The theme since my last entry has been setbacks. At the time of my last entry, I was merely "rested" after backing off my training bit, but I never seemed to get back on. A big snowstorm on Tuesday kept me on the trainer for the evening, and when the roads were still in bad shape on Wednesday, I thought, "One night off won't kill me." We all know that slippery slope.
On Friday evening I came home to a For Rent sign in front of my house, which really bummed me out after what had been a pretty positive day until that point. I knew this was coming since they had already given me an extension to recommit for the 2014-2015 academic year, but I can't commit to another year due to the circumstances discussed in last week's post. They don't allow an early termination clause, so if I sign a lease, I'm stuck with paying the rent or finding a sub-letter until August 2015. Now there is a chance that I could lose it for next year before any official plans are made. I really like that house and they gave me an awesome deal on the rent, so I would really like to stay in Bloomington and still live there if we can find a suitable position for Frank at IU.
The other setback that happened on Friday was that Frank got hit by a car door while commuting on Friday. He's now in a split due to a possible fracture in his left ring finger, and has not been able to ride since then. The lack of a tour guide, the big dump of snow on Sunday, and the fact that it has not been warmer than 25 degrees have kept me off the bike since I've been here. So today is day nine of no outside riding, so not only am I super behind on Death March training, I just feel pretty icky at this point. Hopefully, we can hike Mount Nittany tomorrow, which might not help my Death March performance, but will hopefully be good for my mental state.
Despite all this, as well as another relatively minor unexpected setback in the future plans department that left me spending a significant portion of yesterday crying, Frank has been awesomely supportive, and *most* of the time I'm confident that I will be happy in the end no matter how all of these big questions get settled. As far as good news, I did successfully work up the courage to lift weights at the Penn State fitness facility, which was every bit as awful as I imagined it would be, but since then I've found a gym that could be a reasonable replacement for The Iron Pit if I were to move here. I was also just invited for a phone interview for what should be a pretty good job here, so hopefully my not being able to find a job that's better than or equal to what I have in Bloomington doomsday scenario won't come to pass.
Finally, we did get our #scenicviewselfie, although it was off of the balcony of the cottage where Frank's office is located rather than a mountain. Perhaps I'll have some snowy mountain pictures for you on Monday, even if they mountain must be traversed on foot.
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