I dislike plane travel

I wanted to call this post "I hate dislike plane travel", but apparently I can't use the strikeout font in a post title.  

I didn't want to get any dishes dirty, so I got a toasted whole wheat bagel with butter and butterscotch coffee with a splash of skim milk from Bagel Street Cafe.

After running a bunch of last minute errands (nothing like printing off your lieder four hours before you have to leave to catch a plane flight), I ate some cherries while I waited for my mom and dad to arrive to take me to meet my shuttle.

We stopped for lunch at Aljons.  I realize it's somewhat dumb to eat a slice of pizza a day before I'll be in Florence, Italy, but it was a quick lunch and still good.

honey mustard chicken pizza!  and yes, those are french fries.

I waited for my shuttle at Nassau Inn in Princeton.  Fortunately, I was able to wait inside, because it was really raining!  The shuttle took me to Newark, and then I had to catch another shuttle to JFK.  The traffic to JFK was absolutely horrible.  Apparently it's only supposed to take about 45 minutes to get between airports; it took us 2 hours.  Fortunately, I was able to check in fairly quickly, and got through security pretty quickly too, so I had about 40 minutes to grab a quick snack in the form of a cinnamon sugar Auntie Anne's pretzel.

By this point, I had taken all my anti-anxiety medicine (yes, I need to be drugged up to fly on a plane), so I was starting to feel really sleepy.  I slept pretty much the whole plane flight.  I woke up to eat about 2 bites of ravioli that they served, but that's it.  No movie watching or anything.  I don't even think I ever got up to use the bathroom!  Fortunately there was a nice man sitting next to me who basically watched over me and made sure I was ok and taken care of.

We landed at Heathrow really late, and security at Heathrow sucked, so I made it to my connecting flight about 15 minutes before it was supposed to take off.  They bussed us out to the airplane and we got to walk up the stairs.

I did not feel great for this plane flight, so I just slept the whole time.  I felt much better once we landed in Vienna, but I had a Sprite from McDonalds to help settle my stomach.

German Sprite!

I actually totally want this trashy glittery Vienna trucker cap

I took a shuttle to the Meidling train station and proceeded to wait about 5 hours for my overnight train. (Yes, I did a lot of traveling)  When I first got there, I ate a kid-size granola bar I had brought because I figured I needed some food after over 12 hours.

Eventually, I actually got hungry, so I got a doner!

first doner of many!  I love doner!!!!!

At 7:30pm, I boarded the overnight train, found my couchette, and bunked down for the night.  Long, 11 hour train ride commencing....

Next up, Florence!

Getting Ready!

OMG!!  I'm leaving so soon and still have so much to do!!!

I started the day with a long run.

It was a really nice morning!

After a quick shower and some coffee (I just drank it straight, without any milk...it's chocolate truffle flavored, so it was drinkable), I mixed together plain Greek yogurt and raspberry jelly.

Before going to work, I tried to bake some potatoes (I cut up a potato in cubes, mixed with olive oil, salt and pepper, put in the oven at 500 degrees for 45 minutes), but they were totally burned when I took them out of the oven.  My smoke alarm even went off (although it didn't help that maintenance STILL hasn't fixed my oven fan).  So I had to get lunch at Olives (oh how horrible).

roast beef, provolone, lettuce tomato onion, oil and vinegar

The day dragged so slowly at work.  Mid-afternoon, my co-worker Nikky gave me a rice krispy treat snack!

blurry

I also had one of my sweet potato muffins.

Once back at home on this glorious weather day, I ate some dinner while frantically trying to get more stuff ready for Europe.

apple

whole wheat tortilla, Ragu spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, 375 for 8 minutes

Pennsylvania!

And a few last leftover bites of yesterday's blueberry cheesecake.  

Time to rush around and pack!

National Blueberry Cheesecake Day

We'll get to the blueberry cheesecake in a bit....

So I really don't like almond milk in my coffee in the morning.  And I know that I also don't like coconut milk in my coffee in the morning.  This presents a problem, as I have 2 more mornings that I need to have coffee but do not have skim milk (cow milk) to put in it.  Maybe I will like almond milk better if I put some stevia in there also.  I will try that tomorrow.

