Happy Monday! For those of you that got hit with the storm, I can't believe all the pictures that I am seeing from the mid-Atlantic! The pictures with the snow piled over cars are stressing me out and we didn't even have a flake fall this weekend...

I was feeling left out of everyone sharing their storm pictures so I am sharing this picture of the snow that I took last week! 

This is just a quick weekend recap post to say that I did not get lost under my pile of NCLEX (nurse licensing exam) review books and I managed to make it out of the house a few times this weekend. Here are some highlights from this weekend!

Friday // I studied my brains out during the day, but then John and I went for barbecue for dinner which was absolutely amazing. You'd think that here in Maine we wouldn't have good barbecue restaurants, but we have a few that are just as good as the barbecue I have had in the south!

Saturday // After studying in the morning, John and I went outlet shopping. John really wanted to hit up the Patagonia outlet so he could figure out sizing for a fleece he wanted to order and I really wanted to find clothes for my upcoming trip to New Orleans. Did I find any? Nope, but I did get a super similar sweater to this at the Banana Republic outlet store so it was cheap and I wore it out to dinner with my family that night. I am puzzled with what to wear in NOLA, with weather in the 60s. I don't have great walking shoes and I hate dressing for in between weather...spring-like clothing is my nemesis! I really only know how to dress for 20 degrees or 85 degrees. Any clothing suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Sunday // At this point, do I need to mentioned that I studied in the morning or have you just already assumed that? I tried to relax and give myself a break in the afternoon, but that dream was crushed when I was sitting at the edge of my seat and watched the Patriots lose. This loss will be a rough one for my household to get over! I finished off Sunday with some Gossip Girl and sadly realized that I only have five episodes left...any suggestions on what I should watch next for a series?

I hope you all have a great week!

Linking up with Biana today!

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What Holiday Blues?!

Happy Monday! As silly as it sounds, I wish I could know how each and every one of you is feeling on this post-holiday Monday. Are you sad the holiday is over? Relieved? Anxious to get to the end of the week for a different holiday? Feeling completely stuffed from so many Christmas cookies? Happy with how everything went? Taking a poll now.

Usually I don't like the week in between Christmas and New Year's...In the past I have spent it bumming around and wishing that my favorite holiday wasn't almost a year away now. Last year I even wrote a post on shaking those "post-holiday blues" and even reading it back now, I am not really feeling it.  Even though we are only a few days post-Christmas, I think I can say that I have managed to evade those feelings...probably because December was such a frazzled month for me that I didn't have time to have all the build up to the holidays like I have in the past. Its kind of a catch-22 because if I am super excited/ready for Christmas, then I get really bummed out when its over, but if I haven't built up Christmas, then I am okay when its over. So I guess its either a win-lose or lose-win situation. Please tell me someone else feels like this or understand at all.

I don't mean to put you to sleep with my ramblings, so I guess I will do a quick recap of my holiday weekend! 

Thursday //

Christmas Eve was a typical one, with cleaning the house and finishing up the baking of the cookies in the morning, and John's family's Christmas Eve party in the evening. This was mine and John's 6th Christmas together, and the 5th year that I had been to his family's Eve party. Even though I have been going for the past few years, this year was the first that it really felt like it was my tradition too. Sounds weird, but I think I am just slow to adapt to holiday tradition changes! My favorite part of the day though, had to be when I got home from the party and sat with my parents and uncle around the tree, laughing and reminiscing. 

Friday //

Christmas Day was a good one...We hosted our extended family and had the best meal I think we had ever managed to make on Christmas. The day went by so fast and all I kept thinking about was how I would probably have to work next Christmas because I'll be a new nurse (and new nurses usually get the not so fun shifts!) I think my family and John were happy with their gifts...I was beyond thrilled with mine!

Saturday //

Like last year, John and I went to the House of Blues in Boston to see one of my favorite bands, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. We drove down a little early and had a great dinner before the show, which was so fun. I liked that we had been before so we knew where we were going and what to expect at the show..aka lots of crazy dancing and to watch out for some people that dance a little too aggressively (pushing and shoving)! The concert was also the perfect occasion to wear my new cross body bag...I feel so stylish with it! 

