notes, quotes & anecdotes of a year fast passing

told you i wouldn’t slip up on my monthly recaps! let’s see what happened in may… aside from the fact that it flew by!

i spent a weekend in philly to celebrate my friend ashley’s graduation from temple med school. ash and i were best friends in middle school, but when she moved to pennsylvania after 7th grade, we didn’t let that stop us from family visits around the holidays, long stays in the summer and plenty of solo train rides for me to visit her in high school. we ended up going to BU together and were able to see each other all through college. i’m so lucky to have a really special friendship with her, where i can go a year without seeing her and then we can pick up right where we left off, as if no time has passed at all. we really have been through it all together and i couldn’t have been prouder of pennsylvania hospital’s newest MD! (also… sit tight for a recap of her uber-creative grad party!)

—

another one of my friends from junior high through high school, jane (i think that picture of us is from 10th grade?), recently moved back east for grad school in boston and i got to spend a bunch of time with her during her interim stay back home. we took a day trip to boston, chatted loads about healthy living (she just ran the burlington city marathon this past weekend!) and explored the fresh market together. as is the case with ashley, i love that jane and i area able to pick up right where we left off, too, and i’m so glad she’s not a plane ride away anymore!

—

i got to spend mother’s day with my best friend in the whole wide world, celebrating my mama! one of the perks of being back in connecticut is getting to see my family almost every day, but i’m always happy for an extra excuse to celebrate my mom. we headed to new haven to seebeauty & the beast(shocking, considering my love of disney and broadway, that i had never seen it before!). our close family friend, andrew, is the asst. company manager and is off traveling the country (and canada!) with the show. we’ve known his family since he was a teeny tiny tot (heck, so was i), and i haven’t seen him in ages. it’s crazy to think how much we’ve all grown up, but i’m so glad his show took a pit stop in CT :)

—

not that this has anything to do with me… but my parents celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary and 30th year together :) fun fact: my parents’ wedding was one year, to the day, after their first date. when you know, you know, right?

—

i went to see (probably) my last show at the bushnell until next fall. come fly away was just like twyla/billy joel’s movin’ out in that it was all sinatra’s music (with a live band) and choreography, with no dialogue. i can’t say that’s totally my jam (especially since i don’t know sinatra’s music as well as i know billy joel), but the dancing was amazing and the songs i knew were great. the rest of the show went by pretty quickly. overall, i’m happy i went, but it wasn’t my favorite.

—

last but not least, the old blog has gotten some new accessories and a bit of a makeover - i hope you like them :) in other big blog news, i was selected as one of foodbuzz’s top recipes of the day last week and couldn’t have been more excited. but i’m sure you already knew that because you probably heard me scream that from the rooftops! (in case not, though, there was my tomato - middle left!) i think i peaked at #4 for the day. considering that was out of almost 4500 recipes, though, i’ll take #4 any day of the week and twice on sunday.

—

other than that, may included far too much damage at (two trips!) to the outlets, seeing my friend brian & his fiancee chris at dinner after far too many months and surviving some super early shifts at work. now, it’s big plans for a weekend trip and fingers crossed for a great june with lots on the agenda!

—

**QUESTION: what’s exciting in your life right now? what are you grateful for?**

previous monthly recaps: august 2011 | september 2011 | october & november 2011 | december 2011 | january 2012 | february, march & april 2012

1. don’t get me wrong, getting to work before 6am has its downsides. like the 5am alarm (and the 5:10 alarm and the 5:12 alarm…) and the fact that when i’m all alone, i sit so still that the motion-detector lights don’t know that i’m there and when they shut off, i have to wave my hands like a crazy person so they turn back on.

it certainly has its upsides, though. like getting serenaded by birds my whole trip, no traffic and getting to watch the sun rise in the middle of a light purple and blue sky. i’ll choose to focus on those upsides.

2. summer nails and summer fruit!

the nail color is bachelorette bash by essie! i wore it when i was in my friend’s wedding a couple of summers ago and have been bouncing back between that and essie’s watermelon ever since!

3) some cookout recipe ideas for you in case you’re enjoying the heat and long weekend:

black bean, corn, tomato & avocado salad (perfect for a cookout because there’s no mayo, so it can withstand being outside for a bit!)

buffalo chicken dip (always, always a crowd pleaser)

…and of course, the infamous hamburger slider cupcakes (totally worth the effort).

4. last, but certainly not least, i’m so grateful to have been selected as one of today’s foodbuzz top 9 recipes! thank you, thank you, thank you! what an honor :)

see my greek yogurt chicken salad stuffed in a tomato on the left side of the middle row?! eeeee!!! what a lovely surprise to wake up to this morning!

hope you’re having a wonderful sunday!

apparently the fall was pretty busy for me… too busy to find enough time to post my october AND november thankful posts. i think i have an excuse for october, though. at the end of the month, i was away on the cape and i came back to a snow storm and no power (yes, again) for a week. by then, november was in full swing and now, here we are in december. either way, this was a fantastic fall, so let me tell you a little bit about it…

1) i went to the happiest place on earth with my family. yup, disney world! i hadn’t been to the parks in florida in about five years and they’re just as awesome as i remembered. i love every detail that goes into every decoration, ride, attraction and piece of the property. my favorite rides are still tower of terror, splash mountain, haunted mansion and pirates of the caribbean. i was a HUGE fan of the baby elephant (we named him bill) that was running around during our safari at animal kingdom, though. he really stole the show. also, props to jason for being equally as excited for my family vacation as i was.

2) also in october, my friend cassy tied the knot and married her fiance jon! the wedding was incredibly beautiful and held down on the cape the last weekend of october. it was a beautiful, fall-themed wedding held at the wequassett resort & golf club (so pretty and hospitable) and they even had a halloween masquerade after the reception! it was great to reconnect with some people and have a blast with my daniel.

3) my ashley (more affectionately known as ashenalily) and were the best of friends in middle school before she and her family moved to pennsylvania. we stayed close through high school and even ended up going to college together, but these days we don’t get to see each other often since she’s been in med school in philadelphia. during one of her rotations, she landed back in the nutmeg state, though and i got to see her not once, but TWICE and… get this: i get to see her again next week, too :)

4) mom and i have continued our cultured tradition of going to the theater and most recently we saw jersey boys and peter pan with cathy rigby.

5) this fall marked my first college basketball game of the year and my first NHL game of the year. stanford at uconn women and islanders at lightning, respectively. the home team won in both cases and i was so impressed with some of the upgrades the bolts have made to the st. pete times forum! i love visiting new arenas but still can never get over wearing flip flops to hockey games. also, shout out to aunt mo for the great uconn seats and the elderly couple who sold us their seats super cheap for the bolts! the old man told us he only wanted to make enough off his extra two seats so he could get a beer. too cute.

6) i took two special trips to boston this fall. the first, in october, was to bid farewell to one of my mentors from college. after more than a decade at BU, my programming council advisor and the asst. director of student activities, jeff, was heading onto a new, exciting opportunity. i was so happy be a part of his farewell celebration. also on the docket in the bean, i got a chance to go back to my freshman seminar class, COM101, and be part of a panel of alums that talked about careers in sports. it was such an honor to be asked and i am SO excited to go back again next semester.

7) last, but not least, thanksgiving with my family. no explanation needed there. these posts are supposed to keep me mindful of everything i have to be thankful for and that’s a whole day dedicated to the same topic. i love it!

and that, my dear friends, is what i’ve been up to while i’ve been MIA for a bit. check back soon for a yummy recipe and to see what’s going on in december :)

xxoo

eliz