I headed in to work early to do a short run with Steve and Jennifer-from-the-beginner-runner-group.  We did one lap around a Princeton neighborhood with Jennifer, and then Steve and I did another lap at a faster pace.  With walking during the first lap, we did over 3 miles.

I showered at work (not as bad as I would have thought).  It was a great morning run, so Steve and I may have to keep this up after I get back!

I had a quick snack of Greek yogurt mixed with raspberry jelly, with a later lunch of the pizza shown in the second picture.

(Papa John's pepperoni and sausage.  leftovers!)

Also, remember the coffee debacle from earlier?  Well, I solved that by HOUSING one of these:

Starbucks (tall) mocha cookie crumble frapp with skim milk and no whip

It had chunks of cookie in it!  Pretty awesome.  

So while my days seems very boring (basically work and getting ready to go to Europe for a month), the only things on this blog seem to be food.  I guess that's ok.

Dinner was me trying to use up vegetables in my refrigerator plus the pineapple from earlier.

OK, maybe not a vegetable

Oh yeah, and did you know it's National Blueberry Cheesecake Day???  I picked up a piece of wild blueberry white chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.

I've got to say, it wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped.  Too much white chocolate taste, not enough blueberry taste.  But at least I celebrated!

Must. finish. getting. ready. for. europe.

Memorial Day (a little early)

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

I'm working on Sunday and Monday to make a few more bucks before leaving for Europe, so I spent Saturday at my parents' house in Pennsylvania to tie up a few loose ends for my trip and to spend some time with my Mom, Dad, and sister!

I can't help snacking when I get to my parents' house, since I hardly ever have snack-y foods in my own apartment!

Before my dad and I headed to the mall to exchange some money for euros, I had some of their leftovers for lunch.

Papa John's (one mushroom/green pepper, two pepperoni/sausage)

no HFCS, from Niagra, NY (hence the French)

At the mall, my dad bought a Mrs. Fields cookie for snacking and he gave me some  :)

my dad is the best

Once home, I again couldn't help but snack:

yessssss

Dinner was a little better: hamburger with ketchup, mustard, and onions, corn on the cob, and pineapple, with a side of German beer.

Did you know today is National Wine Day?  Gotta get in on the action!

except it wasn't that great

Dessert had to happen, of course.  It was too windy to start the coals for a barbeque, so we didn't have s'mores.

Rhubarb cream pie....I think?

peanut butter Cheerio treats.  the best.

Thank you to all the veterans who make/made celebrations like this possible!

Work Work Work

My week so far has been work, work, and more work.  Getting ready to leave for Europe and working to make money.

This morning, I had a boring breakfast of coffee and graham crackers and milk.

Lunch was a bit more interesting.  I baked a cut-up potato (mixed in olive oil, salt and pepper, and buffalo chicken sauce) in the oven at 500 degrees for 45 minutes.  Then I added some shredded chicken (which I already cooked in the crock pot) mixed with more buffalo chicken sauce, and mexican cheese and chopped green onions; then cooked it for another 7 minutes (I lowered the oven to 400 degrees) just to heat the chicken and melt the cheese.  It was pretty good!  I really liked the potatoes done this way, so I may have to cook regular potatoes more often like this with different spices and herbs.

On my way to work, I drank an iced tea latte.

I drank most of it before taking the picture.  Oops.

Basically, I made tea yesterday and kept it in the fridge overnight.  Right before I left I added ice cubes and almond milk.  

After a long day at work (which included some energy gel chews, I have to say), I relaxed with a BBQ pizza (whole wheat tortilla, chicken mixed with BBQ sauce, mexican cheese, and some pre-roasted veggies cooked for 8 minutes at 375)

and a yummy beer.

chocolatey

I watched Atonement (man, is my Netflix queue long!).  It was pretty good, although I didn't think it was a great as a lot of people have said.  The scene on the beach with all the soldiers really dragged on for a long time!

The Past Few Days

I had quite a wonderful weekend!
Some highlights:

Katie's birthday on Friday night

Chickie's and Pete's crab fries...yum

Trenton Thunder baseball game, Saturday night

teaching Lori all about baseball!

And then Betsy's wedding on Sunday:

the "Bel" - pineapple juice and rum

Mel + Becca = Bel

me and the beautiful bride!

Guess who caught the bouquet!  Well, guess who was the only single woman there...

What the heck am I supposed to do with this?

Congratulations Betsy!!!!!!