My thirty-first birthday last weekend was really lovely, which was so nice considering my thirtieth birthday had been a bit of a wash. (Literally, as the torrential downpour delayed our train to NYC, soaked us on our walk to the restaurant, and caused many friends to bail out on the evening.)
Saturday morning started off with setting a PR in the Four Courts Four Miler. We then came home and had a breakfast dance party... we made breakfast and cleaned up the apartment while singing and dancing around to some club music (because I am a total dork).
Saturday afternoon, Adam surprised me with a trip to afternoon tea at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel. We drank tea and ate little sandwiches and pastries. It was so fancy!
That evening, my friends Carla and Aaron came down from Baltimore to spend the night with us. We met a bunch of friends out for dinner at Carmine's. The family-style Italian restaurant is perfect for a large group and has the best eggplant parmesan I've ever had. The penne vodka is delicious, too. Actually, everything I've had there is pretty good and it seemed like everyone enjoyed their food. We ended up with TONS of leftovers, which Adam gave to a homeless person on our way to a bar to watch the Big East finals. (When she asked him if he could get her any food, I don't know that she was expecting to receive nearly 5 pounds of spaghetti and meatballs!) I'm glad we found someone to give the food to, because there's no way Adam would have eaten it all at home.
After dinner, Adam hurried off (with us all following) to try to find a bar playing the Big East finals so he could see UConn play. He was convinced that they weren't going to win, even though I made a very good argument earlier in the day about how they were totally going to win because they started off the year winning a tournament in Maui while we were there on our honeymoon, and so of course they'd win the Big East final on my birthday. I mean, it only makes sense, right? Right. (And they did.)
The next morning, we hosted a birthday brunch for several friends at our place. I love brunch and think I might make this an annual thing, and when we have a bigger place I might invite everyone over for brunch instead of having two birthday celebrations. (Although, then I wouldn't get to have two birthday celebrations... ) I mostly followed Smitten Kitchen's brunch strategy and, in fact, served many of her dishes, alongside strawberry bellinis and mimosas.
It was a weekend full of good food and time with great friends... the perfect way to celebrate.
Maybe I should have put cleaning out my closet and looking more put together on my resolutions list, because I could have checked those right off!
I've always had a really hard time figuring out how to dress for the office. All of the other attorneys in my office are men. They have it easy... slacks, shirt, tie. I've never quite been able to figure out the female equivalent to that attire. If I wear a suit when I don't have a court date or client meeting, I feel overdressed. But I often also feel underdressed in my usual sweater or shirt/cardigan combo, considering they all have ties on, which seems to clearly elevate things a level beyond just business casual.
I've also had overflowing drawers for quite some time now. There were many items I was holding onto for no good reason at all, even though I don't wear them anymore. Did I really still need all those college t-shirts I collected? The long-sleeved race t-shirts with stains on them? Just how many pajama pants does one girl need... when she hate wearing pants to bed? (Note: I do wear shorts to bed.) And why, oh why, do I have so many pairs of non-work socks, when I can only wear them two days a week?
Enter: Shop Your Closet and The Put Together Project (TPTP).
Susan's checklist for shopping your closet is fantastic. I printed that sucker out and took it into my bedroom to tackle my closets and drawers. I didn't even need try on most of the items -- I just opened drawers, threw out old t-shirts, donated clothes that have been packed away in storage for several seasons, tossed old socks I never wear anymore (I used to really have a thing for fun and colorful socks... doesn't so much work with the lawyerly wardrobe these days). Just this simple step of admitting that I actually don't wear these things anymore and they will not be missed helped me immensely. (It was a little sad to part with my volleyball sweatshirt from the first year I played in high school... meaning that shirt was more than FIFTEEN YEARS OLD. Also meaning, I had that shirt for as many years of my life as I didn't. Uhhh... and it showed, because I actually still did wear it - only in the house, usually when baking - all these years later.)
Then, I got down to everything else. I tried everything on. I was honest with myself about what I would wear and what I wouldn't. If I rarely wore something, I asked myself why. If it was just because it was forgotten, I thought about outfits I could create with it. If it was because it was too itchy, or too tight, or too short... it got donated. That pink J Crew blazer I never wear because I don't have anything to go with it? eBay. Same with a few J Crew sundresses that I bought just because they were on sale, even though I know I don't like halter tops so I'm not sure why I thought this time would be different.
