Anybody Have a Map?

My feet got a running shoe upgrade this weekend! Brooks Launch 4 → Brooks Adrenaline GTS 18

Happy Wednesday, y'all! This last week has been much better than recent weeks past in terms of mental health. It's always good to appreciate the moments when you're feeling okay and I definitely appreciated that these last few days. While I haven't necessarily done anything too exciting, I've kind of (and by kind of, I mean REALLY) needed this down time to charge my batteries because I feel like I haven't had a chance to really rest my brain since I started job searching back in November. That's a long time feeling drained! I'm feeling like I'm seeing some light at the end of the tunnel of these really tough months and I hope it just continues on this path.

Pre-surgery Halloween-themed selfie

Brett had his surgery last Thursday and it went very well. He was taken into the OR around 3:15 and came out around an hour later. He came out of the anesthesia like a champ and had very minimal bruising and swelling. (He was even up for watching the newest episode of Jersey Shore when we got home that evening! #funfetticakenoooooo) The doctor didn't prescribe any pain meds to him which I was pretty surprised by, but he's been recovering so well with minimal discomfort and high spirits. He has a splint on his nose which he'll be getting off on Friday morning and we can finally put this whole debacle behind us!

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Over the weekend was the #ReadYourFaceOff 24 readathon where I was able to finish An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (highly recommend!) and also went on a bit of an impromptu shopping spree. I knew I needed to go buy new running shoes (pictured above!), but I also wanted to grab Brett some new button down shirts for a wedding we have coming up this Friday and wound up also snagging myself a new fall colored dress (which I still haven't tried on yet... oops) and snagged a sweet Gryffindor hoodie which I am so pumped I own. Not gonna lie, being in the most mainstream Hogwarts house has it's perks, like having the most merch to choose from!

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I know I'm like 2 years tardy to this party, but I've been getting really into the Dear Evan Hansen cast recording this week! It's one of those musicals where the music could easily be on the radio if you didn't know it was from a specific musical. I often question why I torture myself by listening to cast recordings because going to actually see the shows themselves will always be far out of my financial reach. D: I guess I'll just have to settle for the music and reading through the show synopses for now! :P


Another musical highlight from this past week is the "Trees" sketch from this week's SNL. I've gotten into the habit over the last couples weeks of watching SNL on Sundays and it's been kind of fun keeping up to date with the show instead of watching clips here and there as they pop up on my other social media feeds. Brett and I watched last week's episode before the Patriots game on Sunday night and this sketch was our favorite, hands down. It's just so dumb which is the kind of humor I can truly appreciate. We've been quoting it all week! XD

I've been doing a reading vlog this week because for whatever reason, I keep hating the vlogs I'm recording for #ReadYourFaceOff for the last couple of months and I wanted to make up for it in a way. I had Twitter help me decide my TBR for the week and folks picked 3 spooky books for me to choose from which y'all know I'm a big fan of. Here's what you can expect to see in the vlog, which should go up on my channel next week and will be cross posted here at the beginning of next month with my reading wrap up!

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Misery by Stephen King

This weekend will be a 3 day weekend for me. I have Friday off for our friend's wedding, then nothing on the schedule for the weekend. I am shooting to run 18 miles this weekend (probably for #SundayRunday). My 16 mile long run this past weekend went really well so I'm hoping that 18 will be okay as well. After that it's time to taper before the big race in November! I'm hoping running around on the hills of my town over the last few months will be a big advantage when taking on the nice flat course in Richmond. We shall see!

LINKS I LOVED THIS WEEK

Quirky Husky Loves To Do Flips from The Dodo

Some dogs just want to watch the world burn from Dog Addict

18 Hilarious Posts That'll Make You See "Harry Potter" In A Whole New Light from Buzzfeed

21 Dogs Who Will Sleep Wherever They Damn Well Please from Buzzfeed

Spring 2016 Favorites!

Another spring has flown right by which means it's time for me to share with you all what my favorite items of the season were! I had quite an extensive list when preparing for this video but pared it way, way down to the things that stuck with me through the whole season. I really love all of these items that I talk about in this video and hope that you find something to enjoy among these items as well! Enjoy!

Items discussed in the video:
BLOGGER/YOUTUBER: FRANNERD
MUSIC: "Hamilton: An American Musical" Original Broadway Cast Recording 
FILM: "The Barkley Marathons"
FITNESS: Fitbit Flex & Garmin Forerunner 230
CLOTHING: Birkenstock Madrids
BOOK: "Greyhound" by Steffan Piper

Life is a Cabaret, Old Chum!

photos by Sean McVeigh - more Cabaret photos here!

Dean put on a production of Cabaret last weekend, and I just knew that I had to see it. Brett, Rob, Emily, and I attended the Thursday night show and we were blown away! I had never seen Cabaret, movie or live performance, so I really had no idea what I was walking into, but I was pleasantly surprised. A few of the students that I work closely with played some of the leading roles (the Emcee and Ernst Ludwig were played by past and present CAs!) and they did so phenomenally! Brett and I could not get over how good the show was for days after, and we seriously considered going to watch it a second time. (I'm sure if I didn't have a paper to write we would have!) We were singing "Willkommen" and dancing around the apartment all weekend long, haha! It really was so great, and if you ever get the chance to see the show live I definitely recommend it!

photos by Sean McVeigh - more Cabaret photos here!

The show was picked up to compete in a theater festival - so exciting! Break a leg everyone! :)