What is my blog about?

I used to have a "blog" of sorts. Looking back on it, it was probably waaaay too personal. But I heard it was pretty enjoyable reading (haha). But now that I am grown and have been in the "real" world for almost 2 yrs now, I decided to start a new little blog. I'm going to focus on 4 areas of my life that are pretty important to me: food, politics, running, and spirituality (that was in no particular order). For food, I'm just going to review various restaurants (services, attractions etc - anything I try basically, but mostly food). For politics, I'll give my 2 cents about this whole thing we call an election year. For running, I'll give you updates on my marathon training. And for spirituality, I'll just write whatever comes to heart/mind.

So for my inaugural post, I'll start with food and running.

For food I will use a rating of 1 (worst) to 5 (best). And I will measure in kiwis, since I love kiwis. I will rate in the categories of food quality/taste, service, and overall ambience. I will try to rate things currently rather than going into the past, although there are some things about New Orleans I'd like to dish about. (get it? dish?) So first up, I will rate...(drum roll please)

Johnny Rocket's

visit: today 1/24/08

taste: 3 kiwis

service: N/A - zifty

ambience: N/A - zifty

This is only a half review really because I ate Johnny Rocket's for the first time today via Zifty. For those of you who don't know, Zifty is this awesome service that delivers restaurant food to your door in an about an hour. The place I work uses Zifty...it's pretty nifty!

But I digress...I've been in ATL for 6 yrs now and have never eaten Johnny Rockets. It's certainly not the best, and certainly not the worst. I think going there would probably help me decide since I hear the decor is diner-like. I had The Original with cheese, chili cheese fries, onion rings, and a cookies & cream milkshake. I promise that all my food reviews will not be as heart attack prone as this one. But I am a firm believer that no matter how healthy you are, you should pig out every once in a while! The cheeseburger was everything I hoped it would be, perfectly melted cheese, thoroughly cooked patty that was still juicy and flavorful. The chili cheese fries were just ok. They're probably much better hot & fresh rather than traveled. They were still tasty, although the chili was a little dark & average tasting. The onion rings however were amazing! The batter was so tasty. And they traveled pretty well. And the milkshake...mmmmmm. Creamy & wonderful. My co-eater had a vanilla shake and the St. Louis burger that he thoroughly enjoyed as well.

Marathon Update

Back in December, I made a list of things I want to do for sure before I die. Life is short and I really want to make sure I leave nothing undone! So one of my things is to run a marathon. I decided to do the Disney marathon b/c I figure for my first time running 26.2 miles straight, I better be in the happiest place on earth! I have not decided yet if I will be running the marathon in '09 or '10. I'm waiting til the summer to see how much progress I make. If I'm feeling great, marathon in '09. If I'm not, I'll start with the half-marathon in '09 and then do the marathon in '10.

So far I'm up to at least 3.14 miles. For you GT fans, yes, that is the Pi Mile. Every day I don't have plans after work, I run the Pi Mile around Tech. It's pretty much the perfect little run. Up & down hill, not too crowded, nice distance. I'm running it pretty comfortably now. Then, it started to get cold again :( So I decided to buy an alumni membership to the Campus Recreation Center. I've started running around the flat indoor track there. Not as much of a physical challenge. I only have problems counting how many laps I've gone!

Today I ran about 20 laps...maybe a couple more than that. I was going a pretty slow, but even, pace. Then at the end I thought, I'm going to sprint the straights and walk the curves. And just see how long I could keep that up. Well...I thought after 20 laps I'd at least be a little tired. But man, I could sprint! I was so surprised at myself. I went a couple more laps doing this sprint/walk thing. But I just am continually amazed at how far we can push ourselves if we really try. Two years ago, I was running all the time, in shape, etc. but I don't think I could have done what I did tonight, the whole run-over-3-miles-and-then-sprint-a-lot thing. Let's just hope I can keep surprising myself!

I am now less than a month away from my first real race since high school. And really...since 9th grade. And it will be longer than any race I ever ran in track. 2/23/08 - my first 10K. Save the date & come cheer me on!

It's for a cause pretty dear to my heart, and also to my boyfriend, who's going to volunteer at the race. It's the Charles Harris Run for Leukemia. My cousin Shawn died of leukemia as a boy, and my boyfriend has lost 2 of his college friends to this disease. The race has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past 20 yrs for leukemia research at Atlanta's own Emory University. So, I know I certainly won't be the fastest and may not even be able to run the whole 10K (since I'm only up to 5K right now) but it is for a great cause! Check it out here