So with that plan in mind, I Under Armour-ed up and headed out into the cold!  I had an eight mile route in mind, and the first two miles were terrible.  I kept thinking about what a terrible run this was going to be and how long it was going to feel.  About two miles later, that feeling had past and I felt amazing!  Not sure if I finally warmed up or what, but my run went from the worst ever to great.  At about mile 4.75 (going downhill with the wind at my back…), I decided that I would do fifteen miles today instead of eight.  It seemed like a good idea, and I could extend my current route into ten miles, where I would loop back by my house, grab some water and maybe something to eat if I wanted, and then do another five miles.  Sounded like a great plan.

Except I didn’t really feel like heading back when I hit the eight mile mark, so I turned to add on a loop instead of running past my house.  I figured I could stop and eat some snow if I needed to.    Still chugging long, I kept waiting for my legs to die or to really need something to drink, but I didn’t!  Since I hadn’t planned on doing 15 miles, I didn’t have any fuel or water on me, and I did fine without it.  It was one of those runs where I felt like I could run forever, which is surprising with how terrible it started and how the roads were!

The roads…oh the roads.  While I applaud my town for its attempts to clear the roads, everywhere still had at least an inch or so of packed snow and slush.  I spent a lot of time running down the middle of the road which was clear from the cars driving on it.  That being said, I would hug the side of the road when cars went by and they still almost hit me!  If they didn’t hit me, they covered me in road slush.  Thanks, drivers. 

Covered in salt.  Please note:  I threw out these socks today.

I passed a lady who was shoveling her driveway, and she yelled to me, “Well, you’re certainly ambitious!”  I failed to mention that I was on mile eight of fifteen…haha.

by the numbers

Sunday, February 7
15.12 miles in 1:55:44, avg pace of 7:39
Splits:  7:50, 7:54, 8:12, 7:40, 7:34, 7:43, 7:32, 7:45, 7:37, 7:51, 7:32, 7:38, 7:33, 7:23, 7:25, 0:28 (7:25 pace)

Take that, Snowpocalypse!!

• 8:  Miles I planned to run.
• 15:  Miles I did run.
• 12:  Cars that almost hit me.
• 3:  Cars that covered me in road slush.
• 1:  Other runner that I spotted.
• 4:  Plow truck drivers who must have thought I was crazy when they saw me three times.

Overall, I’d say I’ll take it. 

I was super worried that I would be snowed in…while I hate my job, I would feel really bad not going.  Nurses don’t get snow days!!  It’s different if they tell me not to go versus me calling me and saying I’m not coming.  By 10am I saw a plow go by at least four times, so I figured the roads might be not too terrible.  The trick was going to be digging out my car, which I was admittedly not too excited about.  I mean, that’s what boys are for!  I set out to shovel away, and then I got some help from my roommate’s friend who is snowed in with us.  Victory!

It’s kind of funny that I moved all the way from Chicago, expecting to avoid snow falls such as this, but oh no no no, the snow decided to bring Chicago to me!  How nice of it. 

Enough talk, let’s just get to the photo evidence of the disaster that occurred overnight.

View from the driveway, pre-shoveling.

I don’t own snow boots!!

Car on the side of the road…not mine, luckily!

Success!!

No BBQing tonight…

Getting to work should be fun.  I’m going to leave early and go super slow…I drove between 15-20 miles per hour all the way home last night and prayed alllllll the way up the giant hill my little Honda Civic had to climb.  I’m nervous about going down it….gah.  It’s going to be okay.  I hope.

So much for my 15 mile run I was supposed to do today…

So what was the plan?  I basically just browsed the produce section and bought whatever veggies I thought would be tasty…green pepper, red pepper, broccoli, zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, RED POTATOES.  The potatoes being the star of the show with the broccoli being a close second.  Who knew roasted broccoli was so good?  I sure didn’t.

So what was my secret to roasting?  Well, it’s not exactly complicated…and it’s certainly not really a secret!

