Happy 4th to those who partake! This would be a good time to ask if I have any international readers from overseas places like Canada. Holler if you do not hail from this land!
Ahem. Anyway, you know how I’m always wishing for exciting things to happen? Well happen they have since my last post. It wasn’t anything life-changing, just good times with good people. Stories will commence now.
Last Wednesday, I went to visit my oldest friend M a few towns over in between her annual trip to France (she’s half French) and her going back to school in New York for an internship. We have known each other since I was three weeks and she was six weeks old – almost 21 years. We decided we wanted to bake an “extravagant” cake, and this one fit the bill. This literally took us an entire afternoon to make – from going to the grocery store to buy some of the ingredients to making the cake itself, the icing, and the lemon curd. But we think it turned out really well.
This next picture I like to refer to as the “money shot” because we manipulated it to look like it belongs in a magazine.
I brought half home to share with my family and they all agreed it was delightful.
On Thursday I had my best run yet. The temperatures were pretty cool throughout last week so I actually took this run mid-day after eating breakfast and letting it digest. This isn’t something I can do all the time, but it definitely motivated me to keep running.
Speaking of exercise, I have come to a conclusion regarding mine for the rest of the summer. This could be the last summer where I don’t have much of a “schedule”, meaning no job or commitments or anything like that. I want to embrace this and instead of running on certain days and doing yoga and strength training on certain days, just do whatever I feel like that day. Some Tuesdays I won’t feel like running, but yoga might suit me better. I figure that as long as get in 30-60 minutes of some sort of physical activity six days a week, I should be fine. I’m not really trying to lose or gain any weight; I’m trying to tone and maintain a certain level of fitness. I normally don’t feel like doing the same thing two days in a row, but restricting certain activities to certain days wasn’t feeling right. More about my exercise today later in the post.
Friday I got to see A, one of my friends from high school. She goes to the school where I’m transferring AND we have the same major so hopefully I’ll be seeing a lot more of her. We decided to grab some coffee, and when we went to go sit down we ran into three guys we went to high school with. After about 15 minutes of chatting and catching up, we decided we wanted to go shopping so we made the trek to Crocker Park because it’s an outdoor mall (it was a beautiful day) and it has the only Urban Outfitters in this part of the state. Once there, we spent 20 minutes looking for parking. There was some sort of festival going on with live music and carnival rides so we had to park on the fifth level of the parking deck. We spent the majority of our time in UO where I got some sandals and a jewelry stand, then hopped along to J. Crew and Gap, which had some cute things but nothing we wanted to shell out so much money for. We stopped in Trader Joe’s on a whim and came out with a little snack.
not bad but it definitely needed more lemon juice
After we realized there wasn’t really anywhere else we wanted to go, we headed back home where we met up with E, another high school friend, at Taco Tonto’s for a late dinner.
We sat by the river for a little while and then headed out to another person from high school’s house. A and I didn’t stay long because we were tired, but it was good to see some old faces and meet some new ones.
Saturday I woke up at noon after being up so late (almost 4 a.m.)with a heartburn not even my beloved Pepcid Complete could handle. It was the day of my town’s annual festival downtown, so I met up with E and we walked around for a bit. We quickly realized that we were older than the average age (~15) and that carnival food sounded like a good idea. (I remember this fest used to be the place to see your friends mid-summer and show off your boyfriend and your tan by holding hands with him and walking around in camis and too-short shorts).
Funnel cake happened.
Fried dough: the real reason anyone over 15 goes to Kent Fest
We walked around to digest, drank some overpriced unpictured lemonade, and stopped to chat with even more people from high school. It was ridiculously hot and we finally retired to a shaded curb to people watch.
our first picture together in almost three years!
As fun as people-watching is, all good things must come to an end. E had to work and I was getting pretty hot (and a little sunburnt) so we parted ways around 4:15. I came home only to venture back out to Target and the grocery store with my mom, because who am I to pass that up. We bought a ton of food, a lot of which was enjoyed for a late lunch today.
1/4 lb veggie burger on WW bun with lettuce, tomato, colby jack and spicy mustard, potato salad, vegetarian baked beans, deviled egg, caprese salad
Lena joined us for our feast.
her meal wasn't quite as exciting
After eating, I felt kind of like this.
I curled up with Runaway, a book of short stories by Alice Munro. I dozed off for awhile during the second story and when I woke up, yoga sounded good.
Ugh. This is where the story turns sour, and I hate that this involves my newly beloved yoga.
I chose the 30-minute Gentle Hatha Yoga #2 from YogaDownload and laid out my mat in my dad’s study, which is at the end of the house and far away from most of the noise. I guess now would be a good time to add that I miss yoga in the fitness room at Ping. Anyway, it started off normally, but shortly into my session I noticed my knees and hips were especially tight and they weren’t stretching out as I had hoped. I couldn’t focus on anything and reverted back to child’s pose more than once. Then Lena came in after her walk to rest because her bed is in there, and she was panting up a storm. It just wasn’t as good of a workout as I had hoped it would be. I’m frustrated, but I know that these days happen. Tomorrow has the potential to be totally different, so I’m trying not to let this get to me.
Well. Almost 1200 words later and you have my life lately. I’m sorry if it’s bored you but if that were the case I guess you wouldn’t have read this far.
P.S. In regards to my last post: there are two books that would have made it into my ‘favorites’ category but I couldn’t find either of them. In case anyone is wondering, they are Ishmael by Daniel Quinn and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I highly recommend both 🙂
Impatient & hungry 
I like your theory for exercise this summer, and try to stick to that same idea myself. While it’s easier to set up certain days with particular activities, if I’m not in the mood to run, or if it’s a pouring with rain kind of day, I’d probably prefer yoga or to use an exercise DVD. Following moods can be the way.