Washington D.C. - Part 1

I spent this past weekend with friends in our Nation's capital, Washington DC! I visited two years ago but it seems I didn't blog about it. The last trip was all about partying and sight seeing -- we did equal amounts drinking and touring the museums/monuments. It was a great trip, but this one was a little different. This weekend was really about getting out of Boston and spending time with friends I don't see that often. Last week, my friend Amy sent me an itinerary of tons of activities to choose from and we managed to fit a lot into the weekend!

I took a flight out of Boston at 4 pm and arrived at Dulles Airport around 5:30.

Amy picked me up at the airport and we went back to her adorable apartment in Arlington where we'd be spending the weekend. We waited for our other friend Sara to come over, and then took a walk around the neighborhood and got dinner. We went to Rustico, a local chain that provides "honest, robust cooking against a back drop of amazing beer" (from their website).

I was impressed by their beer list and excited to try some local, new to me beers, but they were out of so many! We seriously tried to order 6 beers that they were already out of. Bummer. I ended up with the Two Hearted Ale by Bell's Brewery. I REALLY liked it!

We started off with a few appetizers. First up was the salt roasted beet salad (baby arugula, walnuts, shallots, goat cheese fondue and orange vinaigrette). The salad was great but they forgot the goat cheese! We didn't realize until we finished eating it. Oops

We also ordered the lamb meatballs (with harissa-tomato sauce, yogurt, mint gremolata), which were just okay. I really liked the sauce, but the meatballs themselves had a bit of a weird consistency.

For my entree, I decided it was a pizza night and went with a classic pepperoni pie. I was already full when this came out so I only had a few pieces.

We hung out at the restaurant for a bit and then headed home. We had an early wake up call the next day so needed to get some sleep in. I was more than happy to hang out on the couch with Modern Family and this guy:

Amy was watching a friend's cat for the weekend and he was so adorable/playful. I really wish I could have a pet!! He is a bengal cat and is super active and curious. Bengal cats are also hypoallergenic. I really loved him.

Pretty spots

Like I said, we had a big Saturday planned so we hit the hay early. Look out for Part 2 coming soon!

Fantastic Friday

I had a ridiculously horrendous dream last night. It really put a damper on my morning and I felt pretty on edge/weird as I got ready for work. Ever have dreams like that -- that just shake you up and make you feel like you're living in some alternate universe? Anyway, after thinking about the dream for my entire bus ride to work, I decided I needed to get over it. I am going to make today a positive day (hence the fantastic Friday headline). So, at least for today, back to my typical overuse of exclamation points!

Here's what's making Friday so fantastic:

1. The obvious: a huge bowl of watermelon for breakfast (and another piece of zucchini bread, which has been a hit with everyone in my office!)

2. I can't believe how many tomatoes are coming out of the garden. It's seriously insane! Here's another huge bowl I collected, including some big ones! I need some new tomato recipes.

3. I'm going to DC in a few hours and my friends have planned an awesome weekend for me. I seriously have the best friends and I love them all.

4. I've now gone to spinning three weeks in a row! It is so freakin' hard but it feels good to put all of my emotions into killing that bike.

5. The sun is shining. To be honest, I am not feeling these mid 70s temperatures. IT IS SUMMER! It should be in the 90s and humid....I should not be wearing a sweater outside. In any case, the sun is out and there are blue skies...so I will be happy!

6. Liz and Marvin have a nice camera and have been bringing it to our family events. I haven't had nice pictures with my family in a long time, so this is exciting!

8. I have noticed that my face looks a bit thinner recently (especially can notice in the pictures above) -- that's a good sign!!!

9. I finally got a new case for my kindle. It's simple but I like the color!

I tried to think of a #10, but that's all I got for today. Happy weekend kids.

Who I Am

I recently deleted Timehop off of my phone, so in an attempt to create some new memories, I bought this 5 year journal that had been burning a hole in my Amazon wish list for far too long. I really like this journal because it asks you a specific question each day, versus just having a blank space for you to write whatever you want. I've been writing in the journal for about two weeks now and have been enjoying ending each day by filling it out once I'm settled in bed.

The questions have been pretty light so far, but last night I flipped open to the appropriate question and felt startled by what I read:

In case you can't read it, the question for August 6 is "Who are you?"

I've been struggling a bit with my identity lately, so it was pretty eye opening when I felt like I didn't know what to write here. I notice that when I go through times of transition my self esteem takes a huge hit, and honestly, it was hard not to fill the four lines with negative things about myself. That inner mean girl has been gone for a while but she's found a way to creep back into my brain lately. Sometimes it's really hard to shut her off, but all I can do is remind myself of what I know I am. I have to refuse to define myself by the situations in my life that I cannot control.

