Week 10: Watch La Dolce Vita

Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the tenth post in the series, when I finally watched Fellini's La Dolce Vita, in the middle of a pretty rough week of being sick. Here you will find a list of all my weekly adventures thus far.

As someone who majored in French in college, I've seen a lot of foreign films. The jury is still out on whether or not I truly enjoy foreign films, especially films pre-1980. One of my classes on French culture involved an intensive study on Jean-Luc Godard and New Wave Francophone Cinema {generally of the black & white variety}. This is NOT to say I was a film studies major. First and foremost, I studied literature and doubled a major with English as well. When I had extra units to spare, I was able to dabble in French cultural classes like the aforementioned one.

Something about foreign films appeals to my ongoing desire to travel and passion for foreign languages. Plus, two of my favorite all-time movies have been Amélie {French} and Pan's Labyrinth {Spanish}. But I have yet to see so many movies, American or otherwise. I'm not sure why I've had it in my head forever, but I've felt the need to see La Dolce Vita for a very, very long time. That long term unfulfillment and the week-long flu/cold/plague I've been suffering from made this week's "new thing" a very simple choice. Lounge in front of the tv with kleenex, a billion pills and La Dolce Vita on Netflix. Perfection in this otherwise tainted week.

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If you know me at all, you'll remember my adoration of vintage posters and 1950s-60s culture/fashion.

I will spare you any commentary on the film other than it kept in the tradition of most 1960s foreign films: très, très bizarre. But it was also beautiful at the same time, split up into eight mini episodes of self-contained narrative, which seem to have nothing to do with the previous scene. Except, maybe some commentary about how love and fidelity was nearly impossible in the free loving, drinking, smoking and drug-using culture of the 1960s. I still don't entirely get it. And probably will end up watching it again soon.

Anyways, I definitely recommend at least checking it out. Just be warned that European cinema is anything but linear. This film was pivotal in cinematic development and has been referenced in a number of works since it came out.

So what else have I been up to this week?

Working baseball games

Giving Woodstock a bath {video below, I swear he's not all there upstairs}

And drinking lots and lots of these

It's an adaptation of Sweat & the City's cold/flu remedy smoothie. Into mine went:

• three oranges (from my garden, so they're not as large as supermarket oranges)
• 1 c coconut milk
• 1 handful coconut flakes
• 1/2 c mango
• ice to thicken it up

The smoothie tasted soooo good, I almost wouldn't mind being sick to have it :) Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I have been drinking 1-2 of these bad boys a day. I hope it's helping.

Oh well, in the meantime I'm going to go back to snuggling up on the couch with my kleenex. Ugh, I'm ready to come out from being "under the weather" as they say...

Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays

I really liked Amy's post on the Friday Five. So I'm copying it ;) thanks for the great idea!

1.) Mine starts with a case of the Mondays. Even though it's Friday.

First, I just plain love this movie. Second, on Monday (or maybe Tuesday at the latest) the wait will be over! We will know whether we're moving at the end of the month or staying here another year. This is the ENTIRE reason I haven't signed up for a half marathon yet. Well, that and my training hasn't officially begun, but it will soon! So Monday, I'll know if I should sign up for a halfy in the Phoenix area or in the San Francisco/Sacramento area :) I'm also working on trying to find myself a job down there, if J.D. does in fact get this job!

2.) Have you ever had cabin fever before? Do I have cabin fever? I certainly don't have Bieber Fever. Ew. But I am still cooped up in my house! With directives not to go outside, be in the sun, exert too much effort. I'm going crazy. I want to get out and run again, but my cough still lives on.

Kind of related to this, I watched an interesting movie yesterday while I stayed in the house: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It's this crazy (true) French story about the editor of Elle magazine. He had a stroke that left his entire body paralyzed, save for his left eyelid. So the man narrated an entire memoire by blinking to his nurse/assistant. I really want to read the book!

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It's CRAZY, and not because of what he did, but because it's French cinematography. Have you ever seen a French film?!? I majored in French lit/culture, so I've seen plenty in my day. Some of my favorite movies are French (Paris je t'aime, Amélie and Jeux d'enfants). But, there's no denying that French réalisateurs (directors) are crazy. Or on drugs. Or both.

