Fall and My return

Happy Fall everyone! It's my favorite time of the year, fun fact. 

Well in theory it is.

If I didn't live in Atlanta I would get a real fall, instead of today's high being 80+ degrees. One of my favorite parts of fall is fall-styled beer. Oktoberfests and Pumpkin beers. Pumpkin being number 1. Today's pumpkin beer is by Heavy Seas.

 

Crafty beer!

It is, so far, very good. Actually much better than I anticipated. Not overwhelming pumpkin but can definitely taste the cinnamon/fall flavors desired.

Now away from beer.

Yes I still run. No not as often. I'm 6 weeks out of my sprained ankle and it's still giving me a lot of hate and discontent. It swells every night, especially when I'm on it a lot, and I've been having to ice it regularly. I originally thought this was just a 4-6 week recovery but it's looking to be a lot longer.  I still cannot even come close to wearing heels, the angle hurts, and it some days my ankle is tender to the touch. 

All bad news.

So tomorrow I have a DR appointment at 10am to get it looked at and hopefully get a referral for physical therapy.

I did run 4 miles twice last week and it wasn't too bad.  The after-swelling is pretty rough though.

So this explains, not excuses, my absence from the running world/my blog.  So I've been a little bitter, yes. 

I'll be around now though. Because the BF, seen here (yes with me, classy photo):

is finally on my ass about it. 

He says he has his eye on me...

See you guys around!

My Texas-Sized Hangover

So radio silence occured becuase I was in...
TEXAS!
For 5 days. Left Wednesday at like 6am and got back Sunday night...more like 12am Monday morning and then had work yesterday and today. Crazy! I've been very very tired/worn down. It was the longest car ride I've ever taken and the first time ever traveling in Mississippi and Texas. Louisiana I've been to...for Bourban street.
Another time, a good story, or two.

Anyway it was awesome. The drive out was to Dallas and then stayed the night there, then from Dallas we drove down to Texas Station. That's right folk's Giggem'/Saw The Horns Off/Texas A&M Aggie town.  I'll post more about why I was there later, with pictures and all.

I would like to however cover my excitement about Texas.
This is how I pictured Texas: desert-y, armadillos, long horns, salloons, maybe tumbleweeds?

Clearly I'm an idiot.
No there was no desert. I did see some long horns while driving, Holy crap they're huge. I saw a few dead armadillos, which made me sad.  (Fun mini story: my dad ripped the muffler off him and my  mom's little red MG by driving over a dead armadillo. My dad thought it would smush...nope.)
Tumbleweeds were a negative HOWEVER Salloons? I'm gonna say where I partied Saturday night was close enough in my book.

Picture in your head if you could, a college town bar. These are foreign to me. Atlanta doesn't have many since it is a City in it's own right and College Station...well is College Station.
Cruddy engraved tables that wobbled, stuff ALL over the wall, lots of Aggie things/memorabilia AND 6$ PBR pitchers and 7$ New Castle pitchers.

'Scuse me how much?
Done.
It was 9 of us all out together so we started with 3 pitchers. As we're looking around the bar we find, I shit you not, LIFE SIZE connect four. The pieces were wooden circles of 8ish inches in diameter.  It. Was. Amazing. And then we found Jenga made out of 2x4's. I was amazed. We were all amazed actually. Like big kids in a big kid toy store.

I had 2 beers, The BF brought me a gin and tonic and while playing connect four (reigning  champ what up!) I met a very nice A&M girl named Jackie who played with me a few times.  I decided that clearly, as I was drunk enough and from out of town, that Jackie and I needed a shot. Here's how the bartender and I's convo went.

ME: "Hey umm how much forrrrr your Patron shots?"
Bartender: "4.50$"
ME:"...."...serious pause going on..."How much for Jose Silver?"
Bartender: "3.25$"
ME: "HOLY SHIT I'll take four."

So me, Jackie, Jackie's friend and BF and I took a shot. and it cost me total what 1 and a half shots of patron would cost me in ATL. All the drinks actually were super, super cheap.

AMAZING.
This is why my hangover was huge.
Hey, everything is bigger in texas, I figured my hangoer should be as well.

Great fun, I have great pictures, I can't wait to post more later. The epicness of how cheap drinks were had to go up here because I think I'm still reeling from it.

I'm currently in my lab slaving away. Put in a solid 6+ hours yesterday, I'm on hour 5 right now. Makin MONIES!

After this it's gym time to bike/lift/abs since my hip flexors are still killing me, which the long car ride did not help. Then headed to the Roomie's swim meet for the kids she coaches and dinner at Felinis!

This is such a nice day.
Everyone, go be happy, go enjoy the day.

Go listen to some country!

Family

So my mom is probably my best friend ever, my biggest fan, and my biggest support. She's who I call when I'm crying, the few times I cry.

Reasons I love my mom:
1) It's 6:15PM on a Friday and she's sent me a picture of a beer.
2) she proudly exclaims its a 9% beer and goes "AHA"
3) she's at a new restaruant raving about how we need to go there together, even though I live 650+ miles away
4) she just alerted me to the fact that the REASON I need to go is because they have back on a stick.

Bacon.
on.
a.
stick.

I love my mom so much.

Day 4: Running Crashers

Today was a 3-4 mile run as marked out by my lovely little planning calender. 

The BF decided last night he wanted to stay over and crash my run in the morning. More affectionately he just wanted to run with me. Which is always entertaining. 

I've finally stolen for extended use one of my friend's Garmin watch's so now I can actually track my pace on my own! I told the BF we were going to the park and back, which is right over 4 miles. 4.2 to be exact. 

Well it's all hills, and I have never ran it without stopping on purpose. There's stopping for stop lights in the middle of Atlanta and then there's me just giving up on some of those hills.  Well this morning the BF didn't give me that option. We finished with a 10:24 min/mile pace and with the sun coming up in Atlanta. It was a gorgeous morning and a very good run. I can't wait for my 5 mile run on Saturday morning. 

Today all I did was study heat transfer. Besides the feeling of impending doom of exams I've been a sore mess.  I lifted last night for the first time in a very long time and I am feeling it in every muscle above my abs. It makes me want a beer.

Mmmm Beer.