The Celebration Continues

After working out to the royal wedding, Mon and I were feeling a little slighted that we couldn’t continue the celebration with the royal family.

But our luck turned when Mon’s work surprised everyone with a little bit o’ bubbly.You’re gonna shoot your eye out… you’re gonna shoot your eye out…

Name that movie.

This was Friday night, so you can probably guess we watched more wedding coverage. Seriously. It was everywhere…

And sure, we could have made it all proper and gotten some nice chocolate or caviar or at least something fancy to go with our champagne.Or barbeque?

Well- sort of. It was the last of the turkey leftovers my mom sent back with me from our family Easter dinner. Really it was just a matter of throwing on things that happened to be around. Such as avocado. Jalapenos. Pepperjack cheese. And BBQ sauce.

For dessert, may I suggest almost a half bag of Easter candy?

Not that I would have done that or anything…

Malted milk ball robin eggs… they get me every time.

No wonder why I was at the gym super early on Saturday morning.

3 miles at 8:31 pace. And 15 minutes on the stairmill. My first run over 2 miles in quite some time. Before, anything over 2 miles had left my leg feeling uncomfortably achy. But it’s a day later and I’m not feeling bad. So yippeeeeeee!

And yes, I still have plans to get it checked out. An appointment has even been made. Which is huge- I often will not visit a doctor without being dragged, kicking and screaming the entire way. Like an 8-year-old.

In short, I don’t like doctors much.

After the gym time, I was in a rush to shower and spend the ENTIRE day playing in Wrigleyville with my future roomie, Bailey (by the way, some have asked, and yes she knows about this blog- and has even been included in some of my posts… she’s just as kooky as the rest of the girls on here…).

A few things we learned:

- Our scheduled day coincided with a pub crawl. Awesome because people were everywhere. Annoying because people were everywhere. Getting our first drink at a new place was never an issue. It was when the crowd would suddenly show up and SLAM the bar that caused the annoyance.

- Baby Guiness shots are fun (amaretto and Bailey’s). And should be done in pairs. Otherwise there is no point. Yummy, but total weak sauce.

- Batting cages are accessible in Wrigleyville (at a bar so properly named Sluggers). They are expensive. But awesome.The helmet would not stay on. My guy friend that was with us said the helmet was unnecessary and suggested I go without. I asked if he knew who he was talking to. He changed his mind and said to keep it on. That really happened.

Last year, Mon and I struck out (yes, I said that) on finding some batting cages near we live and had to settle with bowling (still fun!). But nothing beats hitting some balls around.

Ahem.

- There really are places in the area that will serve Busch Light in a can. That doesn’t mean you should actually drink it.

- You can find people to text while on the late night train home. That doesn’t mean you should actually text them.

- Finally, just because you’re used to waking up around 6:30 in the morning during the week doesn’t mean you should on the weekends. Especially when you didn’t go to bed until 2:30 because you were spending an entire day frolicking.

I should lay back down.

If it’s only 8:30 in the morning, does sleep still count for the night before, or is it already my first nap of the day? Hmmm…

First Baseball Weekend In Wrigleyville

Good afternoon.It was an extra-large-cup-o-coffee kind of morning.

I would imagine most people who participate in Opening weekend would agree.

Oh and do you see that awesome spot on my table? That happened last summer- don’t leave a bottle of sun tan lotion sit on your table for a day. Especially if you don’t realize the cap was open and it leaked… because it will eat the finish on the new table you just bought a few months earlier.

Anyway, on to more pressing issues.

Like who’s the smart one that schedules a Saturday baseball game at noon?

Really?If you were out in Wrigleyville, you may have seen me and some of my cohorts in action (even Megan joined in on the fun!). We were the group of delinquents eating nachos at The Stretch, hiding out at Murphy’s Bleachers, eating more nachos and dancing at Casey Moran’s or starting the dance party back at The Stretch.

We like nachos. And we like to dance.

Obviously.

So I’m quite tired today. May have been less tired had we not ran to catch a train and watched it pull away as we got through the doors. And then had to wait an hour for the next one…

We’re really good at that.

