Saturday, November 30, 2013

Not Able to Sit Still

When we got back to my grandma's house Thanksgiving evening, my brother and I decided we felt really gross about ourselves, so we put on an exercise video.


I felt like I had spent the day sitting and it had been a long time since my run. We had fun bouncing around together, yelling at the computer for making us hurt.


Friday, we were up early and on the road. I thought I would have time to get a quick run in, but no such luck. My brother and I spent a very long 5 hours sitting in the car.


I don't do sitting still well. At all. Sitting in the car makes me anxious and I have so much pent up energy when I get home. Boyfriend was finally off work, so we did our weekly trip to Costco (yes, on Black Friday!) and then I immediately got into gym clothes. Sometime between when we got home and when I was changing, plans got made.


My friend's family was in town for Thanksgiving and she wanted Malcom and their puppy to meet. We headed over there to let them get their crazies out. They played really hard. I was feeling super anxious because I hadn't gotten my workout in, but I realized that I need to give up control once in awhile and spend time in the moment with people who matter.


We did eventually make it to the gym. The benefit of sitting in a car for hours and then not getting any of my pent up energy out was that my run felt really easy. 


Then boyfriend and I made our way to the weight room to do some back and biceps.


It was almost 9 by the time we got home and I was starving. I cooked up the most delicious meal of chicken breast, Brussels sprouts, eggplant, and zucchini with a side of salad. Just what I needed after Thanksgiving.


This morning I was up early to meet the ladies from my cohort for a walk on the beach. I haven't seen them in a week and it felt like it had been months. We had 4 dogs and they just ran and ran.


It was a really great 2 hour walk down the beach. It was so nice to be out in the fresh air with ladies I adore. We tried to get a picture of the pups all together, but we only managed to get three of them.


The fourth one was a little bit spastic and wouldn't sit still.


The rest of my day was spent doing homework that I had been avoiding the past two days while this was going on around me.


Yep. My house is decorated for Christmas. It transformed before my eyes. Tomorrow we are getting our tree, which always marks the beginning of Christmas for me. Of course, I was too busy doing homework to really get into the spirit. I just can't seem to get into it this year. Call me the grinch. Or just call me broke and not excited to buy gifts.

Again, I can't sit still, so I forced boyfriend to do a workout video. Then my mom made us another Thanksgiving dinner of sorts because we had no leftovers and we were feeling kind of sad about that.


Now I am going to stop doing homework for the evening and maybe spend some quality time with the boyfriend.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was completely laid back. I started the morning with my favorite way of giving thanks.


It's really easy to run in an area where the biggest hill is where the sidewalk dips for a driveway. I am so thankful for my health and my body that moves me through the tough workouts I put it through.


I kicked back with my first cup of coffee and my favorite holiday tradition. It's not really Thanksgiving without it on in the background.


I'm also very, very thankful for my mother and her amazing cooking. She made us breakfast and I had my second cup of joe.


We then headed to my aunt and uncle's house about an hour and a half away from my grandma's house. My brother did what he did best as we stood around and ate appetizers.


Finally, the turkey was carved. I am so thankful for yummy food in my belly and that I have never had to go hungry. I can't even express how lucky I feel for that.


My Thanksgiving meal ended with whipped cream with a side of pie.  I am very thankful for whipped cream.


Of course, I am thankful every single day of my life for the life I have been blessed with, but it is nice to have a day to say it out loud and it's always nice to hang out with my amazing family.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Traveling

I was up extra early this morning on one of my precious days off. I was out of bed at 5:15 to hit the gym before a six hour car ride. We are having Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family this year, so we were headed out to my grandma's this morning.


After my run, I lifted for about 45 minutes before finishing up with another mile run. The treadmill stopped on me at 1.16 miles and I took it as a sign that it was time to go home.


I showered and grabbed my stuff and we were on our way by 8:15. I would have gone stir crazy had I not exercised. I cannot sit still anymore. It kills me. I also had a breakfast of champions.


