NOLA Celeb sighting

Oh yea, Spike Lee was on our flight from New Orleans to New York.  Looks just like he does on TV.

New Orleans weekend

I went to New Orleans for the first time this weekend!  It was really great!  One place of of my list of places to go.  I went to run the Rock n Roll Mardi Gras Half Marathon with my friend Marissa (she ran the full!), her brother, sister-in-law and some other friends.

The trip did not get off to the best of starts - anyone in the NYC area will remember there was a blizzard that left about 16" of snow on Thursday and Friday.  My flight was scheduled to leave on Saturday morning...but of course if got cancelled Friday afternoon.  After some dealing with Delta, I was able to get on a different flight that eventually got me to NOLA (via Atlanta).  Unfortunately, this meant I missed the race expo, but was still able to get my race number on Sunday morning.  It did mean however, I missed all the race gear to buy!  We all know I love my race gear, so this was probably a good thing. 

The race was Sunday morning and went really well!  I set a half marathon PR - 1:51:22 (an 8:30 per mile pace!).  I was very pleased with it!  Marissa also set a PR in her marathon - 4:12:00.  Great job Marissa!  The course was really nice - for someone who has never been to New Orleans, I thought it gave me a great overview of the city.  We ran down St. Charles Ave (and there were still beads everywhere from the actual Mardi Gras).  We also ran through some of the French Quarter and City Park.  It was very pretty and very flat.  Some races call themselves "flat" and definitely aren't, but this one was definitely flat. 

We had some great food while there - lots of gumbo, po' boys, oysters, shrimp, etc.  It was all very delicious!  I also had some beignots from Cafe du Monde.  The line was semi long, but worth it in my opinion.  They were just as good as I imagined (and made for some pretty delicious hangover food on Monday morning).

Sunday night (after a delicious dinner at Bacco), Marissa, Landon and I went to Bourbon St.  It was crazy!  I still can't get over that there are no open container laws (yep, everyone just drinks in the open and in the street).  Being a first timer in NOLA, Marissa insisted I had to have a Hurrican from Pat O'Briens and a Hand Granade.  They were both pretty dangerous, but delicious. 

Overall, a great time!  Can't wait to go back in May for Marissa and Landon's wedding!

Currently reading...

So I finally admitted to myself that I wasn't getting anywhere with Fever Pitch.  Despite liking soccer, I just can't get into it.  So instead, I started reading, "A Year in the World" by Frances Mayes.  She also wrote "Under the Tuscan Sun".  While I haven't read that yet, the movie is one of my absolute favorites!  Which is probably why I haven't read the book - don't want it to ruin my love of the movie (yes, it works in reverse). 

I am about 2/3rds of the way into A Year in the World and so far, I am enjoying it.  It took a little to get into, but now that I have I am loving it.  It's all about trips that Mayes and her husband are taking around the world.  Where they stayed, what they ate, who they visited, why they went there.  It's pretty interesting and has totally added some places to my (ever growing) list of places to visit.

Hope for Haiti Now

I bought the Hope for Haiti Now album on iTunes (the performances from the telecast) last week.  Not only does all the money go to a great cause, but it's actually a great album.  If you have some time/cash, you should definitely download it.

New discovery

So I just discovered (courtesy of my friend Anne), that you can borrow CD's from the library for free (at least here in New York).  This is very exciting to me.  I love music, but can not afford to buy everything I want.  This way, I can borrrow them for free, import them to my iTunes and return them.  All for zero dollars. 

It's the little things in life.

I. want. one.

Why does Apple always make the coolest stuff?

www.apple.com/ipad

It looks awesome.  I totally want one.  And, in all honesty, it's not that expensive (compared to how expensive it could be).  I've been wanting a Kindle/Nook for a while, so maybe I'll just wait a couple of months 'til Apple works out the kinks and then get this one.

Currently reading...

I enjoy reading, I really do.  Right now, I'm in the middle of "Fever Pitch" by Nick Hornby (yes, the book the movie "Fever Pitch" starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore is based off of; and in the book it's about soccer, not baseball.  Anyways, off topic...).  I started it in November.  I'm enjoying it, I am, but while I enjoy reading, I find that something always seems to distract me.  Right now, it's the first 5 seasons of LOST, which I am trying to re-watch before the premier on Feb. 2nd.  I've seen them all before, but re-watching them has been fascinating.  I'm on season 5, so I'm pretty confident I'll be finished by next Tuesday.

Then, I can go back to reading my book.

really bad blogger...

So, it's kind of ironic that in my last post, I commented that I was a bad blogger and hadn't posted in a while.  Well...now it's been almost 1.5 years since I posted.  Whoops.  Rather then re-hash what has happened in the last 1.5 years, I'm just going to start fresh.  New Year, New Blog.

So, in that spirit, this blog will no longer be about running and training for a marathon, but about everything.  Running is a given, but also about random thoughts, travel, food, celeb sightings, things going on in the city, daily adventures...basically whatever comes into my mind. 

Enjoy!