Reading and Eating
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts! I’ve been eating plenty, but reading was slow for several weeks. Luckily all that changed with my “Christmas Book Flood.” I got five books for Christmas, and someone gave me an Amazon gift card which I used to buy three MORE books. I usually get my books from the library, so it was really fun to receive eight brand-new books in the mail (and most of these are books that aren’t available at my library anyway.) Let’s start off with Dover: Birchwood Pie recommended this series, and she described them as Agatha Christie-type mysteries, with the addition of humor. I knew I would love them! I got Dover One for Christmas, and got the second and third books with my gift card. These are fun mysteries, exactly as she described. Apparently Birchwood should just assign me a reading list from now on, because I took her advice and ordered this as well, with the last of my gift card balance: Birchwood says Nevil Shute is one of her favorite authors, and I can see why. I absolutely love his writing style. I would describe it as sparse and factual, but also extremely compelling. A Town Like Alice is about a young English woman’s experiences during World War II in Malaysia, and after the war in Australia. I want to read more by Nevil Shute, but my library doesn’t carry his books and most of them aren’t available on Amazon, at least not in the print version. I’m going to look into some online used bookstores. This brings me to a conversation I had recently with one of my clients, an older, slightly eccentric woman. She said she reads over 100 books a year and PURCHASES EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM, mostly from Amazon. After she reads them she gives them away- either to friends (she’ll send boxes of books to out-of-town friends) or to Goodwill. I can’t even imagine how much money she spends on books. We both agreed that we only like to read physical books, as opposed to using an e-reader, or listening to audiobooks. She said she gets a lot of pleasure from holding a book, turning the pages, and then marking her place with a special bookmark. Yes, I get it!!! A Town Like Alice was the book I read in Tampa, and I bought this bookmark as a souvenir from Ybor City: Here’s another book from my book flood that I’m currently reading, and look at the bookmark I’m using: It’s an old library card- Engie sent me a bunch of them, and I love using them as bookmarks. Let’s move on to eating! You might recall I got an air fryer for Christmas. Here was our first air-fried tofu! I marinated it and then put it in the air fryer- I let it go a little too long because the tofu cubes were almost croutons, but live and learn. We still enjoyed it. Instead of celebrating on New Year’s Eve, we made a special “Orange Bowl” dinner on December 30th (unfortunately we were rooting for FSU- it’s been a disappointing end to the football season all around.) Our meal was good though- more marinated tofu, buffalo cauliflower, and vegan pigs in blankets. Yum! For my daughter’s belated birthday dinner (she was in Rome on her actual birthday) we went to a vegan restaurant called Planta, for their all-you-can-eat sushi night! Boy, they probably regretted letting us in the door. My son actually fasted all day to get ready for this event. Their vegan sushi is so delicious. They use things like hearts of palm and watermelon (!) to make their rolls. Here’s just a few of them: This was a really fun dinner- we ordered one of every roll, and then ordered more of the ones we liked the most. All the food at Planta is delicious, but it’s pricey. We save it for special occasions (and try to go on all-you-can-eat “Maki Mondays.”) What have you been reading lately? Do you like using special bookmarks? What else should I make in my air fryer? Header photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash
The Great Tampa Getaway
Last week our family spent three days in Tampa. This trip had many layers! My daughter was playing in the All-State concert band, which was part of the FMEA (Florida Music Education Association) convention. In addition to middle school and high school bands, orchestras, and jazz bands, there are all sorts of seminars for band directors. My husband is a band director, so he attends the convention every year for professional development. This meant my daughter spent her days rehearsing, and my husband attended seminars. My son did his own thing (including seeing a friend from high school who attends USF) and I was pretty much on my own. It turns out that this is the perfect “family vacation” for us, with just the right amount of togetherness (and apart-ness.) It all started Wednesday- as soon as my daughter got home from school, we loaded the car and took off. As you can see, my son is always enthusiastic. Tampa is a four hour drive from Boca Raton, but of course we had to stop for dinner. My son had several New Year’s resolutions this year: journal daily, meditate, and… eat more Taco Bell. I haven’t eaten Taco Bell in YEARS. Back in the day it was considered a vegan mecca, because there weren’t a lot of fast food places that had vegan options. I got away from it eventually because it’s not exactly a health food. But I didn’t want