Fall TV Lineup and the California Insomniac.

Hello!

My name is Margot and I'm an insomniac.  Actually, I have no idea what the medical definition of insomnia is, but let's just say that for me, every night is more like 8 separate cat naps.
And I ain't no cat. 

At first it was kinda fun....it was like every night felt longer!   I got the fun of waking up and falling asleep several times.  But, friends...the time has come to try to figure out how the freak to sleep better.

Here's why:  I went to San Francisco this weekend.  Anthony and I went to go check out the Exploratorium, because...we're dorks who like that kind of stuff.

A brief moment of being awake. 

About a half hour into it I started feeling weird and told him I needed to sit down.  Before I knew it, I was sleeping on his shoulder while he played Angry Birds and hundreds of families were hanging out right next to us.   Later that day, I fell asleep in a Chinese Restaurant, waking up to the waiter saying "oooh she's very sleepy?". 


Uh yeah...I got a problem folks.  Any ideas on what's wrong?  Essentially I can't sleep longer than a couple hours at a time.  Yeah, I drink a lot of caffeine, but I always have so I don't think that's causing the problem.   I also don't feel like becoming dependent on Tylenol PM, although...it does help.  So yeah...help a sista out, por favor.

Any suggestions how I can start sleeping more and avoid going insane?  

Luckily, the less I sleep, the more time I have for things like...

THE FALL TV LINEUP!!!!!

I've seen a ton of ads for the Playboy Club, The New Girl, and Pan AM.  I ain't too sure about any of these cats....

The New Girl, is the new comedy starring Zoey Deschanel, who I love, but more in a way that I want to be friends with her because she seems fun.  Other than being in of Almost Famous (best movie ever), I'm not sure what she's done besides be the object of every dude's desire (including Anthony's).
I saw the pilot of The New Girl...it was cute, but just cute...we'll see....

The Playboy Club just looks gross (and I found The Girls Next Door pretty entertaining!).  



...and Pan AM....sigh....I have such high hopes for this show!  I secretly want to be a 60s stewardess.  But mostly just for the cute outfits.  I don't actually want to wait on anyone.
Anyways...if it's half as good as Mad Men that would be awesome, but the reviews haven't been so great.   Hopefully they are wrong and it's awesome!



What are you looking forward to watching this Fall?  Are you excited about any of the new shows?  

The travelers guide to running (and food!)

First things first: Whole Foods is doing a $10 for $20 Living Social Deal.  Get it !

If there's one thing I spend my money and time on these days, it's travel (not running unfortunately!).    With a BF in Seattle, one brother and mom on the east coast, and friends all over the freaking place (who are all getting married), it's just gotta happen.

Plus I might just be a little bit restless by nature.
Introducing....

The Traveling Runners Guide To:
Keepin' yo bags:  If you're switching airlines and traveling internationally, I give your bags about a 50% chance of getting lost.  At least those have been my odds. So try to stay on the same airline, if possible.

Packing:  Sadly, not everyone in the world is as addicted to running as I am (#3rdworldproblems), so if your stuff gets lost, it can be hard to replace things, depending on where you're going.  Pack shoes and sports bras (or any woman specific stuff) in your carry on.   I know it's kind of gross, but if you're running out of space, stuff the sports bra / socks / shirt in your shoes.

Random Countries / Cities:  This is one of my favorite parts of running.  You can experience the world so much differently while running and I think it's a cool way to see a new area. Just remember, if the area looks sketchy, it is probably not worth risking it.  Or at least ditch the headphones.  That way no one will steal your ipod.

Chillaxing:  I'm pretty anal about working out.  If you're reading this blog and don't know me in real life, you probably are too.   Chances are, you're not going to have the worlds best workout week while traveling due to weird food / bad sleep / different weather.  Have a kick-butt week of working out before you travel and use the travel time as a "step back" week.

Scheduling Working Out While On Vacation: I know everyone says "get up early and workout", but honestly, that's the last thing I want to do while on vacation.  I wanna sleep in, yo.   So if you're like me, just be open to running at weird times of day.  If everyone decides to watch tv mid-afternoon, that's your chance to go do your thing.

