8 posts tagged “food”

In my return to the world of the living (and my departure from the world of the overwhelmed and hibernating), I was able to catch a show at the National Theatre this weekend. I finally (finally!) got to see Mamma Mia! on stage. I went yesterday - Sunday - and it was the last day of its run in DC. We saw the matinee show (Only one more after show after it). It was absolutely fantastic! I've been jamming out to the Mamma Mia soundtrack on my ipod for years, but I had never gotten to see it. I'd talked a few times with family and friends about heading to NYC to see it at the Winter Garden Theater, but it just never happened. And with the movie coming out, my hopes for seeing it on stage first were quickly slipping away. But last week a friend of mine that I hadn't talked in awhile invited me to go. Our seats were wonderful - middle of the orchestra about 12 rows back. We saw everything! I heard that the cast was moving on to Philadelphia for a run there, and I have to say, if anyone is in or around Phildadelphia and is looking for something to do, get tickets to this show! The cast was phenomenal - I actually enjoyed this cast and performance as much, if not more than the original cast recording that I have. I'm pretty sure the people wo were sitting next to me knew the actor who was playing Sam Carmichael (who was very, very good). They kept cheering for him, and clapping for his performances, and during the curtain call, he waved to them, which I thought was exciting. It was like sitting next to celebrity-intimates or something ;) I know, I'm a huge dork.

After the show was over, we decided to grab dinner a few miles down 95 in Historic Occoquan. We ended up eating at this really nice restaurant called Madigan's Waterfront and it was delicious. We ate outside and took in the beautiful, peaceful scenery. Its amazing - we were only about 10 miles outside of the beltway, but it felt like a different world. So calm and so opposite of city life. Dinner was nice and shortly after we finished, a storm moved in and dumped a lot of rain. It was really refreshing - and it continued to storm all night. It was nice to hear the rain hitting my roof while I was laying in bed - I love to hear that.

The weekend was busy with unpacking - although not as much as I would have hoped. But I also got to see a number of good friends who I hadn't seen since January, so it was wonderful. I got to play Rock Band again and just chill out. And I finally really used my kitchen - I made a pancake and fresh fruit brunch for me and a girlfriend on Sunday morning. :)

I think I'm well on my way to a better place than I've been in recently. Thank you for all the support you've all shown me! It reminds me just how lucky I am, and how many wonderful people I have in my life. I'm truly blessed, and I'm beginning to remember that (and believe in it) again :)

... to escape the city. That's what I did this weekend. A friend of mine (V) and I hopped in my car and went to Colonial Williamsburg. It wasn't a spur of the moment trip, but I'm positive there *will* be many of those in our future :) My mom and her boyfriend - who are both retired - were "wintering" in Florida in his motorhome. They started the Northward Pilgrimage (as I've deemed it) last week, and way back in March had asked me if I wanted to meet them in Williamsburg. I'd never been there before and it was quality time with the parental units - AND another friend from grad school is living and working there (J) - so we decided to kill about 8 birds with one stone, because we're THAT good. :)

Friday was a gorgeous day and I managed to get out of work early, so I spent some time just relaxing on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria. Then I met V for an outdoor dinner, waited for traffic to die down a bit and got on our way. It was a beautiful drive - gorgeous weather, gorgeous scenery - and we spent a good portion of it flying down I-95S with the top open on my car. It was fabulous, and it gave V and I a chance to just chat and catch up.

Saturday we spent with the parental units in Colonial Williamsburg and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. It was warm and sunny, with a slight breeze. Absolutely gorgeous! And Colonial Williamsburg is so beautiful. My mom - because it was only $9 more than the day pass - got me a year pass, so I fully intend to utilize it and go back down. Maybe I'll go again in the summer, escape the tourists in DC and be one myself somewhere, and I'm definitely planning on going again for the fall and for the Christmas extravaganza. I've heard so much about it - and seen enough photos - that I'm definitely very interested. V and I got these great wide brimmed straw hats - I fully intend to use mine at the beach this summer (which also means I'm fully intending on getting some decent beach time in this summer) and maybe possibly if I feel like being touristy downtown, lol.

