Several weeks ago I had a minor freakout that my weekends and time before motherhood were limited and my ability to do things spontaneously with my friends was also limited. To help combat this fear, I started making all kinds of fun social plans and this weekend, I got to do one of them!
On Friday, Sonal came into town from New York. Julie and I picked her up from Chinatown and got to enjoy a lovely evening together. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and we found an amazing parking spot right away so we walked to Oyamel then to Chef Geoff's for dinner. We had so much fun just talking and catching up and Julie and I got to live our single lives vicariously through all of Sonal's fun adventures in New York.
On Saturday, Sonal and I headed down to Charlottesville to visit Payal. I had been wanting to visit Payal since she moved down for business school and I am so glad that I finally got the chance! Since we all went to UVA for undergrad, our day trip was centered around our culinary memories from college. But first, on our way down, we made a stop at a fairly new establishment in the C-ville area (well...new to us at least ) - Chick-Fil-A, so that Sonal could get her fix in the form of a mid-morning snack (since those don't exist in NY currently). After our pit stop, we headed to Darden to meet up with Payal and check out her place. It was kind of funny to realie how my sense of direction around Charlottesville had gone away, but over the course of the day, it definitely came back to me! Anyways, after a quick stop to check out Payal's pad we headed to grounds. The weekend of good luck continued and we got a great free parking spot right by Kerchof!
We started our trip down memory lane by walking through the amphitheater and through the lawn. The weather again was beautiful (a bit blustry) and it was so cool to see the Rotunda and all the progress that had been made on construction since we left (and take a ton of pictures!). What was weird though, was that I didn't get that same sense of longing and overflowing of affection for grounds that I used to get when I first visited after I had graduated. Although it still brought me a lot of happiness and fond memories, it seemed a lot more distant - almost another lifetime ago.
Following our tour of grounds, we headed straight for the corner and my favorite lunch place ever - Take -it Away! I got my favorite sandwich - chicken salad on pumpernickle with house dressing, and we got to enjoy our tasety treats outside in the beautiful sun. After lunch we headed to Mincers, where Little Z's Payal Auntie and Sonal Auntie decided to spoil him with some UVA paraphanelia. Payal Auntie bought him an adorable UVA onesie that should perfectly around the start of football season, and Sonal Auntie bought him a super cute UVA t-shirt which should also fit around the time of football season. We continued our shopping excursion at the UVA Bookstore where I picked up some cute UVA booties to match the awesome outfits that Payal and Sonal bought.
After the bookstore, came one of my favorite parts of the day - day drinking at the Horse and Hound by the downtown mall. I enjoyed a ridiculous amount of mocktails (club soda, splash of oj, and a splash of cranberry), while Sonal and Payal enjoyed a variety of beverages ranging from beer, to mixed drinks, to shots/shooters. We spent almost 2 hours chatting and catching up, and even though the restaurant was supposed to be closed for part of that time, our waiter never once pressured us to leave and kept the beverages flowing. After Payal and Sonal were thoroughly tipsy, we headed back to grounds so we could meet some of Payal's friends at a Dodgeball tournament. I actually saw an old friend, Chris that I hadn't seen in years and got a chance to catch up with him a bit while Sonal and Payal participated in the event....both swore they weren't going to play and the ended up being the last 2 standing for their team!
We ended our amazing day with couple more of our culinary favorites - dinner at Zocolo followed by dessert at Splendora. I may have discovered a new favorite appetizer curtesy of a recommendation Julie gave us on Friday night - cheese fritters with a sweet and spicy sauce! They were so good, we got 2 orders to share between the three of us! Afterwards, we headed to Sonal's all-time favorite Gelato palce in the world (and I'm not kidding when I say this - she tried nearly every gelato stand in Italy when we went there after graduation), Splendora. Even though we were stuffed to the max, we managed to find a little room for dessert and it was sooo worth it! We even took a picture outside, so we could send it to our friend Jenn, who loves Splendora almost as much as Sonal:P
I was completely exhausted by the time I got home around 10:45, but today I feel more rejuvinated that I have in a long time. Even though the weekend feels so short, I feel like I got to do so much and refuel for the work week. I know that I am definitely going to have to make time to keep doing stuff like this after Little Z is born, even if it's on a smaller schedule. Sometimes a little me time benefits more than just me - feeling energized and happy and engaged makes me much more pleasant to be around and much more efficient in my work and responsbilities, both at work and at home!
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