Offended

I saw a quote awhile back that was something along the lines of:

"2017, the year everyone was offended by everything."

It's stuck with me, and while I internally laughed at it at the time, it has continued to resurface throughout the past few months as I realized how frequently offended I let myself become. 

Because that's the thing - I let myself be offended. It's a mindset. I think summer has highlighted it a bit more because honestly my patience wears thin when I'm constantly sweating out of my mind, and if someone on a corner so much as looks at me wrong I feel myself getting pissed.

However. That's not really the best way to go through life - letting my blood pressure skyrocket on a daily basis because of some random interaction with a stranger. Which happens WAY more here than it ever has in the States. It's more common for someone to randomly offer advice to you, make a comment, bluntly ask you out on a date, stare at you for long periods of time - than I've ever experience anywhere else I've lived. 

This past month in general, here are some examples of when I was given unsolicited feedback:

- I was accused of not picking up the dog's poop, when I religiously do so.

- I was told that we should not have Huskies in Israel, they belong in Alaska.

- I was told I don't plank correctly.

- I was told I don't backstroke correctly.

To be fair: it's not. It's just not something I really cared about.

However my 'lightbulb' moment with my chronic offended-ness was while - of course - grocery shopping.

I walked into the store down the street from me last week, and an employee was washing out the deep freezers in the frozen section. I looked into the freezer and what I saw grossed me out a little bit, and the thought crossed my mind that this should be a task done when the store is closed, not open.

Then, I got partially sprayed in the face with the dirty freezer water.

Walking home, I was fuming to myself at how absurd that situation was, and how zero shits were given by any of the store employees. How offensive, that is no way to treat a customer.

As I stalked home, I realized two things.

1. I sounded like a bratty diva and simply have to get over the brashness of Israeli grocery stores.

2. I could either let this annoying experience ruin my day, or I could get over it.

So many of us love to get offended; sometimes I almost feel like we seek out opportunities to do so. 

Yet the more I think about it, the relationships I value the most in my life are the ones I truly know I can bluntly speak to - and they will do the same back, without getting offended. So why should I not try to mimic that across the rest of my life?

In summary, I'm trying to care a little bit less, and put the word 'offend' on the back burner. And that means across all outlets of my life - social media, real life interactions, emails, you name it. This summer heat causes me enough to sweat about, so if some random old man wants to tell me again that my dogs belong in Alaska, well maybe I'll just smile and thank them for that beautiful piece of advice. And then carry on with my day.

Cheers - 

Kait

Investments

I like the kind of questions that make me stop me in my tracks. The kind that get down under my skin and really make me think, forcing me to repeatedly revisit it.

April has been nothing short of a whirlwind, with two fantastic weeks of back to back visitors. First we had the honor of hosting Andrew's brother and wife, who then went on from here to Greece. Two days after I headed back to the airport to scoop up three of Andrew's high school/middle school/elementary school (IDK these guys have been friends forever) buddies, who we had a blast running around Israel with.

Andrew's friend count of visitors: 5

Kait: 0

(not including family)

Where ma' girls at?

Since the dust settled this past Monday and the boys went on to their next connections - including Andrew who had a work trip - the apartment has been eerily quiet. Too quiet. So quiet that I made a point to hardly be in it at all, jumping from working in coffee shops to dog walking to visiting new babies to the gym, etc.

But it was the quietness and loneliness of this week that made me revisit the question that one of Andrew's friends asked me last week - What would I even be doing with my time in Israel if I didn't have an interest in fitness.

The question honestly left me without an answer, and my response at the time was to laugh and shrug, admitting that I had never even thought about that.

Think about it though. Think of the most prominent interest/passion that you have in your life, whatever you are most invested in and love, and then pretend you actually don't like it at all. Wipe it off the map. What do you think your fall back would be?

I'm still scrapping my brain. I would say my runner up is writing - but how do you make friends through writing? Attend slam poetry contests? Maybe a local writers workshop hosted in Hebrew?

