Life lately

In case you didn't notice, I was a little MIA on the blog over the holiday weekend. That's because J and I headed out for a long weekend trip to see some friends.

We started on Thursday in Nashville to see some friends of his and go to the Ole Miss vs. Vandy game. Other than a not so great start with trouble getting to our seats (Vanderbilt needs to get control of their student ticket situation. Welcome to the SEC Vandy.), we had a great time. The game was intense, and things got nerve wracking toward the end, but Ole Miss pulled out a win, so we were pretty stoked (side note: I am now an Ole Miss fan....only when they aren't playing my Crimson Tide).

We left out late the next morning to hit the road for a long drive up to Winston-Salem to see my friends Emily and Blake. We basically made it in time to see Blake before he left to work as the sideline doctor at a high school football game. But at least we were able to grab dinner with Emily at First Street. Afterward we sat on Emily and Blake's deck talking with them and one of their neighbors until close to midnight. Such good times with these people!

Em and I were up again early the next morning to go for a run. I miss running with that girl! The rest of the weekend was filled with football, food, more food and tons of laughter. We had such a great time with the Perry's...fingers crossed they move back this way sometime soon!

This past weekend was just a solid good weekend, nothing too crazy. Friday night me, J, Amy and Beth went to the Barons baseball game where we watched them win the second game of the playoffs that ended with a pretty good fireworks show. Saturday night we watched the Ole Miss game and cooked out, followed by a Sunday night $1.50 movie to see World War Z (which btw, if you haven't seen it yet, you should!).

Hope you all have had a great couple of weeks as well!

Life lately

I feel like I always say this, but it's been another busy couple of weeks. It seems like all of my social activities for the junior board I serve on has fallen in the month of July. Crazy how that happens, but we had a baseball game at the begining of the month and then a 5k run a couple of weeks ago, followed by a mix & minlge event with the governing board of Triumph–all of which were good times!

We also had a shower filled weekend a couple of weeks ago. Nicole's lingerie shower was Friday night and I loved this cute gift her sister put together with all types of lingerie—adorable. Then the next night was the couples shower at my house that I helped several of our other friends host. We had a retro theme with good food and fun games. Everything turned out fantastic and we all had a great time.

Last Tuesday J & I had date night at Bettola since he'd never been and I rarely go. Of course I couldn't branch out from my "usual" and ordered a pizza, even though he got pasta and I was eating a pizza by myself. I had leftovers for two days, which was pretty awesome.

This past weekend we went to the Alabama Outdoors party on the porch Friday night, followed by a Barons game with some friends of ours. It was the first time I'd ever sat out on the lawn at the stadium. And while it's a lot harder for me to follow the game in that area, it's definitely still a good time. Especially when the weather is nice!

Then Saturday I did my usual workout routine, followed by a hair appointment and then I made my first trip to the "new" Nordstrom Rack in town. I took Jill so we could find a dress for her upcoming high school reunion. We somehow made a great find with the very first dress she tried on, but you know us girls. We still ran around town just to "be sure" we had the perfect dress. Turns out we had it right the first time :)

Later that night, J & I had dinner with Luke, a friend of his that was in town for the weekend, and Luke's sister's family who actually live here in Bham. I am loving getting to meet all of his friends lately. I just wish they lived closer so we could hangout more often!

Sunday after church, J & I hit up the showing of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Alabama Theater with Joy and Justin. Such a great movie and I never get tired of going to the Alabama. It's just so beautiful and the organ that comes up from below the stage is always a great highlight.

Pretty soon we'll be in wedding mode for Nicole & Torry's upcoming nuptials. Excited about celebrating them and getting to see friends framily come back in town again...stay tuned for the fun!

Life lately

Apparently the name of the game lately has been working out and eating. Oh wait. Who am I kidding? That is always the name of the game. So yeah, clearly things haven't been too different.

But what was different was that I finally took advantage of the free (yes, free!) aerobics classes at Railroad Park recently. Joy and I went to yoga one Thursday evening, while Ashley and I opted to get "crunk" on a Monday night. Both were enjoyable, but the Crunk class was definitely harder. I was a sweaty girl afterward and I probably definitely looked ridiculous while trying to do these dance moves, but it was fun.

A couple of weekends ago I went with J to Mississippi to see/meet some of his friends. It was a super good time, but unfortch the only pic I was able to get was the one he took of the Bell Tower at Ole Miss—which is his alma mater. I wish we had made it to Oxford earlier on Saturday so I could've seen campus in the daylight. But we did at least get there in time to drive around town and visit Rowan Oak, William Faulkner's home, before sundown. Our next priority was obviously food so we headed directly to the square and ate at Boure, which was pretty good stuff. This meant the campus walking tour had to be taken at night, but it was still a nice experience to walk around and hear his and Hannah's stories about the good ole college days.

