Mismichmatchedy Kinda Feeling!

Hi all,
I have a lot of thoughts bumping around my old brain today so hang on tight.

Before I dive into the cranial abyss though I have to share a funny thing that just happened to me-as in 30 seconds ago. My fave co-worker (and by fave I do mean the only other young person I work with who happens to be a cool guy-but we aren't besties or anything) just rolled over to my desk (well, he sits right behind me-so it was like 2 feet!) with a can of mixed nuts and just sits there for a second. I was like, "hey-what's up" he proceeds to stick the can out and ask if I knew what each of the nuts where! haha....turns out the silly boy has never had mixed nuts before and could only pick out peanuts! I love this kid!

Anywho- quick weekend recap before I wander into some other things. Orlando was a blast as always-I didn't get on the road as quickly as I had hoped as I got super held up at work (again!) but once I arrived and then dropped YogaGF off with her friends (we carpooled over but each had our own agendas for the weekend) and finally arrived at my BESTIE's House! It had been nearly 2 months since I'd seen her and almost 3 since my last O-town trip and that is just ridiculousness-especially considered we were only a every other weekend visit for a bit-just like joint custody kids-or in my case joint city love! haha. She is amazing and had 3 bottles of champagne waiting my arrival plus some whole grain penne and an amazing Fra Diablo sauce by Archer Farms. I soooo adore their products-get to your nearest Target and try anything by them out. Yum! Again-sorry for the lack of photos but I get caught up in the moment a lot and don't want to stop the flow of things to snap a pic. Anyways 1 and 1/2 bottles of wine (Cold Duck and then we stitched to this yummy "cool red" that is meant to be served chilled) and a jar of pasta sauce down plus a few hours of gossip we called it a night knowing we would have a busy day soon arriving filled with inflatable waterslides and a house tour!
Saturday morning OrlandoBestie and I drove over to the house she and her bf have a contract on so I could see the place. It's an amazing historic craftsman house that is quite the fixer-upper but I am completely supportive of their decision and if all goes well can't wait to spend many nights at their new place grilling out and and enjoying many a glass of wine on the huge front porch! But wait, you might be saying-what was this about a waterslide? Oh, yes-oh yes! The "family" (I love that I'm a part of most of the family parties now!) threw a party for her little bro for graduating fire college and passing his FireFighter and EMT tests and we rented this huge waterside:
Of course I don't have any actual shots of us enjoying this beast- they are on someone else's camera, but it was AMAZING. I totally got a full body workout and didn't feel bad for choosing an extra hour of sleep that morning over taking advantage of the great running track in Waterford. I even went down this badboy face first and for those of you who know what a fraidy cat I am-that is pretty amazing...no alcohol involved either! We had considered going out to a wine bar or something that night but after 7ish hours of climbing-playing king of the mountain-slipping and siding (especially after we all got dosed with the economy size softsoap by the dad of the house) we were pooped and passed out by 10pm!

The next morning I slipped out quietly (well as quietly as one can with a 100+lb dog who is REALLY, I mean REALLY excited for a car ride) and made the quick trip back to St. Pete to meet up with my wonderful Mom who is off work for the summer and came down for a long weekend with me! It was so beyond amazing to spend some quality time with my mom and we just poked around vintage shops (I got a sweet old frame for one of my posters-I'll take a pic once I have it framed to share with you guys!) and then got some home stuff at Target to spice up my new couch...again the pictures are on their way-I just have to rearrange some wall art and I'm done! Love it though-the pillows we got for the couch look like they came together and really just makes the whole room pop! LOVE IT. My BFF from HS also rolled into town that night-as I had promised to take her to the airport the next morning- and she is like a second daughter to Mom so the three of us trooped out to my fave Mexican place here in St. Pete- Red Mesa!
Seriously- this place rocks my socks off. And they just opened a Cantina downtown so if you are anywhere near St. Pete come check them out! We got the ceviche special (which changes all the time-always for a good treat) that was shrimp, calamari, and sweet potato all served up in a super spicy creamy chipotle amilura sauce. Divine. Oh and two pitchers of sangria too. :D It was so great just to gab it up with 2 of my favorite ladies.

