Allergies

I can't believe it's almost May already. Where has April gone? And where are my allergies? I feel like usually they have started by this point in time and I've only had a couple of days where I noticed some very slight symptoms. Is the pollen just slow to get going this year due to some crazy weather? Or is this a lighter pollen year? If so, you won't see me complaining. I would be more than happy to avoid allergies altogether. I'm a little surprised though; usually the 2nd half of April, all of May, and sometimes even into June my allergies are so bad there are some days I can't even put in my contacts. I hope the late start to allergies means good things for my body and not just a postponement of allergy season.

Strawberries

Today strawberries were buy one get one free at the grocery store.  They actually look ok considering the time of year, and I definitely haven't been eating as much fruit (or veggies) as I should be, so it will be so nice to get some back into my diet. That is one of my favorite things about spring/summer, the decrease in produce prices and the increase in produce quality. I'm not a big veggie eater, but even I enjoy heading to the grocery store, or even better, the farmer's market, to buy some fresh stuff and toss it all together in a salad or use some tomatoes and make some bruschetta. And I absolutely love when the perfectly ripe fruit hits the stores and it goes on sale, especially raspberries. Yum. It's hard to beat fresh fruit and veggies. I know it's still a month or so until they are really fresh and actually in season, but it's nice to have a hint of that already.

I Heart Endorphins

I used to be a pretty serious runner. So much so that I even managed to run the Twin Cities Marathon in 2009. Once I got pregnant and had Charlotte, running took a back burner for a long, long time. I still exercised by taking walks while pregnant and in the months after Charlotte was born before it got too cold, but I really let things slide when it came to running. Now that spring is back and with it some gorgeous weather, and Charlotte is finally big enough to use the jogging stroller, I've been getting back out there. Boy, has it been tough. I love it though. I've only gone 3 times in the past week, and only a couple of miles a time, but I'm really pleased that I've been able to do any running at all. I love running so much. It's been a part of my life for so long now. I've never really been great, but I do it because there is nothing else like it, and I never feel stressed or anxious about life once I get going. When I hit the road running my mind is free. Sometimes I think deep thoughts, sometimes I pray, sometimes I just think about my day and my schedule, but it's never stressful thinking. And sometimes I'm so tired and out of breath that the only thing I can think about it how hard it is to keep going. I love that feeling too. My mind just empties of everything else except running and getting one foot in front of the other over and over again. It feels great to finish those runs, knowing it was a challenge that I faced head on and won. Although 2 miles didn't used to be such a challenge. That's what happens with so much time off and pushing a jogging stroller. Hopefully soon I'll be in a little bit better of shape and able to go a little further. And hopefully Charlotte will keep enjoying the ride and not get too bored. I'm a little worried to go more than 3-4 miles at a time anyway because I don't know how enjoyable that is for her. I have a ways to go before I get to that point though, fortunately and unfortunately. For now I'm just going to enjoy the chance to get out there and run a couple of times a week.

Bad Day

Sometimes technology is not as good as people think it is. Especially when you save something and go back and find it is deleted and have to start from scratch. And then you can't think of what exactly you said and how you worded it, only that you know you really like how it sounded. And there is no way you can recreate the same words and feeling behind them but you have to try because it's important that you do. But no matter what you write you still like how it sounded the first time. And it makes you very frustrated because it was perfect and it should have saved but somehow something went wrong with the computer and it didn't, even though you did everything right. Stupid technology.

Beef...It's What We Want for Dinner

A couple of weeks ago Eric and I bought a chest freezer. We've been wanting one for awhile, for various reasons. The biggest being that none of the refrigerators that come with our apartments have spacious freezers, and we more than occasionally run into space issues. Which leads us to not buy much frozen food, which in turn leads us to have difficulty planning ahead for meals because we don't keep that much food in the house. Also, we want to buy a cow, or rather, a 1/4 of a cow, because we love red meat. Sorry to my vegetarian/vegan readers, but we love meat. So we've been wanting a chest freezer for awhile. Every year at Cub they have a deal in the late winter where if you buy a chest freezer you get an equal amount of free food (mostly frozen, but not all). It's pretty awesome, even if we don't eat some of the food that we got and probably wouldn't buy a lot of it otherwise. But it was nice to try new stuff. Except for the lasagna...

