Running and Resolutions

One of my New Years Resolutions was to start eating healthy, with the benefit of that to be some weight loss. I am happy to report that as of yesterday, I am down 10 pounds!! (Some of it was certainly just holiday pudge, but it is still 10!) Plus, I am finally below a certain number that was haunting me! I would like to lose nine more pounds.

I joined a running group over the winter and have been doing quite a few runs with them. Last week, I ran 20 miles, and this week I will have run 18 after tomorrow. I'm getting faster running with this group, which is totally amazing. I have been wanting to get faster, but I have a hard time forcing myself to run above my most comfortable speed. I am running Broad St in May, and then I think I will run this half marathon in Philly at the end of May. I am playing around with the idea of training for a marathon, but I'm not sure how I feel about it.

On the school front: We had 31 parents out of 53 students come to pick up their kid's report card. That is actually a pretty good turnout. They should be announcing Renaissance Schools on Monday.

Dates: I met a guy at Monk's on Wednesday. He was nice enough, but he misrepresented himself in pictures and laughed at the service learning project my kid's want to do. It really bothered me! Plus, he lives in Conshohocken which is kind of far away. I don't think that I will go out with him again. I had another date last night. We had dinner at the Continental. Really nice guy, easy conversation. I wasn't particularly attracted or not-attracted to him. He also does not live in the city, but there was nothing that stood out that I didn't like. He does karate, which is cool. I guess I am looking for some spark that I haven't found yet.

Chemistry from the beginning is important to me, and in all of my past relationships it was something that brought us together from the beginning. (Clearly they did not work out, but still). Chemistry is more than just on the physical level though, too. There needs to be more than just a conversation going on - I'm not really sure how to put into words what I mean, but when you are talking/meeting/having dinner with someone - there is physical chemistry, but also there is chemistry in the way you interact, what types of things you talk about. You have to click. And I havent really found that with the people I've met on match.

I think that people should be with a person that makes them the best versions of themselves, and I have never found that. Of the guys I have dated, even the ones that I really liked, I have always compromised some important part of myself or changed (slightly, not drastically) something about myself. Whether it's the way someone treated me, or the amount of alcohol I drank, or safe sex ... I'm all for compromising in relationships, but if you don't help me be the best version of myself, then I shouldn't be with you. And that goes both ways. I think that if there is the physical/emotional/intellectual chemistry, then helping each other be the best they can should come naturally. It certainly isn't something you can force.

Dating update

Here is a quick recap on recent events:

1. Went out on 3 dates with the Pharmaceuticals guy. On the third date, we went to Dave and Busters. I didn't have as good of a time as I hoped that I would. We didn't talk after that, but it was mutual. I didn't contact him, and he didn't contact me. Ultimately, he was nice - but we didn't completely click, and I don't want to date someone who doesn't drink at all.

2. Went on two dates with the guy who works in the casino. We went to Bar Ferdinand for our second date. He is a nice guy, but I am just not physically attracted to him. We had tentative plans set to go out again on Thursday, but I am just not feeling him - so I just texted him to let him know that I am not interested. Nice guy, but no dice.

3. The Drexel med student isn't working out. He had exams for two weeks, then we tried to meet up the Saturday of St. Patrick's Day - but it just wasn't meant to be. haha. I totally don't believe in that, but we weren't able to meet up. Then, he was home all last week for spring break. He said he'd call when he got back, but I don't think that will happen. Honestly, if we can't go on a second date within a month of the first date, it probably won't work out.

4. I randomly joined eHarmony today. I am kind of sick of match.com and my suscription runs out soon. I found a good $19.95 promo online so I went with it. I will let you know what I think.

5. I am meeting a few more guys from match this week. What do you want to bet that I like one of them since I just spent more money on eharmony? :) I have plans to go to the Continental on Friday and possible plans on Saturday to meet someone for a drink.

St. Patrick's Day!

