Success!

So we ran our 5k today. Erin and I together placed #786 and 787 and ran THE WHOLE TIME. I felt like death and still feel kind of wacky but I am so proud of us! Josh took pictures, I will post when I get them. Woke up at 6:40, had a yogurt, had some juicy water, had an e muffin with butter. Did I already write this? It's been a long day. We were super nervous, headed down around 8, got registered, paid $20 to homeless people. There were a LOT of people - 900 I've since discovered. I was #860. This was definitely one of those times in Somerville that I 100% felt like the vapid yuppie that I keep pretending I'm not...one day I need to accept that I'm not quitting my job and dyeing my hair pink again any time soon. Days like this smack me in the face of the truism of this notion.

I kept making nervous and stupid jokes Erin has heard repeatedly over the past 17[!] years - given a "Which 'Friend' are you?" Quiz, I'm Chandler. But yeah, I felt SUPER SAT-jittery, but I would've rather been preparing for a school test. Physical challenges [I Heart Double Dare] are not my forte, by any stretch. Debate me, ask me some trivia, have me write an essay, make me crank out a math problem, even sit me in Dunkin Donuts and at gunpoint demand I identify the song that is playing and sing along - THESE are things I can do. Running, moving, not sitting - these are a brave new world and I was terrified of puking, of passing out, of scraping my knee, of sucking in general.

Walked around until 9 to warm up, it was cold! Went to the post office, dropped some stuff at Erin's car [we elected to drive in, smart decision] and puttered. People were stretching and jogging in place like it was a 10 mile run, so weird. I think I'm in Camp Bob Gaudet in that we can stretch and stuff pre-game, but don't HAVE to, everyone is different. Erin stated the simple but I hadn't thought of it goal of running the whole thing, no walking. I stated as long as I broke 45 or 50 minutes, I'd feel good. Keep in mind, in our "training" we've never run more than like a mile? Maybe that one time at Fresh Pond but I have no idea and based on running today, that as def less than or equal to a mile.

Then we were off. The first bit was kind of rough, a hilly sort of stretch but to be honest, we hit the 1st mile [at 11:12] rather quickly. Erin remarked that's the hardest, which was encouraging. Josh and Mia cheered and photog'd around 1.75 miles. In hindsight, the 2nd mile [reached at 22:10 I think?] seemed like a half marathon. Then we were ok, the bulk of the last part was the dog path that we run on so I had a good expectation of time, terrain, hills. We decided to sprint from the end of the path to the end of the race, which I think we both thought was like 25 yards. Not so much. Josh was there at the end again to snap photos, he is a good boyfriend [Princess slept till 11, god bless him]. I'll be 100% honest here, I couldn't feel my legs for the sprint part and I def thought the end was right in front of the theater, but it was more down by ABP. By that point, I felt like semi-fainty and exhausted.

However, we persevered, grabbed some waters, walked around on a side street, I think we were both thinking if our bodies decided to give out in strange and unusual ways, we wanted to be in semi-privacy. Not in the middle of these 20-minute finishers who appeared unfazed, glistening in a cute Americana kind of way. We were red, we were sweaty, hot, panting. Couldn't stop moving, I understand why people at the end of the marathon continue to move, it's hard to stop! And you like can't trust your body if you stop, so you just kind of keep auto-pilot moving. So weird. Final time was 33:31, 10:49 minute miles. That part felt good, if my actual body did not.

Hung out in Davis for a bit, had some Rosebud breakfast - water!, 2.5 fried eggs, some home fries, some white toast, some chocolate milk [I JUST RAN 3 MILES - and I haven't had real chocolate milk in like 10 years], a bonus iced tea they double-poured [thank god, I was thirsty], some sausage. Gave Erin my bacon, surprisingly I am not a big fan of the b. Met up with Bill in Davis, grabbed a skim chai at Diesel and sat around in a field at some bleachers, still stretching and sitting and unwinding until like 12:30? I hate getting up early but it constantly amazes me how much longer the day is if you do manage to get up and out before noon. Tomorrow, I'm sleeping until 4 if my body so desires.

I feel ok, semi-out of it, my legs will hurt tomorrow. Took a couple Advils after, probably will take some more. My neck/shoulders/traps are killing me these past couple days. I'm blaming office job and getting cold, I swear I tense up without knowing it and cause knots and pain. Ed rubbed some Biofreeze [magic junk he gets from his masseuse] and it feels a bit better. I am so thankful my body doesn't hurt on a regular basis, I would be a total douchebag.

