I Love My Neighborhood Because...

            Of it's proximity to these two places.  Sweet Green and Lululemon.  And remember when I told y'all about my obsession with lemonade slash my inner conflict between my need to indulge in certain Fall beverages while also satisfying said obsession?  Well, Sweet Green has gone and solved my problem with this...

Apple Cider Lemonade.  I died.

            And the charm of little places like the Georgetown Barber and this green shop that sells random tchotchkes (I just had to google the spelling of that word by the way) including some bizarre lawn ornaments...since everyone in Gtown has a lawn and everything.

             Another reason why I'm digging the new hood?  The fact that my walks with the Cooper man take me here.  A spot that is just as beautiful on a gloomy, chilly day as it is on a day like this.

            Oh and I'm also loving that my neighborhood is not too far from the sister's neighborhood which means Sunday afternoons are spent going to yoga and sipping Smoothies and basically doing whatever I want because this girl don't got no homework.  Eeee!

Here's hoping you had a peaceful Sunday and have lots of fun planned 

for the upcoming week!

Lemonade, a Book Fair, and a Weekend Recap

            Well I guess my bold proclamations about my love affair with Fall scared the poor guy away.  There was a brief moment there when the air turned chilly and the smell of a bonfire lingered in the air but over the past few days D.C. has been slightly akin to a swamp.  So though I've had the urge to reach for that pumpkin spice latte (speaking of which, have you read this?  Extreme yet hilarious) or a mug of Frothy Monkey hot apple cider, I swapped those out for my summer go-to on a dinner date with the sister friend the other night.

            Lemonade at Pizza Paradiso...but not just regular lemonade.  Sparkling lemonade.  And let me tell you I think I'm hooked.  I really, really like lemonade.  And limeade (from Mayberry in Winston-Salem, of course).  And raspberry lemonade.  You get the point.  And as much as I was ready to fall head over heels for Fall, it was kind of nice to savor one last taste of summer before the first official day of Autumn arrived.

            And if a whole paragraph about my affinity for lemonade wasn't thrilling enough for you, here is a little recap of my weekend in the District.  On Saturday (after spending far too many hours at the Georgetown DMV), I joined some friends at the National Book Festival on the Mall.  Though I think that the teachers I was with enjoyed a little bit more than I did, it was a fun excuse to look at children's books and buy Madeline at the White House for absolutely no reason.

Absolute.  Misery.  

Which made way for a pretty fun afternoon...

            Other events of the weekend included wine at Veritas, brainstorming a massive food truck crawl with my friend Marv, dinner at Los Cuates, and a night out in Georgetown that was a little bit too much of a flashback to undergrad.  Remind me never to go to Rhino again.  Hope you had a happy weekend!

A September Celebration

            This is a year of big birthdays.  The most important, of course, being my 25th birthday which is coming up in just a few weeks.  Though my fear of getting older is as evident now as I approach the quarter life mark as it ever has been, this girl loves a birthday and believes that it should be celebrated in a big way.  But enough about my birthday (that post is yet to come...after the big bash in less than two weeks!), this past weekend an important man in my life celebrated his entry into his 9th decade.  That's right, this man turned 80 on Sunday.

             And to celebrate, he decided that the most appropriate way to mark the anniversary of his birth was to spend the afternoon at a shooting lodge.  Yep, a shooting lodge.  I am personally terrified of guns and have never had the desire to shoot one but after some serious bullying (ahem, Dad) I decided I would suck it up and try it just one time.  Okay, I tried it three times.  And hit two out of three "birds" thank you very much.  I think people were a little afraid that I was actually going to kill one of my relatives when I did my little victory dance but when you hit more targets than the boys I think a victory dance is warranted.  I can't play tennis to save my life (though I really, really try to be good at it) but put a rifle in my hands and I'm suddenly a natural.  But don't worry, I'm not hooked on it by any means and after three shots I decided to hang up my gun, cross that one off the bucket list, and call it a day.  Overall, the afternoon was tons of fun and I think that the big man enjoyed his special day!

            In other news, I'm sorry for being a bad blogger lately and falling prey to the busy-ness of Fall and a new job and starting a new life in a new city.  But it's the season of pumpkin spice lattes, apple picking, and cool Autumn nights perfect for snuggling and drinking red wine on the patio so you can be sure that I will have lots of mushy gushy things to say about my favorite season and all of the joy that comes with it.  

Oh, and stay tuned for the full photo tour of my new home coming soon.  

Cause I'm kind of in love with it.

Loving Labor Day

            Even though I have only just tiptoed into the real adult world, I am oh so grateful for the built in breaks that this whole career thing provides.  In order to mark this little holiday during which we all celebrate labor by not laboring, I first spent some time enjoying my new city (in the way of a Friday night out on U Street and a Saturday morning recovering with a necessary caffeine fix from my neighborhood coffee shop) and then headed to my favorite place to take in some boat rides, a killer sunset, and time with the family during which my dad did yoga and Grandpa Ball joined Twitter.  Oh yeah, there was a little bit of wine drinking too.  By the way, it took all of the self-control I have to resist posting the picture of John Ball in tree pose on here but I need him to help me do my taxes this year so I used some self-control.

Oh yeah and Cooper had fun too...

            This week I am looking forward to a four day work week and some catch up time with the BFF who skipped town and headed to Boston for a month immediately upon my arrival in D.C.  How dare she.  And though the forecasted 70's and rain might put a damper on the next few days, I'm excited to head north for my own New England mini-vacay this weekend.  Hope you enjoyed your long weekend!