Whenever I take a week off of blogging, it feels a bit like falling off the wagon. The farther away you slip, the harder it seems to be to jump back on. I truly love blogging, though I think I’ve been a little frustrated by it lately because I know what it could be if I had a physical, mental, and emotional energy to put into it that I just don’t have right now. And I’m not talking about a huge following or money making or any such things—I’m talking about a place that’s my creative outlet, where I can write and express and create and share.

It’ll get there someday. I’m getting better at recognizing that you can’t have it all. I don’t mean that in a depressing way, but rather matter of factly—I could blog every day, but what would give? Some tradeoffs aren’t worth it.

I feel like I’ve been delaying on posting lately because there’s a lot of stuff in the works—both on paper and in my mind. There are some pieces I’m working on, a bit different than the normal posts of “look what I ate” and “look where I went running” and “hooray, more pictures of San Francisco.” There are some more raw and real topics I want to discuss, namely some posts about vegetarianism and identity and other REAL things.

The problem is that writing about real things is harder. I actually have the desire to *gasp* proofread, it’s not quite as snip-snap as throwing up a bunch of pictures. Though that doesn’t mean there weren’t any other pieces from this week that I didn’t want to share on the blog, hence this post and its title, Snapshots. Referring not as much to the obviously-Instagramed photos (someone teach me how to take quality photos, please!) but to the snippets of life that often miss the blog and that I am including here.

This Sunday I got to spend a lovely afternoon at a BBQ in the Presidio celebrating the birthday of one of my oldest friends, Tiff. (Two photos above jokingly titled “Indeed” and “Sun vs. Cake,” respectively.) Sunday was a gorgeous day. I complain about SF weather as do most, but there’s definitely something to be said for just how special the rare heavenly days are in this city. I woke up and went on a stroll through Cole Valley. I biked to the Presidio, through Golden Gate Park which was positively overflowing with people out enjoying the weather as was I. When I got home, I even left again, for a run. I am meant to be outdoors. That’s where I am recharged, invigorated. It’s wonderful when the weather cooperates.

This weekend also brought the celebration of another birthday for another close T-named girlfriend in SF, Talia (of book club and jam making fame here on P&P). She hosted a Murder Mystery party which was definitely something to experience! It’s basically Clue in real life.

At this party I had to accept a truth I’ve long known: I am a terrible actress. My creative and artsy side is exemplified in two things: writing and dance. There, when my heart is in it, I shine. Acting? Oh my gosh. I am a cringe-fest waiting to happen. But luckily, you don’t need to be able to pull off a convincing fake murder to have fun.

It’s not a weekend without a long run. This weekend I went out for an attempted 15 which settled as a 13.1 nice half-marathon distance. I am currently not in training for anything which is both good and bad. Good because I want running to be fun, bad because I wonder what the point is. I am going to make it a point to run at least 13.1 miles every weekend if not longer. But yet, the long-run runner’s-high feeling that I love so much, I have been chasing lately. In October I’ve done two half-marathons that were very unique experiences from one another, and it’s been a while since I embarked on a solo three-hour run. I think I need to make some time for that… some time to get out and not care about pace or not look at a stupid watch every five seconds. For me, running is supposed to be about peace and happiness. It hurts, often, that’s a given. but I feel like in many ways I am trying to get my groove back. I think I need some new routes, some new tunes, some new views and attitudes. Need to re-evaluate if I’ll race between now and Big Sur.

I’m continuing to search for culinary delights in SOMA to break up my workday and last week I got doubly lucky with Ritch Street coming in strong for the win. (Left: waffle and fruit salad—as opposed to fried chicken—at Farmer Brown’s Little Skillet; right: spinach, pomegranate, mango, and sunflower seed salad at Darwin Café). Since I am now officially a food blogger thanks to Foodbuzz (as well as a running blogger, a travel blogger, a SF blogger, a life blogger…) I need to be featuring some more of these dishes. No problem on my end!

I have no idea what to be or what to do for Halloween. See, I haven’t celebrated it in years. YEARS. As in, I could not actually tell you the last time I dressed up in costume for this holiday. (Wearing a bandana on my head and going to a fraternity party freshman year of college does not count.) However, I have kind of dropped the ball on this one in terms of preparation so if it means I just go people watch while eating candy corn, so be it. Though hopefully I can tap the creative juices that exist down there somewhere to be able to enjoy this truly strange and ridiculous celebration. Any ideas or suggestions are very much appreciated.

I recognize that this is off the map, but I just felt like talking into my little space on the internet. Now that I’ve gotten this out of my system, we will soon return to our regularly scheduled programming when time allows. Though if we have a few more gorgeous days, it might have to wait.

Courtney

What’s a snapshot from your life right now?

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