May 25, 2010

recipes, movies and the best way to spend a monday night

Last night, I came home from work and made a delicious shrimp scampi (not one of my cookbook recipes) and enjoyed with a nice tall glass of water on my roof. It was about 80 degrees out and I was loving it! After dinner, I jumped into Levels 2 &3 of the 30 Day Shred (which I'm almost finished with!) back to back and then showered, poured myself a glass of Blueberry Port (from my favorite Long Island vineyard), grabbed a dish of dark-chocolate covered blueberries (from Trader Joe's!), through on my pajamas and curled up to watch:

 (#58) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood and Kirsten Dunst; Directed by Michel Gondry. As soon as I saw that this was directed by Gondry, I knew I would like it. I studied his music videos in my Mass Media class in college and loved his work. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is about a couple who undergo a procedure to have all memories of one another erased from their minds after their relationship turns sour. I really liked this film. I love how it started and how the film made a full circle from beginning to end. I felt, however, like the end was a little bit anti-climactic and how the Kirsten Dunst storyline could've  been eliminated and the ending would've played out the same. The editing was spectacular though and it really was a great film! I definitely recommend it!

And while I was doing a whole lot of nothing this past weekend, I also took time to watch:
(#90) All About Eve (1950) starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter and Marilyn Monroe. What can I say? I love old Hollywood films! All About Eve is about a famous theater actress (Bette Davis) and a young woman (Anne Baxter) who worships her and ingrains herself into the theater scene. This old B&W film is vindictive! The acting is unbelievable though and it's films like this that make me wish I lived in the 1950s sometimes - when theater was still an occasion to get all dressed up for and people worshiped theater stars just as much as film stars - if not moreso! I really liked it - although it was surprisingly long for an old film (over 2 hours!) - if you're into old movies, definitely check it out!

I also cooked 2 more recipes out of Real Girls Eat over the last week:
1. Porridge with Apples, Pears and Crispy Walnuts - The description of this recipe reads: "Fiber, fiber, fiber! Many a ski race - and other races we're sure - have been won on a tummy-full of porridge, "so naturally, I thought it would be a great breakfast at 5am before my race last week! I did not like it at all. I'm not a fan of milk and this recipe called for making the oats with A LOT of milk, so the bowl tasted like hot milk with chunks of oat in it. It also called for lemon juice and zest which were not a pleasant addition to the milk. The dish didn't look very pretty either, so here's the photo copied from the book. If any of you are interested and think it sounds good, I'll be happy to share the recipe but it wasn't for me!



2. Spiced Chickpeas - These were definitely spiced! They were such a great treat! I made them and brought them to work as an afternoon snack and then took the leftovers and used them in the Chickpea and Spinach Curry recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and they were a great addition! That's the great thing about chickpeas, they're so versatile and they're high in protein so they're a great thing to add to any meal for veggie folks who are afraid of tofu (guiltily raises hand). Here's a picture and a recipe!


Ingredients
1 teaspoon each paprika, ground cumin, chili powder, turmeric, sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 can cooked chickpeas, strained and rinsed
1 lemon, zested and juiced

- Heat a small frying pan on low while you mix the spices. 
- Add olive oil to the pan, then add spices, stirring gently to make sure they toast lightly and become fragrant.
- Add chickpeas and toss in the pan to coat with the spices. Pour in lemon juice and turn up the heat to evaporate the liquid. 
- When they look golden and even a little charred in place,s turn the heat off and tip onto a dinner plate with absorbent paper to soak up excess oils. 
- Season to taste. Can be served hot or cold. 

Enjoy your evening everyone!

May 23, 2010

Sunday SUNDAY!

Hi there! I hope everyone had a good weekend! Mine was quiet and productive, but still great! I've got a really big week ahead and I'm so excited for it! More details on that later! I finally got back to running and I'm ready to get back to training for my next Half in just 6 weeks!

