Thursday, December 25, 2014

It’s my third Christmas in the world since leaving prison. Wow. Time is really passing quickly. From my journal, I see that exactly 500 days have now passed since I concluded my obligation to the Bureau of Prisons. I was still in the San Francisco Halfway house on my first Christmas in society, which meant I was still a prisoner. Carole worked that day, but I was allowed to leave the halfway house. I remember running a 20-mile distance that day in the rain. I was alone, but I enjoyed the time very much. Carole worked last Christmas, too. I spent the day alone in our home in Petaluma. At the time, I wouldn’t have thought that we’d be living in Orange County this year.

Carole was scheduled to work today, too, but the census at her hospital was low. She received a phone call at 5:00 am this morning with the welcome news that she wouldn’t have to work. It would be our first Christmas together. Since she wasn’t working, I decided not to run. We began looking for houses together on real estate websites.

We put plans in motion to purchase a second investment property around the time that she will graduate. Initially, we’ve been planning to purchase another home in the San Francisco Bay area because there is such a strong rental market there. But today Carole expressed more comfort in buying a home in Orange County. We discussed the pros and cons of buying a home for us to live in rather than buying a second investment property. I don’t know what we’ll do, but we enjoyed the morning looking at homes and townhomes in Irvine. Then we spent several hours driving around for a curbside look at the homes we liked. We also drove to Laguna Beach together for the first time.

I spent the afternoon working on my writing responsibilities. Then we drove to my grandmother’s house for a wonderful Christmas dinner with my mom and grandma. I’m so glad that Carole was able to join me. My mom made a great steak for me, and she also prepared black beans Cuban style, which I ate frequently while growing up. This was the best Christmas I’ve had in as long as I can remember. I’m very grateful.

Days since my release from prison: 500

Miles that I ran today: 0

Miles that I ran so far this week: 24.4

Miles that I’ve run during the month of December: 124.87

Miles that I ran so far in 2014: 2,355.86

Miles that I need to run in order to reach my annual goal of 2,400 miles: 44.14

Miles I’m ahead of schedule to reach my 2,400-mile goal by the end of 2014: -2.77

My weight for today: 168