Boston is for BFFs

The great thing about best friends is that you can go days, weeks, months, even years without seeing them but as soon as you see them again you can pick up like you were never apart. The fact is, my friends and I are apart a lot - we're all over the country: Boston, Athens, Ohio,  Fredericksburg, Va., Fairfax, Va., Columbia, SC, etc., so I really appreciate the time we get to spend together.

This past weekend my friends Kate, McKenzie and I visited our BFF Amy in Boston. McKenzie had just celebrated her birthday and had never been to Boston and it had been over a year since my last visit. We spent Friday tasting beers at Sam Adams Brewery and Harpoon Brewery.

Beginning of the Sam Adam's tour

Barrel room

Look at those delicious pitchers of beer

Excited about tasting some beer!

These are the only photos I got from Harpoon and they weren't even taken outside the brewery, they were taken at a seafood restaurant down the street!

Lobster lady?

Absolutely love them

Saturday was spent cheering on our Hokies as they played Boston College. Thankfully we came away with a win (19-0!!) and had a fabulous time celebrating in downtown Chestnut Hill with some fellow Hokies we met before the game.

View from our seats

Celebrating with fellow Hokies

Amy with our new friends, Jacob and Andy

Our celebration lasted long into the night and we didn't go to bed until 4 a.m. which meant Sunday was spent recovering. Before we headed to the airport, we had a fabulous brunch at Trident Booksellers & Cafe. They have a fabulous Cafe Mocha and apple and brie omelet! Despite the delicious brunch, our experience at the airport was far from fabulous. Due to terrible weather, every single one of our flights was delayed. I was supposed to get in at 10:20 p.m. but I didn't land until 11:30 p.m. To make matters worse, Delilah had gotten sick earlier in the day and when Brad and I got home, she had gotten sick in her crate. By the time we cleaned everything up, it was 1:00 a.m. Needless to say I didn't go to work on Monday but I didn't even get to sleep in because Delilah got sick again. Thankfully the vet was able to give her a shot and some antibiotics and she's feeling much better.

Despite the flight and puppy drama, I had a fabulous weekend with my friends and can't wait to see them all again!

I went to Blacksburg and all I got was this lousy picture

Yup, that's the view from my seat I pay a lot of money for and it definitely wasn't worth it this weekend. I don't even want to talk about the Hokies' performance on Saturday, but I will say, I am extremely frustrated and disappointed. At least on Labor Day the weather was incredible but this weekend, in typical Blacksburg (or should I say Bleaksburg) fashion, it was rainy and cold. It was so nasty in fact, we left our seats at the end of the first quarter, watched a bit on the TVs in the south end zone and called it a day a few minutes into the second quarter.  Hell, when we got back to our tailgating spot, some JMU kids had taken residence under our tents for beer pong and I joined in with them. Also, can I say that I'm a bit bothered by the people who keep saying "I'm sorry for your loss." Uhh, my team lost a football game, I didn't lose a family member or a pet. Let's keep things in perspective here people!

Needless to say, I'm really not excited about next week's game against ECU. At least I'll get to see my my biological sister and my big sister in my sorority. By the way, some people don't know but I actually went to ECU my freshman year. It was a rough year that got better in the second semester but ultimately I decided Virginia Tech was a better place for me. Even so, ECU will always have a place in my heart.

I've got a busy week ahead of me at work - my boss will be in town and we're getting a visit from the feds which means I need to brush up on our corporate security protocols, blah. I hope it goes by quickly.

It's a Blacksburg weather kind of day

Absolutely gorgeous. I love fall!

It's a good thing I have a sense of humor

I came into work today and found this note on my desk. It was written by one of my co-workers whose husband went to the University of Virginia (UVA) or as I like to call them BooVA. If you can't see it clearly the note says "Real Housewives of New Jersey vs. Virginia Tech football. Which one is trashier? Sorry for your loss." I knew immediately the note was from her even though she tried really hard to disguise her handwriting. I mean, no one else in my office watches the Real Housewives so I knew it had to be her! Either way, the note made my morning, even if it did make fun of my beloved Hokies.

Chokies - The Official Football Team of Virginia Tech

Ugh. I'm not going to sit here and bitch about how terrible the game was last night because it wasn't terrible. We had great seats, the game was exciting and Boise State fans are REALLY nice. We got to the stadium early and parked in the gray lot (where we had to pay) but it worked out really well because there weren't a ton of cars (turns out our section of the lot was actually the handicapped area), there was a path to decent porta potties and it was a short walk to the stadium.  We met some Boise State fans who made the trip from Iowa to cheer on their team. They kept wanting to pay us for beer and one woman told us she and the other fans were honored to be watching their team play against the Hokies. Also, there was an Idahoan senatorial candidate giving away free baked potatoes in another part of our lot, how cool is that?! So yeah, despite the fantastic tailgating experience, I am disappointed we couldn't pull off a win. Thankfully, we have an entire season ahead of us and our first home game in Lane Stadium on Saturday against JMU.