Sunday //

Just worked a shift at work. Not as a nurse yet...but as a tech (like a CNA or PCA or whatever you know nursing assistants as!) Can't wait to pass my boards so that I can start working as a nurse!

I hope you all had amazing weekend and easy weeks planned ahead. This week, I have nothing extra special planned except to unpack everything and do a massive clean out of my room. Good times! 

Linking up here today!

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I Graduated!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had amazing weekends. If you read my post from Friday, you know that this was a pretty big weekend for me. I graduated from college! I am beyond excited (and exhausted) from this weekend and I am thrilled to be typing this from home. For anyone who might not know, I graduated (ah!) from James Madison University with a major in nursing and a minor in chronic illness, both of which I absolutely loved.  This will be a quick-ish post today, because I have so much sleep to catch up on unpacking/cleaning to do, but I wanted to share a few pictures from this weekend!

Friday 
I had my nursing pinning ceremony in the afternoon which is a tradition for nursing graduates across the country. I honestly liked this ceremony better than the university commencement because it felt so much more personal and it had more sentimental meaning for me. We recite a pledge and get to be pinned by a favorite professor. There were so many times during the ceremony where I wanted to cry, but as silly as it sounds, I didn't want to wreck my makeup because I knew I wanted to take pictures! After snapping a few pictures afterwards, we went out to dinner (@ Texas Roadhouse... I am embarrassingly in love with their food!) and went to the movies to, of course, see Star Wars...which was incredible and completely surpassed my expectations! Did anyone else see it this weekend?

Saturday

I had my university commencement ceremony in the morning at the convocation center, and it was a fairly simple ceremony, except for the fact that the fire alarm went off in the middle of the commencement speaker's speech! Everyone had to file out of the convocation center and wait outside while the building was checked...it was crazy. The ceremony was started back up pretty quickly, and I eventually had my name called to walk across the stage. It was amazing and scary at the same time! If you were wondering, I didn't trip going across the stage at either event...like I thought I was going to! After the ceremony, we went to lunch and then quickly packed up the rest of my apartment. Once we had packed everything in my car, we hit the road to get a few hours closer to home so that we wouldn't have to drive the whole 12 hours on Sunday.

Sunday

We drove the rest of the way home and I was finally reunited with my babies (the cats). 

I was so happy with how this weekend turned out. Sometimes I let stress get the best of me, and I really tried to relax and keep the stress in check. Fortunately, the only hiccup of the weekend was the fire alarm going off during the ceremony and if that was the worst thing, then I think that means I was pretty lucky! It is weird to think that now I am official an alumni of JMU and that one chapter of my life has closed to let another one start. I am so excited to be moved home and be in one place for a while, and to continue this blog as a post-grad! 

What did you get up to this weekend?

Linking up here today! 

Hiking Old Rag

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you all had a great weekend! I was so excited to sit down and write this post because I had a fun weekend that I am excited to share. Here is a highlight from each day of the weekend...

Friday: My BFF Sarah came to visit for the weekend, after a spur of the moment decision on Thursday night. It made spending Friday studying so much better knowing that I was going to see her at the end of the day. Also, I am excited to mention her because I only recently told her about this blog and I know she reads it on the reg now! Hi, Sarah!

Saturday: I went for a hike! I know this might be embarrassing because I am from Maine and go to school in Virginia...two hiking heavy states...and I had never been before. We hiked Old Rag, which is in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Shenandoah National Park area. Before going my friends (whose idea it was to go) had warned me that it wasn't exactly a novice trail, but we rationalized that since I had never been on a hike before, I wouldn't have anything else to compare it to...sound logic, right? It was tough for me and to be honest I wasn't super excited to go in the first place, but I am glad now that I can say I did it. Also, Tina Fey wrote about climbing Old Rag in her memoir, so I am mostly excited that I did something that she did too. I obviously took a ton of pictures because I needed proof for my mom the blog that I actually got to the top!

My friend caught my efforts in trying to take a cool picture...the things I do for this blog!

The result of the picture above.

Sunday: After barely being able to get out of bed because I was so sore, I spent the day packing up my room so that I won't have to do it later in the week. Its hard to imagine that this time next week, I will be back to living in the state of Maine full time!

