Happy Fall Y'all!

Fall has arrived in Memphis!!! (At least for today!) It was only 63 degrees and rainy. Love it. I can finally wear the turquoise colored jeans I bought a couple of weeks ago at Target. Yippee! This colored jeans trend is one that I am actually totally excited about. I'm really tempted to get a maroon pair too! Hmm. Speaking of cooler weather, when I was in Ireland, I ate soup like it was going out of style. Now with the weather change, I believe I can enjoy it in Memphis too. Saturday night we went to 3 Angels Diner and I got their "adult grilled cheese" with the turnip and white bean soup. Delicious! The grilled cheese reminded me a lot of The Melt in Cleveland. Only it wasn't so big it would take me 3 days to eat. Ha.

This was a busy, but fun(!) weekend here in Memphis! Lots of time spent with friends and too little time spent sleeping. I was really dragging at work today! Thank God for coffee. I was happy to celebrate National Coffee Day yesterday by making not one... but two trips to Starbucks. Sometimes, I feel like they must put some kind of addictive magical fall goodness in their pumpkin spice lattes. I can't get enough of them! It's a good thing they are seasonal or else I'd probably weight at least 30 lbs more. Haha.
A highlight of the weekend was my running friend Sarah's 30th birthday!! She had it on the rooftop of one the apartments downtown which had such a gorgeous view of the river and the city from up there.

Sarah the birthday girl in the middle and
 another Star Runner friend Courtney on the end. :-)

As I look at my calendar for the month of October, I have a feeling it's just going to fly by! Next weekend I'll be in Philly for a nutrition conference - lots of S.W.A.G.! (to quote Michael Scott - "Stuff We All Get"!). Lol. Hoping that swag includes free Chobani Greek yogurt again. Yum. :-)

Green(er) Pastures

As you all may know, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend 10 days in Ireland visiting my friend Charis. Although I didn't find any leprachauns to provide me with a pot of gold, I did have many fun adventures exploring the city of Dublin. Ireland was just as green and pretty as I expected it to be!

First of many coffees!

Guinness factory/museum

Straight from the source!

Exploring Howth

Sailboats along the shores of Howth

Out on the town!

We met Charis' work friends for a drink. :-)

Hiking! Beautiful view of Dublin from the top!

Wicklow Way hiking trail

Cillian was happy to stop for some fro-yo!

Totally ready to have one of my own... JK!!! 

Bridge from the film PS I Love You. Secretly wishing I could still run in to Gerard Butler there. Haha.

Happy sheep chillin' by the roadside. :-)

One of the beautiful twin lakes of Glendalough.

Dublin Gaol tour!

Trinity College

In addition to the adventures above many Butler chocolates, coffee, and Guinness was thoroughly enjoyed. Actually, I wish coffee here in Memphis was served with a piece of chocolate or biscuit! I will miss that. Above all, it was so refreshing to finally get to catch up on Charis and get a glimpse of life and motherhood (little Cillian is such a cutie) in Dublin! (Oh, and to have a few pints with Tony of course!)

Leaving on a Jet Plane

The time has finally come for my lonely little passport to get a new stamp! I am flying off to Ireland tomorrow! I can hardly believe this trip is really here. :-) I've seriously been looking forward to it for so long. I can't wait to finally get to see Charis again and catch up over coffee, hang out with Tony, and meet little Cillian! It will also be a much needed long break from work. I haven't taken this much time off since I started. My little blog will likely be a little neglected while I'm gone - but I'll be sure to take tons of pictures and post my vacay recap! Now, I'm off to pack and do laundry. Fun!

Lazy Labor Day Weekend

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend!!! (If you didn't have Monday off... I'm sorry!) I was feeling a bit under the weather this weekend, but with the help of some cold medicine I didn't have to miss out on all the fun!

My favorite cold remedies...

Friday, Will and I headed to this Ethiopian restaurant, Abyssinia which is not far from his apartment. From the outside, it looks a bit sketch so I was always hesitant to go. Also, my idea of Ethiopian food was rice and then some kind of meat on a stick. However, a few weeks ago, our friends Stanton and Genevieve said it was awesome and convinced us to go with them. They were so right - it's delicious! (Despite it's rough exterior.) Plus, they had plenty of vegetarian options - no skewered meat cubes! This time, we split the veggie and fish plate. Everything is served in little piles on this fluffy tortilla bread with additional bread for grabbing bites of food. No utensils needed!

Saturday I was up early to do 17 miles with my running group. It's a looooong time to be out pounding the pavement. However, it hasn't been nearly as bad as I anticipated since we are doing this run-walk method. The run becomes much less daunting if you think, "If I can just make it to the next walk break I can do this". It also helps having friends to share in the pain!
Monday we packed up Honey and some lunch then drove to a little park in Mississippi to picnic and hike. It was a nice, relaxing way to end the weekend. :-)

Around Here

I've been neglecting this little blog the last few weeks and I have been trying to come up with a good reason why. Part of it is that I have been spending some of my time lately doing oh-so-fun things like job searching and revamping my resume. Ugh. I haven't applied for very many positions yet since neither of us is quite ready to leave Memphis...

