bitter magnet

ok well yesterday i was supposed to run 12 miles (in preparation for the half marathon), but instead i went on a 2-hour and 15-minute hike/jog with my dad (around Fountaingrove). That place is super hilly which is why i say hike instead of walk (i personally can't jog up it). it was quite a workout...by the time we got home (around 5) i just went ahead and ate lunch right away (i was starving!). after that, i watched a couple TV shows with my parents (king of queens, everybody loves raymond) and then later this movie with julie andrews in it (one special night).

anyways, right now i finished breakfast and i feel like i just swallowed a bowling ball. i was starving when i woke up this morning, and all i ate was a cheese stick, a few rice crackers, a few rasperries, 2 mini muffins, 2 rice cakes with cream cheese & peanut butter, and a bowl of maple sugar oatmeal (with added oatbran). oh and of course then some hot chocolate. :) lol that may sound like a huge breakfast to you but that is quite normal for me. i started feeling rather full after the oatmeal. i think it's because oats and oatbran expand by quite a bit when you add water. i guess that's a good thing. it has a lot of fiber, and it keeps you from eating more.

well whatever, can't think about that now...i get to see Michael in less than 12 hours!! I'm so excited. Yeah, it will have been exactly 5 days since i last saw him, but if you knew Michael you would understand...it is difficult to stay away from him for long. he is so sweet, caring, funny, every positive characteristic you could possibly imagine (i wonder how he puts up with me sometimes!). like, he's so nice he makes me want to be a better person. plus he's really cute. what can i say, i'm a lucky gal! :)

well, i just went to the Starbucks website and found some nutritional information on a few of the best-tasting drinks/snacks they have to offer (a "grande" is the medium size, 16 oz):

Caramel Apple Cider, w/ whipped cream (grande) - 410 calories (has 68 grams of sugar)
Eggnog Latte, w/ whipped cream (grande) - 510 calories (39 g sugar, 29 g fat)
Tazo Chai (grande) - 290 calories (48 g sugar)
Classic Coffee cake bar (139g)- 570 calories (45 g sugar, 29 g fat)
Crunchy Oatmeal bar (110g)- 430 calories (only 22 g sugar, but 24 g of fat)

hm. so even if you split with someone and only consume *half* a drink (8oz) and *half* a bar (a small "snack", if you even could call it that), it comes out to be around 400-520 calories (!) that's insane!! it's crazy because eating an entire Odwalla bar (240 cal, for a ~50 g bar) and making a Tazo Chai at home (8oz serving, made with stevia , whole milk and a dollop of whipped cream would be about 90 cal) would not only be less calories (330), but it would be much more satisfying, more filling, more nutritious, and less likely to leave you hungry for more (since it has much less sugar). plus you don't have to wait in line. :)

anyway, i just think everyone should be aware of the nutritional value of food/drinks available in cafes, restaurants, etc. i mean, i don't believe sugar is the root of all evil or anything (ok, well maybe i do ;-D) but i think folks in general are not aware of how much sugar are in everyday beverages, goodies, etc. apparently folks think that if it's low/nonfat or doesn't have cheese, nuts, or cream involved then it must be healthy/low-calorie/good for you. LOL. the moral of story: if you're ever at Starbucks, save yourself an insulin spike and go with the Tazo herbal tea (it's actually quite good). however, if you must splurge, there's always the gym (an hour of running 6 mph burns off about 600 calories).

ok, it's 12:39PST, and i'm still in my PJ's. hmm. well at least i ate breakfast, that's one productive thing i've done today. ;-)

anyways, my excuse is earlier was that it was raining, and thus too annoying to go outside and do anything. but now that it's just "partly cloudy" and 55 degrees, i have no excuse. plus i have to run at least 3 miles today in preparation for the half marathon which is in 8 days (damn!). got to get a move on!

never thought i'd say it, but i think i'm finally *sick* of shopping! :) today i went to Old Navy, and between my mom and I spent $110 (however, we got a $25 coupon so it was only $85, but still). it wasn't all mine though, my mom had to buy a few things for herself and for her friends. then later on we picked up my brother from work and went to BigLots! (like MacFrugal's or Pic-n-Save, which is basically like a dollar-store that has a lot of extremely cheap stuff). we bought more junk there, dropped Daniel off, and then went to Bed Bath and Beyond. by that time (~5pm) the traffic sucked *big-time,* especially in the shopping center parking lots. i think everyone (like ourselves) is trying to squeeze in some last-minute shopping. anyways, we spent an hour at BBBY, just looking around at all the cool kitchen gadgets and stuff. i bought my mom and nonstick frying pan (i saw that her current one is getting really old, and needs to be thrown out) and i bought my dad some soap and towels (i wanted to get him something that he'd actually use).

oh, and on the way home we went to Oliver's Market, which is a stone's throw (well, not really, maybe a mile?) away from our house. it's great cuz it has a lot of organic and natural foods, so i loaded up on garbanzo bean flour, almond milk, oat & millet cereal, and rice crisps. by the time we got home it was around 7:30, and luckily we had some chicken soup (noodle-free) waiting at home, to quench our hunger. :)

anyway, at this time i'm realizing that over these past few weeks, i have bought quite a bit of stuff..and it's not just on gifts i bought for other people-i think that all the shopping mania has conned me into buying stuff for myself. :) last week in Vancouver, i bought a MEC backpack (~C$80), a Helly Hansen jacket (and an exericse shirt, C$80 total). Here in California i bought about $40 worth of Old Navy clothes, and a few little other random items that i normally don't buy year-round (a plastic crate for my bike, a huge tube of fluoride-free toothpaste..etc). oh well. in january, once i get back to boston, i won't be doing much shopping (it'll be too cold to go anywhere!)

