Nurse on the Run

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I hope none of you are reading this and instead are spending time with your family!  For me, Christmas this year is being brought to you straight from the burn unit, where I hope none of you end up this holiday season.

Luckily, I had a surprise Christmas Eve off from work, as I guess we were overstaffed and I had a lot of extra holiday time to use…hooray!  The only perk of my job in Pennsylvania was that I got called off at least once per week, and when you hate your job that much, you don’t care about the thousands of dollars you probably missed out on.  However, this time around I got the day off and I got paid for it…I like it.  I like to think that I maximized my time off and made the most of last minute plans.  Best Christmas Eve next to being home.

run SF!

But let’s back up to Friday, which I thought was going to be my free day before working the holidays.  I was planning to make Friday my long run since I wouldn’t be able to get one in over the weekend, but the call about the surprise day off came before I headed out to run, so I decided to move the long run to Saturday and do a medium run on Friday.  (Confused yet?)  Anyway, it was in the 40’s so I opted for shorts and my SF Marathon shirt that I was sent for being an ambassador.  (Love the shirt, it has the Golden Gate Bridge on the front.)

I set out over to the west side to run in Riverside Park, my newfound place to run…I like the rolling hills and greenery and the “park” feel in the middle of Manhattan without being in Central Park.  It’s pretty quiet when I run since I get to run in the middle of the day, so it’s about as peaceful as you can get around here.  I motored along and just ran what felt comfortable, which was surprising when my Garmin kept beeping off 7:45’s.  Definitely don’t feel like I’m in that kind of shape!  Works for me.

As I headed back across Manhattan, I was stopped at a light and a man asked me if I’ve run the SF Marathon based on my shirt.  I told him no, but that I was running it this year and that he should too!  He said it was on his list of marathons to run and that he’d strongly consider it after I rattled off the fact that it’s the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th Anniversary this year.  At this point, I wished that I had laminated running business/ambassador cards to shove in my shorts to give to people while running.  (These would also double as “Hello, attractive runner man, we should be friends…” cards. Just saying.)  Said goodbye and happy holidays and finished up a fabulous December run.

Friday, December 23
10.35 miles in 1:20:14, avg pace of 7:45

christmas eve running

My original plan for a Christmas Eve run was to run with Abbe and Baker, but naturally I slept later-ish and they didn’t end up running.  After puttering around twitter and gchat for awhile, Elyssa said she was finally making it out for her run, and we made plans to meet up somewhere on the West Side Highway as I ran south after crossing the island and she ran north after heading over from Brooklyn.  With me in the same orange shirt from above (okay, so you all now know that I wear the same running clothes multiple times without washing.  Yes, I smell.  Yes, I’m still single.) and her in a neon green jacket, we would be easy to spot.  Somewhere in the 30’s-ish on the west side, we crossed paths (victory!) and we headed back up north for a loop of Central Park.

Lately I haven’t been doing many runs with people (must change that!), and the miles were flying by as we ran together.  We both kept looking at our watches and saying, “I can’t believe it’s been eight miles!”  I admittedly think I’m a bit out of shape and have been worried about getting back into long runs, but we were running somewhere around eight minute miles and they just clicked off like no big deal.  This is the kind of running I love and I’m  happy that the miles didn’t feel painful.  Miles always fly by much better with a running buddy as you chat along, so let me know if you need to get some miles in. 

We finished up our loop of the park and went out separate ways at Columbus Circle, so I headed back over to the east side.  As I came up the east side of the park, a man wearing a purple, red, and yellow jacket was singing carols as he rode by on his bike…love the randomness.    Finished up back to my apartment with 15 miles done for the day!  I like doing two longer-ish days back-to-back because I think they teach your legs to handle the mileage and to run when a little tired.  Just a personal preference. 