So who am I?

I am a good sister, daughter, and friend.
I am a hard worker.
I am kind and compassionate.
I am a good listener and advice giver.
I am sensitive.
I am a reader.
I am a runner and walker and exerciser.
I am open minded and accept others as they are.
I am intelligent and curious.
I am funny.
I am excitable and emotional.
I am loving.
I am honest, loyal, and trustworthy.
I am thoughtful and practical.
I am always looking to improve myself and my relationships.
I am (sometimes) wiser than my 26 years.
I learn from my experiences.
I am strong and able to get through hard times.

I must remember: these things remain in me no matter what challenges I'm facing. This is who I am.

Zucchini Bread

It very likely has gone unnoticed, but I added a new page to the main bar of the blog called Life List. In an effort to feel excited about the future I started putting together a list of stuff I'd like to do at some point in my life. It's definitely not complete -- especially in the travel department -- but I think it was a good start.

I sort of knocked something off of the list the other night: making bread from scratch. Making zucchini bread isn't quite what I had in mind for this, but I did actually make bread from scratch, so there.

I can only eat so many zucchini noodles, so when I brought another giant zucchini home from the garden I wanted to get creative. I pretty much followed this recipe to the T: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/moms-zucchini-bread/ (nearly 5,000 reviews and 5 stars!). I've said it before, I'm not a baker and I really hate having to measure everything out, so some of my measurements were likely off.

Zucchini Bread:
Makes 2 loaves (8x4 inch pans)

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 tsps vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Grate 2 cups of zucchini (I used my julienne peeler and then chopped it since I didn't have a grater).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon in a bowl.

3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy. Combine the cream with the dry ingredients and stir well. Add in walnuts and zucchini and mix until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

The mixture looks like refried beans...LOL

4. Bake for about 60 minutes. The website said 40-60, but it took about 65 minutes until a toothpick came out clean for me. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan and completely cool before diving in.

I've never had zucchini bread and was afraid this was going to taste like crap. It is actually amazing and I'm super proud of myself for this. It tasted like something that I would buy from Flour.

Perhaps there is a baker in me after all? If there is, it's probably something like this:

Weekend Scenes

I spent this last weekend in New York with the family. It was so nice to be there and I wish I could just stay there for the rest of August. I didn't take a ton of photos, but here are a few from the weekend:

I took a flight because it ended up being about the same price as Amtrak. I loved this sign at Logan Airport urging people to walk around while they wait. I actually did this a bit but didn't go too far because I had to carry all of my bags with me.

I haven't taken American Airlines in a while, but they had a pretty sweet TV setup with a touch screen, a USB port and an outlet!

Whole row to myself...amazing.

Out the window.

This is hard to see, but I LOVED this mural of NYC in the airport.

Feeling like a tourist. Welcome to New York!

First wedding dress try on with Liz! I thought this was a good sneak peek :)

Laura's graduation party!

It was my lucky flying weekend. Got upgraded to priority access and sat in the front row with far more leg room than I need! Pretty amazing.

I got back on Monday afternoon and decided to spend the remainder of the day getting some sun at the beach.

And who knew there was a mini farmer's market right near my apartment on Mondays?? I picked up some cheap peaches and blueberries before heading home.

August Goals

Since it's August 1st, let's talk about some health/fitness goals. I've been neglecting this stuff for a while, but luckily I've only been neglecting it on the blog, not in life. I'm actually doing pretty well. Anyway, here are my goals for this month:

1. Do something active every day. This can even mean stretching for 5 minutes, standing for a while at work, or taking a short walk.

2. Do something more active most days. This means 30+ minutes of walking, jogging, a class, a workout video...whatever.

3. Track my food on weekdays, try for the weekends but don't worry about it.

4. Run a race in August (this depends on my travel schedule because I'm doing a lot this month).

5. Go for (at least) 7 runs this month (I ran this morning, so one down!) -- no time/distance specifics.

6. Lost 5 pounds by August 31. This will get me to a spot weight wise I haven't been in a loooong time. It will be a big milestone in this long journey back to normalcy, so I've decided to put a little timely pressure on it.

7. Cook 1-2 brand new things to me. I haven't been cooking at all (except last night, which you'll see below), so I want a little push to get back into the kitchen.

And now for Some Friday photos:

Cheesy tortilla pizza

Easiest dinner ever.

Mornings.

Not a bad place to live near!

My first ever painting experience! I was surprisingly good.

The roof on my new building is coming together...this is the view right now!

First ever garden zucchini noodles.

Sauce enhanced with garden tomatoes. 

My friends rule and these flowers are beauties.