Monique’s not apologizing for the time spent away, but she does miss you. She was studying intensely for the GMAT. She took it and performed horribly. She’s taking it again. This means less blog time and more study time for ANOTHER month, which she is not thrilled about. If she screws up the second time around, that’s it. She is putting away her GMAT prep books and moving on to the application process. At that point she will have literally run out of money and time, and there are other molehills to conquer.

In her time spent away, she ran a half marathon (13.1 miles), drank heavily on the weekends, watched 15+ episodes of Parks and Recreation, wasted a bunch of time in Downtown L.A., got an iPhone 4S, and found a sombrero in the street. One thing she has to say about the iPhone is you know that feeling that you weren’t really living until that someone came into your life? That’s it. About the iPhone. The thing will breathe for her if she asks it to. (She hasn’t but she’s probably almost exactly quite definitely certain it will. If she does).

The half marathon was one of those first-time experiences you never forget, and it was exhilarating for this 26 year old. Monique got an unbelievable high from it and would do it again if she had to. There were moments in those miles where she could literally hear her body saying “adieu” and then from out of a great ballistic nowhere, she would go on. It was absolutely mental. Point of fact: she probably hallucinated the entire thing. She wasn’t thinking, just moving. She wasn’t hearing really, just moving. She wasn’t even a person anymore, just movement. The people cheering on the sidelines were colorful blurs that disappeared from her existence as soon as they were out of sight. She was air and space, feathers and daffodils, noise and not, dead and nearing dead.

She is still apologizing to her feet. A few hours after the half marathon it was difficult to get up or sit down, walk, talk, floss, etc. The day after, she slowly got out of bed, hoping against all hope that collapse was not imminent. It wasn’t. In fact, she felt fine. The soreness seemed to increase as the day wore on, but died out around 830pm when sleep started barking orders and who was she to resist. He’s a fine fella.

Tuesday was great. She felt fine. She could walk normally again. Wednesday, tonight, she decided she was going to attempt a run. Then the Kings happened. So she watched that and studied instead. Now she’s drinking tea, ignoring the fact that there’s a great heap of clothes on the floor, 4 broken drawers in her dresser, a great many books that need reviewing, and so much GMAT in the air it is molding her sink.

(Also, today marks the one year anniversary of this blog! MONIQUE JUST COMMITTED TO SOMETHING SOMEONE GIVE THIS LADY A SHOT!)