Whew... I am exhausted from this weekend. My brother graduated from GW so our extended family (9 of us in all Friday & Saturday, 11 total on Sunday) descended onto my apartment, which was dubbed "Grad Central," for the weekend.**
Now, I have no problem entertaining at my place, and I love getting the chance to visit with my family, but there was zero time to relax this weekend. What little free time I had without my family was spent cleaning up after them (although they helped to clean up much of the mess before they left each time) or shopping for and preparing food. I had to get up at SIX FORTY-FIVE A.M. on Sunday... way too early for the weekend. That's earlier than I get up during the week! By the time everyone left my place around 11 p.m. Sunday night, I was ready to pass out. (The vast amounts of sugar I consumed all weekend (lemon tart, strawberry rhubarb pie, brownies, raspberry chocolate truffle cheesecake, tiramisu) didn't help.)
Getting up for work this morning was very, very difficult. I am looking forward to this coming long weekend. We don't really have many plans, so hopefully I'll get to relax. It's been a crazy few weekends lately. I could really just use some time to be a lazy homebody.
** They didn't stay with me in our 2BR apartment, but were in nearby hotels. But people were here pretty much every moment I was awake this weekend.
(I don't know why I bother with the "Morning" part up there, because really, who am I kidding? But I like the alliteration, so it stays.)
Want to know what I've been up to lately?
Friday: BOWLING! Holy crap, bowling is ever fun. It's so dorky, but what a great, inexpensive way to spend an evening. I was driving, so I didn't get to partake in the $11 pitchers of beer, but seriously... ELEVEN DOLLARS! Awesome, right?
Saturday: I had to take my car in for an oil change before I make the trek up north for T'giving later this week. The shop I go to is only open 8-12 on Saturdays, so I brought it up there just after 9 and then went to my gym, which is a block away, to ride the bike for an hour. I'm starting to get used to the bike thing. I still don't feel like I get my heart rate up, but it's the perfect time to get some reading in, and the machine claims I am burning calories. After my car was done, I went home, showered, changed, and then met Nick at Barnes & Noble for coffee and to stock up on Christmas cooking and crafts magazines. (Okay, only I got the magazines.) I then went home and lounged on my couch while leafing through said magazines, then later joined some friends at a local bar to watch college football (which I care nada about). Saturday night was spent continuing to lounge on the couch. I am nothing if not a party animal.
Sunday: Had to come in and put a few hours in at work. I didn't mind though because I am really, really, really hoping I can make my hours this quarter and get a bonus. I'm sure it won't actually happen, but I'm trying! After work, I met those same friends (while minus a couple, and adding a few) at another bar to watch NFL football (which I care lots about, now that I am in a pick-em league), specifically the Giants game. And they won even without two of their best players! Boo-yah! After that, well you know the drill... couch time.
(Holy crap, I'm posting this on Monday morning!)
Friday night, I went to my first ever book club meeting. Here's the thing... I ate good food, drank some wine, met some new and lovely girls, BUT there was no book clubbing. The books were not even discussed. In fact, most people hadn't read any of the books. Now, I had just been invited four days earlier and I'd only read one of the two, but I at least read one of them! And I would have tried to read the other had there been one to lend to me! These girls had months (yes, plural) to read the two books. So, all in all, as a book club goes, I was disappointed. I'm not saying it needs to be all English-class-like, but I'd at least like to discuss the books a bit before delving straight into gossip. I mean, if they all just wanted a dinner party, they should have held a dinner party. I guess perhaps I was just expecting too much. I'm not part of that circle of girls, though, so maybe I can start my own separate book club where we actually, you know, discuss books for a while. (And then, drink wine and gossip.)
This weekend was, all in all, very relaxing. Saturday, TS and I ran some errands (grocery shopping mostly), and then prepared some food for what I guess can be described as a casual dinner party. Very casual, considering there wasn't even a dinner table. :-) He loves any excuse to cook up hunks of meat (two roasted chickens in this case), since I don't eat it, and I tried out the cake I plan to make for Thanksgiving. We rounded out the meal with some butternut squash soup (he made), and some roasted vegetables and risotto (I made). I wasn't paying attention and threw in waaaay too much cheese into the risotto, which is kind of sad because up until that point, it was one of the best ones, texture-wise, I'd made. However, all the cheese immediately turned it into paste. Yummy paste, but paste. Oh well. Our friends came over (with yummy cookies that were all gone by noon the next day, btw), and we all sat around, drank beer and wine, watched hockey, and fell into a bit of a food coma.
Sunday was a typical Sunday... breakfast sandwiches, lots of football watching, and chili for dinner. I got quite a bit of napping done. It was glorious. :-)
How 'bout you? How was your weekend?
Anywho, yeah, it's Tuesday. I realize I am already quite the slacker at my Monday morning wrap-ups, seeing as the second one occurred Monday afternoon and this week I'm not even trying to get it done on the right day. Whoops!
