While Philly Slept

beep.... beep... beep... I wake up with a start, its still dark out. I roll over and look at the clock.. this seemed like a better idea when I went to bed last night. It is not really that early for most of the world, but I am not a morning person, so for me it feels miserable to be rolling out of bed this early. Its 6am. I sleepily put on my yoga pants, tank top, and sneakers, brush my teeth, grab my water & ipod.. and with that, I am out the door.

Its 6:15 and I go out to empty quiet streets, with the exception of one man walking his dog. This is something I rarely see in Philadelphia. The world seems calm, most houses are still dark with their occupants far away in dream land. I am waking up as I drive, taking notice of how beautifully empty and not conjested the streets are at this time of day. I never really have been out this early to take advantage of that. My usual routine involves fighting hordes of traffic on an eight mile commute that takes upwards of forty minutes most mornings. I pull into the gym and look inside at the people who are already mid-workout. THOSE must be the real morning people, I thought to myself. I wonder what time they go to bed at night? Probably  not 11:30 pm like me.

I get on the treadmill and begin to run. I have been trying my damnedest to like running, but I really really don't inherently like it. I think I was about 10 minutes in before I actually started to enjoy myself. I finish my run incredibly slow jog, feeling energized. I do some stretching and some weights and I am out the door in record time. Its 7:20 and I head back to my house to shower and get ready for work. I get out of the shower feeling great, go downstairs to pack breakfast, lunch, and a to-go mug of coffee. Its 8:00 am and I am out the door again. The streets are crowded this time. Philly has woken up.. and cars clog the narrow, hilly streets of the Yunk. I flip on Q102 and DJ Pauly D is being interviewed. Wow, I feel great today I thought to myself. I never feel that way, usually I am just waking up as the first car cuts me off in the traffic jam.  Today is going to be a great day.

There are so many pros to going to the gym in the AM before work:
1. Far less crowded, can do a better work out in half the time
2. Afternoons are free to do what you please. I hate feeling like I need to go somewhere else after work. When I am done with work, I just want to go home and eat dinner and relax.
3. I am more energised when I haven't worked all day.
4. I think its easier to get up at 6 and not rush then get up at 7:30 and run around like a crazy like I usually do.

Only one con:
I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON. Thus, I plan to try and fit this into my morning routine twice a week. I think this is doable, and not unreasonable.

Another addition to my morning routine I want to share comes courtesy of my sorority sister from college, Erica, of http://4thesakeofcake.com. She has been talking about "overnight oats" on a lot of her recent blogs in her quest to find a healthy, but filling breakfast.I had read a few posts of hers so I decided to give it a try and have loved it. Here is the recipe I use, but you can do a lot with this.

Overnight oats:

• 1/3 c. old fashioned oats
• 1/3 c. plain Chobani
• 1/8 c. milk
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 1 handful blueberries
• 4 thinly sliced strawberries
• a sprinkle of chocolate chips

Directions: combine first four ingredients & stir. Place in refrigerator over night. In the morning, stir again and add more milk if necessary. Top with next 3 ingredients and enjoy.

This is cold oatmeal and awesome for a breakfast on the go. The oats absorb the milk and yogurt overnight and create a filling cereal with a great consistency. Give it a try. The best part is, this recipe can be modified to include all different flavors and tastes!

Life in the Fast Lane

Life has been flying by again. I keep meaning to post, and another week passes. Like I said last time, Joe moved in and we have spent the last few months adjusting from seeing each other once every week and on the weekends to every night, every day.. all the time. It has been a hard adjustment and the things that have been hard about it are not what I expected would be. I think the hardest thing is division of labor. We are both busy, we both work, and neither of us really want to do chores when we get home.. but they need to get done, and we need to figure out who is best suited to do each thing and with Joe studying for the PE it has been stressful and a lot of the burden of the house has fallen on me.  Its a constant push pull. Also, there are little things I never noticed before about his personality that now annoy me now that we are together so often. Overall, I am happy, but it has definitely been an adjustment. Each week gets better and I think its going to work out fine.

Back in February we celebrated our 3rd Valentines day. Joe sent flowers to work and we went out for a nice dinner. He never disappoints me in regards to this holiday.. sooo.. on March 14th we celebrated the "man version" of Valentines day... if you don't know what that is.. look it up.. hahah.

Also in February we made a overnight trip to his shore house to meet some of his friends in Atlantic City. We had a nice time but ended up walking away losers from the casino and his friends friends were not all that pleasant to hang out with. The only silver lining of this day was that I feel that I looked pretty cute... hahah.



In the beginning of March, Joe and I attended Philly Craft Beer Fest for the second year in a row. We met up with my friend Allie from work and a few of her friends. She made shirts, pretzel necklaces,  and we wore funny glasses. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a great time trying all of the beer.

Last Thursday, my mom and I made an impromptu four day trip to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect. I took off out of Philadelphia after work on Thursday and got to the Marriott Harbor Beach around 9 pm. It was only a 2 hour flight from Philadelphia. On Friday morning we woke up and had a buffet breakfast and sat by the pool all day. At night, we went to a restaurant called Grill 66 which was right on the harbor and had a marina. Let me tell you, the yachts in this marina were amazing! One was bigger then the next. The "small" boats were about 70 feet in length. The 87th largest yacht in the world was parked there and Steven Spielberg's yacht had just pulled out the night before. It is unimaginable to me how much money must have been sitting on this dock. I need to figure out what they do for a living.

On Saturday we woke up and sat by the pool again. The weather was perfect. At night we took a cab to the shopping district and bought some new bathing suits, a cover up and a floppy hat because I have  been wanting one for the shore this summer. After our shopping we went to dinner. We sat down at a moderately fancy restaurant next to a couple who at first I perceived as normal. The more my mom and I listened to them talk the more we couldn't help laughing out loud! The guy was the most pretentious guy I have ever met and my recount of this story does not even do him justice. He was saying how he is the only one who works hard at his company and how he makes all this money. He was cursing, and groping the girl sitting across from him, who was eating up every word. As we sat there we couldn't figure this couple out. Was this a first date, a wife, a mistress? The world will never know. As we sat there, there appetizers came, the waiter sets down caprese salad and calamari. The guy goes "wait we ordered the F***in caprese salad" (tomatoes and mozzarella are obviously sitting on the plate). The waiter goes " that is what you have in front of you". Then the guy proceeds to make comments about the tentacles on the calamari as if he had never seen calamari before. It was so awkward, we were about a foot away and laughing so hard we were crying. The icing on the cake.. was the guy said after the meal. "I just want to take you back to the hotel and bang you". Lets vote - husband, first date, affair?

On Sunday we spent the day sitting at the ocean. At night we went to the Hardrock Hotel on the Seminole Indian Reservation to gamble and have dinner. We had a great time however I ended up misplacing my license and didn't realize it until we started packing to get onto our 6 am flight back to Philadelphia. I had my dad fax me a copy of my birth certificate, but you cant imagine the hard time the TSA gave me about getting on the plane sans license. I almost had to become a Lauderdale resident, but was eventually allowed through security.

All and all I would highly recommend Ft. Lauderdale for a quick getaway.

So, that's whats happening in my neck of the woods.. at least that is the notable stuff. Back to real work now. Happy Friday! xoxo.