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Puppy Photo Shoot

My Friday afternoon was spent doing a little photo shoot in the quad with my little psycho puppy. Puppy-ish. She looks like  dog now-so grown up!

For this post, I’m going to go over weekend things and then do a little puppy photo dump at the end.

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Friday night, I went to my school’s annual performance where we make fun of Cal, our rivals. Saturday was our rival game. I think pretty much every group on our campus is also made fun of, and it’s a good time. So crazy this is my last one though! I also got a free facial with my sister. She won one at a bridal fair, and I got to try all kinds of new skin care products. My skin care routine is very basic-soap-and it made me think about taking better care of my skin in the future. Friday also consisted of me sort of learning to salsa (not well).

Saturday was very low key thanks to Thanksgiving break. I finally made it out for a run around noon, and did a 6.4 mile route in preparation for the turkey trot. I looked at my post from last year…apparently I ran it 2 minutes faster than I had remembered, which means I have to run it fast again this year….although we’ll see. Overall I’m faster than a year ago but I’ll see how I’m feeling. Saturday night was the big game! It was fun and we won! I also stopped by a tailgate beforehand.

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^Obnoxious snap sent to Cal friends.

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Sunday morning started with a quick workout-6x200m on the track, abs, and some good mornings. Quick and efficient! Then, I headed home for break. The highlight of the day was heading up to SF to watch a tree lighting a Pier 39. It was an absolutely beautiful night-not too cold!

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On the way, I stopped at the Ferry Building for some gluten free goods: focaccia and ginger molasses cookies!

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The lighting itself was quite festive! Beforehand, a mariachi band played which was awesome. There were disney characters there, and they along with another group sang to light the tree.

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What a fun way to start Thanksgiving break!

Monday morning started with a workout at a nearby college-stairs. I did single leg hops, jumps, and running up the stairs. It’s been a while, and my legs were absolute jello, to the point it was hard to drink because my legs were shaking!

It was a pretty low key day-I spent some time with a new book, a purring kitty, and a heated blanket.

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That evening I taught my Thanksgiving spin class. For Thanksgiving, I go all out. I showed up to teach in a turkey hat.

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I wore it for about a quarter of the class. It quickly became sweaty and itchy, and was about ready to fly away. For the class itself, I continued with the Thanksgiving theme. I decided to simulate a Thanksgiving day. A turkey trot, mimosas, then a trip to the grocery. At the grocery, we had to battle crowds in order to grab the last turkey in the store. Carrying a 20 lb turkey, we made the heavy trek home. At home, we played a little football (we were wide receivers), and then made mashed potatoes. Finally, dinner was served and we were able to enjoy the fruits of our labors, along with dessert (I played the song Dessert by Dawin), and then it was time to slow it down. Food coma, or the calm after the storm. A chance to reflect on this special day, to let go of stress, to just be.

After class, I stopped at jamba juice for a pumpkin smash smoothie. This is like half ice cream, but it’s one of my favorite pumpkin items of the season!

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After that, I had softball playoffs in the frigid weather. Unfortunately, we lost the quarter finals and didn’t advance.

And finally-as promised, puppy overload! All photos courtesy of my fantastic roommate.

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This Weekend

Happy Monday! Who is ready for Thanksgiving? I know I am! I’m going to pick up my Turkey Trot race packet today! Woo!

How about a little weekend recap?

My Friday started off with a track workout and a free cappuccino.

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Not a bad start!

After a full day of classes, I packed up and headed home for the week. From there, I threw on my school colors and headed to our rival school for the night. I have a ton of friends that go to Cal, and this was Big Game week-our rival football game! As you can imagine, I was pretty popular rocking my red on the streets of Berkeley the night before Big Game.

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Our night began with a pizza dinner from Sliver, one of the many gourmet pizza places in the area. We then went and saw Mockingjay. I actually liked it a lot more than I was expecting. I don’t remember liking the book much but the movie was good! And I thought they split it off at a good point.

After the movie, we chatted and then watched Pitch Perfect, which I had never seen.

Luckily, we managed to sleep through all the rain expected and wake up the next morning to a partly sunny day. First stop was brunch, where I got a chicken and avocado omelet.

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From there, we went to a restaurant to watch the football game from. Let’s just say I was definitely the happiest person there. WE WON!

