Friday Facts About The ZOOMA Half

Facts revolving around my upcoming half marathon weekend:

1. My ZOOMA Women’s half marathon is tomorrow. I have not trained adequately for it. My hopes are that the efforts put into the Chicago Half Marathon in September will at least halfway carry over. Or just a smidge.

But in the meantime, I’m packed and super excited!

Sometimes it pays to raid your mom and dad’s house over holidays for all the good stuff.

That’s where I got my old jenga game from middle school, not the wine. I can buy that myself now…

2. I am riding with the lovely Meghan to Wisconsin for said race. We have met once and ran into each other while running on the lakefront once. If I disappear for an extended number of days, you know what happened. SEND HELP.

Just kidding, Meghan. I totally trust you.

But just in case, guys…

3. My parents are meeting up with me in Wisconsin to watch the race and take their first official trip to Wisconsin. I’m going to introduce them to cheese curds the same way I was almost two years ago. With good beer in a bar. This may be disastrous.

4. The state of my nails are atrocious about 90% of the time. However, for the time being, they are rocking the blue. Not ZOOMA blue, but close enough.

I really love that it’s time to break out the dark polish again. Makes me feel so bad ass for no good reason at all.

Even if I’m really awful at giving myself manicures. Points for trying?

5. Some of us girls are staying together to make it a super fun, estrogen-filled weekend. We decided to potluck it out. I made cookies.

You’ll hear more about those later. But feel free to drool. They are delicious. I should know. I had no less than four last night and intend to have one with my second cup of coffee later on.

I have a sugar addiction problem. Send more help.

6. There are no set goals for the race itself. Just to finish. Which is technically a goal, but stop getting so technical on me. This is mostly due to all that hill training I planned to do never happening (shame), the furthest I’ve ran since my last race was 8 miles (shame), and my cold apparently got a second wind and lingered until about two days ago (not my fault).

This is just not going to be “my race”.

But whatever. The weather seems like it’ll pull through, Wisconsin is supposedly quite pretty at this time of year, a lot of great girls are running it, and I get a necklace at the end.

And wine. Lots of wine.

My parents should probably find me at the finish sooner than later.

Did I mention there’s wine?

Where was I?

Oh yeah… so that’s my projected weekend in a nutshell. I hope you all have an equally fun time. Or at least get to drink equal amounts of wine.

Did I mention there’s going to be wine?

Wait… where was I again…?

Christmas by Numbers

Hey kiddos!

Long time no see, am I right?

This is what I’ve been up to:

Number of family get togethers: 2

Me and my bro. I had to drop the "little bro" because that is clearly not the case anymore. I would say we wish you a Merry Christmas, but you can't even see the tree...

Number of get togethers with friends: 5

Number of hours on the road: approximately 20

Number of times I saw it snow: 0 (Weird, but lucky when you consider that usually at least one leg of my trip is spent in a snow or ice storm.)

Number of times I listened to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas”: also 20 (still not tired of it)

Number of meals eaten from holiday dinner leftovers: 3 (and counting)

I probably also attacked those cookies afterwards. My sweet tooth has no discipline.

Number of pieces of pecan pie consumed: 4 (Yes, I ate 2/3 of the pie over a 3-day period. What? I wait all year for this… BAM)

Number of Paula Deen recipes used: 1 (it’s a good one- get excited)

Number of bottles of water consumed on the road: 10ish (don’t worry, I recycle)

Number of stops at Panera/St. Louis Bread Co: 2 (definitely do not call it Panera in St. Louis- people will get heated)

Number of packages from bloggers I received while at my parent’s house: 1

Kace @ Then Change It sent these and I have been using them to snack on as I road trip back to Chicago. There could not have been better timing for their arrival. Thanks girl- the brownie batter cookies are for sure changing my life! And maybe the number in inches of my waistline. But we're not discussing that now...

Number of loads of laundry I did at my parent’s house: 2 (it was conveniently awesome)

Number of lackluster workouts: 3 (The Shred – holla’)

Number of days I still have off before going back to work: 6

Number of days I will hopefully be productive when it comes to cleaning/working out/running errands: 2 (let’s be honest)

Number of salads I will be consuming this week to counteract the crazy amounts of holiday food: 7,000 (give or take)

Set plans for New Years: 0 (I should probably work on that in one of the 2 productive days I should be having, huh?)

Number of calls from the roommate about the carbon monoxide detector going off when she got back: 1 (don’t worry, it was checked and was just a dying battery- I promise I won’t die in my sleep any time soon.)

Alright, time to leave you once again. I’m in St. Louis and am getting ready for that 5th meeting with friends and the last 5 hours of my trip. Next time you see me, I’ll be back  home in good ol’ Chicago!

100 Words: Christmas Eve Edition

Merry Christmas Eve from St. Louis, my friends!Yes, I am in St. Louis. Not Hawaii.

Bummer, right?

It’s ok. I’ll be driving to the ‘rents house soon. Last night was spent with the besties in St. Louis at “Aloha Christmas”- an annual party their friend does.

I fully supported the idea.

I will also be fully supporting Panera’s efforts to caffenaite America very very soon.

Because yesterday… whew. Long drive. Long party.

Tired Amy.

However, I just wanted to say I made it safely across the Illinois border into Missouri. I know you were concerned. Which I appreciate.

Laters!

A Force To Be Reckoned With

Good morning!

I spent the last few days traipsing around St.  Louis and would call it yet another weekend for the books.

If you wanted to give me a call and get all the details, feel free. The weekend was nonstop, so your phone battery should be fully charged before doing so.

Actually, I’m sure we’re all way too busy for that. So until then, I’ll just give you a summary of the good stuff.

My friend’s wedding was a beautiful and intimate affair. Starting in a greenhouse for the ceremony and ending at the casino after the reception. I realized it IS possible to forget how to do the Cupid Shuffle (if you don’t use it, you lose it?) and the only option for late night delivery in the St. Louis suburbs is Domino’s. Good to know.

I spent Saturday afternoon with my lovely besties. Drinking coffee. Gossiping. And even making it out for a 3-mile hike at a local park. This was a kind reminder that Missouri is SO much more hilly than Illinois- quite the challenge when coming off of a 4-hour night of sleep.

When getting ready for our night out, we tried a new vodka I had picked up for the weekend:Sacrifices made for the sake of research. You’re welcome.

It was really sweet. Almost too sweet depending on what you mix it with. I went with my standard club soda and it was quite lovely. Good for maybe one drink before moving on to something else. Just sayin’.

I went to a going away party for a girl who is ironically not only moving to Chicago, but living in the same apartment complex as I did last year! WEIRD.

A record was made. There were 3 trips to Panera in a 24-hour span.No one loves breakfast more than I do. Truth.

Speaking of fast food, you better believe I got that Arby’s that was being fantasized about the whole drive down on Friday:I was tired and not overly chipper. But gosh darnit, they weren’t kidding. Arby’s really IS good mood food.

There’s a grease spot on the bag from the curly fries. It’s possible the “good mood” in that saying comes from the food coma the curly fries put you in. Just a theory.

I got home at a respectable time and had a good evening rehashing the weekend events with my roommate and watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall. What more could a girl ask for?

Because for real- I’m a lucky one. And don’t you think I don’t realize that.It’s always nice to get a weekend trip in to a place where I have such sassy chicks to spend time with.

Mary’s husband says when the three of us go out, we’re a force to be reckoned with.

Don’t I know it.

This morning I woke up with over 8 hours of sleep under my belt. Ironically, this is more sleep than I got the entire time spent in St. Louis. And I’m still tired.

Imagine that.

Gotta go- the only image in my head right now is my work email inbox bursting at the seams. Yikes…

And The Thunder Rolls…

Mark my words- this is the ONLY time you will ever hear me reference a country song.

It just seemed appropriate.

My drive yesterday was… interesting. The office closed at noon yesterday and there might as well have been a gunfire start as I rushed to get out of the city and on the road. Directly into a downpour. For about 2 hours.

It amazes me how many people don’t feel it’s necessary to put on their lights in a storm. Not so much out of concern for their safety- but do they not realize how much of MY time is going to be wasted if cars begin to collide? Geez.

Clearly it’s all about me.

Anyway, after I was out of the crazy, there was still constant rain. So I won’t complain about the flat boring drive of cornfield after cornfield- mostly because I couldn’t see them.

Thank goodness it never fails- I always hear and rock out to Chumbawumba while driving through central Illinois. Talk about a perfect theme for the drive. I get knocked down… but I get up again…

Once hitting St. Louis, the calls about the tornado warnings started coming in. I was driving straight towards them. And baseball-sized hail that was accompanying them.

