summary of a weekend

One word to summarize this weekend- busy

It was kicked off on Friday night with an awesome Dominican dinner at Sabroso and long conversations that lasted into the night with some of our favorites- PJ & Cristina. I really regret not capturing the beauty of the pulled pork pizza that we got to sample. I love a brand new restaurant with a super friendly owner who wants to use you as a guinea pig with their new concoctions. I’m always down for that..

I did get an enjoyable lazy start on Saturday but the rest of the day was spent shopping. Best purchases of the day include this teal bag ($35- Marshalls) intended to be used in San Fran



And the green/white striped topped you get can get a peak of ($12.80- and it came with a belt!- at Forever21). Other purchases involve a coral top ($6.50- Forever21) along with 2 shorts and a tank top (Joyce Leslie). Unfortunately, the shorts are going back. That’s what I get for not trying them on.

P.S- Do you know what this means?? Since I didn’t spend too much on this shopping trip I think I may reward myself with some leopard pants. Yeah buddy!

We had a slight change of plans on Sunday. Originally, brunch at Aunt Erika’s was set for 1 p.m. It ended up being rescheduled (I’m sorrrrrry…Ryan made me do it) after we were invited here

 

by Deanna and Przemek. We caravanned with Przemek’s BMW buddies through NYC into Jersey, which was half the fun, and scoped out the all the pretty cars

 

   

for a few hours. Brandon Jacobs was there

 

so I’m glad we went..I would’ve never heard the end of it from Ryan if we didn’t go, even though he’s not a Giants fan.

We capped off our day out with linner (a meal that’s eaten anywhere from 3 p.m till 5:30 p.m when you have no intention of eating dinner but usually includes dessert later on) at Bozena which is now on my “must return to” list to have perogies and salad bar. Of course (after hours of reading and napping) ice cream at Coyle’s ended our night, and weekend

date night

Last week, the hubby and I had, in my opinion, a perfect little date night. It didn’t include getting dressed up, going out to a fabulous restaurant, or tickets for any event (don’t get me wrong..I love all that stuff. Hubby, please don’t stop doing all of those wonderful things I just mentioned because you think I don’t like it…K, thanks.).

It just involved us, the couch, take-out sushi, and DVRed episodes of The Voice that desperately needed catching up on. It was so exciting.. Sushi is a big deal for us since our normal order will end up costing around 70 to 80 dollars by the time we’re done. A pretty pricey dinner if you ask me. That’s why it’s a rarity and why we also get so giddy that we walk around saying Suuuuuuuuushiiiii!!!!! whenever one of us catches the other’s eye. Another rarity in our household- Ryan agreeing to spend the night doing nothing but watch tv. That’s about as common as seeing a rainbow..it’ll maybe happen a few times a year. Apparently, The Voice will bring out the inner couch potato in that boy because after dinner all he wanted to do was catch up on previous week’s episodes. Have I mentioned how much I love that show?

So at 6 p.m, geared up in our sweats.. sushi in hand, we plopped down on the couch and proceeded to enjoy the best weeknight date I’ve had in quite a while.

 

 

 

 

 

weekly wednesday weigh in

It's been about a week and a half since I've been back from vacation and I finally felt ready to hop back on the scale. It really wasn't as bad as I thought- I'm up 2 lbs. from my post vacation weight. Meaning I'm still down 1 lb. from my start weight. I'm cool with that.

I haven't really been "counting points" since I've been back. I have, however, been eating healthy and pushing my plate away once I'm full..which has oddly been happening very quickly lately. Hmm?

Goals this week are to start counting points again to keep tabs on myself and maybe try to work in a sit-up or two. Gotta start somewhere!

warmth, where'd ya go?

Last week it hit 80 degrees.

This was the weather forecast this morning, according to my iPhone at least.

What is going on?? Did the spring weather go on a vacation? Did it get used up already?..it did come kind of early. I friggin hope not. My poor immune system can’t take these temperature fluctuations much longer. And no one wants to deal with a sick Jessica, especially hubby.