Anyway, we put most of the food from our freezer into the chest freezer, and we've been planning on stocking up on meat and other frozen foods when there are good deals. I kindof figured we'd at least partially fill up the freezer, but as of right now the only food that is in it is the rest of the free stuff that we haven't eaten yet, plus 1/2 a pack of sausage, and a loaf of bread. Awww. The beef is probably not in our near future, unfortunately, but seriously, nothing else that is actually feasible to purchase has been added either. We are definitely due for some grocery shopping.

I think chicken is on sale this week...

The Bird is the Word

When I was a student at St. Kate's, there was this bird that would constantly chirp in the mornings during the fall and spring. I don't know what kind of bird it is (that's definitely not my area of expertise) but it had a two-tone chirp, almost like a whistle, "doo-doo", with one of the 'doos' higher in pitch than the other. It started early in the morning, and just kept going. Same 2 notes, over and over again. I would lay in bed some mornings and wish so hard that it would go find another student to wake up. I swear, it just sat in the tree outside of my window tweeting until I finally got out of bed and got going with my day. When I got married and moved into an apartment close by, I could still hear it. I figured it had its own territory that covered where I was living or maybe it was a different bird that lived in the same area. After moving into a different apartment and still hearing this bird, I became convinced that I have a bird stalker. It has followed me to every apartment I have lived in. Including my current one. I first heard it a couple of weeks ago, back from its winter away in some tropical location, taunting me that it found me once again and letting me know it's back and not going anywhere.

Now, I know what you are thinking, "ok Emily, maybe you are a little crazy, don't you think it could be a different bird of the same species"? Sure, that sounds reasonable, only it's not. This bird makes the exact same noise, same 2 notes, same pitch, same exact sound. Now, like I said, I'm not a bird expert, but don't birds of the same species sound even a little bit different? I would suspect the answer is yes. No, the only reasonable conclusion is that this bird found me at St. Kate's, developed an unreasonable fondness (or hatred, more likely) for me, and has since followed me from apartment to apartment. The worst part is, I've never even seen this bird. I have no idea what kind of bird it is, what it looks like, how big it is, or anything. I only know what it sounds like. It's an experienced stalker, obviously, getting close but not too close to its victim. And there's nothing I can do about it. Clearly, moving does not help.

I suppose there are worse things to have stalking me (a person, for starters) and luckily I now rise early enough in the morning that it doesn't wake me up or annoy me as I'm trying to fall back asleep. Maybe now that it knows that it can go find someone else to bother.

Update to the Top 10 Travel Destinations

Here is a more specific list of my top 10 travel destinations, including cities or sites I'd like to see.

Germany: basically anywhere, but especially Neuschwanstein Castle. I would at least try some beer, even though I'm not a big beer drinker, and try out my rusty German as much as possible.
Ireland: Dublin, anywhere really green and scenic.
Tropical island: don't have a huge preference, not Hawaii
France: Paris, the Louvre
Greece: seriously, this one is hard to narrow down. Everywhere! Anywhere/everywhere that Paul traveled, and basically any historic site there is, and also, the coast. I would love to spend time on the coast.
China: the Great Wall, obviously. I know, super touristy, but that's what I want to see there
Japan: hmm, I'm not too sure. I more just want to experience the whole culture and history
Egypt: Cairo, the Sphinx, the Pyramids, also, Alexandria
England: London and everything in it; I would love to stare down a palace guard
Australia: Sydney. Or, if I can change my destination, I would actually make it New Zealand and walk the route to Mordor and visit all the Lord of the Rings sites from the movies. Oh yeah.

There are just too many places I want to go and things I want to see and do to even list them all. I have the traveling bug big time! I only hope I am lucky enough to be able to go to some of these places.