1. Unwholly by Neal Shusterman

Summary:

Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa—and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp—people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simultaneously providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand to the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished.

Is it me or does the dude on the cover look like Eminem? He’s all I could think about during that scene. Anyway, this is the second book of the Unwind trilogy and I was pretty excited about it because I loved Unwind. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near as good as the first book. It started off slowly, so I read about 50 pages and put it down for three months until I picked it up again. It took a good hundred pages to get me interested enough that I wanted to finish. Overall, I liked it but it was just disappointing after the first book.

2. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Summary:

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

I liked this one. It was interesting, particularly because something like the Earth’s rotation slowing could really happen which gave it a real/creepy factor. If I can be nit-picky, it started off a bit slow and I got tired of reading, “this was the last time I stepped foot in this house” or “this was the last time I’d play the piano” or “this was the last grape I’d ever eat.” I get it. This was a new time. But overall, it was a really good, fast read. I didn’t love the ending. It wasn’t bad but it ended with no real resolution and makes you want more. Also, it took me till almost the end of the book to figure out what the title meant which was slightly annoying.

3. The Fault in our Stars by John Green

Summary:

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumors in her lungs… for now.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

I loved it. It’s probably the best book I’ve read in the past year or two. It’s so sad and funny and touching. This is the only book I’ve ever read that’s made me laugh out loud. I loved the characters and loved the author’s writing. I definitely recommend this one. Prepare to cry unless you have a cold, black soul

4. Paper Towns by John Green

Summary:

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life–dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge–he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues–and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

After loving The Fault in Our Stars, I was ready for MOAR John Green, and I gotta say…I didn’t like it. It takes place in Orlando, so it was cool to know the streets and landmarks. It also had some of the same humor that I liked so much in TFIOS, but I just didn’t give a shit about any of the characters, especially Margo – the character the entire book is centered around. I don’t even get why Q would care about her so much to go through everything he did to find her. Did not make sense. I considered not finishing the book half way through but I guess I hoped it would get better or I would care at some point but it didn’t happen. I also hated the ending. (Side note: I know Michelle loved this book so maybe I’m just a grumpy old woman.)

5. The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Summary:

Meet Pat. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending for him — the return of his estranged wife Nikki.

I finished this one last night. I know I’m late to the game and probably the only one left that hasn’t seen the movie, but I keep hearing good things so I went for it and loved it. Again, if I can be nit-picky, the sports talk got a little old after awhile but overall it’s such a sweet and (sometimes) funny story. Plus, the ending leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy-like.

What have you read that you love or hate?

Now our favorite thing to do is get an apple and then check out the cute and pathetic that is a begging bunny. Usually she doesn’t stay in one position long enough for us to get a picture, but yesterday she would.not.move and I got begging position #3.

I really want to dress her in a striped jumpsuit.

You hear that, Cely? I thought the weather was perfect during the three weeks I was there. I had to wear a jacket at least three of the days and then layed out in the sun after that to a clear, sunny sky with a cool breeze. I mean, Texas has indecisive weather and gets three months of total suck during the summer that is way worse than Florida, but then it’s over. The cold fronts from the West actually get to you and then you suck it all up and leave Florida in perpetual summer for 10 months of the year. You are rude, Texas. Learn to share those cold fronts.

2. I checked out my Daily Mile and realized there’s not much to do in Killeen.

I’m on a running break for the most part and still managed 84 miles in three weeks. Most of those miles were walking (so I could read books – I’ll tell you about those later) but still, that’s a lot of miles. I don’t think I ever hit 40 miles in a week during marathon training. I mean, I still gained 3.5 lbs during that three weeks. The will to eat crap 24/7 in Texas is a strong force that my inner buffet-lovin’ fat girl just can’t fight.

