I'm all a-boot the Fun

I have been in a major funk. Like, major major. It’s been happening for two or three weeks now. Not only do I have no interest whatsoever in exercising or eating right, but I’m in kind of a professional slump as well. Put those two things together and it’s like they make each other even worse by happening at the same time. I think that’s why I was extra excited about these crazy Canadians coming into town on Thursday.

I mean, seriously. I even told hubs on Tuesday and Wednesday that I wished Lindsey and Evan were here already because I was in need of fun. All my funkiness and three weeks of being sick has given me serious cabin fever.

Lindsey and I made plans over the phone Wednesday night and as we were hanging up, I got very excited when I thought she was about to say, “I’m so excited to meet you!” but then she said, “I’m so excited to meet Pants!”  So yeah. Awkward. When she got to my house the next night, it took her exactly four minutes to find Pants and molest her.

Pants definitely looks like she’s loving that lovin’ in her own way. That furry diva is so popular.

After Lindsey and Pants got their snuggle on, the four of us headed downtown to our first stop, Mucho. (I have been calling it Muchos for two years. Very disappointed to find out there’s no S.)

Mucho is the home of my favorite drink in all the land, the Eola 101.

That’s tequila, champagne, agave, lime, and kitten tears. Dee-lish.

So, if you read Lindsey’s blog and think, “that sounds like a fun girl,” you would not be wrong. We ended up going to several places, having several tasty beverages, and taking pictures I don’t recall that will probably end up on her blog. The night ended with Lindsey telling our bartender he looked like the devil. (He did by the way. Straight up devil.) It was a fun night. Really fun. I love meeting someone for the first time and having so much to talk about. Why do I meet such amazing bloggers that live so far away? It’s not fair.

The fun didn’t end on Thursday. I drove down to Bradenton on Saturday night to see her and Evan again before they went back to stupid, far away Toronto. From now on, I’m drugging all my favorite bloggers and keeping them in the basement so they can never leave me.

Will Power

Last night, I went to the monthly Central Florida Lady Bloggers meet up. Michelle picked me up after work and we headed to Baldwin Park.

Now that I’m making an attempt to be a good girl and not the town drunk, it worked out well that we all met at the Uptown Park Wine Bar. No temptation there. Nope. None.

About 10 ladies showed up this time and we all sat around chatting and laughing. I really tried to make a conscious effort in taking better quality pictures but somehow I ended up with three of these.

Did I mention I wasn’t drinking? Oh, I did? Well, everyone else was enjoying frosty beverages. They looked horrible. And by horrible, I mean delicious.

I missed out on a black cherry cider that everyone was drooling over and I even missed out on a group mango sake bomb. I don’t like mango flavored anything but I’m pretty sure I could have made an exception.

Then I may have tweeted about it.

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The good news is, you were all really supportive of my non-drinking with your encouraging responses.

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The three of you are going to be my new best friends once my pants fit, ok?

Anyway, we all had a good time as usual. I love all these girls. Seriously, if you are a blogger and haven’t been to a blogger meet-up, you need to find one or create one in your own town. They are so fun. Unless you’re in Orlando of course, then come to ours. 🙂

Afterwards, a few Michelle got late dinner at a sushi restaurant next door. And guess what? I didn’t drink all night.  *cue oohs and ahhhs*

I’m coming for you work pants in my closet. And you’re gonna zip whether you like it or not.

The Day Before

Let’s back this up to the weekend for a little bit. If you read Michelle or Melissa’s blog, you might be sick of hearing about this already. So I guess this post is for those of you who don’t and for me when I’m old and forgetful and want to remember that weekend when I ran a race slower when I was sober than when I was drunk.

Saturday started when my chauffer picked me up at the house and we left for our 4-hour drive from Orlando to Miami. Besides almost dying 3 minutes into the drive when someone cut us off, we made it safely to the hotel (Hyatt Regency) where we planned on meeting up with Melissa. Now, Michelle and I had never met Melissa before, but when we heard she was going to run the race with us, we asked her if she wanted to share a hotel room. She said yes in about 2 seconds and we’re still grateful she didn’t turn out to be a total creeper.

At the hotel, we said our hellos and checked into the room where we had a pretty sweet view of the city.

And then we promptly left to walk to the free shuttle service that brought us to the expo. We didn’t quite know where we were going, so when a strange man carrying all his luggage told us to follow him. We did.

Luggage guy was running the race too (and had run several of the other races Michelle and I have done) and we were all happy he didn’t seem interested in murdering us. When we got to the shuttle area, we had about 10 minutes to kill before the next one arrived. And that’s when I saw the petting zoo. With OMGcutebunnies!

And goats.

Sorry about the pig butt. I almost feel like I should put a sunburst on that thing. Anyway, Michelle and Melissa were totally not as interested in the petting zoo as I was so they didn’t even walk over to see it because they have no souls.

We got on the shuttle (ahem, school bus) shortly after and the 7 mile drive to the expo took forever. Miami traffic blows. But we were happy we weren’t the ones driving in it.

We got to the expo and did our expo thing. We picked up our bibs and t-shirts (They let Michelle and I change out our shirt size no problem. Usually expos are really picky about that.) We looked around for a bit and I bought a pair of Wright socks, which were $3 cheaper than at the running store at home. Other than that, it was really crowded and nothing special. Your basic expo.

We hopped the shuttle back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We were starving and didn’t want to walk anywhere, so we ate at the hotel restaurant. We had a little bit of a wait, so we did the only smart thing to do the night before a race. We ordered a drink.

Hello Coconut Lime Cooler, you delicious devil you.

I say you can never have enough filters on a picture.

Once we were finally seated, we all decided to have the Latin buffet.

It was really good but probably not the best idea for a pre-race meal. I had salad, yucca, rice and black beans, chips with house-made guacamole, and some pasta thing. Because I guess pasta is Latin now.

Pork and chicken were also served along with the buffet, but it was nasty. We all decided it would be more fun to be poked in the eyeball with a fork rather than eat it.

After we stuffed ourselves, we all agreed we were too full to eat another bite. That is, until Melissa found a couple cookies she wanted to have her way with. (I think she gets to know them first.)

Then back at the room, she and Michelle had their way with a pillow they both kept calling by our waiter’s name. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on there. I do know, however, that pillow has been touched by many, many strange hotel hands. And now, two sets of lips.

After the pillow molestation, we all called it a night since we had an early wake up for the race. 🙂

My First Blogger Meetup

I had so much fun last night!

After work, Michelle picked me up at the house (in full dating fashion) to head down to Matteo’s for our first blogger meet up. Matteo’s is a family-style Italian restaurant on International Drive (and was Nelore previously for those of you in the Orlando area.)

Michelle and I arrived a little after 6:00pm and the parking lot was empty. So, we did what any normal girl would do. We sat in the car for 15 minutes, took self-portraits, and waited to go in so we didn’t look like stalkers being the first ones there.  

Michelle checked her Tweets to make sure the meetup wasn’t canceled. If it was cancelled, we were going to get drunk and cry and hold each other all night.

After about 15 minutes, we still didn’t see anyone we stalked online knew, so we went in and ordered a drink.

I have to say, we were pretty nervous to meet all our fellow bloggers! Michelle and I have read several of the lady’s blogs for awhile now, so it was like meeting celebrities to us. 🙂

Thank you Three Olives grape vodka and soda for relieving me of that nervousness.

The food at Matteo’s was DELICIOUS.

Michelle and I started with a salad. I don’t see the name online, but it was a spring mix with goat cheese, Craisins, walnuts, with a raspberry vinaigrette (on the side). Amazing.

Then we had the Burned Vegetables. Sounds strange…but it was the JAMMY JAM. I didn’t get a picture because it was eaten too fast, but picture vegetables. Then picture them burned.

If I see Matteo’s describe those veggies as the JAMMY JAM on their menu, I’m suing for copywrite infringement.

For our main course, we shared the Grilled Colossal Shrimp Matteo served over primavera vegetables.

These veggies were drenched in all sorts of oil and butter, but it was so fresh and nom-tastic. (New word. Use it!) I would definitely recommend this place. Great food and great service. The waiters even offered our 10-top table a drink on the house afterwards but we declined since we didn’t want to look like alcoholics in front of each other just yet were driving.

This is the first time I’ve ever gone out with a bunch of ladies I didn’t know and I had so much fun. We chatted all night about everything and it felt like we had all been friends for a long time. It was the strangest thing! I can’t wait for the next meet up because it was crazy fun.

Our server, Craig, was kind enough to take a picture of us all. He also made sure to tell us his name started with a C. I’m glad he did, too. I was worried it was spelled “Kraig.”

If you don’t already read these ladies blogs, you should check them out.

From left to right:  my buddy Michelle from Crazy Running Legs, MomJovi (best blog name evaar), Me!, Christine from Cook the Story, J from J’s Everyday Fashion, Katy Widrick, Jamie from Work Your Closet, Julie from Peanut Butter Fingers, Colleen (and possibly my new drinking buddy) from Lady Ballers, and Bess from Central Florida Top 5.

After dinner, Michelle dropped me off at home and I went back out to meet up with my friend Morgan at the Wine Bar in Baldwin Park.

Morgan is in town from Reno for one night. Today, she drives to Tampa to try on her wedding dress right before heading back home. Morgan is getting married next year, so I’m saving my pennies for the festivities. 🙂

Fun fact:  Reno is in my top 5 list of places I would like to move to in the U.S. I just LOVE that town. So, maybe one day I will pack up the hubs and the bunny and head out there.

Tonight, I have a workout with the personal trainer and then a 4:45am wake up call for the first run with my marathon training group Saturday morning. We’re running 10 miles. No need to ease us into it. Good Lawd. I can’t wait to see how it goes!

Not the waking up part. That won’t go well.

If you could live anywhere, where would you choose? (I also love Seattle and San Diego (which is close to my family.)