Reunions, Birthdays, Babies, and Besties

Happy Monday everyone! I made it back from Houston in one piece today {against my will, I might add}. I had the absolute best weekend I've had in a while. So many things to celebrate :) 

Since I didn't post all week, I need to do a little recap. This last week has been pretty fabulous, actually! After my last post on Hunger Games {which is still a must read!}, I spent the next evening with some of my favorite ladies. My pledge sister Amanda was in town, so we ditched the boys and experienced a full DC girl's night out on the town. It's so funny... I literally haven't seen her in 5 years, but it's like we never skipped a beat. {Yay MATH CLUB!!}

Texas Tech girls reunion...
3 AXO's mixed with a little Zeta= great night in Dupont!

Mr. Smith came home late Monday, so we had our usual pizza/Bachelor date night. Tuesday, another one of my favorite AXO's was in town, Jessica! She is one of my pledge sisters, and her hubby is in DC for a month for a training seminar, so I was thrilled when I got to catch up with her AND meet her new husband. They are too cute! We met for dinner at The Hamilton, a new restaurant that opened near the whitehouse.

Once again, we never skipped a beat. Loved catching up with you, Jess!

New Restaurant = Food Pic {Duh}
Lobster Bisque + Duck/Butternut Squash Pasta. Deeelish!

Wednesday, I was supposed to go ice skating at the Sculpture Garden, but got distracted and went to dinner with a few of my favorite LivingSocial ladies at Oyamel. It's one of Jose Andres' restaurants. And if you don't know who he is, simply watch this video...

Friday night, I made it to Houston in time for dinner with 2 more of my besties, Jessica and Brittany. We met at Ava Kitchen & Whiskey Bar then headed to Royal Oak where we spotted Owen Daniels with his skanky following. He's behind me in the dark shirt with the light blue collar.

"Squeeze your head" picture... he moved right as I did it.

We were home in bed by midnight, which made waking up early on Saturday a simple task. I had an  11:00 am massage at Norris of Houston... I decided to have one of those "treat yo self" weekends :) Next, Jess and I met my family at the Houstonian to celebrate Nana's 80th birthday! Isn't she lovely??

We gave her an Alaskan Cruise to celebrate and she was so excited!

After lunch, I headed over to visit my BFF Tara and meet her new baby boy. Let me just say... I am officially smitten.

Hi Brayden!

Being silly

Totally in love 

<3

Sup girl

I spent all Saturday afternoon/evening with their perfect little family... and she even let me spend the night :) I don't know what it is... but that little man changed my outlook on so many things. Tara and I met in August of 2001 on the AXO bid day bus, and the rest is history. For the last 11.5 years, we have been through the highest of highs and lowest of lows together. She is truly my best friend. Meeting Brayden was such an amazing and emotional experience... she's my first best friend to have a baby!! He's so sweet and cuddly... it really made it hard to leave. We both cried like babies when I left {and ironically the baby really didn't cry the whole time}, but I know she's in good hands. She's already such a good mommy... I can't wait to watch and learn from her journey through motherhood. I'm so proud of her and Steven already, they are amazing parents and make it look easy! My baby fever is in full effect... Brayden definitely needs a future girlfriend/best friend ;)

Sunday morning, I {reluctantly} handed Brayden over and left their house. Brittany and I took advantage of the sunny 70 degree weather at Memorial Park. I'm doing pretty good on my half marathon training! We finished 4.36 miles and felt great. Zeke's friends didn't believe that I ran, so I sent them this pic as proof.

Told you so!

What does every normal runner do after a morning of training? Gorges themselves on queso, tacos, and Dublin Dr. Pepper. New restaurant = food pic {again, duh}.

Experienced Torchy's Tacos 

The only time I will admit to liking a Democrat ;)

Later that afternoon, I got a call from another one of my best friends, Sheena (in the purple). She took the PHR exam Sunday morning and passed!!! WAY TO GO Sheena!!! A few of the girls met up for celebratory drinks at Cyclone Anaya's to celebrate. You go girrrrrl!