3. I registered for my first race of next season.

I’m running the Celebration Half Marathon. It’s super cheap ($50), about a half hour away from home, and brand new. This year, I’m really looking forward to running some new races. I’m getting tired of repeating the same ones year after year. So, no full marathons for me yet, though my next (and maybe last) full is going to be Chicago next year. I still have to consult with my personal marathon therapist about that decision.

4.  Speaking of running, I got that fast mile I’ve been working on up to a 7:47 pace last night! It was hard, but I didn’t feel like I was going to die afterwards. I think working on a fast mile has really helped my HIIT runs. This week, and for the first time since February, I was able to do an entire HIIT run without walking and I was back up to my 7:30 interval time. (I had to drop to a 8:00 and 8:30 pace.) So nice to get some speed back!

5. I watched The Office finale last night.

Soooo good. I loved it. Even hubs agreed and said he was happy to see a series finale that didn’t suck for once. It was cute to see what a difference even a crappy office job made in all their lives. I know some people hate The Office, but I’m totally gonna miss it. I loved it with and without Steve Carrell and I’m seriously going to miss everything about Jim.

Oh, and lastly, if you want to read Michelle’s sweet birth story, check it out here. It comes chalk-full of adorable pics of baby Evan and things said about her uterus and vagina that I will never be able to un-read.

Have a good weekend everyone.

I could get used to this going away and coming back thing.

While I was away, Ms. Fancy Pants decided she likes to drink out of a bowl instead of her sippy bottle.

Such a diva. I suppose she’s going to want her lettuce wrapped in bacon next.

I’m probably going to start a weekly (or more like, when I remember) post about her because it was bound to happen at some point. I can’t keep adorable, begging bunny pictures like this to myself.

Anyway, I always make it a point to play the lottery when I’m on travel because it seems like people from out of state always win the Florida lottery and piss me off, so I wanna be the jerk that wins from out of state too. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen and now I need to go to work.

Before I go, I want to say Happy (belated) Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there (especially mine) and a special Happy Mother’s Day to my favorite running mama Michelle. She had her baby yesterday. <3 Go check out her new 9lb chunky monkey that she had sans drugs. Not by choice, of course. Cuz she loves drugs.

I’m pretty sure I’ve done a city-wide tour of fast food and chain restaurants since I’ve been here. It’s ridiculous. I don’t even want to talk about how I migrated from Whataburger to Sonic. Did you know Sonic has 25 flavors of milkshakes? I mean, that’s just a dare waiting to happen.

Some days drag on forever and others aren’t so bad. Minimal access to internet and my beloved phone for three weeks – not fun. Meeting a new friend – fun. Having the gold crown pop off my tooth on Wednesday – not so fun. Getting to see this little lady again – super fun.

I can’t come to Killeen without seeing her. <3

Speaking of days that are better than others, Monday night was one of those. Monday officially made the third week of this trip totally worth it. My co-worker, Ron, and I drove to Austin to see one of my favorite bands that no one’s heard of – IAMX. (By the way, Ron is one of the writers for this blog. Apparently it’s a big deal. So yeah, I know a superstar.) Anyway, the show was at a little venue on 6th street called The Parish.

IAMX is from England and they only have a handful of American tour dates – none of which were in Florida. I even posted about the bands I love that no one’s heard of back in 2011 and they were on the list. So I’ve been waiting for them to get their sweet asses to the states for a long time. When I found out I would be in Killeen when they were in Austin, I begged Ron to go with me, snapped up some tickets, and tried to forget the show was on a Monday night. (Who does that? Honestly.)

The show was amazing. They sound so good live. Though, I saw them back when they were called Sneaker Pimps, so I kinda new that. The whole show was really dark, so this is the best I could do for a picture.

I had such a fun time. I kept telling Ron how heavenly the lead singer’s voice is the whole concert and I think that only partially had to do with the drinks. Maybe. I’m sure he loved me professing my love for the lead singer all night. And being the DD. And taking me to Whataburger at 1:00am. Then there was the part where we still had to go to work the next morning. Actually, he might have gotten the short end of this stick.

