Forced Rest

I’m not even sure where to begin.

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…

Happy Hour Happenings

I’m not quite sure what it is, but whenever there is a need to share important information, a happy hour seems to be one of the favorite ways to do it.

Who can resist drink specials and bar food?

Anyway, I haven’t been able to join Lauren and her Team Challenge group for their weekly runs recently. And since that’s the time we use to gossip while the rest of the group logs hard-core mileage, we decided maybe we should just call it what it is and sit on our butts to chat instead. And eat pizza. Obvi.

Lauren said she was picky. And then proceeded to list off my favorite toppings as the ones she’d eat. Black olives, mushrooms, and pepperoni. Love.

Storytelling is way easier that way.

Which reminds me, I believe we’d both like to publicly apologize to the people in the booth behind us. You had no warning of the things you’d overhear. It wasn’t fair.

Anyway, after all the pizza and garlic knots (um… yum), it only seemed fair to get physical activity in this morning.

Which, after half-priced bottles, isn’t always the greatest. But then again, if I continue to have dates and happy hours every day of the week, I’m just going to have to suck it up and deal.

Being a social butterfly. It’s like totally super hard. #firstworldproblems

So yes, I had my first run this morning since the half marathon. 4.9 miles outside because this randomly warm weather will never last and I’m determined to take advantage of it as much as possible.

It feels weird to not have a race in the pipeline. But since I’m still seemingly motivated to get up before 5:00 to do something productive, I’m just going to enjoy the lack of stress from not having an end goal.

Freeballin’ it, ya’ll.

We’ll see how long it lasts.

And being as how I can’t seem to connect one thought to another in this post, and figuring out a way to eloquently wrap this up is not going to happen, I should just quit while I’m ahead and consider scheduling in a few nap times over the weekend.

K, bye.

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…

Offline Interactions

As mentioned a couple of days ago, it really is crazy how many people there are in this Chicagoland blogger community. There are so many different personalities. So many different ways we communicate and interact with one another. Comments, emails, twitter, texting, etc.

 

Why not actually hang out offline for a minute? Or maybe an hour?

 

After a little back and forth, Molly (A Foreign Land) and I were able to meet up yesterday for a blogger power lunch.

 

She let me choose the spot, and as a newbie to the area, I was a little nervous, but ended up going with Protein Bar. Mostly because people in my office rave about it and the couple of times I tried to go there, the line was out the door. There had to be something good about this joint.

 

The line was, yet again, out the door, but Molly had arrived first and assured me it seemed to be going pretty quickly. Apparently the crowds here likes to eat at their desk because we were easily able to grab a table.

 I went with the Memphis Salad. The restaurant smelled like BBQ and there was no way I was ordering something without. As the name “Protein Bar” suggests, their aim is to provide active people with healthy choices. My salad a good example- hello 32 grams of protein!

 

The thing I liked about meeting Molly was that neither one of us originally thought we’d end up here. Both of us grew up and went to college in Missouri (GO MIZZOU!) and somehow have made this city home and the only way to describe our feelings about Chicago is to call it a love affair.

 This girl is cute as a button, whereas my nose seems to be large enough to deflect the entire sun.

 

Then, after work, I met up with Lauren (Forward Is a Pace) and a group of Team Challenge runners for a few miles around the neighborhoods.

 

This meet up with Laurent was mostly my doing after I noticed, via the interwebz, about how much fun she had the week before. And she mentioned frozen yogurt.

 

You don’t just mention things like ice cream around me without expecting a follow-up.

 

So I was allowed to tag along and take advantage of adding a few miles to a day that started with me sleeping in past my normal wake-up call. Super!

 

Lauren and I go WAY back. Well. Way back to a month or so ago when we meet up for dinner and drinks. I admire her because of her excitement towards, not just running, but running for a cause. As a girl with Ulcerative Colitis, she not only has conquered her struggles with it, but she, along with my homegirl Kace, teach us not everyday is easy, but you never let something like a disease define who you are and what you do.

 

Cool kids all around.

 

Anyway, this time around we didn’t go for ice cream (definitely for the best), but took down 3.8 good but sticky miles of conversation with each other and part of her Team in Training group.

 

Clearly I just love meeting new people. It’s still up in the air on how they feel about meeting me (Weeeeee!!! How are ya guys? Nice to meet you! I’m so excited to run with you guys! I love running! So much energy! Weeeee!), but I did get invited to run with them again. And Molly seemed to be ok with the idea of lunching again sometime soon. 

