Recapping a Lot

Hi friends and readers. I'm sorry for neglecting you for almost two weeks. My only good excuses for not blogging are:

1. I have been sick
2. In trying to get well, I have not done too much sweating.
3. I was reading The Help last week and it was so good that I didn't really want to do anything but read in my free time.

This week I'm back and we have a lot to catch up on. Since it's Tuesday and I don't even know where to begin to fill you in on my life, I'm going to turn this "Long Weekend Recap" into a "Two Weekends and the  Week Between Recap". It will be short and sweet and then we'll resume with regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

Here's what I've done in the past 12 days...

Had dinner with one of my best friends from high school.
Her name is Rachel. We both live in DC and we hadn't seen each other in over a year. We haven't done the best job of keeping in touch but we had an awesome time and we're going to hang out far more often. I'm going to make her run with me and she's going to drag me to the rock climbing gym she belongs to and we're also going to eat more food together and be adventurous.

This is Rachel and I in 2009. It makes me want long long hair again.

Woke up sick on Saturday morning and cut my 11 mile run down to 4.
I was slow and I wasn't loving running. It was pretty discouraging but I wanted to prevent myself from getting worse.

I added some flair to my shoes though and that was cool.

Hosted a ridiculously fun and competitive charades party with Josh.
We had 13 friends over for "game night" and it turned into a four-hour long charades fest complete with four games, hysterical laughter, and very very much competition and yelling into the wee hours of the night. We plan to do it again.

Photo by Josh Bassett Photography

Spent a lovely, romantic, freezing cold day wandering Barracks Row in Southeast.
Josh and I finally made it to Ted's Bulletin for brunch and it was awesome. We spent the rest of the afternoon at eastern market, shops in the area, and admiring houses of the neighborhood, where I now think I'd like to live one day.

Photo by Josh Bassett Photography

Stayed home sick from work and missed Valentine's day festivities.
Spent the whole day sleeping and reading the last 100 pages of The Help. My sick day was made infinitely better upon receiving this in my inbox. These are some of my best friends and we are the babescouts.

Had a nice, relaxed valentine's day despite our colds.
Josh made me a mix CD set of love songs. We also ate chipotle, reminisced about past valentines days together (all FIVE of them) and ate chocolate.

Had a fondue party with friends.
Without a fondue pot, we got creative and managed to make rich, creamy cheese and chocolate fondues and they were delicious. It also made me want to find a little authentic fondue place in DC. One that is not the Melting Pot and, preferably, one that is very french. Any suggestions?

Ran 9.5 miles and did not enjoy it.
I woke up Saturday morning, knowing I wasn't 100% better but I did my run anyway. I was supposed to do 13 but I hadn't run more than 5 miles in 3 weeks so I knew that 10 would be better. I felt weak and slow the entire time and I didn't really have fun.

Tried Pho.
I'm pretty sure I had this as a kid but I hadn't tried it again since it became trendy. Josh and I went to Nam Viet in Cleveland Park and it was good. We also watched the help and please, I beg of you, read the book before you see the movie.

Played frisbee in the cold for the first time in weeks.
It was a lot of fun but it may have prolonged my getting well.

Photo by Josh Bassett Photography

Feasted on a six course meal from L'auberge Chez Francois to celebrate my mom's birthday.
This is a fancy restaurant in Great Falls, VA in the form of a french country inn/farmhouse. The food and wine were amazing and it was wonderful to sit at a table with my family talking and laughing for three hours. Also, people at the table next to us got engaged during dinner.

Tried running again and determined I'm still slower than I should be.
Nikki and I ran five miles together yesterday and it was fun to run with her, a rare treat these days, but I was still slow and I still felt kind of crappy running.


I woke up this morning with a sore throat and stuffy head. At the end of last week, I was on the upswing but I've declined again over the weekend. I thought that my three days of sweaty activity would help bring me back to life but I'm worried that they may have made me sick again. The half marathon is three weeks away and I'm getting really frustrated. I am also just bored of not working out enough. Between last Saturday and the one before, the only workout I did was a 25 minute ride on my bike trainer. I can't have another week like that. But I'm going to try and stay optimistic and kick this cold in the butt. I've been trying for a while so wish me luck.


How was your weekend?