Since my birthday was last week I figured I will give a quick synopsis:
The whole time was spent with David. I even stayed at his place from Wednesday through Sunday (sadly today brought my return to the real world and to my place). On Wednesday after David got off work we went to get the preparations for my birthday dinner at a place called Local Harvest. The penne pasta and sauce was made by Mangia. I figured something like this would work well for both myself and my omnivorous boyfriend. We then walked back home and watched “Annie Hall”–a good movie if you haven’t seen it.
At midnight my boyfriend woke me up to sing happy birthday to me. Which was ridiculously sweet. We ate at Local Harvest for breakfast (there’s a grocery and a restaurant) and I ended up with a free cookie due to my birthday! Then we met up with Meredith and Ganesha to visit this place called Remains that repurposes old clothing. It’s quite interesting and very exhilarating to go through the bins after the very fascinating tour.
Following this we were on our own and we decided to travel through part of the Hill that was near where he lived–the area near St. Ambrose Catholic Church. It’s absolutely beautiful there and it was insane how quiet it was there. It was like we’d left the city entirely. There were cute bakeries and gift shops. There was also a high fashion store there called Spif<3. What I really enjoyed was finding the coffee shopShaw’s Coffee. It’s what I consider an amazing repurposing of a building. It used to be a bank. There is even a backroom with seating that used to be a room with safe deposit boxes. I, of course wanted to sit in there! They also have some beautiful paint work in that backroom. After the trip through one more grocery, we set off toSweetArt.
SweetArt is this beautiful bakery/cafe that was opened in the Shaw Neighborhood a little over a year ago. Raine does the baking while her husband Cbabi creates amazing works of art. Everything they’ve had has been delicious. I’ve actually had to limit my trips to once or twice a week depending because I seriously have no impulse control around their delicious food and cupcakes. If you live in the Saint Louis area you simply MUST go. You’re missing out if you don’t. Anyway, David and I bought cupcakes in lieu of a birthday cake. A bonus was that it was cupcake happy hour! Half a dozen cupcakes for less than 8 dollars. We went back home and made our dinner. Unfortunately even my garlic-loving self almost couldn’t handle how much garlic was in the sauce. I think if I use the sauce next time I’ll make sure it’s more than just a penne and sauce kind of dish so that I can break it up a bit. The penne noodles were amazing though. I’d get those again in a heartbeat.
After dinner we watched “Ghost”–my birthday present. I couldn’t think of a better way to end the day than watching a movie cuddled up to your favorite person.
Friday was a lowkey day where I ended up having a leisurely breakfast and then David and I ended up going to the zoo because he’d never been. I have mixed feelings about zoos. The day was so pretty though I needed to be out in the sunshine since I’ve been miserable since the temperatures dropped below 50 degrees. We ended up doing more but I’m drawing a blank. Isn’t that frustrating?!
Saturday is what made me induct David into sainthood. He spent the day with my family with me. I ended up getting a netbook for my birthday. The day was ridiculously stressful because it’s very hard to wrangle roughly eight people and keep them all on task. We ended up finishing off the night with some Schlafly beer atBoogaloo.
Unfortunately–through no fault of Boogaloo–some jerks at the next table threatened to beat up my sister’s boyfriend over my one year old nephew being a baby (read occasional squeals and what not but not overly so. He’s very well behaved and we were quite attentive to his needs). The cowardly couple ended up waiting until only my sister, her boyfriend and the baby were there because they had to finish up a beer while we were getting things coordinated outside with cars and such. I’m glad nothing came of it in the end but I’m going to emphasize right now that violence is never okay. Threats of advice aren’t either. If you’re unhappy in a crowded and loud restaurant (it was very busy–good on Boogaloo) over a small child that’s not very loud maybe you shouldn’t be out in the first place. If you don’t like children, that’s fine, don’t sit next to one. I respect that not everyone likes kids but there comes a point that if you know there’s a child near where you’re going to be seated then perhaps you should ask to be seated elsewhere. Once again, violence is never okay.
Sleep was what occurred next. It was really the only option.
Sunday yielded an exploration of the central west end. We hadn’t really been to the area since it’d gotten cold because this winter had been really harsh and since I can’t regulate my body temperature very well I’d have only ruined the experience for David and myself. It was a nice break before buying groceries and cooking for the dinner get together we had with my friend Jon and his boyfriend Daniel. During this span of time Jon put linux on my netbook. I recommend it since even with a top of the line netbook like I have windows is still a bit heavy for the poor thing.
The night ended with having to drop my wonderful boyfriend off and a drive back to my place. This was an amazing long weekend. I couldn’t have asked for a better one.
I’ve decided that I’m going to update on Mondays and Wednesdays. Sometimes Thursdays but there won’t be a weigh in since I’ll have weighed on Wednesday. These are the days I am guaranteed to work out. I am planning on working out another day or so but we’ll see. I’m trying not to burn myself out.
Next, onto my weigh in and weight loss themed stuff:
So, today I weighed in at 255. Yes, I’ve gained a pound but I don’t think it’s too bad considering I took pretty much a week off from the rest of the world (including food responsibility). I’ll drop that back off pretty easily. I’m not worried about that.
I forgot my running shoes today so I ended up doing a sit-down bike on level 14 for about 30 minutes. I also started my goes on the 200 situps and 100 pushups. The crunches weren’t so bad but the pushups nearly killed me. It’s been a while, but they’ll get easier. I feel better already. I feel a little extra tension in my neck but I can handle that.
Today I’ve been really good about buying random snacks at my coffee shop. I just got some coffee and I’ve been trying to work on my physics homework… which sucks. It’s not supposed to be hard but I do believe I’ve psyched myself out.