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut up those veggies into one inch (or bite size) pieces.
3. Throw veggies into a bowl.
4. Throw in some olive oil.  Add whatever spices you want.  I used black pepper, parsley flakes, some garlic powder, and an “Italian Medley.”  Basically, I stood in front of the spices and grabbed whatever sounded good.
5. Toss the veggies/olive oil/spices.
6. Place coated veggies on a baking sheet.  I sprayed it with Pam before using.
7. Put veggies in the oven for ten minutes.  Stir them around.  Roast for another ten minutes.  Stir them around.  Check to see if they’re done.  I roasted them for another five minutes and they were soft yet still crisp.  (Stick them with a fork!)
8. Enjoy!  (Let them cool a little first…)

It doesn’t get any easier than that! 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a bite is worth a million…but since you’re not in my house to try my tasty delights, I’ll have to leave you with a thousand words a picture.  Or a few.

Plate of roasted veggies…with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce and ketchup for dipping!

I think the BBQ is what really makes this meal…seriously.

Brown rice, kidney beans, and, yes, more BBQ sauce!

I don’t think I’d make too bad of a vegetarian…except I love buffalo chicken and don’t think I could ever give it up.  Hmmmmm.

Clementines…a gift from God himself.

My lunch…altogether now!  I love that elephant tray.

Guess what I’m having for dinner??  SO GOOD.

I hope you all enjoyed a little glimpse of my lunch…now it’s time to eat it all before I head to work!

My run on Tuesday was the first tempo run of marathon training!  I’m always intimidated by tempo runs, although I don’t know why…I think it’s totally mental, as I think they should be hard and painful and not fun. It’s mostly funny because I think my tempo pace is somewhere around 7:00-7:10 (that’s a guess…based off of the McMillan calculator for a 3:20 marathon), which I’ve been hitting at the end of many of my runs anyway.  It’s still kind of daunting!  Let’s see how it panned out…the plan was 8 miles with four at tempo pace:

Tuesday, February 2
Warm up:  2.15 miles in 17:05, avg pace of 7:57
Tempo Miles:  6:58, 6:49, 6:40, 6:39, avg pace of 6:45
Cool down:  2.11 miles in 16:39, avg pace of 7:53

I don’t know about you…but I’d call that a success!  The last tempo mile got a bit painful with about half a mile to go, but otherwise I felt controlled and comfortable.  Definitely working, but no puke factor or anything.  In other news, I should probably slow down my warm up and cool down…but that’s for another day.

Over night, we got about an inch of snow (which lead to schools being delayed for two hours…REALLY?  Come on now.), so that foiled my plan to do my 11 mile run on the local trail.  Crunching through possible slippery snow was not my idea of fun, so I mapped out a run through the local neighborhood, which had clear streets.  I do many of my runs in the neighborhood since it’s a bit hillier (good practice!), but this was the longest I’ve gone so far.  Luckily I didn’t get lost, and I had an awesome run!

Wednesday, February 3
11.05 miles in 1:24:36, avg pace of 7:39

My legs were tiredddd after yesterday, and I wasn’t sure how they would feel today, especially with the hills.  Once I got out there, it felt great!  Post-snow runs are the best because snowing means that it’s pretty warm out, especially with cloud cover!  Plus it’s fun with the snow lands in your open mouth. 

run the mile you’re in

I’d like to take some time to address how to get through various runs.  Many people ask me how I keep myself occupied while running…Music?  Thoughts?  Cartwheels?  The honest truth?  I have no idea.  I don’t listen to music (safety factor…and I never have!), my cartwheels would certainly cause injury both to me and the people around me, and I think my mind is like a black hole when I run.  I know I think about things, sometimes sing songs (in my head, never out loud!), but when I get back, I couldn’t tell you what I thought about…quite impressive for those long run!

The mind warp is all fine and dandy when I’m having a good run, but what about those ones where you just want them to end?  When four more miles seems like an eternity?  (And you’ve only ran ONE so far!)  Although I’ve gone by this for years, Lam said it point blank when I made a comment that I could run 7:30 pace for six miles…but what about the next twenty??  “Run one mile at a time,” he said.  (Maybe not the exact words, but that was the gist of it.)  During my tempo run, the thought of running four 6:45 miles didn’t sound so peachy, but running ONE 6:45 mile?  I can do that.  And when that one is done, I can do another…but let’s not think about that now.

