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?

Almost Made It…

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.

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.

Things I Apparently Hide From My Friends

It’s always sad to have a friend leave after a fun weekend.

Luckily, I get to see Laura again next weekend for a second round. For now, I’ll put my feet up and rest from all the crazy.

And for those of you who are curious, here’s a quick rundown of what we got into:

1. Laura got ridiculously stuck in rush hour traffic. Not that we were on a super strict time schedule, but it caused us to break out the beverages early due to the stress it caused.

I was more than happy to oblige with vodka lemonades. And don’t ask why I have vodka called Ice Kube. The store manager convinced me it was better than Svedka. I think he was just trying to get rid of it. What a trickster.

2. Laura’s schedule and Rod Tuffcurls’ tour dates finally aligned.

Laura drank the kool aid. And is upset this is the first time she’s been able to witness the greatness.

She is now an official Rod Tuffcurls fan. FRIENDZ!

3. Because of the late night dance-a-thon at the Rod show, we scrapped the idea of running on Saturday. And decided a walk to the beach was more appropriate.

This was also Laura’s first time visiting the beach. She could not believe Chicago had this lil’ hidden treasure.

Chicago is the awesomest. I simply cannot state this enough.

4. It’s a shame we didn’t run. However, there was plenty of walking. Not only did we walk on Saturday, we also wandered the neighborhoods on Sunday before she drove home.

I got to show off my new laces during said walk. Laura brought my belated birthday gift with her and it involved accessorizing my kicks. I’m now the coolest kid on the block! Weee!

5. We ate ALL THE FOODZ.

And dressed up to do so. Before silly shenanigans with some of our dude friends, we took ourselves on a dinner date to Frasca Pizzeria and Wine Bar.

Sure, I made homemade calzones the night before, but the polenta fries at Frasca blew my sweet cooking skills out of the water.

A garlic aioli was involved as the dipping sauce. I should apologize to the guy I was chatting with all night.

However, a little aioli didn’t deter him. Thank goodness.

6. Being too lazy to even pour ourselves bowls of cereal, we took ourselves out for breakfast on Sunday morning.

Laura requested a coffee shop atmosphere. She suggested Starbucks, but I quickly shot that down.

There are so many better places than Starsucks… come on, girl.

Bakin’ and Eggs is a super cute lil’ joint for breakfast and people watching. However, it is NOT a place to be snarky. When the waiter asked how I liked my eggs, I worked SUPER hard to keep from spitting out “unfertilized, thanks”. Being a lady is SO DIFFICULT sometimes.

The chilaquiles (baked corn tortillas mixed in with tomatilla salsa, onions and parmesan cheese) were delicious. SUPER hot, but sometimes a good kick in the face like that is what you need to wake up. Am I right?

7. My official recovery came in the form of a 4-mile run this morning. I could have easily slept more, and totally justify it, but the strong desire to feel “back to normal” consumed me. And pre-5am gym time is apparently my normal.

I don’t understand it, either.

Have a great start to the week, kiddos. It’s crunch time in the office, so I hope I’ll be staying busy and happy and breezing through it all before a nice lil’ Labor Day vacay. Fabulous!

Laters!

Cake Pops

My friend D’s bridal shower and bachelorette was this weekend. We celebrated her happiness and how exciting it is for her to be getting married next month.

I first met D through my friend Mon a couple of years back. We had both heard a lot about one another, and hit it off right away. I think it’s our love of the color pink, cupcakes and sugar.

It’s definitely not our love of cake pops.

I love making them. They’re cute. Fun. And easy to get your friends to help out with.

Her opinion? Well. It’s not so favorable.

She may or may not have attempted making them once. 4 trips to the grocery store and $100 later, not to mention an irritated boyfriend who suggested she just go buy some at a bakery after the first few trips? I believe they were a success. But at that point, it was more the principle of just conquering the Paula Deen recipe.

I believe it was a “melting of the chocolate” issue.

