(A)Part

I've been lucky enough to find great groups of friends in every stage of life. High school, college, and law school have blessed me with friendships that have proved to grow stronger with time. This past week, I got to spend a few days with my high school, college, and law school friends and it was absolutely wonderful. It was the perfect antidote to months of holed-up studying and a perfect distraction for my tendency to stress. But each time we said goodbye, we were faced with the reality that we didn't know when or where we'd see each other again. And here's another pro and con. Pro: we don't know where we'll meet again. We could meet anywhere. Maybe another wedding. Maybe a city we've always wanted to visit. Con: We don't know when we'll meet again. Maybe in a few weeks or maybe in a few years. It's difficult to tell.

I found this quote that perfectly sums up the experience that I'm sure is not unique to me.

One of the greatest blessings of being young is that everyone you loved tended to live in a pretty small, geographical radius. Friends were either at school every day or 10 minutes away. Hanging out was a natural consequence of receiving an education. In college, it was a little harder. Some people went out of state but for me, most of my friends stayed close. They were either on my campus or an hour away which, when you're in college, feels like nothing when you're itching for an excuse to road trip.

Each step of my schooling has gone similarly until now, when the schooling is (mercifully) over. While my bar exam-taking, job-searching self has plenty of things to do, living close to old friends is not one of them. Hanging out now takes time. Requesting time off work or driving a few hours. Prepping pups or children for roadtrips or finding alternate care. It's definitely possible but it's not as easy.

And in the grand scheme of thing, this uncertainty is a small price to pay for the privilege of knowing these amazing women. Still, it'd be nice if for a few weeks at least, everyone could live in the same small town again, sharing gossip over caramel macchiatos and occasionally skipping class.

Halloween Recap

J and I take Halloween costumes very seriously. We start brainstorming months in advance and he uses the time to put together the perfect costume (while I usually end up waiting until the last minute. Oops). Last year, we did Gamora and Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy. It was awesome but it took about 3 days for the green to wash off completely, so my only requirement was that body paint would not be required this year.

Luckily, Star Wars came to the rescue! We bounced between characters for a while but we ultimately decided on Luke and Darth Vader!

J ordered a full costume weeks in advance. He tricked himself out with a lightsaber attached to his equipment belt via carabiner. I like to put together costumes with pieces of regular clothes and Forever 21 stepped in with a leather dress with chunky pockets and a thick, lined belt. I found gauntlets, knee high socks. The only 'costumey' things were the mask and cloak.

We went to a friend's party where we found more of our posse...

... various villains, a skunk, and a ghost!

Halloween was a blast and I guess sometime in the next few weeks, J's going to start with the Halloween brainstorm for next year. First though, I have to deal with this monster of a week. Bar results come out on Thursday and I'm already a mess, so if you don't hear from me between now and then, you know why! At this point, my life feels like it's sort of divided between now and after Thursday. My job prospects, my apartment situation all depend on that one day. It's kind of a lot to take in. But I'm taking it one day at a time, because what else can you do?

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

A Rainy Weekend Recap

This weekend managed to be a success despite the fact that it started raining Friday night and literally did not stop until Sunday morning. Some of my best friends (and sister) came in from out of town and we hit up the Panic Room (again by popular demand) and it was just as fun as it was the last time. We did the "Bomb Room" this time which meant we had one hour to find the "bomb" and escape the room. Somehow, we managed to do it in 47 minutes. I genuinely have no idea how we got out so fast but it made us feel brainy and successful all at once! 

Plus, finishing a bit early wasn't a problem since we had dinner reservations to get to. Given all of our new free time, we decided to walk the few blocks and rehash our greatest moments. Does anyone else ever do that? Start talking about an experience almost as soon as it's over? I've always been a big "Instant Replay" kind of person and luckily, so were most of us. 

For dinner, we were trying a new (to us) place called Arro. It's on West 6th Street which meant that the white, non-descript building was surrounded by bumping, music-filled places. The energy seemed to transfer inside and it was wonderful. The whole place was filled with great music and conversation, cheeses and tons of wine. 

Arro, which bills itself as a French restaurant, definitely follows the French method of dining. There was a healthy amount of time between the drinks, the cheeses, the entrees, and the dessert and that was just fine by me. It as nice having time to catch up with people I hadn't seen for a while and nibble on different cheeses and a ton of bread. (I have a thing for carbs). Plus, it took us a super long time to decide what we wanted to order. Once we did decide though, it seemed like we all ordered the same thing.

