O Christmas tree... in November?

This may be a broad statement to make, but I may be the biggest Christmas fan there is.  

My holiday socks come out in early November.  

The menu for my family's annual Christmas Fiesta is in the works by at least the first of December.  We have Christmas dinner too, obviously, but what's a celebration in Texas at the holidays without tamales, enchiladas, queso, and  margaritas?

I spend WAY too much time making my lists of things to do: Christmas card recipients, gift lists, my own birthday and gift lists (love that December 11th birthday!), Pinterest projects to attempt, decorations I need/want, things to do while home in Texas... it's obsessive, it's a little insane... it's ME!

This brings me to my temptation to begin decorating as soon as the temperatures drop.  Growing up, we always bought our tree right around my birthday, as part of my birthday weekend (seriously-- I milk the December birthday as much as possible).  We would buy it as a family, bring it home so little brother and Daddy could shove it through the door, then Mama and I would decorate.

Sorry I'm not sorry about the blur.  I took this in the middle of the night when I woke up to see if Santa had come.  I have no shame.

Once Brian and I moved in together, it was the first time I'd been able to decorate my own tree and I WAS EXCITED.  Bring out the ribbons and bows, people-- this southerner is decking the halls!


And now... it's November 27th.  While I tried to convince Brian that we NEEDED our tree this past Saturday, HE convinced ME that it would be long-dead by the time New Year's rolls around.  Which, you know... truth.  So we're planning to buy it this weekend and spend all of Saturday morning decorating, and then heading to shop Saturday afternoon.  Brian is just THRILLED with Saturday's plans, lemme tell you.  

I can't lie-- the barrage of pictures on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram of people with fully decorated homes, lit and ornamented trees, wrapped gifts, etc. stressed me out for a whole hot second.  "We FINALLY have our tree up!" said at least six people I graduated with from high school.  Finally?  You "FINALLY" have the tree up?  I'm still digesting turkey!  My fall wreath is still on the door!  For the love of cornbread dressing, let Thanksgiving linger just a bit.  

After having a come to Jesus talk with myself, I realized that there's a week between Thanksgiving and the first of December-- to regain and enjoy your sanity before the whirlwind holiday season kicks off.  So, I feel like this gives me a little extra time to deep clean the apartment, rearrange closets and storage, and do inventory on what we have and need.  

However, once Saturday morning hits, all bets are off and this Christmas elf will be out in FULL FORCE.
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The marathon that wasn't.

To catch y'all up to speed...


 As many of you probably know by now, the New York City marathon was cancelled last weekend.  Actually, it was cancelled at about 5:30pm on Friday evening, as Brian and I were driving our packed car to meet my family in Connecticut for my pre-marathon celebration dinner.

 Without getting too entirely into it, I had felt very conflicted about what was going on with the race.  Early in the week, Mayor Bloomberg said that the race was on and would serve as a "Come Together" sentiment for New Yorkers.  As excited as I was, I couldn't shake an incredibly guilty feeling in the back of my mind: How can I run this race and truly enjoy the experience while knowing that there are people five minutes away from Runners Village who have lost everything and have nowhere to go?  As the week went on and the severity of the disaster became so much more apparent, I grew more and more unsure of what was going to happen.  My family flew in Thursday afternoon and when I started packing my bag that evening, I let myself believe we were going to run, that I was going to finish my first marathon.

 Fast forward to Friday.  We have the car loaded down for The Big Race Weekend and are about halfway to my uncle's house in Greenwich to meet up with my parents and have a big pasta dinner.  And then the news breaks.  

 As much as I had tried to prepare myself in the days before that this might happen, there was no way to hear the news and not be devastated.  I cried, a lot.  When you dedicate so much of your time and focus to something and then have absolutely no control of not finishing what you started... it just felt like the rug was pulled out from under me.  We drove and I cried and called my parents and my friend who was also running and we all gradually realized that it wasn't going to happen.  