to thwart my son’s resolutions, so it was Taco Bell for dinner! We got to Tampa and checked into our hotel. My husband’s school pays for his hotel room, and this year we were lucky enough to get a room at the hotel downtown where my daughter’s band was rehearsing! This was a huge plus, because she had her own key and could go downstairs to her rehearsal and back to the room, being fairly independent. The downside- they couldn’t give us a room with two beds. We had one bed, a pullout couch, and a rollaway bed. We made it work! Thursday morning I helped my daughter get registered, and she had some free time as people got checked in. But after lunch she started her rehearsal, and I was off for an adventure. Tampa has a free streetcar, and I was able to walk from our hotel to the stop, and rode it to the end of the line in Ybor City. Ybor City is a historic district, founded in the 1880s by Cuban immigrants who worked in factories, hand rolling cigars. I found this website to be an extremely helpful guide, and while I didn’t drink a beer or smoke a cigar (as she did), I took her advice on many of the must-see attractions. The Ybor City museum, where I watched a short film on the history of the city: And I admired the wild chickens that roamed freely- descendants of the chickens the original immigrants kept in their backyards. I walked up and down 7th Avenue, which is lined with historic buildings, boutiques, cigar shops, and cafes. I had lunch at a vegan sandwich shop! I had a “chick’n salad” sandwich, which was actually made with chickpeas, and it was very delicious. You can see my book in this photo- one of the things I loved about this day was taking out my book and reading whenever I felt like it- while waiting for the streetcar, or eating lunch. So fun. I love exploring by myself! One last stop after lunch was Jose Marti Park, which- I didn’t exactly understand this- is owned by the Cuban government. I happened to get there at the same time as a tour group, and their leader was telling them (us) that as we stepped into the park, we were stepping into Cuba. Okay, cool! After that it was time for me to take the streetcar back to downtown Tampa. Such a fun little adventure! Yet another layer of this trip is that we have very close friends who live in Tampa. We met them when our sons were in preschool together, and have been friends ever since. They moved to Philadelphia (so sad) and then to Tampa (hooray!) so now we get to see them more regularly. We ate dinner at their house Thursday night. After all that excitement, Friday might seem kind of dull… but there was one special event! In the morning, after my run on the Riverwalk, I relaxed in the hotel room, drinking tea and reading (a true luxury for me) and then in the afternoon… I MET UP WITH STEPHANY from Stephany Writes!!!!! We met at a Starbucks and spent a couple hours chatting away about the Dolphins (sob), cats, living in Florida, books, and we also decided that we have QUESTIONS for some of you bloggers! Ha ha… we were trying to figure out how some of you manage to read so many books, with all the other things going on in your busy lives. So fun to meet up in real life! Friday night we went to the middle school and high school jazz band concert, which is always an All-State highlight. The high school jazz band especially is SO GOOD. This is the band my daughter auditioned for on guitar- but it’s virtually impossible to get in as a freshman. I think she was inspired hearing them play, and is already planning to audition again next year. Saturday was our last day, sigh! I didn’t want it to end. In the morning my daughter had rehearsal, and (after running my 3K race) we met up with our friends again. They brought lunch to our hotel, and then we walked on the Riverwalk. We dropped my daughter off at the Convention Center, where her concert would be… and continued to walk and talk with our friends until it was time to part. We heard my daughter’s concert- her band was excellent- and then sadly it was time to
Weekly Rundown- Tampa Mini-Break
Hello! Welcome to the Weekly Rundown, hosted as always by Kim and Deborah. This was an extra-fun week, with a short trip to Tampa. I’ll have more (much more!) about Tampa on Tuesday, but for now, here’s how the week of fitness played out. Sunday Leg day at the gym! I pushed and pulled the sled… …and did squats, deadlifts, the Knees Over Toes exercises, and a little bit of abs. Monday Uneventful 4 mile run. Tuesday Off! I did my mobility routine in the morning, thought I would have time later on for some core work, but had a lot of prep for our trip (getting food ready, meeting with the pet sitter) and the day got away from me. Wednesday Long run! It was what I now consider to be a “short” long run- 20 miles. Of course, the notion that it was short was more psychological than physical. My back was hurting, AND I got stung by a bee! I didn’t actually see the perpetrator- I just felt something on the top of my head, heard a buzzing sound, reached up and felt an insect, and then felt the pain. I assume it was a bee sting because of how much it hurt- wow, I forgot how much bee stings hurt! i feel like I’ve gone past the “normal” long run woes- fatigue, heat, thirst- and have moved on to new and different problems, like hurting my arm (?) and getting stung by a bee on top of my head. But, overall it was fine and I finished strong. In the afternoon we left for Tampa! Thursday Guess what doesn’t feel great? Running 20 miles and then sitting in the car for four hours. My low back and right hip were so sore this morning. I went to the hotel gym, got on the treadmill, and did the workout Elisabeth and Birchwood Pie have been talking about- 3 mph, 12% incline, for 30 minutes. This felt GREAT for my sore areas. and I finished up with some core. Friday It came to my attention that our hotel was right on the river, and there’s a riverwalk path! I got out for a 3 mile run… …and then hit the hotel gym for a brief strength session. I did my Knees Over Toes exercises, squats, some light chest presses (this was the first time doing upper body since I hurt my arm) and then finished with core. Saturday Time for the annual FMEA 3K race! It’s an odd little event (3K?) but my husband and I had fun doing it last year. Unfortunately he couldn’t run it this year because of an ankle injury, so I did it by myself. It started at 6 am and was extremely informal- no official start or finish line. We all just started running, turned at the turnaround (marked by a cone) and then when we got back where we started there was someone standing there saying “Great job!” I enjoyed it, and we ran on Bayshore Boulevard, which I just learned is the longest continuous sidewalk in the world. I’m kind of bummed that I didn’t plan a longer run on Bayshore- but I’ll do it next year. I walked a mile and then ran a mile before the “race”, and then afterwards I hit up the hotel gym for some core and stretching. The truth is, my family was still sleeping and I wanted to give them a little more time before barging back into the hotel room. My daughter’s concert was in the afternoon, and then we headed home… and got back in time to see the Dolphins lose. Noooo! Sunday On tap for the day: SLEEPING IN. Brunch. Laundry. Football! My team may be out of it, but there’s still lots of good football to watch. It’s the last day of my son’s vacation before heading back to school, so we’ll be making the most of it. How was your week? Have you ever been to Tampa? Ever been stung by a bee (during a run???) Header photo by Chalo Garcia on Unsplash
January Goals
Wait- are we already a third of the way through January? The beginning of this month has been a whirlwind, and with my son still here and my daughter still off of school (she started back yesterday) it feels like the holidays aren’t quite over. We have one more fun event, which is a short trip to Tampa, and then my son leaves and we settle into the normal January routine (sigh.) I just can’t wrap my head around yearly goals, so I’m setting monthly goals instead. I’m a little late sharing my January goals, but here they are! Sleep HOW many times have you heard me say I need to get more sleep??? Well, I just heard something very alarming on a running podcast. A study shows if you get seven hours of sleep a night as opposed to eight, your risk of injury increases by thirty percent. ACK!!! I almost NEVER get eight hours of sleep. And, if you sleep six hours instead of seven, your injury risk increases another eighteen percent (interesting that the difference between six-seven is less than the difference between seven-eight.) Well. This was FINALLY enough to scare me. I actually struggle to get even seven hours of sleep a night, never mind eight. So my goal for January is to get seven hours of sleep on a consistent basis, and eight hours one or two nights a week. Sometimes if I have a weekend day where I’m able to sleep until 7:00, I’ll think “Oh good, I can stay up till midnight!” WRONG! If I have a day to sleep in, I’ll aim to get eight hours of sleep that night. I can report that I’ve been doing this for the past week, and while I haven’t been completely successful, I’ve been getting more sleep than I normally would. Baby steps! Exercise I’m adding Ben Patrick’s (“Knees Over Toes” guy) exercises to my routine. The level I’m at right now isn’t very hard, but it’s just a matter of making some extra time for it. For the month of January I’m aiming to do the exercises three times a week. So far, so good. Reading Every year I set a goal to read 50 books, and I consistently come up short. Everything goes along great until November, when NaBloPoMo really eats into my reading time, and then December is so busy, I can’t seem to get back on track. SO, this year I’m front-loading my reading a bit in the early months of the year. My plan is also (this isn’t a January goal- I’m looking ahead) to have a book of essays or short stories, or SOMETHING I can read in November that won’t feel too overwhelming. And some sort of seasonal book to read in December- something fun that takes place during the holidays. But for now- the goal for January is to read six books. So far so good- I’ve read two and have another one started. And that’s it! You can see my goals aren’t too grandiose- just three reasonable and manageable things. Next month I’ll reassess the situation and build on from here. Do you have any specific goals or plans for January? Header photo by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash