Coffee > Everything

Summer weekends seem to fly by, don't they?

This weekend I was able to catch up on life from the week and do some things that I have been wanting to for a while! The first of this was Friday Cheers on Brown's Island in downtown Richmond. This is a live concert series offered in May and June every year- and I haven't been to since high school! I think in high school it was the "cool" thing to do when you could drive-> downtown music is so hip!

My friend Nathalia and I along the river.

We got there early so it wasn't crowded. I love the views!

Chillin' and watchin' music

Gorgeous sunset that night- it was hot, though!

I like looking at the city buildings in the background with the island and canal in the forefront.

I stayed out until about 9 PM and had to get home to get to sleep for my early morning. Saturday morning I had marathon training team at 7 AM (no sleeping in even on weekends!). I am on team Merlot (there are a lot of sub teams due to the size), and they take weekly pictures. Here is my pre-first run picture (before the humidity hit).

I love hats in the summer because sunglasses give me weird tan lines and don't block the sweat!

After the hot run, I laid out for a bit, napped, and drove up to Maryland with my dad for a surprise retirement party for a family friend. We were there about 3 hours before coming back.

Sunday morning, I had a ridiculously hot run, and rewarded myself with iced coffee in a brewery glass. Because coffee > everything (as someone on my instagram feed so eloquently put it).

I LOVE ICED COFFEE,

Then, I went to my summer job where I work the front desk about once a week at Willow Oaks County Club. I literally roll towels and read for 8 hours. It is not very exciting, but I do get a free meal and it is nice to have a little extra spending cash for the summer.

For some reason I was SO TIRED when I got off (a week of less than ideal sleep hits me hard), so I went home and laid on the couch for the rest of the night. I started Orange is the New Black season 3 on Friday, so I saw an episode of that, and caught the end of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-> such a good movie! I cried. I love the scenes in Santorini because I know exactly where they were filmed!

What did you do this weekend? Anyone watching OITNB? What do you think?

Weekend Update

Hey there! Anyone else not into it being Monday?

I had a pretty good weekend. I decided to take a full week off from running (FINALLY) starting on Saturday. I should have done this after my marathon but the 10k race got the best of me, and then I had the half marathon, and then the temperatures were perfect...always a reason to keep going, right? But I noticed the aches that I have had for a while now aren't really getting any better even though they aren't getting worse. So when I looked ahead and saw the humidity would be high in Virginia for the majority of the week, I decided a week off would be good and I committed to it. So it is just walking and the elliptical for me! Surprisingly, I haven't missed running yet because I am still getting good miles in outside via my walks. Walking fast totally uses different muscle groups and allows me good views of my scenery, so I have been enjoying it. It just takes longer, which is my biggest complaint! If the humidity is awful this summer, though, I may try to do more miles walking than running anyways. That could be a better way for me to deal with the heat and still log miles for training. Honestly, as long as I am outside I get the same boost whether I am running or walking, which is good!

Anyways, as for my weekend happenings, on Friday night I went out to VMFA for their happy hour and then sat outside for dinner at Stuzzi's, which is a great Italian pizza place but they always take forever to make the food. I loved sitting outside, though!

Saturday I took my mom out to lunch for Mother's Day at Mosaic. It was delish. She requested a selfie.

After visiting with a friend in town, I went to the Flying Squirrel's Baseball game. The man standing up is our favorite local weatherman, Andrew Freiden! I totally geeked out over him being there.

Our group!

Since they won, we also got to see fireworks- it was actually impressive!

Sunday I food-prepped for the week and laid out at my friend's pool, which is down the road from me. Her chairs are much more comfortable than my pools' chairs! Also, as I get older I realize I only like to be out in the sun for 1-2 hours...I get hot and antsy after that!

I ended the weekend at my parent's house watching our diabetic cat-> they went out of town for the evening, so I spent the night so he could be fed and given his shots. I read and watched "This is Where I Leave You" on TV. The book was way better.

How was your weekend?

Pics from the Weekend

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. I got to enjoy Halloween, time with my friend Nicole and her adorable baby Andrew, and an extra hour of sleep that I devoted to grocery shopping and good prep! Exciting life, huh?

Andrew is about as cute as he can be!

Fall foliage outside my bedroom!

Grapes=wine instead of candy

I have a pretty light week in terms of work and evening events, so I hope to get in some longer runs. Today I had a later training and tomorrow is conference day, so I work 11- 6! I hope to do 6 miles slow around VCU tomorrow morning. I may do the final marathon taper run with friends this Saturday...should be around 8 miles.

