I Got My Booty Camped… I Mean, Kicked!

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Today was my first day of bootcamp! You may recall that I mentioned signing up for a bootcamp back in July through a Bloomspot deal. It was scheduled to start the day after the SF Marathon (HA!) and run through last Friday, but the week of the marathon I realized I’d be traveling two solid weeks out of the month, so I asked to be switched to this month. Success! And then I forgot about it.

I am doing a bootcamp with AlaVie Fitness and I should be going 4-5x a week for these for weeks when I’m in town (two upcoming trips for work). I’ll comment more about my experience with the camp when it’s been a little bit longer!

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This weekend was a bit tiring with The Giant Race and a lot of other errands and general confusion. Yesterday was a 17-hour day at the office, but “the office” also involved taking one of our clients out to the Giants game, so I suppose it could have been worse. Though we did get creamed.

When I barely slept (ugh… lights on, in regular clothes on top of bed, hitting snooze button for hours telling myself I’d “get up and work”) for a couple hours, my alarm at 5:15 was NOT welcome! The bootcamp starts at 6AM and meets in Golden Gate Park anywhere from 0.7 to 1.7 miles from my house.

This means leaving my house at 5:45 and jogging right after waking up with two six-pound dumbbells and a yoga mat on my back. And outside looked kinda like this.

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(Above picture was taken several minutes after arriving at, and starting, the class AND jogging there in the first place. Creepster!)

The bootcamp was pretty fun! It was a mix of jogging around, jumping over little hurdles, doing lunges and squats, walking with weights, and the like. I definitely broke a sweat but never felt my heart rate raise that high. It never got boring, though I kinda wished there was a boombox or what I was wearing my iPod or that someone would talk to me or something.

But guess what? It’s not even tomorrow yet and my booty is SORE!

When I got really into running I TOTALLY cut my lower body workouts—because I didn’t want to be too sore to run! And I can see how stupid that is. I hadn’t done squats and lunges like that in a while and I am DEFINITELY feeling it. Perhaps this camp will be a good experience for me! It’s going to make running harder (though I suppose I can often get in a few miles at 7a after the bootcamp if I don’t have to be at work super early) but maybe that’s good. I’m not signed up for any races until Nike in October and I’m just going to do the half—so maybe I spend the next four weeks working on muscle building, weight loss, and more shorter, quicker workouts and then build the distance back up in prep for CIM or whatever my next long race is.

At least I have discovered the joy of frozen banana, almond milk, PB, cinnamon, and vanilla for dinner pre-bootcamp:

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And Specialty’s “PB and Stuff” for dinner pre-bootcamp #2. I see a theme here.

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Does this ever happen to you? Does one kind of fitness make you neglect another one? I’m realizing how much so much of my body has weakened since I started focusing more on running! Maybe it’ll be good to not worry about getting 30-35 miles a week in and just try to get stronger overall. And maybe it’s the kick-start my metabolism needs.

Goodnight everyone!

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  • The Giant Race Recap!

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    So I wasn’t really sure if I was going to get a bib for The Giant Race this morning. And even if I did, when my alarm went off at 5AM, I wasn’t sure if I was actually going to go. My preparations this week consisted of a couple of normal runs and no advance planning. After 11PM last night I threw the gear together.

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    Twitter encouragement and thoughts of a Tim Lincecum Bobblehead got me out the door at 5:45 into the pitch dark and fog so thick it felt like it was raining! Three buses later and I was at Starbucks on King at 6:29a (opens at 6:30) to steal some warmth beforehand and eat breakfast. I didn’t know why I was on the bus at 5:45a and I was even more confused who the other people on the bus were—if you’re not running, why are you awake??

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    Finally meandered my way over to the start line and in succession met up with Naomi, Audrey, Aron, and Kristine in the waiting area.

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    I also got to meet up with my friend Sam from HS and her friend Kelly, who were running the 10K!

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    Check out these Giant colored shoes! I’m a stalker but couldn’t help it.

