Tuesday, January 16, 2007

One of the Best Ever

Well I have to say, that was, by far one of the best weekends Jason and I have had in a long while (at least in my opinion). I'm putting a warning out ahead of time....this will be a long post (and you thought my race reports were long)....but if you want to see funny pics of the OOSG and the Jayhawk looking *slightly* ridiculous in bike helmets at about 1am on a Saturday night....I say read through it :-) Plus there are lots of pictures.....to help get through all the words!

I should also mention off the bat that Jason and I will not be continuing on with the Pfitz marathon plan for Sarasota. That's not to say we aren't going to run the marathon, but the Pfitz plan was just too much at this point.....which of course left the weekend wide freakin' open for bad (but fun) behavior.

On Friday night we went to a puppet preformance with our friends Jake and Laura. It took place at Link's Hall in Wrigleyville. Both of the live preformances were wonderful.....some of the movies were wonderful....then a very long.....very artsy (I use the word artsy, because maybe had I been more artsy I would have understand what the hairy chef who was a communist meant...).....movie happened. The show ended up being 3 hours and we all agreed after it was over that we all would have been happy if it was about 30-40 minutes shorter.....and no one understood the artsy movie so that made me feel better. After the show we went to the Pick Me Up Cafe on Clark and enjoyed desserts and giant cups of coffee. Yes giant mocha latte at 12:15....I wouldn't be doing that if I had to run the next day...ha...but I didn't....and I LOVE IT. Jason and I stayed up till about 3am watching movies which I don't know the last time I was up that late.

On Saturday we got up late and headed for the Blue Line. Both the restaurant on Damen and the actual train. The Blue Line is our new favorite breakfast place with great food....and cheap bloody mary's (although a tad on the too spicey side). After breakfast we jumped onto the Blue Line and headed downtown (that's right...downtown!) We had plans to go ice skating so we walked down to Michigan Ave and over to Millenium Park. It was fun being around the Bean because there was not many people there. In the summer it's jammed and you have to work you way to the front to get pictures taken. There was probably only about 15-20 people around the Bean and so we had lots of opportunities to get the pictures in. We ended up liking watching the ice skaters better than joining them and opted for more walking around the city instead. We hit up (of course) Garrett's Popcorn for two bags of treats (one mix and one carmel only....man that shit is good) and enjoyed the rest of the South Loop for about an hour. We jumped back on the Blue Line and it was back home just in time for the Colts game.

The Colts won of course which is very exciting for Jason....but we are getting close to a Bears/Colts Superbowl...oh wait, I haven't even gotten to the Bears game yet....hold that thought.

After the Colts game we headed downtown for Dawn's birthday party. We met up with Mike and Barb at their condo, petted their new bikes, grabbed some dinner and headed over to Dave and Buster's where the party was taking place. Many beers were consumed (not enough for Barb and I to tackle Dance Dance Revolution...), trivia, skeeball, baskeball and football were all played, tickets were awarded...prizes were bought with said tickets, laughter ensued...you get the idea. After the party we went back to Mike and Barb's for more beer, more laughter. I got the kids drunk enough to model their new biking gear.....Jason and I have much jealousy about the bikes + gear...it's all very cool! (Great sentance....is it a better sentance because I added the exclamation point?), We got home late again, saw 3am pass on on our clock before heading to bed.

OH RIGHT....AND Mike took my BP and it was absolutly normal at 120/80 so I say screw you to the doctors making me all nervous.

We got up around 10am on Sunday morning (yep that's right....missing another run) a little foggy headed from the beers the night before. We literally, got up, brushed our teeth and headed out for the Bears game. We ended up at Cans and grabbing the last two seats at the bar (this was 45 minutes before game time) and settling in for the long haul. We had some breakfast which was pretty terrible...stick to their non-breakfast food, bloody mary's (delicious) and waited for the start of the game.

The Bears of course pull out the win in a great ending, Rex had a good game throwing for 280ish yards and so we hope to see Good Rex back again next week. Now then.....the bar was crazy style. Jason and I were drinking like we had just discovered beer (seriously my beer would be empty almost instantly), we were buying shots....everyone there was so freakin' happy. This town is obscene when the Bears are good (just look at the picture I took of the ART INSTITUTE the day before...that's right...that's a 'Go Bears' Banner). I fucking love this town.

Ok then.....the next few hours are a little on the hazy side....let's just say that.

In an interesting playoff the Patriots beat out the Chargers (which I actually preditcted because I thought the Chargers were overrated......and everyone had them pegged to win the Superbowl....and didn't talk about them getting through round 1) which means an always fun and exciting Colts/Patriots playoff game next weekend. So go Colts. I hate the Colts, but really, how can people hate Peyton....I know that if he played for your team, you would find the love. He could be one the best QB's of all time, and I am hoping that he can overcome his playoff happy feet on Sunday. Now then, if they and the Bears win....well then.....I will of course hate Peyton and hope that he gets a big ole' face full of Brian.

