Commence, Race Season

I cannot begin to tell you how much I needed this weekend.  Holy moly.  After weeks of grading, parent-teacher conferences, cross-country travel and a weekend excursion, full work weeks, volunteering, etc., I needed a weekend to do nothing.  While I didn't quite do nothing, it was a good one.

Friday started with a walk around the cemetery (you know, one of my favorite places).  I was then able to coerce my little sister into driving from Knoxville to Des Moines for a sushi dinner - we hadn't seen each other in, um, forever, so it was a lot of fun.  We then went to Blockbuster because they were having a huge store-closing sale.  We both bought a ton of movies for $4, the following being my purchases:

• Volver (the only one I had seen prior to purchasing - beautiful movie)
• Fever Pitch (only because Erin made me - it was...okay)
• Rachel Getting Married (not my favorite)
• Invictus
• Ondine
• My Sister's Keeper (bawled my eyes out through the entire movie)
• Youth in Revolt
• Bobby (because I'm in love with Robert Kennedy)
• Vicious Circle (I may have judged it by its cover...)

I then went home, popped in Fever Pitch, and promptly fell asleep on my couch - after all, I had a race to run on Saturday morning!

While this was only a 5k, it was pretty killer.  First, it is the longest distance I've run since The Injury in October.  Second, the course was über-hilly - like, ridiculously hilly - like, all-uphill hilly.  I finished in the same amount of time as my first 5k, but I chalk it up to a major victory due to the aforementioned circumstances.

Oh, and my quads are killing me.

After the race my friend and I headed downtown to the Natural Living Expo.  It was the first time either of us had been, and it was really cool - totally worth it.  We got a ton of free samples, including a mini Larabar, "cream of wheat" from Bob's Red Mill, a bunch of natural remedies for exercise-related discomforts, wheatgrass shots, etc.  We wandered around for an hour or so and then grabbed some grub: homemade veggie burgers.  Wow.  I need to find a recipe.

The race and the expo totally wore me out, so I bummed around for a bit before heading to a bestie's for an evening of grilling and yard-gaming.  However, my "bumming around" did not work so well, and I headed home early and crashed on the couch by 10:30.

When did I get old?

Today I was up bright and early - that's what 10 hours of sleep can do for you!  I had a piece of peanut butter toast (my recent favorite), and chilled for a bit.  Then my mama was heading home from Minneapolis, so she stopped for lunch.  We went to Okoboji Grill (right off the interstate); it was our first time there, and it was really, really good!  She had the gyro salad, and I had the bruschetta chicken salad.  Mmm, mmm good.  I'd totally go there again, and I'm definitely going to try and replicate that one at home!

The afternoon was spent attempting to grade a million essays.  Over the course of about six hours, I graded an entire class set, but wow: it took every ounce of willpower I had to get 'em done.  Today was about 85 degrees and gorgeous, yet I was stuck inside.  Wah wah.

After I finished grading, I headed to Gateway to pick up dinner:

Yep: I'm pretty sure I could eat it for every meal.  Nummy.

Off to play some Words With Friends and try to fall asleep after way too much caffeine this afternoon - wish me luck!