I did it! I ran my first half marathon!! It went really well and I accomplished my goal (WOOHOO!). But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s rewind to Friday night.

Friday

After work on Friday, Fabio and I quickly packed up our bags and headed over to my grandparents’ house, since they live about 30 minutes from St. Michaels, Maryland, where the race was being held. They were super generous to let Fabio, Jack, and I stay there before the race, and I was excited to see them and get the weekend started.

The weather on Friday was beautiful, so Fabio and I rolled down the windows and blasted some fun music on our drive down.

Once we hit the bay bridge we knew we were almost there!!

It wasn’t long before we arrived at my grandparent’s house!

We said hello to my dad, grandma, and grandpa, and then headed inside to drop off our stuff in the guest bedroom that my grandma made up for us.

My grandma decorates her house beautifully (it’s the perfect mix of comfy and cute) and I was so happy to be staying there There’s nothing like the comfort of a grandmother’s house!

Once we dropped off our stuff, we let Jack play outside with my grandparent’s black lab, Cindy. Can you tell them apart in this Vine video?

After letting the dogs play outside for a while, we headed inside for dinner. On the menu was salad, pizza, and my grandmother’s homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert

Yummm. Talk about carbo loading before a race!

After dinner, we watched a great family movie called Hachiko, which was really cute and definitely  a tear-jerker, especially for all of us dog lovers. Relaxing and watching a movie with my family before the race really helped calm me down and prepare me for the day ahead. It was great!

After the movie we all headed off to bed, and I set my alarm for a 5:30 am wake-up call. Yikes!

Saturday

When my alarm went off on Saturday morning, I was ready. I didn’t hit snooze at all and I bolted up with energy/adrenaline. I was feeling pretty nervous about the race, so I felt wide awake (even if I didn’t look it, haha! Look at my sleepy eyes!!)

The weather was actually pretty perfect for a run, warm (but not too hot) and cloudy (it probably got up to about 65 or 70 degrees once it was race time).

Before the race we stopped for breakfast at 7-11 where I purchased a blueberry Chobani, a banana, and a Kind bar. My grandparents had a bunch of breakfast food at their house, but it was mostly sugary stuff (e.g., danishes and donuts) which I didn’t think would be smart to eat right before the race. I wound up being pretty full after the yogurt and banana, so I saved the Kind bar for later

Then my dad drove us over to St. Michael’s for the race!

I won’t go into too many details about the race in this post because, as with my Bike New York post, I think it deserves a whole recap post to itself. I have a lot of thoughts that I want to share with you guys about it, so you’ll have to wait for another day (hopefully tomorrow, but no promises).

Sorry, Charlie!

I will say that the race was awesome and I enjoyed every minute of it

After the race, we headed back to my grandparents’ house to shower and change before heading to the Crab Deck for lunch!

The Crab Deck is usually one of my places to eat, since it’s right on the water and we can take the boat up and park on the dock. Unfortunately the weather turned pretty crummy by lunchtime, and we had to sit inside. Boo.

At least we were still able to see the water a bit from our table.

Although the weather wasn’t great, I had a great time celebrating the completion of my first half marathon with my grandparents, Fabio, and my dad. Everyone seemed really proud of Fabio and me, and it was so nice to just bask in the enjoyment of having completed something major.

Oh, and getting to eat whatever I wanted to without worrying about the calories was pretty nice too, obviously

For my lunch I chose a crab-cake sandwich with french fries, and it did not disappoint. YUM!

Lunch was wonderful, and my dad and grandpa treated Fabio and me to a free meal What great guys!

After lunch Fabio and I headed back home (with Jack, obviously) and then immediately crashed on the couch. I think we napped for three hours or something crazy; we were wiped!

We didn’t do much for the rest of the day, except walk to Safeway to pick up a frozen pizza, ice cream, and two Redbox movies. Yep. It was that kind of Saturday night.

Perfection.

Sunday

Sunday was a little more productive than Saturday, and Fabio and I spent the day cleaning the apartment, doing laundry, and running errands.

A trip to Costco:

And Trader Joe’s:

Check out all that wine! As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Fabio and I want to get more into wine, so we bought a bunch of cheap (read: under $5) bottles at TJs yesterday. I can’t wait to try them out!

After running all our errands, we settled down to watch a movie (we rented Argo and Life of Pi from Redbox and loved them both- even though I’ve already seen Life of Pi!).

While Life of Pi was on, I worked on a cooler that I’m painting for Fabio. I actually started this cooler last year, but when I didn’t finish it in time for a beach trip Fabio took with his friends, I put it aside and never finished (womp womp). I’m trying to pick it back up again so he can take it with him on a beach trip this year, but I still have a ways to go!

The bottom portion is Fabio’s favorite alcohol (Kraken, Patron, and Captain Morgan)…

And the top portion is from Fabio’s favorite Vineyard Vines bathing suit!

Here are some photos of the real thing so you can compare…

…and now I just want to go back to the Caribbean. Oh well. At least I have a trip to Italy to look forward to!!!!

So guys, that was about it for my weekend! I am already itching to give you more details about my race, but you’ll just have to wait…

Questions of the day: Are you good at arts and crafts? What do you do after a long race; are you active and busy or do you rest all day like we did? Do you like my cooler? Haha.

Edited to add this awesome Friday BuzzFeed article.

I had a lot of fun things going on this week, so let’s get to today’s Favorite Things Friday post!

Favorite Viral

One of my male coworkers is going to a wedding this weekend, and his fellow groomsmen’s date bailed on him at the last minute. Instead of flying solo or going with a girl he already knew, he decided to take to the internet to find a new date. Check out his Craigslist post, below.

One Man Needs Date to a Wedding – 28 (Northwest DC)

For your reference (and in case you didn’t click over to the real post), his attached pictures included a photo of him “tearing it up” on the dance floor, jumping into the water (i.e., “flying”), and riding a lion that is riding a horse (photoshopped, obviously). It’s a pretty funny post, and I had a good laugh when I saw it earlier this week.