 

Hopefully it’s not just because they’re really polite.

 

All in all, Wednesday was a good day.

 

But seriously, guys… I’m glad it’s Thursday!

Progress

Remember how I said I’m really awful about how I need things planned and it’s hard to find time to meet up with other peeps?

We’re finally making progress.

Ok, well not on the planning part. Lauren and I, much like with the running kids I met up with last week, emailed back and forth for over a month trying to work something out.

We’re both clearly a big deal. Finally, we found a chill Sunday evening to spend some time relaxing and chatting at John’s Place in Roscoe Village.

I’ve visited this spot recently, and Lauren offered to meet up elsewhere, but I said NO.

Because they have a solid patio and I did not have a burger the last time. And the burgers, according to their menu where they brag about winning Roscoe Village’s Burgerfest in 2010, must be something.

So I went for it.This, my friends, is “The Cowboy”. Sharp cheddar. Carmelized onions. A lil’ BBQ Sauce. And something called “bacon jam”.

The bacon jam was what first weirded me out. But our waitress assured me it was more like a relish- just bacon chopped up really fine.

All in all, it was delicious. I expected more flavor from the bacon. But maybe the amazingness of the cheddar and BBQ had me all distracted. Who knows?

And I love that salad is a side they offer without charging extra for it. It’s a rare thing. Sad but true. I should really write Michelle Obama about this observation.

Anyway, Lauren and I had fun chatting it up about our lives, races, and mutual friends (like woah).

She’s sort of new to this particular area of the city, so hopefully that means she’ll need a partner to check out more places in the area…. I’m so selfless like that.

The meal was definitely a nice protein boost for my next few workouts. I say that mostly because I want to go back as soon as possible.

Well, that and I really have done ok in the morning workout department.

Especially since my roommate woke up earlier than I did today to catch a flight for her holiday in the sun. It left me with the ability to jump and stomp around all I wanted in front of the tv and not worry about waking her up at 5:00 in the morning.

She’s excited about her week on the beach. I’m excited because I can do The Shred in the morning and not wake her up.

There’s something wrong with this.

Either way, I need to work harder at the strength training (what’s new?) and this will help. That and going outside would have been a total downer. The humidity is a bit suffocating. But I’ll still brave it to get to the office with no complaints. I sort of have to. And the sooner I do, the sooner I’ll get to leave for the 4th of July holiday. Which isn’t nearly as exciting as it had been in recent years with an extended weekend.

Nevertheless, a day off is a day off. And I will sleep in. And lounge. And be lazy.

Ahhhh…

Have a good holiday, kids! I’ll catch ya on the flip side.

The Real Sister Wives of DC

Worst weekend EVER.

For reals. I couldn’t stand another minute with these girls.

Don’t let the smiles food you. This was the end of the weekend and we were sad. And tired. And hungry. Why were we smiling, again?

Ok, fine. That’s a lie. I love them.

Our wild night out. Don’t underestimate a large group of sexy girlies on a mission to make the weekend epic.

Truly love them.

After a delay and a seat buddy who reaked of vodka and was doing who knows what with his hands under the seat tray, I ran into the arms of Miss Kelly as soon as my flight landed in Washington DC on Friday afternoon. We were the last to arrive to the party going on at Kacy’s pad, but it didn’t take long until we sat down for dinner and endless bottles of vino.

Our first dinner out was at Neyla in Georgetown. We were able to snag an outdoor spot as to enjoy the crazy muggy weather.

When dining with friends from the interwebz, you’d think there’d be an awkward silence or two. There was only one. When we were stuffed in the back of a taxi in the 90-degree weather. And that was due only to the silent prayers we were all saying in hopes our build up of back sweat didn’t roll onto the person we were sitting next to/on. A necessity more than awkward silence.

We all went with some sort of eggs for brunch on Saturday. I think it was the desire for protein- after a long night of wine and lip syncing to Boys II Men, you need your energy back. Especially if you plan to meander the city for an entire day.

Coffee Date

“Sunday coffee sounds perfect. Can we do earlier on Sunday?”
“Sure… uh… what time exactly is early?”
“11 or 11:30?”
“Perfect! I was really nervous ‘early’ was going to mean 8:00 and I would have shown up looking pretty rough…”
“Trust me, I would have too! I know how your weekends go… there are rules to follow!”

This girl totally gets me.

Which is why she is awesome.

Love her!
On a side note- does it bother anyone else that the flower on the vase is broken off? I picked at it the entire time. I wonder if she noticed...

