I get by with a little help from my friends

UPDATE: Presents in the mail. Be on the lookout!

I thought that since I whined and got some much needed love & support from you ladies this week, from comments on the blog to a pre-run text from Lizzy, I thought I should let you know how my long run this weekend went.

I got up yesterday morning and thought I should go to my local running shop and see if I needed new shoes. I spent a while with the (cute) salesman looking at my shoes/stride/etc and eventually decided that what I needed to get my running groove back was 1) my third pair of Brooks Adrenaline running shoes (I've worn out the previous two, I'm not just collecting them, I promise) and 2) a fancy little heart rate monitor (I've been having some weird heart concerns lately, pretty sure so far it's nothing serious but figured a heart rate monitor never hurt anything).

So I went to the gym yesterday after I got my new shoes, I put on my iPod and headphones, started out around the track (I had 54 laps ahead of me to complete my 6 mile long run of the week) and got into my rhythm. It definitely wasn't easy at first, but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, and you know what? I did it! I ran 6 miles straight without stopping! I was so proud of myself and when I was feeling really tired I just kept thinking about you guys and your support and it pushed me along!

I am making a little thank you for each one of you tonight and will hopefully be able to get it in the mail tomorrow, so look for it! Smolls I'll send yours to SD and it can meet you when you get home! :-)

I desperately need a pep talk.

Running a marathon is on my bucket list. So I figured the first step to running a marathon is running a half marathon, right? So I started training for this half marathon. And by training I mean vaguely running more than I had run in the past. I stopped running for a few weeks in there when my shin splints were unbearably painful, but then my friend Annie and I agreed to run the half together in Charlottesville (because really, if you have to run 13 miles, why not do it in the best place on Earth?) and I got myself back on track...no pun intended.

Anyway, I've been in intense training mode since I returned from Jamaica. My steps in training for this half have included:
1) joining the gym next door to my apartment complex (this may or may not have also included an ulterior motive in that I wanted to find a place to meet men...preferably straight men, I know plenty of un-straight men but I'm not their type)
2) running 3 days a week (2 shorter runs + 1 longer run on the weekend), cross training 2 days a week, lifting weights 2 days a week, and resting 1 day/week.
3) signed up for 1 session a week with a (supercute) trainer (again, may or may not have same ulterior motive as above)

I have been successful so far, and I've managed to increase my "longest mileage run without walking" from 3 miles to 5 miles, of which I was pretty gosh darn proud, but I did that 5 mile run this past Saturday, and I am totally hitting a wall this week. I did 4 miles on Monday, went to meet my trainer on Tuesday, and was supposed to do 4 miles again last night but ended up having to complete said 4 miles in sprint/walk intervals because my shin splits wanted a piece of the action again.

I have to do 6 miles on Saturday and I can think of roughly 1 million things I'd rather do instead (top of the list: staying in bed). I know I'm just having an unfortunately extended case of the Mondays this week, but I need some help to snap out of it. Anyone got any advice on how to break down this wall I am running into??

At least I'm consistent.

Last night I was talking to my friend Brad on the phone and this happened:

me: "I have to tell you this story, it's classic Bridget, you'll laugh"

him: "Did you fall in love with some guy and then do something embarrassing?"

me: "I hate you...yes."

In case you're wondering, the "some guy" is my trainer, and the "something embarrassing" is me thinking (to myself, thank you) "How long do we have to be dating each other before I can stop paying him to train me?"

This article is SO INTERESTING.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but she does make a convincing argument. The jury is still out as to whether or not I even want to get married (ever...which makes my mom have panic attacks), so I found this article to be fascinating. Take a few minutes and read it (it's quite long) and let me know what you think. The basic premise of the article is that women who have not yet found Mr. Right should settle in order to get married and have a family.

So I need some help with my groin.

Bahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

OK so to all my running homies out there, I've made the transition from treadmill to track (I just typed treadmilly and giggled a little bit) and my right hip is really bothering me. I know I put groin in the title, but it was way more scandalous than hip, and it's in the same general area. Anyway, Molly V, you suggested standing with one hip out to stretch my hip flexors, and if you could have seen me trying to do this last night at the gym after my run, you would have peed your pants. I seriously thought to myself, how could I set my iPhone up to tape myself doing this and then send it to Molly? It was. Unbelievable. Imagine me looking like I'm trying to do an imitation of a 5 year old with attitude. Needless to say, the laughter impeded the success of the stretching.