Saturday night I was able to partake of a Passover Seder at J's place, and it was incredible. I'd never had the opportunity to attend a Seder before, and I'm always interested in learning new things about good and people's religions, so this was something I didn't want to pass up. I ate SO MUCH food and it was all fantastic - even the gefilte fish! J is an amazing cook, and I was not disappointed. It was really cool to see the kinds of traditions that are involved and all of the symbolism. And I thoroughly enjoyed the Paschal Yam (and not the Paschal Lamb).

Sunday it was rainy and gross so none of us - 'rents included - got moving anywhere very early. J took us to the Rockefeller Library where she works, and we went to the Museum, which was really incredible. So many beautiful things, and I especially enjoyed the Dollhouse Exhibition and the Needlepoint Exhibition. By the time we finished in the museum, the rain had let up a little bit, so we were able to walk through Market Square. And then we all hit a wall and realized just how exhausted we were and went our separate ways.

The ride back to DC was interesting - traffic was heavy, the weather was insane, and it rained so hard that it overpowered the weather-stripping on the convertible top of my car and starting leaking on me and V. We had to shove napkins all over the place to try and stop the flow, lol. But I had a new Tomtom to guide me, and it was very nice. Tomtom was like "Don't worry my child. I'll do the thinking FOR you, you just follow my voice and I will guide you home." Uber-fabulous :) (Thanks mom!)

It was just SO NICE to get out of the city and get a break from it all for a weekend. And I definitely saw two palm trees in Williamsburg. They were in front of the Hampton Inn that we passed, and they were the kind that looked like oversized Pineapples :) Seeing the palm trees definitely made me very happy. Today was exhausting though. I don't think I realized how much the weekend had tired me out. It felt good though - it was a good kind of tired, one that you actually feel like you've done something to warrant being tired.

And on that note, I'm going to say goodnight so that I may catch up on my sleep :) Gute nacht!

It was SOOOO jam packed! I haven't had a weekend like that in a very long time, and while it was entirely exhausting, it was even more completely fabulous! Friday night I went to see my friend Ginger's awesome band, The Hall Monitors. They were absolutely incredible, and they played with The Shalitas from Brooklyn, who were equally as incredible. I totally have a girl-crush on all three of those Shalitas. You have no idea! So Friday night was spent having an awesome time, listening to great music with my girly-posse. Saturday was some work at home, a serious spring cleaning, and then my roommate cooked chicken cacciatore for us and two of our friends. It was a really fun, relaxing evening. And what made it even better was the fact that my friend totally gelled with my roommate and her friend. After dinner we all bonded over an awesome table of desserts at Le Matins de Paris - I got this incredible Fruit Bingsoo which I'm pretty sure I dreamt about on Saturday night, lol. Of course, we ladies were out late enjoying these incredible desserts, so when we finally got back home, I was almost too tired to play some Guitar Hero... but I managed to bust out a few songs, watch 2 episodes of Veronica Mars - one of the best shows ever - and then I finally crashed. I was so tired on Sunday morning, thanks to being up too late and the time change.

Sunday was the usual brunch at the best restaurant ever, and then Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center. It was AB-SO-LUTE-LY HYSTERICAL! It was more than I had anticipated and even more gut-bustingly funny than I could have anticipated. And all that political incorrectness in the heart of PC-World really made it all the more hilarious. Seriously, every day, I just think of how freaking blessed I am to have such great friends, and to have such a full and happy life. I know I've been over-the-top schmoopy lately, but seriously, I'm just so ridiculously content, and I'm going to ride the wave for as long as I can. ;) And tomorrow I'm heading to the orthodontist to get the first installment of my braces on - I'll get the rest on on Friday. I'm so excited! I'm going to have the most beautiful, perfect smile. After tomorrow, my teeth are never going to look the same again! And THAT, my friends, is one of the many reasons why I've been so ridiculously happy lately :)

