January was full of adventures, per usual…
Got a speeding ticket on my day off that I took to go get something fixed on my car.
FYI, you CAN in fact get a speeding ticket in the Toll Lane by a State Trooper….
Went to Norman, Oklahoma with some friends to watch our other friend get married! I had never needed to go to Norman before, but a bunch of my friends went to the University of Oklahoma so we toured around in the freeeezzzzingggg weather as they reminisced about their college days. I love a good road trip and the chance to hang with my friends. It was full of laughter, dancing, and stories.
My friends threw their annual Winter Soiree where we got to dress up and be fancy with cocktails and music. Loved it.
Finally had the opportunity to see my favorite comedian, Iliza Schlesinger!!! My friends and I had bought tickets MONTHS in advance. She was originally scheduled for November 1, 2018, but was cast in a movie and had to re-do her schedule. That worked out perfectly for me since my gastric sleeve surgery ended up being October 31st. She bumped Dallas to January and all the girls were still able to make it. We had the best time and she performed all new material. It was awesome.
Pretty soon after that I had a little weekend trip to Miami. I used to go all of the time back when my grandpa was alive and lived in Fort Lauderdale. I hadn’t been back in over 15 years, but fell in love with it all over again. The long term goal is to move there, but gotta figure out some life stuff first. I’ll do a separate Miami post another time.
While January was full of adventures, February was pretty slow apart from attending some birthday parties.
March involved an Axe Throwing Activity. I was TERRIBLE. It really didn’t seem that difficult when I would watch others try their hands at it, but I could NOT make my axe stick no matter what.
March also involved weddings and baby showers ALL AT THE SAME TIME. One of my oldest friends (from second grade!), Ruthie, got married in March. She doesn’t live in Dallas anymore so it was back-to-back activities while she was in town for the wedding.
That same weekend was also my friend Becca’s baby shower for her first child. It was the best shower I had ever gone to (I normally don’t like baby showers) and she got SOOO MANY PRESENTS. It was incredible.
A major bucket list item was finally crossed off in March…
I GOT TO SEE MICHAEL BUBLE!!!
Julia and I had bought tickets AS SOON as they were available
(we are also now in the fan club, no big deal).
Ideally we wanted backstage, VIP tickets. Those were like $1,000…..
so we downgraded to what we thought were ok seats. We turn up to the America Airlines center and find out not only are we now on the floor, we are right next to the end of the stage. THE LADY IN FRONT OF ME TOUCHED HIM, THAT IS HOW CLOSE WE WERE.
Amazing. He was perfect. It was Julia’s FIRST concert so no clue how she is going to top that for the next one.
April is always my favorite month since I celebrate my birthday pretty much the entire month.
It started off with meeting a survivor of the Holocaust to celebrate her birthday! I found her through a Jewish news publication for Dallas and was invited to her house to meet and congratulate her. She was turning 103 if I remember correctly! She’s amazing and I hope to go back again soon.
I plan weddings on the side (hit me upppp if you just got engaged/need help!) and had one for Julia’s brother and his fiancé, Regan and Madison. They got married in Denton at this super cool industrial/brick location. It went very smoothly (minus the hail storm) and turned out beautiful. We had a lot of friends in common so it was nice to get to see some people that I don’t run into very often anymore.
I went to the Fort Worth Zoo since I hadn’t gone in YEARS before it got to be too hot for outdoor activities. There weren’t too many people and I got to see all of my favorite animals!
Finally my birthday festivities began!
The weeks before and after were filled with dinners, surprises, dancing, karaoke, and laughter. For my actual party I got a big group together and had my sister lead us in an outdoor yoga class at my friend Melissa’s parent’s backyard.
Later that night for dinner we got Korean BBQ then headed down the way to Karaoke! Karaoke with friends is literally one of my most favorite activities ever. Its the best to relive all of our punk-pop hits from the early 2000’s even if you aren’t the one with the microphone!
My mom’s birthday is the day before mine so we have started our own tradition of going to Capital Grille in Plano for dinner. They have the best bread + steaks! They are also participating in this year’s DFW Restaurant Week so we have decided to hit that up before the deal is over.
Later that weekend it was my friend Becky’s baby shower for her first child. Tons of people I didn’t know went, but I managed to make some new friends and be there for my friend. Becky had recently found out that her husband was getting a new job in another state so pretty soon after the baby was going to be born they were set to move. I was happy that I got to be there.
In May is Tara’s birthday! We celebrated at V-Eats in Trinity Grove in Dallas (her favorite vegan restaurant) then took a walk through the park next to it to check out the Dallas skyline at night.
We had decided to surprise my mom for her birthday with a family portrait since we hadn’t done one in years. I had found this amazing makeup artist named Mac (how fitting right?) and she agreed to come help us get ready at my house before the photo session. It was a blast and I wish I could do that all of the time!