I guess I don't really wonder why. The steak (and fries!) were delicious. It didn't dawn on us until the plates were cleaned that we probably should have ordered different entrees so that we could try more of the menu, but I don't think we had any regrets. 

Finally, we wrapped it up with a tiny profiterole filled with the best (and only) hazelnut ice cream I have ever had.

J and I slept in the next morning then eventually ventured out to see The Martian. It was so good! Even though I'm starting to think more and more that space movies stress me out. 

Have any of you guys see it? Any thoughts? I've been meaning to read the book so hopefully I'll get back to you guys about that soon! How were your weekends? Hopefully the weather was a little more cooperative!

Linking up with Her Heartland Soul for the weekend roundup!

Fan of Fridays Vol. 3

Happy Friday, everyone! I can't believe we're almost at the end of October. It's mind-blowing how fast this month has gone by but we've still got one good week left! This week's highlights were/are:

1. Birthdays! It's my birthday today and while generally I wouldn't make too huge a deal out of it, some of my best friends from undergrad and high school are coming into town and I'm so excited to see them. Now that we all live in different towns, reunions come few and far between so I'm especially grateful for when they happen!

2. On that note, I found this article on how friendship changes during adulthood super interesting. Every few years or so, I end up moving and it has a noticeable impact on my friendships. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it's a change nonetheless. [Also, in the event anyone is interested in Royal happenings like I occasionally am, this article is worth a read!] 

3. The Day Designer hype. I'm a huge planner nerd and ordered my first Day Designer during the presale this week! If you're interested, today's the last day to pre-order and get a fun pack of stickers with your order! If you're a daily planning/list making fanatic, I'd highly recommend this one.

4. Star Wars. I have been a Star Wars fan for as long as I can remember. It was one of the first movies I watched with my dad so not only was it a great bonding experience but a chance for him to instill his fandom in me. I guess it worked because I have been obsessing over the trailer all week! Bah! So excited for opening night!

5. I feel like my blog feed is full of about a million topics and I absolutely love it. Angela from the Sunday Chapter has great advice about fighting anxiety, Eliza talks about picking the proper primer, and May is doing a cool introduction series accompanied by serious gorgeous pictures. 

Hope everyone's weekend is A+ :) 

The Weekly Happy Hour: Parkside

I just wanted to thank you guys for your supportive comments on the 'What's the Point of Blogging?' post. Like a lot of you guys, I resist the idea of blogging being 'dead' because I resist the idea of losing this space where I can talk about important things and also, fun but probably less important things (in the grand scheme of the world). Even though, I'm not sure that spending time with friends is ever unimportant. Goodness knows I would go crazy without midweek socialization.

This week, it was my turn to pick the happy hour and because I missed last week, I was eager to hit the ground running. The website for Parkside immediately drew me in. Fries? Cheeseburger? Mac and Cheese?? It seems like the perfect, warm place to take refuge on this dreary, almost rainy day.

Park side is on Dirty 6th, a place I'd been a thousand times before but I'd never noticed the little restaurant tucked away on the corner. At 5:30, the place was already popping and the atmosphere was fun and Friday-esque.

I got a drink that was part strawberry Stoli, part champagne and part sugar and it was so, so good. For most of my of-drinking-age life, I've tended to stick with the same things so it's a nice change of pace trying drinks I wouldn't have otherwise tried.

Having been put on notice that there would be cheeseburgers, I tried to eat healthy during the day which meant I was starving when I got there. I got the cheeseburger, Karlz got the fried egg sandwich and Ferj got the ceviche and it was all so tasty. The fries were those crispy, wonderfully salty kind and were served with a garlic aioli. It was the perfect offset to the sweetness of the drink. Like, I'll be honest, I wish I was eating it right now.

We were tucked in a corner booth and it was the perfect place to talk about our jobs, the holidays and the very real stress of waiting for Bar results. 

I'd definitely come back with friends, with J, or even with a good book. Such a delicious, well-priced and centrally located place! Plus happy hour, which runs till 6:30 is half price off of cocktails, beer and the bar menu! 

Like with all happy hours, I was sad to see it end but I did see this really strange thing outside of Roppollo's, a drunken night out institution on 6th. Not surprisingly, there was a massive line of people waiting to take a picture with it. Oh, Austin. 

Here's to hoping the rest of the week flies by! 

Overall rating: 4/5

The Weekly Happy Hour: Peche

For happy hour this week, we continued making our way down that 'Best Austin Happy Hour' list and ended up at Peche! It's such a weirdly shaped place (long and narrow), that it's super easy to just walk right past. The trick is to look for the giant sign shaped like a wine bottle (these people clearly speak my language).

