Reindeer Cheetahs

Reindeer Cheetahs? They exist. Their names are Sarah and Babs.

Reindeer Cheetahs

Saturday morning was the first ever Reindeer Run 5k - I haven't really been running much (only about once a week) so I wasn't sure how it was going to go. Since Sarah had already won a race, she didn't feel the need to be greedy and win back to back races, so she said she would run with me. Yay!

Look at all of the antlers!

I knew running with a cheetah would get me to go faster, but I didn't know how fast, or how long I could manage a cheetah pace. The agreement was if I felt like I was going to puke, I'd tell her to slow down... otherwise we were just going to run! I only looked at my watch to see the distance information. I knew if I saw what pace we were going I was likely to freak out. I'm glad I didn't! Sarah was the best running coach/cheerleader/friend a girl could ask for. She kept me going, kept encouraging me... with about half a mile left she told me we were on track to beat my fastest time, but it wasn't until we got closer to the finish line that I realized we were going to crush my fastest time! Friends - we finished in 26:29, an 8:31 pace (my previous fastest time was 27:06). That's over 30 seconds off! And in a short race, 30 seconds is a big freaking deal. :-) PR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's my PR smile!!

THANK YOU SARAH! I hope you realize I will want you to run every race with me from now on. Unless I'm feeling lazy, haha.

Saturday actually was sort of a Sarathon (that's Sarah and marathon combined, duh). That evening we went to a dance recital for a studio that she teaches at - it was actually really cute. We sat in the front row so I felt like we were judges on a reality show... or watching a live episode of Dance Moms, haha. Either way it was fun. Then we headed to her friend's birthday party celebration which was also fun because those girls are SO nice. And finally the night ended at our trainer's 30th birthday party.

That's Vinny - he tries to kill us once a week.

Vinny's party made me start thinking about how I want to celebrate my own 30th birthday that is coming up in a few months (*cry*) and also wondering what Andy would want to do for his, which happens even sooner. Man I feel old...

So anyway, Saturday was very busy, very fun, and veerrrry long - I was up at 7:00am and didn't get to bed until about 2:30am. Yikes! It's no wonder I slept through my Weight Watchers meeting on Sunday (oops). There's not much to report about Sunday. I slept in late, went to a super fun Zumba class (I think people must of had some cocaine for breakfast or something because they had TONS of energy), and then headed out to Buffalo to see Andy's family before heading to Washington.

Now I have about 24 hours until I head to the airport and my list of things to do is out of control. I'm either going to end up in Washington with nothing to wear or it's going to be a LATE night. Wish me luck!

Fish is gross

Lutefisk (Norwegian) or Lutfisk (Swedish) or Ludfisk (Danish) is a traditional dish of the Nordic countries. It is made from aged stockfish (air-dried whitefish) or dried/salted whitefish (klippfisk) and lye (lut). It is gelatinous in texture, and has an extremely strong, pungent odor. Its name literally means "lye fish."

It looks like I'm not the only person in my family eating vomit for dinner lately. I talked to my parents last night while my dad had his traditional holiday dinner at Ikea. He was kind enough to send me photos.

Lutfisk...

... and smorgasbord

Don't feel sorry for him friends. He chooses to do this every year. You see, when I was little we had Christmas Eve dinner at my grandparent's house (Dad's side) and they would make lovely Swedish delicacies like... oyster stew. Barf. My Grandma would buy buckets of chicken from KFC for those of us that didn't inherit Swedish taste buds. Now they live in Texas so Christmas Eve is just the three of us (four this year with Andy!). Thankfully my mom is sane and does not make barf food for Christmas Eve dinner. We Larsons have upheld the KFC tradition! But my dad still gets his lutefisk once a year at Ikea.

I actually had nasty fish for dinner last night too. It was called tilapia, haha. Every so often I think, "Fish isn't that bad and it's good for me so I should have some." WRONG. It is bad. It is always bad. I wish I liked it but I just don't.

Yesterday was actually pretty good although I was not feeling well all day long - my stomach hurt, my ear hurt (weird) - and that made me cranky. I have a gajillion lists going on right now: my Christmas list, what to get others, things I have to do at work, things to pack, things to do when I'm in WA... but I got a lot of them crossed off, which always feels good. I ate well all day long. I went to Zumba. I went to bed at a decent hour. Go me.

Today kind of blows. Since I am running a race Saturday morning, I had to do some shift trading and I am actually having to work job number two again tonight. :-( That means a looooong day and late night. Boo. But! It's the last time I have to work at job number two until 2013!!! I will try to keep that in mind while I'm pulling my hair out trying to stay awake.

The train did not derail!

Good news! I did not derail my healthy diet last night!! I figured if I went home after work I'd probably snack myself into oblivion, so instead I went to the grocery store so I could set myself up for success for my few remaining days here. I was suuuuper hungry so I bought an apple to eat on the way home. An apple! Not a cookie. An apple! Go me.