Hmm...got home around 1, took a nice hot shower, changed into a Mom outfit [crew neck Hanes sweatshirt, jeans, and some Chucks, so comfy] and we went to New Balance. Ed has wide hooves and beats the shit out of his footwear so needed some new kicks and I decided I would get some wide shoes because, while not today, occasionally I feel like my third toe creeps over my 2nd toe while running. Daddy says us Gaudets have long meta-tarsals? Caroline and I have always referred to them as Hobbit Feet, but Daddy went to a dr after the marathon this year wreaked some havoc so now we have medical confirmation. Anyway, I was due, I think my existing running shoes were $25 at Marshalls, they're New Balance but for who knows what sport or specialty. So yeah, got some wide cushiony running specified shoes, I'm excited for them.

We hit up my reward on the way back - THE ARCHES. It was Ed's idea [he must've been in a mood, he is not as in love with the FF as I am], I had my Cheeseburger HM with a DC and extra Cheeseburger, didn't finish all my fries [decent batch, not amazing]. We sat on some bleachers [my second set of the day - weird] and watched dogs as we ate. I am a total dog-peeper, I'll admit it. I wanted to steal a guy's perfectly stout little black french bulldog [it was jacked - excellent blood line - and kept rolling over like a goof in the sun]. Ed didn't let me.

Got home, sat, reclined, talked to my parents. Daddy was shocked and awed that I actually did this, I specifically kept it quiet in case I failed but he was stoked. Even suggested I aim for the James Joyce 10k in April. I think Erin and I are going to try for another 5k in November around T-Giving, we def both want to keep it up. Running is ok. I'm syncing up my super old iPod Mini with podcasts so that I actually go out by myself when our schedules clash. In a year, I may actually be a healthy 30 year old human!

Took a nap from 5:30 to 8, and here I am blogging again on a Saturday night, such a loser. Ed just made some TJ's corn bread, it's good. He put real roasted corn kernels in it which makes it's more savory and I kind of prefer my CB sweet but it's tasty and most importantly covered in butter. Having that right now with some lite iced tea from one of those weird To-Go packets. I think I will go through my correspondence and watch some bad TV, make some tea and eat a few Double Chocolate Milanos that I have hidden from Darling in our bedroom [not a joke - he eats sweets like Prater Wully if given the opportunity, so I hide food in obscure drawers and storage bins] and the go back to bed. All in all, a good day, and I have very little to do tomorrow too so I feel great. Over and out.

M-T-W-TH

Ok I am uber far behind and trying to cram this in before the scond episode of the Office. Ed wants to watch the dbate but goddamn it'll be all over YouTube tomorrow and I can no longer watch TV at my job now that I have real responsibilities so I WIN. Will spell check later.

Monday - Westford...
Oatmeal with SM and banana; tea
A Yogurt
Afternoon Snickers w/ more tea
Post work piece of bread and butter
Post work piece of ham [I am a neanderthal]
Went for a run/walk with Erin
Did my arms
Had a big-ass burger Ed made [w/ cheese and tomatoes on it; yum!]
Ate some late-night popcorn
Had a glass or 2 of wine

Tuesday ACCCCKKK. I totally didn't finish in time but it doesn't matter because the frigging debate is on EVERY CHANNEL. This sucks.
Westford as well
Oatmeal for breakfast, tea
Grilled Cheese and Tomato w/ fries for lunch
Cherry Coke Zero [delicious!]
Trivia Pizza
3 glasses of Shiraz
4th place. 4th place is the worst at trivia, I'd rather totally suck than get 4th.
No exercise, end of the quarter and I was at work till like 6 something

Wednesday - had a Dr appt and worked from Cambridge
Multigrain cheerios with a banana and some soy milk
Had a piece of toast too, and some tea
Boca cheese quesadilla and a diet coke for lunch
Afternoon 3 Musketeers [getting bad with the PM candy habit...] and more tea
Got home late [Target after work, kept under $100, woo-hoo!], no exercise. I suck.
Had a rummalicious ginger and lime cocktail post-work
Ate some edmamae and an english muffin with earth balance and garlic salt late-night

Today, finally I'm caught up!
Late start, conference call confusion and I left here at like 8:30, got to WF at 9:30
Crappy cafe bagel with butter and cream cheese...
Cream cheese tasted funkified so I removed half of it
More tea.
Had Japanese for lunch with Work-Lindsay. Karma near the office.
Generally good, today gross.
Rotten avacado, weird chicken, she brought me hot n sour and not miso.
The Chicken Katsu $9 lunch box was a bum out. Diet coke was good.
Had a yogurt on the ride home.
Ran with Erin and Josh and Mia, most of the entire dog path Cedar to Alewife.
Pausing at our breaks. I ran fast for fear that Josh would mock me. Boys.
Kind of have a odd half headache and feel deathly faint right now.
Can't wait for Saturday! Not.
Had 2 pieces of WPF toast with butter and garlic salt
Drinking some watered down juice.
Considering making some tea and downing a couple of the Double-Choco Milanos I have hidden in the bedroom....hmm.
Darling is making Chicken Katsu right now and I'm bummed itw as already ruined for me today. Smells divine!

The Arches

Wednesday went to Westford again, got a cafe bagel and a tea to start tings off right…yeah. 2 butters and a light cream cheese, it’s the breakfast version of my movie special: extra butter on my popcorn and a diet coke. Had a late lunch AT MCDONALDS. It is so sad what elates me – trip to McDs in the middle of another shitty day at work- it’s so simple really. Had a cheeseburger happy meal, diet coke and extra cheeseburger on the side. It’s my mini-version of the former #2 on their Value Meal menu, which to this day I have no idea why they got rid of – like Jello pudding pops. That will be an entirely separate entry someday.

Ate an overly sour apple on the way home. Tis the season for picking but doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all good, it was disappointing. Signed our P&S after work; I’m going to type this now in hopes of reviewing this in 2-3 months when I’m totally stoked on our house: I’m not super happy.

I’m very pleased with the house, it fits us, and I love it already and I am really looking forward to living there 150%. I can see us being there for a good while and being tremendously happy. However, we definitely got the short end of the stick, it was a poor choice to go with a rookie realtor, and Ed and I can pit bull it up all we want but frankly both of us are still learning to advocate and negotiate as we should and are entitled to. We do a really good job when something is outrageous, but if it’s kind of a “well they should but it’s easier if we or we can just suck it up maybe” type of scenario, we fold like a French maid on laundry day. So
a) We overpaid, by $5k in my opinion, which fine, I’m not going to be an incredible DB over that.
B) We wound up agreeing to pay closing costs. Again, I understand that sellers don’t like to do that but an either or situation would be ideal, this is like we over paid by $10-12k!!
C) Our inspector found a few things that we asked them to fix. We were very reasonable in our requests, and they were supposed to agree to finish some HVAC work that they had done without a permit or inspection. They dragged their heels and so Darling went and organized a plumber to do the work and everything and then they don’t let the guy come into the house until they’ve moved out [and we’ve moved in…nice. If they somehow fuck up my home insurance because of this, I will seek adequate vengeance.] and Ed prepaid $1400 and they were supposed to pay us at closing but oh wait! Dumbass realtor that shall remain nameless got an initial “estimate” [I’m thinking it’s a guess] for $600 and so they are not letting us do the work and we are paying more than half for work they should have done. Again, by my minutia, I can totally tell I’m being insane, but it’s pissing me off. All of this adds up to like $15k and that would be half of our kitchen redone. I need to remember it’s Boston, we’re still walkable but have a driveway and it’s a perfectly solid and wonderful house. And Ed loves it and would kill me if I walked on principle. But, for the record, I think we could and they’d come back begging. However, I’m not willing to risk my relationship or the possibility of dream house in this price bracket coming up any time soon, so I will suck it up. I will own something, I am proud of myself [and Princess, of course].

I feel sick when I think of all of this. I am so excited but sooo pissed. Everyone says it’s like this. I am glad we didn’t have to do any of the back and forth or form preparing but I dislike that “They really stonewalled me” is the final answer here. Stonewall the motherfuckers back – they have 2 mortgages! They made a poor financial decision and we’re bailing them out within 60 frigging days…whatever, I’m going to give myself an aneurysm. It has shingles. And a butler’s pantry. And wood floors. And a basement. And a driveway. And a fenced in yard. And a giant living room with a window seat. I do love it.

So, back to my blog focus, I went for a walk immediately after to cool down. Just down to Davis and back. Bought some hair dye, my drug of choice, felt better. Had my ultimate TV night that is Wednesday. Had a beer, frozen Mac N Cheese and a piece of garlic naan with a tremendous amount of butter.

All in all, a frustrating but productive day. I did got to bed angry [not unusual] and referring to Ed as a Bamboozler [totally didn’t tell me what was going on cause he knew I would lose my shit] but once I sleep on something it’s usually out of my system, thanks Bob Gaudet! I am eternally grateful that I inherited the sleeping under any conditions gene.