 Later that evening, after a glass (or three) of wine, I realized that the cancellation was for the best and that holding the race wouldn't have been fair.  It wasn't fair to the people who were still struggling so deeply to recover from the disaster.  It wasn't fair to the runners safety and well-being.

 The most frustrating and infuriating part of the entire situation was that the race wasn't cancelled earlier in the week.  Had that been the case, I would have been able to cancel hotel rooms in the allotted amount of time to get a full refund on the room hold.  Had that been the case, I wouldn't have had to miss two days of work to get everything done and to get us where we needed to be on time.  

 I'm definitely still battling the marathon demon.  I trained for 18 weeks to run a marathon, and I want to run my marathon.  I'm going to run my marathon.  But in all honesty, I was so excited to run because afterwards I could just RELAX.  I could workout however I wanted, for however long I wanted, whenever I wanted.  I wouldn't have to follow a training schedule until my next race was on the calendar... and the thought of that was blissful.  

 And now I'm stuck.  If I don't keep up my mileage, I'll lose my readiness quickly.  If I do keep up my mileage but don't have a race picked out... I'll lose my mind.  I'm on the lookout for a marathon in Texas in February/March because I am BOUND and DETERMINED for my parents to see me run my first.  It's getting chilly here but I'm also on the hunt for a half marathon somewhere in New England to do in the next couple of weeks.  The marathon craziness got me to a mental running point of knowing that as long as I get a few long runs back in, I can definitely complete a half, and ASAP.

 So there's that.  It puts my heart at ease that so much money wasn't spent on putting the race on literally in front of the people who lost everything... but it's a catch-22 to know that so many runners had to sacrifice so much as well.  It's a hard thing to discuss.  Lots of people have lots of opinions, and now that it's in the past, it is what it is.

 Don't think the marathon madness has worn off though.  I've been bitten by the distance running bug.  Just give me a few days to fall back in love with training and we'll all be good.
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Live from the couch.

I have officially spent the last two days horizontal on my couch.  All of the running and not sleeping and running and cooking/cleaning and not sleeping because of running has apparently caught up with me-- my first bad cold of the year has me completely sidelined. 

 Everyone has that point when they know they've crossed over from "not feeling well" to "Oh Lord, put me in the bed" and for me, that point comes when I look down and am wearing blue fleece pajama pants, my hair is in a ratty bun, and all I want to eat is rice with butter and salt.  Truly, rice + Sudafed + Gatorade has been my diet the last couple of days-- perhaps this will be of assistance to the scale this week.

 On the brightside, I've watched the Sex and the City movie today... twice.  You can only process so much when you're sneezing every few minutes.  However, it's made me somewhat obsessed with the idea of living in NYC.  Is it completely insane to want to live in a completely different city at the age of 26 (almost 27-- eek)?  

 Yes, to an extent I believe it is because when I picture Manhattan, I imagine it the way that I imagined Boston before moving here-- completely perfect, like a page out of... Gilmore Girls.  Or in this case, Gossip Girl or SATC, except now I've wizened up and know that just living in a new zip code doesn't mean that Burberry trench is going to show up in my closet, that I'll be able to sprint down the sidewalks in Manolos like Ms. Bradshaw, or that I'll have an apartment anywhere as close to as cute as to what I imagine.

 This is what happens when I take Sudafed?  From running to rice to relocating, follow my tangent!'

 As for the marathon, I'm still just a-training away.  25 days and counting. For the most part, I feel ready and excited.  On the other hand, I'm completely terrified.  I still have to figure out lots of little details but am trying to just stay in the excitement of the trip and the experience and just enjoy it all.  Plus I'm so ready to see my family-- I can't wait to spend 10 days with them here in Boston.  This Saturday will mark my 20 mile long run and I feel like once I get through that, I can face anything.  This unexpected cold has been a positive for the exercise-- it may be wreaking havoc on my immune system, but it's given me a few days to rest my achey feet-- bonus!

