What I've Been Up to Wednesday

Back in the end of April I wrote a post about everything I had been up to recently and talked about how much I missed blogging and how in May I was totally going to get back into the swing of blogging.  Well, let's just say that was a complete fail as once again life got in the way.  So here's a recap of what has been going on in my life since I last posted.

May 6th was when I officially started my management training for Friday's.  Management training for me meant spending 4 weeks in the kitchen learning all of the different statioIns and learning how to manage the kitchen.  Let's just say that a) I am super happy to be done with all of that training and b) I have SO MUCH RESPECT for those who work in restaurant kitchens.  Working in the kitchen was by far the most challenging position I have had while working in the restaurant and I really don't know how some of them do it.  There are so many things on the menu and trying to keep it all straight really was mind boggling at times.  Granted most of our cooks work just one station so they know it like the back of their hands, but some of them know how to work them all and that just amazes me.  I know that I only had a week at each station to learn everything there was to know about it, BUT still... I am SUPER IMPRESSED with anyone who works as a kitchen in a restaurant! After spending all that time in the kitchen I am just hoping that I remember what it is like to be a FOH manager because it has been a LONG time since I have actually dealt with customers.  Tonight is my first official shift as a full blown manager... so wish me luck!  I think I am going to need it.

My last night on the bar with my favorite Friday night crew!!

When servers don't want to do their side work...

Manager breakfast of champions... tamales and a giant WaWa coffee at 5:30am when you come in to do inventory

Training means organizing the patio cart...

Slow night of training... why not make animals out of pickles??

May also brought a surprise party for one of my best friends.  I was actually able to get a Saturday off from work, so Mark and I headed out to surprise AV for her birthday.  She was definitely surprised to see so many of us and it was great to be able to get together with some of our favorite couples for a dinner out.

Happy 30th AV!!

All the fun people out to celebrate AV's 30th

Always amazing getting to hang with two of my favorite Chi Mu sisters!!

The rest of May was basically spent working and trying to spend whatever time I could with the husband before getting back to a crazy schedule of closing all the time.  Managing has definitely been good for our marriage as we have been able to eat dinner together at least 2 nights a week (sometimes more!) and we are guaranteed to see each other at least 2 days a week which is way better than it was before.  When I was bartending and keying we could sometimes go an entire week without seeing each other based on our schedules.

Even made it to one of the hubby's softball games!  Look at my sexy husband playing first base!!

The beginning of June marked the husband's 30th birthday and I was lucky enough to get off from work to spend the day with him!  We started off the day with a tour of the Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, PA.  The tour was an awesome experience... it was so cool to see how America's Oldest Brewery functioned.

One of the awesome things was that we got to see Dick Yuenling and actually say Hi to him.  He was just walking around the brewery eating an apple without a care in the world.  I also found it really interesting that instead of just passing the brewery down from generation to generation they actually make the new generation of Yuenglings purchase it from the previous Yuengling owner.  I think that is awesome because it definitely makes whoever is running the brewery more accountable for what is going on.

Inside the old tunnels where they used to store the beer to keep it cold

Original stained glass that was used to keep out some of the light

Brewing beer!

Inside the bottling/canning facility

Hanging out behind the bar

Tasting time!

After visiting Yuengling we headed home to get ready to go to the Phillies game with some of our favorites.  All Mark really wanted to do for his 30th was get a group of our friends together to tailgate and then sit somewhere for the game where it would be possible for us to potentially catch a home run ball.

We had a successful tailgate until someone (a.k.a. ML) was celebrating his cornhole victory and threw one of the bean bags on top of the solar panels in the tailgate lot.  That gave us all a good laugh, but meant that our cornhole playing for the day was done... but that was ok because we had plenty of beer to drink to keep us occupied for the game.

Down 1 red bean bag

Tailgating with some of my best girlfriends!!

Some of the best friends we could ever ask for out celebrating Mark's 30th

Unfortunately the Phillies lost... but we still had a great time hanging out and watching the game.  Other than the time we sat in Mark's company box, these were the best seats I have had for a Philllies game and I truly enjoyed getting to see the game from them.  Too bad no home runs were hit so we didn't get a chance to catch a ball!

Crab fries... a Philly sporting event tradition

Happy 30th!!

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to be able to celebrate the first birthday of AV and AV's daughter LV.  Her party was nothing short of a good time and I seriously can't get enough of that little cutie.  She looked adorable in her birthday tutu and had a blast playing with all of her friends in her new water table.