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At halftime, we stepped out to grab froyo from my friend’s favorite place. It was super thick and delicious. I got pumpkin and chocolate, with cookie dough!

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After the game, I headed home to hang out with these guys:

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Sunday morning began with a 6 miler along one of my favorite trails.

(Recycled pic)

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Followed by lunch at the Whole Foods hot bar.

My lunch of choice was macaroni and cheese with butternut squash, plus some assorted salads.

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For dinner, I shockingly met up with my sister. This is shocking because she is so busy and I never see her! We went to a Russian restaurant, and I got some delicious mushroom dumplings. They were served with onions and a sour cream type of sauce! So good!

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This weekend was such a fun way to kick off Thanksgiving break! There was one casualty though.

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My shoes had a small rip in them before I left for Berkeley, and I figured it wouldn’t be an issue. It quickly became worse  (than the picture) and let’s just say I was lucky my toes weren’t sticking out, given about half the shoe is disconnected to the soul. Oops…

What did you do this weekend?

Big Game

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a terrific weekend! I was busy, busy! 

Sunday morning, I went to Crossfit. The WOD was rough-it took me 46 minutes and involved lots of push ups, pull ups, and double unders. I actually did all 100 double unders! It was hard. And I have a bruised pinkie to show for it!

Immediately after Crossfit, I headed out to Big Game-the football game against our rivals. Image

It must have been my lucky day-I caught a free water bottle AND a free t-shirt!

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Things started well when we scored a touchdown in the first 30 seconds or so. 

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I ended up leaving at halftime-we won 63-13! It was great. I actually ran into some of my high school friends who now go to my rival school while I was biking around after the game-how crazy is that? It was great to catch up-it had been way too long!

Then, it was time for a mass packing and room cleaning. I had to take home an insane amount of stuff, especially given I’ll only be back for a week! Since finals are coming up, I had to take every single textbook. The number of shoes I brought back is embarassing as well-like 7 or 8 pairs, and I am almost positive I’ll wear them all. When you have Spin shoes, Crossfit shoes, workout shoes, running shoes, old running shoes for if it rains…etc. It adds up quickly. Getting everything to my car was an adventure to say the least. 

For my first meal home, we brought back food from a local restaurant, and I had huevos rancheros and a salad.

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As well as a delicious pumpkin cookie with sticky toffee icing from my grandma.

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The best part? I was reunited with this guy:

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He sheds like crazy. I’m pretty much a ball of fur at this point. My dad picked up my turkey trot shirt from the expo, and it got all furry just from ME. Well worth it though. Want to know a lesser known about Aurora fact? I’m actually allergic to cats. I just put up with it because they are 100% worth it-but it’s amazing how fast allergies come back-it’s not something that ever even crosses my mind at school!

This morning I went to my home gym to go to one of my favorite spin classes. I did a bit of erging and ab work beforehand. The class was amazing. It’s so nice to have good bikes-it’s a completely different experience. I left the class feeling exhilarated. I have a new appreciation for spin classes now that I’ve been making my own!

After spin I spent way too long in Whole Foods, mostly buying granola bars and THIS. I could not resist.

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Almond milk eggnog. Guys, this was seriously amazing. And so much less sugar than regular egg nog, but the flavor was still spot on. 

I also picked up lunch-an Asian chicken salad wrap and Thai carrot ginger soup for my mom and me.

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Then, we did a little shopping-some Christmas decorations, some workout clothes, and some real people clothes-so basically it was great. 

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This is going on my dorm door. My roommate and I may or may not be going crazy with the Christmas decorating this year. 

The mall was so festive! Santa is ALREADY doing pictures with kids. It seems ridiculous that this all is happening before Christmas, but I guess Thanksgiving is really late this year. 

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For dinner, I had a teriyaki chicken bowl. I can’t remember the last time I had one of these!

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We also may a trip to Starbucks for some berry coffeecake and a peppermint brownie cake pop. They’re good. Get one. They are more or less moist brownies with peppermint bark on the outside. Yum. And so pretty!

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The rest of the evening has been spent planning 12 Days of Christmas. And cranberry bread is currently in the oven-we’re going to Napa tomorrow per our usual Thanksgiving tradition, so we’re baking it to take along. 

Throwback to Napa trip 4 years ago!

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And here’s a question: What do I wear for a rainy race??