 So here's to hoping this cold passes quickly and that I don't OD on Vitamin C.
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Oh how PINTERESTING!!

Fall is in the air... and all across my Pinterest boards!  I'm linking up today with Michelle at The Vintage Apple for Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesday!






love me some perfect october days.



i love pinning an outfit and realizing i have everything in my closet to make it happen!



 Bourbon. Pumpkin. Pie. MILKSHAKES.



 the most perfect fall color.



Source: chictopia.com via Katie on Pinterest

 bring on the boots!



 be still, my heart-- chevron pumpkins!



Source: pinporium.com via Katie on Pinterest

 navy + caramel + perfect dark rinse jeans = fall perfection.




 pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting - perfection!
If today's Pins indicate anything about me over the next few months, I'll be a very well-dressed lady on a sugar high with cute pumpkins on my porch and a buzz from my bourbon pumpkin milkshake.  

Happy Fall, my lovelies!


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Observing the Day of Labor as it should be done.

Is anyone else needing this long weekend as badly as I am?  It has been beyond cray-cray at my office this week and I'm just plum worn out.  This was not made any better when I woke up at 3am this morning, sat straight up and bed and proceeded to the bathroom as if to get ready for the day.  As I passed through I saw that the clock on the stove read "3:02" and promptly headed back to the bed.  I don't know what's up but I just can't seem to get enough rest!

 Oh, and when people tell you that training for a marathon is exhausting and time consuming and "Have you lost your mind?!"... yea, they're being honest.  Running 20+ miles every week sure will suck the fun-life outta you, let me tell ya.  I feel like all of the movement should be giving more energy but as of now, I've yet to have that happen.  I have 13 miles on the schedule for tomorrow morning.

 In case you're unfamiliar with the running world... that's a half marathon.  I'm running a half marathon tomorrow morning, just for kicks.  If you never hear from me again, it's been nice knowing y'all.  

 If I survive the fake-half, Brian and I have a day date to head to the Deutsche Bank Championship for the day!  He gets volunteer days through his job that he has to use that don't count against his vacation time, so basically boyfriend has spent the last two days at a golf course wearing a really big bucket hat that he is EXTREMELY excited about and watching pro golfers play golf all day.  I think the extent of his duties is to tell people to be quiet and not go past the rope barriers on the course.

Basically, he's in heaven.

 Since the majority of our dates are planned by me, I've gone full-force-excited into this whole thing.  It doesn't hurt that I get to wear a VIP badge for the day and eat and drink as much as I want.  Hey, running 13 miles DOES have its benefits.  The gates open at 7am but since I'll be trucking my caboose along at that point, I'd imagine (hope) we're going later in the morning.  If you'd like to spend your morning watching the Golf Channel, keep an eye out for me!  I'll be the girl hobbling around with a beverage in her hand...s.

 I only REALLY love Sundays on long weekends because it's like you have a mid-weekend!  And it's a lot easier to justify Sunday Funday when you don't have to be up before motherlovin' dawn the next morning.  But THIS Sunday... I am excited to announce... that my evening will be spent with the most wonderful man.


He's great too, and he'll totally be there as well.  This guy is gonna steal the evening though:

Oh, Darius.  I am SO excited, my friend!  For the third summer in a row, we get to see him in concert!  Two years ago we saw Hootie and the Blowfish (awesome, amazing, hoarse the next day from scream-singing "Hold My Hand" and "Let Her Cry" at the top of my voice) and then last summer we saw Darius by himself (hello tears EVERY SINGLE TIME I hear "Southern State of Mind") and it was even more amazing.  I don't know how the show could get any better, so let's just say that my expectations for Sunday night are mucho-high.  The best part is that the venue he's been at these last three years is called the "Music Circus" so there are tons of people there, it's circular seating so there's literally not a bad seat anywhere, and the stage very slowly revolves the entire show so everyone gets to see DR's bum!  I mean... face.  And awesome School House Rock tshirts.  Truly though, I'm so pumped.