By the way, I didn't take ANY pictures before, during or after the game, except for three lousy ones of the field I took on my BlackBerry. Speaking of my BlackBerry, apparently the cell towers in the D.C. area can't handle 90,000 people trying to find each other to tailgate. To top it off, my BlackBerry lost all radio frequency from the time I left the game until about 7:30 a.m. I ended up having to run some random diagnostic I found on my phone to get it to work again and then was overwhelmed by texts, e-mails and BBMs (that's BlackBerry Messages for all you non-BlackBerry people).

Anyway, even though the Hokies broke my heart last night, I'm looking forward to the rest of football season and more amazing fall weather.

5 Reasons I Love Fall

5. Warm days, cool nights
4. Pumpkin spice lattes
3. Skinny jeans and riding boots
2. Crunchy maroon and orange leaves under foot
1. Virginia Tech football



In keeping with my obsession of all things Virginia Tech, I purchased these fabulous maroon and orange New Balances thanks to Brad who found them super cheap online.

I must admit, they're a little more fuchsia than maroon but they totally work. Also, if I had bought them for exercising, I would have definitely chosen the wide version as they are ridiculously narrow.  Even so, they're perfect for football season which begins MONDAY!

LET'S GO.....HOKIES!

5k4 Caitlin

This past weekend, Memorial Day weekend, some of my best friends and I traveled to upstate New York to run in a 5k for our sorority sister who was lost on April 16, 2007. One of my friends, McKenzie, and I participated last year so we were really excited to have two more friends join us for a girls weekend. We were so lucky the wonderful innkeepers Laura and Leigh at the Apple Valley Inn in Glenwood, NJ were so accommodating this year. Normally on a holiday weekend they require a two night stay and when they found out there was four of us they were a little reluctant to let us all stay in one room. Thankfully, they agreed to let us stay for one night in one room, I think because they liked the reason we were in the area. Even better, not too long after we checked in, they let us know they had a cancellation and gave us the extra room for FREE! To show our appreciation we had put together a basket of goodies from Virginia (wine, peanuts, chocolate covered Hokie peanuts, corn bread mix, honey, apple butter and crackers) which was a big surprise for them.

So after we checked in and had some time to relax on the beautiful lawn of the inn, we got ready and headed to the race. McKenzie, June and Joey all walked while I ran. It was a lot of fun and I came in second in my age group and beat my time from the previous year. I made sure to stick around the finish line to take pictures of the girls as they finished up the race. Thankfully the rain held off until the end of the race and while we waited for the weather to clear, we enjoyed some wine in June's car (keys in the glove box!).

After eating dinner, we settled down on the lawn of Bella Vista Holiday Spa to listen to some music and relax. It so happens that Caitlin's mom spotted McKenzie and Joey wearing their In Memory of Caitlin shirts and came over to talk to us. While it was great to talk to her, I think it was a lot more emotional than any of us anticipated.  It's weird for me to talk about Caitlin and the events of April 16. For one, I had already graduated and was not on campus that day and second, I didn't know Caitlin very well as she was a freshman when I was a senior and our two classes didn't interact very much. I do have one memory of Caitlin from my senior year. It seems silly now looking back, but during one of our last sorority meetings, someone had put together a slide show of photos that left several of us in tears. Caitlin so thoughtfully handed me a tissue and I just remember thinking, she must think I look like such an idiot but she is so sweet to be giving me this tissue. So yeah, I have mixed feelings about how I should feel about the whole thing but honestly, it all makes me sad.

Anyway, after an emotional conversation with Caitlin's mom and a couple more glasses of wine, the music really got going courtesy of Johnny, Caitlin's neighbor and back up musician for musical greats Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart. He sang to us and we danced and had an amazing time. Around 10:30pm we decided to call it a night.

Before we left the next day, we took Caitlin's mom up on the offer she made the night before to come see Caitlin's iris. The iris is the official flower of our sorority and one of our sister's mom is a botanist. She created an iris for Caitlin which sits in a beautiful garden in the backyard of Caitlin's house. We enjoyed some of Caitlin's favorite tea and then, Caitlin's mom asked us to take some of her childhood books home with us. She said she really didn't want to give the books to just anyone and told us we had to "duke it out" to decide who got what book. Like me, Caitlin played the violin so I went home with a book about classical composers and a children's version of Emily Dickinson poetry.

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Apple Valley Inn

A little pre-race relaxation

Superstar June finishing up the race - she came in 11th for the walkers!

 Mack and Joey finishing up strong

View from the Spa