Overall, this weekend was a great way to say goodbye to Virginia and to the friends that I probably won't see until at least the spring. Now onto an NCLEX (nurse licensing exam) prep class this week and then graduation! I know I have mentioned the G word in so many posts lately, but I just can't help it...I am too excited!

What did you do this weekend?

Linking up here today! 

Back from Thanksgiving Break

Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had safe travels and were able to enjoy all the leftovers. Especially stuffing because thats my favorite...  I had two Thanksgiving dinners, one wth my family and one with John's family. I got to help my mom with cooking, which was so fun because I have really grown to love cooking over the past year and a half. On Thanksgiving day, John and I traveled to Massachusetts to be with his family, which was nice because I hadn't seen much of his family since his graduation party in June.

My dinner plate from Thanksgiving with my family...can you tell I don't like my food to touch?

I thought for this extended weekend wrap up, I would go over what I crossed off (and didn't cross off) on my Thanksgiving Break To-Do list.

1. Figure out what I am getting everyone on my Christmas list. I crossed this off so that I could feel accomplished, but I would say that I am actually 90% done!  I just have one more person to buy for and I have been scouring gift guides on blogs and on Pinterest for inspiration. I have been loving all of the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales, especially from here! 

2. Read at least one book for leisure on this break. I read Dark Places by Gillian Flynn...which I liked for the most part. Since I have read Gone Girl and had a feel for Gillian Flynn's style of writing, I knew to expect the twists and turns so I felt like I wasn't very surprised throughout the book. I watched the movie yesterday, and did not like it at all...if I hadn't read the book then the movie would have made no sense! 

3. Study the equivalent of at least 20 minutes everyday. I came up a little short and thats all I am going to say about that...

4. Help my mom with making a gallery wall. We bought a few more frames, but still need to pick out the pictures! 

5. Play this trick on my cats.  Not that it actually worked...they were so disinterested!

6. Go for a couple good, long walks with my dog. I always want to take a picture of her when we are on a walk because I love how she seems like she's smiling...but considering she chases after all the squirrels (and leaves) on our path, I don't dare take my phone out of my pocket because I need two hands on the leash!

7. Find a dress for graduation. Only crossed off half because I decided to go with a top I already own, but just need to find the right skirt! I also found out that I need a business casual outfit for a school event coming up so I tortured myself by trying on khakis yesterday, only to realized that I don't think I am meant to wear them...

8. Clean up and organize my room. I cleaned up and planned out how I am going to put my room together when I completely move back in!

9. Try at least one new restaurant or bar. I was super excited to check this one off! There are four "Room" restaurants in Portland, each with a different cuisine (comfort food, Italian, seafood and grill)...I had been to 3 out of the 4 so John and I went to the Italian restaurant, the Corner Room, since that was my last one to try. We went to the seafood restaurant (Boone's Oyster Room) for happy hour that night, which I love because its right on the water! If you are ever in Portland, these restaurants are a must!

Right outside the restaurant! 

10. Try to work on a content calendar for December. Didn't get as far as I wanted with December, but actually worked on 2016 a lot. So bad for the short term, but good for the long term I guess!

Some other bits I did this break...

~ Ate way too much dessert.

~ Dropped hints to John that I would love this and/or this for Christmas...

~Visiting with friends.

~ Enjoyed a lot of Starbucks! I even splurged on drinks that I wouldn't normally get (I just couldn't resist an eggnog latte)

~Talked and talked and talked about all things related to graduating (19 days now!)

I hope you all have a great week ahead of you! What did you do this Thanksgiving?

Linking up here today! 

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Family, Friends, and Food | Weekend Wrap-Up

Monday always too come soon right. Its almost like I went to bed Friday and wake up Monday morning. But I guess thats a sign of a great weekend! I spent some good quality time with my friends, family and John. Some highlights of each day were...

Friday Going out with John and some friends...it was nice to catch up! Plus I was really happy with my outfit and makeup that night, but did I take a picture? Of course not. I need to be better with taking pictures to post on here!