We’ve all been there on the long run…you’ve run six miles and fourteen more seems impossible.  When training for the Wisconsin Marathon, I tricked myself into thinking about one mile at a time by making sure my Garmin was set to give me my current mile distance and pace.  When I looked at my watch, it would only say I’ve gone half a mile instead of 8.5 miles!  By thinking about the mile I was currently running, it got my mind off of the next twelve (or ten…or six…or whatever) miles I had left to run…it’s a great way to trick your mind, and it’s gotten me through many long runs, tempo runs, or any run that just seems to go on for.ev.er.

Run the mile you’re in.  Sounds simple.  And it is.  You can’t control what will happen in ten miles, but you can concentrate on how you’re running now.  Just think about it.

I’ve been running pretty fast lately, and I wanted to try to slow down…but.  Well.  That didn’t happen.  (Yes, I’m sure you called it…)  The pace ended up feeling really comfortable and lots of other runners were out on the trail!!  Due to the odd time that I normally run (10am-1pm) during the week, I rarely see other runners.  Most of them waved back at me or even said hi so it was fun.  Seeing people also helps decrease my anxiety about ending up on the next episode of Law and Order:  SVU…you think I’m kidding, but I get really paranoid about it!

Sunday, January 31
13.11 miles in 1:39:51, avg pace of 7:37

Splits:  7:28, 7:47, 7:41, 7:45, 7:43, 7:51, 7:43, 7:41, 7:33, 7:37, 7:34, 7:18, 7:13, 0:50 (6:54 pace) 

That’s right…a half marathon!  I can’t run only 13 miles when I’m so close to a half.  I’m pretty excited about this run because the pace felt great…not like I was chugging away, but pretty comfortable.  (Until the end when I was making sure my watch said 1:39 instead of 1:40…haha.)  Marathon pace, maybe??  That would be 3:20…although I’m sure Boston is hillier than my flat trail.

the skinny (on) jeans

I headed to the mall today to attempt to do some retail therapy.  While the therapy part failed (I’m a terrible shopper…I guess that’s good for my wallet), I somehow ended up with a pair of skinny jeans!  I think I’m stylish enough to not look like a total loon, but that’s about it.  Skinny jeans are a big deal for me!  I got some good tips on Twitter about wearing skinny jeans, and here’s what I’ve got so far:

Tops to Wear

• Shirts that are longer…cover your butt!
• Shirts that are looser.  Balance out the tightness on the bottom!
• Combine the two and use a cute belt to tie up that loose shirt.  (I am not nearly stylish enough to pull this off!)

What about those shoes??

• Heels…make those legs look like they go on forever.
• Boots!  Hello, these will go great with my new Uggs.  (I don’t care what you say, my feet have never been warmer.)
• Flats.  I love my cute red ballet slippers…perfect.

Alright, I guess you are all probably fashionistas and did not need my little tutorial on how to wear skinny jeans.  (Except for you, Matt…I hope you took notes!)  But I hope you enjoyed my little fashion lesson.  Now I just have to go out in public in them. 

This morning was quite the adventure…despite being exhausted all week, I dragged myself out of bed to attempt to go to my second spin class at the gym.  They put up a sign up sheet half an hour before class starts so you can sign up for a bike, but I figured if I got there somewhere around there I’d be fine.  WRONG.  The list apparently filled up in about two minutes…people were waiting in line to sign up!  On Friday morning??  Okay fine.  Well I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do since it’s freezing outside and I wasn’t planning on running today anyway.  I headed upstairs to look at the machines and decided to try the elliptical.

Oh dear.  I just reinforced the fact that I hate the machines.  I have no clue how people use them for an hour!  Or more than 20 minutes, which is how long I used it for…it was torture!!  I can run for an hour without any issues and time will fly by, but the seconds draaaaaag on the machines.  I told myself to do 20 minutes and call it a day since I was tired.  Legs are kinda sore anyway.  I’ll survive.

that’s what boys are for

The other exciting part of my morning was when I turned on my car and a warning light came on.  I am no stranger to car problems (multiple cars have broken down on me…gah), but that still doesn’t mean I have any idea what to do with them.  I scrambled to find the owner’s manual and learned that the funny looking light was the “low pressure” indicator for my tires.  I’m not a total idiot, so I knew well enough to check my tires to see if they were totally flat (they weren’t).  My next plan was to put air in the tires, but like anyone who has NO CLUE what to do with cars, I called my dad.  Because cars things are for boys to deal with.

