Weekend Things

The first weekend of 2019!  Did you dig it?  Honestly, I sort of forgot it was the first weekend of the new year until my yoga teacher pointed it out, but it was a good one anyway.  It started with a spontaneous dinner out and ended with a wild Golden Globes show, that still has me feeling confused.  Let’s dive in!

We were totally going to eat free leftovers for dinner but my sister texted me as we were driving home asking if we wanted to go out for burgers and the answer took very little thought.  YES!  In exchange, we invited them to join us in seeing a movie, so Park & Co first, then off to the Mayan for If Beale Street Could Talk second.  Guys, this film is SO beautiful.  I felt so moved just watching Tish and Fonny, the two main characters, look into each others eyes.  It was truly astounding how love was evoked through this whole film.  The ending is sort of heartbreaking and not what you hope for, though maybe what you should expect.  I need to read the James Baldwin novel it’s based on now!

Saturday morning, we took ourselves to a new coffee shop, called Doppio for breakfast and to wrap our heads around the month of January.  After holiday chaos, this month looks blissfully empty.  Doppio was a-okay.  Into all the space they had, giant coffee mugs and decked out toast, but service was sort of weird and do I really need an extra piece of toasts that isn’t decked out?  Probably not.

The rest of the day was wide open.  We went on a noontime run and it felt wonderful and like it was maybe the first time I’d run outside since before the time change??  Whoa.  I also hit the grocery store and I cannot wait for everyone to give up on their New Year’s Resolutions so I can find a parking spot at Whole Foods again 😛  The Cowboys played that night, so I offered to make us dinner — Black-Eyed Peas with Cornmeal Dumplings, per tradition — then read while Joey watched the game.  They won, so I guess I’ll be doing this same thing next Saturday?

First things first, I woke up on Sunday and Joey told me he’d finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the night before, thus bringing his reading of the HP series to an end.  I cannot even tell you how much this means to me ♥♥♥  Mostly because I’ll cry!  This moment is 11 years in the making and I love him on a whole new level.

Post-HP recap discussion, there were pancakes and afterward, I ran to a different grocery store to get a few things we can’t get at WF — it was busy there too and people were straight up creating their own parking spaces! — before returning home to make granola, eat lunch and read some more before yoga.  The class was really full — is this a theme?? — but it was also really good and I made it home in time for Joey and I to type each other a letter?  Don’t ask.  Then it was Globes time!

Oh the Golden Globes, what can I say?  I thought the whole thing was somewhere between okay and totally weird.  I’m probably just idealizing but I kept thinking “hasn’t this award show been much better in past years??”  There were so many good films this year, but winners were so spread out among those films that it almost felt like no one film got quite the recognition it deserved.

I still haven’t seen Bohemian Rhapsody so it’s hard for me to really have an opinion on it winning Best Picture Drama but the reason I haven’t seen it, is because it looks really bad!  Also, I really loved Green Book, but I feel so conflicted between my original opinion, the opinion of everyone I know who’s seen it and (apparently) the HFPA’s opinion versus everything I’ve heard about it from critics, which is basically that it’s an inaccurate depiction or it’s an oversimplification of race relations in America or it’s yet another white savior narrative.  I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to think anymore.  I do wish there’d been more space to reward Bradley Cooper for A Star is Born though!

Did you watch?  What did you think?

If not, tell me how your first weekend of 2019 was! 🙂

Weekend Things

Sometimes you are gifted with a perfect weekend and this weekend, that started with a really good movie, included a night out with our besties and ended with a taco festival, was just such a weekend.  Just thinking about it is making me feel so so happy ♥

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Real life dinner sometimes looks a lot different than Instagram dinner but those leftovers were delicious and we got to watch some of the Rockies game before making our way to the Mayan to see Eighth Grade.  Guys, the movie was SO GOOD.  I think I had mentally prepared for it to be really sad, so I was pleasantly surprised at how A) funny and B) optimistic much of it was.  But don’t get me wrong, there were many cringe-worthy and heart-breaking parts too.  Please see it, it is truly beautiful!

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The Saturday morning plan was to wake up and head straight to the Farmers’ Market then have breakfast when we got back, but Joey got up SUUUPER early and went for a run and then I got up two full hours before the market started so pancakes at home it was!  These Coconut-Cashew Pancakes were in the newest Cooking Light and once I got the batter properly thinned out with extra coconut milk, they turned out really good!

We hadn’t been to the market in something like three weeks, and in our absence, all the peppers popped up!  We paid $20 for our haul and I thought that was a pretty good deal.  Spent the rest of Saturday doing a few productive things — grocery, garden clean up, over-baking some Pistachio-Raisin Bars — but mostly some restful things — reading, napping, watching Anchorman — before our exciting evening plans.

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We made Dining Al Fresco reservations for Osteria Marco all the way back in MAY and even then, 8 PM was the earliest we could get in!  We also waited 20 minutes for our table but there was complimentary Prosecco, so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.  Once sat, it was just a fun night of dinner under the string lights with our best friends ♥  It started POURING as we drove back home, so we could not have timed it more perfectly!

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Fish Taco from Los Chingones

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Jackfruit Taco from Mas Kaos

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Scallop Taco from Bright Marten

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Hard Shell Beef Taco + Green Chile from La Fiesta

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Barbacoa Taco from Chuey FU’s

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Carnitas Taco from Adelitas Cocina Y Cantina 

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Chocolate + Butter Pecan Paletas from Neveria Jedany’s

Sunday morning, I got up early(ish) and headed to yoga and Joey was out most of the day for a fantasy football draft so when I got home, I got our salads for the week made and finished my book so we could have the rest of the late afternoon to spend together at… Tacolandia!  Aka, an all-you-can-eat taco festival at Civic Center Park.  Look, there wasn’t a bad taco in the bunch, but the barbacoa from Chuey FU’s was my favorite.

After we had watched enough of the Lucha Libre Final Match (the wrestlers slapping their leg as they “punched” each other to imitate the noise was seriously so funny!), we decided to top it all off with some dessert in the form of the creamiest paletas and a Tamaricco, which I’d never heard of before but found super fascinating.  Also, again, the weather was not supposed to be great for this outdoor event, but we totally lucked out because, except for a bit of wind, it was plenty warm and sunny.  We had so much fun doing this!  Oh and Rockies swept the Braves!

Please tell me something fun you did this weekend! 🙂