#100, let's make it interesting.

Dudes, it's been a busy few weeks! With Bear's show (awesome) and birthday (lovely) on top of training and the usual social activities (with a few bonus girly nights thrown in) I'm a bit worn down. Oh, and did I forget to mention waking up covered in hives on Sunday and having my car burgled on Thursday (och, poor "Reno's ipod," I hardly knew ye...?) Yeah, so...

I am most definitely relieved at this point to see my schedule open up after the weekend and hope to have the next few days to be a bum with my guy (which conceivably includes eating Zippy's Giant Burgers and seeing Toy Story 3....And maybe even going out because we want to.)

As tired as I am today, my morning was brightened by a bit of what I am assuming was drunk Facebooking on the part of one of my friends. Behold the out-of-nowhere drahms:

Sympathy thread HIJACK!

Now, the girl mentioned is NOT friends with me on FB and though she has never done a thing to me personally, this dude is not the only of our close friends who isn't fond of her nor is he the first to be vocal about their personal observations and subsequent questions about the quality of her character.

Frankly, I'm particularly curious about the "greatest blowjobs" part...Well, that and why MY wall was the target of this revelation. Either way, I had a good chuckle to start off my Friday.

This is....

...what an awesome Sunday looks like at my apartment:

(plus one super awesome orange kitty.)

I'm more nervous than he is.

Of course, to my boyfriend this is just another concert. For me, it's a whole 'nother story.

I have never seen Bear perform in front of an audience any larger than myself and maybe a few of our friends while hanging out at his home, in the studio, whatever. Welllll, I have seen videos but that doesn't really count, right? Though in the videos he looks very very happy and I am most definitely looking forward to seeing that live.

Still, it's going to be a trip for me to experience the Seattle fans (though I hear they are much mellower - surprise, surprise, right?) and see the music I've been listening to on CD for so long performed live and in it's entirety. I'm also super anxious because a number of my friends will be there, in addition to the the Madre.

Thankfully, I believe I have solved the "omg, what do I wear?" dilemma in advance and hopefully will expend some of the extra nervous energy beforehand with brunch and an afternoon ladies gathering...They're bound to be lovely, fun distractions from my current state of antici..................pation.

"Run pigeon run"

That's the DM on Twitter I received from Bear last night after he saw my run stats for yesterday (yes, my nickname is "pigeon.")

Since I quit smoking almost 4 months ago (Three months, four weeks, one day, 19 hours, 27 minutes and 22 seconds to be precise) and took up running again a few weeks ago, my pace has improved considerably. Finally I am running consistently below 12 minutes a mile and am getting closer and closer to 11 (okay, for semantics' sake, I am a jogger - whatever)! I have faith that by the time I run the Iron Girl I can safely and easily keep a pace around 10. None of this means much to my boyfriend, nonetheless I really truly appreciate his support.

I'm only preparing to run a 10K this time so my "long runs" are pretty unimpressive, but while Bear was gone I barely ran at all so I feel like I'm starting from scratch in a sense. Now I am quickly back on the bandwagon, running 3 times a week and doing various cross training other days, with only Monday and Friday as "rest" days. I feel great although I have gone up a few pounds from the extra activity...I know I'm moving in the right direction and that weight will drop off soon enough.

As my 30th birthday swiftly approaches, I face it with a big smile and a fitter booty.

Spartacus = WOW.

My poor boyfriend was sick all weekend and since I was nursing him back to health at my place and stuck inside on a rare extremely sunny Seattle weekend I forced him to (re)watch the rest of Spartacus: Blood and Sand with me.

Now, we had started watching together but he had jumped ahead of me in his ample free time during the week and left me in the dust at episode 3, so it's not like I was making him watch a show he didn't enjoy.

My homegirl Cec had been telling me about this show for a while and insisting I watch but I had resisted, thinking that the promise of naked dudes and bloody fights wasn't necessarily up my alley. I was so wrong.

Bear brought home the DVD set with Turkish subtitles and once we ran out of other shows we like to watch together, we finally broke out Spartacus. Here's the disclaimer I didn't see until I was on disc 3 of the first season:

“Spartacus is a historical depiction of ancient Rome’s society and culture.
The intensity of the sensuality, brutality and language is to suggest and
authentic representation of that period.”

