Fashion Friday #7

Busy Mother’s Day Weekend

May 132013

Hello there! Hope your week is off to a great start!

I had a pretty great weekend around these parts, so here’s a little recap of what I was up to!

Friday

Fabio went back up to New York this weekend (two weekends in a row- crazy!) for Mother’s Day. He had a random day off from work that he was going to lose by the end of this month, so he decided to go up early Friday morning so he could work a little bit.

What? That doesn’t look like work to you? Haha!

Fabio used to be a ball boy/bat boy for the Mets and the Yankees when he was in high school, so every now and then he will help out with a game again (for free) so he doesn’t lose those relationships. You never know when a connection will come in handy! Plus, you have to admit it’s a pretty cool “job.”

All weekend he was sending me pictures like this one…

Pretty cool, huh? At least I think so

Anyway, after work on Friday I headed home to quickly change and walk Jack before my friend Sam came over to go to the National’s game (hi Sam!!). Sam just finished her first year of PT school and was ready to celebrate at the Nats game

Sam and I planned to metro to the game, but unfortunately we got super caught up in our conversation and missed our metro stop twice. Oops. Guess that’s what happens when you don’t see your friends very often; you get wrapped up in a conversation and make rookie travel mistakes! Haha!

After we found ourselves on the wrong metro line for the second time, we decided to cut our losses and take a cab. We wound up at the Pentagon (annoyingly close to where we started) and found an abandoned taxi stand. We had to call a cab ourselves, and felt quite sheepish that we were so late to the game. Woopsieeee!

Eventually we arrived at the Bull Pen bar right outside the stadium where the rest of our friends were waiting for us. The Bull Pen bar is a lot of fun and I always make it a point to stop there before the game. The live music, corn hole games, and cheap beers provide quite the fun atmosphere!

Waiting for us at the Bull Pen were my friends Bianca, Daria, Ashley, and their respective dates. Since Fabio was out of town and Sam’s boyfriend was working, we decided to be each other’s dates It kept either of us from feeling like a seventh wheel haha!

Bianca took this picture with her phone, which unfortunately turned out blurry.

Drat! It would have been so cute!

By the time we arrived at the Bull Pen it was already pretty late in the game, and Bianca confessed that she hadn’t been able to buy tickets online because of a computer error. She suggested we buy tickets at the gate, but since it was already more than halfway through the game, none of us really wanted to pay for tickets.

In the end we decided to ditch the idea of the game and go to another bar, which seemed silly but cost-effective. Unfortunately we took way too long to come to this consensus (plus we were busy catching up again) and before we knew it the game had ended and we were still in the Bull Pen. Aghh!

Once the game ended, everyone and their mother seemed to need a cab, so we walked a few blocks to try to avoid the crowds. We wound up going into a nearby hotel and asking them to call us a cab, but then we heard the bartender at the hotel bar say there were free wings for anyone who stayed to buy a drink.

Free wings? Sign me up!

Me and Bianca in the random hotel bar

Free wings!

We wound up staying in the hotel bar for about an hour before we gave up on our plans for the night and all headed home. It was a lot of fun, but a pretty random evening. I’m not sure we’ll be trying that again anytime soon haha! But hey, at least we got free wings, right?

Saturday

On Saturday morning I didn’t set any alarm, which felt glorious. I woke up at around 9:00 am, walked Jack, and then headed out for a 5 mile run. I ran along my favorite path, the Mt. Vernon trail, which is always so pretty.

I love running along the water and getting a nice view of the monuments. It’s such a great route!

It also seems like I run a bit slower when Fabio isn’t running along side me.

Even though my pace was a bit slow, I didn’t mind too much and was just happy that I completed the run

Around lunchtime, my friend Shaun came over. Although I saw her briefly during Halloween, it had been years (literally) since we actually hung out one-on-one and caught up.

We had plans to walk around Georgetown and then take a yoga class at 4:00 pm, so she came over around 1:30 and then we walked into Georgetown.

First up, we stopped at SweetGreen for some lunch. I chose the Chick-pea salad with falafel, which was awesome.

SweetGreen is always so delicious!

After lunch we popped into a few stores including Anne Taylor LOFT, ZARA, Cusp (new obsession), and Paper Source (we needed some Mother’s Day cards). We had a lot of fun and I wound up with a new brightly colored floral spring scarf

Eventually it was time to head over to yoga, and I was feeling a bit nervous. The yoga class was at the brand new CorePower Yoga studio in Georgetown. I had heard about CorePower Yoga from my coworker (who said she was sore for days after) and then read about it again on Anne’s blog (funny- she went to SweetGreen in her post too!).