She loved her cake so much she even put her foot in it!

This cake is delicious!!

The V family celebrating Little Miss L's 1st birthday!

Water table fun!

Little Miss C having a blast at the water table

Little Miss C carrying Little Miss L's birthday present outside!

Monday marked my last day of training and also the last day for one of my best friends.  While I am super excited to have been promoted to management, I wish there had been a way for us to have stayed managing in the same store.  She and I have basically worked all of our shifts together since she first started and I came back from my short leave of absence to take the bar exam.  Life at Friday's will not be the same without her!!

We sure are going to miss this girl!!

Popping open the champagne to celebrate 5 amazing years!!

Life has definitely been keeping me busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way!! June promises to be just as busy as May was, but I am hoping that now that training is done I will start to have a little bit more time to dedicate to this little blog of mine!! So stay tuned!!

What have you been up to recently?

Blogger 2 Blogger Book Club: Open House by Elizabeth Berg

Man, I really fell off the blogging band wagon this past month, but what better way to get back on track than with a book review for the Blogger 2 Blogger Book Club.   Reading has been the one thing that has kept me sane recently (this new promotion and training for work has been driving me insane and making me rethink a ton of things), so I wanted to make sure that I was able to finish this month's book AND link up on time (score 1...actually 2 for me since I accomplished both of these goals!!)!!

This month the Blogger 2 Blogger Book Club read Open House by Elizabeth Berg.  When I read the description of the book for this month I wasn't so sure about it, but decided to give it a go.  After all, I am no quitter! So once again, here I am linking up with Kelly over at Love, Kelly Lorene for May's edition of #Blog2BlogBC!!

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Open House tells the story of Samantha as she struggles to find herself again after her husband David suddenly tells her that he is leaving her.  Samantha and David got married after only knowing each other a short time and coming from different walks of life.  They create a lovely home and even have a son together before David begins to feel like life isn't what he wants it to be and he wants out.

Once David has left, Samantha first goes on a spending spree at Tiffany & Co. to drown her sorrows.  She knows that she doesn't really want or need any of the stuff, but she goes anyway just to spend David's money.  When David finds out and partially cuts her off financially, Samantha decides that in order to stay in the family home she is going to find roommates to rent out the basement and the den.  She also decides that she is going to have to find a job, but doesn't know where to start.

When she finally finds her first roommate, with the help of the cashier at the local grocery store, Samantha's life finally starts to turn around.  When her "older" roommate, Lydia, moves in, she has this gentleman named King helping her move.  King ends up befriending Samantha and really helps her get back on her feet.  He drags her out of the house, sets her up with an interview at a job agency and even babysits Travis so that Samantha can appease her mother and start dating again.

Though life continues to give Samantha a lot of ups and downs, she eventually finds her groove and is able to start over.  She learns to love herself and realizes that she has so much to give... so much so that when David wants her back, she has the courage and the strength to say no because she truly was better off without him.

This book was definitely not one of my favorites for the most part as everyone knows that I love books with strong female protagonists.  Samantha definitely did not fall into that category until the very end of the book, so it took me a very long time to warm up to her.  Part of me wonders if I had a problem with this book because it was truly nothing I could relate to.  I have never been through a divorce, none of my friends are divorced, and I honestly don't know that many people are divorced so I have zero perspective on what is going on in the relationships in this book.  Part of me wonders if this is normal? Part of me wonders if this is an over exaggeration of what happens when people get divorced? Who knows?  What I do know is that until the last few chapters I probably would have only given this book 1 star, but by the end I was willing to give it 2.

Now for the #Blog2BlogBC Review Portion of the post.  This is where I answer a few discussion questions (3-5 according to the book club rules) about Open House.

one// In the beginning of the book Samantha is unusually obsessed with Martha Stewart.  Why do you think this is? What do Martha Stewart and her products seem to offer Samantha? When they finally speak to each other over the phone, Samantha asks Martha Stewart if she fell apart after her divorce.  Martha responds, "I didn't fall apart.  I spent one evening with Bernstein's Kaddish and a bottle of 'eighty-six Montrachet. And then I got busy. Try it." What do you think of this advice? Did Samantha end up taking it? 