This morning, I woke up super early for some reason and couldn't fall back asleep, so I made muffins! I made these delicious Carrot-Apple Muffins out of Real Girls Eat.

As you can see, I put a little too much batter in the pan and I couldn't wait to have one before taking a picture!

Then for lunch, I pulled out my copy of Real Girls Eat again and made the Easy Caesar Salad, which was super easy! You add a little bit of Tabasco Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce to the dressing and it gives it a nice kick! And the croutons are home made!


So, it's getting late and I'll keep this post short and simple: here's my training schedule for this week:

Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 4 mile run
Wednesday: 20-30 minutes non-impact cardio
Thursday: 3 mile run
Friday: 20-30 minutes non-impact cardio
Saturday: 2.5 mile run
Sunday: 5 mile run

As you can see, I'm just easing back into it! 

Have a great week everyone!

May 16, 2010

Race Report: The Katie Lynch Heartbreak Hill Half-Marathon

**Edit: After checking the race results this morning, I actually came in at 2:01:45! One minute faster than I thought!

So, I did it! I ran my first Half-Marathon! It was amazing and it was such an incredible feeling! I've been looking forward to this for so long and I finally did it! Here's my first attempt at a race report!

5:00am - Alarm goes off, I get dressed and make myself one of the recipes from Real Girls Eat: Porridge with Apples, Pears and Crispy Walnuts - it wasn't very good, so I tossed it and went with regular old Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal!

6:00am - Lauren picked me up and we made our way out to the race. About halfway there, I started getting really nervous, like queasy, nauseous type nervous.

6:30am - Arrived at Newton South High School, picked up our bibs, stretched, used the bathrooms, lined up and were ready to go!

7:45am - After the Race Director told us the story of Katie Lynch (read it here), and a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, we were off!

Miles 1-2: Nice and easy, I was feeling pretty good and was running at about an 8:30 pace. The hills started right around Mile 2. The incline was pretty easy on the first hill and the downhill was surprisingly easy as well. I didn't like how much speed I was picking up on the downhill because it was pretty steep, but I was feeling good.



Miles 3-5: I lost Lauren somewhere between Miles 3-5. I was starting to feel tired so I popped a GU Chomp (after asking one of the race volunteers to open the packet for me!) Mile 4 was the start of another hill which peaked about Mile 5 and was another steep incline down. I started getting tired and my feet started to go a little numb but I was determined to make it to Heartbreak without stopping.

Miles 6-8: Heartbreak Hill. Just at the 10k mark, I had to stop and walk. My legs were cramping up and I felt like I had just spent too much of my energy and started worrying I wouldn't be able to finish. I popped 3 GU Chomps, drank some water and then hit it heard to climb Heartbreak. Just after Heartbreak, we hit a hill that was even worse. Steep climb up on uneven pavement and then a steep drop down.

Miles 9-11: My Power songs started to kick in and I felt awesome. These were a nice easy two miles and I was making great time! My Nike+ told me I was running 7:57 at one point! I've definitely never run that fast and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to finish if I kept it up, but my songs definitely pushed me through.

Mile 12: "Stronger" by Britney Spears came on just as we came up on the last hill. This one was, as the race coordinators referred to it, a doozie! I absolutely HAD to walk some of it, but started pushing through just as the top of the hill. And right when "Stronger" ended, "Slide" by the Goo Goo Dolls, my all-time favorite song ever came on and I literally yelled out and one of the volunteers was like, YES! YOU CAN DO THIS and I picked it up and maintained an 8:01 pace straight through to about the 12.8 mark when I just started sprinting.

Mile 13: I'm sprinting to the finish and feeling GREAT when out of the crowd jumps my mom! She totally surprised me and I started tearing up and came in strong at 2:01:45..3 minutes and 15 seconds below my goal time!

It was an unbelievable first race! And my mom?! She woke up at 2am and drove from New Jersey to Boston so that she could be at the finish line. Do I have the best mom ever or what???

