Lone Wolf Misses her Pack

Americorps ruined my ability to be alone.

I have today off. A Saturday. A whole day. I was ecstatic when I saw the schedule. And yesterday I found out I have tomorrow off too. Two days of being alone? Two days spent in solitude watching hulu with my cat? I couldn't take it. When David had three days in a row off last week I teased him for not taking advantage of that and doing something awesome. So I figured I would pop back to CT for the weekend. Have some family fun time, and spend the whole weekend around people. I couldn't find an affordable flight that fit my time schedule.

I used to be great at being alone. I could hole up in my room for days at a time with a stack of books and only come out for meals. Now I can't even sit still for a whole day. I wish I had a ten-person team living with me. I never thought I could actually be this lonely.

I went to a yoga class at the gym. Then a quick run in the sunshine at Wash Park. And then met up with Liz for lunch. I'm glad I didn't break our lunch date because Liz is feeling the same kind of lonely that I am.

New Fav Recipe: Mango Curry Vegetables

This is my new favorite recipe! I like to make a big batch at the begining of the week, then take a tupperware full to work to heat up. And like most recipes I make it can be concocted with whatever you have lying around. Heres what this week's recipe includes:

1 bag of frozen spinach
1 bag of frozen cauliflower
1/2 cup of frozen peas
1/2 cup of frozen corn
1 can of garbanzo beans
1 can of diced tomatoes
The 1/2 head of broccoli that has been sitting in the fridge for two weeks...
1 onion, chopped and sauteed to a caramelized deliciousness
1/3 cup lentils, soaked/boiled until soft
1/2 a brick of tofu
1 Jar of Patak's Mango Curry Simmer Sauce

Directions:
Defrost/cook all the frozen vegetables by microwaving them, or boiling them, boil the broccoli and the lentils, open all the cans and jars, mush up the tofu and then mix everything together.

Thats it! I then portion it into tupperware so I can just grab them as I'm running out the door in the mornings, and this recipe made ten servings of over a cup of delicious veggies.

12 hours of catch-up sleep

I am pretty sure I slept close to 12 hours last night. Which makes up for only getting 4 the night before. I have to work an 8 hour shift at Safeway, so I didnt head straight to the gym. It snowed last night, which I wasn't expecting, but based on last night's temperature, I'm not surprised. I was going to walk to work, but the streets were okay, so I biked. I'm now sitting in Starbucks with a wet butt, and a dirty messenger bag.

This week Noel and I applied for a job working as a team for Bikes Belong, working on their 'People for Bikes' campaign. It would involve the two of us traveling around and talking to people about bikes. So basically our dream job. We'd be doing alot of the things we gave experience doing as Americorps team leaders, arranging travel, communicating with people at the different locations we'd go to (just like NCCC project sponsors), coordinating volunteers, etc. So when I said that after Americorps ended all I wanted to do was ride my bike, eat burritos, and live with Noel, this is clearly exactly what I had in mind!

It would be a six month position, which for the experience I think is totally worth it. I doubt that there will be many times in my life where I'm willing and able to just drop everything and take off to talk about bikes. Dont get me wrong, I love my job. I like being able to go to work, and know that I'm helping people, and I like the office I work in (yesterday the phones and computers were down for maintenance so we had pizza at our team meeting, then went to Pheonix Multisport to take a tour of their sober gym). But I'm not really in a "settled down" frame of mind. I want to bike across the coutry again, or be able to take an Americorps job and just relocate to a new place at the drop of a hat.

P.S. Dear Dad, I wrote this post on my phone so please forgive any spelling and grammar errors you find.

Urban Hiking (and other reasons my legs hurt)

This week was awesome! I only managed to run 22 miles, and art of that was because after Tuesday's kickboxing class I couldn't walk properly, let alone run, for about 2 two days. That class incorporated alot of squats, and tons of cardio. Honestly during the class I felt like I was going to throw up. I haven't worked out that hard in a long time. And literally the next day, even walking down an escalator made my thighs ache. I have Tuesday night off again this week, so I hope to go again! This Tuesday is also our office bowling party to celebrate reaching our follow-up percentage goal!

Thursday night the snow storm of the year started. It snowed from about 6pm Thursday until late Saturday morning. So Friday the office was closed, and I didn't have to leave the house, and of course did not make it to the gym. I did have to work at the grocery store though. And when I arrived Malika said to me "Please tell me you did not ride your bike in this snow." Me: " No, no, that would be crazy...I walked" And at that, everyone in the deli looked at me like I was insane!

Well I walked to Safeway and back for the last two days, and on the shoveled sidewalks it felt like hiking that old trail behind our Forest Service cabin up in Lake George. And the three miles to the store took about an hour. So an hour both ways, two days...leading to more and more soreness in my legs. I cant wait until I don't have to wear three pairs of pants to stay warm; I'm going to have killer thighs!

Last Sunday Liz Cheuk took Noel and I up to Breckenridge to see the international ice sculpture finalists. So we spent some time seeing giant sculptures, walking in the chilly sunshine, and eating crepes at a cute french cafe! It was the kind of day spent with friends that just makes you smile.