Well, this is getting painful. At this point, without my camera I wouldn't even be able to tell you what we've been up to. However, my crazy event season is officially over (until the end of October, at least) - so maybe I'll get back in the swing of things. Probably not, though. I haven't done our finances (yes, I keep a very detailed budget spreadsheet) since Italy, and that's been pretty liberating...so I'm thinking I'm not going to go back to that for awhile. Hopefully that's not the same for this bad boy.

Adam and I have been on this "let's do STUFF!" roll since his new job (read: a little more income), and we've been having fun! You're only young once, right?

Since the last update... I've been home and not completely drowning in work, so I was finally able to make a trip to the grocery store (good and bad news - nothing has changed), clean the house (exciting stuff, huh?) and make time to see my mysterious family and friends who may or may not have thought I was abducted by Scientology.

I'm kind of obsessed with Footloose (actually, I'm kind of obsessed with the song Footloose), and the local theater in the Marietta Square, The Strand, was putting on the musical. Adam, being the creative spontaneous kid that he is, decided to take me to see it on Saturday, August 17. We hadn't done much of anything the whole day, so we headed up to the square around 5pm and had a glass of wine at our favorite wine shop before dinner at La Famiglia. The food was meh, as can be expected. There's a new farm-to-table restaurant in the square that we haven't yet tried - but our past eating experiences overall in the Square have been meh. They need some bad ass dining options in there, and it would have so much more potential.

I captioned this picture something like "the arguments that ensue post-photo are epic" - and I didn't really think it through that it sounded pretty bad! Basically, I just meant that we always get in these stupid tiffs (that we're laughing through) because Adam says I take the worst pictures and cut him out.

So then he decided to take one, and I couldn't even keep it together.

Anyway, we saw Footloose and it was so much fun! Unfortunately, the acoustics in that theater are terrible and everyone sounded muffled when they spoke (Charlie Brown teacher style). Lucky for me, I know the plot of the movie, but Adam turned to me during Intermission and said, "So.... what's the story line here?" What a trooper!

Give Me Five, my last event of the season, was the next day, and I was so excited my parents and in-laws were able to attend!

After working lots of days in a row, I got Wednesday and Thursday of last week off. Adam also had Wednesday morning off, so we hiked up Kennesaw Mountain with our number one girl. Just what I needed!

My idea for a relaxing weekend at home was, of course, thrown out the window when we had some opportunities come up.

Conveniently, I was able to participate in my first Summer Hours of the season last Friday (during the summer months, our office closes at 1pm every other Friday. Since it's my event season, I never get to take advantage of it). And extra conveniently, Barbara was coming in town (by BUS) and we were able to grab a boozy lunch at Tin Lizzy's, followed by a beer run and Menchie's.

Needless to say, the owner of Menchie's wasn't exactly thrilled we brought beer in. I believe his exact words were, "Ladies, don't drop that beer on my store floor." Listen, guy - we would have been more mad than you if we wasted this beer on your floor.

We sadly parted ways, and then I headed home to get ready for the Concert in the Square. Such a fun time with some of my most favorite people!

On Saturday, a friend of mine who I know through work invited us to see her husband's band play in the Battle of the Bands at the Masquerade. Their band, Clap for Daylight, didn't win - but it was so fun! We had never been to the Masquerade before, and we felt super hip.

On Sunday the weather was too beautiful to sit inside, so we headed to Downtown Roswell for a late lunch at Party Chic. I wanted to try a new place, and they had an upstairs balcony and bottomless mimosas for $10 - sold! The food was ok, but the service was terrible. Even those $10 bottomless mimosas won't get me back in there. I had pretty cute company, though.

 The weekend ended with Adam meeting up with the guys for their Fantasy Football draft, and me having a wine and pizza night with Dominica. Perfect, relaxing way to end an awesome weekend!

whoops

I don't even know where I left off on my exciting life, but it's been awhile. I've had three events in less than one month (whaaat?), with the final one being this Sunday. Have to be honest, working 10 days in row really hasn't been bad because my job is so fun! However, I spent all day Wednesday thinking it was Thursday, so I think my brain needs a break.

Ok, some quick updates...

I went to Charlotte the weekend of August 2 to celebrate my birthday North Carolina style. Per usual, it was so much fun and I could have cried when I had to leave my little Nat. Friday night was bro time.... aka eat a lot of food and watch Katy Perry and Spring Breakers. (If anyone every tries to talk you into watching Spring Breakers, JUST SAY NO.) Katy Perry on the other hand, is our favorite movie. We may or may not have watched it three times in two days, and I may or may not know the choreography to Teenage Dream.

Saturday, Natalie forced me to be active in the morning and take a walk to a cute little breakfast place called Amelie's. I guess it was worth it - it made me feel a little less disgusting for chowing down on who knows how many pieces of pizza the night before. Then we headed over to Melvin's for some pool time (again, I guess that walk was a good idea).