Yes, that’s right.  I have a list of things to which I say, “That’s what boys are for.”  That saying started when I had a friend who was shocked that I didn’t know how to change a tire or check my oil.  Well, no…of course I don’t…that’s what boys are for!  If I’ve ever had car trouble or anything, I always call my dad and he figures it out.  This list isn’t only related to car problems, but also includes things such as:

• Taking out the trash.
• Changing light bulbs that burn out.
• Mowing the lawn.  (Although I’ve enjoyed this the few times I have done it.)
• Any yard work.
• Shoveling the driveway.
• Fixing anything and everything.
• Grilling.
• Cleaning the floors.  (I hate cleaning floors. I’ll clean anything else, I promise.)
• Starting fires…like in a fireplace…not for real.

Most of these are probably based on the things that my dad did in my house, or are things that I would rather not do for myself.  Not saying I couldn’t do these things, but if someone else could do them for me, I’d be a happy person.  I like to think that I contribute to life other ways (cooking!  baking!  cleaning!  being entertaining!), so it’s a fair trade off.

Do you have anything on your “that’s what boys are for” list?  Let me know that I’m not alone!

Don’t worry, I’m not driving around with flat tires…I managed to figure out how to check the air pressure in my tires and put air in them.  Success!  See, I’m not a complete helpless female.  (Although I did almost have to go inside the garage to ask how to work the tire pressure gauge…then it suddenly worked!)

i am completely capable of running on my own

Although it would be nice to have a body guard to run with (I watch too much SVU…ha), I am quite capable of running by myself.  I put off my run yesterday for about an hour and a half before it was do or die time.  Okay, not that extreme, but if I was going to run, I needed to get out the door so I could get to work on time!  I finally decided that running yesterday would be better than running today and that I would be happy with myself when I was done.  And that was true, of course.  I don’t usually ever regret going on a run…especially when the next day is 18 degrees instead of 40!  Definitely wouldn’t have wanted to run nine miles today!  Yesterday, however, was glorious.

Thursday, January 28
9.04 miles in 1:08:20, avg pace of 7:33

The speedy runs continue!  No complaints here. First “long run” this weekend…13 miles.  I’ll be trying to slow it down as to not wear myself out, but we’ll see how it goes.  I just hope it warms up a little bit!

Happy Friday, everyone!

I’ve biked before (like the month when I stopped running in September/October!), but I’ve never taken a spin class.  In high school, we would ride the stationary bikes when the weather didn’t allow us to run outside…mainly when there was lightning or a torrential downpour.  I hated riding the bike in high school.  Hated.  Sooo it was going to be an interesting go this morning.  I’m not a huge fan of exercise machines…I like feeling like I’m going somewhere, so anything outside is nice for that.  I can run for hours outside, but three minutes on a treadmill and I’m done. 

I arrived at the gym and grabbed a bike…I later learned that you’re supposed to sign up half an hour before the class to make sure everyone gets a bike (or you can’t attend the class!).  Luckily there were just enough bikes so I didn’t have to embarrassingly leave class because I didn’t sign up.  The instructor asked if it was anyone’s first time so I raised my hand.  The woman on the bike next to me was really nice and gave me a bottle of water since I didn’t bring one.  (Didn’t end up using it…but it was really nice of her!)  She also adjusted my bike for me.

For the beginning of the class, I kept thinking, “This isn’t so bad.”  I like to think I have pretty good cardiovascular fitness.  With the music in the background and the instructor talking to us, I wasn’t getting bored or anything, which was a good sign!  I don’t run with music (ever), but the music was motivational on the bike and helped me to not stare at the clock.  For the first 45 minutes, I felt pretty good…I’m not really sure about the level of effort I was putting out since the resistance on bike is just a knob that you turn…no numbers or anything.  The instructor kept telling us “okay, you should feel like you’re at a 4 now” or “let’s move it up to an 8!” but I wasn’t sure what that meant for me in terms of biking.  I tried looking at the people around me to see how fast I was spinning in comparison to them.  I think it’s everyone’s personal effort that matters and I was SWEATY so I guess whatever I was doing was fine.