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

... but I also love Autumn, the bad example. :P

It's been a glorious weekend here in DC, and I fully took advantage of it. Well, almost fully - Friday doesn't count because I threw my back out and ended up leaving work early to go home and rest on the couch. Autumn came over and we watched some movies, gave ourselves home manis and pedis and gorged ourselves on the amazing food at the Amphora Diner in Vienna (which is right next to the incredible Amphora Bakery - their Amaretto Cake is to. die. for). Autumn and I had originally planned on going to this exhibition going on at the Kennedy Center called For the Capitol: A Projection by Artist Jenny Holzer, but since I really couldn't walk, we postponed it until Sunday.

It was a pretty full weekend. I took care of a lot of errands on Saturday, enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was crisp - sunny and mild with a beautiful breeze. Autumn (Fall) is definitely upon us - you can feel the shift of seasons in everything. (I don't want to pay attention to the fact that its supposed to climb back into the 80s by the end of the week). Saturday night Autumn and I both had plans with the boys, but we had another chick day on Sunday. I think we were both in need of some together-time - it seems our schedules have been so busy lately that we haven't been able to have enough of it - and some serious retail therapy. We had intentions of going to see the School House to White House exhibit at the National Archives, but we back-burnered it - again. We were putting it off all summer until the deluge of tourists subsided, and that's definitely happened, but the exhibition runs until January, so we're not in any terrible hurry. So anyway, we finally made our way to Georgetown, where we walked through the shops, had some mediocre crab-cake lunch at Third Edition and then shopped some more. We also did a lot of talking/venting about men/life in general, and paired with the retail therapy, was just what the Doctor ordered. Although we didn't really buy anything, the shopping atmosphere was enough. I did try on these amazing shoes at Bebe, and I was tempted to actually shill out the money for them, but they didn't have my size. Apparently Bebe doesn't make shoes in half sizes, and I fell right in the middle of two whole sizes... <sob!>

So after that, Autumn and I wandered around Georgetown. There are so many incredible homes there. And some crazy-ass doorknockers too. We saw a creepy looking fox/wolf knocker, and then the next house had a Moby Dick/Flipper looking thing. Bananas-crazy, people, bananas-crazy. We walked around for a long time, worked up some mileage, walked through the Georgetown campus and saw the exorcist stairs. We also managed to disturb the peace on Prospect Street - Autumn started making sounds that were eerily comparable to a turkey's gobble. I couldn't walk - or breathe - I was laughing so hard, and inevitably, the snort surfaced, which only made us laugh harder. It was funny, but man, we could NOT get a hold of ourselves. Once we finally did calm down, I asked Autumn to repeat the noise, and she did, and a dog up the street barked in response, and I lost it all over again. This was in addition to the wonderful cacophony of sounds I had created earlier, including the famous goat and - if I may say so myself - a very good interpretation of the cars driving over the cobblestone streets of Georgetown. All in all, it was a beautiful day, a perfect day to walk around and enjoy the city. Autumn and I agreed that it was one of those days that makes you feel so lucky to live here. It was almost too perfect.

After traversing a giant section of Georgetown, we wandered over to Foggy Bottom, walked around GW's campus until dusk fell, and then made our way over to the Kennedy Center.

The exhibition wasn't quite what I expected - I appreciated all of the effort necessary to the creative process and also in securing such an awesome venue - but I think I was too cold to full appreciate the art itself. Autumn and I did make sure to enjoy the view from the rooftop terrace of the Kennedy Center though, and took a few photos of the sunset over Georgetown, and also some of the monuments at night. My camera isn't the greatest in the world - nor am I the best photographer - so the photos really don't do the scene justice.

Then it was time to head home, because we were underdressed and freezing, and because it was getting late and we were pretty tired. But more than anything we were hungry, so we stopped at Potbelly to get some food. I got a "Pizza on Wheat" and had some peppers thrown in to spice it up.