However instead of just being a quick laugh and then disappearing into the internet archives forever, it sorta went viral. We’re talking DCist, Reddit, and then Gawker. It was also on Elliot in the Morning (a local DC/Baltimore radio morning show) and NPR. Crazy, right?!? I felt pretty cool that I got to see it happen from the beginning I think he’s already chosen a date, but I heard he did get a ton of responses! I would have loved to see who sent him selfies haha.

Favorite Free (part I)

Earlier this week, my favorite coffee shop by my office was offering free coffee and coupons to King’s Dominion (random, I know). They had Charlie Brown stuff everywhere (I guess there is a Charlie Brown/Snoopy exhibit at King’s Dominion?) and all of the workers were sporting yellow shirts with black chevron, à la Charlie Brown.

[Source]

Ah yes, there he is

Anyway, it was fun to see our favorite coffee guys dressed as good ole’ Charlie Brown (I love those coffee guys; they always remember my order) and it was even better to get a free coffee out of it. Woohoo!

Favorite Free (part II)

On Tuesday I received a text from Fabio saying it was free ice cream day at Häagen-Dazs. Free ice cream? Sign me up! Luckily there is a Häagen-Dazs right in Georgetown, which we were planning to run to on Tuesday anyway. We wound up running 1.5 miles to Häagen-Dazs, grabbing a free cone (dulce de leche for Fabio, cookie dough for me) and then running back home It felt weird to be eating ice cream before dinner, but it was really fun. What a great weekday treat!

Favorite Happy Hour

Two of Fabio’s coworkers are moving on to work at other places (Yay! So happy for them!) and there was a going away happy hour for them on Wednesday evening. They are two of my favorite people at Fabio’s company (Hi Keith! Hi Rebecca!) and I’m going to miss them so much when they’re gone. Even though I don’t actually work with either of them, I join Fabio for enough of his work happy hours that I’ve become great friends with all of them (from playing kickball with some of them on Wednesdays, to attending double dates, to even going to a wedding!). They’ve been great friends to me and I’ll be sad to see them go. Hopefully they won’t roam too far and we can all keep in touch!!

Favorite Food Truck

On my walk to the metro on Thursday morning, I happened to see this lovely donut food truck parked on the side of the road. I had seen it there a few times before (apparently it comes every Thursday morning) but after an evening of too many drinks at happy hour (see above), I was feeling like it was donut day.

I really didn’t know what to expect from the truck, but when I approached it I saw you could buy a dozen “donut bites” for only $5. I planned to share the treats with my coworkers, so a dozen bites sounded perfect! The flavor of the day was dutch chocolate (apparently the flavor of the bites changes daily) and they were made fresh to order.

The donut bites were piping hot when I got them, and I couldn’t wait to dig in! Eventually I arrived at work and enjoyed the donut bites with a couple friends. Man, were they good!! It’s going to be hard not to stop by the donut food truck every Thursday now that I know how good they are YUMM!

Favorite Beauty Product

A couple of weekends ago, I mentioned that I stopped by a professional nail store to pick up a few discounted Essie nail polishes (for $4 each! Woot!!). It’s a weird little place, and I’m pretty sure it’s only supposed to be for people who actually work at nail salons, since they have all the stuff you would see in a salon (e.g., fake nails, scrubbers, nail-drying machines, gel polishes, and every color of Essie and OPI nail polish you would ever want). In short: it’s awesome for people like me who love having the newest nail colors, but don’t feel like paying out the wazoo to get them.

Anyway, last time I was there I bought a professional base coat and top coat, and let me just say, it has made such a difference! I painted my nails this fun coral color more than a week ago, and there’s still not a single chip to be seen.

Awesome, right? With this top coat, my nails look and feel like I got them done professionally. Plus it dried really  quickly. Awesome. I totally recommend buying this stuff if you can! (Looks like you can get it for only about $3 here). Woohoo!! BUY IT! Haha.

Favorite Event

Days until my half marathon: zero.

Ahhhh!! (Note: this ticker is a little off; my half marathon starts at 7:30 am tomorrow, not at midnight, so I have a few more hours to prepare). But seriously, my half marathon is tomorrow. AHHH!! Excuse me while I go freak out. Who did I think I was? I can’t really run 13.1 miles, can I? CAN I? Omg. I am so excited and so nervous at the same time. Please keep Fabio and me in your thoughts tomorrow morning!!

And don’t worry- he started “carbo building” three days ago.

Yep. That’s my guy.

Question of the day: Do you get nervous before a big race? What should I eat for dinner tonight/tomorrow morning before the run? Any last minute tips for me?????

AHHH!!

Let’s get right into the good stuff, shall we? Here’s a peek at what I ate on Monday, a typical workday.

Breakfast

Breakfast this week has been pretty typical for me- one cup of Multigrain Cheerios with skim milk, a banana, and a handful of blueberries. YUM!!

Unfortunately I used up the last of the blueberries yesterday (they were organic and on sale at Trader Joe’s!) so this morning I was stuck with just the banana. Lame. My, how quickly I became spoiled with those blueberries! Last week they were a decadent treat, and now I’m grumpy because they’re gone. #FirstWorldProblems

Lunch

Yesterday’s lunch was a “chic p” salad leftover from this weekend’s trip to SweetGreen. Included in my salad was:

• mesclun and baby spinach
• baked falafel
• chickpeas
• cucumbers
• fresh peppers
• pita chips
• lemon hummus tahini dressing

So good! I was worried the salad would be a little wilted since it was leftover from Saturday, but it was surprisingly delicious even two days later.

Clearly.

After finishing my salad I munched on a few raw almonds, which I brought in case the salad didn’t fill me up. The salad did fill me up, but I ate the almonds anyway They are my nemesis.

So good!

Snack #1

A few hours later my stomach started to growl, and in order to avoid the chocolate in my office’s candy bowl, I munched on an apple and sipped some unsweetened green tea.

I’ve been keeping my apple slicer at work lately (it’s an awesome gadget I found at Marshall’s for like $5) which makes eating my afternoon snack much more enjoyable. Maybe I’m just lazy, but the idea of cutting up an apple at work without a proper knife or cutting board always seems to difficult. Having my apple slicer handy makes me actually want to eat a healthy afternoon snack, instead of looking at my apple and deciding froyo would be a better option (not that it isn’t of course, but you can’t eat froyo every day at 3:00 pm now can you?).

