Sangria Sundays

Hello from my dining room table where I just sang Nick Jonas’ “Jealous” at the top of my lungs. Beth – if you’re reading this, you should be SO grateful that you’re not home right now. Also, I know there should be a comma somewhere after the word “Jonas,” but it’s really hard for me to figure out if it comes before the apostrophe or after. So I’ll leave it to you literary critics to inform me.

In other news, I’ve had ALL the sangria because I just got back from book club so this post should be quite entertaining for you folks. I just love book club. I love having it on Sundays to scare the Sunday Scaries away. But, more importantly, I love doing things that don’t necessarily revolve around work.

This weekend was fantastic. I know that I may overuse that word. But it just seems to be all-encompassing. If you find a better word, please throw it my way. But don’t throw the actual thesaurus my way because that might actually hit me. Ouch.

Moving on.

Friday:

Most Fridays, I can’t rally. I just can’t do it. It’s usually a LONG week and I can’t muster the energy to do too much. Luckily, Emily felt the same way so we went to Opa for dinner and got some FLAMING CHEESE.

We got some other things too, but they weren’t on fire, so obviously they don’t deserve as much recognition.

Saturday:

I woke up AT 6:30 (because my body HATES me and doesn’t know how to sleep in). But it all works out in my favor because I just grabbed some Starbs, drove over to the trail, and listened to the rest of this week’s Serial.

I also proceeded to run 5 miles because I’m OBSESSED with the new FitBit challenges. And I like to win all the things. So when there’s an EMOJI TROPHY at stake, I really like to give it my all.

After the run, I quickly rushed home to get ready because I was meeting Stephen for brunch up in the city! I quickly showered, got dressed, and grabbed a drink for the road.

So delicious. A review + giveaway coming soon. I promise.

I was so excited to see Stephen. I know it’s only been a year and, when you’re an adult and live on opposite sides of the country, a year doesn’t seem like too much. But I just wish I could see this kid every day. I miss him all the time!

We went to 15 Romolo in North Beach. I let him pick the place because, Lord knows I know San Francisco as well as I know Nebraska. (AKA NOT AT ALL)

We got an order of the beignets to split. They were super good. Obviously not as good as Brenda’s, but still pretty decent.

After we went to brunch, we went over to Nicole’s apartment (a friend from camp!) to see her and Tech-E (real name: Edwin. Gosh, camp people and their annoying nicknames, RIGHT?). I was so, so, so happy to see them. It makes me feel young again. 🙂

After spending about an hour there, it was time to drive back to the South Bay. But it took me 2 HOURS TO GET BACK BECAUSE OF SANTA-CON. I put that all in capital letters because THERE WAS ANGER. ROAD RAGE. Things that I thought disappeared from my body after moving away from LA. (Obviously they’re still there!)

I got back, quickly changed, and then went over to Larissa’s house for a cookie party! 🙂

Thank goodness there were to-go boxes! I wanted to try them ALL! 🙂 Thank you, Larissa, for having us over.

The cookies were delicious and the decorations were so cute.

After Larissa’s, I drove over to Becky and Vanessa’s place in SJ. More food and festivities!

We walked in right as they were choosing teams for the Cocktail Competition. This put us in a really good situation because we suddenly became the OFFICIAL JUDGES of the cocktails. The entire group was divided up into 5 different teams. Each team was required to make a Christmas cocktail and we, the official fancy EXPERIENCED judges, would rank them on a few categories.

Andrew took his title really seriously and took notes as we sipped on each of the cocktails.

Once all the cocktails had been tasted, the OFFICIAL JUDGES deliberated in the room next door and came up with the final winner.

Some key takeaways from the competition:

Deck the Halls with Pomegranate Balls – An excellent name with a great Christmas connection. However, how are you supposed to walk into a bar and order that drink when it’s so damn long?
Teachers are just as bad as students. “1-2-3-All eyes on me” doesn’t always work as an attention-grabber with teachers. Especially when they’re drunk.
If I’m the judge of a cocktail competition, always make your drink with vodka. Always. Unless it’s a margarita. Otherwise, you’ll have the best chance of winning if there’s vodka involved.
Paper straws are REALLY cute as decorations. But they are not always the most appropriate option. Especially when you plan on having chunks of raspberries sucked up the straw. Straw breaks.
Cocktail competitions need to be a staple activity at all the parties. And I would like to always be the judge.

The winner ended up being Deck the Halls with Pomegranate Balls. Not because of their name. But because 1) their drink had some rosemary shit going on in there. 2) They incorporated vodka. 3) They had some lavender thrown in and that made me extremely calm and happy.

I was afraid that nobody would want to be my friend anymore after our INTENSE ranking system, but it’s really interesting how alcohol can make you HATE someone and then LOVE them so much after 30 seconds.

After our intense competition and photo shoot, I went over to Brittany’s for some Adult Shirley Temples and Frozen! 🙂

I’m so happy I was able to spend some time with these ladies!

Sunday:

Went over to Starbucks with the gift card I got in the mail! (Love you so much, Alyssa!)

And around 11, I got this text message from BethyV and giggled out loud:

I can’t believe it’s been less than 2 years that we’ve known each other. I feel like she knows all the ins and outs and overs and arounds about me. She makes my heart so happy.

Today was so gorgeous that I went for a little walk around the neighborhood just to enjoy all the beauty:

Later in the afternoon, we went to book club. Where I had some of this deliciousness.

And by ‘delicious,’ I mean ABSOLUTELY DANGEROUS.

We didn’t get to talking too much about the book because not everybody finished, but we did have some fun decorating cookies and drinking hot chocolate!