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Thank you to everyone who let me crash, gave me a ride, or met me out! I love you all and know that I'm blessed to have friends and family like you in my life.

Leaving gets harder and harder each time. I love living up here... but I sure do miss my girls and family. Thankfully I'll be back in early March for Kristen's wedding. See you all in a few weeks.

New Addiction: The Hunger Games

Happy Friday everyone!!

I finally recovered from last weekend's shenanigans and am back to my normal self. After reading back through that post a few times, even I thought I had a drinking problem. Ha. The good news is that we only go on 4 day benders when 1) our family & friends are in town and 2) the teams we LOVE are in any sort of playoff or tournament. True story. These next few weeks will be much less eventful considering I have the Rock N Roll half marathon in 8 weeks {Yikes!}.

Tonight, Mr. Smith is back in Houston for a good friend's wedding and our niece's baptism. {I'll explain why I'm not there, too, below}. That leaves Mrs. Smith in Washington- all by her self! What's a girl to do?

Sadly, I was almost excited at the thought of a night alone. Not because I don't absolutely adore my hubby... but because I found a new addiction {outside of wine, beer, and McDonald's wrapper cheese}. It's called The Hunger Games. I'm sure you've seen a few people mention it on Facebook or Twitter... if you haven't picked up the book- DO IT!! It's the perfect combination of Lord of the Flies meets 1984 meets Gladiator. I can't put it down.

It's so good that they made a movie and it comes out this March. You can catch the trailer here...

You really do have to read the book, though... I feel like there are so many crucial details that they can't possibly shoot on camera. You won't get the full effect.

Now, I have to admit, I'm not physically reading the book. I downloaded the unabridged version on iTunes and I listen to it during my shuttle and Metro rides to/from work. I figured out that trying to read anything more than a news article makes me dizzy and I can't concentrate. For some reason, listening to it is much easier. And it's funny... I used to be the social one on the shuttle... always striking up conversations... and I was excited to get to work to get my day started. Now, I get annoyed when anyone tries to talk to me, and I feel like my commute isn't long enough! All I want to do is listen to the book. THAT is when you know it's good. That's also why I'm sitting on my couch, like a loser, with headphones on listening to the final chapters and eating a pizza.

So if you're dodging the snowy DC weather {or enjoying a chill night in Texas} and are looking for a new book to read/download, I highly suggest you give this one a look!

Now, as for the Houston story, I'm excited to announce that my BFFE Tara gave birth to Mr. Brayden Cole Thomas on Tuesday, January 17th!

Isn't he just handsome???

I'm flying in next weekend to spend some quality time with my bestie and her perfect little bundle of joy. I can't wait to kiss those little cheeks! So while I would love to be in Houston with the hubby this weekend, I'm equally as excited to postpone the trip and get some time in with this fella.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend-- and go get Hunger Games! Now!

Weekend Wrap Up: G Love, Texans, Ball So Hard

Friday the 13th turned out to be pretty fantastic {sans the undergarment issue}. We finally arrived in Baltimore, checked into our hotel, and made our way to the Ram's Head Live to watch the G Love concert. What a great venue! It's a good mix of the Warehouse Live and House of Blues- just the right size for kick ass acoustics and a private show feel. This was my 5th time to see G Love... never gets old. I swear he gets better and better looking each time, too ;) And this was by far my favorite show yet-- HE TOUCHED MY HAND!!! {SwOoN} 

Oh yeah- that's him touching my hand.
We totally had a moment.

After the concert, we met up with some of Zeke's friends that live in Fells Point {in Baltimore} and did what most normal 28 year olds do: drank Cobra 40's until 4:00 am.

Saturday, we hopped on the train at noon to head back to DC. I found some fuel for the road:

We got to the apartment right as Mike, Mark, and Catrina were getting out of the cab. Perfect timing! As usual, we took them to Lost Dog to sample the beer selection.