Caring What Other People Think:  I've run in Buenos Aires (where no one runs for fun that I could find), in my socks in a park (because I had no shoes), and done stair stepping on an offshore Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico.   I'm sure everyone thought I was insane.  And I'm cool with that.   I think you gotta be.


The Traveling Eaters Guide to....
Water:  The TSA doesn't want you to bring more than 3 oz of fluid through security.  Bring an empty water bottle through security.  Refill when you're through.  If you're constantly thirsty like me, it saves $$ in bottled water.

Drinks on the Flight:  I hate to advocate being a pain in the butt for any service person, but I'm going to.  Ask for the whole can if you want.  Ask for two drinks when they come by.  Whatever, it's your party.  Just be polite.

Schedule layovers in the south:  If you love Mexican food and fried stuff like me.  I know it sounds ridiculous to do this, but since it doesn't snow as much there will be fewer chances of delays too.  Favorite airports for food:  Austin and Memphis.  Relatively small airports with breakfast tacos, cobbler, and BBQ galore.

Snacks:  Just bring a few.  Nuts, apples, dried fruit, Clif Bars, whatever that doesn't melt.  Your super hungry self will thank you.

Airlines:  Jet Blue still gives free snacks.  Virgin America has a pretty good selection but you gotta pay.  IMO the newer the airline, the better the food!

Any travel tips you wanna share? 

Oooh Mexico. (It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low.)

Greetings, amigos!  I am back from the land of the palm trees, green-blue water, and humidity.   

This was our view from the deck at Tulum.  Beaut-i-ful.

Tulum's claim to fame is having Mayan ruins on the ocean.  The history geek in me loves this.  

The iguanas love it as well (they were everywhere!).













The first night Anthony and I were in Mexico, we cabbed into Tulum and got some Mexican food.  The food was delicious, but downtown was pretty sketchy with lots of police patrolling with lights on and automatic weapons.  Do not fear, we were able to consume tortillas safely.   Delicious delicious tortillas.  Totally worth it.

This smoothie on the right is possibly the most delicious combination of mango, cranberry, and yogurt possible.  En Serio.

After Tulum, we were excited to get into an air conditioned hotel (So Cal has left me with no heat tolerance) and rode the 2 hours back to Cancun.

We went Jet Skiing and Snorkeling.  This was the coolest part of the vacation, but I have no pictures.  Yeah, I am an awesome blogger, I know.   I've never been snorkeling before though and seeing all the gorgeous fish swimming in the ocean was amazing!  I kept trying to dive to the bottom to catch them, but sadly the fish were faster than me and did not want to play :).

And then...the wedding....

Hard to see in this picture, but her dress was perrrrfect!

As was the view from the reception:

And another modelesque couple....

Due to a surprise wind gust, I ended up catching the garter during the reception.   Yeah..not the bouquet, the garter. 

Apparently, I am a single man ready for marriage!  

I did manage to run a bit while in Mexico.  My most notable run was when I ran down the Cancun strip about an hour before the wedding.  I was cutting it close already, got lost, and ended up sprinting the last two miles down the strip.  It was sweat-tastic for sure.  Humidity, you schooled me.  

And here I am, back in So Cal, mosquito bitten, (semi-)tanned, and relaxed.   Vacation, you were wonderful, but I'd like to spend more time with you.  Don't be a stranger, ya hear? 

Way down here...you need a reason to move...

I might end up somewhere in Mexicoooo...

For this blog entry, I was all excited to post a recipe.  Because I haven't posted one in eons.  My lack of posting is not because I'm not cookin'. Girl's gotta eat.  It's because everything I make is either too simple or doesn't taste good enough to post.

Tonight was an attempt at being the (half) Greek girl I am.  I wanted to make Dolmades! (Stuffed Grape Leaves).  

After hunting down a can of grape leaves, buying herbs like fresh mint, and calling my brother for advice, I was ready to go.  Unfortunately, this recipe posting will have to wait.  

What it should look like: 

What mine looked like:

Uhhh yeah.  I'm gonna have to take a rain check on posting that recipe.  Clearly rolling a grape leaf ain't as easy as it looks.  

Instead, I'm gonna tell you what's next.  And why my posts might be less frequent (but more awesome!) this week.  