My closet is much more pared down now, but I like it. I know what I am actually missing. (A white shirt, for example. Or brown flats that aren't a half-size too big.) I realized my black blazer quite obviously doesn't actually match my black pants, and a basic black suit is kind of crucial in my line of work, so I bought matching black jacket and pants at the GAP this weekend at 30% off.
So, now, I have a good starting point for TPTP, to actually put some effort into how I look each day at work. You can see my contributions to TPTP here. Only problem is, I'm afraid I'm going to run out of new "put together" looks pretty quickly.
A few weeks ago, a few of us threw a 1920s themed engagement party for our friends at a bar named, appropriately, 18th Amendment. The theme actually fit our friends perfectly, because they are having their wedding at a 1920s, Gatsby-style manor.
We got a bunch of props from the party store, my friend picked up balloons in green, white and black (our friends' wedding colors), and I found this awesome printable from Etsy to make the "Congratulations" sign. (Love these!)
I also made some chocolate raspberry cupcakes with a chocolate ganache frosting for the occasion. I dyed the frosting black (wasn't too difficult, since it was already a dark brown), and sprinkled the cupcakes with edible pearls. I made both the cupcakes and the frosting from scratch, and I must admit, they were a huge hit. I found these adorable cupcake liners at the craft store, which also fit perfectly with the 1920s, black-and-white theme.
I was so surprised that everyone actually dressed up! None of us had actually thrown a themed costume party before (except Halloween, of course), so we weren't sure whether people would actually get into it, but they totally did!
(Please ignore Adam's bug-eyes. He looked like that in pretty much every photo from that night for some reason. Also, that is my attempt at "curling" my hair... lordy, does my straighter than straight hair refuse to cooperate.)
The happy couple sure seemed to have a good time...
As did this couple...
(Again, with the bug eyes!!)
I am the first to admit it, I am absolutely spoiled... by my commute.
First job out of law school (a.k.a. job from hell) -- short Circulator ride or a 20 minute walk.
Clerkship -- 10 minute metro ride or ~2 mile/40 minute walk.
Firm job -- first two weeks, 30 minute metro ride; next two years, 20 minute walk or 5 minute drive; past year and a half, 12 minute walk.
Today, I start a new job at a new firm. And I have to drive to work. DRIVE. As in, actually get in a car at least 5 out of 7 days a week. And drive it. During rush hour.
Thankfully, I have a reverse commute, but even under the absolute best of circumstances, it's a 25 minute drive... probably an average of a 35 minute drive... and a real possibility of (gulp) an hour drive with traffic and construction.
Let it be known, I never took walking to work for granted.
We just got home from a quick weekend trip to Pittsburgh to catch a few Mets games with our friends, Carla and Aaron, who came down from Buffalo. (Rumor has it there is a good chance they will be moving to Baltimore in a few months, meaning I will get to see them more often than once or twice a year!)
Tomorrow, a wine and cheese class at Cheesetique.
Wednesday, restaurant week dinner at Art & Soul.
Friday, dinner and Twelfth Night.
And then next weekend, packing up my work office for the big move. (More on this soon!)
Oh yeah, and I need to keep up on my Army Ten Miler training.
I'm so exhausted just thinking about it.
I just ate four pieces of pizza. I barely tasted them. That will happen after 3 vodka and sodas (with lime!), plus a glass of wine. So much for being healthier in July. (Well, it was a special circumstance... a friend's 30th birthday.)
I went out tonight at 11pm. Yes, I left the house at 11pm. This is usually my bed time.
I have odd relationships with my exes. One is visiting with his wife, staying in our apartment this weekend. Adam and I were hanging out with another at a bar; we also saw him on Thursday and will be seeing him again tomorrow. This is totally normal for me.
I can't believe I went to two Mets games in a week where there was: (1) a home run review (thankfully, both times in the Mets' favor); (2) a five-person infield set-up (unfortunately, not in the Mets' favor); and (3) a walk-off win (again, not in the Mets' favor). I blame my friend Dan, who went to both of those games and has informed me that he is bad luck at Mets-Nats games. I've banned him from attending all future Mets games at Nationals Stadium.