Just as my laughter is currently impeding the success of my work as I Google the following:

1) 5 year old with attitude

2) 5 year old hips jutting

3) 5 year old hands on hips

4) child hands on hips

This was my favorite result because it follows my clearly stated rule that children must be dressed in animal costumes until age 5, but it really doesn't display what I was trying to get at:

Please note I saved this image as "wtf.jpg"

But I digress. The whole point of this was to ask - do you have any suggestions for how to stretch my hip/make it stop aching in general? Videos/pictures welcome.

My iPod is so topical

So on Saturday I was at the gym and I had just done my "long run" for the week (still only up to 5 miles, but that's 5 miles longer than I would have run had I not been training for this half marathon, so that's good! Let's stay positive here people) and so I was trying to stretch out my hips and I was lying on the ground and thrusting (hahahahaha, anytime anyone says thrust it makes me start laughing, even if it's me and I knew it was about to happen) my hips into the air to try to stretch, and the song "Dirrty" came on my iPod.

Please recall the other time this happened, when I was using the "good girl/bad girl" machines as I like to call them (where you push your knees together or apart depending on the machine). My iPod is apparently really judgemental/prudish or it has a great sense of humor.

Or I just build a ton of playlists with Dirrty on them (likely).

Oh, and if you can think of other ways to stretch my hips pls let me know.

To the love(s) of my life.

My friends Molly (and I meant that to be plural, two of my best friends are named Molly) suggested that I write a post about how much I love people named Molly, and while I would happily oblige (I could write a very very long list about reasons I love these two ladies in particular), I didn't want anyone to feel left out, especially not when I am so lucky to have so many people in my life that I love.

Some of my best friends have husbands, some have boyfriends, some have cats, dogs, imaginary friends, whatever. Everyone has a different set of circumstances, a different hand of cards to play. But the one thing we all have is each other. I'm not quite sure how I would have made it through the past few years without my best friends, but I do know it would have been with a lot less laughter. I am so so SO lucky to have each of you in my life and I thank 8 pound 9 ounce baby Jesus every day that you all tolerate me as well as you do. So whatever your circumstances are - whatever your hand of cards - just remember how lucky you are to have your friends. You guys are the loves of my life.

My one and only Valentine

The greatest love of my life, Diet Coke, now officially loves me back. How do I know? It sent me a Valentine, of course:I am really looking forward to spending a happy Valentine's day with my beloved. Hope you all have a great Valentines day as well!

Supporting an awesome fellow Wahoo

Just wanted to get this blog out there for even more people to see - I really enjoy reading the blog of my friend (and fellow COMM06 Classmate) Carter at http://the-kitchenette.com/. I also follow her on Twitter. One time she got retweeted by Whole Foods (who I also follow) and I felt so cool to know someone being retweeted by an organization like Whole Foods!! Her blog posts always make my mouth water - so check it out and enjoy!

Friday Friday Friday Friday

A few things:

1. Tonight is the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Therefore, I am prepared to lose my friend Lizzy (www.thebeeandlee.blogspot.com) to the dark side of the moon for the next two weeks. I just really enjoy saying the dark side of the moon. It seems...dramatic.
2. Earlier I meant to type "meet" and instead I typed "meat" and then started laughing. I think meating a person is very different from meeting a person. I'm telling you, typos are where it's at. And by it, I mean the Funny.
3. Just in case you haven't already seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_udqEp_YR4 Prepare to giggle uncontrollably.
4. I had something else to say but now I can't remember. If I remember later I'll update.

Mixed nuts

The girl who sits next to me gave me her can of mixed nuts so I could have a snack, and I pulled out one of those giant nuts (Brazil nuts?...yes, Brazil nuts. Confirmed below.)

and I was like "Seriously, who eats these giant nuts?" and I look up to see the two boys across from me smiling in a very creepy way.

So then I say "Idiots" and drop the nut back into the can, and one of the guys goes "Well clearly you like big nuts" and I was like "What does that even mean?" and he...was gross.

Anyway so then I was starting this blog post, and this happened:

"Yeah, they're Brazil nuts" - me

"How did you figure that out?" - my friend with the mixed nuts

"I googled it" -me

"Googled what?" -friend

"Brazil nuts."-me

"Oh. Good. I just wanted to make sure you didn't Google giant nuts."

For new readers, I promise the blog isn't normally this dirty.

Chili cheese Superbowl dip...for Cookie

I make this every year for the Superbowl and my friend Cookie requested that I post the recipe on the blog...so here it is...it's super simple.

1 8 oz block of cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese (suppose you could try another cheese if you want)
1 can of chili (I usually use Hormel w/no beans. It's up to you. I tried using homemade chili once and it turned out way too watery, but maybe your homemade chili is less liquidy than mine).

