A Week Back Home with Friends

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Wow! This has been a busy, but good week. I got to meet up with a lot of my friends and enjoy some fun times together. Wednesday I went out bowling with a group of friends from work. Paola arranged for a evening of bowling for all of us. I haven't been bowling in quiet a while. The last time was right after I got back from Peru three years ago and Nate and I went 'wig bowling'. Basically it means you have to wear a weird hat or wig while you are bowling. I actually got a lot of compliments on the purple wig I was wearing (I've including a picture with this entry. I know, I know. . .I'm a bit strange. 😊 Seriously. . .I wish there was a holiday every month wear we got to dress up in costumes. I love coming up with crazy outfits (I've included a picture of me from a couple Halloween's ago dressed a Viking Princess as proof). Okay. . .back to the bowling. ..none of my friends are too serious about winning the game. We just like to joke around, laugh, and drink good beer. We had such a fun time out. . .although we were all very tired the next day at work!

The next day was so busy. . .I ended up having to bring a bunch of work home with me. But I convinced my friend Nate to come out to dinner with me first. We went to one of our favorite places, El Torito. The food is only okay, not great, but we like the people who work there and we usually visit with them and enjoy some good laughs. I had a margarita, and Nate and I shared a sampler platter. We usually eat healthier food than that, but we felt like relaxing and not worrying about it.

The next day I got to meet up after work with two lovely friends, Judy and Stephanie. We like to go to this wine bar near the beach called the Vine. They have a great happy hour and the three of us enjoy relaxing there while we visit. I know Judy and Stephanie from the company I used to work at. Judy lives way up north and has a beautiful house with a HUGE yard. Sometimes I go up there and help her work in her garden. I used to live in a place with a garden and I miss being outside and planting flowers. She and I also go biking sometimes around a beautiful lake near where she lives. Stephanie lives very close to where I live. She has a cute condo near the beach. The neighborhood she lives in has a wonderful farmer's market and we often go there to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. She and I also bike together, go hiking, swimming, etc. She loves the outdoors like I do. Oh! So for my Chinese friends. . .the cheese board is a very European thing. It is something a group of people share while they are drinking wine. The cheeses are all different in flavor (because of how they are made) and then are served with crackers or bread. The pate is a dish that originally came from France. Liver is cooked and then blended with garlic and some other spices until is it very smooth and creamy. It is eaten by spreading it with a knife onto pieces of toasted bread. People seem to either love it or hate it.

So as for this weekend, I was able to walk 18 miles with Cheri. Around mile 15 we were both in so much pain from not having trained as much as we should have over the past few weeks. Our feet hurt. Our legs hurt. My butt even hurt! But we kept encouraging each other not to give up. There were so many times that we wanted to quit. But this is part of the training. . .not only to make our legs strong, but our minds as well. We kept on pushing and finished in 4 hour 45 minutes. That is excellent time. . .it means we should be able to do really well on marathon day. I think we are both still pretty sore, but we're both so happy that we didn't quit. We have also started talking about what other fun races we want to do after the marathon (shorter ones. . .3 miles, 6 miles and a 1/2 marathon). There are a bunch where we get to dress up in costume (remember how I told you I like dressing up in costumes?) 😊

Well. . .I have to go. Take care, everyone!

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Photos

Wendy and Nate
Wig Bowling.

Paola, Cheri, and Nate
My friends at the bowling alley. Paola arranged this as a Welcome Back Home party for me.

Pad
This is a crazy, fun friend of mine.

Marc
Marc is Paola's boyfriend and is a super good bowler. He owns his own bowling shoes and ball.

Sheena
This is my beautiful friend, Sheena that you have meet in an earlier entry of my blog.

Wendy and Chris
This is Annie's boyfriend, Chris. He is a super cool guy.. .and as you can tell. . .really, really tall.

Comments

[Sheena]

Yay! It's so great to have my Wendy back :D

[San Diego Girl]

It's good to be back
I missed everyone so much! I truly know how lucky I am to have such good friends.