Oh, what a day and night!

Well, I successfully got over my cold without too much fuss. A stuffy nose which made it a little hard to breathe, eat with an occasional running of the nose was the extent of it, fortunately. It did prevent me from working out for a whole week. However, it did not kill the appetite! I guess I won't be one of those people that waste away during an illness. When I finally did get to exercise again, I went all gung ho and overdid it on one day which made me really sore and tired. I started running a little bit in the morning, actually only 2x this past week, to get ready for a 5K that I ran yesterday. It was light enough but certainly not warm enough until I got going. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to run it with my friends because I didn't get to train for it much but I did ok. It must have been all the working out I had done prior to getting sick which was good for my endurance and strength. My girlfriends and I started the run with a couple of guys who left us in the dirt pretty quickly. For someone who trained less than I did, which was basically not at all, they were gone like their pants were on fire! However, I'm hearing that they're sore and fortunately, I'm not. So I guess I wasn't as bad as I thought. It did tire me out and so I had to take a short nap before going out.

Last night, my 3 girlfriends and one of the guys that ran the 5K met up for a night on the town. We started out at Crush, a wine bar, downtown. It was really cool and low key and fun. We got to taste different wines, hang out and got a wine buzz. In fact, my lips got numb! I guess that's what happens when I basically drank about 4 glasses of wine. I got the flight of white wine muscats which cost about the same as one glass of wine but gave me almost 3x as much. Then a bunch of us bought a bottle of our favorite muscat, Eberle. From there, we went to Humpy's so some of us could get some real food. There I had an apple cider and a few cheese fries...yummy! One of the gals had to go home because she had the unfortunate luck of having to work today. We tried to go to Subzero, a martini bar, but the mood was too mellow for us. So we returned to a previous haunt, the Avenue. There, the music was 80s, so it was good, and we played a game of pool, which I suck at. We ended our night by checking out the Anchor, which was more nightcluby than a bar. It was too much for us and so we were out in about 10-15 minutes, heading home. All in all a good day...probably the best so far. It gave me hope that I'd be leaving here with some good friends.

I can see the sidewalk!

Yes, Virginia, spring is finally here! Or so I thought until the snowfall last night that left about an inch of snow on the ground. Oh, how I wish for the warmer climate of...anywhere! The only consolation is that the days are definitely getting longer...we're at 14.5hrs between sunrise and sunset which doesn't include the light that comes before the sun actually rises and sets.

I have not seen any moose lately. Now I am hearing about bears that are a part of the landscape should I decide I want to go hiking. Not so much now! For some reason, moose don't seem as scary as a bear, call me crazy. Fortunately, bears aren't as common in the neighborhood as the moose.

So I saw Jake Shimabukuro, the ukelele player. Isn't it ironic that I would see him in Alaska when he's actually from Hawaii and I was there this time last year? It was pretty amazing what he can do with that ukelele...if I didn't know any better, I would think he was playing a guitar. There were a lot more people than I thought would be there..there's much of a Hawaii base than one would expect. I also went to the first tap at Bear's Tooth with a bunch of people from work. We had dinner beforehand at a place that doesn't accept reservations during prime dinner time. We had to wait for a table, for a bunch of people that were just hanging out after paying their bill. We kept giving them the eye to urge them to get up and leave. I ordered a chicken and chorizo pizza which was missing the chorizo. I don't know how they could have missed such an integral ingredient as one that is included in the name of the pizza. They brought me a side dish of chorizo which doesn't quite make the pizza and I got a free dessert out of it. First tap was fun, just hanging out with my friends, I definitely don't go for the beer.

A friend invited me to an arena football game. Each time only plays 8 players, on a shorter field, about half the distance and width of a regular football field, and it was played indoors. It reminded me of the flag football league that I played in while living in southern CA. Arena football is new to Anchorage and so the team they played, all the way from Maryland, smoked them. There's always the next game or next year.

Well, it was first for me...going to a roller derby game which is fairly new to Anchorage as well. A co-worker is on a team that was playing during the half-time of the main event. It was and wasn't what I imagined. Definitely ladies in their costumes on roller skates going around a short track but not as fast moving nor as physical as I expected. I pictured the roller derby of the 70s. Not so much as it seemed some of the gals seemed like they could barely stay on their feet. it was another night of fun and frivolity, hanging out with the crew from Providence. There was quite a contingent representing the dept.. We got to try a drink called "Hop, skip and go naked" which is a mixture of lemonade concentrate, vodka, pale beer and water to taste. Not as bad as it sounds and not as beery as I would have thought. A bunch of us were outside tailgating during part of the 2nd half of the game, reminiscent of the good old college days. Afterwards, a group went out to eat and then it dwindled to where only a couple of us went out afterwards. We had so much fun that we're planning another night out in a couple of weeks where we can stay out later (a lot of the crew had to work the next day so couldn't stay out late). Looking forward to it. I must be getting old because I was tired the next day and now today I'm fighting off a cold, hoping it doesn't get past the stuffy nose and headache stage.