Fun Fall Weekend

As I've expressed many times, I am not a fan of Maryland's current outdoor climate. However, this weekend, was full of fun fall activities, which made my hatred just a little bit smaller.

The weekend started out on Friday evening, when I met up with a few of my close friends and Phi Mu sisters at Cheescake Factory for a surprise 21st birthday dinner! One of my newest sisters, Angela, turned 21 last Sunday and her big, Kristi, planned a wonderful surprise celebration! CCF is not my very most favorite restaurant but it is definitely a delicious indulgence once in awhile. In a very non-Ambs move, I tried a new cheesecake - the Raspberry Lemon Cream. It was delicious! Very light and sweet but sour at the same time. It also had a think layer of raspberry lady fingers on the bottom, which were super moist and delcious. I highly recommend it.

After dinner, we headed back to Kristi's apartment to get ready for a night on the town. I hadn't been out bar hopping in a very long time, and it was exciting to get ready with my friends. In college, we all met up in one persons apartment, blasted some mood music and tried on countless outfits while doing each other's hair and makeup. Getting ready at Kristi's, with the boys waiting in the kitchen, watching TV definitely brough back some good memories.

Once we were all ready, we hopped into our cars and were off to Federal Hill. I haven't been out in Fed since Kristi's 21st in March and it was really fun to be back out. Since we were, ahem, experienced bar hoppers, we showed Angela around and traveled from bar to bar all night long, dancing and drinking. The song Forever by Chris Brown kept coming on and Kristi and I couldn't help but imitate the now infamous dancing down the aisle You Tube wedding video. Like I said, I haven't been out in quite awhile and it was such a relief to be out with my friends again. It amazed me how even though we've all gone in separate directions, some of us still in school, some engaged, some in grad school, and me teaching kiddies all day, when we get back together it's still the same as it always was. Being a creature of habit, this was very comforting to me.

Saturday, Antonio and I woke up early and got ourselves decked out in our UMBC best. His little brother plays soccer at UMBC and we were going to the afternoon game to show our support. On the way, we stopped at Wawa for some treats and I discovered a new obsession: the Pumpkin Spice Cappucino. Now, I've heard of this same latte at Starbucks but have never had the guts to try it. Since Wawa is significantly less expensive, I thought, "What the heck?" and got a small cappucino. Well, let me tell you, I am now addicted. I went back and got a second cup last night and I'm sure I will be frequenting Wawa more than once this week. Though it got a little chilly, the weather was absolutely gorgeous and sunny for the whole game. For someone who hates coldness as I do, beautiful fall weather is no small feat. After the game, the parents put together a small tailgate and we grabbed some food before heading to our next stop!

As I said in my last post, Antonio and I had plans to visit the Renaissance Festival, since there are rumors that this is its' last year in MD. Neither one of us had been there since we were young and I was excited to see what all the hooplah was all about! Both of us had a good time wandering around, checking out all the people in costume and the Renaissance era inspired shops. Our favorite part, though, was the glassblowing demonstration. The glassblower made a whole new glass vase right there, in front of our eyes! It was SO cool!

When we were significantly exhausted, Antonio and I came home and took a nice long nap, since we still had one more place to go. In addition to soccer games, nice weather, and fall festivals, one other thing that I love about fall is the fact that all of my friends are back in town because school has started back up! Antonio's fraternity was having one of its first big themed parties of this school year and we decided that we had to make an appearance. Since I rushed Phi Mu when I was a freshman in 2005, I'm considered "old" in greek life and a lot of times feel rather uncomfortable at these types of parties, since I don't really know a lot of the people anymore. Last night, however, a ton of "older" guys were in attendance and I had a great time catching up with everyone! The theme was Olympics and most people were appropriately dressed. Somewhow, we stayed out until almost 5 AM! I couldn't believe that I did it! I kept asking "Since when do I stay up this late?!?!"

Obviously, today neither of us felt like doing much of anything. Antonio came over around 12:30 and we went to the grocery store to stock up on some football goodies. After making mango salsa, pizza bites, cheese dip and some other snacks, we settled in to watch our respective football games. Sadly, both of our favorite teams lost today. It was still a perfectly relaxing Sunday full of food and football though!

Sometimes I do miss college - having little to no real responsibilities, being able to stay up all night and sleep all day, having drinks with your friends any night of the week. Sometimes, this reminiscing makes me really sad and depressed. Weekends like this one, however, show me that I can still have all of the fun of college and fall festivities without having to stress about mid terms or term papers. I really do lead a pretty lucky life!