Friday night was quite nice, as I wore some new clothes (black v-neck with a plunging neckline and my new skinny jeans with heels) and met Benito for dinner at a restaurant I�ve wanted to try for a while. We made googly eyes at each other as we sipped tasty margaritas and ate some equally tasty food.

With slight buzzes, we forgo-ed the plans to play darts and drink some vodka tonics (him) and gin and tonics (me) and instead picked up a bottle of chilled wine from the grocery store and headed to his house to get a little more tipsy while lounging on the couch. I love nights like these.

We barely made a dent in each glass before we were in bed and asleep. Sometimes we make it through the bottle and laugh like loons. Other times, we don�t. Either way, it�s still a good time with the man I love.

He got to work at a decent hour on Saturday, as I packed my bags for a quick trip to the �burbs. My train ride out there wasn�t too eventful, and I finished off my Newsweek and talked with some high school girls who both had October birthdays.

Before I knew it, my stop was there. Some friend-of-a-friend picked me up and dropped me off at a church. There I went to my friend Happy�s car with the spare key I was given, and I set off on errands.

Had a floral arrangement made. Dropped off said floral arrangement for the bride and groom�s hotel room. Checked into my own hotel. Went to Wal-mart for wonderous goods at Everyday Low Prices.

$126 and 27 items later, I was making my way back to the hotel to quickly change and head to the wedding reception as Happy�s date.

With the wine free-flowing, the music playing, and everyone celebrating, I can�t help but love weddings. However, I just couldn�t get into the groove for this one. I smothered my yawns until the shuttle arrived to take me back to the hotel.

A hot, hot shower and then some much needed sleep. A continental breakfast compliments of The Hampton Inn (my preferred hotel for that reason). A library book to return for Happy to keep me busy. A horrible train ride home because people can�t just shut the fuck up or at least talk in normal voices while on the train.

I unpacked once I walked home, and a friend called to see if I wanted to meet up for a beer. I was game for beer since I didn�t have to be anywhere until 5 o�clock, and it made for a nice afternoon. Because of g-damn traffic, I made it to the 5 o�clock meet-up late and only saw Happy for a millisecond before she had to start her few-hour drive to her temporary home in Wisconsin. My beer-drinking friend and I stuck around with another friend for a bit before we all went separate ways.

I cleaned up some of my house, put away my Wal-mart stuff, and packed some work clothes for the next day before heading to Benito�s. I ended my weekend in a similar way to how it rang it in (minus the margaritas and wine), and whoa buddy did I not want to get up this morning.

I�ve spent most of today working, but I did go home over lunch to run a couple miles and to get some food. There�s nothing really exciting to report about today.

The Chicago Marathon is in less than a month, and I�m completely screwed. Yes, I did fine at the half marathon a mere month and a half ago. However, since then I�ve had the vacation to Istanbul where I couldn�t leave the house without an escort. (And since the escort was an out-of-shape 35-year-old, there was no running there for me.) And then the week after, I suffered from jet lag where I couldn�t stay up past when the sun went down.

So, yeah. This long-distance running thing isn�t going so well when I see what I have to do so soon.

I�ve done way more than I ever thought possible. For me to run 10k races without any issues, to run the half marathon without walking except to drink water, to be upset when I don�t hit my goal race pace... Yeah, it�s way more than I ever thought I�d do.

I�ll just have to do a bit each day and see if I can at least not completely wreck myself on October 9th.

Here�s to hoping.

G�nite all.