Perhaps I would get heavily invested in dogs. I mean I already am - and genuinely, heavily miss being a dog mom every single day. I've always had in the back of my mind to volunteer at one of the local shelters - and have even looked up courses as to how you can become a dog trainer. Dogs are probably my second passion tied with writing.

I don't know why, but the question shook me and simultaneously made me step back and really appreciate what this passion has done for me - actually for both of us as a couple - in regards to the life that we have built here in TLV.

Outside of the fact that fitness-related activities take up a lot of my time and are slowly but surely intertwining with my career, it's also how we have made roughly half of our friendships in Tel Aviv. So to imagine removing that entire portion of my life actually makes me wince a little.

It's an odd thought to have, but I found it to be an equally productive brainstorming session. At any moment passions/loves/interests can quickly be extracted from our lives, and perhaps it's smart to know what you can fall back on when it comes to dedicating your time and energy.

Just felt the need to share, and let the general realm of health and fitness know that I'm appreciative of it. On that note - I'm off to swim. Have a great weekend!

Cheers - 

Kait

5.2

I'm happy to report that the violent cold/cough/sickening that haunted me for roughly 15 days has finally surpassed, and this week I've had the pleasure of being back to operating normally.  It's a little sad that it took a hell of a cold to remind me not to take my health for granted, but nevertheless this week I've been uber aware of way more pros, and way less cons.

Ready?  Five things Friday - 

1. Yesterday on a mid-day walk, I noticed a group of tourist snapping pictures of myself and the dog. I tried to act like I didn't notice and continued gazing off into the distance, as if in deep contemplation of life.  In reality I internally was laughing at the situation, hoping that when the tourists get back home they post the pictures and caption the one of me as:

'A local Israeli walking her native dog.'

LOL

2. Speaking of the dog - I've mentioned this before, but I'm unsure that Kai is ever going to get over the cat situation here.  Probably my favorite cat occurrence yet was also yesterday, when a cat women came out to feed the local strays near her apartment.  We just happened to be on that side of the street when literally 10+ cats began swarming the woman, meowing loudly.

Kai froze, as she usually does when she sees cats, as if it's the most alarming and fascinating situation she's ever seen.  Yet in this case, watching double digit cats shove their faces with food was simply too much.  She refused to move, or even cross the street with me; went full rigamortis to the point where the cat lady glared at me, as if we were plotting to hunt down one of the cats for our next meal. Maybe we were.

In the end, I had to pick up and carry my 50 lb dog around the cat buffet, and even after that it took her awhile to recover.

3. I will forever mix up cilantro and parsley at the grocery store.  They look the same, the labels are in Hebrew, and I'm still too lazy scared to ask the check-out lady which one is which.  Three times now I have purchase the wrong one, leaving our dinners herb-less.

Upon googling, I just discovered this great side by side comparison that still literally helps me in no way. 

4. Recently I've been doing some freelance editing/content writing for a local start-up.  The way I fell into it is absurd, but the point of me sharing is simply to note that I've discovered I really actually enjoy editing content. Like a lot. So, if anyone out there ever needs something edited - I'm your girl.  Unless it's like a 100 page document, then you're probably going to have to flash some green at me.

5. I was recently educated that this weekend is the Jewish New Year for trees - Tu Bishvat.  Because plants deserve New Years too. Supposedly you celebrate by feasting on fruit, planting trees, and drinking wine.  I can get on that train.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed five random things. Make your weekend great.

Cheers - 

Kait

3

I'll keep it lighthearted today and share a few random/funny things that have happened to me the past week.  I realize that lately my writing has been a little bit mopey and heavy and it may have you wondering if I'm spending my free time sitting in a dark closet writing poetry and sipping lukewarm espressos by candle light.

Don't worry I'm not.

Three things Friday, because I don't have five:

1. Yesterday while walking the dog, we found ourselves standing on the corner of a busy street (sans crosswalk) waiting to cross.  A city bus flew around the corner in the same manner that all the crazy buses here do - way to close to the curb, at an alarming speed - but instead of continuing through the intersection he slammed on his brakes, rolled down his window and start talking baby talk to Kai in Hebrew.

And meowing.