Now, I'm not being ridiculous and comparing myself to a man with full-body paralysis. But there is a neat line in the film where his father claims they're like two peas in a pod because he's stuck in his apartment. That is the only comparison I can make. The main character tells the audience that when you're trapped, all you have left is imagination and memories. And I have been fully living out my imagination through books and film whilst stuck in my house this week. At least I've got a long list of movies I can choose from today, and am not sure which: Pan's Labyrinth, The Constant Gardener, Les Mis, Amélie, or whatever else Netflix has on demand through PS3.

3.) That's a nice lead in to my health. Big question mark there! A second opinion (and $75 later, I'm not going to be able to afford a third) suggested I have allergies and not bronchitis. The Valley is notorious for causing allergies to flare up here, but I've never had them before. So supposedly, I'm developing my first case of allergies. Still unsure about the rash though, which I'm happy to report is clearing up. One thought is that I'm just flat out allergic to amoxicillin, which makes sense given my history of allergic reactions to sulfa. Another though is that amoxicillin causes crazy rashes and measle-like symptoms when the person taking it has mono. I'm not sure how likely this is, since I had mono when I was in college. Pending blood tests will reveal if that is the case or not.

4.) And because of all these diagnoses, my house looks like one of these:

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Yup, a pharmacy. I've been buying over the counter with every suggestion my doctors give me: cold meds, cough syrup, Halls throat losenges, benadryl, calamine lotion, Zyrtec and Aveeno oatmeal baths. Plus the several prescriptions I already possess. One of which is going to be tossed out since I may be allergic!

I'm just hoping one of these diagnoses is correct and the prescriptions make me good as new again! One positive about maybe moving to Arizona... they don't have pollen and allergens in the desert.

5.) And finally.... food. I've been eating out a lot. I haven't felt up for making a run to the grocery store after being with family for the 4th. My fridge is bare. We might be making a run tonight finally to stock up! But that darn game hen still is there, starting at me every time I open the fridge. So I might have to cook him up tonight. I even found a recipe for some sort of basil citrus marinade. Is that a sign? Maybe.

But I have been eating some ice cream now :) Best cure for a sore throat/rash/cooped up patient! Everything's better with ice cream. This is the first time I've had honest-to-God full-fat ice cream in a long time. It's awesome :)

Seriously though, I'm hoping to ease back into running the minute my health returns! And then..... sign up for a half-marathon in CA or AZ!! So my training can finally begin :)

Wish me luck! xx

Hi, I'm Monique and I'm addicted....

...to oatmeal apparently. Oatmeal for a meal is no longer enough for me. I have to bathe in the stuff -- literally. Last night I took a bath with a cup of finely-ground oats.

Because I sort of look like this:

Alright, maybe not that bad, but it's pretty bad. I've got gnarly rashes alllll over my body, I've been trying (unsuccessfully) not to scratch, I'm missing work and I slept from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. today. Because....

I'm allergic to the antibiotics I've been taking to manage my bronchitis. I don't know why all this crazy stuff happens to me, but it does.

So since I don't want to leave you with gross images of that in your head anymore, here's what I've been up to since the 4th.

On the 5th, J.D. went to a conference in San Francisco for his work and I hung out with my parents during the day. We took the puppies on a walk at the high school cross country trail near my parents' house. Woodstock kept up and ran with me!

Lily did not.

After the run, we went back home and my mom made us Croque Madames for breakfast. It's basically like a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with bechamel sauce and a fried egg on top. Delicious!

While my mom and I went discount shopping, J.D. had his second interview with a company based in Arizona. It must have gone well, since the guy he interviewed with invited us to a party held later that night in San Francisco. That meant I had to hurry back home and rummage through my closet (keep in mind at my parents' house) of something suitable to wear. I opted for a dress and hopped on BART with him to go grab some dinner in SF before the party.

We selected a Singapore restaurant where I had coconut fried rice with tiger prawns. I pretty much ate this entire bowl.

The party was pretty fun and I ended up knowing a handful of people there. We stayed until about 10 p.m. and left after I got handled in pool. Sad really.

Then yesterday more of the usual. I went to work for a day, while J.D. finished up the conference. Since he took BART into the City, I made plans to pick him up after work. We met after work and my parents also came along, grabbed some burgers and then caught the 7:30 p.m. showing of Knight and Day. I thought it was a pretty cute movie :) Took my mind off itching at least.