I confirmed that my eye issues really are an running-related concern, as I had suspected. The problem? I sweat too much and it gets all in my left eye (but not my right, which I believe is because my left eyebrow is somewhat misshapen following an unfortunate eyebrow grooming incident in which the hair never grew back), making my left contact all cloudy and gunky, thereby starting an awful pattern of horribleness. (Basically, my left eye sends out a bunch of mucousy white blood cells to go attack the sweat on my contact lens, which builds up and scratches my inner eyelid, which causes more white blood cells to attack, vicious circle, yada, yada, horrible eye issues threatening my ability to wear contacts all because I want to exercise! Gah!)
I kinda miss blogging in bursts of total randomness. Not that there is much cohesiveness to my posts nowadays, but I used to just post snippets here and there. I think Twitter has taken some of that away from me... now I just post my random snippets there (in 140 characters or less). You might not miss it, but I do. So here it is.
Now, off to bed.
We're only onto our fifth day of June and already it's going to be a CRAZY month. We got back late on Monday from Connecticut, went to a baseball game last night, and now are up early to hit the road to go up to New York for my grandfather's 80th birthday. Next week, I have plans every night after work except Friday (CSA pick up, happy hour, anniversary dinner, wine and cheese night), and we'll be going up to Baltimore for Saturday and Sunday to see the Mets-Orioles games with my family and a couple of friends. (Oh, and on Tuesday I have to make the three hour drive down to Norfolk and back for a 15 minute scheduling conference.) The following weekend, our one weekend in town for June, we already have planned another baseball game (supposedly a Strasburg start) and a pub crawl for a friend's birthday. Last weekend of June, out of town for another family thing.
On a totally unrelated note, how freakin' adorable is my almost-nephew? (Even though in the engagement card he gave us last weekend he asked for a cousin. Demanding little bugger.)
My family is fairly small. Although each of my parents is one of four children, I have only two cousins. The grand total of immediate family (including me) + grandparents + aunts & uncles (including by marriage) + cousins (including spouses and children) = 25.
Adam's family is quite large in comparison. His dad is one of five, his mom is one of six. The grand total of immediate family (including Adam) + brother-in-law + grandparents + aunts & uncles (including by marriage) + cousins (excluding their spouses and children, because that's too difficult to keep track of) + nephew = 54. Add in the spouses and children of cousins and you're probably at about 70.
This Saturday, our extended families met for the first time. Obviously, we did not have nearly 100 people getting together, but 12 of my family members plus about 25 of Adam's, along with some close family friends of his parents, all descended upon Connecticut for a "casual backyard barbecue to celebrate Adam & Stephanie's engagement" (so said the invitation, in an attempt to get people to understand it was not a formal affair with gifts to be expected... although we still received a fair share). There were 47 people at the barbecue. Everyone got along great, but it was exhausting going around and visiting with all these people. I have no idea how I am going to survive wedding weekend.
Then on Sunday, we went to Adam's uncle's house for the second barbecue of the weekend to celebrate Adam's parents' birthday. (Yes, birthday... they were born on the same day of the same year.) All of Adam's family that was at the barbecue the day before were there, as well as another 5 cousins who hadn't made it on Saturday.
I am used to family get-togethers. We celebrate Christmas with all of my family, plus usually sprinkle in a few other gatherings throughout the year. But that's usually just 10-15 people at a time. There were THIRTEEN people staying in Adam's parents' house on Saturday night. Thirteen people to see right before I went to bed, thirteen people gathered in the kitchen for pancakes in the morning. Adam and I had to sneak out to go to Dunkin Donuts for some iced coffee to get away from it all for a while on Sunday morning and regroup.
It was a really lovely weekend, but I am going to sleep so hard tonight. Thank goodness it's only a 4 day work week. (Although, Saturday morning we need to hop back in the car and drive up to New York for my grandfather's 80th birthday party. It never ends!)
Have a wonderful weekend!
It's nice when you start to lose weight and your clothes start to feel better again. When your skinny jeans (as in smaller size, NOT style) are actually wearable. When you don't feel like unbuttoning the top button when you sit at your desk. When clothes are comfortable again.
But then, you eventually get to the point where your pants are too big. Uncomfortably big. Like right now. All my work pants look ridiculous. They are sagging in the butt, cuffs are dragging on the ground, I am constantly hiking them up. (Belts just bunch them up and look even worse... I'm wearing long shirts in the hopes of keeping them up a bit and hiding the gaping at the waist.)
I desperately need some new work pants... one each in black, grey and brown. Downside to losing weight = buying new wardrobe essentials.
I guess it's a price I'm willing to pay.