Fabulous.

Because I already had decided to stray a little from my regular route to swing through my old college town, I missed the tornadoes sweeping through. Completely. 

Had I not decided to go that way, I would have been in the middle of all the storms that hit St. Louis. Lucky was DEFINITELY the word of the day. Especially since I had to pee like crazy in St. Louis but was able to hold it while speeding buckling down and getting through in a reasonable amount of time.

That couldn’t have been good for the kidneys.

Again, I have no idea how this luck happened- because this is the ONE time my friend was able to meet up out of all the times in the last year we tried to sync up my travel plans with hers. Oh Mizzou! How I’ve missed you!

I’m sorry I haven’t come to visit more often. It’s not you- it’s me. I’ve been busy. But promise to try and come back really soon.

With two practically sleepless nights and a day of work and driving, you bet your ass I slept well last night. And then sat all morning and watched my mom bake sticky buns. After multiple trips out, I remembered this time to bring my own coffee. My dad only drinks decaf. And we won’t even get into how pointless I think decaf coffee is.

My parents are retired teachers. There are a lot of things with apples on them in their house. Typical.

Everyone in the house has been slow moving so far this morning. The rain is still coming down. The laziness continues.

I brought my trilogy of Jillian Michaels dvds. One of them will be broken out this afternoon. Because clearly I’m not venturing outside in all the rain. For reals.

Enjoy  your Saturday, kids! And for those of you traveling- be safe and have fun with the fam!

Not Ready Yet

Hey kids!

After I got home last night from my trip to St. Louis, there was a refusal to unpack and an early bed time.

I’m still struggling. Considering that I’ve been sounding like a man and hacking up awesomeness the last couple of days, I may have a sinus infection. Pair that with the stairs to my apartment being my greatest nemesis today?

I’m feeling rough.

However, I have lots to say about the race I did. Yes, the half marathon was completed- no records were broken, but I was pretty proud of my time!And St. Louis was a great time. It’s a fun town. Mostly because of girls like this:Mary and Laura were awesome this weekend. They gave me a place to crash AND got up at the crack of dawn to watch me race.

I’m really blessed with all the good friends I have in my life. Either that, or I’m really good at bribery.

On that note (being blessed, not bribing people), I’m also very lucky to have family come up to celebrate my mom’s birthday and my race all in the same day!They didn’t get to see me run the Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon last year, so I was really excited they’d get to see this one. Dad even broke out the video camera. So you know it’s a big deal.

This year’s Easter entertainment in a few weeks will be footage of the race. Also known as “Amy runs by the camera a few times”. I honestly haven’t seen myself run before, so this could be fun.In between all the shenanigans in Soulard with some of the besties, birthday celebrating with the fam, and a little 13.1-mile jog, I found time to chill in the ridiculously amazing temps (which may have been borderline HOT for this girl who did not pack well).

But hey- that means spring is HERE. 

And I’m ready for it. As soon as I can breathe properly once again and do a little more than slowly hobble from point A to B, I’ll be ready to celebrate it accordingly.

Woot!

We’ll catch up on the running stuff tomorrow. Until then, enjoy the day!

Road Trip Ready

Today I’m making the drive to St. Louis for the weekend. Plans include meeting up with besties, celebrating my mom’s birthday, and running this darned race.

Long weekend, right? Good thing I’ve been carb loading.Not that I made a point of eating pasta. I just didn’t have much else in the house being as how I’ll be out for a few days. I’m even out of marinara now, so the sauce was a simple olive oil and various seasonings- heavy on the garlic salt and pepper. 

Oh… did I not mention part of the reason the family is getting together is for my mom’s birthday?  Well, it is. And it’s a milestone birthday at that. I won’t mention which one, though, because I’d rather not be greeted with disapproving look and “oh Amy!”

Anyway, in usual Amy fashion, I am so freakin’ good at procrastination, and since I’m leaving straight from work, my alarm was set 30 minutes early to make sure I wouldn’t forget a thing while getting ready this morning.

I’m tired.

And know I forgot something… it’s just a matter of when I figure it out?

Because of Holly’s little unfortunate incident of having to run in lacy underwire unmentionables, I triple-checked my running gear. So at least we’re good to go on that front.  I still applaud her for that one. Not that my teeny tinys need the support (insert my mom’s “oh Amy!” here instead), but I would be nervous of chaffing issues.  Eeek!

