I’ve been gone for a bit. Two whole holidays went by and I didn’t even check in to discuss my lack of exercise and abundance of indulgences. I apologize.

And as I contemplated all the different ways to post about how nice it was to hang with the fam, sneak in some Jillian dvds during my stay in Small Town, USA, declared salad detox as soon as I got home, and snuck one or two drinks too many over New Years, I had an epiphany.

Ok, fine. Epiphany seems way too epic.

I had a deep thought.

Ok, fine. I was thinking.

Yes, thinking. For at least a fleeting moment.

- I’m not training for anything. Or even signed up for a race yet.
- Work rumors are that January and February are going to be slammed. After writing for a full 8 hours every day, the last thing I want to do is look at a computer screen at home. Or at least look at a computer screen and be productive. Facebooking doesn’t count.
- A lot of my free time has been spent with a person of interest. And although I sometimes enjoyed poking fun at bad first dates in the past, I’d rather not jinx myself by discussing something that’s going well. Plus my mom reads this. Let’s be serious, guys.

So here we are. I have nothing I want to write about at the moment.

We could drag this out a little longer with random posts that have nothing to do with anything of interest. Or maybe a few meaningless surveys or lists that you don’t really care to read, but would anyway out of the kindness of your hearts (you guys are super sweet like that).

But why waste your time and mine?

So I’ll get to the point. This is what we call a hiatus. A break for Miss Amy. Maybe I’ll check in from time to time. Maybe I’ll be back in full force in a month or so. I’m not sure. The element of surprise seems fun.

Until then, feel free to follow my snark on twitter (@amysrandomness). Or instagram (same handle).

Soooo…. Happy 2013, everyone!

Excuse me while I go now to eat egg whites and salad all day and plan out the next week of working off the excess that was New Years Eve/Day.

Peace out, kids. I’ll see ya soon.

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

I haven’t posted much recently. You know it’s bad when fellow bloggers start calling you out on it.  Sorry, Paige.

However, here I am!

And thanks for all the well wishes on the back and sympathy for my pathetic inability to go down a flight of stairs correctly. Handrails are there for a reason, guys. Use them.

Anyway, throughout the rest of the week, my fear of having actually serious injuring myself waned and it seems I’m just a wee bit tender in the lower back region. So I’m comfortable starting up the routine again, but staying off of strength training for a little while longer.

I’m not upset about this. We all know how I feel about using weights. Gross.

By Thursday night, it was decided I could totally go back to my normal morning routine and hit the gym on Friday morning to make friends again with the elliptical.

Friday morning came around. And after four days of sleeping in, why take my chances?  I went for the fifth and swore to make it in today, instead.

I would have felt bad about it, but was instead in an obnoxiously perky mood. Let’s blame overcaffeination that wasn’t necessary because I was extremely well-rested. And the fact that my employer announced we were allowed to wear jeans to work through the end of the holidays.

For an announcement like this to make me literally get up and do a happy dance, it’s clear my life is only average.

Anyway, some of the Chicago Running Girlies decided to congregate with our version of a holiday party (yeah- running is involved), so that is where I’m off to at the moment. Since I wanted to ease back into the working out thing, I sadly decided it would be safer to elliptical my morning away before meeting up with them post-run. Safety first. Blah.

And because you never go to a party empty-handed, I had a mini-marathon baking night with an old coworker last night in preparation.

Snickerdoodles with a white chocolate center and chubby hubby truffles. Excuse the truffles, they need tweaking. However, I don’t even love cinnamon that much and totally went gaga over the snickerdoodles. You should make them. Like yesterday.

We decided to double recipes just to make sure our respective significant others could receive an equal sugar rush. Because the way to a man’s heart is obviously baked goods and steak.

And we all know I don’t know how to make steak.

Happy Saturday, everyone. I cannot think of a way to express my sadness over the current events, but I will say hug everyone a little tighter and treasure the company of those around you. Holiday love. Make it happen.

I guess we could start with how my gym routine had been going.

Lackluster. The theme of last week.

We all know when it’s time to take a few days off. When you need more than just the obligatory rest day of the week. A break of a few days. Maybe because your body is showing signs of exhaustion. Maybe because your motivation is nonexistent.

I was going through all of that. However, by being a creature of habit, admitting it wasn’t likely.

Then Friday happened.

That Amy carries herself with such grace and poise. Said no one ever.

Clumsy. Accident-prone. Hot mess.

I pretend these things are “endearing”. “Adorable”.

Don’t tell me otherwise.

So when we called Friday a “night in” and changed into lounge pants and hurry down the steep hardwood stairs in my apartment?

