I'm out of my mom's house.  Staying with my cousin, actually. 

So I went to Thailand with 8 other people.  Had a blast, saw a bunch of things.  In fact, here are the photos

Click here for the flickr album

I came back, and it being close to holiday season, and me training for the marathon in February, and work having piled up, I was quite busy.  All this while, my mom has decided to take on a project of her own remodeling the house.  This is fine except that she felt that I am unsympathetic to her cause and kicked me out.  Throughout the past few months, she has slung many evil things to me like calling me a filthy wh*re, countless threats to kick me out, yelling, midnight temper tantrums, etc etc.

So, it was somewhat of a relief not being inundated with all that negative emotion.  Of course, I miss the happy times, but realizing how she had damaging effects on my psyche, I don't regret this decision one bit.

In the end, I've come to the conclusion that I just don't want to be angry or upset anymore.  When a slightly selfish 28yr old woman is living with her slightly compulsive mom, problems are bound to happen.  I didn't want to be bitter with my mom or resent her.  Leaving her may have been cruel, but I think in the bigger picture, it was the right decision.

So yeah!  I'm training for the marathon.  The Tokyo Marathon.  I always hated running.  With a passion.  I was never any good at it, nor did I ever have to run, nor did I take part in any high school sports.  I had always wanted to do a marathon at least once in my life, so I took a flying leap and entered the lottery to be in the Tokyo Marathon, and I got it.

Now, I really enjoy running because of so many reason.  Part of it is because it's one of the few things that I ONLY do for myself, and not for anyone else, and no one is helping me.  It's a purely selfish activity, and it's an incredible feeling.  Another part is the runner's high!!  I had always thought it's in the person's imagination, but it isn't!  I have actually felt euphoria after a particularly difficult 5mi run.  This is the same reason I like moderate hills.  The other reason is that it builds my confidence.  I can now run 10 mi without stopping.  How awesome is that??  That's such a HUGE accomplishment for me.  That I, with zero athletic aptitude, zero athletic experience, sitting in the office all day, could do this is a great confidence boost for me.  All I had was the "I think I can" attitude and I know I will.

I guess that's it for me.  Getting quite sleepy.  I need to run tomorrow morning.  Hopefully I'll be able to get up! 

Gnite