For dinner I had a teriyaki ELK burger with sweet potato fries. Last time we ate at Fuddrucker's, I had a bison burger I believe. At some point, I'm ready to try the ostrich!

Polished it off with two cupcakes split amongst four people. J.D. carried them back from SF -- almost an hour on BART! We sampled chocolate-covered strawberry (left) and mango (right) cupcakes. While they were incredibly sweet, they were also incredibly tasty!

And now here I am a day later, still trying not to scratch my disturbing-looking skin. I'm still waiting for the doctor to call me back, but I've certainly stopped taking the medicine.

I promise to resume to regular blogging when this clears up. Until then, oatmeal will be reserved for my baths alone. And if you've noticed, Woody's cone is off! So at least he's doing well now :)

No more spooning

Oh, wouldn't you like to know....?

Actually, I'm just not going to have three-consecutive meals that require spoons today. In fact, breakfast started out with a straight injection right into my veins. Why would I write something like that?! You know I'm just kidding ;) Today's meals have started out to be an amalgamation of leftovers.

Remember when I ran my first 5K in eight years (for those of you who've followed me over from blogger), and they had TOOOONS of Muscle Milk bottles? And how I may or may not have dropped a few extras in my goodie tote? Well, I figured now's probably a good time to break back into those bad boys.

This morning I had the chocolate Muscle Milk with some "extra" mini Clif bars from that race.

I kind of liked the bananas 'n' creme Milks, but the chocolate one was just too chalky for my liking. I could only drink a little under half of the bottle before giving up. The Clif bar held me over nicely though, even if it's teensie-weensie.

At work today I started updating all the game schedules on our website for my sports (soccer, basketball, baseball). Here's a note of interest (mainly for myself): from August until May my sports will be going to Costa Rica, Hawaii, Oregon, Las Vegas, Montana, Kansas and Myrtle Beach!!! Oh yeah and since we play home-away with conference teams every other year, this is the "away year" in which all my teams play AT Santa Barbara -- home of my alma mater UCSB!!!!

(Source)

What a CRAZY travel schedule this is!!! During the school year I work these teams over three different seasons (fall, winter, spring). When my teams are home I do stats at all our home games and when they're on the road I travel on the team bus/plane and am their official radio announcer. So I'd be going on allll those lovely trips! Makes for an interesting résumé, but a gnarly home life.

We're still in location limbo, however. As you may have guessed by now, J.D. didn't get the job at Pepperdine, but the two of us have been applying for other jobs. If the next round doesn't work out, we'll be here another year.

After wrapping up stuff for the week I went home from work about 1 p.m. During the summer we work until 4 p.m. M-Th and until 1 p.m. on Fridays to make up for the excessive nights/weekends we work during the year. Actually, it's supposedly a rule because of all of California's rolling blackouts, but I'll justify it as I will, thanks!

Lunchtime came around and I fed the puppy then fed myself. With leftovers. See, only one spoon made its appearance in my meals today.

More leftovers. I originally had planned on finishing off that soup with a Little Caesar's breadstick! But when I opened the fridge they were MIA. I think someone ate them all last night ;) Oh well, I settled for another piece of pizza today. I wasn't, however, going to settle for bland taste like last night's piece so I added some more Tuscan spices to the pizza and a few fresh leaves of basil. Much better! You can also see in the background how I finished the remaining Bossa Nova and also added in a white nectarine.

If you know me, you know I love my sweets. Of course I had some after lunch. This time, it was something new!

Last night I stopped at CVS Pharmacy to pick up some items to clean Woodstock's site of incision and also some more aggressive cough meds to help my sore throat. Nearly $100 later, I came with all of that and more! Like these Three Musketeers Truffle bars! They were buy one, get one free!!!

You know, they were good, but when you crave a Three Musketeers, you crave a fluffy Three Musketeers. This one tasted much more decadent. The "crisp" is more like a dense toffee filling. Good, but not what I was in the mood for.

Now that I'm back home, I plan on rolling up my sleeves and doing some more cleaning. Or more vegging out in front of the TV and passing out ;) Only time will tell.

