46 hours and counting…

Runner Friend Adrienne and I have been training for months. Actual, multiple months! And in two days (46 hours to be exact), we will be hitting the pavement to complete our very first half marathon. I am nervous as heck. The last few weeks have been tough for running – my legs are starting to get tired out and my feet are covered in blisters from a poorly thought-out decision to wear my brand new shoes on a ten-mile run.

So to encourage myself, the next two days will be as stress free as possible. Tonight, Boyfriend Matt is throwing a carbo-loading pasta party for RFAdrienne, myself and the other people who are running one of the Martian Marathon races on Saturday. I am looking forward to spending the afternoon cooking with him, which is always an adventure and usually a lot of fun. I will bowl tonight, and I’ve taken Friday off work (both the mail delivery and the hospital clerking) to allow me to sleep in and relax. I have one class to attend, and then I’ll be free as a bird. Tomorrow night, BFMatt and I will go to pick up my race packet. Afterwards, we’ll drive to Detroit to have dinner and attend an art show with Jeremy and Mary – Jeremy’s awesome computer chip art will be on display. Afterwards, we’ll head back to our hotel in Livonia. When I finally mapquested the distance between the hotel and the race (18 minutes) and Ann Arbor and the race (37 minutes) I realized that getting a hotel for the night was probably a little silly and wasteful… but I refuse to cancel. It will be fun to have a night away from home and to be able to relax in a hot tub.

I’ll update again after the race on Saturday. Unlike my speedy runner friends, Alex and Meredith, 13 miles may take me three (or more!) hours, but I’m pretty excited to be able to do it at all. Leave a good luck comment – or a good racing suggestion! – I could use both. :-)

Cheftastic

Boyfriend Matt and I both like to be in the kitchen. Matt prefers cooking; I like baking. He can invent recipes based on whatever we have in the fridge; I am a rigid-recipe follower. He is patient with his food; I get impatient whenever the smallest thing goes wrong. He cooks often and is always trying new things; my baking happens less often and when I do it, experimenting is rare (brownies from a box are much more likely).

A cool thing happened yesterday, though. We both made successful - and interesting - dishes! I guess this is not unusual for Matt, but since it's unsual for me it's blogworthy.

Matt made filet of sole wrapped around stuffing, perched on a bed of asparagus and topped with a beurre blanc sauce. The picture doesn't capture the presentation or deliciousness of the meal, but it gives you an idea.

For dessert, I made creme caramel. This creme caramel has been in the making for a week or so. I tried it once and scorched the caramel beyond edibility. I tried again and the caramel hardened too much. The third time, I was a bit more patient. Though the caramel hardened again, I kept it over low heat and stirred it for an extra ten minutes until most of the hard caramel bits were dissolved. The custard part took an especially long time to cook, 15 or 20 minutes more than the recipe called for. I forgot to grease the ramekins and was convinced that the dessert would be stuck forever, glued to the walls of the little cups. Thank God for Matt. He encouraged me many times: not to throw my pan of custard across the room, not to check the oven every 10 seconds, not to break down crying after splashing myself with hot caramel in a bit of a scraping the pan incident. Result? It worked! The dessert had to chill for a day in the fridge, and when we overturned it onto chilled plates last night, it looked almost perfect. It tasted damn good as well.


Not bad, right? Thanks to Matt, my kitchen resolutions are a) try new things, and b) don't panic when they go awry. :-) What should be next on the dessert menu?

Summertime

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't wait for summertime. Boyfriend Matt and I will be living in Chicago. Our amazing sublet apartment is on Diversey between Clark and Sheridan, in a cute building (seen below).


We love the little courtyard in front of our apartment, and the apartment itself is spacious and comfortable. Even better? Directly across the street from the apartment is a grocery store! Matt will be able to cook anything he wants, spur of the moment, with only a 20 yard walk across the street for supplies.

One block away from our house --> a shopper's dream. There's a Panera, a Starbucks, a Coldstone, and dozens of other useful stores.

Also only a block away? A huge Borders, a Cost Plus World Market, a movie theatre and a small mall.

I don't have other pictures, but if you go in the opposite direction, you go past Duffy's (famed Michigan bar) and then run directly into Lincoln Park, the zoo, the beach and the lake.

Do things get better than this?

Not-so-Cinderella

Unfortunately, the shoes don't fit. Not the gorgeous Steve Maddens from Thursday's entry - but my brand spanking new running shoes. For my birthday, Meredith and Alex gave me an incredibly generous gift: a gift certificate to Running Fit, a great store in Ann Arbor. I've had the same running shoes for more than a year now and they're pretty darn flat. With the race less than two weeks away, I figured I should finally redeem the certificate!

I got lovely new Asics, all shiny and clean and white and incredibly cushy. Wore them around the house on Friday night while ministering to sick Boyfriend Matt (he caught The Death I had last week). Yesterday I took them on their inaugural run: a ten miler with Adrienne. Within half a mile, I felt the pain in my arches. I had to walk a few times during the run just to save my feet from spontaneously catching on fire.

Now I have had a day to recover from the run and the shoes, but the blisters aren't gone. Thank goodness for having a couple of days off running and for Roommate Jenny being prepared with a giant box of bandaids.