But anyway…

Luckily, in case my “eyes get tired”, or in case I use that excuse (because I’m a brat), one of my good guy friends is making the trip with me.

Don’t feel bad for him. He drives faster. So we’ll get there faster. Everyone wins this way.

Are you the slower driver or the faster one?

Because of some… ahem… speeding ticket issues from a few years ago, I’ve slowed my roll. The tickets finally dropped off my insurance and the added cost is not allowed back into the budget. Know what I’m sayin’?!?

Happy Friday!

Big Plans

Hello everyone! 

So no one actually likes pants.  Hmmm.  We should start a movement.  Yes?

Anyhoo, I feel like it’s been too long!

Not just because I didn’t post yesterday, but because I’m still trying to catch up with how everyone else’s holidays went…

Anyways, the story left off in St. Louis.  I spent the night at my friend Mary’s house, not only to break up my trip back home, but to spend some time with two of my best friends over the holidays.Another wine night. We had originally talked up a big night out.  Drinks flowing… dancing… cute shoes…

We went out to pick out a bottle and get a red box movie.  After agonizing for 10 minutes over a selection, we ended up deciding on watching Entourage reruns instead.  We’re wild like that.

And reruns of Entourage turned into an episode of South Park that was about the shake weight and people’s ridiculous obsession with the Food Network.  I think I laughed the loudest.

All three of us got up around 9:30 yesterday morning.  Yes- 9:30. After we all said we would probably “naturally” wakeup by 7:30.  The long holiday weekend has clearly taken a toll on everyone.  Anyone else suffering the “holiday hangover”?

Getting up that late only means one thing.

Time for BRUNCH!We hit a local joint just down the road from Mary.  Last time us girls were together, we all ordered the same thing (it’s ok to roll your eyes here- we were just as embarrassed about it as you’d think).  This time wasn’t any different. Omelets for everyone! Like the ”Bacado” pictured above.  Mine was stuffed with avocado and bacon and I couldn’t have been happier.   

We’ll discuss how this triggered my avocado obsession (again) at a different time.

We sat there and chatted over free refills of coffee for way too long.  Not too long because I needed to go (which is probably true), but because we were rivaling all the old people with time spent there and the waitress was getting annoyed.  Oops.

Do you ever overestimate how productive you’ll be during the day?  I do- all the time.  Original thoughts were to leave St. Louis by noon or so, get a good run in (I’ve been dying to- that’s not a joke), grocery shop, unpack, etc etc.

Yeah…

I didn’t leave until close to 1:00.  Hit some traffic.  Lost any energy to workout.  And the ONLY reason grocery shopping happened was because it happened before I got home- I knew I wouldn’t drive back out to do it otherwise. And a girl needs to eat. 

And if you think any of my stuff is unpacked, you’re just crazy.  Who was I kidding?  I usually live out of my bag until it’s all been used or it has to be repacked.  True story.

However, it should be noted how thankful I am for fantastic driving conditions to and from Missouri.  That never happens.

And I would also like to note my favorite road trip tune came from a station somewhere in central Illinois.  Chumbawamba?  YES PLEASE!

Because I got to bed early, getting up to work out this morning wasn’t that big of a deal.  I figured this work week should be started with a BANG. Tuesday won’t take me down that easily.

I did my new Jillian Michaels ”No More Trouble Zones” dvd.  It left me a little sore the first time I did it, so I’m assuming it’ll let me know once again where all my underworked muscles are. 

On that note, I did “feel it” from the P90X ”Ab Ripper” cd.  Just not as badly as expected.  Maybe it was because people were building it up to such a horrible thing. Maybe because it should be combined with other circuits (really have no clue how that system works).  But I had planned to crawl out of bed. And was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t have to. Awesome.

Let’s pretend Tuesday doesn’t suck and focus our attention on how it’s yet another holiday (aka “short”) work week!

Off To St. Louis…

Whew.

It’s been a whirlwind of family, friends and food.  After yesterday being a long day of running around and visiting family, I pulled an old school move and invited some of the kids over the ‘rents’ house.Yes- this time even a baby was involved!   

M is a pretty awesome little kid.  And got even more awesome when she decided it was time to celebrate No Pants Saturday.

Who can blame her?  I don’t like pants much, either.

The last two mornings, I got smart and did my workout when everyone was sleeping.  Jillian Michaels and her dvd “No More Trouble Zones” were waiting for me under the tree this year, so I broke that one out first.