Katie and Brooke came to visit two weekends ago, the 13th and 14th of March. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day Philly style with our own personal version of the Erin Express. Not deterred by pouring rain, we got decked out in our kelly green and went to an empty New Wave for brunch. We then headed to Moriarty's to drink bud light in a green bottle with Becca and friends. After that, we ran across the street to Irish Pub, where we spent approximately the next 4 hours. We had a really good time there, so our original plans to hit up Erin Express bars were postponed (maybe next year).

Becca's boyfriend, Brandon, and some of his friends were pounding the Irish Car Bombs, but we decided to stick with just one. After a couple hours, we got out our Irish temporary tattoos and went to town. The pot of gold on my foot took about 4 days to scrub off!

We left Irish Pub to go to Mad Mex in University City around 6 - shortly after Katie's phone broke in two, literally. We had dinner there, and then we headed to my sister's - her and Candie were having a little party. Some people didn't show up due to the rain, but it was a nice little turn out anyway.

Sunday morning, Katie, Brooke, and I had brunch at Sabrinas and walked around the Italian Market before they headed back home. It was a great weekend! :)

Birthday Party!

My birthday party was a ton of fun! My friend Liz came up from Baltimore and at one point, I counted 25 people in my apartment!

For starters, I wore an adorable outfit. We had an amazing taco bar that was a big hit, and people brought lots of Mexican themed fun snacks like guacamole, black bean dip, tortilla chips, etc. We had lots of booze - various Mexican beers, bud light (thanks to Becca), sangria with fruit and brandy (thanks to Megan and Mike), and margaritas (thanks to C, H, and H!) I, of course, partook in all of the various alcoholic beverages. After awhile, we had two lively games of Apples to Apples going on (one in each room), and I think everyone had a lot of fun!

I was definitely tipsy/drunk and having a great time, and everyone started leaving around 12:30-1:00. Around that time, Megan mentioned going to a bar to meet her friend from work. I decided that this would be a fantastic idea, despite my sister and Liz trying to convince me not to go (taking back their initial enthusiasm). Well, it was my birthday, so off we went. We took a cab all the way to 16th or 17th and got a beer when we got there.

This is what I remember: talking to Megan's friend, falling off of a bar stool. That's all. We came home not long after arriving, and I went to the bathroom (where I threw up). Keep in mind that I do not remember this. The next day, I woke up - not feeling too terrible - and promptly went back to sleep. We went to Sabrina's for brunch, and after that, I felt totally fine. So fine, that I went for a run later that evening.

That cute sweater I'm wearing in the picture? It's missing. I have absolutely no idea what happened to it. My skirt was in the bathroom. My tank top in my hamper. I thought that maybe I left it in the bar, but my much more sober sister told me that I did not even take my coat off there. It's the mystery of the evening. If it turns up at any of your homes, please comment and let me know.

A few more pictures from the evening:

Dates and Updates

So I went out with the guy from the northeast again last Tuesday night. He normally works on Tuesdays, but he switched around his schedules. We went to Bar Ferdinand and got a yummy cheese plate, a meat plate, some calamari and dessert. He was cuter than I remembered him being, and I had a good time with him - it was very comfortable conversation, etc... but I'm just not really sure how much spark there is there for me. He is in Puerto Rico this week, and he called me yesterday to see how I was doing, etc... which was really nice. I'm going to go out with him one more time and see how it goes. He is in school, and he also works a lot. I think he has off Friday nights but works every Saturday. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I dated someone for about 9 months who worked the complete opposite of me, and it can be really draining on a relationship after awhile.

I've had some contact with the Med Student. I had a really nice time with him, and he said he was going to call sometime yesterday/today. I got an email yesterday saying that he had tried to call and would call back today, but I never had a missed call. He texted me this morning to wish me a happy birthday and said he would call. He hasn't yet, but there is still time. He just finished his mid term exams (as a second year med student he is quite busy), but his birthday was a couple weeks ago... so he said about doing something for our birthdays. I hope we do get together, because I have been on like 6 dates (3 different guys) since I met him 2 1/2 weeks ago, but I'm still going back to wanting to get to know him better and such. I haven't forgotten about him yet and am still quite interested, so that must be a good sign. I like that he emailed to say that he called (and he had emailed over the weekend to say that he texted, but I didn't get that one either).... we shall see.

