Holidaze

As we are all busy, we try to be organized/efficient and do things like use lists.

So here’s a list of things.

They are listed in no particular order.

I just really like lists.

1. I have found this week to be more relaxing than my last weekend. Please don’t get me wrong- the weekend was great. This can sum it up:

Marathon baking on Friday night. With wine. Duh.

Chicago running bloggers meetup. More wine. Don’t worry- it was noon. Almost.

We’re a total party.

Date night! Just us and thousands of strangers…

A bloody mary to kick off Sunday Funday for the Bears/Packers game. I can barely look at this photo… ugh

2. My roommate texted on Saturday night that she was dvring Cinderella for us.  After the Bears/Packers game (please refer to the bloody mary picture above), we fell asleep on the couch watching it. And then she accidentally deleted it. Worst. Thing. Ever.

3. I’m back into the gym routine now that my old woman back is feeling better. At least for this week as I am heading home at the crack of dawn on Saturday (that is, if the world does not end as it originally was supposed to). Run 2 miles and do 20 minutes on the elliptical or stairs seems to be my chillaxed routine at the moment.

4. My work holiday party was Tuesday. Several things to be noted:
- My boss quoted Beevis and Butthead Do America. This seems so wrong, but was sooooo amazing.
- I tried duck pâté for the first time ever and didn’t hate it.
- Snuck out early so I would still have energy for the gym the next morning and wouldn’t smell like liquor at work. More people chose the other option and looked miserable. I may have been a little smug about it.

5. The roommate and I exchanged gifts.
Socks with a cape. This means I am now a super hero. BAM.

The dude and I exchanged gifts, too. But I like to be more discreet about such things. No matter how much I love them.

6. In order to not enter this mentality:

I’ve been doing this for every time I’ve gone out/drank/celebrated the holidays:

We call this “let’s throw all the vegetables in the refrigerator onto some lettuce and see what we end up with”.

It’s a half-win.

7. Convicts escaped the correctional facility in downtown Chicago on Tuesday and only one has been caught. I honestly had no idea my place of employment was so close to a prison, but it has made going out for lunch seem that much more thrilling. I like to live on the edge.

8. So I guess the world is supposed to end at some point today? Isn’t that what all this crazy buzz is about?  Just in case, the roommate and I decided to make a “one last roomie date” by staying in and watching a movie with some drinks last night. She got a sweet bottle of cabernet from a vendor at work and it seemed to be a shame to potentially waste it. So we drank nice wine and watched Home Alone. Naturally.

This list is getting too long. I should end it now. And because this is probably the last day of work before Christmas for a lot of people, I just want to say enjoy your holiday and travel safe! xoxo

Leftover Week

A conversation via google chat:

Lauren: I have exciting news!
Me: ?
Lauren: I get double Thanksgiving leftovers this year.

At this point, I thought she was just rubbing it in that she was getting even MORE turkey to my none. I did my best to not call her a jerk right away.

Me: That’s awesome! Leftovers from grandma are the best!
Lauren: Yes. So that’s why I’m getting double. Because she said to “give some to your poor friend Amy who doesn’t get Thanksgiving at home this year.”

My friends are not jerks. I take that back. They’re the cutest things ever.

Thanks to a fondness of running, eating, wine, gossiping about boys, and book club, Lauren and I have been hanging out on the regular.

Because really… what else is there in life?

We decided to do a swap. I, of course, graciously accepted the Thanksgiving food made with love and packed by Lauren’s g’ma and mom.

They even sent individual packets of butter… everyone go “awwww”

And, in turn, I invited Lauren over for a mini friendsgiving to close out Thanksgiving weekend.

Seemed like a fair trade. Or close. Being as how my cooking skills are limited, I may have come out ahead. But who’s really counting?

All I know is…

…I have good friends. And they have families who know how to throw down in the kitchen.

This is why I haven’t had to cook pretty much all week.

And this is why I’ve been busy running over 4 miles every morning this week.

Worth it.

The end of the leftovers are being consumed for lunch today.

Who wants to cook for me next?

On Being Thankful…

It is THAT time of year again.

To give thanks.

Because apparently it’s not important to do so except for this one day out of the year. Which is tomorrow. In case the name didn’t give it away.

Which is fine. It gives me a year to think about a list of things I should probably say “thank you” for.

And aren’t you so lucky? Here it is!