Holy crap, was this a busy weekend. Last Wednesday, I was talking with my mom on the phone and she asked if I had any plans and I said the only thing I had going on was the Caps game Saturday night. It was a true statement at the time.
Friday night, we had an impromptu work happy hour. While I was out with my crew, I ran into a friend who works in the building next door with her work crew, so we met for an additional drink after our respective happy hours ended. After that, I just went home and caught up on some television. Nice, tame, relaxing.
Saturday morning, TS and I decided to go rockclimbing at the indoor gym. It always surprises me how exhausting rock climbing can be. I totally fell asleep on the couch when I got home, while he was off playing football. I went down to the Mall to try to catch some of the game, but they had finished right at the time I arrived. (I was slowed down by the couch and a looooong hot shower.) So he and I walked around a little bit, then headed home to change for the Caps game.
Oh my god. The section we sat in for the hockey game was so unbelievably obnoxious. We had two groups of Rangers fans in the section who were completely well-behaved, but there was a row of drunk fuckheads in the last row who would not stop heckling them. And it wasn't just "Rangers suck," which is somewhat expected, but the filthiest, nastiest, and sometimes completely nonsensical insults you've ever heard. I ended up with a huge headache and it was nearly impossible to watch any of the third period because there were constant threats of fights. Finally, the last row got thrown out, but as they were going down, this one chick tried to start a fight with a female Rangers fan, and then one of the bigger guys (not the one slinging insults) almost punched the security guy and knocked him down the stairs. I don't think I'll ever take a child to a hockey game, ever.
After the game, we went up to a housewarming party in... well... I have no idea what neighborhood of D.C. It wasn't anywhere near a metro and even the cab driver had no idea where the street was. Regardless, there was an open bar (complete with bartender), and we met up with some friends to hang out there for a few hours. Eventually we went to Cleveland Park to eat a ton of greasy fried food, then called it a night and went home.
Sunday morning, TS and I went bowling with a couple friends. Although it seems way too early to do anything on a Sunday, I do love going bowling early in the morning. The entire place is full of old men who throw multiple games simultaneously on different lanes. The breakfast sandwiches and coffee are surprisingly good, and if I wanted to (which I don't), I could get a pitcher of beer at 9 a.m. I bowled three pretty pathetic games... if I broke 100, it was only once. Not that I am particularly good, but I am usually consistently in the 110-120 range.
After watching some football, TS and I went to a WCR event at a local restaurant, stuffed our faces full of yummy food, enjoyed an open bar, and even met one of them women brewers from Rogue. After eating so much we could hardly move, we made it home to watch the Giants game (woohoo!) and then pass the heck out.
So much for only going to a Caps game this weekend...
Friday was Halloween, which I celebrated by throwing on some Halloween socks, an orange tank top, stringing some lights on TS's porch, getting bad food delivered for dinner and eating a bazillion pieces of candy instead, handing out candy to a mere ten trick-or-treaters (tops), and watching four episodes of Angel. Hey, Angel is about vampires... that's kinda Halloween-y.
Saturday was spent running errands, then going out for dinner (yummy sushi and tempura), drinks, and Buck Hunter with some friends in Dupont. The extra hour was spent sleeping, since we had to get up early on Sunday for...
Seriously, pumpkins being shot out of cannons, catapults, and trebuchets high into the air, thousands of feet in distance. The cannon winner went over 4400 feet! It was freezing cold and windy, there were many, MANY rednecks (confederate flags a-wavin'), and FRIED PIZZA, which was actually unbelievably good. Fourteen of us caravaned up there for some punkin-chunkin-watchin, tailgaitin, drinkin, freezin our bums off good old fashioned fun. I highly recommend it. Well worth the two hour drive from the D.C. area, although it probably would have been even better to go on Saturday when the weather was a bit warmer and the sun was shining.
This weekend was TS's annual Halloween party, so the weekend focused mostly around that...
Friday night and Saturday morning were spent making goodies for the Halloween party. Friday night TS and I put the finishing touches on our cupcake pops. I woke up at 7:30 on Saturday morning without an alarm. (Unless you consider my full bladder an alarm.) Since I couldn't fall back asleep, I just got out of bed to whip up the zombie cupcakes (doctored up cake mix) and some sugar cookies (slice and bake). I was just pulling the last batch of the cookies out of the oven as TS woke up. He made us breakfast and then we just hung around for awhile before our boxing class. After class, we came back to make some jello shots. It was going to be a very class party. :-)
Late afternoon, we headed to his house to rearrange furniture, hang decorations, etc. The party got started around 9 and I think there were probably about 40 people there. Lots of great costumes... several television characters (The Office, My Name is Earl, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mad Men), movie characters (Juno, Buckaroo Banzai, Newsies, Alice in Wonderland... even Chewbacca), video game characters (Mr. and Ms. Pacman, Guitar Hero), traditional costumes like a witch and a (one-eyed) ghost, and tons more. I think this party was the best yet. Hopefully I'll get around to taking the photos off my camera sometime this week.