So that’s what’s been happening in these parts. Now I’m looking forward to going home and getting back to Crossfit. I’ve kinda been slacking on that front because, well, Crossfit is hard and food is awesome. I’m going to miss wearing my eating pants.

1.  I found heaven.

Heaven is actually located in H.E.B. It’s true. I’m so glad we don’t have this grocery store in Florida because I would be in trouble. My co-worker, Marisa, and I were oogling these cupcakes and giant strawberries for a good five minutes, passed them up (unprecedented), and went to check out only to find another cupcake station set up in the front. So we caved. Well played, H.E.B. Well played.

2. We bought two cupcakes (Oreo and white chocolate raspberry) and a red velvet strawberry that I’m sure will cause some life threatening illness later in life.

I don’t even want to know what was used to grow that thing but I’m fairly certain it wasn’t natural.

3. The Killeen Mall has a pet store with bunnies!

Look at that sweet bunny face! I just want to snuggle the crap out of him.

4. At my co-workers insistence, I tried Whataburger for the first time.

Now I need to make a public apology to Whataburger for dissing you all these years. I thought you were the ugly step-sister of Hardees. I laughed when your location closed in Orlando. But I was wrong, you are delicious.

I pretty much haven’t stopped talking about that burger since last week because I was so surprised it didn’t suck. When you order, you get a number to place on your table so they can bring the food out to you. When they bring the food, they offer an actual platter of different ketchups. A platter! So fanci I have to spell it with an i.

5. New favorite drink alert!

Texas has given me a gift and this is it. That’s Fireball and Angry Orchard cider. Amazing. Drinking two of those really fast not recommended, though.

6. I tried Freebirds for the first time.

Melissa told me to try Freebirds because it’s “10x better than Chipotle.” She was right. That place is delicious, although their service is 10x slower. My co-workers liked it as well but they weren’t sold on the better than Chipotle part. Although, I think some of their disappointment had to do with the fact that Freebird wasn’t playing on a continuous loop inside. (So hard to please, some people.)

7. I went to see Pain and Gain.

If you’re into watching two hours of bewbs and muscles (which I am, of course), this movie is for you. It’s based on a true story that I read about before seeing the movie and I didn’t know how it would be possible to make it into a dark comedy…but they did. I liked it but it’s probably hard to take if you’re a little squeamish, especially knowing it’s true. Sort of related, The Rock has really nice, white teeth.

8. I made a new friend. Say Hi to Megan.

Megan lives in Killeen and asked me if I wanted to get together when she read that I would be here for three weeks. So of course I took her up on that offer. I was extremely happy to find out that she wasn’t a crazed lunatic and she didn’t want to harvest my kidneys.

We had dinner at Texas Land and Cattle where she witnessed first hand my immense capacity for ingesting food. Then we hit up a frozen yogurt place and closed.it.down. That’s right. We know how to party in Killeen on a Friday night.

By the way, Megan lost 150lbs when she was 16 by exercising, eating better, and not eliminating anything specific from her diet. She’s kept it off for TWELVE years. Inspiring? I think so.

• Friday’s mile: No speedy mile. Went to bed early.
• Saturday’s mile: Race day and we know none of those were speedy.
• Sunday’s mile: 8:34 pace.
• Monday’s mile: Tried an 8:27 and lasted one whole minute.
• Tuesday’s mile: 8:27 pace.

Those miles are getting considerably harder to maintain. I’m still aiming for something in the 7’s by next week.

My trainer also sent me a workout to do in my hotel room that I thought I’d share. Let’s just say I haven’t done a plank in probably two years or a pill bug ever, so I was feeling this.

How to do:

• pill bugs
• leg lifts
• supermans
• toe touches

A few of those videos have beginner and advanced moves, so if you’re just starting out, don’t be skerred.

Get ready for those abs to hurt. Probably a good idea to give all your unfunny, depressing friends a call after this one. You’ll want to hang out with them.