He continued to cat call to her until she finally made eye contact with him and gave him a 'what's your deal bro' look, yet by the time the bus driver decided to continue on his route plenty of horns were being laid on in the backed-up intersection behind him.

I stood there at a loss the entire time, slightly embarrassed as people around us paused to observe the commotion.


2. Recently I've fallen back in love with grapefruits.  I mean I've always loved them, but right now I want them in my life daily. No, grapefruits aren't a metaphor for something else.  

The good news is there are thousands of massive juicy cheap grapefruits in the market near our house. As I wandered through the market this past Tuesday, I couldn't help but notice the aggressiveness of some of the produce vendors around me.

One in particular continued to scream "PAPAYAS" repeatedly until I wondered at what point he was going to pass out from lack of oxygen.  Yet his craziness intrigued me, so I stalled in his booth for a few seconds to examine his grapefruits.

He stopped screaming and smiled at me, "An American?"

"Yes," I smiled back, relieved not to be mistaken for a German again.  Not that there is anything wrong with that... I'm just, not.

"New York?" he questioned.

"No.... Baltimore... it's kind of by D.C.," wondering how well the man knew his U.S. geography.

"Oh very nice, so a New Yorker!" he retorted.

"Sure... close enough..." I surrendered, as I paid and left.


3. All week, afternoons have been getting back up into the mid-60s by lunchtime, which when the sun is out, feels plenty warm for me to walk to the gym in just my tank and workout pants.

Our doorman strongly disagrees, and continues to be offended by my daily outfit choices.

"WHERE is your coat!?" has been the conversation twice this week, as he frantically rubs his arms and stares at my bare arms, acting as if I'm retreating out into a tundra naked.

"I'll be fine, the sun is warm!" I promise, and then hurry away from his judgement.

It never felt like a Midwestern winter here, obviously. But mid-December to mid-January did get colder, became rainy/windy, and I actually wore my North Face a few times.  Nights still cool down to the 40's, yet I won't lie the beach started calling my name again this week....

I'll wait until we creep into the 70's.



Anyways, if you were looking for odd happenings from this past week, there you have it.  Honestly now that I think of it, there were more - like the guy who ran after me on the bike path to tell me he liked the way my ponytail was bouncing as I ran. As I type that out, I hope that wasn't a metaphor.  But I'll end the stories here, because typing out conversations and having to use so many quotation marks is hard.

Happy Friday, Cheers - 

Kait

Can't

There are actually a few things I want to say around the word "can't" and how it's been annoying me lately, but I'm actually going to write backwards and share about how I finally accomplished a "can".

There's this dog park near our apartment that Kai and I go to almost daily.  Being a Husky she needs to sprint it out at least once a day, and since she gets along well with other pups, dog parks are ideal.

Every Friday there's a 'dog adoption fair' for lack of a better words. Usually roughly 20-30 dogs (sometimes kitties too) are tied up/penned up outside of the dog park, with workers from the organization taking donations, helping the pups get adopted, or fostered.  After a few conversations with different volunteers there, I learned that this particular organization works through a foster network where the dogs go to homes for the week, and then back to the park every Friday to potentially be adopted by random or intentional passerby's.

The cycle makes me a little sad but on the plus side, being in an actual home might be better than being in a shelter. But then again who knows how long some of these dogs are passed around until they finally get adopted.

Anyways.

Friday rituals

Kai and I usually walk through and say hello to all the dogs, go play in the park, say bye to the dogs, go home, Last Friday there was a group of puppies tied to the bench, and one in particular caught my eye. Kai sniffed her nose, they said hello, and then we went on our way.

I had been telling myself for awhile that I would foster one.  We have the resources, I have the time, and we have a dog who loves all other furry creatures.... Kai even has an extra crate that is easy to pop up when we need it. So I couldn't help but think about that puppy a few more times throughout the day, specifically when I was leaving a coffee date with a friend.

So, I walked by the park on my way home... and she was still there...

Long story short, that's basically what happened. She was there on the bench, it was starting to rain and she was shivering.  Her two sisters she had been with were gone, and she looked pathetic and scared.  So I signed a paper in Hebrew probably promising I was competent or perhaps signing up for some cult who actually knows, and we went on our way.

