wiaw: opening day

The baseball season kicked off a little over a week ago, but the season didn't officially begin in St. Louis until Monday.  Opening Day for the Cardinals is pretty much a holiday in St. Louis.  People call in sick, have special celebratory days at work, all sorts of fun stuff to celebrate the day when our beloved Birds are back in town.  And I was lucky enough to get to go this year!

I've never been to an Opening Day before, but as a big Cardinals fan, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go when my friend Tina asked me to go with her.  And anything to extend my weekend just a little bit longer.I have to admit, my eating was all sorts of bad on Monday, but I'm only human.  I don't eat perfectly all the time - far from it really - and that's OK.  Sometimes special occasions come up or you're in a place where you are so hungry, you just eat whatever is around.  That was pretty much how my eating on Monday went...

I got to sleep in a little bit since I took the day off of work, so I took the opportunity to get a good run in outside!  The perimeter of my parents' subdivision is almost exactly 4 miles, so I added one of my favorite running loops from high school onto my 4 miles to make it an even 6 miles.  I ate a half a banana with peanut butter pre-run and of course had a smoothie post-run.

I dropped MacKenna off at the sitter and made a little pit stop at Sbux for a skinny vanilla latte.

I met up with Tina and her daughter and one of her daughter's friends (both of whom are my volleyball players) and we headed downtown.  Our first stop (after walking about a mile in the pouring down rain) was to the brand spanking new Ball Park Village.  Of course, with the rain, it was totally packed inside, so we really only got to get a good look at it before we walked another mile in the pouring rain back to the car to do a little tailgating.

Like I said, by this point, I was completely starving (it was about 12:30) and all I had was a protein bar in my bag.  Luckily, Tina had some chips in her car that I munched on and of course, no tailgate is complete without a beer (or two).

We headed back to the stadium (another mile in the pouring rain) for the game around 2 PM.  The rain finally stopped around 4:30, so I made my way to finally get something a bit more substantial and to meet up with this pretty lady...Katie and I live so close but we hardly ever see each other!  And I got to meet her absolutely gorgeous daughter Allie.  We caught up for a few minutes and then I headed back to my seat with a huge mound of nachos with cheese sauce, salsa, jalapenos, and sour cream.  It was delicious, but my phone died right after I swiped the pic with Katie, so no picture of the deliciousness that ensued.  I gobbled up every last bite.Thankfully, after being cold and wet for hours on end, the Cards made it worth it and beat the Reds 5-3, although Trevor Rosenthal made me a bit nervous at the top of the 9th inning.  I got home just in time to put MacKenna to bed, which made me never want to go to a night game again!

Matt had been at a track meet all afternoon, so we made a quick dinner of quinoa, cheddar, and veggies with some tortilla chips on the side.  And some unpictured Reese's Pieces that I was more than happy to eat.

It was a great way to start off my week!  Of course, all that junk killed my tummy for the next day and a half, but I'm feeling much better now.  Like I said, I'm only human.  Everything in moderation, right?!