Official

Hi from Houston! I guess I better get used to that, right? I apologize for my lack of posts these past few days, but I have been busy, busy, busy ever since I got home. From freshman volleyball camp to unpacking and cleaning out my room so that it can be painted to a few Pure Barre classes here and there to catching up with some of my Houston friends to HISD New Teacher Orientation, there hasn't been much time for anything else! I'm already feeling pretty tired, but I always find that I am significantly more tired after sitting all day than if I were to be moving around all day. Go figure!

I'll do a more thorough post on Thursday, but just know that I have officially traded in my green for red,

and come August 25th, I am officially going to be in charge of some little ninth grade humans. Who decided that would be a good idea?

Yesterday's orientation sessions were a little bit more exciting than today's (I may or may not have snuck out early), but I know in the long run that it is going to be good for me to have attended this. Plus, I'm already halfway done, so what's two more 8.5 hour days, right?

It's crazy, but when I was standing in the gym at Bellaire High School on Saturday, it really hit me that this is my life now. I am an English teacher and volleyball coach living in Houston, Texas. I can no longer identify myself as a student, which might be why I felt a little bit like a lost puppy just a couple of weeks ago. Being a student is the only thing I've ever known. And while I certainly don't have anything figured out, and I know that I am going to miss that college lifestyle from time to time, as well as the life that I had established in Austin, everything happening in my life right now just feels right. So even though some days are absolutely going to be harder than others, I can rest in the fact that I am where I am supposed to be. And that's the sweetest truth of all.

Hopefully I'll be back with you guys tomorrow, but I make no promises! Bear with me when it comes to this little blog - I promise I'm not going to give up on it!

Austin Favorites

With today being my last full day in Austin, I thought I would dedicate a post solely to some of my very favorites in all of Austin. Granted, there is still so much that I have left to see and do and cross off my list, but I think in my four years here I've accomplished quite a bit on the Austin Bucket List. I was inspired by the Best of Austin 2014 Poll Ballot, and though I did not participate because many of the items weren't applicable to me, I did steal the ones I felt like I could answer. But before we go there, let's talk exercise and breakfast.

Workout

This morning once again began bright and early wit ha 6am Pure Barre class at the Westlake location. After taking barre classes both yesterday and the day prior, my body was pretty worn out, but it also felt so good to start my day off with such a great workout. And remember how proud I was of my thigh work yesterday? I think I wore myself out for today's thigh work - whoops! I will add, though, that I finally invested in a pair of Pure Barre sticky socks, and I am so glad that I did. Though they absolutely aren't necessary, they do make maintaining some of the positions so much easier. So worth the $12.

(Source)

Breakfast

Breakfast this morning was the same as yesterday's. BUT, stay tuned for tomorrow's breakfast, because it is sure to be something different. I used up the last of both my spinach and my egg whites (I love it when I coordinate it like that), and I am not going to the grocery store for one morning's breakfast. I know, the anticipation is killing you.

Best of Austin

I tried to choose categories that would allow me to showcase some of what makes Austin so fun and unique. Many of these have probably been showcased on the blog before, but here they are again, all in one place.

• Best Downtown View - Lou Neff Point

For many consecutive years, Observation Point at The Long Center has been the winner of this category, and while I would agree that it offers a spectacular view of the Austin skyline, my personal favorite is the view from Lou Neff Point on the Town Lake trail. I frequently stop to snap a picture, and it is a view I will certainly miss.

• Best Patio/Deck - The Oasis

The food isn't necessarily anything to write home about, but the sunset views are some of the best around. The Oasis even has a sunset photo contest, and I would venture to say the view is more than worth the drive out to Lake Travis.

• Best Public Art - The HOPE Outdoor Gallery

I talked about this place on the blog recently, and it is so worth a visit every time you come to Austin, because the art is constantly changing. I'm not one for graffiti, but because that is for what this spot is designated, I love seeing all the ways people choose to express themselves.

• Best Austin Food Landmark - Whole Foods

Yes, Whole Foods is located in many cities, but none of them can hold a candle to the Whole Foods Headquarters in Austin. In fact, I just went there yesterday with Hanna, where I enjoyed a spinach salad with tomatoes, red quinoa + tabouli, tomatoes, onions, chickpeas, green and black olives, and blackened chicken all topped with balsamic vinaigrette. Polished off with a Crispy Crunch-flavored Taza individual chocolate bar, and their signature 50.7 fl. oz. water bottle.

• Best Breakfast - The Carillon

I know I just went there a couple of weekends ago, and Austin has so many great breakfast establishments, but this was truly the best that I've had, and you guys know how much I love breakfast. You can't beat the buffet price, and the options are truly endless. I can't go without mentioning the pancakes at Kerbey Lane Cafe, or the omelets from The Omelettry, because those come in at a close second.

• Best Burgers - Hopdoddy

Hands down. I love Hopdoddy, and it will forever be a restaurant that I recommend to people visiting Austin. Everything from the way you are seated to the way the burgers are prepared is just perfect. 

• Best Food Trailer - Bananarchy

There are so many food trailers to choose from in Austin, and they are now popping up all over the country, but Bananarchy has been and will continue to be my favorite. Frozen bananas dipped in chocolate, white chocolate, or peanut butter, and topped with goodness ranging from nuts and coconut to Oreos and M&M's. Choose a specialty, or create your own - I guarantee your banana won't last long.

• Best Ice Cream/Gelato - Mandola's

This one was tough, because though I can't eat normal ice cream, Austin has tons of vegan ice cream parlors. Lick would probably be my favorite place to find vegan ice cream, but Mandola's wins the award for best gelato. Whenever I eat at Mandola's, I always make sure to save room for a scoop or two of their gelato. The perfect post-meal treat.

• Best Tacos - Tacodeli

This was a tough one, because Austin has some fabulous  taco establishments. I would have to give the award to Tacodeli for managing to attract so much business in only the breakfast and lunch hours and for making some pretty dynamite tacos.

• Best Day Trip - Enchanted Rock & Fredericksburg

Austin has a lot within its proximity, so on a weekend when Austin is sure to be crowded with people (and that's often), it's so easy to escape for a day to another city or town. My most recent, and favorite, day trip was the one Dylan and I took to Enchanted Rock and Fredericksburg. Enchanted Rock afforded us some incredible views of the Hill Country, and Fredericksburg is just charming.

• Best Golf - TopGolf

Okay, so I don't have much to go off of here, but I do know that TopGolf is so incredibly fun, so it wins the title of Best Golf. You can read about my experience here, but I just want to tell you not to be intimidated by either the prices or the crowd. Going before 6pm will alleviate both of those issues, but splitting the cost between a group of friends brings the price way down, and there are plenty of things to do there while you wait for a lay.

• Best Outdoor Activity - Lake Travis Zipline or Kayaking/Paddleboarding on Town Lake

I just couldn't choose between these two activities, so I'll write about both. Ziplining really appealed to the thrill-seeker in me, and the views from each of the five ziplines was spectacular. And kayaking and paddleboarding is truly so unique to Austin, though I know it is expanding to many other cities, and it is the perfect "Austin activity."

• Best Bowling Alley - The Union at The University of Texas

While I don't have anything to compare this to, I do know that you'll be hard pressed to find a better deal than underground bowling at the University of Texas. It's even cheaper for UT students, but it's still a steal for those who are just visiting. Dylan and I had a blast doing this - bonus, we went on a glow-in-the-dark day - and my only regret is that I had checked it out sooner.

• Best Scenic View - Mount Bonnell

There wasn't a lot of competition for this one. Mount Bonnell is my favorite spot in Austin, and though there are so many beautiful views throughout the entire city, Mount Bonnell will forever be my favorite.

• Best Bookstore - BookPeople

The bookworm inside of me, combined with my love for unique (and okay, maybe unnecessary) items, absolutely loves this bookstore. This bookstore has such an Austin feel to it with its unique layout and employees, but you can still find all of the Classics. Can't beat it.

(Source)

• Best DVD Rental/Purchase - Vulcan Video

This place is simply the best. As a child who grew up going to Blockbuster on the reg, I was so upset when they went out of business. Vulcan Video came to the rescue, though, and was located just steps from SRD. It has since moved, but it has every movie or television show you can imagine. I rented more than a few Full House seasons from them in my time. 

(Source)

• Best Grocery Store - Central Market

Yes, there is a great Central Market in Houston (and it may even be better than the one in Austin), but the one in Austin is just so convenient to where I live. And while I know some people shy away from doing their grocery shopping here because of the supposedly higher prices, I've found that the prices aren't that much different from H-E-B. And it is so much less of a headache to shop at Central than it is to shop at H-E-B.

(Source)

And on that note, I'm off to finish out my penultimate shift at SRD, before moving 100 miles an hour to cross everything off of my to-do list before I go to sleep. Happy Hump Day, and I will see you guys tomorrow, for sure!

Peach Kick

Happy Wednesday! I apologize for my lack of post yesterday, but after what was one of the greatest weekends, my week has been pretty low-key. And I'm okay with that. I've gotten to bed early, attended some morning Pure Barre classes, and continued on with the never-ending task of packing up my room. The only thing worse than having to pack everything in my room up is the fact that I am going to have to unpack everything at some point. I'm pretty bad about unpacking, and I tend to just live out of a suitcase whenever I go home for the weekend (or for a month at Christmas break), so let's hope I can knock a significant portion of it out of the way this weekend!