Anyway, this snack was great

Snack #2

But it didn’t keep me out of the candy bowl, unfortunately.

Sometimes a girl just needs chocolate, especially when there are Reese’s involved. I mean, come on.

Dinner

Fabio brought some good steaks back from New York last weekend, and on Monday he offered to cook them in our new cast iron skillet (a gift that he purchased for “me” – aka, himself – a few weeks ago). I made some brussels sprouts and healthified mashed potatoes to go along with my steaks. The brussels sprouts were sauteed with a little olive oil, garlic, and balsamic vinegar, while the potatoes were boiled and mashed (skins on) with a wedge of laughing cow cheese, skim milk, and Brummel & Brown buttery spread. YUM. This was a fantastic dinner.

Cooking the steaks on the cast iron skillet produced a LOT of smoke at first (I was worried they’d taste burned), but the steaks were perfectly cooked and very flavorful. Fabio did a great job!

Yummm!

Monday was a rest day for me (since my half marathon is on Saturday, this week is pretty low key on the training front) so Fabio and I enjoyed this meal from the comfort of our couch and caught up on a bunch on TV It was a great evening!

Question of the day: How do you cook your steak?

As a bit of background, I should mention that I work for a large global corporation (which I try to be ambiguous about on here, for obvious reasons), which partners with an organization called Room to Read as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Room to Read is an awesome company, but up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t know too much about it. I knew the company provided books and libraries to children in poverty, but I had no idea the extent of the work that Room to Read does until I volunteered at work to help with the DC chapter’s annual Room to Read gala.

The gala took place on May 2, and I was able to leave work a bit early with a few of my coworkers to help set things up. We were told to dress in business formal attire and where we had to be, but otherwise I had no idea what I was jumping in to. All I knew it was that it was for a good cause, so I blindly signed up to assist.

Good thing I did!

Upon arriving at the venue, it was clear that the location was going to be spectacular. The chic glass elevator should have been my first clue that this was not going to be a normal work function.

Helloooo down there! (I have to be honest, the glass elevator was a little scary and I wouldn’t recommend riding one if you’re afraid of heights!)

As soon as we stepped off the elevator and into the main room, I was blown away by the view. Holy capital building! Just look at that view!

The room was set up beautifully and all we had to do was set up the finishing touches (e.g., make the flower centerpieces, put flyers on all the chairs, make sure each table had enough pens, etc.)

It didn’t take more than hour to set everything up, and then we got to enjoy the event!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous (about 70-75 degrees and sunny) and we were allowed to mingle with the guests and take advantage of the hors’ d’oeuvres and open bar

It was such a beautiful location!

Soon it was time to be seated for dinner, and I was lucky enough to sit at a table in the back (near the windows- and the view!) with my coworkers.

We were served some great food, including salad with balsamic vinaigrette…

Chicken with a creamy risotto and veggies…

And a variety of tasty desserts.

Shout out to Amanda for taking this picture! Hi Amanda!

Delicious!

Once the dinner was over, the gala moved on to a more serious note and we watched a ton of inspirational videos about the good work that Room to Read does.

Here’s an example of the types of videos we saw:

John explained to us that he used to be a senior executive at Microsoft. He worked a busy lifestyle and sat behind his computer all day raking in more money than most of us will ever see in a lifetime. He had everything that a rich business man should want, except that he didn’t feel fulfilled.

Then on a vacation to a remote town in India, he visited a school and realized it had no books. How could the children learn to read and write without any books, he wondered. It was at this moment that John’s life changed forever- he left his big corporate job at Microsoft and founded a nonprofit organization dedicated to building libraries and providing books for children in under-developed nations around the world.

One of Room to Read’s target audiences is young women. So often in these countries, the young girls are married off before they even hit puberty or drop out of school to take care of their families. We were told that the number one killer of children 11 to 15 years old in some of these countries is child birth. Can you even imagine such a thing? Room to Read is striving to educate young women so they can continue with their schooling and become something other than under-educated young mothers. And guess what? It’s working.

To this day Room to Read has helped more than 7.8 million children learn to read, including 21,582 girls.

As if hearing all of this information from the founder wasn’t inspiring enough, next came the live auction.

Now, I realize the attendees of this gala were not necessarily your “average Joe.” In the middle of a Washington DC fundraiser, these people probably had way more money than most of us ever will. I get that. But, their generosity still blew me away.

Tons of people donated $5,000 to build new libraries. One man offered to match each bid, and wound up paying about $50,000 total at the end of the night. Two of my coworkers donated $250 each to help print new books, and I contributed $20 to each of them to help pay for it (if my salary was larger, you can bet I would have helped out even more!).

Me with my beautiful coworkers!

Before the night was over, Room to Read had raised $388,000. Wow. I was incredibly impressed. I felt so honored to be a part of such a great movement (and to think- all I had to do was set up some flowers beforehand. Wow).

Once the event was officially over, my coworkers and I decided we didn’t want the night to end, so we headed to the Board Room in DuPont circle for a few more drinks…but not before snapping a few last silly pictures with the capital building

Heyyyy Amanda! Haha.

We were able to take the flower centerpieces home with us, so we decided to bring them in the cab with us on the way to the bar. Hey, you can’t waste flowers, right?

Note: This cab driver had bad allergies and hated us. Oops! Not sure why you would pick up 5 girls holding flowers if you knew your allergies were that bad…oh well!

We stayed at the bar for quite a while before eventually heading home around midnight. It was a fantastic evening and I felt so honored to be a part of the DC chapter’s Room to Read gala. What a wonderful organization! It was a great opportunity and an evening I will never forget!

Question of the day: Have you ever helped out with a charity event? Did you want to donate?

Also as an FYI, if anyone is interested in donating to Room to Read you can check out their donation page here: https://www.roomtoread.org/Donate. Any amount is welcome!

I had a pretty great weekend around these parts, so here’s a little recap of what I was up to!

Friday

Fabio went back up to New York this weekend (two weekends in a row- crazy!) for Mother’s Day. He had a random day off from work that he was going to lose by the end of this month, so he decided to go up early Friday morning so he could work a little bit.

What? That doesn’t look like work to you? Haha!