She now hates cake pops. And Paula Deen. And me every time I give her a hard time or feature them on the blog (hey girl, heeeeeeyyyy!).

So I couldn’t help but laugh when I walked into the private room of a restaurant where her shower was being held.

Copious amounts of cake pops!

It couldn’t have been any more ironic.

Other things there were copious amounts of?

Tiramisu. Cupcakes. Candied almonds. Sheet cake. Hershey’s kisses.

Alright, so the cake had strawberries in the middle. But that doesn’t mean I won’t eat some of the buttercream icing off the top… I mean… when you’re handed cake, you should never turn it down…

The bachelorette may have been a low-key dinner out, followed up by drinks at a chill bar afterwards. But I still had a heck of a hangover the next day.

From sugar. Nothing else.

For a girl with an extremely high sugar tolerance, this is saying something.

But wanna know why I love D so much?

The first thing she did when getting up yesterday morning was go to the mini refrigerator in the hotel and exclaim, “cake pops for breakfast!”.

It’s like we were meant to be.

And it sounds like her hatred towards cake pops has subsided a bit.

Every Sunday morning should start with cake pops in bed.

And, in turn, this means every Monday should be full of salad, salad, salad, and maybe more salad.

It’s all about the balance, kids. Am I right?

The Reset Button

I’ve had my healthy moments over the last week. Egg whites for breakfast. Salads for lunch.

But all those other things I’ve been talking about… champagne brunch with donuts, bacon, cookies, pizza and wine.

Uh. Oops?

Not that I’d really be THAT upset over eating delicious food.

But when I’ve also neglected to work out?

“I’m too tired.”
“I had to work late.”
“Traffic was awful.”

Excuses are like belly buttons.

Everyone has one.

Hmm.

Just stared at the term “belly button” for a while and realized how funny the word is.

Anyway… something shiny… what?

Where am I?

Oh yeah… the guilt wouldn’t be nearly as consuming if I had at least been good about one or the other. But this was an all-out bender.

So yesterday the reset button was pushed.

Well. After my boss presented me with sugar-infested treats.

He was quite smart about it. Basically, he fed me a Starbuck’s cake pop before informing me of how awful the day was going to be.

Obviously my coffee was the Dunkin' we have in the office. Because Bux coffee is nasty. Yeah. I said it. And I'm not taking it back.

What a trickster!

But the sugar/butter coma did dull the pain of the morning. So maybe he’s on to something.

I heart treats.

Crap! I cannot focus today!

The reset button. I hit it.

Starting with lunch. I don’t know how people don’t have salad at least once or twice a week. The roughage in your system does amazing things.

It also make you feel like you’re being a super health freak and the gym trip, after being MIA for 4 days, seems much less daunting.

This will most likely be a trick. It will still be rough. But on top of being pretty bad ass, you also just downloaded the new Katy Perry song. Those two things very much contradict each other, but work, nonetheless.

Even when your treadmill is situated between two people who have clearly been at the gym working up a sweat for a while. There’s a stench in the air and you know it’s coming from one and, for the life of you, you can’t figure out who’s more suspect.

Maybe it was a combo of the two? This will the closest you’ve ever come to switching treadmills mid-run.

THAT bad.

4.2 miles accomplished. Approximately 3 done in smelly agony.

Cajun chicken and black bean wrap gets outshined by the sweet potatoes. Who woulda thought?

Because you’ve had an uber healthy lunch and an amazingly productive session at the gym, you’re not going to want to screw up this good thing you’ve got going.

Plus you’re still super awesome at hoarding sweet potatoes.

Someone really needs to cut you off from that part of the grocery store.

Anyway, after a day like that?

Rinse. Repeat. And enjoy feeling a little bit better about your days of gluttony being behind you. At least until the weekend comes around again…

Oh and I feel the need to answer a few questions from yesterday:

1. It was D’Agostino’s pizza. And we took a medium pizza DOWN.
2. The movie, What’s Your Number?, was cute. Totally predictable but kept me entertained. Be happy you didn’t spend $10 to see it in the theater, but red box? Get it.

