Shake it Off

After a few days off courtesy of a rolled ankle, I'm back at it!

I typically do my weekend runs on Saturday mornings, but yesterday I was busy helping Crystal with stuff for her wedding most of the day (we made some pretty awesome centerpieces!). So, this morning, after being lazy and thoroughly enjoying my morning coffee and an episode of Covert Affairs on the living room sofa, I decided to run the Golden Gate Bridge again.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky, which isn't all that common here in San Francisco! While I can't say the running part was as great as my last bridge run (I had to stop for walking breaks pretty frequently and wasn't winning any awards on speed), I did end up getting to 10 miles total! Taylor Swift's super catchy new single popped up on shuffle right at mile six when I was thinking about taking a shortcut home...but it reenergized me and I got four more miles in.

Tank: Forever 21 [similar]

Sports bra: C9 [similar]

Shorts: Lululemon [exact]

Shoes: Newton Running [exact]

Sunglasses: Oakley [exact]

San Francisco runners are spoiled because it's pretty much always cloudy and cool, which makes the weather absolutely perfect for running. Today, though, it was HOT!! I took my tank top off for most of my run and just wore my sports bra (which I'm sure thrilled all of the tourists on the bridge who bumped into sweaty me when they weren't paying attention). I was pleasantly surprised by how little sweat was visible on these shorts!

I've been pretty good food-wise this weekend. I did reward myself with ice cream post-run, though! They say chocolate milk is a great recovery food, so that means chocolate ice cream is, too, right?!

Observations about Life in Utah

If you've followed my blogging for awhile, you know that I like to make lists of cultural differences whenever I go someplace new. So, here's some observations on life thus far in Utah.

Sunday has always been my shopping day. I love being lazy and leisurely in the morning, then heading off to get a late breakfast somewhere followed by window shopping at the mall and a trip to Target. In Utah, that's not entirely possible. Before going anywhere, you have to check to see if wherever you want to go is even open on Sundays. Yes, even malls are closed on Sundays here. The Mormon church owns the nicest mall in Salt Lake, so it's closed on Sundays. Even as I'm sitting here writing this, I'm thinking about where I could go get breakfast that's open today.

People CANNOT drive. This is primarily a Salt Lake City thing. I haven't noticed nearly as many awful drivers in Park City. But when I am in SLC? Count on using the horn a LOT. Last weekend, I swear I had to lay on the horn every 30 seconds! It appears that drivers just don't really pay attention to other people, which tends to be a bit of a problem.

Alcohol laws are just weird. You can only buy alcohol in state-run liquor stores (legal monopoly, apparently) unless it's beer that is below a certain percentage. But they measure the percentage differently than the rest of the country...instead of being measured by volume, it's by weight, I think? I don't drink beer so it doesn't really mean a whole lot to me. Other strange things...last call is midnight (a big change from closing down the bars at 3:30am in college!), free pouring of liquor is illegal (all liquor pours must be measured) and you can only have one drink in front of you at a time. Happy hour isn't a thing here, really, either.

Yes, there are lots of Mormons. No, you generally cannot pick them out in a crowd. Mormons are people just like anyone else. I live with two Mormons and they are very down-to-earth, normal people.

There's this strange sort of camaraderie among the non-Mormons in Utah. Aside from certain neighborhoods in SLC and Park City, non-Mormons are definitely the minority, so I guess it just brings people together like any other shared lifestyle choice.

Anyone out there got any other questions about life in Utah?