I'M GOING TO CANCUN!!!!!!!!!

SPRING BREAK 2011!!!!!!!!

Ant'nee and I are taking a little vacation which includes a good friend from college's destination wedding on Saturday.  

It's gonna be a lot like this:

Or possibly not.  We're spending our first day / night in Tulum, Mexico, which is a smaller beach town with Mayan ruins.   Then we'll go to an all inclusive in Cancun where we can hang out with other Americans, pay American prices, and feel exactly like we never left the states!  

Jokin' aside, I'm really looking forward to sleeping in and sitting around the beautiful beach.  While I tend to like more out of the way and active vacations, I think drinking a Mojito on the beach is just what the doctor ordered for this Bunny and her hardworkin' dude.  

I'm sure this place has a fitness center so I'll be trying to build mileage as promised!  No idea if that will work or not!  I didn't set up any guest bloggers because I am lazy, but I will try to write you unless we get kidnapped.   If you don't see a blog entry for 10 days, contact your local congressman. 

And remember, in Cancun, you can be whoever you want to be and what happens there stays there (and on the blog).  For this week, I'm a 21 year old college cheerleader named Tina.   I'll letcha know how that all goes ;).  

To entertain you in the meantime, the lovely SkinnyRunner is back from her long time away!   I'm pumped - my morning reading is back!
If she isn't providing you with enough celeb goss., check out this US Weekly Subscription $30 deal l! 

Here's my weekly recap (more like 10 days).  
Saturday:  7.1 and 6.2 mile hilly relay legs at HTC, 1 mile "cooldown"
Sunday:  Completely Off
Monday:  4 miles easy
Tuesday:  11x200 at 41 seconds, 200m rest.  3 miles of warmup and cooldown
Wednesday:  15 mile bike ride
Thursday:  5 miles easy
Friday:  50 minutes on boring fitness equipment (elliptical!)
Saturday:  Attempted 5k race.  Failure.  ran about 9 miles total.
Sunday :  30 mile group bike ride.
Monday:  10 miles easy with friend in LA.

Total For 10 Days:  48 miles running, 45 miles biking.  Sort of a random mix.  Will return from Mexico with focus!

Hasta La Vista!  

I won't play, I love the Bay just like I love LA

I know these quick photos I took walking to my hotel don't do it justice, but San Francisco, you are one beautiful city.

I think I love every city I've ever been to.  Or every place.  But San Fran almost feels like a wonderful foreign country to this adopted So Cal girl. The buildings, the bridges, the weather, the really aggressive people soliciting you on the street....

Although I realized as I was riding the BART that I was being a bit snooty in the way only someone who lives in Orange County can be. 

While this extremely high quality photo on the right doesn't do it justice I'm was wearing a pink Lacoste polo with a leather jacket.  I almost called myself a D-bag.  

Why am I in San Fran?

I'm up here for a Search Engine Marketing conference so that I can learn how to better Stalk market to you online!  I am nervous about it!!  If these one thing that stresses me out, it's talking to strangers without safety net of The Faster Bunny blog.  And sadly, I don't think these people will be impressed that I'm on the Hood To Coast relay team.   Maybe if I offer them some Nuun.... 

But surely they will find me just as charming as you all do, righhhtttt?

Marjorie, Alyssa, and I are meeting for a blogger dinner tonight so if you're a Nor Cal. blogger, email me and COME!!! 

Travel workouts are always interesting.   I am looking forward to a nice outside exploratory run tomorrow, today I treadmill workouted it.   I am completing all of these really hard workouts (yay) but I still feel a bit out of my league.  But maybe one day, 19:59 5k you will be mine. 

5x1000, 400m rest, 1.5% incline, 6:00 Mi pace.  

I was sweating up a storm.  While the workout room was pretty full, surprisingly no one wanted to get next to this stampeding sweaty buffalo as I grimaced through my 1000s.  Hopefully no one from the conference was there and will recognize me today.  

"Heeyyyy!  You're that sweaty girl!!"

I will leave you with my favorite workout song, "No Hands".  Pop rap, I love you.  In my mind, Waka saying "I'ma make it thunderstorm" refers to the sweat beads flying off my body as kill myself on the 'mill.  It's wonderful. 

