Pleasant(on) Weekend.

I’m currently sipping some delicious coffee in our Pleasanton, California hotel room and am pleasantly surprised by how comfortable our hotel has been! I joined Chris in the East Bay for the weekend and though it’s only 2:50P on Saturday, it’s already been amazingly relaxing. Surprisingly so, actually. We checked into the Residence Inn on Dublin Canyon Road last night and the room is spectacularly roomy, especially when you consider the price range of these rooms ($89 – $129ish per night).

This is only half of our room — the ‘bedroom’ part of the place.

There’s also this fully equipped kitchen!
Fridge, freezer, microwave, toaster, coffeemaker, stove, plus pots, pans and silverware for cooking.
{Plus, there’s a big screen TV and lounge area, of which I didn’t get a shot.}

After checking in, we headed out to grab some dinner — sushi! — my new most favorite food. After a two-year stint as a strict vegetarian, I have switched to pescetarianism to increase my protein intake; accordingly, sushi has jumped back to the top of my favorite food list. I have never really met sushi that I didn’t like. Perhaps I have only eaten at good sushi places, though, and have thusly taken the quality of sushi for granted because last night’s sushi was far from good. Even the edamame was overcooked — soft and mushy. How do you mess up edamame?!

It actually looked decent when it was plated, but it was super bland. I’ve never had sushi that didn’t really taste like anything… possibly poor quality fish? I can’t be sure, but after spending $30 for our two rolls (plus an order of tempura) we were highly dissatisfied. If you happen to be in P-town, skip this joint. There’s a cool Indian place next door that’s much more enticing.

To make up for the grossness that was our sushi, we hit up Coldstone Creamery for a bit of ice cream. I haven’t enjoyed Coldstone’s amazingness for at least five years, so let me just say this: cake batter-flavored ice cream with butterfinger is possibly the most delicious morsel I have ever tasted in my twenty-three years of existence. Seriously. I don’t know what they put in that ice cream (highly-addictive drugs, perhaps?) but it hovers in another realm of deliciousness. Mmmm. They do have some healthy indulgences, but seriously: split a small and go for the good stuff. Ahhh-mazing.

After hitting Pleasanton’s 24 Hour Fitness this morning for a good sweat sesh, I spent the early part of the afternoon poolside, enjoying the amazing sunshine and catching up on my pre-sessional readings for classes in the fall. Such an awesomely relaxing weekend!

Hope everyone else’s is equally fantastic,

It's Okay to be Jealous.

Chris' Anniversary Surprise <3.

For the record, I think I may have one of the best boyfriends to ever have existed! After our gift exchange yesterday afternoon, we got ready to go out to dinner. At that point I had no idea where we were headed for our night out, I only knew that our reservations were at 7:15 and we were planning on getting there early so I could order my new, super posh extra dirty Grey Goose Martini. To my surprise, we arrived at Sofia’s on 11th around 6:45P for appetizers and drinks and let me say — it was amazing!I had been asking to check out the place due to the fact I hadn’t been there in 3+ years.  I remembered that it was a fairly swanky, dimly lit place, but I hadn’t remembered HOW awesome it really was! Let me first extend my compliments to the staff at Sofia’s; they made the night even more amazing than it would have normally been. We had the most amazing service from top to bottom. Mac, who we were fortunate enough to have help us through the evening, was astoundingly awesome and knowledgeable — he gave us some amazing suggestions and we both left there with nothing but phenomenal things to say about the place and the food. It’s definitely our new go-to place for romantic evenings out (it ties with Moxie as our numero uno, but I’ll tell you all about Moxie some other time!) Also, just an FYI — their martinis are to DIE FOR! Mac recommended the chocolate martini with a little butterscotch thrown in and it was probably the best drink I have ever had — even Chris liked it & he hates “foo-foo drinks!” I gulped that baby down in about five minutes flat before I realized what happened! They also had an oatmeal cookie martini which is definitely on my list for next time!

In any case, we jetted out of Sofia’s around 830P so we could “make our show.” Of course, I wasn’t aware that we were going to any show and I assumed that “show” = B Street Theatre, one of our favorite places for nights out. We jumped in the car and hopped on the freeway and it was a few minutes before I realized that I had no idea where we were going (mind you, I had TWO drinks, which is about one and a half past tipsy for me!) Chris ended up pulling off the freeway and pulling into a cute little hotel that he had booked for the evening. He parked in the back and as we brought our bags up to the door I realized that we needed a key to get in the back. At this point, Chris whipped out his key and informed me that we had already checked in (which is what he was doing when I had talked to him earlier in the day!) We went upstairs to our room & I waited for a couple of minutes outside at his request while he got a couple of things ready.

When he opened the door — gorgeous! He totally had come earlier to set the place up. The lights were off and there were red tea candles scattered throughout the room (not a fire hazard, don’t worry!), champagne ready to go for our toast, a bouquet of red roses, a mini theatre set up so we could watch Slumdog Millionaire theatre-style (with a projector to project the movie onto the wall; BTW, this was the “show” that he had been referring to!) and the bed was covered in red rose petals to spell out I Love You. Not that I don’t consider Chris creative or that I underestimate his abilities, but this was completely above and beyond anything I had ever expected! He clearly had put a lot of time, effort & creativity into the whole process and it was so amazing! Ladies, I’ve posted pictures below so you can show your husbands/boyfriends what’s up. Had to share the story — too good to not!

Now we’re going to spend Sunday relaxing at Arden Hills, soaking up the Sunday sunshine!

Lots of Love,