Saturday Went out to dinner with my family and then saw the last Hunger Games movie. Did any of you see it this weekend? I thought it was a little gruesome...its been a few years since I read the book, so maybe I am just remembering scenes wrong?

My reaction during a few scenes...via

Sunday Had brunch with John at our favorite brunch spot in Portland. We ran errands after for ski equipment and then caught up a bit on Homeland and started Twin Peaks (its so good so far!)

Some things I am looking forward to this week are...

One Having two Thanksgiving dinners...one with my family and one with John's.

Me by the end of the week after eating so much...via

Two Hopefully getting some good deals on online Black Friday sales

Three Getting more into Twin Peaks with John. We both love TV and movies and we have been wanting to start this cult classic for a while!

Same, Kevin McAllister. via

Four Finishing my Thanksgiving Break To-Do list

I hope you all had a great weekend and have short work weeks coming up ahead!

Linking up here!

Weekend of Pamper

Hello friends, and happy November! I hope you all had a super fun (and safe!) Halloween weekend. I had planned to take it super easy this weekend because I had a hectic weekend last week and i'm about to have another busy (but fun!) weekend coming up. My introverted self can't handle so many busy weekends in a row, so I have to plan chill-out time or else I get too anxious and weird. Hence why this weekend may seem blah to you, but it was great for me!

Friday
Since all of my "normal" classes are online and when I actually go to class, its clinical at the hospital, I spend a lot of time at my computer getting work done. Friday was no exception to this! I crossed a few things off my to-do list, but most importantly, I figured out a new television show to indulge in. I started Nurse Jackie on Showtime, have any of you seen it? I haven't been big into medical shows, other than Grey's Anatomy, maybe because I now know how unrealistic those shows are. But I thought I would try one out anyway.  I am a few episodes in, and so far its funny but I haven't really felt "the hook" yet...aka the need to be watching every spare second of my day.
Anyways, I finished off Friday with Mexican food with my roommate and watching Hocus Pocus! Also, right before I went to bed, I threw on a mask (as promised from Friday's post) to help absorb oils from my super greasy skin. I went with Mario Badescu Silver Power, which really helps to make my skin less oily and keep it feeling fresh for the next day.

Saturday
I had a lazy morning, which I justified as Saturday was "a holiday". I trimmed and tweezed my sorry looking eyebrows, and then questioned myself on shouldn't just drop of out college now and become an eyebrow stylist because I just had so much fun cleaning up mine. Is that weird? Probably.
Later, I headed to Ulta to pick out a new facial cleanser, and since I can't leave Ulta with just one thing, I ended up with a new foundation too. Next, I went to Plato's closet to look for jeans that don't get saggy a few hours into wearing them. I have jeans that fit great in the first 15 minutes out of the dryer, but loosen up so much! I tried on a few pairs, but just had no luck. Do you have any suggestions on what brands/fabric blends/tips for finding jeans that don't get saggy? Please let me know!
Once home, I spent the rest of the day watching scary Halloween movies (Sleepy Hollow, The Sixth Sense, and House on Haunted Hill!) and treated myself to a cookie in a mug, which I am thinking of sharing the recipe for later in the week!

Sunday
So yesterday, I maybe, kinda, sorta filmed an everyday makeup routine video that I might edit and upload to YouTube. I have wanted to start making videos for a few years now but just never could work up the courage to actually sit down and do it. You can definitely tell in the first minute or two of the video that I am super nervous, but afterwards I relax and it actually was a lot more fun than I ever realized it could be! It sounds silly because I am just by myself putting makeup on in my room so why be nervous? The camera was really intimidating at first, but then I just told myself to pretend that it was a friend in front of me instead and it got a heck of a lot easier. So maybe I'll just need another couple of years to work up the courage to actually upload it? I don't know!
Other than the video and classwork, I tried out my new facial cleanser, which I already know I am going to love. I wanted a product with glycolic acid in it for a bit of chemical exfoliation, so I went with the Mario Badescu Glycolic Foaming Cleanser. When I first used it, I half expected my skin to just slough off like a snake because of the glycolic acid (ew, sorry if that is a gross mental image), but it just made my skin feel less oily and less like there was a build up of dead skin cells. I know it'll definitely take a few more weeks of use to get its full benefit and I will let you know how it ultimately works!

