Birthday Weekend!

Hello Blog world! I turned 22 yesterday, so naturally I celebrated all weekend with my family.

On Saturday, Ralph and I took a trip out to Long Island to visit my aunt, uncle and cousin. We had a nice sized lunch (salad and my first cheese fondue) and later on took a drive around the area, eventually stopping at a beach on the North Shore. The weather was so nice on saturday- warm, but not too humid!

My aunt also baked me a beautiful and tasty heart shaped chocolate cake:

Long story short, we all had a great time and ate yummy food and my aunt, uncle and cousin met Ralph, yay!

On Sunday, I was happy to spend the day with Ralph and my parents. We went into Jersey (to look at cars for Ralph, just to look) and then drove up to West Point for lunch, heading to the Thayer Hotel right on the campus. They are well known for their Sunday Brunch buffet and my parents kindly treated us to lunch there. It was such a beautiful setup- truly the most awesome brunch or buffet I've ever been to! Needless to say, we were all completely stuffed once we left. After lunch, we went for a little walk, heading to the museum. We wanted to go for more of a walk, but we were sure where we could walk on campus and it was unusually hot (compared to the last 2 weeks). We did go for a quick little walk around the quiet town, and then headed back south toward home.

I guess the reason I wanted to talk about this weekend is because I ate a lot (i.e. ate really big meals till I was practically stuffed), and especially a lot of cake (wouldn't be much of a birthday with out it though, right?) and 2 drinks on saturday. First, I've noticed that the day after I've had a drink, whether it's beer or a mixed drink, I always tend to feel bloated (i.e. yucky) the next day. So yesterday, on my birthday, I put on my favorite dress, ready to enjoy the day. But instead of just enjoying my birthday, I was beating myself up about how I felt (yucky and bloated and worrying that this weekend's indulgences are going to make me fat). To make everything worse, I then ate a lot at the buffet on my birthday and felt even more gross, lethargic, sweaty, hot etc. Today, I'm feeling much better and now wondering why I beat myself up so much? Instead of being happy to be with my parents and boyfriend, I'm was preoccupied with how I looked in the mirror and because I was mad about that, I was acting like a jerk the whole day.

Then, I go to bed, wake up on a brand new day and I actually feel okay. I still felt the need to scrutinize myself in the mirror  because I'm wearing a new shirt, wondering whether or not to hate it because I didn't find it flattering. Well, despite those thoughts, I went outside and ran some errands. When I came back home and took another look, I didn't feel the need to beat myself up- I felt like I looked okay (i.e. not feeling "fat" because, naturally, we can all feel "fat" or "not fat". I'm shaking my head at myself right now!)

I drank some water to stave off dehydration and than I kinda made this:

I love hummus and tomato sandwiches. This tomato was from my parents' garden, so it tasted delicious (seriously, those red things at the grocery store that look like tomatoes? Who are they kidding...)

And even though we tried to give Ralph the rest of the cake (I'm still convinced he's a growing boy and that he's going to whither away unless I stuff him with food), we still had a good quarter of it, so I had a little piece, mostly guiltlessly, with iced coffee to balance out the sugar shock on my system, haha! 

All eaten while staring at these pretty carnations Ralph got me for my birthday.

Thanks Ralph!

Okay, now that I feel a lot better getting that all off my chest, my next task is finding something to get for my sister's birthday, yikes! My sister's birthday is exactly a week after mine, and despite this consistency, I'm always spending the week in between wondering what to get her. This year, she's actually going away on a business trip starting the day before her birthday, so I feel like it's even more important for me to do something really nice for her this year (plus, I'm living with her again for the first time in years). Long story short, any suggestions?  I'll keep you posted, especially if (God-willing) I have an epiphany this year and figure out something nice by myself, haha!

Have a great day and a wonderful week!