A typical day at the office

Just another day at the office. Watching a helicopter land and take off outside my window.



Some sort of program for pre-K that we enjoyed as well.



Definitely the high point of the week.

So this is my first week of the second trimester. All the books/websites/other women in my life say it's the honeymoon period where everything is roses. But I've heard that the babies don't read the books, and apparently my lemon sized fetus is no exception. It didn't get the message that the first tri was supposed to suck (which I am eternally grateful for), but it also doesn't know the second tri is supposed to be full of energy.

So this week has been more of the "sleeping 11 hours and then still barely staying awake at work" type. But, I can't complain, because I have things like the helicopter to keep me alert.

As for workouts, the motto this week is "just do anything and it's better than sitting on the couch". Last week, I worked out every day: ran 13 miles, a prenatal workout (Summer Sanders, former Olympian - it's hard I swear! Not like "be one with your baby" breathing crap), a Jillian Michaels workout, a boot camp, and yoga. This week, I've managed about 30 minutes a day of either running or biking indoors. I have big plans to run the length of an entire Game of Thrones episode tomorrow. We'll see.

Barely working out and insomnia mean I'm getting a lot of time to read! I'm currently working my way through The Uglies series (it's in the Hunger Games/Divergent genre). After that, I'll move back to another adult book. I'm trying to alternate my young adult/adult books so I don't feel too stupid (although this series has 4 books, so I'll be in young adult for a bit).

This weekend I'm going to my BFF Carolyn's baby shower! I was having major anxiety over the thought of looking at baby supplies, but I feel much calmer now, and ready to focus on measuring her bump with toilet paper and eating cake. As it should be.

Do you feel guilty if you read young adult books? I embrace life's guilty pleasures, personally.

Parrots at brunch

Two items were knocked off my countdown list this weekend.

1. Seeing Divergent

So first of all.... there were a lot of pre-teens there. Like....a LOT. I've been to all the Hunger Games and Twilight movies on opening night so this wasn't my first time at the rodeo, but it seemed worse than ever. The screaming, clapping, hysteria.... it was hard to handle. I'm willing to be that when you get home from work you don't want to do whatever it is you do at work anymore (I've always wondered how chefs deal with this), so I wasn't sure why I was willingly subjecting myself to MORE children screaming on my own time.

We knew going in that this would most likely be our last movie based on young adult novel opening night experience, and going out we were no longer sad about that.

The movie was good, but I didn't love it.  I don't know if J. Law just set the bar too high, or they changed too much from the book, or what, but I wasn't wowed. I enjoyed it and all, but not as much as I had expected to.

2. Girl's beach weekend

This, on the other hand, lived up to expectations.  We drove up to Rehoboth beach Saturday morning. The weather took a brief hiatus from the never ending winter we are in to pretend it was spring for a hot second. I even did this.

That sand was cold as hell, and I was wearing yoga pants and a hoodie.

Our agenda was a bit of a departure from the usual plan of hit the bars and make new friends. We checked into a nice little motel right near the water.

View from the rooftop sundeck

Then hit the beach. It required a bit more clothing than the usual bikini and cover up.

After a few hours of reading and dozing, it got too cold to stay any longer. We continued to pretend it was really summer and actually put on bathing suits and swam in the hotel pool.

There were a lot of perks to a beach vacation in March. Mainly, very few other people to deal with. Not a single annoying kid at the hotel pool.

We thought this would come out cooler than it did.

Also, no waits at any restaurant. We went out to dinner and then out for ice cream. I don't care if it was 40 degrees out and windy at that point - look at these flavors.

I was smitten.

Casi and I tried a sample of the bacon ice cream. Not shockingly, it was disgusting. Since it was so cold, we opted to just walk back to the hotel and enjoy our ice cream in nice warm beds, with some episodes of Full House.


This pic is staged, but it captures the night pretty well.

With my new nightly schedule of getting up to pee a minimum of 5 times, I was a fairly concerned about sharing a bed with someone who wasn't partially responsible for the wakeups. But I tried to be as quiet and graceful as I could, and I didn't get any complaints.

