Spring Has Sprung!!!

Happy first day of spring, darlings!!!! I hope it's a beautiful day wherever all of you are (it's kind of gray here in D.C. today, and we had a freak thunderstorm at 6:30 this morning- I guess spring started with a bang, literally?)!  Sorry for being such a delinquent blogger, but I have had ZERO free time recently to churn out a post, so congrats, you get one of my signature long posts! ;)

This was definitely an eventful St. Patty's Day weekend, with lots of basketball and time with friends- literally, whenever I wasn't firmly planted on the couch watching March Madness, I was running all over creation!  Dan and I both got off of work early on Friday, and, after I met him at work, we metroed home and proceeded to watch 7 straight hours of basketball (which included a second-round win by our Hoyas...I don't want to talk about Sunday's third-round game).  Ah, March, ain't it grand!

On Saturday, I met up with Dan and his friends at around 3 for a St. Patty's pregame, after which we went to Dupont for a bit.  I have to say, I am not the hugest fan of the holiday (I have recently developed an intolerance to beer- really painful stomachaches means it's not worth it to have even one- and, due to a bad experience with Bailey's on my 21st, I refuse to touch it), partly because I am not a huge drinker, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and be festive haha.  I had a really great time with that group (one of his friends had been in Ireland for work for the past six months, so it was so nice to see him again), and then I met up with my friends for a bit afterward (for a lot of that time, I was shoving a veggie burger in my mouth- so ladylike) and then hit the sack at oh, about 10:30.  I'm not even ashamed of the fact that I'm a 90 year-old woman at heart!  Sunday was a thoroughly awful, Murphy's Law kind of day, and, after chalking it up in the loss column, I moved on, determined that the next day would be better, which it was. 

As usual, this week is turning out to be really hectic.  Don't get me wrong, I am loving my FemEx class, but having that at the beginning of the week and then knowing that I won't get back until late (thanks to Metro, I haven't gotten home much before 11 after either of the previous two classes) means that I'll be running on fumes for the rest of the week, especially with that 5a.m. gym routine.  Any rational person would say that I should skip the gym for a day, but anyone who knows me is well aware that that is not an option for me.  So, after tonight, I will simply soldier on for 12 more weeks.  While I definitely like staying busy, I have felt really overwhelmed, on those other days, by how many things I want to do and how many people (Dan, my family, friends in DC, friends from afar who I want to Skype with) I want to spend time with.  If anyone has any tips on how best to manage your time so that you don't constantly feel like you're shortchanging someone in your life.

Something fun that I have to look forward to this week is going to see the cherry blossoms with a friend later on in the week!  If you have never been to D.C. or simply have never gone over to the Tidal Basin when the blossoms are in full bloom, I would highly recommend it.  Since the Festival tends to be a mob scene on the weekends (read: annoying tourists), we're hoping to avoid that somewhat by going on a weeknight after work.  We'll see how it goes!  In any case, I know the blossoms will be stunningly beautiful, so I'm looking forward to that!

And then...Saturday is my birthday!!! I'm definitely really looking forward to the celebrations this year, but it will not be the same as when all of my closest girlfriends were in town on the same weekend as my birthday for a mini-reunion.  I was spoiled last year! I know, though, that everyone will be there in spirit, and, in fact, I learned that Kate, my Birthday Week buddy, will also be going out for karaoke with friends on Saturday night! However, despite missing out-of-town friends, this is the first year that Dan will get to witness our birthday antics (we had only been dating for a few weeks when my birthday rolled around last year, and we both thought it best not to subject him to the gaggle of girls so early on), and yes, I am forcing him to go dancing :) Or maybe he's doing it willingly haha.  In any case, I am looking forward to a nice dinner at an AMAZING Italian restaurant with Dan, my parents and Tim on Friday, followed by birthday festivities on Saturday (including breaking Lent for CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell how excited I am? I have been STARVING for weeks without my sweets!).  I think it should be pretty low-key, which I so desperately need given how hectic my life has been recently.