No Fridays?

There are definite advantages to working in a small office. Things are more relaxed, less structure, more opportunity to take on new tasks. However, there are many draw backs. Mainly, if you aren't running the company, your vacation time sucks. You can't really be gone that much, because if you are, half the office is out. And forget about two staff taking off on the same day! The travesty of it all.

My boss emailed my co-worker and I yesterday to inform us if we wanted to, we could switch to an alternative work week schedule this summer. Basically, instead of working from 9-5:30, I can now work 9-6:30 Monday-Thursday and get every other Friday off. So now, my 3 planned vacation days this summer will cancel out and I can have them as freebies. Score!! I think I might actually go insane having to work that extra hour everyday, but I guess I can get my sanity back that every other Friday?

We will see how this experiment goes, but I am definitely happy in the creativity my boss is offering. Happy Friday everyone!

Lame Life Choices

A Shake Shack just opened in D.C. I know nothing about it besides it was featured in Something Borrowed, and they having yummy looking burgers.

Right now I want to be here:


But instead I will probably end up here:


lame.

Weekend Outings

This weekend my favorite married couple, the Halls, came into town. My cousin is a first year resident at UNC so any free weekend is a reason to celebrate!



Saturday morning we all headed over to Annapolis, and man was it the perfect day for it. It haven't been there since right after Zach moved to Arlington. It was about 75 degrees and sunny and we got a perfect spot on the deck of pussers to show our North Carolina guests Annapolis' best views. After some delicious peanut butter and Oreo icecream we headed back to my sister's place to get ready for the night.

For dinner we went into D.C. (oh I love this city) and had dinner at Masa 14. It is this Asian Latin fusion place on 14th street. It was delicious!!! Everyone order a few small plates and we sampled everything. There was crispy shrimp sushi rolls, calamari, chicken salad, mussels, chicken curry. Yum. I only remembered to take a picture when the chicken curry came out but that honestly looked a little suspect so I don't want to misrepresent the food.

After dinner we walked a couple blocks to the Gibson - D.C.'s speakeasy. True to form you walked through an unmarked door (Malie was our D.C. Hipster of the evening) and enter the bar. We had a great seat out on the patio and were presented with a menu of intimidating drinks. I loved the ambiance but I will probably won't be back. $12 mystery cocktails are are a bit too trendy for me.

San Antonio

One of the few perks of long distance dating (very few) is every time I come to town Zach plans really great date nights. Got to love it. This past weekend was a perfect example. He didn't let me know where were going, just saying we were going to make a couple stops along the way and there would be plenty of walking. So we got in the car Saturday afternoon and we were on our way.


Stop #1 - Chimys
So this was really more for him, than me, but I can't complain. Via some one's facebook status he had discovered that his favorite bar from Tech had opened in San Marcus, TX, about 40 minutes away. We got two margaritas, and a plate full of delicious nachos to start the afternoon off right. I can't complain about a trip down memory lane, especially nachos are involved!


Stop #2 - San Marcus Outlets
After we had our snack we drove about 2 exits down and got out at San Marcus Outlets. This place was crazy!! The mall must have gone a mile wide and had every store you could imagine. Under Armour, Crate & Barrel, J Crew, Restoration Hardware, Vera Bradley ... this list went on and on. We popped into some stores and did some quick shopping. FYI, all my Christmas shopping will be done there. See you this fall!


Stop #3 - SAN ANTONIO
Now when we got back into the car I just assumed we were heading to downtown Austin to eat. Oh no! Zach informed me that we were going to keep on going and drive to San Antonio (another 40 min). Ever since I saw pictures of the River Walk I knew that I needed to check that off my destination list. We got into town, parked the car, and with in 2 minutes we were right in front of the Alamo. Is it sad that most of my cultural reference to San Antonio is that Miss Congeniality took place there? After the Alamo, we went to River Walk. RW is about a mile strip of restaurants, shops and hotels along the river (duh). The buildings look like they have been there for ages, and river taxis bring people to and from their destinations. We walked up and down the river taking everything in and then settled on a nice Italian place (can not wait to go to Venice in real life!!). It was out on the patio so we could watch everyone walking by. Just a perfect way to spend the evening.