Fredericksburg is a two hour and 15 minute drive from Killeen so Marisa and I left around 5:15am to get there for the 8:30am race. We got there with no problem. The entire route might have been three left turns total and we parked so close to the start that I was worried we were in the wrong place. Like, it was too easy. We picked up our bibs and t-shirts (Neither of us got that jelly by the way. Sad day.) and dropped our t-shirts off at the car. Then we had about 45 minutes to kill, so we walked around and posed with things.

We really wanted to pretend we were smoking that peace pipe but a ton of people were walking around the area and we didn’t want to look like total a-holes. Next time.

I informed Marisa that running a race with me is equivalent to agreeing to be on my blog, so I told her to assume the position and start posing.

Such a good sport.

About 15 minutes before the race, a full-on Jane Fonda-like choreographed warm-up happened.

That was a first. It was mesmerizing. I mean, it’s a cute idea. But also hilarious to watch.

I love that runners understand the need for mass quantities of pictures. Whenever I’m taking a selfie, someone always offers to take the picture for me. Don’t mind if I do…

The race started with a few announcements: no bathrooms on course, runners in the front, walkers in the back, and there would be clearly marked with signs for the 5k and 10k. Famous last words.

Within the first mile, a bunch of runners turned around shouting that everyone for the 5k was going the wrong way. If you wanna hear the potty mouths of runners, just make them run the wrong direction in a race. For the love of my tender, virgin ears.

About 1/4 of the runners turned around and the rest kept going straight. I kept straight because the guy mentioned the 5k was going the wrong way and I was running the 10. But then we got to the end of the road and converged with a bunch of other runners so I knew it was the wrong way for the 10k too. By the time I passed the one mile marker, my Garmin was at 1.3 miles. EEEFFF.

I heard runners bitching about going an extra quarter mile the rest of the race. Here’s a picture of us all going the wrong way.

Yeah. There was a dog running the race. He kept whining and trying to jump up on his owner. He would only stop whining when the owner started walking. Basically just like I act during a race.

Anyway, after the wrong turn, any ideas I had to PR were gone. I was annoyed even though I didn’t think I would PR, but there’s always that little chance in the back of your mind that this will race be the one. So, I got over it and tried to enjoy the scenery.

I guess I had higher expectations for the course. It wasn’t particularly pretty for being in wine country, except for this part.

It was called the “wildflower” 10k and I saw two patches of wildflowers total.

The course may have not had a lot of wildflowers but they are all over TX right now, so we saw a ton of them on the ride home. So pretty.

We also got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way home because of the Marble Falls triathlon. It’s all fun and games until you’re the one stuck in traffic.

Ok, back to the race. There were two water stops which was way too few for a hot race in Texas. I missed the first one at the 5k/10k split, I think around mile three. I saw the cups on the ground but no water table so maybe I just didn’t pay enough attention. The other one was somewhere around mile five. I’m so glad I carried a water bottle because I would have straight up died out there.

I finished in 1:03:53 with 6.5 miles. A solid minute PR if the course wasn’t jacked.

How do you get a race picture that looks like your running instead of walking because I have no clue.

Thanks to Marisa for waiting for me at the finish line to take pictures. In the 25 or so races that I’ve done, this is only the second time I’ve had someone wait to take pictures. Super cool of her too because I forgot to ask if she would mind being my photographer.

After the race, we hung around for a bit to see the awards but they couldn’t get the finish times printed, or on their Website fast enough, so they cancelled it and told everyone they would just mail the awards. There were lots of disappointed/pissed off people.

Overall, the race was ok. The course SNAFU really sucked but it only cost $20 to run and it was still fun to see a new place. Fredericksburg was smaller and less exciting that I thought it would be, but it’s a cute town so I’m glad I visited.

I still had a good time, had a great lunch, and was able to eat my weight in cake and cookies afterwards.

