Despite everything indicating it would be otherwise, this weekend turned out to be pretty awesome.

Friday night started with a work happy hour followed by meeting up with Keith at 1409 [a bar Keith warned me would be hilarious- and it was. It was a mix of Taco Loco meets Bennigan's meets Tavern on Camac (philly's best piano bar).] I stayed there, caught up and chatted with some of his friends whilst drinking too many of my new favorite drink: grapefruit & vodka with a splash of soda.

I left Keith and his crew and moved over to join Amy (who leaves for Africa for five weeks on Friday), her boyfriend, Kelly, Shea, and Ashley. At this point I probably should have gone home, recognizing how much I had to drink. But it was only 8pm so there was no reason for me to give up so early. An hour later and we were the only people dancing at Heaven and Hell (still can't believe we went there). The dancing wiped us out but didn't prevent us from kickin' it until 1am on Bourbon's patio.

Saturday morning we trekked over to Kaitlyn's so that we could carpool out to VA- about an hour-and-a-half away- to go tubing. The six of us arrived 2.5 hours later after a flat-tire scare, beer stop, and a serious discussion as to whether we should just go to the Quality Inn pool instead of tubing. Tubing won.

The tubing place was relatively packed when we got there including a group of people we all knew. I just started laughing when I saw the group (what are the chances?) and made my way to fill up the cooler to that our libations were thoroughly chilled for the float. The three or four hours on the river went by incredibly fast- a lot of laughing, singing, swimming with cows (not kidding), and quality time spent with great people. We made it back to DC by 8pm and all of us promptly went our separate ways and I was in bed by 10pm.

Yesterday I woke up and drove out to VA again for a book brunch. I brought three books for the exchange and ended up leaving with ten: some fiction, non-fiction, and a relatively cheesy book about Christmas but it included recipes for short-bread cookies, so I had to take it.

I topped the day off with an 8-mile run through some of the best thunderstorms DC has seen in weeks. I must have looked quite the fool- running shirtless with my ipod clipped to my shorts, soaked completely through, and the biggest grin splashed on my face. I normally smile when I run (because of my playlist) but add an awesome thunderstorm and I was practically beaming.
I then watched a movie with a friend and was in bed by 10:30.

An exhausting, busy but wonderful weekend spent with fantastic people. Thanks to all.

Today's song: Get Better by Mates of State