Sweet Sixteens

Hello! I imagined things would begin slowing down, but they really just haven't. Last week I went to New York for an extra long weekend to celebrate my little sister's sweet 16! I'm pretty sure this is a Long Island thing, but we take our sixteenth birthdays pretty seriously.

Being a princess at my sweet 16 - May 2004! Please note the tiara.

My beautiful sister!

Being home was great. It's always nice to spend some real time with friends and family. I don't get to do it often enough. And I have to admit, as soon as it gets cold out I really start to miss NY.

Without even realizing it, I finished my 26th book of 2012 (!!) meaning I at least made one of my 2012 goals.

The last few books I read were:

The Hangman's Daughter - Oliver Pötzsch
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand
Kings of Colorado - David E. Hilton
The Paris Wife - Paula McLain
The Wildwater Walking Club - Claire Cook

Unbroken, Kings of Colorado and the Paris Wife were all really great. After reading Unbroken I became a little obsessed with Louie Zamperini. My friend Cara invited me to join a book club and I just started reading our first book for it today: The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain. I'm only a few pages in and I'm already hooked!

I'm kind of upset that I haven't done so well with my other goals for the year, but there's still time! I plan to work on two of them:
- take a cooking class - I'm going to do some research today and just book it!
- run a 5k in under 30 minutes - I still have 2 months before 2012 is over. I am not sure I can actually do this, but if I start trying today there's always a chance! To start, I made up this schedule for 3/week runs. The goal is to push myself a little faster and give myself more walking breaks. We'll see how it goes!

My food lately has been pretty boring because I haven't been food shopping in weeks. I'm starting to feel that desire for some warm food so I have plans to cook some nice comforting meals in the next few weeks:
- spaghetti squash with meat sauce
- escarole, white bean and ditali soup
- baked potato soup
- turkey chili
- lentil veggie mac n' cheese

I am going to try to make one recipe a week for the next few. Yum!

Breakfast today was an overripe banana and this cereal I stole from my parents house. I think it's Kashi frosted wheat?

I have to go to City Hall today so I'm thinking of grabbing lunch around there since there are so many more options in Boston! The mall food court has treated me well but I'm starting to get really sick of it. There's supposed to be a Chipotle opening up soon. I've never had Chipotle but I like Mexican so I think it will be a positive addition. Anyone else think of South Park anytime someone mentions Chipotle? Warning: this video is SO gross.

Happy Friday :)