Kuddos to Zach for another brilliant date night. Only 23 days till the next one!

Over It

I am sorry, but I am just in one of those moods. Can we just call it quits on Wednesday and check back in tomorrow. Here is a list of things I am over right now:

*the work day
*not leaving my desk this entire work day
*the metro
*people who spill over onto two seats while riding the metro
*living 1,500 miles away from my boyfriend
*making plans
*cold sores
*the endless compulsion to eat every hour on the hour - I mean when will I be full?
*my work computer crashing every day
*the work day
*the work day
*the work day

Okay sorry about that. I'll be back soon with a cheerier post on my wonderful weekend with Zachary.

Oyamel

Wednesday after work I met Sam and Shelby at Oyamel for happy hour. With moving out of my apartment, having surgery and recovering it had been about a month since my last happy hour, so I was rediculously excited to hang out with the girls. I mean I could have been doing anything, just to be able to hang out with people that I am not related to was a real treat.

Oyamel is a trendy, upscale mexican restaurant near the National Archives/Navy Memorial metro stop. Their claim to fame is that they make guacomle fresh and infront of you at your table. I had been there once before with my friend Steph and was a fan. I was majorly craving a margarita, and saw that they had a pretty decent happy hour, so I requested that me meet there.

Oh that margarita did not dissapoint! One of the best I have had in awhile. The guacomole was okay, but I would probably request the queso if I went again. The best part of the night was getting caught up with the girls and sharing so fun Elon gossip. Honestly, it was an amazing night!

Cheers to being back in action!

Funfetti Goodness

Sunday afternoon I was driving home from church and stopped at my new neighborhood Giant for my weekly grocery shopping. Normally I only hit up the aisles where I know I will be purchasing something from, but like I said, I'm new to the store, so I decided to zig zag in and out of each aisle to see if there was anything revolutionary to the food world I needed. And boy - am I glad I did.

In the baking aisle I spotted the ultimate guilty pleasure - Rainbow Chip frosting. What is that you ask? Rainbow Chip frosting is the authentic funfetti frosting from my youth. Instead of the lame sprinkles you have to mix in to vanilla frosting - and call it Funfetti frosting - it is premixed rainbow chip yummy goodness. For some reason stores stopped carrying it, and any time I come across it I know it is a sign. A sign you must bake!

When I got home from the store my family was the beneficiaries of wonderful funfetti cookies with rainbow chip frosting. Yes, I probably gain 5 lbs, but it was worth it.

Something Borrowed

Saturday my mom and I had some mother daughter bonding time and went to go see Something Borrowed. Something Borrowed, a book by Emily Griffith, was one of the first chick-lit books I really got into, so I was really excited to see the movie.

There were some major character changes from the book to the movie, but the general concept was the same. It is a story of Rachel, the pushover lawyer and her best friend, the center of attention, Darcy. On her 30th birthday Rachel ends up sleeping with Darcy's fiance Dex and then the story goes from there. I didn't really mind the character changes the movie put in place, the story still worked and there were no major plot changes. It definitely wasn't on my top 10 favorite movies of all time, but I didn't want my money back (or my mom's money) at the end of it. It also had a lot of good trailers before the movie started, so I will bump up the enjoyment factor there ;)

The reviews aren't that great, but if you are in the mood for some female bonding, taking your girlfriends and go see the movie. And if you haven't read the book, I would definitely go out and get your self a copy. It is a perfect poolside/summer read.

Happy Mother's Day!

My sissy and her bf got engaged this past Sunday. Pulling out no stops, the engagement involved multiple clues, a driver, a song and a yellow diamond. Congratulations you two!! My sister deserves nothing less :)

Today at the office I received a box from ProFlowers and I was a little confused. Its no longer my birthday, and I'm all recovering from my surgery, so I had no idea why I would be getting flowers. I opened up the box and there were these 2 dozen beautiful roses with a note from J asking me to be her Maid of Honor. How sweet!

Of course! I accept!