Weekend Recap

Happy Monday!

How was everyone's weekend?  Mine was bueno.

Friday was a crazyhecticlooneytoon kinda day.  Does anyone else really enjoy those days?  I love when the day is crazy and I have so many things to check off on my To-Do list.

Friday started with an early morning run, then work--setting up a classroom is HARD WORK people!  Next, was a doctor's appointment followed by a return to work to finish setting up my room.  Then it was tutoring and a weights session.

Friday night was spent at Lakeshore laminating my anchor charts.

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Do I know how to do it up on a Friday or what??

Fun story-- A married couple (probably in their late 40s early 50s) were there.  The husband had been designated (by his teacher wife) to laminate her phonics cards.  He ended up misjudging the lamination and the cards all the way to the left never made it through the laminator.  They were only half laminated!  Her face?

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Seasons 52 BBQ Chicken salad was my reward for surviving Lakeshore 4 days before school starts.  Twas delightful!

Saturday was the usual gymstravaganza in the morning.  I love Saturday mornings at the gym.  No one is there and I can run around the gym without any interruptions.  Plus Saturday AM classes are soul healing.  Nothing screams WAKE UP quite like 8 am Zumba :)

Saturday night was super fun!  It was Jess' birthday and we did it up!  We went to Harvest Seasonal Grill.  It's like a knock off Seasons 52.  I'm a Seasons Snob.

small Quinoa Salad with chicken

After dinner, we met up with Deb and went to the Tim McGraw concert.

Train Selfies have become a standard country concert tradition

I've seen Tim about a half dozen times and every time I see him his concert gets better and better.  He's such a dynamic performer and it blows me away that every time I see him he continues to put on a better show.  I never think it can get better, but then it does.

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I love that Tim plays old songs, new songs, and all the favorites.

Hard won jersey!

**Fun Story** For the past 5 years I've been searching for a McGraw throwback t-shirt jersey everywhere!  Literally everywhere!  The internet, every Phillies' store, every sporting goods store.  Everywhere!  No one had a small McGraw shirt.  Finally, the night before I went to New Orleans, I found one!!!  It was a lone size small that caught my eye and I ran to it!    Also, August 30th is Tug's birthday so it was kind of serindipity, no?

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I wish my run looked this graceful :)

Deb and me

Deb, me, and the birthday girl

It's safe to say it was a great way to spend the final weekend of summer.


My cousins were also there and we got to hang out and dance together.

Cousin Muggin

I love my family :)



Sunday Runday came way toooooooo early this week!  We didn't get back from Tim McGraw until midnight and by the time I got to sleep it was 1 am.  Waking up at 4:45 was not fun.  It was my last 11 mile run and it was my slowest run to date--apparently only getting 4 hours of sleep does not a quick run make.

After the run, was a solo beach day.  I spent my day reading, napping, and eating grilled shrimpies!!  I got a bonus shrimp which I think was Ike's way of saying, have a great school year and we'll see you next summer :)  I also got a nice long stroll in the surf.  Twas relaxing and therapeutic.

Good read

I stopped at Whole Foods on the way home to satisfy the hot bar monster.  When I came home, I gobbled endless amounts of brownies that were left over from a party my parents had.


I hope everyone had a great day!

-E

Friendaversary

Happy Thursday :)

I hope everyone is enjoying their day so far.

This am I went for a quick 5 mile run and guess what?  Fall's a coming!  It was only about 65 degrees this am!  I walked out in a tank and shorts and almost turned right around to put on a long sleeved tee.

I'm secretly so excited for fall.  I have so many fun things on my fall bucket list and I can't wait to attack it!

Fall tea at Wegman's!

Yesterday was an awesome day!  My classroom is slowly but surely coming together.

The Hot Mess that is setting up your room

Getting There

Pre-construction Writing Island

Finished product…kinda

Yesterday was also awesome because it was Ra and my 6 year Friendaversary!  We met during Welcome Week at TCNJ and have been best friends since.

Freshmen babies!
Friday Exploring

I thought I was super cool in my Aeropostale fur hooded vest, BTW.

Ra and I lived together for 2/4 years at college and the other 2 years we practically lived together because we were always together.  She introduced me to The Office and I introduced her to the wonderful world of reality television--fair trade, no?  

Some of my best college memories involve our talks until 2 am, midnight drives to WaWa because we craved it, and playing pranks on our neighbors.  College definitely would not have been half as much fun without her.  

Last night we decided to meet up and celebrate our Friendaversary!  

Any guesses where we celebrated?

Beach sunsets are like no other

 We also saw ginormous seagulls and their babies aka the cutest things ever

Jersey Girls love our beach!

Perfect photo lighting

What doesn't scream 6 Year Friendaversary quite like a sunset beach picnic of vegetarian food followed by a sunset stroll at the shoreline?

We ended up going to Living on the Veg in Beach Haven.  I had never been before, but I'm always down for a good vegetarian meal.  I was not disappointed!  It was quite possibly one of the top 10 things I've ever eaten.  

Hooray for veggie food!

Ra's Mexicali salad and my corn and bean salad.

Chickenless salad sandwich with Vegan Mayo

Vegan brownie

I woke up dreaming about this meal.


Happy 6 Year Friendaversary, Ra!  Here's to a bajillion more!

