Category Archives: Restaurants

Staying Put is Marvelous

I cannot thank everyone enough for the support I received in response to last week’s post about my doctor’s appointment. It’s weird – sometimes something is weighing on your mind so much that it just has to come out in some way. So I wrote that post. But once I did, I was kind of over talking about it. I am so appreciative of the love I have received, but I also often found myself politely brushing off the subject with an, “I’m doing better!” or a quick change of subject whenever someone checked in on me. I’m glad I put my feelings out there, but now am trying to focus on moving on. What better way of doing that than a Marvelous In My Monday (MIMM) weekend recap?

Link up with Katie if you too are talking marvelous on this Monday.

Marvelous is…STAYING PUT! Every weekend in September except this past weekend I have plans to be away. So I knew I wanted to just stay in Boston. After all, I always can find plenty to do in the city. Starting with Friday night – after-work happy hour with co-workers turned into dinner, dive bars, and a bit of dancing.

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Five Things Friday: My Week

I’m glad you all related so much to last week’s Five Things Friday post about aspects of life that have REALLY been making me feel adult-like lately. Those reminders have continued throughout this week, and I also want to give an update on how I’ve been doing since my particularly overwhelming weekend. Then I got to thinking – there are five days in a work week, and it’s Five Things Friday. So I’m going to share how each day of my week went/has been going, in an effort to catch you up on all the things.

Link up with Clare today if you are also rambling on about five things!

1. Monday

I knew all I wanted to do Monday was go to work, go to spin class, and stay in watching the Emmys. One of those things didn’t happen – spin class. Did I not feel well? Did I not have time? No, I just didn’t want to go. I got out of work late and the class was halfway over. I could’ve made it to half the class or gone to the gym to do my own workout, but I was starving. I was exhausted. So i went home, heated up the casserole I’d prepared the night before, popped a bottle of Prosecco (which I ended up not drinking half of and pouring out #singlegirlproblems), and watched approximately 20% of the Emmys. And then I went to bed, because it was absolutely necessary.

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Marvelously Overwhelmed

I had a marvelous weekend, but it was busy, and left me extremely overwhelmed. Like to the point of sobbing on the phone to my mom and not being able to follow through on Sunday’s plans because I worked myself up to the point of mental and physical exhaustion. I seem to always need to re-learn the same lesson, every few months, about over-exerting myself. This summer has been so fun and as much as I’m dreading the colder weather, I think I need fall to get here so that I’ll start slowing down. (Oh but I’m travelling three weekends in September, I’ll try not to think about that for now.)

Link up with Katie today to share your marvelous!

Still, there is plenty of marvelous about this past weekend in CT (yes, another one) to be thankful for.

Marvelous is…meeting my parents at Mohegan Sun for another overnight stay. The fam can’t seem to get enough of the casino lately and I’m not complaining about it one bit!

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Trade Em Up Tuesday: Where Is Summer?

I would trade…how fast summer has gone by.  Is it really already past mid-August? The air is already starting to get crisp and on Friday night when I went out after work, I felt absolutely frigid. Noooo New England, I’m not ready for my summer to leave yet!

I would not trade…finally finding a dress for Kaitlin‘s wedding! That wasn’t close or anything. I am so so so pumped for the Labor Day weekend rehearsal/wedding festivities, and getting to bring Maria as my plus-one so that she, Kaitlin, and I can FINALLY hang out together (all three of us) in person. Kinda nuts that that hasn’t happened yet. And I have to give a big thank you to Tobi for having a 50% off sitewide sale! I’m not going to post a photo of the dress for the wedding but I will share a photo of another dress I couldn’t help but buy because I know it’ll come in handy come fall…

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Seaport Secret: Sam’s at Louis

I received the food and drink in this post free of charge. All opinions of the experience are my own; this is not a sponsored post.

The title of this post is a bit misleading because there are already plenty of Sam’s at Louis fans out there. The patio is hoppin’ in the summertime and the restaurant is located on the water right along Boston’s Harborwalk. But unless you’re looking for it, you’re not likely to drive by. And if you call an Uber from there, you’re likely going to have to go meet your driver out on Seaport Boulevard if you want a chance of him or her finding you. So I’m going to go out on a limb and call Sam’s a bit of a secret – location-wise at least.

samsatlouis3

But now that I know where it is, and how WONDERFUL the food and drink are, I’ll absolutely be back. Jeannie and I had dinner there on Tuesday night, and she’s had nothing but great things to say about Sam’s at Louis for awhile now. The food and drink of the Sam’s Instagram feed have been torturing me and I’m so happy I finally was able to go and experience it for myself.

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A Marvelous Weekend Recap

Ah, what a marvelous weekend, and I am continuing to live life on the slightly-more-low-key side. But, I’m still having a great time! I’m doing a pretty good job of listening to my body and mind, instead of FOMO. Unfortunately I went back to my once-a-week blogging last week, with only one recipe post. Who knows what this week will bring? I’m not too worried about it – I’ll blog when I have time – but at least with this post I know I have one down!

Link up with Katie if you are sharing your marvelous today!