Sarena from Non-Dairy Queen happened to be in Chicago with her husband all weekend and was darling enough to meet up with me for coffee and girly gossip before they headed back home!

If you’ve ever read her blog, you know she’s a sweetheart.

If you’ve ever read mine, you know I’m a…

Well.

I’m honestly not sure. Guess you could fill in the blank. Many answers would be acceptable. Either way, I was excited she wanted to hang out.

We chatted away nonstop over coffee. Luckily, she didn’t judge me and the massive breakfast burrito I ordered to cure my grogginess from the late night before.

Because not all nights are low profile…

Twinsies! Photo credit goes to the only other guy at the cafe who was very nice being as how we interrupted whatever work he was doing. Thanks sir!

After sadly getting ready to leave and hugging like 10 times, we parted ways.

She had plans for the day and I had a mission to beat the rain home.

However, as the girl who is easily distracted, I made a quick pit stop on the way back to the train stop.

This is one of those things I've seen from far away, but never up close. I'm a total nerd when it comes to all the random buildings/sculptures in Chicago. Rain be damned, I had to take the risk to see it!

“Agora” is definitely one of our creepier sculptures. But still kind of cool to see because of how big it is (over 100 9-foot headless men).

Afterwards, I retreated back to my respective spot on the couch to watch Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

You guys were right. Don’t watch with kids or parents.

As disturbing as it was, I still slept like a rock. Exhaustion trumped fear. Which is good. The early morning workout was calling my name.

After some resistance training via the windy walk to the gym, I did my standard routine as of late, which includes 22 minutes on the stairmill and 20 minutes on the elliptical. Followed by a visit to the big bad weight room to pretend to know what I’m doing do a few random arm and ab machines/free weights.

On the walk back home, I noticed the increase in the amount of runners hitting the streets.

I then noticed how much I’ve been missing my regular outdoor running.

I should do something about this.

Tomorrow, of course. I’ll let the kids in Boston do all the work today. Good luck, everyone!

Family Dinner: Teaching Edition

First things first. It really needs to be said that I really heart when people google search the phrases “too legit to quit” and “cereal hoarder” to get to my blog. I doubt there are two phrases able to describe me any better.

That has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of this post. I just wanted to say it.

Anyway…

Last night, my roommate and I made a journey over to Megan’s house for one of our regular “Family Dinners“. We started them late last summer and it’s nice to get together every other month or so to catch up somewhere other than a noisy bar on a Saturday night.

In other words, we’re like old women. I’m surprised we haven’t also set up a quilting circle yet.

It’s just a matter of time.

But that’s neither here nor there.

Why I mention our latest get together is this-

Megan was teaching me how to prepare salmon. As you all probably know (or you may not- try not to beat yourself up about it), I’m straight up terrified of the whole cooking fish thing. Even if it’s one of my favorite things to eat. So as a way to complete my new years resolution, Megan agreed to teach me her ways.Dun dun dunnnnn…..

Or at least she thought she was teaching me how. That or I just tricked her into making me dinner…

Check out that shaking action. It’s all in the wrist.

Actually, she did make it seem easier than I had worked it up to be in my head. Keep the seasoning simple. Broil for 6-8 minutes. Check to see if it flakes. Pair with brown rice and broccoli.Done and done and done.

Does this mean I actually have to make it next time? Crap.

We skipped dessert, but had a 20-minute conversation about favorite candy from our childhood and the holidays. Does that count?

*Mine was 100 Grand and robin eggs (Easter), by the way.

Because I know you were wondering.

Anyway, I’ve got work to do and a snowstorm to avoid, so I shall leave you now with a big HAPPY FRIDAY!

A Helping Hand

If I were left to my own devices, I’d be in BIG trouble.

For real. Because, as you could see earlier in the week, I go through phases that sometimes lack the… uh… errr…. motivation I need to get through a routine day.

Luckily, I must have known this about myself early on and felt it necessary to surround myself with some pretty awesome peeps.

Like ones to talk me into a decent workout. I’ve been on the hunt for new things to fill my attention deficit mind, and Kelly suggested trying the pyramid push up workout she does.

Well ok.

But she totally busted me.

I do push ups like a girl.

I KNOW. Stop laughing. I can run for days and days (figuratively speaking- that is in no way accurate except for when I’ve been overcaffenaited or am cracked out on sugar), but my  upper body strength? Shameful.

So I did what she suggested and tried to man up. Sort of. I can’t go all the way down (TWSS), but I did my best. And worked my way up the ladder to 6 and back down. Kelly does up to 7. But I assume that’s because she’s bad ass and I am not. Sigh…

Then, I moved on to Kacy’s suggestion of this little ab workout she found on Pinterest.

