Surviving Sandy
Hello my Lovelies and Gents,
Wow, I can't believe I haven't blogged since Thursday. I had started a post on Friday, but we lost internet and cable for the weekend. Amazingly enough, we got them back late Sunday night before Sandy came to town.
So let's start with Friday night. My Friday night dinner crew couldn't make it so I had the ever present internal debate with myself on the drive home. Should I go home? Should I go to the gym? I had two days of rest last week I couldn't really afford another one. But, I had a 5K in the morning and I am not good with morning runs following a night run. And let's face it, I wanted to avoid the stores at any cost. People go insane before a storm. So I went to the gym. I put in over an hour on the treadmill because I was enjoying my book...and then I remembered what I had going on in the morning. DOH!
Saturday morning comes and I'm pretty excited. I had signed up for a 5K at the Wilmington Riverfront with Heather and my childhood Pal Jen. After the 5K was a chili cookoff and a concert by a really good local band from the Delaware Beaches. We had been looking forward to this for a month. I had reconnected with Jen a couple of months ago over Facebook and we have gotten together a few times, but we had never done a race together and I was looking forward to meeting her husband and kids.
Her daughter Jordan is seven and this was her first race. So I opted to keep at her pace and visit. Doesn't matter how fast you go as long as you finish. Heather took off for her jog and we lost her on mile 1. Jordan was doing great for the first mile. The second two were a bit of a struggle because she was getting tired. We pulled out my phone and put my playlist on speaker to help motivate her.
I was running late before the race and didn't get a chance to take off my sweatpants. I was roasting for that first mile and said I would take them off when we hit the boardwalk. And I did...but not without a wardrobe malfunction. I kept telling Jordan that I would be getting naked and she thought that was funny. Luckily my shorts stayed on, but my sneakers came off. So I let them go ahead of me and promised to catch up. And I did.
We did really well and Jordan finished like a champ. For someone who "needed a rest" for the last two miles, she sure as heck took off when we were 20 feet from the finish line. She must have been reserving that energy. haha.
There was a table of bananas before we went in to the stadium for the after party. I picked up one for then and a few to last me through the storm. SCORE! The chili was good and we also got our choice of hot dog or hamburger. I got a hamburger.
After we ate there was a special presentation on the field. Jen is part of a group that raises money to modify bicycles for children with disabilities. They were presenting a bike to a young man with spinal bifida. He had requested a bike that would pedal with his hands. The young man got on it and tore around the baseball field. It made me cry. Shocker! Once again this was a time to be thankful for my body.
I stayed for a little bit of the concert, but we got in a panic that the rain was supposed to start later in the afternoon. I had planned on taking the day off from moving and take a load out on Sunday, but we decided I would run home and load my car up and head over.
Weather wise it was a good plan. However, move days take a lot out of me...and I had just done a 5k. My knees are going to hate me! I was sooooo tired and sore after. I ended up staying and we started to put my room together (just a little). I was so spent from the day though that I needed to make Sunday a day of rest.
As I was leaving the parking lot I saw the stacks of cases of water. I quickly pulled over for a couple. I was now Sandy ready!
The plan for Sunday was to go to Church, Choir Practice, Empty Bowls, Starbucks, and then come home. You may remember Empty Bowls from last year. Every October the community center hosts this wonderful day. Donated pottery bowls are sold for $10. Then you get soup to fill it and eat. The proceeds go to feed the Hungry. I always like to get a few bowls. I keep one for me and give the others as gifts. I don't usually soup/chili for every bowl, but dang it a storm was coming! So I brought a tupperware bowl from home to fill for later.
My first bowl is always the vegetarian chili. It never disappoints. The second bowl was zucchini soup. That was delicious. The lines were super long so I skipped it. I went to Starbucks to finish my book. The book is about a German family who hide a Jewish man in their basement during the Hitler years. It was a very good book, but it was 500 pages of food guilt. Everyone was starving during that time. It made me feel very guilty to eat.
Okay so Sandy started to arrive late Sunday night. I had managed to avoid going to the store. I knew I would buy Halloween candy. There was no question. I had enough food to last through the end of the week if I was smart.
