San Diego, How I’ve Missed You.

I arrived on Friday to my home away from home... 

the place that holds half of my heart... 

the land of beautiful beaches and great friends.

I am here for a few days because:

1. I can’t stay away from the magnificent San Diego
2. It had been far too long since my last Pannikin GF Chocolate Chip muffin
3. I missed my amazing friends
4. I needed to run on the beach/Torrey Pines/San Elijo Lagoon
5. Today is a BIG day for my friend Becca!  She is getting married to the coolest guy ever, Ricky!  I can’t wait to see her walk down the aisle :)
6. Do I even need a reason?  Come on, it’s San Diego!

I get to stay with a few of my favorite people in the next few days and experience San Diego as a real, live person... not a sleep-deprived, stressed out PA student.  

What is the perfect way to start a vacation?  

Brunch & the beach.  

What is the perfect way to lay on the beach?  

Runner's World and animal visitors!

Seal came to say hello!

After a day of relaxation, my BFF Carrie picked me up and we went to dinner with some of my new favorite people!  I will say, however, I will never be back to the restaurant we went to.  Worst. Service. Ever.  Oh well, good friends and a beautiful sunset always make the night fun!  

Today involves three of my favorite things: running, chocolate chip muffins, and a wedding! Can't wait.  I hope you have a great Sunday!!

#4- Grateful for the "Fall Back"

Oops- this is a day late.  Forgetful Brittany forgot to publish this one.

November 4: I am grateful for Daylight Savings!

An obvious one, I know.  But I am grateful that I got an extra hour of sleep today!  Even though it really wasn't extra because my master plan of going to bed early didn't work so well.  The wheels in my head were turning until 2AM last night, so I didn't quite get that extra sleep I wanted.  Oh well!  The only part of the fall back is that it is dark at 5:00 which greatly increases the chance of nighttime laziness.  How do I survive the long Alaskan winters without daylight?  It is a mystery.

Today marks the second day without any nerve pain in my leg.  Aren't you happy to hear that?!  You should be.  This means happy Brittany will be returning soon. ;)  I'm giving myself one more day of healing/no running, so tomorrow will be the test!  This is a very good thing, because if I have to come up with one more distraction for while I'm on the elliptical... I might set the thing on fire.

And you thought just studying was boring... try studying on an elliptical.
Luckily I have these lovely cartoon flash cards to save the day.

This card is my favorite. Who knew learning about pharmacology could be fun entertaining bearable.

This is the extent of the Sunday football I will see.

Okay, now for serious business.  I just realized that I only have 3 more months in this beautiful city.  I may have cried when I realized that.  It's no joke that I will struggle to leave San Diego and go to the cold Arctic.

Here are just a few reasons why:

Breathtaking. 

Sunset walk on the beach = happy girl.

But mainly.... here is why:

California: High of 90 tomorrow

Home.  High of 25...

My week in pictures

This week was busy.  Very busy.  Finals is once again upon us... it feels like we JUST had finals!  That means I head back to San Francisco next weekend.  Unlike most trips to Stanford, I will be there for 6 weeks this time!  After finals, I will be doing a 4-week inpatient medicine rotation at Stanford in the Pediatric Liver Transplant Unit!  I am sad to be temporarily leaving my life here in San Diego, but I know that I will have a great experience at Stanford.  

AND I get to stay with my most favorite family in the whole wide world, The Griffins.  I met this amazing family at our good friends, Nick and Tina's wedding a few years ago!  The Griffins are best described as.... generous, loving, wonderful, hilarious, thoughtful, caring... and the list goes on.  They're also brave souls for letting me stay with them all the time... Stressed Brittany is not always fun Brittany :) 

Brendan, Marie, Ashley, Tina and Nick!

This week I went on a couple of beautiful runs.  I've been dying to do a sunset run for weeks, so I took it upon myself to go on Thursday night.

I learned a few things on this run:

1.)  Sunsets are 96.5% better when witnessed while running.  The other 3.5% would apply if Jake could be there with me. 

Sunset Run

2.) As soon as the sun sets, you should anticipate complete darkness in approximately 22 minutes.  I know this because I still had  4.5 miles to run when the sun set.  

Del Mar.