And Lauren? She was amazing and calming me down and giving me tips and helping me not to totally freak out and run away before the race even started!

The race volunteers were incredible! Every time they said, 'You look great' or 'Awesome job,' I was like yes!

And I could not have gotten through the race without my awesome playlist!

So to avoid this post being any longer, here are some pictures and my playlist!

Mom snapped this picture of me coming up on the Finish!

Lauren and I showing off our medals!

BEST Mom EVER

Half-Marathon Playlist

  • Any Way You Want It - Journey
  • Jesse's Girl - Rick Springfield
  • I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas*
  • Fire Burning - Sean Kingston
  • Tik Tok - Ke$ha
  • Shake It - Metro Station*
  • Viva La Vida - Coldplay
  • So What - Pink
  • Shipping up to Boston - Dropkick Murphys**
  • Mr. Brightside - The Killers
  • Autobiography - Ashlee Simpson*
  • Move Along - All American Rejects*
  • Dirty Little Secret - All American Rejects
  • Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson*
  • Living on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
  • Your Love - The Outfield
  • Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Peas
  • Bad Romance - Lady Gaga*
  • Good Girls Go Bad - Cobra Starship
  • We Weren't Born to Follow - Bon Jovi*
  • Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind**
  • Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms**
  • Candyman - Christina Aguilera
  • Halfway Gone - Lifehouse
  • Let's Get it Started - Black Eyed Peas***
  • Eye of the Tiger - Survivor***
  • Don't Stop Believin' - Journey**
  • Run Around - Blues Traveler
  • Check Yes Juliet - We the Kings
  • Stronger - Britney Spears****
  • Slide - Goo Goo Dolls*****
  • Gives You Hell - All American Rejects
  • Hey Soul Sister - Train
Starred songs are what I consider my Power Songs =) Multiple stars means I couldn't have run without it.

Thanks to everyone in Bloggyland who has given me so much support throughout all my training! You guys ROCK!


May 13, 2010

Movie Update!

#15 on my 25 Before 25 list is to watch all 100 movies on the IMDB Top 100 list. The list is actually the top 250 movies, but hey - I'm doing a lot in the next two years!  My plan is that if I've seen all 100 movies at my half-way point, I'll spring for the other 150, but we'll see.

One of the issues I have with this list is that I cannot watch scary movies. At all. It's not that I don't like them and it's not that I get too scared but they legitimately give me horrible nightmares that keep me up for weeks. The last scary movie I saw was Gothika my Junior year of high school and it took me about 3 weeks to recover from that film. Back in high school, I used to see a therapist and when I explained this to her, she asked me a lot of questions about the way I dream and her analysis was that I have much more vivid dreams than people normally do, so my nightmares seem much more real. That being said, some of the movies on The Movie List are horror films. These include Silence of the Lambs and Psycho, among others. I have yet to decide if I'm going to take these movies off of my list and just bump the numbers up a little bit and include movies in the 100-250 category. I probably will. Is that cheating? Kind of, but living by myself and watching these movies is only going to create a recipe for disaster. What would you guys do?

But enough about that! I've watched a few movies this month and it's time to let you all know what I though!

(#8) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) starring Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd - I watched this movie the night after I finished reading the book and was not at all disappointed. While the book is almost always better than the film, this film definitely did the book justice and was a very accurate portrayal of what the book was about. The film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes place in an insane asylum in the 1960s and the relationship that develops between a committed patient, Randall McMurphy (Nicholson) who was sent over from a prison work camp, and some of the other patients as they egg McMurphy on to torture the high strung head nurse on the ward. If you have a Netflix account, you can watch it instantly, so I definitely recommend checking it out!

(#46) Wall-E (2008) - I had no interest in seeing this movie when it came out. I had heard the acclaim and marked it as overrated and that's exactly how I felt about it. Wall-E is about a robot named Wall-E who is the only robot remaining on earth to clean all of the garbage that has taken over the earth while humans are living in space in giant space ships similar to cruise ships. Wall-E meets and falls in love with a robot named Eve who is on a mission to find signs of life on earth. When Wall-E follows Eve into space, they embark on a journey of assisting the human Captain of the ship take back control of the ship and bringing it back to earth to save the planet. I don't like movies that have an underlying message and this one was saying that computers and robots are going to take over the world and replace our human need for relationships and if we keep acting the way we do, the entire world is going to fill with garbage and we're all going to be extremely obese and have to go live in space. It's a kids movie, I just want to watch it and have fun watching it. I don't want to be forced to think about the implications of our actions now and how they will affect the future. So, in short, I didn't think I would like this film and I didn't.

(#50) The Departed (2006) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon and Martin Sheen - First of all, this movie has my first-ever celebrity crush (Leo) in it, so it automatically gets 3 stars. This movie was incredible. Set in my home city of Boston in the early 90s, The Departed is a story of cop versus criminal and follows the Massachusetts State Police as they try to take down the Irish Mafia while both sides try to find out who among them is actually working for the other. This film is one of 4 directed by Martin Scorsese that have made the list and I can't wait to watch the others. It was so well done and was just an unbelievable film. I would definitely add this to my list of favorite movies!

May 11, 2010

Recipe: Chickpea and Spinach Curry

Chickpea and Spinach Curry - Vegan with a Vengeance, Isa Chandra Moskowitz

*Notes: This recipe serves 6-8 people, since I was only cooking myself, I divided everything by 4 and it made just enough for me! The original recipe called for ground coriander, asafoetida and cardamom pods - none of which I had - so I simply left them out and the recipe still came out fantastic! I did some Google searches and everyone seemed to serve it with brown or white rice, but I served it by itself with a mini whole wheat pita (since I didn't have naan, you know!)


Here's my single serving take on the recipe:

- 1/4 of a can of whole tomatoes (about 4 whole tomatoes)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
- 1/4 of a yellow onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger
- 1/4 tbsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 pinch ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 cups spinach
- 1 cup chickpeas

Prepare the tomatoes by removing them one at a time from the can, squeezing out the juice, and tearing them into bite-size pieces. Place the prepared tomatoes in a bowl and reserve the juice from those tomatoes in a separate bowl.

Preheat a medium-size saucepan over moderate heat; pour in the vegetable oil and then the mustard seeds. Cover. Let the seeds pop for about 1 minute. (Careful! These burn very quickly!) Add the onion and saute until the onions begin to brown (about 7-10 minutes). Add garlic and ginger and saute 2 more minutes. Add curry powder, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, salt and tomato juice. Saute 1 minute more. Add tomatoes and heat through. (If you need too, add more tomato juice). Add handfuls of spinach, mix until wilted before adding each handful. When the mixture is liquid-y, add the chickpeas. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove cover and simmer for another 10 minutes, or until a thick stew-like consistency is achieve.

Serve on its own or rice and enjoy!

Christy in the Kitchen!

Inspired by the wonderful film, Julie & Julia, I decided that as part of my 25 Before 25, I want to cook my way through at least one of my cook books. Now, I don't exactly have a plethora of cook books, but I do have a handful of them and I'm always fighting the need to buy more when I haven't even made anywhere near all of the recipes in the ones I already have! So, here we go!