I did it because I can. Not because we want another dog right now (eventually) or because I thought it would be easy (it's not, we quickly learned she wasn't potty trained) but because I can.  And while the first couple months here have been about 'adjusting' and 'settling in', 'getting comfortable with surroundings'.... I think I'm over that.

We are settled, we are happy, I've made our house a home.  And it's time for me to start turning some of my can'ts into cans.  I didn't necessarily think that would start with bringing home a random dog that keeps getting mistaken for a cat, but hey no one plans for these things.

So I'm going to try my best to get her adopted.  Starting with the semi-absurd amount of money we shelled out to our vet to get her the shampoo she needed for her skin issues that has left her with some missing fur.  Last night I baked them banana strips for dessert (basically dehydrated them at a low temp in the oven) as she's under-weight, and is going to eat like a Queen while she's with me.  Over the course of the past four days, I've gotten her semi-potty trained, (sometimes) sitting for treats, and shifting from being scared of Kai to being best buds. It's been fun, and while fostering can be emotionally hard, I feel really good about the decision to grab her and run last Friday.

More specifics around this mindset shift next time (I think), but for now I wanted to tell the story about Roo. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, that's her name.  She came without one, so we call her Roo because of her big ass kangaroo ears.

Anyways, if anyone in Tel Aviv is reading this and wants a cuddly four-month old adorable puppy whose crate trained and semi-house trained, hit me up.  If anyone is the U.S. wants her, it'll require you visit us first :)  

Happy hump day!

-Kait

Paws/Pause

I realize there's a lot going on in the world right now so I decided I needed a time out from the madness, and pause to write about why today is important to our little Eggers clan -

Kai turned 1 today!

you better believe I baked her some pup-cakes

As I write this, she's aggressively digging in the couch trying to hide her newest toy (a stuffed squirrel) that she picked out at the pet store as her birthday gift.  She still has 100% puppy in her and more energy than Andrew and I put together, making it pretty hard to believe that she's already a year old.

To prevent this from turning into a weird obsessive ode to my 1 one year old dog, I'll keep it short and sweet.

First and foremost, this girl has been an absolute blessing hands down.  It was a semi-rash, sudden decision that we made back in March to get a dog, yet we have never once questioned the decision; we actually stand by the idea that it's one of the best we've made so far.   She's forced us to be more responsible than we probably have wanted to be at times, but she's taught us so, so much.

how Kai & Dad dance :)

She's ripped up our couch multiple times, eaten some of my favorite skirts, and thrown up more socks than I can count... and we love the crap out of her.

Day 1 - March 19

On top of all that, I seriously can't imagine making the move here without her.  I have probably said that to Andrew about once a week since August 18th when we officially moved here.  The adjustment has been crazy and certain days have been long and lonely - but never *that* lonely, because I always have a paw to hold or fur to shove my face into. We've learned a lot together - where the stray cats hide, where the best coffee stands are, which convenience stores welcome dogs, etc.

Not to mention she's been quite the conversation starter with random strangers on the street/at the dog park, etc. Husky = Husky in Hebrew, so that helps.

Anyways, Happy Birthday Kai. We love your crazy self, and love bringing you along on all of our life adventures :)  

Cheers - 

Kait 

Backwards

Fun fact: Our pup Kai turned 11 months this past week, meaning she is officially in her last month of 'puppy-hood'

Kai @ 4 mos - the first day we got her

Speaking of Kai, have I mentioned that she's a huge spaz?  I wouldn't call her uncoordinated, but she does gets distracted super easily.  Her biggest spaz-moments usually happen on walks and runs - something will catch her eye, usually above or behind her.  She stops looking forward, but keeps walking forward, and then runs straight into something.

Scenario from our run this morning:

- Run past another puppy on the beach.  We say hello to puppy, keep jogging.
- Kai decides to look back at the puppy, seeing if perhaps puppy is following us home.  We keep running forward.
- Kai runs into large wooden pole, very startled and momentarily confused.

