Eh ... an ok day.

I was SOOO excited when I woke up the first time this morning and realized it had SNOWED! It was only a light dusting ... but SNOW! Since it wasn't time for me to get up yet, I rolled over and fell back asleep for another hour and a half, hoping it'd still be there when I went out for my run. No such luck. It was completely GONE by the time I got up again. Grr. I wasn't in any hurry to get up and go out for my run after that, especially since dad and brother left the house early to go donate blood [which means mom and I had a nice quiet house].

My training plan called for 4 steady miles today, but I wanted to go for 5 since I knew my 6-mile run next Saturday will be nixed in favor of racing the Winterfest 5k. I decided I didn't want to look at my Garmin at all and covered it up with my sleeve as soon as I got going. I knew the distances along the village streets and trail cross-roads well enough that I could approximate how far I needed to go before turning around. When I finally did uncover my Garmin, I was already at 4.68 miles. Awesome. For not watching my pace at all, I'm not disappointed in my mile times. I know the first mile should have been slower, but I had to sprint across a couple roads and driveways in the village downtown area.

I've tried 3 of the Zipfizz flavors so far: Orange soda, grape, and citrus. I don't know that I'd go out of my way to buy orange soda or grape, but I really liked citrus. It reminded me of lemonade that someone snuck some orange juice into. I THINK I noticed a boost in my energy, but I've still been drinking my Diet Coke in the mornings. I'm going to try it tomorrow WITHOUT my normal morning caffeine kick. We'll see what happens. I'm going out tonight so I'm going to be TIRED tomorrow if I don't sleep in late enough. I AM loving the bottle, though. When not filled with Zipfizz, it's been put into the rotation of my water bottles with measurements on their side (making sure I drink enough water during the day).

Did you join in on Fab Ab February? I think I've settled into at least 4 reps of the written workout. Today's is 25 sit-ups (I've been doing bicycle crunches), 6 push ups, and a 20-second plank. I've been switching up regular and side planks.

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2.3.12

I am proud of my ...

Heritage. I'm very proud of my German/ Czech/ Irish/ Native American background. A little closer to present day, I'm honored to be the granddaughter of 2 Korean War veterans, 3 if you count my father's mother who worked in the armory while waiting for Grandpa to come home from the war. I don't know a LOT about my family's earlier generations, but these things I do know and I'm very proud of. It saddens me that I've learned more about my Grandparents since they passed than I did in the time I had with them, but I'm still so thankful I had them in my life for so long. I had all 4 of my grand parents and my great-grandmother up until my freshman year of college. My childhood would have been completely different if they hadn't been here. Every little thing I learn about them just makes me appreciate them and the time I had with them all the more.

Who I appreciate ...

Whoever invented pinterest. It's the newest time waster, but a great way to share recipes, crafts, giggles, ideas, and motivation! I can spend HOURS on there just looking. If you want an invitation to join (and don't want to wait around for an invite from pinterest itself), let me know. Or, if you're already on the bandwagon, click the button on the right sidebar and check me out!

2.4.12

I like that I can ...

Easily make friends with just about any remotely-friendly animal. I suspect it's a trait I picked up from my dad. Most of the dogs in the neighborhood love me (and wait for me to pet them when I go by on my run). Also, I'm always hanging out with the horses when I'm up at camp. It's natural for me to be found wherever the animals are. lol. Our last dog was SUPPOSED to be a "family pet", but he was more attached to my dad and I than anyone else. He was super-protective of both of us and ran to us when a thunderstorm or something else bothered him. When one of us wasn't home, he'd wander back and forth between the person home's side and the front door, waiting for the other.

Who I appreciate ...

Gustav Heineman, the founder of Heineman Winery. They make my favorite wine of all time, Lake Erie Pink Catawba. It's local, delicious, cheap, and STRONG. Oh, and it's award-winning. :) The grapes are grown on the Lake Erie Islands and the nearby mainland and the wine can only be purchased directly from the winery out on South Bass Island (Put-In-Bay, Ohio) or from the Anderson's stores in the Toledo area, as far as I know. And the winery will ONLY ship to Ohio. If you go in person, there's a really neat crystal cave beneath the building that you can tour too! My day can be absolute crap and one glass of this while curled up in bed reading or watching a movie and I'm a deleriously-happy girl. I hadn't had a bottle in a couple weeks, but mom came home with some the other night because she knew I was having a really stressful day at school (stupid inter-departmental mail LOST my graduation application and several other grad students' thesis paperwork). I'm slowly working my way through trying ALL of Heineman's wines, but Pink Catawba will always be my favorite (even if it's just because the memories of this wine and my 23rd birthday out at PIB (-: )

Happy Birthday to me and more ...