Today is Earth Day, so I thought I'd share a few things I do (or try to do) on a regular basis to help protect our planet.
There are many, many more things that I can do to be more environmentally friendly, but that's a start! What do you do to be "green"?
Adam and I have friends staying with us for the week while they are apartment hunting, so we've had to do a bit of a juggling act with the key situation. We have two sets of apartment keys; each set includes a key to our apartment, the fob to get into the building and use the elevator, and a car key. Only one set also contains the garage access button and the mail key. This is the set I usually carry, because I'm better at remembering to check the mail. (And also, it's technically my car, even though we share driving duties.) Because I usually carry this set, I have a bunch of those "club" cards on it -- library, Giant, CVS, our gym.
We've been letting our friends have the set without the garage button and the mail key (and all my club cards) for the week, and so far we've been managing the coordination of the keys successfully. I took my key set to work today, planning on going to the gym straight after work for a Body Pump class. But Adam and his coworkers decided to leave work early today and play basketball (jealous... well, of leaving work early and being outside, not playing basketball), so he needed to come get my keys from me so he could go home and change and then take the car out to the basketball courts. (Our friends were out looking at apartments and couldn't let him in.) Adam planned on meeting me at the gym after basketball, but I needed my gym card to be able to get into the gym right after work.
I met Adam in the lobby of our office building, and we stood there coordinating our afternoon plans. He took the keys from me, and then we discussed how he was going to get them back to me before I went to the gym... he still needed the car key, so maybe when he dropped them off, he'd take the car key off the ring.... oh, but what about needing the garage key in case he had to go back home before the gym, he'd have to take that off too... but would he be late to basketball if he had to come back to my office first...
Almost a full minute, we went back and forth like this. (Not to mention our previous chats this afternoon trying to coordinate.)
Then, silently, I took the keys back, took off my gym club card, and handed the keys back to him. We both started laughing.
Sometimes, I wonder how we are able to function in society.
1. I ran 7 miles yesterday without stopping (except for 10 seconds when I had to frantically restart the treadmill that only lets you run for an hour)... farthest I've run without a walk break ever.
2. Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice Tea (thanks to Metalia for introducing me to this... it is amazing, doesn't require cream and/or sugar, and has replaced my coffee at work).
3. Taking my parents to see the Cherry Blossoms for the first time this past weekend.
4. The library! (Free books! I can't believe how long it took me to remember how awesome the library is.)
5. Rock candy.
6. 5K Fridays starting up again this week.
7. The awesome weather we are supposed to be getting later in the week. 80s over the weekend? Seriously?
8. Taking my parents to see our quirky wedding venue, getting their full approval, and seeing my dad excitedly take photographs around the place.
9. Friends moving back into town this week.
10. Emily's Chocolates. (Birthday gift from my uncle... so good, yet soooo bad for you.)
I am kind of slammed at work this week, so a quick recap of this weekend's birthday festivities will have to do...
Highlights:
Lowlights:
Tonight is Round Three of the birthday celebration -- happy hour style!
"Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up." ~A.A. Milne
This past Sunday, before heading out to a birthday party, Adam and I were about to do our (sometimes) weekly big cleaning, when I looked around our bedroom. We usually ignore our bedroom during our weekly cleanings, because no one sees it but us and we can just shut the door on the mess. There was just stuff everywhere. Piles of clean and dirty clothes, boxes of things that needed to be unpacked or returned, clean gym clothes hanging on the drying rack because our drawers are too full, half-unpacked suitcases and bags, just stuff. And it was bugging the hell out of me. So, we filled up one garbage bag full of clothes to donate, one full of undonateable clothes to trash, and one full of old sheets to donate to a local animal shelter. I eyed the suits I've been meaning to donate for over a year now, decided to see how far the dry cleaners that accepted the suit donations were from the place where the party was going to be held that afternoon, determined that they were only five minutes apart, and plopped the suits on top of our donation pile. It felt good to get rid of that clutter. Our bedroom actually has a floor!
Lately, I've been feeling like life is moving along without me. Days, weeks, months just flying by in the blink of an eye without my even really noticing. My life is starting to feel like the bedroom floor... things, events, obligations, ideas just piled up haphazardly. Instead of taking the time to tackle them, I usually just shut the door and pretend they're not there. I just don't feel, for lack of a better word, present in my life. (That sounds so crunchy, granola-y.) It's March already... March! My birthday, my thirtieth birthday is in just four days! I swear it was just the holidays.