The class we took was called Sculpt, and is basically a heated yoga class with various strength exercises (think lots of squats and a bit of cardio) with weights. It was pretty tough on its own, but once you added the element of heat, I was struggling quite a bit. It was no joke!

Moment of truth! Once we opened this door, it was hot!

Here’s my mat, towel (so I didn’t slip- I got sweaty!), and weights (I used a combo of 3lb. and 8lb. weights).

Shaun right before the class!

Shaun and me after the class. Yikes! I was a sweaty, red mess. It was a great workout!

New members get one free week of classes, so I’m going to try to take another class this week while it’s still free. I highly recommend taking a class at CorePower Yoga if you have a studio near you!

After yoga, Shaun and I walked back to my apartment and then Shaun headed home. I quickly showered and then ran some errands, including a trip to Target where I bought a bunch of stuff I didn’t need (typical), in addition to my mom’s Mother’s Day gifts.

I spent the rest of the evening relaxing at home and hanging out with Jack. I debated going out with some friends, but it was pouring rain and I was tired from the run and intense yoga class. Staying in and reading my kindle while cuddled up and listening to the rain sounded great to me, and I fell asleep at around 9:30 pm. No joke!

Sunday

On Sunday morning I took Jack for a quick 2.5 mile run, which is just about as far as he can go without getting tired and lagging behind. Unfortunately I messed up my RunKeeper app mid-run (I meant to hit pause at a red light, but it didn’t register. Then when I hit resume, it actually paused. Bummer.) but I think I was running about a 9 minute 45 second pace. It was nice, easy, slow run, which was perfect for allowing my body to recuperate from the day before.

After my run I showered up and headed over to my mom’s house for Mother’s Day! Her azaleas are all in bloom and looking lovely

My mom was prepared with snacks, of course!

The weather was beautiful and my mom, stepdad, and I spent the afternoon outside sipping on white wine and talking about our upcoming trip to the Amalfi coast in July. It was such a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Jack had fun playing with my mom’s dogs, of course.

My mom started getting the pool ready and it should be swimmable (I made up that word lol) soon! I think Jack is ready now haha!

Soon it was time for our early dinner

My stepdad was hard at work at the grill! BTW- look how many plants my mom has around the grill haha. It looks like a jungle (but a pretty one, of course).

Soon the food was ready- we had ribs with homemade BBQ sauce (my mom’s specialty) and corn.

Everything was great! It makes me really excited for more summer BBQs at my mom’s house

For dessert we had homemade orange blondies that my mom whipped up. Deeeeelish.

After being at my mom’s for a while, I headed over to my dad’s house (about 10 minutes away) to celebrate my sister’s birthday! Nicole is turning 8 years old today! I can’t believe how big she is getting. We will be having her full family celebration this Saturday (after the half marathon) and her official birthday party later in the summer, but it was nice to go over yesterday to see her open my dad’s gift.

Just look at what she got…

Yep, my eight year old sister has an iPad. I don’t even have an iPad!! It’s crazy, haha!!

At any rate, she seemed super excited and my dad definitely hit this year’s gift out of the park. Here’s hoping she doesn’t break it/lose it!

After watching Nicole open her gifts, I picked up Fabio (his sister who lives in Baltimore drove him home from NY and we met at a half-way point) and then headed home. Fabio and I tried to watch TV for a little while, but we were too sleepy. Even Jack was exhausted, haha!

All in all, it was a great Mother’s Day weekend!

Question of the day: What did you do for Mother’s Day?

Have you ever been to the Amalfi Coast of Italy? Do you have any recommendations?

Punta Cana Part II

Uncategorized 13 Responses »

Apr 262013

Hello there! When we last left off, I had just finished telling you all about my first day in Punta Cana. Let’s pick right up from there, shall we? #warningitslong #photodump

Friday

Friday morning I woke up bright and early before the rest of my friends to get a run in. I think they all thought I was crazy, and I was definitely the only person to bring sneakers, but I didn’t want to totally mess up my half marathon training by skipping my runs for five days.

After looking at the map of the resort and trying to plan a route, I decided simply to run along the beach. I was supposed to run four miles, so I figured that if I ran for about 35-40 minutes it would be close enough.

Once I made it to the beach, I ran along the wet sand which was a bit easier to handle than the dry powdery sand. I ran for 20 minutes in one direction, and then turned back.

It was a beautiful day and I absolutely loved running along the beach. I wish every four mile run could be this good!