Today is my birthday! I had a special birthday lunch and a birthday dinner today, plus a birthday nap, a birthday cupcake, birthday balloons ... and I had a fun party on Saturday. I have friends coming into town this weekend to continue celebrating and am going to the Fridays After 5 thing at the art museum with some friends this Friday to celebrate too! I am such a lucky girl!! (Celebrating is a little exhausting though ... and not so good for losing weight!!)

I'll update with pics and stories from Saturday when I can.

Preview: Awesome party, 2nd tequila shot was a bad decision, bar at 1:30AM was a bad decision, but didn't feel so bad on Sunday as a result of the effects of the bad decision! Oh, and the cab driver gave me a bottle of water on the way home from the bar I shouldn't have gone to. And I managed to lose my cardigan, but not my coat or phone or purse.

3rd date

I went on my third date with the crepes guy on Monday.

I went in with expectations that were maybe a little too high. We went to Dave and Busters, and we had a good time - but he wouldn't play DDR with me. It made me sad. I also suggested Guitar Hero, and he didn't want to play that either. We played plenty of other games, and he didn't make fun of me when I was bad at basketball - but I think that I wanted him to. (is that weird?)

He is really nice, and I have a nice time with him - but I feel like we haven't gotten to know the quirky sides of each other, so it's not completely real. You may be thinking: but it is only the third date. But it's already the third date. I do like him, and I'm attracted to him - so we'll just have to see if there will be a fourth. If he asks, I will go and see how it goes. I think that a fourth date will have to be a little more intimate (ie. dinner and movie at my house or his house or something).

Also, he doesn't drink. I don't want that to be a deal breaker, but I like to drink beer and drink wine with dinner. I'm not sure I want to date someone where I have to be embarrassed that I don't remember walking home on Saturday - or that won't have wine with me at a BYO or a beer at happy hour.

I guess we will have to see. He has a friend in town this week. I was considering asking him to come to my birthday party - but I didn't. I don't know.

Pre-Birthday Celebrations

On Saturday, Meg P came to visit me in Philly for round 1 of the birthday celebrations. As soon as she got here, she locked her keys in the car at the parking garage. It was a new car, and she didn't realize that it locks automatically or something. We waited maybe 20 minutes for AAA, and the guy was able to jimmy it open pretty easily.

We then went to the grocery store and bought lots of food to make some yummy thai/indian/some type of curry. My sister and my friend Sarah both came over for dinner, and it was delicious!! I was a little stressed near the beginning because I was cooking curry - which I never done before ... and I managaed to spill coconut milk all over the stove (which my roommate said looked like baby puke), but it turned out great. Not too curry actually, because there were so many vegetables and should have been twice as much coconut milk, etc - but that's alright. There's always next time.

I drank a lot of wine with dinner. Woo. Then we went out to Sugar Mom's for a fancy can of PBR (woodchuck for megp) and had a photo shoot in the bumper cars.


We met up with my friend Megan and her boyfriend Mike at Sugar Mom's around 11 and after awhile we headed over to National Mechanics for a little dancing. I only had 3 beers out, but the wine I had with dinner really went to my head. I had a good time at National Mechanics dancing and what not.



After we left National Mechanics, Meg, my sister, and I went to the South St Diner, which is now open 24 hours. It's a little blurry after that, but I remember that I got the hiccups and we apparently walked my sister to her car and then went home. I woke up the next day and had shut the cats in the room with me. I almost always shut them out of the room. Not sure what I was thinking. Oh wait, the wine was thinking. I was passed out, but Meg said the cats walked over her a bit.

We woke up around 10 the next morning. I wasn't hung over - but I was still completely exhausted. Meg wanted a cheesesteak, which I ate and it promptly made me feel ill. Don't worry, I went to the gym anyway. Bad idea. It was a rough two miles, let me tell you. But I finished it anyway.