soft pretzels, boxes, and buffalo chicken dip: weekend recap

Well, I am proud to say that I have accomplished a good deal of the things on my to-do list this weekend! And for those lucky recipients of all my snap chats, I didn't skip a beat did I??!

Friday I was able to duck out of work a little early, relaxed, worked out, ate my staple quinoa stuffed peppers, then was quite content with sitting on my couch with a big glass of vino and watching a movie but my friend who I haven't seen in a few weeks called me. Despite my hair being dirty I decided to head out. I threw my hair in a sock bun (I know, the fact that I have been consistently leaving my apartment without clean hair is surprising to me too, but again, it's all about growth and self-improvement!) and I headed over to my friends' house. 

We had a few beers, had a little dance party, then headed over to this GA Tech bar called Orsmby's that has a basement filled with games. I was basically in heaven. The night ended with us binge eating soft pretzels with cheese whiz and French fries. I mean, I guess I would have at least had popcorn if I had stayed in so I decided it was okay.

Saturday I was up bright and early to get my car I had left at my friends house. Since their house is nearby Ikea I decided I would get a head start on my errands. I got the shelving units and this faux sheep skin throw for my living room that I had wanted. That put me around $160 and I had a coupon for $25 off when you spend $250 I thought I might as well spend another $100. Whoops?

Grand total was $248. 76 after discount. I might take some stuff back once I figure out how it'll all live together. Here are some of my favorite pieces:

Rug for my entryway, not sure if it’s a keeper or not

Gold wreath I am OBSESSED with (been looking for one like this for almost 3 years)

Faux fur rug/throw

After Ikea I did some major sweating to rid myself of all my late night treats then joined some friends at a house party for the Georgia football game. UGA lost in probably one of the craziest unplanned trick plays ever. Since I am not a dawg this impacted me most in the fact that I had my phone all prepped to capture the reaction of the house after UGA regained possession of the ball via snap chat but since Auburn ended up scoring a touchdown I was left with nothing. After the game there was a short period of mourning followed by some dance party action, some pizza, some fireball, then we went out in Buckhead.

Today I went to brunch at Two Urban Licks which was delishhhhh but my eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach and I left a lot on the table. I did find room for some bubble tea and macaroons after though. Oops?

I did a bit of blogging this afternoon so be on the lookout for some juicy new posts over the next few days. Then this evening I went to Menchie’s for froyo then went to my friend’s apartment to play with the new puppy her parents just got.

Successful weekend if I say so myself. I will leave you with a few pictures from the weekend and a funny comment I made to my friend on gchat earlier about models. Sorry to anyone who is a model, I don’t really mean it (or do I? No, I really don’t).

My friend’s ADORABLE puppy, Riley

The damage from Ikea

Didn’t totally think through how this would all fit in my car, good news is that somehow it all did!

Newly framed pictures

Annnnd the shelves are still in their boxes

And since I think I am so funny, a snippet from a gchat earlier:

me:  I think all models should be confined to an island

or all have TERRIBLE personalities

and not be allowed to use moisturizer so they get all wrinkly

that is what I think

seeking some accountability

I find when I write things down I am much more accountable. Well, in an effort to hold myself accountable to some upcoming goals (pretty basic stuff) and to finally be completely settled into my new apartment, I will leverage my blog.

To set the stage know that I’ve felt like today was Friday all week. This is the worst because, well, today is Thursday. The bad news is that this will make tomorrow a bummer but the good news (I’m a silver linings person) is that this gives me a bit more time to think about the things I’d like to actually get done this weekend. 

I've been having some super fun weekends recently. I know, why stop now? I don’t plan on having a boring or bad weekend, I just really need to get organized in a few specific areas of my life. Don't worry, those on my distro list will still get the daily quota of snaps (gotta to my part to keep their valuation near that $3B mark, right?!) I just need to use my time more, err, wisely.

With that, here are the main things I’d like to do:

• Purchase and put up this bookshelf (Side note: normally I am not a huge Ikea fan but I have a TV stand and a desk that I surprisingly love and plan on getting the bookshelf from the same line; on top of not usually loving Ikea I often don’t like matchy-matchy pieces, just trying something different here; finally I don’t think I’ll paint it but that’s a cute idea for another apartment and this is the link I lifted from Pinterest)
• Put books/DVDs/pictures on bookshelf (have them in boxes in the place where said bookshelf will hopefully soon live)
• Look for frames for 3 photos I'd like to add to my photo wall 
• Start to think about Xmas gifts for family/friends

All pretty do-able stuff. Let's see what I can declare checked off come Sunday night/Monday morning. I am also interested in how I react to public accountability!

Finally for some visual interest, here are some before pictures….

A little to the left of this back corner will be where my new bookshelf lives

Some of my boxes of books (we’ll see what all fits)

Picture wall as of right now (don’t judge the messy papers/boxes to the left of my desk)

*Thanks to CLo for the interior decorating tips! 

weekend recaps to come!

I’m realizing that one thing I have not shared a ton about are my weekends. I wanted to focus this blog more on my professional and personal change during this transition rather than my Saturday nights but social adjustment is just as, if not more, important than anything else to the success of a move.

The actual things I do are easy to talk about (e.g., I went to dinner Friday with this group of people I met through so-and-so) but difficult to extract the ways that I’ve been able to successfully make friends. I think I am naturally good at meeting people which I take for granted, I know it can be a huge challenge for people in a situation like mine. 

For me the reason why I think I’ve been successful at this in Atlanta as well as other cities and situations (e.g., when I transferred to UVA as an out of state student and literally began making strong friendships my first night) is partly because I’ve been open to any and everything like I’ve written about before. But also since I really push myself to really connect with and get to know people. You have to actually be interested in hearing about the point of view or position in life or understand what makes a person tick. This is something that I’ve always naturally done, I actually don’t feel comfortable around people nor do I consider myself close with a person unless this I know them on a deeper level. 

Just a hypothesis based on only a few data points from observations of friends but I think that one of the reasons why some people find it challenging to make new friends in new cities is that they are not trying to get to know new people on this really true, almost raw level. 

It’s a balance because of course you don’t want to come across as too intense or insincere but I think this is the best way to really forge strong friendships which is key to being happy and settled in a new place.

With that, I’ll start to do a better job of sharing my weekends and maybe ways that I’ve gotten to know people well in just a few weeks. First weekend recap to come tomorrow or Monday!