Short Update

Hello lovelies. I have been a terrible blogger and for that, I apologize. A quick, vague update.

--Good stuff is happening and I may be polling you guys for some market research.

--I got a sweet ass fancy dslr for my bday! (which technically isn't until Wed, but whatever.) So I'm going to actually use it and try to post more...pictures of my dogs. B/c, let's be honest, they are about the only thing I take pictures of. They are much more adorable than me.

--Going to the beach next week for birthday spectacular! So I won't be around as much (not that I'm around much lately!)

--I promise to get back on the posting bandwagon when I get back. 

Harry Potter Nerd Alert

TODAY I FINALLY GET TO SEE HARRY POTTER! DYING OF EXCITEMENT!

I love Harry Potter. Unashamedly. I wanted to go to the midnight showing of DH2, but we literally had to get up at 3:30am to catch our flight to Toronto. You can imagine how I felt about this. Then yesterday M was on home call, so we couldn't go. Tonight, as God as my witness, I will be seeing Potter.

Since I knew I was going to be spending hours in planes/airports, I decided to re-read Deathly Hallows. I really could not remember 75% of what happens in it b/c I just speed skimmed it through to the end. It remains amazing the second time through. I was finishing it up waiting to board our first plane out. I basically just had to close it and put it away like 30 mins before we got on...because I was about to start openly weeping. I thought I could not cry the 2nd time. Wrong. I know I'm going to be a blubbering mess at the theater. The Forest Again? The Prince's Tale? TEARS. Plus no more Potter. My heart can not go on
.

 

 I can't y'all.

So in preparation, I'm reposting some pictures from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which was super fun and amazing, though sadly pretty small.)

OMG I'M AT HOGWARTS!

Butterbeer is delicious and amazing

 

I could literally post picture after picture. The detail in the castle was fantastic and I took pics of each piece. The portraits, house points, Dumbledore's office, the Goblet of Fire...I geeked out about all of it. 

Does anyone else love Potter? Have you seen DH2 yet? If you haven't read them: DO IT!

Random

--My parents were here this weekend which is why I haven't posted in forever. My cardio last week was cleaning the house! And then shopping once they got here. We went shopping every single day. My mom likes to visit the stores they don't have in her town.

--Related to above: I bought everything ever. Shopping with my mom lowers my inhibitions and I'm all I CAN TOTALLY AFFORD THIS. IT ISN'T A BAD PLAN AT ALL. Which is not the case! I'm going to go back through and double check what I want to keep. I'm a serial returner!

--Though I'm still internet shopping. I need a bathing suit (horrors!) b/c we are going to Destin for a long weekend in June for our psuedo-anniversary (our real anniversary is the end of May, but shockingly, M is on call.) Hopefully will be going to Pensacola with my parents in September! Maybe even over my bday. I got to turn 30 on the beach; cushioned by many, many margaritas and key lime pie.

Ahh, the beach. I'm petitioning hard for the beach when M finishes his fellowship. In like 26 months.

--Not at all related to beach talk-does anyone know how to lose 20 lbs in about 3 weeks? I missed that day in internship. 

Anyone have any trips coming up? More importantly, what is your favorite source for bathing suits? I'm loving zappos free, over night shipping. I'm old and squishy, but don't want like a full bathing dress.

hotness

DC

I loved it!

I'm not really a city vacation person. I'm more of a lay on the beach drinking margaritas type person. But, it was really great. The metro system was so convenient. It would blow my mind that I could just hop on and go anywhere, and those places were amazing! Walk off the metro and you are 100 yards from the Capital and Washington Monument. I'm not used to being able to just walk everywhere either.

We went so many places. The first Saturday I was there it was a balmy 62 and super windy but sunny. I wore a long sleeve shirt and fleece. Locals were all in tank tops and shorts. We walked around the National Mall which is the area where all the monuments are. It is this enormous yard almost where the Capital, Washington monument, Lincoln, all the Smithsonian museums, everything.

I have so many pictures, y'all don't even understand. 

Everything was starting to bloom

 

Bhavik bombed our self portrait. But he took a lot of pictures of us, so I forgive him.

 

 Lincoln

All I have of us is self portraits. Bhavik and his sweet DSLR took actual pics of us. 

I'm looking at my pictures and realizing I have a lot of pictures of random things. Like art. And the Hope Diamond. And monkeys. 

Long winded talking about myself

Good afternoon, kids!

Here are some random thoughts and pictures. Likely in no rational or logical order.

Lets start with dog pictures because you know they are cuter than I am.

This is Mabel (or MayBelle as my husband likes to call her. It is catching on, and now I say it with my ridiculous southern accent.) We have a big couch and then a big love seat. The love seat is where everyone sleeps. I have so many pictures of M and the dogs sleeping in crazy positions on this couch. I call it the napping couch. All living things are knocked out within minutes.

This is Bean. My dogs need haircuts badly. This is why it can be difficult to stretch or do 30DS with dogs. They think if I'm sitting on the floor than I must want to play. I can't tell you how many times they have dive bombed me from the ottoman to my belly as I got down to do crunches. They are tiny, but it still hurts! They are both silly and insane and I love them a ridiculous amount.