Either way, I need to do some loads of laundry and also fold the massive pile of clothes that sit on the guest bed. It's going to be a loooong day. At least we have Monday off! I'm going home tomorrow to be with my family in the East Bay. And while I did plan on running a 5k for the 4th, sadly I had to cancel due to my sickly lungs. Instead, I hope to get some long walks in today and the rest of the weekend.

And tonight we're hoping to finally cook up that game hen!

What are your 4th of July plans?!? I hope to catch some of the Tour de France!!! Have a good weekend, everyone!

Eat everything with a spoon

I did just that today. Let's start off with my best of intentions this morning. I woke up after not having slept all night again, it's really not as fun as it sounds ;) Chest and throat sore from my late-night cough fest, all I wanted was something warm and yummy for breakfast.

Good old fashioned oats (haha, get it, that's what the label on my container actually says... ). I was extra nice to myself and drizzled it with a little maple syrup over the half banana, strawberries, flax seeds, omega 3 trek mix and cinnamon. And oh yeah, we were low on spoons, so I had to use a frozen yogurt spoon. Good thing I keep a stash of those in my utensil draw. Does that mean I go too often.... or does it mean I also have a habit of "collecting" plastic spoons in cases of emergency such as this....? You'll never know.

Hey guys, want to take a guess as to what I drank with my breakfast?!?

Another selection from my box 'o tea. I almost went for chai this morning. Almost ;)

Well then I showed up to work fashionably late at an appropriate time for someone of my health, and not even 30 minutes into my day did my boss send me home to rest up. So rest I did.

I first rested by doing the dishes. Then sweeping the entire downstairs. Then vacuuming all the baseboards and cleaning spiderwebs. I'm glad I got to stay home today because I also got to bond with the other sick member of the house. Woodstock's been doing great; he did the cutest thing EVER today. I heard him attempt his first big boy howl. Or, whatever noise it was a 10 lb. puppy produces in hopes of howling. I freaked out and thought he was hurt, but it turns out he just couldn't find his toy. That nasty cone keeps getting in his way ;)

Then my hunger got the best of me. So I heated up some of last night's leftovers. Are you surprised I even had any extra orange chicken to spare?!?!

My usual trio of meal, drink and Rx. Today, I was determined. And due to my stubborn nature, I successfully used the chopsticks with this meal. Take that...... meal?

When I finished, I laid on the couch to watch another episode of Rick Steves' Europe travel videos saved on my DVR. Does that make me a nerd?!!? If it does, I don't care. It was on France's Côte d'Azur and then I watched a second on Provence. Both areas I'm VERY familiar with, after living in Antibes (in the Côte d'Azur) for the better part of a year. Oh yeah, my 101 year old great aunt lives in Provence, so I had a lot of chances to go over there!

Me and Yvonne, my great aunt from France!

And this is where I used to spend a TOOOOON of time when I worked/lived in Antibes! It's a view of La Baie des Anges, which stretches all the way down to Nice, as seen across the water. This picture was taken in October. Ahhh, the good life :) I would certainly like to go back there again.

Well, coming back to reality after that trip down memory lane, I barely got through the second travel show before I realized I'd slept for nearly three hours. Apparently I conked out. And I had an empty carton of ice cream in front of me ;) Don't worry, there wasn't even a bowl left I just wanted to do my part and help clean out the freezer. Or, soothe my throat, whichever you choose to believe!

When J.D. came back home we nixed our original plan to make game hens. Instead, I craved something odd. Soup and pizza! Being the sweet guy that he is, J.D. drove to Little Caesar's to pick up a $5 pizza while I heated up a bowl of Progresso's tomato basil soup. Except, I hate this soup!!! I tried it once and found it waaaay too sweet for my liking. Alterations were in order, so in went some Tuscan herb blend and for some more flavor, a few pepper flakes. Oh and some fresh basil. Muuuuch better. I'm a firm believer in modifying canned soups.

As per usual, I needed some dessert. I bring you Monique's twist on frozen yogurt:

Literally, it's yogurt, frozen. I put it in the freezer for about an hour then topped it with dark chocolate almond spread and some fun, purple sprinkles. It's not exactly like frozen yogurt, but pretty darn close! And chocolate always seems to make everything better ;)

Before I go I wanted to let you guys all know something. I'm moving my site to a new domain name!! So update your bookmarks/readers/other means of stalking me to http://www.shesgoingdistance.com I plan on blogging solely from there now. Still have some work to do on the site, so bear with me! Also, thank you all SO MUCH for all your well-wishes yesterday!! It made me feel so loved :) You guys are awesome.