So pretty!

After my run, I headed back to the hotel room to take a quick shower and wait for everyone else to wake up. At around 9:30, we all headed down to breakfast (if you want to see what I ate for breakfast – and every other meal- while on vacation, check out my What I Ate Wednesday in Punta Cana post).

After breakfast we made our way to the beach, but found it way too windy. The sand was blowing up into our eyes like crazy! Even with sunglasses on, it was pretty unbearable, so we moved over to the pool.

We spent a fun day lounging by the pool and enjoying each other’s company.

My favorite part about this trip was just being able to sit back and relax with my friends. Senior year in college, we all lived with each other. We knew everything that was going on in everyone’s life and were so incredibly close. We knew when someone had a bad day, when someone was fighting with their boyfriend, and what everyone ate for dinner (as silly as that sounds).

The best part about this trip was just being able to reunite with everyone again and get completely caught up in what was going on in their lives. We were able to talk about serious things like family issues and jobs, but also fun and silly things like awkward dating experiences. It was a blast just to be able to spend five whole days catching up with my best girlfriends.

After a fun day by the pool, we headed back to the room to get changed for dinner. Dinner on Friday night was at the Mexican restaurant!

The food was great and of course we had a fabulous time.

They even had a Dominican band come play the drums at our table!

It was a really fun experience

After dinner we headed outside of the restaurant where a DJ was guest performing at one of the bars. The hotel had hired some entertainers/dancers to get the guests involved with the DJ, and we had a lot of fun dancing and people watching.

This guy got gold glitter on us everywhere!!

It was a really fun night!!

Saturday/Sunday

The next two days were pretty similar to Friday, with the exception that the wind died down and we were able to sit on the beach (thank God!)

On Saturday I was supposed to run 10 miles, but after all the fun from Friday night I decided another four mile run was good enough.

Four miles is better than zero! It was beautiful, once again!

I even saw a pelican.

I wish I had been able to see him catch a fish!

After my run I went back to our room to shower, and then headed to breakfast with everyone else, just like on Friday.

On Saturday and Sunday, we were finally able to sit on the beach, which was absolutely stunning.

It was so beautiful; I could have sat there forever.

Of course, we didn’t ignore the pool either!

Ahhh so beautiful.

One of the days we took a water aerobics class in the pool, which was hysterical. The instructors were hilarious and made the most absurd facial expressions. We were dying of laughter the entire time and were actually able to get a pretty good workout it. Those classes are no joke!

After spending all day by the pool and beach, we would go back to the rooms, get ready for dinner, and head to the lobby for some pre-dinner drinks. This was easily one of my favorite times of the evening.

Drinks/Dinner Pictures From Saturday

Drinks/Dinner Pictures From Sunday

Since Sunday was our last night, we had an extra fun time and took a ton of silly pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

Haha I hope you enjoyed those as much as I do!!

Monday

Monday morning eventually came and we had to pack up our stuff and leave the beautiful Dominican Republic. Our shuttle came at 10:00 am so we had just enough time for a final breakfast at the hotel before heading to the airport.

Our flight was a bit delayed (about 45 minutes) but we still arrived back in Baltimore by around 6:00 pm. I made it home at around 7:45 and had a very happy puppy and boyfriend to greet me

It was such a great trip and I am so grateful that I got to travel to such a beautiful place with so many of my best friends. Now I just need to plan our next vacation…

Question of the day: Where do you travel with your friends?

Let There Be Light

Random 11 Responses »

Jul 022012

Hey people! Happy Monday! I actually have to say I’m glad to be at work right now sitting in the nice, cool air conditioning because after the crazy storm we had on Friday evening, we lost power and it still has not been turned back on. Let me tell you, I have never appreciated electricity more in my life. Sure, we’ve had a few power outages that seemed pretty bad, but now that it’s Monday and the power is still not on, I’m beginning to realize just how miserable life must have been in the days before our glorious friend electricity. The worst part is definitely the heat at night, although losing all of our food in the fridge and freezer is pretty disheartening as well. It’s really awful but at least we weren’t hurt in the storm. With all the trees that fell right in my neighborhood we were extremely lucky!

Here's a path where I run with Jack

This is the building right behind my apartment

So despite my lack of power, I’m feeling very fortunate that we weren’t injured in the storm (especially since the news is reporting that a bunch of people died from falling trees).