Fabio used to be a ball boy/bat boy for the Mets and the Yankees when he was in high school, so every now and then he will help out with a game again (for free) so he doesn’t lose those relationships. You never know when a connection will come in handy! Plus, you have to admit it’s a pretty cool “job.”

All weekend he was sending me pictures like this one…

Pretty cool, huh? At least I think so

Anyway, after work on Friday I headed home to quickly change and walk Jack before my friend Sam came over to go to the National’s game (hi Sam!!). Sam just finished her first year of PT school and was ready to celebrate at the Nats game

Sam and I planned to metro to the game, but unfortunately we got super caught up in our conversation and missed our metro stop twice. Oops. Guess that’s what happens when you don’t see your friends very often; you get wrapped up in a conversation and make rookie travel mistakes! Haha!

After we found ourselves on the wrong metro line for the second time, we decided to cut our losses and take a cab. We wound up at the Pentagon (annoyingly close to where we started) and found an abandoned taxi stand. We had to call a cab ourselves, and felt quite sheepish that we were so late to the game. Woopsieeee!

Eventually we arrived at the Bull Pen bar right outside the stadium where the rest of our friends were waiting for us. The Bull Pen bar is a lot of fun and I always make it a point to stop there before the game. The live music, corn hole games, and cheap beers provide quite the fun atmosphere!

Waiting for us at the Bull Pen were my friends Bianca, Daria, Ashley, and their respective dates. Since Fabio was out of town and Sam’s boyfriend was working, we decided to be each other’s dates It kept either of us from feeling like a seventh wheel haha!

Bianca took this picture with her phone, which unfortunately turned out blurry.

Drat! It would have been so cute!

By the time we arrived at the Bull Pen it was already pretty late in the game, and Bianca confessed that she hadn’t been able to buy tickets online because of a computer error. She suggested we buy tickets at the gate, but since it was already more than halfway through the game, none of us really wanted to pay for tickets.

In the end we decided to ditch the idea of the game and go to another bar, which seemed silly but cost-effective. Unfortunately we took way too long to come to this consensus (plus we were busy catching up again) and before we knew it the game had ended and we were still in the Bull Pen. Aghh!

Once the game ended, everyone and their mother seemed to need a cab, so we walked a few blocks to try to avoid the crowds. We wound up going into a nearby hotel and asking them to call us a cab, but then we heard the bartender at the hotel bar say there were free wings for anyone who stayed to buy a drink.

Free wings? Sign me up!

 Me and Bianca in the random hotel bar

Free wings!

We wound up staying in the hotel bar for about an hour before we gave up on our plans for the night and all headed home. It was a lot of fun, but a pretty random evening. I’m not sure we’ll be trying that again anytime soon haha! But hey, at least we got free wings, right?

Saturday

On Saturday morning I didn’t set any alarm, which felt glorious. I woke up at around 9:00 am, walked Jack, and then headed out for a 5 mile run. I ran along my favorite path, the Mt. Vernon trail, which is always so pretty.

I love running along the water and getting a nice view of the monuments. It’s such a great route!

It also seems like I run a bit slower when Fabio isn’t running along side me.

Even though my pace was a bit slow, I didn’t mind too much and was just happy that I completed the run

Around lunchtime, my friend Shaun came over. Although I saw her briefly during Halloween, it had been years (literally) since we actually hung out one-on-one and caught up.

We had plans to walk around Georgetown and then take a yoga class at 4:00 pm, so she came over around 1:30 and then we walked into Georgetown.

First up, we stopped at SweetGreen for some lunch. I chose the Chick-pea salad with falafel, which was awesome.

SweetGreen is always so delicious!

After lunch we popped into a few stores including Anne Taylor LOFT, ZARA, Cusp (new obsession), and Paper Source (we needed some Mother’s Day cards). We had a lot of fun and I wound up with a new brightly colored floral spring scarf

Eventually it was time to head over to yoga, and I was feeling a bit nervous. The yoga class was at the brand new CorePower Yoga studio in Georgetown. I had heard about CorePower Yoga from my coworker (who said she was sore for days after) and then read about it again on Anne’s blog (funny- she went to SweetGreen in her post too!).

The class we took was called Sculpt, and is basically a heated yoga class with various strength exercises (think lots of squats and a bit of cardio) with weights. It was pretty tough on its own, but once you added the element of heat, I was struggling quite a bit. It was no joke!

Moment of truth! Once we opened this door, it was hot!

Here’s my mat, towel (so I didn’t slip- I got sweaty!), and weights (I used a combo of 3lb. and 8lb. weights).

Shaun right before the class!

Shaun and me after the class. Yikes! I was a sweaty, red mess. It was a great workout!

New members get one free week of classes, so I’m going to try to take another class this week while it’s still free. I highly recommend taking a class at CorePower Yoga if you have a studio near you!

After yoga, Shaun and I walked back to my apartment and then Shaun headed home. I quickly showered and then ran some errands, including a trip to Target where I bought a bunch of stuff I didn’t need (typical), in addition to my mom’s Mother’s Day gifts.

I spent the rest of the evening relaxing at home and hanging out with Jack. I debated going out with some friends, but it was pouring rain and I was tired from the run and intense yoga class. Staying in and reading my kindle while cuddled up and listening to the rain sounded great to me, and I fell asleep at around 9:30 pm. No joke!

Sunday

On Sunday morning I took Jack for a quick 2.5 mile run, which is just about as far as he can go without getting tired and lagging behind. Unfortunately I messed up my RunKeeper app mid-run (I meant to hit pause at a red light, but it didn’t register. Then when I hit resume, it actually paused. Bummer.) but I think I was running about a 9 minute 45 second pace. It was nice, easy, slow run, which was perfect for allowing my body to recuperate from the day before.

After my run I showered up and headed over to my mom’s house for Mother’s Day! Her azaleas  are all in bloom and looking lovely

My mom was prepared with snacks, of course!

The weather was beautiful and my mom, stepdad, and I spent the afternoon outside sipping on white wine and talking about our upcoming trip to the Amalfi coast in July. It was such a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Jack had fun playing with my mom’s dogs, of course.

My mom started getting the pool ready and it should be swimmable (I made up that word lol) soon! I think Jack is ready now haha!