Right then....oh yeah. hazy hours....yes, around 6pm I threw myself in the shower becasue we had game night at Mike and Barbs and had to get it together and head over there. I would like to say I sobered up a little......but well I don't know....maybe just a tad. We had oodles of fun at game night, which is obvious with this video of Mike playing our favorite game Time's Up. Lots of games, lots of snacking, more beer.....blech.

We headed home around 1am and were lucky enough to catch the bus back to our neighborhood. Someone behind us might have had too much fun watching the bears game as he got sick all over the place. I didn't see anything or smell anything as I was pretty far ahead of him....BUT that doesn't mean I couldn't hear anything. Nas-ty. As we were getting ready to get off the bus we talked to the driver about DA BEARS and how awesome they are and how they are go to the Superbowl.....EVERYone is a Bears fan!

Another night late to bed....and late to rise which apparently was our mantra this weekend. At about 11:30 we headed over to Lisa and Evin's to check out their new wedding furniture stuff. We left there around 12:15 because Lisa's brother had given us tickets for the 1pm Bulls game. We had seats in the 4th row behind the Spurs bench were such incredible seats. My god are pro basketball players athletic....which you can really see that close. Kirk Hinrich had a great game going for a double double. The Bulls easily beat the Spurs thus ending a great sports weekend.

We were lazy for the rest of the day although I did make a big dinner for the first time in awhile which was so super tasty.

AND if we thought this past weekend was a great sports weekend, then this upcoming weekend is just going to blow our minds. We have tickets to the Cubs convention (and Mark Grace is going to be there...so I might be thrown in prison for jumping him) on Friday and Saturday and then it's Bears & Colts playing for the Superbowl on Sunday. Last year during the weekend of the Cubs convention we were planning on the greatest sports weekend ever because the Bears and the Colts were playing their first playoff game and no one thought either one was going to lose. Of course they both broke our hearts and it ended up being a craptastocweekend (although I still got my picture taken with Andre Dawson so that was good). Let's hope that the Bears and Colts pull out wins which I think with just good (not great) play it shouldn't be a problem.

So there. So that was a very long post. If you made it this far, thanks for sticking around. As far as running, I am just going to try and do some miles for fun this week. We have friends in town this weekend so we might not fit any in since we'll be cleaning and laundrymatting and so on. But that's ok........

Happy Tuesday!

14 comments:

Iron Jayhawk said...

oh man. i was really hoping that bike helmet picture wouldn't make an appearance. Hahahaa....

good times, nonetheless!

And I am sooooo super jealous you were that close to Kirk Hinrich! Those seats are fantastic!!!!

Laurie said...

I am so jealous you had such an awesome weekend. Just reading about your great weekend made me smile and feel a little better about mine. Thanks!

Thomas said...

I'm surprised you were able to remember all those details after all the beers and shots you apparently consumed.

Shame about your running, but maybe a few fun runs will re-awaken your love.

Joe said...

Things sound happy again in your world!

Seahawks suck! Go Bears!

LeahC said...

Thomas-

It's not that I don't love running, it's that i can fit Pfitzing in with my work schedule right now. It seems I am a one marathon per year girl and I would rather focus much of my attention towards Chicago and try and hit the BQ. I'll still probably train for Sarasota, just not going near a PR...but rather just for fun.

Full Metal Lunchbox said...

Wow what an amazing weekend!  Go Bears!

Anonymous said...

Actually, with a blood pressure of 120/80, you are considered "pre-hypertension." I'm not trying to be mean or start anything (I have been a long-time reader of your blog), but have you ever thought about changing your diet? From reading your posts, it seems as if your diet is not very healthy. A great number of your posts brag about drinking, eating out for the majority of meals, Steak n' Shake, cafe mochas, etc. It is a common misperception that if we exercise regularly, we do not need to monitor our diets. You can be of normal weight and still have hypertension and dyslipidemia. You have mentioned that because you are a marathon runner, you should not have hypertension. Have you ever noticed what the other marathon runners look like at a marathon? The majority of them are not tall and slender. Just a thought. You should probably have a lipid panel drawn to determine your cholesterol levels (good and bad) and an assessment of you BMI. Good luck with the running and with your health! BTW, I am posting this anonymously because I do not have a Blogger account... not because I am trying to be incognito.

LeahC said...

hello anonymous-

thanks for the comment.....here's my response.....

i have been going out a lot lately because the bears have been the playoffs, but other than that, the last time I got "wasted" was quite awhile ago, not even New Years Eve actually....seriously can't remember the last time.

I did have a cafe mocha on Friday...the last time I had one of those before that was.....I am going to go with a year ago.

the last time i went to steak and shake was roughly 3 months ago. I don't eat any fast food in general...oh wait I did go to Burger King back in September.....but before that, honestly I can't remember.

I am 6 feet tall and weigh 155-160, giving me a BMI of 21-21.7, according to this website healthly limits are 18.5-24.9 so obviously that's not an issue.

If I do go eat out it's at normal restaurants and not fast food.....I don't salt any of my food. In general for my
"drinking" levels I usually have a glass of wine a night.

According to websites, pre-hypertension is yes defined as 120/80 ON THE FUCKING LOW END.

I have hypertension in my life because of my work and because I get completly stressed out about my future. In general I eat relatively healthy, and obviously because I run marathons I don't think that I can just eat anything in the world that I want to. I happen to be one of the tall and skinny runners that you see at the races BTW.

Thanks for playing.

Oh yeah....right...my dad has high blood pressure.....it's also a hereditary thing.

Jason said...

Anon -

If it was diet related, I would also have the same issue as I eat the exact same food that Leah does and drink as much or more (not to mention I drink more caffeine and alcohol and eat a lot more salt). Like Leah, I also am not overweight.

The difference is hereditary and in the way we deal with stress. I don't get stressed very easily and tend to stay on an even level and thus I've never had high blood pressure. Besides, Leah gets extra nervous once the BP test comes out.

Anyway, it seems that you've gotten a strange impression of our lifestyle based on this last crazy weekend. We don't drink all that often. Hell, I think we should drink more often. We eat fast food maybe once a week and never the really bad kind.

Oh, and when we write about drinking, it's not bragging. This is a blog and on a blog you talk about your life. That's kind of just the way it works. Are we bragging about our running too?

Anonymous said...

This is the last comment I will leave. I just took 5 minutes of my time and browsed through your old posts. The only reason I wasted any of my time on this was out of concern (which has been taken the wrong way). As I previously stated, I like your blog and I have been reading it for over 1 year. It just sounds as if you are trying to pass this off onto your genetics and stress (IMHO). Oh, one more thing... almost every meal you eat at a restaurant is unheathly. People greatly underestimated the calories and fat in restaurant dishes. Look up the information on one of your favorite meals, and I bet you will be surprised. Good luck with everything!


but also a lot of beer drinking, junky (read : delicious) food eating

then run before we headed out to Small Bar to meet some fun people. The time of this writing is the lull between running and hitting the bars.

We ate a lot of food.....oh yeah....I totaly went back for seconds of everything

when I am in training due to the fact that I have to sleep more and I have to drink less and I have to eat better to make it through the runs

we decided to go to a local bar we like to frequent and have a lot of beer instead (for those of you that haven't tried Fat Tire Beer...it's delicious...and comes in a 22oz bottle....)

We hit up (of course) Garrett's Popcorn for two bags of treats (one mix and one carmel only....man that shit is good) and enjoyed the rest of the South Loop for about an hour.

dark Chocolate M&M's are by far the most delicious things in the world

I spend way too much money on eating out...which brings us to the eating out less bullet point. Jason and I were eating out almost every lunch & dinner and were starting in on breakfast.

As luck would have it, we were right near Boston Blackies, and amazing burger joint

LeahC said...

wow....anonymous I guess you're right.

Thanks for taking the time and going back through my posts for the past 10 months and finding out all the unhealthy things I have done. I guess I should have been posting about my Friday and Saturday nights when I went to bed at 9:30 and didn't drink anything and ate vegetarian pasta. I just thought my social life would have been slighly more interesting.

Thanks again.

(By the way my blood pressure is usually about 110/70....hmmmm....I am about 400% healthier than I used to be (I know I know I am still a big lard cheeseburger eating ass) but..hmm...I wonder why I would think that it's stress related....hmm....interesting)

Jason said...

And for all those who know us, we open the comments for an intervention for those who fear for our lives. And friend, in case that doesn't work, you can rest easy in knowing that you've done what you can to help us and make us see the error of our ways. So sit back, shake our head sadly, and shrug a little. You tried.

I would still like to know why I don't have high blood pressure. I was with Leah on all of our wild nights of partying and injecting lard into our veins. It doesn't make sense.

Damn it anonymous, now you've gone and made me hungry for a cheeseburger. With bacon.

Iron Jayhawk said...

Oh cheese and rice.

...healthy, cheese and rice, that is. :insert overdramatic teen angst-ridden eye roll here:

I'm gunna bring this old school style back...you know, the kind you find in your 8th grade yearbook...

Love you both! Don't EVER change! K.I.T.!! 2 cool 2 be 4 gotten!!

MNFirefly said...

Leah, I have had the docs screw up my BP several times so I know what you mean. I watched the Bears game in my hotel room in AZ and saw the awesome field goal at the end. I am hoping for a Bear/Colts game too (just don't tell Josh or Barb that - shhhhhhh!)