Ugh.

I really want to go home and crawl back in bed. Normally, I'm almost awake by now, even when I wake up early to work out, but I'm physically and mentally dragging. I know I didn't sleep all that great, but I'm used to minimal sleep. Little miss I-can-sleep-through-anything, and everyone else in the house, got woken up at 3am by HAIL. The storm was pretty intense, but I would have stayed dead to the world if it hadn't been for the hail. My bedroom is exposed on the north and west walls of the house so I seem to get the worst of the weather, which is fine because I sleep so heavy, but this was almost as bad as the night a couple weeks ago when I woke up and thought there was a tornado on top of us.

I didn't have my daily Diet Coke either. I've been really successful over the past couple months with limiting myself to just my one DC in the morning for my burst of caffeine, but I'm trying to cut myself off completely for next Saturday. I know Diet Coke is horrible for you, but it's one of my biggest guilty pleasures. I can see my pop can from Tuesday sitting a couple inches behind my laptop on my desk and it's mocking me. Seriously. The joke is that I can't even get one on campus if I wanted. UT has a contract with Pepsi so it's the only beverage company on campus. Anyway, I'm cradling my glass of green tea and praying the little bit of caffeine in it will jolt-start my brain. I'm just hoping nobody really annoys me when I go upstairs to check my mailbox or I may get cranky.

Despite the storm early this morning, I hauled my butt out of bed at the normal 5:30am and laced up my running shoes. It was a comfortable temperature (high 60s), but you couldn't tell because the humidity was so oppressive and I felt like I was being eaten alive by mosquitos. I turned in a respectable 2.29 miles in 25:35. Saw the lady with the glasses and salmon-colored shirt again. She must run practically the same route as I do, just from the other end. I ran past a group of what looked like high school girls too. They all had reflective vests on so I don't know where they were running from or how long they had been out. If I run any earlier in the morning, reflective gear is something I should really think about investing in.

My Garmin and waist pack should be here Saturday! Yippee! I think I'll take Sunday morning and head up to Wildwood to check out the course a little better and put the Garmin through its paces.

Speaking of this weekend ... Cherry Fest runs tomorrow and Saturday. I still don't like having it this late in the year or having it Friday-Saturday, but Josh Torres goes whatever the heck he wants and damn what the village and residents want. I think it's kind of gone downhill since they moved it to June anyway. I'll go walk through the vendors tomorrow evening and meet up with friends at the beer tent (maybe), but thats about it. The rides are expensive and the parade just isn't the same anymore. They've added a 5k, but they don't publicize it very well.

Oh, and I just found out that my parents are leaving next Wednesday for their cruise. I knew it was coming up soon, but thought it was later in the month. While I love the idea of having the house to myself (you would think 3 adults wouldn't be that loud ... wrong), I had really hoped and wanted my parents to be around for my race Saturday. Dad keeps talking about it like he was planning on going, but they'll be in Vancouver getting ready to board this ship. Oh well. Just another part of my life I'm tackling on my own. It isn't the first and I'm sure it won't be the last.