Martha Stewart for many seems to represent the perfect house-wife.  She has her life together (minus the whole going to jail thing), is super successful, knows how to cook, decorate, and basically do all things home related.  By aspiring to be like Martha Stewart, Samantha is attempting to create the perfect home in what I believed to be an effort to get her husband to come back.  Samantha seems to feel that if she can do everything perfectly David will realize what he is missing and he will want to come home.  When Samantha finally talks to Martha and Martha gives her some advice I think Samantha did listen to her.  Martha told her to "get busy" and in reality, sometimes getting busy is the only way to get over a heartache.  When you throw yourself into something completely new it helps you to discover just who you are and what you are capable of doing.  Samantha does take this advice taking on all sorts of odd jobs from the employment agency and finding out what exactly she is good at.

two// Samantha spends most of the novel wanting her husband back.  In the end, she is the one who chooses to remain separated.  Why do you think she changes her mind? At what point in the novel do you think she changes her mind?  Do you think she is making the right decision?

I think after spending so much time with Lydia, King, her mother and even Rita, Samantha realizes that she is worth more than how her husband was treating her.  She realized that she deserved someone who appreciates her for her and doesn't want to change her.  She really seems to turn this corner the more she hangs out with King because no matter what he always seemed happy to spend time with her... even if it was Thanksgiving and she was in her sweats shoving her face with food... he was happy to be with her and she could be herself around him.  I absolutely think that she made the right decision in not going back to David because the two of them probably would have fallen into the same trap that they did the first time.  I feel like Samantha is going to be much happier with King because for once she will be able to be 100% herself because King doesn't expect her to change for anyone, let alone him.

three// Samantha imagines Travis one day saying, "My Mother changed wonderfully when my Father left us.  Our circumstances actually improved." Do you think that Samantha changes in the novel? Do you think their circumstances actually improve? 

Samantha definitely changed throughout the novel.  In the beginning she was a mother and a wife and that seemed to be pretty much how she defined herself.  (Now don't get me wrong, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with being a mother and a housewife... I have sooooo many friends who are stay at home parents and I give them all the respect in the world because it is not a walk in the park to be a full-time parent)  Outside of her husband and her child Samantha's world just didn't exist, so when her husband decided to leave her, she fell apart.  Samantha had nothing to fall back on... no real skills... no job to fall back on... nothing.   As the book went on, Samantha discovered that she did have talents and that she didn't need to rely solely on her husband for support, she could do it on her own.  I think it was important for Samantha to learn that she could be independent and could support herself and Travis, because it will only make her future relationships stronger because she will be able to be more of an equal with her partner.

Have you read any good books lately?  Care to share? 

Blogger 2 Blogger Book Club: A League of Her Own by Karen Rock

Guess what guys?! I am actually finished with the Blogger 2 Blogger Book Club book ON TIME this month and am actually linking up ON TIME this month.  See, miracles in blogging do happen!! With all that has been going on in life recently, the one thing I have been continuously trying to do is make sure that I have time for reading.  I read a bunch while we were in Mexico for the wedding and I know that getting lost in a good book really relaxes me... so that means I definitely have to try to make the time for it as my schedule gets ready to get crazy again.

This month the Blogger 2 Blogger Book Club read A League of Her Own by Karen Rock.  One of the cool things about this month's book was that our discussion questions were provided to us by the author herself AND she did an author Q & A session PLUS a giveaway!! How awesome is Karen Rock? So today I am linking up with Kelly at Love, Kelly Lorene for April's edition of the #Blog2BlogBC

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A League of Her Own tells the story of Heather Gadway and her struggle to find herself and her place in life.  Heather was the child of a drug addict mother and a father who is obsessed with the Falcons, the minor league baseball team that he owns.  Wounded by the scars from her past, Heather feels like nothing she does is ever good enough for her father and like she will never be able to make him proud of her.  So when her father suffers a heart attack and she comes home to Holly Springs she decides that she is going to take on the newly vacant position of team manager for the Falcons.  Heather is determined to prove to her father that she is worthy of praise and vows to help the Falcons have a winning season.

Heather begins her journey as manager and is immediately attracted to one of the players, pitcher Garrett Wolf. The only problem with Wolf is that he is a recovering alcoholic and Heather just doesn't believe that she can trust him.  While Garret works to have Heather gain his trust, Heather is working to be the best (and first) female manager the Minor Leagues has to offer, Mr. Gadway suffers another heart attack and dies.  After his death Heather's mother is back in the picture and not only does Heather have to deal with her trust issues involved Garrett, but now her mother is back and she needs to learn how to forgive her mother and move on with life.