In the morning, we slept in and went to brunch. The food was good, but the most notable part was the aviary attached that you had to walk through to get to the bathroom.

 

A parrot with my eggs, NBD.

And now I'm home, and exhausted like we went on a white water rafting expedition or something.

What's your ideal girls weekend (or guys weekend? if I have any male readers?)?

 

 

My favorite tweet ever

Here's some things making my week awesome.

1. I love the Today show. I always watch as much as I can while getting ready for work (and in the shower, I listen to the Kane show on I heart radio, for those who want to know my whole routine). I was super excited about Savannah's big news (she got married this weekend and announced her pregnancy Monday). I've followed her on twitter for awhile, and she's hilarious. This is all a build up so you understand how much this made my life.

2. Buzzfeed recipes. Chicken pot pie pizza. Click the link. Make it. Thank me. Tell your spouse to thank me. I also made the Harissa lentils in the article for lunch, also a winner.

3. I'm pretty sure the last time this happened, we were out of town attending our nephew's first birthday party. This year, it's coming back to Baltimore, and I fully intend to stalk the crap out of it. If you are unfamiliar with the term "brony", please, click the link, and be prepared to laugh and laugh. I am prepared to weather another large scale attack in my comment section if any bronies are reading.

 

4. This should probably be higher up, but I'm too lazy to renumber. LESS THAN 24 HOURS UNTIL DIVERGENT. We're going to the 7:20 show tomorrow.

5. In other movies based on books with Shailene Woodley, I watched The Fault in Our Stars preview and literally sobbed. Not like teared up, like Eric asked me what I was watching and I couldn't speak to reply. I still want to see it. Who wants to bring their own tissue box and come with me?

Actually I have a lot more thoughts on books turned movies that I'm dying to see (the only type of movie I ever want to see), but let's move on.

6. This weekend is my long awaited girls BFF beach trip! The three of us have been partners in crime since we lived together from 2006-2008, but it started long before then. I've been close with each of them for over a decade. Wow, that made me sound old.



2013 - the year of the 30th birthdays


Carolyn (far left) is due with the first baby of the group in May! We've gone on a lot of road trips over the years, and we're sneaking in one last one before things completely change. The high is 66 for Saturday - not exactly bathing suit weather, but definitely a nice spring beach day.

What's the next movie you are dying to see (and I'm serious about my invitation to the Fault in Our Stars)?

A Q & A with myself

I'd like to take this opportunity to have a little Q&A with myself. It might sound a little narcissistic, but this is a blog, so narcissism is a pre-requisite.

I'll stick to questions I've commonly gotten since telling people I'm pregnant.

Q: Some variation of "was it planned" or "were you trying"?
A: This one surprised me, not because I was offended (although so far it's only come from people I'm fairly close to), but because we're both in our 30s and have been married for over 5 years. I just attribute it to my youthful glow, people can't possibly think a young spring chicken like myself purposely got pregnant.

I thought posting a wedding picture would make me feel a little less fat right now, and it did!

Q: Are you still doing the 100 miler? Seriously, every family member and most friends went to this right away.
Reflecting on my surprise at the previous question, maybe that whole "signing up for a 100 miler" thing threw people off. It does seem like an odd juxtaposition - train for a race so long it takes two days while working on getting knocked up. Well, I've come to find out that this whole thing isn't as easy as high school health class/MTV reality shows suggest. In fact, the reason my training for the Stone Mill 50 miler  back in November was lackluster was because I was sure I'd get pregnant and DNS. That clearly wasn't the case, so I decided I wasn't putting off any future plans just because MAYBE I'd be in the family way. I figured if I had to drop out of the race and concoct some story for the blog, well, that would be a "problem" I'd be thrilled to have, and I was right. Side note - if you have tons of time to spare and recheck my "foot injury" post, I worded everything very carefully and never actually lied!

That was long. The rest of the answers will be shorter. Probably.

Q: When are you due?
A: September 23!

