Weekend To-Do List

It was a good weekend around these parts, hope for you as well! Here's how it went down..

1. There are two words that bring a bit of joy to the hearts of NYC's grumpiest office drones: Summer Fridays. My office observes this happy little tradition, and for us it means that as long as your work is done, you can end your workday at 3pm on Fridays. Nice, right?

I used the time to take care of a few personal items (booked some appointments, gave myself a fresh pedicure) and just let myself ease into the weekend. Soon enough it was ready to get freshened up to meet a friend for a perfect Friday girls' night: dinner and a movie. We saw Pitch Perfect 2 (yes, this was my second time) -- I actually liked it a bit better on second viewing, and we had fun singing along to some of the better musical numbers. Dinner was at Sweet Tomatoes, one of my favorite quick and healthy spots in town. It's basically a giant soup and salad buffet, and it is awesome. We both had to be up early the next morning, so we kept it low-key but had plenty of silly laughs.

2. Saturday morning I was on the road by 7am heading to my favorite place -- I had a shift serving breakfast at Give Kids The World. I got to help fill the tummies of some seriously cute kids and their families -- I love any shift that has a lot of interaction with families and this is a great one. I spent the rest of the day running errands and then finished out an unusually mild evening with drinks and dinner outside. Unbelievably it is still very spring-like here in Orlando. Summer, be kind to us.

3. Not that we're hurting for entertainment, but just a few weeks ago we welcomed the arrival of the Orlando Eye, one of those enormous ferris wheel that gives you spectacular city views. It was fascinating watching it being built, and while it is a bit of an eyesore (just like in any other city), it's not going anywhere soon so we're just going to have to learn to love it. Sunday was a such a pretty day, so I grabbed a few adventurous friends to check it out. It was fun! And terrifying!

4. The rest of the day was just a bit of this and that. I took care of a few chores, went to the gym, made a Target run (bought nothing - scandalous!), spent some quality time with the cutest dog in the world (the tiny dachshund above, who looks damn good in a sweater), got sucked into a Jurassic Park marathon, and did some cooking. I had gotten out of the habit of doing food prep for the coming week, but it is SUCH a big help and an important way to stay on track with good eating habits. I made a big salad, steamed a bag of broccoli, and cut up some veggies so I'll have some easy ways to get green stuff on my plate. I also roasted a pan of garlic chicken legs that are great as a snack right out of the fridge or easily heated up for a quick dinner.

I have just enough time for an episode or two of Mad Men (making my way quickly through season one) and then time for bed. I managed to log more than 17,000 steps on the FitBit today and I am feeling it.

Hope your weekend was everything you wanted it to be -- time to get our Monday game faces on!

Weekend To-Do List

Another freakin' weekend in the books. Here's how it went down...

1. Let's pretend we're still in college and the weekend starts on Thursday night (oh, those were fun times...). I got to take part in an incredibly fun local event called Orlando Soup, a unique fundraising event that supports cool organizations in the community. Attendees pay $10 for a ticket to the event -- a small portion covers dinner (soup, salad, and bread provided by a local restaurant), but most of the funds go towards a microgrant that's given to one of a number of cool community projects. During the dinner we heard quick presentations from 4 different organizations who are doing really interesting things in the Orlando area -- a contemporary dance troupe, a coding program for elementary school kids, a dinner party social club, and a group that helps enrich social skills for kids through imaginative game play and storytelling. While we ate dinner, we had the opportunity to vote on the project that we wanted to fund and at the end of the night, that group got a check! Such a simple concept and a great opportunity to mix and mingle with folks in the community and help support some of the people who are working hard to make Orlando a better place. The event happens about 4 times a year, and I'm already excited to sign up for the next one!

2. On Thursday night I was feeling a little restless (and also a teeny bit tipsy after post-Soup cocktails), and I decided to set up an Instagram account for this little blog. I have a personal Insta and I love it, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to set up Peacoat-related social media. I need to keep the blog anonymous for now, but I like having a place to share some quick updates and maybe some great shopping finds. If you're into that kind of thing, come find me!

3. Saturday afternoon I decided to tackle some of the un-fun things that I've been avoiding like the plague (a couple of bills, an unpleasant email, a few messy chores, etc.). I just sucked it up, made a list of alllllll of the things I've been meaning to do, and took care of business. It wasn't fun, but it is nice heading into the week with a clean slate.

4. Saturday night was spent hanging out with the boy who's my friend, and we didn't have any particular plans so we headed over to Downtown Disney. DTD is usually a great option when you want a bit of spontaneous fun (lots of food, plenty to drink, all kinds of free live music, a little shopping), but this trip was a bit of a bust. SO crowded. NO parking. So-so music. We were bored and basically decided to alleviate our boredom with excessive food consumption. I ate a pretzel (and then a second), a couple of sliders washed down with a beer, and then hit Ghirardelli's for ice cream. My sundae was fine, but it wasn't really what I wanted or needed and I was annoyed to pay $20 for 2 cups of ice cream. The next morning I hit the local trails for a run to sweat off some of my sins. I'm not training for any particular race right now, but my Sunday long run has become a habit that I really look forward to every week.

5. Finally, Pitch Perfect 2! I think this was probably my most anticipated summer movie, and it seemed like a great choice for a dinner and movie date with girlfriends. We started with a delicious meal of "modern Mediterranean" goodness (local Orlandoans: if you haven't been, check out Carmel Kitchen in Winter Park -- so good, with awesome happy hour deals all week long and a great prix-fixe 3-course menu on Sundays), and then hit the theater for a late movie. The food, drinks, and company were great -- sadly, the movie was only meh. There were plenty of laughs and some great performances, but the plot was a bit strange and uneven, and some of the jokes really missed. Definitely worth seeing if you loved the original, but you'll probably find yourself wishing for a bit of a better movie.

And just like that, a new week arrives. Monday, let's roll...