Dinner

I woke up from a nap yesterday right before 6:30pm. I was extremely hungry, and because I'm going home this weekend, I didn't see a reason to cook something up to eat as dinner for the week. Plus, I want to make sure I get in one last meal at some of my favorite restaurants. Makes sense, right? Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, I had no dinner food at home. I was craving salmon of some kind - it's been a while since I've had any, after all - so I headed right up the street to Snap Kitchen, where I created my own salad. It's kind of like Salata, just with not quite as many options. Still excellent, though.

I opted for a spinach salad topped with tomatoes, purple onions, chickpeas, black olives, and green apple pieces, topped with salmon, of course, and balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I ate it at Snap Kitchen before returning home to hangout and spend some time with Katie. She just got back from Europe on Sunday, and is moving back to Dallas on Monday. It hasn't really hit me yet that we're all scattering to the winds, so I'm just going to think of it as a long Christmas holiday. Because surely we won't go that long without being reunited, right?

Workout

Because I went to sleep so early last night - third night in a row to be in bed before 9:30pm - I didn't groan too loudly when my 5:20am alarm went off this morning. I had plans to attend a 6am Pure Barre class, and I left feeling the way I always do when I leave a Pure Barre class - feeling like I got a great total-body workout. I was glad I went, and, as always, time just flew by. This might be the one exercise class where I'm shocked to see that so much time has passed. You won't find me complaining about that one!

(Source)

And can I just add that I love the sign up feature of Pure Barre - not only does it ensure that only the amount of people there is room for will be able to attend class, but it forces me to actually go when I sign up because if you don't cancel your reservation at least five hours prior to the class, you get charged $10 for not attending. So right away I have an added incentive to actually get out of bed at that somewhat ungodly hour. And let's be honest, in the summertime, it's definitely ungodly. But it is made all the worth it when the class hits its 55th minute and I was able to stretch out my tired limbs.

Breakfast

Remember that peach salsa I mentioned on Monday? Well, it has me on a major peach kick these days. I've been eating it every morning for breakfast atop my scrambled egg whites and spinach, but I have also been eating some of those delicious Fredericksburg peaches that we bought on Saturday.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I didn't even know that I liked peaches until recently, so clearly I had been missing out on some serious goodness for the majority of my life. It's a good thing I finally came to my senses!

And on that note, I'm off to sort through some mail and do a little bit of reading. Happy Hump Day!

Fourth of July

And I am back with another post today! I hope your Fourth of July has started out beautifully - mine has been very low-key, yet productive. I have a lot to share with you guys in one little blog post, so I'll go ahead and get started with the basics.

Workout

Today's workout was a very new-to-me workout. One of my roommates is a huge advocate for Pure Barre, and after looking for a workout that would challenge me in a different way than running or cycling, I came across a newcomer deal that consisted of four classes for only $40. While $10/class may seem like a lot, I didn't want to commit to an entire month of classes just in case I didn't enjoy the workout. I didn't think that would be the case, but it's better to be safe than sorry, right?

(Source)

Anyway, I absolutely loved the class. It challenged my muscles in a way that I don't challenge them myself, and I was certainly humbled when all of these mom-aged women were showing me up throughout much of the class. I considered myself to have strong legs, but my thighs were absolutely shaking during much of the class.

What I loved about this 55-minute class is that it is a low-impact class that works your entire body. And while I could certainly tell that I was lagging behind some of the regulars a bit, it was very easy to follow, though I had to laugh at myself when we were stretching at the end of class and I watched many of my classmates easily slide into a split. I'm one of the least flexible people on this planet, so I'm really hoping that Pure Barre will help with my flexibility.

(Source)

I look forward to using my remaining three passes, and I might even purchase more once I've used those up. It was certainly a challenging workout, but I loved it, and the 55 minutes absolutely flew by.

Breakfast

Immediately after the class, I dug into two cuties as I made the short drive over to Town Lake to complete a run/walk loop around the lake. There were so many people in line to rent either a paddleboard or kayak, and the lake was already so full of people doing those activities. There were many families out there taking advantage of this sunny holiday, and I am sure this is one of the few days every member of the family has off of work. Better take advantage of it while you can!

After my walk, I was more than hungry, so I stopped by JuiceLand for a breakfast that was the perfect trifecta - healthy, delicious, and refreshing. I went with a regular Peachy Green, which consists of spinach, kale, apple, and peach. It was the perfect post-workout drink, and it fueled me for the crossing of another item off of my list -

Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library

I could not leave Austin without having taken advantage of the fact that there is a presidential library located a hop, skip, and a jump away from campus. It is free for UT students, after all, so I really couldn't pass up that opportunity.