Tonight is going to be a fab night because not only is it Pilates and barre, but it's a Thursday Girls' Day!  

XOXO,

E

Laissez les bon temps rollez part 3

Happy Hump Day!

Today is the last day of my NOLA recap.  I guess that means vacation is really over.

I'm skipping the traditional What I Ate Wednesday post because y'all have seen what I've been eating all week.


The agenda for today is pretty busy.

AM weight session followed by a 5 mile run.  After the run was a quick breakfast followed by working  in my room from 9-12.  Next is lunch followed by tutoring from 2-3.

I'm excited because dinner will be at Living on the Veg in Beach Haven with Ra.  I love a good midweek beach trip.  Maybe we'll picnic on the beach?  I also heard there's a green juice in my near future…

Back to NOLA…

Sunday was Day 3 in NOLA and it did NOT start with a  5 mile run.  We decided to sleep through the run and it turned out to be a great decision.  Nobody wants to be tired and grouchy when you have 5 hours on a plane in your near future.

The day started with brunch at Biscuits and Buns on Banks.  This restaurant has been on my radar since Zach sent me the spreadsheet of all the NOLA places to eat and explore.  This restaurant has Erin written all over it.

I love a good tongue in cheek restaurant name

Free cucumber water for waiting guests!
I may have had 3 glasses...

The menu…how cute is their logo?

All of the juices

This cute pic says Make Biscuits Not War!

Spinach and carrots juice!

Happy girl with her juice

Shrimp, goat cheese, greens, pistachios, and grapes!  With a side of fruit.

I'm going to be recreating this soon!  Maybe it will help me get back into the swing of things and school?

 After brunching, I grabbed another cucumber water for the road as we walked back to Zach's apartment.  We changed into kayaking clothes and headed back to City Park.  We went  to the New Orleans Museum of Art or the NOMA.

They had a beautiful exhibit on Antebellum Parlors and decor.  It was gorgeous.  Not really my style but I can appreciate the intricate detail.  They also had a little history synopsis of the owner of the parlor's furniture.  He actually is from Philadelphia and was a Quaker.  He got the land from the Spanish government.  He moved down to St. Francisville to run the plantation.  A Quaker who owned slaves?  Interesting...

 The pahlah…Does that text make me sound Southern?

Next we went to visit the Katrina exhibit.  It was a little disappointing because it wasn't fully about Katrina.  It was about death and reconstruction and natural disasters around the country.  They did have a cool water display.  Displays of plexiglass with embedded digital water photos were placed around the museum with varying heights depicting the water levels post Katrina.  It was really moving to see the water levels that were well above our heads.  The artist said she wanted to create a display that showed the level of fear/discomfort/drowning that was the people of New Orleans' reality 10 years ago.

A break from all the seriousness…

We found a really cool exhibit on American Captialism and decadence.  It was a golden Abrahama Lincoln log cabin.  The interior was full of gilded symbols of capitalism--gold bullets, gold gas caps, gold candy, and other cool items.

I think Abe would like his upgraded cabin

Inside the cabin

You can see the gold bullets to the left of Zach's head

Gold gas caps to the right of Zach's head

Gold roof

We ended our museum tour in the gift shop.

Seinfeld!

This sponge dish said, Sponge worthy.  Fab!

Zach also found a mug that once you added hot liquid Van Gogh's ear disappeared and was replaced with a rag to show that it had been cut off.  HIIIIILARIOUS!  

Next, it was off to kayaking.

Cheesin'

Super Siblings take on the Lake!

We didn't crash and we didn't get attacked by any ducks, birds, drones (yup we saw a drone that followed us around for a while).  We also think we could begin training for the 2020 Olympics in kayaking.  

AFter kayaking it was a quick shower and packing.  We headed to the airport, said goodbye and then it was time go through security.  NOLA's airport is great because it's very separated--each airline has it's own security line so everything moves pretty quickly.  I was checked in and through security within 15 minutes.  Unheard of in Philly!  

I completed my airport cardio and munched a Subway turkey/provolone/spinach/lettuce/tomato/pickles/vinaigrette on 9 grain Honey Oat bread.  

Surprisingly, it hit the spot.  Usually I'm not a sandwich girl, but this was goooooooooood!

Surprisingly amazingly delicious 

The flight home was pretty good.  We had a singing flight attendant who made everyone crack up.  We also had a rowdy bunch of partiers who clearly didn't want the NOLA party to end.  They quieted down a little bit as the flight progressed.  

My connector in Atlanta was a stay on the plane connector which was kind of a bummer because I LOVE the Atlanta airport.  I did move to the front of the airplane so I could deplane (a great word, BTW) earlier.  

I knew within 8 minutes of people boarding that the tickets may say destination Philadelphia, but the deal destination was Struggle City, USA.  No matter what--without fail--every time--I end up sitting next to a smelly guy and a man who has no sense of personal space.  This one guy ended up hogging the arm rest and moving into my space.  I was scrunched up to the window in 1/3 of my seat for 90% of the ride.  Also, so many people couldn't fit their bags in the overhead compartment.  So much insanity!   If you can't lift the bag, you can't pack the bag.  

At least I got to eat another bag of honey roasted peanuts…

I was sad that my trip was over, but I was happy to see my family again.  

I hope you all have a great Hump Day!  

I'll see y'all tomorrow :)

-E