Q: How far along are you?
A: 13 weeks - aka day 1 of the second trimester - a day I've looked forward to a ridiculous amount.

Q: Are you finding out the sex?
A: Um, yes. I'm pretty impatient. Waiting nearly 9 weeks to announce this on my blog nearly destroyed me. Eric is probably the most patient person on earth but he's dying to know too. My doctor said we could probably find out at 19 weeks, so not too far away!

Q: Is everything healthy?
A: So far - yes! Knock on wood! We saw the heartbeat at 8 weeks and heard it at 10 weeks - I've never had a clue it was possible to look forward to doctor's appointments.

Q: Have you been sick/had weird cravings/etc?
A: I really hate admitting this, although I love living it. Nope, no sickness. I've been eating completely normally, although I'm probably growing a 15 pound baby because I'm constantly starving. I've felt pretty much normal - I've heard a lot about this first trimester exhaustion, but I don't know, I've yet to meet any teacher who isn't exhausted. Any adult at all, really. (I pre-wrote this post on Saturday and then couldn't stay awake past 5pm Sunday, so clearly I jinxed myself.) Basically so far I hit the jackpot, and I'd really love it to continue for the next 20+ years with this kid.

The one strange thing is that after spending literally half my life devoted to coffee (ages 15-30, drink it by the gallon every morning, 6 years as a Starbucks barista, look forward to it before I go to bed, you get the picture), I thought it would be so hard to reduce. Well, now I hate coffee. When Eric makes it I barricade myself in another room and spray air freshener everywhere. So I did spend two weeks with headaches/fatigue, but I am attributing it to severe caffeine withdrawal. Now I have chai tea in the mornings. It's really not the same.

First stop after the Shamrock Marathon in 2011

Q: Is Eric excited?
A: I never really know how to answer this, so I might start saying something like "well, he's pissed that I tricked him, but he knows I could prove paternity, so he's basically backed into a corner".

Q: Are you still running?
So far, yes! I've been running, very slowly, usually with walk breaks about 4 times a week, and doing our after work boot camp twice a week. Don't expect any "OMG compliment me I'm such a badass" pregnant marathons, or even any double digit runs. I might rejoin Daily Mile now, and you can look forward to treadmill runs that are the length of whatever show I'm watching that day, at an undisclosed pace, for as long as I can keep it up. My doctor said to keep my heart rate under 150BPM. I've read that's outdated, but I trust my doctor, and I like having a nice, objective number to make sure I'm in the clear. Plus, I'm not sure what I would accomplish by letting it get a little higher - finishing my runs 1.5 minutes faster? Great.


A question I frequently ask myself is "am I showing yet?". It seems that when you start this whole process out without a flat stomach, a little food baby bump, if you will, it's hard to tell. That's not a plea for compliments, by the way, because lets be serious, I've sucked in my stomach on every picture I've posted on here, so they would be meaningless anyway. Just stating a fact - when you don't have washboard abs, it's harder to know when your natural bump is actually a baby bump. Some days my pants button fine and other days it's a stretch, so it seems to me that's probably more fat and less baby. So hopefully soon I'll be past that awkward "p or f" stage.

A wild St. Patty's Day weekend

Thanks so much for all the sweet comments on my last post! Obviously, it's a pretty intimidating life change, so it is a huge relief that strangers on the internet think we will be good parents. It also feels great to finally have everything out in the open and not feel like a dirty liar anymore.

We are our millionth snow day today, which is lucky because I need a day to recover from my jam packed weekend.

Friday night, we had friends over for a Catching Fire viewing party. When your mom manages a movie theater, you get access to prime party décor.

 

One more for good measure.

What goes perfectly with the Hunger Games? Tons of food. Lasagna with homemade sauce, bread, and salad, so we could feel healthy.

I took a close up of the lasagna but it had so much cheese on top that it just looked weird. I really like cheese.

I stuck with the theme and made chocolate lasagna for dessert.

The ending of Catching Fire is such a tease, and we still have a good 9 months until the first Mockingjay movie is out. At least we had the gigantic posters to console us.

Team Gale

I don't know.

On Saturday I drove down to Virginia to see, Katylin, my friend from way back in the day (7th grade, when her grandfather backed into my mom's minivan dropping us off at a party). We went out to lunch and did some shopping, then hung out at her house playing with her gorgeous 18 month old daughter. Despite the cuteness, somehow all I took a picture of is my new $11 teapot from Burlington Coat Factory. I don't know if that's a good price, and I certainly didn't know Burlington sold things other than coats, but I'm happy with it. I'm currently off coffee, so it was sorely needed.

Sunday I did the Shamrock 5k. It doesn't start until 1:15pm, which is genius, because it combines my love of running and love of sleeping.

We left our posters up all weekend. Totally so I could pose with Peeta and Katniss, not because we're lazy.

You can't tell, but I'm wearing Shamrock earrings.

My friend Alex is injured, which is unfortunate, but it meant he had to run at my slow pace so I had a race buddy.

Check out those shorts

It turns out that when you aren't killing yourself for a PR, 3.1 miles goes by extremely quickly, especially when you have someone to chat with. It was pretty much a perfect race - you start on a downhill, which is really cool because there's 5000 people, so you just look down on a giant sea of green. After the downhill, it's completely flat. It was around 40 degrees, perfect running weather.

I didn't even run a personal worst (that was a hilly turkey trot in pouring rain). My official time was 32:00. As soon as I crossed the finish line, I gracefully completely wiped out. I am praying there's a picture. My knee took the brunt of it.

It looks more impressive today.

After the race, there's a huge after party with unlimited bananas, pretzels, and beer. It's at Power Plant, a cluster of bars where you go when you want a wild night you probably won't remember. It's where I first met Eric.

40 degrees is the perfect running weather, but not the perfect outdoor party weather, so after grabbing some chips and green beads, I speed walked the mile and a half back to my car. I caught a little of the parade on the way.

How did you celebrate St.Patrick's Day?

PS - I just have to mention that there are FOUR days until Divergent comes out!

 

7 things Thursday

1. Apparently I'm pretty predictable in my book choices. Last night I had a conversation with Eric that went like this.

A (me) - Did I tell you about the book I'm reading now?
E - Is it about murder, torture, and rape?
A - Yeah! So I told you?
E - No. Just going off all your book choices.

It's really weird because I refuse to watch movies with a plot deeper than Legally Blonde 99% percent of the time. And I consider Hunger Games to be part of the other 1%, so do what you will with that.

For those who share my tastes, the book is called Escape from Camp 14, and it's the true story of a man who escaped from a North Korean prison camp. While it has made me insanely appreciative of my own life, due to the gruesome torture scenes I don't recommend it unless you are willing to give up several nights of sleep (might be worth it though, it's that good).

2. I'm running a race this weekend. The Shamrock 5k. 5ks are much more my speed now, and this one has a party at the end.

3. I'm discovering insomnia has some perks. The main one I've noticed is that it makes it really easy to get up to run in the morning, because when the alarm goes off, I'm already awake. It's called optimism. Sometimes I dabble in it, although I'm still much more comfortable with sarcasm and cynicism.

4. I continued not to let insomnia win, and started my day off with this (on the treadmill).

Here's a youtube link, so you can watch it and your day can be as wonderful as mine. I only wish I could somehow watch that in the last .2 of every marathon, it really gets me going.

5. Sometimes I get really homesick and miss the place where I grew up (Rochester, NY, about 400 miles north of my current home in Baltimore). Other times, not. Yesterday was the latter. They got a ridiculous blizzard with something like 2 feet of snow. Here, it was 65 and mild. Facebook statuses continued to confirm I made the right choice.

6. This exists. Go buy them before I beat you to it and eat them all.



7. We did our after work teacher bootcamp today. A lot of resistance band exercises were involved, and other things I never do like plank and lunges. I have a feeling I'm in for a world of hurt tomorrow.

What's your favorite movie and/or book genre?

 

Being lazy is not bittersweet

A few notable things happened this weekend.