Besides, Anna Faris looks like she’s been getting some work/botox done and the girl’s gotta pay for it somehow. Help a sista’ out…

Have a good one, kids!

How To: Survive a Long Weekend of Sports

Hey there kiddos.

Pour yourself some coffee and pull up a seat. Today we’re going to talk about sports. Specifically how to survive an all-day celebration of the #4 (Mizzou) and #8 (KU) rivals playing each other. And then how to rally for the Super Bowl.

Really, it’s all about prep work. Starting as early as the night before.Carb loading. It’s not just for long runs.

Actually, it mostly is. Because you’ll need to get up to the alarm at 7:15 to make sure and start pumping coffee and some cereal in your system to kick-start the day and also to fuel a run before the sport shenanigans.

Run 6.7 miles. You’re starting to creep up there into the higher mileage. You don’t know if it was the early bed time or the coffee or just that you’re pretty awesome, but it was an easy run. 8:41 pace, so not quite the pace you’re hoping to hit in a few months, but still. Easy breezy.

Fuel up with more coffee and, for the love of God, take a shower. Head to your host’s house with a bottle of champagne and the donut version of Andrea’s cinnamon sugar muffins. Don’t coat them in cinnamon and sugar, cut back on the nutmeg and add icing instead. Because, that way, you get to use sprinkles. And everyone loves sprinkles. So clearly this means everyone will also love you. Double win.

Champagne brunch starts promptly at 1:30 because you’ll need to get to the bar super early to secure a table.  It is a big rivalry game, afterall.

Turns out you’re going to suck at getting to the bar early, but are still able to secure a table in the corner. Perfect size for two buckets or so of beer. Keep the buckets filled the entire night.

Jump up and down and dance your butt off when Mizzou wins.

Mizzou won.

Just making sure we’re soaking this information in.

Wake up the next morning. Wonder how you’ll be fully functional by kick-off, but a nice long walk and three cups of coffee oughta do it. Because if your heart isn’t racing, there’s something wrong…Another donut will help, too. The smartest thing you did all weekend was to save one back for yourself before packing the rest of them up to take to brunch. Pat yourself on the back.

Slowcook Sunday didn’t happen yesterday, but Megan more than made up with it by providing endless amounts of edibles covered in cheese and/or buffalo sauce.And there were brownies that arrived later. Because you wouldn’t attend a super bowl party that didn’t include dessert.

Dinner is literally buffalo chicken dip and brownies. To balance it, and make yourself feel better, dip mostly carrots and pea pods into the dip.

Totally healthy. 

Just smile and nod.

Leave before it’s over. Because your bed is calling. And so is an early morning workout that you will desperately need, and look forward to in a sick and twisted way. It’s possible you will sweat a combo of buffalo sauce and bud light. Don’t be surprised if the person next to you is doing the same.

Your workout is most likely not great. 2.1 miles on the tread before you sigh and take it down to a walk and then do the stairmill for another 20 minutes. Kudos for getting out there, but better luck tomorrow.

Because sometimes that’s just how you’re gonna wrap up a long weekend.

Time for you to pour another cup of coffee and go about your day.

Carry on…

Can’t Resist

Sundays are meant to be enjoyed.

How you enjoy them are completely on you.

I tend to spend mine doing the things I do best.

A low key workout… Catching up with my dvr… Reading…

And consuming every single cookie in my sight.

After making another giant cookie for just myself, like I did last week, my friend Annie called to see if I wanted to go out and grab something of a sugar-infested nature.

Who am I to turn that opportunity down?My just “going along to grab some coffee” turned into picking up a small butter cookie and then helping Annie finish off a giant piece of carrot cake.

Never say no to dessert.

No really, I mean it.

That philosophy is also one of the reasons I spend so much time at the gym. But whatev.

Another philosophy of mine is to spend as little time in the kitchen on a Sunday as possible.