First, I want to tell you about the shenanigans that occurred after the race and through Sunday. To say I’ve been eating badly would be putting it mildly. Just when I was so full that I couldn’t possibly eat another bite, I did. My stomach is currently in a full-on revolt with my body and I never want to see a piece of clothing with a button or zipper again.

1.  German Reuben, German potato salad, and red cabbage from Winslow’s Restaurant in Fredericksburg

I noticed yesterday that Winslow’s was completely slammed on Urban Spoon but I thought everything was really good. Maybe I just have taste buds with low standards.

2. Peach cobbler

More like peach pie. Or piebbler. (new dessert!) I was annoyed that it didn’t come with ice cream. Who serves piebbler without ice cream? Of course, I ordered some and it was almost the same price as the pie. I’ll spare you the ice cream picture, just know that I was full and didn’t need it.

3.  Ombre cake from The Pink Pig

This is vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and a fancy name. I ate it about an hour after the piebbler. With my fingers. In the car. The frosting wasn’t even good. I still ate it all. Bad frosting is better than no frosting.

4. Pink pig frosted cookie

I ate that cookie shortly after the cake. I still wasn’t hungry and I may have been slipping into a diabetic coma. It was a disappointing cookie. We were told that we had to check The Pink Pig out and I wasn’t really impressed. I still ate it all. No cookie left behind.

5.  Gummy pigs

I wanted to die at this point. My teeth felt like little pieces of sugary chalk but I still had to try them.

6. Bacon cheeseburger from Reunion Grille in Austin

It doesn’t look like much but that was a great burger. I really did consider getting a salad for a good 10 minutes, so I think that counts for something.

7. Bloody Mary bar at Z’Tejas

A BLOODY MARY BAR. What won’t these kids think of next? The Bloody Marys were four bucks each and had Grey Goose vodka. Pretty much heaven.

8. Tableside guacamole with tortilla chips

This guacamole was amazing. I made yummy noises while I was eating it was so good. I ate about 75% of it and was so full afterwards that I didn’t even want the meal I ordered. But I’m sure you know where this is going…

9. Barbacoa beef breakfast enchiladas

I only ate the enchilada part because they messed up my egg order. I don’t do eggs over easy. Runny yolks gross me out. The part that I did eat was amazing.

10. Fresh baked apple muffin with butter

So good. I don’t even like butter that much but somehow it made it’s way all over that muffin. I really buttered my muffin. < — couldn’t help it

11-15. Booze

I drink almost anything. Alcohol is delicious.

I think I’ve forgotten what it’s like to feel hungry. I have been uncomfortably full for 48 hours now. Texas might be killing me.

By the time I get back to the hotel, it’s like I’ve used up all my nice. I have a certain amount of nice that I like to spread throughout the day, but I’m forced to use it all from 8 – 5. I feel bad that my poor co-workers have to deal with me after hours. So after work, I try my best to avoid all people for the rest of the night and therefore end up spending hours in the gym. It is the only thing that brings the sanity back. I’m in the gym for so long that I’ve managed to get in over 10k steps on my pedometer three days in a row.

At least all the gym time means I’ve been working on that one fast mile:

• Tuesday’s mile: 9:05 pace
• Wednesday’s mile: 8:57 pace
• Thursday’s mile: 8:49 pace

Besides all the miles I’m putting in on the treadmill, I usually spend at least 40 minutes on the bike so I can read. I also did a pretty good ab workout last night that I’ll share with you guys later since I haven’t posted a workout in awhile.

So that’s my life right now.

Thank goodness today is Friday. I’m already mentally done for the week.  Plus I’m really looking forward to this weekend. I have a 10k tomorrow morning with a friend and then more fun planned tomorrow night. Should be a good time and it might even make me nice again. No promises, though.

***

Reader Caitlin emailed me this link to some super cute Keep Running Boston t-shirts for sale.

They come in a lot of colors and all the proceeds support the One Fund Boston relief efforts, so if you want to support a good cause, make sure to check it out.