I wouldn't consider myself to be the biggest history buff around - that title would go to my roommate, Jamie Lynn - but the lives of presidents really fascinates me. As weird as this sounds, I love all of the presidential conspiracy theories, and fun presidential facts interest me far more than the things I was supposed to have learned via my history textbooks.

I could go on and on about everything this library has to offer, but I'll just highlight some of my favorites. What really appealed to me was the current exhibit: Sixty From the '60s. It has been on display since March, and will be on display until January. It features "iconic photographs, historic objects and documents, books, clothing, posters, and artwork related to sixty Americans who made an impact on this seminal era and whose work continues to be relevant today." I got to read about LBJ (duh), the Kennedy's, MLK Jr., Harper Lee, Charles Schulz, Bob Dylan, Bill Cosby, and so many more.

I got to reminiscence on my childhood with Dr. Suess books, P.D. Eastman's Go, Dog, Go, Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are, Barbie, Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, the Operation board game, and so many more.

Actual dresses worn by Jackie Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson were on display, and I even got to see the inside of LBJ's Oval Office. The visit was absolutely worth my time, and probably the little LBJ tidbit that has stuck the most in my mind is the fact that he was a "close-talker," in that he liked to get very close to people when he was talking to them. I value my personal space, so that would have been a pain, though I highly doubt LBJ and I would have had any sort of conversation, so it doesn't much matter what I think about it, does it?

(Source)

Overall, my visit to the LBJ library was well worth my time, and I even convinced my roommate Natalie to tag along with me. She is also quite the history buff, so though she had been there before, she said she thoroughly enjoyed it.

Four great Presidents and their First Ladies [Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush]

Layer Cake

I crossed yet another item off of my Summer 2014 To-Do List today - making a layer cake. And this might be the first and last layer cake I make. It's not that it was particularly difficult, but it just took quite a bit of time. It's not like I was doing much of anything else, so I had all the time in the world, but it sure took quite a bit of work. And I even used a box cake mix!

Anyway, today seemed like the perfect day to make a layer cake, because the Fourth of July provides the perfect layer cake theme. It really was very easy to do, in the fact that I simply prepared the batter according to the directions on the box, and then added some Betty Crocker Gel Food Colors to it (red and blue, obviously). But, I'll get a little bit more specific for those of you who might be interested in tackling this project.

I started out with three boxes of Betty Crocker Super Moist White Cake Mix. I only used about 2 3/4 cups of each, so I mixed all of the remaining batter in one pan so that I could bake it into a cake to make cake balls. Said cake balls have not yet been created, but just give it some time.

Anyway, I preheated my oven to 350 degrees, prepared the first box of batter according to the directions on the box, and added almost the entire tube of red color gel. I beat it well, and then put 2 3/4 cups of batter into a greased 9-inch round cake pan. My tip for greasing the pan so that getting the cake out in one piece is easy as pie is to spray the pan down with cooking spray, and then putting one spoonful of flour in the pan. Shake the pan around, and then get rid of any excess flour by pouring it into a sink. Trust me, it works.

I baked it in the oven for 19 minutes, and I repeated for the remaining two layers - substituting blue gel for the red, and adding nothing to the white layer.

Assembling each layer is also pretty easy. I started out with the red layer, and put a layer of Funfetti frosting all over it. I'm the worlds worst froster, so it took quite a bit of frosting for me to completing cover it without any crumbs showing. I placed the white layer on top of the red layer, and proceeded to put frosting all over it. The frosting in between the layers acts as the "glue." Once that layer was completely frosted, I placed the final layer, the blue layer, on top, and opened a whole new can of frosting to finish off the cake.

Easy frosting tip from my mom: Be PATIENT (something I absolutely don't have while baking), and let the frosting sit out before spreading it. It will be so much easier to spread once it's softened out, and it will prevent the crumb situation that I always seem to have.

And I originally planned on topping my cake with red and blue sprinkles, but in talking to Gram on Wednesday night and telling her about my grand Fourth of July cake plans, she suggested topping my cake with blueberries and sliced strawberries. I decided to do just that, and I think it made it look a bit more sophisticated. Because that's what people are concerned with when eating a cake, right?

All in all, a great Fourth of July, and the night's not over yet. Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain so that we can see some fireworks tonight, but I've definitely been hearing a few claps of thunder. But I don't need fireworks to remind me what a privilege it is to live in this country, so regardless of whether I get to see them or not, it's been a great day celebrating America's 238th birthday!