Monday Motivation

I have a busy week coming up and just wanted to give myself some motivation that I could carry with me today (and basically the rest of time!). Thought I would share it with you all, as well! I hope you have a great Monday!

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I Bleed Purple & Gold

What an exhausting weekend! Homecoming totally kicked my butt this year and I wish I could sleep for the rest of the week. Between all the commotion about ESPN, excitement about seeing all my visiting friends, and prepping for our tailgate, I felt like I was running around all week to prepare. By the time the weekend rolled around, I was ready to have fun!

Friday
Since our first guest (out of 7!) wasn't going to be at our apartment until 4, I was able to spend most of the day getting ready (aka cleaning my room) and baking cookies for our tailgate on Saturday. On a side note from that, I used the recipe on the back of the TollHouse Chocolate Chips bag and the cookies (in my humble opinion) were delish! After I had consumed half the dough, I finally got them cooked and cooling, just in time to get myself presentable for our first guest to arrive! All of our alumni friends (sorority sisters!) trickled in throughout the rest of the evening from the various states they were coming from. We headed to a favorite Mexican restaurant of mine for dinner where we all caught up from the last time we had seen each other (we had seen some in September and everyone in July). This dinner was the first time I think I had relaxed all week! Afterwards, we decided to have a chill night in our apartment playing games since we had to #GetUp4GameDay early the next morning.

Saturday
We were able to get everyone fed and out the apartment by 8:45 and to the quad by 9 to see ESPN's College Game Day! Although we had briefly considered it, we didn't camp out overnight on the quad to get into the front row...I don't think I could have stayed outside when the temperature has been starting to get so low at night. Predictably, there was already a massive crowd by the time we got there, but we just joined in and eventually (over the next 2 hours) made our way pretty close to the stage!

Front view of the stage

As close as we got to behind the stage, aka the backdrop of the show!

Squished in the crowd!

The energy campus was just incredible. Everyone was just SO proud to be JMU students or alumni and at one point I got a little teary because I was so happy to be apart of something so unifying. After we had grown a little too claustrophobic in the crowd, we made our way to our old sorority house for a brunch. It was nice to see younger sisters living in the house and then older ones who had graduated before me. Of course, took many pictures in our old rooms (I had lived in the house for 2.5 years so I had three different rooms over that time!) and reminisced about the time we had spent there. Basically the definitely of homecoming weekend, right?! Next, we made our way to the tailgate spot that one of my roommates had claimed the night before. There was so much yummy food and drinks that we stayed there for the next few hours. I had an absolute blast and got to catch up with more alumni, which was so nice! Once the game started, we headed back to the apartment to nap and watch the game (tickets sold out before everyone in our group was able to get them). Chinese food was ordered, naps were taken, and boos were yelled when the University of Richmond Spiders beat out our JMU Dukes. We had been talking about possibly going out downtown, but then figured that it would be so crowded that we could have an equally as fun time at home playing fun games and enjoying some wine. My favorite game was the one where everyone gets a post-it placed on their forehead with a character or thing written on it, and you have to ask yes/no questions to figure out who/what you have! After playing and watching TV, I crawled into bed exhausted from the long day!

Look at all the signs in the background! They were hilarious! 

Sunday
Our guests were out the door by 11am and unfortunately I got started working on homework so I could just get it over with. Afterwards, I just watched a movie, enjoyed leftover Chinese food and got caught up on American Horror Story with one of my roommates! The highlight of my day was getting a reply on Twitter from one of my favorite bloggers, Julia Engel, who is Gal Meets Glam. I was a complete fangirl about it and told one of my roommates who didn't really think it was all that cool...so I am telling you all since I know there will be at least one who will fangirl with me!

This weekend I laughed until my stomach hurt, ate all the food, got to have my school on national TV, and spent time with my friends so what else could a girl ask for? I am glad this weekend was such a success and I am already looking forward to next year's homecoming where I will finally be able to call myself an alumni of JMU!

3 Reasons Why This Weekend Was The Best.

1 // Formal

My favorite picture of the night!

Blurry bus pic!