1. Warming stations at the train stop. It’s getting cold out there, peeps.
2. Lady GaGa chillin’ out on producing more singles. Overplayed. Overhyped. That’s all I have to say about that. Adele- please take note.
3. My new job. Not only do I love being in the health industry, I spend about 4 hours less on the phone every day. This lessens the threat of dealing with the complete jerks and the chin zits haven’t been around for ages. Double win!
4. Jason Segel. I know you’re dating someone. So am I. Oh what could have been… But my heart will go on. Much like Celine Dion’s.
5. Trader Joe’s selling boxed wines. My Friday nights at home with the roomie just got UPGRADED.
6. Google. So my mom doesn’t have to ask a million questions about the guy I’m dating. She can now figure it out in super creepy and devious ways on her own time. Also, let’s do a special shout out to Google Maps/Transit as we discuss the miracle of modern technology. Without you, I’d be lost 3 times a week at a minimum.
7. Victoria’s Secret. Keeping my girls in check since 2004. Why I didn’t switch over sooner, I’ll never know.
8. Chicagoland. Thank you, dear city and surrounding suburbs, for introducing me to many things I love: friends, people who are practically family, a wonderful job, running, BYOB restaurants, and 3-5am bars.  Also, it’s important to note here, Chicago has also made me that much more appreciative of the time I do get to spend with family and friends back in Missouri. This is my big ball of love” part of the list.

Let’s hold a minute… I think I heard people gagging/vomiting…

Ok… we ready to continue?  Cool.

9. Cookies. Why do you have to always be so delicious?
10. Michael Kors. You make every day a little more pretty. How do you do it?
11. Pandora. You get me through runs. You get me through the weirdest of commutes on the el/metra. You keep me from listening to people hack relentlessly or eat abnormally loudly in the cubes. You. Are. Wonderful.
12. Whoever came up with Static Guard.
13. World Peace.

Oh wait… we’re still working on that one?

Ok. Maybe next year…

That’s all I’ve got for now. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Please stop and enjoy the time with family and friends. It’s much more limited than we’ll ever realize.

Also, travel safe. Eat your weight in stuffing. And maybe hug a few people.

It is the holidays, after all.

Not Thinking

As my personal and work lives both continue to be a whirlwind of activity, when I finally am left to myself, it seems I prefer doing things that don’t require any actual brain activity.

Like catching up on my DVR. The long list of unwatched shows gives me serious anxiety.

Or when working out. I’ve been dull. Jillian has guided me along the process once or twice a week, which is greatly appreciated. And after discussing all the joys of running outside, I’ve surrendered to the Chicago weather and have been a zombie on the treadmill/stairs/elliptical all week.

This morning I actively tried to combat boredom with speed intervals, but it’s clear there are no races in my near future. Which is a good thing. My heaving after approximately 4 miles of speedwork is disturbing.

Mental note: add race searches to the list of things to look into next week during Thanksgiving break.

That and cooking.

Wait… what’s that again?

Don’t fret- I’m still eating well. This boy I know keeps acting like he enjoys my company around dinner time. Which reminds me- I think there should always be mirrors in booths of places that serve ribs.

Just sayin’.

And even if I’m still picking dried BBQ sauce out from under my fingernails, it’s good this is happening, other than the immediate benefit of my mood being elevated when he’s around. I mean… if we weren’t going out, every meal I have would look like this:

Which is similar to every other meal I’ve had for the last… uh… two weeks?

I swear even the people working at the grocery store have recognized and are now smirking at either my disgusting “grocery shopping” sweats, or my recent eating habits.

Which I personally find offensive. What’s so wrong with wanting to be comfy while being a responsible consumer and purchasing wine and deli sandwiches… everyday…?

Nevermind. Answered my own question.

Let’s pretend I’m just making room for Thanksgiving.

And just so my mother isn’t nervous I’m spending Thanksgiving in front of the television by myself with a turkey lean cuisine…

Apparently the shindig I’m attending is a big deal. I even have my own customized name plate for the occasion.

Fancy!

And until then… moooooore deli!

Happy Friday, kids. Get silly. And have the pizza delivery number in your phone before heading out to the bars. It’s easier that way.

KBYE!

Hot Chocolate Chicago 15k: From the Other Side

Being up at 4:00 on a Sunday morning was rough. But since my presence was necessary at 5:30 down in Grant Park, you do what you’ve got to do.

It’s all for the runners.

And the chocolate. If we’re being honest.

I was volunteering at the Hot Chocolate 15k/5k, and what do you know? They put my group in the fondue tent.

Dream. Come. True. Or so I thought.

This was a 15k I’ve ran the last two years. And to be honest, I didn’t particularly enjoy it either time. Simply put, I’m not a cold weather runner and the race is way too big for my liking.

Or for anyone’s liking, from what it sounds like. Races that grow beyond their capacity quickly become disorganized disasters. But because I’m a fan of chocolate and everything it stands for, why not take myself out of the equation and be part of the solution by volunteering for it?