Anyway, I wound up having a great weekend all things considered! First on Friday night I headed into D.C. for my coworker Ellen’s going away party. Ellen is my best friend at work and she is leaving for law school in a few weeks. I’m going to miss her! Before we got to her going away party though, I stopped at another coworker’s apartment for a few pregame drinks. This was when the storm hit and we watched the tree outside of her seventh floor apartment sway up against the window. I thought it was going to come crashing through at any minute. It was so scary! Luckily the tree stayed put (minus a few branches) and the storm blew over quickly. Then we headed over to Ellen’s party!

The party was located at a bar in U Street so we hailed a cab from Dupont Circle and huddled under a couple of umbrellas while it continued to drizzle. Storms put a damper on everything, I tell ya.

At the bar we met up with Ellen, a few other coworkers, and a bunch of friends from college, including my friend Catrina who was visiting for the weekend. It was a lot of fun!

The next morning we didn’t know what to do since the power was out, so my friends and I headed over to my dad’s house to frolic in the pool.

Who needs power when there’s a pool? We spent most of the day in the water and eventually Fabio cooked us up some hot dogs. Yum!

Later on we toweled off and headed back to Arlington to go out for dinner. We decided to go to Rooftop Arlington grill and got a table for seven with Fabio, his two friends, Catrina, Megan, and Megan’s boy friend JR. I sipped on a delicious skinny margarita and enjoyed the grilled vegetable panini for my entree. Both were awesome!

After dinner we headed over to Fabio’s friend’s apartment for another pregame which turned into an awesome Disney power hour. There was a ton of beer-drinking and Disney-song-singing. We also picked which Disney princesses we would be and it was decided that I would be Snow White because I’d make friends with all the animals. Typical.

Ellen also came to our pregame

I was super tall in my wedges! Plus my hair was all weird from air drying (I hate this power situation) so it was not my best look. We had so much fun though that it didn’t matter!

After pregaming we went to a bar in Adam’s Morgan and met up with some of our friends from college. It was a great night!

Sunday morning Fabio and I were hot and cranky from trying to sleep with no air conditioning, so we decided to head straight to my mom’s house for some more pool time. This was definitely a pool-filled weekend!

Plus my aunt was visiting from NYC, so it was great to see her as well!

There were some drinks involved…

At one point Fabio carriedJack into the pool (until he learned how to jump in himself via a pink floaty/impromptu boat).

It was a great way to end the weekend!

Anyway, I hope you all had as great of a weekend as I did! I hope everyone was safe from the storm and that power is resumed soon. This whole sleeping in the heat, air drying my hair, charging my phone in the car thing is getting super annoying. Whenever it does turn back on I’ll have to do some fridge inventory and clean out everything that is spoiled

I’m crossing my fingers that it comes on soon!

Taste of Georgetown & Poolside Fun

Random 4 Responses »

Jun 042012

Hello everyone! I can’t believe it’s already June! I really hope to take advantage of the summer and not let a minute of it pass me by. It’s definitely one of my favorite seasons and I don’t intend to waste it!

Sorry for not posting last night; we had a fun-filled day at my dad’s house and didn’t get home until after 11 pm. At that point, there was just no way I could squeeze out a blog post. Sorry! But anyway, let me tell you about my weekend!

Friday night I was supposed to barbeque with my friends, but I actually wound up leaving work early due to a tornado warning. Needless to say, our barbeque got rained out. The tornado did touch down in a few areas nearby, but luckily we were safe! Fabio and I spent the evening on the couch relaxing. It was quite nice!

By Saturday morning the bad weather had blown through so Fabio and I decided to take Jack on a walk to Georgetown. From my apartment, it’s only bout two miles to Georgetown so we decided it would be fun to walk around. Secretly I was thinking that if our walk happened to take us by Urban Outfitters or H&M I wouldn’t be upset about it . We started off our walk by picking up two sugar-free vanilla iced coffees from BeanGood Coffee, which were delicious!

Then we headed over the Key bridge and into Georgetown. It was windy!

Jack was so fascinated by all the boaters in the water. There were probably about 6 or 7 kyakers below us, as well as some motor boats in the distance. He was freaking out!

Once we crossed the bridge, we started walking around downtown Georgetown. I’m always so happy when I see all the quaint little shops! Of course we walked by Georgetown cupcake, and I was in shock that the line was so short.

Usually it wraps all the way around the building. As soon as we crossed the street though, I saw why:

Holy street festival! Upon further inspection we realized that the huge gathering was for the Taste of Georgetown. Here’s the description from their website:

The 19th Annual Taste of Georgetown will showcase the spectacular cuisine of thirty of Washington, D.C.’s finest restaurants, highlighting Georgetown’s culinary personalities and feature nearly sixty delectable dishes to sample, as well as wine pairings and the jazz talents of Blues Alley.