Question: What's your favorite nerdy thing to watch on TV when you're in veg mode?? Since you already know mine, I'll tell you something else super nerdy. I subscribe to iTunesU podcasts. Like listening to university lectures about French lit, or American lit, German grammar lessons, astronomy, religious studies, you name it. I think it's important to keep educating yourself even after college.

My first time, sadly.

So guess what I discovered at Kaiser today?? I have bronchitis. BOOOOOOO!!!!! I don't think I've ever had it before. Luckily since my cold was nearly two weeks ago -- and the cough has lingered -- I'm in the early stages of acute bronchitis. The positive to take away here is that I am no longer annoyingly coughing, there's a diagnosis and I've been given a prescription now.

After my hour and a half jaunt at the doctor's, my throat hurt from all the coughing. Armed with my new meds, I needed food to wash it down.

You know what I'm going to say, don't you?? I ordered a nonfat frozen chai from Starbuck's ;)

I returned home just in time for dinner... and our weekday dinner plans had already been made in advance! I bought so much fun stuff at Trader Joe's (shocking) that we agreed on trying it all each day of the week. On the menu for tonight's meal was home-made orange chicken sort of like in a stir fry bowl. I bedded mine with brown rice and tossed in edamame, green beans, broccoli and some almonds.

P.S. Trader Joe's orange chicken is DELICIOUS!!! It's much healthier than the Panda Express orange chicken. I did use the chopsticks for a bit, but the edamame proved tricky so I eventually opted for a fork. Usually whenever we go out for Asian food, hot tea is always served out of cute little kettles. I was feeling in the mood -- and so was my throat! -- for some green tea. Enter my giant box 'o tea. From France (also, shocking, right??).

After dinner and getting owned by Jeopardy! (usually it's the other way around, guys!!!) my throat still bugged me. Despite amoxicillin. Despite Robitussin. Despite Halls cough drops. What's Monique's remedy then??

That's right.... frozen yogurt!! I mixed a little bit of blueberry, pomegranate and tart yogurt together and adorned them with dark chocolate chips, blueberries and kiwi at the yogurt shop. When I got home I dumped in the remainder of yesterday's mango. It's a surprise I'm not orange after all the mango I've been eating today!

And that's all she wrote, folks. Hopefully I'll get a better night's sleep now that the dog is accustomed to his cone and I'm on cough meds. (Yeah right....)

What's your favorite fro-yo flavor and topping combination?? I looove anything fruity, tart and dark chocolate-y.

I wanna be sedated (too)

Like my puppy, I've been sort of groggy today with an overall feeling of just  going through the motions. It could be due to Woodstock's lack of sleep and overall discomfort with the cone around his neck. Poor little guy kept me up all night. Well, more like the combination of him moving around and me hacking up a lung. Eventually I fell asleep around 6ish, then slept through my alarm until about 9:30 a.m. Oops.

I told my boss I'd be in late today (he knew about Woody's surgery) and then dozed a bit longer. Then I finally hopped in the shower, braided my hair and assembled some breakfast to bring to work.

Apparently I was in luck the day I went to Trader Joe's -- they just got a first-time shipment in of these little beauties:

Unfortunately, I only bought one. But oooooh my gooooodness, I will be back for more! I topped mine with the last stolen muffin, freshly cut-up mango (has anyone ever cut up mangoes??? that's a chore and a half) and craisins.

I had two decently-sized projects going on at work today to keep me busy until 1 p.m. When I finally reached a good stopping point, I went home to feed Woodstock his first real meal since 10 p.m. the night before his surgery. In case you're wondering, he's doing fine today! He's much more animated and jumpy again -- not too much since I'm supposed to keep him calm -- and he even ate!!

As did I. First, I soothed my throat with some chocolate soy milk... in a "juice box"!!!!

Then I repeated last night's dinner. The microwaved leftovers really weren't pretty, so I'll just show you some photos from dinner. We had peppercorn garlic crusted pork tenderloin, asparagus and rosemary roasted potatoes.