It's always hard not to laugh at her in those moments; the things she has run into are absurd (sometimes it's me) and there are usually people around who witness it and then look at me like 'what is wrong with your dog?'

good question

The simple answer is, she's looking backwards too often.  

Why am I telling a story about how my dog is a ditz? Because I got to thinking after watching her plow head first into the pole, and realized that there's really not a lot to gain from looking backwards.

Yes, now I'm getting a little bit deep.  Looking backwards is distracting, and usually results in either 1. getting thrown off track and/or 2. Not trusting what is forward.

"Fall" here now has me day dreaming and reminiscing hard.  We've hit a beautiful point in TLV (correction - it's always beautiful) where mornings are dropping into the 50's and it feels fall-ish. The cooler air has me flashing me back to autumns that I've had in Illinois, Colorado, and Baltimore.

Yet looking back like this typically gets me emotional and occasionally sends me yearning to be back in that past situation; back in consistency, and comfort zones.  But the reminiscing game simply isn't very healthy, as I think it takes away from the beauty of current situations. These crazy journeys we are all on has us walking forward for a reason. No matter where you are in life, there is simply more to be gained by embracing the present, and trusting the process.

That's not to say looking back on memories isn't a wonderful thing.  I just think there's perhaps a difference between clinging and longing for the past versus valuing the past, and putting trust in the future. Because if you find yourself looking backwards for too long, you may miss a stair and end up face planting on the marble floor - just ask Kai, who was set on watching the pigeons take a bath this past weekend.

And in the meantime, I'll work on getting Kai to stop with the glancing backwards so often on walks. Although I'm pretty sure that this metaphor doesn't necessarily apply to her - she's always happy, no matter where she is or what she's doing.

The things dogs can teach us.

Cheers friends - 

Kait

Doggy Approval

I Facetimed with my dog, Jane, the other night. I would say that’s a pretty good indicator that this weekend was the perfect weekend to pick to go home, seeing that I haven’t been back yet this year, and I can’t have her forgetting who I am.

 

Jane the Pain.

Luckily, Jane loved my new Warby Parker glasses (thanks to all of your for the feedback in deciding) so I’ll keep them around.

\

This week feels short, and busy. Maybe because it is? Monday was a ‘Work from Home’ Snow Day… and while I will complain about the snow, I won’t complain about my lunch break–

I’ve been trying to drink more water in the mornings, because I normally get to work and pound coffee like a mad woman and probably dehydrate myself. New rule – drink a glass of water before my coffee, and after.

Last night I did a spinning workout on my bike, paired with some intermediate jumping around and abs. I’m loosely following this challenge for March, I like the variety that it offers.

sorry for the weird graphic in the background

What I don’t like are taxes; I filed mine on Tuesday and for some reason I owe the state of Maryland money. I happily wrote them a check because hey they deserve it.

If we are being honest, I got pissed after H&R Block told me this, and immediately went upstairs and housed half of the paleo chocolate that I had just made. Don’t worry, the other half disappeared last night.

That’s about all I’ve got for this week. I would be surprised if I write while I’m in Chicago, don’t hold it against me. Andrew and I catch a flight back this evening, for a long weekend at home with my family and friends. I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ll leave you with this cool website that Mizuno sent me in an email the other day – What if everybody ran? Check it out.

Cheers to Friday Eve –

K

Weird Wednesday & A Workout

I wasn't planning on writing tonight. My plan was to actually find some new music to throw onto my iPod while I laid in bed, because my workout playlists are starting to bore me half to death.

Then I started daydreaming in the shower and thought of a few things I want to talk about, realized they were all weird, and then realized that it's Wednesday.

Shall we have a weird Wednesday together?

Let's begin with the fact that I'm writing this from my new sleeping bag. 

I haven't owned a sleeping bag since I was pretty young. It had blue and red flowers on it and wasn't actually made for camping outdoors; I'm actually pretty sure I would have froze in it. But it was pretty and I liked it.

That's kind of how I feel about my new REI sleeping bag, except it's kind of cool that it's actually made to withstand cold temps. Andrew dragged me into REI this past weekend knowing that a lot of their sleeping bags were on sale, and told me to pick out an early birthday present.

