August Weekends in Review

Note: I started this post earlier this week but never got around to finishing it until this afternoon. I've tried to update some things to make more sense. Apologies for not wanting to write after writing all day at work. :(

Last weekend I quite literally crashed. As in, came home from work a little after 12 on Friday, ate lunch, read for a little while, and then took the most glorious two-hour nap. I felt so refreshed after I woke up (the sign of a good nap). The rest of the weekend was spent catching up — reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, working on Project Life, and cleaning my kitchen AND master bathroom.

I needed last weekend. And I savored it.

However, the two previous weekends were wonderful and quite a bit more exciting. Three weekends ago (the first weekend in August) Paul and Esther came down to Austin to stay with me, and two weekends ago I met my mom in Dallas for some girl time.

The weekend with Paul and Esther was great. On Saturday, we did some of the things around Austin we always want to do but never have time for. Our biggest adventure was hitting up the food carts along South Congress. We each tried something different, and I got very brave and tried fried mac & cheese. It was surprisingly good (I don't know why I was surprised; everything fried is good). After sampling the carts, we looked around a few of the shops along Congress and then grabbed cupcakes from Hey Cupcake!

Later on Saturday we ate dinner at Matt's El Rancho and went to Zilker Park to see a production of The Sound of Music at the Zilker Hillside Theatre. We weren't expecting the theatre to be so crowded, but apparently it was a popular place to be on Saturday night. Once we finally found a place to sit, we had trouble seeing the stage at all. However, it was nice to meet up with two of my co-workers, Sarah and Michelle, and talk with them a little bit during intermission. We all ended up leaving at intermission because it was getting rather late.

On Sunday, the three of us went to church, had lunch at Fire Bowl, and then drove out to IKEA. Paul and Esther drove back to Tyler after that, and I came home.

Two weekends ago my mom and I met up in Dallas like we used to do all the time. On Friday we both arrived at the hotel a little after 12, so we ate lunch at the In-N-Out Burger nearby and then went shopping. That afternoon we went to Half-Price Books, NorthPark Center and Christmas Tree Shops (a little taste of New England) and ate dinner at Mi Cocina. We also tried to make a movie that night but couldn't make it to the theater in time. Even though it felt strange to turn in early, we came back to the hotel and watched the Olympics for a little while before going to bed.

The next day we felt revived so we decided to explore a few thrift shops and an antique mall in the morning. We ate lunch at a great burger place called Liberty Burger (we split the burger and shared onion rings) and then headed out to the Allen Outlets for some more shopping. The outlet parking lot was crowded, but we managed to find a place and find a few new pieces each. Later we went to a movie theater nearby to see Hope Springs. The movie wasn't quite what we were expecting, but that didn't prevent us from dissolving into giggles several times. After the movie ended, we stopped at Homegoods and Target, ate at Paradise Bakery, and drove back to the hotel.

On Sunday we went to the Dallas Arboretum to see the Chihuly exhibit. It was really amazing to see all the glass sculptures displayed throughout the arboretum; sometimes it was difficult to tell what was alive and what was glass from far away. We enjoyed wandering around the grounds for about two hours until it got too hot to stay outside. Once we left, we grabbed lunch at Humperdinks, drove back to the hotel to get my car, and went our separate ways.

As I mentioned earlier, the last two weekends haven't been nearly as exciting, but with Texas Longhorn football starting in less than a week (!), my weekends are about to be crazy once again.