Enter more crock pot greatness.Funny how I just said I never eat steak and here it’s making a second appearance in less than a week.Straight from the farm. It’s how I like my beef but not my boys.

The cookbook was broken open once again- we used a steak dumpling recipe as a guideline for our own concoction.Minus the celery, of course. Because no one actually likes it. Fact. We also switched out the “dumpling” part for noodles. Because noodles look fun. We had them on hand. And the point is to be lazy. They won out by a landslide.

While I was out getting coffee and cookies, this bad boy did work. And I came home just in time for this:From what I’ve experienced, 4 hours seems to be the magic time for potatoes and onions to cook to perfection.

And yet again, a successful meal that required little more than throwing together a bunch of things from the refrigerator/pantry. A successful meal to be enjoyed while watching 4 football teams you could care less about.

Yeah. I said it. My focus has already switched to basketball. Go Bulls.

Happy Monday everyone! I’m especially happy because the snow is slowly disappearing and the temperatures don’t make me hate life. That single digit crap was really working my last nerve. As was seeing all the yellow snow in my dog friendly neighborhood.

Is it Spring yet?

No Stress Here

It’s the weekend before Christmas.

That means less than 7 DAYS, people!

Normally, I’m freakin’ a little at this point. Somehow, this weekend doesn’t seem as bad as I thought.

Maybe it was the fact that I hit Target/Trader Joe’s early yesterday in order to avoid the bad crowds. There were still crowds, but it didn’t seem that busy.

Then again, I went sans makeup/shower/good hygiene in general. It’s possible men and small children hid as I strolled past.

Because I chose to break up the Target shopping and the last shopping trip to Michigan Avenue into two different days, it was noon and I had a good chunk of time on my hands. What’s a girl to do?

She runs. She runs 5 solid miles. She notices a hottie jump on the treadmill next to her. And she congratulates herself because that extra swipe of deodorant was a good choice… How you doin’?

Anyway…

Often, when I decide to stay low key for the weekend, I try to make smart decisions in the kitchen.Yay green!

And yes, that’s ranch dressing. The regular kind. My friend Mary and I discussed this once and both totally agree- the extra calories are ok as long as you’ve bringing in all the veggies with it. A massive plate of solely vegetables with some fat in the dressing is better to eat than no vegetables at all. Just don’t drown them. Holla’.

Besides, fat-free/lite ranch is really gross. And that doesn’t make anyone happy.

Another thing that does make me happy?Cookies. Duh.

During the 3rd Blogger Sweet Swap, Jessica from The Process of Healing and I were partnered together! I sent her some Chubby Hubby Cookie Bars last week, and this arrived at my door yesterday afternoon!

She chose to make a few things from How Sweet It Is- cake batter bark and browned butter chocolate chip/brownie cookies.Fabulous.

My roommate and I took down over half of the bark within an hour of opening the package. Truth.

Chocolate reduces levels of stress hormones. It’s absolutely necessary you fit it into your healthy diet over the holiday season. It’s medically proven. Google it.

Speaking of roommates, mine made buffalo ranch chicken last night.A way to reduce stress? When she asks if you want some of it, you say “why yes, yes I would love to not make my own dinner and eat this amazing food instead…”

Buffalo chicken is easily in my top 10. I’m a sucker for that hot sauce.I’m also a sucker for 312. I heart you, Goose Island. Even if you did sell your soul to Anheuser Busch. But that’s a bone to pick at another time…

We decided to hole ourselves up for a relaxing evening of movies. The Change Up, 30 Minutes or Less and The Wizard of Oz. Clearly we just couldn’t decide what kind of genre we wanted to go with. I guess variety is the spice of life.

And here I am now. Well-rested and relaxed. Not normal for a Sunday morning (reference last weekend’s silly foolery).

Off to the gym I go before tackling the last few things on my holiday shopping list. Hopefully with plenty of the Sunday afternoon to spare by the time I’m done.

And that, my friends, is how you have a relatively sane weekend before Christmas.