Well. Here’s why.

It all started when Google told me the brown line would be running at 4:30 in the morning. It wasn’t. So I had no choice but to run the mile to the red line train in hopes of not being late.

The red line runs all night, which is quite obvious. Because it smells like pee.

Funny thing about that, though- I made it to the stop just in time to witness last call at the 5:00 bars. This means I took the red line, which smells like pee, with a bunch of drunken club-goers who got an additional hour of party time due to daylight savings.

Serenity now.

When I finally made it downtown. I’ve been to races early. But this was just eerie.

Got to the volunteer race tent easily enough. Could not find where to go after that. Asked around. Waited. Asked some more. Finally found a girl who was also working in the fondue tent and we realized the rest of those volunteers had managed to group up without being announced and walk away without us.

So we get to the tent and get our assignments. And do nothing for an hour until the race ends.

The crowds came. In masses. People shouting. No one knows where things should go. Shortages of everything- help, food, containers…

Then, the unthinkable happens. I was in the first line to run out of fondue.

When the name of the race is the “Hot Chocolate” race, DO NOT be in the line that runs out of chocolate. Just don’t.

People raged. Which is fair. I would have, too. But I can’t make more appear out of thin air, either. I was not the one in charge to go pick up the chocolate. I believe RAM Racing was. BIG FAIL.

It may be time to disassociate myself from this race from here on out. Not impressive on either side of the spectrum. I love a lot of RAM events (Bucktown… still cool in my book). But this one is officially too big. A shame, too, because it’s a “first race” for a lot of people. Not a great introduction into the racing community.

And no… I didn’t walk away with any chocolate.

Instead, I just walked away tired. And lacking caffeine.

Win some, lose some.

It’s always interesting to be on the other side of a race. And for the runners who thanked us for being there? It’s very much appreciated.

But man… that sucked.

Moving on…

In all honesty, I’m glad it’s Monday. Rarely is that said. But when I have dinner plans and movie night. Not with the same person.

What can I say? I’m popular…

ZOOMA Great Lakes Half Marathon: The Neverending Hill

The most well-deserved after-race medal/award I’ve ever earned.

Truth.

This last weekend, us ZOOMA ambassadors reunited, along with a few more awesome Chicago bloggers/runners in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Our weekend had finally come- The ZOOMA Great Lakes Half Marathon.

We rented a lake house, officially dubbed the party house, and had ourselves a good time.The house was amazing and we easily fit 14 ladies comfortably for the night.

All we had to do was supply the food.

ssshhh… don’t tell the rest of the healthy living bloggers we may have had more candy than vegetables on site…

If only we didn’t have such a rude 5:00 wakeup call.

Twinsies! Or at least until I became a total baby and decided I was too cold to not dress in layers…

I hope you like bagels and peanut butter… because that’s what you’re eating…

Luckily for me, our breakfast was what I normally eat for prerace. Sometimes it’s awesome us bloggers can be so cliché with our peanut butter.

Because it was a point-to-point race, we met up at the Abbey Resort to get shuttled out to the start line.

Kelly was super pumped we were the cool kids on the back of the bus. Or at least we were self-proclaimed to be. Still counts.

Two hours after waking up, the sun finally starts to rise. So many things wrong with that sentence…

The view was lovely, but the temps were not as nice. We all shivered and shuddered until the start. I opted to keep my long sleeves on- something to be thankful for every time there was a brisk breeze.

So how was the race you ask?

Well.

We were warned about the hills. But even the warnings were not enough to prepare me for what was about to happen.

Turn the first corner, oh hey- a hill.
Congrats, you’ve hit mile marker 2.  Go run up a hill.
You’ve been running on a flat surface for a quarter mile. This is too long, so go run up a hill.
You just finished a subtle incline for a mile. Go run a steep hill.

I truthfully believe I was running uphill for 75% of the race.

The worst was near the end- mile 11. At that point, I was just keeping my head down to avoid the soul crushing inclines ahead of me. But at that particular spot, I looked up. Not one person was running up the hill. It was THAT steep. I attempted my arm-pumping, look like I’m running but in all actuality am barely moving, run. For about 20 feet. Screw this, I’m walking.

I would have cried, but it’s dangerous to dehydrate yourself like that in a race.

So after the half mile from hell (I don’t think it was this long, but that’s what it felt like), we ran a little longer and turned around. To go back down it.

Now, I’ll go ahead and say my love of the stair machine at the gym probably saved my life going up those hills (because we all know I wasn’t training for them on the treadmill). But the downhill? It was so steep. And it took so much energy to slow myself down as I was barreling down, that every time my foot hit the road, my body got a shock to the system. Everything vibrated. With every step.

