Hello friends! 

So, a few things. I’m not too pleased with tumblr as a blog interface. I’m trying to see if I can export Bumbo and all of its awesomeness to another host, but I’m having troubles because we use wordpress at work and I use my personal username/password for that but I can’t change my username from home. I don’t know. Struggles.

Now that we’ve moved past that, let’s get onto the important stuff. Like medals, Chelsea and Googa Mooga. And the new restaurant near my apartment called Dumbo Kitchen that replaced the Gallery. The poor restaurant hasn’t quite figured out what it wants to be yet. A take out restaurant? Definitely. A dine-in restaurant? Maybe. A bar? Not quite, but good try. Maybe I’ll go back in a few months…

Anyway, Brian and I woke up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning to head down to Coney Island to volunteer at the Brooklyn Half Marathon!! We both wanted to run it, but due to our injuries, neither of us were trained. So we decided to hand out medals to all the runners who finish on the boardwalk!

Of course, I couldn’t just stand for a picture… I had to give an awkward leg lunge and thumbs up. Nonetheless, we both enjoyed ourselves! And see the exposed part of my right arm holding the medals? It got sunburned… standard.

After the race, Brian and I wandered around Coney Island for a bit. We went up on the giant ferris wheel, and got some awesome views of Coney Island and New York City!

Look closely at the top photo… you can see a bit of the Verrazano Bridge on the left, and you can see the NYC skyline all the way on the right!

That afternoon, Brian and I went to Legend’s, a soccer bar in Midtown, to watch the Champions League final! Despite being one of the largest bars I have seen in NYC (main dining floor, basement and balcony area!), the place was PACKED. Still, being in that environment to watch the game was really awesome. It couldn’t help but wonder how many of those people were actual Chelsea or Bayern Munich fans, or just bandwagon fans. Think: a bunch of people in London watching the Super Bowl. 

The bar cleared out pretty quickly after the match (which went all the way to penalty kicks), so we got to sit on some of the nice couches on the balcony to watch the Preakness!! I’ll Have Another finished first in another come-from-behind win just like at the Derby… do you think he can win another, and win the first Triple Crown in 34 years?!

The next day was another beautiful (read: hot) day in Brooklyn! Brian and I went for a five mile run, but the heat nearly killed me. The inclines (can’t really call them hills) in Cobble Hill seemed to hurt me even more, and I yelled at Brian when he didn’t let me walk. I’m a loving person, I swear.

But after our overheated run, we headed down to Prospect Park for The Great GoogaMooga Festival! Basically, it’s a giant food, drink and music festival… a bunch of restaurants in NYC come and set up shop, and serve a single dish the whole weekend. There’s a giant beer tent with 30+ different kinds of beers, and there were also two stages that feature performances throughout the weekend. The tickets and music were free, but the food and drink most definitely was not…

We shared a small serving of nachos from Calexico (above), and tried pupusas! The pupusas was by far our best purchase of the day… Brian nor I had ever had them before, and we felt so adventurous! The pupusas were similar to potato pancakes with chicken (or pork or vegetarian) cooked into it. SO GOOD!

My beer from the beer tent!!

Yes, that is a roasting pig.

We stayed much longer than we anticipated, just making our way around the festival. Also, we got lost trying to get out of Prospect Park. That park is rather difficult to get out of… 

We headed back into Manhattan so I could run by City Sports and FINALLY pick up a new pair of running shoes. I determined right before the NYC Half that the shoes that I bought were actually a half size too big… womp.

I realized when I went back to Tampa recently that the last two pairs of shoes with which I was completely happy were the same pair of shoes — the Asics gel nimbus. I ran two half marathons the summer of 2010 in that shoe with zero problems. When I realized that, I knew what I had to do… get the tried and true pair! So I came home with a beautiful new pair of Asics, and a yoga mat for good measure (I don’t want to use the gross mat in my building’s gym… I’ve seen it cleaned once since I’ve lived here and it’s probably covered in staph and mersa).

Brian also bought his first pair of Sperry topsiders!! He needed a pair of summer shoes other than flip flops… duh, how can you not get topsiders. 

