Happy 4th of July everyone! Listen, Democrat or Republican, there is probably SOMEthing in the news lately is probably making you make a stinky face about America right now, so on this day of celebrating our nation of freedom that we reaped by genocide of the Natives, let us all take a moment to at least be grateful that we are not North Korea, right?
Nope, we are AMERICA y’all, and today we celebrate our freedom by getting drunk over an open grill and explosives. Because freedom.
What am I, yours truly, specifically doing to celebrate Independence Day? I’m glad you asked, because it’s this week’s Friday Five linkup theme! Mar (who I saw this morning! Hey girl!), Courtney and Cynthia, all day every day, but mainly Friday’s. Link up with all of us over at one of their blogs!
1. Running a 5K and aiming to break 30 minutes!
(This is already done. You will have to wait til next week for the recap!) I ran the Autism Speaks 5K this morning in Potomac, MD. I set my goal last night to break 30 or bust. Breaking 30 has been a goal of mine for 10 months now. I had hoped to do it at the Run for the Bay 5K, the year anniversary of running my first 5K, but then I got injured and my pace slowed majorly. But with speedwork with Courtney and Julie lately, and racking up the mileage again, I decided to sign up for a 5K on the 4th so I would have to get my workout in and wouldn’t feel too bad about all the cheeseburgers I’m going to eat today, and then last night I was like – “Yes. Tomorrow I am going to run as hard as I can to break 30 even if it feels like I am going to barf.” So how’d it go? Tune in next week. (Well, or go to my bajillion places I spread the news on the Internet, but the recap will have more suspense and drama and thrills and destitution and you know.)
2. Pool party!!!
My high school friends and I have two long-standing traditions. One, every Thanksgiving – really, every Black Friday – everyone comes over to my house for Texas Hold ‘Em. The second is every 4th of July we gather at Laura’s. Laura has a pool. We actually never go to fireworks all together, but we definitely always play pool basketball, pool floating beer pong, and every year we talk about doing a drunk decathlon and never do. Maybe one day if we ever do I’ll be the team sprinter. The best part about that would be that if you told me I’d be the runner on our 4th of July drunk decathlon team when I was an innocent, sedentary little high school girl when we started these, I would have been mortified for a number of reasons.
3. Grad school homework!
Bitches gots to get their Master’s degrees, y’all. What is America without a young millennial going to grad school to better her employment opportunities only to put herself under a mountain of debt that said employment couldn’t pay off even if she put two years of her entire salary toward it? In debt is the new black y’all. AMERICA!
4. Raisin’ my glass and shakin’ my ass!
On Saturday night my favorite local band is playing at the 9:30 Club! The 19th Street Band has always been a fun night out for me and especially when I see them with my friend Juliana, who introduced me to them two years ago, right around this time of year. They’re opening for WFB, an awesome 90’s cover band, at the best venue to see a show in DC! The 9:30 Club is famous and it’s my favorite spot in DC. Screw the monuments, the bars, the brunch spots, the shady tree-lined streets, the flea markets. The only thing I’ll REALLY miss when (not if) I eventually move out of this area is my beloved 9:30 Club.
5. Hiking!
If I wake up on time Sunday morning (fingers crossed) I’m going hiking like two hours away from here somewhere in Virginia I’m not telling anyone but it has waterfalls and damn it I haven’t gone hiking in forever.
I mean, and also doing my 7-mile long run tomorrow morning.
AMERICA!
Writing, Reading, Running 
I love the pool beer pong float, hehe. Looks like you’ve managed to have some fun despite the mounds of grad school homework and other stuff.
I hope you broke 30 today, but most importantly, I hope you had a great race and have a great 4th 🙂
Yayyyyy can’t wait to read about it! The anticipation 🙂 You’ve been working so hard – I knew you were going to get it this year for sure. I had an almost barf moment this am. PS – I’m seeing WFB too!
Jenny no way!!! Okay we DEFINITELY have to find each other on Saturday night!!
I know right?! Sold out too!
Hope you made your goal today. I did that race a few years ago-I remember it being kind of hilly. I did the Firecracker 5k in Reston with my son-it was fun!
Seems like everyone who didn’t do this race was at Firecracker this am! And yes ugh relentlessly hilly. At about 2.6 I got some weird looks for just repeating the F word with every step. But what goes up must come down!
Sounds like you had an amazing 4th of July! Hope you had fun (and didn’t barf!) and your race! 🙂
Oh North Korea. Silly Bitch. I hear ya on the grad school bit–been there done that. But then do it to it!!
Congrats on breaking 30 on your 5K! I never knew you could play beer pong in the pool…I better not let my boyfriend know about that!
i won’t comment on your race since your recap is coming, but so glad you had an awesome weekend! 🙂