The restaurant is decorated like the set of a fancy version of Series of Unfortunate Events, with antique pieces punctuated by the occasional, extremely strange artwork. 

Their happy hour consists of $5 cocktails (eligible ones have astericks next to them) and half priced appetizers (also marked with astericks) and everything is i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e. Karls and Nat got the Royal Bee's Knees which is gin, honey, and lemon and oh my goodness, it tastes like honey-sweetened lemonade and packs the punch of straight gin. Not ordering that drink has become one of my life's regrets (though the French75 was pretty killer, too). 

The appetizers are huge and perfect for sharing! The size of the fry boat itself is overwhelming (in a good way). 

All in all, it was the perfect place coming off of a less-than-perfect week. Stressful weekends, never ending doc review, and the looming rainclouds that are the pending bar results were weighing heavily on my mind and it was nice to be able to vent about it. Plus, since we've all started working, it's been hard finding times that our schedules align. All of this work-life balance people talk about is no joke.

What are some ways that you all keep in touch with friends during the week? I'm excited to hear how other people handle the mid-week slump!

Overall rating: 4.5/5

The Panic Room

This past weekend, my best friend from undergrad, Meelz, and her husband came down to Austin to drink autumnal-themed coffee drinks and visit the Austin Panic Room. 

When I first heard about panic rooms my first thought was 'That movie with Jodie Foster? Why would I want to reenact that movie with Jodie Foster?' Thankfully (or not, depending on your views of that movie), that's not what this was. The Panic Room would be more aptly called the Puzzle Room because basically, you're locked in a set of rooms for one hour and you have to solve puzzles, find clues, and break codes in order to get out.

We chose the Museum Room (arbitrarily, because we are bad decision makers) and when we got there, found out it had a 33% success rate. Properly encouraged, we were the brief by our "contact on the outside." She explained that we had one hour to find the most priceless artifact then unlock the doors to escape.

While it didn't seem that difficult in theory, 30 minutes in, we had two locks undone (and that was because one was unlocked when we got in there). What makes the room so tricky is that some clues are hidden behind locks so you don't have all of the necessary information right off the bat. And some of the clues you do get off the bat can't be understood without the help of clues to be uncovered later.

Minutes 30-45, we got the majority of the locks and it seemed like we were definitely going to escape when we hit the last lock. We were allowed to ask our "contact on the outside" 7 questions and we used our last one on figuring out how to bust this lock. I'm pretty sure we asked 10 questions disguised as one and even then, we were struggling.

With 2 minutes to go, we all collectively lost our cool and fought the urge to turn over furniture and barrel through the door. Luckily, Meelz kept her wits about her and figured out the final code. With 56 seconds, we escaped.

It took about an hour for the adrenaline to die down and after a meal at Hopdoddy's (where we were too busy singing angsty songs from the early 2000s to take pictures), she and her husband shipped off but not before asking when we could go back.

The Panic Room is definitely a fun, super unconventional way to spend an afternoon, whether it be with friends, family, or a group of strangers. So what are you waiting for? Brush up on your code-breaking skills and book your tickets!

The Weekly Happy Hour: Contigo

I've been lucky enough that 4 out of my 5 good friends have stayed in the same city as me after graduation. I've been even luckier to have made some new friends since. But perhaps the best luck of all comes in this tradition we've adopted: the weekly happy hour. I know we're far from the only people to do this, but my goodness, am I glad we do.

Typically, it's on Wednesday which is the perfect day in my opinion. The novelty of the week has worn off and you've probably already spent all day thinking it was Thursday, only to be disappointed each and every time you're reminded it's Wednesday. No matter how much you love your job (and I do, so I can say this with certainty), Wednesdays are the worst. See also NeverShoutNever (verifying that Wednesdays are indeed the worst).

It's on these plateaus of days that we've decided to do our Happy Hour and I'll tell you friends, it is worth it. Not so much for the drinks or the delicious snacks, but for the company and commiseration that you get during the consumption process. It's a perfect de-stresser. A power-up for the rest of the week, if you will.

Right now, we choose our locales based on their food specials and we're using this list as our guide. If you're in Austin, I highly recommend it. It takes the stress out of picking a place.

The key to a successful happy hour though? Try to avoid a Thursday hangover. There's still two more days in the week to go!


Happy Friday!

PS- If you're in Austin, Contigo has a happy hour worth checking out. $1 fried chicken until it runs out!

Rating: 3/5