Plans and No Plans

Time is somersaulting by like a trapeze artist. It's true. 

Between hitting the gym as much as humanly possible without killing myself and still getting tons of work done for comps and preps for classes, there is little time to stop and enjoy the day. Today, however, was an exception.

For whatever strange reason, we were granted a brief reprise of our autumn weather and I basked in the 60-degree sunlight all over campus from my office building to class to the next class to the rec and back to my car. I'm not sure it could've been lovelier. 

The rec was sort of a bust since D and I planned to play racquetball, but couldn't because all the courts were reserved. A week ago, this wasn't an issue since the students weren't back yet and we could engage in racquetball playing as much as we wanted without having to reserve a court. Now-not so much. So we reserved one for tomorrow and trudged back out into the sunlight. No big-D's chariot (the scooter) awaited and glided me back to my car. 

We planned, then, to go for a nice long run on the Katy Trail (I was thinking somewhere in the 6-8 mile range), but after my lunch (oh, my friends, I made the tastiest saag paneer in the world last night, thanks to Steph's Christmas present: Didi Eammons' incredible Vegetarian cookbook!) which was saag paneer wrapped up in a Flatout wrap followed by my Fage-which is still holding strong in my staple-favorite food category-with a touch of wheat bran, dried cherries (I read in Runners World cherries are good for relieving soreness) and granola. I honestly think that is pretty much my favorite thing to eat in the whole wide world. However, when I finished, I was beat and had 0% motivation to go running as opposed to D's fleeting 60%, so today was my day of rest (Beth, Liz...etc...I took your advice, just not yesterday!). And I literally rested by falling asleep.

Before I knew it, some unexpected plans hatched. I had canceled drinking-at-the-Fugue-plans with my Liz (my head is still bothering me...can you believe it? And I can't shake this fatigue for anything in the world!) and Lance and Em showed up with dinner for four! Bacon, cheddar burgers and a hankering for grilling 'em up! So we did. While they grilled, I whipped up my planned dinner for D and I: black bean spicy burgers and no-fat potato chips! I have to admit, I've been stealing some tasty, mostly vegan recipes off of other websites I'm addictively searching for recipes, so I don't think I can technically reproduce them on here...? But if you're interested, the burgers were a hit and the potato chips were an even bigger hit! And how can you beat NO FAT??? Amazing what a microwave and thinly sliced and salted on four-minutes, stopping once to flip the 'chips', can do :) (See what I did there???) I wasn't sure how D would feel about the black bean burgers. I wasn't sure exactly how I felt about them, but when he finished his regular bacon cheese burger and his first black bean burger only to add another little black bean patty to his plate, I felt pretty damn good about it. So good, I ate another myself!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned that Dustin and I are also pretty obsessed with this website called SparkPeople which keeps track of our calorie intake and fitness each day (as long as we put the info in), but we both love it and religiously track our progress as the wedding day approaches. I came across this website while reading the blog FittingBackIn . Though, come to think of it, I'm not sure how I found this blog, but I can tell you it appeals to me because the author is very practical, nonpretentious, witty and, well, normal. She has a very relatable life so I like to peek in on her blog and see what she's reading or what she's eating, how her daily issues are going (apartment problems, missing her husband, looking for a new house, work...etc.). It's like reading one of those books that was enjoyable, engaging and fun to read. If you're in the mood for something like that-I suggest you visit her blog cus it's a good time and some of her quirkier comments totally remind me of my saavy sister. That, by the way, was a totally unsolicited plug and unexpected. 

Anyhow, the important thing is...if I hadn't stumbled across her blog, I don't know how long it would've taken me to find SparkPeople so I'm grateful for that. It has become somewhat of a game for D and I to see how many calories we've had in a day as opposed to how many SparkPeople thinks we should have based on our age, height...etc. It's fun to see what we've done in a day and a nice, easy way to keep track of your eating habits if you're trying to be conscious of them. (There's my plug for SparkPeople, too!) :)

Moving along, dinner was great, the company was even better and we all enjoyed a few cocktails (which succeeded in making me even more exhausted) while being entertained by the Wii playing. We discovered "boxing" tonight and what the numchuck is used for: boxing, as it were. Let me show you what it looks like to watch someone Wii-box in your living room.

And below is what it looks like to watch two people watching a person Wii-box in your living room.

It was wonderful to have Em and Lance over. Especially because I've been feeling a bit anti-social lately. I think it's the stress and fatigue and the sudden cooking obsession (seriously, if you catch me in the grocery store-keep walking. I have a really hard time concentrating on conversations when I'm grocery shopping. I'm so sorry. It's so sad and weird! Emily can attest to that!) Hopefully, we will start a Thursday Night Hang Out tradition with them since they're pretty fabulous.

And, hopefully, this weekend will bring about more interactions with more of our friends that we haven't seen since before Christmas break! We miss you guys (you know who you are) and talk about you all the time. If D doesn't answer his phone, try me!

Thank God it's Friday. Hope it's a good one!

xoxo

N

PS-If you're of the praying mindset. Please keep a friend of my oldest brother, Amit's, in your prayers. His friend's 26 year-old wife passed away the other day very unexpectedly during a fertility treatment that caused her to bleed to death. As you can imagine, his friend is devastated and everyone is quite shocked and upset. I'm sure they could use thoughts and prayers at this time in their lives. Thanks, everyone!