Soon it was time for our early dinner

My stepdad was hard at work at the grill! BTW- look how many plants my mom has around the grill haha. It looks like a jungle (but a pretty one, of course).

Soon the food was ready- we had ribs with homemade BBQ sauce (my mom’s specialty) and corn.

Everything was great! It makes me really excited for more summer BBQs at my mom’s house

For dessert we had homemade orange blondies that my mom whipped up. Deeeeelish.

After being at my mom’s for a while, I headed over to my dad’s house (about 10 minutes away) to celebrate my sister’s birthday! Nicole is turning 8 years old today! I can’t believe how big she is getting. We will be having her full family celebration this Saturday (after the half marathon) and her official birthday party later in the summer, but it was nice to go over yesterday to see her open my dad’s gift.

Just look at what she got…

Yep, my eight year old sister has an iPad. I don’t even have an iPad!! It’s crazy, haha!!

At any rate, she seemed super excited and my dad definitely hit this year’s gift out of the park. Here’s hoping she doesn’t break it/lose it!

After watching Nicole open her gifts, I picked up Fabio (his sister who lives in Baltimore drove him home from NY and we met at a half-way point) and then headed home. Fabio and I tried to watch TV for a little while, but we were too sleepy. Even Jack was exhausted, haha!

All in all, it was a great Mother’s Day weekend!

Question of the day: What did you do for Mother’s Day?

Have you ever been to the Amalfi Coast of Italy? Do you have any recommendations?

I have some pretty great moms in my life, including two grandmothers who raised wonderful children (my parents), and definitely spoiled their grandchildren a bit (me). Hi Grandma Chambers and Grandma Clark! I love you both so much and wish you a happy Mother’s Day!

Then there is my stepmom, who has been a great mother figure in my life. Happy Mother’s Day, Afsaneh!

And now, for my own mom, who is pretty much the best woman I know. She is strong and sure of herself and is an inspiration to me every day. I know she would do anything for me and she loves me unconditionally. I love you so much Mom, and I can’t wait to celebrate with you today!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

1. Fabio made me breakfast on Thursday, which included an egg on top of an arepa. An arepa is sort of like the Colombian version of an English muffin; it’s made of corn dough and gets nice and crispy when toasted. Fabio melted some cheese on top (under the eggs) and it was de-licious!

2. I had a silly day at work on Wednesday, when I took a fun snapchat with my coworkers.

Love snapchat.

Then we had to test out a Google+ hangout for a client, and things got a little weird.

The funniest part was that the hangout was with two very important people on my team (read: the boss’ boss’ boss) and we had so much fun playing with the props and just hanging out on Google+. I have to say, Google+ might be kinda lame for everything else, but their hangout feature is awesome! (In case you are unfamiliar with Google+ hangout, it’s like Skype but for groups).

Even though my job can be super stressful at times, I definitely LOVE my coworkers

3. Fabio and I received a coupon in the mail for Chipotle for buy one get one. Oh yeah!!

We redeemed it on Wednesday when our kickball game was canceled (solving the to-bar-or-not-to-bar question) and I enjoyed a chicken burrito bowl with brown rice, black beans, tomatoes, corn, cheese, and lettuce. So good!

5. Does anyone remember the duck that I have now seen two times sitting outside my office? You may remember it as the super awkward duck that somehow made its way into the middle of a big city.

Yes. That duck.

Well, I have some news for you- said duck has had babies!!

How adorable are they?!?!?!??? Omg I could not get enough of these little balls of fluff when I spotted them on my walk to work yesterday morning. So cute! Also, since their location was not exactly an ideal place to be raised, someone called animal control and had them moved to a park. Sad for me, good for the ducks. Just look at their cute little fuzziness…

6. I’m going to the National’s game tonight with a bunch of my friends and I am so, so excited!

The last time I went to a game was way back in June of last year! Crazy, right?

Unfortunately Fabio won’t be there this time, but I might just wear the shirt that he has on in the above picture We’ll have to see if it fits me, but I think it would be cute since I don’t have any Nats gear of my own. We shall see!

7. And, the best news of all……from June 27 to July 5, my mom, stepdad, Fabio and I will be going to….

[Source]

The Amalfi coast of Italy!! WOOOOHOOOOOOO!!! Just look how gorgeous that is!! I absolutely cannot wait to go and it’s going to be a blast. I am so grateful that my mom is taking us on this trip- I know it’s going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity THANKS MOMMMMM!!!!

Ok kiddos, that’s all I have for today! Have a great weekend!

Question of the day: What’s the coolest trip you’ve ever been on?

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I had a fantastic weekend in New York filled with a fun brunch date with my aunt, a Yankee game on a beautiful afternoon, and a great time at the bar with my friends. However, the real reason I went up to New York, of course, was to participate in a 40 mile bike ride around New York!

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember when I decided to sign up for the bike ride back in January. It was not initially something I was interested in, since it was pretty expensive (around $90 I believe) and I wouldn’t be able to train for it much since I would be spending so much time on my half marathon training (the bike ride was on May 5 and the half marathon is going to be on May 18, so training for both would have been tough). I also didn’t have a bike, so the idea of doing a 40 mile bike ride so close to my half marathon wasn’t even something I thought about.

Then I got an email from my dad saying he had signed up for the ride. I know I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, but my dad is a bit overweight and I am always trying to get him in shape. I have suggested Weight Watchers and told him I would do the program with him, but I know ultimately it has to be something he wants himself. No amount of me pushing (or gently nudging) will do the trick.

That’s why I was so excited to hear that he signed up for the bike ride. I immediately registered myself (goodbye, $90) and asked Fabio if he wanted to join too. Fabio invited his dad along as well, and the four of us planned to ride as a team. Fabio and I each bought bikes (a lengthy process, which I should probably go into detail about sometime) and rode some bike trails around DC. While we were in no way “training” for the bike ride, I think we felt as prepared as we needed to be and were excited for the ride.

Then a couple of weeks before the race, my dad called to say his knees were bothering him. He has always had bad knees, and has had more than 30 surgeries on his knees in his life, including two knee replacements. I have to admit I wasn’t too surprised by this news, but I guess I just thought my dad wouldn’t have signed up unless he was sure he would be able to ride. I thought maybe his knees were doing better and that he’d be fine (which is, I think, what he thought too), but after completing just a few spin classes and riding about 4 miles with Fabio and me on a weekend when we had nice weather, I think it became clear to all of us that the ride wasn’t going to happen for my dad.