Warm 80 degree days…all I ask is that you come back. I won’t be mad that you left. No judgments will be made. I promise your actions won’t be held against you. I’m just begging you please because it’s truly unacceptable to need to wear an outfit like this..

..to stay warm when going out to run errands. It’s late April, for god’s sake! I should be wearing a t-shirt and flip flops to accompany my skinny jeans.

Just please, consider my request and come back soon. I miss you.

farewell weekend

Aww..weekend! It's so sad to see you go. You were a good one..

Let's see, what happened..

We helped Dad celebrate his 60th birthday.

He’s not a fan of taking pictures so I had to catch him off guard. The celebration included seeing Colin Quinn at a local comedy club, coming home to a black out, and then once the candles were lit and ready the lights came back on! Go figure..we chatted, that brother of mine came by

..and that was about it. Eventful, right? No, I didn’t think so either. On a side note, it’s a little depressing that both of my parents are getting older. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they both live to 150..because I can’t be dealing with any losing parent(s) nonsense. Definitely not ready for that!

On a slightly less somber note, Saturday was spent mulling around the apartment until PJ and Cristina came over for din din. The two of them, along with hubby, acted guinea pigs trying out my new spin on the regular old stuffed shells. I tried mixing ground turkey and spinach in with the ricotta topped with crushed tomatoes, mozzarella, and breadcrumbs.

Came out pretty good if I do say so myself- except maybe next time I’d use a jar of sauce and a can of crushed tomato’s instead of 2 cans of the crushed stuff. It was a tad dry but still managed to be quite delicious.

Afterwards, we got fro yo (cuz that’s just what we need right after dinner) and took a trip down to the docks. The enormous waves that were washing up over the docks coming out of the bay let us know how bad the storm that we were set to have the next day was actually going to be. It was crazy to watch but unfortunately, it was cold and I was only in a cardigan. Hubby was cute did the chivalrous thing..dug through his trunk for a sweatshirt (an old dingy one but it did the job) and did his best to keep me warm. Love that boy..

As predicted, the weather Sunday was craptastic. However, it was the perfect excuse to rock my awesome rain boots.

I had made plans with Cynthia (who I haven’t seen since Christmas) so I wasn’t about to let a little rain stop me. Thankfully, our plans included my favorite indoor activities- lunch and shopping, what else? We stopped at Bobby’s Burger Palace since I’ve never been (glad we did!) and I discovered some new stores in Smith Haven mall, which I hardly ever frequent but I probably should start. Or maybe I shouldn’t, my wallet will thank me.

pear & cactus margarita // napa valley burger // bbp menu // color coded bras at Gilly Hicks
sign I must own at Violet's Blue

P.S- this mall had the biggest Forever21 I’ve ever seen in my life! I had to refrain from going in because I knew I’d be in there for hours and I don’t want to subject any of my poor friends to that madness. Maybe I can try to convince someone else to go back there with me? We shall see…

red. leopard. pants.

Let’s get one thing straight…I love leopard. Always have, always will, and there’s never been a time when I’ve hesitated to rock it. Until now.

Remember that time when I said I wasn’t going to shop until September? Well, obviously that didn’t happen. I got the itch for a tribal print dress and thought to try out Forever21. I got lucky with this awesomeness right here..

..but it’s impossible for me to go onto that website and not check out all of my favorite departments and see what else they’ve got going on. This is where these red leopard print pants come in.

I don’t want to say I’m in love quite yet…but I’m VERY intrigued. I know I could easily wear these pants with a black tee and flats and immediately have a fun outfit for day or night..no effort necessary. So why am I not jumping at them? I’m scared. Yes, scared that I’ll wear them once or twice and then be over it. I’m also feeling guilty because I just bought a pile of new clothes and have maybe gotten around to wearing half of them. Not to mention I have another shopping outing planned for next weekend. Bottom line is I’m just not sure about them.

My next question is then what does make me sure about a purchase? Why am I questioning these pants when I didn’t think twice about purchasing a dress, tank top, and scarf (yea, I’m keepin’ it conservative). I think it’s because I keep a running list of articles of clothing, prints, styles that I want/like. tribal print dress, thick black and white stripes, and peach scarf were all up towards the top of that list.

