Hey everyone! I had a super fun day yesterday! I used to sit in class on Tuesday nights from 7pm-10pm. I did that for the past year and I was psyched when that was over. This was waaaaaaaaayyyyy better than sitting in class!

I’ll get back to that I started off yesterday with a whole wheat cinnamon raisin english muffin with butter (yes, real butter). I usually wake up craving something and knowing exactly what I want for breakfast. Yesterday I didn’t really want anything. I stood in front of the fridge staring into it, half asleep, when I realized that I had whole wheat cinnamon raisin english muffins and I immediately knew that I wanted! BINGO! I also had some grapes on the side with it…you know, to stick with the theme

Lunch was a salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, orange bell peppers, leftover asparagus, leftover roasted potatoes, feta ad leftover chicken.

I had an afternoon snack of an apple and a string cheese.

After work I rushed home, grabbed the Red Sox tickets and headed to the game with Lisa and Jackie. It was sprinkling out and the rain got a little heavy at times, but our seats were pretty much covered. Not to mention we had an awesome view!

Th Sox won too! 5-0! I had a blast watching the game while chatting with Lisa and Jackie- and having a few beers

After the game we walked over to the Yard House for dinner. There was a little bit of a wait so we had a beer and chatted 50 Shades of Gray while we waited. I was psyched to see that they had Sam Adam’s Cherry Wheat on tap. There are only a hand full of places around Boston that have it and it is definitely one of my favorite beers.

For dinner I got a “chicken” burger topped with mozzarella and tomatoes on a wheat bun. I substituted the fries for the tomato soup. The soup was the best tomato soup I have ever had. It was topped with fresh basil and was creamy and not overly salty.

This morning Stephanie wrote an article for Coffee with Caesar about the 5 people, dead or alive, she would like to meet. It got me thinking who mine would be. I made a list and then realized 4 out of 5 were dead (yikes) and 4 out of 5 were men.

Here are mine:

Mother Teresa: Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, she dedicated her life to serving others and the Catholic Church. She took a vow of chastity and poverty. All of these things are so interesting to me and I would love to hear about her experiences as a missionary. But it is really her doubt of God in her later years in life that I am interested in. She wrote that at times she doubted his existence and thus felt like a total fraud. I would be curious to hear about how she dealt with this incongruence of her real feelings and the feelings that she put fourth to the rest of the world. Her life was so amazing and her experiences so rare.

Greg Glassman: Greg created Crossfit back in 2000. I would love to hear about the research that went into it. I would also like to know how he came up with some of the names for certain exercises and what it was like to get Crossfit going and get people involved. I can imagine it was not too openly received at first since it is so different than most other workouts.

Steve Jobs: After reading a biography of him, I realized that he was one of the best businessmen of all time. He was also an amazing creator and inventor. I think it style and personality are so different. His business practices were ballsy (excuse my language) and borderline insane. I would love to pick his brain about what he was thinking during so many of his business decisions that I have read about.

William Shakespeare: My boy Billy Shakes is pretty much the greatest writer of all time. Like most of us I was first introduced to him in High School and I was immediately hooked. For my 20th birthday Adam bought me his complete works which I will admit I have read cover to cover. I love his elaborate metaphors, conceits, and rhetorical language. It requires the reader to be an active participant in what they are reading. So much thought and interpretation need to go into the reading of his work to understand what is being expressed. It is challenging and I love that.

Jonathan Larson: The composer and playwright behind the rock opera RENT. Rent is, in my opinion, one of the most relatable shows to ever hit Broadway. It touches on issues such as addiction, sexuality, friendship, hardship, poverty, homelessness, following a dream and selling out. Through his characters we learn what it is like to suffer, love, persevere and hate. It is a depiction of the true human experience. It is also coupled with some comedy and killer music! Larson won Tony Awards and Pulitzer Prizes for his work on RENT. Jonathan Larson sadly died at the age of 36 before he got to see the success that RENT became.

Ok, now you! Who are you five, dead or alive? 

Yesterday was one of those seriously non-stop days. I got a ton accomplished. I started off with a smoked salmon and laughing cow cheese sandwich on a whole wheat sandwich thin.

