What I Do on My Days Off
I took a couple of days off this week to sort of recharge. I’ve been getting up early a lot lately and I’ve been feeling burnt out at work so I figured a couple of days off would help me get back in the right frame of mind.
The first thing I did was sleep in until 9. That was glorious. Even on weekends I don’t seem to sleep in much anymore, either because of races, work, the cats demanding breakfast, or the fact that my body just feels the need to be wide awake at 7 a.m. no matter what time I went to sleep. I sort of lazed around for a while until I decided I should drag myself outside for a run before it got too hot. It was cloudy and there was a decent breeze coming through my window so I figured the weather was perfect for running.
News flash: D.C.’s infamous summer humidity is already here. I’m not usually one who sweats a lot but I was dripping pretty early on. Between the humidity and the fact that my calves felt tight, it wasn’t a very pleasant run. I had planned to go 3.5 or 4 miles to gear up for the 8K I have coming up soon but I wasn’t feeling it after three miles. I walked a couple of extra miles and headed back to my apartment, cursing that we still don’t have air conditioning.
Then I did more lazing about until it was time to meet my mom for a Greek cooking class at LivingSocial’s event space a few blocks away. We’d done a Moroccan cooking class there a few months ago that was a lot of fun and Mom and I are both big fans of Mediterranean cuisine so it was a no-brainer to sign up. On the menu were marinated lamb kebabs, spanakopita, tzatziki, fasolakia (Greek green beans) and baklava. To be honest, I probably took the class mainly to learn how to make baklava.
The great thing about LivingSocial cooking classes is all the ingredients are measured out for you. There’s limited chopping involved. And oh yeah, you don’t have to do the dishes when you’re done.
The class was taught by Amy Riolo, who also taught our Moroccan class. She’s great and knows so much about the history and importance of food in many different cultures. D.C. folks, if you see a class on LivingSocial with her, I high recommend you sign up.
I won’t share all the secrets we learned but I will share some pictures. The class lasted about 2.5 hours and flew by. You get to eat everything you make and take leftovers home. (The baklava is already calling to me for breakfast.) Everything tasted great and I even enjoyed the lamb, which I have a hard time eating because all I can picture when I take a bite is a cute little prancing lamb.
The green beans. We put a tad too much cayenne in them but they were still great.
The finished spanakopita. Anything with feta is automatically awesome.
Whipping up the tzatziki. Unfortunately I forgot my leftovers of this on the table at LivingSocial.
Grilling up the kebabs
It appears I forgot to take a picture of the baklava. I was probably too busy stuffing it into my mouth to take a picture of it. But trust me, it was delicious.
So now I have one more day off. For whatever reason, I got up early today. Probably because I have super exciting plans: grocery shopping and laundry. Woo. Anyway, I only have three days of work this week and three days next week. And then my half-day Fridays begin at work! I love summer.
What do you do on your random days off?