I thought writing this would make me either feel at peace with my decision to not buy them or I’d come up with some brilliant reason to run back to the website and hit order, order, ORDER! But no, I’m still feeling very conflicted and not sure what to do. The pants are so awesome but I can’t just get over the thought that I won’t wear them more than twice. Temporary solution- I’ll pass around the picture and see what my friends, and more importantly the hubby, thinks. I’m also going to wait until after my shopping trip scheduled for 1 week till now. If I can keep my spending down at that time and the pants are still available (oh, and my posse approves) I think I’ll have me some brand new red leopard pants.

work day thoughts

Why can’t bags of chips come unbroken? It’s inevitable that I end up putting the bag to my mouth to consume all of the leftover crumbs while managing to make myself look like a pig. Yea..I know your answer. Get yourself some Pringles. I HATE Pringles…

I’m convinced that radio stations have the same songs set to play at the same times every day. I’ve been listening to the same radio station for 8 hours a day for SO long, not by choice, that I know that it’s 11:15 if I hear “Can’t Stop Believin” and that I can expect to hear “Hotel California” next if “Please Don’t Leave Me” is currently playing.

Big, filling lunches are my worst enemy at work..or any place for that matter. They always manage to put me into a sloth-like food coma where nothing gets accomplished. Why did I think it was a good idea to eat all of that leftover Chinese again?

Is it wrong that the decision to constantly check my Etsy messages to see if a seller got back to me on my question about this awesome shirt is always seeming to win the battle when it’s put up against doing some actual work. Yea, I didn’t think so either.

I sometimes wonder if those people who call in and insist on having a 20 minute conversation about something completely unrelated to health insurance have any friends? Would you call up someone who you didn’t know AT ALL and proceed to tell them all about your family trip to North Carolina? I wouldn’t… Maybe they just like to talk. I hope so..then I wouldn’t feel as bad that I hurried a friendless guy off the phone. Sorry dude, I’ve got work to do.

Questions I’ve come up with to ask Ryan later- “Would you kill me if I dragged you out with me Saturday to go thrifting? If the answer is no, would you promise not to complain while you’re there?” “Do you think we can convince my parents that going to Green Cactus is a good idea for dinner tomorrow night?..I’m feening for a shrimp burrito and endless salsa!” “Can we arrange a trip to Coney Island this summer for some hot dogs, boardwalk cruisin’, and either the aquarium or astroland- your choice..purty purrrrty please?”

Why are half of the people I talk to today named Maureen? I swear, no joke..there’s been at least 4 so far.

The women at the office are making my paranoid about the heel height on some shoes I wear here. They were talking smack about someone else and there “hooker shoes” and I said hey..I wear shoes like that! Of course they all responded with “Yours aren’t THAT high” and “At least yours aren’t red”. No, mine just have spikes on the heel sometimes. I don’t know..I’m still worried.

I wonder if I'd get in trouble if I downloaded missed episodes of Mob Wives off Itunes and proceeded to watch them at my desk? I could prop my phone up and turn the volume down fairly low. I don't think it would interrupt my work flow at all. I'm gonna mention this idea to management!

...that is all.

st. john

The day we spent on this island deserves its own post because well, I fell in love. Coming into the ferry port we saw the shops and restaurants that lined the beach and I immediately knew this was going to be a good day. Yes, food and shopping equate to a good day for me. We stepped off the boat I was just smitten with the quaint charm of Cruz Bay. The store fronts were all brightly colored and individually decorated. The people were SO friendly. After 2 minutes I had already decided that I wanted to stay there forever.

