In Loving Memory

There's a good reason for my silence on the blog for the past few weeks.

On Friday, May 3, both my grandfather and grandmother passed away in the same afternoon.

They had been married 71 years, and I can only hope that God just didn't want them to spend a day apart so they went to heaven together that day.

While my dad lost both of his parents in a matter of hours, he said there were a lot of blessings in their deaths.

Blessings of faith, and of love.

My grandfather was 95 and my grandmother was 91. They lived long, fulfilling lives. I'll miss them both very much, but find peace in knowing they're together.

M.I.A.

Hi pretties! I didn't mean to be M.I.A. for the rest of the week/weekend, but it looks like that's going to be happening, mainly because of this email I received from TripIt:

weeeeee!

I was on a committee for a firm event we hosted yesterday, so I was mostly running around from noon-10 pm last night trying to make sure everything was running smoothly while also entertaining clients, but I'm not really complaining when the event required me to attend a baseball game at 2 pm on a Tuesday....

Rough life, right?

And apparently coworkers who work together a lot apparently start to dress alike too....

Yes. Sarah and I are wearing the exact same sweater from J.Crew. It started to get embarrassing when at least 5 people commented on the fact that we were matching.

I'm also trying to work 40 hours by Thursday at 5:30 so we can hit the road and I don't have to take PTO for Friday!

I hope everyone has a fabulous hump day and I can't wait to tell you about all of our adventures in New Orleans!

A Day in Asheville

On Sunday, Ryan and I headed to Asheville to frolic around for the day.

First stop: Tupelo Honey Cafe

Hot damn, that restaurant is delicious. I'm counting down the days until they open in Greenville, just so I can get my hands on those biscuits again.

Next Stop: The Biltmore Estate

Ryan had never been before, but we decided to forego the house tour so we can go back and see it decorated at Christmas! We wandered around outside the house for a bit, but I really wanted to see the gardens!

Every spring, they plant tons of tulips in the garden and I was freaking out over how pretty it was.

I probably would've just laid down in the field of tulips and taken a nap if they would've let me!

Next stop: Biltmore Winery

A free tasting was included in our ticket, and we took full advantage by tasting all 20 wines they had available. Ryan and I were both surprised to find we liked one of their Chardonnays the best (it's our least favorite wine), so we purchased a bottle and a cheese plate and soaked up the sunshine on the winery's patio.

Next stop: Downtown Asheville

Drinks at Thirsty Monk and dinner at The Southern (both are places we had visited back in July)

Final Stop: The Sky Bar

My coworker, Whitney, used to live in Asheville and told me this place had the best view of Asheville (I'd have to agree with her)! The bar is a little secretive in that you enter through the old Flatiron building and ring a doorbell for the elevator attendant. He then takes you up to the 8th floor in the hand-operated elevator, and you step outside into the "bar," which is basically just 3 levels of fire escapes. They had a fire brewing on the middle level, so Ryan and I huddled there to watch the sunset.

A perfect ending to a perfect day in Asheville!

Weekend Update

Weekends rock my socks off.

Ryan and I got back from Asheville late last night, so I'll have to post about our trip tomorrow! Instead, I have some snapshots from Saturday (and one from Friday). We managed to pack in a lot of fun activities in 24 hours!

{1.} The rainy view from Ryan's apartment window on Friday afternoon.

{2}. I finally cashed in a gift certificate for a massage that Ryan had given me for my birthday. The masseuse spent about 30 minutes trying to work out the knots in my shoulders. I guess that's what happens when you sit at a computer for 12 hours a day!

{3-4}. Ryan met me downtown for brunch at Nose Dive, complete with mimosas and an all-you-can-eat grits bar. Heaven? I think so.

{5-7}. We rented bikes for the afternoon and rode around town. How awesome are the roots on this tree in Falls Park? I'm obsessed. Also, it hurts to sit now.

{8.} We rewarded ourselves after our 3 hour bike ride with some gelato from Luna Rosa. I went with my favorite flavor, Caramel Latte Crunch, but really, I wanted to eat them all!

I hope everyone had an equally fantastic weekend! Usually I dread Mondays, but I just have 4 short days of work this week and then we're off to New Orleans for Jazz Fest! Productivity is expected to be at an all-time low..

Instagram Recap

Sorry for the radio silence around here. Work ( + everything happening in Boston) was making me super grumpy this week and my mom always said, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

But it's the weekend and that makes me very happy! 