Lunch was a simple salad of mixed greens, red bell pepper, feta cheese and black beans with balsamic dressing. I also had some tomato soup and an orange.

After work I headed to the grocery store because we were out of produce and I didn’t go to the grocery store this weekend, I was cursing myself for that. Once the week starts it is so hard to get to the store, I felt so rushed. I sped home, put the groceries away, and changed in just enough time to get my butt to Crossfit. The workout was pretty fun. Half of it was supposed to be done outside but there were torrential downpours, so that didn’t happen!

The workout (post warmup- I can’t really remember what the warm up was)

20 MIN AMRAP
10 Box Jumps
10Pullups
10 Bench Dips
10 Air Squats

I got through 8 rounds- which I thought was pretty good!!!

- 4 Rounds Of
10 Pushups
10 Ab Mat Situps
10 Walking Lunge Steps (on each side)

250 Meter Row

10 Pushups
10 Ab Mat Situps
10 Walking Lunge Steps

20 Burpees

10 Pushups
10 Ab Mat Situps
10 Walking Lunge Steps

40 Mountain Climbers

10 Pushups
10 Ab Mat Situps
10 Walking Lunge Steps

250 Meter Row

I did the push-ups 5 on my toes and 5 on my knees. I knew I couldn’t do 40 pushups on my toes, but I wanted to try to get in as many as I could. The workout was actually really fun. I finished the 4 rounds in just under 12 minutes. After the workout was over Wendy (another Crossfitter), Lisa and I decided to do 20 extra burpees because we had extra time. This is not something I would normally do! AT ALL! In fact, I hate burpees with the fiery passion of hell. But I had the extra energy and figured, why not! About 10 burpees in, I though and “Am I really doing extra, non-required burpess? Who and I ?!”

After the workout I drove about 20 minutes north of Boston to pick up Red Sox tickets for today’s game! My Coffee With Caesar co-editor Stephanie had tickets she couldn’t use and generously gave them to Jack (other co-editor) and I. I am looking forward to it! I haven’t been to a game in over a year! It was super sweet of her to think of us. Thanks, Steph!

While on my drive to pick up the tickets, I sipped a small iced coffee with cream.

Can you really get more Boston than Dunkin’s iced coffee and Sox tickets? I don’t think so…

Once I got home I immediately started dinner because Adam and I were hangry. We had baked teriyaki chicken skewers, asparagus topped with lemon juice and fresh grated parmesan cheese and roasted potatoes.

Yesterday’s Outfit:

Tribal print cropped pants (JCrew), White shirt (Express), Skinny gold belt (JCrew), Tan Tory Burch flats

Well, I am hoping that the rain hold off so I can enjoy the game See you guys later!

To know my husband is to know he is a man of few words. I have been with Adam for almost 14 years and he has always been that way. In fact, when friends tried to hook up us initially I said, “No way, he is so quite and weird!”. Adam says what he means and means what he says. He isn’t on for small talk. One thing most people who don’t know Adam super well don’t know is that underneath that quiet and tough exterior, he is a hopeless romantic. Most times he doesn’t say the perfect thing. He doesn’t buy me flowers and candy all the time. He won’t surprise me with a fancy dinner. But there are times when Adam makes a small gesture that lets me know how he feels about me. They are small subtle things rather than huge romantic gestures. They don’t come on anniversaries or birthdays. They come in the wee hours of the morning when he kisses my forehead, or when I look over from the kitchen to realize he is intently watching me dance a round like a fool while cooking with a huge grin on his face, or how he will brush the hair out of my eye when my nails are wet,  or how when we are in public and he squeezes my hand three times to signify “I love you” (he has been doing that since high school).

It also comes on Sunday afternoons when he buys me this sign and hangs it on the wall above our bed to remind us of all the great things we have accomplished because of the boundless love and support we have provided each other through the years and to remind us of all the amazing things to come in the future. All the things that have happened and will happen all because two people fell in love.

I am a lucky lady.