Well, spice it up is an understatement. I thought I was going to ignite the place, the fire in my mouth was so strong. I ended up picking all of the peppers off, but the residue (and some seeds that were left behind) still left a pretty intense fire in my mouth. It was crazy. Even my lips were burning. I actually poured some half and half in a cup and drank it in an attempt to douse the flames. It worked to a point, but my mouth was still pretty fiery the entire metro ride back to Autumn's place. I finally put the flames out with some of Autumn's roommate's homemade raspberry pie. Mmmm, it was good. We had a few more ridiculous moments where the Madelyn-cackle resurfaced, with the requisite snorts and fun noises, and then I made my exit. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Yeah, I definitely fell off of the wagon this weekend with food and whatnot. I couldn't work out because of my back, and I definitely gorged myself on a ton of rich food. Oh well, you only live once and I'd rather be chubby and happy than skinny and hungry ;) 

So all I wanted for my birthday this year was to have a good one. To spend it with my family - which I did last weekend - and spend it with my friends - which I did this weekend - was just wonderful. It made me realize just how blessed I am. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better birthday week/weekend. Nice flowers,

an outing to the driving range and sushi buffet on Friday (the actual day), an awesome sashimi dinner (with sake-tinis!)
and drinks at a hoppin' bar on Saturday. And to cap it all off, the Penn State - Notre Dame Game on Sunday, dvr-ed in Hi Def for my viewing pleasure. My bad planning had us out to dinner while the game was going on, so none of us got to see it. And although I knew the outcome - We Are!.... Penn State!!! - I still wanted to watch the game. Not exactly the most well-played game I've ever seen, pretty ugly to be honest, but still a great game to watch nonetheless. So I want to say thank you to my family, my wonderful friends - especially Autumn for her planning and most especially my best friend who drove down from PA for the night and left this morning to make it home in time for work - and Mark's dvr for making my birthday weekend fantastic, and a weekend I will surely never forget.

So for those of you not familiar with it, last week was Restaurant Week in DC. Restaurant week comes once a year, in August, and participating restaurants offer fixed-price lunches and dinners - $20 gets you a three course lunch and $30 gets you a three course dinner. You can eat at some of the best (and priciest) restaurants in town. The Restaurant Week menu generally contains less than the normal menu, and some of the items may be of a slightly lower quality than normal, but you get what you pay for, and the restaurants have to accomodate the lower pricing somehow, right? This Restaurant Week I went to two different restaurants. Autumn went to three, and I'm pretty sure she's going to rate all of her experiences on her blog. So here are my reviews...

Last Thursday we went to Zola which is at the International Spy Museum. They specialize in American cuisine. The restaurant is very nice... its primarily a brown and red color scheme, and the overall atmosphere is fairly modern. I overheard someone saying they thought it was a little campy, but that's part of it's charm, considering its location (at the International Spy Museum). Autumn and I sat in front of a huge window that looked out at the National Portrait Gallery - it was a very nice view. We started with drinks - we both ordered the Blue Sting (fresh Blueberries, Mango flavored Rum, Blueberry Honey, crushed mint, limes and white cranberry juice). It was excellent, although we couldn't tell at all that it was alcoholic. We questioned whether or not they gave us virgin cocktails, but still very good. Then for appetizers, I ordered Truffled Sheep Ricotta Tortelloni (fresh anise crema, truffles, shaved manchego) and Autumn got an order of the Tuna Tartar (spicy lime vinaigrette, cucumber salad, whipped lemon cream and giant taro chips). They were both delicious. I definitely helped Autumn eat hers for various reasons, but the tuna was absolutely delicious. Then for entrees Autumn ordered Lamb which she said was delicious (I'll take her word for it, I'm not quite big on lamb) and I ordered Lobster Roll. Now, in their defense, the waiter did warn me that my dinner was going to come served in a "hot dog bun," but I thought he was joking. Seriously. But he wasn't... my New England Style Lobster Roll (toasted almonds, mint, ginger vegetable slaw and crispy fries) came in a toasted bread folded up into hot dog shape. It was really good, but I felt sort of like the little kid at the adult's table eating french fries in a restaurant that was so nice. But the food was delicious. And then to top the evening off, I ordered Lemon Chiffon Pudding with Raspberries and Autumn ordered Bananas Berg (baked Alaska meets bananas foster). Autumn's dessert looked very good, but I was very, very happy with my own. The Lemon Chiffon Pudding was resting under a wonderful cake covering, and it had just the smallest, perfect sized dollop of delicious cream on top, with 3 raspberries nestled on top. It was fabulous, and I will certainly have it again in the future. Overall, I was very happy with our dinner at Zola - although I could have done with a different waiter. Ours was very nice, but slightly creepy - he hovered a lot, but never actually delivered anything to our table.

