At It Again

It was still dark when the alarm went off this morning; my face still puffy from sleep. Why was I getting up so early again? I buried my face deep into my pillow, trying to recall how I had gotten myself into this. Oh yeah - marathon training. I was back in Vegas, partly to see Mouse, but also to tackle the Red Rocks Canyon loop. No matter how diligently I've been training back in SoCal, none of the routes can hold a candle to Red Rocks. So I had crashed at my LV training buddy's pad, and we were rousting ourselves at this ungodly hour to run the loop.

As expected, the route was brutal. Thank heavens it was equally breathtakingly beautiful, as Red Rocks always is, which helped to numb the pain brought on by the incredible hills. At times, it seemed like the climbs would never end. It hurt, but that's exactly what I was looking for. (Not exactly the pain, but the amped-up training, for sure.) So, even though my legs are now thoroughly shredded, I'm happy with our effort. It was another solid day of preparation for the marathon. Big Sur, here I come...

Deja Vu

Well, it looks like we're at it again. Doing the long distance thing, that is. How do we always seem to end up in this place? How does life always find a way to wedge itself between us, and push us miles apart? This certainly wasn't in the plan when we moved here. We didn't see it coming. But our jobs can be unpredictable and opportunities appear out of the blue, so we do our best to roll with the punches. This latest version of punch-rolling means he's back in Las Vegas, while I continue working out here. No more afternoon beach bocce. No snuggling on the couch. Our daily interaction is now limited to a couple of phone calls and the occasional text. It's not the ideal way to spend the final months of our newlywed year, but it will have to do for now.

I wish I could say I was taking advantage of his absence and living it up with my girlfriends. But, lately, I've been doing nothing but work, work, and more work. Our days apart are no more than a blur of various hospitals and patients, with a little bit of sleep thrown in for sanity. Life has definitely become less fun and more functional.

It won't be like this forever. This situation is most certainly temporary, and is only a means to our end. I think i might even be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Summer is approaching, and is bringing with it travel and changes. I only have to hold out a little while longer...

Cupcake Monday - Key Lime Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream

Happy Monday! In order to start off the week on a good note, I decided to hold off on posting Friday's baking project until today. After all, what better way to start the week than by writing about sweets?

I haven't been baking all that much lately, not because I haven't wanted to, but because I haven't had a good excuse to. (I know, I know. Who really needs an excuse to bake, right? Well, I do. Go figure.) Anyway, seeing as how it was my Newport Bestie's birthday this past week and I had a big race on Saturday, I couldn't think of a reason not to bake.

Since my friend love, love, loves coconut frosting, I decided to go with a Key Lime Cupcake. I figured the tartness of the cupcake would compliment the sweet richness of the frosting. And guess what? It totally worked! I based my recipe off of one on found on What About Second Breakfast?, a great foodie blog. For the frosting, I used my tried and true adaptation of CakeLove's Coconut Buttercream, which derives it's richness from using a coconut pastry cream as the base. If you haven't tried this unorthodox frosting before, I highly recommend you get to it. It's addictive!

See below for the full recipe. Happy Monday!

No One to Blame But Myself

My lungs were burning.  My stomach was churning.  My quads screamed for mercy.  Let's face it, I was miserable, which was not exactly how I had planned on spending my Saturday morning.  OK - I admit that's not entirely true.  I brought this pain on myself.  I had planned on running this blasted race.  I just had no clue what I had gotten myself into.  I signed up for the Chesebro Half Marathon in Agoura Hills months ago, thinking it would be good training for Big Sur.  I reasoned a trail race would be the ideal training tool for the grueling hills that will dominate my upcoming marathon.  And, admittedly, it probably was.  (A good training tool, that is.)  It forced me to work on my speed, while negotiating steep terrain.  But, what I didn't count on was how incredibly difficult the course was actually going to be.  Some of the climbs were so unforgivingly steep that I had no choice but to walk for a moment or two.  (And, to be honest, my "running" pace probably wasn't much faster than a fast walk by that point, anyhow.)  Other times, even on seemingly flat terrain, I felt like I was barely crawling along.  It was frustrating, demoralizing, and maddening.  I've never felt more chewed up and spit out by any other course. And  I've certainly never been so happy to see the finish line materialize before me.  It definitely wasn't a PR kind of day, but I still finished with a respectable time of 1:48, which placed me 4th out of the 72 females in the 30-34 division, and 29th out 519 overall females.  I guess that will have to do.

Lucky Me

One of the many beauties of registry nursing is the wide variety of people I get to meet.  On any given night, I have no idea who I'm going to work with, or the conversations we're going to strike up.  I'm constantly stepping out of my comfort zone and putting myself out there.  I'm always the newbie on the unit; the one who's being scrutinized and judged.  Even if I go to the same hospital two nights in a row, I might not work on the same floor, so I have to prove myself all over again.  If I let it, it could be exhausting.  Instead, I try to think of it as an adventure.  (And isn't that what my life is all about?)  Sure, there are times when I want to go about my patient care unbothered.  There are definitely nights when wish I could go unnoticed and fade away into the background.  But, more often than not, I run into the coolest people, and our chatter morphs into truly interesting conversations.  I've befriended some really stellar people out here that I would have never met, if not for my crazy job.  And, for that, I consider myself incredibly lucky.