With about fifteen minutes to go, we jacked up the resistance and stood up on the bikes…I was really feeling it!!  No joke there.  It’s definitely a different feeling than running…I know what it feels like to run fast (and uphill…even though I hate that!), but the burning sensation is definitely something else.  I was definitely excited when the instructor told us that it was time for a cool down!  My shirt (cotton…oops?) was nearly soaked and I understand why people bring towels to class!

I’m not exactly sure about my feelings on spinning, but I’ll definitely give it another try.  I nearly fell off the bike the first time I stood up, so next time I’ll be smoother…haha.

Does anyone have any tips on lifting weights?  I’m very intimidated about the weight machines and such at the gym, although I would like to add strength training to my workout schedule.  (Um, mainly for purely physical reasons…who doesn’t want nice arms??  A high school coach also told us to “run with our arms” when our legs got tired…not sure if that’s true at all or not, but whatever.)  Are people going to be staring me down thinking, “She has NO clue what she’s doing” or “Huh…what’s going on over there?”  Any tips?  Workout suggestions?  I’m clueless.  I could always google it, but I figure someone out there knows what they’re doing. 

For my past two runs, I’ve felt kind of like a Speed Racer…except I wasn’t racing!  I don’t know what has gotten into my legs (pure hate for work?), but I like it.  I didn’t end up running in Laredo (although I did pack my running SHORTS), but that’s okay.  Last Thursday I decided I was going to run eight miles…except I somehow missed a turn and ended up running ten miles…oops!  I looked at the map again when I got home and I still have no clue where the turn is.  Anyway, I’ve decided that I really like running in 40 degree weather (although 50 would be better…shorts!  Or 75…I like my shirtless runs…anyway.) because it’s cool so I don’t overheat but I can still feel like I’m sweating.  Especially when I peel off my Under Armour and feel gross!

The run on Thursday didn’t go as planned, as my goal was to take it easy in preparation for the start of marathon training this week.  Well, nothing ever goes as planned, and soon enough I was running 7:30-7:40 miles…which I suppose I’ve become used to at this point.  They don’t feel easy, but I’m not huffing and puffing or anything.  I was still cruising along when I realized I missed the turn, so I just kept going since I didn’t really have much of a choice!  Mile 9 came in at 7:05, to which I told myself I could totally go sub-7!  Well, that I did…mile 10 clocked in at 6:20.  6:20!!!  I don’t think I’ve run that fast since high school.  (I can actually remember the first time I ran a 6:20 mile…I know exactly where it was at and I was so excited!)  Let’s just say it wasn’t a walk in the park…but it felt great to run fast!  Maybe I should run races shorter than marathons…

Thursday, January 21
10.03 miles in 1:13:49, avg pace of 7:22

I think that’s a new ten mile PR as well…does that count?

Lots of rest (except for DANCING all night!) this weekend…I was exhausted yesterday so I took the day off, and today officially started my marathon training for Boston!  Woohoo!  I’m doing a 12 week program by Pete Pfitzinger…I attempted to use his 18 week program to train for Philly, but I missed the meat of the program due to my little injury.  I wasn’t in the mood to start marathon training right after Philly, so I built up my mileage (somewhat…nothing huge) to do a 12 week program for Boston.  We’ll see how it goes!  Anyway, the first run was just eight miles…nothing fancy.  I headed out with the plan to run easy…but, uh, that didn’t happen.  The first two miles hung aorund 7:30 and then I randomly sped up…I couldn’t really tell since I have ZERO sense of pace, but whatever.  It felt fine.  I got super speedy at the end with the final two miles clocking in at 6:56.  I don’t know what’s gotten into me but I hope it sticks around!

Tuesday, January 26
8.06 miles in 57:58, avg pace of 7:12 

Whoa, Susan, whoa.  12 weeks to go!  THAT’S CRAZY.  Boston, here I come. 