1.  Real Girls Eat - Anthea Paul : This book totally changed my life. No joke. This is the book that taught this girl who had never made anything but brownies out of a box how to chop, juice, fry, bake, and a whole bunch of other fun things! While this isn't exclusively a cookbook, it's about learning how to eat and the importance of cooking and understanding nutrition. The first section talks all about eating healthy (in a very, realistic, hey-it's-ok-to-eat-chocolate-and-have-dessert-kind-of-way), the second section features real girls in different parts of the world (Australia, Spain, Hawaii, etc.) and their favorite cultural recipes. The third section offers recipes that are divided by times of the day: 6-9am, 9-11am, 12-3pm, 3-6pm, 6-9pm and 9-11pm. Since the first time I picked up this book, I've pretty diligently switched from eating 3 meals a day, to eating in this manner and that was 5 years ago! I also became a pescatarian (or vegaquarian, as Ms. Paul calls it) because of this book. This is not a vegetarian OR pescatarian cookbook. There are just as many recipes for chicken, fish and lamb as there are vegetarian recipes - which is one thing I love about it because it offers great recipes for entertaining guests of all dietary tastes! I've cooked a lot of the recipes in this book and can't wait to cook all of them and share my favorites with you!

2. Vegan with a Vengeance - Isa Chandra Moskowitz: My sister bought me this book several years ago and  my initial reaction was: WTF?! I am NOT a vegan! Tofu? Tempeh? GROSS! I'm not eating any of this stuff OR cooking it!  And then I realized that a vegan batch of brownies can be made with bananas and soy sauce instead of eggs and milk. Easy enough and totally not scary! So, I started cooking some of the recipes in this book and have yet to be disappointed. This book has been called the "vegan Joy of Cooking" which is probably true. The book is divided into Brunch, Muffins & Scones, Soups, Little Meals, Sammiches &Finger Foods, Sides, Pizzas & Pastas, Cookies & Bars and Desserts. The desserts in this book are truly incredible and being Brooklyn born and raised, she incorporates a lot of ethnic food: Indian, Thai, you name it, and it is all fantastic! I promise you will love Isa and her recipes.

*Important Note: I will not reproduce every single recipe in these books. To do so would probably fall under definition of some sort of copyright infringement and would probably make my two favorite cook book authors very angry. I will, however, do the following:
-Post pictures of all of these dishes attributing them to the proper author.
-Post my absolute favorite recipes that I feel must be shared.
-Post any recipes that I have, in any way, made changes to.

I made my dinner last night from one of these books and it was delicious! Check back later today for an update with pictures! I can't wait to get cookin'!


May 10, 2010

Holy Moly - it's RACE WEEK!

That's right. My race is on Sunday. After two years of on-again, off-again training and never really taking this seriously, I am just a few short days away from stepping up to the starting line of a Half-Marathon and I couldn't be more excited. I'm not nervous anymore thanks to the lovely Lauren who will be running with me. (Disclaimer: That will probably change as I get closer to the week, so be forewarned that I may very well be a nervous wreck come the weekend!)

I've had a great time catching up on all of your posts over the weekend - especially about everyone's mamas! This weekend was amazing. I have been so blessed with incredible weekends the last few months which really make my terrible less-than-pleasant weeks at work easier to get through!

On Friday night, I sprinted out of work and hopped on the Bolt Bus to New York. After hours of traffic and spotty wireless, I finally made it to Penn Station where I hopped on a NJ Transit train and met my The Pilot at the train station. We went to his house, hung out with his sister (who was in town from Atlanta)  for about 10 minutes and then passed out!

Saturday morning, I woke up and went to my sister's house. The plan was to pick up the little one while my mom picked up the older one from dance class and then go back to my sister's house for their monthly 'Lunch with Grandma'  where I was to jump out and yell 'Surprise! Happy Mother's Day Mom!' Well, that didn't exactly work but I still totally surprised the heck out of my mom! I had even called her that morning and was like yea, I'm about to go for a run and then clean my apartment (hehe, I'm so sneaky!). So we had a lovely day together.

Sunday morning, I went for a run, caught up with mom for a bit and then headed to The Pilot's house to hang out with his sister and family for a bit before going back to my house for Mother's Day festivities and then hopping on the train to the bus back to Boston!

It was a great weekend and seriously, I have the best mom ever. It was so nice to surprise her and it's going to be so nice living in New York and being able to have lunch/coffee/tea/whatever! with her all the time! It was also a great way to de-stress before the race this weekend! While I was bad and neglected my 30 Day Shred on Saturday and Sunday, I still got in a 4 and 8 mile run and am feeling in good shape for this week!