 

Yesterday Autumn and I went to Cafe Atlantico, which is actually around the corner and not very far from Zola. I was very impressed when I got to Cafe Atlantico. It's very bright, very open and airy, and for awhile I thought it was a lot larger than it actually is because of their amazing use of mirrors. The space has been utilized extremely well. So anyway, we started with drinks, non-alcoholic for both of us. I got the limeade and Autumn got the mint limeade. They were both excellent, kind of like virgin mojitos, especially Autumn's. Then we got the guacamole, because we were afraid that if we didn't, we'd be on all of our friends' hit lists. They prepare it tableside and make it to your spice specifications. It's served with soft tortillas, which was interesting, but very good. It was excellent and so worth the extra cash - sadly, the guacamole is not included on the restaurant week menu. Then we both had the mixed green salad with herbs, cherry tomatoes, crispy “worms.” The worms are actually little pieces of puffed, fried rice. Very good... The whole salad was very good. I was very sad when it was all gone. ;) Then we moved on to the entree. The kitchen and waitstaff must have this planned perfectly, because our food took just the right amount of time to be brought out to us - not so long that we were starving for it, but just long enough that our salads and guacamole had settled. Autumn ordered the Mexican Torta (Chopped steak sandwich with black beans, avocado, Mexican crema, lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese and fried egg on a sesame bun) and I ordered the Sandwich de Salmón con Malagueta (Seared salmon with salmon salad, cucumber and mixed chips). I'm pretty sure Autumn thought hers was delicious, although definitely more food than one girl can handle. Mine was out of this world. I only ate half of it though because I wanted to save room for dessert. I had the rest of my sandwich for lunch at work today and it was just as good on the second day. Then finally, for dessert, we both ordered the Choco-Banana (Warm Chocolate cake with Venezuelan chocolate flan, banana foam and fresh banana lime salad). It was out of this world. The chocolate mousse that everything was nested on tasted like it was made with dark chocolate, the banana lime salad was like nothing I've ever tasted before, the banana foam tasted like a fresh banana, and the flan... oh the flan. It was this incredible little column of chocolatey glory and gooey goodness in the middle of all these amazing pieces. It was perfection, absolute perfection. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. In fact, my sweet tooth is salivating so much that I would love to go to Zola and get the Lemon Raspberry Chiffon for an appetizer and then go to Cafe Atlantico for Choco-Banana as an entree/dessert. Mmmmmm.....

Cafe Atlantico has actually extended their restaurant week menu and prices into this week because so many people wanted reservations, and I could easily go back for round two. I'm already dying for next year's Restaurant Week :)

Well, I'm exhausted, but I haven't posted in a few days, so I figured I would make the effort to do so. I apologize if this is slightly incoherent...

The week was a good one. Other than being overly caffeinated to make up for the lost sleep on Tuesday night, things were fine. I had to take a drug test for my job on Thursday, which meant that I was able to leave the office for an hour to get to the lab and pee in their cup. I'm sure I'll be fine, however, one of my co-workers told me about her husband's friend who had tested positive for cocaine - not because he was ON cocaine, because he wasn't - but because he had had tonic water and apparently that shows up as cocaine in the test. This gave me a slight paranoia because I had helped myself to a very nice Tanqueray and Tonic at my aunt's bbq over the weekend. So I asked the lady at the window when I signed in about it, saying I had heard, and its probably urban legend, but I had to ask anyway. She just looked at me, shook her head, and said no, tonic water does not show up as cocaine, lol. So now if any of you had ever wondered... there's your answer.