We plan to do some camping this summer. Stay tuned.

Anyways, rewinding a little bit... while in the shower, two things happened. 

1. I stared at this sign that I hung up which my doctor recently gave me:

the how-to-check-your-boobs-once-a month-sign

I'm not saying the sign itself is weird. At all. Breast cancer is no joke - it's on both sides of my family, and my sweet grandmother passed away after battling it for quite some time. It's just a little weird intense now that I have a boob check sign hanging in my face every evening or morning when I shower. Intense, a little weird, but good. Really good. Love your boobies ladies. 

2. I scrubbed angrily at my right armpit with shower gel wondering why it's been itching now for at least a month. Consistently. Right armpit only?

Any thoughts? Dry skin? Is it normal to put lotion in your armpits? 

Looking for some guidance here people.

Another weird awesome thing? This video that my mom sent me tonight:

Jane is weird, and I love that she has found a way to entertain herself when the weather is too cold in Chicago for my mom to take her on her nightly walk.

Ok, moving away from the weirdness and onto the workout. I really love doing biking type intervals on my trainer, and hopping off after a certain period of time to switch up the heart rate. My friend Greg helped me to throw this together:

Bike to 15 min mark (keep watch running) - 5 push-ups, 10 squats, 15 sit-ups (x4)

Repeat at 30 mins, and 45 mins. I then finished off and biked after the third set until I hit 60 mins total.

I also signed up for the Daily Hiit 30 Day Challenge which has been emailing me some badass high intensity interval training to try out. While I'm not strictly following the challenge, they offer some really creative workouts if you're interested.

That's all I got. Actually I lied, I have a pretty awesome recipe but I'm going to save it for Friday. Stay tuned.

Cheers -

K

Mugs

I can always count on my mom to throw a new healthy recipe at me when I'm home. This morning before I woke up she left me this recipe on the counter:

Grainless Banana Bread in a Mug

I substituted almond butter into my mug, and made peanut butter for my dad. That paired with a warm cup of black coffee started off my morning swimmingly. I believe she found the original recipe here.

I've been back in the Chi now since Thursday night. Before boarding my flight, I found myself a real treat at the BWI airport:

Who knew Jamba offers Pumpkin smoothies? I opted for a small, and got it 'light' which I believe cuts out some of the sugar, shaving it down to closer to 200 cals. Still considered a treat in my book, but a tasty way to start off my trip.

Also, a big obligatory thanks to the sis and her pal Manda who braved the Chicago rush hour traffic on Thursday and picked myself and my 80 lbs of luggage up from Midway airport so that I wouldn't have to take the L. Can we just talk about how my big suitcase weighed exactly 50 lbs? 50.0. The Southwest lady at the check-in desk literally congratulated me.

Had to blur out some of Bri's offensive language.

Last night I decided to try to create my own version of a pumpkin smoothie. I threw in:

- 1/2 ripe banana 

-1 cup canned pumpkin

-1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

-3 TB honey

-1/3 cup cottage cheese (to thicken it up)

-A few ice cubes

-1/2 - 1 cup vanilla almond milk

-1 TB almond butter

-1 TB flaxseed

As you can see,  I paired that with some leftover green bean casserole and called it a dinner. I'm weird,  I know. I enjoyed the smoothie, and may throw some vanilla extract in there next time.

The weekend, in short, was a whole lot of Christmas, a whole lot of Jane, and a whole lot of snoozin'.

Grams & Santa

I stumbled upon this on Pinterest the other day and loved it. It may very well me my 2014 mantra.

I have some last minute Christmas shopping to knock out today, along with a basement workout on our elliptical/bike. Yes, I'm one of those people who waits to buy presents. It makes it easier to buy it here versus Baltimore and then have to pack them all.

Enjoy your second to last Monday of 2014 - I hope it treats you well.

Cheers -
K

Dog Kisses

My sister and I had a pretty awesome discussion the other night. We were wrestling with Jane on my bedroom floor, and she noted,

"I think what I love most about Jane is how much she just loves life. Almost every single moment, she's able to find joy in it."