As you can see, I elected to spend the day in Wrigleyville and pass up my long run. Still feeling good after my little workout on Thursday night, so we’re going to do a little more running/cross-training today and tomorrow. Just not push it. And still take an extra day or two of rest. Annoying but necessary.

Luckily, as last week passed, I started to get much better at enjoying my sudden free time.

Which is easy to do in good company. On Friday, my good friend Annie and I decided to get together for a lazy night in with wine and a red box.And pizza… don’t forget the pizza…

She requested homemade pizza made by yours truly, and she took care of the salad.

Team work.

Anyway, it’s about time to get moving and try to enjoy the end of my weekend. Laters!

Everywhere and Back Again

I’m going to be cheap and use a shot of Jake Gyllenhaal naked to catch your attention:I’m not ashamed.  He is quite the handsome man.  And has come a long way from his Bubble Boy days. ;)

But yes, I just made this late breakfast. Yesterday was a whirlwind and I’m all out of whack it seems.

That can sometimes be a good thing. 

I got up early for a coffee date at O’Hare with my fantabulous friend Ashlee.  She had a 4-hour layover and we were determined to take advantage of it.Hey girl… heeeeeeyyyy!

 O’Hare is a huge place.  And I have no sense of direction.  So it took a bit to finally come together.  Which is sad, because I had a plan.  And a sign for when she walked out from the gate:Totally didn’t get to use it.  But it’s the thought that counts, right?

And yeah- we have nicknames.  I call her monkey and she calls me penguin.

You can try to understand our crazy if you want to.  But I don’t really even know how we became so weird…I already had breakfast, and Ashlee’s not a big breakfast person, so we split a cookie from Starbucks.  The white chocolate icing was fab.  But we both said the same thing.  Crunchy sugar cookies are not nearly as good as soft ones.  Truth.

After a couple hours, she had to leave for her flight home.  I’m being mischievous and am already coming up with ways to sabotage her next layover so she’ll have no choice but to stay in Chicago.  For good.  Muhahahaha…

I also had another friend who was in the area for the weekend from Philly.  We went to college together and there was an MU game on last night, so it only seemed natural that we made our way to The Spread (my favorite Mizzou bar in the Lincoln Park neighborhood).The three of us slowly and randomly worked our way around the city. It would have been faster had we not had a cab driver who hated life and decided to tell us why and then the other cab driver who seemed more lost than we were. 

My favorite spot of the night was at Cubby Bear just outside of Wrigleyville.  The big Northwestern vs. Illinios game was played inside of Wrigley field yesterday and ESPN College Game Day had been there.  Needless to say, the streets were packed.  The bars were full.  The drinks were flowing.

The pizza was also ordered.  And demolished.

We crashed at a friend’s house (drinking and driving should never be mixed, kids!) and I woke up with a bit of a headache.  Which is somewhat surprising considering how much we ate at the end of the night.  I’m not a big believer in Advil (seriously- I’ve only stashed one or two sample packets of Advil at home from work for worst-case scenarios), so my cure came in the form of this: They should really come up with a bigger size for their iced teas.  Like a pony keg.  I’d dig it. Because this was obviously not enough (refer to coffee in the first picture that was immediately consumed after my tea was gone).

I think I have a caffeine addiction.

I also think that is not a surprising revelation.

I also think it may be time to lounge some more.  It’s Sunday.  Sundays are lazy.  Truth.

A Day of Baseball

After my late night shenanigans on Friday, Saturday morning’s early wakeup call to go down to Wrigley was not a pleasant one. 

But I persevered.  Because I was meeting up with another gal from my hometown (who lives in the area) and a few of her coworkers to go cheer on the Cardinals during the Cards/Cubs series!I may not be a Cubs fan.  But I’m a HUGE fan of Wrigley Field.  How can you not be?  It’s iconic!

I’m also a huge fan of Murphy’s Bleachers.  It’s a bar just outside of Wrigley behind the outfield.I also like to drink Old Style at Murphy’s.  I was told during my first trip to Wrigley that it’s sort of a rite of passage. 

Drinking before noon is totally acceptable when done so in a ceremonious fashion.  Right?

