I finally booked my cruise to the Caribbean last night! It's not until Feb. but I'm so excited. It will be my first real vacation since I started working 1.5 years ago. Bloggy peeps in Florida (more specifically in the Orlando area) I fly in Saturday, Feb. 6th and I'm spending the night before the cruise leaves the next day. If anyone's interested, I'd love to grab dinner or something.

The cruise is seven glorious days of warmth in the middle of winter. It hits a private island near Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel, all places I've never been.

So wheee! I'm super duper excited!

I was going to go running this morning, but I stayed up late watching Big Brother on the DVR. (Fail) All I have to say about that so is oh my goodness it gets more ridiculous with every episode this season. I love it! Guess I'll be fitting my run in some other time.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now.

This weekend I headed home to PA for some family time and to get away from the city. It was fabulously wonderful weekend and I wish it didn't end so quickly.

I got into town late Friday night because you have to wait to leave the D.C. area until at least 7 p.m. unless you'd like to torture yourself sitting in rush hour traffic for two hours. So I pretty much collapsed into bed when I got home and slept like a baby.

Woke up Saturday, ran errands and then my mom and I hit the outlets for a day of shopping. It was awesome. I didn't get anything to exciting, just a couple cute tanks that were ridiculously cheap. We met up with some family friends for lunch and then finished our shopping extravaganza, which I think totaled five hours of shopping. I was beat afterward from all the walking. (Secret prep for all the walking I'll have to be doing in my half marathon perhaps? lol)

But I spent the night at friend's of ours pool, lounging in the hot tub, which seemed to do the trick for the tired legs.

Sunday morning I got up and headed out for a run around 7:30. Whooo it was hot as Hades by that point. But it was five miles in the book. And guess how many traffic lights I had to stop at or for that matter even ran through....ZERO! Alleluia! Running at home is the most amazing thing ever because there are just these long winding roads through woodsy areas and then past golf courses and big open fields. No traffic lights, no inhaling exhaust fumes, no nasty drivers honking at you.

As my mom said this weekend, apparently I'm a true country bumpkin when it comes to running. I hate running in the city. Like hate it in a way that words can't describe. And I blame where I live on why my running has suffered this year. It's hard to get motivated to go on a nice run when I know I'm going to run a block and stop. Run another block and stop. It's annoying and I hate it. Big city people, how do you deal with it? Yes there's a park by me, but lots of people get mugged, molested, etc. there so I avoid it. Tips, suggestions, to make running in the city not torturous? Maybe I should just move to the 'burbs lol.

Seems like I'm still hanging on to a bit of a cold at the tail end of this plague that I've got, but I'm hoping I've at least turned the corner and I'll be back to my normal healthy self soon. (Hellllo POM juice any time you want to assist my immune system, I'd greatly appreciate it)