I may have tried to justify purchasing and having these lovelies shipped overnight to get here by tomorrow but, alas, I must eat and pay rent.  


I mean really-- what's a $600 pair of boots for a Texas gal? 

So between 13 miles plus golf all day tomorrow, Sunday Funday + Darius, and a Monday which I'm sure will include some sort of Brian-family-get-together where I must present myself nicely and put on non-yoga pants and prepare a wonderful dish from scratch... I've got a packed few days ahead of me.  

I'll be back Monday with pictures from the festivities, don't you worry your pretty little heads.  Here's to a fake half marathon!
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Alive and running! And Pinning!

It has been a sweet forever since I've blogged but I kind of have a really good reason this time.  For serious.

I'M RUNNING THE NEW YORK CITY MARATHON.

NOVEMBER 4, 2012, I will line up with 40,000 other nutjobs and will voluntarily run 26.2 miles through FIVE boroughs and cross the finish line in Central Park.

I've been training since July but hit a snafu with the blogging aspect of my life.  Knowing that I wanted to document my training experience, I started a separate blog for that purpose (mainly because I sometimes share things on THIS blog that I'd rather not be broadcast to everyone and their mother back home).  When I created the second blog I did so under the same email address that I use for this one, so they were linked, as in if I didn't but some sort of privacy block up on one of them, EVERYONE was gonna see/read EVERYTHING.  

So I blocked this blog... my baby.  And I have MISSED IT.  I've still been following along with everyone and faithfully reading YOUR blogs but since the other blog is solely dedicated to running and fundraising, I couldn't really chat about things there like how adorable Kate and Wills looked at the Olympics:

source

(Sidenote: I wear my hair like that A LOT and I still somehow cannot rock a pony like the Duchess.)

 And who am I supposed to share my current Pinterest projects with, if not with y'all?  On the list currently... 
source

To send to Mama and Daddy in Texas.  If that works out, I'm contemplating a "house divided" wreath for our apartment, featuring the Cowboys and Patriots.

And this.  This may be the end of me:
source

Just as soon as it's chilly outside and I can dedicate an entire Saturday, with football on in the background, to make this, I'm getting started.  And wine.  I'd imagine I'm going to need a lot of white wine to fuel me through this because can you imagine getting all the way through to the very last ruffle and spilling a glass of Merlot across it?  I would tell them to wrap me in the skirt and put me in my coffin because I'D BE DONE.

Word of Wisdom, Learned from Many Pinterest Projects: When having a craft attack, I'm trying to space out buying the supplies so I don't go for broke once I'm ready to actually start... because that's usually what happens.  I decide on Friday night that Saturday is going to be Craft Day and end up leaving Michael's $50 poorer.  So knowing that these will be used in the fall/winter, I'm starting to buy now.  As for the gallery wall that I've decided needs to be put together this weekend and will be buying frames for on Saturday... well, we can't win them all.

So, that's my update.  If y'all would like to stop in to my running blog, knock yourselves out!  Any encouragement or support that you have to offer is soaked up, believe me.  It's been quite the experience up to now.  Going into the training, I knew that it would be intense and take up time, but now that I'm deep in the middle of it all, it has definitely had its overwhelming moments.  If I'm going to stretch well, run 4-5 miles or put in 60 minutes of cross training, plus my strength training routine, I'm at the gym for at least an hour and a half EVERY. DAY.  It is insane.  I know it will be worth it on race day, but right now it's a big adjustment.  I'm exhausted and the Olympics did me in.  Staying up until midnight every night does not an early morning runner make.