That said, my training schedule for the week is:

Monday: Rest and Stretch + 30 Day Shred
Tuesday: 30 Day Shred (Begin Level 2)
Wednesday: 5 miles + 30 Day Shred
Thursday: 30 Day Shred
Friday: 5 miles + 30 Day Shred
Saturday: Rest and eat pasta!
Sunday: Heartbreak Hill Half-Marathon. 13.1 miles!

And I'll leave you with a picture of my wonderful, amazing mom taken at my college graduation almost 1 year ago today!


I'm off to the Red Sox game tonight because my friend won free tickets! Score!


And stay tuned this week for:
-The announcement of the cookbooks I have chosen to cook my way through before 25
-Two recipes from said cookbooks
-3 movie reviews from the IMDB Top 100 List!
-My race report!

May 3, 2010

"Sex on Fire" is a bad song to run to...and other things

If you like Kings of Leon, I'm sorry. I'm a fan as well, but yesterday while I was running, instead of hearing "Your sex is on fire," I was hearing "Feels like you're dyin, you're dyin, yooooouuuu, your LEGS ARE ON FIRE."

Therefore, this song has been immediately removed from any and all future playlists.

Happy Monday everyone!

This weekend was very, very low-key and I definitely needed it. I didn't really do anything. At all. I watched a few episodes of The Office, sunbathed on my roof deck, watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," did some running, went to a cocktail lunch at a friend's house, and oh yea - let Jillian Michaels kick my butt with the 30-Day Shred. Well, I guess that is a lot...but it didn't feel like it!

So, where to start? Last week, I said I wanted to include more core workouts into my training, so Saturday morning, I woke up and did Day 1 of the 30-Day Shred. This is an intense, but a GREAT workout. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to shed a few pounds and get more toned for swimsuit season! I've only done 2 days of it and I definitely feel stronger and more toned. It's tough, but it's only 30 minutes and you feel great afterward! The way it works? Jillian's 3-2-1 method gives you a 3 minute strength, followed by 2 minute cardio, followed by 1 minute ab circuit that work your upper and lower body simultaneously. There are three levels of the workout that you do for 10 days each before moving out! I'm doing it with Stephany, Tatiana, Amanda, Samantha, and another non-blogger friend! The support is awesome! Seriously people, go try it out! It's only $9 bucks!












And since I made the decision to include Jillian and her awesome workout into my routine, I've decided to quit the gym. That's right. I quit. I went there at lunch time today and said good-bye! I could use the extra $40 a month and now that the weather is nice, I'm just not going anymore.

Speaking of running? I almost died on my 12-miler last night. First of all, the run seemed endless because I started running while it was still daylight and finished after the sun had set. Second, there was a water main break in Boston over the weekend and the water is contaminated. Well, before I set off for my run, I forgot to boil some water. No worries though, there are water fountains roughly every 3 miles along my run. WRONG. I got to Mile 3 and there's a big trash bag over the fountain that says you can't drink out of it because of the water main break. (Why didn't I think of that before I left?) But, I felt fine, so I kept going. And going. And going. It was the first time I ran with Energy Gels and I used PowerBar Energy Gel Blasts, which are delicious and work amazingly! I guess because of the Gel Blasts, my body felt like it didn't need water. But when I hit that 12 mile walk and started by quarter-mile walk home, I was feeling it. It took me about 10 minutes to make the trek up my stairs to my apartment (5 flights of stairs!) and when I got there, I guzzled down some water, fell onto my yoga mat and started to cry. I felt HORRIBLE. I felt like I never wanted to run again. Getting in the shower was such a struggle and I almost passed out in the shower because I was so dizzy. I tried laying down and sipping water and it didn't help. I ate a banana and it didn't help. The Pilot's sister convinced me (through BBM) to go down and buy some Gatorade and something salty. So I came back, drank a Gatorade and ate a pack of almonds, laid on a bag of ice, and tried to go to sleep. After about an hour of sleeping, I woke up and did not fall asleep again until 6:30am, 15 minutes before my alarm went off. I'm still not feeling too hot and no amount of water is keeping me hydrated (It's also hell-a hot in my office, and in Boston, today).