Last night for dinner I made Indian food - Andy and I found out earlier in the day that Ravi Shankar had died so it seemed fitting to celebrate his life with a little Indian food. For those of you that might not know, Ravi Shankar is probably the best-known contemporary Indian musician... check out his music, it's great! I actually tend to listen to a LOT of Indian music (love that sitar) while I run. Anyway, back to dinner. I decided to try something new - spinach dal. It tasted about as good as it looked (which is pretty bad). Sorry Ravi... you deserved better than that.

Spinach Dal - aka Baby Poop Dinner

After our unsatisfying dinner, Andy and I headed to the club to meet Katie for a workout party!!! We watched the funny shows while we worked out (Modern Family is my favorite) and Andy managed to try Jacob's Ladder during a commercial break.

He was hauling on that thing

So I'm happy to report my successful night to you all. Today should be good too. I've packed a good lunch and healthy snacks for job number one, I'm going to Zumba tonight... My only complaint is that my stomach didn't feel very good last night and it doesn't feel any better today. I really hope I'm not getting sick... :-(

Put on your yamaka...

Last night at job number two I got to participate in Hanukkah by putting a candle in the menorah!!

Shalom!

It was fun to be fake Jewish - I felt very rich. ;-) 

What else is there to report... not much. Since we will be travelling soon, Andy and I are trying not to buy groceries so we don't come back to a fridge full of spoiled food. That also meant I had no lunch to bring to job number one today. I've managed to stay fairly healthy with my purchased foods today, but it sure is hard when everything looks so delicious. I'm just going to have to break down and go grocery shopping - there's no way I can last 5.5 more days and maintain my willpower while eating out. 

Thankfully I'll be able to combat some of today's splurges (ok ok I had a chocolate-dipped biscotti and a latte if you must know) with a treadmill party tonight with Katie. Woot woot!! And perhaps boxing before, although Rebecca seems on the fence about going to class tonight. Lord knows I am not going without her! I'm pretty sure half of the people in there have probably been to jail. Although the majority of our stagehands at job number one have been to jail so.... haha.

Wish me luck with food for the rest of my day. I am determined not to let my delicious coffee shop trip derail the rest of my day! I promise to give an honest report tomorrow of how I did.

One week until I bust this joint!

That's right... I'm heading home to Washington for the holidays!!! And guess who's going too???

Searching for plane tickets

Andy booked his ticket last night! He won't be there quite as long as I will be, but I'm glad he will be able to come out - plane tickets this time around were ridiculously expensive so I wasn't sure if he'd be able to make it happen (thank you Mom and Dad for mine).

Before the plane ticket excitement my day was pretty standard. I worked job number one, then went to Zumba. After class I did a quickie DVD at home that promised to give me amazing abs (they should be here any minute now... I haven't quite seen them yet, haha). And then it was time to make dinner. I can't even remember what Andy and I used to eat before Trader Joe's opened here. Almost every single thing we eat now comes from Trader Joe's. It's nice not to go to Wegmans quite as much!

This morning Sarah and I had partner training with Vinny. He did not kill us, but he tried. I'm not sure if it was any harder than normal, but for some reason I was extra sweaty... I could feel it rolling down my face. Is it wrong that that made me happy? Haha. I never like to get sweaty because it means I'll have to take another shower, but once I actually get sweaty I say bring it on! Did you know a treadmill can go up to a 30.0 incline? It does. I learned that the hard way today. :-) But seriously... when my alarm goes off I'm always sleepy and not really sure I want to roll out of bed to head to training, but I always have a lot of fun once I'm there (it helps that Sarah is a good sport with my gym clutziness).

The rest of my day today is unremarkable - job number one and job number two. At least I get to see Katie and Kristin at job number two on Tuesday nights, which makes the long day more enjoyable.

Alright it's diet coke time. Hope you all have a good day!

The holiday season is in full swing

Yikes, it's been awhile. Sorry friends (all 2.5 of you that probably still check this blog, haha). It seems when one aspect of my life starts to go downhill, the rest follow, and sadly the blog fell victim during my journey to Chubsville. But good news! I've been back on the healthy wagon since Thursday so hopefully I'll get back on track with regular updates as well. :-)

Here's what I was up to last week:

Tuesday
Worked both jobs, although my time at job number two was cut short so that I could attend the front desk holiday party/meeting. Once a month we have a front desk meeting, and to make the December one more festive we met offsite, had food and drinks, and did a "naughty Santa" gift exchange. Here are pics from the party/meeting... and a chance to see some of the lovely people I work with!

Kristin, Stephanie, Bridget, and Laura :-)

Ahmad explaining the rules to "Naughty Santa."
That's my boss, Nancy, in the background.

Katie got a bottle of bubbly!