I believe this is also the only time that drinking crap beer would be considered “ceremonious”.

One of the guys was able to pick up some bleachers seats for us.This was my first time in the bleacher seats.  Supposedly they get pretty crazy.  I would assume this happens when it’s a little warmer than 55 degrees and when one of the teams playing still has a shot at the playoffs.  The whole atmosphere was a little subdued.

I did spy some good looking eats in front of me.Who doesn’t love a huge helmet full of nachos?  And they were LOADED.  Unfortunately, I never found where these were being sold.  And had to stick with a dinky overpriced italian sausage.  Booo…

What’s your favorite kind of stadium food?  I used to seek out the Dippin’ Dots if wherever I was had them- I was obsessed!

Sadly, I had to endure a Cardinals loss.  I’m sure Paige, who was also there, may have more enthusiastic feelings towards the outcome of the game. 

Oh and did anyone see Hawksworth get a line drive right to the face?This could be one time that I’m glad Wrigley doesn’t have a big screen for replays. It looked horrific- and that’s coming from the girl who saw it all the way from the outfield…

Afterwards, we made a trip to Cubby Bear (also right across from the stadium) and hung out there until I was ready to sneak out and get home.  I was exhausted. And kinda hungry.Trader Joe’s spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli.  Topped off with my “fancy” Prego and sautéed mushrooms.  Way better than another round of pricey stadium food, right?

And right now I’m up and at ‘em early again to drive down with my lovely friend Annie to totally OWN this 8k we’re doing.  Well- hopefully.    I’ve been a little shaky on the left leg as of late (notice all the elliptical vs. running days).  But I’ve taken some time off of it and I think I’m ready to go!

Time to get my run on!

Have a great Sunday!

Murphy’s Law

Hey kids.  Sorry I’ve been missing for a few days.  I promise I’ll be back to normal soon! 

I had a great weekend with my college girls and friends downtown in Chicago this last weekend.  Pretty much everything that could go wrong did.  But that’s ok- it still turned out to be one of the best birthday weekends!

Here’s a quick rundown of what happened.  Feel free to laugh a bit, I know we did…

- My friends hit every single traffic jam in the state of Illinois to get here.  This put them over two hours behind schedule.

- We missed our first train into the city because of said traffic.  The train we did catch was a half hour late. Original plans were to get checked in at the hotel around 6:00.  We got to the room by 10:30.

- It rained like CRAZY all Friday night.  Any time spent on hair and makeup was pretty much wasted.  But we still had a great time.

- We ended up staying at Allerton Hotel after doing name your price on Priceline.  It was a GREAT location on North Michigan Avenue.  Although us three girls did get stuck  with one bed (when we requested doubles).  Good thing we really like each other.  And no one has horrible morning breath.

- We didn’t go watch the Cards/Cubs game in Wrigleyville.  But I did hit a sale on some  killer boots at Zara. 

- It was country night at Rockwood Place (our planned destination) on Saturday night.  If you know me, you’ll know how much I dislike country music.  We relocated quickly to Red Ivy before my guy friends also got there.

- My friend Mary’s toe was smashed and she may lose the toenail. 

- Do NOT open the mini refrigerator at the hotel without reading the sign.  You will get charged for doing so.

- Do NOT carelessly keep your clutch under your arm unzipped.  It will fall onto the dance floor and you will almost lose all of your prized possessions without even realizing it.  Thank goodness my friends are good at dance floor scavenger hunts.

- My car wouldn’t start once we got back to the burbs.  One of the reasons why I’ve been MIA- AAA coming to jumpstart it and tell you that you need to replace the battery does take more time than you’d prefer.

- I dropped my phone and a piece popped off again.  But I did find it back.  Phone still works (whew).

- My cable and internet weren’t working when I got home.  This leads to a very long phone call and arguing with the customer service rep that I can’t update my info on my account online because I can’t actually get online.  Idiot…

- Random weekends lead to random eating.  Stuffing five mini cupcakes into my face at 3:00 in the morning should be mentioned here… along with an unaccounted for number of Kit Kat fun size bars.  I’m trying to figure out how I can justify this as carb loading.

