Friday Fun

Yesterday was a good day.

I went out on Thursday night, briefly, to celebrate a friend's 25th birthday. It was a lot of fun, just a small bunch of law students. We ended up staying an hour later than planned because the bar had a dance area on the 2nd floor and obviously, we had to stay and dance. Still, I was in bed by 1am. Also, it was super fun without alcohol (on my part at least, since I was driving).
Yesterday I had my normal 10:30 class and then a make-up of the same class at 1. Not as awful as anticipated, it actually seemed to fly by. I think it was because we were in a different classroom and that changed the atmosphere. Plus we weren't in our assigned seats. Hurray for small changes making the hour and twenty minutes fly by!

After class I headed home and vegged out for a couple hours to catch up on The Office, Bones, and Grey's Anatomy. Then I got my butt out of bed and went for my 3rd run of the week (5 mins running/2.5 mins walking, for 30 minutes). It was cold outside, so I did it on the treadmill.

When I walked into the gym, it was the beginning of a cardio kickboxing class and who did I run into but a girl I went to undergrad with! There are about 5 of us from our small college in upstate NY, class of 09, who made it out to St. Louis - 2 of us in law school, 2 in grad school, and one doing Teach for America. Anyway, she was there for the kickboxing class and invited me to join - it was tempting, but I had had had to get the run in. Maybe next Friday I'll run in the morning and kickbox in the afternoon. Too much?? We'll see.

It was fun to run with the class in the background though because I could watch them in the reflection (the treadmills face a wall of windows, and since the sun had set I could see the class in the reflection on the glass) and take my mind off what I was doing - definitely helpful. Almost as good as running outside, but not quite. I wish it was still warm out!

The run itself went pretty well, probably because of the built-in distraction of the kickboxing class. The first two five-minute intervals felt good. Breathing was great, my body didn't hurt, definitely improvement. The second one was a little harder as I developed a little side stitch. The last one was hard but I always get inspired when I know its the last interval - telling myself there are only 5, 4, 3, 2, minutes, 1 minute left of the WHOLE workout, and I've already DONE 5 minutes three times is really motivating.

After running I headed back out to a potluck dinner! And by potluck I mean, the host cooked and we brought chips and beer. That was super super fun. The friend who hosted it made AMAZINGGGG just-spicy-enough chili and two kinds of cornbread (one with cheese and one without). It was delicious. I had seconds. Totally worth it. I pitched in with a 6-pack of Sam Adams, the brewmaster's mix or whatever, and apparently impressed a couple of people with my good taste in beer. Funny!

When we were all sated with delicious chili (not to mention the absolutely perfect musical selection) we decided to walk to the Loop and check out one of the (pseudo-hood) bars. I had never been there before so it was definitely an experience. Apparently there is usually a DJ but unfortunately, there was not one last night. Instead there was a Street Fighter tournament, but instead of a TV they just projected it against a (whole) wall. Interestingly enough it was pretty entertaining. A couple of the guys in our group ended up playing and the entertainment value was sky-high as they alternately whooped and got whooped by the (pseudo-hood) drunk girls in the bar.

Since we're all law students (read: stressed out and overachieving), we broke it up at 10:30 and everyone headed home. Except for the boys...who went and got food. As they explained: eat, drink, play video games, drink, eat. Which I guess is fair.

So far this morning I've eaten breakfast...trawled facebook...blogged...and added two or three new blogs to my Google Reader (which I am now obsessed with). Any minute now I'm going to get up, go running, shower, take out the trash, sweep the floor, do the dishes, and go to the library. Aaaany minute now.