I got back to my apartment much later than expected on Sunday night, and realized I hardly stopped moving the entire weekend. Well, those are the best kinds of weekends, right?

As we learned from my last post, I’ve visited Philadelphia the second weekend in May for the last four years… so of course I’m not going to turn down the chance to make it five!!

Brian and I got to Willow Grove late Friday night, but we were greeted by his family and Smokey Joe!! Smokey Joe is his family’s cat, and definitely a contributing member of the family. I immediately went to bed, because I am practically a grandmother and can’t be awake for more than 18 hours at a time (for real).

The next morning, we woke up early to drive down to the Schuylkill River for the regatta! The waking up and driving to the course was not exactly foreign to me (remember when the wv4+ had to drive in the truck to get to the race course on time?), but I’ve never had to worry about finding parking… We drove around in the big park off of Kelly Drive, but literally came tumbling down through the bushes Hunger Games style to get to the water. None of this walking around stuff for us - we went straight to the trail. I vaguely remember in the past trying to go and pee in that area since the porta potty was too far away, but someone yelled at me. Ya win some, ya lose some. 

The men’s v4+ and the women’s novice v4+ both got third in heats on Friday, so they did not qualify for semis, but the women’s v4+ got second!! So luckily, I had one boat to go and watch! I wasn’t that awkward alum hanging around… Unfortunately I didn’t get to see them off because they launched an hour and a half ahead of time. Excessive much, guys?! Kidding… (I typed kissing the first time…)

The girls had a great race, but unfortunately, so did three other boats in their heat (they finished fourth). However, that just meant that I got to hang out and talk to everyone without having to worry about resting or hydrating or peeing or sitting down or whatever. 

After some nice conversations, Brian and I headed to the Philadelphia Zoo!! 

These are otters, but they were so fast, and it was so hard to get a picture!!

After walking around for hours (and practically hiking to get back to our car… apparently everyone wanted to go to the zoo on Saturday), we drove back to Willow Grove for a delicious dinner with Brian’s family and drinks after with two of Brian’s friends!! As one would expect, I started getting sleepy at the bar (this is a serious problem I have) so we went home. 

Sunday morning, Brian and I went running. And let me tell you, running in the suburban neighborhood of Willow Grove is no easy feat. It was hot, there was no shade and there were LOTS of hills. I moaned and groaned through four miles as Brian kept his pace slow… but he did take me to run through the parking lot of the Willow Grove Mall!! Two people mentioned it to me last week when I said I was going to Willow Grove, so of course I had to see it before I left. 

Before we headed back to the city, we had a fabulous mother’s day brunch and of course went to Wawa for some sandwiches for dinner that night!! We ate a lot on Sunday, so good thing we went running!!

Again, I missed being with my mother on Mother’s Day (five years and counting… maybe one of these days…) but here’s a picture of us!!

This weekend is the Dad Vails Regatta, the largest collegiate regatta in the U.S., which was always the big regatta for which the Northwestern crew team trained every year! It’s held the second weekend in May (Friday and Saturday) in Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River (10 points if you can pronounce that correctly)… I haven’t spent a Mother’s Day with my mother in going on five years now, because I’ve been returning from that regatta every year. 

The Northwestern Crew team always left on Wednesday night and drove overnight from Chicago to Philadelphia on a charter bus. You want to know how I get my excellent skills of sleeping pretty much anywhere? Well, join Northwestern Crew, and you’ll get really good at it, too.

(Ok, I tried really hard to find that picture of me sleeping on the bus wearing a snuggie, but I can’t find it. Y’all know what it looks like…)

That bus ride was sometimes very stressful if we had lightweights on board who were close to making weight. Chances are, they were. I’m talking, cranky hungry people carrying around a scale and crap to eat once they weigh in.

We arrived at the race course Thursday sometime between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. depending on traffic, rigged boats and practiced on the water. This was also very stressful, because we were usually a) tired from (not) sleeping on a bus, b) the water level was usually too high and running fast, c) the lightweights were still hungry and d) it was usually raining.

However, none of that could get in our way… we had races to race!!