- Do not say “I don’t care, whatever shot you want to buy.”  It will lead to chugging an Irish Car Bomb.  Disgusting.

Anyways, that was my weekend in less than 500 words.  Trust me, it was exhausting.  But I loved every minute.  I have wonderful friends.  And I love them all very very much.  They are too good to me.  And kept me from diving into the birthday blues or a quarter life crisis.  Thank you all!

And here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure to sum up the weekend properly.   

Anyways, Happy Monday!  This is a pretty easy week (training-wise) because we are in the HOME STRETCH!  The Rock n’ Roll half is less than a week away!!!

Any tips for the routine I’ll be going through the week before?  Training/eating/etc?

Play Day in Wrigleyville

Ok, so the Cubbies didn’t win yesterday.  But that’s not to say we didn’t have a good time! 

After a few hours of work, we made our way to Wrigleyville and got a little down time at Jaime’s house.  Sadly, we were hanging out in a half-packed house.  They’re moving out of Wrigleyville to suburbia.  Sure, I’m excited they’ll be closer to me, but I’ll be upset that I won’t get to hang out at the place I’ve known for so long as Jaime and Scott’s! 

Once I walked in, this little lady let me know she was happy to see me! I miss little Hazel and Princess from my two weeks of dogsitting a few months ago!  And it’s nice to know they still remember our hang out time when I come over…

We got to the game right at the end of the first inning.  I kicked back with an Old Style right away.  Gotta keep with the Wrigley Field tradition, right?

I won’t lie- the game was pretty dull.  Awful, actually.  Scoreless until the 8th?  Eh. At any rate, we got a little chilly since our seats were in the shade.  So we did eventually make our way to the deck to warm up for a bit. Does it look like I have a problem with this?  Nope…Yea for staff outtings!  Jaime and I had a great time getting out of the office and having a play day!  I just wish we could do it more often…

After the game, we headed back to Jaime’s and took to the streets….Does this count as physical activity for the day?

This was my first time ever playing bags.  In Missouri, we played “washers” which was very similar.  So I picked it up sort of quickly.  “Sort of”.Jaime and I won a  game and lost a game.  The game we lost was when we were challenged by a few random guys who were walking down the street.  They schooled us pretty badly.  It would have been embarrassing if I wasn’t clearly aware of how bad I am at bags.

What games do you guys play over the summer?

After I had my fun with bags and was sure that I was getting a little bit of a sunburn, I made my way up to Lincoln Square to meet up with a guy friend for dinner.  I let him pick the spot and we ended up at The Bad Apple.  This place was bad ass! (ha ha… I just made myself giggle).  They’re known for their burgers, so that’s when I ended up getting.  At this point in the day, I was very hungry.  And a bit dehydrated.  So I wasn’t fully thinking through my actions.  I thought the “Big Texan” sounded good because I saw the words “pulled pork”.  The realization of what I just did took a while to set in.  Like until they put the burger in front of me.  Basically, I ordered a meat on top of meat burger.  What?  The pulled pork sounded amazing.  But when it was all sitting in front of me, I was not nearly as hungry as I thought I was.

I still ate half of it.  Because I was hungry…  And I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t good.  But I think I’d go a more traditional route next time.  Like with cheese.  And vegetables (the onion rings that came with it don’t count- and were not consumed). 

 All in all, I got home and was very happy about how my rest day was spent.   

Because I seem to have a rhythm going, I got up early today to get in a session of The Shred.  Just Level 1, but it was a good jump start to the day.  Another good jump start?  Day #4 of mixing it up in the mornings…Ok, so this may not look THAT much different than my usual bowl of old-fashioned oatmeal.  But it really is!  They’re steel cut!  :p  I finally learned to soak the steel cut oats overnight in the milk.  And then I zapped them for about 4 minutes this morning in the microwave.  I really do like the texture- and that they’re a little more dense.  And instead of my usual peanut butter, I switched it up with just some slivered almonds and some honey.See?  Different!

