So sorry I've been MIA people. I got hit with strep throat again last week and I'm just starting to feel normal now. I finally cracked and shelled out the big bucks for some POM juice and just as Dr. CJ says, it seems to be helping. I was actually going to bring some in a water bottle to work today, but I forgot in my morning rush.

Anyway, I've decided the Virginia Beach Half Marathon is a cursed race for me and anyone who registers because I suggest it.

Don't believe me?

Here's proof:

The first year I ran the VB RNR I had strep throat. I did the race anyway, but didn't do very well. I feel like running a half with strep at least qualifies me for some sort of bad-ass award.

Last year, I had to scratch VB from the calendar because of my knee injury.

This year, the VB curse has not only affected me. It's affected the BF and my mom.

My mom was so excited that was so going to be able to run the whole thing, even though she'd be going slowly. She pulled both of her hamstrings not to long ago and has barely been able to walk since. She'll just be happy to cross the finish line at this point.

The BF's training started out so well and he was going to finish his first half ever. But then his knee started acting up. He most likely will be a DNS on race day.

And me, well I was planning to avenge my crappy time from two years ago and hopefully set a new PR. With only four weeks until race day, I'll just be happy to have a solid running base in place to finish the race. I haven't run one step since my 10 miler two weeks ago because I've been sick. I'm on strick doctors orders to not run until I feel completely better to avoid another relapse. I still don't feel completely better. So until then it will be eat, sleep, rest, hydrate and then start rebuilding some of my strength.

I'm trying not to let the VB RNR curse get me down. I just need to readjust my goals a bit and focus more on running the race for fun. Letting go of the PR dream hurts a little bit though.

Every year I run the Komen Race for the Cure 5K in Maryland and last year I was able to convince a bunch of my friends to run it with me. We had a blast so we're planning on doing it again this year.

One of our favorite parts of the race was checking out all the other teams hilarious shirts with funny slogans about "Saving the Ta-tas" or "Running for Boobies" We thought it would be fun this year to create shirts of our own.

Only problem is apparently we aren't as creative as the other teams because we can't come up with a slogan. So I'm putting it out there for you guys to help. Leave me a comment with your most hilarious, most fun, most borderline inappropriate slogans dealing with running to raise money for breast cancer research.

Last year we were mostly girls. This year we may have some guys joining us too. So you could do one slogan that covers all of us or you could send me two separate slogans, one for guys and one for girls. Last year I saw a guy wearing a shirt that said he was running because he loved boobs too. Made me laugh a little bit.

I don't have a fun prize for the winner yet, but maybe I'll hunt around and send you something cool for your efforts. Or maybe I'll promo your blog on the back our shirts or something or just tell you that your awesome and lavish you with praise on my blog.

And if anyone has any advice on where I could get technical shirts printed with a slogan for not an insane amount of money, I'd appreciate it. I did some hunting around and haven't found too much.

So send me your slogans and pass this along to your friends. I know we've got a lot of creative people out there in blogland.

This weekend was all about having fun, staying out too late and celebrating birthdays. My good friend Laurie turned 23 on Friday and my baby bro turned 21 on Saturday.

Friday was dinner and dancing in D.C. and we had a blast.

We headed to Adam's Morgan for dancing and spent the night at Eighteen and Red and Heaven and Hell. On our way between the two bars we bumped into TV crews and mobs of people wearing dangly things around their necks. Oh hey...it was the Real World D.C. cast. They were going to Tom Tom, which had a line twisting down the block of people hoping for their 15 minutes of fame caught on camera with the Real World cast.

I didn't get home until close to 2:30 a.m. Seriously that's the latest I've been out in months. (I'm the lamest twentysomething ever.) Passed out and slept until noon. Felt like I was back in college.

After spending some time visiting with the BFs fam (his grandparents were in town) we hit the road for a trip to Philly for my baby bro's 21st. The BF has never been to Philly so the plan was to head to the bars with my brother Saturday night and then do fun Philly stuff Sunday.

My brother arranged a sweet open bar where $30 got you all the top shelf liquor and all domestic and imported beers you could drink for two hours. I didn't take part in the open bar part. I had two drinks and a shot. Not worth $30. My bro, his friends the BF and my cousins all loooooved it though.

Check out the sweet photo evidence: