A Rare Food Post, and Holiday Prep

When I got out of work on Friday, I was desperately in need of a relaxing evening, so luckily, Molly and Lauren were willing to oblige.  In the spirit of trying new restaurants, we decided to wander on 14th St., and ended up stumbling upon Estadio, a Spanish restaurant.  I have tried a couple of other Spanish places in DC, and this one was, by far, my favorite.  The ambience, we decided, was very moorish, reminiscent of the architectural style and tiles of Southern Spain.  The food, too, was DELICIOUS.  I ordered Butternut Squash Soup (always a good choice), and we shared tortilla (claro), a bruschetta-like dish and manchego (again, claro).  Molly and Lauren also ordered patatas bravas, and we each got sangria.  Fantastic.  We then saw Like Crazy at E St. Cinema.  It was a decent movie- definitely not my favorite, but entertaining nonetheless- and it was just what I needed that night.

My mom and I trekked out to the outlets in Woodbridge on Saturday, partly to do some preliminary Christmas shopping, and partly to shop for a gift for my cousin's baby shower.  The outlets were an absolute ZOO, so I can't even imagine what they will be like come December (this is why I get my Christmas shopping done early, so I don't have to deal with the crowds).  A personal highlight was that I FINALLY found a camel cowl-neck sweater that I LOVE!!!! JCrew, ladies and gentlemen.  I turned around and there it was...it was like we were meant for each other haha.  There's nothing like a beautiful new sweater to make you at-peace with the coming of winter.  I wish I could convey the look of utter confusion when, after he told me that he liked my new sweater, I practically screeched at Dan, "I know!!! A camel cowl-neck sweater!".  His look was something like, "Ummm, I don't speak woman...", so, by explaining to him the words "camel" and "cowl neck", I updated his fashion vocabulary :)

On Saturday night, my parents took Tim, Dan and I out to Morton's in Georgetown, where, for the obvious reason of me being a vegetarian, I had never been.  The waiter brought out a cart containing each of their offerings, and, even though I had looked the menu up beforehand, I did not see one thing I could eat...until the very end, when he reached onto the bottom shelf of the cart and grabbed a cut of Chilean Sea Bass.  YUM YUM YUM.  My omnivorous family and my equally omnivorous boyfriend each got some sort of steak, and there were more than enough sides to go around.  Afterward, Dan and I went home and watched the LSU-Bama football game, which I was at least mildly interested in because it was such a close game.

Being that I was tired, I fell asleep watching Parks & Rec (really, you know it's bad when I fall asleep during that), and awoke at 7 a.m. to the sound of Dan's roommate BLASTING the TV in the other room.  Apparently she decided she needed some background noise, forgetting that Dan's room is right next to the living room.  So much for an extra hour of sleep courtesy of the end of daylight savings time.  I certainly had a lazy Sunday after that: we got breakfast at Martin's (yay, pumpkin pancakes!!!!!!! I promise you, the childish excitement on my part was excessive- I think Dan got a kick out of it), and, after that, the most strenuous thing I did was go for a run.  It was a good thing I did, too, after this apparent fat kid weekend.  Due to the lost sleep from the night before, which had only compounded the lost sleep that I have been building up since, oh, probably the Lake back in August, I was EXHAUSTED, and fell asleep at the grandmotherly hour of 8:15.  Yay me?

Is it Thanksgiving yet?

This is getting rambly, but I am happy to report that I have knocked two people off of my Christmas list already!  I ordered Tim's present a few weeks ago (but, thanks to UPS, the newest company on my black list, I have yet to receive it), and ordered Dan's on Friday.  I have ideas for everyone else (including the materials for a crafty homemade gifts, which I will post pictures of after the fact), so now it's just a matter of buying everything.  I want to spend December prepping for my trip, not worrying about which presents I still need to buy.  Speaking of which...in exactly six weeks, my mom and I will be leaving for Strasbourg!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeee!

Makes My Heart Melt!

I stumbled upon this post on Cup of Jo, in which she talks to guys about what is going through their head before they kiss a girl for the first time.  It is so cute how nervous some of these guys were!  It's definitely cute to see a guy get all mushy and emotionally vulnerable every once in a while :)

Trick or Treat!

No, I did not go trick-or-treating (would you believe me if I said I had, though?!  When I was taking the bus home last night, seeing all of the kiddos in their costumes in Georgetown made me want to join in!).  Never fear, though, I did dress up- TWICE!

On Friday night, we were going to a party at Dan's friend's house, and another of his friends had decided that he wanted a bunch of us to go in Batman costumes.  I was assigned Catwoman, which I was excited about because I found black pleather leggings and a black leotard (with a low, scooping back) at American Apparel.  I think the saleswoman guessed, as soon as I walked in the store dressed in my not-at-all-hipster work clothes, that I was looking for a Halloween costume, although she insisted that she wore the leotard all the time (obviously so practical).  I found some other cute accessories, and I would say that it was definitely a "cute" spin on Catwoman.  Aside from my costume, we had Batman, Batwoman, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and...drumroll please....Dan won the best costume (hands-down) with his FABULOUS fluorescent green suit that he bought to be the Riddler (he got extra points in my book for drawing question marks all over it, without whining and making me do it!).  We looked like quite a group, and definitely got some enthusiastic reactions on the Metro on the way to the party.

 See what I mean?!?!?!?! THE SUIT

Batman crew (plus our lovely hostess, Rainbow Bright)

On Saturday night, we had some friends over to our place for a Halloween potluck.  We had two types of chili, lots of good sides, and more sweets than even we knew what to do with (my contribution was Halloween-themed cookie dough cupcakes, a recipe that I originally got from Kate).  That night, I decided to change up my costume and go with my old standby of my beloved fairy costume, which, although it looks like it was made for someone a foot shorter than me and, frankly, looks a little strange on me, I have now worn for three Halloweens because I love it so much.  After we stuffed ourselves with delicious food that all of our wonderful friends made and drank yummy pumpkin ale (among other things), we headed to Dupont and settled on Science Club, the one place we could find with no line and no cover (and, since we had gotten snow- FIRST SNOW! WOO!!!- earlier in the day and it was FREEZING, we were not in the mood to wait in line outside).  It actually had an amazing vibe- I could have done with some more Top 40s music, but it was good dance music and the drinks were reasonably priced.  All in all, a win of a night, because I got to be surrounded by some of my favorite people!

Hoyas! (plus two non-Hoyas; we also apparently self-segregated, because the Domers are not really in any of our pictures)

I can't believe it is already November!  Since I'm totally insane a big-time planner, I started my Christmas shopping last night.  I will never be that person in the mall on Christmas Eve Day, and I'm not about to apologize for it.  I like for my Christmas shopping to be leisurely and stress-free, so I've already started coming up with ideas for the people in my life so that I can buy soon.  Don't get me wrong, I'm so excited for Thanksgiving (I would say it's my second-favorite holiday after Christmas), but the Christmas season is what really turns me into a caricature of myself haha.  I can't wait to put up the tree, sing Christmas carols, bake Christmas cookies, force Dan to watch Love Actually (I totally have a trump card left over from him making me watch Zombieland, which is actually worth several chick flicks, in my opinion).  But I digress.  First things first: Thanksgiving!

Things That Relax Me

I saw this picture on BBB this morning and just had to post it.  I really am just about my most relaxed when I'm hiking, so a little nature walk like this one looks so appealing right now (especially since, even given how amazing the foliage was on our Old Rag hike a few weeks ago, it is probably that much better now!):

(via Bippity Boppity Boo)

Another relaxing thing?  My mom and I went and got massages yesterday!  I had bought Living Socials for it for Mother's Day, thinking that it would be a fun mother-daughter outing, and boy, was it ever!  For those of you who know me, I am neither a relaxed nor a Zen person, but, for whatever reason, last night I was able to completely let go and let myself be in a place of total relaxation (which I sorely needed).  Other than sitting on the dock at the Lake, I cannot think of another time when I have been that blissfully relaxed.  While I know that massages are certainly frivolous and unnecessary, I think I might have to make a pact with myself to get one once a year...

One last  update is that plans are coming along quite nicely for our family European Christmas vacation (it's very National Lampoon of us, really).  I'm already bouncing off the walls with excitement, so I can only imagine what I'll be like when we're there in less than 2 months!

Happy (almost) Friday!!!! Is this week over yet? Haha. I can't wait for all of the Halloween festivities this weekend!  I'm doing a group costume with Dan and his friends tomorrow night (I am Catwoman, as a part of the superhero/comic book character theme), and then I'm recycling my beloved fairy costume on Saturday night.  It should be a lot of fun!!!

A Very Hoya Homecoming

I have to be honest, I was not jumping up and down about Homecoming Weekend.  Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled at the prospect of seeing out-of-town friends who were making their yearly pilgrimage back to the city, but the stress of all of the people I wanted to see was weighing down on me.  Add to that a week that wasn't stellar and I was not particularly psyched for the weekend.

One of the things I was really excited for was spending Homecoming with Dan, seeing as how one of the things that I love about our relationship is that shared Georgetown connection.  However, the reality is that we each have our separate groups of friends, so, naturally, our priority was going to be hanging out with our respective friends.  So we kind of took a "well, I'll see you when I see you" attitude toward the weekend, which actually ended up working out nicely.

I went to bed at the grandmotherly hour of 9:15 on Friday night, feeling completely worn out.  True to form, I followed that early bedtime up with an early morning, waking up slightly before 7 to run.  Boy, I needed it.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is nothing like the automatic mood-boosting powers of a good run! I met up with Lauren and we headed over to the tailgate, which soon turned into a mob scene (so much so that Tim, not a fan of lines or huge groups of people, turned right back around and left before he even made it into the cordoned-off area).  One thing that you're guaranteed to find at Homecoming is a boatload of Hoya spirit, with blue and gray at every turn, and it really warms my heart.

I really did miss my out-of-town girls, more so this week than I maybe typically would, because Homecoming is not only the ideal time to make small talk with people you crossed paths with at some point during your college experience, but it's also a wonderful excuse to have a no-holds-barred fun weekend with your best friends.  It was hard not to have them there, and they were certainly on my mind all weekend.

Miraculously, I was able to find Dan and his friends in the crowd, and, after hanging out with them for a bit, we went back and found my friends before heading up to the swim meet that was on campus that day.  That was my first swim meet ever, and getting to experience something that was such a big part of Dan's life really meant a lot to me.  I can genuinely say that I had a great time!

My plan was to take a power nap so I would be ready for round 2, but, thanks to an obscene amount of traffic, the bus took much longer than expected.  I had a little bit of downtime to change, but then it was time to head back to Georgetown with a group of nearly 20 friends.  It was a really fun time, and I got to see some people who I would not normally get to catch up with otherwise.  From there, a group of us walked down to the waterfront and then to the Kennedy Center to check out the views from the rooftop terrace.  We then walked back to the waterfront, where our class had its class party.  I just have to say that, whoever planned the bar night did a God-awful job (did they forget about the flooding back in April that has rendered the inside of many of the restaurants inoperable?), because it felt like it was about 40 degrees, and damn, we were freezing after being out there for about 3 hours!!!  Dan met up with us there, and, soon after, a group of us headed back to nice, warm Chadwick's, where his class party was.  We headed back about 1:30, and, as we were walking home, we were enveloped in fog on Key Bridge.  About halfway across, we could no longer see Georgetown, and boy, was it eerie!

We had a perfectly lazy Sunday (complete with the most delicious French toast ever at one of our favorite breakfast venues), which was a nice counterbalance to the hectic two days that had passed before.  Although my mind was fighting me, I couldn't help, as I rode the bus home in the middle of the afternoon, but experience an overwhelming urge to run.  So run I did!  It won't be too long before it's too freezing to run outside, so I'm taking advantage while I can.  It gave me a lot of time to reflect on how lucky I am to have the people in my life that I do.  I do give thanks for them every day, but I felt particularly lucky in light of the weekend full of reunions that I had just had.  Thank you to all of you, whether you're reading or not, for enriching my life, and I truly do feel blessed!

True to form, a few pictures from the weekend :)

 Lovely ladies at the tailgate!

With one of my favorite fellow Hoyas!

Two Months From Today...

...I will be here (in Strasbourg, that is)!!!!! Eeeeeeeeeee, so excited to drink vin chaud, eat crepes and get high on Christmas spirit with my Mom! Marché de Noël, here we come!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday!  Georgetown Homecoming is this weekend, so it should be fun to catch up with out-of-towners who I haven't seen in a while (however stressful that may prove to be!).

Fall in the Blogosphere

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Bippity Boppity Boo is my all-time favorite blog.  Her aesthetic is, in many senses, shockingly similar to my own, so I have taken to checking the blog every day to see what beautiful new photos she has posted.  Today, I just discovered Seasonal Love, another blog that BBB links to that is utterly fabulous in its total devotion to beautiful seasonal pictures.  So you could say that today has been a good day so far!

I wanted to just post a few fall photos from both blogs, being that fall is my favorite season.  Enjoy!

 Apple-picking.  Just lovely. (via Bippity Boppity Boo)

My dream is to live in a house like this one.  (via Bippity Boppity Boo)

(via Seasonal Love) 

Anyone? Fall leaves? There is not a season in Paris that is not perfect! (via Seasonal Love)

This makes me so happy (both because it is so sweet and because it is so fall-like with all of the plaid)! (via Seasonal Love) 

I love the pop of color with the red umbrella (via Seasonal Love)

Pumpkin pie.  Tis the season :)  (via Seasonal Love)