The rest of the week went by in a blur. I thought it might go slowly, but I had enough people asking me tough questions, and enough things thrown at me, that I was able to keep busy. On Thursday night after work, I met Autumn and my roommate for dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill (i tried to link it, but Vox was being a little funny...). The food was really good, and so was the company. Before we knew it, it was almost 10pm and we all had to get home because we had work in the morning.

Friday was a good day. I was looking forward to a low key night, which it was. For the most part. The day that I moved all my crap in, Autumn came over with a bottle of this awesome and cheap champagne to celebrate. So we put it in the refrigerator and went to dinner. By the time we got back from dinner, neither one of us was in the mood to drink it because we both had to be up. So it stayed in the fridge. We never got a chance to drink it until last night. Which we finally did while watching The Bourne Identity and knitting. I know, we're so domestic, lol. But halfway through the movie, we got a little hungry. So we decided to walk to IHOP down the road. We had a late night breakfast and we both felt like we had rocks in our stomachs. I thought Autumn was going to end up sleeping on my bed, but somehow she found the energy to make it home. I, however, could not even keep myself awake long enough to hear from Autumn to let me know she got home safely. She did call, however, and I woke up enough to realize that she was safe :)

Today we were going to do all sorts of fun things, like check out this exhibition at the National Archives that we both want to see and go shopping in Georgetown and partake of all the fun festivities around the District to celebrate Bastille Day. Well that plan got shot to hell. We decided to wait on going to the National Archives since the exhibition is open until January. We're going to wait until tourist season slows down a bit. And then we decided to just go shopping in Old Town Alexandria instead. It was fun, and I got some things I needed. I didn't spend much though, as its still 10 days until my first paycheck :) Anyway, at one point I was in the dressing room trying something on, and my ponytail had slipped. So I went to put it back up and when I was winding the elastic around my hair, it snapped and went flying over the divider into the next dressing room. I accidentally attacked my neighbor. We had a nice little laugh about it, but I never actually did see who she was, lol.

After we did everything we could in Old Town, we headed over to Pentagon City. Autumn and I are extreme shoppers - it takes awhile to tire us out. So we had a good time - I only bought things that I needed or that I had set out to get today. And I really didn't spend all that much. I got all clothes for work, which is good, because its what I needed. We finally realized we were hungry so we went to find something that would satisfy us both. We went to this Asian Bistro where I had sushi and she had drunken noodles, so we were both happy. We ended up shopping for so long though that we actually did tire ourselves out and we were really late to go out and partake of the festivities. So we went back to her place and chilled for awhile before I set out for home. All and all, not a bad day. But a very tiring one.

I've also got some non-shallow things to talk about today. Last month I posted about a church in South Carolina that had looked down it's nose upon other beliefs. I talked about close-mindedness and how infuriating it is to me that there are people out there who are so ignorant about other beliefs and find anything other than what they believe to be absolutely wrong with ensuing condemnation. Shortly after I made that post, I went to church with my family, and during our priest's sermon, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He was talking about Paganism (and generalising like the best of them) and Pagan rituals and was basically putting them down. Now, seeing as I'm open to all beliefs, and I actually have very close friends who have beliefs that ARE Pagan, or similarly aligned without the title, I was a little offended. I couldn't believe that my own priest was doing this. (My priest is a really great guy, very funny, very nice, so I was even more shocked at this sermon.) I was pretty upset and I wasn't going to go to church again, I was actually going to take my membership elsewhere (this is the church that I grew up in, so its a BIG deal to me). My family asked me kindly to please come a few more times before I make any rash decisions, which I will do when I make it back home.