Marvelous is…a rest day on Friday. Some lessons need to be re-learned and on Friday, I re-learned that if I don’t work out in the morning, it just is not going to happen. In CT I often worked out on Fridays between work and my evening plans, but there’s something about a Friday late afternoon in Boston that makes me just want to get the weekend started as soon as I leave work. When I left for the day I decided to grocery shop, then put away my laundry, then get my nails done…all to put off going to the gym. So then I decided (with help from a text-pep-talk from a friend) to just take the day off. And I felt much better after making that decision and sticking with it.

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Thinking Out Loud: Shin Happens

My blogging inspiration and drive has really been in high gear the last couple of weeks! Probably has something to do with the fact that I’ve been trying to give myself the nights in I need to balance the nights out. So that means I have more time to think out loud.

Be sure to link up with Amanda if you’re thinking out loud today!

1. My left shin is freaking killing me and I am SO OVER IT. I had originally planned to run a 10K distance on Tuesday after doing spin on Monday, but once I woke up Tuesday and my shin hurt even when walking, I knew that wasn’t smart. So I ran 3.4 miles instead, but that was also not smart. My shin was literally throbbing afterward. I went home and utilized the closest thing to an ice pack that I had – frozen broccoli.

And wine, because always wine.

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Trade Em Up Tuesday: Slowing Down

Another longer-than-a-week gap between posts – ugh! I honestly had time this past Sunday night to blog, but opted to sit in bed and color (something I haven’t done in awhile) while listening to NPR instead. I’m getting ahead of myself though. Let’s get rolling with a Trade Em Up Tuesday that’ll tell you what’s been up with me in the last week-ish.

Oreos and beer were involved.

Oreos and beer were involved.

I would trade…FOMO. I’ve had a serious case of it lately and it’s resulted in me wearing myself out. I need to take a step back and slow down. Is there an event coming up? I feel like I have to go to make sure I don’t miss anything. Someone’s having  a party? Well I can’t possibly miss it, it’ll be so much fun! The thing is, a lot of the time it’s not even worth it, so I need to take a step back and put on the brakes. I was sick this past weekend and spent all day Saturday contemplating whether or not I should still go to my co-worker’s party. In reality it should have been a no-brainer – NO. Stay home and REST.

NO. That's not resting.

NO. That’s not resting.

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Marvelous Miles!

This post will not be all about Zooma Cape Cod half marathon training, despite the title. But it will first and foremost make mention of a marvelous half marathon related accomplishment, because I’m just so psyched about it. Plenty of non-running-related marvelous to share too though!

Make sure you link up with Katie if you’re doing a MIMM post today!

Marvelous is…an 8 mile run on Saturday morning! So the run itself wasn’t exactly marvelous because well, I’m not one of those people who will pretend she enjoys running that long. (Not that those who do actually enjoy it are pretending they do.) I woke up really excited to just get my 8 mile long run done so I could feel awesome about it afterward, but during the run I had to battle with myself mentally. Once I got to my halfway mark (yay out and back runs!) I knew I’d make it back, so the mental battle became less – but the physical became more. I ran the whole thing pretty slow (over a 10 minute pace) and am glad I did.

It was hot out (I didn’t get started til 10AM – so worth it to sleep in though) and I also got a bit lost at one point. After calculating exactly how far I’d run, I realized I’d run 8.2 miles thanks to that fact. I did stop every now and then to wait at a crosswalk or drink water (thank you Charles River Esplanade for your water fountains) but the whole time I was actually running, I did run – I really didn’t want to walk! Big thanks to the BU campus grounds worker who sprayed me with his hose (I asked him to, don’t worry) right around mile 6. That got me through to the end! This is officially the furthest I’ve ever run because I ran 8 miles once back in 2010, and this was 8.2 miles. So seriously, go me. (Way better than the other GOMI.)

Yaaaaaas.

Yaaaaaas.

OKAY, back tracking to the start of my weekend…

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Long Newport Weekend

Once I got going writing yesterday’s post, I knew this recap of the long July 4th weekend in Newport, RI would have to be a two-parter. So many photos and so much to say! Thankfully I woke up at 5:30AM for no reason this morning, actually feeling quite well rested, so I was able to sneak in a quick run and sit down here to blog before starting my work day. Let’s pick up where we left off:

Sunday 7/6

So I woke up and despite feeling guilty about what I’d eaten/drank the day prior, I also just didn’t feel like going running or doing cardio of any kind. Our timeshare complex had a gym that I walked into and said…wtf? It had three machines, dumbbells that maxed out at 10lbs (not that I’m strong man or anything, but come on!), and not even a space to do abs and no bench. So I basically did arms for 20 minutes, abs from the now-longer-than-30-days ab challenge, and called it a day. I was happy to be able to hightail it to Mokka Coffeehouse down the street to get some work done!

The shop was adorable as you can see from the above photo, and the iced coffee DELICIOUS. I had it a few other days on my trip and definitely recommend this place, though Coffee Grinder is still my favorite coffee place in Newport simply because of the waterfront seating (unfair advantage). After plugging away for a couple of hours I got hungry and found out my family was having lunch at a diner. I just didn’t really feel like eating diner food, and OK I was having anxiety over it, so I decided to take my current read and check out Newport’s newest farm-to-table (this term is, to me, becoming overused) restaurant – Stoneacre Pantry.

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