Oh. My. God. I'm not a pork fan (exception being pulled pork), in fact I steer clear of tenderloins and pork chops. But this made me rethink my entire stance!!!!! We plopped it in the oven for 25 minutes and let it do its thang. The result came out being tender and juicy and fulllll of flavor. I'd buy it again!

For dessert after lunch I continued my theme of feeling like a little kid with sliced apples dipped in peanut butter ;) Ah, the simple pleasures in life.

Since I forgot to snap a photo, I leave you with last night's dessert. One of the best things I've had in a loooong time!!!

They're premade sorbets in fruit cups. This one was orange mango in a hollowed out orange. I topped the cups with fresh mango and blueberries. It tasted so fresh and tropical and awesome. My sore throat loved me.... for a little bit anyway. My only regret is that just one cup remains in the freezer.

Anyone with a Costco card want to buy me some new ones?!?!? I'll pay you back, I promise :)

In a couple of minutes I'm actually going to the doctor. J.D. and my coworkers are annoyed concerned with the coughing fits I've been having. One lasted for several minutes last night and left me with strained abdomen muscles. It really sucked, slash, hurt. So I guess I'll go get it checked out just to be on the safe side. I mean, it has been nearly two weeks since I've been sick now.

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):

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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??

TGIV

I have been MIA. From the College World Series. But no damage done, since yesterday was highly delayed due to rain and this:

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Like I've been saying, I'm terrified of thunderstorms. I was even nervous for J.D. since he was camped out in the super tall metal press box as lightning bolts struck within five feet of the stadium. For every strike in the six-mile radius, the game was postponed 30 minutes. Long story short, it ended up being over a nine-hour game when taking into consideration the rain/thunderstorm delays.

While this mayhem went on, I stayed home sick. Very, very sick. Waking up in a cold sweat, hot and shaky sick. And my throat is still killing me. As J.D. left for the field, I stayed in bed until 12:15 p.m. Thankfully, we're staying at a friend's house instead of in a hotel so I got to lounge around in good company and watch TV.

When I felt better Beth made me a grilled cheese sandwich. Then after a few hours of House Hunters and the on-going delay of the only College World Series game played last night, we needed to venture out for food. Mexican sounded good for some reason, so I indulged in a bowl of tortilla soup. Except, spicy food is probably the worst choice I could have made with an irritated throat. Boo. At least it tasted good before I choked uncontrollably.

Bedtime came and went and I rolled around in bed freaking out with every roar of thunder. The lightning became so intense it illuminated our entire room -- with both the blinds and curtains closed -- on multiple occasions. I'm such a wuss out here. I don't know how long it would take me to get used to nights like this if I had to live out here.

This morning, feeling much better, we stopped at Starbucks with the morning rain delay for a grande nonfat chai and cup of oatmeal. Forgive me for lack of photos here, but I'd feel really weird snapping photos eating at the press dining rooms. Ehhhh.... maybe I'll brave it another time?

Lunch has been more buffets of fruit, veggies and burgers/sandwiches. I swear to God, I'm eating sooo unhealthy here with only having one meal that involves fruit/veggies a day!!! Can't wait to get back home to Trader Joe's and abundant produce and home-cooked meals!

So what exactly am I doing here you might ask? Well, first and foremost, playing tourist. Rosenblatt Stadium has held the CWS for 60 years and will be closing after this month. As a baseball contact in collegiate athletics, I owed it to myself to see it before it shuts down. Secondly, I'm volunteering my services for the media relations crew. That means during the game I go into the dugout and find out which players will be appearing in our official press conference. I wait for the game to finish, collect the players and guide them to the conference room. During the conference all I have to do is take notes and write down who asks what question. Piece. Of. Cake.

Now while I wait for the end of the game to roll around, take a look at some of what I've seen here at Rosenblatt:

View from Clemson's dugout

My pressbox camp for the week

Game 1: Florida State vs. TCU

Rosenblatt Stadium

Now, it's elimination time. Teams are starting to go home as of today. After this we have one more day of volunteering and then fly out Wednesday evening. I'm hoping to wean myself off of these cough drops and Dayquil pills before then. Wishful thinking, maybe?

Oh well. TGIV (Thank God It's Vacation, people).