I wonder if it's turning 30 that is causing me to realize that I want change some things about my life. Not big changes, I'm overall quite happy with how things are and where I'm headed... just the little day-to-day things. Or maybe it's because Spring is just around the corner and I've caught the spring-cleaning and organizing bug. I've been thinking a lot lately of how I could fit in all the things I want/need to do. Mundane tasks (cleaning, laundry), necessary tasks (exercise), fun activities. But I also want to be able to do nothing... to lie on the couch, watch television, blog more. And get 8 hours of sleep. I keep contemplating setting up a daily/weekly schedule. Is it crazy to schedule almost every moment of your day? To set a "bedtime" and a "workout time" and a "dinnertime" and a cleaning schedule and a laundry schedule? To write "relaxing" into the 9-10pm timeslot?
How do you find a way to fit it all in?
I am starting to come down with a cold, I can feel it. My throat is drippy and sore. I have a headache. My ears were feeling a little pressurized and funny yesterday. And I'm dreading what's sure to come in the next few days.
Yes, it's only a cold. It's not like when I had the flu last year. But I can get pretty miserable when I have a cold, especially if it becomes a chest cold because it can hang around for weeks and I get super tired and lazy from the lack of oxygen. This comes at a terrible time, when every weekend in March is jam-packed with activities, I've got a birthday coming up that I want to be able to celebrate with full force, and I really, really need to pick up the motivation to work out after a not-so-hot February.
So! This is where you can help me out... do you have any sure fire ways to stop a cold before it really hits? I've got some Halls zinc throat drops and I'm planning on drinking lots of tea to ease my sore throat, but I want to kick this cold before it has a chance to settle in and take over my body. I want to show this cold who's boss.
I have been spending WAY too much time on the internet lately. Obviously, I spend my entire workday on the computer, but there is no reason to be on the computer all damn evening too! I think I might have a slight addiction. My Google Reader has been expanding lately. I read blogs and tweets, click on links, then click on other links, then think of a random question I don't know the answer to and go searching for it, then occasionally think of something to write on here, and update my workouts here and here, and then go update a food diary...
It's insane. Adam and I are on dueling laptops ALL evening long, and I know it's mostly my fault. If I wasn't on my laptop, he probably wouldn't be on his. This is absolutely no way to spend time together. Not at all.
So, I'm changing things. I just dropped about 10 blogs from my Google Reader (and then promptly added three more blogs to try out from Jennie's list... sigh). I hope to cut out a few more as time goes on, and whittle my blog list (other than the many food blogs I read) down to just those that I am really interested in following -- those where I regularly leave comments (or would if there weren't a gazillion hoops to do so, I'm looking at you Blogger!), or with whom I "converse with" on Twitter, or those I've been following for many, many years and can't imagine not reading. I also want to make sure that I continue to check out your blogs, so if you don't know whether I already follow your blog, please leave me a link so I can check it out. I like getting to know my readers.
My plan is to check Google Reader just a few times a day -- in the morning, while I eat lunch, and in the evening. I'm going to try to limit my internet time at home at night to just checking my email, logging my meals and workouts, and a limited period of blog reading/writing. No more "hanging out on the internet" instead of hanging out with the real life human being that is on the couch next to me.
Hopefully, I can start to reclaim my real world life back and stop feeling like time is just easily slipping away from me... when I'm pretty sure it's just slipping into that great black hole of The Internet.
Say your 30th birthday was coming up in a little less than a month and you were planning a trip to NYC for the weekend. Also say that you don't want to spend a gafrillion dollars, but you still want to stay in a decent hotel, eat some yummy food and have an awesome time. Where would you go and what would you do?
So far, plans include meeting some friends for dinner (location TBD) on Saturday night, then going out to meet up with another friend and his crew, who are also celebrating his birthday that weekend. I think I want to go to Top of the Rock and hopefully to a Broadway show. I'm looking for any recommendations for a cool museum/touristy thing to do, as well as good (and not crazy expensive) places to eat and get drinks -- brunch and dinner options. Anywhere in Manhattan is fine... I doubt we'll be venturing out to the other boroughs that weekend.
(Now that I have more than 30 seconds to dash off a post on my minuscule lunch break, I'm going to expand upon this post.)
(Wow, I totally would have spelled minuscule wrong without spell check there.)