Saturday, December 24
15.3 miles in 2:01:41, avg pace of 7:57

Easy 15 miles?  Time to start training for real!  Boston training starts Monday.

some holiday prep

Post-run, it was time to get my cooking on, so I put on some music and set to work.  (I really use cooking and baking as a disguise for putting music on and dancing around my apartment.  You’re welcome to join me and I’ll even let you eat the food.  Anyway.)  For the holidays at work, we do sort of a potluck deal since it’s not ideal to be working on Christmas, so we might as well make the most of it.  I made stuffed shells for myself last week, and they were delicious and a bit on the festive side with the colors, so I decided to go for it as my contribution to a burn unit Christmas.

Deliciousness.

This was actually my dinner last week, but it’s the pictures I have.  The recipe is here, except I used ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese.  MAKE THEM.  Or ask me to make them for you and I’ll feed you.  I’m serious, I much prefer to cook for others.

Naturally I couldn’t stop there, as Christmas is not Christmas without cookies.  My most recent cookie adventures included Kelly’s (or Liz’s?) Nutella cookies, although my oven is wacky sometimes and they came out a bit crunchier than I prefer.  But you can’t ever go wrong with massive amounts of Nutella.  And sprinkles.  Don’t forget the sprinkles.

Come get them!

Second round of cookies involved one of my forever favorites, which is the chocolate chip cookies from the back of the Tollhouse chocolate chip bag.  Probably one of the first cookies I ever made back when my brother Ryan would let me bake with him (and by that, I mean I got to do the dishes for him).  I like putting Christmas M&M’s on them to make them festive, but the two stores I went to both didn’t have plain red and green M&M’s, so I had to buy a normal bag and pick out the red and green ones.  And eat all the other offending colors.  Obviously.  But behold, deliciousness:

I love you, M&M chocolate chip cookies.

There’s a running joke with my two friends from home (Katie and Katie, don’t get confused), as we decorate Christmas cookies every year and we like to hide the orange M&M’s and frosting from Katie so she can’t make cookies for the University of Illinois.  Well, I ran out of red and green M&M’s with two cookies to go, so Katie…I dedicate these two cookies to you:

You’re welcome.

So yes, come to the Upper East Side and I will feed you dinner and dessert.  You can join me in the dancing around my apartment if you wish.

a very jewish christmas

Laura had originally invited me to Christmas Eve dinner with her mom for when I got off work, but I felt bad about making them wait until (at least!) 8:30 to have dinner with me, so when I found out I had the entire day off, I let her know that I was in for anytime!  She mentioned that she had new plans, as her friend Susan (Susans are the best!) was hosting a “Jewish Friends and Christmas Orphans” dinner at her apartment in Brooklyn (Flatbush, I had to look that one up…).  Since she’s a ridiculously amazing cook, she made Chinese food…from scratch.  Now, my family has a Christmas Eve tradition of Chinese food and movies (no, we’re not Jewish at all!), and let me tell you…this was some awesome Chinese food!  Please let me know if you ever need someone to sample your recipes for any upcoming food competitions, I gladly nominate myself.

To add to the Jewishness of the (non?) Christmas celebration, we watched the Maccabeat’s Hannukah song from last year.  Ben told me about them sometime this year, and they’re actually pretty good!  Check it out:

I throw my latkes in the air sometimes…

Yes, yes, a real winner.  I feel as though my Jewmas Eve is complete.

except i actually celebrate christmas…

As you might remember, I actually do celebrate Christmas and put up my victory tree a few weeks ago.  Since at the age of 27 I still believe in Santa, I plan on sleeping on the couch so the noise of Santa coming into my apartment either by the front door or fire escape will wake me and I can confirm that he is real.  Also, as you may remember, Ben and I scouted out NORAD while I was in Colorado this summer, so I know all about Santa tracking.  (Or not.) 

Hey there, NORAD, where’s Santa??

At this time, NORAD currently says that he’s in New Orleans, but I’m sure he’ll be on his way soon!  Hopefully he hits up NYC shortly because I need some sleep before working tomorrow. 

Merry Christmas (or…happy December 25th to those who don’t celebrate…), and I hope you have a lovely time with family and friends or wherever you may be!  Time to wait for Santa.