Preheat oven to 350*. Spread the cream cheese into an even layer on the bottom of a pie dish. Spread the chili on top of the cream cheese, and then sprinkle the cheddar on top. Bake in the 350* oven 15-20 minutes (until cheddar is completely melted and getting bubbly on top). Let it cool just a bit before digging in - the middle chili layer will be VERY hot.

I usually serve it with Fritos scoops, but some people prefer it with Tostitos or the like. Leftovers are also delicious microwaved and mixed all together - it doesn't have to be in the layers :-)

Also

A guy who works in my department just yelled "How 'bout you put that in my box?" across the floor and I started laughing.

Can and will this be used against me in a court of law?

Another thing you could convince your children of as a social experiment -

Snow = icing. I am thinking of this right now as I look at the trees out the window at work and they look like they were iced lovingly by a baker. How delicious would that be? If snow were just icing falling from the sky? It would be easy to convince them of because:

1. children are stupid
2. you could argue that's why ice is called ice, the words are related
3. children like sugar and will believe you out of pure hope that you're not lying...
4. ...which you are.

Anyway, this experiment wouldn't last very long because they would immediately try it and realize that no, it is not, in fact, icing, but you could try to keep it going by saying that it only tastes good to children who are not terrible, evil little children in the hopes that they would use it as motivation for the future to be awesome.

You could also convince them that the mounds of snow that they see around after the plows go by are really snow dragons lying in wait to eat them. I tried this on someone last night and she said it was all she could think about as she drove home last night, making it the scariest car ride of her life.

Yummy recipe

Hey team,
So I figure most (if not all) of the people who read this blog are young professionals. What do young professionals always need? Good ideas for dinners that are easy to make, nutritious, easy to clean up, and yummy! I found one such recipe recently and wanted to pass it along to you all.

It's for White Chicken Chili. The recipe comes from Bush's beans, but I've modified it a little bit. If you want to see the original recipe, just go to http://www.bushbeans.com/recipes/printRecipe.php?RecipeID=282.

My (very slightly) modified recipe is below:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 can (4-ounces) chopped green chilies, drained (don't worry, this will not be too spicy)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 cans (16 ounces each) Great Northern Beans (you don't need to drain these)
1 can (14.5 ounces) chicken broth (I recommend the reduced sodium kind because otherwise the dish leaves you pretty thirsty)
1 lb cooked chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces (I poached my chicken and it left it a little bit less tender than I'd like, you could bake or saute or grill, whatever you want)
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional...I used cheddar and it was good)
Sour cream (optional)
Salsa (optional)

In large skillet, cook onion in oil for 4 minutes or until transparent. Add chilies, flour and cumin; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add beans and chicken broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened. Add chicken; cook until hot. Garnish with cheese, sour cream and salsa, if desired.

It looks too watery at first but it thickens up quite a bit. I also had some red and yellow bell peppers on hand so I chopped them up and threw them in with the onion. I liked the additional veggie element, but I would have preferred them to give more crunch, so next time I will probably throw them in later in the process. Also, I had cherry tomatoes, so I sliced those up and put them on top of the chili fresh and it lent a really nice sweetness to the dish.

Enjoy!

Typo fun

A couple of things:

1. Last week I saw an e-mail where someone said "type-o." Do people say that? How did I not know that?
   
2. I just meant to type "eyeball" in a sentence (long story) and instead I mistakenly typed "yayball" and then started giggling to myself.
   

Some were born to sing the harmonies

So lately I have been listening to a lot of acapella/Glee soundtrack music. I've been wishing that there were a way to turn down the melody in a song and just listen to the harmony because I have always been jealous of people who could just naturally pick the harmony out of a song and sing that part instead of the melody.

Just as I was typing this I realized that I am essentially admitting to singing very seriously in the shower and/or car. Welp. See you later, any remaining personal cool factor.

Anyway, I was wondering if it says anything about me that I'd rather sing the harmony than the melody, and what exactly that is if it does. That I'm a super supportive person? That I'd rather let someone else have the spotlight? Maybe. More likely I'm just a showoff who wants to prove that I can do complicated things.

In the shower, or the car.

This just got worse.

Anyway, on a somewhat related note, it is SUPER fun to sing the harmony on "Don't Stop Believin'" and I must admit that I feel the lyrics that follow really speak to me personally and therefore usually warrant a fist-pump when I hear them (but not Jersey Shore style):

"some will win, some will lose
some were born to sing the blues (fist pump)
oh, the movie never ends
it goes on and on and on and on"