Friday – Travel and Rehearsal/Rehearsal Dinner

I had a bright and early 9 am flight to Laredo (connecting through Dallas)…9 am is early when you work evening shift!  Everything went perfect with traveling despite having to shove my bridesmaid dress into my carry on.  I lined it with tissue paper (thanks for the tip, Aron!) and prayed for the best.  It turned out that one of the other bridesmaids sat directly in front of me for the flight from Dallas to Laredo,  but I didn’t know what she looked like so we didn’t realize it until we got there…oops!  Once we landed in Laredo, we got to the hotel and changed to head to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

Now, the wedding was in a Catholic church and I knew for the wedding that we had to have our shoulders covered.  My friend made shawls for us to wear over our strapless bridesmaid dresses, but I forgot about the rehearsal (and I couldn’t find my black sweater…) so I had to wear my Bears zip up fleece thing for the rehearsal.  Classy.

A few bridesmaids.  The bride.  Matching bracelets!

Saturday – Wedding Day!

This wedding was a little bit different in that, one, it was in Laredo, and two, the church set the time for the ceremony, so the wedding didn’t start until 7pm.  This was nice because we didn’t have to wake up super early (although our 8am wake up call was much earlier than my usual schedule) to do all our wedding prep!  The hotel had a breakfast in the morning, which is where we found this glorious Texas-shaped waffle maker. LOVE.

See if you can find Laredo!

Funny story of the morning:  When we were heading back up to our hotel room after dinner, a bunch of young guys were crowded into our elevator.  It was a short ride up to the third floor, they asked us where we were from and we asked them.  They were from all over (Hawaii, Canada, etc), so I asked what they were here for…some sort of fire fighting thing, they said.  As we got off the elevator, I told them that I hoped we didn’t need to use their skills…to which one of them said, “Oh, I hope we do!”  HAHA.  Good times.

The bride is one of my good friends from high school…we actually met in the fifth grade when she moved into my school district, but we became much better friends in high school when I convinced her to switch from playing the flute in band to playing the TROMBONE.  I played the trombone from the start, but I was going to be the ONLY freshman trombone player in high school and that sounded a bit intimidating…with eight million girls playing the flute, it seemed like a good idea to make her switch!  She actually agreed and the rest, as they say, is history.

Why is this tale of how we became friends so important?  Well well well, I’m at least 75% responsible (okay, not really) for this wedding because the bride and groom met in the marching band in college because they both played (you guessed it!) the trombone!  So if it wasn’t for me, they may have never met.  I’ll pat myself on the back for that one.

Moving on!  The bride treated the bridesmaids to manicures, pedicures, and pretty hair, so that’s what we spent all day Saturday doing!  Here are some highlights:

Girls in the massaging pedicure chairs…so nice!

My view from the pedicure chair!  (As my roommate said:  Susan, you are the only person I know who would take a picture of themselves in a pedicure chair…haha)
  
Next up was manicures…complete with occasion-appropriate heart-shaped finger soakers.

Pretty toes!

Pretty fingers!

Next up was hair…we drove down the south Laredo to get our hair done, and on the way I spotted this Mexican license plate…it’s the little things in life.

I think the saw me taking this picture…oops?

The bride getting her hair curled.  And curled.  And CURLED.

After getting our hair done, it was time to head back to the hotel and get changed and help the bride get dressed!  The bridesmaids got themselves all dressed and then helped Becca (the bride!) climb into her dress.  Those wedding dresses are no joke!

The bride all dressed in white!

Now that’s what I call a train!

Something blue!

Gatsby wore his best to model the flowers!

Sooo I don’t have any pictures of the ceremony since I was, um, in the wedding, but I guarantee that it was pretty!  The ceremony was your typical Catholic ceremony (not my favorite, but then again I’m not Catholic!)…we took pictures and headed to the reception.  Since the ceremony was at 7, dinner was to be served around 9.  Well, this was Laredo, so I think we actually got dinner around 9:30-ish.  (That’s what the people from Laredo kept saying…well, it’s supposed to be at 4, but this is Laredo, you know.)  Too funny. 

First course:  Potato soup in a bread bowl!

Dinner:  Lime chicken, baked potatoes, veggies galore, and garlic bread!

Bridesmaids at dinner with some margaritas!

Gatsby getting his drink on!

This wedding had lots of…props.  Note the glow stick necklace!  I pulled out some of my Jacob’s Ladder tricks from years ago…what a crowd pleaser!

It was a bit strange because the DJ played all the typical wedding songs during dinner (Grease, Locomotion [haha!], etc), but everyone was eating and not dancing.  Don’t worry, we did some major chair dancing between courses!  Once dinner was over, we hit the dance floor for some more intense dancing.  Luckily my friend Katie (the dark hair bridesmaid) makes for an awesome dance partner, so I at least had her!

The bride and groom had their first dance to “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You”…they went to a choreographer earlier in the week and it was cute!  I don’t have any pictures/video from that, sadly.

Doing the twist with awesome hats…came in handy for the YMCA!

Getting their groove on with the bride!

Okay, so at some point in the night, the music switched from English music to Spanish music.  At first we were unsure of what to do, but we eventually embraced it and danced to it as best we could!  It was all good until the point in the night where the only people on the dance floor were Katie (bridesmaid), me, and the little children from the groom’s family.  It was a bit crazy and I’m sure everyone thought we were drunk (we weren’t…I think I had maybe two beers!), but it was fun.  The photographer later told us that we were the ones who kept the party going…major points for us!  I think it’s kinda silly when no one is dancing at weddings…we may have looked crazy, but we sure had fun!

These maracas came in handy for Mexican dancing!

The party makers!  Those dresses were sweaty messes by the end of the night…

Next up was WEDDING CAKE!!  I love cake.  Weddings are fun.  I love wedding cake!  So good.  They had vanilla cake with a raspberry filling as well as chocolate cake with a raspberry filling.  I ate mine right up…needed more fuel for dancing!

Wedding cake!

Cutting the cake…woo!

My piece…yum!

After cake we had more dancing…the groom’s friends from college weren’t dancing, so at some point the bridesmaids went and dragged them onto the dance floor.  (Literally!  I hooked my arms around two of them just to realize that my body was still moving forward and my arms weren’t.  Eventually they got the hint.)  We had a grand time and I was sad (but tired!) when the wedding ended around 12:30.

Had to nab a late night picture with the bride and groom!

After the wedding we headed back to the hotel and I got some late night chat time with my Katie…I miss her!!  We were too tired to shower so we left our hair up…the next morning it was still in perfect place!  Gotta love hair spray and eight million bobby pins. 

Sunday – Fly Away With Me

After another Texas waffle, it was time to head to the airport for a day of traveling.  Our flight left from Laredo at 11am and I arrived in Philly around 10pm.  Connections in Houston and Chicago!  I could have gotten into Philly an hour earlier, but I figured if I was going to fly all day, I might as well go most of the way with Katie, who lives in Chicago.  We had a pretty seamless day of traveling, so we lucked out there.  I was going to have dinner with my parents in Chicago, but they weren’t allowed to come through security to meet me so I just hung out with them in the ticketing area for about an hour.  It was SO good to see them, even if it was just for a short time.  I was (not so) secretly hoping to be stranded in Chicago…no such luck, although that’s probably for the better.  I had a good flight back to Philly…my seat buddy is a radiology resident (read:  super smart) in Philly, and we talked the whole flight back.  He doesn’t know many people here either, so we exchanged numbers and maybe we’ll be friends.  If not, it made the flight to Philly go fast!  The best part of it all?  My car started when I got back to it!  Woohoo!

And that was my not-so-brief wedding recap.  I wasn’t sure what to expect out of a Laredo wedding, but it was fun!  It was great to see my friends and my parents…and of course see Becca get married!  I think I’m done with weddings for a little while…maybe.