Felt obligated to throw the "official" pic in...but I don't like it because we don't look centered!

 I loved seeing the Washington Monument! We had a gorgeous view of The Capitol building but of course, I didn't snap a pic! 

My sorority (Alpha Sigma Tau) had our spring formal this weekend! It was an "away" formal in Washington D.C. on the Spirit of Washington boat. It was a beautiful night to be outside so we spent most of our time on the deck enjoying the sights! I felt like a disco queen in my black jumpsuit with glittery gold pumps and gold jewelry. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was swept up in the excitement of the night and only got a few shots. I was happy to have John by my side this weekend too..it had been a few weeks since we had seen each other and I had missed him terribly! Even when our bus from the hotel to the boat dock was lost and we thought we were going to miss the boat, he had me laughing which took my stress away! I am so thankful that he is in my life. Also, I am thankful that my sorority has provided me with so many cool experiences over the past four years and it was so bittersweet to have such a fantastic time for my last formal. 

2 // Lilly for Target

With the excitement of formal this weekend, guess who forgot that the Lilly for Target line came out online in the middle of the night Sunday? Yep, me. So when my mom called yesterday morning to tell me that she had been to Target and had been able to get a few things from the line, I was beyond excited! She's mailing it down to me this week and I cannot wait to try it all on. Mom, if you're reading this...YOU'RE THE BEST, THANK YOU! 

3 // Start of Good Times

This weekend kicked off a series of busy (good busy) weekends! The good company, good weather, and good memories made me so excited for everything that I have coming up. Next weekend, my best friend is coming to visit and we are headed to Foxfield, which is a horse race in Charlottesville! My mom is mailing my wide brimmed hat this week so I'll be all ready to go! In the weekends following the next one, I have fun sorority events, John's graduation and his graduation party. Its crazy that I have two more weeks of regular classes, a week of finals, and then I am home for the summer. BRING IT ON! 

I hope you all have the best week and that your Monday goes by quickly! If you aren't having a good Monday and need a laugh...Here's a candid of me sharing my whiny realization that the worst part of wearing a one piece jumpsuit is having to go the bathroom. I am sure you can imagine why they would be so much trouble!

Shopping, Sunless Tanner, and Studying.

Happy Tuesday! I hope you all are recovering well from busy weekends and ready to tackle the week ahead. I had a great Easter weekend and I wanted to share some bits of my weekend with you!

Friday

Headed down the Nelson 151 trail, just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia that is home to a ton of  wineries, cideries and breweries. We went to two wineries, a cidery, and the brewery that makes my favorite local beer! I had too much fun and can't wait to go again to do more tastings!

Saturday

Started off the with a shopping bug and an email from Old Navy that dresses were $10 so I headed over there to check it out. I tried on a ton of dresses but found that none of them fit comfortable or looked right so I settled for buying a black tank that will be perfect for summer nights. Then, I went to Target and got myself lost in the beauty aisle looking for some new products! I ended up with two nail polishes, an eye liner and some sunless tanner. Then spent the rest of the day catching up on work and watching movies! Netflix picks to be coming soon!

Sunday/Monday
Woke up and realized that I did not apply the tanner right thus I looked like tiger because I had so many stripes on me. It didn't much matter though because I spent both Sunday and Monday in the library studying for a critical care test that I took this morning. Although, I did make sure to wear long sleeves and long pants because the tan stripes with that bad...

What did you do this weekend?

Am I Feeling 22?

So I turned 22 on Saturday! 

I am actually a little sad to be writing this post because I feel like the weekend went by so fast! In typical fashion, I forgot to take pictures of the weekend (don't worry, they would have been awkwardly posed and/or of me in my pajamas, so you aren't missing anything good).

I lied, I found one picture from the weekend on my phone...donuts buried under M&Ms, Oreos and frosting from Saturday brunch! 

Some years I have felt like my birthday fell behind in the excitement of Valentine's Day with my friends having dates or boyfriends that they want to see or restaurants being overcrowded with couples or people incessantly complaining about how much they hate Valentine's Day. This year, however, I truly felt satisfied with how my big day played out. I had a nice brunch and dinner with John (he came to visit!), and I got to do some much needed relaxing. Aside from fighting our way down icy roads trying to get home from dinner, the day was serene. Although it sounds simple, I cherished this lazy time because of how much rushing around I do during the week. I feel well rested and ready to tackle this crazy week ahead of me! 

