What a weekend!

Wow, where to begin! This is a LONG post, just warning!

First, let's talk about the snow. Damn snow. Now, don't get me wrong, I've lived in the North East my whole life, except for a 2 year period where I was in Michigan. I mean, I know snow. Fine. Whatever. But THIS snow was CRAZY.

It started snowing around 5 AM. I got up around 6:00 and readied myself to get to my workout. I left the house at 7:15 for my 8:00 class. I slipped and slid the whole way. I ran into a guardrail on a bridge. Ok, really I *bumped* into the rail, because I was, thankfully, going so slowly. I made it to the workout right about 8:00. 45 minutes that normally takes me 20.

Whew.

Ok, the workout was AWESOME. About 1/2 the class showed, which made for a strong, dedicated and less chaotic class. It was really great. Worked my ass off.

Then the drive home... still really, really sucky.

Now, we move on to the surprise part of the day. My mothers birthday is this week, and it's a significant one (we don't need to mention numbers). My brother, who lives in Seattle, and I have had been planning for weeks. He was flying in from Seattle for the DAY. Coming in Saturday around 12 noon, and leaving the next morning. We planned a private lesson for us at a pottery studio (something mom has ALWAYS wanted to try), and then reservations at a very nice Italian Wine Bar (more on that later)...

Oh, but the damn snow...

By the time I got home from the workout, I was running around like crazy to get ready to make the normally 45 minute drive to the airport to get my Bro. Luckily, the flights were not effected by the snow (whew!). I was just about lo leave for the airport when I made a horrifying discovery.

I had left my purse at the workout studio.

O. M. G.

I was freaking out. Not only did it have all the cash in there for our day, but it was going to add at LEAST 40 minutes to my already VERY long drive.

All I could do was go.

I texted my trainer to be sure someone would be there and I was off. Slipping and sliding back to the studio, praying the car (which was on empty) would get me there and to the gas station.

The roads were really awful. I mean, terrible. But I had to keep plugging away.

Almost 2 hours later, I was at the airport. Picked up my brother. I was very optimistic that the pottery lesson was still going to happen, and my dear brother, he was very supportive of my up-beatness.

About half way back to my moms (she is still TOTALLY unaware of any of this, mind you) I came to terms that we were going to have to cancel our lesson. Tear.

But, we still had the biggest surprise, which was that my brother was here. And, the snow was beginning to taper off, and we knew dinner would still be a go.

We drove up to my moms and the look on her face was PRICE-LESS. It was awesome. She had NO idea. We helped her shovel out her driveway, and spent some time chatting before dinner.

Now, I have to confess, I was nervous about dinner. I had looked at the menu on line and saw there was some veggie dishes I could try. I KNEW I wanted to stay the course, and not stray from my plan.

We get there and we learn it's a tapas place - which means all the plates are a little larger than appetizers, and normally people will order a few different things and share. So, we chose different dishes, some things I had never tried before (black truffles, gorgonzola stuffed figs - yes, THAT kind of place!) and we had a wonderful time. I was very proud of how I ate. Still went VERY light on carbs. I didn't obsess, and when 2 of our party decided to get dessert, I did not have one bite. NOT. ONE.

I was very, very proud of myself.

The best part of the night was when my mom said "This is the best birthday I could have imagined".

Score.

So, she and I will have our pottery adventure in a few weeks. Something nice to look forward to.

I sucked it up and joined Planet Fitness yesterday (insert eye roll here). I didn't want to, but it's obvious with all the snow that I'm not going to be able to run outside all the time. I want to stay on my schedule, and they have really good hours (24 hours during the week!)I didn't want to spend any more money on this, but, it is what it is... Let's hope I can keep up with all the money going out the door for my fitness.

It's worth it, right?? Even if it drains my bank account to the last penny? Ugh.

So, it was a great weekend - I hardly even remember Sunday - it's a blur of gym going, and food shopping.

Classes start for me tonight. I'm nervous, no doubt. This semester, as I have said before, is going to be really crazy. But, it's just the semester... just a semester...just a semester... yeah, I just keep telling myself that.

Stay strong everyone! You can DO this!