My gym has begun selling Quest Bars, so I got a few to try. I think I'm a believer. I are a half of one and I was full until we stopped for a real breakfast about three hours later.


I dream of this omelette at night. It has almost every kind of veggie you can imagine. I was so excited to stop and eat. Also, more coffee. 

Moe was the best traveler and I honestly almost forgot he was there. He made himself right at home when we got to Grandma's house.


My brother was visiting friends in Berkeley, so he came here last night and waited for us all day. He was sweet and set up my grandma's Christmas decorations for her. My mom and I were sick of sitting and my grandma needed some last minute stuff at the store. There's a store about 3 blocks from her house that we walk to literally every time we visit. It's not a trip here without a walk to the store.


After dinner, we got back in the car for a very important reason.


It's also not a trip to grandma's without a visit to the froyo place. We didn't used to have one where I live, so it was always a special trip. Now we have plenty where I live, but I very rarely go. Bad blogger alert.

You may notice a lack of a certain boyfriend. This is the month of being thankful (although every month should be) and I am thankful for my first responder. He worked yesterday, today, all day Thanksgiving, and Friday. He has worked every single holiday that we have been together, including the not important ones like Halloween and Valentine's Day. It's really hard not having him around as he is my family, but we will have our own Thanksgiving when he gets off work. I'm just glad there are people out there willing to save my life on any day of the year.


Happy happy happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Also, happy Hanukah to those who celebrate. My step mother and sisters do!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Quite Possibly the Worst Picture Ever

It was yet another beautiful day today. I knew from the moment I woke up that I would be running outside. I just didn't know where. Then I got the brilliant idea to run to the trail along the water and have boyfriend trail along behind me with his dog.


The trail isn't the safest for women running alone, even in the day time, so I knew I needed him to come with me. I ended up doing 5.5 lovely miles along the bay. It really was gorgeous and the water was stunning. It was a nice break in the usual run around my neighborhood. 


Boyfriend really loves dating a blogger and having to take lots of pictures. He is usually a pretty good photographer, but today e got one of the worst photos of me I've ever seen.


Now, it seems that bloggers tend to stick to the really great pictures of themselves, but I felt it was necessary to post this one. The beauty of this picture is that it encapsulates every single emotion I felt on this run. It was hard. Really hard. I just wanted it to be over, but I kept pushing myself to keep going. I love this picture because it shows that running is hard some days, even if it doesn't seem like it on blogs. This picture shows the truth, and I love and hate it all at the same time. I came home to finish up another mile to make 6.5 for the day.


I dawdled on getting to strength training. I was exhausted. This having entire days off thing really wears me out. I eventually got to it, however.


I worked my shoulders and biceps. I already know I will be skipping a strength day on Thanksgiving due to the fact that I will be at my grandma's about six hours from home, so I've got to get it in while I can.


I finished off the workout with the special version of hell known as foam rolling. It hurts so bad, but my legs definitely felt better afterward.


After the workout, boyfriend, my mom, and I went to see Catching Fire. Good way to make my blood pressure go way, way up. It was so intense and they did a great job of sticking to the book. When we came home, we had chili for dinner and the dogs were extra spoiled.


Now we are doing our annual Thanksgiving tradition of watching all of the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends. We do this with the Christmas episodes too. Also, we always watch the Christmas episodes of Will and Grace. It's just not the holidays without an episode of "Jingle Balls."


How do you feel about bad photos?

Sunday, November 24, 2013

A Random List Of Things

I'm in my second day off and I already feel too lazy to write a post with any sort of theme, so I am doing the cop out and making a random list.

1. I fully intended on getting out of bed this morning and doing a couple of hours of homework. Instead, boyfriend's Kindle with Sharp Objects on it called my name and I spent two hours reading a book for pure enjoyment. I blame the author for writing such engrossing stories.