At Dad Vails, the events with more than 18 boats row in heats on Friday. Based on how you do in heats, the top 18 progress to three semifinals heats, and the top two in each heat (six total) go to finals on Saturday. Some events (singles, doubles, lightweights) are just a semifinal and final events… if you have fewer than 18 boats in an event, all boats go straight to a semifinal. Every boat’s goal was to be rowing on Saturday. 

To be honest, I have very little memory of my freshman year at Dad Vails. I think it rained, Erica probably took some free stuff, I rowed, I don’t remember if we made it out of heats. Pictures on Facebook tell me I cut my toe and put a cow bandaid on my toe, and carried some oars.

I’m in the grey shirt! See Kristin and Diana in the purple jackets off yonder, making us novices do all the dirty work? I totally did that for the three years I was on varsity. #noshame This is proof I did the work when I was a novice.

We rowed. It was raining. I didn’t bury my blade. I was a novice…

My sophomore year (2009) was much more exciting! My boat (WV4+) had won all of our races at the home race, and we had just come off an exciting win at MACRAs the weekend before, and we were totally stoked to dominate at Vails (aka, row on Saturday).

We won a cup at MACRAs! Annnd my coxswain is taller than me…

But we got to Vails and the water level was so high and fast that instead of running heats, they decided to run a time trial… basically, the officials lined up all of the boats and sent them down one by one. The problem with this is that you lose the adrenaline that you get from racing and seeing a boat next to you. Instead, you’re just rowing down the river by yourself with your cox yelling at you like practice. BORING. 

We made it through to semifinals by the skin of our teeth (we were 17th or something… top 18 made it to semis), but didn’t make it to finals.

This photo was not from Dad Vails, it was at the home race on the lovely Skokie river. Kelsey hid all of her photos from Facebook, so I no longer have photos from Vails that year. At least this is a nice photo! And this was the first year that I rowed in the bow seat (the seat in the front of the boat, but facing everyone else!) of the WildKat… I really should donate money and have that seat named after me.

Then, just as you thought it couldn’t get any more excited, it did! My junior year, I rowed with three other girls who had just moved up to varsity (and won ACRAs the year before as novices…) and their coxswain. Not only did we progress out of heats and semis… we made it all the way to FINALS!! 

I can’t find the results online, but we barely beat another boat (Villanova?) for second place in semis in a very close race. I’m pretty sure we got put in the same semifinal heat as Western Ontario… rumor had it that their girls were all on the Canadian national team and they blew every single other boat out of the water. Literally.

So we made it to finals, but our race was delayed by wind and bad conditions of sorts. All I remember is sitting in the parking lot near the 1000 meter mark underneath our overturned boat trying to stay away from the sun and determine if I could drink water and not have to pee (having to pee during a race is the WORST THING EVER). 

Eventually they deemed it fine for us to row, but the water was still outrageously choppy. Because we got stuck in the shitty lane six near the island, we were a little discouraged. We ended up getting sixth, but nonetheless… it was still sixth!! Out of like 40 boats!!!

Thumbs up for making finals!!

Then finally my senior year came along… We had lost one rower from the year before but replaced her. And we knew that again, we could probably make finals. And make finals did we ever. I just looked at our results from last year, and we WON our heat by five seconds (over a boat length of distance) and got second in the semifinals (we lost by 1 second but beat the next boat by 7 seconds!! 

See my white hat?! We hung on very close to Bucknell, the winning boat in our semifinals. 

We were pumped heading into finals, but we were stuck in lane six again and the waves got the best of us (those damn afternoon waves!! Screwing up all of my Vails finals races!!) We finished sixth in finals but had our best race of the weekend!! Our time just kept dropping…

I was the shorty of the boat… 

Talking game plan, duh. Or probably about the hot Michigan rowers.

We punched it in at Dad Vails!!!

Post race treat… cupcakes!!

My dad flew into Philly to watch me row at vails my senior year (hence all of the pictures), which was really nice of him!! Because I rowed all over the midwest, my parents never got to see me row… My dad saw me once when I was a freshman at our home race, I think. But then he came to Vails and then both of my parents came to ACRAs a few weeks later!! It really meant a lot to me that they came for those last two big races of my senior year. 