First up was lunch and we were completely caught off guard. All of the restaurants were closed as it was only 11:30. Our only option was this little walk up counter with some plastic tables and chairs out front. Café Livin’ was probably the best meal decision of the entire trip. Not only were the accommodating (they actually weren’t serving lunch when we got there but they started for us) but the food was incredible. We ordered pita’s and hummus to start with… I’ve had plenty of hummus in my time and this one tops it all. It had a nice little chunk to it, was perfectly season and the best part? They poured a little pool of olive oil in the center of the pile of hummus and topped it all with paprika. Not to mention this was all served with nice, freshly toasted (and brushed with garlic) pita bread triangles. I literally squealed with enjoyment. Yea, that makes me sound like a fatty but whatever..it was fabulous. Not to sound like an afterthought but I also ordered a falafel for my meal and that was great, as well. I can’t really compare it to anything though as that was the first falafel I’ve ever had. Yea..where have I been?

Once we were geared up with our full stomachs it was time to grab a taxi and head off to our primary destination of the day…Trunk Bay. We were told that the view of the bay from a nearby hilltop was the most amazing thing you’ll ever see. They were right, it was breathtaking.

I practically ran for the beach when we got there. The water was turquoise blue, the sand was white and powdery. It was beach perfection. We found a little alcove in the bushes that line the back end of the beach, tossed the towels down, and into the water we went. Anytime I’d get out of the water to either try to get some color or because the waves knocked me around a little too much I was lured back in by that crystal clear water. I couldn’t stay away. Needless to say, I was sad when it was time to go.

Once back in Cruz Bay we stopped at High Tide for some (rather strong) mid-day drinks, shopping (by far my favorite stop was the St. John Spice Company- coffee’s, tea’s, hot sauces, spice rubs galore…I was in heavennnnn. They even had the Baron’s West Indian Yellow Hot Sauce that I discovered at High Tide..Score!), and then finally dinner and more drink’s at Spy Glass. Even after the taco’s and wings I was still determined to accomplish my little goal of this trip there…try conch fritters. I was glad I did, they were quite yummy.

We boarded the ferry a little while after we watched the sunset from the deck of Spy Glass. It was finally time to say goodbye to my perfect island paradise but leaving wasn’t all too bad because we got to enjoy the amazing night sky on the ferry ride back. This was by FAR my favorite day of our trip.

st. thomas

Starting where I left off in this post with my little recap of our trip…we boarded the plane and I went into full blown MacGyver mode to fix my poor, broken bag. A key ring and a string from my sunglass pouch later and all was right in the world. I could sit back and enjoy the 3 ½ hour flight.

So, we land (obviously) after an uneventful, and foodless, few hours. Little did I know we had to walk off the plane down some slippery, rain soaked stairs onto the runway (sorry wedges, I’m NEVER flying with you on my feet ever again) instead of the usual nice covered ramp. Next step- baggage claim. I ended up bringing a duffle bag in lieu of a suitcase ..which Ryan told me not to bring (because it was new and kind of pricey)..but do I listen? No…so guess what happened? Of course it was ripped. And of course the airline doesn’t cover damage to duffle bags. Ok, next mission- find sewing kit.

This trip sounds fantastic so far, doesn’t it? I promise you, it wasn’t as bad as I’m probably making it out to be and any irritating situations that did occur that morning seemed to drift away once we walked into the lobby of the Ritz. The ambiance, service, even the fresh beachy smell all exceeded my expectations. Our primary goal this vacation was to relax and relax was what we did. The 1 full day and 2 half days we spent at the resort were filled with beach, pool, and jacuzzi time, fantastic (although overpriced) meals- and drinks. We even had time to lay in bed and rent a movie one afternoon because all of us were just way to sunburned to do anything else.

All in all, it was a great little getaway and would I go back? To the island…yes, but even though I raved about it, I’d pick a different hotel. Yes, I know, it’s the friggin Ritz but let’s be real…I’m not THAT classy. I like a little bit of a rowdy nightlife and I like a cheap slice of pizza that doesn’t require a reservation. I’m also a sucker for an amazing beach that’s located at the resort which shockingly, they didn’t have. Oh well, we still enjoyed some beautiful scenery, ate amazing food, and came back well rested so who am I to complain?

some exciting news

Soooo..you know this girl who's with me in this picture?