Happy birthday to me (a couple days late) ... wait, that means I'm 25 now. WHAT?! How the heck did that happen and how do I make it stop? I don't know if I like this growing-up thing! I LIKE being a Toys-R-Us kid. lol. I actually woke up with that jingle stuck in my head on my birthday. I had a nice little giggle before rolling over and re-setting my alarm for an hour later.

I was in a strange mood Wednesday. I wasn't exactly HAPPY, but I could call it almost-content (except for my paper stress, of course). It was one of those days where I was always waiting for the next "thing", but when it came, I just shook it off and smiled. I took off from campus right after lunch (I seriously don't know how I used to sit locked up in my tiny office all day) and went over to Farnsworth Metropark for my run, silently cursing myself the entire drive for not running that morning when it was a BIT cooler. Holy frijoles, Batman, was it hot ... and I made the mistake of not realizing how much of that trail is exposed. Yes, a large chunk of it is well-shaded (Jessie likey), but there were a couple large areas that didn't have a drop of shade and those KILLED my average pace. Anyway ... I knew it was about 3 miles from the Roche de Bout shelterhouse to the river overlook at Bend View. Silly me, I decided I was going to push myself (IN THAT HEAT?!) and go all the way down and back, all 6 miles of it. My average paced sucked a big one, but I did it. At least I had some eye candy on the first 2 miles of my run back to Roche de Bout. :) I challenged myself on the way back by re-setting my Garmin and saying I was going to beat my time from my run/walk out to Bend View. Maybe someday I'll be able to run all the way down to Providence and back, but it isn't going to be any time soon, and I'll just enjoy where I am for now. Oh, and I'm REALLY appreciating that metroparks has drinking fountains and bathrooms installed as often as they do along that towpath. lol. My water bottle was DRY by the time I got to Bend View.

After my run (and sitting in the air-conditioned car and guzzling water and gatorade until I cooled off a bit), had to book it home to shower and eat something. My friend Sarah was having a Pure Romance party last night (look it up if you don't already know). It was an entertaining evening. lol

After the "shenanigans" (and if ANYONE mentions the rest of the quote associated with that word, I'l pistol-whip them myself. lol), I stopped at the store to pick up some of my favorites ... Barefoot Moscato, Lonz Pink Catawba Wine (they don't have Heineman's and Anderson's was already closed, damnit ... at least they still use Bass Islands grapes :) ), a TINY carrot cake, dark chocolate with raspberry filling ... and my Brite Crawlers! I, of course, cracked open the moscato right away and took it straight up to my room with my carrot cake and enjoyed curling up in bed watching Pride & Prejudice. That, along with talking to Kyle online, made it a pretty good evening. As usual, Kyle was the first one to wish me happy birthday ON my birthday. It's a strange friendship we have, but I'm ok with that. I'm glad we've been able to stay friends. There are times when we're the only ones who understand each other's twisted-ness. lol.

My actual birthday was pretty quiet. I woke up early and went into campus. I worked until around 2pm and didn't see ANYONE. Around 2, I decided I'd had enough for the day and stopped to pick up Chipotle for lunch and took it out to Providence Dam to eat. I ended up spending a couple hours out there, just wandering, watching the individual waves roll over the dam, and reading bits and pieces of my book. I'm reading Emma now since I never finished it the first time I picked it up. I was surprised how many people were coming and going at the dam since it was so hot out. We were supposed to break a record, but I never heard if we actually did or not. I finally got tired of the crowd of people and wandered down-river to Farnsworth and the Roche de Bout shelter house again. I hung out there until it was time to head to the mall for my movie, mostly stomping around out in the river. You would think being out in the river on a super-hot day would be refreshing but that sure wasn't the case. The river was like bathwater all through the rapids.

I took myself to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Since I missed the showing that I had originally planned on, I saw it in "Real 3D". It was worth the couple extra dollars. It was too early to head home after the movie so I just wandered around the mall, enjoying the evening, texting and laughing with N. I'm a sucker for feeding ducks and fish, so I spent a little while over at the steps. There was a little girl I found hilarious. She was trying to get the ducks to eat out of her hand and would get furious when the fish got to a scrap of bread before the ducks did.

Since my brother gave me his Borders gift card as a part of my birthday present, that was the first place I went to yesterday (Friday) morning. Man, that place was a zoo. For all their crap about going out of business and needing to sell everything, the deals really weren't all that great. I ended up buying myself another book about running I've been hearing about I Run, Therefore I Am - Nuts. I'll add it to my pile. lol. I also picked up a new romance book, which of course I ended up starting the second I got home (that's 3 books in progress now ... yikes), and some more molskine notebooks. I seriously love those things. They are seriously the most perfect little notebooks.

I have 4.95 more miles until my goal distance for my birthday week. And it is looking like I may be doing it on the treadmill. The heat and the sudden, crazy thunderstorms are enough of an incentive to risk some shin soreness tomorrow. The storm this morning woke me up several times this morning, not an easy task when I was up so late battling my sinus attack (ugh).