Hi!  Well, I guess this is it.  Summer is officially over.  It’s bittersweet for me- the end of lazy days in the sun, but I also love fall- pumpkin, scarves, boots, oh my!  By the time a new season rolls around, I’m almost always ready for change and this year is no different.  Bring on the warm, cozy sweatshirt and mugs of tea weather.

Like many people, I didn’t get to go to the beach this weekend, but I had an awesome weekend because I celebrated by birthday!  My birthday isn’t actually until Wednesday, but since that’s awkwardly smack dab in the middle of the week, I feel that this weekend was a better time to celebrate.

The weekend started on Thursday night, out with Christine and one of her roommates. It was a lot of fun, but I have early classes so I headed home early-too bad I didn’t actually make it to bed until almost one, but I was having fun!

Russ took a train up to West Chester after my first couple of classes on Friday morning, which was so great.  I usually don’t get to see him until late Friday or early Saturday, but he was able to get out of work.  I still had a class and then four hours of orientation, so he spent time with his brother (who also goes to WCU), while I pushed through that.  Pretty exhausting after a long week, I gotta say!

My friend Justin surprised me by being at WCU to go out with us on Friday night.  I screamed so loud when I saw him. Friday night was fun, but our favorite bars were unusually empty.  We still had a good time nonetheless and if anything, I was even more excited for Saturday night!On Saturday, we woke up super hungry and ready for brunch in the dining hall.  No sarcasm here, but I LOVE the weekend brunches at my school.  I always go for the standard oatmeal, peanut butter, banana and chocolate chips.  This particular batch tasted quite burnt, but that sure didn’t stop me from gobbling it down. Russ and I also shared this veggie omelet.  How awesome does that look?!  Five points for ARAMARK, but minus some points for the obscene amount of oil that was used.

We let our food digest before heading out for a run!  I have been staying off my knee all week and have been resorting to walking and ellipticaling (is that a word?), but it wasn’t hurting so we gave it a try.

In hindsight, that was probably a bad idea.  You know what they say- hindsight is 20/20.  It felt fine for the first mile or so, but I definitely felt it after that.  We completed 4.5 miles overall and walked on the downhills and flat terrain, while running hard on the inclines.  It was definitely a sweaty workout on a hot, humid day and the scenery was beautiful. After our walk/ sprint, we showered and hit the library!  It may only be the first weekend, but we definitely had some work to get done.  Call me nerdy, but my favorite time for the library is Saturday afternoon, when it’s completely empty and everyone just seems so much calmer and happier.  Yep, nerd.

With homework done and to-dos crossed off, we headed back to get ready for dinner with my RA staff at Stella Rossa, a semi-new Italian restaurant in Downingtown.  None of us had ever been there, but the food was really yummy.  I ordered a mushroom pizza and it ended up being more than enough food. Again, in hindsight, Russ and I could have shared.  After dinner, they brought out these adorable little dessert cups, and since it was my birthday, they were nice enough to let me try one for free! I tried the cannoli flavor, since I absolutely love cannoli.  While it was good, it wasn’t what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

After dinner, Russ and I headed back to Christine’s to keep the night going!  It started off slowly, but after my two friends, Bobby and Justin, showed up, we all got super pumped to have an awesome night and AWESOME it was. I seriously had SO MUCH FUN on Saturday night.  Russ and I danced for hours- right up until the bars closed.  If you asked me why we have never done that, I honestly could not tell you, but we will surely be going out more often!

I was pooped at the end of the night, so I crashed hard, but had to get up semi-early for something I have been looking forward to for weeks now!  Sunday Brunch!We walked in to smells of eggs, sauteed onions, bagels, breads and homemade jam.  Oh, and my family was there, too.  Going home after being away always makes me so incredibly happy.  We had brunch together and it felt like I was never away. After brunch, something strange happened.  I lied down on the couch in our kitchen for a couple minutes and woke up four hours later!  I slept through by dad doing construction, my mom talking on the phone and cooking and my parents and Russ talking in the kitchen.  I was completely knocked out! All those nights of 5 hours of sleep, paired with an incredible weekend will do that to a girl, ya know?! (and Russ, too)

I felt refreshed when I woke up, so Russ and I watched last week’s episode of Breaking Bad, which I accidentally missed :(.  For those that watch- wasn’t that INSANE?!  And then Sunday’s episode?!  I can’t wait to see what happens to Jesse.  The suspense just might kill me.

My mom spent the majority of the day making a big birthday dinner for me.  She remembered me talking about ratatouille for dinner, so she made a big batch of that, as well as kale chips (I think I ate the whole bowl), chicken wings (with homemade BBQ sauce-made by dad), and brown rice.ANDDDDD The most incredible carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for my birthday.  Cream cheese frosting is so addicting and I may or may not have been sampling it all afternoon.  I’m laughing in the above photo because instead of singing the standard Happy Birthday, my family sang the Chili’s Happy Birthday theme song…The cake was SO GOOD and lucky for me, I took more than half of it back to school with me. All to eat by myself. Maybe I’ll share 🙂

I can’t quite put into words how much fun I had this weekend and how blessed I feel to have close friends and a loving and supportive family.  They’re the best people to help me celebrate turning 22!