Her name's Kristi and she's one of my nearest and dearest friends since way back in the day (1998 to be exact)

[circa Sept. 2001 right after we got over that awkward Middle School phase.]

We both love cupcakes, sugar skulls, and she makes monster faces with me on my wedding day.

Anywho, she moved clear across the country to San Francisco to be with the man she loved


And that must've been a good decision because 1 year later..


..they're Engaged!!!

I can't even begin to describe how overjoyed I am for her. No one deserves happiness more than this girl.

You know what else this means? I get to be a bridesmaid!!! No, I'm not just assuming that..she already asked. Being a bridesmaid means I get to help plan another wedding, wear an awesome dress, and most importantly..be able to stand beside her on the most important day of her life. I'm super thrilled.

So there, that's my happy news for this warm, sunny Friday afternoon.

i had good intentions

One thing that bothers me, almost more than anything else, is when things don’t go as planned. I, unfortunately, am a planner. I’m sorry…I can’t help it. It’s gotten to the point where I have a running itinerary on just about a daily basis. Monday morning, the day we left for our trip, was no different.

Surprisingly, it started off rather smoothly. We left our apartment at 5:30..well, actually 5:40 (10 minutes later than anticipated) but we still made it to our friends house at 6 o’clock on the dot (as planned) so no harm, no foul. They were awake, ready to go, and just having a quick cup of coffee….so far so good. We get going and there was no traffic on the Belt Parkway on the way to the airport (miraculous, I know). Now, here’s when things start to go downhill. If everything went as planned we would have breezed through check-in and security and had PLENTY of time to stop, get breakfast and maybe a Cravory cookie or two, and write a quick post from the airport saying my glorious farewell from scenic gate 33 from the American Airlines terminal at JFK.

Obviously, that’s not what happened. In reality, we walk into the airport and start the check-in process. Almost immediately the strap on my bag breaks. More specifically, the metal hoop that connected the strap to the bag broke in pieces. [Side note- this is not the first time a bag has broken on me at the airport. I must not have good luck with this] It was repairable but not without some tape and god knows they’re not going to be selling tape at airports since terrorist have obviously figured out that tape is just as effective as handcuffs. Damn terrorists…

So, I’m stuck carrying my big giant bag through security under my arm along with my carry on while attempting to get my ID and boarding pass together..in a dress and wedges. You can probably imagine the sight I was. Security was a non-issue, thank the dear lord. If it was I might’ve broken down. Although, I was a little caught off guard that we were selected to go through the x-ray security doohickey. At that point, I didn’t care who saw me naked. I just wanted to get past it and to the gate. Speaking of the gate..we had QUITE the walk to get to it and when we did..guess what? The flight was almost fully boarded. So, there went all of my planning right out the window. No time to get some food or other miscellaneous goodies and no time for blog posting. Forget that, there wasn’t even any time for a bathroom break. The only thing we had time to do was get to the back of the boarding line and get on the plane.

Goes to show that all the planning in the world means nothing. We got there an hour and 50 minutes before our flight and everything was thrown off course due to broken bag stress and our flight coming in early. Oh well..we still got to our destination and had an AMAZING time, with the exception of some sunburn. I’ll go into more detail about our trip in the days to come but for right now I’m just missing this beach like crazy.


& P.S- it’s a horrible idea to come into work on a Friday when you’ve been away Monday through Thursday. I have no desire to do anything and I’m all thrown off because I keep thinking it’s Monday. Oh well, only 5 more hours…

easter came early

We celebrated Easter a day early at my parents house. It was a relaxing, laid back day filled with family, food, and um, hair dye.


Yup, I had mom dukes redye my hair. I've been calling this look skunktastic. My brother said it was one shade short of Cruella DeVille. I'm kinda into it.

And yes...I'm 25 and still get an Easter basket. I wouldn't have it any other way.

For Easter, we're still trying to get done all last minute packing business, going to see extended family, and getting home early to get to bed to have a full nights sleep so we can wake up at 5 a.m for our flight. I'm soooo looking forward to that -___-

Here's to having a wonderful zombie Jesus day!