Today was a glorious, glorious day.  Why, you might ask?  Well…I’m shocked you even have to ask since the only thing that makes my days glorious is when I get cancelled from work.  (Sad, but true.)  Anyway, I had a crazy night last night (I’m proud of myself for keeping my cool and not crying), as I had five patients, two of which were admissions and one was a very, very, VERY large man with constant diarrhea (therefore needed to be changed at least every two hours…welcome to the life of a nurse!).  So in addition to the normal giant stack of paperwork I had to accomplish, I also had two giant stacks of admission paperwork to do, plus getting the admissions settled, starting up their orders, calling the doctor to clarify stuff, etc.  Admissions are a lot of work!

Oh, and we didn’t have any nursing assistants….OF COURSE.

Anyway, I got out eight minutes late, which I thought was pretty impressive considering everything I did, but naturally the hospital didn’t see it that way, so even though I’ve pretty much been on time for the past three weeks, I was cancelled from 3-7pm.  The plan was to call at 5pm to see if I needed to go in from 7-11pm, which I hate hate hate hate hate.  You can’t make plans because you don’t know if you have to go in, but then if you do end up going in, it’s a madhouse for for four hours because nursing for four hours is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of.  (Trust me.)  Anyway, I called at 5pm and they told me “it was up to me” as to whether or not I went in…soooo obviously I said (probably with too much excitement in my voice!) that I’d take the night off.  YESSSS.

The most exciting part about this was that I joined the local gym awhile ago (before it opened), but I wasn’t sure if I was going to use it.  I checked out their class schedule earlier this week, and ZUMBA was on the schedule!  People have so many rave reviews about Zumba that I wanted to check it out, but it only meets in the evenings at my gym so it would be a rare chance that I would get to go.  Guess what met tonight??  ZUMBA!!  So I headed out the door to my first time at the gym and my first ever Zumba class.

ZUMBA love

As a little background information, the only dance class I’ve ever taken was an hour long and for a Girl Scout badge. Being the biggest tomboy ever when I was little (I was GI Joe for Halloween in kindergarten…it doesn’t get much more intense than that), I played soccer and softball and took karate instead of going to ballet class.  Let’s just say that I run because I’m not coordinated at all, and I lack any abilities to “shake it,” if you will.  But anyway, I think I did pretty good for my first time!  The class was packed and many women had obviously been there a few times, but I think I held my own.  I apparently missed the memo to wear black capri pants, but I run outside in short shorts (and my favorite shorts to run in are tiny spandex shorts…I have no shame), so I just had on running shorts.  I felt a little oddly dressed, but whatever. 

ZUMBA was so much fun and I would LOVE to go again…I just wish they had morning classes!  I’ve always thought it would be fun to be an aerobics instructor, so maybe I’ll become a ZUMBA instructor.  It doesn’t matter how good you are as long as you have fun, right??  I’ve watched enough videos on youtube that I have an idea as to what is going on…ha!

But what about the workout??  After every song, other people in the class would run over to their water bottles and the instructor kept being like “Are you guys tired now?  You’re so quiet!”  I wasn’t tired at all despite all the dancing…guess all the running does work!  That being said, I was sweaty and felt like I accomplished something when I was done.  I’ll definitely continue to dance around my living room. 

RUNNING love

Since I thought I’d have to work today, I did get in a morning run…so I ended up working out twice today, I suppose. (Okay, not “I suppose”…I really did work out twice!)  My legs are tired.  I ran six miles on the trail, and there happens to be a bench at the three mile mark…which I happened to take a little breather on today.  Marathon training doesn’t start until next week so whatever.  The way back was much easier than the way out, which was probably due to me seeing another runner coming up behind me, and I was not going to be out run!  Gotta love the little competition created in our own minds.

Wednesday, January 20
6.04 miles in 47:38, avg pace of 7:53

See, I ran a little slower today!  Ha.

ROOMMATE love

So, not many real life people know about this blog (not sure how I feel about that yet), but my college roommate found my blog a couple weeks ago and she’s been inspired to start her own blog!  She’s in her first year at Duke (booo!) pursuing her PhD in clinical psychology, and her blog (which she started literally today) is going to be about her pursuit to eat healthier and exercise, as well as some psych stuff.  It’s aptly named The Skinny Psychologist In Training.  Go check out her blog and give her some encouragement, and for those of you in the Duke area…she’s awesome and amazing and you should be friends!  We can do introductions when I come to visit in February!