Ain't No Dragon Me Down

Wow, when you gotta sleep…you gotta sleep.

I had another early wakeup call today (yesterday for running with the girls, today for work) and was AMAZED and pleased to find that our 95-degree temperatures had melted into a much more tolerable mid-70s.

Perfect for some of this:

And this:

And this:

It was my first time seeing dragon boat racing, and WOW! I was at the International Dragon Boat Festival for Growing Bolder, producing a video that will be on our site in the next couple of weeks. One of the most amazing experiences for me, personally and professionally, was getting to talk to some of the paddlers who are breast cancer survivors, or who are supporting women (and one man!) who have been diagnosed with the disease.

I love, love, love my job — especially on days like this, when I get to be out in the field, helping find the pieces that go together to make a complete story.

But it’s exhausting. Case in point:

I was so tired that as soon as I got home, I scarfed down a massive bowl of oatmeal, got horizontal and passed.the.***.out.

(In college, one of my roomates coined the phrase “PTFO” for when you were so tired you’d fall asleep the instant you put your head down. It’s the only way to describe what happened today.)

Lucas said the dogs were stepping on me, making noise…that the TV was on and the sun was right in my eyes. Didn’t matter. I slept like a rock for about four hours.

Woke up, caffeinated and caught up on blogs, watched some college football and lazed about. Didn’t have the energy to make a real dinner, so we made his ‘n’ hers Hugh Jass salads.

Seriously, look at this beast.

I didn’t eat all of it, but I came darn close. That’s lettuce, sprouts, tomato, cucumber, carrot, red onion, celery, mushrooms, gorgonzola, pepperoni and homemade vinaigrette.

I needed to walk it off and enjoy the cool temperatures, so my iPod and I (stocked with all the latest songs from Glee) went off on an adventure. It was great; I sang show tunes and took in the sights, including Mother Nature’s beautiful celebration of Pinktoberfest:

Now it’s off to work on a special family project (details to come at some point) and get to bed early so I can take a nice long bike ride in the morning!

What’s on your iPod these days? Any must-have songs for working out, walking or just enjoying?

**P.S. I’m having some trouble with my blog theme, so the pictures on the top navigation aren’t appearing properly. Please bear with me while I figure out what’s happening!