I did get to have a little fun on Monday of this week (<-- officially the end of busy season, booya!)

Our office has 8 tickets to the Greenville Drive games and they give them away to all the employees in a lottery. Sarah happened to win tickets for Monday night, so she and I, plus our roomies, made a night of it by stopping by Liberty Tap Room for dinner beforehand.

I don't hate Monday nights that involve soft pretzels and queso, Goose Island 312 brews, front row seats (first baseball game of the year!), free popcorn, and best friends.

If I could just repeat every Monday night, life would be golden!

Linking up with Sara Elizabeth

Pray for Boston

My morning post was already scheduled last weekend, but I couldn't let today pass without saying a few words about the tragedy in Boston.

Boston. I love that city.

I got chills when I took this picture of the marathon finish line in Boston last fall.

Yesterday, a sorority sister of mine was running the Boston Marathon. About halfway through the day, I remembered her sister had posted her bib number to track her during the race. Curious, I went the marathon website and typed in her number, only to find she was doing fantastic! At the time I was tracking her (around 2:15 pm), she only had 5 miles left of the race and I knew she was going to break 4 hours (unreal). I was so pumped for her when she crossed the finish line at 2:43 pm in 3 hours and 58 minutes. YOU GO SAM!

And then I was g-chatting with my sister when she told me there had been an explosion at the finish line, at approximately 2:45 pm.

I kind of definitely freaked out. I checked all forms of social media incessantly for 30 minutes until Sam posted on Facebook that she and her family were safe. Thank God.

My heart breaks for everyone involved in this tragedy, on what should have been a huge accomplishment for so many people. It makes me angry.

I will be praying for Boston, and its people.

Paleo Challenge Recap

Well folks, if you can do the math, it has not in fact been 30 days since I started the Paleo Challenge, but I've already failed so I might as well jump ahead to the recap.

If you remember correctly, this challenge allowed me to eat nothing. Just meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, and nuts. That's it.

I'm here to say that is near impossible for me for 30 days. Maybe I just don't have any willpower, but a life without cheese, bread, popcorn or anything that actually tastes good is not one I want to live.

But I'll give you the run-down on my thoughts of the challenge (in completely random order):

1. My stomach honestly does feel better (which was the whole point in the first place). I haven't had beer or pasta since I started the challenge and I can tell a difference. I did have to cheat and eat bread - it's incredibly hard to eat quick, semi-healthy lunches while eliminating sandwiches completely. My coworkers and I had lunch at Panera one day and I had a sandwich and salad. Oh well.
2. I hated how my coworkers had to narrow down lunch options because of my diet. The only way I even had a chance of surviving the challenge was to tell my coworkers what I could and couldn't eat. So every day when it came time to decide where we were eating lunch, they were constantly saying, "Oh, how about this place?" "Oh yeah, you can't eat there." And my poor coworker is several months pregnant and super sick, so the fact that she was worried about what I could eat instead of what she could stomach, really bothered me.
3. I actually like drinking my coffee black! This is shocking to me, as I always put a splash of cream and sugar in my coffee every morning. But once I got used to drinking it black, I don't even think about it now.
4. Having such a restrictive diet is completely impossible to maintain long-term. Especially since this was voluntary on my part. I wasn't getting a single ounce of calcium from anything I was eating, which I know isn't a good thing.
5. I missed my old breakfast of a whole grain waffle topped with peanut butter and bananas. It's one of my favorites and immediately went back into the rotation after I gave up on the challenge.
6. Almond butter is absolutely not a substitute for peanut butter. That is all I have to say about that.
7. Eating is one of my favorite activites of all time (go ahead and judge me) and this challenge made me hate meal time. Since I couldn't eat anything I actually wanted, I dreaded having to decide what to order in restaurants at lunch and for dinner during the weekends. It made me cranky. Some nights I just skipped dinner all together because nothing sounded appetizing. I also stopped trying new recipes completely because every recipe I want to try doesn't fit the "paleo" rules.
8. I'm glad I did this challenge (at least for 15 days), so I know I should probably limit the amount of grains in my diet and I don't think dairy is the culprit.
9. I do still plan on at least considering the things I order when I'm eating out so I can avoid the tummy aches later!

So while I may have totally failed at the challenge, I'm perfectly content with a dinner of chips and salsa.

So worth it.