Internetz and being lazy

I went to Shenandoah Joe's this morning because the internet at our apartment has been really slow recently. I ended up staking out a spot and stayed there from 9am-1pm. I got some serious facebooking/apartment seeking/gchatting/netflix watching done and drank one large coffee. When I got home I was starving and shaky from all of the caffeine. I spent the rest of the day watching Grey's Anatomy, blogging, and recovering from my caffeine crash. 

Around 7, I went to Alex's house and we watched Doc Hollywood with his Dad and sister. Then I had to practically beg so that we didn't watch the end of Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. See below.

We like wine

Alex didn't have to go to Harrisonburg today so we decided to go on an adventure. First we went to Waynesboro to go to Target and Michael's craft store to find a scrapbook. We decided that we wanted to make a scrapbook of the wines we taste! Our trip to get a scrapbook was successful, so we took a drive through the mountains and ended up at Keswick Vineyards. We did the tasting there and their wines were pretty good. We didn't want to shell out big bucks at Keswick so we decided to go back to my apartment for a glass of the port I'd bought at Horton Vineyards a few weeks ago. We also took our first couple picture for the scrapbook!

Sunday funday!

The weather today was absolutely beautiful! Alex and I had thought ahead when the forecast for today was for wonderful weather and we planned on going for a hike. After we had breakfast, we decided to go to Crabtree Falls in George Washington National Forest! This hike was absolutely beautiful. The weather could not have been better. The temperature was great and the hike was challenging but not too hard. It was 1.7 miles to the top of the waterfall and we had a great time up and back.

At the end of our hike, we were happy but hungry so we decided to go to Devil's Backbone for some brews and food. Devil's Backbone is one of the breweries on the "Brew Ridge Trail." I got the "mystery tap" and Alex got the Wintergreen Weiss. We agreed that mine was a little bit better. :)

We sat at a table outside and it was glorious! The sun was shining, the mountains were beautiful, everything was great! We shared an appetizer and then we both got burgers with sweet potato fries. My burger was vegetarian though. It was a really nice dinner!

After dinner, we took a little drive and stopped at the Batesville Store. It was really quaint and filled with delicious smells. I really wanted dessert but I was able to control myself. Then we went back to Alex's house and watched another romantic comedy!

Rainy Day Saturday

The weather forecast was for rain all day Saturday, and I was okay with that. Alex and I woke up really late and I packed up my things and we headed to his house. We made it there just in time for a huge part of the storm to hit. It absolutely poured! Alex poured us a glass of bubbly pinot grigio and we sat outside and enjoyed the storm.

Once the storm passed, Alex and I plopped in front of the TV to watch Sweet Home Alabama. We enjoyed our wine and relaxed. Around dinner time I prepped some veggies and tofu that we ate in tortillas...they were sooo good.

A few weeks ago when Alex and I went on our first big wine tasting trip (Cardinal Point, Pollak, and King Family), Alex purchased a $33.33 bottle of wine called "3." It was a wine made from contributions from Pollak, King Family, and Veritas.

When Alex bought it, he said that we could drink it on a special occasion which would either be to celebrate my acceptance to graduate school or to commemorate my last night in Charlottesville. That's why we decided to drink the wine Saturday night--to celebrate my acceptance to GW! We were both really excited about it and I think it definitely held up to our expectations. It was so good!

We ended the night by falling asleep to a movie called Code 46...we do not recommend it.

Fabulous Friday

I woke up early today and everything seemed to go just as I wanted. I went to the gym, picked up a few groceries, and came home to get things settled and have lunch. After lunch, Camille and I decided to walk from my apartment to the Corner so that we could enjoy the amazing weather and do some shopping. The weather was absolutely perfect! We went to a few shops, including Duo and Finch where I got a cute pair of sunglasses. Then we walked to a grassy area near the rotunda to relax and talk.