2 days have passed...I'm part of Generation Slack, so sue me

I am tired and backed up with life in general, so this will be brief. And I'm fixing typos tomorrow, if needed:

Wednesday
Had a gross caf everything bagel w/ a butter and lite cream cheese. Had some tea.
P brought in lunch for our mtg, half a turkey sandwich. some chips, a pickle, caeser salad and a peanut butter cookie. And a diet coke. More tea. A mozzarella string cheese stick upon going home. Went running with Erin, we're getting better. We ran most of the way to and back down the bike path in Arlington. Got home, had 3 chicken nuggets, some rice and some calamari Ed made with garlic and butter and srichachi sauce. Yum! Did my arms, watched ANTM and PR and RWRRC and took a shower. Then I went to CVS to get hair dye and and bought a Skor bar and had half...2/3...of that for dessert.

Thursday
HEC on onion and tea from DD. Brought my own tea too, in hopes of being super energized for today..didn't happen. Had a mini-cannoli, so good, mid-morning. went to the Japanese place for my chicken katsu lunch special, with miso soup, rice, shumai, salad, and california rolls. More edamame too, and a diet coke. Got home and had naan with butter and a GINORMOUS bowl of TJS berry cheerio things with soy milk. Picked darling up from a work party and had move italian desserts, some mozzarella and tomatoes and 2 chocolate covered strawberries. And some prosecco. No exercise, just tired.

Going to bed now. Work + house + almost 30 and what the hell am I doing with myself = big stress. Up to 40% optimism on the house...

Is it bad that I'm eating Ben and Jerry's while typing this?

Is it worse that it's Saturday night at 10:17 and I'm blogging? You decide.

So I was successful with my hour on the bike, I tuned into MTV's new show, Busted instead of Intervention. MTV puts crack in their TV, I swear. I am a college-educated, professional, late-20 something, who grew up in a good home, without real cable, and I will sit in front of a Making Of The Band marathon like there is no tomorrow. Busted is awesome, it's COPS for the under 25 crowd, lots of pot and DUI citations, lots of dumbasses, love it.

I biked and then did my poor form arm exercises. With an old Cosmo Girl article and Ed's help, I made up a regimen of 6 arm exercises. At this point, I'm happy just to be doing them. Darling commented the other day that my form is crap and offered to help me fix that. I told him thanks but I'm going to hold off until I get more accustomed to doing the reps [15 each for each arm, sadly that's a lot for me], then fix my form. Right now between that and the bike, I am utterly exhausted when I complete them and that is enough for me.

As bonus points, I walked to and from Davis to pick up some dry cleaning. I resisted the urge to pick up a loaf of When Pigs Fly bread, a.k.a. my weakness. Instead I had an apple early afternoon and some Poland Spring seltzer. Then I made some diced tomatoes and mozarella with oil and vinegar and spices on it [so good] when I thought we weren't doing anything for supper. Of course, then we decided to go get mexican at La Tacqueria Mexicana [apologies on that spelling], which we did. I had a chicken quesadilla and some rice and beans and an ass-load of chips and salsa to pre-game. I also had 2 fruity margaritas, these are the real thing not the 100% corn syrup frozen margaritas, but I know booze isn't the best thing for rapid weight loss. I'm at a point now where I enjoy my cocktails, and I'd like to keep them in my life. We shall see; Darling always says the best way to lose weight is to stop drinking for a while.

To set this indulgence off, we walked there and back, which is probably a mile each way. To further set that off, I had intentions of hitting up JP Licks for a cone on the dog path. I vetoed this, some creeps have been harrassing yuppies on the path lately and STEALING IPHONES. I can't imagine what I would do if some motherfucker got a hold of mine, so I'm steering clear for a while. Instead, got a pint of Half Baked at Dillip's and rationed myself out a very small portion. Yeah, self restraint!

Tonight's plus: I stopped to get a water on my way home and a fellow patron commented that she "loved my hayh cullah". She was sweet, I blushed and thanked her. Then on my way out, I heard her say to the clerk "Yeah, you'll staht seeing all the students back around now". She thinks I'm 20, maybe even 18: YES! Black hooded sweatshirt, works every time.

Tonight's wahhh-wahhh: Arrived home to a darkened house [Darling is off at a party, I'm anti-social]. Wandered barefoot into the kitchen to get a spoon and mug for the B&J. Upon closing in on the light switch, I stopped short upon seeing what looked like an odd dark little shadow on the floor. Thought to myself - sarcastically- "Ha, it's probably a dead mouse, I hate this place". Well the lights go on and Yahtzee! The welcome wagon is here in a tiny lifeless grey body, gross claws and little teeth blazing. We seriously need to move. Until then, flip flops on at all times.

All in all, the Sox won. It still feels like summer. I'm in the middle of a 3 day weekend. I have a pile of magazines and bad cable waiting for me. Barbecue with my parents coming up on Monday. Life is good.