Continued from Part 1…
Sunday – Hat Pick – stay in, play video games, and order delivery. Yeah, if you insist. We played Peggle, Crystal Chronicles, finished Brutal Legend, and started Dragon Age. We ordered way too much chinese delivery (although, you’d be proud of me, I stuck mostly to my egg drop soup, shrimp with garlic sauce, and vegetarian delight and saved half of the latter two for the next day).
Monday – Hat Pick – make the trek to ikea and buy ONLY what’s on this list. This is huge – we usually are AWFUL at Ikea and buy way too much stuff. We had a set list – new curtains, a new comforter, a new body pillow, a wok, and a few other things. We ended up with a few odd things in the cart, but it was less than 10 bucks extra. We had a lot of other shopping to do that day, plus we had hit the gym first for a run. It was a long day!
Tuesday – Hat Pick – Make a movie. FAIL! I wrote up a script, and then my back decided to go all rogue on me. We went out to help my parents pick out a TV and then went up to help them set it up and have dinner. I’m not sure if moving around a bit helped or hurt it, but it was what it was. We decided to put it back in the hat for another time.
Wednesday – re-organize the DVDs. FAIL! I was just in so much pain I couldn’t really leave the couch. We played lots of games and watched movies. Zliten went out with a friend and I couldn’t even go with. I sat on the couch and felt sorry for myself, and tried to mow down some chocolate to make me feel better, but instinctively after 3 hershey kisses, I exchanged it for a mad large bag of carrots and pea pods. Srsly, I can’t even emotionally eat properly.
Thursday – Not a hat pick- New Years Eve outing. I was still hurty when I awoke but better than I had been. We cleaned the house and headed out early to have some dinner and drinky shenannegins!
It was cold and windy so we pretty much stayed inside everywhere we went. I had some appetizers and wasn’t hungry so I skipped dinner when everyone else ordered, but then forgot to grab anything later. Needless to say, I remember toasting champagne at the bar, making a resolution to spend next NYE in Cancun (I was very specific), and then woke up in my makeup and contacts around 9am the next morning. Yay NYE fun!
Friday – Not a hat pick – Hangover day. Zliten and I woke up early feeling pretty good, so he whipped us up some breakfast and we had another couchy day. Then, the hangover started to settle in mid-afternoon so we ordered some pizza. I ended up eating 5 slices of pizza and most of a gigantic family size salad. Not my finest hour, but not ridiculously horrible for 2 meals worth of food when I forgot to eat dinner the day before. Early sleep was awesome.
Saturday – Sort of a hat pick – Day trip to Fredricksburg. It was going to be in the hat, but we had made plans to go with some of our friends so it had to be planned. I woke up early to finally get in a workout because I friggin’ felt better (fiiiinally). They drove us up, we met one of their friends and had beers and lunch at a brewery (my god, the best meatloaf I’ve ever had, and Zliten got down a whole sausage sampler – bratwurst, knockwurst, and pepperwust), and then we walked around shopping for a while. Want some slabs of marble?
Geez, everything was ridici-expensive. I’m sorry, but thrift stores have spoiled me. The only thing I found that I would have purchased was this vintage-y looking black and white psychadellic coat that was a one of a kind from France somewhere, and only 80 bucks. Alas, it was a little too small. Zliten found an awesome cowboy hat, but it was too big. So we left to drown our shopping sorrows with more alcohol.
We hit up a fancy little wine bar where I had a yummy french chardonnay and a truffle or two (yes, breaking my no sweets and alcohol together rule but now I understand why people who drink nice wine eat chocolates with it – yum), and then we moved on to another german place to have dinner. I ordered some goolash and a salad. Goolash = sounds gross but it was AWESOME spicy beef stew. One of our friends ordered a dish – I don’t remember what it was called, but it was pickles, onions, and mustard rolled up into slices of roast beef, baked, and smothered in gravy. Sound FREAKING GROSS, right? Nuh uh. It was way yummy. The boys loved it too.
The verdict? I could never live there, as I would get super fat on German food. As it was, a lot of people in the town had a beer and brat gut – call me superficial, but it was VERY obvious healthy living was not generally the norm there. It was freaky weird. I forget how healthy-fit Austin is sometimes compared to the rest of the world. It was a cute little town and the people were SUPER NICE (though we were being led around by a local friend of a friend who was super awesome too).
Sunday – Not a hat pick – Laundry, Cleaning, and Grocery-obtaining. Normal Sunday stuff. I didn’t want to go into Monday with a tumultuous house, no clean clothes, and no menu for the week, so we did stuff. But mostly, we spent the day glued to the couch for one more day. Zliten made yummy burgers for lunch and we rid our fridge of leftovers for dinner. Finally, at the end of the day, I realized I was very very much ready to return to routine the next day.
Yesterday, my first day at work, it wasn’t so bad to be back. I enjoyed my run. Waking up at 8:45 (which was 45 minutes later than I wanted) was freaking early, but 11pm came and I was tired. Like normal.
So, is it spring yet? This is my least favorite time of year. At least when it’s starting to get cold, I have the holidays to look forward to – but now it’s (Austin’s version of) butt-ass cold here for at least the next week, and I don’t have another super cool thing to look forward to until the half marathon (which right now, means running outside so I’m not entirely sure I’m looking forward to it at the moment… though I did actually sign up and pay today so I’m pretty pumped). What was the coolest holiday thing you did? What are you feverishly looking forward to now?
I'm a video game producer and a lover of anything game related by trade. I'm a triathlete by hobby. I live for being on or in the water as much as I can - scuba diving, snorkeling, paddleboarding, water slides... you name it. The dichotomy between my outdoor and indoor realities are interesting, but they're all mine! Longer version