In an effort to truly put 100% into this training, I'm back to focusing on getting good, clean food into my diet and not refueling after 9 mile runs with Taco Bell (adios, you deliciously processed bean burrito, you).  And Points... I'm back to tracking PointsPlus, even though I'm not paying for WW right now.  I've never been a big stretcher and have also realized that if I'm going to make my body endure miles and miles of constant motion, I've gotta reward it with a good cooldown afterwards, so I'm trying to get better at that.  There may even be a little "Yoga for Runners" going down in our living room on the nights that Brian has softball.  It's good-- I'm fancy and SO LIMBER.  But not really.  Not at all.  It's been a loooong time since the days of jump splits on the football field.  Like 10 years long time.

It feels good to be back, my friends!

The Running Blog 
(Because I totally have more than enough time to keep up with two blogs plus train, work, eat, shower, sleep, and not forget my family/boyfriend friends.  Jump on the crazy train!)
http://katieisarunningfool.blogspot.com/
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Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding! Bachelorette Weekend!

You know you've had a good first part of your weekend when Sunday consists of waking up, showering, perhaps eating a McDonald's Sausage Biscuit with a Diet Coke and curling up on the couch to watch Bravo TV all day long.  Not that I did that today or anything...

Brian's cousin is getting married in July, and his fiancee and I are good friends and he's basically brothers with his cousin, so we're both in the wedding (yay!).  Both in the wedding = co-bachelor/bachelorette parties this weekend!  They landed at the airport at 9am Friday morning, and while the boys picked the cousin up and headed straight to Atlantic City, the girls picked up the bride-to-be and headed off to do our own thing!

We went to her final dress fitting (obviously I won't be posting pictures but the dress is gorgeous!) and then took the bride to lunch.  After a few errands, we headed back to my apartment where we set up shop at the pool.  It was the most perfect pool day, and since it was just the bridesmaids (the day before the big party), it was the kind of low-key day that was definitely needed.


                                      
The bridesmaids at the pool!  And the bride-to-be (center in aviators).

me and bridey!

The next morning we had plans to head to the beach but were greeted with a 60 degree, cloudy, VERY windy day.  We decided not to risk it and headed into Boston early to decorate the suite and just have everyone come and hang out in the room pre-shenanigans.

standard "pin the co*k on the jock"

what's a bachelorette party without snacks and plenty of drinks!?

bridey opening some lingerie

congratulations candice!

the bride and her future sister-in-law

the bridesmaids!

on the way to dinner!



so excited to be a bridesmaid and a part of her big day!

Not documented for the blog are all of the shenanigans that took place post-dinner.  Lots of drinks and dancing, followed by a little pizza delivery to the hotel room at 2am.  Also, when did dancing at a bar become like an exhibition of ladies for the men? There were about 12 of us together so we had our own little dance circle going on, but the guys were lined up around the entire perimeter of the floor, just staring at their... prey?  When the guys got too close to one of the girls, one of us would grab the other and pull her into the group-- definitely the best way to dance (unless boyfriends are there, obviously).

Also, I didn't know a single song that they played that we danced to.  It was still fun to dance, but I for sure felt like the awkward old lady on the dance floor when the big hit songs of the moment came on and everyone went nuts and knew every word... and I just kind of smiled and bobbed along.

#OLD  

The boys are currently driving home from Atlantic City... eight hours.  Considering I heard from Brian at 4:45 this morning saying he was heading to bed... I am NOT envying their car ride home today.  I also have to get it together enough to show up for a BBQ for Brian's family's Father's Day... thing.

On that note, Happy Father's Day to the most wonderful, amazing, supportive Daddy that I could ever even imagine having.  Through all of my ups and downs, my good decisions and bad, from living at home to moving across the country to Boston, he has been right there by my side, encouraging me through it all, knowing that as much as he wants to always protect me and keep me right by his side, that the best thing that he could do was to let me make my own decisions, grow up and become my own adult.

There isn't a doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be the person that I am today without the support of my Dad.  He's the hardest working person that I know and he's been through so much these last few years with his leg injury.  I admire him so much for working so tirelessly for our family, for always doing whatever he had to do for our family.  He is my hero and I hope that he knows that every single day.  


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