Waka Flocka Flame

San Juan Islands Birthday Getaway

This weekend was awesome.  Anthony planned a 'surprise' trip to the San Juan Islands for my birthday.  (Note:  it's not my birthday yet!  I am 28 for two more days, playa!).

San Juan Islands?  Where diz islandz at?

Right on the upper corner of Washington!  Close enough to Canada to smuggle goods via kayak!

They are tiny, gorgeous, full of wildlife (although we didn't see much) and very cute.   (But way overpriced - bring your own food and wine!  And book stuff early!).    You can get there by taking a ferry from either Anacortes or Seattle unless you are Michael Phelps in a heated wetsuit and want to swim.

We played on da shore....

I decided I was a quarterback with an imaginary team.  We gotta get ready for football season, right?

That's kinda how the quarterbacks stand....

We Kayaked....

I tried to race the guys in the kayak next to us.  After one of them puked from seasickness.   Sportsmanship is my specialty!   

This is the "Lime Kiln" lighthouse.  Wonndefffull.  

View from the Kayak.                       All in all 98% awesome.  We bought one bottle of terrible wine and on the ferry on the way back, we were passing the bottle back and forth.  The wine was terrible, but it was fun :).  

The island felt like it was a world away which was amazing because it's about 3 hours from Seattle.  Four and a half out of five stars!  Would visit again!  

What was the last or best escape you went on?  

If you've ever been to the Pacific Northwest Forests, do you feel like the Keebler Elves probably live there?  

Every time I visit the area, I feel like one is going to jump out and offer me an El Fudge or Grasshopper cookie.  

Or maybe that's just wishful thinking...

Sacramento Calorie Counts

I'm sitting in Sacramento Airport right now....I spent the weekend with Anthony's family which was pretty cool (Which is why I haven't commented on your blog this weekend!..or run much).  His mom is the most ridiculously good cook ever although I have to be careful because anytime I enter her kitchen she's got something delicious up her sleeve.  I've actually got a giant pan dulce she packed for me in my bag right now, just in case I have a craving for a giant pastry.  That pastry's days are numbered....

If you've never had one, run to your closest Mexican bakery and get one fresh.   

Besides the half pig in forms of bacon, ham, and carnitas I consumed this weekend, we also went wine tasting in Placerville.  It's weird I keep going wine tasting since I still haven't learned anything about wine.  We ordered a Pinot Gris (doesn't that mean grey?) and I had no idea what color wine was going to come out.  (WHITE!)  

A's Bro and Girl

A and Me

We so classsyyyyy:

It was a beautiful day!  I'm pretty sure the Sacramento - Tahoe - Yosemite corner of California is my favorite.  Beautiful and a little less crazy.  =).  San Francisco, I'm lookin' right at you when I think crazay

Since I've been in Sac Airport for the last couple hours, I did a little nutrition fact research:

In California (and I believe New York....dunno where else), they've started printing calories of menu items for chain restaurants.   

The first time I saw this reporting I was a little confused and thought for a second it was the price.  But hey, I'm not the most observant crayon in the box.  =).  

However, in general, I love this.  This way I won't get the snack size Rolo McFlurry with 510 calories when a cone would have done just as well.  Yeah yeah... I guess the real good alternative would be an apple.

The sweet tea's got like 320!  

I've definitely found myself shocked at the calorie content of some items, like random California Pizza Kitchen Salads.  The one thing I don't like about this Fast Food reporting is that it sort of oversimplifies nutrition facts..as though calories are the only thing that matter.  Well ok...and I also don't like that I'll never be able to enjoy a Rolo McFlurry or a Giant Chocolate muffin without guilt again.  Darn you FDA.

How much do you change what you order when you go out to eat based on nutrition facts?  

Are these lists up where you live?  

Annnnnd Rolo McFlurry...is it WORTH IT?  

=)

Luckily the pastry I've got in my bag is nutrition fact free....

Road Trip Eats + My Love Affair With McDonald's

I'm not sure what is causing me to write this post...I didn't just go on a road trip or anything.