This past holiday weekend was kind of insanely busy with visiting both of our families on the actual  Fourth of July. We ate more than our fair share of bbq, hamburgers, hotdogs and homemade ice cream. (Ok, maybe that was just me!) Friday was spent mostly with my mom as we shopped and got a few projects done around the house and then my dad came in that afternoon. I left them to hang with some of the girls from the climbing gym and we ended up grabbing food from the Off the Hook food truck...love their shrimp po boy..it's delish!

Saturday was a busy workout/errand/chore day followed by an evening Barons game in my company's suite with J and my officemate Leslie and her family. Then Sunday afternoon I went back to Regions Field for another Barons game, but this time the Triumph Services junior board was hosting a special event for the participants of Triumph. We ended up getting upgraded to a rather large suite and it was such a good time, even though the Barons ended up (barely) losing. Follow that with a "see ya later" dinner to Kyle at Slice (the 'wing and a prayer' pizza just might be my fav) and it was one exhausting, but fun filled weekend.

Life lately

I wish every weekend was a three day weekend —don't you?! And apparently by my lack of a post yesterday I must still be in the three day weekend mode!

Since I can't actually have another long weekend yet, I guess I'll just tell you guys about how great my Memorial Day weekend was instead. J and I got the invite to go camping at the Ocoee with some friends of mine that I met through the climbing gym. We've been hanging with them a good bit doing trivia nights and what not, so we knew it'd be a good time.

We got extremely lucky that John and Katie went up a day earlier and checked out a couple of campsites. They ended up snagging the six of us a prime spot about 15 feet away from the Ocoee. Nights were spend around the campfire listening to the river and grilling amazing food, while mornings were spent sitting on a rock, drinking coffee and heckling watching the rafters and kayakers coming over the rapids. I also managed to get in a run one morning with everyone. Well, if you call mostly walking straight up a mountain and then running back down a "run" :) We also floated the Toccoa River one day and then rafted the Hiwasee the next. It was good times all around.

J and I decided to split from the group a little early and spent the day in Chattanooga on the way home. We had an amazing breakfast at Aretha Frankensteins and then walked by the river and eventually ended up visiting the Hunter Museum of American Art. We saw this incredible special exhibition by Whitfield Lovell called Deep River. Seriously, it was amazing. I've never seen portrait drawings so beautiful like this. If you're in that area, you should check it out.

That weekend has definitely been the highlight of life lately. I've also been to another Barons game, attended a crawfish boil going away party for a couple at church and the baby shower of a mutual friend of mine and Shannon's. Oh and I managed to squeeze in a little bit of pool time with Ashley on Sunday afternoon. Working towards that tan! Hopefully you guys will be able to see it first hand in some pics soon.

The dish on Birmingham: a love letter to my town

I can't lie. On Monday, when driving home from an amazing long weekend of camping at the Ocoee River in Tennessee, I actually groaned out loud as we approached town and I saw the "skyline" of Birmingham (that is, if you can consider four tall buildings a skyline?).

But the thing is, even though I groaned, I truly do love this place.

As I think I heard someone say recently, Birmingham is a city that is neither too big nor too small. But like the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, it's 'just right.' I like that it's not so big that I am too timid to get out and explore roads to see where they will take me and who they will take me to. And it's also not so small that there isn't anything to do on a random weeknight. I always feel like I could run into anyone that I know at any moment when I'm out on the town, but suprisingly I very rarely do.

Don't get me wrong, Bham definitely has its fair share of problems. Traffic can be annoying (though I know we have it easy compared to many other cities), jobs (or at least really fun, cool ones) can be hard to come by and of course there is the always ongoing political mess that I don't even completely understand (or want to understand for that matter).

But as an optimist, I like to look at the bright side. I like to look at all the amazing things my city has to offer:

• Railroad Park, an award-winning urban greenspace that hosts free exercise classes, concerts & other events
• a beautiful new stadium downtown for our minor league baseball team, The Birmingham Barons
• incredible restaurants including those owned by award-winning chefs like Chris Hastings & Frank Stitt (but let's be honest, you're more likely to find me at the J. Clyde, Rojo, El Barrio, Saw's or Slice)
• UAB Health System—one of the top four largest academic medical centers in the country
• a pretty decent music scene thanks to venues like The Bottletree, Workplay and the new Iron City
• new developments including an entertainment district downtown and the revitilization of the Avondale area
• three top-notch colleges: Samford, Birmingham Southern and UAB, which was recently named the 10th best medical school in the nation by the U.S. News
• a variety of offerings for the outdoor enthusiast including 50 miles of biking and running trails at Oak Mountain State Park, more biking & running trails plus a zip line at Red Mountain Park and boulder fields for climbers at Moss Rock Preserve
• the unbelievably gorgeous renovated Historic Alabama Theater, which hosts concerts and their summer and holiday film series
• the Sidewalk Film Festival, which I think is the coolest event Birmingham hosts all year long
• and of course plenty of great shopping opportunities at both small boutiques around town and larger stores at the Summit

I swear my list could go on and on, but I'll stop here and hope that I've covered most everything I love about my (now) hometown. I'm sure I left a few things off, but I can always save those for another day.

