monday night football.

this past monday, the panthers took on the patriots on monday night football! it was also my parents' best friend's birthday, so they did it up big at their usual tailgate spot. we had the second string heroes providing us with tunes, the string bean providing us with yummy food, and keg full of olde meck brewery's dunkel. it was so fun to see all their friends and a few random friends of mine even showed up!

 

 

so my mother made this thing called a "shot-ski." she bought a pair of skis off ebay, painted  one panther colors & one gamecock colors, and glued 3 shot glasses to it. see below for how it is used. she was the official shot pourer of the tailgate - she makes me so proud.

 

{court, brad & i breaking in the shotski}

 

we finally headed into the game around 8:15pm. what a game! we didn't sit in our normal PSLs, so it was fun to meet all the people around us. i spent the last 3 minutes unable to watch because i was so nervous. after we scored, the guys behind me were convinced it was good luck for me not to watch, so they gave me a play by play down to the last second of the game with the questionable call. i have never heard the panthers stadium so loud before - the atmosphere was awesome! we are 7-3 for the first time since 2005 - feels good!

 

 

 

{thanks for the nice pour, mr. bartender}

 

after the big win, we walked to all american pub for some food and a beer before walking on home. it's great to live close to the stadium on nights like this! go panthers!

gamecocks vs. gators.

friday after work, rachel picked me up from my parents' house and we headed down to god's country for the weekend. once the rest of the gang showed up, we went out for pizza and then headed to the vista for the evening. the tin roof line was never ever ending, so we decided to give flying saucer a shot.   we ran into old friends, made some news ones, and had such a good time we were so confused when the lights came on meaning it was 2am. i love nights like that!

{gamecocks + panthers = how i do sleepovers}

dalton put us on a very strict schedule for saturday morning and demanded we wake up by 9:30am. it's important to know that the game was a 7pm kick. we woke up, had breakfast, went to the store, showered, cooked our tailgate food, packed the coolers, piled into the trucks and headed off to the tailgate around 1pm. 

after several hours of hanging out in the farmer's market, we headed over to ammie's parents' tailgate for a low country boil. yum! this was only my 2nd game all season so i had been seriously missing her  parents & their tailgate crew!

{biggest pot ever}

we finally headed into the game around 6:30pm. i know this to be true: i have never loved anything like i love the university of south carolina. 

the gamecocks tried their best to lose but we walked away with a W. conference play is officially over for the gamecocks. this weekend we play a cake team, and next week, the gamecocks and the other tigers will play a rivalry game for the books as both teams are ranked in the top ten. i feel nervously sick already. we waited for everyone to get back to the trucks and headed home.

sunday a few of us had bojangles (naturally) and hit the road. my sunday ended with this delicious filet with my parents & court at 131 main. 

it was a fabulous & long overdue weekend in columbia with my best pals. i'm a lucky girl. 

half marathon weekend recap {savannah, ga}

i woke up friday morning around 9am, packed the rest of my stuff, and zoomed down i-77 south to pick up kristin. we got to savannah around 2pm and checked into our beautiful room at the bohemian. we stayed here last year for nicole's bachelorette and i fell deep in love with this hotel. after hearing me swoon about it for the last year, my dad got us room for the weekend knowing that it was right at the start line - thanks daddy!

we threw our stuff in the room and walked down to river street to catch the ferry across the river to the expo. we walked up at the right time and they said the ferry was full, but we could get on the trolley. we didn't even wait for 1 minute before we loaded up and headed back over the bridge to the expo.

my mom & step dad came down to support me for the weekend, and i was so thrilled to have them there. we met them at the expo, tooled around a bit and then headed back to the bohemian.

 

{at the chocolate milk booth}

 

{of course brian ended up on camera}

 

 

 we went up to the roof top bar at the hotel for a drink  - it is absolutely gorgeous up there.

 

then we headed to dinner at paula deen's restaurant, the lady and sons. i made a reservation an hour before dinner time on a friday night with a huge event in town - this would have never happened prior to the paula scandal.

 

 

 

{i ordered the chicken pot pie & this is what i got - nuts!}

 

after dinner we retired for the evening. my heart was beating so fast while i was trying to fall asleep - i didn't feel nervous but i guess my body felt differently. we were passed out before 10pm.

 

then we woke up and ran 13.1 miles which has it's own post here.

 

after we walked back to the hotel, i immediately jumped into the glorious bathtub.

 

 

after the best bath & shower of my life, we walked over to moon river brewing company for lunch. we met up with the rest of the gang & had a big 13 top table. after a few beers and a giant burger, it was nap time.

after resting for a few hours, we had a beer on the roof and then my parents picked us up to meet up with everyone else at the distillery. we had apps, beers, and finally dinner before calling it a night.

{loved this!}

 

sunday morning i woke up early due to the fact i rolled over in bed and it hurt SO bad that it woke me up. holy sore. after laying around for a few hours, we grabbed sbux and panera bagels and hit the road back to cola. i dropped klav off but not before picking up some groucho's!

 

 

it was a great weekend and i am so thankful that my parents came to cheer us on! 2 years ago i couldn't even run a mile - pretty proud to cross this off the bucket list!

13.1.

this past saturday, i ran my first half marathon! and by ran, i mean we ran most of it and ran/walked a good portion of the last 4 miles. i hadn't ran a single mile the month leading up to the race due to some terrible shin splits, and half assed all my training this summer/fall, so i knew it wasn't going to be easy.

i am not sure what were we thinking when we signed up for this race back in march. running in the south in the summer is pretty much like hell, and neither one of us do treadmills. throw in concerts, beach trips, and football season, there wasn't much time for running! we chose to do the rock n' roll savannah half simply because it fell on a weekend that south carolina & clemson both had a bye week. yes, our priorities are straight.

none the less, kristin & i crossed that finish line!

{start line}

 



 

{pre-race}

our hotel was literally at the start line of the race (thank you, daddy!) so we woke up around 5:30am, laid in bed, ate some bananas, got dressed and headed out to the corrals around 6:30am. the port-o-potty lines were out of control, and i was very thankful that we didn't have to use them. we stretched and hung around before we finally lined up in our corral around 6:50am. after the national anthem they started the count down for the first corral and they were off! about 20 minutes later we made our way up to the start line and so it began.

the only hill the entire race was within the first mile over a bridge - how's that for a flat course? miles 1-3 took us straight through the ghetto of savannah. around mile 3.5, i started to get a cramp, so i stopped to catch my breathe and lost klav. i don't really remember anything noteworthy about miles 4-7 other than being thankful for water and gatorade, and laughing at people's signs. somewhere between mile 8-9 (i think), i found kristin! it was just the right time for us to find each other - i think we both needed it. we ran & walked our way through the last few miles and i was so glad we got to cross the finish line together.

i was overcome with joy when we crossed over the finish line. i smiled my way over to my mom & brian and can't remember a time i was so happy to see them. i teared up a bit when i got to my parents. i realize people run half marathons all the time, but this was a huge accomplishment for little ol' me! we grabbed some chocolate milk, water, power bars, our medals, took a picture and then found a spot to sit down.

 

after resting for a few minutes, we went to meet up with the rest of our gang that was hanging out in the park waiting for everyone to finish. my parents' best friends, their daughter, and their running gang all ran too and we celebrated with 3 bottles of champagne - reason #4568 i love dan & lynne.

 

we peeled ourselves off the ground and didn't stick around for the concert after the race. we also skipped the giant line for the free beer. you know this girl is tired when she skips free beer.

 

it was an awesome race: well organized, great {flat} course, awesome city, happy volunteers, plenty of water stations, cute shirt, fun medal, a band at almost every mile - i would definitely do it again!

 

so my first 13.1 in the books! we have already decided {read as - i decided for us} that we are going to run the publix half in atlanta in march. heck, we may even train this time :)

i love weekends.

friday after work i was kidnapped and met up with my friends at nikko for sushi. it was my first time there, which is silly since i can walk from my house, and it was delicious! i had the spicy shrimp & crab salad roll and the dragon roll (shrimp tempura, avocado, eel). not sure it beats pisces as my favorite sushi spot but it was a close second! after dinner i headed over to chelsea & katie's house for jason's birthday party!

 

{prior to the cake smashing}

saturday morning i woke up, ran to the grocery, and then headed to brad's house. we had mimosas, wings, brisket, beer, and lots of fun. the gamecocks won & i got to spend the day with my pals - always makes for a good saturday!

 

{someone got a little carried away with the charcoal and burned the smoker...}

i had to work for a few hours saturday night and then met up with everyone again to bar hop the night away. and while the bars did stay open an extra hour due to DST, i made the wise decision to head on home right around the time my guy friends signed up for karaoke.

sunday morning i slept in and then went to the panthers game with my parents. it was a lovely afternoon at the game and the panthers are 5-3 for the first time in forever!

 after the game we accidentally went on a 4 mile stroll around uptown before ending up at all american pub for dinner. the weekend ended with an extremely intense episode of homeland  and my heart beating out of my chest.