Tonight is another run night.  The nice weather seems to be sticking around, so I couldn’t be happier.  I’m supposed to be doing 4.5 miles, but am shooting for 5.  I’m also curious to see what my pace will be since I’m running it solo this time- because I know what I can do thanks to my run with Pham.  Let’s see what I actually will do…

Can  you believe we’re so close to the holiday weekend?!?!  I need to make some plans… asap!  Plans that will hopefully include riding myself of the sweet tan lines I acquired yesterday afternoon.  Hello sunshine…

Enjoy your day!

Prosit!

First off, I wanted to address a couple questions I got on my Friday post about my dress.  People wanted to know where I got it.  I got it on clearance (or maybe just a really really good sale?) on Banana Republic’s website.  I also googled like crazy until I found free shipping.  Because I’m not happy unless I think I’m getting a deal…

So yesterday I took a trip to Wrigleyville for another monthly date- it’s Lunch Club time!

This month it was Scott’s pick and he decided to try a new route with the German Pub, Uberstein.  As soon as we were all there, we made sure to start the “meeting” off with a toast:Prosit!  Did you know that means “good health” in German?  I like it!

I didn’t even plan on drinking, but soon, my mug was empty.Sadness…

This place was fun.  There was a small menu, but they covered all the basics for sure.  Ironically, I’m 100% German yet I don’t eat a lot of the “real deal” when it comes to German food.  Weird, right?I tried the “Sheboygan”, which was a pork brat.  It came with German potato salad and sauerkraut.  I’m not a fan of sauerkraut, but substitutions weren’t allowed.  So I just stayed away from that part of the plate.  The potato salad was pretty good, though- and I don’t frequently eat that, either!

Jaime got the “Thuringer” brat- it consisted of veal and pork.We traded bites to compare at one point.  There was definite agreement that I ordered the better choice.  The pork had much more spice.  One thing I loved about both of our brats is that it came on a pretzel bun.  Pretzel buns are genius.  And I think more restaurants should have them.  Because I would make sure to get it.  Every time.

Cathryn just got the “Uber Classic”. Otherwise known as a cheeseburger.  I guess she wasn’t feeling the ethnic scene?

Scott was the one who got down to business- Uber Bier Cheese Fries and Goulash.The Goulash was tasty.  But let’s talk for a minute about those cheese fries.  Holy crap.  That cheese they used was no velveeta- it was the real deal.  And it.was.awesome.  If you ever find yourself at Uberstein, this is the one thing you have to get without hesitation.  SO good.

No lunch club is complete without dessert.  And what else would we get?  (Actually, it was the only dessert on the menu, but I’m sure it would have been our top pick, anyways….)We won’t discuss how quickly this disappeared.  It was a lunch club record.  No discussion.  Just eating.

Another success.  That makes us 8/8.  Honestly, though, it doesn’t take much to please us.  Food is good.  So we’re not overly critical…

Today is a rainy one.  I was hoping for a little more pool time with one of the neighbor gals that has recently moved in.  I doubt that will happen.  But I do need to go pick up a bridesmaid dress that came in for my friend Ashlee’s wedding in September.  I also need to tell them that I need to stop getting crap from vendors in the mail.  Because I ordered my dress somewhere different than all the other girls (who are still mostly in Missouri), I had to register myself at House of Brides.  Awesome.  I really shouldn’t have done that.  So now… they think I’m the one getting married.  I get mail.  I get calls.  I get annoyed.  Seriously… it’s embarrassing having to explain to the person on the phone, “no, I’m not getting married and you are mistaken about my upcoming wedding.”  I’m very much single.  I just ordered a dress.  Which I will happily take and go on my merry way.  I paid you, now please f-ing leave me alone.  Thanks.

I think next time I get a call like that, I’m going to start making up stories.  I’ll think of a good one…

I just did a bit of walking and yoga to warmup and stretch the muscles a bit.  Now I’m off to shower off the sweaty mess that I am.  Peace out kids. 

Surrounded by 5k’s

I can’t believe how busy I’ve been this weekend… Not that I mind, it’s just that the days have flown!

After work on Friday, I drove down to crash with my friend Nicole.  We went out for eats and drinks at Rebel and have decided Rebel has some of the best bar food in all of Wrigleyville.  Don’t believe me?  Try their buffalo chicken quesadilla.  Your mouth and stomach will thank you.  The Blackhawks had a disappointing loss and I went to bed.  Crazy night… I know.