Before I went to bed Sunday night I got my internet back! SWEET! I could work from home on Monday instead of trying to drive in to the office. So Monday I got up, showered, and logged in for work. I was extremely busy. Too busy. I was not getting up enough. I was in too much of a panic that I would lose power any minute so I focused on getting as much done as possible.
Watching the news during a big storm is a tad stressful. They are rarely reporting good news. I found myself constantly thinking about food. CONSTANTLY. I scoured those cabinets hoping that I had forgotten about a snack that I had bought. OMG if I had bought anything in preparation for this storm, there is NO chance that I would not have eaten it. I was going INSANE yesterday. I wanted oreos. I wanted chocolate. I wanted ANYTHING.
When work was over I was spent. I wanted to blog, but honestly, looking at a laptop screen was the very last thing that I wanted to do. My eyes hurt. My body was stiff and I was beat. It was a draining day. And so I collapsed on the couch watching a marathon of Hoarders (I have much to say on that another day).
This morning Ms. Kerri texted that the office was closed. No surprise. They closed all of the main highways into Philadelphia last night. It just was not safe out there. So the good news is that I could sleep in a little longer. Which was good because I was up half the night because of the howling wind. It also meant that I was not going to get any more snacks. I told her that I would force myself to get up and walk around every hour though. My sprained foot was killing me. I had been sitting on it on the couch and it was not happy. I was still itching for food, but I was itching to move even more.
Some places started to open in the afternoon and I am pretty sure that I could have gone to the gym. I miss it. But, I'm running out of days before the move and I have some things to do. So I am using this as borrowed time to finish some things up.
Tomorrow will be a challenge though. Maybe I will be okay once I am back on schedule. I am hoping the food urges are because I am out of my routine. Please let that be it. PLEASE! Halloween is not the day to fall out of routine.
****Please note****
If you feel like you are alone on your journey and you just need some encouragement I am here for you! Shoot me an email and I will do my best to check in on you or give you the words of support you need several times a week. The journey is so much easier if you have support.
jhendersonfit@gmail.com
Wow, I can't believe I haven't blogged since Thursday. I had started a post on Friday, but we lost internet and cable for the weekend. Amazingly enough, we got them back late Sunday night before Sandy came to town.
So let's start with Friday night. My Friday night dinner crew couldn't make it so I had the ever present internal debate with myself on the drive home. Should I go home? Should I go to the gym? I had two days of rest last week I couldn't really afford another one. But, I had a 5K in the morning and I am not good with morning runs following a night run. And let's face it, I wanted to avoid the stores at any cost. People go insane before a storm. So I went to the gym. I put in over an hour on the treadmill because I was enjoying my book...and then I remembered what I had going on in the morning. DOH!
Saturday morning comes and I'm pretty excited. I had signed up for a 5K at the Wilmington Riverfront with Heather and my childhood Pal Jen. After the 5K was a chili cookoff and a concert by a really good local band from the Delaware Beaches. We had been looking forward to this for a month. I had reconnected with Jen a couple of months ago over Facebook and we have gotten together a few times, but we had never done a race together and I was looking forward to meeting her husband and kids.
Her daughter Jordan is seven and this was her first race. So I opted to keep at her pace and visit. Doesn't matter how fast you go as long as you finish. Heather took off for her jog and we lost her on mile 1. Jordan was doing great for the first mile. The second two were a bit of a struggle because she was getting tired. We pulled out my phone and put my playlist on speaker to help motivate her.
I was running late before the race and didn't get a chance to take off my sweatpants. I was roasting for that first mile and said I would take them off when we hit the boardwalk. And I did...but not without a wardrobe malfunction. I kept telling Jordan that I would be getting naked and she thought that was funny. Luckily my shorts stayed on, but my sneakers came off. So I let them go ahead of me and promised to catch up. And I did.
We did really well and Jordan finished like a champ. For someone who "needed a rest" for the last two miles, she sure as heck took off when we were 20 feet from the finish line. She must have been reserving that energy. haha.