Although I really wanted to go out to dinner, I restrained myself knowing that I would probably buy a few drinks out on the town later that night. After dinner, we planned on going downtown to Margaret's and then heading to the Pavillion for Friday's After Five. Today was the first Friday of the season! Jackie, Lauren Echko, and I went to Margaret's and then downtown. It was crazy how many people I recognized! We ran into a few people from Early Steps and I saw a bunch of other familiar faces. We thought about getting a drink at a bar downtown, but the beautiful weather made it so that everyone had the same idea. We ended up hitting up Harris Teeter for snacks and drinks. 

Friday was so much fun...music, friends, and then going out on the Corner. We took some pretty hilarious pictures.

Like usual, Alex, Margaret and I ended up at Little John's for some late night munchies. I'm proud of myself for not buying the white cheese pizza though...that has ended in disaster recently. I did manage to pick out a delicious black-bottom cupcake, though!

Frenemy? Nope.

I slept in later than usual today, later than 5 am that is. Went to the gym later than usual, had a pretty relaxing day. Every day I feel less and less stressed. It's great! After hanging out for most of the day, Ali asked if I wanted to get dinner. We went to Zazu's for dinner and then Arch's for some froyo (second time this week, yes!). I used my "free froyo" card to get a 9 oz of peanut butter with graham crackers on top...yummmm. Afterward, we decided to grab a bottle of wine and a movie. Lucky for us, Kroger's pre-cooled white wine section had a lovely (and huge) bottle of white wine for $10. We couldn't say no.

Then we picked out a movie from meager selection offered by Redbox. We ended up choosing "Frenemy" because it looked like a comedy. A few minutes into the movie, Jim joined us. Although we all gave it our best shot, Ali and I decided to end the confusion/annoyance and stopped the film. We had a really great time talking, though! We sent Alex a few snarky texts as well, which was fun.

Charlottesville vacation

Today was so much fun! I started off Wednesday really well--with a 6 am cycle class at Gold's with Margarita. The class was pretty difficult and my side definitely hurt more than usual afterward. Sprained muscles really take a long time to fully recover. Then I went home to relax for a while until it was time to leave for Camille's house.

Camille and I had planned on having a day full of fun, so we started off with lunch at Bluegrass Grill and Bakery. I had never been here before and many of my friends had suggested it to me. My food was really good! I got the tofu hash with toast and Camille gave me half of a whole-wheat biscuit because she said I definitely needed to try some. She was right--it was so good! Once we were done with lunch, we headed back to her apartment for a while and hung out with her roommate's pup, Pakkun.

From Camille's apartment, we headed to Albemarle Ciderworks, a local cider maker (brewer?). We got a tasting which included four different ciders. They were all pretty good and very different. I'm not a huge fan of cider, but I still enjoyed it. We cheersed each glass--to Camille's new job and to my acceptance!

After cider tasting, we set up our game plan for the evening. First, we decided we needed to get a great margarita. Although the margaritas at Continental Divide were calling us, we decided to go the cheaper route by heading to Escafe. Although they don't open until 5:30 pm, we used personal connections to get in and hang out at 4:30. Our first order? A delicious margarita. Our second order? Something like a kamikaze. Our third order? Something delicious. For the record, all of the drinks were superb! I really enjoyed the third, called "The Cat's Pajamas." Yum!! 

After these delicious drinks, Camille and I decided it was time for some dinner. The nachos at Continental Divide were sirens calling my name so we stumbled our way over to the restaurant. There we had a delicious feast! Afterward, we went back to Camille's apartment, had a long chat and then I called it a night and went home. I was so full and tired! Maybe all of the food and drinks caught up with me. Great Wednesday!

Coffee and a Concert

Today was really rainy and gross out. As a result, I decided to finish all the things that were put on pause yesterday (laundry that was half-way done). After finishing cleaning around the apartment, I went grocery shopping at Cville Market. When I came home, I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy and fell asleep for a little while. Luckily I had set my alarm because I had a coffee date with Margarita. We met at HotCakes to chat and Margarita gave me a going-away gift: a sweet water bottle! She said that I would think of her whenever I hydrated during my work outs! It was really sweet.

