yes. we. CAN!

I have to say, it was pretty cool being a witness to history last night. I actually most likely wouldn't have even watched the election except for an amusing random happening. The BF and I went out to dinner for our 1 year anniversary (yay! love you!) at this restaurant called Harvest on the square. HEAVENLY...small first course (I think I read its called an amuse) of butternut squash soup which was delightful, an appetizer of seared scallops (heaven.) with tomato vinagrette and zucchini puree, then for dinner he had grouper and I had this absolutely ridiculously awesome hanger steak with salsa verde and potatoes, we also split a side of mushrooms in brown butter. And of course, to top it off, a decadent chocolate cake with mousse and this ridiculous caramel sauce. It was the perfect place for an anniversary dinner - quiet, simple, and spectacular food.

So anyway, we're walking home after splitting a bottle of wine when we realize we need to pee. It just so happens that BF mentions this just as we're walking past the Nitty Gritty and I suggest we go in, pee, and have a beer...why not, right? Well as it turns out, there's a bunch of people there and the election is on, and oh...there's a $10 debit minimum so I guess we're getting 2 beers each...haha. The place absolutely ERUPTED when the results came up that Obama had won and so we decided to stick around to hear his speech...meaning more beer. Top that off with an Ale Asylum Hopalicious nightcap and we ended up being two pretty drunk Obama supporters. In all seriousness though, I got chills when Obama made his speech. I'm really not terribly political at all but this was seriously a landmark election in our country's history and we are witnesses to it. It was actually really cool being in a bar for the announcement and having people to celebrate with...apparently State Street was completely full of people. The whole night really made me very proud to be an American (and also thankful that I have the most incredible boyfriend ever :))

So running you say? Well, I leave tomorrow at 4:45 for NIRCA NATIONALS!!! Needless to say, I'm excited. The girls team has run into a bit of a roadblock with 2 of our top 4 runners not coming, but you know what? Screw that. Who says that Jade, or Nicole, or Karin, or what the hell...ME can't have a breakout race and just dominate? We got dropped from the rankings this week which has honestly fired me up even more because we are CLEARLY better than the #4 and especially #5 teams....I'm sorry, just because you have one awesome runner doesn't make up for the fact that one of your scored runners runs a 29:45 6K. Rant aside though, I know we're all going to leave it all on the course on Saturday. I know I will....hell, this could be my last cross country race, and I'm going to make it count. My hip has been feeling OK lately...definitely better than the past couple of weeks, and tapering has been good to me. I'm ready. My team is ready. And we are going to rock the socks off everyone who stands in our way. In the words of Obama: YES WE CAN!

Time to kick some ass.