TGIF.

Happy Friday, dear friends!

Photo, here.

Here's what I'm looking forward to this weekend:

- My first official weekend exploring my new neighborhood and discovering the local flavors and cultures that are flourishing right outside my doorstep.

- Finally having a chance to catch up with a good friend tonight for dinner; and goodness, it's about time! We've only been living in the same city for a whole week- sheesh! Sarah's a true New Yorker, through and through, and I'm so very grateful that she's willing to do the somewhat unthinkable and leave her hip, buzzing, concrete Manhattan jungle in order to come visit me in the outer borough of Brooklyn. Gasp! Oh the sacrifices of friendship. :)
P.S. I'm making it a personal mission of mine to see how fast I can convince her that Brooklyn is fantastically charming and wonderful in it's own special way. I'm feeling pretty confident on this one.

- And most importantly... I'm so incredibly excited to have one of my very, very dear friends in town to keep me company this weekend!! Judy, and her wonderful roommate Caroline (another tried and true musketeer in our group of friends), lived across the hall from me my first year at UVa. In fact, Judy was the very first person I met upon arriving in dorms and despite my sweaty and exhausted demeanor, having just lugged an exorbitant amount of belongings up 4 flights of stairs, she strode right on over and warmly introduced herself. It was only a matter of seconds into our first conversation before I was sure that she and I would be friends for many, many years to come.

It was only through a very twisted turn of events that we both ended up living so close considering that I was originally set to be in Washington, D.C. and for a time, it looked like she would be calling New Orleans home. But, fate had another plan for us both and I'm just so glad that she's only a quick 35 minute train ride away in Connecticut!

Judy is such a wonderfully quick-witted, sarcastic, hysterically funny, deeply caring, and genuinely fantastic person to have around and I cannot wait until she gets here! I have no doubt that this weekend will be filled with spontaneous adventures, lots of good food & indulgent beverages, and belly-aches from hours of laughing.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful weekend as well!