I love that. It's true, probably for most dogs. But then the question started brewing in my head...

Why isn't this true for most humans?

Finding joy in almost every single moment of life. Through the good and the bad. That's some hard stuff right there. But is it possible? I think it might be.

It's super easy to get caught up in the hardness and roughness of life. When the curveball gets thrown, and you swing and miss and run off in the corner with your tail between your legs, only to throw a pity party for yourself. It's actually one of my favorite things to do.

I've had similar rants on here before about joy, it's a word I love and am passionate about. But this isn't really a rant. This is me simply publicly committing to attempting to find joy in the moments that I really don't want to. Recently I've been writing it on my hand to give myself a frequent reminder.

Hold me accountable on this one, OK?

I woke up this morning feeling nice and sore from a solid crossfit workout yesterday evening, coached by my friend Greg. The WOD was:

Slam balls, sets of 50-40-30-20-10 reps.

Between each set, run 200 meters.

The Rx weight for the slam balls was 30/20, but out of fear for not being able to walk today I used 10 lbs. I finished right around 10:18, and Greg patted my on the back and said 'you probably could have used a 20 lb ball.'

He was probably right. Although I'm not consistently doing crossfit, I have been trying to incorporate more of those type of workouts into my routine. I think I'm getting stronger? Don't quote me on that.

REAAALLLY hope the neighbors didn't see me snap this

This morning still required some heavy foam rolling. Jane thought it was a toy and tried chewing it.

I'm gonna miss that mutt. I'm flying out of Milwaukee tomorrow morning. Time at home was great, but it will definitely be nice to fall back into a routine again in  Baltimore. Type A at it's finest. 

I hope you have a fabulous weekend, and are able to find joy even in the shitty harder parts. If you need any help, go find a dog, they are great examples.

PS- today's my mom's Bday - if you know her, make sure you wish her a very happy one! :)

Cheers!

Catchup

Good Morning from Crystal Lake, IL! The past two days have been extremely rainy, so much so that our street turned into a small lake for awhile yesterday...

Note my mailbox where the street is suppose to be...

Needless to say, although it was a hassle to get out of the driveway, Jane definitely enjoyed some splashing around in the street. She even managed to find a floating beer bottle and retrieve it from the newly-made river. She was psyched. But even more psyched to spend the evening with me last night.

pre-bedtime kisses

I have a very special, literal Throwback Thursday picture for you:

This gem lives in my parent's basement, and I hopped on it for a little bit of interval work last night after my run. It's incredibly uncomfortable and sounds like a jet taking off, but hey it got me sweating. What would you guess, 40 years old?

I've missed you guys, it's been an insane non-stop five days. Friday-Sunday was Delaware, which was way too much fun and music. Firefly definitely did an impressive job of putting on the second year music festival, and I'm surprised to say that my favorite artist of the week was the Avett Brothers. Their live performance was honestly moving.

Our home for 3 days

The roomies & me

Rain coming in during Matt & Kim - stolen from here

Monday morning we were on the road out of Baltimore by 6:30 AM, and drove all day to arrive into Chicago on Monday evening. We actually got in right in time to skip down to Wrigleyville and watch our beloved Blackhawks clinch the Stanley Cup. The streets quickly transformed into one big party, and I was one tired lady at work on Tuesday.

Tuesday evening I hopped on a train to my hometown of Crystal Lake to see the fam and the pup. And here we are. 

I actually ended up taking a 4 day break from working out, Friday - Monday, which is pretty rare for me. My body was probably appreciative of the extended break, but it felt good to pull my running shoes on again yesterday.

The plan is to do some crossfit this evening after work with my friend Greg, and then assuming that I wake up sore tomorrow morning - which I always do after crossfit - perhaps a yoga video before work. My grandma has also offered up her pool for the week, so some swimming may be in the cards. Who knows, it's nice to have options even when I don't have a real gym while I'm at home.

I try.

Currently I'm behind on all areas of life - as you can see from my lack of blogging - so my hope is to write again tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Hope your Thursday is swell. It would be awesome if the storms steer clear today, I would love to catch some rays on my lunch.

Cheers!