So that was my Vails experiences. They progressively got better (just like my spring break experiences!), and I also became progressively less stressed about them. I don’t know, something about senior year. Also I think at this point last year, I had some hints of a job offer… so that was also probably it. 

All week, I’ve wished I was still in college rowing, just so I could go back and row at this regatta! I remember last year like it was a month ago… and saying how this was most likely my last row ever on the Schuylkill. Oh well, the memories will last. 

Good luck Northwestern Crew at Dad Vails this weekend!!!!

Just a few things that I would like to share with you…

1. The Rays have been in town playing the Yankees since Tuesday night, so do you know what I get spoiled with?! The Rays playing on TV!!! The Rays rarely play on TV — only unless they’re playing the Angels or the Rangers or some other high profile team — so I have been so spoiled this week! Jess is a better fan than I am and has gone to every game, but I’m pretty content coming home each night, enjoying a beer and a delicious dinner that didn’t cost me $18 and watching the game on TV! Also, it’s rained some the last two nights. And I’m trying to save up some money… Ya know. 

2. I’ve had EXCELLENT dinners the past three nights. Tuesday night, I intended on cooking a sort of grilled cheese with turkey and tomato in it, but surprise to no one, I burnt it (both sides, too! Don’t ya think I would learn after one burnt side!) Nonetheless, it was still DELICIOUS with my vegetable soup. 

Wednesday night, I cooked the two artichokes that I got from FreshDirect (2 for $5!). I steamed them for close to an hour with some lemon and garlic, and they are DELICIOUS. And the benefit of cooking two in one night?! I cook two dinners at once! I was so excited today to come home to my already-cooked artichoke!!

3. My Keurig coffee maker that I got for Christmas is BROKEN :( The stream of coffee only comes out in a very low-pressure stream, and the machine automatically shuts off after 2 minutes, only allowing less than half of a cup to brew!! Ugh, struggles. I’m currently doing a descaling process (run vinegar through the machine) which apparently breaks down calcium deposits, but I don’t know if that’s going to help, boooo. At least it’s still under warranty… but my wallet is not happy with me as I buy Dunkin Donuts every morning. I need my coffee!!!

Alright, that’s it from me. I’m off to enjoy my artichoke hearts and watch David Price pitch against the Yanks and pack for PHILADELPHIA this weekend!!!

After two weekends jetsetting to and from Tampa (and the Bahamas), I finally stayed in one place for an entire weekend!! I really needed a semi-calm weekend… but of course, when is a weekend in NYC ever calm? And it won’t stay calm for long… this weekend, Brian and I are heading to Philadelphia to watch NU Crew at the Dad Vail regatta, and to hang with Smokey Joe (and the rest of Brian’s family) in Brian’s hometown of Willow Grove, PA!!

Friday night Brian took me out to dinner in Astoria at a new-ish restaurant right by his subway stop called Don Coqui. I didn’t quite know what to expect (Yelp reviews aren’t great), but it blew my low/nonexistant expectations out of the water!

Growing up in Florida, I was regularly exposed to Spanish food… I thought everyone ate black beans and yellow rice with pulled pork, cuban sandwiches and plantains on a regular basis. So naturally, I started to get sick of it … the same way I got sick of Thai food after eating it once a week every week my freshman year in college (I still rarely eat Thai food to this day…) But I never really ate Spanish food in college, so I’ve come to like/appreciate it again. 

This dinner was SO GOOD. We both got fancy, overpriced drinks (we’re out to dinner, we decided to splurge). Brian got a strawberry mojito (mostly cause I couldn’t decide between that drink and the mango martini that I got), and it CAME IN A MASON JAR WITH A HANDLE. SO COOL.

Brian got chicken empanadas and I got a salad for appetizers… the empanadas took me back to high school days where I ate at Mr. Empanada once a week for lunch my senior year (I usually ate a cuban sandwich at Mr. Empanada, but I got empanadas on occasion). My salad was HUGE (could have been a full, unsatisfying meal), so I let Brian eat some of course.