After dropping my girl off at the airport on Monday morning (I took the day off) Mum and I had a lazy morning that included an incredibly HOT morning run (it wasn't even 9am yet, damn!). Ok, well I ran-she walked and then I limped because my right knee hates me-more about that soon. After some hasty showers and a yummy pepper and onion scramble made by yours truly we toured a few downtown apartments. But alas I think I will be staying on the north end of St. Pete for now, as much as I love downtown and would really benefit from walking to work (not to mention getting away for my lunch breaks too!) but I can't afford the nice places and everything else is small or I would be giving up the great amenities that I have now (IE w/d in unit, dishwasher, pool, parking space, etc) so I'll just hang tight for now. After a superhot day of walking around in the downtown heat we hit up my Monday night yoga class with Denise which I am happy to report Mom LOVED. Not that I was worried, she practiced yoga when she was my age and even did baby yoga with me when I was born, no wonder I love it too! She said she was so inspired to start practicing at home again (My parents still live in the same rural community I grew up in so one would have to drive at least an hour to get to a studio). After class we hit up my favorite downtown bistro, Z-Grille
I stumbled across this place a few months ago and was smitten. Any place that has daily deviled egg specials, fresh oysters from multiple locations across the country and amazing soups has my vote. And it turns out Mondays are 1/2 off bottle nights, so Mom and I spilt an amazing 2007 Argentine Malbec called Tila. Neither of us had tried this grape before and I have to tell you, it may be my new fave! It was a great night and we may have had some trouble sorting out tip percentages but worked it out in the end......Silly bottle of wine! ;)

So, now that a new weekend is hoovering on the horizon you finally are up to speed on last weekends fesvtivies!
On to the jostling thoughts in my brain: I've had an up and down week-mostly due to work but I am on the cusp of starting a new phase of my life (I hope, atleast!) that I will share with you all once I have more concrete info-but I've taken a big step out of my comfort zone and am excited to see what happens.
As usual when I'm feeling nervous about something I've been clinging to my ipod like life support and right now nothing makes me happier than the beautiful voice of Anthony Raneri of Bayside. I've had their album Acoustic on loop for a few days now and it hits the spot. Beautiful. Sexy. Poignant.

In other news I don't have any fun foodie things for you-I've been living off leftovers from the weekend and week 2 of my groceries (a whole unopened spinach bit the dust-or rather turned to mush, on me though....serious bummer since I've been craving GM's like mad, but I must stick to my 2 week shopping rule or I will go in the red and that would be worse than being spinachless) but I have been thinking a lot about my fitness goals, especially after reading Angela's post on goals. So, in a very particular order, here they are and a time scale:

2-Run a mile: soon!
3-Race the 5k: August 12th
4-Up my cycling/possibly get a road bike: ASAP but probably not until Sept.
5-Start swimming in open water :(do you see where this is leading......?): see above
6-Compete in a triathlon: Sometime 2010!

So, whatdoya think about dat? I realized as I was pumping out 12 miles on the kickback bike yesterday after my knee said "hell no, bitch" to running a mile on the treadmill that it is not likely that I will ever be a long distance runner, like Meghann, who does marathons and inspirited me to start seriously training to run in the first place, I just don't get the bliss out of it like others do, but I do love to swim and cycle....so, as you can see by my goals I want to have a solid 5k so I can work on doing a tri, cause lord have mercy I want to be a competitive athlete! I really do.

But did any of you notice that number 1 is missing on my list? That is because I need some help from all you real runners out there. My right knee is really giving me trouble, and first I thought it was from this one move on the 30 day Shred, so I stopped that for a few days-no help. I could still run on it, bit really only hurts when I'm doing stairs and I'm aware of it when I'm walking but it doesn't "hurt" per say, I just can tell it feels different than it usually does/the left leg. Then after yoga on Monday I decided it must be due to a over tight hamstring and calf muslces, since I was having difficulty fully extending my leg (I'm actually hyperextened...so this is very strange for me) but even when I get them all nice and lose, still no go. But as I mentioned, I was still doing my run/walks around the neighborhood with no real difficulty. Last night I went to the gym with YogaGF and was bound and determined that I would run a mile on the treadie (which I don't enjoy running on, because I tend to wander when I run and that is hard to control on the mill) but after 0.5 miles my caves were super tight-to the point of pain and my knee was screaming. So I hopped off and stretched it out only to rexperience the same thing 0.2miles later. I called that a night and banged out my 12miles of hills on the kickback bike instead. So, what gives? Is it just the treadmill that is causing the calf tightness? I had it on a 1.5 incline as to not drive down. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

I think that is enough jibba jabba for one day.
Love to all,
~An achy-breaky-knee'd Jess