It’s a much longer dvd than The Shred.  Yikes.  But I loved it because I now have some new circuit training to add into my life.

She’s a fan of squats.  I am not.  But I feel like this is going to benefit me. 

Actually, I know it will- my butt is crazy sore.

Jillian wasn’t my only awesome gift.  My family really knows me way too well.You can never go wrong with baking or running gear.  Fact.

My aunt even said when I opened the bag with the mixing bowl, “well I saw on your blog that you had to use a pot to mix something in and figured I should help you out”.

Thanks RB. 

And yes, those were 8-pound weights.  No, I haven’t tried them with my dvds yet.  I’ve been talking big game.  But now that they’re actually in my possession, I’m a wee bit scared.

When putting my new Jillian dvd in to get started yesterday, I noticed the copy of P90X my brother had sitting there.

I’ve heard horror stories about how difficult it can be. Even my bro warned me about it.

Naturally, I wanted to dominate.

The abs section.  Or, what it’s so unassumingly called “Ab Ripper”.

15 minutes.  It was a solid workout.  People weren’t kidding.  I’m nervous as to how I’ll feel tomorrow.

Hurts so good… riiiight?  Yikes.

My last meal in Mid-MO was a mixture of new and leftover.Can’t beat soup and salad. 

And I told you that wasn’t the last of my overnight salad fixation.  If I only get it once or twice a year, I totally make it count…

Time to sneak in a cat nap before I head off to my next adventure on my Mid-MO Holiday Road Trip- St. Louis!

Are you done with the holiday travel?  Get anything good?  What are your general thoughts on pants? 

Enjoy your Sunday!

Made it by Midnight!

Can I just say I find your answers to the elevator question hilarious?

My favorite would have to be Oprah.  Oliepants has her head on straight- because not only would you get out right away, she’d probably give you a car just because.

And we all like cars, right?

Speaking of cars and driving (do you like how I did that?  ha ha), I made it to Mid-Missouri by midnight.  And didn’t hit any snow- so it was in much better time than expected!

A little over 8 hours is still quite the drive.  Before you take a road trip such as this, you should probably ask yourself some questions like I did.

Such as, what’s the proper way to fuel yourself for a drive? Before I left, Mon took the time to stop by work with lunch and she brought Buffalo Wings! Specifically, the Buffalo Ranch Chicken Wrap. And I had them give me the Caribbean Jerk sauce instead of just the medium.

I needed the spice. We had been going back and forth the other day on email and I expressed my desire to have the “most opposite of sweet I could find”.  Smart girl, that Mon.As soon as I say that, she pulls out a “common sense” ticket she received from the rent-a-cop in our apartment complex.  Nice work on forgetting to lock your door, Mon. And Happy Holidays, rent-a-cop! 

After that, it was a matter of waiting for the signal from the boss and I was off…

When driving, you should ask yourself, “I wonder what songs I’ll get sick of on this trip?”

Definitely not this one:

I’ve had a recent obsession with “Spaceman” by The Killers for months.  It won’t get out of my head!  For future reference, you can sing it 4 times in a row before moving on.  But you can go back to it every 2-3 hours and still be fine.

On another note, how many Rihanna songs can I listen to before she gets boring?

That would be zero. Zilch. Nada.  Sorry Rihanna. You were everywhere and you drove me nuts.  I can’t talk to you right now.

How many times will I have to stop?

Three.  In all honesty, I could have done it in two, but the second place didn’t have any coffee except for some being made by a questionable looking gentleman who was missing teeth.  That was the stop where I was the only non-trucker.  Oopsies.  Should have slowly backed out of that station as soon as I realized what was up.

A stop elsewhere was necessary.Which was fine.  I mean come on- can you see what’s in the corner of this pic? I even had a machine in the bathroom that guesses my accurate weight and tells my fortune all at the same time.  Can you believe it?!?!

And yes, I’m bringing Rod Tuffcurls and the Bench Press love to Missouri.  Sort of.  My “And The” came off in the wash.  So now people just think I’m advertising some sort of fancy pants bench press.  Sigh.

And if you’re wondering, gas station coffee isn’t that bad.  Sure, this is coming from the girl who won’t go out of her way for Starbucks.  But still. The mixture of gas station english toffee cappuccino and gas station coffee is quite lovely.  Try it…

Ok ya’ll, I’m outtie.  Be safe out there and have a good holiday!