Cinderella

Yesterday a random approached me after Insurance Law. "Yours are the smallest feet I've ever seen!", she raved. "What size shoe do you wear?" I informed her that I was wearing a 6.5, small but by no means teeny. She was shocked. "That's my shoe size, too! But your feet look half the size of mine!" I credit it all to my lovely new Steve Madden shoes (they're on sale right now, so I thought I'd include the link). These shoes are surprisingly comfortable and have been highly complimented over the last two weeks. Also, as I realized when I bought them and have discovered over and over again - they make your feet look teeny! (Boyfriend Matt's confused response: is that a good thing?)

Did I catch a niner in there?

Yes, you did! Adrienne and I finished our penultimate long run (that is, before we run the race). We completed nine miles together yesterday, in 20+ mile an hour winds. It was slow going but we only walked once for a few short blocks. When we finished we were incredibly thirsty and also inordinately proud of ourselves.

I haven't posted in a week or so because I have had The Death. For a few days I was convinced my head was going to explode. My throat was scratchy, my nose was stuffed and I was constantly coughing. My remedies included skipping running, classes, bowling and other social activities, taking a day off of my job, sleeping, drinking tons of water and taking various Cold/Cough/Flu/Sinus drugs. I still have a residual cough and sniffle, but I'm a lot better than I was a week ago. And thank goodness, because my feeling better-ness allowed Boyfriend Matt and I to play good hosts to Pearsall and Jen, who came to town for the weekend. On Saturday night the four of us had dinner at the Blue Nile. This was my first time eating Ethiopian food. It was pretty good - all you can eat, including six or seven different kinds of vegetables (half of which were different types of lentils) and four meats. We ate all of the food sans silverware, substituting a thin spongy bread to keep our hands clean. We enjoyed our dinner with an Ethiopian honey wine. After dinner, we took a walk down Main Street and stopped at La Dolce Vita for dessert. We proceeded to Leopold's for a few drinks and a couple of games of Euchre (Boyfriend Matt and Chris won in a close game - 11-9) and Nineties Trivial Pursuit (Boyfriend Matt and I won in another close game). The night ended with a stop at Ryan Roman's beautiful apartment, for a party much classier than the ones we usually host.

The next morning we went for breakfast at Zanzibar before Chris and Jen headed out to meet up with other friends and to explore the town. My chilequiles breakfast was pretty good, though I expected the chorizo to be spicier!

Since Chris and Jen left, I have done a lot of work for the general counsel's office, have helped plan a health law talk at the law school and have tried to catch up on all of my readings. And, of course: I ran nine miles with Adrienne! Woohoo!

Tagged!

I kept reading people say they had been "tagged". Now I join the ranks. Thanks, Janine.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Vinyl welder at my dad’s company, Waterloo Tent and Tarp
2. Resident assistant in Lewis Hall at the University of Notre Dame
3. Summer intern in administration at the Children’s Hospital in Buffalo
4. Maintainer of coffee in Notre Dame Faculty Lounge in London, England

Four movies I could watch over and over:
1. Father of the Bride
2. Dirty Work
3. American Beauty
4. The Parent Trap (new edition)

Four places I have lived:
1. Chicago, IL
2. Highland Park, MI
3. Washington, DC
4. London

Five tv shows I love to watch:
1. The Amazing Race
2. The Apprentice
3. Gilmore Girls
4. The O.C.
5. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Five places I have been on vacation:
1. Warsaw and Poznan, Poland
2. Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary
3. Napa Valley, CA4. Traverse City, MI
5. Southern France and Italy

Four websites I visit daily:
1. CNN.com
2. Television Without Pity
3. Google
4. LexisNexis

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Pasta
2. Broccoli
3. Cheese
4. Bacon

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Napa Valley, CA
2. St. Louis, MO visiting Meg!
3. Iowa City, IA visiting Bethany and Jill
4. London

Four friends I am tagging:
1. Boyfriend Matt
2. Scott
3. Klein
4. McGee

Detroit Rock City

I have never been a big music person. I own a few dozen CDs, most obtained in junior high (think Greenday's "Dookie"), and haven't broadened my listening sphere much since then. I own an iPod shuffle only because I won one in a drawing. However, over break, I was inspired by a few friends to start listening to music again. Adam introduced me to the Garden State soundtrack, which I'm sure all of you owned two years ago. I told you I was a bit behind. I loved it on the first listen and have already purchased it from iTunes. In Fort Lauderdale, Adrienne brought me up to date on hip dance-y music. Now I understand the buzzes around Kanye West and Chris Brown. And I arrived home at the end of break to a package from my more musically-inclined friend Kate; said package contained (among other things) "Stephanie's Super Fun Happy Golden Birthday Mix 2006". Awesome!

I realize that I can't limit my music knowledge to Journey and the Counting Crows forever, so my goal is to try a bit of new stuff. Hopefully y'all can help me out here. Send suggestions of bands or songs to try. Even better, burn and send/give me a CD of your favorites. I will thank you with delicious baked goods. Seriously, bring on the new music!

8 Mile

Yes, that's right. I said 8 Mile. Adrienne and I ran eight miles today! It was a bit slow going, and it got incredibly hot by the end of the run, but we did it.

Our time here in Florida has been terrific. Yesterday we visited the Grove, a nice place with expensive shops and restaurants where we met Angie and Kevin for lunch. Always great to see old friends. :-) Afterwards, we headed to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens to see the Chihuly glass exhibit. Our evening was a relaxing one spent eating, reading and watching a bit of TV. The Amazing Race is back and I couldn't be more excited! What a delightful vacation.