Over the Weekend: An Indy Birthday Extravaganza

I don't know if you know this, but I love my birthday.  Which is this Friday, in case you were curious.  So, when my good friend Laura invited me out to Indianapolis for a weekend of fun and a Maroon 5/Kelly Clarkson concert, how could I possibly say no?

I mean, come on. Indianapolis has one of my favorite people (Laura) and some seriously tasty food (Kilroy's).  Really, you need to just go there if you're ever in the area.  They have the most amazing stuffed breadsticks EVER.  And cheap drinks. And Laura!

But let's just get down to the main event, shall we?  The concert. Oh my god, the concert.

First up was Kelly Clarkson (well no, technically some random girl was first but we skipped her).  She was AMAZING.  She was fun and performed barefoot and was just so good.  It was my college dreams come true.

Fun anecdote: when I was in college, Kelly's album convinced me to break up with my shitty then boyfriend.  Like, I just listened to it on repeat and it made me feel stronger and convinced me to do it.  I swear.  He even said to me, "I hate that album.  Ever since you started listening to it you've been different".  Bahaha.

But then, at the concert there were these younger girls in front of us losing their shit over Kelly.  And it was amazing.  It just made me think that maybe she's helping a whole other generation to break up with crappy guys!

And then there was Maroon 5.  I don't care what you hoity toity music snobs say, they were great.  It was such a fun show and Adam Levine was a seriously great showman.  He would switch from singing to dancing to playing guitar and just kept going.  It was AMAZEFEST USA (right, Laura?).  I mean really, every song was fun and everyone there had a great time.  What more can you ask for?

Well, everyone except the drunk dancing guy who got in a fist fight and got kicked out.  He may not have had a great time.

But anyway, that's my weekend in a nutshell.  Can't wait for the rest of birthday week to continue!!

xoxo
Amanda

Power Ballad Thursday (vol. 1): Bon Jovi - I'll Be There For You

Yesterday, my good buddy Sam told me that her boss used to play power ballads in their office really loud on Thursdays.  Doesn't that sound AMAZING?  So, we decided to embrace it ourselves and share some great music to get you through a Thursday.

Power Ballad Thursday (or #PBT for you Twitter folks) starts now.  LET'S DO THIS GUYS!

My share this week comes to you all the way from New Jersey.  It's Bon Jovi, y'all!  I really love this song.  So get on board!

Share your favorites!



(Excessive exclamation marks are required for #PBT apparently)

Shows to Watch: Orange is the New Black

In case you haven't already watched this show, you really need to get on that already. Unless you, for some ungodly reason, don't have Netflix.  In which case we need to have a separate conversation off the record.

Here's the thing.  I LOVE TV.  I really do.  I love getting hooked on a show and just burning through old seasons on Netflix.  So, when Netflix launched their own series' I should have just jumped right on board.  But I was scared.  And then I met this show.

Orange is the New Black is seriously great.  It's centered around Piper, an engaged upper middle class lady with a past.  A past that happens to include lesbian tendencies and a drug cartel.  She get's charged with her crimes 10 years after the fact and is sent to Litchfield prison in upstate NY where we're introduced to the most interesting characters on current television.

I'll be honest, Piper is my least favorite character on the show.  Well, no, her fiance is my least favorite.  But I feel like Piper's sole existence in this show is to instigate story lines for her more interesting fellow inmates.  And, can I just say how amazing it is to see a show with 95% female cast that's not just talking about why men are stupid or what shoes they should buy?  Cuz, hello.  It's needed.

But I digress.  When we started this show, we weren't sold.  But something kept drawing us in and now we have 1 episode left and I'm already sad that there's no season 2.  I need to know how everyone's doing! They're my buddies!  Well, as much as you can be buddies with a character named "Crazy Eyes".  We've gotten to a point where we need to watch it every day and are constantly referencing OITNB (pronounced oh-it-n-buh in our humble abode).

I realize now that it's really hard to write a review of a show that I'm watching without giving away a ton of spoilers.  But you can trust me.  You need to just watch this damn show.

xoxo
Amanda

So, there's that...

Do you ever fall out of a habit to the point where you forget it was ever a habit?

Well, welcome to my life.  I literally forget every "habit" I've ever had.  Like blogging here and on my other blog.  Or sewing. Or crafting in general. Or Project Life.  Or Blog designing. Or bike riding.  I could go on forever, but I don't want to make myself depressed.

Which, is sort of what I'm getting to.  If I'm going to be completely honest here, with myself and everyone else, I lost interest in sharing much about my life on the internet about the same time that my life got a little sadder.