How I made it 18 months without doing it is beyond me. But you can imagine the spectacle that happened to cause 3 matching bruises, one for each stair, that my backside slammed into in one spectacularly grand motion.

I’m personally partial to the bruise on my booty. It’s a prettier shade of purple than the rest.

At least a cracked tailbone didn’t occur like the last time I flew down stairs in socks.

Win?

Maybe. My lower back seems to have gotten the worst of it. Needless to say, I haven’t seen the inside of my gym since last week. Nor have I lifted anything heavier than my work bag.

Whether I like it or not, it seems to be this is the chosen week for a break from exercise.

I’m a little perturbed I wasn’t allowed to make this choice on my own, or just taken 2-3 days instead of 4-5. But it’s time to stop dwelling on it.

At least, since it’s the holidays, I have plenty to do.

And now that I’m in two book clubs, hilariously since I can barely keep up with one, there’s that.

And all the friends I can meet up with for foodie dates with awesome bloggie peeps. Especially awesome peeps who live in my neck of the woods and our meetups (although a rare occasion) are nonstop gab fests.

Got adventurous and went with the Healthy Parm with chicken and quinoa. A possible new favorite…

Now that I think about it, that extra hourish of sleep in the morning has been nice…

Don’t feel bad for me just yet.

Now if this stretches into next week…

… someone may lose their head…

Since it’s now December, and instead of just concerning myself with everyday stressors, I’m also now taking on the holidays and “oh yeah, those new years resolutions” and the sinking feeling that comes with them.

For a good laugh, let’s see how I’ve been doing:

1. Cook some sort of fish. I never have. For some reason or another, it freaks me out.

I totally did this. I’m too lazy to hunt down the post, but it was a salmon filet from Trader Joe’s and it turned out mediocre. It didn’t kill me. So it still counts.

2. Go on vacation somewhere. Did this last year by hitting Vegas. Twice if you count the bachelorette I attended there, too. Enjoyed myself a little too much. Need to make taking time off to travel a regular thing…

I took a few extended weekends. Does that count? There was a trip to Washington DC and Boston with the sister wives. A wedding weekend in Indianapolis. A race in Geneva, Wisconsin. Maybe if you merge them all together, it counts? Almost win.

3. Beat my 8k time. It was so frustrating to have a goal of breaking 40 minutes and to finish my last 8k in 40:00:00. Now the question is, who’s doing it with me???

I did not do one 8k this year. Not one. However, I PR’d with a new 5k and half marathon time. We’ll call it another almost win.

4. Figure out my new iPhone. This could take all year. Tech savvy I am not…

I love love love my iphone. And I sort of hate myself for it because I feel so cliché. But it’s true. I love it. And I’m getting better. Win.

5. Bake with yeast. I’m more of a fan of the quick bread variety. Yeast seems like a temperamental ingredient. However, if I really do want to claim to be a “baker”, I should probably grow a pair and man up.

I have not done this. Yet. I still have almost a month. And this seems much more likely to happen than the 8k thing…

6. Run two more half marathons. Thought I had figured out which ones I’d be doing. Now I’m not so sure. Either way, two decent ones shouldn’t be hard to find.

I ran 3, bitches!  The Chi Town Half Marathon where I was totally miserable with stomach cramps. The Chicago Half Marathon where I PR’d like a boss. And the ZOOMA Half Marathon that was one giant hill. BOOM.

7. Master the crow pose in yoga. Not that I’m planning on being a yoga master any time soon, I don’t really even enjoy it, but I bet the crow pose would be an impressive party trick…

I have done yoga maybe twice this entire year. And it was Jillian Michaels yoga. So you decide if that counts. I do not see this happening. I should really just give up. I hate yoga and need to admit it.

8. See a Chicago Bulls game. I heart basketball. The Bulls are my favorite NBA team. Why hasn’t this happened yet?

Took my brother for his birthday. Two birds with one stone kind of deal. WIN!

9. Eat more cookies. It may be hard to beat my consumption from last year. But I’m willing to try.

I’d call this a toss-up. Probably didn’t bake more… but that doesn’t mean consumption was down…

10. Marry a Prince. Kate Middleton did it. Why can’t I?

Well… I’m still in my budget friendly apartment in Chicago, so this clearly did not happen. I’m not so upset about it. Prince Harry seems like a handful who can’t keep his clothes on. What a hot mess. And I’m dating someone who I like better anyway. Win.

All in all, I’m proud of my accomplishments. Especially since the list was practically forgotten about a week after it was written…

Happy Friday, folks!

…when I make an honest effort to clean, I only make it worse. Like when just a weeeee bit of pledge was used to assist in dusting the spiraling staircase to my room. Walking down said stairs in my knee highs will be the death of me. You heard it here first.