Later that evening I got dressed up and went to Desiré's apartment to have some wine before going to the Southern for a concert. This was a part of Desiré's last hurrah as she is set to have surgery on Friday the 15th. After some fun chatz we headed to the Southern to listen to Joe Pug. We got there a little bit after his set had started, but it was really good. There is something about his voice that really made me want to cry. When I told Desiré this, she said she felt the same way! When we left the Southern, we debated whether or not we should say something to Joe but concluded that anything we could say would be pretty awkward. I suggested that she say "I cried to your music on the drive home last Friday," but Desiré wouldn't go for it. Great Tuesday night!!

April 11th, 2011

Best. Day. Ever.
I received my email from GW at around 10:45 am. I asked Jackie to read the email just in case I was hallucinating. Once we were done running around the apartment and screaming, I called my Mom. When she didn't answer, I called my Dad. When my Dad answered, I immediately started shaking and crying and I couldn't get my words out. He thought something was seriously wrong until I finally could tell him what was going on. After I finished telling him, my Mom was trying to call me back so I answered her call and then did the same thing to her! Once we were done talking, I called Alex and did the same thing to him. Apparently when I'm really happy I sound like I've been in a serious accident. Then I proceeded to call/text/gchat everyone and freak out with excitement.

After calming down a bit, I met Camille downtown for some froyo from Sweet Frog. Naturally, froyo is my go-to for a celebration. We hung out for a while and enjoyed the weather. From there I headed to Ali's Dad's house where Ali was waiting to take photos of me. It was pretty fun--I wore a white dress and posed with a sculpture Ali had made. After this, I went to dinner at Alex's house. His Mom had made a nice dinner in celebration of my good news. Amazing day!!!

Best News Ever

Monday April 11th, 2011, I heard the best news ever. I received an offer of admissions to the doctoral program in clinical psychology at George Washington University. Since the moment I received that email, my life has been a complete whirlwind! I am now going to try to record the events that have occurred since then. I am trying my best to enjoy every day now that I am not working full-time. I have lots of time to have fun and prepare for the journey ahead of me!

Friday, April 8th 2011 was my last day at Early Steps. I had decided on this date as my last day of work because I needed time to prepare for my future. I knew that it was time for a change and I was looking to possibly move to Illinois to join my family. I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but I knew that the time had come to make a change. My last day of work, I wore a new dress, new coat, and blue nail polish (all gifts from Mom). Everyone in my office came out to lunch at Eppie's downtown. I definitely held back tears at lunch. 

That evening I went to Maya for a glass of wine with Camille and then to dinner with Camille and Alex at Continental Divide. I got a margarita and the nachos for dinner and they were delicious!! The margaritas there are really good. Afterwards, I went back to my apartment and hung out with friends. Ali convinced me to drink out of measuring cups as "we are poor now and this is what we can afford!" It was pretty funny. Needless to say, after everyone left, Jackie and I were quite hungry so we devoured some nachos while sitting on the kitchen floor and talking until 3 am. Overall, it was a great night.

Saturday, April 9th. I didn't get out of bed until around Noon. Alex and I went to Whole Foods for lunch and then to the Market Street Wine Shop (next to WF) for a wine tasting event. When we got home, Alex went to bed to take a nap (he wasn't feeling well) and I went off to Starr Hill Brewery and Blue Mountain Brewery for some beer with Jackie and Becca. We had a great time!

After lots of delicious beer, Jackie and I headed back to our apartment to get ready for the night. Alex and I made pizza for dinner (yum). Jackie and I got dressed up to pick up Becca and then head to Margaret's apartment downtown. After some pre-gaming at Margaret's, we headed out and ended up at Escafe for some hilarious dancing. It was definitely a hilarious night, with Margaret getting a little more than she bargained for. 

Sunday, April 10th. Alex and I just hung around all day and watched movies on Netflix. It was really relaxing and necessary since we both needed some recovery time from the weekend.

Monday, April 11th. BEST DAY EVER! I will write about this in the next post.