Our pictures turned out fantastic and we got to bring Karma along too! My friend Kaylee from Kaylee Barnett Photography took the pictures and she’s great if you need a recommendation 🙂
,She also does Senior Portraits, Baby Announcements, Fresh 48 Sessions, and I’m sure a whole ton more. Check her out 🙂
I joined a Bocce Ball league for the late spring with a bunch of my friends. I was a late-comer as most of them had been playing for several years now, but I think I held my own. I found that it helps to have a drink in hand before you start playing…
My team actually did pretty well this season, even though we didn’t come in First place. I took the summer off, but we will see about maybe playing another season in the future.
My friend Kim invited me to be her VIP guest at the Richardson Wildflower Arts and Music Festival since Good Charlotte was slated to play and she knew they were my favorite. GC ended up cancelling the day before due to some emergency, but fortunately good, old reliable Bowling for Soup stepped in to make the show happen. Neon Trees ended up being the headliner and we had a great time. She snagged us these wristbands that got us great seats and free wine! What a great friend 🙂
My 10 Year High School Reunion was finally upon us as incredulous as that sounds. I planned it pretty far in advance in the hopes that most of my 18 person graduating class could make it. We got about 10 so that’s over 50% attendance! I went to Temple Christian Academy in Lewisville, Texas. It had about 400 kids K-12 when I was graduating in 2009. Not super sure how many are there now since the school had changed quite a bit since I’ve graduated, but I would venture to say it’s significantly less (not that 400 is really that many). I was the class president, so naturally I wanted to be in charge of the planning. Spouses/Significant Others were allowed, but no children.
We went to Happiest Hour in Dallas since it was supposed to be nice outside and they have great food/drinks. It ended up storming a little bit during the party so we had to move inside into this huge booth, but it was fine. People stayed as long as they wanted and it was great to see everyone who showed up. I’ve kept in touch with most people from the class, but still don’t really get to see them all that often. Maybe we will do a 15 year? Who knows.
My car finally bit the proverbial dust at over 200,000 miles. My air conditioner had gone out yet again so my dad confirmed that it was time to retire the 2007 Rav 4. I am now the proud owner of a 2018 Nissan Rouge Sport. I absolutely love it, despite now having a car payment. I’ve never owned a nicer car and vow to maintain it for years to come.
My friends Nathan and Elly moved back from Ethiopia in May and I am so excited to have them back close to home! They’ve been gone for 2 years and while we have Skype, Facebook, and Instagram, it’s just not the same as being in person. We got some friends together and went to an authentic Ethiopian restaurant in Dallas. We had the whole hand washing ceremony, communal food bowl, multiple courses, and dessert! It was incredibly tasty and I would definitely recommend it!
At the end of May I took a quick trip to see my bestie, Meg, in Seattle, just like last year! I love Seattle and made sure to be as touristy as possible this time. I visited the Space Needle, Pike’s Market, the Aquarium, the Chihuly Museum, the ferry boats, and went to this festival going on around the Space Needle. I wanted to go hiking as well, but there just wasn’t time. My friends Shelby and John also happened to be in Seattle at the same time so we met up for dinner. Its always fun to explore new cities with friends!
June fortunately was a tad bit slower than the past few months. I went to see “The Last” at the Angelika with the director of the movie doing a Q&A afterwards. It was a movie about this Jewish family living their normal lives when they find out that not only is the beloved grandmother dying, but she is also a Nazi who pretended to be Jewish for like 70 years! The whole family is obviously completely distraught and has to deal with this information. It was a super interesting concept, but the delivery from some of the actors + the script/writing in general, left a lot to be desired. The lady who played the grandmother though was great and very believable. The Q&A at the end really helped to flesh out some of the thoughts from the director and to kind of see where his mind was going with some of the content. Enjoyable over all.
I knew Father’s Day was coming up so I had already planned to give my dad this tee shirt I designed that said “Kvetch King“, but a few weeks before one of my favorite IG people to follow, @jewhungry, made some Jewish food tee shirts that I just had to have. My dad loved both the tees and sends me selfies wearing them. My sister, her bf, and I took him to lunch at one of our favorite places, Deli News. Classic.
At the end of June was Meg’s birthday and she wanted to have an Austin Hill Country weekend. She got a group together and we rented a big house with a pool in the middle of nowhere a little past Austin. It was great to just sit in the pool all day, people around me making delicious drinks + food, and just chill with a bunch of really awesome people. I slept SO WELL. After our days at the house we went into Austin to hit up some tasty Mexican and go to Barton Springs. I had to show them my favorite coffee shop, Mozart’s, as well before we left to go back home.
This is now EXTREMELY long and you’ve all probably just stopped reading. I’ll finish out the summer in a new post at a later time.
Happy Reading!
-Savvy