Sarah's Race/Orlando Weekend! (125/365)

Day 125 Happy: Mini-vacation in Orlando!

I have been looking forward to this weekend forever! Tonight was so much fun. After a long day at work (Saturdays always seem to take forever... probably because it's a 10 hour shift with no break), Marc and I hopped in my cute little car and drove over to Orlando!!

Since Sarah's race didn't start until 10, and we wouldn't be able to see her (or any of the race) until she was almost finished, we decided to head straight to our hotel and check in. It is really cozy, with a king size bed (love!) and it's only about 5 minutes from Universal Studios, which is where we are going tomorrow. After we got all settled in, we headed out to try and find something to eat. I considered Subway for about two seconds (better for my diet, but overdone) and then decided that I wanted something tastier.

We ended up heading over to the mall (whose name escapes me at the moment) and walking around. Marc decided on pizza and breadsticks and I had Chinese food. It was okay... definitely not worth blowing my diet for. But then I found out that veggie fried rice and a spring roll aren't actually that horrible calorie-wise.

After dinner, we decided to go to Downtown Disney, since it is close to where Sarah would be finishing her race. We walked around, and ended up at the Lego store. It was so cool! I drooled and lusted over the Harry Potter playsets... you can build the Hogwarts Express, and Hogwarts castle, and the Burrow, and tons of other scenes from the movies and books. They do tend to be pretty expensive, though. We did pick up a few Halloween pumpkin kits, and I got a Lego Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and Marc got a Lego Darth Vader. They are so cute!

Unfortunately for my diet, we discovered the Ghiradelli store. They were giving out free samples of chocolate squares filled with pumpkin spice caramel. Could you just DIE? They were so amazingly delicious, we ended up buying some to take home.

Pretty soon, it was time to head over and find out where Sarah's race was going to end. After a few (by a few, I mean many) wrong turns, we finally found out that the race would be ending near the Disney Boardwalk's entrance to Epcot. Marc drove over there, we found a place to park, and walked over towards the Boardwalk. We didn't expect to see any of the race, and thought we would just be able to meet with Sarah for a few minutes after her race was done to congratulate her.

However, when we got to the Boardwalk, we realized that we could see people running across the little lake. We wandered over in that direction and, lo and behold, we were ON the race route. We found a spot to sit along the course just before the last turn, right before the finish line. We clapped and cheered for the runners who passed by, urging them on and letting them know that they were almost finished! I had been getting updates on Sarah all night via text message, so I had a pretty good idea about what time she was going to be finished, so I had about a 10 minute window when I knew she was going to be passing us by.

Although it was hard to see with all the lights shining in our eyes, and people were going by so quickly we barely had time to scan their faces, we saw and recognized Sarah. I yelled "GO SARAH!!" as loudly as I could and she raised her hand up in the air to show that she heard me. Marc even got a picture of her running!

After she was all finished and cleaned up, Sarah came out to show us the medal she got for finishing the race (in spectacular time for a first half marathon... 2 hours and 11 minutes!) and I got to ask her some questions for the story I was writing about her for school. We didn't keep her too long, since she got to go to the Food and Wine Festival in Disney, but we just wanted to congratulate her. I am so proud of her for doing such a great job. I am definitely inspired and Marc and I decided that we are going to start training to run the Disney Food and Wine Festival Half Marathon next year!

Halloween Season!! (124/365)

Day 124 Happy: The (official) first day of Halloween season.

Although I broke the rules and put up my Halloween decorations with my Fall decorations last week, I know that TODAY is the official first day of Halloween season (at least in my own mind). With that in mind, I got up early this morning before class, lit my pumpkin-scented candle and put in Hocus Pocus (which is tied with It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown as my favorite Halloween movie) and basked in the Halloween-y goodness.

That is... until I fell asleep! I guess the getting up early was just a little too early for me. Oh well, I fell asleep all cozy and happy that Halloween is almost here. And it's not like I'm not going to watch Hocus Pocus at least another 4 or 5 times before Halloween anyways.

Now I just have to find my Halloween socks and t-shirts...

Anticipation! (123/365)

Day 123 Happy: Looking forward to this weekend!

I am so excited for this weekend. I can't wait for it to finally get here!

Tomorrow is the "official" first day of the Halloween season. And then, Saturday, we are going to Sarah's race in Orlando. We are going to spend the night in a hotel (yay) and then get up the next morning and to go Harry Potter World (yay again!).

Marc and I haven't had a little vacation in a while, so it will be really nice to get away for the weekend, even if it is just to Orlando. The anticipation is killing me!! Why can't it just be Saturday already?!

Rays Game! (112/365)

Day 112 Happy: Free Baseball Game!

Today was awesome! The poor Tampa Bay Rays have had such poor attendance at their home games, that they decided to give away something like 20,000 tickets to tonights game, the last home game of the regular season.

It was (kinda) a tough decision. You see, I am SUPPOSED to be in class on Wednesday evenings. However, since the class I am supposed to be in is a Sports Journalism class, I decided to call the game a learning experience and go instead of going to class.

Marc and I got to the field around 4:30, about 15 minutes before they started giving out the free tickets. We waited at the end of an extremely long line, along with all the other cheap baseball fans. After about half an hour in the sun, we finally made it to the front of the line, and there were tickets left! Since the game didn't start until 7:05, we found out where our seats were and then explored the stadium.

Whoever planned this whole thing was very smart. You see, by giving away the tickets more than two hours before the game started, those of us who got in for free were already hungry before the game even started. Even though we had free tickets for our $15 seats, we spent $14 on two little pizzas, $8 on a drink, $10 on Rays cowbells from the team store, and THEN had an ice cream (in an adorable little plastic baseball cap) for dessert. So, even though we didn't pay to get in, the team definitely made some money off us tonight.

The Rays lost, which is a shame, but I had such a good time just BEING at the baseball game that I didn't really care. We had a ton of fun.

Sleeping In! (121/365)

Day 121 Happy: A few extra hours of sleep

Remember the summers in high school? Remember THAT kind of sleeping in? The kind where you would wake up, all cuddled up in your bed, around 1:30 in the afternoon with absolutely nothing to do all day?

I miss that.

After yesterday (when I had to be at work at 7:00) it was ridiculously nice to be able to sleep in until around 9:00 this morning. That is a really late sleeping in for me these days. I guess that's what I get for being a grown up now, with grown up responsibilities.

But, let me tell you, I appreciated those extra hours of sleep WAY more than I ever would have back on one of those lazy high school summer days.

Doing Just Enough (120/365)

Day 120 Happy: Getting By

I have a class this semester that I hate.

I don't just not like it. I literally hate it. And I'm not fond of the teacher. I'm even less fond of the graduate assistant, who is really getting on my nerves.

However, we had a story due today and, despite the odds, I did it! Was it my best work? Not in the slightest. But it's finished. Hopefully I will get a decent grade on it... at least enough for me to pass this class so I can graduate. Haha.

Finishing... a tiny victory, but a victory all the same.

Short Sundays (119/365)

Day 119 Happy: The Last Good Sunday

There have been rumors floating around for a few weeks that our hours at work are changing for Sundays. The gossip was that Sundays were going to change from being a 10-3 shift to an 8-3 shift.

Obviously, this is not a good thing.

And unfortunately, the rumors turned out to be true. The first weekend in October, we will be switching to the new hours, and I will no longer be able to sleep in and have a nice, easygoing morning on Sundays. Since I will be out of town next weekend, and Miranda will be covering for me, this is my very last easygoing, late morning Sunday.

I figured I would better enjoy (and appreciate) it while I still can.