Charlottesville Recap

I decided to take last Friday off work to visit my sister in Charlottesville, VA. Not too long after I got into town, she took me on a short tour of where she does her research and went to lunch with some of her friends at a local deli. For dinner, there were a bunch of prospective students visiting, and they were all going to a Balkan restaurant in town. I tagged along and put my meal on a separate bill. The restaurant already had a predetermined menu prepared for us. For the main course, I chose the chicken paprikash, which was like a chicken, onion, and carrot stew. Check out that very nice dessert tray below! After dinner, we went back to Julie's apartment and watched Captain America on DVD.

Saturday started out with a trip to the grocery store and then an intro CrossFit class that Julie had been interested in trying. Oh, man. It was TOUGH, even though I go to spin class 4-5 times a week. The instructor gave us an overview of CrossFit and then walked us through a few exercises. The last exercise was doing as many burpees you could in 7 minutes. I ran out of gas halfway through, but pushed forward until the end. I ended up with 47 burpees in 7 minutes (that's the number that I have to beat, just in case I ever want to put myself through that torture again). My shoulder and thighs were really sore after class and even this morning. Whew! It's really apparent that I need to work on my strength training.

After CrossFit, we went to get Thai food for lunch, took a break, went shopping, and got Indian food for dinner (butter chicken, naan and chana masala). It was really good. (So good, that I decided I didn't have enough Indian food, so I ordered the same thing for dinner tonight from an Indian restaurant nearby.) We watched Mission: Impossible: III until it was time for bed. Then that brings us to today, where during breakfast, Julie opened her birthday presents and helped me pack up my stuff so that I could get on the road.

Mom and Dad were nice enough to keep on eye on the house and more importantly, RJ. They both reported that RJ was very cuddly when they came to check on him. I came home to a very furry pillow on my bed, so I'm pretty sure that's where he spent most of his time while I was away. When I walked into my office, I was pleasantly surprised that my mom hung up my undergraduate and graduate diplomas (she framed them for my birthday). All this time, they've been rolled up in their cardboard tubes. I had been waiting to get a place of my own before I hung them up, and now that I do have a place of my own, I feel like my craft room is officially finished. Hooray!