Those Romans were dirtydirty, y'all. And jeezus, all the gore - on a few occasions I was glad I had decided to eat before I watched that particular episode. And I honestly have not seen that many weiners and six-packs in my life.

Thank you, Sam Raimi (and you, Cec!)

To vent or not to vent?

That is today's question.

I treasure my privacy almost as much as I pride myself in my honesty, but at this moment I find myself torn between putting my frustrations out here for sympathy, input, whatever or just eating it and trying to figure it out myself and continuing to stress and fret. I feel like it's always better to talk things through, but the imperative word is "talk" - right now I'm just stewing.

Grr.

Well, whatever. It gives me a good enough reason to chat with the GBF and hang with Dubs tonight before I run some of my stress off.

I eat good.

After looking over my budget on Mint.com, I realized that I have not really eaten any fast food so far this month (besides a Jamba Juice all-fruit or two, which are fruit and juice and goodness and -in my opinion- should not count.)

Bear and I have gone out for meals a few times, but I have completely resisted the draw of the awful food at the gas station next door and all the surrounding lunch spots (damn you Matt and your fantastic sausages.) I may have gorged myself at many a bbq, but I have not consumed one single McDonald's french fry!

Not that I am saving any money - eating healthy ain't cheap either. :( When I'm running more often it's that much more imperative that I eat right, so that's just the way it goes.

Either way, I have a clean fridge, balanced-ish and delicious meal plans and enough good food to last me through the week and beyond. Tonight before I went running I threw some of my leftover odds and ends together with a fresh salad and ended up dining on Sauteed Polenta with a Spicy Sausage Puttanesca:

(Cucina Fresca Puttanesca with sliced Aidell's Cajun style Andouille minis over tubed polenta "patties" that I browned on the stove top - easy and fast!)

Just enough...

After a sweltering and beautiful weekend in Seattle, I ended up with just enough Sunday to tidy up my apartment and relax.

It always rains in Seattle on the 4th of July.

Well, almost always, and it certainly did this year.

And now it's supposed to be the hottest week so far this year, which will be totally not awesome for my running. It doesn't cool down until almost 10 in the evening so I'll have to buck up and run in the heat or start waking up early, which sounds pretty awful. Guh. I took a mini break from running this weekend since my social calendar was pretty packed and I have an extra few weeks to get ready for Iron Girl.

Friday afternoon at work was crappy though I did manage to sneak out a few minutes early, but then I ended up losing my house key somewhere between work and Target and my car (with all spares sitting on my hallway table, of course)...After I broke down into tears of frustration on the phone with the bulding manager I was ready to call it a day and just curl into a ball hiding in my bed, but Bear convinced me that I would be fine with a bit of time and relaxation and we actually did end up going to a friend's show - having a very nice time listening to live music in Pioneer Square. MM and her hubs met up with us and she had gotten me a beautiful nazar (or evil eye) bracelet (she's always looking out for me, that one) that I immediately put on (since I know there has to be a person or two wishing me bad luck at any given time.)

Thanks to her, I'm sure, the rest of my weekend was pretty much a breeze - cooking, bbqs and authentic home-cooked Indian food with old friends and new, and of course fireworks (though we ended the 4th snuggled on my couch trying to watch Hot Tub Time Machine.)

Dear Rob Brezsny, please get out of my head.

From Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology:

Virgo Horoscope for week of July 1, 2010

So how is 2010 going for you so far, Virgo? "Great, Rob, thanks for asking!"
Have you been taking advantage of life's offers to help you move into a dynamic new phase of your relationship life? "Um yes, how'd you know?"
Have you been willing to set aside tired old strategies for seeking intimacy so that you can discover approaches you've never imagined before? "Well, yeah..."
Have you been brave about overcoming the past traumas and hurts that scared you into accepting less than the very best alliances you could seek? "OMG, yes."
I hope you've been pursuing these improvements, because this is the best year in over a decade to accomplish them. "Hey ALRIGHT!"

*SACRED ADVERTISEMENT
Review in painstaking detail the history of your life, honoring every moment as if you were conducting a benevolent Judgment Day. Forgive yourself of every mistake except one.* "ONE?? Oy."