For dinner, I got mofongo, which is basically mushed up plantains, with steak on top! Brian got the classic black beans and rice with steak. Both meals were very, very good. Come to think of it, it was a little salty, but probably why I liked it so much. We took home our leftovers, which served as part of last night’s dinner, as well! So we basically got two meals out of one!! #lifeonabudget

The next morning Brian and I did something we haven’t done together in a while… WE RAN TOGETHER!! Brian has only ran twice since the NYC Half because of his knee, and I only recently started running again because of my Achilles, so this was huge for us. We did about five easy miles with minimal pain for both parties. Success!!

That afternoon we headed out to celebrate Cinco de Mayo/Kentucky Derby day with one of Brian’s friends!! We enjoyed some margaritas, then had some beers while watching the Derby!! No mint juleps for me, sorry. About ten minutes before the Derby, the bar we were at came around and asked us to pick racehorse names out of a hat (for $10 of course). I picked Daddy Long Legs, who of course finished last, and Brian picked Done Talking… alas, neither of us had much luck. 

We had a nice, lazy Sunday, capped off with hanging out on one of Brian’s friend’s decks at his building. Two side notes: 1. I got mildly sunburned from sitting in the sun for two hours and 2. I hang out with Brian’s friends a lot. I like them! But I should probably see my friends, as well…

Unfortunately, despite the fact that it was Sunday, I did not watch a movie. I’ve been terrible at watching movies with all of my traveling… I’m also working on Mondays now (wahoo!), so Sundays are not quite as lazy as they used to be. 

However, I have watched one movie on my list… Radio!! It was a great feel-good sports movie, which is totally one of my favorite genres of movies. Not an incredibly scintillating plot, but still very good. 

Alright, over and out.

So of course I thought of a few things that I felt needed to be mentioned after blogging about my trip last night. And instead of editing the blog post, I’ll just write a new one!

A very important thing I forgot to mention: we got bro tanks made! They say YMKG XCIX (roman number for 99, since we are the 99th court of Gasparilla!) on the front and “Yo Ho, YOLO, a pirate’s life for me!” on the back!! YES. I feel like we should wear them at some formal event coming up. Everyone agree?

(The boys are looking really good here.)

I had a few victims from Friday night: the bottom half of my cell phone case (aren’t otter cases indestructible?) and a part of my big toenail. So now, I’m searching for new cell phone cases… it was about time I get a new one anyway. I’m not searching for a new toenail, in case you were wondering.

Our room keys HAD OUR NAMES ON THEM. SO COOL. That’s just an example of how well we had it made over the weekend. 

Alright, enough chatter about my trip. I’m back in the real world now.

Many of you have been waiting for this post… but for those of you who have not, I must explain. 

So, remember a few weeks ago back when I was named to Gasparilla court? Well, every year, the King of Gasparilla throws a party of sorts for the court. Back in day when my mom was on court, the King usually just took the court to a nice dinner, they bonded for an evening, and that was it. Then George Steinbrenner became of king of Gasparilla and he took the court to New York for a Yankees-filled weekend (right? I also heard he took his court to the Bahamas. Someone confirm). And now, every king tries to up the one from before.

Well, the king’s party for Gasparilla Court XCIX was last weekend!! And we knew we were in for an adventure when a) David A. Straz, King Gasparilla the 99th, kept the location a surprise and b) we were asked for our passport information. 

I left New York Thursday night to this mess: 

Why yes, the NFL Draft was happening directly across from my office. Sure made it easy for everyone covering the event!

Friday afternoon, the court met at the Tampa Jet Center. It’s no secret that King Straz has his own private jet (he is an ambassador of course!), and we were outrageously lucky to learn that we were taking it to ATLANTIS FOR THE WEEKEND!!!

(Also, thanks in advance to everyone from whom I steal photos… since I only took like 15 and they’re all bad iPhone quality. I also look either a) frizzy, b) chubbs or c) hungover in pretty much every photo. I need to work on a few things in my life.)

Girls before departure!

Boys in front of the plane!

SO. COOL. David (we’re calling the kind David from here on out… that is his name!) didn’t even sit down, put his seatbelt on, etc. during the trip. The plane is so fast, that it only took us 50 minutes to get to Nassau… it only takes him 8 1/2 hours to get to western Africa!!