Saturday night we were up to our usual shenanigans, followed by even more shenanigans because it was Morgan's birthday (she was nice enough to let me help her blow out her birthday candles - what a gem).

By the end of the weekend, I was pretty much convinced I was moving in as the fourth roommate. But then Sunday morning came around and I had to make the trek back to Atlanta to attend a wedding at the Greystone for Mallory and Alex.

On Monday, Allison and I met up with Richard Blais at Flip Burger to talk food and stuff. He was nice enough to take a picture with us and with the No Kid Hungry sign. Thanks, dude!

Thursday, I headed over to the CBS Studios to be on hand while a couple of our chefs and sommeliers did a spot for the upcoming Give Me Five event. They were rock stars!

Friday, it was off to Orlando for the final Taste of the Nation of the season! The event was a huge success - raising $245,000 to help end childhood hunger in Florida and nationwide. Holler!

Who knew there were still Dippin Dots around? Ice cream of the future!

Never know what entertainers are going to show up at this event!

Sunday, I was able to spend the day with one of my absolute favorites who lives in Orlando - Barbara. We had a yummy brunch at Spice, then headed to the Farmer's Market for bottomless mimosas and very entertaining people watching. Later in the day, we wandered up to the bars and let me tell you - Orlando takes Sunday Funday to a whole new level. The bars were packed and they had DJs and such. Party time! Too bad I had to head to the airport to catch my flight back home, but not before some moonshine-soaked cherries!

I came home late Sunday night to a "surprise" from Adam. He bought a car while I was gone. I know you can't sense my anger through the computer, but let's just say that I'm ANGRY. A car isn't a big purchase or anything.... Oh, and my phone broke last night so I get to go buy a new one today. AWESOME.

Well, my last event until October is on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to taking a deep breath and just relaxing. There it is. My exciting life.

25th Birthday Celebrations!

Last week, I was in Miami prepping for Taste of the Nation South Florida - which happened to fall on the day before my birthday. It was our first year doing the event in South Beach (we'd done it for 25 years in North Miami and 23 years in Fort Lauderdale, but decided to combine them into one big event this year), and it was a huge success! The venue, Loews Miami Beach Hotel, was beautiful and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Check out this welcome from the Loews - they certainly know how to treat their guests!

Sunrise the morning of the event. Rise and shine!

During the tech run through, I made them stop so I could take a picture of Ruthie's 15 seconds of fame. (She's the background on my computer - not part of our program. Duh.)

We don't drink during our events (for obvious reasons), but we are allowed to join in on the fun during the Chef After Party. This event's Chef After Party (or as I told people - The Hotel's Birthday Bash for Me!) was held at SOAK at the Loews, and was super fun.

Since it was my birthday at midnight, I obviously had to have an after after party.

Needless to say, I was a little tired the next morning as I boarded my flight back to Atlanta to celebrate my birthday with family and friends.

I somehow rallied for dinner with Adam and the parents at Ray's on the Creek - delicious!

Post-dinner we went out in the Marietta Square with our friends! After a quick stop at Hemingway's and Johnnie MacCracken's, we ended the night at (where else?) Mulligan's.

Let's end this post with this gem. We have some "ethnic" neighbors who have lost their dog. Puddle = Poodle.

New beginnings...again

How many blogs have I titled "New beginnings" or something similar? I'll have to go back and count. I guess that's what is so exciting about life and being young - we run into new beginnings all the time. Lucky for me, I love change. I love change so much I still can't believe we bought a house. I would move to another state in a heartbeat. Yes, we would miss our family and our friends - but I just love a change of scenery. (With that being said, I catch myself saying "I love our house" multiple times a week.)

Enough about little ole me! This post is actually about Adam...or as he corrects me, "our family". (And here we come to a screeeeeching halt.... our family still just consists of me, Adam and Ruthie - so don't get excited about any expansions anytime soon.)

Ok, for real - moving on. A couple months ago, Adam received a sign (read: he did something that really pissed me off) that maybe coaching and teaching isn't what he really wants to do. He thought about it for a month or so (bossy ole me made sure he didn't just jump to a decision without really thinking about it.), and decided it's not what he wants to do. After asking him "Are you surrrree???" a million times in a million different ways, he finally put his foot down and said that while he is naturally really good at coaching/dealing with bratty teenagers/having the patience of Jobe, his heart was not in it. OK - I can respect that.

One of his close friends and college baseball buddies, Chad, worked at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and loved it. After they had some heart to hearts, Adam decided he wanted to apply. After four or so interviews, he found out he got the job the day before we left for Italy! Woo hoo!!

He's now in his third week and loves it! It's funny, I think the hours are really long (he leaves around 6:30am and gets home around 7:00pm), but he thinks it's a breeze compared to baseball season.

I'm super proud of him for making this decision - he had a lot of people telling him he had to coach and it's what he was meant to do, but he knew what was best for him and went for it.