“This is going to hurt sooooo bad tomorrow.”

But that was about the end of it. Which was good. I was taking a beating. My endurance somehow held up. But my joints weren’t going to take much more.

2:00:04.

10th in my age group. A small race, but I feel it important to throw that out there, anyway.

Some of the ambassadors post race. Smiling. Because it was over. Whew!

And with that, I finished my 5th half marathon.

Check out the sweet compression socks. It’s how a lot of us ambassadors were able to see each other in the distance. And they kept us warm. Duh.

Thank goodness there was wine at the post race. That’s all I have to say about that.

And thank goodness my parents were there to take me to lunch afterwards.

Because I wanted to eat EVERYTHING.

A local brew called Spotted Cow to go with my turkey burger. Because I like diversity.

Oh and more food…

Why yes, the tree of broccoli was quite delicious with my mahi mahi. Thanks for asking.

So yeah. That was my ZOOMA experience. Not my best race time. But not my worst. And with all the hills? I’ll take it.

Plus, I got to see my parents and hang with a bunch of pretty awesome girls for the weekend.

Wine. Jewelry. And a solid girls weekend.

Worth it.

Now excuse me as me and my sore thighs limp on out the door to work…

Laters.

Hard Life Decisions

Life decisions have been super hard this week.

We can’t seem to decide on a Halloween costume.

In college, I knew my costume and had it ordered by September 1st. It would hang on my closet door as motivation to stop drinking the keystone and make an attempt at 15 minutes on the elliptical or something of equal worth once or twice a week (I miss you, metabolism). All so I could shimmy my way into the costume to go out and drink more keystone.

Now? We’re under two weeks. My roommate and I want to do something. What? Not a clue. And don’t you dare suggest I pull out the old costumes from college. I have this thing called “dignity” now. Or at least a shred of it. Don’t tell me otherwise.

And don’t even get me started on where we’re even going to wear the supposed costumes. The band we normally celebrate the holiday with is out of town (Guys- I’m upset about this. I’m looking at you, Rod.) and all the venues that have been discussed include live music we’re less than enthusiastic to shake our booties to.

Life is sooooo hard.

And because life decisions such as this are leaving me indecisive and all in a tizzy, I need comfort food.

Ok, fine. I’ve had this extra taco filling sitting in my freezer for way too long and I just  really wanted an excuse to make cornbread. Because apparently having it on two other separate occasions over the last 7 days is not enough.

So I mixed some up. And poured it on top of stuff in a pan. And threw it in the oven, set the timer for 20 minutes, and crossed my fingers.

Cooking without a recipe is dangerous.

But sometimes? It works out.

And when in doubt? Top stuff with salsa.

Ole!

At least I’m not hungry anymore.

However, the search continues…

So… what do you have going on for Halloween this year? And can I come?

Extreme! Weekend

Hello there! And happy Monday!

I’m feelin’ particularly good today being as how it was a restful weekend and there are no pressing deadlines in my near future.

Stress can often be healthy. But no stress is way more fun.

And you know what else is super fun?

Freakin’ dinosaurs.

Part of my weekend was spent at the Field Museum. Staring at skeletons of cool things and checking out an exhibit called “Extreme! Mammals”.

Sue the dino is still my favorite. Followed closely by the man-eating Tsavo lions.

Because I love big animals. Like lions and tigers and bears.

Or cheetahs.

The pants I wore literally all day yesterday. Totally extreme.

Don’t be jealous of my super awesome new pj pants. You can’t say I’m not sexy.

And I’m still not of a maturity level past the age of 12.

This is not a surprise to anyone. Obviously.

Lucky me, people tend to put up with it.

Anyway… after a restful weekend (with the exception of those 8 miles I ran on Saturday), all I have left between me and the ZOOMA half marathon is a work week. A work week of keeping things in check and under control.

Or at least pretending to.  I’m a girl without a deadline. Which is like a 12-year-old without a curfew.

Watch out.

I’m so extreme.

So Many Activities! (and how well-rounded I attempt to be)

Oh hey there, again.

Sorry to have been away from my laptop. I’ve been distracted with so many activities!

Like meeting up with Heather to listen to her tales of running the Chicago marathon last Sunday. To be honest, I have no intention of ever running anything longer than a half marathon, but I do love to hear about the training that goes into it and how much fun race day is.

Heather comes to Chicago to visit her sister often, however, we continued to miss each other. It would have happened again because I was frolicking through the historical city of Boston last weekend, but she and the fam happened to stay through Monday, so I got all the good details.

Congrats, Heather, on finishing yet another marathon!

