Catching Up

Whew! What a weekend. Can you even believe it's practically Monday again? Where does the time go? At any rate, it is again time for some catch up in the land of Irish Cream.

Friday was overall a pretty swell day. Work was relatively slow (for once), and I called my hair place and was delighted to learn that I could snag an appointment for a haircut that same evening. Knowing I owed a bit of speed training (working until after 9:30 p.m. two nights in a row will apparently do that to ya), I decided I'd take an actual lunch break like a real, live girl! GASP!! I headed to the gym and managed to get in my 7 x 400 repeats, shower and return to the office in almost exactly one hour. YES! I had forgotten how awesome it feels to use my ever-elusive "lunch break" for running (instead of working and more working). It was seriously refreshing. And FYI, if you too hate 99.5% of your co-workers, repeats are an awesome way to burn off some of your aggression towards them. Moving on . . .

I left work at the beautiful hour of 6:45 p.m. and retreated to my hair place (plug for them: Define Yourself Salons are just fantastic--I know, I know--it sounds cheesy as all get out. But seriously, they are awesome, and they know how to MULTI-TASK! As in, you can get a mani-pedi done while your hair color is setting. And they offer you WINE!! Brilliant!). Anyway, I got bangs, you guys! BANGS! Yeah, I don't really know what possessed me, but I went in and asked for bangs. Mind you, I have never had bangs before in my entire life. But yeah. Bangs. My fab hairdresser did a great job, and I was really happy with the way my hair looked . . . that is, until I stepped outside and the weather was absolute crap, thus turning my new 'do into a big, fat frizzy 'fro. Sweet. Oh well. I'll try to post a photo soon, once I actually have the energy to do my hair.

Saturday. Saturday was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY EVER. Well, that is . . . until I went outside to run, and realized . . . IT WAS EFFING HOT! Ha. Yes. The same girl who complained all winter long about how cold it was (when honestly, it wasn't that bad), is now complaining about the weather being too "hot." Or at least too "hot" to run. Anyway, it was a great day nonetheless. I got in a 3-mile run, which was completed in about 30:30 for a 10:10/mile pace. Yeah, I don't know what happened either. I'm pretty sure if I would have stopped flapping my lips and complaining about it being "hot," I could have run a lot faster. Oh well. I'm just happy I managed to get the run in, in between setting up various festivities for Wilson's birthday.

Okay, so "various festivities" might be a little much. I actually just wrapped up his presents and then gave them to him. Oh, and I did the dishes, ran to the supermarket and cooked (at Wilson's request) my awesome "Savannah Gumbo" (stolen from the lovely Paula Deen) and biscuits . . . and made mini-cheesecakes for dessert. I know this doesn't sound like much . . . but considering I got up at noon (hehe--oops), I think I actually accomplished quite a lot with my day! The highlight of Saturday evening was definitely the fact that I got to OPEN THE WINDOWS, thanks to the "hot" weather. I was happy as a clam. My cat, Nico, was thrilled as well. I swear, she was all but spinning cartwheels. This is what our gumbo looked like:


Wilson and I finished Saturday night off with the movie, "Cloverfield," which I assumed would scare me shitless, as it takes place in Manhattan--you know, one of those "too close for comfort" deals. Instead, I was really disappointed. Once I got over how cool it was that the entire thing was handheld, as though filmed on one of the character's own cam-corders, it was kind of not awesome. Oh well, it's probably for the best. After I saw "The Mist," I couldn't stop thinking about it, and couldn't sleep for like a week because I was convinced it was going to come true someday soon. Please see this movie, if you haven't. It starts out geeky as hell and you're all like, "hello, low-budg sci-fi monster movie!" But if you stick it out, it turns all "Children of Men" psycho-thriller on you and is really quite disturbing, if you like that kind of thing (which I do).

Today was a busy-busy day as well. Wilson and I rose around 7:30 this morning, and set out for a quick "long run" of 6 miles at about 8:00 a.m. We got to the park and realized there was a "biathlon" being put on in Prospect Park by the New York Triathlon Club. It was really cool to see all of the racers doing their thang . . . definitely made for a nice distraction during our run. I completed the run at a 10:03/mile pace (this includes a couple of traffic light stops). I have to say, I felt pretty good after about mile 2 of the run. I even managed to put in a pretty good kick near the end. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I am back for real this time!

After our run, it was back to the apartment to shower up and head over to Wilson's father's house in Jersey . . . there we ate copious amounts of food. We seriously eat like pigs every time we go over there--it's just a given. We had huge, juicy burgers, potato chips and fruit salad for lunch . . . then they fed us steak, potatoes and sauteed mushrooms for dinner. All delicious. Other than eating, we also took their golden retriever, Spike, for a long, hilly hike at "the reservoir," a beautiful forest preserve area close to their home. It was gorgeous out there . . . and I was kicking myself for not having my camera. Ah well. Next time, I suppose.

Now we're back at home, trying to relax and enjoy the rest of our Sunday night. Anyone else think the weekends should really be at least three days long? Oy. I might have to start a petition . . .