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    I lined up with Aron and Kristine and ended up running the whole thing with them! This was the best part of the whole thing. I haven’t done that before, and we just settled into an easy pace and managed to stay together despite the occasional weaving that was very necessary on the crowded parts of the course. We just chatted and the miles went by really quick, down the Embarcadero, over the Fort Mason hill (felt easy today!) and out past Chrissy Field. Brian Wilson was there! I was a few people out from the edge so I didn’t get a hi-five. #regrets

    Before I knew it we’d passed seven miles and were turning around. It felt so easy! But then around mile 8.5 my legs started feeling tingly. It wasn’t the speed—we were all running conservatively—but then my arms started feeling it too and somewhere right past mile 9 I got hit with a wave of dizziness so hard that I almost fell over right there. I realized I was dehydrated and it’s hard to work your way out of it in the last 4 miles of a 13.1! I felt dizzy and lightheaded and kept lightly bumping into Aron. I would say “sorry” only because I didn’t have the effort to say “sorry, truth is, my brain is fuzzy, I feel like I’m starting to go under and that I might eat pavement any second, but I hope the rest of the race goes well for you guys.” Ugh! Aron and Kristine were so great and easily could have left me in the dust but didn’t! I was frustrated because my legs and heart rate etc. were totally fine but I just needed more water. I sweat SO much, and was also wearing a long sleeve shirt so I was trapping in a lot of heat—I wanted to take it off, but I knew if I stopped to do so I’d lose the girls and thus any motivation to push through the rest of the miles. Good reminder that I am someone who needs to drink a LOT and I need to walk through aid stations so I actually get liquid down instead of one gulp in my mouth and the rest down my shirt Smile

    The last 1.5 miles were really hard as the 10K walkers, the 5K runners and the half-marathoners just trying to finish all converged on the Embarcadero at once. We had to weave like crazy and I more than once bumped into someone else with a bit of force in a last-ditch effort to finish alongside Aron and Kristine and redeem how crappy I was feeling there at the end!

    But before I knew it (okay, lie, it seemed like a long time when I felt like passing out) we were headed into AT&T Park! Then we get to the finish. OK. Backing up—Aron mentioned earlier in casual conversation that if we finished together we’d get a finish-line picture! This was 95% of the motivation for me to not stop and seek water at mile 11, that and the fact that I knew I’d be annoyed all day if I finished in 2:01. So we get to the finish line and…

    One, no camera. Two and more importantly… the finish line was backed up 10+ people deep! You couldn’t even get across it. So that didn’t happen, but I decided to make my own artist’s rendition of what WOULD have been our finish line picture.

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    As you can tell, I studied Art in college. We all finished together in 1:58 something. A 14-minute PR for Kristine which is AWESOME! I’ve only done one other half and ran in 1:57:51 so this was right on par with that. So technically I PW’ed and am very fine with it Smile

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    I immediately downed the bottle of Dasani and felt 598373% better. Note to self: work on hydration strategies for the next race! Then, as if the finish line congestion wasn’t bad enough, the organization in the stadium was terrible. TERRIBLE! Thousands of people were supposed to go to three different spots to get T-shirts, food, and coveted Bobbleheads. It was so congested that there would have been no way out even if I had tried! We were probably in there for 40 minutes. Finally, we got our gear, Aron took off on a couple more miles, and I hung out waiting for Naomi and Audrey, who were also caught in the mess.

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    Despite the horrendousness of an uncrossable finish line and an extremely claustrophobic and fire hazard post-race situation, I had a GREAT time at this race! The course was great, each mile was intimately familiar to me and people seemed to be having fun. And running with Aron and Krisitne was icing on the cake and made the whole thing so much better and really got me through my dizzy spell.

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    Afterwards, I went to Momo’s with Audrey, Naomi, Sam, and Kelly, and ate a very delicious side order of mac and cheese. It’s exactly what I wanted.

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    Went home with good swag and in a great mood. I really like the half marathon distance and this race. Hopefully based on feedback they’ll improve the post-race organization next year.

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    Now I’ve got a free afternoon and don’t know what to do with myself! Have a great Saturday everyone!

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    And so it grows…

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  • Wine Bars and Veggie Delights

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    San Francisco is a great city to live in. It’s an even better city to eat in. Yesterday, I pretty much broke all my rules (guidelines) as I had two big food-and-booze focused events to get through: Company Culture wine tasting and my third GrubWithUs dinner.

    Our quarterly company culture event took us to The Wine Club on Harrison between 5th and 6th. This place has a ton of wines and does a lot of cheap tastings. We took the place over with two cases of wine and more food than even I could eat.

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    As you can imagine, my “I’m not drinking I have to run” turned into a glass of champagne and o taste of red wine, and my “I’m not snacking I am going to a big dinner” turned into… well, let’s just say I can’t remember everything about the afternoon.

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    I always appreciate company culture events because I get a chance to enjoy the company of my coworkers, who I genuinely like, without suffering from the unfortunate yet inevitably stress of the office.

