Plan of Attack

Hello! How has everyone’s week been? Mine has been mostly good, with the exception of Tuesday which I told to suck a dick, but let’s not dwell on that.  Work is absolutely crazy right now, which I was prepared for since last August-November was the exact same, and on top of all the “real” work I’m about to start studying for my Regulatory Affairs Certification.  I haven’t taken or studied for anything since college, I’m nervous.  The test is at the end of November and review sessions start next week…. I guess I should read the first three chapters of the book, huh?

So, clearly I’ve recently started going out more, and since I’m not longer 21 and afforded the luxury of escaping the craziest of nights hangover free I’ve learned to plan my happy hours accordingly.  You see, I work from home on Thursdays which means on Wednesday nights I can stay out a little later/drink a little stronger because I can stay in my pajamas all day nursing myself back into shape for Thursday night.

Thursday happy hours work out well because I’m home all day, and have time to shower/straighten the hair before heading out for the evening.  The problem I face on Thursday night’s is exercising enough self-control so I don’t hate my life in the office on Friday.  Normally I’m pretty good at that, but sometimes it’s a little more difficult.  Like last night, for example.

One of my friends is moving to Boston at the end of the month, so last night we had a little going away happy hour for him.  It started innocently enough with a  few pitchers of sangria, then we changed locations, and this happened.

you can’t very well turn down a bottle of free champagne!

free champagne credit all goes to Michelle

happy people

Somehow, thankfully, I woke up on time this morning not feeling too terrible.  Probably helps that I did manage to make it home by around 11 pm. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t wish I was lucky enough to have a summer hours Friday today.  Sigh.  Weeknight happy hours: better than late night drinking outings since 2008.  Happy Friday!

Weird

I feel the need to rub it in that today is my last day in the office until Tuesday :).  I’m working from home tomorrow, and then off on Friday and Monday for Megh’s wedding/MDW.  I’m quite excited, as you can probably imagine.  Other really exciting things?  You can watch HBO movies and shows online if you log in with your cable provider.  Yup.  Now showing?  Green Lantern.  Hello Ryan Reynolds, I ❤ you.

mmmhmmm

My Aunt is in town from New Jersey on a business trip this week, so last night I trekked into DC to meet her for dinner.  Her hotel is in Dupont, so to keep it simple we met at James Hoban’s Irish Pub right off the Circle.  I’d never been before, but was always curious, and I really enjoyed it.  We ordered the crab dip appetizer, which was delicioussss and then I had the Shepherd’s Pie as my main course.  It was a lovely dinner, but DC adventures on a weeknight always wear me out, so today I’m slightly more sleepy than usual.

So, funny story.  I’m pretty sure Darren got “B” listed for a friend of his wedding in August.  Ya know, he got put on the list of people who get invited if enough “A” listed ones RSVP “no”.  He was telling me he got an email talking about the bachelor party in July (the same weekend as my birthday trip to the beach that he told me months ago he would be waaaaaaaaay to busy to travel for, but that’s a story for another day) and I found it weird he hadn’t gotten at least a save the date for the wedding.  He of course, being a man, didn’t find it weird at all that he hadn’t gotten any notice about a wedding that’s happening in August.  After lots of my nagging yesterday he finally called one of the other guys on the bach party email list, and asked what the deal with the wedding is.  Apparently they sent save the dates out, but not to everyone, and invitations haven’t gone out yet.  Weird right?  I just thought it was funny that none of this had crossed his mind.

Now, the real question of the day.  I forgot my lunch at home, so should I eat lame cafeteria food or go across the street and get something delicious?

But, but… I don’t want it to be over

I don’t even know quite where to begin.  The weekend was amazing, which I’m sure you could assume, but it really was so.much.fun.  One of my favorite things about this group of girls, is there was no worrying about “omg what if we don’t all get along” before the weekend started.  I knew on an individual basis that I got along with each one of them, so I figured bringing us all together could only make it better.  I was right.

This is Sunday. The only makeup on my face was remnants of Saturday’s, and I was tired, hungover and hungry. And sad.

Since I live out in the burbs of DC and not within walking distance of a metro stop, Kacy was kind enough to kick her bf out of their apartment for the weekend and house us all.  I really enjoy a good sleepover, so I was more than willing to trade in my bed for an air mattress for two nights.  I picked Amy up from the airport at a little before 5, and then the two of us drove into DC to Kacy’s apartment together.  I only ran one red light and blew through one stop sign in the process, and we made it in one piece, although I think Amy was more than ready for a drink by then.  Sorry I almost killed you, twice.

Amy and I were the last to join the party, so we were greeted by wine buzzed girls and hugs all around.  After a super quick change and some freshening up, we were out the door to head into Georgetown for our 7 pm dinner reservations at Neyla.

It’s like they knew to put us in a corner away from other patrons

4 bottles of wine really make the conversations interesting… and loud

After dinner we stayed in the Georgetown area, and walked down to the waterfront to one of the outdoor bars to more thoroughly enjoy the evening.  The best part about the G-town waterfront area is the boats that dock there to party on the weekend nights.  The men are always… interesting, and will try to no end to get you on their boat with them.  I personally have no interest in being abducted by strange men with boats, so we stayed on dry ground.  However, mocking said gentlemen endlessly while they tried to hit on us was quite amusing.  That’s what you get when you lead with, “so I just booked a lip gloss commercial!” Don’t try to redeem yourself after that by saying, “Oh, I’m one of the girls too.”  Just no.

I mean, who wouldn’t want this group of ladies at their boat party?

We stayed out way later than my usual curfew, and continued the party once back at Kacy’s with obligatory late night za, singing and dancing.  And more wine.  I don’t know who had that idea,  but I should have punched you on Saturday morning.

“Can we go back to the days our love wassss stronggg…”

Saturday morning was a struggle, I refrained from chugging the water I wanted for a few hours to make sure there was no danger of puking, and then fully stuffed my face with an omelet and potatoes to aid recovery.  Eventually we made it from Chinatown down to The Mall area where I met up with my kickball team for our game.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t spend the majority of the game laying on the ground, because aside from the one inning I played in the outfield and my one at bat, that’s what I did.  Oh well, we were fully stacked and I wasn’t needed anyway.

After a quick change out of my kickball clothes, in a public restroom where I tried desperately to not touch anything, we were on our way to continue our adventures.  We all really wanted to eat at Founding Farmers, so when a 4:45 reservation was all they had, we said the hell with it and took it anyway.  Early dinner is the way to go after a big breakfast anyway.

A little “hair of the dog” finally made us all feel human again… or that could have been the corn bread…

I think I’ll save the food for another day, as this is getting quite verbose already.  After dinner, we checked another “girls weekend” task off our agenda and did some shopping.  I did some damage in Zara before heading back to Kacy’s apartment for an evening of wine, more gossip, and the Lion King in yoga pants.  It was perfect and just what we all were in the mood for after an eventful Friday and 22,000 step filled Saturday.  (Kacy is doing a walking challenge at her work and informed us all how much we walked thanks to her pedometer).

By the time I finally made it back to my house late yesterday afternoon I was ready to get in my bed and never move again.  So that’s pretty much what I did.  It was a fabulous weekend with fabulous ladies, and I can’t wait to do it again.  Smooches girls!