So, Ashdog died in May.  And now I'm crying, already, btw.  See, he started getting sick and acting weird and we took him to the vet and it turned out he had cancer.  The next day we were going to take him in for more tests but all of a sudden things took a turn for the worst.  While waiting for the vet to open to take my baby in to be put down so he wouldn't be in pain anymore, he got even worse. And died in my arms.

So there's that.  And he was amazing.  And made my life have meaning. And he was my baby for 8 years and now he's gone.  We've gotten to a point where I don't think about him every day (well hello, guilt) and things have gotten to business as usual.

But I never really came back from it.  I mean, I'm not depressed or anything. And my life is honestly going great. But I got out of a lot of habits the week that happened and I haven't gotten too into them since.  I'd love to.  Honestly.  So maybe I will.

I've been rethinking a blog redo under a different name.  I've been thinking about a lot of projects.  And oh! We're moving next month so maybe I'll be more inspired.  But I just wanted to share a glimpse at my life lately.

I'm sorry people who want to know about my daily life, I'll be better.

xoxo Amanda

Grand Rapids - Beer City USA

This past weekend, John and I drove up to Grand Rapids to celebrate Memorial Day. And by "celebrate Memorial Day" I mean, try as many beers as possible and fall more in love with the city.

We actually only went for one night.  So we had to get as much city loving in as possible in about 24 hours.  So, we left Chicago at like 7:30am (which is insane for me since I like to sleep in) just to make it to Grand Rapids for breakfast at our favorite local spot, The Brandywine.  I think people tend to overlook Brandywine in favor of Wolfgang's down the street and I'm here to tell you that it's a mistake.  Brandywine is cozier.  And less busy.  And they have junior size portions which is great if you're like me and want to save room for sandwiches later.

After breakfast, we headed to our first new brewery of the day, Harmony Brewing Company.  I swear to god, Grand Rapids has EXPLODED with beer since I moved away 3 years ago.  And I conveniently love beer now so it's great to visit.  

And Harmony is awesome.  I really loved their Cream Ale and John had a flight of 5 beers but fell completely in love with their grapefruit shandy.  Plus, they had really good looking pizza and a fun mug club.  I love clubs of all sorts so I was sold.

Once we were finished soaking in the local flavor at Harmony, we headed over to Brewery Vivant (my 2nd new to me brewery o the trip).  They converted an old chapel into a brew pub and I loved it.  But even more than the interior, I loved their giant outdoor space with communal tables.  It was so beautiful.  We actually ended up at a table with some fellow Chicagoans which was pretty cool.

John had 4 more samplers here (he's at 9 beers if you're keeping track) and I had a Farmhouse Ale.  AND THE MOST AMAZING PRETZELS EVER.  They had these giant soft pretzel rods.  It was like a pretzel breadstick.  OMG.  I want them so bad now.  So, go here.  Drink beer. And absolutely order the pretzels.

Then I was tired.  And we needed to check into the hotel anyway, so we headed over there and I took a nap to restore my energy.  Success!  I woke up ready for beers.  And a burger.  So we headed over to Grand Rapids Brewing Company (3rd new brewery to me) and John got another flight (that's 15 new samples for the day).  As luck would have it, I ordered the best beer there (Rosalynn Bliss Blond. It was mango-y) without having to sample them so suck on that flight buyer!

Unfortunately, it was Sunday so they only had a brunch menu and I was starving so we headed to the crowd favorite, Hopcat, to split a burger and have some brews we knew we'd love.  It was great to be back in a bar that we were so familiar with and experience a wait staff that was the best ever.  Seriously, so knowledgeable.  So nice.  So friendly.  Loved it.

But nooo, our night didn't end there.  We headed over to Pyramid Scheme, aka my new favorite bar ever.  It was small.  And had tons of pinball games.  And a T REX SKULL.  c'mon!  I can't handle it.  So we drank some beers and played some games and had the best time ever.  Enough that I bought 2 t shirts.

Of course, we had to go the gaming bar counterpart of Pyramid Scheme and headed to Stella's.  Another favorite of ours.  We sipped on cheap beers.  Watched weird shows on the tvs and had amazing buffalo potato wedges.  It was just great.

I'm embarassed to say that we were pretty tired pretty early in the night after so many beers and foods and walks.  But, not to be defeated, we headed to Rosa Parks circle for some frozen yogurt (or frogurt.  I'm not sure why people won't call it that with me.  screw froyo.) and to take some photos of the city in the almost twilight.

We turned in early and started the day anew by making a trip to Meijer (the best) and Schuler's Bookstore before meeting up with our friend, Lindsay for a great farewell lunch at Founders.  The drive home to Chicago seemed to take forever.  Maybe it was the traffic or maybe it was that we were leaving our one true city love.  But I know it was the most amazing trip I've ever had in a 24 hour period.

I miss you already, Grand Rapids!  You totally deserve the title Beer City USA.

xoxo
Amanda