Final hours

Saturday, April 30. Just 14 hours from now I'll be waking up and immediately heading to Einstein's for a delightful bagel with...CREAM CHEESE! No, not "sheese" or "chrese" or "cheezze" or some other odd substitute. Real, creamy, milky cream cheese. This last week has hands down been the hardest. Once I had just seven days remaining I began to think of all the things I'd want to eat and would be able to - soon! Chips and queso. Eggs benedict. Bagels with cream cheese. Sushi with shrimp and tuna and salmon.

As excited as I am to "'tox" (as opposed to "detox"), one of my most recent vegan meals was divine. One rainy Friday, Maura, Jen and I headed over to Sticky Rice, a local hotspot on H Street. Sticky Rice marks the vegan options on their menu and there are many. Vegan noodle dishes, sushi, and of course, a bucket of tater tots. We enjoyed a vegan spread of tater tots, Mock Chicken Schezwan, a sushi roll with tempura fried sweet potato, agave jalapeno and sesame seeds and a delightful little roll of vegan tofutti cream cheese, cucumbers, avocado, vegan spicy sauce, drizzled with ponzu and scallions. You can see the agave nectar dripped all across the plate. This little touch of sweetness was a lively final note. If only I could have eaten every meal this month at Sticky Rice!

In non-vegan news, I watched my movie for the month (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest), gave a second blood donation, and watched Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job. I'm nearly through my latest book, Watermelon, and my May 21 camping trip is planned. Marathon training begins this week. Can't wait for track workout number one. Something about 800 x 4 x 30 or some such nonsense (Grant is in charge of this part). Somehow I think three months from now when I'm 8 miles into a 14 mile run I'm going to wish begin vegan was the most challenging thing currently on the list...