Things I Learned This Weekend

Sometimes you just need a Friday to yourself.
I woke up Friday morning very late, with a headache, as it poured outside. So I made the executive decision to work from home. It cleared up as the day went on and I took a long lunch to just be out and run some errands. It was perfect.

Having a craft store accessible by metro is going to change my life.
A variety store re-opened in Bethesda about a block from where one of my close friends lives. I checked it out for us on Friday and OH MY WORD it's got a huge craft section. I didn't have my full list of ongoing craft needs but I did buy fabric, bobbins, embroidery floss, and other things. I'm probably going to be here once a week.

A clean home is a happy home. Unfortunately.
I hate cleaning. Hate hate hate it. But sometimes you just have to. So I picked up a bunch of things on Friday night, made a mess again on Saturday, and then re-cleaned with broom and vacuum and swiffer and spray all over again on Sunday. It sucks but it is nice to come home to.

My first writer's conference was awesome.
On Saturday I attended my first writer's conference. It was held at a Johns Hopkins building in Dupont Circle and was created by Barrelhouse literary magazine. It was an all-day conference with a keynote speaker and three breakout sessions. I learned so much and got a lot of inspiration for my own work. It was very reasonably priced and so close to home that I couldn't not go, and I'm glad that was the case.

Working out and crafting are great ways to end a busy Saturday.
I was very tired on Saturday after a 9-5 day of conferencing, but I still made myself exercise and do things. After a brief nap, of course.

There's just no good way to spray paint indoors.
In this week's installment of Bonnie Attempts Spray Painting In Her Apartment, this is what I tried:

I saw on Pinterest where someone created a sort of spray tent using a cheap hanging garment bag. I attempted the same thing only I didn't want to pay for a bigger one so I got this smaller one. Which, as you imagine, didn't quite work since there wasn't exactly a lot of room to spray. I also didn't take into account how I would hang it. Thank goodness for (UNC) duck tape and bungee cords. On the upside, I haven't been able to spray paint in awhile but I got to use my sprayer and tarp and mask. Yay!

D.C. is confusing, maps suck, and spray paint might hurt your brain.
I was meeting Brandie for brunch and a movie on Sunday and got so turned around and kept going in the wrong direction in roundabout ways. She blamed my spray painting from the previous night. I blamed maps and D.C. and the fact that I move so much faster than the little blue dot on my map app.

All restaurants should be housed in former fire stations.
Whilst hunting for brunch options, I came across Sixth Engine, a restaurant near Chinatown that is housed in a former fire station. 

It had such cool ambiance and decor, not to mention delicious mimosas and chocolate chip flapjacks. (And they were flapjacks, not pancakes, as the waitress corrected Brandie.)

Ryan Gosling is attractive even with tattoos, bad hair, and bad clothes.
But it can't make up for the depressing, heavy handed, and long winded "A Place Beyond the Pines." B and I had to see it, of course, as we do all Ryan's movies, but this was not a good one.

Don't get angry at Barnes and Noble when you can't find the book you're looking for. When it hasn't been released yet.
I have a B&N gift card that I keep forgetting about and thought on Sunday I'd use it to buy the new Audrey book written by her second son. Well, after fruitlessly searching the store for it and about to haughtily ask for it and mention that Amazon had it in stock, I realized it wasn't out yet. Oops. At least I realized it before huffing and puffing.

When you find yourself hand painting the horns on two ram figures Carolina blue, step away from the crafting.
They look adorable though and are going to make awesome bookends eventually. I have no regrets.  

29...let's go, DC!

I really do love my birthday. So much so that I celebrate my entire birthday month, where I do little things for myself throughout the month just because.

However, I've had a problem for awhile of "making" non-family members celebrate with me. As in, I felt like if I invited people to hang out or do something, it would be like forcing them to celebrate me. I have absolutely no reason for thinking this, no friend who has ever cursed me for making him or her drink and eat cake.

So this year I sucked it up and invited a bunch of DC friends to have dessert and drinks at a small restaurant in my neighborhood for my "29 for the first time" birthday thing. And friends came -- a lot, like, I was a little worried why they didn't have better things to do -- and we all had fun. I was a bit nervous combining so many of my worlds -- best friends, book club friends, and work friends -- but it worked out.

 
The restaurant was very accommodating and we had the bar to ourselves. (The most people at any point in the restaurant aside from us was 4). They put the Packers v. Vikings playoff game on the TVs for my friends. They had "super sized" wine servings. (Which I would come to regret hours later.) And at one point they even asked me what music I wanted to hear. (The answer? Rhianna, of course, as my friend Shana had just gifted me concert tickets for her in the spring!)

 
I put my friend Becky on picture duty and she did a wonderful job. I feel weird posting pictures of those who don't read the blog, so I'll cram those together in a collage.

At some point, after watching the game, two of the guys decided to have a footrace in front of the restaurant. It was amazing and also a little sad.

When I went to order dessert and asked for chocolate cake, of course, I was told they were out of chocolate. Yes, out of chocolate! I ordered other things instead -- no idea what -- and then Shana had them bring out a tart with a candle. It wasn't chocolate, but it was sweet.

If you'll indulge my vanity for a second: my outfit. I never need an excuse for a new outfit, but I managed to put the night's ensemble together with a dress and accessories I already had, with the exception of the newly purchased back seam tights. The inspiration was this lovely lady in a photo posted on Pinterest.

 
Vanity over, now to a little mushiness.

It was really was exactly what I wanted and I'm just beyond grateful for the wonderful friends that I have here. So grateful just thinking about them all over again that I may cry so I'm just going to stop.

I don't deserve any of them but I love them all.

And that is the last of my holiday posts, hooray!

Celebrate Good Times

Way back in November one of my best friends got engaged! So then way back in December we went out to hang out and celebrate, of course.

This is B with a glass of Prosecco and the engagement card I got her.

She liked that the card matched our drinks. I like that she let me try on her ring. So shiny!

Perhaps because we were celebrating such an important occasion. Perhaps because we hadn't hung out for a month. (Gasp!) Perhaps because we just tend to get a little silly when we go out. But whatever the reason, the night took us from a restaurant to a hotel to a bar, plotting and laughing and chatting (and drinking) all the way.

We ended up at Hotel Monaco, which for some reason we gravitate toward.

Where we like to take silly pictures in the bathroom mirror and anywhere else that strikes our fancy. (Like this chair.)

We were both hating life a bit the next day, but you only get engaged once, hopefully, so I think it was worth it.

Day 172: She left through the restaurant window

At a happy hour tonite to celebrate the birthday of a friend, I left the restaurant through a open window/sliding glass, instead of a door. Three people had done so right before me, and the waiter was at our table. It was perfectly legit and I had paid. And, I had had nothing to drink.