Well ok. I can give this a try- it’s just 9 different sets of types of crunches. The abs hated and loved me for this one. I imagine repeating it again would be a solid workout in itself.

Yay for me actually doing something that isn’t cardio on my own! Because as much as I love her, sometimes I just don’t want to deal with Jillian after I get home from work.

She’s really loud, guys…

This was all in addition to the 20 minutes I threw in on the elliptical and 20 minutes on the stairmill. Because cardio and I have a serious relationship. And we prefer to only be apart from each other once or twice a week.

If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

Plus, I was baking last night. The extra burn made me feel better about what has happened to my pantry over the last few trips to the grocery store:These are my baking shelves. Mine. As in, just one person- the roommate has to put her stuff like this elsewhere.

#Issues.

All that is stuff that will be used over the next few weeks.

With the exception of a reese’s peanut butter cup or two. Let’s not kid ourselves.

Luckily, with my roommate around, I made sure it’s only a few sneaks of cookie dough/finished cookies. Her just being in the room keeps me from stuffing my face with sugar like a delinquent.Whatever works, right?

More about that later, though… I have GOT to get this Friday going.

It was a rough start.

As in, I still snuck a lil’ bit o’ cookie dough/caramel/chocolate (I wasn’t messin’- this recipe was freakin’ GOOD), so sleep was hard to come by after staying up late to finish baking everything. Then, after finally getting to sleep, I woke up less than 3 hours later to a loud beep.

The power was off.

So then it was a matter of getting up, tracking down a ComEd statement (I really hate you, ComEd), calling to report it, swinging by the bathroom and going back to bed.

Instead of falling asleep, my mind was racing. How cold is it going to get in here? Is my roommate going to freeze in the basement? What if it doesn’t go back on in the estimated four hours? What if I can’t get ready for work? Why can’t I fall back asleep? What the hell am I going to eat for breakfast if I can’t even use the toaster? OMG, no coffee until I get to work?!?!?! Seriously, will I get back to sleep? I swear, I could just get up right now, but what would I do? Maybe I’ll go to the gym- this is pointless. I’m gonna go to the gym at 4:00 if this keeps up- I can shower there. What if someone steals my stuff while I’m showering at the gym? Seriously, I’m getting up if I don’t fall back asleep soon… 4:00- that’s the time I’ll go….

If I had to guess, I fell asleep at about 3:40.

At least the power DID come back on. So that’s something.

And it’s Friday. That’s another thing…

The gym still needs to happen tonight. And I’m feeling overly optimistic about it. Because I’m overcaffenaited and still possibly cracked out on sugar from last night. So according to what I said earlier, I should be able to run for days.

Stay tuned…

Sweet Surprise

You hear about it pretty much every week. Tuesdays just send me into a “blah” state of mind. Maybe one day I’ll do a rap about this state of mind like Jay Z.

But that would require me to actually be good with words. And this here blog and my random musings are a far cry from anything remotely genius (call it like I see it).

Anyway, until I figure out how to keep the “blah” from happening, there are ways to remedy the sitch. Or at least make it seem a little better. Almost like another version of my Overhaul Days.

Or, in this case, maybe the exact opposite of it?

Sometimes you just do what you’ve gotta do. Holla’.

Anyway, I love getting stuff in the mail. Especially when it comes in boxes from fellow bloggers- because you know it’s gonna be good.

And Leanne over at Skinny Architect did not disappoint.Not one bit. She actually impressed me and could possibly be the cause of a sudden onset of diabetes.

We were partnered up in the latest installment of the Blogger Sweet Swap and she chose to make “Lazy Man Cookies” and “Lazy Lady Cookies”. She said she experimented a little with the original recipe to get the “Lady” version. Makes sense- us ladies are always unpredictable and never follow the rules. Am I right or am I right???

But back to the cookies- or heaven in a pan as I like to refer to them. Whichev. It’s like she knew what all my favorite things were and dumped them in a pan before baking them to perfection.Yeah- listen to how happy I am. It’s probably the sweetened condensed milk. That stuff makes me do crazy things.

Thank you, Leanna, you helped to make my Tuesday that much more bearable.

And now, the question of the day because I feel like it:

What’s the best thing you’ve gotten in the mail recently?

I’ll tell you one thing I received that does NOT fit in that category. A red light violation ticket that showed up in the mailbox this week.

I plead the fifth.