I’m Alive!

WOW!

Sorry I’ve been so MIA but I have good reason!

First of all, what was supposed to be a quiet, early night at Virginia’s on King ended up being a little more crazy with cocktails, wine and pizza. My friend Lara met Alissa, Christie and I out and we ended up staying out till 11 then coming home and crashing. Let’s just say it twas a very early wake-up call at 6:00 am this morning! 🙁

Here are some highlights:

My new obsession: firefly sweet tea vodka. Why have I never heard of this before?! It was love at first sight. I had two Holy City Mint Teas to start off the evening and they were, quite possibly, the best drink I’ve ever had.

Lara and I reunite!

After a few drinkies at the wine bar we headed next door for some very authentic Italian style pizza! Lara and I split a Campari pizza, which had goat cheese, buffalo mozzarella, eggplant and capers on it and was divine!

We each ate three slices…..total and complete Italian yum!

And of course no Italian meal would be complete without a glass cup of red table wine!

After we ate we headed to the Mexican place next door so Alissa could get a margarita….she had been wanting one all night! The girls talked me into trying raspberry firefly on the rocks but it was GROSS and I didn’t drink any of it!

That’s my EEWWWWW face!

No one was that thrilled with their cocktails there so we left and headed BACK to the wine bar where we got sangria!

Sangria was much better! 😉

Proud to say there was no “drunk eating” and at 11:00 we all rolled on in. Alissa ended up sleeping over and I woke up at 6 am feeling GREAT! Well not “great” but no headache or anything. I am in desperate need of a major Green Monster though, I’ll tell ya that!

I had planned ahead and bought a honey wheat bagel for the road, which I promptly inhaled at 6:30 smeared with Mighty Maple pb—-

And I also “drank” an applesauce (by drink I mean I didn’t have a spoon to use!):

I got these yummy little treats in the mail to sample and I tried the Raspberry Acai today and LOVED it! I love flavored applesauce but its hard to find a good one without added sugar. Definitely look for this at the store—I can’t wait to sample the other flavors!

A couple hours into my drive I started to feel the effects of last night. Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy! I was searching for a Starbucks but couldn’t find and the next best thing was……..McDonalds?!

I RARELY go to McDonalds, and by rarely I mean never. However, I will admit that their new vanilla cappuccino McCafe was quite……yummy! I just tried not to think about how many grams of sugar and weird artificial things I was pumping into my blood. Yuck.

The drive was pretty much uneventful. I listened to The Reader, which was awesome—I highly recommend it! I definitely want to watch the movie now that I’ve listened to the audiobook. I stopped at Subway for lunch because that’s all there was and I hadn’t packed anything. I had a 6″ veggie & cheese sub on honey wheat with a yogurt!

Mehhhhh. Not a fan of these yogurts anymore. I guess my taste buds have just changed…..all this tasted like to me was fake sugar. I’m surprised it didn’t give me a migraine actually! You live you learn!

I pulled into Tampa around 1:15 and went straight to the gym to do some cardio. This was definitely more for my mental sanity than anything else.  I needed to relieve some anxiety about my brother’s graduation and hammered out 20 minutes on the elliptical (gag) and 10 minutes walking on a steep, steep incline on the treadmill. Afterwards, I took a long steam and hot shower and felt better.

My brother’s graduation went as well as it could possibly go. Of course it was incredibly sad but I had a mini breakdown in the car today and I think that saved me from losing it during the service. Crying and screaming in your own car by yourself sometimes is just a better option. 🙂 When my brother’s name was called my dad walked up and accepted the diploma and EVERYONE in the auditorium stood up and gave a huge round of applause for my brother. I couldn’t believe that 1,800 people stood up…..it was the most touching thing in my entire life, other than his service. He was just so, so loved.

On the way to the ceremony I started to get pretty hungry from my workout so I dug out this amazing little beauty because Lord knows I need my greens after last night! 😉

When we got home my mom made yet another amazing dinner! I love, love, LOVE traveling but there’s nothing like a home cooked meal by mama. I’m just lucky my mama is such a healthy chef! On the menu tonight was pan friend mustard chicken topped with homemade caesar coleslaw. Sort of like an upside down chicken caesar salad—-recipe from one of our favorite cookbooks, Cook What You Love.

No booze for this cool cat tonight—I need to DETOX!

However, whats a great dinner without dessert?! This was my first time trying these chocolate almond bars and they might be my new favorite thing ever.

It’s 8:00 and I’m finally home. I’m exhausted both mentally and physically but definitely very happy that I went to Charleston! It was exactly the kind of “breather” that I needed and now I’m ready to tackle anything that may come my way, most importantly the Paddle Out Memorial we are holding for my brother this coming up weekend in Vero Beach, FL where we grew up. I think about 30 of his friends are making the 2 1/2 hour drive across the state to paddle out on their surfboards with us and scatter John’s ashes into the ocean, his favorite spot.

I’m off to unpack and regroup. A HUGE congratulations to the Tampa Prep Class of 2009!! I teared up watching my brother’s classmates and friends as they walked across the stage today to get their diplomas. I’ve watched so many of these kids mature into young adults over the past few years and I’m so proud to know each and every one of them. I pretty much consider John’s best friends to be my brothers now and I love them all so much.

Also, another HUGE congrats to Miss Meghann for rocking her first marathon!!!!!!!!

G’nite!

Click here to read all about my Green Monster smoothies on Creative Loafing! 🙂