Day 100 = Resistance Bands + Naps

Drove 4 hours. Got home. Slept for 5-ish hours. Woke up and brought myself to workout with the resistance bands. I'm still being true to this workout regime even though I have surpassed the 90-day mark by 10 more days now. But I really hit those bands hard tonight, so I think overall, I took it pretty seriously.

I thought the puppy looks cuter than I did napping today. Not my puppy though.

Day 99 = Dancing + Coast Trip (Part II)

OK, OK. Don't even say it. Dancing does count because I did so much of it tonight! I two-stepped. I rocked out. I watched my friend play air guitar. On the floor. Twice. I sweated out whatever I consumed in the pool all day. We were the "party table" at Alice Faye's until a pack of bikers came in. And then we merged party tables. I did pack my resistance bands (as if I was really going to stop having a good time to use them), but when ???am rolled around, the resistance bands were far from my mind.

Tonight left me with some questions. What is Lady Gaga really singing in that Pokerface song? Who paid for my dinner last night? Can "Don't Stop Believin" ever get old? Am I a cougar if I kiss a 21-year-old college guy?

Day 98 = Running + Coast Trip (Part I)

This morning, I forced myself to run about 4 miles. I just had to get them in because I had no idea what this weekend was going to bring. I'd been invited for at least 4 years to go on this famous "Coast Trip." Remember how I blogged about my Austin friends? Well my group really has something special. They've been taking this coast trip for almost 20 years now. First when they were in high school, then college, then their 20s, now our 30s. Over the years, the coast trip has grown. This trip involved 16 people - 8 men and 8 women. Booya.

I drove myself and two friends, Kerri and Rebecca. We took a few long turns, and I got pulled over for a warning by a one Cpt. Moreno down in some random south Texas county. My friends think it was the revealing sundress I had on that got me out of a ticket.

The coast trip takes place in Rockport, TX, which is kind of more known for being a fishing area more than a beach. That said, we parked all 16 of our butts in the pool and drank for two days. The first night, we went to some bar and then back to our cottages on the bay. Good stuff.

Day 97 = Resistance Bands + Tornado

Seriously? I thought I got away from tornadoes when I left Arkansas. I know tornadoes can be a threat anywhere, including Texas, but I don't like it when I'm in the path of one.

Ah, the tornado. We go way back, you and me. My grandparents had a storm shelter, which was basically a 10x10 foot steel cube that was buried in their backyard. The mound it was buried under was between the carport-o-junk and the half-acre garden. I remember being shuttled into that twister pit many times while staying with my grandparents. When I was about 10, I hauled my suitcase down there with me and spilled all my Bible flash cards into the pit. I don't even want to think what made its home at the bottom of the pit.

When I lived in downtown Little Rock on the top floor of a high-rise condo building, I saw a couple tear through the city. One tore up the Waffle House next door, and they never re-built. It was this same one that forced me to walk 13 floors down to the bottom and take shelter in the stairwell. When we got back upstairs, I saw a truck on I-30 covered by the green overpass sign. Thankfully, that man lived. The next day at work (I worked at a hotel), we brought box lunches to recovery workers in an area that had been hit hardest by the tornado. I saw a white house on the road (in one piece) that had evidently been built and situated two blocks down for the last 50 years. Amazing.

That said, I couldn't possibly get in a run tonight. So after making some goodies to take on my coast trip this weekend, I worked out with my resistance bands. And I dodged the tornado, thankfully.

Day 96 = Gym + Blogging

This morning was Session #4 with my personal trainer, Regan. I told her I was feeling discouraged. Even though I did eat that cheesesteak yesterday, I still ran about 5 miles last night, so why do I still feel so full this morning? Funny how the stomach operates. Well, not funny. I guess it's more of a mystery to me since I'm not a doctor. But I felt so full this morning and forced a multi-grain English muffin with 1.5 TBS of peanut butter down into my gut. And then I didn't feel so full. WTF is with that?