This book is all about love, forgiveness and learning to move forward with your life despite circumstances that might try to hold you back.  This was definitely a very uplifting and feel good book that really makes you realize that being able to forgive people and move on with your life is something that is very important.  This book was also definitely a really and enjoyable read that I would recommend to anyone looking for something to read on the beach or during a relaxing weekend!

Now for the #Blog2BlogBC portion of this review.  This is where I answer a few discussion questions (3-5 according to the book club rules) about A League of Her Own.

one// Forgiveness plays a large role in this book.  Which characters in the book need to forgive themselves and/or others? Is this important? Why or why not?

So many of the characters in this book need to forgive both themselves and others, but that is part of what made this book so interesting to me.  First off you have Heather who needed to learn to forgive her parents... not just her mother, but both of her parents.  Heather needed to forgive her father for not telling her how proud he was of her and to forgive her mother for putting her through all the pain that comes with having an addict as a parent.  While Heather's mom may have gotten clean, I also think that she needed to find a way to forgive herself for all that happened in the past, which Heather did not make easy for her to do at any point in the novel.  It wasn't until Heather decided that she could forgive everyone for all that they had done, that others were also able to move forward to give their forgiveness.  Garrett also needed to learn how to forgive himself for what happened to his fellow foster kid, Manny.  Garrett carried the weight of Manny's death with him for so many years that I think it was hard for him to see past what happened to Manny and to see how he could use Manny's death as something to grow from and as something to use as a learning experience.  Without Garrett being able to forgive himself it also made it hard for Heather to trust him and to forgive him for the few transgressions he committed during their "relationship" together.  This book really hits on how forgiveness is important and how it is necessary for all of us to try to forgive in order to move on with our lives.  Harboring all those feelings and emotions and being unable to forgive can really weigh a person down, and that is something none of us want in our lives.

two// Heather and Garrett have a bumpy road to finding love together.  What holds them back from finding love and what finally brings them together?

Heather and Garrett are unable to find love with each other at first because they are both unwilling to trust in one another.  Heather can't trust Garrett because he is a recovering alcoholic and based on everything she went through with her mother as a child she is afraid to let Garrett in.  Garret can't trust himself enough to let Heather in as he is afraid that letting someone in will cause him to go back to drinking and send him down a bad path again.  After all is said and done, once both characters learned to forgive themselves and others they realized that they are better together and that if they both want it to work they will be able to make it happen.  They finally decided to trust one another and to put their faith in one another... two things that are essential to making any relationship work.

three// Heather loses someone important in this book.  How did that impact her growth as a character? What did she gain from this loss that she needed?

When Heather lost her father she was absolutely devastated.  She believed that she hadn't lived up to her father's expectations and that she was continuously failing him as a daughter and as a coach.  However, after Dave Gadway's death, Heather found a scrapbook in his bedroom that chronicled all of the milestones and accomplishments throughout her life.  She finally realized how proud her dad was of her and it helped her to realize that she could turn the Falcons' season around and turn them into a championship team.  In his death her father gave her the confidence that she needed to succeed in life.

four// Will Garrett and Heather's happily ever after continue long after the last page? Why or why not? 

I sincerely hope that Garrett and Heather's happily ever after continue long after the last page.  I would also like to see them adopt Levi at some point in time.  I think that if the two of them keep working at it, trust each other and have faith in each other that they could have a long relationship together.  Do I think it will be easy for them, no.  But I do think that they have the potential for something special.

Have you ever read A League of Her Own? If so, what did you think about it? 

Are you reading anything amazing now? Care to share any book recommendations?

#MarryingaMariotti Part 3... JG & DM's Mexican Wedding Adventure

It has been about 2 weeks since getting back from Mexico and I have to say, I still really wish that I was there!  Besides the fact that I was there to see one of my best friends ever get married, being there for 5 days was so relaxing and exactly what I needed because of my crazy work schedule.

Before leaving for Mexico I worked for 7 days straight and let's just say that working that many days in a row at a restaurant is enough to make you question your sanity!  By the time Thursday morning rolled around I was ready to leave for Mexico!

Excited to finally be on the plane heading to Mexico!!

Goodbye dreary Philly!!

Hello Sunny Mexico!!

We had a pretty smooth flight and an easy ride to the resort, so I was definitely in a good mood when we got there.  JG and DM had picked Secrets the Vine Cancun as the spot for their wedding and I don't think we could have been more pleased with our stay there! Upon our arrival we were greeting with glasses of champagne and a personal butler who would take us to our room.  When we booked our trip we booked a preferred club honeymoon suite because it gave us access to a bunch of different things... a separate pool, an additional bar... as well as some other discounts for the resort and let me say it was definitely worth the money to do so.  One of the really nice things was that we checked in on our floor... we didn't have to wait in a check in line or anything... we got our champagne, got in the elevator to the 26th floor and there was someone there waiting to check us in.

Our room seriously did not disappoint.  On one side of our balcony we had a fantastic view of the ocean and on the other side we had a great view of the lagoon.  I was so excited because I knew we would be able to have a beautiful sunset dinner out on our balcony one of the nights we were there!! And I mean, what better way to have dinner than a sunset room service dinner with your husband??

Our fabulous room... and yup, first thing we did was pop open the coronas!

After getting settled we headed down to the pool to meet up with those who were already there and to relax a little bit before the rehearsal.  It was so nice to lounge around in the sun and to of course enjoy a margarita or 2 before getting ready for the rehearsal.

I have to say that the rehearsal scared me a bit as it didn't seem like they knew what they were doing and I was very nervous about how things were going to go for the wedding.  I am pretty sure JG felt the same way, but she did a really good job of remaining calm and in control of it all.  After the rehearsal we all headed to the sushi restaurant for a fun dinner and then over to the piano bar to hang out.  Mark and I headed to bed fairly early as it had been a long day of traveling and traveling really takes its toll on me.

Friday morning we were up bright and early to head to the beach.  Mark and I got some great beach chairs, but OMG was it hot on the beach.  We went down to the water to cool off, but there was so much seaweed that I really didn't want to go in, so after about an hour on the beach we decided to check out one of the other pools that the resort had to offer.

While relaxing by the pool with our margaritas (yes we were drinking margaritas at 9am) we discovered a giant chess board behind us, so of course when EO came to find us we decided that a game of chess was in order. After a riviting game of chess we headed to the other pool to hang out with the wedding party until lunch and it being time for me to start getting ready for the wedding.

Ladies chilling by the pool

Original 3 does Mexico :-)

Seriously some of the best friends a girl could ask for!!

We all headed to JG's room to get ready for the wedding around 3pm.  AH, one of the MOHs, did all of our hair and it looked absolutely FABULOUS!! I was originally planning on just curling my hair, but AH convinced me that I should wear it up since it was going to be windy and this way I wouldn't have to worry about things at all.  I am so glad I listened to her!! It was fun just hanging with the girls and getting ready.  Also, you had to love that the bride was doing AH's makeup with AH was doing someone's hair.  Multitasking at its finest!  Of course we weren't ready on time, but it wouldn't have been JG if we were on time!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful!! The ceremony went perfectly and I was so excited to see my best friend marry the love of her life.  It is so amazing when you see the two of them because just in the way they look at each other it is so evident how much love they have for each other.  Love like theirs doesn't come around often and I am so glad that they found each other!!

The day after the wedding we all needed some time to recover, but instead we all pretty much spent the day drinking.  Mark and I hung out in a cabana for most of the day because he had gotten so sunburned on Friday that he didn't want to be out in the sun.  But just because we had a cabana didn't mean that we didn't drink and enjoy ourselves.

Comedy Show

Sunday was the day that Mark and I decided to take just for ourselves.  We knew that we would be spending a lot of time with friends and the wedding party while we were there, but we also knew that since we had barely seen each other in weeks that we wanted a day to be just us.  So Sunday we got up early, had breakfast and headed to the preferred club pool for the day.  We spent the day just lounging by the pool and overall getting to enjoy each others company.  It was exactly what we needed!! Sunday night we had our sunset room service dinner on the balcony and it couldn't have been more perfect.  It was so amazing to just get to spend an entire day spending quality time with my husband with nothing else to worry about.  I can't remember the last time we had a day like that and who knows when we will have a day like that again.

Monday came too soon and it was time for us to head back to Philly.  I was so sad to see our vacation end, but so grateful for the amazing time that we had.  2 weeks later and I am seriously so ready to hop on a plane and head back!! Who's with me?!?!?!

Have you ever gone on a vacation where you just didn't want to come home? And then even after you did come home all you could think about was going back??