EA Pub Crawl

Last night, Andrew and I participated in the second annual ‘East Aurora Pub Crawl.’ We even had t-shirts!

Isn’t this drink adorable?? It’s only 5 oz! That was my last drink of the night–a teeny, tiny glass of Southern Tier’s Pumking, which is a seasonal (obviously) specialty beer that’s very popular. This was also my first time in Aurora Brew Works, the newest ‘establishment,’ but I wouldn’t call it a bar. It’s more of an uber-specialty beer retailer with a few choices on tap for tasting and some tables. I think they might be trying to incorporate some food items, but for now they just have a ‘snack bar’ where you can buy candy bars and things.

Our night started at the other end of Main Street at the East End Taproom, where I tried Saranac’s Pumpkin Ale. Because I’m counting my calories again (and because alcohol is expensive, and we’re cheap–sometimes–and because no one really needs THAT much alcohol in so little time), my plan was to only have ‘special’ drinks at a couple of the places we went, and to alternate every-other with water.

My plan worked! After my workout this morning (it was a little rough getting up this morning after being out so late, but I’m glad I did), I was an ADDITIONAL two pounds down! (I mean, heck, I would have been happy to break even…) I get that it was mostly water lost during my workout, but how was I not up after a pub crawl?! So, basically, I somehow netted a loss despite a little partying, which is probably just a testament to the discipline I’ve had this past week.

ANYWAY…the highlight of my night was actually at REDfish, where I ran into Firefly owner Wendy, who I haven’t seen in forever, and ME! As in, the painting of me Alix did and subsequently sold within days. She and I have been working on getting a print made for Andrew and myself, and it looks like it’s going to happen. So excited!

It didn’t occur to me at the time to have Andrew snap a shot of me next to ME in the painting, but for now all I have is this:

It’s Alix’s business card and it’s just a portion of the painting.

So, getting back to last night, Andrew and I had a great time out with friends, chatting with friends we haven’t seen in awhile (Sharon, Alix and Wendy!), and getting to savor some of the last decent weather before it gets yucky. The icing on the cake was my responsible partying–oh, and the fact that Wendy told me her chocolate explosion cupcake has only 300-some calories. I mean, it’s still a dessert, but I’d been thinking it was AT LEAST 500 calories, if not more. You better believe I feel better going in more often! I can’t wait!

thursday is for baking

I made it through today (Wednesday I leave at 8 a.m. and don’t return until almost 9 p.m.) and am exhausted. I have an open Chem lab in front of me to complete, two GIANT tests coming up in the next couple days (one is Friday; the bigger one is Monday, thank goodness!), as well as a ‘to-do’ pile the size of Texas.

And all I can think about is baking.

Tomorrow, I am not painting. I am not doing yardwork. (Unless, of course, it’s beautiful and I need a break and the guilt overcomes me.)

I’m baking and studying. Baking, studying. Repeat.

There will be cinnamon apple scones. There will be pumpkin amazeballs. There might even be another treat, although it’s hard enough around here to eat what little I DO find the time to make!

And, not only do I get to bake–I get to cook! Our neighbors had their baby and I’m bringing them dinner 🙂 She’s a vegetarian (the mom, not the baby, obviously), so I’ll be giving them a quinoa dish with zucchini, dill and feta, as well as our favorite Nutty Sweet Potato Soup and a green salad. Oh! And I can make bread! In the breadmaker…I’m already probably too overcommitted (ahem, the still un-done lab in front of me).

Alright…enough procrastinating. Eyes are drooping. Still have to pack the swim bag for the morning. Sheesh…

i miss running

And, apparently, running misses me, too.

I got this in my inbox the other day:

It’s from MapMyRun, and they miss me. The last run I tracked was back in April. APRIL. (Now, I don’t track every run–really, I haven’t been running regularly since school started, but holy cow–has it really been that long since I mapped a new route??)

As I said in this recent post, exercise hasn’t been a big part of my life lately. Sad. Very sad. The saddest part? The increasing tightness of my jeans…

The other day, I really thought that to myself–that I did, in fact, miss running. And working out in general, but mostly running. We had a wonderful fall day earlier this week when I had a chance to run outside and enjoy the weather, but I didn’t.

It’s like I have a block or something. I think my brain just cannot take a single additional thing to think about; between school, swimming, scheduling, cleaning, cooking, homework, house-planning and projecting, I just can’t squeeze anything else in there. Now that the laundry room is done, I already a feel a little relief, but I’m not ready to jump into a rigorous gym schedule like I did so easily last semester.

And the good news is that, after two months of beating myself up over it, I’m giving myself permission to NOT work out right now. I think my body, my sanity, my marriage needs it, heck–I KNOW my brain needs it right now. I’m swimming twice a week now, and have high hopes I’ll get back to my punk rope class at the gym Saturday morning, but other than that, I’m not stressing. Or at least trying not to.

I’ll hit the road again soon.

**Edited to add: I wrote this post a few days ago and have been saving it in my queue until I had a chance to post it. I’m actually going running in about an hour! It’s 6:50 on Sunday morning and a friend/acquaintance (OK, it’s one of my professors who lives in Orchard Park…how does one refer to them?) invited me yesterday to meet her at a local park. AND I made it to punk rope yesterday. AND I’m back to calorie-counting; those pesky SEVEN (thank goodness it’s not more!) pounds have nothing on me! The light at the end of the tunnel is shining down on me RIGHT NOW.