I have Crossfit hands…

I noticed this fact during my post-workout shower on Saturday.  The first indicator was when the water hit my hands and they started to sting from the burn on my palms. I got these from doing ledge dips on super hot brick outside that morning. When my hands first touched the brick, I remember thinking “Oh! Oh! HOOOOTTT!” The final indicator was when I washed my face and the roughness of a calluses scrapped my face as I scrubbed. Typically, I would think something like this is utterly gross. I like my feminine hands and routinely groom my nails and paint them because I love how how pretty they look.  The top of my hands are pretty and smooth with  manicured nails. But underneath: proof that I am kind of a bad-ass. I have never been this proud of something so unattractive in my life. Well, my feathered bangs is the exception I guess. I loved those and they were heinous. But I was too young to know better. I blame my parents for allowing that and my cousin Shannon for encouraging it.

Saturday’s workout consisted of 5 different WOD’s separated by a 400 meter run. I admit, I did not finish the workout. I did 4 of the 5 WOD’s. I wasn’t alone, a good number of folks didn’t. It was hot of Saturday morning. We workout outside most of the summer at my gym, this was the first day that we were out there in the heat like this. My body will need to adjust, it’s just not acustomed to it yet.

WOD #1
21-15-9
Ledge Jumps
Wall Ball Shots (14 pound ball)
Run 400 Meters

WOD #2
21-15-9
KB Swings (14 kg)
Goblet Squats (14 kg)
Run 400 Meters

WOD #3 THIS IS THE WOD I DID NOT GET TO.
21-15-9
Lemon Squeezers
Burpees
Run 400 Meters

WOD #4
21-15-9
Ledge Dips
Squat Jumps
Run 400 Meters

WOD #5
Oblique Elsie Ups
Hand over hand side walks 21 yards down/21 back, 15 yards down, 15 back, etc.
Run 400 Meters

These WOD’s were completed one after another once the WOD was finished we went right into the next one. It was tough and the heat played a huge roll in that. The hand over hand side walks down he field were the worst part, I would say. The movement was just extremely awkward and I couldn’t get a good pace going. Not to mention my shirt kept flying up not matter how many times I tucked it into my shorts and the movement itself makes you look like weirdo. The football team practicing on the field and the Saturday morning track walkers certainly got a lot of entertainment watching my Crossfit class walking like that up and down the field for yards.

After Crossfit and a shower I met bestie May and walked into downtown for lunch. It was in the high 70′s and sunny, so we decided to find a place to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather considering it has been so rainy and gloomy in Boston these days. I had a small iced coffee during the walk.

We went to the Grand Canal because it has a pretty huge back deck, perfect for enjoying the sunshine. I had a Magic Hat #9 while looking over the menu.

For lunch I got the salmon salad: mixed greens,cucumbers, hard boiled eggs, capers, artichoke hearts, tomatoes and feta I topped it with oil and vinegar.

The salad was awesome! I love anything with capers. For some reason capers are a new obsession of mine. I think it is just because they are salty and I have a total salt tooth. I have been putting them in everything lately. The salmon on this salad was huge, I could only eat half of it because I was so stuffed.

We spent the afternoon shopping around in the Faneuil Hall and Downtown area. We were mostly looking for a fun gift for our friend Lauren who just found out the sex of her baby. We found a lot of cute things we wanted to buy for ourselves, but nothing for the baby. We have some ideas though

I met my friend Jackie and her coworkers for dinner and a few beers at 6B in Beacon Hill. I got the veggie burger topped with American cheese with a side salad. I ate the burger without the bun and the salad without dressing because the dressing I got was way too sweet. I hardly ever eat salad sans dressing, but I really dislike sweet dressings. I ordered balsamic dressing, so I have no idea why it was so sweet. But, yuck!

The evening was really fun. It was great to catch up with Jackie and her co-workers were very fun. I called it a night around 11pm since I was going out to breakfast with my parents at 8:30 the next morning.

No, not the show. Although, that one famous episode where she is shoving the chocolate down her dress is fantastic. It always reminds me of my grandmother who worked in an assembly line at a candy factory for many years. She would never confirm anything, but I am pretty sure she did something very similar during her days working at the “Sugar House”. Tangent. Anyhow, the Lucy I love is not a spunky redhead head who gets herself in to absurd situations all the time. She is a adorable baldy that shoots the most hilarious facial expressions at you.

Lucy’s “who the hell let this lunatic in here!” face.

