Green oats

I meant to be in bed 15 minutes ago so I'm going to make this snappy.  I woke up earlier than usual this morning since I had a meeting in Gainesville.  Really, it was only 25 minutes earlier than normal (5:40am, instead of 6:00am), but it felt so much earlier.  I have a mental complex with any time in the 5am hour after getting up at 5:00am (really 4:58am) during my days at UF.  Once I drug myself up and out the door, I ran 4 miles in 38 minutes.  That's the quickest I've done 4 miles thus far.  By the kitchen clock timer, that puts me around 9:50/mile.  I don't aim for speed necessarily whenever I run (hello, I'm barely awake that early!), but I did include some speed intervals toward the last mile and a half.  By speed intervals I mean I sped my pace up to just below a sprint for a few lengths, then "recovered" or slowed down my pace for a few lengths and alternated back and forth.  It made the last little bit go by quicker.  My stomach felt all kinds of strange this morning, so I opted to forgo breakfast (I never do that!) and grabbed an apple as I was heading out the door for Gainesville.  After my somewhat pointless meeting (I had received all the information at last week's meeting!), I finally ate my apple which was around 10:45am.  I snapped a picture with my phone, but for the sake of time tonight, just picture a nice little gala apple ;).

I've had a slow leak in my back passenger tire for a few months now.  Thad noticed it some time ago and has diligently filled it up with air or reminded me to.  Luckily, we have a gas station about a mile from our house that has a free air machine so it hasn't been too much of a hassle.  Every trip I've made to Gainesville (or anywhere for that matter), I've said my "Lord, please keep me safe" prayer as I've been somewhat nervous that the tire might blow out.  Once I got back to Lake City, I finally took my car to Wal-Mart to have the tire changed.  Two and half hours later, I got my car back.  Lesson learned, don't use Lake City Wal-Mart for tire services!?  I had a meeting at Shands Lake Shore immediately upon getting my car back which meant no time to run home for lunch!  I ended up missing my meeting (not a huge ordeal), so I was finally able to eat lunch around 2:30.  Oddly enough, I wasn't hungry throughout the day.  My stomach was growling when I got home, but I didn't have much of an appetite.  I ended up making a savory bowl of oatmeal.  I had planned to make this bowl this morning:


1/3 cup oats, 2/3 cup water~1 cup of spinach, blended with water in blender1 tbsp flaxSea saltSalsaLaughing Cow Lite cheese wedgeThe cheese wedge made it so creamy.  I absolutely love how happy filling oatmeal leaves me.  Not heavy or weighed down, just pleasantly content.  I like savory oats, but I think I enjoy them more as lunch or dinner versus breakfast.  After my late lunch, I went into the office for a bit then came home to enjoy a cup of coffee.  I was very tired this afternoon, and as I wondered around Wal-Mart for two and a half hours waiting for my car, I saw this bag and had to pick it up: