Then I'm from Venus??

Ok, I've been putting it off forever. But guess what kids.... I RAN LAST NIGHT!!! It wasn't that spectacular because my lungs still burned for a little while afterwards. I know, baby steps, I'm trying. I also had to wait until after sunset to run since it hit 102º yesterday, yikes!

Good news about waiting so late to run, however, is that I got to see this (well, not literally, but same thing just on a different skyline):

(Source)

Since the sun sets well past 9:00 p.m. here in California, I get to see Venus setting on the horizon! Venus is distinguishable from all the stars in the sky in that it's not a giant ball of gas, therefore, doesn't flicker in the sky! It's a piercing white light that sets in the horizon shortly after the sun, but on rare occasions it can follow the moon as seen in the photo above. Not too far behind it is Mars, a beaming red point that sets in the horizon. Booyah, freshman year Astronomy!

I don't really know why that pumped me up, but it did! And even though I've steered clear of running for several days now, I got back into it real quick. I just wanted to start light and ease back slowly so I only completed a 2.13 mile loop. But get this, my first mile was at a 7:22 pace!!! Insane, right?!? Eventually I finished the entire thing at an 8:04 minute/mile so do the math and figure out what my second mile's pace was -- I'm not mathematically inclined, so unless my iPhone tells me, I have no clue what my pace is, ha.

On my way back from the run, I stopped to see if I could spot Venus again. Indeed it sat lower on the horizon, but still slightly visible! I was also sort of bummed because the first constellation I ALWAYS can spot no matter where I am, is Orion's Belt. Not this time however. Instead, I located both Dippers and also Scorpio meaning that Orion probably wasn't too far away. It had to have been super clear last night. Pretty cool, huh?

So let's rewind then and go back through my moderately fun-filled day.

It started off with my "stolen muffins" from the Sunday brunch. They were so delicious, I had to snag two! It was some sort of zucchini-carrot hybrid with raisins and cranberries inside and coconut sprinkled on top. It was the inspiration behind my morning oatmeal -- I notice a lot of you guys put muffin crumbles in oatmeal so I wanted to play too!

Inside my BetterOats Raw Chai Spiced oatmeal went blueberries, half a banana, a drizzle of almond butter and of course the glorious muffin!

These, by the way, are AMAZING!!! It's part of the new school of oatmeals which are trying to cut down on packaging usage by making smaller containers. I'm not sure how much we're actually saving here, since the package only includes five oatmeal packets instead of the usual 12ish most boxes offer.

Either way, I love chai spice. I love it so much I eat it in my oatmeal now :) Inside of my travel series London coffee mug, I did not have chai. Sorry to disappoint! Instead, it was Republic of Tea pineapple guava white tea. So tropical and awesome.

For lunch I came home to feed the baby and also myself. I was in a rush to get back to my office so I had a PB&J sandwich on whole wheat bread, pita chips, edamame and carrots all to be dipped in my new olive hummus. The hummus didn't live up to my high expectations, but it was tasty. I polished the meal off with a white nectarine, which was much to my dismay, not yet ripe.

I felt like a little girl with this lunch!

Work was a frenzy of activity and before I knew it, it was already 4:00. So I went home and played with my dog. J.D. wasn't in the mood for dinner when he arrived -- apparently lunch made him sick -- and I still felt congested from my yucky sore throat, so cold cereal sounded good. I'm hoping this weird craving for non-substantial foods ends with my cold ASAP.

I didn't have much time to eat anyways, so the cereal fit the bill. As did the first College World Series game. It felt super weird watching it on TV!!!

Smart Start with craisins and a baseball game!

After my "dinner" we rushed out the door to take Woodstock to his puppy training class. Can't believe he only has three more before graduating!! We both feel super bad at what's going on today so we decided to overload him with all the activities he'll miss in the next week due to his recovery. After puppy class we let him play at the dog park until the sun set and then J.D. even let him sleep on the couch while he watched TV and I ran ;)

Post run, you're pretty much caught up now! I went to work here and then called it a night.

Bet you'll never guess what kind of tea I had while catching up on blogs. That's right, chai spiced tea. I should see a group for this or something.... But how cute is the tea bag platter?!?! My mom bought it for me in France a few years back ♥

Question: What motivates/inspires you to run? Maybe unrelated, but do you like to star-gaze??