Volunteering for Girls on the Run was fun.  They were short on help in some stands, so while also rocking out my talents as a tiara decorator, I found out I’m pretty much awesome at face painting.  Hearts, smiley faces, and rainbows… yep.  And I also found out some insider information from an eight-year-old that you’re hearing here first- the peace sign is way cool again.  Just letting you know.  I’ll have to track down my peace sign necklace from fifth grade.  With matching earrings.  I was baller…

Yesterday I made the final decision to just go ahead and do the 5k Run to Alexian Field in Schaumburg.  I watched the weather (because we got rained on at GOTR and I wasn’t really feeling a 2nd day of it) and last night decided I’d be doing the 7:00 race.  Ugh.  Mon wasn’t really feeling her plans to go to a bar to see some band play, so us and another friend from the apartment complex got together to watch Shutter Island.  Oh- you say Shutter Island’s not on dvd until Tuesday?  Ok then… well, we’re in the mood for a thriller, so what else is on?  Oh… Just Wolfman?  Well… it DOES have Benicio del Toro in it.  And Emily Blunt just rocks.  So how bad can it be?

Dude.  It was pretty bad.  In what world do they cast Anthony Hopkins and Benicio del Toro as father and son and think it will work?  I dunno…  I guess with a title like “Wolfman”, we should have known what we were getting outselves into.

Moving on…

I got up at 5:30 and was still second-guessing my decision to run this race.  I have no idea why.  I just was.  But I’m glad I did it.  The Schaumburg Park District put this race on, just like the Chilly Chili 5k.  And one of the organizers remembered me as “that girl on crutches from the last race”.  Sweet.  I just sorta laughed and said, “yeah, I’m back.”Apparently the race had more people sign up on race day than they anticipated.  Or I just didn’t get there fast enough for a real bib number.  So look what a lucky 20 or 30 of us got:This caused me sadness because I like to keep my bib numbers (which are currently on display in my kitchen).  And the race is smaller and not chip-timed.  So what did they do?  At the end, my number got ripped off of me as soon as I crossed the finish.  I felt almost abused.  And concerned if I was, in fact, legitimately part of this race. 

The race went well.  It was the smallest one I’ve done for sure.  So small that we even ran through a residential neighborhood.  On the road.  With cars coming.  Which sort of reminded me about how I was stuck in traffic after Girls on the Run yesterday and almost hit a man who ran through the traffic.  Yes, almost hit  him.  Like I was less than a foot away from a lawsuit.  He gave me a dirty look.  I flipped him off.  Because clearly, I was not the dumbass running through traffic. 

But I digress.

So the race and cars…  but it wasn’t bad.  I mean really, how many idiots are up at 7:00 in the morning on a Sunday in the burbs?  Only about 250- and we were all running that race.  I was nervous about pacing myself because I really didn’t know what pace to aim for during the race.  So I just found a comfortable pace, then I found a girl ahead of me, and just kept up with her.  We even switched places back and forth for the last mile.  But she killed me in the last stretch.  Kudos to her.  Although I was kind of bummed.  I had casually browsed last year’s results to see where I’d fit in.  It wasn’t an overly competitive race and I was really hoping for a shot at the top two.  A nifty plaque would have been swell.

I finished in 24:07- which was an average pace of about 7:46.  That put me in third in my age group.  Shucks.

Now, before you think I’m complaining, let me just say I am SO SO happy with my time.  Seriously- I had to think for a minute of who I could call that early in the morning to talk about it with.  Hey mom and dad…  ha ha.  It’s an entire minute faster than the last 5k I ran in April, although I really just wanted to break 25 minutes.  So this is awesome for me.  And I did a little happy dance in my head after I crossed the finish line.