Allow me to explain. Last night I got the opportunity to meet my dear friend, Mike’s baby girl. Lucy is 3 months old and so precious. Mike and I have been friends since we were 2 years old and I can’t believe that so much time has passed that I was sitting his his parents house, where we used to play dinosaurs, holding his daughter last night. It is amazing how quickly time flies, isn’t it? It’s like you wake up one day and you are an adult. I reflected on this idea last night as I laid down to sleep. I thought about how lucky I am to have friends that have known me my whole life. I have many of them too. Having friends like this means never having to explain the way I feel about something, or having to recount my past for them. They just know. I am grateful for friends like Mike.

I was super excited to meet Lucy. I had seen photos and talked to Mike’s wife Kelly through text about her, but seeing her in person was awesome. I guess seeing Mike and Kelly was great too! Your know since I haven’t seen them since their wedding a little over a year ago. The second I saw Lucy I couldn’t help but smile. She resembles Mike so closely it was almost funny. It was like looking at a tiny girl version of Mike. I joked with Kelly that it looks like she did nothing but serve as a host.

I am so happy for Mike and his family. It was clear that this new edition has brought and overwhelming amount of joy to their lives. Babies tend to do that.

Yesterday was a great day for me. My alarm went off at 4:45am because I was meeting Kristen for a 8 miler before work. Since I have to be in work at 7:15-7:30 if I am going to run distance before work, I have to get up before the sun. I wanted to get the run done in the morning so I had time after work to meet Lucy and it was totally worth it. I had packed my breakfast, lunch and snacks before bed on Thursday night. I laid out my running clothes and work clothes as well to streamline the whole process. The thing about running that early is that you are too tired to talk yourself out of it. Admittedly, the thought, “Noooooo!” crossed my mind when I heard the alarm. However, that was all I could think and had no clarity to actually have more self-conversation surrounding the topic. I just got up and changed into my running clothes. Adam on the other hand, thought that the alarm was his cell phone ringing and I walked into our bedroom to tell him I was leaving only to find him crawling along the floor, grasping at objects and desperately looking for him phone. After I laughed my as* off, I informed him that the noise was the alarm clock and to go back to bed.

I met Kristen around the corner from my house and we took off. I was wearing my ankle brace for preventative purposes. My ankle feels good, and I want to keep it that way, I little extra support can only help. I was a little nervous about my longest distance since my marathon in October. But, I knew my body was ready for and I knew I needed to do it since I have a half coming up in 2 weeks. The first two miles were the hardest for some reason. I felt tired and my breathing felt tough. But once I hit about 2 and a half it was smooth sailing. Kristen is faster than me. It’s a fact. So I was wondering how if I was going to be able to keep up with her. But I managed! I am not going to even pretend I wasn’t surprised. We talked the whole way and it was the perfect way to catch up since I hadn’t seen her all week. We ran 8 miles in 1:16: 36.

Splits:

• Mile 1- 9:22
• Mile 2- 9:22
• Mile 3- 9:42
• Mile 4- 9:45
• Mile 5- 9:19 (runner’s high kicked in about here)
• Mile 6- 9:28
• Mile 7- 9:42
• Mile 8- 9:52

After the run downed a glass of water and then poured myself a mug of coffee. I set the coffee maker to go the night before and I hit the button on the way out the door so it would be ready and waiting for me once I returned. It was the best idea ever!

Breakfast was a peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole grain bread.

The work day flew by, per usual. I packed a few snacks but only ended up eating the strawberries and hard boiled egg. The carrots and hummus are still in my office fridge for Monday.

Lunch was a salad comprised of a whole bunch of leftovers in my fridge: spring mix, tomatoes, cucumbers, red bell pepper, leftover grilled chicken, leftover roasted brussel sprouts and feta topped with Italian dressing.

After work I headed home and relaxed a bit before meeting the beautiful Lucy. I made a quick dinner when I returned from Mike’s parent’s house last night. I got these veggie soufflés from Costso a few weeks ago. They are okay, but a little bland.

I heated one up and mixed it with brown rice, black beans and some spicy salsa. It was really delicious.

So I have realized that my blog won’t allow comments right now. After harassing contacting my host, they have assured me they are working on fixing this issue. It stinks, I’m sorry. I am hoping the comment option will be back up asap! Thanks for your patience!