the Beer Run.  Since I wasn't able to run the whole way on my last half, I'm really motivated to do better this time, so I figured I should probably, ya know, train and stuff.  I went back and forth on what plan to use, picked one, and then decided against it.  It called for 3 3-mile runs during the week, plus a long weekend run.  I picked that plan because of the distances of the long runs, and that they top out at 12 miles instead of 10.  However, I don't like the idea of that much running during the week, as I tend to need a lot of cross training in order to not die.  So I'm playing mash-ups with a few different plans, and we'll see how that turns out.  Here are my week 1 workouts.  Scheduled weekends are in blue, actual workouts completed are in green:

Monday:  Cross Training / Strength Training workout at the track
Tuesday:  3 mile run / 3 mile run
Wednesday: 2 mile run / 2 mile track workout: sprints
Thursday:  3 mile run & strength training / 1.5 mile walk with Geneva
Friday:  Rest / Boom!  I rested.
Saturday:  4 mile run / 4 mile run
Sunday:  45 minutes cross training /  45 minute super-easy hike with Ammon

 From our Sunday hike.  Ammon is perfecting the art of the selfie, slowly but surely.

This week I want to ramp up my cross training.  My cardio really suffered from taking August off of working out, and I can hardly run 2 miles without a break.  That won't do.

 

And now on to fun stuff, like the Blogtember post prompt of the day.  The prompt was to take a short Myers-Briggs personality test, and to write about our results.  I have taken several of these tests over the years, and always gotten different results.  I don't think they can really predict general lifetime personality traits, but more of who you are at a given time in your life.  My most recent results were INTJ; introverted, intuitive, thinking, judging.  Very accurate to who I am right this moment.  Some of the hallmarks of an INTJ are that they tend to have very specific areas of knowledge, are perfectionists, tend towards careers in science and engineering, and like things that can integrate ingenuity and hard facts.  On the down side, we find relationships hard, because social niceties just don't always seem to make sense and take up an awful lot of time better spent on other pursuits. 

Like I said, this doesn't always describe me, but it describes me at this particular stage of life.  I almost always end up as an XNFJ... an individual who isn't introverted or extroverted, intuitive, feeling, and judging.  Empathy for others, patient.  A teacher, through and through.  But for whatever reason, when I am worn down, that all goes out the window, and INTJ becomes my dominant personality type.

Do you believe in personality types?  Or does yours change all the time?  What workout goals do you have this week?