Sunday was, of course, recovery day. It was entirely spent on the couch, eating crappy food, and watching television. There was some minor clean-up to be done, but mostly just involved taking down decorations and vacuuming. (I didn't contribute too much to either from my position on the couch, except recoiling lights and attempting to deflate a spider.)
All in all, a pretty great weekend.
(Here I am, coming up with trick #1 to get myself to write more: creating the "Monday Morning Wrap-Up," where basically I just tell you about my weekend. So creative, I am. I know.)
My younger brother goes to George Washington University here in D.C., so his college parents' weekend is OUR parents' weekend. This year, GW booked Robin Williams as their comedian. I thought he was pretty good, but here's the problem... my brother's freshman year, the school booked Jon Stewart. And I adore Jon Stewart. So, starting out like that, GW had a lot to live up to each of the next three years and I don't think that they did. But I still found Robin Williams to be pretty funny; I just wish there weren't quite so many sex jokes. I mean, the audience is filled with parents and their children. Awkward. Still, his sex jokes were pretty tame (unlike Billy Crystal last year), so it wasn't so uncomfortable. I just wish there'd been more political humor, what with the election right around the corner and all.
Friday night started out with pizza at Piola, followed by s'mores at Cosi, then the Robin Williams show. I went out to Chinatown after the show and there was a freakin' LINE for Rocket Bar, which is just absolutely ridiculous. Eventually, the friends I was going to see (who had made it into Rocket Bar several hours earlier) left while I was still online, so we ended up at the usual dive hotel bar down the street for a drink.
Saturday morning was boxing class, which left me especially exhausted. My new sneakers seem to have (cross my fingers) alleviated my shins splints problem, and the rope jumping portion was pain free for the first time in months. The afternoon was spent just hanging out with my family, then having an early dinner at Ray's the Steaks for my parents' anniversary, then coming back to my apartment for some board games, apple crisp, and baseball playoff watching. We were all pretty exhausted (myself from the boxing, them and my brother from getting up early to drive him to his GREs), so I think they left around 10 or so. I was in bed before midnight.
Sunday morning consisted of running LOTS of errands. I was quite impressed -- we left the house around 10:15 or so, hit up A.C. Moore (halloween cupcake supplies), Staples (costume supply and 2009 planner refill), Marshall's (costume supplies), Best Buy (checking out possible new computers), and Trader Joe's (mmm... food...), and made it home before the Giants game DIDN'T start at 1p.m. Well, the Giants game did start, but the guide had LIED about playing the game and instead we were stuck watching the Cowboys game. After eating a quick lunch, we went to a bar to catch the rest of the Giants game. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing, just hanging on the couch, staying up late to watch the Rays win (thank goodness).
This week looks to be pretty busy with work, as I've got a trial coming up next week. There's also some planning, preparation, and baking to do for Saturday's Halloween party. I'm hoping my Halloween treats turn out as well as I envision them in my mind... expect some photos next week!
I survived the weekend... but barely. Actually, I barely survived Saturday morning/early afternoon, but once I got past that little hiccup, things went pretty well.
As to the hiccup... apparently there is such a thing as drinking too much water. And I experienced just what that is like on Saturday after the race. See, it was super humid, and although it was overcast for the race, as soon as it was over the sun was shining something fierce. Plus, it was probably 85 degrees by 9 a.m. I think I would have been fine after the race if I just had some water, a banana, and was able to head home for a cold shower, some Gatorade, and some food. But, we lost one of our friends. Our friend who had no money, ID, phone, metrocard or anything on her, because we had it. Our friend who forgot where our meet up spot was. So, I spent an extra hour and a half in the sun that I was not expecting. All told, between 6:30 a.m. and 11 a.m., I consumed about 120 ounces of water. (120 ounces = just shy of a gallon.) And I sweat quite profusely in the climate controlled gym... you can only imagine what it was like in 85% humidity, 85 degree weather. I was literally covered in salt.
Sweating profusely + overconsumption of water = NOT FUN.
Upon doing some scientific research (i.e., Google), we discovered that I probably had some mild water poisoning. (We being TS, as I was practically passed out on his bed.) It sounds crazy to think someone can drink too much water, but if you sweat a lot (and I did, believe me), you lose a lot of salt, which can mess up the sodium levels in your blood... and adding water, but not electrolytes or even just plain old salt, actually makes it worse not better, because even though you are rehydrated, your sodium levels get even more out of whack. My symptoms were headache (throbbing every time I moved, only exacerbated by drinking water), nausea, and light-headedness. Once I got some Gatorade in me (which was kind of hard at first, because the drinking initially made my head pound), ate a couple pretzels and had some cheese, I felt much better. It was still kind of scary though, because I had never felt like that before. I've been overheated and been sick from the heat before, but this was definitely different... especially since it hit full on a few hours after the race actually finished (and I was actually in air conditioning), but before I ate or drank anything other than water.
So yeah, lesson learned. Be more prepared, drink more wisely, and water isn't always the answer to dehydration.
Other than that, I figured I'd just recap my weekend by editing my previous list (below the jump):