We landed to some overcast weather in Nassau, which was disappointing… and I’ll break the news now… it rained the ENTIRE WEEKEND. We didn’t see a SINGLE RAY OF SUNSHINE. When do you ever go to the Bahamas and have it be rainy/windy the whole time?! Yeah, I don’t know. So I’m still as white as a sheet, don’t worry.

We were quickly whisked through customs and drove out to Paradise Island. We stayed in the Cove, which is the exclusive building on the resort… we quickly learned that pretty much everything we did that weekend was exclusive. David knows how to and has the means to get things in high places. 

Up to the lounge we went for drinks and room assignments… then we went to dinner at the Bahamian!

A menu just for us!! We had an outrageous three course meal… the Straz’s do everything big. 

After nearly three hours at dinner, off to the casino we went! We gambled, we drank, we danced. The group went up to the club above the casino, where we got some sweet VIP treatment. Yes, that does include red velvet ropes and bottles service with sparklers.

Logan was really pumped about the sparkler in the bottle of vodka.

On our way out, we found the Atlantis chair! Of course, we took pictures.

After we somehow snagged a ride home in a limo (I still don’t know how that happened), I passed out until I heard Elly talking on the phone next morning to Anne saying, “Yes, Bette’s still sleeping…” I quickly learned that I was already late for our morning activity… swimming with dolphins!!! I struggled downstairs (with no breakfast, that I quickly learned was a terrible idea), where it was pouring rain. Oh well, we pushed on to swim with the dolphins in the rain!! 

We broke into two groups, and my group was lucky enough to have a wonderful dolphin named Kelly. We rubbed her belly, hugged her, kissed her, fed her fish… it was fantastic. Kelly bonded with everyone, especially Ryan and Law.

That’s right, Kelly and I shared a lovely kiss.

Kelly really liked our group.

After our dolphin adventure, we went back to the Cove pool and beach… only those staying the Cove could access it! We spent the rest of the afternoon hiding away from the rain in the cabana that David got us. The choice of activity for most was enjoying fruity beach drinks, but I decided to nap for most of the afternoon (lame, I know. I enjoyed myself too much the night before… whoops). It resulted in several unflattering photos… 

But of course, we couldn’t go to Atlantis without going on the slides!! A group of us went to the BIG slide, the one that goes straight down and through a dolphin tank!! It’s like that giant slide ride at Blizzard Beach, the one that makes you look like you’re going to go off a ski jump! I normally don’t like those rides because of the free fall factor and the resulting wedgie, but c’mon, you only live once!! (Theme of our trip, btw)

Wahoo!!! Also please note grey, cloudy weather. NO. SUN.

After some hot tub bathtub and shower time, we got ready for dinner round two. Of course, as per Straz style, it was a fantastic four course meal at a stellar seafood restaurant near the Bahamas marina! We walked past tons of HUGE yachts, including one with a CAR on it!!! A car on a yacht!!! But even better than the car on the yacht? The delicious lobster tails at dinner. So. Good.

Shane and I were dinner buddies both nights… maid/courtier bonding!!

Girls with King David! Please ignore the size of my arm… no skinny arm-ing for me.

After dinner, off to the casino we went… I gambled for the first time at a slot machine!! But I lost 3$… go figure. However, Betsy was luckier than me - she won $60 playing roulette!! 

We danced a little that night, but we ended up going back to the hotel bar where we procured an ENORMOUS jug of Bahama Mama drink (again, don’t ask how). We drank it well into the night… and luckily for the boys who planned to play golf in the morning, the game was rained out so they could return to bed. 

The next day was mostly reserved for hanging out on the beach, but the hurricane-like weather kept us inside… up at the lounge, at the hotel restaurant, etc. But in all honesty, it was totally fine. We just talked, bonded… it sounds super cheesy but it was great!! I was mildly concerned about taking off in David’s jet in the crazy weather, but it zoomed off above the clouds for easy sailing back to Tampa. 

