Life Lately

Life's been pretty great lately! I haven't been taking TOO many photos, but here's just a bit of what I've been up to.

I started a monthly restaurant club with some of my friends from my sports league. Check out those beautiful margaritas!

I went to Pittsburgh for work and we went to a Pirates game. We had the whole owners' suite and the owner even came in to talk to us -- who says nonprofits don't have perks?!

I went to a super fun beer festival called Beer Camp here in Boston. It was a gorgeous day and I tried about 1,000 new beers, including a bunch of 2016 collaboration beers made especially for the festival.

I've tried a couple new restaurants and eaten some delicious food:

I watched some fireworks in Somerville and was in awe at this incredible sunset:

 I've gone to a lot of BBQs, drank good beer, and kicked butt in corn hole (see background :-))

I've found my favorite form of meditation: cutting up my favorite food :-)

I said goodbye to one of my good friends who is leaving me to move to Florida :-(

Goodbye parties = a lot of drinking, so I recovered with this great combination of snacks.

I've spent lots of time after work with some of my new awesome coworkers! I can't believe I now have a work-related social life. Suddenly I have 15 new friends who are around my age, like to do fun things, AND share the same career/life passions that I do. I feel so lucky! What took me so long to make a job move????

 I've tried to counter balance all the eating/drinking/partying with some runs on the beach.

And I spent a few days snuggling with this adorable pup who visited us!

Unfortunately not all has been wonderful. My lovely grandmother passed away on July 3rd so I spent some time in NY saying goodbye to her. My grandma Dotty was so spunky and almost brutal in her honesty. She loved her grandkids with her whole heart and was constantly showering us with gifts and treats like makeup, jewelry and hand-knitted blankets and hats. I'm even wearing one of her necklaces in my new headshot for work. 

She was an incredible artist and passed on her love of watercolor painting on to me. In college she used to subscribe me to art magazines and was always sending me new paint and brushes. Although I will miss her greatly, she was in a lot of physical and emotional pain and I know is in a better place now with my grandfather. They were married for 63 years and I don't think she ever truly recovered from her heartache after he passed in 2011. 

My grandparents at age 17/18

I'll always remember how much she loved me and my family. I feel lucky to have had so many years with her and memories of her.