Life lately

 

As usual it's been a fun and busy couple of weeks. One of the Mountain High Outfitters locations here in town had this cool music event in the store one Tuesday night, so J and I decided to go check that out and ended up running into a couple of folks we knew. Good times!

Other than that, it seems that everything else I have done lately has revolved around (which is actually the story of my life). Joy and I finally got to have lunch one day to catch up and I eagerly chose the Lyric Hot Dog & Grill since it is shutting it's doors for forever at the end of the month. So sad about this, but it definitely had a good run!

J & I also got to spend some time with Joy and her husband Justin this past week with dinner at Slice followed by a trip to the Alabama Theatre to see It's a Wonderful Life. I love all of the film series the Alabama hosts, but the holiday series is of course my favorite.

The night with the Martucci's was a good jump start to an equally fun weekend spent in Mississippi to see several of J's friends who were home for the holidays. We headed over on Friday night to visit Hannah in her hometown at a tacky Christmas party hosted by one of her friends. The next day we all drove to Jackson, making a quick pitstop in Oxford for some Big Bad Breakfast. Totally worth the stop!

Saturday night was spent meeting several new faces that J has known pretty much his life. Yeah, you can say I was just a tad nervous! But we had a great time and I think most of them actually liked me :) The next day we had lunch with another friend who couldn't make it Saturday night. He chose this great little drug store called Brent's Drugs where The Help was filmed, and of course the greasy spoon food treated us right! Such a great weekend. I mean who knew you could have that much fun in Mississippi?! jk jk jk.

Anyhow, after a big fun-filled weekend like that, you really only want some quality rest and downtime, but it's just not happening this time of year. Just two days after we got home from MS, J and I headed up to my neck of the woods in Alabama to see my immediate family for lunch on Christmas Eve and then he also endured met my dad's side of the family later that night. 

We got home pretty late after a day of driving, eating, playing with kids and opening presents and we were up again early the next day for more of the same with his side of the family. I was pretty tired but it was so worth it watching his niece's open their gifts Christmas morning. I haven't done the Christmas morning excitement with kids since I was a kid myself, so I felt pretty lucky and special getting to crash J's family time like I did. 

The rest of Christmas day was blur with tons of great food and opening fantastic gifts and I also enjoyed a late afternoon nap :) J and I wrapped up the day with a trip to the movies with my friend Peaches who is in town from NYC. It's so good to have everyone home for the holidays! Hope you all are enjoying time spent with loved ones, too. 

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

It's been a while since I've last done a "life lately" post. It's probably because I seemed to have gotten in a bad habit of not taking as many photos over the past few weeks. There's actually been a decent amount of things I've done so that's kind of a bummer. But I do at least have a few pics to share.

A couple of weekends ago we got an early start with a birthday dinner celebration in honor of Heather at the J. Clyde on Thursday. So glad she appreciates and shares my love for that place. The next night I went with Katie, John and Kyle to the Alabama Outdoors Party on the Porch event that supported Ruffner Mountain. I wish I had taken a pic of my truck fries that I got from the Cantina truck. But obviously there's no time for such shenanigans when you're holding steak, queso and pico on top of garlic fries. We also even made it to Marty's to see a second band play for the night.

Since J and all my friends seemed to be out of town, I spent the next day devoted to entirely too much physical activity (11 miles of running and an hour of horizontal conditioning...who am I?!) and then promptly returned to the YMCA pool for some afternoon sun worshipping. That Sunday was Father's day so I went home and hung with the fam and played with the kiddos, and took my usual power nap, too.

This past weekend was jam packed with a whole lotta fun. Friday night was a going away dinner at Cocina for another couple from church (seriously, why is everyone leaving?!) followed by catching a few bands play at a benefit for Gip's Place, including getting to see Henry "Gip" Gipson actually play. You haven't lived til you've seen a 92-year old man play the blues on guitar. Just sayin!

Then Saturday I particpated in my first ever indoor climbing competition (more on that in another post), followed by a well deserved lunch at FIVE and then to cheer on John at the skeeball finals. Then Sunday after church, J and I hit up the afternoon showing of The Princess Bride at the Alabama Theater. Somehow I had never seen this movie and he had never been to the Alabama, so it was a win-win. Afterward we stopped for ice cream at Edgewood creamery—clearly the best way to end an already amazing weekend.

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.

Life lately

I usually let the photos pretty much speak for themselves with my "life lately" posts, but I thought maybe this go round (and maybe even going forward) I could give a little bit more insight as to what I have been up to these days. And after looking back at my pics, I feel like it's been a pretty busy couple of weeks! 

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned it was Birmingham Restaurant Week, so my friend Ashley and I took full advantage and hit up a three course meal at 26. It was amazing, especially the company! And yeah, the dessert clearly wasn't too bad either. 

One day after work, I was lucky enough to squeeze in a little reading time out on my back patio. It would've been a lot better if the mosquitos weren't all trying to suck the life out of me. 

Last weekend was my niece Callie's first birthday party. It was hot, but still a lot of fun. Even if Callie didn't quite know what to do with the smash cake. 

After much debate, I finally decided on hitting up the Milk Carton Kids/The Lumineers/Old Crowe Medicine Show concert at the Alabama Theatre on my own. It was definitely a wise decision even if it did cost a bit more than I wanted to pay. Even so, I am so much more excited that the Lumineers are coming back alone to the Workplay theater on Oct. 18th...and yeah, it's already sold out! Super glad I got my ticket the second they went on sale. 

The very next night after the show, I met my friend Joy and her husband back at the Alabama theater for the opening night of the Sidewalk Film Festival. Joy works for Regions bank, who is a big sponsor of the event, so I was lucky to snag one of her free comp tickets. It's always good to see Joy and Justin and the film turned out to be a really good, too. 

Then this past weekend was the opening of college football and I have to say I was pretty well pleased with the finish of the Bama vs. Michigan game...Roll Tide!

Cheap thrills: Summer film series at the Alabama Theatre

There are a few movies that I can watch over and over again and Casablanca just so happens to be one of them. It only helps matters that the film will be showing this weekend at the Alabama Theatre.

This theater is one of my favorite landmarks in Birmingham and I always love to see the classic films they screen for the Summer Film Series and the Holiday Film Series. There's just no better way to watch an old timey film like Casablanca than in a beautiful historic theater like the Alabama, where it been would've debuted back in the 1940s.

Details:
Where: Alabama Theatre
Date: Sunday July 15th
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Admission: $8.00

To see the other films and dates they have chosen for the Summer Film Series, click here.