So, Fabio and I went up to New York by ourselves last weekend for the race. Of course I missed my dad and wished he’d been able to come, but his safety, of course, came first.

The morning of the race arrived, and Fabio, his dad, and I woke up at 6:00 am. We donned the matching bike jerseys that my dad got us as a good luck gift and got ready for the day!

Sleeeeeeeepy eyes! Jack cheered us on too!

We ate a quick breakfast of toast and eggs, and then piled our bikes onto the back of my car and drove to Citi Field to park and hop on the subway.

Let me just tell you that taking bikes on the subway is not easy! You have to carry your bike up and down different flights of stairs, and try to hold them still while the train is moving. Phew!

Fabio and his dad helped me out

Soon we arrived in Manhattan (the race started all the way downtown) and had to walk quite a distance to the starting point (I think about 1.5 miles). The race had 32,000 people (!!!) and it took us forever just to get where we needed to be.

Here’s my Vine video from the starting point(ish).

On our way to the starting line, we passed the new building to commemorate the World Trade Center. It’s being finished up right now, but is already quite impressive! The last (and only other) time I did this bike ride was in 2002, and I remember we rode past Ground Zero which was still a big hole in the ground littered with teddy bears, candles, and flowers. It was nice to see that in the 11 years since my last ride, they have progressed so far. It was great to see!

Soon they played the National anthem, the bike ride began, and we were off! [Source]

The first few miles were spent going uptown in Manhattan, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was cool to be in the middle of the street and not have to stop behind a million cabs. It was smooth sailing and the sights of the city were awesome.

After about three miles, we made it to Central Park, which was lovely. This part of the ride was all pretty familiar to me, as I’ve spent a good amount of time in New York City over the years (including one summer where I lived there!).

Once we started getting further uptown, the familiar sights disappeared and I enjoyed seeing a brand new side to Manhattan (I think we were in Harlem). I was expecting it to be sketchy and dangerous-looking, but we actually went through some really cool neighborhoods.

Then we popped into the Bronx for literally five minutes, and came back out. I thought it would have been cool to explore the Bronx a bit more, but I guess the people who planned the route had other ideas, haha.

At this point we approached the first rest stop, where we decided to take a break to use the restroom and switch bikes (Fabio’s dad had a low-angled mountain bike, which would have been great for trail rides but was not so ideal for the city. They switched bikes periodically so neither of them got too tired).

The rest stop was awesome and had energetic music, water refill stations, bathrooms, and free snacks! Hooray for KIND bars!!

We also made sure to snap a few group photos Hooray!

After our pit stop, it was back on the road; this time to head downtown along a highway on the East River that was pretty familiar to me, on our way into Queens!

My favorite moment of the whole ride was right around this point when we all had to go through a tunnel and everyone started cheering and yelling. I’m not sure who started it, but it was as if everyone was feeling super excited and just couldn’t contain themselves anymore.

Of course I joined in the cheering, and rang the little bell on my bike a few times. It was awesome to hear so many people yelling all around me, while the sounds reverberated off the walls. Awesome!

Shortly after this, our ride came to a crawl and we thought maybe there was a security checkpoint ahead. There had been a few other incidents where we had to slow to an awkward walk-your-bike/try-to-keep-riding-slowly-and-not-fall situations, so we assumed something like that was happening again. Fabio took the time to make another Vine video, obviously.

Anyway, we eventually came to a complete stop and realized this was not just a random bottleneck congestion issue like before, but something that was causing a serious backup. At first I found this to be pretty annoying, but then I got out my phone and saw a text saying that my good friend Hana was stationed nearby to cheer us on.

Because we were at a complete standstill, she was actually able to come over and chat with us for a bit! This worked out perfectly because if she had been positioned anywhere else along the route, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have been able to say hi to each other.

Yay for spectators!! I was so glad to have a friendly face cheering me on and instantly felt happier Thanks for supporting me, Hana!

While we were waiting around and wondering what the holdup was, Fabio’s phone started ringing. Then my phone rang. Then everyone’s phones rang. We soon realized it was the bike organizers sending an alert that the ride was being suspended due to a medical incident. What a fantastic alert system! I was super impressed.

Unfortunately, we later learned that the medical incident was a 51 year old man who suffered a heart attack on the Queensborough Bridge and died. Apparently this type of thing is pretty common for the ride, especially when there are 32,000 people involved, but it definitely shook me up a bit and left me feeling sad. I was also incredibly grateful that my dad wound up not doing the race, because frankly he’s not in very good shape himself and I’m not sure his heart could have handled it. That’s some scary stuff.

Anyway, eventually the incident cleared up and we were back on our way. Bye, Hana!

When we crossed the Queensborough Bridge, I felt like I was in heaven. We happened to be riding next to a guy with a stereo on his bike, so Bob Marley was blasting just as we were crossing the bridge and gazing over the beautiful view of Manhattan. I wish I had captured a picture, but I wasn’t coordinated enough. Too bad.

Thanks to Fabio, for this photo!

The rest of our ride was pretty uneventful, and we continued on our way through Brooklyn. We passed a ton of cute restaurant and bars, and even went through a neighborhood where all the little kids came out to cheer us on. It was awesome!

We bypassed the next two rest areas before finally stopping at one just 9 miles from the finish line. The views at this stop were incredible.

We’ll have to get some of those framed for sure!

The remaining 9 miles of the ride went by pretty quickly and then, before we knew it, the Verrazano Bridge was in front of us. I remembered from the past that this bridge was incredibly difficult to tackle, but I was determined to bike up the whole thing without stopping.

It was super intimidating when we were at the bottom, but when I focused on making it to the area right in front of me I was able to keep going.

I pedaled and pedaled, and said a little mantra in my head, “Keep going, Keep going, Keep going…” and it worked! Eventually I made it to the top of the hill and I didn’t have to stop to walk! Woohoo!! It felt like such a great accomplishment since I saw tons of other people getting off to walk (just look at that photo above!).

