Sometimes Weekends Just Fly By

May 20, 2013 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

Can you believe it’s already Monday? Last week flew by … and it was great. Spring was here in full swing, with warm nights, warmer days and sunshine all around. I took advantage of the weather – and even started off my Monday morning with a little sunburn (just kidding Mom, it’s just a little tan).

Here are some highlights from last week:

Thursday I had my final Bridge Builders session before our presentations. It was one of my favorite sessions by far, with part of the day of reserved for civic engagement activities. I was in the Ohio City group, which meant that one of the places I visited was Ohio City Farm. I learned how to dig up day lilies and learned that the local farm is the second largest urban farm in the U.S.! And it’s open on to the public starting next month so you can even walk around and check it out for yourself when it’s open. And buy some fresh, local produce!

ohio city farm

I really like that this photo shows both the farm plus the city in the background

Friday, our office spent some time beautifying the local street. Each year we adopt a spot outside our building and do some planting. That’s right – two days in a row I gardened! And probably more gardening than I’ll be doing for another year.

working on the Adopt A Spot

our garden – almost finished

Friday night, B and I decided to spend the night out on East Fourth – we enjoyed dinner at Saigon (I am obsessed with their chicken cabbage salad and their lemongrass tofu) and then headed to Hilarities to see the comedian Dom Irrera. He was great – definitely a comedian I enjoyed seeing and pretty funny.

one night of vietnamese food. Definitely not enough.

Saturday, B and I went for a run. I did a 5k by myself and then B and I did 4 together, making for a nice 7 miler to start my day. Post-run, B hit the West Side Market for our weekly groceries, and since the weather was still looking nice, we decided to catch an Indians game. I’m glad we did – they ended up winning and it was a beautiful day!

Cheering on the Indians

Saturday evening, we visited the Cleveland Asian Festival, and then ended up getting Vietnamese food takeout to enjoy on our patio. Yes, we had Vietnamese food 2 nights in a row. I’m only slightly ashamed.

Sunday we got up early. No, you may recall that I wasn’t running the marathon or half marathon, but I still woke up around 3 a.m. – to drive to Notre Dame for B’s sister’s graduation. It was a long day, and made me think of my gradation from BC. The night before, it’s a tradition for the seniors to stay up – all night – and watch the sun rise over the Boston skyline. Sentimental? Yes. Cliche? Maybe. But I loved every minute of those last few days, spending time with my friends, cooking out on our Mod lawn, staying up all night, and barely making it through the commencement without falling asleep.

Look, I dug up old photos for you. B and me waiting for the sun to rise with other grads, on graduation day, and my photo of the sunrise from BC campus.

I don’t know if the students have a similar tradition at ND, but as spectators we enjoyed listening to the commencement speaker, sat in the sun for the outdoor ceremony, then got brunch, and finally saw his sister get her diploma in a smaller ceremony indoors on campus at the end of the day. We then headed home – meaning we got home around 8:00 so it was another night out for dinner. I decided not to have Vietnamese food for the third night in a row … but instead Lebanese! I opted for Taza, and enjoyed every second of it.

B and me at the graduation

Notre Dame Commencement. Check out all those grads!

B and me in front of Touchdown Jesus

It was a crazy, fast, nonstop weekend with little sleep and little downtime, but I loved every minute of it. What did you do?

Some thoughts to ponder:

Do you remember your college graduation? Did your school have a tradition?
What’s the earliest you have set your alarm recently? 3 a.m. on a weekend was rough. But at least I could sleep in the car!
What’s your brunch drink of choice? I love bellinis! I’m not a mimosa fan – I don’t really like OJ.
Do you have a green thumb? Not at all. A few of the actual farm workers at Ohio City farm redid the day lilies that I potted. Whoops!
It’s that time of year — did you watch any baseball games this weekend? What’s your baseball game snack of choice? We had peanuts!

Half Marathon Weekend Recap – The Holy Half

March 26, 2013March 26, 2013 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 1 Comment

B and I ran a half marathon this weekend in South Bend, Indiana. You may recall that one of my goals for this year was to run at least 2 half marathons (to partially make up for my injury while training for a full marathon last year). I was thinking of training for Cleveland, but since we’ll be at B’s sister’s graduation from Notre Dame that weekend, we started looking for other races. So when B’s sister mentioned she’d be running the Holy Half at Notre Dame, it only seemed appropriate that we run that!

holy half marathon

How did it go? The race itself went well except B wasn’t feeling good most of the time. He was feeling a little sick the first half, and then was in much more pain the second half of the race – stomach, legs, etc. I kept with him the whole time and we finished, but definitely weren’t running for time. Maybe that’s why I felt so good after the race and could have run at least a mile or few more.

B’s Aunt Marie took this action shot!

What did we like about the race?

The running crowd – I really enjoyed the group of people that were running. It was mostly Notre Dame students so it was a lot of young people – but quite a few non-ND students were mixed in as well (including a BC grad like myself). It didn’t hurt that B, his two sisters and one of his brothers were all running the half or the 10k!
The cheering – The students were all over campus cheering the runners on. It was fun to see the students with signs and cheering everyone on – even those who clearly weren’t part of their campus.
The water/Gu stops – There seemed to be plenty of water stops to keep us hydrated and even 3-4 stops that also included Gu Chomps.
The run through campus – The running route was about two laps of a 10k course. Parts of it were through campus, which was fun to see! I’m slightly biased with my idea of what a beautiful campus looks like (Sorry, but BC was GORGEOUS!) but it was nice to see another pretty college.
The start time – Starting at 9 a.m.? LOVED not having to get up at the break of dawn to get to the race!
The post-race food – Free Jimmy John’s subs (veggie for me), Dunkin Donuts bagels, Peeps, fruit and more. The supply was endless!

What didn’t we like about the race?

The weather – I guess you can’t really blame this on the race but it was COLD! I couldn’t feel my fingers at the end, at all, which wasn’t fun. I was wearing normal winter running gear, but for some reason couldn’t get my hands warm. This could have to do with the fact that I’m incapable of drinking water during runs and spilled the ice cold water cups a few times. Whoops!
The overall course – While I did love running through campus and liked the loop, I didn’t like miles 2-4 of the loop, which were almost like a trail run. They were around a lake or pond on campus and the path was very narrow – some parts you were barely able to pass anyone, which is not good for the start of a race – and the ground was rock solid and uneven. It had clearly been muddy at some point, and then re-frozen and it hurt my knees more than the normal concrete. B also didn’t like the last few miles of the loop because it was mostly running around parking lots, etc.
No medal – We didn’t get a medal. Not that I do anything with the medals I get (do you?) but we didn’t get anything for finishing. Our race bags had t-shirts and some odd assortment of goodies (jewelry cleaner?) but there was no medal or anything at the finish line.

Post-race relaxing at Notre Dame .. and a photo-bomb by Pete!

Post-race relaxing at Legends on Notre Dame .. and a photo-bomb by Pete!

After the race, we met up with B’s aunt, uncle and cousin, who had been cheering everyone on and grabbed a few drinks on campus before heading back to take a nap. Post-nap we were starving! We enjoyed some pretty good pizza (surprisingly good for what I was expecting out of a small pizza joint in Indiana) and then headed to a local bar for some dancing, fuzzy navel shots and some seriously amazing games of beer pong (B was undefeated!). Definitely not a bad way to spend a half-marathon weekend!

Some thoughts to ponder:

Have you ever signed up for a half marathon less than two weeks before the race? How did it go?
Do you like to run with a friend/significant other when racing? Do you leave them behind or stick with them through the end?
Have you ever run a race through a college campus?
What’s your favorite post-race indulgence?
What’s your favorite college campus?

Weekend Recap: BC v. ND Weekend

November 22, 2011 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

As a proud Boston College alumna, I’d be in trouble if I didn’t post about my recent weekend in South Bend to witness another year and another episode of the Holy War. We (BC) were supposed to lose by 20+ points (sadly, we’re less than stellar this season) but the game was closer than it should have been – the final score was 16 – 14, with BC only losing by 2! Again, it was still a loss, but it was a fun day, fun game, and great weekend.

The weekend started off at 6:15 a.m. on Saturday when B and I were picked by his dad in a 12-person van, and it was already full with his parents, 2 of his brothers, 1 of his sisters, B’s coworker and our dentist and his wife (yes, you read that right – they’re family friends so we spend the 4ish hour carride, tailgate, and night/next morning with our dentist).

We arrived at ND and met up B’s aunt, 3 uncles, 2 aunts and 7 cousins. Yes, our tailgate was HUGE, family filled, and got even bigger when 4 of my friends from BC stopped by.

B* and me

There was tons of food, including my own first attempt at cake balls – shaped like footballs of course:

We stayed at a hotel after the game and then headed back to the CLE the next day.

Does your school have any big rivalries? What’s your favorite alumni sporting event?

*B does not usually look like such a creepster. He’s just doing Movember and raising money for man-cancers. If you’d donate to him, I’d appreciate it so he actually does shave it off come 8 days from now (and yes, I’m counting down).