To be honest, this was the shortened version of this trip’s story… there were so many more (bad/not appropriate for the internet) pictures taken, so many conversations had, so many great moments shared (not remembered). But you know what, what happens in Atlantis stays in Atlantis. You only live once (#YOLO, our motto for the trip! And sorry Kelsey, it doesn’t stand for You Outrageously Love Oreos in this situation. Also, happy birthday!!!)

We are very bonded as a court now, and I’m sad to not be in Tampa to hang out with all of them on a regular basis! After the trip, I had my first moment since I left for college almost five years ago where I wished I lived in Tampa. Ya know, if I get to hang out with these people all the time, maybe I will consider moving back eventually (there Mom, I admitted it). Oh well, I’ll be home soon enough for the Queen’s party!!

I went on the ultimate weekend adventure this weekend … to TAMPA!!!

Over the winter, Brian and I decided to plan a weekend to get away and visit Tampa… Brian wanted to see the famed South Tampa, because he had heard about it so much from Reed and I. 

We took a late flight out of Newark Airport (my first time flying in/out of Newark!), which of course was delayed since it was the last flight of the day. We finally landed in Tampa around 1 a.m., where we were greeted by my mother and Ginger!!!

She’s such a cute puppy!!! She formed a bond with Brian immediately, of course.

On Saturday, I took Brian to Wright’s, an excellent South Tampa lunch establishment, where we met a few of my friends on Gasparilla court with me. Brian was a good sport as we girl-talked the entire lunch, but he was more than pleased with his Monte Cristo sandwich and his piece of infamous Wright’s cake… he got the peanut butter chocolate cake, so he’ll get the alpine cake next time :)

After lunch, we grabbed Thompson, whose hair is now blonde due to pool chlorine (I actually thought he dyed it), to take us for a spin on our family’s new boat! We went out for a really short time since the weather was awful, and we literally docked and made it back inside five minutes before a HUGE downpour. 

I finally rode on the new boat!!

After briefly socializing with my grandparents, Thompson brought us back home, and we headed over to see Anne, Ashley and Mary Ashley’s new house! I am SO impressed that they’re living in an actual house, so it was fun to see that. And of course we played with Sidda, who’s like twice the size of when I last met her. 

Brian and I then headed out to St. Petersburg to go to the Trop for the Rays’ game!! We actually got there like 45 mins before the first pitch, so we took a quick detour for Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Such a good decision - we paid $12 for BOTH of us, and we would have paid $12 for ONE hamburger in the Trop…

The game was great, and Brian did not think that the dome was as bad as people say it is! Our seats were up in the third level, but we made a trip down to the Shimberg’s seats in the first level for half an inning… We even got to sit in some fieldside seats for the top of the 9th, because the Shimberg’s family friend who has fieldside seats left before the end of the game!

Hey there, James Shields, at the top of the 9th inning (before he was pulled…). 

The Rays won 4-1, wahoo!! 

Sunday, Brian and I went to the beach!!! But alas, the weather was AWFUL. It was cloudy and raining off and on… Brian and I spent about two hours outside fighting the large waves and wind, but mostly huddled inside away from the elements. The beach is also eroding, so there’s only about 10 feet of beach after the sea oats, and the huge waves created a shelf, which made things awkward. Whatever, Brian got to watch the Flyers win (and move on in the playoffs!), and I got to watch the Rays!! 

We came home earlyish, since it was my grandmother’s birthday and we were having dinner… Brian did wonderfully at a family dinner which I was not expecting. As a reward, I took him to the dessert room at Bern’s Steak House! Bern’s is one of the most famous restaurants in Tampa, so everyone said I had to take him there. Anne joined us as well, so we had a good evening over some famous Bern’s desserts!

Today was such a nice day, and it was so hard to leave Tampa :(

Luckily, Brian really enjoyed the trip and wants to come back, so ya know I can just use the excuse that I want to show him more of Tampa to go back! I mean, what’s a beach day with wind and clouds? He’s gotta get a super hot and sunny day where we spend all day in the water then go putt putting at night. Anyone else wanna come with us?

Kelsey was very sad when I didn’t blog on Monday, which is my typical blogging day since I don’t work.

Sorry, Kels (and Reed, who was also sad that I didn’t blog). 

