Hi, 2015!

I failed to mention this earlier because I didn't want to sound complainy or overly negative, but blogging as been a little bit hard as of late because my computer has had a broken hard drive for the past 6 weeks. It got me through finals week, but as soon as I was home free for break, it gave up on me. Or should I say, blew up on me. It's a complete goner. I took my computer to the Apple store and they fixed it within hours, but when I found out that my university would do free data recovery and the Apple store wouldn't, I had them put the old, blown up hard drive back in. I'll be back at school next week and hopefully able to get some my files - especially my Europe pictures - back, since not all of them were backed up. Even more ironically, I had JUST started doing a huge back-up 2 days before the hard drive exploded on me. 

Anyways, my lesson has been learned. I need to back up my computer way more often than I was doing. However, I've been getting through the last 6 weeks on a myriad of different devices... my mom's PC, sometimes. Other times, her tablet. Recently, Alex has lent me his laptop, since he's been using his family's desktop at home, so that has been a Godsend. So, that's part of why I failed to get back on the blog train. I can write posts on any computer, but the question has really been how to incorporate good pictures into those posts without having to upload them to a bunch of different computers. I tried writing a post on a computer and embedding photos from my phone directly, but the quality just wasn't very good. However, other stuff has been been taking precedence, too. I did some traveling; visited Alex's sister and her boyfriend in North Carolina for about 5 days over New Years, and then after just a couple of days back at home, I took off to Atlanta with Alex and my sister to visit my aunt and uncle, cousins, and grandparents for a weekend.

In recent news, I'm back to running. Not very long, and not every day in a row, but I've run up to 5.5 miles or so without problems. I'm still rowing and spinning and going to PT, but I'm scheduled for a follow up with my doctor back at school when I return and hopefully I'll finally be cleared and back to normal. Hopefully I'm posting running workouts again soon!!!

It's been about 5 degrees on most of the days I've been running recently...

Speaking of which... I order new running shoes for a major bargain on Amazon. These are the breast cancer edition of my regular shoes. Sorry for the blur.

Also, I've got my wisdom teeth removed. Except for the marathon, I doubt whether I have ever been more nervous for anything in my life. I mean, I was already losing sleep over this in early December. December! I had never had a surgery before, never been sedated or put under or cut open or anything like that, and I was nervous to do so. Partially, I was completely psyched out by all of those awful (and admittedly, sometimes very funny) viral videos on the Internet of people having crazy reactions to the anesthetic. I did NOT want that to be me. I also wasn't looking forward to what I expected to be a weekend full of pain and swelling. I was also hard bent on NOT taking the Percocet that my surgeon was going to prescribe me. There are a lot of personal reasons for this, of which I'll spare you. Anyways, in sum, I was just dreading this procedure. I just had it done on Thursday, and I'm doing all right. I've only had to take Motrin - the pain is really not bad and almost nonexistent, but I've been wearing lots of scarves and staying inside everyday since the procedure since I definitely have a lot of swelling! It makes me feel weird not to look like myself. I hardly had any the first day, but my face has pretty much looked like a potato since day 2. Today's day 3, and I expect to be able to go out and do some normal activities by tomorrow, but I'm just not up to it yet. In all, the procedure was about what I expected in terms of recovery. 

2 shots of me directly after the surgery.

This is me today: 

Yep. Full on ninja mode.

My grandma knew I was pretty nervous so she gave me this little stone, which I kept in my pocket during the procedure!

During and directly following the procedure, I didn't have any weird reactions at all. They actually didn't give me an anesthetic, just laughing gas and novocaine. The laughing gas was nothing special - it just knocked me out! I had to take an Ativan about 2 hours before my appointment, and that didn't seem to have any effect on me. My surgeon told me that it must be having a great effect on me then, because I was probably so nervous it just made me feel regular! Once combined with the gas, I fell right asleep - or at least I think I was asleep for awhile. I don't remember them putting in the IV or giving me the novocaine, but I do remember the middle and end of my surgery and a lot of loud drilling, which they had to do to wrench my teeth out. As soon as they took the gas off, I felt just regular - if not a little grumpy because having gauze jammed in your mouth can be an unpleasant sensation. I read THIS post several times before having my wisdom teeth removed and this probably was the most accurate for what I ended up experiencing and made me feel better because it was honest and funny at the same time. If you have to have yours out, I suggest reading it :)

I guess I've seemed a little miserable during the last couple of days... so my mom gave me an early birthday present!

I'm so excited for that to go on my fridge in my apartment!

When I was fresh home from surgery I was STARVING because I hadn't had anything to eat since dinner the night before... which is just way too long. My mom brought me a caramel mug cake, which ordinarily I probably wouldn't choose to eat but at the time I just inhaled it (as fast as someone who just had four large molars removed can) and it was delicious! So now I keep looking up recipes for new mug cakes, since I'm still on a mostly liquid/mushy foods diet. I found this - the absolute holy grail of microwave mug baking. There's a ton of great recipes for all sorts of mug cakes and cookies, all of which can be ready in a matter of minutes. 

Other things I've been doing in the last few days, aside from obsessing over the art of baking in the microwave... watching A LOT of Gilmore Girls on Netflix. I'm sure I have seen every episode about 98375928 times since I used to follow it on TV and my sister and I would often borrow the boxed sets from the library and binge watch them. I've been watching so much Gilmore Girls in the last few days that I haven't even touched the stack of DVDs I rented before my surgery. 

