Recap City

Hi everyone! :)

I hope you all are having a great day!

My first day of the Bar exam prep class went well.  I got a seat (thanks to my buddies Ashley & Erica, who are so on top of things!!), and things went smoothly, although I felt a little bit like I had ants in my pants.

You'd think sitting with through 7 years of higher education, I'd be able to handle a 9AM to 3PM day of "learning" like it's my job, but let me tell you, it was no so easy.

I found myself daydreaming a lot about our upcoming move, how I wanted to schedule workouts, and how delicious my afternoon snack was going to be:

Holy memories -- this Chocolate Dipped Coconut Luna bar tastes EXACTLY like a Carmel deLite (the girl scout cookie now known as the Samoa).  I enjoyed this with a Venti iced green tea, while catching up on some of my favorite blogs.

Speaking of my favorite blogs, you guys should really check out Jenny's blog today, she has a fantastic post about body image, something that's been on my mind lately as my jeans have been feeling a little less than stellar with all of the graduation celebrations I squeezed in over the last week or so.  

And...speaking of graduation celebrations, there was a lot of that going on this weekend!

Friday night, we met up with one of my best friends, Megan, and her boyfriend, Brian, for dinner out in Oak Park.  We went to Avenue Ale House and had some yummy dinner (I had a turkey burger with some caramelized onions on top...yum yum in my tum) and some drinks.  It was soooo good to catch up and I was really excited to see the area for the first time, Oak Park is verrrrry pretty.

Saturday, I revisited an old friend of mine, the Spin class.  Oh spinning, why did I I ever leave you? I went to the gym determined to sweat all the way down to my toes.  Mission accomplished.  I topped to spin class off with a lackluster "six pack attack" class.  Those classes used to rock my socks off, but now they're kinda ho hum.  I think I'm just spoiled with the ab workouts at Barre, which are pretty tough to match.

Saturday night, something REAAALLLY fun happened.  I had wine club!! I'm not sure if I have talked to you all about my wine club yet, so let me do the honors of introducing you to these lovely ladies:

Our bunch gets together about once every couple of months, usually to enjoy dinner or an activity, and, of course, VINO! :)

Saturday night, we decided to celebrate my recent graduation with a trip to Lynfred Winery.  I have been wanting to go to Lynfred for so long now, so I was pumped.  After fighting some redonkulous traffic, and getting lost (hopefully I didn't leave my brain at law school), I pulled up to enjoy a delicious tasting with my friendies.  I became a Lynfred "member" Saturday night, so there will probably be many a mention of Lynfred on here in the future.

After Lynfred, we went over to Marissa's house, for a little dinner partay.

Left to right: Christina, Marissa, Laura, & moi! 

Marissa is SO SWEET.  She decorated the table, made me a "congratulations sign," and even had little menus & place cards.  It really made me feel so special {thank you so much again Marissa, you're pretty much amazing!}

(the above picture is courtesy of Marissa -- I clearly do not have these photography talents!) 

I feel truly blessed to call my wine club girls my friends -- they are such an incredibly fun, supportive, and clearly beautiful group of ladies! :)

Marissa made a delicious dinner, starting out with homemade fondue (melted Gouda + apples + bread):

Then moving on to a fresh Caesar salad with Parmesan that I think Marissa was grating for days:

And I ate my entree way to fast to take pictures.  It was angel hair pasta (I believe...) with meat & vegetable sauce, made from scratch.  I devoured it.  You are a cooking rockstar, Marissa!

Just when I thought things couldn't get any better, this happened:

Ummmmwow.

This was an incredibly moist chocolate cake with icing made by Marissa's mother that should probably be illegal.

Yep -- I had seconds, and loved every bite.

Now that I'm drooling all over my laptop, it's time to go get dressed for a schweaty barre burn class.

Have a great night, folks, and I'll cya in the morning! Tonight's gonna be fishie for us -- tilapia for dinner & River Monsters on tv, put on your goggles. ;)

xoxo

Jess