You will see in Wednesday's pictures what I got for my gift. ;-)

Wednesday
Worked job number one and had what felt like a thousand hours worth of meetings. Dreadful. At 4:30pm, Lisa picked me up from the office and we were headed into the hood to do an outreach presentation to some kids in an after school music program. It was my first visit to the program (will soon be a regular thing in my schedule) so I was sooo glad that I had Lisa with me. It's much better to feel out a new situation with a friend. Lisa was great with the kids and they were all very fascinated with her (and for some reason very concerned that her feet hurt, haha).

Lisa with her little fans

After that longer than long workday it was time to have fun. Good thing I was hosting a Hood to Coast watching partay!!! Hood to Coast is a movie about a relay run from Mt. Hood to the Pacific Coast. Two reasons I like the movie, 1) It's about running, duh, and 2) It takes place in the Pacific Northwest and I like to look at the scenery. People came, we ate, we drank, we watched the movie, and then we busted out the present I got from the Naughty Santa gift exchange.

Twist the dial on the nose and the mustache and brows move!!

Sticker mustaches!!!

World's Best X-Mas Photo EVER

(Just so you know it is basically impossible to wear a mustache and smile at the same time)

Unibrow... you can tell I was really liking these sticker mustaches lol

Thursday
Thursday was awesome because I took the day off of work and focused on getting back on track and relaxing. Sarah and I went for a 5 mile run in the morning (that was a terrible run for me, but I'm glad she was there to make me do it). I don't really remember what I did during the day... just that I enjoyed my day so much I remember thinking how much I wish I never had to go to work. At night I went to Zumba. All in all a good day.

Friday
Started the morning off with partner training. It was a really good workout and I felt a little like I was going to puke by the end of it. Then it was back to job number one, but since it was Friday (and I could wear jeans!) it didn't seem so bad. That night Andy and I went to see the last Twilight movie!! Andy has been dying to see it for about a month now, so we decided... haha just kidding. He was a good sport and came with me (and was also very excited it was the LAST movie). I read all of the books so I feel compelled to see the movies. I can recognize that they are pretty miserable movies, but I still liked it!

Saturday
Super boring/uneventful. Worked job number two. Did a little Christmas shopping (not much). Made dinner. Stuffed inserts into concert programs for job number one.

Sunday
Returned to Weight Watchers! Last weekend's Toronto trip got in the way of WW and this week was pretty busy so I couldn't find another meeting that worked in my schedule. I was up 1.4 pounds from the last time I was there, but I was not surprised AT all. In fact, it wasn't nearly as bad as I felt like it could have been considering I was on the train to Chubsville for a solid week. But the meeting was good and made me feel motivated to keep up with my healthy ways. :-) After that I did a quick workout DVD and then had to work the kids concert for job number one. The concert was good, but the theatre was packed full of kids and they wouldn't shut up. Ugh.

Children's Holiday Concert - my view from my box seat (fancy fancy, haha)

The rest of the night was spent making dinner, doing laundry, and worrying about my mom. I got a call from my dad who was at the Chicago Airport waiting for his flight home - my mom wasn't feeling well and ended up calling 911 and heading to the hospital. I felt so bad that she was alone. :-( And worried that my dad wouldn't be in touch for 4 hours while he flew back. Anyway, my dad called around 1:30am with news that my mom had been released from the hospital and they were heading home. Phew! I'm super glad I'm heading home soon!!

Congrats! You made it to the end of my week. I promise to be better about updating this week so you don't have to work your way through a novel every Monday. ;-)

A Night at the Museum

Last night was job number one's holiday party. Typically it's held in an awkwardly small section of a restaurant, but this year it took place at the science museum. The food was catered by Mario's (pretty good Italian spread) but the best part was that we had the whole museum to ourselves to check out the exhibits - this also means we had space to escape being forced into awkward conversations with members of the board. Bonus!

We didn't even make it to the bar or to get food before we were lured into the beaver exhibit.

 Oboe and English Horn musician: Anna. Director of Education: Babs
All profession - All the time

Eventually we got drinks and food and had a few mandatory awkward conversations with important people. Then it was time for more exploring! The special exhibit right now is "Sue," a T-Rex. As a big fan of dinosaurs as a kid (my favorite is stegosaurus) I was excited to see it - I'd actually never seen a big giant dinosaur skeleton in person before.

Andy and Lisa are fascinated too!

Sue, the T-Rex

Help!!! Someone get Sue some Mario's pasta!

Right as we were about to leave, Andy, Anna, and Lisa spotted something strange. Could it be true that things come to life inside museums over night??

What??

It's Alive!!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah. We had fun. :-) Tonight is job number two's front desk offsite holiday "meeting" which is really just a chance to go to one of our deskies super nice houses to eat food and do a white elephant gift exchange. I still don't know what food or gift I will bring! I better get that figured out...