… I’ll attempt to get a head start to all of my errands by going to Target at 8:30 in the morning. “Ma’m, it’s Sunday. We don’t sell liquor until 11 on Sundays.” Sigh. Nothing like being judged first thing in the morning.

…I’ll insist on loading up on veggies and being über healthy at the beginning of the day:in order to load up on the roomie’s crockpot creation of loaded baked potato soup at the end of the day.

Perfect Sunday family dinner. And I didn’t even have to do anything.

…it’s truly unsettling to see signs like this. Because I just don’t understand who could not love that song. It makes me weep for the patrons of this mystery bar.

…it’s a struggle to force myself to break out the Christmas decorations. But when we’re done, it’s always worth it.This is the reason we will have glitter on EVERYTHING until at least May.

…I don’t really want to get up at an ungodly hour to go to the gym. But after some quality time with the elliptical and stairmill, my booty feels much better about life in general.

…it’s ok to wish away the week when all I can think about is HOW EXCITED I am for a holiday pub crawl this weekend. So, let’s hurry up and get through this Monday, shall we?

Laters, kids!

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?

Which maybe happens because I promise to bring dessert. I bake so people will love me.

Cookies are my favorite. It only makes sense I find a way to sneak them into a fancier dessert…

But I like to think it also happens because I am a very fortunate girl who has surrounded herself with wonderful people.

And this year, it just so happens these wonderful people don’t really enjoy turkey. So we had Thanksgiving ham. And being as how I’m not a ham eater, I did what anyone else would do- load up on stuffing and wine.

Cream cheese often makes people giddy. It’s not so much my thing, but here… enjoy the food porn…

A bit untraditional without the turkey, but whatever. The food was delicious.

I often bring dessert that is of a pecan pie variety. Like pecan pie cupcakes. Or pecan pie bars. Or really just whatever I can find that involves copious amounts of sugar and pecans.

Pretty sure the recipe called for 12 full-sized peanut butter cups. But I snuck into the bag early. Don’t tell the people I baked this for…

However, being as how the hostess this year was deathly allergic to tree nuts, and killing her would have been a total party foul, I also stepped away from tradition.

And even though cheesecake isn’t my most favorite thing in the world, it tends to be a party pleaser.

It’s always scary making a recipe for the first time. But really- it’s hard to go wrong with the stupid amount of butter, chocolate and sugar. Thank goodness…

The great compromise was adding chocolate and peanut butter. Who knew?

The remainder of the cookie dough and mini peanut butter cups across the top. Because presentation is half the battle.

One traditional holiday activity that I DID participate in?

Eating and drinking more than enough and spending an hour or two in a half coma with the rest of the fam while watching a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

I always suggest cutting them up into individual bars before the party. Because you need to have one… or three… before you go. Obvi.

Some things never change.

And if you feel like being the coolest kid at the holiday party this year, make the peanut butter cookie cheesecake by Peabody. Or really, just go to her recipe page and make anything on it. She knows her stuff.

BOOM.

Now excuse me. We’re still in Sunday of the holiday weekend and there’s football to be watched. Mizzou has officially fallen off my radar, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still have the Bears to keep my hopes up.

Bear Down, kids.

And just so my mom knows I ate my vegetables, here’s my Thanksgiving meal (sans ham, naturally). The second helping I had surely counterbalances the cheesecake… yep…

Enjoy the last few moments of Thanksgiving. After this, Christmas is gonna hit us hard. Brace yourselves.

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.

Oh right… this is a pic of my new hair color, if you’re still interested…

My friend Laura came to visit this weekend.

On Saturday, while getting ready to go to a party, she made mention of how she enjoys Chicago visits because she knows it’ll be a relatively healthy weekend when she spends it with me.

I patted myself on the back for that one.

Veggies and humus were the snacks on hand.

After spending Friday night in, we got up early to workout.

Laura may or may not have wanted to work on building her mileage for a destination half marathon we hope to do together next summer.

I may or many not have just really wanted to look good in my skinny jeans that night.

To each their own.

We did everything else right, too.

Chicken and veggies for lunch.

A long walk along Michigan Avenue to take in the Christmas light festivities.

Choosing to eat in vs. deep-fried bar food.

Drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated between drinks at the bar on Saturday night.

Club soda as a mixer instead of sugar-filled soda.

All smart choices.

We did so well.

I even skipped out on the late night 2am chow time. Which is a rare occurrence, if we’re being completely honest.

After Laura left, I continued the long walk trend in the nice weather for a couple of hours.

But then…

I guess it was food envy from when the rest of the crazy kids got mexican the night before.

That styrofoam carry out container was licked clean.

Skinny jeans be damned.