2. I did eventually do some homework. I started two of the big assignments that are due at the end of the semester, so I feel like I was sort of productive today.


3. I am having a hard time accepting that next week is December. Every time someone mentions something that is happening in December, I have a momentary freak out that it really is almost the end of 2013. My birthday is in less than a month. How does time go so fast now??


4. Never do a leg heavy workout the day before a long run. I thought the workout was easy while I was doing it, but I had to crawl out of bed this morning and limped my way around the house until my legs finally warmed up and realized that they were supposed to help me walk. I forced Boyfriend to walk the dogs with me in attempt to loosen them up before my run.


5. It has been abnormally gorgeous here the past couple of days. This may be why I am so confused about what month it is. We did take the dogs to the school about a half a mile from my house to run around and chase the ball. It was lovely.


6. Due to it being so beautiful, I strapped on my Garmin and limped my way through 6.2 glorious outside miles. Okay. My legs warmed up after a mile and it felt really great being outside in the Vitamin D and soaking up the crisp fall air. I did 4 more miles inside while watching Modern Family on my dad's iPad.


7. My sister and husband have left for LA today for Thanksgiving, which means they weren't here at Sunday dinner. My brother is in Davis visiting college friends and will be meeting us at our grandma's house for Thanksgiving. So it was just dad, step mom, boyfriend, and myself for dinner. It was lonely, but nice to have that individual time with the parents.


8. I was getting amazing Snapchats all day, though, so I didn't feel as sad about missing my niece and sister and brother-in-law.


9. The dogs were terribly cute today. They fight over the smallest piece of sunshine in the house to lay in. Dogs are strange creatures.


10. I had to have ten because I am slightly OCD. I feel like you haven't seen enough pictures of my whipped cream obsession lately, so I made sure to take a nice picture of my dessert.


I hope everyone has a fabulous Monday!

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Nine Whole Days

Today is my first real day off since September. The stretch between Labor Day and Thanksgiving is the longest one without a break in the school year. I thought this week would never come. But it did. It is actually really bittersweet because I had to say goodbye to my school family yet again. I start at my new placement the Monday after Thanksgiving.

I told myself I would give myself one entire day where I didn't worry about homework and then work on assignments a little each day after today. And that's exactly what I did. Our day started off at the beach.


It's been seriously gorgeous outside. Freezing in the mornings and evenings, but in the high 60s I the afternoons. I don't know what's going on, but I'm not complaining. So boyfriend decided to drop the crabpot and see what he could get us for dinner.


Malcom and I hung out on the beach while he paddled out to sea.


We came home, had breakfast, and then my mom, boyfriend, and I headed out to the last Farmer's Market of the year. We were planning on hiking afterward, so we took the dogs. Milo had car issues, but Malcom clearly does not.


We wandered around the market picking up veggies to go with our crab. My phone said it was 70 degrees outside and I was wearing a tank top. A tank top. In November. I don't know where I am anymore.


Our plans to hike didn't happen because boyfriend realized it was time to go get the crabpot. I worked out to a video instead. It was all lower body intervals and I thought my legs were going to fall off my the end of it. Boyfriend returned with dinner shortly after I was done. Funny how that worked out.


I decided on the island this summer that I don't like live crab. I especially don't like live crab crawling around in the bottom of the boat by my feet. They are basically water spiders and so gross when they crawl around.


They are so much better when they're cooked and the meat is in my mouth. Out dinner tonight was almost 100% local. The only part that wasn't local was the Parmesan cheese that was on the veggies. The rest came from the bay, local farms, and our own garden.


It was a very delicious meal. I followed it up with applesauce made with apples from our trees and chocolate chips. I don't go a day without chocolate. Now I am about to read in bed, like every other 25-year-old does on a Saturday night. Oh wait. That's not normal? That's why tey call me grandma.


It's been a very great, much needed, completely homework free day off. I will be back at it tomorrow.