So far, I’ve improved every race I’ve done.  I’m wondering if I’m coming close to my plateau yet?  I’m pretty sure this could be it.  But I’ll be damned if I don’t try to break 24 on my next one…  :p

A few guys came up to me after the race and congratulated me on my time- one said he had been trying to keep pace with me, but I lost him somewhere in the 2nd mile.  He also talked about a couple of the running groups he’s in and said I should consider joining them, especially if I’m in training for the half marathon (which I had mentioned).  I was really flattered.  I like how nice the running community in my area is (or actually in most races I’ve been in).  Lots of cool people that I can talk to about it.  Because I’m pretty sure the majority of my friends don’t know what a negative split is, or care to even hear me talk about running.  I shut up when their eyes glaze over.  So thanks for listening to my stories.    I appreciate it!  Also, I love my friends who have actually started to regularly read this as a way to keep up with me- love you guys! 

Enjoy your Sunday!  I did the race, but I’m about to go out and tackle another three miles.  I’ve had to move some stuff around, and this is supposed to be a long run day.  So far, I’ve just done three.  And I still feel pretty good.  So yeah… I’m chilling out a little more, and then pulling another three.  It’s sunny now, so remember if you happen to be out today- wear sunscreen.  Everybody’s free to wear sunscreen.    (Does anyone remember that crazy song?)

Power Hour

Anyone else ever play “Power Hour” in college?  Did anyone ever actually make it through?  I feel like I never lasted long.  Usually I’d say “screw it” at some point and drink when I felt like it.  Even early on I wasn’t a big fan of structure… go figure.  :p

However, I had my power hour at the gym last night.  28 minutes on the elliptical.  Why 28?  Who knows… it just felt like a good number to end on.  Weights.  More weights.  Stairmill (or as Mon would say, “stair demon”) for 16.  And then ending with the ab work.  Normally I like to throw a mile or so on the treadmill in there as well, but the gym was strangely crowded and I didn’t feel participating in the “who’s gonna jump on the good ‘mill first when this dude gets off” game that was being played.

Plus I had a Thirsty Thursday date with Mon.  We gossiped as we drank a couple Goose Islands… what’s new?

I honestly don’t have much to say today.  Knowing me and my mouth, that’s kind of strange.  It’s my rest day.  Hopefully work will fly.  And I’ll be staying with a friend in Wrigleyville so we can drive together to the Girls on the Run 5k early tomorrow morning because we’re both volunteering.

We may be getting up early tomorrow, but we’re still planning to go out for a drink or two to watch the Hawks game somewhere- gotta show Chicago pride, right? 

So with that, happy Friday!  Here’s how I started mine out:I once again broke out the dessert oatmeal!  A little Special K underneath, coconut, peanut butter, and white chocolate chips.  And this is how it made me feel:I hope this is how I continue to feel about my breakfast.  I think the milk might be starting to get bad.  Ok, it could have been bad… but lets not dwell on that fact.  I clearly need to go grocery shopping.

Have a good weekend, kids!

Starting the Holiday Weekend Right

With a nice run.  Yes I did.  Five miles at 10:00 on a Saturday morning.  It was surprising to me how warm it already was.  8:45 pace.  That’s really all I have to say about that.

I was able to do the morning run (and feel much better than I did about it last week) because I stayed in last night.  I said what the hell and rented Dear John.  A lot of you said it was good, and I thought it was alright.  I got a little fidgety in the last half hour or so and started to get up to do things (so you know it wasn’t good enough to keep me glued to my seat).  But I liked it.  I kind of wonder about the book, but doubt I’ll read it- I’m not the biggest Nicholas Sparks fan.

Before the run, I had a nice big breakfast.  Dessert pancakes seemed appropriate.  It’s all only because I need the carb loading… right? 

It’s gonna be short and sweet today.  I’ve got 30 minutes of yoga calling my name before I shower and watch the Cards/Cubs game as I’m getting ready for my night out.  I’m meeting up with Jaime to watch the Blackhawks game at a bar and then tracking down my Mizzou boys to really get things started.  My only fear is that they’ll be slowing down earlier than planned.  I was getting pictures last night at 3:30 in the morning of how much fun they were having.  I reminded one of them that it’s a marathon weekend and they’re screwing themselves if they don’t get to bed soon. 

It’s always about pacing yourselves, kids.  Always.

Have a good holiday weekend, everyone!  And GO CARDS!!!!