Basically this just meant that thirty booths were set up along the street and you could buy tickets to taste specialty dishes from as many as you wanted. One tasting cost $5 and five tastings cost $20, so Fabio and I decided to taste five dishes. It was really fun walking up and down the booths trying to decide what to taste!

First we saw a Petco booth and decided to stop so Jack could get some water. They had a wheel you could spin for prizes and he won a bandana! He also got his picture taken for the store.

By this time the crowd was really picking up!

We were able to navigate the crowd and got sliders, a barbeque pork sandwich, and some raviolis to taste. All of the portions were small, so it was really fun having little bites of everything. We took our food to a grassy area outside of a church to eat.

Everything tasted phenomenal! Then it was time for dessert. There were a ton of cupcake places (including Georgetown cupcake) as well as a few places selling cakes, but I had my eye on this baby:

Homemade apple pie!! Woops! Definitely not on the diet plan, but oh so delicious and worth it. How often do I get to eat a sweet, flaky, apple pie? Like never. So, we indulged

Later in the afternoon Fabio and I headed to the Nationals vs. Braves game with my coworker, Ellen, and her boyfriend. We had awesome seats near the front!

It was a blast! As I predicted, the boys were intent on watching the game while Ellen and I chatted about other stuff I do like baseball, but Ellen and I never hang out outside of work so we had a lot of catching up to do. And picture-taking. Duh.

After the game, Dierks Bentley was supposed to perform but he canceled and we got Big And Rich instead. I like country music a lot, but the only song I knew from them was Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy, which is not one of my favorites. Oh well, it was fun! Then we went to a bar for a few beers and headed back home. It was a busy day!!

Sunday we drove to my dad’s house and hung out by the pool. Fabio was mowing the lawn, my sister was playing with her friends, and I was enjoying the sun and my kindle!

For dinner we headed to a nice Mexican restaurant in Frederick, MD. where we sat outside and I inhaled some amazing fish tacos. Then I walked around with my family and enjoyed the evening outside.

All in all it was a great weekend!

Now it’s time to start off the week! Back to regular workouts (four mile walks are nice but not when they are counteracted by apple pie) and better food choices! Happy Monday!

Pssst: Check out my guest post on Virgina is for Bloggers where I share a recipe for healthy soft serve ice cream. Yum!

Fashion Friday #7

Fashion Fridays 6 Responses »

Jun 012012

Goooooood morning people! Happy Friday to ya! Although this week was a short one, I think I kept telling myself a million times that it was almost over so it actually wound up feeling pretty long. Fail. Oh well, Friday is here at last and you know what that means…it’s Fashion Friday!

Dress: Target (or Targét as I like to call it)

Jean Jacket: Gap (from forever ago, but they are coming back in style!)

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Sorry for my weird claw hand folding the phone. Not really sure what happened there. Oh, and also sorry for the big crack in the mirror. That happened an hour after we hung it up because Jack thought it was another dog and he was trying to play with it. Right. This is after we replaced the first mirror which he actually shattered in a million pieces because he kept running into it. Yes, my dog is insane.

Anywho, does anyone have any fun weekend plans? Tonight I’m hanging out with some friends to barbeque and then go out in DC. I picked up some delicious corn from Trader Joe’s this week and I can’t wait to grill it! Last night we tried broiling it in the oven after soaking it in water for about 20 minutes and although it was delicious, it was lacking that yummy grill taste.

Yumm!! Barbeques with friends are always a blast!

Then tomorrow I am heading to the National’s game with Fabio, my friend from work Ellen, and her boyfriend. They are playing the Braves and Ellen grew up in Atlanta so even though neither of us are big baseball fans, it should be really fun. The boys, of course, are both obsessed with baseball and are super excited. Fabio actually used to be a bat boy for the Yankees and the Mets in NY so he knows pretty much everything there is to know about baseball. I have a feeling the boys will be having one conversation while us girls gossip about everything else. It should be a great time!

Then on Sunday I am hoping to go to my dad’s house for some pool time. While I was at work yesterday he sent me the following text:

"The pool is waiting for you!"

Rude. Doesn’t he know I’m at work? Haha but it seriously made me want to go home this weekend and spend some quality time with the fam by the pool.

Anyway, what are you guys doing this weekend? Anything fun? Any pool plans?? If you are planning to be prancing around in a bikini, I recommend this article and this article for some last minute workout ideas!

Have a great weekend everyone!