Bleh...plus Notre Dame Visit!

Well, Lent is officially over. 


Therefore I could eat chocolate again.


And I did.


And now I am paying for it. 


BIG TIME.


But that's another post. Here's a recap of my ND visit.


I took the commuter train into DT Chicago, and I had to switch to the South Shore Line, located at a different station (Millennium Station)that I had to walk to. So I took a train to the city that I thought would give me enough time to walk to Millennium, since I had never walked there before. To fuel my frustrations with Metra, true to its nature, the train arrived late. Fourteen minutes late. I was freaking out because I thought that I was going to miss my connection and the next train wasn't for another five hours. So I ran.


I have no idea how far it was, but it took me like fifteen minutes to get there. By the time I did, I was a hot, sweaty mess. I got some interesting looks from people in the train station as I, breathing heavily with sweat rolling down my face, bought my ticket. I ended up arriving about a half hour early. Whoops.  Guess I didn't need to run after all!


I brought some tasty snacks with me on the train, since I knew I wasn't going to be having lunch.

The snack bag

Exhibit A:

Carrots and hummus. My ultimate snack.


Exhibit B:

A rather large apple. I forgot what type it was, but it was a nice, crispy one like a Gala.


Exhibit C:

A Gingersnap Larabar. It was quite spicy. I bought it, thinking it was the Cinnamon Roll flavor because it's usually chunky, but halfway through I realized it wasn't. (I saved the lemon flavor for later)


There was construction on the tracks, so I ended up having to get off the train and onto a bus to ride into South Bend. I arrived and my friend and her boyfriend picked me up. She had some meetings to go to, so I attempted to walk around campus until I realized I had two, big, beautiful blisters gracing my little heels. In retrospect, it was an awful idea to run in Chicago in my wedges. So I had to settle on perusing the ND bookstore. I bought my dad a dri-fit ND shirt for Easter and a hat for my little cousin.


After her meetings I met up with my friend for dinner at the dining hall. Supposedly Notre Dame is the number two college campus for food quality. I've eaten there before, and they did have a large selection of food. I had a salad with hummus, chickpeas (slightly redundant, right?), tomatoes, pickles, beets, and sides of potatoes and stir-fried veggies. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had kiwis, so I took one. I love eating kiwis, skin and all. They taste like tart grapes! I don't mind the skin at all...


The food quality was definitely better than my campus, but for being number two, I was expecting a lot more. Maybe I'm just too picky?


Later on we met up with some other people we went to high school with. I had one of these:

Bolthouse Farms Vanilla  Chai Tea (source)

I perused the ingredients and was pleased to find there wasn't any sugar, excepting the apple juice concentrate. It tasted very sweet, so sweet I kept checking to make sure there really wasn't any sugar. I think I would have liked it a little less sweet.


The next day we went to two of her classes, lunch (which was basically the same thing again, plus a banana), and Holy Thursday Mass. Her parents came up to take her brother to an interview, so we drove home with them and stopped at an Italian restaurant on the way. I wasn't too hungry, so I just had minestrone (boo for the pasta in it) and when I got home I had some lovely dates. I love those little gems.


It was nice to see my friend again, but I had to prepare the house for the arrival of my aunt for Easter. Cleaning is definitely not one of my favorite things to do. I always say that I'm going to hire a cleaning lady when I get my own house, but something (the angel on my shoulder) tells me I'm too practical to spend money on something that I could do myself, while another thing (the devil on my other shoulder) tells me that it's all about opportunity costs...haha.


I'm back at school now, and I can't wait for the banana fest to begin. I've been dying to wear this cute high-waisted skirt that I got last year at H&M, but I can't button it. I really don't think I've gained any weight...can it be ab-muscles? Has this ever happened to you? (Obviously not that same situation, especially if you're a guy, haha...) Help me!


I hope you're having a wonderful beginning to your week. Easter eats coming soon!