-I've been seeing this mural frequently on my cross-training day bike rides on the green line. I think it's funny that everyone only has one leg - not sure how they're riding those bikes... lol.
-I did a 16 mile run-walk for marathon training in the rain on Saturday! That was the farthest distance I have ever "run". The next two weekends it just gets longer...
-Sometimes I feel like all I do with my spare time is go running. (See above.)
-I am working on putting together a blog for the local dietetic association - MDDA. It's a work in progress... www.eatrightmemphisblog.blogspot.com
-After our Elvis-ventures the other weekend, Will and I have had a few quieter ones. This last weekend we spent a couple fun nights hanging out with friends. It's going to be tough starting all over!
-I leave for Ireland in less than two weeks! I am kind of freaking out a little. There is so much I need to do before then!
-The other day I picked up the next book we are reading for book club - Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Let's just say I spent a lot of quality time on the couch with this one!!! I just couldn't put. it. down.
-I totally made soup the other week even though it is still summer... and it's all Joy the Baker's fault. She posted a roasted tomato and zucchini soup that just sounded delish! Plus, both of those things are so abundant at the farmer's market right now. :-)
-The fire alarm for my apartment building went off this morning - exactly as I stepped out of the shower! Worst nightmare. Luckily it's not as bad as in college where you do have time to put something other than a towel on without your RA trying to corral you out the door. Haha.
-I can't stop listening to Two Door Cinema Club lately. Check this out...

Only in Memphis...

It's true that "the King" didn't die. You can walk out onto the street at any point during Elvis week in Memphis and see him alive and well... and his twin? Oh wait, there he is again! Oh yeah... it's Elvis week in Memphis! Our friend Josh invited Will and I to join him on a whim to check out the Elvis Tribute Artist Contest at the Cannon Center. We're not really Elvis fans by any means, but this was actually a lot of fun! I can't believe how serious people are about keeping the spirit and music of Elvis alive and well! The show we went to was one round of perhaps 4 to decide who will be this year's best Elvis Tribute Artist.We moved seats at intermission to get a little closer to the action and ended up beside some die-hard fans. This older couple were prepared with binoculars and score sheets! They were happy to pass their binoculars and point out little flaws in each performance- one guy had the wrong kind of scarf on... for shame! Hehe.

That white suit outfit was a popular one!

Red pantsuit Elvis...

Picture with an Australian Elvis Tribute!

Glad we can finally say we did at least one Elvis-themed activity here in Memphis. :-)

Let's Talk Books

So, I have been updating my "25 Books While 25 Page" but I haven't spent any time talking about some of my latest reads!

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson. This book was absolutely hilarious! I think it just might be my favorite book on my 25 books list so far. Jenny spins great stories about growing up in the country with such a comedic spin - almost like a female David Sedaris. :-) One of my favorite stories in the novel is this one where her family's chickens follow Jenny all the way into school one day and the hilarity that ensues when the librarian finds them. Ha! To give you an idea what you are in for with this book, here's a great quote from a chapter about dating her husband, Victor.

"It wasn’t really that [Victor's parents] disliked me. They just seemed uncomfortable around me. They were polite and kind, but baffled. It was as if their son had unexpectedly shown up with a neck tattoo that read 'MAKE ME SOME BASKETTI.'" (Lawson, Penguin Group Inc. 2012)

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.  My friend Emily kept telling me how great this book was, so when I happened upon it at the library the other week, I snatched it up. It's a touching tale about young, forbidden love between a Chinese boy, Henry, and a Japanese girl, Keiko, growing up in Seattle during World War II. You'll have to read this one to see if their love can survive long-distance when Keiko's family is placed in an internment camp until the war is over.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. We had talked about reading this one for book club at one point but then decided on something else. I was curious to see if it was good since it won the National Book Award for 2011. Definitely worth it. A superb story about a rural Southern family prepping for Katrina. The story is told through the eyes of Esch, a teen girl learning what it is like to be rejected by someone you love and coming to grips with the secret that she will be a mother soon.
Ward is such an excellent writer. I loved some of her descriptions of life in Bois Sauvage and what it is like to be a teenager in love. Here's a passage that I just love:

"Manny begins flipping the silver and red lighter again when he mentions Rico. The image, which looks like a tattoo, reads Hearts on Fire, and pictures two hearts diagonal to one another going up in flames. His lips kiss the cigarillo and he pulls... There is a movement behind my breast that feels like someone has turned a hose on full blast, and the water that has been baking in the pump in the summer heat floods out, scalding. This is love, and it hurts. Manny never looks at me."  (Ward, Bloomsbury USA, Copyright 2011, pg 94)