I also have started no shave and no gluten November! The no shave is only my legs and for a class at my school , and the no gluten is to try to figure out some stomach issues I have been having. I figure an elimination diet will let me know quickly if gluten is the enemy. Day two and feeling good! I'll write up about it of course.

Any fun plans for you this week?

Goal for the Weekend

Since I had been under the weather this past week and had to run around more than usual due to meetings at work and school, I was in the mood for just about nothing this weekend. In fact, my goal was to get in my car as little as possible. I succeeded in only driving 12ish miles the whole weekend, and that was only to a birthday party and volunteering event (all in one trip). Sadly, though I didn't spend much on gas this weekend, I did get a $60 parking ticket, so that pretty much ruined any hope of mine to be thrifty for a few days. Damn you, City of Richmond! This is actual my first parking ticket EVER, so I am probably due. I street park all the time in the city since I live there, so I have gotten very lucky. I am tempted to not pay it since the ticket has my license plate incorrectly listed...so I feel like I COULD get away with it, but paying even more would really suck.

I felt good enough to get two runs in this weekend after taking the majority of the week off, and my appetite finally came back. I am really working on listening to what my body is craving rather than paying attention to what I feel like I should be eating (within reason, obviously). I find that I often pay attention to the clock and not necessarily to my stomach, so I am working on that. Especially with school and work, I need to be mindful of my body. This illness brought that all into perspective! I also have to say that this is the first week that I have really let myself sleep as long as I need to, and boy, it makes a huge difference! I have not gotten less than 9 and a half hours since Tuesday night, and I feel like a new person. I don't need coffee and just feel overall better. I think my happy place is 9 hours a night:) Let's see if I can make that happen more often!

Oh, and I had the most awkward encounter with someone trying to ask me out last night at Massey on the River (great event, by the way!), where I was volunteering. Note to all the single men and women out there: DO NOT, if you find a person attractive at an event, get an older friend of yours (aka someone who could be your mom), ask the girl if she would talk to you and then proceed to stand next to her WHILE SHE IS VOLUNTEERING for the entire night and try to make get-to-know-you small talk. That is not the way to someone's heart who clearly is feeling awkward and is just trying to do her job and talk to her own friends who are at the event. Just sayin'.

Final fun fact: I got fitted for whitening trays! I finally decided to treat myself to trays since I buy white strips at least every year and wanted a smarter investment. The dentist did my trays for $195 and the gel only costs $6 a kit. So in just a few years, I will be saving money from the normal $30-$40 white strips AND it gets ALL my teeth, instead of just the front:)

Showcasing white teeth, but also thinking of the UVA community this week! Love my AXO's :)

Ok, enough randomness from me! Have a great Sunday and week!

I love visiting colleges

College campuses are fun places to be.

It doesn't matter what you are doing when you're there- be it for a wedding, a sporting event, an exploratory walk, a weekend or just an afternoon- the energy and excitement is contagious. The social atmosphere is unlike anywhere else. Being a UVA alum, I hate to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed my last few visits to Blacksburg, which I think has to do with the simple fact that I love colleges. I didn't particularly do anything crazy or out of the ordinary visiting friends at Virginia Tech this weekend, but I had an awesome time. From a low key Friday evening eating dinner and chilling at a bar to a football game and tailgate to an evening of grilling out and hanging out and enough energy for a Sunday morning run in the rolling countryside, it rejuvenated me just like any out of town trip does! While I didn't particularly care about the outcome of the football game (but, yes, I did wear VT gear), the atmosphere was great. I am excited for all my travels coming up (and visits to my own alma mater for football games)- definitely a good decision! It also helped that a friend who was also randomly visiting Blacksburg this weekend and I carpooled, so the 3 hour drive through the mountains was much more enjoyable than it would have been solo.

Tailgaiting VT style!

View before the game.

View during the game.

Some of the group- a little wet but all smiles!

Thanks to my host this weekend (my friend Meredith's good friend Ashley) and to the weather in Blacksburg, because even though it was overcast all weekend, it only rained for a brief part of Saturday, which is much better than the soggy conditions in Richmond! Sun, where are you?

P.S. I also officially french braided my hair for the first time this weekend! It only took me 27 years to learn:)

Wahoo Wedding

Ladies and gentleman, I am only one wedding away from the end of the 2013 wedding season (yup, 8 of 9 weddings have quickly come and gone) and, if it is anything like this past weekend's wedding, it will go out with a bang!

Yesterday I watched my college friends Colleen and TJ tie the knot! (This is the same college group of friends that was at this wedding in 2010). It was a wonderful day with great friends, food, booze and dancing (duh). It took place at the Cathedral in the heart of VCU with a little break (and hotel lobby boozing) before the reception at the historic John Marshall Hotel in downtown RVA.

Don't worry, I have pictures (though I didn't document as well as I normally do).

Beautiful church!

Beautiful couple inside and out!

(Notice the orange and blue UVA theme)

Crazy Katie.

See?

OMGmynewfavoriteguyever, Spencer.

Wahoowa!

Selfy

Shannon and Whitney

RVA girls and former 2nd year roomies:)!

Big congrats to Colleen and TJ! Great party:)

(I am also officially done working at the pool- it closed today :) !!!!)

Spring? Weekend

I hope you enjoyed your spring forward this morning more than I did! I HATE time changes, especially this one because now it will be dark in the mornings until after I get to work. I do not like working out and getting dressed when it is still dark outside:(

This is the first weekend, though, that I feel like spring is coming! There is change in the air. It may be that it got into the 60's (!) this weekend, and even though I know it is still going to be cold for the next few weeks, the birds are chirping, the sky looks clearer and I can just feel it coming. And it's going to be amazing.

After work on Friday I had an appointment (more on that later), but then I went to happy hour with an old coworker and her friend, and we enjoyed Bellini's (our nod to warm weather thinking), food and dessert. It was the perfect way to end the work week! I capped off my fabulous evening by catching up on some TV shows I missed this week ("Glee" and "The Rachel Zoe Project") and was in bed by 11! Love it!

Yesterday I did my last long run (8 miles) in the morning and then my friend Nicole came over (I hadn't seen her since July and she is now 5 months pregnant!), and we took a nice 1 mile walk to lunch down the street. It was great catching up and seeing her! The funny thing about friends getting married is you see them so much before the wedding for all the festivities, but afterwards your lives get back to normal and you don't have as many reasons to see each other, especially when you don't live in the same town. Life also gets in the way, so even your best intentions to catch up and visit get sidelined. So, of course, as of 1 hour into our lunch yesterday, Nicole and I already made plans for me to visit her in May before the baby comes for a last "girls weekend" at the beach! It was a lovely lunch, and I wish I had a pic because she is sporting a cute baby bump! She is my first close friend to be having a baby, so this is a big event for both of us:)!

I finished off my afternoon hanging out at my condo (napping, finishing a book and watching "Gilmore Girls" on SOAPnet- one of my fav Saturday afternoon activities), and after dinner I got to take my bi-monthly/sometimes weekly trip to Barnes & Nobles for magazine reading. LOVE IT. I seriously think I need to meet my future husband at a book store because they are my happy place. Afterwards I saw "Playing for Keeps" back at home, set all my clocks ahead for today, and went to bed who knows when since I had already set my clocks but the time change hadn't officially happened yet (see a pattern in how much I love sleeping?).

Today (whattimeisitreally?!) I got up early due to my alarm (I start day 1 of daylight savings on the "new" time or else it will catch up with me tomorrow), and washed my bed sheets, made dinner for two nights this week that are now in Tupperware in my fridge (lots of carbs this week!), boiled eggs for my lunches, vacuumed and ran the dishwasher all before 10:15 when my friend and I went for a walk. I love productive mornings!

Now I can chill for the rest of the day being lazy until the long workweek begins. BUT I do have a big weekend to look forward to! Side note: I admit I am becoming slight obsessed with running, but I also love blogging and have found GREAT running blogs if you are interested in checking out some new ones on the right of this page! They can make a slow workday go by a little faster.

Spring, I am ready!

Working for the Weekend

I had a wonderful weekend this past weekend. I saw a movie at the discount theater in Richmond, known as the Byrd Theater, with a coworker. We saw "The Dark Knight" and despite the fact that it was 45 minutes too long and had too much violence, the ending made the film worth while. Also, I have never seen a bad movie for $2. Just sayin.'

On Saturday my dear friend Jane got married. The wedding was great fun and the weather was perfect. It was at a plantation out in the country about 45 minutes outside of Richmond. It was full of great friends, new and old, and, of course, great dancing. At one point the music stopped and I was heard belting out the song by all guests. What can I say,  I love my singing! I also learned the "Cotton Eyed Joe" dance. Even though it required my shoes to be taken off following the dance, I quite enjoyed the number. Nothing like singing to great friends in slow numbers too...I just can't be taken seriously on the dance floor.