So, lesson learned? Always carry water when you run. No matter what. I don't ever want to feel like I did last night, or this morning, again.

That being said, here's this week's workout plan - I could also use some help on this! My Half is in 2 weeks and I'm not too sure where to go from here, so if you think this is a good plan, let me know! If you have suggestions, let me know!

Monday: Drink lots of water, and rest. (I'm supposed to do Day 3 of The Shred, but that might not be wise.)
Tuesday:  2 mile, easy run + The Shred
Wednesday: The Shred
Thursday:  6 mile run + The Shred
Friday: The Shred
Saturday: 8 mile run + The Shred
Sunday: 4 mile run + The Shred
*Sunday marks the day I start tapering for my first Half-Marathon!

Sorry if this post was long! 

Have a great week everyone!

May 1, 2010

April Showers Bring May Flowers

I sure hope so, at least! I think it may have rained 28 out of the 30 days in April here in Boston! The forecast for the weekend looks great so I'm doing a little spring cleaning and then am going to take a book and sit on my roof deck and soak up the sun!

Happy May everyone! I am so excited about this month for so many reasons, but I won't give them away now, you'll just have to read about them as they unfold!

It has now been 2 months since I started this little blog and almost 3 months since I turned 23 and made my 25 Before 25 list and I'm really happy with how much I've accomplished in this last month! While I haven't crossed anything off the list yet, I'm well on my way to getting a few things crossed off before I reach my quarter-of-the-way-there mark!

So, let's re-cap! In the month of April, I:
  • Ran my first race, a 10k, and worked my way up to being able to run 10 miles straight! I'm still a long way away from the big 26.2, but I'm getting there! (#1 on The List)
  • Have been pretty religious about keeping my blog and even met some blog friends out there! I'm shocked by the number of followers I've gotten in the last two months and am so excited to keep blogging! (#4)
  • Made a decision on where to go for my Masters - and gotten incredible support from all of you in the process! (#8)
  • Watched Seasons 1, 2 and half of Season 3 of The Office - and laughed a whole lot in the process! (#13)
  • Read 4 books on The Book List - A Passage to India, Beloved, Winnie-the-Pooh, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (#14)
  • Bought a travel map - now, I just need ideas of how to frame it so I can start tacking off all the places I've been! (#23)
  • Given a presentation in my Spanish class and am planning to take another class this summer! (#24)
So I think it's been a good month!

Now, I just finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest last night, so I'll give a quick re-cap!


I loved this book. It took me much longer than expected to get through it, but I loved it. For those of you who haven't read it, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is about a man named Randall McMurphy who is admitted to an insane asylum after behavioral issues on a prison work camp. McMurphy, whose only ties to insanity are his youthful energy and tall tales, tries to bring out the best in the other men in his ward, making them feel like real men, rather than 'nutcases' locked up in an institution. I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone who hasn't read it. The movie, starring Jack Nicholson, is on my IMDB Top 100 list, so I definitely plan on watching that this weekend!

Now, my groceries are about to be delivered and I'm going to hurry up and get outside and enjoy this beautiful weather!

In the mean time, my sister, Tatiana just started a blog! She just started the Couch to 5k program and we're aiming for a 5k together sometime in June! She's also hilarious and SUPER motivated! Go check her out and give her some support!

And one last thing! For those of you looking for Mother's Day presents (or any other presents, for that matter!), my sister Zuzy's DVD, "Cooking for the Clueless" was listed in LA Splash Magazine's Mother's Day Gift Guide 2010! Check it out!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

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