There was a table of bananas before we went in to the stadium for the after party. I picked up one for then and a few to last me through the storm. SCORE! The chili was good and we also got our choice of hot dog or hamburger. I got a hamburger.
After we ate there was a special presentation on the field. Jen is part of a group that raises money to modify bicycles for children with disabilities. They were presenting a bike to a young man with spinal bifida. He had requested a bike that would pedal with his hands. The young man got on it and tore around the baseball field. It made me cry. Shocker! Once again this was a time to be thankful for my body.
I stayed for a little bit of the concert, but we got in a panic that the rain was supposed to start later in the afternoon. I had planned on taking the day off from moving and take a load out on Sunday, but we decided I would run home and load my car up and head over.
Weather wise it was a good plan. However, move days take a lot out of me...and I had just done a 5k. My knees are going to hate me! I was sooooo tired and sore after. I ended up staying and we started to put my room together (just a little). I was so spent from the day though that I needed to make Sunday a day of rest.
As I was leaving the parking lot I saw the stacks of cases of water. I quickly pulled over for a couple. I was now Sandy ready!
The plan for Sunday was to go to Church, Choir Practice, Empty Bowls, Starbucks, and then come home. You may remember Empty Bowls from last year. Every October the community center hosts this wonderful day. Donated pottery bowls are sold for $10. Then you get soup to fill it and eat. The proceeds go to feed the Hungry. I always like to get a few bowls. I keep one for me and give the others as gifts. I don't usually soup/chili for every bowl, but dang it a storm was coming! So I brought a tupperware bowl from home to fill for later.
My first bowl is always the vegetarian chili. It never disappoints. The second bowl was zucchini soup. That was delicious. The lines were super long so I skipped it. I went to Starbucks to finish my book. The book is about a German family who hide a Jewish man in their basement during the Hitler years. It was a very good book, but it was 500 pages of food guilt. Everyone was starving during that time. It made me feel very guilty to eat.
Okay so Sandy started to arrive late Sunday night. I had managed to avoid going to the store. I knew I would buy Halloween candy. There was no question. I had enough food to last through the end of the week if I was smart.
Before I went to bed Sunday night I got my internet back! SWEET! I could work from home on Monday instead of trying to drive in to the office. So Monday I got up, showered, and logged in for work. I was extremely busy. Too busy. I was not getting up enough. I was in too much of a panic that I would lose power any minute so I focused on getting as much done as possible.
Watching the news during a big storm is a tad stressful. They are rarely reporting good news. I found myself constantly thinking about food. CONSTANTLY. I scoured those cabinets hoping that I had forgotten about a snack that I had bought. OMG if I had bought anything in preparation for this storm, there is NO chance that I would not have eaten it. I was going INSANE yesterday. I wanted oreos. I wanted chocolate. I wanted ANYTHING.
When work was over I was spent. I wanted to blog, but honestly, looking at a laptop screen was the very last thing that I wanted to do. My eyes hurt. My body was stiff and I was beat. It was a draining day. And so I collapsed on the couch watching a marathon of Hoarders (I have much to say on that another day).
This morning Ms. Kerri texted that the office was closed. No surprise. They closed all of the main highways into Philadelphia last night. It just was not safe out there. So the good news is that I could sleep in a little longer. Which was good because I was up half the night because of the howling wind. It also meant that I was not going to get any more snacks. I told her that I would force myself to get up and walk around every hour though. My sprained foot was killing me. I had been sitting on it on the couch and it was not happy. I was still itching for food, but I was itching to move even more.
Some places started to open in the afternoon and I am pretty sure that I could have gone to the gym. I miss it. But, I'm running out of days before the move and I have some things to do. So I am using this as borrowed time to finish some things up.
Tomorrow will be a challenge though. Maybe I will be okay once I am back on schedule. I am hoping the food urges are because I am out of my routine. Please let that be it. PLEASE! Halloween is not the day to fall out of routine.
****Please note****
If you feel like you are alone on your journey and you just need some encouragement I am here for you! Shoot me an email and I will do my best to check in on you or give you the words of support you need several times a week. The journey is so much easier if you have support.
jhendersonfit@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment