Fitbloggin!

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to attend Fitbloggin in Baltimore. It was a weekend filled with new friends, great discussions, and some sweaty workouts.

On Thursday I arrived to meet Robby in our room. She bounded toward the door as soon as I opened it and gave me a big hug.  It was the first of many hugs for the weekend.  After registering, we decorated our badges, and I began to meet some of the wonderful bloggers I’d stalked online. There were so many people, it was fantastic. Finally got to meet the lovely Tasha who I’d blogged at plenty of times and saw an HLS pal (the awesome Carly). Robby was a bit more outgoing than I was and grabbed a dozen people to join us to the Green Turtle to enjoy some football. Wow was that an experience. Remind me to tell you the story of the flying bartender sometime!

Friday started off with two fantastic workouts. Crossfit was a serious killer, but thanks to the encouragement of the lovely  Pinky I was able to make it through with minimal complaining. After a quick cool down we ran back to try out a workout by Cathe. By the end, I was a huge puddle of shvitz. I’d heard great things about Crossfit before, I think I’ll have to check it out again to see if I can get some new muscles.

I ran off for a quick shower before sitting in on some amazing discussions and lectures. We laughed, we cried, we shared ourselves with each other. It was truly beautiful to learn so much from the other attendees. Not only did I learn about the struggles others had, but I realized things about my own journey. Check out the LiveBlog on Self Acceptance, it will open your eyes.

In the evening we had another rowdy time. Five of us (Robby, Melissa, Pinky, Dawn, and myself) gathered into our hotel room, sipped on some wine, and laughed for hours. Thanks to Dawn for bringing out my inner wasabi pea lover, I now own a large bag…

More updates about Saturday and Sunday to come, unfortunately I must be off to TA the Intro to Mechanical Engineering course (more on school soon).

What conferences have you enjoyed recently? What are your thoughts on Crossfit?

Getting back to it!

The summer is finally coming to a close for me. I wrapped up my internship after Labor day and moved back to my old apartment. San Francisco, you will be missed. Quite a bit.

I can’t begin to explain how much fun I had over the summer, but unfortunately it is starting to show. Somehow I managed to pack on a few pounds of delicacies in the past two months. Woops. This is something I have plans to combat in the coming months as I return to the hectic grad student schedule.

This afternoon I finally set my upcoming course schedule. It is about time and all since I start on Monday and just found out I’ll be a TA. And I’m trying to plan out my strategies for fitting in proper eating (like actually cooking once in a while…), marathon training, and perhaps even a social life. Any tips or techniques for accomplishing all of this would be greatly appreciated.

As of right now, I’m relaxing at my parent’s house in (sometimes) sunny (and always buggy) Pennsylvania. A few months ago I decided to register for Fitbloggin and I realized that this would allow me a short vacation in my old haunts. So far I’ve spent time with my two rambunctious puppies (we call one of them gorilla dog), seen my two best friends, hung out with my parents, and watched far too many episodes of NCIS and Criminal Minds (I have a problem).

Tomorrow I set off for Baltimore to see my grandmother and aunt for our bi-yearly luncheon. Unfortunately this is the issue with living far from your family, I only get to see them when I come home and that is happening less and less frequently these days.

After that, the parental units are dropping me at the hotel and I’ll be taking full advantage of everything Fitbloggin has to offer. Yoga class at 6am? Why not! (Note: This is if I can wake up at that time…) I’m looking forward to three days of awesome bloggers, great fitness classes, and some fantastic sessions. I’ll be liveblogging from the discussion: When You Have a Lot to Lose, so look for that post on the Fitbloggin page.

And if you see me at Fitbloggin, please come and say hi! Yes, I may look disoriented, a bit out of place, and overall confused, but I’d love to meet you!

Hope you all had a glorious summer! What exciting things did you do?