By The Numbers

I had the. busiest. weekend.

By the numbers:

• 3 parties
• 8 drinks (I can’t believe I’m admitting this)
• 3 new-to-me restaurants/ bars
• 11 bloggers (including me)
• 2 cakes (though I only had a piece of one of them)
• 1(st) time taking a spinning class
• 0 hours of free time

Unfortunately, I wasn’t the best about taking pictures. In fact, almost no meals were captured. Don’t worry about it, though. None of them were interesting. 😉

On Friday night, I went out to a bar called Rush Street in Culver City. To be honest, I wasn’t really very impressed. The bar didn’t really know what it wanted to be (Sports bar? Upscale restaurant? Lounge? Bar? Club?) and as a result, the crowd wasn’t just eclectic, but downright random. Plus, it was pretty expensive.

I didn’t let a little thing like that stop me from enjoying the company of my friends, though!

I ended up ordering falafel & tahini slider appetizer for dinner, which was good but probably not worth the $10 I spent on it.

I also got a Blue Moon on the side.

I was pretty exhausted on Friday night, so I was glad to get home and go straight to bed.

Saturday morning came all too early, but I woke up happily because I was excited (albeit apprehensive) to take my first spinning class. Well, it was my first spinning class since becoming fit. The one I took a few years ago basically killed me.

I’m happy to report that I loved this class. It was taught by that instructor that I lost from boot camp, which was what motivated me to go in the first place, and she was just as awesome in spinning as she was in boot camp. Though I had been pretty scared of the class, I knew I was going to be addicted the moment she turned off the overhead lights and left us just with orange twinkly lights around the mirror. I also loved her upbeat, high tempo playlist. Most of all, though, I loved that it was a killer workout that left me drenched in sweat. Those are my favorite.

I’m addicted. I’ll totally be back.

Anyway, right after that (well, okay, I went home and showered first), I was off to an LA Blogger Meetup!

We met at Real Food Daily, which is a really nice and super yummy vegan restaurant in Santa Monica.

In attendance: Monica (who organized the event) from Yellow Brick Road, Katherine from Left Coast Contessa, Amanda and Andy from Two Boos Who Eat, Brittany from Pretty Fit, Pretty Healthy, Pretty Happy, Ameena from Fancy That…Fancy This, Deb from Smoothie Girl Eats Too, Erika from Health and Happiness in LA, Jenn from Girl Heroes, and Katie from A Joy In Class. Of everyone there, I had only met Amanda and Andy, though I certainly felt like I knew Katherine already from Twitter and her blog!

(Thanks to Amanda for that picture!)

Unfortunately, we didn’t start taking pictures until some bloggers had already left. Pictured above, from left to right, are Jenn, Deb (standing), Katie, Monica, me, Katherine and Andy.

For lunch, I got the Spicy Tempeh BLT, as I’ve wanted to try tempeh bacon forever.

I was not disappointed! It was delicious.  It got the spicy veganaise on the side, as I’m not a fan of mayonnaise and didn’t think I’d need the veganaise. I was right! There was plenty of flavor without.

One of the coolest parts was getting together with Amanda and Katherine, as we’ve all been discussing running a half marathon together!

(Thanks to Amanda for that picture, too!)

Thank you to Monica for getting us all together! She is a sweetheart – check her blog out!

While at Real Food Daily, I also picked up a huge (and wildly expensive) vegan mint carob chip cookie. I broke into half of it once I got in the car.

It was alright, but I was actually pretty disappointed. I think I could make a better version!

From there, I went straight to party #1 of the weekend, which was a birthday party for my friend Chris. I didn’t snap any pictures of him on the day of (shameful), but you may remember him from our TBL night last week.

There, I started my night of drinking way too many beers, appropriately, with a pumpkin beer.

I had so, so much fun catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

Oh, and eating cake.

How cute is that cake?

My piece:

I swear there was crack in it. That’s how good it was.

From that party, I went straight to party #2 of the weekend, which was another birthday party – this time, for my friend Robert. This one was at 1739 Public House in Los Feliz, which was a bar with a very fun vibe. Again, I didn’t snap any pictures (whoops), but here’s a shot of us from another party over the summer.

At his party, I got to catch up with more old friends and made some new ones, too!

All in all, my Saturday was pretty freaking awesome.

Sunday morning was a bit of a struggle. I think you probably understand why. I got a fairly late start and felt like I was in college again.

On Sunday afternoon, though, I had to get myself together and start baking for party #3 of the weekend (though it wasn’t a birthday party). A co-worker of mine was throwing a pumpkin carving party and I felt it would be appropriate to bake something pumpkin-themed for the event.

Here’s part of the spread of the party, including my offering:

Can you guess which was mine?

Recipe to come. 🙂 I think this post is long enough, don’t you?

And cake #2:

Sadly, my stay at that party was short. Given my late start, I had a bunch of errands to fill on Sunday evening!

Whew! And that was my weekend. I told you it was busy!

How were your weekends?