And honestly, when you get down to it, it's not just about the awesome things I can do in Birmingham, but it's more about the awesome people that I get to share my adventures with. I have been so fortunate to have developed my framily here in Bham and now I've started to branch out with other great friends, thanks to the tons of people I have met through the climbing gym and church.

Basically what it all comes down to is, if they say 'home is where the heart is', then my home is in Birmingham—whether I live here forever or not.

Or to make that a broader statement, as the group Alabama sings "My home's in Alabama, no matter where I lay my head."

ps. If you want to see/read an entire 40 page piece on the state of Alabama which will be featured in the upcoming Delta Sky magazine, you can find that here.

Take me out to the ballgame

One of the perks I have at my job is that our company shares an executive suite at Regions Field (Home of the Birmingham Barons) with a couple of law firms in town. They pass out a few of these tickets at the beginning of each month to employees. I was lucky enough to snag a couple of them for me, J ("the boy") and two of our friends to attend this past Tuesday night's game.

Since I knew I was climbing after work and the stadium is downtown near my climbing gym, I realized it made no sense to go home and change before the game. Therefore, I needed to pick out something that was both office and baseball game appropriate.

(Insert pinstriped skirt to be worn as a strapless dress here.)

I mean, really, what could be more appropriate for baseball than something pinstriped? Am I right? And the cream lace cardigan made it office appropriate (and cute!). I also wore the wedges to the game, though I probably should've brought a pair of flats. But the wedges were just so cute. I couldn't resist.

Anyhow, even though the Barons (barely) lost, it was a good time. Perfect weather and 50 cent hotdogs. Yes I realize this is the second time I've mentioned these on the blog...clearly I love those 50 cent hot dogs!

Ok, here's the cheapskate outfit breakdown:

1. Pinstripe skirt (worn as dress), thrifted ($2.50)
2. Belt, Cato ($1.99)
3. Wedges, Charlotte Russe ($12.50) *buy one, get one half off deal
4. Lace cardigan, Banana Republic ($59.99)
5. Necklace, Noteworthy/gifted (thanks Em!)
6. Purse, gifted/passed down
7. Sunglasses, Dollar Tree ($1.00)
8. Earrings, Stella & Dot ($34.00)
9. Circle ring, Brooklyn Flea ($5.00)
10. Simple gold ring, gifted/passed down

Total: Under $125.00

ps. oh yeah, check out those lovely scratches on my right shin...compliments of a weekend camping trip and rafting the Hiwasee. Hot, right?

 

Photos: Leslie Evans

Life lately

 

One of the most fun things I have done recently is to finally make it to a Birmingham Barons baseball game. I mean, I watched construction of the new stadium as it was being built. Then I heard people talk about how amazing it was. Then a month or so later, I actually attend a game. It was everything I wanted it to be. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and I was mesmorized by how cool Birmingham looked. Oh and the Barons won plus it was 50 cent hotdog night! See, best night ever.

That week I also volunteered at the Triumph Services annual "friendraiser" art show which is an event that allows the community to come into the Triumph offices and hear more about the services they provide. It's a really fun event and I was blown away by all the talent that we have in Birmingham who also were giving back to their community by allowing a portion of their proceeds to be donated to Triumph. 

There have also been a few things to celebrate including Mother's Day and Ashley's birthday. I went home of course to see mom and then naturally the icing on that cake is to also get to spend time with my niece and nephew. It's unbelievable how big they are both getting. I mean I am holding Cade and his feet are dangling somewhere around my shins. Crazy. I also made another trip back home to see Cade's last teeball game. 

Ashley wanted to keep her bday low key so I went with her and Nick to the farmer's market at Pepper Place that Saturday and then we all went to dinner at Davenport's Pizza the next week. So good to finally spend some time with framily again. These days that seems to be few and far between! 

This past weekend was pretty chill and I even managed to score some one-on-one time with Amy when we went to a local dance company's performance. I wanted to see my friend Sara from church perform with Sanspointe and Amy just loves dance, so she was game. It was a very cool and intimate performance. Certaintly not something you see or experience everyday in Bham! 

Free fun: Birmingham Barons baseball games

Photo: Mark Almond/The Birmingham News

I must confess that I haven't been to a Barons baseball game in a really long time. But I'm pretty sure that will change once they move the stadium downtown next to Railroad Park next season.

In the meantime, they are providing FREE general admission at their last two games this season on Sunday Sept. 2nd at 4:00 p.m. & Monday Sept. 3rd at 12:30 p.m. I think that's a pretty great way to celebrate the season and 25 years in the stadium. Oh and Labor Day weekend!

Go Barons!