Maybe it's the Texan in me (adopted...lived there 7 years), but to me there's almost nothing more fun than hopping in the car and driving ridiculous distances.  This love is incompatible with my need to run and feeble attempts to eat healthy.

HOWEVER....it is SUPER compatible with my love for McDonald's Ice Cream Cones!!!

Late night indulgence from trip last year -------->

Sorry for nearly flashing you guys in this picture...it was Vegas...ok?

I digress.....

My road trip eating usually goes in three sections...



Part 1 - Ecstasy
The idea of eating all this fast food sounds like an amazing fantasy.  I survey the truck stop to see where I should eat first.
Inevitably, I land on McDonald's.

 IT'S SO FREAKING DELICIOUS!!!


Time to get 10 diet cokes, 4 icecream cones, and 20 McNuggets!!!!

Also time to stop to pee every two hours due to insane Diet Coke consumption.
On a side note, Mcdonald's claims their icecream cones contain 150 calories.  I am 100% sure that is a lie.  Nothing this good has 150 calories in it.  

Part 2 - Exploration

Ummm...maybe we should try a different place to eat?  Wendy's anyone?
Is Subway healthy or do they just say so in those commercials? 


Maybe it won't hurt to stop by McDonalds for a cone afterwards...




Part 3 - Stomach Ache
Did I swallow a rock?
I would kill for a cup of fruit or some freaking lentil soup.

Maybe I will spend $6 for one of those way overpriced mini food packs at Starbucks...





Running While Traveling

I also love to run when on road trips, but unless I'm traveling with another OCD runner, it's hard to pull off, given that we have places to get to and stuff.

To me, there is a special joy in exploring a new place on foot, even if it's just for a half hour.

Some of my best run travel memories:
1) Running in Memphis right along the Mississippi at sunset (LOVE Memphis!)
2) The sheer pain of "running" in Vegas in 110 weather when everyone else is drinking up a storm.
3) Driving out to Olympic National Park in Western Washington and running on the trails while the rest of the tourists looked at me like I was crazy.

Neon Blonde Runner just wrote a cool post about her running with a local running club while traveling.

Do you run when you're traveling?  


What is your travel food weakness?  (for me it is the cone ALL THE WAY!!) 


This Blog Entry Made Me Hungry.  

Boston Weekend! -Pre-Race Tour Edition

I know you guys want the goods (the RACE REPORT) but the pre-race was too fun not to give a short shout out to first.  

The flight into Boston was just fine and the amount of people who were running the marathon on the plane was HUGE.    On the flight, I was pretty tired so I took 2 Tylenol PMs (my airplane sleep attempt) and tried to sleep as best I could.  

I met the BF in Logan airport Saturday morning and as you can imagine, I was well rested, not grumpy at all, and smelled wonderful.  Luckily, BF did not break with me on the spot and we took a cab to our cute B&B. 

Mary Prentiss Inn in Cambridge

We met up with my high school friend Boriana and her ridiculously fast members of the Charlotte NC running club (seriously fast.  one was in the elite women division....whoaaaa) and went to the expo.  

I think my expectations for the race expo were a little high - it was a little crowded and unexceptional in my opinion.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but because my expectations for all things Boston were sky high, I'm pretty sure anything short of my running into Joan Samuelson, her shaking my hand, and then offering me a free Lemon Luna Bar would have disappointed.  

HOWEVER - here is my real thrill of the expo - race goodie bag in hand!!

The Boston race shirts are also pretty sweet - yellow long-sleeve tech tees.

After fighting the expo crowds we went on the Boston Duck Tour.  It was great, but I was so tired at this point, I was falling asleep on the bus.  The only thing that kept me up was knowing that I'd dropped $34 on my tour ticket.   That, and lovely hilarious BF doing Sesame Street impressions to make me laugh (I have a very refined sense of humor).

The next day we toured around Cambridge and pretended to be Harvard students.  I loved Cambridge.  It was adorable with tons of unique shops and restaurants.

We didn't get to see some of the sights I would have loved to have seen in Boston (the inside of each Baskin Robbins, for example) BUT it was charming, easy to get around in (by public transit), and full of history.   I'd definitely recommend a trip to Boston to anyone.

I've heard the one must-see that we missed is walking Freedom Trail.  Next time...next time... =)