A Day in the Life

Do you love these kinds of posts?  As a reader of other people’s blogs (and a Grub Street Diet obsessive!), I totally do.  And as a blog writer, I love them too because they’re a fun snapshot of a particular moment in time, season in a year and juncture in a life.  It’s fun to re-read them and think “oh yeah, I remember that phase where I tucked all my shirts in!”  Just FYI, I am deep in that phase right now.  So here’s May 22, 2018, permanently fixed into the fabric of the internet.

img_4517

We stopped letting our dog sleep in bed with us and after two weeks of being okay with it, he has decided he’s had enough and will be back in the bed.  I blame Joey, who decided “he can sleep in our bed during the weekend!”  I gently explained that dogs don’t know the difference between weekday and weekend.  Our willpower only lasts until 12:30 AM, when we can tolerate our dog’s quiet but extremely high-pitched whine no longer.  He only wakes us up a million times when he decides he’d like to be petted now or needs to crawl over us both to get from one side of the bed to the other.  Delightful!  This is all to say, we wake up at 5:45 AM to run and though I figured I’d feel exhausted, I feel alive!

img_4533

We run 3 miles through our neighborhood, taking a different route to pass a house that’s popping the top, and only run one block further than we should have before realizing it.  Back at home, it’s a whirlwind of showering, getting ready, eating breakfast, packing lunch, feeding the dog, watering our garden and picking up coffee down the street at Huckleberry Roasters.  I made overnight oats the night before, so at least breakfast is a breeze.  I just give them a stir, top with granola and peanut butter and dig in.

img_4478

The first half of the work day consists of getting a few small orders out, online shopping for some magnetic labels to organize the sets of plans I order from, answering emails and my daily freak-out about how many things we have to do over the weekend… which is still four days away and half of which, is fun stuff I voluntarily added to our calendar.  What is wrong with me?  To cope, I spend three minutes staring at this poster my uncle had signed (with a personal message even) by HARRY CONNICK JR. (!!!!!!!!!!) and mailed to me last week.  I consider writing a will so I can make arrangements for this most prized possession.

IMG_0239

(Recycled photo as I was definitely NOT wearing a jacket today!) 

Lunch time!  This one has roasted sweet potato, shredded cucumber, radish, cilantro, pepitas and avocado.  Maybe we’ve finally nailed picking a perfect avocado, maybe avocados are just extra buttery-delicious right now, all I know is I have eaten so many recently and they have all tasted incredible.  Also, extra lunchtime happiness brought to you by warm-enough-to-sit-outside temps.  I am nothing if not a true and devoted reader, so the second half of my lunch break almost always involves a book.  I’m so very close to the end of The Dry and though I’m sort of antsy to just figure out the mystery already, I’ve also really enjoyed reading it.  Something about it reminds me of this one, which I also really liked.

img_0934

Spent the afternoon working arguing with Joey over whether Little Man Ice Cream flavors Space Junkie and Raspberry Love are made with the same base ice cream flavor.  I probably spent too much time thinking about it.  At 3:30, we take a walk.  At 4:00, I eat a snack.  Dorsey Bar a day keeps the doctor away.  Or something.  At 4:30, it starts raining and I’m sad because I planned on working in our garden after work.  I also wonder if the thunder is scaring my dog while he’s home alone.

But when we get home, the sun is out and garden plans are back on!  I pull a bunch of annoying teensy weeds then replant everything that hasn’t sprung up in our garden beds yet.  This side fared pretty well but the other side was patchy heads of lettuce, random carrots that had apparently blown from their original spots and maybe green onions?  Maybe just weeds?  Fingers crossed that everything comes up now.

Threw together leftovers for Joey and I for dinner — Mediterranean Eggplant Bowl for me, Spicy Shrimp Tacos for him.  How good is halloumi cheese though?!  Some time last week, I told Joey a push pop sounded good and he made me promise I’d get one if the ice cream truck came by.  Moments after we finish dinner, we hear that little jingle!  By the time Joey runs to get money, the truck is gone. Noooo!  We’re over it quickly though and move on to watching three episodes of Parks and Rec before switching it over to the Rockies game. Baseball is the best but West Coast games are the worst because they don’t even start until 8 PM.  I eat a snack of Greek yogurt and not-quite-ripe strawberries just after 10:00 and even finish my book before the game ends… in a loss for the Rockies.  If I’m going to stay up late, could we at least win??

The last thing I hear before I fall asleep is that little high-pitched whine.

Recommitment & Weekend Things

Hi!  How was your weekend?  Honestly, mine was pretty fabulous.  Especially since my work week was only 3 days long, sandwiched between our vacation and the weekend, so it really flew by.

On Friday, we hit up the Denver Rock n Roll race expo.  I always love going to that expo because there are a bunch of normal looking people there who turn out to be marathoners!  And of course, when I’m there I’m always like “what the hell, I’ll just sign up for next year’s marathon!”  Thank god I don’t actually let that thought go any further than that.  I think my favorite expo tent was this one where they were cooking mini protein pancakes.

IMG_5036

IMG_5030

Afterwards we spent some much needed time at home.  The other day I jokingly said, “I’m so glad we bought this house in Denver considering we’re never home!!!”  It feels like we’ve barely had any time to just be home and get anything done here, so like I said, a much needed night at home.  Building Ikea furniture!… I also ate a dinner of several different restaurant leftovers because we’ve forgotten what the grocery store is and how to cook anything other than toast.

IMG_5037

IMG_5038

IMG_5039

Be honest, is this wardrobe way too big for our room?  Actually, don’t answer that because we already spent an entire night building it (and new nightstands) and it’s too late now.  Anyways, we had lunch near the 16th Street Mall on Saturday afternoon — it was thee most beautiful fall day in Denver! — and Joey is a bad influence and made me want a mid-day beer.  Also, there was a Zombie Crawl that day and downtown was rampant with zombies of all ages, costumes and degrees of bloodiness.  I think I liked the one one gnawing on a fake brain best.

IMG_5041

Today, right now, I am cuddling up in my bed trying to regain body heat in my feet after running the mini marathon this morning.  And yeah, that was four hours ago so you can say it’s chilly in Colorado today.  Despite the cold, I loved the mini marathon (3.7 miles).  Apparently I missed the mile markers because I somehow came across the 3 mile mark and was totally shocked to almost be done.  They didn’t give us mini runners a timing chip (majorly lame!) and I totally forgot to stop my watch at the finish line so I have no idea how fast I did it but I felt like I did it pretty fast and I made sure to sprint to the finish.  Afterwards, I walked down the mall, grabbed a hot coffee and walked to the half marathon finish line to watch Joey cross.  About 15 minutes later we both watched the full marathoner cross the finish line.  I cannot even fathom 5:30 miles for 26.2 miles!  That is insane.

IMG_5044

On to the topic of recommitment.  Maybe it’s being back from vacation or the changing of the seasons or the headache I’ve had for literally two and a half weeks but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about recommitting to some healthier habits.  I’ve felt all over the place for the last few months.  There’s been a lot going on and I’ve felt busy both physically and mentally, so the routine of things that make me feel sane have totally fallen by the wayside.  I haven’t been reading, writing, sleeping, exercising or eating like I normally do and it’s really making me feel out of whack.  I’m making this an open declaration to recommit to all those things.  I think 8 hours of sleep, an awesome race and a day spent relaxing with a hot cup of tea is a good place to start 🙂

Happy Sunday to you all!