3.) There are no street lights in San Diego.  I had a few too many close encounters with speed bumps and spiderwebs that I hope never to experience.... EVER again.  

True Story.

The rest of my week looked something like this:

Imagine that!  Studying?

However, yesterday, Dan made me take a break from our 12 hour cram session to go to the beach.  We stayed for about an hour and although I was reluctant to take a time-out from studying... all my worries seemed to fade away...

Can you believe I've only been to the beach 3 times since moving here in February?

Okay, okay... I admit I snuck my study materials in my beach bag- so it was the best of both worlds. 

I have separation anxiety when I'm without my books.  

Thanks for the forced break, Dan!  Much needed vitamin D!

My long run this morning was 16 miles.  What would normally be an easy distance on my favorite loop quickly turned into a horrendous, awful, worse-than-the-spiderwebs experience. I'll spare you too many details from this fun run today, but let's just say I thought I had recovered from the viral gastroenteritis I've been fighting the past few days... Turns out I hadn't.  

Blurry- but me attempting to chase Dennis up the Hill d'torture

Beautiful sunrise 

Advice of the year: Do not run 16 miles when you think you are "over" gastroenteritis. 

You aren't. And your stomach will let you know in a very violent, painful way at mile 12.  Don't worry, I toughed it out and made it back to the car unharmed.  Operation gatorade is now in full effect.

Packing for 6 weeks is not an easy job.  School books, binders, professional attire, running gear....

My packing list for San Francisco.  Do you notice a common trend?  Important things first. 

There is a lot of excitement in the weeks to come: Ragnar Relay on Friday, School/Finals (less excited about the finals part, more excited to see my classmates!), Inpatient Rotation at Stanford, St. George Marathon (get to see my family!), Nike Womens' Marathon, and 6 weeks of fun adventures in San Francisco!  

7 days.

7 days of fabulousness.  That's the best way to describe the last 7 days with Jake.  I highly recommend planning spur-of-the-moment trips to visit your wife who is at grad school, because they are better than any other trip you could plan.  

Here are some of the highlights:

 Thanks to an awesome friend of mine, Jake and I scored pre-season Charger-Cowboy tickets to the game last Saturday.  It was my first pro-football game so it was nice to share it with someone who knows something about football!  Although, I wouldn't say we're the most football-educated crowd.  :) As you can see below, we were die-hard San Diego fans and sported our team jerseys... ha!  Fans at the games are hard core!  When I went to the bathroom, I was asked by multiple women, "What team are you representing today?!"  Apparently not wearing team apparel is as big of a mistake as wearing apparel from the other team!  Regardless, Jake and I had a blast :)

Die Hard Football Fans

Woo!

You've heard all about my sweaty run on Sunday - which I think I have finally recovered from.  I'm still trying to drink back in my body weight in fluids that I lost in the race.  We had an awesome breakfast with Dan-the-man and some friends, followed by a day of attempting to stay cool.  I took two cold showers, and laid in front of the fan all afternoon.  A perfect day.  Ha!

Tuesday (in addition to double Taco Tuesday), we went to Coronado!

Beautiful Coronado!

We laid on the hot beach, played in the seaweed-infested water, and read all about the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases.  Isn't that what you do at the beach?  

Since we had temporarily satisfied Jake's Taco craving that morning, it was my turn to satisfy my candy craving. See the picture below to witness my enthusiasm!

Happy Brittany.

Too bad I'm allergic to apples.  And in case you were wondering, I did consider eating only the coating.

To come down from the sugar high, Jake and I walked around the beautiful Hotel Del and had a happy hour Sangria to try to cool off.  

Friday, Jake spoiled me rotten and took me to the Las Americas outlet mall.  I don't know how I got so lucky to have a husband like Jake.  He earned himself a lifetime of Taco Tuesdays.

My equivalent to a Coach outlet store.  Nike shoe HEAVEN.

Okay, can these be any cuter?  I almost bought them for our future runner children but Jake wouldn't let me.

It was ridiculously hard to say goodbye yesterday.  Tears were everywhere.  You'd think by now I'd be a pro at saying goodbye, but instead it feels harder than the first time.  Jake and I always say, "we're lucky to have each other to miss so much."  So true.  I love you, Jake.