11 hours

dreamy track at u. conn

i slept 11 hours last night. it was glorious. due to a combination of murakami overload and extra REM cycles, i’ve been having some insanely detailed dreams lately. last night’s imagined reverie was that i was arriving extremely late to run a marathon on a crowded very small circular track. i ended up quitting, since there wasn’t enough room to run and i had concluded that it really wasn’t fair that the race was based solely on number of laps, since the people on the outer edge of the track had to run so much more than those in the inner lanes.

yeah. aren’t dreams weird??

today so far i’ve had a leisurely breakfast, read a bunch of blogs, and i’m just getting ready to hit the gym.

plans for the day:
☑ 6 miles with some hill intervals on the treadmill while reading women’s running
☑ 20 minutes weights
☑ leftover indian for lunch!
☑ hitting the mall for some post-xmas sale perusal
☑ weekly whole foods expedition
☑ doin’ time recipe: cod with fennel & potatoes

mmm, sounds nice. josh pointed out that sometimes sales are not a great thing for me. i tend to forget what i actually need and end up settling for things that are impractical/ill-fitting just because they are ‘good deals’. the truth is that anything that goes unworn (or is worn once) and then is thrown out several years later is definitely no deal at all.

today i am specifically looking for:
■ long sleeved tops to wear to work or casually
■ potentially one cute, dressier top for going out
■ shoes for work (mine are EMBARRASSING)
■ a rain-proof jacket or trench
■ pants or skirts for work
■ cardigans / machine-washable sweaters

i’m not looking to bring home a large haul of all these things, but those are just the current gaps that i see in my wardrobe. at least having a list gives me some sort of focus. in our local mall, i plan on checking out banana republic, gap, j. crew, benetton, nordstrom, ann taylor, and maybe express. sadly, there is no anthropologie in our area or i would definitely go there too!

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12.28.2008

workout:
10 miles at a relaxed pace on the american tobacco trail. average 9:10/mi, with fairly even splits. luckily i was able to do this during a window of sun! it was also 65+ degrees, so i ran in shorts and a short-sleeved top. i love these little random ‘breaks from winter’ that we get in NC!
topped off with 20 minutes of yoga for flexibility (basically just lotttts of stretching).
HBBC points: 41 for the week, or 106 total.
last week’s stats: 37 miles run, 2 strength workouts, and 2 yoga sessions.

MINT restaurant review: so we tried MINT last night, a new indian restaurant in chapel hill (almost in carrboro), about 10 minutes away from our apartment. we both REALLY liked it! it has subtle, rather elegant decor, and was not too loud even though it was pretty full of patrons (mostly professor- or medical-looking couples or families with older children). meditative yoga-esque music played on the speakers, and the room had a peaceful, relaxing feel.

onto the food: i started with a glass of sauvignon blanc and we had an appetizer of papadum (the super-thin, cracker-like bread) with chutney, raita, and pickled mango, which was a nice combination of flavors and had a decent spicy kick. for entrees, we shared prawns sag (spinach sauce) and a vegetable korma dish (vegetables and tofu in creamy sauce with cashews), as well as an order of rosemary naan. everything was excellent (especially the HUGE shrimp in the sag dish!) and we have tons of leftovers. the total came to $50 which i think was a great deal for the amount of food and the ambience of the restaurant. we will definitely go back — there are many other items on the menu that looked intriguing.