this morning i woke up quite sore in my upper arms..i guess it's from all the exercise (running & pilates) i did yesterday. it's strange though, since yesterday i was noticing that i didn't feel tired or anything like that at all...i guess the soreness just takes a day or so to "get through"..

anyway this morning i made cheese omelettes for breakfast, for my mom & i. she ate hers in a sandwich (my mom is a bread addict) and i ate mine with salsa and sour cream, which i actually like better than ketchup (regular ketchup is way too sweet for me). also i had hot chocolate (as usual). it's great, my mom has all these packets of Nestle hot chocolate (with marshmallows) that she has leftover from her work (apparently the school bought some to make with the kids, and they had some extra). i tried it and it's actually really good! i'm sure when Michael comes over (the 26th) he will like this, possibly better than the Swiss Miss mix that i had in Vancouver. however, the Nestle mix has partially-hydrogenated soybean oil :( so it's not something i am going to have regularly. however what i usually do to "minimize the damage" is have half a package with 2 tsp of raw cocoa and add sweetener and some half-and-half. and vanilla as well. oh, and of course cinnamon. and cornstarch. maybe ground cloves too. ha, Michael wasn't exaggerating when he said my hot chocolate has 10 ingredients!

well now that i'm in California i am really appreciating the warm weather here! around 1pm i went jogging around the neighborhood (about 7 miles) and it was great..was 58 degrees and sunny. it was a bit windy, but towards the end it actually got too warm! i'm glad that i'll be spending the next ~2 weeks in an area where i can actually jog outside instead of going to the gym (doing 7 miles on a treadmill or a stepper).

anyway, soon afterwards mom & i went to Sonoma to go to a local food market and then later go and pick up a lawn mower from a friend. we got back around 5pm, which is when i had to rush to consume my 2nd meal of the day (i guess you can call it lunch?) before going to Pilates (there's this really cool center in town called Tone which offers Pilates classes). Right next to Tone there was a Verizon store, and after waiting around forever i finally convinced the customer service people to install these two little rubber nubs on my phone (they had fallen off, and the Verizon guy had promised that if they could be replaced at any Verizon store).

well now i'm at home and trying to sort out what to do next. maybe wrap presents, or watch a movie. i have to do some work, but maybe tomorrow.. ;-)

alas, i gave my presentation yesterday..it went ok, no major mistakes (however, there were a few blunders.. i couldn't move the mouse at first so i accidentally brought up the previous speaker's presentation instead of mine; also at first i couldn't work the laser pointer). there were about 4 or 5 questions, which were all right. although the room was big, there weren't a lot of people there (maybe 40 or so?) anyways, Niamh's presentation (around 4pm) also went well.. there were actually a decent amount of people there given the fact that it was the last time slot (around 4pm) of the conference, and a lot of people were taking off by then. i'm glad i diddn't have to leave till today.

oh, and last night i got to see my cousin Jessica, it was great! she actually lives quite near here (apparently near the Silver Spring stop of the Metro). She met me at the Hilton and we walked around, and went out to this Indian restaurant (really good food!). We talked about a lot of stuff, how she was doing, how I was doing, everything. Then we went out to this lounge/cafe thing, to have some drinks. i had some hot chocolate. the mug was so HUGE (must have been like 24 oz) and it had this huge dollop of whipped cream with chocolate syrup on it..it was so good! i didn't finish it all though. anyway, it was great since we talked a lot about our family (our mothers, our grandmother, aunts, etc) and how funny they were. it's so weird how i've known her for more than 20 years...when i was 3 and she was 5 we used to fight like crazy! that's so insane.

i never knew that getting to Washington, DC would be so difficult! let's just say i had a difficult time getting there. if i were to blog the events that happened, it would take forever..so here's a list of numbers, a la style Bridget Jones"

# flights canceled: 2
minutes spent on hold, canceling flights and booking Amtrak train instead: 45
# of cab companies called to get a taxi to south station: 4
# of cab companies who actually answered: 1
hours zipcar was reserved to drive to South Station to catch train: 1.5
# trains missed due to Zipcar getting stuck in snow in parking lot: 1
hours wasted getting Zipcar unstuck, reparking it, and getting my luggage out of it: 1.5
# of zipcards lost to insanity: 1
minutes walking in snow to T station to catch T to South Station: 20
hours spent at south station waiting for the next available train that never came: 3
# cabs that were called but never showed up: 2
# times i fell on ice getting to cab that finally showed up: 1
# times i had to pass through security at Logan: 2
hours spent at Logan Aiport waiting for 6:20am flight to take off: 6 (3 at the gate, 3 in the hangar, on the plane)
# of rooms waiting for me at conference hotel: 0 (reservation was cancelled despite fact that i called earlier saying that i would be arriving a day late)
# of meals eaten in the past 24 hours: 1 (first meal of the day eaten at 5pm in hotel restaurant)

well i am so busy right now i don't know why i even bother to write. oh yeah i do. just have to mention that thursday, friday, sat, and sun i only ate 2 meals per day (just worked out that way for some reason), and in those four days ran a total of 19 miles (including about 30 minutes of bikeriding). it's crazy, the previous 4 days (sunday-wednesday) i ate 3x a day and did zero exercise..and then all of the sudden i actually catch up. i was surprised i was able to do it..yesterday i ran 7.8 miles and it seemed pretty easy (i would have kept going but it was getting really dark, around 5:20pm). anyways, let's see how i can hold up this week and during IEDM (probably won't get to go running much)....

anyways, speaking of catching up, let's hope i can pull off something similar for my Japanese class. i have an oral exam tomorrow (in approx 12 hours) and a final on Thursday that i have not studied for....maybe if i play the tapes in my sleep?lol

sayonara