Anyway....
Happy DeLurking Day, folks! (Folks? I never say that.) Anyway, I would love it if any of you readers out there (whether you are a lurker or not) would leave me a comment today. So far I've gotten bunches of comments from spammers, but not from any actual readers. (Not on this post, just in general. Spamming has been out of control lately. Yet another reason I need to update to a newer version of MT.)
So, just say hi and (I'm totally stealing this idea from Jodi) suggest one of your favorite blogs (or food websites, love those!) to read. Or ask me a random question. Or tell me the best book you've read recently... I'm trying to read more this year. Or all three! Or just say hi!
I'll make sure to make the rounds tonight and do my part in delurking. :-)
(My goodness, what is up with this post? It's as if I had way too much caffeine or something, when in fact I've had none. Being holed up in depositions all the live long day can make you a bit punchy, I suppose. Also, what is up with all the parentheses?)
Last Friday, Adam and I decided to host an impromptu game night dinner party. To be more accurate, game night had been in the works since the day before, but on Friday Adam decided he didn't want to order pizza, but instead wanted to cook fish. I said that was fine by me, as long as he didn't stink up our apartment with it. (I do not eat now as a vegetarian, nor have I ever eaten, fish.) He was excited to make a sauce to go with the fish (and my pan-fried tofu) and turned to a new book he got from my parents, by his old stand-by Alton Brown. So, in about two hours, we threw together our menu:
Cod with Raymond Beurre Blanc Sauce (pan-fried tofu with the sauce, for me)
Orzo Salad with Peppers, Onions, Shallots and Parmesan
Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette (I can never spell Vinaigrette without the help of spell-check)
Steamed Broccoli (which I also covered in the sauce, it was SO GOOD)
Our friends Carolyn, Mike, Megan and Omar came over and we managed to make the perfect amount of food. I love when that happens! We had just enough leftovers for us to have lunch the next day.
Then, we turned to the game portion of game night. For Christmas, we got Guesstimation, which is a trivia game where all of the answers are a number or a date and the closest guess wins. There are some really random questions on there! (For example: How many females in the world read Harlequin romance novels?) I thought it was a lot of fun, but I also really like trivia games.
Our next game was Harry Potter Clue, which I picked up at Marshall's just before Christmas. I used to love playing Clue and this seemed like a fun little twist on the game. The mystery takes place at Hogwarts, and instead of weapons you use spells, and the secret passage ways change. There are a lot more elements to this game than the regular Clue, which may be why it took us TWO HOURS. I enjoyed the game with its new twists, but my advice is to not start it after 10pm!
More and more, I keep hearing from different friends that they are interested in starting regular game nights. At this rate, we may end up with a game night a week! That's fine by me... I have a closet full of games to break out!
I haven't worked out since last Tuesday. And I've probably eaten my weight in sugary and salty goodies since then. Not a good combination.
It started out because on Wednesday, I was hit hard with a cold. It was hard enough to breathe while just sitting around, I didn't think getting a workout in was going to be feasible. I took Nyquil both Wednesday and Thursday night, but that meant I was too groggy the following mornings to work out.
Friday night, we went to Zoo Lights, then dinner. Saturday, I spent the morning cleaning and getting ready for the cookie party, then actually hosting the cookie party... and eating cookies. Then Adam and I went out to dinner at Jaleo and to see Striking Twelve at the Arena Stage.
Sunday, I put in a full work day, but that's no excuse... I'm just lazy. Same with Monday, Tuesday, yesterday, today.
And really, those other days (except perhaps Wednesday and Thursday last week), it was just excuses, too. Pathetic excuses. I could have found a half hour to work out. Heck, I probably could have found an hour to work out. The Shred takes only 25 minutes.
I had goals for this month. Big plans. I was going to do the 30 Day Shred by January 1. I was going to eat healthy, stay on track, not gain the typical holiday pounds, not fall into a sugar coma each night. And so far, I've failed.
My poor diet and lack of exercise have been taking a toll on me, physically and mentally. I can't fall asleep at night, I wake up four, five times a night. I can't focus at work. I'm overly anxious. And then I lost the motivation to work out. It's a vicious cycle. A snowball effect.
Forget waiting until January 1; forget waiting until after Christmas; forget even waiting until Monday. (We always say, "I'll start on Monday," don't we?) I'm starting over tomorrow. Tomorrow morning, no matter how tired I am, I'm getting up and going to the gym. No matter how long it takes me to fall asleep, no matter how many times I wake up in the night, I'm getting back on track.