My new favorite! 

Next, Gennie made it in town, so we got dressed, went to P Brennan's for Car Bombs, and took them bar hopping in Clarendon. Somehow I only snapped one pic... Gennie took some with her camera that I'll have to add.

7:00 am snuck up on us reeeeeeeally quick-- the trip to Baltimore for the game wasn't very fun. 7:00 am cab---> 8:10 train---> 9:00 cab to trailgate.

Poor Gennie 

I love McDonald's wrapper cheese. 

Pretty much how we all felt. 

Once we made it to Baltimore, I think excitement kicked in, and we were ready to get the party started!!

7 liquor rum punch

Sending good vibes to Arian Foster

Trying to stay warm in the 30 degree weather

When Zeke caught me in ski goggles, I think we decided to call it a night. 

Overheard on the train ride home: "Most importantly, let's talk about your white knitted scarf" 

Train announcer left the phone cabinet open. Big mistake around KMFJ.
I picked it up and made sure the entire train knew I "Ball so hard that shit cray".
Luckily this was before the last stop, or it would have been a long walk home.

We had a slight technical difficulty after the train ride... one of our friends somehow got lost between the restroom and the taxi line, hopped into a random cab by himself with a dead cell phone, and spent 2 hours {and $120} on the cab ride home. Never a dull moment with this group.

Thank goodness Monday was a holiday... we were all very slow to get moving. We successfully watched 16 straight hours of movies and TV series including {but not limited to}: Casino, Cocktail, The King's Speech, Man On Fire, The Bachelor, Shameless, Californication, and several other that I can't remember right now.

It's weekends like these that remind you how much you miss your friends and family. We had such a good time and are glad we have crazy impulsive friends that love football just as much as we do :) To Ryan, Mike, Mark, Catrina, Gennie, and Ryan: Thanks again for coming to visit!! You're welcome on our floor any time.

I hope everyone else had a great holiday weekend!

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th gets a pretty bad rap. Personally, I'm not superstitious, so I always go about my day as usual. Today, however, was one for the record books. Well, my record books at least.

Now, don't get me wrong. I had a lot of reasons to be happy.

#1: My little brother Ryan is in town. It's DC restaurant week, so he met me for lunch at a place I've been dying to try- Bobby Van's steakhouse. We had an awesome 3 course meal for a whopping $20 pp.


Shrimp bisque


10 oz filet {Pittsburg style, of course}, fingerling potatoes, and asparagus.


Cheesecake with Raspberry sauce.

It was AH-ma-zing. I wish I could have enjoyed a fat glass of wine with it, too. Unfortunately I had to go back to work after.

#2: 5 years ago today, Zeke took me on our first date :) I still can't believe it's been that long! When I came home from work today, he met me at the door with a long stem pink rose, just like the first time.


Cheesy... but I don't care ;)

#3: We are en route to Baltimore to watch G Love and Special Sauce at the Rams Head Live. I even scored a room at the Hyatt downtown for $75 through the "name your own price" feature on Priceline. It really does work!

#4: We locked up our tickets for the Texans/Ravens game Sunday. With a late addition of Miss Gennie Canlas last night, there are 8 of us going, and we are all sitting together. We figured our chances for getting beat up were much lower if we are all together.

#5: Witnessed the outcome of my brother's first H&M shopping experience.


Euro sizes work a little different, Rybo.


Sounds like a good day, right?

Well it would have been if my bra wouldn't have broken while I was on the elevator after lunch. Ever wanted to ruin a day? Have your front closure plastic clasp break while you're wearing a tight white tshirt on a Friday.

After several failed attempts to safety pin it back together and almost stabbing myself, I found an amazing co-worker who had a sports bra. Who cares if it was hot pink and showed through my shirt-- much better than free boobin'.

Sorry if that's TMI, but it was totally something that would ONLY happen to me.

My next post will hopefully be a glorious tale of victory-- Goooooooooo TEXANS! Have an epic weekend, folks. I know we will.