Sunday was great because some coworkers and I saw the college a capella movie "Pitch Perfect." All I have to say is if you are not familiar with college a capella, you are missing out! It was one of the highlights of my college experience. Also, the UVA group, Hullabahoos, has a cameo and a number at the very end. I may have screamed. Check out their beautiful sounds at the last concert I saw them at in college in 2008.

I hope your weekend was great and you are enjoying the fall weather!

A Stranger's Advice

Some good advice from a random guy's blog I stumbled upon online:

• Possessions are worse than worthless — they’re harmful. They add no value to your life, and cost you everything. Not just the money required to buy them, but the time and money spent shopping for them, maintaining them, worrying about them, insuring them, fixing them, etc.
• Slow down. Rushing is rarely worth it. Life is better enjoyed at a leisurely pace.
• Goals aren’t as important as we think. Try working without them for a week. Turns out, you can do amazing things without goals. And you don’t have to manage them, cutting out on some of the bureaucracy of your life. You’re less stressed without goals, and you’re freer to choose paths you couldn’t have foreseen without them. 
• There are few joys that equal a good book, a good walk, a good hug, or a good friend. All are free.
• The destination is just a tiny slice of the journey. We’re so worried about goals, about our future, that we miss all the great things along the way. If you’re fixated on the goal, on the end, you won’t enjoy it when you get there. You’ll be worried about the next goal, the next destination.
• A good walk cures most problems. Want to lose weight and get fit? Walk. Want to enjoy life but spend less? Walk. Want to cure stress and clear your head? Walk. Want to meditate and live in the moment? Walk. Having trouble with a life or work problem? Walk, and your head gets clear. (I SOOOOO agree with this! A too hot summer is ruining my favorite activity)
• Let go of expectations. When you have expectations of something — a person, an experience, a vacation, a job, a book — you put it in a predetermined box that has little to do with reality. You set up an idealized version of the thing (or person) and then try to fit the reality into this ideal, and are often disappointed. Instead, try to experience reality as it is, appreciate it for what it is, and be happy that it is.

Think of all this going into the weekend- I especially like the "living without goals." I think goals are important but sometimes can become overwhelming to live with on your shoulders all the time. For the next week I am letting go of all my goals and expectations and am just going to live!

Weekend Tunes

I know I try to pride myself on not posting music/lyrics on here too much, but I heard a new song this week that I can't get out of my head. Yes, it is from "Glee," but the song is fabulous despite me hearing their version first:



I have my own opinion of the lyrics, but everyone can take away their own interpretation from it. I think it is great and was featured in a pretty powerful sequence on the show that otherwise is quickly becoming way too over the top.

Anyways, happy weekend to you all. I am spending it dog sitting Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings (overnight)/afternoons, which means my social life is dictated by the pooch. BUT that doesn't mean I don't get to grab some food with various friends and walk the "Oregon Trail" with my friend Emily (as she has dubbed it) to the local Starbucks! I still don't fully understand how people are ok with strangers staying the night in their home with their dog, but I am a cat person so obviously that is another world to me.

Lazy Weekend

You know your life has changed when you go to bed before 11 pm on Friday and Saturday night and not only are totally ok with it, but wish you could do it more often. That is the type of weekend I have had. My parents were visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Texas, and since my cat, Milo, has feline diabetes, someone has to be home to give him shots around 7 am and 7 pm each day. So my weekend was pretty much dictated by my cat. Cat lady status rules.

All kidding aside, it was a pretty great weekend, because I did nothing. I worked at my school's football game Friday night and saw a movie with a friend last light ("50/50"- go see it, very good) and besides one trip to the grocery store and another to Starbucks, I barely left the couch. I saw 8 episodes of "Friday Night Lights," watched "Scream 4" on demand, baked cookies, read, painted my nails, and slept. I *did* have two great runs Saturday and Sunday morning (5 miles and 4 miles respectively), so I wasn't lazy allll weekend. But I was pretty close.

After the excitement of last weekend, this weekend was definitely needed. I could do it many more weekends, but life is pretty busy until Thanksgiving! So I will enjoy my next lazy weekend when it comes. And I do realize that this type of weekend is a sign that I am getting older. Late twenties- you should be interesting...

Happy last week of October!

**Also- did you notice that I posted almost every day last week?! I was trying to do a post a day for a week, but I didn't post yesterday:( It's not like I was doing anything to keep myself from posting...I just couldn't think of anything to say! I will have to try a week-post-a-thon again soon!