Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Sunday in the city

My dear friend Julia visited this weekend from Michigan-and she couldn't have come at a better time. We had chilly but nice weather the whole time, and I find that one of the best ways to remind myself of love and value is to spend time with those who exemplify that. Julia and I met working at Michigania (the most magical place on earth...and Go Blue!). Our love of brunch and adorable things, as well as deeper shared values such as feeling passionate about our careers/jobs, being engaged in our religious identities, and prioritizing all important relationships in our lives have ensured an ongoing friendship.


This is the only picture we managed to take together all weekend...Sunday night. Whoops!

She arrived on Friday while I was still at work, so our weekend really started when we headed to dinner at Worden Hall, a delicious and conveniently located New American restaurant in Southie. (You will quickly notice that a lot of our activities revolve around eating.) It was quite busy, but even without a reservation we were seated within half an hour. While we waited we were able to get a drink at the bar-I had a delicious wintry cocktail called the Sure Bet, while Julia enjoyed a glass of Malbec. I didn't manage a picture of the drinks-it was enough to wrangle my purse, gym and lunch bags, and coat while standing. Once seated, I couldn't resist the tomato soup and grilled cheese. Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the name-while the tomato soup was fairly basic, the grilled cheese was Brie and apple on brioche. And how could we pass up the curly fries with garlic aioli? Obviously they were a key component of my 100% comfort food meal. Julia went a little healthier with the Brussels sprout salad-and I definitely would have stolen some if it hadn't had chorizo!



I'm going to skip right to Sunday, as I'll talk about our time in Providence in a separate post. On Saturday, we planned out our "perfect Sunday". This involved me driving into Boston for the first time-I know, that is ridiculous since I moved all the way back in August! I will say, that is the ideal time to try it out-there's almost no traffic when you're trying to arrive in the city at 9am on a Sunday. And yes, that does mean leaving Providence at 8am-a necessity to make it to our 9:30 Bar Method class! Julia and I did Pure Barre together back in Ann Arbor,  and I've been attending Bar Method 3-5 days/week since Halloween, so we figured we needed to do it! Plus my monthly membership allows me to bring a guest for free, so why not? The studio has showers and a locker room, and is conveniently located just a few blocks away from a Unitarian Universalist church I had not yet been to, but wanted to try out, so we were able to get ready and make it over for the 11am service.

The service was wonderful-beautiful music and meaningful words. One thing I love about UU churches is their dedication to service and social justice, and the Arlington Street Church is no exception. The sermon was titled "We are What We Do" and the minister reflected on the importance of being mindful while moving through the world, as well as in habits that seem to only affect ourselves.

Julia and I continued our perfect Sunday with brunch at Masa...when we first arrived, we were told it would be a 45-60 minute wait! We hovered around the bar waiting for seats to open there, but got lucky around 15 minutes later when apparently all the other groups of two had given up. The Bloody Mary was deliciously spicy, while the breakfast burrito merely met expectations. I was definitely satisfied overall (and it's probably good there weren't more potatoes in it!), but if we had waited an hour for it, I might have been a bit disappointed. The mac&cheese and some other dishes at neighboring tables looked a little more exciting...this might be more of a meat-eater's place, though I would definitely go back at least for drinks! ;)



We then walked back over to Copley Square/Boston Public Library and joined in the protest there-see my last post for more details and reflection on that. While Julia didn't get the photo of the Library steps she'd planned on, these events definitely added a lot of meaning to it. We walked through briefly as well-the courtyard is always worth a stop! Can't you just imagine Juliet on that balcony, waiting for her Romeo?



Lastly, we shopped Newbury Street-a lot of window shopping to be sure, but we definitely made some impulse purchases as well! I can never resist a gray dress (or the beautiful window displays at Anthropologie). I also maaaaay have gone ahead and purchased a new purse at Kate Spade...I had planned on it in the near future, so at least it wasn't 100% impulse! I reassure myself that I resisted all of the beautiful full-priced items at both stores-and just added them to my Keep account in the hope they'll go on sale soon!


xoxoxo
Emma

P.S. Keep resisting!

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