The girl is fabulous.

I’ve also been reading over the past week in order to be of value to the discussion at the book club Lauren invited me to. The Book Thief was finished on the train home, and I would most definitely recommend it. However, it was terribly sad. So I didn’t mind finishing the book and then starting into the drinking portion of the evening.

None of us had done a book club before, except for one girl, so we were a little clueless as to what to do. But we were sure drinking and food were to be involved. Like duh.

There weren’t enough wine glasses to go around, so I drank Malbec out of a fancy beer glass. Because we’re resourceful.

The Book Thief was set in Nazi Germany over the course of World War 2. So the conversation wasn’t super happy-go-lucky (hence the need for more wine), but it was interesting to hear all of the different views on the book, the history surrounding it, etc.

We all patted ourselves on the back for being more well-rounded and cultured because of it. And stuff. Like totally.

And if that wasn’t enough, I’m even going to a museum this weekend. A museum! To learn about stuff! Check me out!

All this education and culture is making me twitch.

Excuse me as I check to make sure Jersey Shore is set to dvr tonight…

A New England Romp

Fun fact- Boston was on my top 5 list of cities to visit for YEARS.

Probably even top 3. For some reason, this place intrigued me.

It just seemed like a cool place. And people have neat accents there (always a plus). It was clearly THE place I needed to visit.

Not that it’s any surprise, but I was right.

It was awesome.

Then again, part of that may have been the crowd I was with. Stephanie, Kacy, Jess, and Kelly are just like an extension of my personality.

All smiles while waiting for our names to be called for brunch. By the end of our wait, I was ready to eat my arm off.

We’re a force of crazy. With a little sass on the side.

It’s probably quite scary. We apologize.

Because many of you have already been to Boston, or maybe even live there, let’s keep this brief when it comes to discussing my weekend…

1. Steph hosted us and found a few good spots to keep us entertained. One being Top of the Hub- a restaurant on the top of one of the tallest buildings in Boston.

An open-faced salmon sandwich. By far one of the classiest meals I’ve had in a while. Not really sure how I was allowed in.

It was quite fancy and required our best behavior. Which was like a mean challenge for 5 girls with no filters who haven’t seen each other in 5 months.

Well. It was a classy affair until Kelly took to making sure Kacy didn’t miss a bite of her lobster deliciousness in a bowl. Apparently it was tasty. We almost had to restrain her from licking the bowl.

2. One guilty pleasure of mine in new cities is finding a few super cheesy tourist things to do. This came in the form of visiting Government Center. Which was full of street performers and stands for tourists to waste their money at.

The dudes were just taking turns flipping over lines of people. Blew my mind.

We totally ate it up. The people of Boston were most likely rolling their eyes at us.

3. The weekend was unseasonably warm. Which was disastrous for what I had packed, but perfect for a Saturday of walking around in the park.

The Public Garden in Boston. The beauty was remarkable. The name a bit unoriginal.

Just some cool chicks I met on the interwebz.

It looked like we strolled straight into a romantic comedy. Personally, I was waiting for Ben Affleck to save the day when I misstepped off of a curb or something. He’d say something witty and we’d fall in love at first sight.

Matt Damon would have been fine, too. I’m not picky.

4. Not all inflatable mattresses automatically come with a pump to air them up. We found this out around 12:30 on Friday night.

Kelly and I remedied the situation by asking for extra blankets for padding on the hardwood floor. And a super stiff night cap of the vodka variety. There were a few worrisome cracks when standing up, but we learned we’re still young chickens who can rock out the floor if need be. Success.

5. Toys in bars are fun. This could come in the form of a jukebox where Kacy pumped way too much money into it for some solid jams. Or it could be in the form of actually toys in the corner of the bar.

It’s like they knew I was coming.

6. The only clam chowder I had in Boston, with the exception of a few spoonfuls of Kacy’s one night, was at the airport.

Fine. So it was at the airport. However, it still beat Campbell’s in a can. Win.

Does that count? Probably not. But don’t tell me otherwise.

Don’t also warn me the book I’m reading in the above pic is supposed to be done for book club tonight. I know. And I work somewhat well under pressure. So we’ve got this.

7. As for what happens when I get home from another long weekend away?

Green things. Not seen in my diet for at least 48 hours of the 3-day weekend.

It could go without saying.

Anyway….

It was a wonderful weekend with good friends. Not sure what exactly I was expecting out of the city- but it’s a beautiful town. Smaller than I assumed it would be. But that’s also possibly because I was pretty ignorant of such demographic information.

Now that my travels are over for at least another week and a half or so, it’s time to get back into a normal routine. Whatever that may be. I can’t really remember…