Anyway, I had a good workout. Quite fulfilling. Just want to see more results, so Regan gave me a new diet. I say diet, but really it's more like instructions for me. I function on instructions sometimes. They get me through the day. I am busy enough that it's nice to not have to stop and think about what I'm going to have for lunch.

I'd like to encourage anyone reading this blog to please comment. Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from readers. While most are in the USA, I've had visitors from Canada, Australia and Switzerland.

Day 95 = Running + Cheesesteak

I don't have a glamorous job with lots of perks. Well, not a lot of perks. OK, some people would debate these so-called perks, but I've definitely had other jobs with more perks. So when my boss told me and my co-worker about free Texadelphia sandwiches just sitting in the lobby, I knew...I had...to have one.

I'd made this lovely chicken/walnut/rosemary salad sandwich for lunch. But he said Texadelphia and I was all, "homina, homina, homina." Yes, please. Since it was "moving day" (we moved to the next floor), I knew I'd be getting in extra steps and running later tonight, so my co-worker and I made our way to the lobby, did not attend the training (which is what the sandwiches were for), and collected our cheesesteak boxes.

It was later today that I really appreciated what I've been eating for the last 4 weeks. Stuff that's not bad for you. By the afternoon, this cheese steak was talkin to a sista! My stomach was in knots. I was having "healthy food" withdrawals! Now I will know better.

Day 94 = Gym + Austin Friends

I just have to give props to all my friends. I am so fortunate to have them. I was thinking today that I didn't know anyone who was actually from Austin until I moved here. It's because PEOPLE DON'T LEAVE AUSTIN. There is a reason for this. Austin is fabulous. It rocks. It's weird. And when I think of leaving, it's like, why?

When I moved here a little over 4 years ago, I knew one couple who were transplants to Austin themselves. But they knew a bunch of native Austinites. Let me tell you - it was kind of hard to break into that pack. These are people who've known each other for 20 or even 30 years or longer. But I broke in, and now I feel like a native. So I have my pack of Austinite friends.

Then I have work friends. From every place I've worked here in Austin. From Dell. From AMD. And from a start-up company that is now defunct and not really worth mentioning, but I did come away knowing two wonderful friends from that place.

Then I've gone out and made friends on my own. At wine tastings. At lectures. At parties. My friends have thrown parties for me and surprise parties with scavenger hunts. And surprise karaoke dinners (Sake Bomb!). And they've thrown parties with me - parties with pinatas and fancy shoe contests and door prizes. And dress up/Halloween parties. And they've drank wine and beer and margaritas with me. And listened to me. And laughed with me. And laughed at me. And oh, the girls' trips we've taken. Snow skiing in Lake Tahoe, Vail and Steamboat Springs. Float trips. Boat trips. Trips to some random place just to get away for the weekend. I have two girls' trips planned this year, not counting the "co-ed" coast trip coming up soon, where some of these girls will also be found.

We email, call, text and IM. We talk about all kinds of things. We send each other funny links about videos, photos and stories. Don't even get me started on all the inside jokes and catch-phrases we've accumulated through these last four years. We support each other. Some are single. Some are moms. Some are married. They're all great women. In fact as I'm writing this, a friend just called me to help her answer some questions.

I used to be the social director of my group of friends in Houston, and for a while here I'd rally the troops. But I am so rich in friends, I let my fortunes work for me now. Thank you and God bless my girlfriends. Not a weekend goes by that I don't have something planned with friends, and usually I just have to be patient because eventually a happy hour text or email will come through or an impromptu night of bowling or a movie or pool time or a concert or a comedy show or an invite to hang out on the lake or a request to enter a film-making frenzy contest....

I could gush and go on and on about my friends; it was hard to pick even these handful of photos for this blog entry because Lord knows between us all we have thousands.

By the way, I went to the gym this morning, and it was a good workout.