Then I flew down the hill at what felt like lightning speed, and saw the festival and finish line to my right. Awesome!!

We did it!!

It only took us 5 hours and 4 minutes (with the delay from the medical incident) and I burned 1,609 calories. Nice!

The festival was really fun for a while and they had a live band and free samples of tons of goodies. We planned to stay to grab something to eat, but the lines were so long that we decided to wait until we got home.

I guess that’s what 32,000 people looks like?

Once we decided we had enough of the festival, we left, hopped back on our bikes, and rode three more miles to the Staten Island ferry (I would like to point out that no one told me we had to get back on our bikes after the finish line. UGH!).

The lines for the ferry were ridiculous…

And we waited for about an hour to get on. Ugh x2.

It was quite the scene once everyone boarded.

Back to Manhattan we go!

Luckily we were seated by a window and saw some awesome views.

(The windows were filthy…)

But it’s a great view, right?

After we got off the ferry, we headed to another subway station and took the train back into Queens. Then we hopped in my car and immediately grabbed a celebratory dinner. It was an awesome day, and I’m so proud we were able to finish! Woohoo!

Question of the day: What makes you feel proud?

Since I’m feeling well-rested and have been able to get some real foods back into my diet after too much beer and fried food over the weekend (what can ‘ya do), I think I might skip the bar after kickball tonight.

Every week, my friends and I play kickball on the National Mall and then head to the bar for a few fun drinking games afterword. Having kickball to look forward to every Wednesday has been a blessing, and I can’t begin to tell you how much fun it is hanging out with your best friends in the middle of the week, but going to the bar afterword is just something I should skip today. I think I spent enough money and calories on beer over the weekend, thankyouverymuch. Yep, so I’ve decided that today I’m going to go for the kickball game only, no matter how hard my friends try to pressure me to go to the bar after. I need my rest!

What would you guys do, go to the bar with all your friends, or take a week off to save money, detox, and rest?

WIAW

Anyway, it’s Wednesday so let’s get into today’s What I Ate Wednesday post! Thanks to Jenn for hosting the linkup

Breakfast

I had a  deeeelicious bowl of Multigrain Cheerios with skim milk, half a banana, and blueberries. I absolutely love when we have fresh berries in the house, which unfortunately isn’t very often since they are expensive out of season. These blueberries are so good and I have been enjoying them all week! Yumm

Lunch

While we were in New York this weekend, we stopped at our favorite Greek restaurant, Gyro World, for dinner. While there, I decided to order a Greek salad to eat at work during the week. I finally dove into it yesterday, and man, was it good!

When I first opened the salad, I was a bit overwhelmed by the lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, feta cheese, grape leaves, and olives that were totally stuffed to the brim of the bowl. However, once I chopped up the ingredients, drizzled on some dressing, and tossed things around a bit, I was able to tackle the giant salad. Yum!! (BTW- I tossed the olives. I’m just not a fan).

I wound up only being able to finish about 2/3 of the salad and took the rest home for later. Score!

Snack #1

At work yesterday, I helped my coworker, Mary, with a project (hi Mary!). To thank me, she gave me a few of her Junior Mints (her favorite candy!) to snack on. The minty chocolaty bites were exactly what I needed after my big salad (plus the minty flavor was definitely necessary after those onions. I also ate a ton of gum yesterday afternoon. Raw onions = stinky breath. Yikes!).

These were totally delicious and reminded me of being in a movie theater, since that’s the only time I would usually eat Junior Mints. So good!

Snack #2

Fabio and I had another three mile run on the agenda yesterday afternoon, so I knew I wouldn’t get around to making dinner until somewhat late (I also got out of work late yesterday, giving me an even later start). To hold my hunger at bay, I snacked on a handful of raw almonds and Mini Babybel cheese. Perfect after-work snack!

Dinner

When we finally got home from our run, I decided to make something quick and easy for dinner. I wound up sauteing some onions and garlic in olive oil before tossing in brussels sprouts and chicken sausage that we picked up recently at Trader Joe’s. Once they were cooked through, I tossed in some tomatoes, spinach, and whole wheat pasta. I made a sort of cheese sauce out of a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese, fat free Greek yogurt, and tons of fresh Parmesan. It was deeeelicious! I love meals like this On the side I had the rest of my Greek salad from lunch.

Dinner Drink

To make last night’s dinner a little more “special” than a regular old Tuesday, Fabio decided to open up a bottle of red wine to enjoy with our pasta. This is something we used to do quite frequently, as it makes a normal weekday a little more fun, but we haven’t had much wine in the house lately and have therefore been slacking. Fabio and I talked about how much we like having wine with dinner (it feels so much fancier!) and we decided we’re going to buy a case of some cheap, but good, wine next time we go shopping. Please let me know if you have any recommendations- we aren’t picky!

Snack #3

I mentioned last week that Fabio recently signed us up for the Graze boxes, which sends you healthy snacks once every two weeks. This week’s box arrived last night, and after dinner we decided to try out the “honeycomb crunch” snacks. The “crunch” was quite delicious and Fabio and I really enjoyed trying out this snack (especially with the red wine! It was quite fun!).

I’m not sure how long we’ll continue to get the Graze boxes, but for now they are reasonably priced and fun for us to receive

So there you have it- everything I ate yesterday! Not a bad day all things considered; at least I got a lot of variety and colors going on! Some healthy fats too. Not too shabby.

Daily Activity

As I mentioned earlier, Fabio and I completed a quick three mile run yesterday. I was trying to pick up my pace a bit, but in the end it wasn’t too different than usual. Oh well, next time. It was still a great run!

Question of the day: Do you drink wine? Do you know a lot about it?

Friday

Right after work on Friday, Fabio and I packed up the car and headed up to New York for the weekend. As you may recall, we signed up to do a 40 mile bike ride around all 5 boroughs of New York City! Originally my dad was supposed to do the ride with us, but his knees have been really been bothering him so he decided to stay home (my dad has had both his knees replaced and has had about 30 knee surgeries in his life- yikes!). Of course I was really disappointed that he couldn’t come, but I didn’t want him to be in pain or damage his knees either. Safety first!

Anyway, Fabio, Jack, and I made our way up to New York and arrived around midnight. Then we called it a night and instantly went to sleep. ZzZzZz…

Saturday

As soon as we woke up on Saturday morning, Fabio and I headed out for a quick three mile run with Jack. For our half marathon training we were supposed to run 12 miles, but with the 40 mile bike ride ahead of us we didn’t think that was the best idea. The last thing we wanted was to overwork our muscles and injure ourselves for either of the races!

I was a bit nervous at first about skipping my last long run before the half (on May 18), but I researched a bit online and found out that some training plans only take you up to 10 or 11 miles anyway, so hopefully I’ll still be fine! Either way, I’m glad we were able to get a few miles in on Saturday at least!

After our run, we came back to some fresh juice!

Fabio’s dad has a juicer and he has gotten really good at making sweet and nutritious juice. This particular blend included carrots, beets, and apples. It was perfectly sweet and I really enjoyed it. Yum!

After our juice, we showered up and headed into the city (Fabio’s dad was gracious enough to drive us in from Queens what a gem).

When I realized my dad wasn’t going to be able to join us for the bike ride, I asked him if I should sell his ticket on Craig’s List. He agreed that that was a great solution, and on our drive up to New York on Friday, I went to work getting the Carig’s List posting up. I got a response almost instantly from a guy named Ted who said he could meet us in the Upper West Side on Saturday morning to pick up the packet.

Lucky for me, my aunt CC, who I really wanted to see while we were up there, lives on the Upper West Side as well! I texted her to see if she wanted to meet up, and she said she was free to come with my uncle Steve to meet us for brunch! The timing worked out perfectly  and we were able to sell the packet to Ted and still have brunch with my family Two birds with one stone! I was a happy camper! (Plus I got $75 for my dad’s ticket, which he said I could keep Awesomeee!!)

CC and Steve sneakily suggested grabbing brunch at Fred’s, a cute outdoor restaurant on 83rd and Amsterdam. I say sneakily because they pretended like they were just looking for any random restaurant in the area, when really they chose it because the whole interior of the restaurant is decorated with photos of dogs (and mostly labs) which they knew I would love.

So adorable, right?

Even though the inside was awesome (I seriously could have looked at those photos all day!) it was a beautiful day out so we sat outside in the sunshine.

Me and CC! (P.S. I don’t know why I call her CC – her name is actually Colleen- but I think it started when I was a baby!)

Fabio and Steve!

CC and I started off with some mimosas while the boys sipped on beers. It was absolutely gorgeous outside and we had a great time catching up.

For my meal I decided to order the grilled vegetable sandwich with fresh mozzarella and pesto mayo.

It was delicious and so flavorful! I gobbled down the first half and then ate the veggies out of the second half because I was starting to get full. It was so good, I’m still dreaming about this sandwich now. Sigh.

After lunch we said a tipsy goodbye to CC and Steve (we had quite a few mimosas by this point) and then made our way to the subway to head to the Bronx.

Why the Bronx?? Because Fabio and I had tickets to the Yankee game!!

Yay!! While I don’t enjoy watching baseball on TV (I will almost always read a book, surf blogs, or fall asleep) I love going to the games. The atmosphere is so much fun and it’s a blast to watch!

I knew my friend Kristen was planning to attend the game as well, so I was really hoping I would get to see her at least for a few minutes before or after the game. Imagine my surprise when we got our tickets and she was literally sitting in the row behind us. Seriously! Out of the thousands of seats in the stadium, she and her family were right behind us. It was the weirdest coincidence ever, but of course I wasn’t complaining! I got to spend the whole game catching up with her while Fabio and her brother, Raymond, chatted about Yankee stats. It was definitely a fantastic way to spend a baseball game!

After the game, Kristen said her parents were going to drive her to her apartment in downtown Manhattan where she was planning to meet up with the rest of our Sloppytown friends. She asked if Fabio and I wanted to come along and of course we said yes!! I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to see all of my friends, and we didn’t have any solid plans for the rest of the afternoon anyway. I have to say, I was grinning from ear to ear by this point because I was so happy with the way the day played out. So far I was getting to have a great time with all my favorite people and I couldn’t have been happier!!

We had a fun car ride with Kristen’s family and then we arrived at the bar. I was so happy to see everyone!!

Fabio had a lot of fun too and spent most of the day talking baseball with Raymond. Raymond is moving to the DC area soon so I bet they’re going to become really close friends!

Fabio took a couple of Vine videos from the day, which were pretty entertaining. Here’s my favorite one…

Needless to say, we had a fantastic afternoon with some of my best friends

We headed home from the bar at around 9:00 pm and got an early night’s sleep before the big bike ride the next day. Great choice!

Sunday

Fabio’s dad woke us up at 6:00 am on Sunday to get ready for the bike ride! We ate some eggs and toast before packing up and leaving for downtown.

I’m not going to go into too many details about the bike ride, because I really want to dedicate a whole post to it later this week. I just have so many details and pictures to share that it really shouldn’t be crammed into a weekend recap. I will tell you that the ride went really, really well and we all did the 40 miles without a hitch.

Huurah!! I felt so proud of myself at the end! Forty miles is no joke!

We got back to Queens from the bike ride at around 7:00 pm and headed to Fabio’s favorite restaurant, Gyro World, to celebrate. We started off with some beers…

And then I ordered a delicious gyro. Yummmm.

After dinner we were too tired from the bike ride to drive home, so we decided to sleep for a while and then head home in the early morning. Unfortunately, in order to avoid traffic the “early morning” meant 1:00 am. So, we napped from about 10:00 pm – 1:00 am, when we then packed up the car and drove back home. We arrived back in Arlington at 6:00 am, right as the sun was rising and our neighbors were heading to work. Ugh.

I initially was going to go into work a little later than usual, but when the alarm went off it just wasn’t happening. I told my manager what was going on and she encouraged me to take a sick day if I needed to. Yes ma’am, that’s exactly what I’ll do

Fabio took a sick day as well and we spent the day doing some much-needed laundry, grocery shopping, and cleaning. Oh, and sleeping. There was a lot of that.

Phew! What a weekend, right? I can’t wait to tell you all about the bike ride- I promise to give you tons of details!

Question of the day: Have you ever had a crazy coincidence happen to you?