Hello friends – I hope you all had a nice weekend! On Friday night, I had a fun friend date with my buddy Gretchen. Fun fact: Gretchen is Jenny’s (my high school best friend and matron of honor in our wedding) younger sister! Now that Gretchen and I are both adults we’ve become friends, too. 🙂 Excuse the blurry photo… romantic mood lighting doesn’t lend itself to stellar pictures.
Photo via Gretchen
Gretchen and I made plans to hang out sometime last week, and as we were deciding what to do, my friends at LivingSocial emailed and invited me to a cool Rent the Runway event they were hosting on Friday night at their headquarters downtown. It sounded fun and Gretchen is probably my most fashion loving friend, so I asked if I could bring her as my +1. Perfect!
I’ve never used Rent the Runway before but have heard a lot about it; it’s basically a website where you can browse beautiful designer dresses, then rent them for a fraction of their cost. Rentals are usually for 4 to 8 days, and after your event, you simply return the dress. Cool idea, huh?
For the event, LivingSocial teamed up with them to have a pop up showroom in honor of Inauguration weekend coming up. When Gretchen and I arrived, we headed to the press room for some drinks and snacks.
Aren’t the mini pies cute? I had a chili one – delicious, although it would have been better heated. 🙂
And then we headed upstairs to try on dresses! Neither of us had anything coming up to wear anything fancy to (nor do we have any extra cash on hand, let’s be honest), but it was still really fun to try on what they had. We were both in love with the dresses we’re wearing below – so sparkly!
Photo via Gretchen
I also tried on a fun Nicole Miller dress similar to the after party dress I wore at my wedding, just in red! It got me excited to see how my dress looks once it’s dyed!
After trying on a couple things and very sadly saying goodbye to them, Gretchen and I headed out in search of dinner! She’d never been to Matchbox, one of my local favorites, so we decided to go there.
I decided to get two appetizers – first, the beet salad, which was huge and awesome. I could not, however, get a non-blurry photo of this salad to save my life. Sorry – you get the idea. 🙂
I also ordered the tuna tartare. Love me some tuna tartare!
It came with some super thin plantain chips on the side. I almost felt like I was back in Costa Rica. 🙂
Thanks for the fun night, Gretchen!
And while we’re talking about Gretchen, did you guys know she wrote her first book?! I am beyond proud of her! Gretchen’s book is called Terra, and it’s a young adult dystopian fiction novel, similar to The Hunger Games or Delirium, two of my other favorite series in the genre.
Gretchen sent me an advance copy of Terra for my Nook just before Matt and I left for our honeymoon and I devoured it within the first couple days of our vacation. I have to say, I was blown away! Gretchen’s a great writer so I was expecting it to be good, but it’s awesome.
Since Gretchen can explain what her book is about better than I can, here’s a teaser from the back cover:
In the distant wake of a plague that has decimated the Earth’s population, humanity is split in two. The rich and powerful live in skycities that float overhead, while those who remain on the ground have gathered in settlements strewn across a dying planet. Eighteen-year-old Terra Rhodon makes her living as a scav, scouring the earth for discarded scraps and metals to recycle for profit. While on a routine scavenging run, she discovers something that shocks her home settlement of Genesis X-16.
Terra suddenly finds herself asking questions no one will answer. Her search for the truth ultimately leads her to Adam – a beguiling boy with a secret that has the power to change humanity’s existence forever.
Sounds good, right? If you’re a fan of the young adult dystopian fiction genre, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of her book. It will leave you begging Gretchen to write book 2 already, just like I am. Congratulations, Gretchen, and now get back to writing! We’re waiting. 😉
Terra is available on Amazon in paperback as well as on Kindle. Check it out!
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And now, it’s time for me to get back down to work! I allowed myself the past week and a half to get re-organized – catch up on emails, set up blog partnerships for the new year, do a million errands I hadn’t had time to do before the honeymoon/Christmas, etc., but now it’s time to focus on the new task at hand:
- Sign up for the RD exam.
- Study for the RD exam.
- Kick the RD exam’s butt.
I fueled up this morning with one of my high protein and flour free breakfast pancakes (obsessed), plus a latte. Now I’m ready to tackle the day!
I also need to start doing some serious research regarding starting up my own nutrition counseling private practice business once I pass the RD exam. Right now I’m considering a bunch of things like:
- Whether to start a whole new website for the nutrition counseling practice vs. just a tab here on my blog
- Whether to set up the business as an LLC, an S corporation, or a DBA
- Whether to use fANNEtastic food as the nutrition counseling business name since I’ve already established that as my brand, or to use something like my full name with nutrition after it or something else – fANNEtastic nutrition? Too many options…
Any thoughts/advice/tips are much appreciated! 🙂 Have a wonderful Monday, everyone!