My sanity depends on it.
Aside from a gift for the grandparents and the homemade goodies I plan on giving away, I am completely done with my Christmas shopping. Actually, I've been done since Saturday... and it is fantastic. I feel like I am so much more able to enjoy all the activities of the holiday season now that I have that out of the way.
Friday night, Adam and I are going with out friends to ZooLights. (Thanks to Jodifur for the tip!) I'm going to skip out of work a little early to meet them and then we're going out to dinner in the neighborhood afterward.
Saturday, I will be hosting a cookie exchange. There are going to be about twice as many people as came to the one I had last year, so hopefully it will be pretty fun. Most of the girls who are coming are in my book club, so they've already met each other at least. I can't wait to try all the different kinds of cookies they bring! I've been planning the menu for the past week. It's hard to balance having enough variety of foods without ending up with way too much food. I've decided on a cheese plate, a couple of dips (spinach and hummus) and mini versions of my favorite chickpea patties. I wanted food that will balance out all the sweets... even though the party isn't about eating cookies, of course there will be sampling.
Sunday, if I'm not stuck at work, I'll be going to a friend's house for a brunch/lunch and Christmas movie marathon. Then another night next week, I will probably be going to a dinner party at a friend's place. Next Friday is my work party, and next Saturday is another friend's Christmas party. And I'd love to find a night to go out and walk around the neighborhood with some hot chocolate and look at all the lights.
And once I'm back in town after spending Christmas weekend up in New York, I will have TWO New Year's Eve parties to attend!
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As I mentioned yesterday, I just started a workout blog. I've been thinking about creating a place to log my workouts for a while, especially considering I hope to train for a half marathon next year. I've obviously been writing about a lot of my races and training on this website for a while now, but I liked the idea of having a separate place to record each of my workouts... especially because I figured my documenting my training runs and workouts daily on here was probably going to be pretty boring for most of you.
As I started thinking about setting up the workout blog, I realized that I didn't just want to keep a list of the workouts I completed, but that I wanted a place to document the process of improving as a runner and generally trying to stay fit and healthy as I
Anyway, so the workout blog is not going to just be a boring list of workouts. Instead, it'll be a (possibly boring) collection of posts about all kinds of workout-related things... basically, the sort of posts that are currently under my "Pretending to be a Runner" category will now be over there. (As will a lot of those posts, once I actually export them to the new site.)
I'm hoping that any of you who like to workout (or don't like it, but do it anyway) and/or are interested in getting/staying healthy and fit will follow me on over to the workout blog. It's not going to be all about running (although, I'm admittedly addicted to running road races). For instance, this month I'm doing the 30 Day Shred to try to counteract all of the delicious goodies around this time of year. I've found that there is a sort of feeling of community especially among runners, but also among people interested in health and fitness in general. I'd love to hear what you're up to in the gym, how awesome (or awful) your last race was, what you're struggling with (don't we all get stuck in ruts?), and what your next goal is. I also take recommendations, tips, and general encouragement. :-)
There are still quite a few things I want to add to the website -- a log of the races I've completed, current workout schedules, the training schedules I plan to use for various races, various goals, and my "athletic" background, to name a few. I also have to jazz up the comments and archives pages. But the basic bones of the website are there, so that's why I went live with it yesterday instead of waiting around until I got everything else situated.
So, click on over and check out my new space, even if you have no interest in ever reading about all this workout stuff ever again and are so happy I moved it all to a different location, if only just to see the awesome banner that Adam designed for me. (With my direction, of course.)
I was up late again, because I was busy working on this. I'll write more about it tomorrow, but now it's sleepy time.
Nick: So, last night I was at a bar having a beer
As one does in those places
And this cute young black couple comes up next to me to return the shuffleboard stuff
And this old drunk white guy yells to the bartender, "Hey, I wanna buy Will Smith there and his girl a drink!"
me: oh my god! you were next to will smith and jada pinkett? :P
Nick: I know!
So, we spent five minutes figuring out if he had ANY attributes similar to Will Smith
His girlfriend pointed out his big stick-out ears
me: was he from west philadelphia?
born and raised?
did he like to play basketball?
or getting up to no good?
does he enjoy the summertime?
and robots?
and the wild wild west?
and geoffrey?
