My Bologna Tastes Better Than Your Bologna

Happy Holidays All! I'm in Ohio right now, enjoying the holidays with my family. Ohio is different from Southern California in almost every way possible. I might as well be on Mars because Mars is about as different from California as Ohio is. Right now I am sitting in an old farmhouse that is surrounded by acres and acres of plowed cornfields. There is no trash pick up here, no cable TV, and no dishwasher; however, there is an indoor toilet, which is an improvement over where I spent a few nights last week--at our cabin in the woods of Western New York.

[Carrie in Ohio...need I say more?]

One of the biggest and most burdensome differences between the OC and Northwest Ohio is that Cali is warm and Ohio is cold! There is no possible way I would be able to run a half/marathon if I had to train in Ohio. It's flat as a pancake here, but running outside is just brutal. So, I haven't ventured out yet. My mom got a free treadmill from a couple who was foreclosing on their house, so I ran a mile on it the other day, but that's all I ran because I was contracting the cold my sister brought back with her from Colorado.

When I was in NY I went skiing, but since they only have hills there, and not mountains, I didn't really get all that great of a workout. I am going to try (no promises!) to go outside and run this week...arg. Another problem with running outside here is that there is nothing (seriously, nothing!) for miles and miles and miles so basically I just have to run down the same road forever with only dead cornfields to look at. It's very depressing and not motivating at all.

So, when I have been not running, I have been bonding with my family, which so far has included Christmas dinner, movies, and visiting our Amish neighbors in New York. The topics at Christmas dinner this year were especially interesting and included discussions about which local butcher makes the best tasting bologna and which local county fair has the highest number of broiler chickens on show each year.