Weekend Things: 2017 to 2018

2017 wasn’t a perfect year and 2018 won’t be either, but the weekend that took us from one to the other most certainly was!  A long weekend felt like the perfect way to pause and reflect on 2017 while also having time to usher in 2018 and even though I’m feeling sort of tired today, I went to bed last night feeling completely at peace with how the weekend played out.

Went to close my office blinds on Friday and saw the most beautiful sunset.  I literally ran outside to snap a picture 🙂  The best way to kick off a long weekend is with a trip to the library to pick up new books, of course.  Joey wanted to stay in but in a rare moment, I did NOT feel like changing straight into my pajamas upon getting home and felt the itch to get out, so I convinced him to go see a movie.  We saw Call Me By Your Name and I’m still not sure what I thought of it.  Beautiful in many ways, confusing in many other ways.

Saturday and a bold statement: If I could only eat at one breakfast restaurant for the rest of my life, it would be Stowaway.  It’s just that every time we decide to go out, it’s the only place I really want to go and it never doesn’t sound good.  Thankfully, Joey indulges me in going all the time.  I don’t even know what we did on Saturday — wait, no that’s wrong!  WE FINISHED WATCHING THE LEFTOVERS!  And I seriously need someone who considers it “the best show ever” to explain to me because I hated it.  Help!

Filled in the rest of the day with a trip to the gym (I ran exactly one mile less in 2017 than I did in 2016, which I think should kill me, but I sort of don’t care?), a mountain of granola and our traditional New Year’s dinner of black eyed peas and collard greens.  Oh and we watched Gone Baby Gone and despite some real plot problems, we still liked it.

NYE!  Started with a bunch of yogurt pancakes (minus the apples and I subbed half whole wheat for all-purpose — loved them!) and then I made a pie for dinner the next day ♥  Later on, we hit up Huckleberry Roasters for some January planning, NYE caffeinating and new book reading.  It gave my heart such joy.  We need to hang out in coffee shops more.

Festivities for the night started with us getting all dressed up Great Gatsby-style!  We had a themed party to attend but went to dinner in costume first.  I think the gal taking our order at Cart-Driver was confused for a minute before we explained we were going to a party afterwards.  Just FYI, we ordered all the costumage (costumery?) on Amazon, it all arrived on Saturday and much to my shock and delight, it all worked out perfectly!  Not going to lie though, that headband was hell.  I took it off mid-party because it felt like it was actually cutting into my head and I had a headache all day Monday that I’m blaming on that thing.  What were women in the 20’s thinking?!

In conclusion, eating Cart-Driver’s clam pizza, talking 2017 happenings and cheersing Joey and Jenn at midnight felt like the best end to a weird rocky year.

The first day of 2018 was blissful.  Started slow and easy with breakfast on the couch, followed by movie time.  We’re seeing The King and I at The Buell next weekend but Joey had never seen the original, so I felt we needed to watch it.  Yul Brynner is a goddamn delight and I was overjoyed to discover the whole film is just as good as I remembered it being.  Newly discovered favorite line: “I’ll do the remembering!”  It just applies so well to my life 🙂  I also picked us up some lunch burritos from the newly opened Illegal Pete’s in our neighborhood.  Every young hungover Denverite seemed to be there so the line was brutal but worth it.

We had my family over for New Year’s Day dinner — a Dorsey family tradition that I thank my wonderful mother for — and it honestly made my heart so happy ♥  Made bacon-wrapped stuffed turkey chicken, shredded kale salad and cauliflower gratin plus that vegan French Silk Pie and loved how it all turned out.  Everyone left shortly after 9, we cleaned up in a state of euphoria and were in bed by 9:45.  It was the best!

Please be kind to us, 2018.

Weekend Things

The number of times I come to this space to write up a “Weekend Things” post, only to discover the last thing I wrote was the weekend recap from the week before seems to have increased lately.  Oops!  Let this serve as a gentle reminder to myself to get back to writing up quick mid-week posts about how I saw Lady Bird two weeks ago or that I finished a book that I hated.  Those little life things deserve their own post sometimes 🙂

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Friday night, we headed home, cooked dinner (this vegan alfredo is so good and it’s easily one of my favorite things we make regularly) and then…. you guessed it, went to a movie!  It’s that time of year and Joey and I are truly on our movie seeing game.  This time it was Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri which is a mouthful but it’s also very good.  Parts are funny and parts are heavy and and you never know which is coming.  I kept feeling caught off guard but in a good way.  I just really enjoyed this movie!

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Saturday started with breakfast at my favorite place, aka Stowaway.  We shared a bourbon banana cake while sipping our coffee and I don’t think I’ve ever felt happier.  Afterwards, we checked out the brand new Union Station Whole Foods and not to be dramatic, but this feels life changing.  Ample parking, a spacious layout and all the specialty items your heart could desire.  I’m not about to do my weekly shopping there but I frequently find myself needing to take a trip there for something I can’t find at my regular grocery store and having this new store within 5 minutes of home is going to be SO NICE.  Also, I forgot my phone at home so I couldn’t geek out taking Instagram videos of the store, which is probably for the better…

Post-WF mania, we picked up beer supplies to brew over Thanksgiving weekend then headed home because I had a noon-time manicure scheduled.  The color is called “Edith” and I’m telling myself it’s as in Piaff.  We spent the night at a wedding reception for some friends but not before grabbing a beer at Diebolt.  We decided we need to be bigger supporters of our neighborhood brewery by drinking a beer there more often.

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And then there was Sunday, the day I only took food photos 🙂  To be fair, I also went on a run, finished a book and watched a few episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (all the way caught up!), but I just didn’t take pictures of those things.  While Joey was out watching football, I made a pie dough for a caramel apple pie I’m making later this week and even though it doesn’t look “perfect,” I did my best while telling myself “pie dough can smell your fear.”  We had a mishmash of ingredients in the fridge and only three days of work to get through, so I just threw together some salads for us.

Highlight of the day was dinner, for sure!  The Cowboys were playing that night and to me, this reads: WING NIGHT!  I made this jalapeño popper bean dip (with mini bell peppers) and baked chicken wings with ginger-soy glaze and then Joey made us a buttermilk ranch dressing and it all turned out SO GOOD.  I was absolutely delighted by all of it and would definitely use all the recipes again.  I guess the Cowboys lost?  I was obviously distracted.

And now here we are, three days out from Thanksgiving and I am literally unable to think or speak of anything else.  Happy Monday!