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    After I ate and drank more than enough for a dinner it was time to… go to dinner. I’ve written about my first (Italian) and second (hippie vegetarian) GrubWithUs dinners, and last night was dinner #3. (If you’re unfamiliar with the concept: essentially, the company coordinates group meals at restaurants and prepays for the family-style meals, which include appetizers, entrees, and dessert. Then, eight or so strangers sign up to go to dinner with new people! It’s a great way to make new friends and/or network in a no-pressure setting.)

    We went to Golden Era Vegetarian Restaurant, which is nestled in the sketchy Tenderloin neighborhood (which much more often than not means the food is delicious) and had great reviews on Yelp so I was excited to check it out.

    Our appetizers were spring rolls, potstickers, and papaya salad, all vegetarian of course.

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    I LOVE a fried spring roll, but wherever I go, fresh spring rolls don’t taste like much to me, I just really like the peanut sauce.

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    The pot stickers were good! No picture of the papaya salad as I only got exactly two bites of it so you couldn’t get a sense of it on my plate, but it was yummy and spicy.

    Then for the entrees:

    That would be “super kale” with ginger miso dressing and organic flax crumbles. I am getting a new digital camera in September. I promise. No more horrible iPhone pics!

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    By far the best dish of the night in my opinion was this lemongrass “chicken.” I’m split on the whole fake-meat thing, but I will say that as a vegetarian who most likely will eat meat again at some point, this was REALLY good.

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    We also got the House Rice Claypot with tofu, fake soy chicken, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and ginger.

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    And a spicy (except not) sweet potato curry with tofu and garbanzos in a coconut curry sauce.

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    And don’t forget the Spicy Jalapeno Tofu, of course.

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    Dessert was shared—two pieces of cheesecake and two chocolate. The cheesecake kind of tasted like nothing, but the chocolate was good—very moussey.

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    Overall, this place was okay. I think part of it was that the portions weren’t great for 8 people—the other two GWU dinners I’ve been to have had more than enough food but this one did not. And with the high reviews a lot of the dishes were a little eh—that being said though, they have a HUGE menu and I would totally come back and get the lemongrass faux chicken again and try something else from their menu. And of course, I go to these to meet new people and make new friends—finding new restaurants is just a bonus. Smile

    WAY past my bedtime. Happy Friday everyone!

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  • Weekend Roundup: Hiking, Street Food and Sunday Runday

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    Not going to lie, I had high expectations for this weekend. And it turned out to be… even better than I expected!

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    Saturday morning I was finally participating in something I’ve been wanting to for a long time: hiking in Marin! I met up with Talia bright and early and we headed up to hike part of the Dipsea trail that runs from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach. (It’s also a famous footrace which, after hiking, leaves me 1. Convinced that anyone who attempts that race or God forbid the Double Dipsea is crazy and 2. Really wanting to do it.)

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    The beginning of the trail was up, up, and UP! It’s funny how non-runners assume marathoners are in tip-top shape. Maybe we are in a certain way, but damn, walking up these hills at 2 miles per hour took the wind right out of me! But at least it was beautiful.

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    I had a great time just hanging out with Tali. Ironically, it was beautiful weather in the city, but foggy as hell in the headlands. We slogged our way to the top of the hill that offers vast, breathtaking views of the pacific and saw… this!

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    Yup. Pretty awesome. Reminds me of these people who I met in the Swiss Alps who had hiked thousands of feet up an alp just to see the same view as above and then turned back down.

    I’m looking forward to seeing the view… someday!

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    We kept heading towards Stinson but it was really wet and got so muddy we were both literally slipping and sliding around so we headed back. All together it was a 6 mile hike and great cross training. I devoured a peanut butter and jelly (with our homemade jam we had just made!) and then we stopped by the Dipsea Café for coffee (for Talia) and a hot chocolate and biscuit (for me). I think our homemade jam is better than theirs. Smile

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    Next on the agenda was the San Francisco Street Food Festival. Apparently, 60 vendors from restaurants and food trucks alike came out to Folsom Street in the Mission to sell drinks, little bites (tastes for $2-3) and “bigger bites” ($6-8). I went to get good content for the blog but all my pictures came up craptastically. I ran into Alligator who has been mentioned on the blog a few times and he so kindly paused whatever he was doing often to aid in my photography or jostling of cameras and food, but alas: crappy pictures.

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    I am more than ever fully convinced I need a new digital camera. One can not blog on iPhone alone. Next paycheck…

    Anyway, at the food fest, I had a small Thai iced tea, a little bite of fried yucca, and a bigger bite of Ethiopian food. Which I LOVE, but this was only okay.