I don't have much more to share about this weekend, except that I ate way too much candy and that I am touched by the outpouring of love I received from my friends and family. I received some really thoughtful gifts and cards that surprised me because of how my friends pick up on my little quirks. For example, I friend I study with noticed how I bring rice cakes and a jar of peanut butter for a study snack, so she got me a pack of peanut butter "to-go" cups so I don't have to carry around the whole jar. I laughed so hard and thought it was so funny that she thought to include that in a gift. I always forget the sense of overwhelming joy that I experience on my birthday and I am so thankful for my friends and family who provide me with that joy. With every text and call I received, my eyes got a little teary because of the sweet messages that people had. They were the best presents of all!

I am sending you all some of my cheer (and candy...I wish!) to get you through this week. For those of us on the east coast, I am seeing that we are supposed to get hit with some more snow this so lets cross our fingers that the weathermen are wrong. For those of you not on the east coast, please answer your doors when you hear a knock in the middle of the night because it's me running away from this arctic blast here in Virginia! 

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day, and have an even better week! 

Shaking the Post Holiday Blues

December 26th has to be one of the worst days of the year for me. Actually, I don't really like the week following Christmas at all. It makes me so sad that for weeks, we are building up to the excitement of a few days and then they are just over in a flash. No more happy movies. No more jolly music. The stores are filled with leftover Christmas themed merchandise that just looks disheveled and sad. Relatives go home. The kitchen is slowly picked over, with the only remnants of the holiday being the leftover green bean casserole that is shoved to the back of the fridge because it just doesn't taste the same when microwaved. I feel like the holiday air has just been sucked out of the universe and life goes back to normal.

To shake off these post holiday blues, I kept the few first days after Christmas busy so I would forget that we weren't in the holiday season anymore. So, while I don't have a Christmas recap for you, I do have a weekend one. Although, I will say that this Christmas was better than the ones in the past few years...filled with lots of good family time and good food. 

On Friday, John and I went skiing to a small mountain about an hour away from us with John's brother and sister-in-law. While we were worried about the conditions, as it had been warm/raining the few days before, the morning skiing was fine. It had been about four years since the last time I had gone skiing and even though I had skied a ton when I was younger, I was worried I would get to the top of the mountain and not be able to get back down. My first run of the day caused me to sweat through my first layer of clothing (not from warmth, but from nerves), but it only took me a few runs to get a good groove going for the day. 

I fell in love with skiing all over again. I love the rhythm that my body falls into when making its way down the mountain and how my mind is working to stay upright in my skis, but also feels completely empty and serene at the same time. Even when my legs were burning on our last run of the day, I felt refreshed and less like the Grinch who hated the post-Christmastime. 

I was especially excited for Saturday, as it was the first of the dates that John had planned for my Christmas presents. He got us tickets to see one of my favorite bands perform at the House of Blues in Boston. It was the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and I have been waiting to see them since I was in middle school. For those of you unfamiliar, they are a ska group, meaning they have typical rock band instruments (guitar/bass/drums) with some brass instruments thrown in (trumpets, trombones, saxophones). 

I could hardly sit still through the car ride, dinner, and opening acts, and when they finally took the stage, I was surprised by the tears that came to my eyes. For a split second, I had the ignorant thought that not many people cry at rock concerts, but then I remembered that girls sobbed over seeing The Beatles and Elvis... Once I was past my tears, I sang my favorite songs they played and couldn't take my eyes off the stage the whole night. I was in awe of how amazing they were! 

This is my favorite song by them, called "Where'd you go?"...Quality isn't great, but I wanted to include of snippet of their music!

On Sunday, I attempted to catch up on sleep as we didn't get back from the concert until after midnight, but my cats didn't think I should sleep in and what they say is the rule. Does anyone else have this problem of their cats running their house? 

I hope you all had an amazing holiday, and have a fun (and safe!) New Year's Eve!