Bringing sexy back

I just wrapped up a whopping, 40 mile running week. I'm supposed to be tapering, but I'd aimed for more like 50 this week. I don't know what came over me this week, but it was bad.

Monday and Tuesday essentially everything in Baltimore (and the whole East Coast, it seems) was shut down due to Sandy. Eric and I spent the entire two days either sleeping, laying on the couch reading or watching TV, or eating. Pretty much no movement unless we needed food or bathroom. That sounds bad, but let me assure you, all of my coworkers reported doing the same. My friend Kristin even wrote a great blog post about it.

So wouldn't you think that the logical turn of events would be that the rest of the week I'd be rested, refreshed, and feeling on top of the world? Spoiler alert, I've already posted, and that didn't happen.

Friday: Couldn't get out of bed to run, but I actually had a pretty good "naked" (aka no electronics, water, nothing) 9 miler after work. I even got to try out my new sunglasses, a gift that Kari recently sent me. I've never had sunglasses specifically for working out, and now I'm dying to ride my bike in them. Plus, they look damn sexy.

I left my ipod at home just so I could hear the many catcalls.

Saturday: "Long" run day. I needed to run 15 miles, because I made that up after not looking at my training plan for like the ninth straight week. I didn't wake up until nearly 9am - fail. I also had been too lazy to fill my camelbak the night before - fail #2. Since I was still too lazy to fill it that morning, I decided to do three 5 mile loops in my neighborhood. Fail #3. My parents, who were visiting, were drinking coffee and eating bagels in our apartment with Eric, so I had to force myself to leave that tempting scene twice to return to the windy, cold streets and run more. But I managed to cover the distance, slowly.

Sunday: I was positive this would be it. With an extra hour of sleep to enjoy and the winds finally dying down, I'd be up early and chomping at the bit for a nice, cool fall run. Um, no. I slept for 9 hours and easily could have slept for several more. I still could barely drag myself out of bed. I contemplated skipping the run or cutting it short about two million times. Even my brand new shoes didn't help. I stayed the course for my planned ten miles, somehow.

It seems that those two days of nothingness alerted my body to the fact that doing nothing is the best, and now I want to do that for all time, until my dying day when they need a crane to lift my 800 pound body out of our apartment.

The only other solution I can come up with is that I have some sort of rare disease that's sapping all my strength. I'm sure anyone who's ever been to WebMD will agree with this diagnosis. Eric banned me a long time ago, so I haven't checked, but I'm still pretty sure I know that's what they would say.

In news that's less whiny and full of complaints, my mom and stepfather are visiting this weekend, which is a huge highlight in my life. I've been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. We decided to keep the visit low key, so we've mainly been hanging out, chatting, watching TV, and playing games. They went to Goodwill while we were at work on Friday, and found this gem. Anyone who's ever been invited to an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party knows what a find it is, especially this late in the fall.

Now we must throw a party. It would be a crime not to.

When you have a professional photographer in the family, you can't just take funny iPhone photos to send to other family members. Here's a behind the scenes look.

I can't really talk about bringing your profession into your personal life, since I'm already trying to teach Harrison his ABCs. 

What weird rare unheard of disease do you think I'm suffering from? Could it be old age? FYI, it's not knocked up - itis, so don't even try.