So yesterday was beautiful, so I decided to haul it around outside. I'm really kind of fascinated and confused as to why running outside is SO MUCH HARDER than the treadmill. I am not a good runner. But, I can't stand to walk on the tm so I try to run on it. I'm getting better at running on the tm and can actually run for a decent amount of time continuously (for me, that is. I'm sure others would laugh b/c it isn't good at all!) Outside, however, I feel immediately like I'm dying. My form feels spazzy, my legs barely work, my knees hurt, and I'm gasping for breath. I need a new word for outside running. At first I thought of slogging-sloooow jogging. But that doesn't really convey how slow I'm going or how difficult it appears to others or how lethargic and slothful I feel. So then I came up with slothing. But that just sounds like me slothing around the house (i.e. the other 23 hrs of the day.) Finally I decided on slogothing. Which doesn't seem as awesome when written. It makes sense when you are talking to yourself in your head while trudging around. Slow+jog+sloth+ing. Slogothing. (slogathing? slogithing? I don't know.)

But it was beautiful and there were many puppies in the park. About a mile from me there is a little community park with a soccer field and a track. It is pretty rundown and sketchy. But, it is close to a main street and there are usually people around during the day. I live in a...transitional neighborhood, let's say. I don't like to walk around by myself. Two women were attacked while running alone over the hill from me in the safest, and by far the richest area of the town. Both were running alone early in the morning and were attacked by the same person. I won't go into the specifics, but they are pretty horrifying. So I try to stay around other people, even though I'm embarrassed to have people see me slogothing. Plus, it is paved, not in danger from traffic (a local runner was struck and killed a few weeks ago while training for our marathon), and relatively flat. Of course, that means it is kind of a boring little run.

I used my new Runkeeper app from Android and it worked well! Told me how far and how fast I'd gone even with me just going in a circle. Yay for free stuff!

My little park. There are some adorable little kid soccer and teeny football games they play in the middle. Mostly people just let their dogs run around in it. Watching the dogs is the best part about going to the park.

You can see the main road on the top/left part. I figure no one can steal me away if I'm close to a main road. I wear headphones, but I'm still watchful. Plus, and I think this is probably from like an epi of Oprah from 1997, but I always look people in the eye and say hello as I see them. My thinking is "yeah buddy, I see you. I'm memorizing your face to tell the cops later. And I'm not shy or scared of you. I am totally badass. Please ignore the copious sweating, red face, and obvious exhaustion from the slogothing. I could still totally take you. In like an hour or so, if I can sit down for a bit. Be afraid."

See what I mean? Attractive! I am not one of those people that exercises and looks great. I sweat. My face gets bright red. I immediately need a shower. There isn't a possibility of me running and then going on about my day without a shower.


(I should cut the bench out. I was done for the day! No sitting for me!)










AND THEN I CAME HOME AND DID 30 DAY EVIL. AM SO HARD CORE AND FIT. BE IMPRESSED PEOPLE. IT SUCKED, I CAN'T EVEN PRETEND.

I have more stories to tell, but I've been typing forever and this thing is kind of ridiculously long. I will be impressed if anyone reads the whole thing.

So help a girl out! How can I get better at outside running? Just practice and pushing myself? C25K? work on the treadmill hard and hope it translates to outside? I am not a natural runner (obviously) so I will take any advice!

Also: slogothing? -athing? -ithing? Which makes more sense...if any?

Little Things

--Do you ever forget to eat dinner? I never, ever do as I want to eat 95% of my calories after 8 pm. But, I was waiting on M to get home from his 5th job and it just got late. I'm making up for it in pretzels.

--I had a super fantastic run yesterday despite my legs turning to lead midway through. But, I totally kicked ass. Well, kicked ass for me.

--TJ Maxx is the best place for workout clothes. IF you can find what you want in the correct size! I got two great Fila capris for like $10. It is very feast or famine, though.

--My puppies have been insane today. They have cabin fever! They are such little princesses that they don't like to go outside when it is raining...or has rained in the past 48 hours.

--It looks like we are going to Chicago again in May. Apparently all radiology conferences have to be held in Chicago. At least it will hopefully be warmer than it was in December. Though with the winter they have been having, that might not be the case. Sadly M's work won't be paying for this one, so no $2k hotel stay for us.

--My poor, hardworking husband. He took a half day of vacation to go moonlight at a site 1.5 hrs away. And to get the time off for Chicago, he is taking call tomorrow. So he will be on for 24 hours, then spend his post-call day off at 2 different sites moonlighting (at least they are close and he only has to physically be there, doesn't have to actually do anything. Thank goodness!), then at 5pm he is on pager call (so he is home at least and gets breaks when there aren't patients) for another place until the next morning. So he is basically working the next 48 hrs. Then he's on pager call again Friday, and maybe Sat I can't remember. Then is on call again on Tues. I seriously do not understand how he functions. But, I am incredibly thankful that he does!! He is seriously a robot or something. I don't know how he is going to find the time to plan a romantic Valentine's Day, take me out somewhere fancy, AND buy me a present.