Why Home (Can Be) Awesome

I got back late last night from an awesome week in Texas! Here are a few of the reasons why my week was so great….

…..I was reunited with these weirdos…I miss them so much!!

….I was able to enjoy outdoor lap swimming  in a pool all to MYSELF! Holla early a.m adult lap swim!

…..I caught up with a couple of friends who I hadn’t seen in ages!

….I made a couple of recipes and discovered a couple of new foods that were a hit with my family! Post on that to come tomorrow

…..I went shopping. I’m actually such a bad shopper because I get overwhelmed really easily and end up leaving with nothing. This time I am happy to report that I got a few new tops, some earrings, and some awesome new minimalist shoes! I’m going to wear them for camp. 

Love the neon.

….. I spent Friday and Saturday them both in the sun, in the water, and on boats!

My aunt and uncle ironically purchased a boat and lake house around the same time that my family got our boat, so my mom and made the trip to go check it out. The lake was beautiful! It’s was located in East Texas and was much smaller lake than Texoma, but different in that it was very peaceful and heavily wooded.

…..I went waterskiing! On Saturday, my dad, step-mom, and I headed out on our own boat…we had a great time just the 3 of us!! 

They recently got the skis, so this was my first time out on them. I was a little nervous because I haven’t waterskiied in a couple of years, but I was excited that it came right back to me! It probably helped that the skis were made for very beginners – they were super wide. At one point I tried to drop to one ski, but I didn’t quite get there. Next time! 

So fun!

Driving the boat….Yeah, right

Lounging

That’s all folks! I’ll be back tomorrow with the new recipes/food finds!

Goodnight!

Summer Plans

Hello all! Happy end of the week! (Hopefully most of you have tomorrow off, too?)

First and foremost, I want to share this video with you. My aunt sent me the link to it, and it is just phenomenal. It’s about a man with autism who has an amazing photographic memory that he uses to create totally unbelievable sketches. Definitely check it out if you have a couple of minutes!!

I’m going to do some re-capping of the past two days, then we’ll get to the summer plans!

Wednesday

I tried to go to spin class in the a.m., but it was a total fail. I arrived at 6:17 (class started at 6:15), it was crowded, and I was too intimidated to go in. So, I just did some biking and a lot of stretching on my own.

I felt fine the whole time I was biking, but then my knee started hurting again later in the day, which I’m super annoyed by because I didn’t think biking irritated it and it was feeling 100% normal again! Hopefully some more stretching and icing will take care of it before the TNT run on Saturday.

Midday I started to feel really crappy. I had a terrible headache and sore throat. I almost never get headaches, so it was pretty strange. Luckily, one of my co-workers offered me some Aleve. Unluckily, it did not help. I think part of it might have been my hair was up in a super tight bun? How embarrassing. I took it down and my head felt a little better, but I was just in a really weird funk for the rest of the day. I took a bunch of echinacea yesterday and today, and I actually feel amazingly better. Throat is still a little sore, but NBD.

Thursday

I started the day with a fabulous smoothie. It contained frozen banana, frozen blueberries, a tiny bit of frozen spinach, ground flax, almonds, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and protein powder.

Side-note: I really am loving the Chocolate Warrior Blend protein powder (Thanks, Dad!). It’s really not chocolatey so if I want a chocolate taste I add cocoa powder to whatever I’m making.

After school, I came home for a bit and chatted with my roommate. Then I headed to Marathon Sports to see if they had any advice on whether or not my shoe might contributing to the problem I’m having with my knee. The guy I talked to said I don’t over-pronate a lot, and my shoe might actually be more support than I need, but it should be okay. He actually did have some helpful advice about transitioning to and from Vibrams, but I’ll post more about that another time.

After that useless trip, I went to the pool! I talked to a coach for a minute who was training someone about a mile-long swim she does on the Cape every year, which sounded like a lot of fun. Thinking about looking into it!

Finally, I went to Whole Foods to pick up some produce…where I spotted this!!!

I’ve always known Heather was a flower, but I’ve never seen in-person before! It’s a little hard to see the real color, but it’s the lower plant…it’s light purple

Decisions

For the past 3 summers I’ve worked at a therapeutic summer camp for children with ASD. I have been conflicted about whether or not I want to return this year…but I have to make a decision by tomorrow.

 Reasons not to go back to camp:

• I was/am looking for research jobs, and would love to find one that starts after the school year ends
• I was/am thinking about going home. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve spent any amount of consecutive time there, and I’d really like to be able to spend some more time with my family
• I really want to figure out what I want to do with my life. I feel like I need uninterrupted time to do this.

Reasons it makes sense to go back to camp:

• My lease goes through the end of August
• It would be my first summer in Boston! I hear there’s lots to do
• I know for sure I’d have a job – schools in TX end much earlier than they do here, which means it would be pretty hard to find a summer job there.

The verdict: I feel like it makes more sense to go back than not to. I can still be thinking about/planning for my career while I’m working at camp, and I can always go back home after the summer ends. For now, that is my decision…unless something drastic happens between now and then! 

Speaking of summer plans… here are some non-work related things I’d love to do this summer!

1. Cape!! Sadly, I never made it down last summer. My family used to rent a house every year, but we stopped a few years ago. I’m realllly hoping it might happen this summer
2. Rent a kayak or canoe on the Charles
3. Aforementioned swim race?!
4. Go to Newport, RI. I feel like I haven’t really explored it much this whole time I’ve been living in the Northeast. (What is wrong with me??)
5. Not Boston-related, but would like to go home as much as I can 
6. Sign up for a few more road races 
7. Go to a country concert

OK, that’s all for now folks! Have a great night!