So that's the update... I'll keep posting as I'm able and hopefully a lot more once my poor computer is fixed! 

Happy Holidays!

Merry belated Christmas to everyone celebrating! Hope everyone is having wonderful holidays and is able to relax with family. 

We went to a couple of services on Christmas Eve and went to bed early... gettin' old I guess.

Started off Christmas Day with my physical therapy exercises before everyone else went downstairs. Hopefully the new year brings new hope in terms of my recovery and return to running!

Every Christmas morning, we host a brunch, and on Christmas Eve I prepare a blueberry apple coffee cake for everyone to enjoy. I followed this recipe and would definitely use it again! 

I received some Nutella in my stocking and ate it with a banana this morning... just like I used to do for breakfast everyday in Europe!

My sister got me some socks (socks are my favorite) - these ones are perfect!

My dad set up clipless pedals on the bike I was using over the summer for the 50-mile ride. I'll start practicing to clip & unclip indoors and then try outside! A relative generously gave me some hand-me-down clipless shoes. I can still expect to go down a couple of times before I'm used to it but I'm excited to start using these clipless shoes - hopefully helps me be speedier!

In the meantime, I can be found on the erg. I've still been working on long and low pieces but I will start with shorter explosive pieces soon so I can get ready for the upcoming sprint season.

Update.

I haven't wanted to do any of the usual stuff lately... I haven't wanted to take pictures, read my books, watch movies, go out to my favorite restaurants, or hang out with friends. I haven't wanted to write on the blog. I've tried; this is the third attempt to write a blog post in the last 2 weeks. I pull up the blank page and stare at it for awhile, and then leave it open on my computer for a day or two before giving up. Sometimes I'll get my normal aspirations to do the things I love; I'll plan a fancy meal I want to make, or make tentative plans with friends. But when it comes time to actually do those things, I want to back down.

I'm not sure exactly what it is! I've been this way for a few weeks; I am not sure if it's the fact that I haven't been able to run for 10 weeks (total drag, btw) or the fact that I just finished up a really rough semester, wrought with tough classes, high demands in my position for the rowing team, and a few personal crises along the way. Maybe it's my anxiety about my upcoming wisdom teeth-removal (1 month away... and not sure why I'm so nervous!). Or maybe I'm having an existential crisis since I'm turning 21 in 47 days or something crazy like that. Maybe it's none of those things! Or maybe it's all of them, working as a tour de force against my usual level of positivity. Usually I have quite the zest for life and I'm always busy, always planning, always on the go. Lately it's been hard for me to keep up with that; I feel like I want to be alone, I'm listless, and I'd rather hide under my covers as much as possible. (Of course, this leaves me also feeling miserable, because it's lonely and boring.)

Basically, I've just been sad lately. I've been in a funk. Which is why I haven't been posting (plus, as I've said many times before, this semester has really not allowed for a lot of blogging time). For me, this blog isn't the place to complain or unload my problems; this is supposed to be a positive space where people can read about travel, fun recipes, rowing, and lots of running. Today is Saturday, and I just got home last Friday evening, so I've been home for a week. In the last few weeks, (apart from final exams!) I've been working on physical therapy so that I can get back running. I've been doing a lot of the elliptical and rowing machine. Not sure which one I prefer. Now that I'm back at home, I plug in my speakers to my computer so I can watch Netflix on my computer while I'm on the rowing machine. I row about 7,000-8,000 meters (4-5 miles) per day. This has kept me focused, and let me sweat out some of my stresses. Still, apart from that, I've just been doing what my brain/body feels like it wants to do right now. I'm barely 1 week out from finishing my final exams, and my mind and body are still reeling from the stress of taking 5 exams and studying for too many hours per day. Mostly, I've just wanted to sit quietly. A lot of the time, I do nothing. I keep my phone in air plane mode a lot of the time now, and save all my messages for brief intervals in the day when I take time to answer them. I've watched a lot of the Kardashians in the last 5 days, too. I've started a few books, which I'll review when I'm done! I've tied up a lot of loose ends (with my exec position on my rowing team, as well as little things like answering emails, sending my broken phone case back for a new one - free! - and ordering/wrapping holiday gifts). I know that soon I'll be out of my weird funk and back to doing things with lots of energy and excitement. I'm just not there yet, so I'm trying to listen to what my mind needs to do to get there. Right now, it's been needing a huge break.

I have been spending a lot of time doing all of the normal holiday stuff with my family. We got our Christmas tree a week ago. It came out beautifully!

Hot chocolate is a holiday must-have for me.

We ventured downtown on a double date with some friends earlier this week. Checked out the old Arcade in all it's holiday grandeur. 

We headed to the Chocolate Bar for desert and had some chocolate mousse cake...it was amazing.

I'm working on a post on my physical therapy activities... I think some of the stuff I'm working on can benefit all women - especially if you're active - because most of us have natural weakness in our hips! So I can show you what I'm working on for that. Also some recipes are in the queue. I don't have very much going on in the next 6 weeks and a big part of my goal for that time is getting some regular blogging back in the works. Talk to you soon - I promise!