Do you think our founding fathers partied the evening of July 4th, 1776? Or do you think they were exhausted from all the signing and proclaiming?
Yesterday morning and afternoon were pretty tame. I satisfied my 4th of July burger craving at lunch with a veggie burger topped with sauteed veggies and sriracha spiked greek yogurt.
Conspicuously placed on A People’s History of the United States.
Alex and I spent the day off lounging around with Millie Girl.
I allowed myself a Diet Coke since it was a holiday.
“Don’t look at meeeee”
Naturally, we celebrated America with some Mexican sweet potato & black bean enchiladas for dinner, a recipe from the Healthy Tipping Point book.
Then we loaded up the car with some Blue Moon and peanut M&Ms and headed up to Montalto to watch all the fireworks from the highest mountain in Charlottesville.
Beautiful Charlottesville.
One of my best friends, Conor, is a Master Monticello Tour Guide Extraordinaire (official name) and a veritable fount of Thomas Jefferson trivia.
This land is your land, this land is my Conor’s land.
Per Conor, Thomas Jefferson owned several pieces of land across Virginia, including two mountains: Monticello and Montalto. Montalto is HUGE and so beautiful, and from the top you can see almost everything in Charlottesville.
Monticello and the gardens
We drank and looked down on the various firework shows across the city.
It was the kind of summer night that I live for. The weather was perfect–warm and breezy–and I was surrounded by some amazing friends, old and new. I had more than a couple American Beauty-esque “It’s all so beautiful, it fills my heart up like a balloon” moments. Do you ever experience moments like that? It’s hard to describe, but as I get older (I know, I know- I’m only 22, but go with me here…), I have fewer instances of intense connected-ness to places, experiences, and people. My favorite professor told me once on my study abroad trip to Ireland that young people tend to have those moments of intense clarity and overwhelming spirituality more often than older people. Something to do with jadedness and all that yucky stuff that comes with being old.
I used to have those intense moments all the time when I was 17 and 18, but now I probably have them like 4 or 5 times a year. So when I do have them, I try to ride that feeling for as long as I can.
So! I rode that feeling all the way home to continue to festivities back at the apartment!
One of the only photos from the after-party…
When I’m trying to focus on weight loss or a fitness program, I try to cut wayyy back on my drinking, but I allow myself one day a week (usually Wednesdays) to knock back a cold one or two. 🙂
This morning I was hurtin’ when it was time to get up for work, but Aaron and I headed to my tried-and-true hangover cure, Bodo’s.
Whole wheat bagel, PB & B, iced coffee with soy, and Emergen-C. Hangover cure.
“I feel like this banana.” -Aaron
It did the trick!
Tonights agenda: Run, Body Revolution, So You Think You Can Dance!
