First off, I am SO SORRY that I have been ignoring you guys for the past few days! I have my very first evaluation at work today, and I have been trying to mentally focus on that, plus other things, including THIS!
Harry proposed to me last Wednesday, which was a little bit of a surprise! I knew that he was going to pop the question soon, but was all wrong about which day.;)
In related news, I've been using my left hand A LOT more than usual, i.e. waving someone into traffic.
Friday was a total bore-fest for me at work. My school was putting on the Winter Assembly, where all of the kids in the school had performances like singing or reciting poems. This meant that my gym was taken over (they had to put the stage and thousands of chairs somewhere!), so I was stuck in the classroom with my students. While I had an entertaining and thorough lecture on fitness and skill related components, I wanted my Friday to rock a little bit more, so I cranked up the Netflix for them. So cut to me...
Bored P.E. teacher. This gave me time to find ridiculous engagement/wedding-related things on Pinterest.
Later on: DATE NIGHT! This was when I had predicted Harry's proposal. BAH! Among many things, on our very first date (which was several days long, as I came up from Texas to hang out with the Kid), Harry took me to the Goodman Theater for "A Christmas Carol", as well as the annual comedy show from The Second City. Harry saw a couple of months ago that the theater and The Second City had teamed up to perform "Twist Your Dickens", where they combined comedy and the beautiful tale.
(So you can see how I'd think that he was getting down on one knee this night, right? RIGHT?!)
What we got to sing with the cast at the end of the show. IT WAS HILARIOUS.
Saturday morning, Harry and I hit up this new spot in our neighborhood. For one thing, I'm STOKED that a place like this has been introduced to our neighborhood. While our 'hood is clean and nice, the neighborhood association is trying very hard to make this more of a shopping district. There are several closed or empty storefronts, so they have a lot of work to do. This cutting-edge coffee shop could've been placed in trendier neighborhoods, but they put it in ours!
From their website:
Our Story
Welcome to Berrista, where our beans are magic and flavor is always in season. Berrista is changing the face of coffee and sugar. Berrista is built upon a curious jellybean-shaped fruit called the Miracle Berry, which has the ability to make sour and bitter foods taste sweet.
EXPERIENCE THE FOOD REVOLUTION
What if you could eliminate the sugar from your favorite comfort foods without sacrificing the flavors you love? What if you could alter the taste of your meals so that even the most wholesome dish was as good as dessert? What if the simple solution to years of frustrating health and dieting woes was a small, mild-tasting fruit?
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The Miracle Berry temporarily blocks your ability to taste sour flavors and makes even the most bitter of foods mouthwateringly delicious. This extraordinary fruit allows you to replace the sugar and artificial sweeteners in your favorite recipes with low-glycemic foods such as lemons, limes, vinegar, and sour cream. The Miracle Berry can make anyone’s life just a little bit sweeter.
The future of food is here. We invite you to enjoy your vices.
Welcome to Berrista, where our beans are magic and flavor is always in season. Berrista is changing the face of coffee and sugar. Berrista is built upon a curious jellybean-shaped fruit called the Miracle Berry, which has the ability to make sour and bitter foods taste sweet.
EXPERIENCE THE FOOD REVOLUTION
What if you could eliminate the sugar from your favorite comfort foods without sacrificing the flavors you love? What if you could alter the taste of your meals so that even the most wholesome dish was as good as dessert? What if the simple solution to years of frustrating health and dieting woes was a small, mild-tasting fruit?
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The Miracle Berry temporarily blocks your ability to taste sour flavors and makes even the most bitter of foods mouthwateringly delicious. This extraordinary fruit allows you to replace the sugar and artificial sweeteners in your favorite recipes with low-glycemic foods such as lemons, limes, vinegar, and sour cream. The Miracle Berry can make anyone’s life just a little bit sweeter.
The future of food is here. We invite you to enjoy your vices.
UMMMM...I got a blueberry scone, chicken n' waffles, and Steampunk (with local-ish Intelligista beans) coffee. Everything in this place is SUGAR-FREE, and DELICIOUS.
Harry and I hit up packet pick-up (with full tummies...ugh), and did some shopping at the cutest grocery shop I've ever been to. Harry enjoyed their beer selection. A lot.
The rest of the day was spent on lounging, which the Kid and I both desperately needed. So much lounging entitles one to delivery for dinner, and sometimes you just need a thin-crust pizza (cut into slices, not squares, thank you very much).
Sunday morning, Harry and I set off for Fleet Feet's Rudolph Ramble 8K. Neither one of us was trained for a race, so we both ran it easy. Nonetheless, it was a very fun course, with entertaining, encouraging volunteers and tunes.
We met up with Harry's aunt and her sis-in-law (it was her very first 8K!).
I found out that my new FlipBelt is PER-FECT for races! I've been using it during training runs, but unless you're wearing a ton of clothes that you need to pack in a bag and gear check, THIS is AWESOME for races! I stuffed my Jeep keys, my ID and other cards in there (it makes me super nervous leaving that stuff somewhere in my Jeep) and my iPhone (5) in there, and was on my merry way out onto the course.
The clouds started to break up just a little as the race started.
Heading back toward the race start, after ~1.5 miles.
Near mile 4, I spotted this guy. Gingy. I had been running really easy up to this point.
I caught up to him!
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd selfie.
After we finished, we met up at a bar for brunch. It was fine.:)
Directly afterward, Harry and I met up with Fearless Leader Greg from our running group for a brew at Bad Apple. It was about 1:00pm at this point. Harry and I eventually got a little hungry and ordered a burger ("Elvis's Last Supper"...YUMMMMMM!).
We got home and I had to RUSH. We had company coming over! Thankfully, I didn't have to cook anything, since we decided to go to the Colombian steakhouse around the corner from our apartment. It was a great way to end the weekend!
After all of this food, I was ZONKED. Our company was going to see a concert at the nearby theater, so they left relatively early. I immediately washed my face, threw on my PJs, and hopped into bed!
Thanks to the wonderful Erin for the link-up!
And of course, all of the above is nothing but marvelous! Thanks to the lovely Katie!
I hope that you had as glorious a weekend as I did!
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Have you run any holiday-related races lately?
QUICK: What are you looking forward to on Christmas?!
QUICKER: Favorite ornament on your Christmas tree, or favorite decoration?