So anyway, today, one of my aunt's calls me and tells me about yet another closeminded attack on people's beliefs, this one coming from the Pope. It was in an article in my hometown's local paper the other day. The Pope allowed a document to be released that says that "other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation." That seems to be the ultimate statement of supremacy for someone who should be working with the other religions and beliefs in the world, not against them or saying that they're not true religions.

Again, I say, I find it incredibly amazing that there are Christians in this world, who are "supposed" to welcome everyone - no matter what - with open arms, who are so small minded and blinded by their fear of the what they don't know that they have to act out in such a way. They're basically saying, "Unless you believe the same things we believe, we're better than you. You're not worthy." Seriously, what is religion all about? Because I think we've all lost sight of the higher meaning...

I would say more, but I fear that my coherence has fallen below a level sufficient enough to continue posting thoughtfully.

I tried one of those Chocolate Mint Fudge puddings I bought and mentioned the other day, and wow was that good. Just enough mint and a whole lotta fudgy :)

Its Monday. Typically I'm not a big fan of Mondays, seeing as they mean the end of the weekend and the beginning of the week, but I especially dislike Mondays when I'm really tired. And I am extremely tired today. Its my own fault, really. I didn't intend to be up late, but like an idiot at 8:00 I got a craving for something a little bit coffee-liscious. Seeing as I don't drink coffee on a regular basis, and I haven't really had caffeine in about 3 weeks, I wasn't about to have some coffee. I did, however, have in my fridge some of that Nescafe Ice Java stuff. So I mixed it up with some skim milk, completely forgetting that there's caffeine in it. Well, I'm sure you can figure out what happened. I was up most of the night. I couldn't sleep. I felt like I was getting a little tired around two, and I couldn't quite figure out why I wasn't really all that tired. But I crawled into bed, snuggled in and laid there. With my eyes open. I could hardly even get them to shut. And I kept wondering what was going on, why wasn't i falling asleep. And then I remembered.... Ahhh yes, the Ice Java. So I decided that instead of fighting it, i would make the best of the situation. I got up, and I did some more homework for about an hour. And then I really did start to get tired. So I made myself all cozy in my new ginormo chaise lounge, Neenee snuggled in, and we both finally fell asleep.

I only got a few hours sleep, so I definitely don't feel well rested today. However, instead of going to bed early tonight, I'm going to re-caffeinate myself because I have a paper that I need to finish. If I hadn't slacked off all weekend, I would have gotten more done... although, I don't think that slacking is the right term. I spent Saturday morning doing some reading for class, and then I spent a good portion of the afternoon taking care of a friend who wasn't feeling well. This also entailed taking her to the ER. And Saturday evening I went to dinner at Arbor Brewing Company and had myself a nice big burger... mmmm beef. I don't honestly know the last time I had a burger, or meat for that matter, so I indulged. That wasn't exactly slacking. And Sunday, well I slept in a little bit, which was a bad idea, but oh well. I tried to get my head around my work, but that wasn't going so well, so I gave up and cleaned up my kitchen. Then I made hummus. I haven't made hummus in awhile. Its not bad, but its not my best. Oh well, at least I have a healthy, homemade snack or something, right?

Anywho, so today I've been in and out of work. I forgot I had an appreciation lunch for the SI Holiday Party Planning Committee. SI sprung for our lunch at Zanzibar, so of course I couldn't miss it. I had a really yummy flash-fried creole-style shrimp sandwich with salad greens on the side, and of course I saved room for their amazing signature dessert, the Mango Tart (fresh mango slices & key lime curd in a three-nut crust w/ pink guava purée & lime-coconut ice cream). I had had it once before and it was to die for so I couldn't miss a second opportunity to eat it.

Then I went back to work for a half an hour, went to a Dr's appt, and then came back to work. After work, I had a SISA meeting, and then it was home to do homework... yay. lol...

Anywho's, now that i've related way too much about my Monday... its time to say arrive derci!