Weekend Wrap Up: Tom King Edition

I went into

Parnassus Books

recently (You've all been to Parnassus, right?  If not, go there immediately.) & realized there's a million books I want to read, but alas I need to finish

The Casual Vacancy

first.  So on Friday night, I sat down with that book, determined to finish it.  And I did!

Aside from

Ann Patchett

, no one seems to like this book.  But I liked it.  In full disclosure, I wanted to like it.  I tend to like the books Ann Patchett recommends; I also love J.K. Rowling.  I think Rowling is a great storyteller & develops characters like no other author I've read.  I wouldn't go so far as to say I loved it, or that it made me cry, but I liked it & I'm glad I read it.  It's a long, winding story with a town full of characters, none of them the protagonist & not a lot happens until the last few pages.  It's a beautiful, well written book that I will probably never read again.

{Photo credit:  

Christina Young

}

Nashville's Tom King Half Marathon was on Saturday.  As you may recall, this race was my first half marathon.  When

I ran it last year

, I was really struggling at the end & the

East Nasty

water stop at Mile 12 reignited me & got me through that last mile.  So this year, I spent the first 3 hours of my Saturday returning the favor.

Also, my long distance training partners Jessica & Melanie were running it & I wanted to cheer them on.  Obviously, they went totally HAM & killed it.  Obviously.

After Tom King, I headed to Green Hills to do a little shopping.  I'm obsessed with

Equipment

shirts & wanted to try some on.  I've had a hard time deciding on a color.  I expected to go with something in the green family, but went in a totally different direction & got

Neon Orange

.  Who am I?!

I needed another lululemon tank, so I popped in to grab another one.  I'm always a Size 12 in their tops & don't even try them on anymore, but I took a couple into the dressing room to see which color I liked best.  Turns out, I'm a size smaller!  Hello, Size 10!  Thanks, Hell Class!

I think I failed to mention this earlier, but we had dinner Friday night at Korea House with our pals, Keith & Nicole (not Urban).  On Saturday, I took a late yoga class, so John & I just grabbed a pizza at

Desano Pizza

.  This was John's first Desano experience & he loved it as much as I do.  It's so good!

As much as I'd like to have my Sundays back, I am still in training because I apparently thought it was a good idea to run 2 half marathons back to back.  My next one, Oak Barrel, is 3 weeks away.  Yesterday my NOLA (nay, Oak Barrel) training group met to run 8 hilly miles.  We met at 11th & Holly to run the infamous, 6 mile, so hard you want to die

Nasty route

, plus an extra 2 miles.  Lawd.

Afterwards, Lana invited us over for brunch.  She really outdid herself.  She made baked cheese grits, fruit salad, coffee cake, coffee cake muffins & apricot, almond scones.  It was soooo good!

We were celebrating birthdays & completed races, but really, we just like brunch.  We even had a special guest, a special

little

guest.  Jessica brought her son, Ben, who was pretty into a room full of ladies he could climb up on & poke in the face.  Thanks for hosting, Lana!

How I Trained For My 2nd Half Marathon

Race Recap: NOLA Half Marathon