Pre-race (and work) allergies

I woke up this morning feeling down right awful. My allergies are destroying me. I took an allergy pill and am drinking some tea that should make me feel better but what a bad way to start off a day of work and the day before a big race. Hopefully, I'll continue to feel better and better and by race time this will be a distant memory.

I'm packing some cold and allergy meds with me to work today. Fingers crossed that they don't make me totally spacey. I actually looked up the ingredients in the pills I'm taking and one of them is (not fully researched) supposed to work as an antidepressant. Interesting... Maybe it will be a fairly happy, spacey day (if it is any of those things).

Gots to go. You all have a great Sunday.

Winning

Pizza and Donuts. A winning combo for sure. I just had that combo and now I'm not sure how I feel. I think how I feel is "at least I had a good long bike ride to and from that fattening trip and am going on a run tomorrow morning". Yep, that sounds about right.

Note to self. To much winning isn't good for anyone.

3 day weekend!

I am about to enjoy a three day off period from work. I am so psyched. I cannot even begin to describe it. I do have to volunteer tomorrow but that's all good. It's only a 4 hour shift and before that I get to play tennis. Hurray! Things are on the up and up.

Tonight, I'm going to enjoy a delicious tomato pie dinner, with sauteed squash on the side with my friend's Rosie and Dana. Afterwords I'm going on a movie date to the original Italian Job (a $4 movie!) It's gonna be a good night.

I can stay out as late as I want as well since I don't have to be up early tomorrow morning. I'll probably still be up by 9pm. But these days that's seriously sleeping in. Can't wait! Can't wait!

I'm about to go for my predinner run. Hope you all are having a good week so far.

Half Marathon

Nine days until race time. On the fourth I'll be running a half marathon. Today, I ran 12 miles and it was a tough run- quite a few inclines but I guess there were also some good declines.

I become more and more grateful for running as the weeks pass. One reason for this is that my long runs tend to take me to beautiful parts of the city that I wouldn't usually get to see. As summer really hits it's stride this becomes increasingly delightful. I also, value the time to and for myself. It's a really wonderful thing to have some time dedicated to your own well being.

Outside of running, I've been working a whole lot and volunteering a bit. Today began another 4 day streak of working which will be followed up with one day of volunteering and then 2 magical days of freedom (one of those days my friend's band is playing so I can really enjoy my free night). That's the light at the end of the tunnel right now. I should go back to a 4 day work week after that. We'll see what happens. If I get tired of working I just remind myself of those 5 months of working 10-14 hours a week and realize how good I have it now.

I hope you all are doing well, I need to get some food in me asap before I crash from this run.

Cheers

Rising with the sun

6:30am is the time I've been getting up for work the past couple of days.

Needless to say, I've been tired and grumpy. Waking in the early AM is not really my cup of tea (although speaking of tea I've been drinking it to survive the mornings). Thankfully this early wake up time is because I've served the past 4 shifts that I've worked so I can't complain too much.

Today, I get to volunteer and hang out with my friend, Monica, who's in town. She actually just called. Hurray for visitors!

I'll try and keep you guys caught up on what's going on but things are starting to get busier here so be patient with me.

Side Note: Shout out to dad for a belated Father's day. I love you Dad!

Keeping it busy

Wow, The last week or so has flown by.

When I got back into town from some delightful family time, I went straight to work. After work I set into getting my house ready for my guest Jamie.

That was Friday.

Saturday, after work, Jamie got into town and the festivities began. Sunday I worked some more (luckily Jamie had to work every morning he was here anyways so it worked out well). We did all kinds of things in our free time though. We made dinner together (I made him make my household banana bread). We went to the highest point in the city and looked out over the beautiful vista while eating delicious sushi. We got food from food carts, we got $2 local beers (and I almost convinced Jamie to go to a Hamercize themed dance party). We went to the Rose Festival and saw a show. We visited Voodoo Donuts and tried three different kinds of donut-Bacon Maple, A little Voodoo doll one, and a vegan oreo one.

Now after working the today and yesterday and running my long run (10 miles) I am off to a Prom Bike ride. Yay for Pedal Pallooza!

City of Roses

They don't call this town the city of roses for nothing. And that's what I learned upon returning to Portland*. My yard, which is generally a little unkempt, was filled with beautiful blooming roses! I shot some pictures and meant to have them up for you yesterday but got distracted as my buddy, Jamie, arrived in Portland yesterday.

Bunch of roses on the side of our house

A couple of roses in the front of our house

Rose from the back yard

Huge rose (like 4 or 5 inches in Diameter) next to our back gate

*The city of Portland is actually, called the rose city because of the existence of it's famous rose testing gardens where a variety of roses found no were else may be growing at any given time.

Now, I'm off to get ready to work. I'll see you on the flip side.