I’m about to jet off to TAMPA for a fun, event-filled weekend with BRIAN!! Yes, he’s finally coming to Tampa and I couldn’t be more excited to show him around, have him meet a few of my friends, go to a Rays game, go to the beach (weather-depending…). It’s going to be a blast.

So, before that, a few notes

• Brian and I have watched a TON of sporting events in the last week. Friday, we watched the Flyers playoff game, 76ers game AND the Phillies game (Phillies were playing the Mets) all at the same time. Saturday, we watched the Union, the Phillies and the Rangers all play. Then Sunday the Rays were on national television, so we watched the Rays and the Phillies on one TV and the Flyers game on another tv. NUTS.
• Brian broke Passover at a new great bar place that we tried out called Cody’s American Bar and Grill. Nachos and burgers are a great way to break Passover (according to Brian. I’m not Jewish obviously).
• I RAN for the first time since the NYC Half on Sunday!!! 3.5 miles, no Achilles pain, tiny tiny bit of knee pain, very easy pace, returned with slight sunburn on shoulders #sopale. However, I did determine that my shoes are too big :( What a fail. Mom and Dad, can I have some new running shoes for an early birthday present?! I haven’t run since, but I’m going to try and run tomorrow. I’m doing this thing where I cross train and weight train and run… not just run.
• I wrote a pretty cool article and Q&A on an Olympic fencer! Read it if you get a chance! And he’s really cute… that might up the incentive
• 100 day countdown to the London Olympics started yesterday!

Work has been pretty busy and dramatic this week, so I’m really pumped to get away this weekend and next (mystery Gasparilla trip next weekend!). I really need to back off from everything for a bit before I go crazy.

Alright, catch you on the flipside of what I know is going to be a great trip to Tampa!!

Alright guys, it’s the time you’ve been waiting for. I present to you, THE movie list.

But first, a few notes: These movies are not in a preference order - they’re in the order that I decided to put them on the list. Movie night is Sunday night. I’m really bad at watching movies because I always fall asleep. I’m going to TRY and watch all of these before 2012 ends. I will probably not review them, because often my thoughts on a movie are “It was good” or “I didn’t really like it.” A big thanks to Reed who sent me his list of movies to watch that he compiled the summer before he started college four years ago… many of these movies are from that list. Finally, NO LAUGHING OR INSULTING (omg I typed insulin instead of insult… type 1 diabetic right here) ME based on the movies I have not seen - I realize I have not seen many good movies.

Without further ado…

1. Boondock Saints
2. Fight Club
3. Radio
4. Jerry Maguire
5. Miracle
6. Rocky
7. A League of Their Own
8. Field Of Dreams (I know, I can’t believe I haven’t seen this movie either)
9. Good Will Hunting
10. Graduate
11. Godfather
12. Pretty In Pink
13. Breakfast At Tiffany’s
14. Princess Bride
15. Wedding Singer
16. My Best Friend’s Wedding
17. It’s A Wonderful Life
18. Waiting For Guffman
19. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
20. Animal House
21. Batman - The Dark Night
22. Spiderman 1
23. Anchorman
24. Running With Scissors
25. The King’s Speech
26. Black Swan
27. 127 Hours
28. Hurt Locker
29. A Beautiful Mind
30. Schindler’s List
31. American Beauty
32. All The President’s Men
33. Good Night and Good Luck
34. Philadelphia
35. Sleepless in Seattle
36. Gladiator
37. Crash (full disclosure: I’ve seen Crash but I don’t remember a second of it)
38. The Departed
39. When Harry Met Sally
40. Dancing With Wolves
41. Sixteen Candles
42. Breakfast Club
43. The Patriot
44. Independence Day (one of Brian’s favorite movies)
45. The Great Escape (one of Kristin’s favorite movies)
46. Jurassic Park
47. Driving Miss Daily
48. Paper Moon (one of my mom’s favorite movies)
49. Shawshank Redemption
50.      

Alright, if you’ve made it this far, congratulations! Now you see, I only have 49 movies on this list. Who likes the number 49… it’s one away from 50! So if you read this far, please leave me your favorite movie not already on this list (duh) that I should watch!