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    I wanted to get the sweet potato pancake or the funnel cake or the ice cream, but I held out because I thought I’d regret it. I regret NOT getting those! A la The Last Crusade, I chose poorly.

    Regardless, it was fun times anyway. Sunday brought a 5am wake up call (BARF!) but it ended up being totally worth it! I got picked up so kindly by Katie and Alisyn (from whom I lovingly borrowed these two pics) and we headed to Tiburon for Sunday Runday organized by Layla!

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    When the three of us arrived, we found Layla and Karin and set out for a four-mile warm-up jog. Then we hooked up with Naomi, RoadBunner, and Alyssa to run some more! People had asked me how many miles I wanted to do and I had said I didn’t know… I hadn’t even run 7 miles in the 3 weeks since SFM and had been feeling so off. But I did another 8 miles with a few of the girls for a total of 12.2 miles. I’ll take it! It was good to get some miles in but the best part was just having fun and getting to know a lot of these women better, I’m so glad I’ve gotten the chance to meet them all! Definitely has made life in SF so much better.

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    Something else that has made life in SF so much better: Genki Ramen.

    The weekend came to a fab conclusion when I met Alyssa, Sandra and Cate for ramen. I choose poorly again, “branching out” to a rice plate instead of the caldron of ramen, but still. Delicious.

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    And we went to the candy store after.

    Overall, a great weekend! This week is shaping up pretty crazy…

    • Wednesday: work Company Culture event and GrubWithUs dinner
    • Thursday: big meetings and Giants game!
    • Friday: Giants game again?
    • Saturday: Giant Race! Yes, I think I am running a half marathon this weekend. Word.

    Okay, it’s past my bedtime. Goodnight everyone!

    Courtney

    What was a highlight of your weekend? What are you looking forward to this week?

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  • Strawberry Balsamic Jam and FOMO

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    I took on a new activity last night per the suggestion of my friends Julia and Talia. We decided to make jam.

    Making jam is one of those activities that sounds quaint and fun but as I haven’t cooked a full-on meal it what seems like months, I’m usually content to hand over the $2 for a jar of the sticky strawberry stuff. Not last night.

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    Unlike various other activities I’ve attempted in the kitchen (like bagel making), this actually WAS worth the time! The ingredients were really simple too. Apparently jam is easy to make, so we just looked at a bunch of different recipes and made our own from that. We used:

    • 3 pounds organic strawberries
    • Juice of two juicy limes
    • 2 cups of sugar (a lot of recipes call for more but this was fine)
    • 3 capfuls of strawberry balsamic
    • A few grinds of black pepper at the end

    I’ve heard of a lot of jam recipes that include balsamic but we were inspired to add the pepper by this recipe. I admit to being slightly skeptical but it did add, as Julia eloquently worded, a nice “complexity” to the flavor.

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    Step one: cut the stems off and chop the berries.

    Carefully.

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    Then we mixed the berries with the two cups of sugar and put it on the heat. Start off at low heat at first because otherwise the sugar will burn! We also squeezed two limes out. It was probably half a cup of lime juice overall. Some recipes call for lemon or orange—I dug the lime.

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    After we finally (carefully) brought it up to a boil, then it had to continue to cook at a lower temp for… a LONG time. I don’t know, an hour? It definitely is a while. The reason being that this recipe does not use any thickening agents (like cornstarch, or pectin). Julia made jam once with pectin and while it thickens much quicker, it can also take some of the taste away from the fruit, so if you have the time to let the real thing set, do it. I love foods with five ingredients!

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    As it was changing textures, some foam would appear that we’d skim off, or try to. Most of it was constantly dissolving back into the jam. Delicious.

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    Once it was almost done (you could visibly see the jam thickening as we stirred it) we added some balsamic—probably a tablespoon and then some. Not much. Enough to change the color from a bright reddish color to more brown, but it tasted great! We cooked it for about ten more minutes, ground some pepper in and taste-tested. You really could taste the strawberries (primary flavor) with the hints of the lime and balsamic, and the pepper definitely added something.

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    Only sad thing was we had ten jars and this recipe made four tiny ones! It cooked down a LOT from the beginning—if I made the recipe again with friends I’d double it and use a bigger pot so the fruits of my labor would last longer. : )

    I had a really fun time making jam and will DEFINITELY consider making a bunch of these as gifts in the future!

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    I enjoyed several tastes last night and of course had to have peanut butter and jam on an English muffin for breakfast so I could eat some. Just as good as I remembered!

