October 10, 2012

Review of the past two weeks.

Blah. Law school wins again and the blog loses.
Last week was a busy week.
Monday, I got drinks with M. M and I were on The Epitaph together. She got all of the copy editing done; I protected her from stupid questions so she could focus and be efficient. She's living near Los Angeles, but is from Sacramento and was home for the weekend. It was good to see her, and to spend a night not thinking about law school.

Tuesday, I got an awesome compliment at the gym. Someone in the pool stopped me and asked me if I was working toward something because he saw me there all the time, I have written workouts, and I'm very disciplined when I'm in the pool. I said no, it's just for my general well-being, but I was super excited that someone thought I was dedicated to working out. Things like that make it way easier to go to the gym every night.

The rest of the week was a "just get through it" type of week.

This weekend, I had more culinary adventures. I attempted to make P.F. Chang's chicken lettuce wraps.
Things that went wrong: I couldn't find ground chicken breast, so I used turkey. The recipe calls for peanut butter. I don't know why I keep following these recipes that call for peanut butter, because it NEVER works right and is way too overpowering. I was able to save it this time; the filling is just a little spicier than the real thing.
I also made blueberry muffins, but ran out of cupcake liners. So I have a blueberry muffin cake. It tastes the same, so life is good.

Last night, I had a GREAT workout in the pool. I'm not doing anywhere near the distance of what I used to, and my endurance is seriously lacking, but every workout I do personal time trials. The goal has been to hit my 100 split for my old mile time. It's only a 1:10.00, but I figure it's a good place to start from.
Last night, I HIT IT!
I don't know if I could do two in a row, but I did it once! It can only get better from here.

Very early this morning, I thought there was an earthquake and I was really going to die. I woke up around 2 a.m. to a loud bang and my bed moved. My first thought, "Crap. Where was it that I'm supposed to hide?" At this point, I realized that my bed was at an angle.
No earthquake, my bed just fell off of one of its risers. At 2 a.m., I tried to put it back, and I realized that in the course of the bed falling that the riser had broken. Once I realized that there was no way to fix it, I crawled back into my tilting bed and went back to sleep. It was thrilling.

So I'm safe from earthquakes, but the exam prep that I have to start might kill me. Wish me luck!

October 1, 2012

Wonderful Week.

This week was simply wonderful.
I went to the gym four times this week. It always feels good to be back in the water, but now that I've gotten into a habit of going, it feels even better. For years, my coaches said to just keep on doing things over and over and over and over and over and over, etc. because we would build muscle memory and it would just become second nature. I did what they said, but when I got to the last one hundred of a mile swim, I was positive that they were full of it and muscle memory was some fiction they made up.
IT EXISTS!
I noticed it when I started doing breaststroke. It's kind of awkward, and if you don't use the right technique, you make it 50 times harder on yourself. I was struggling through it, and then I felt my stroke elongate and stretch, and lo and behold, my body found the rhythm that I haven't used for years. I was beyond excited.
The only downside: when your old stroke comes back, so do all of the weird aches and pains from old injuries and funky body movements.
I'm loving the gym though. I can go whenever I want (meaning whenever I need a break from studying). I had my choice of machines on the day I decided I was going to run. That hour of working out has seriously helped my sanity levels, and I'm sleeping a lot sounder, which is always a positive situation.

This weekend was a blast.
Saturday, C and I went to Trucktoberfest, a food truck round up by the river. We got totally lost getting there, but it was so worth it. There were around 20 trucks parked around the edges of the park, and there were just so many options.
Our goal was to eat all the food, and we valiantly fought to make that goal happen.
We ended up eating a bratwurst, a waffle with strawberries and whipped cream, a shrimp taco, a strawberry lemonade, fried mac and cheese balls with bacon and black truffle, and a beer each. We were very proud of ourselves.
Needless to say, that was lunch, and I wasn't hungry for awhile.

After stuffing my face with food truck delights, I went home and took a nap. (Naps are probably one of the greatest things on the planet.) I did some homework and then went to the bar which we have deemed "our place."
Say hello to Firestone.
They've got tons of TV's, so all of us can watch our respective games. The food is great and the beer is good. The bartenders are really friendly, and they have started to recognize us.
Every game day, we're there at one time in the day. We get nachos and a giant pretzel. When I say giant, I mean they bring it to you hanging on a hook and you have to tear pieces off. And you get to play Pretzel Jenga. When the pretzel is down to the last bit, everyone takes turns tearing off their next bite. Whoever pulls the piece that makes it fall, loses. It's great fun, and the bartenders think we're hilarious when we do it.
I won this round. Yay!
Saturday night, we headed down to Firestone to watch the Arizona game. It was a sad ending, but still a lot of fun. An OSU fan was sitting next to me, so we got to go back and forth, and shake hands after the game ended. That's the biggest difference between watching the game in college and now. Everyone's friendly, and after the game, it's just a game. We're still people who can be respectful. It was also nice to have other Arizona fans around so that I could high five them when good things happened. I'm still missing being in the student section, but I like being an alumna fan as well.

Tonight a few friends came over to my apartment for "family dinner." C cooked and the boys came over. We all ate dinner at my kitchen table and then studied afterward. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but it was nice to have people over and around. We had pork with kale and potatoes. And guess what?
I ate it all!
This was big for me. I don't normally eat potatoes or vegetables in general, especially green and leafy ones like kale. I was a little surprised, but I really enjoyed all of it. Maybe I'll be brave and try something new.
I also was able to finish all of my work for Monday and Tuesday, as is the plan every week. My execution of the plan is sometimes pretty questionable, and it feels really good to be on track with myself for once.

This going to be a good week. I can feel it.