First of all, an after work errand of the utmost importance.

My excitement level is exactly the appropriate level for a 30 year old.

Then I did all my grocery shopping, since the theater is in the same plaza as the nearest Wegmans. Also, I heard cool people do their grocery shopping Friday night. Or at least people who don't want to have an aneurism trying to fight past an army of shopping carts Sunday afternoon.

As soon as I got home, I had to start baking. You'll see why.
 


Can you tell what's in these cookies?

 


CADBURY MINI EGGS

 It's hard to tell because I was trying to be all artistic and get a close up in the above picture, but there, the plate is fairly full. I had two for dessert. When I woke up in the morning, the plate was slightly more sparse.

 

 

But I can't really blame anyone, because we all know Cadbury mini eggs are like little colorful drops from heaven, and the dough recipe for these cookies is unreal. I highly recommend making it.
 
Saturday morning, I went on a 7 mile run downtown with Lily. I spent the rest of the day doing productive-ish activities before driving down to Kara's house. I've professed my love of sleep many times, so it should come as no surprise that the spring ahead portion of daylight savings time isn't my favorite holiday. I thought we'd head to bed early, but between toddler performances of Frozen, chatting, Chinese food mishaps, and naughty pillow fights, we didn't go to bed until 10:30. We had a 5:30 but feels like 4:30 wakeup call to fulfill our role as race volunteers.
 
The guest accommodations were extremely comfortable, but I couldn't sleep all night. I had some sort of city mouse visiting country mouse syndrome going on. Since moving to Baltimore in 2005, I've had a bedroom window facing a busy street, and I'm rocked to sleep each night with the comforting sounds of traffic, ambulance sirens, crazy people screaming, and the never ending glow of bright, fluorescent lights of local businesses. I've gotten pretty used to this over the past 9 years, so I find it very disarming when I turn out the lights and have to use my phone as a flashlight to find the bed. Also, all I could hear was silence. It's a lot like that first scene in Scream with the popcorn popping and no one around to save you from the killer.
 
Anyway, after only a handful of hours of disjointed sleep, I felt pretty ill equipped to run packet pickup on race morning. Kara insisted she was completely drugged and unable to function, but to me it seemed like I was the weak link. Also, the race director's truck fell into a ditch while she was putting out mile markers and she was MIA, so it was pretty much us running the show. Somehow, all the bibs and t-shirts got handed out and the race began on time.
 


If you wear headphones, a child will be sent after  you on a scooter to disqualify you. Truth.

The Lower Potomac River Marathon is one of my favorite races, I've run it the past 2 years, and would definitely do it again, but training for and running a marathon is contrary to my mission statement in fat lazy 2014. Still, I thought it would be bitter sweet to be there but not running, but I can't say I was jealous of the marathoners. Waking up and sitting at a table seemed exhausting enough. I certainly didn't miss having to perform the perfectly timed routine of coffee/body glide/compression shorts/breakfast/bathroom, or the stress of taking off on a 26.2 mile journey.
 
I did get assigned a pretty stressful task. The time machine. Great Scott!

 

 

I was placed in charge of recording everyone's finishing times. I instagrammed it and everything. Luckily, I think word got out that I was barely awake and tend to get really awkward and uncomfortable and annoying under pressure even in the best of times. I was reassigned to a job better suited for my mental abilities.



Holding the finish line banner up for the winner to bust through.


 
Obviously, in any marathon I'm running I'm never going to see the elites finish, so it was very exciting to be at the forefront here. The course also passes by the School of Seamanship (ha!), aka the start/finish where we were, so we got to cheer on the runners for awhile at mile 8.8.
 
I was highly concerned about my drive home, but caffeine came through for me like it always does, and I'm pleased to report that I'm now more than halfway done with Fire Study. When I got home, I took a nap while Eric cleaned the house, and life was good.

How much sleep does it take for you to function? 6 hours is generally my minimum. In my early 20s, I would close down the bars at 2am and then be at Starbucks at 5am to open the store, so I think it's safe to say that things are different in my early 30s.