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.

double overtime and rollercoasters.

friday night after work i met up with rach & britt for free movie tickets to the counselor. rach also had a gift card, so naturally we got this giant thing of popcorn. after the movie (which wasn't all that great) we went to sir edmond halley's for a a few beers before calling it a night.

saturday morning i slept in and watched gameday with lola before heading to rock hill to see the charlotte allstar teams perform.

around 6pm, a bunch of us met up at icehouse to watch the game. icehouse is the official "gamecock bar" in charlotte, so it's always packed with gamecocks on gameday. after 3 horrible quarters, our QB1 who didn't start because he has a sprained knee (and apparently also a flu bug) asked spurrier if he could play. and boy did he ever. i held my breathe, closed my eyes, and screamed my way through the next 30 minutes when the mizzou kicker hit the goalpost in double overtime and we won. it was literally INSANE. i felt bad for anyone who wasn't a gamecock fan that was sitting in that bar. and of course we had to celebrate, so we headed to all american pub to dance/watch caitlin bust her butt on the dance floor.

 

{girls at icehouse}

sunday after mellow mushroom and vegging on the couch, i headed to a coworker's house for a "end of wedding season" cookout for a bit before going to scarowinds. 5 hours and a lot of rollercoaster riding later, i made it home and in bed right before 1am. needless to say, it was rough getting out of bed this morning!

 

do it for the vine!

what i love about sundays.

after working a wedding with my coworker all day/evening on saturday, i was looking forward to some sunday fun. luckily, i got just that because alex & steven work for the bank and had monday off and because my siblings & i don't need an excuse for fun.

we met for brunch at another broken egg for brunch. it was my first time there & while it was super yummy, it was a little pricey for brunch. i had the southwest scrambler & really enjoyed it.

we went home to regroup & watch the first half of the panthers game before meeting at park lanes for beer & bowling. we had to wait awhile for a lane, so we played cornhole & watched the panthers actually win! we just missed homeland's season 3 private wrap party at park lanes the night before - bummer!

 

{thanks, guys. always making redhead jokes.}

 

if you haven't been to park lanes - put it on your priority list. they revamped, remodeled and rebranded sometime last year and it's such a fun spot. they have lots of draft beer options, full bar, delicious BBQ, tons of outdoor/patio space, plenty of TVs and probably about 30 bowling lanes. it costs $4.75 to rent shoes & $5.50 to bowl each game, so it's reasonably priced as well. and if you have to wait for a lane, they will text you when it's ready, so you don't have to stay there if you don't want to - although i don't know why you'd leave!

 

after we finished up bowling, we headed over to brazwells for a bit because we could never come to montford & not go to brazwells. we finished our montford bar crawl with a ton of good food at moosehead grill.

 

 

clearly, we had a fun day!

thrift stores scores!

sunday afternoon my mom scooped me up and we headed up to concord, nc to the depot at gibson mill. what a place!  my mom was driving along 77 the day before and saw a billboard so she got off at the exit and ventured into the antique mall. she knows my love for charlotte's sleepy poet, so she took me back the next day. this is like sleepy poet x 3 - it's amazing!

 

 here are some goodies that i found:

 

a vintage SEC rocks glass. since neither south carolina or arkansas are on the glass, i know it was made prior to 1990. i love the south eastern conference with all my heart & this glass is totally awesome, even though it's prior to south carolina joining.

 

speaking of the gamecocks, i found this awesome carolina/clemson rivalry book.

 

 

my nickname growing up was taz, so naturally i buy everything i see that is tazmanian devil. couldn't pass up this awesome glass!

 

 

and last but not least, i found two more of the taz glasses i have been collecting for a few years. i found the first one in a thrift store on magazine street in new orleans. i belive the second was found at sleepy poet. and i found the last two on sunday and squealed out loud - i am so pumped i now have a complete set of 4! i especially love that they've come from 3 different places in 2 different states. i will keep these glasses forever!

so if you're ever in need of some awesome thifting - plan a day trip up to gibson mill & check out their awesome warehouses! ps. on saturdays, sleepy poet has the gourmet grilled cheese truck, papi queso, at their store. stop by for vintage goodies & a grilled cheese that will change your life!