First weekend home from paradise…status check: surprisingly not hating life. In fact, this weekend brought me many smiles (as well as a few things that were not ideal. Remember how I was so happy that my computer charger died while I was in Hawaii? Turns out that is not so much fun when I’m back at home, need to get work done and can’t pick one up until Monday. Boo. Have you tried to blog on just an iPad or mobile device? It sure takes skills, like patience, which I didn’t have a lot of. Luckily Matt usually works on his desktop so I’ve taken his laptop hostage for the weekend). Overall this weekend was very special to me in a number of ways:
First, I spent a lot of time reevaluating this blog and the direction I want to take it. While I was on vacation, I found that during all of our down time (read: nap time) all I wanted to do was blog. I think that it was the first time I realized just how much I really love blogging. Right now it serves as my very important creative outlet. I can share pictures, connect with other bloggers/readers and share what is important to me. This last week or so motivated me to really make the effort to make this little blog all that it can be. You may see changes soon. Don’t panic – nothing too drastic, but I think that things are really going to start to come together here on Treasure Tromp. So get excited…I sure am!
This weekend also marked the celebration of my dear friend Lindsay turning 25 AND her officially being an attorney (my girl passed the bar)! Celebration was clearly in order. We met her and some friends at The Strand House in Manhattan Beach – what an amazing place, located right on the pier.
They had an amazing wine menu (and I think that we all know how much I love wine - I would recommend the Figge Chardonnay if you like them buttery) and the most delicious IPA on draft (Sculpin, by Ballast Point Brewing Company in San Diego). Matt ordered a truly yummy bianca pizza (mozzarella, black truffle cheese and fried sage, oh my!) while I opted for BBQ tofu with butternut squash, grilled asparagus, maittake mushrooms and beurre noisette. As a vegetarian, I don’t get to indulge in BBQ very often so this was a true treat. I mainly ordered this meal so that I could get an idea of another way to cook tofu and so happy that I did. While the size of the entree was fairly small (especially for the price) it was delicious so I can’t really complain.
Also, they serve gourmet doughnuts for dessert. Hello, new favorite restaurant.
And now a quick goals update. Today marks 1 week since I’ve been doing my photo-a-day project. When I first decided to do the challenge, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted the theme to be. After surprisingly little thought (bad thing?) I decided that I wanted it to center upon being out in nature. Being a grad student, I have found that it is easy to just sit at my desk all day and some days I don’t even go outside (I know, I know). In an effort to make sure that I enjoy nature each and everyday this year, I decided to start #nature365.
Each day I’ll be taking a picture of my outdoors experiences. Please feel free to follow along at my instagram @treasuretromp or #naure365. Or better yet, if you want to join in, throw in that hashtag to your nature pictures! I’d love to see what beautiful nature you’re experiencing every day.
In addition to my 12 big goals of the year, I’m also going to be doing one small goal each week. This week’s goal is to read for 30 minutes each day. I’m almost done with Reached, the 3rd and final book of the Matched Series (similar to The Hunger Games Trilogy, or Divergent series). Do you have any suggestions for a book that I should start this week? I’d love to hear what you are currently reading, or what you think I should pick up.
Linked with Weekend Update, Yolo, and Miscellany Monday.