Nick: I'm trying very hard to glare at you without laughing
me: was he getting jiggy wit it?
Nick: Dammit
There goes the glare
me: i think i'm done
Nick: Oh, come on!
"Did his parents understand him, or not?"
Did he wear black suits?
:)
me: was he the only man left in the world?
Nick: WATCHOUTVAMPIRE!
For the past week or so, I've been working on getting an important case and motion filed. It's for one of our biggest clients and is a huge deal for them, so the stress level has been a little high. We got it filed today and after a conference with the judge this afternoon, there are some developments and serious issues (though not necessarily bad for us) that we need to deal with.
(Okay, after being in crazy legal writing mode for the past week, I want to change that to "with which we need to deal," because I hate seeing "with" just dangling there, but I am willing myself to do that. I mean, who talks like that, really?)
Anyway, so I was sitting in an office with three partners, having a heated, animated discussion of these serious issues and what our approach is going to be over the next few days and weeks, when I cross my legs and...
...my shoe flies of my foot and lands smack on the partner's desk.
Everyone looked a little stunned, started laughing, and I picked up my shoe, put it back on and said, "Whoops, sorry," and we just went right back to our conversation.
I definitely wore inappropriate clothes to work today. Not work inappropriate, but weather inappropriate. I'm so eager for it to be fall, that when the weather guy on the radio says it's only going to be in the low 70s and that it's currently in the high 60s, I think, "Perfect weather for walking in my new 3/4 sleeve sweater and pants!"
Um, no.
My sweater is heavier than I thought, I wore sneakers instead of flip flops, I had my hair down. It was a recipe for disaster. I ended up a hot, sweaty mess when I arrived at work and had to spend 5 minutes in the bathroom making myself presentable... and that term is even a stretch for how I walked into the office. Now, during the summer, when I'm walking 15 minutes uphill in 90 degree weather, being a sweaty mess is somewhat more acceptable, given that it's unavoidable. But on a beautiful, crisp 68 degree morning? Not so much. I should have taken advantage of the weather as one of my final days to wear a skirt or dress to work, instead of hurrying into fall. Now, my makeup is gone, my hair is flat, and I'm just generally disheveled. *sigh*
Dinner tonight was grilled tofu, grilled asparagus, grilled peaches (OH MY YUM!), and leftover green onion slaw. It was colorful, summery, and super delicious. The grilled peaches were like juicy pieces of heaven they were so good.
Work has been really stressful lately. I've had a lot of deadlines over the past couple of weeks in this one REALLY BIG case, plus a few other smaller fires to put out here and there. I realize it still doesn't compare to the hours lawyers who work for Big Firms have to put in, but it has been a lot of intense hours, meetings, and work for me. My stress level has been really high and I've cracked and lost it a few times over the past few weeks (not at work, thankfully, just the confines of my own home). It definitely goes to show that I am not someone who could be happy in Big Firm life. Hopefully things are dying down a little bit and I won't have to work this weekend. I could really use a three-day weekend to recharge.
We're currently 4.5 weeks away from the Army Ten-Miler. We've been following a slightly modified version of Hal Higdon's novice half marathon training, because the 10M/15K training only had us do 8 miles before going into the race. There was no way I would be able to make the jump from 8 to 10 miles on race day, so I'm doing the half marathon training up through week 10 (a 9 mile long run), then doing week 12 on race week (so skipping week 11). This Sunday I will be running SEVEN MILES, which will be the furthest I've ever run. Since I'm breaking into new territory here, I figured I'd try to document my workouts for the next four weeks so that I have this to look back on.
Today's workout was a 4.5 mile run. I ran on the treadmill today and finished in 53:00, which if I did my math right is approximately 11:47 mile pace. I walked the first 5 minutes and then took two other walking breaks during the run. My calves have been getting super tight lately and take forever to loosen up while running. I stopped after 2.5 miles to stretch them out a bit and then was able to pick up the pace a bit for the last 2 miles. I wish I could figure out exactly what was going on with my calves... I stretch them well after I run, but it still doesn't seem to help much. I'll have to look into some additional stretches.
Well, TS and I have started a new daily cleaning schedule so hopefully we can break it up during the week and not spend 2 hours of our weekends cleaning. Time for me to go clean up the kitchen from making lunch and do the remaining dishes!
*I Heart Food* *Pretending to be a Runner* *Randomness*