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    Note: this weekend is the Healthy Living Summit and I gotta say, I really wish I was there! I have really enjoyed meeting bloggers in real life and that would have been a great opportunity to meet so many of my favorites. Unfortunately, I really didn’t have the money sitting around. I looked into it when tickets were about to go on sale and I couldn’t find anything below almost $700 for the plane ticket itself. Then add in $100 for the ticket and probably $300 for the weekend… well, who knows how much hotel cost… and basically, there was no way in hell. Sure, looking back on it now, I definitely could have made it work, but it just seemed like too insurmountable. I still really want to go to a blogger conference and hopefully sometime soon.

    I really would love to go to Foodbuzz as it’s in my city (!!!) but I’m not a Featured Publisher—I will work on that. I am really passionate about blogging and food and running and want to continue to meet more people that are into it.

    Speaking of which—if you are a blogger in the bay area—email me! I’ve started trying to get some info gathered for a blogger meetup in SF and I’m really looking forward to that. Smile

    A big part of HLS and Foodbuzz and all of that is FOMO—Fear of Missing Out. I suffer from FOMO big time. Much less than I did in college (“yes I have a midterm tomorrow and a paper due I haven’t started, but, like, omg soooo many people were going out to the bars tonight!”) but I still do. And a big part of that is Zumba. (Whose logo I am allowed to use as a paying ZIN member… for now!)

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    I got certified to be a Zumba instructor towards the beginning of the year. I am not great at many things, but I AM a great dancer, and I am very good at Zumba. Years of dance team and captaining paid off! I was so excited to teach, but then, little did I know, two weeks later I moved to SF and started a full-time demanding job. No Zumba teaching for me. I could sub at some gyms, but my schedule is too unpredictable. It just can’t happen right now.

    I’ve spent over $500 into Zumba, with the course and paying for the 6-month ZIN (instructor network) membership—and I haven’t made a dime. My ZIN membership is about to expire and I need to just cancel it, because I’m literally throwing money away if I don’t. But that makes it certain: I am a Zumba instructor who will never teach Zumba, despite how awesome of a teacher I know I’d be. I’m trying to tell myself that it’s okay… I can ALWAYS take it up again later. I can. It’s fine.

    I just hate the feeling that I’m Missing Out. It’s hard for me to accept that I can’t do everything.

    I can’t.

    But I can do SOME things, and right now I need to learn to make choices. Most of which are reversible. I’m going to work on embracing where I am now and being okay with the fact that I can’t have it all. Somehow, it all works out anyway.

    Have a GREAT weekend everyone and have an amazing time at the HLS if you are there!

    Courtney

    Do you suffer from FOMO? What do you worry about missing out on?

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  • Postcards From America: New York City From an iPhone

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    Part 3 of a series following Portland and New Hampshire following a 7 or 8 state (I can’t remember) trip I took the last two weeks. I am very behind on both blogging and comments as I am still jetlagged and exhausted but bear with me as I catch up. : )

    I figured I’d do a mostly wordless post with some scenes from my short stint in New York City. Kentucky, North Carolina, and Boston may be ignored as I somehow ended up with about five useable pictures. What are you going to do?

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    I can no longer indulge in the best street-card food—hot dogs—but I’ll settle for a soft pretzel the size of my face for a buck, please.

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    Ever since I lived in New York when I was younger, the black and white cookie has remained one of my favorite desserts. I like the white part a bajillion times better than the black, but this time upon finding out that some places do “all black” or “all white” cookies, I had to stick to the classic. Just felt wrong.

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    Had to see my favorite show, Rent, off-broadway while I was in town… which meant I had to buy a new $18 dress to wear.

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    99 cent pizza at midnight should probably be illegal.

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    (That’s my “I’m happy because I ran 4 miles quicker than 8:30 pace which is really good for me and did I mention I’m sweating and dehydrated and only ate street food the day before and man I need a bagel” face.)

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    I do love New York. I feel like I’ve spent so much time in the city that it feels comfortable and I don’t feel pressured to do any particular activities, but I appreciate how unique it is compared to every other city in America. I almost had a heart attack when I was wandering through Hell’s Kitchen at 11:30PM looking for dinner and there were TONS of places that were open—all I can get after 9PM in my SF neighborhood is booze or junk food! So cool. I feel a little claustrophobic in NYC—I need my green space and quiet neighborhood—BUT I do love to visit.

    TIme to get some SLEEP and get caught up on life. New updates coming soon.

    Night!

    Ever been to NYC? What are your favorite parts about the city?

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