Me Day.

so i have been having a stressful few weeks at work and i finally talked myself into having a couple days off from work. and i have enjoyed every finger licking day!

i planned a couple of things but for the most part i just went with the flow. i did exactly what i wanted - no interruptions.

i ordered breakfast at one of my fave spanish bakeries. but i don't go in there for the typical spanish breakfast, pan, (pan is for us what muffins are for americans. except pan is much larger and sweeter. most people dip their pan in their coffee. soggy goodness.) i go in for a torta. mmmmm....torta. this is something that i surely can't eat everyday, unless of course i want to work out and we know that's not gonna happen. so i enjoy a torta every now and again. a torta is basically a sandwich, but better. it's on freshly baked bread - more like a mini loaf - with mayo, shredded cheese, sliced avocado, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos, and your choice of ham, chicken or beef. and finally the sandwich is grilled.

the bread is a mix of soft inside with the crunchy just grilled exterior. the cheese melts into the mayo. the avocado and tomato mix together into a veggie galore. this "sandwich" makes your mouth water and biting into it is a little bit of food goodness. food that makes you dance a little when you eat it.

i took my breakfast sandwich and drove over to one of the local parks. i sat, ate and watched the birds dance in the sky. my favorite part of the morning at the park is the silence. people glanced at each other with mild smiles. you hear the soft passing of cars. the birds chirping. the soft breeze. the morning is still wet and slightly cool. the sun hides shyly behind small clouds. perfection.

after the quiet, almost meditative breakfast. i head over to the subway. i park my car and decide that if i will be traveling to various parts of the city, going on the train is my best option.

sometimes letting someone else take you to your destination is relieving. all you have to worry about is getting off and on the right stops. growing up in the city, you learned to ride the train before you knew how to ride a bike. it's just something everyone did. owning a car was rendered useless. of course, once my family moved to maryland, that no car concept changed. i rarely ever take the train. so it was enjoyable taking a seat and reading a book.

dc is great because of all the places that there are to see. and if it isn't a place there's always an event. seriously if you ever see the tourism site for dc there's something to do every single day and night! having a dull day is almost impossible. i also believe that its a borderline sin if you live in or near the city and have not seen any of the historic sites, monuments or museums!

i visit my favorite museums at least once or twice a year - they are always changing the exhibits. however, there was one that i hadn't visited in quite some time. the National Museum of Natural History. as a child this was the first museum my mom took me to and it changed my whole concept of life. you know that the world is large and vast but coming here made me realized how great this world is and how immense knowledge is. it boggled my mind and forever changed me. this place was the foundation for my drive and thirst for knowledge. this place truly changed me and coming here was like meeting up with an old friend. and i always feel like i'm going on a expedition when i enter this place!

after spending a couple of hours here, i finally decided that i wouldn't be able to see the whole place but that i would return another day. i walked out to one of the food stands, bought a Nathan's hot dog and coke. i picked out a nice shaded spot under a tree, laid my jacket over the grass, sat down and enjoyed the view and food.

This view can't be beat - the Capitol on the left - the Smithsonian in the center - and the Monument on the right

After a nice break, i decided to go shopping! Yes, shopping! Seriously, am a woman how could i resist the temptation of shopping. A couple of hours later and a few new items, i went to one place that i've been trying to go to for some time but never had the time, District of Pi. i had passed this place dozens of time and it's hard to ignore it and the wonderful, tasty aroma seeping through the doors. However, until me day, i never had the time to go in. so needless to say i was rather excited to finally get a chance to try the pizza.

I was immediately offered a seat either at the bar or table. I wanted to relax and enjoy so I sat at a table. My waitress was so helpful and attentive. i had the Caesar salad and the south side classico pizza. this big portion of salad was tasty and full of creamy Caesar dressing. but of course my main purpose for this visit was the pizza. when this deep dish pizza was placed on my table, i knew immediately that i wanted to eat all of it but i wouldn't be able to. firstly i ate my entire salad and even though i ordered the regular size pizza, the thing was quite massive. so of course this makes me happy. my first bite and i could taste the richness of the thick tomato-y sauce. then the layer of the sausage, cheese and veggies mix in together. and not too many people like pizza crust, this is not me. the crust was crunchy and crispy. i absolutely loved it. overall i was beyond happy that i finally made into this place. i am a pizza fanatic, seriously i can have it like 2-3x a week and never be bored of it. but this pizza is a new level of pizza making. i won't call it gourmet because this pizza is not pretentious, it's inviting. except it's different, tasty and rich with fresh ingredients. this is a big recommend. so i ate about 3 slices and saved the rest for leftovers for P.

after all the sights and food, it was time to go home. me and my boxed pizza walked over to the subway station and took the train home. as i walk out of the station and headed towards my car. i remembered that i still had one more place to visit, the nail salon. a perfect way to end the day, a relaxing mani/pedi.

i truly suggest that everyone takes at least one day to themselves, do whatever you want. my goal was to see places i hadn't in a long time, relax, take my time and eat. and i did just that. you would think that i would be exhausted from all this running around, but truth be told i was refreshed. i needed this time strictly to myself. and if a thought of "oh my goodness, i forgot this or that" entered my mind, i kindly reminded myself that it could wait till my day was over. it was liberating.

this day was the fresh breath of air that was much needed. it was perfection.

My 28th...

hello people of planet earth I finally can maybe, possibly...start working more frequently on mi blog. Why and how do you ask?

Well maybe you're not asking but imma tell you anyways. I finally brought myself a laptop. Yea me! So pretty much no excuses now...unless of course I don't know what to write about. Yikes!

So let's start off where I left off...I can't remember where I left on so I'm going to start with the events of my birthday! So last month I turned 28 years old and I really didn't know what to do to celebrate. Well I did know what I wanted to do but that wasn't in the plans. I wanted a full day spa treatment. Meanwhile Mr. P keeps asking me "what do you want for your birthday?" You would think throwing around hints like "I really could use a massage" or "I can't wait to set up a spa date for myself" well have helped but it didn't.

Ultimately I decided that I would just go to a bar I hadn't been to. That way people could come and drink, eat, talk, hang out, and eventually roll out. We went to BreadSoda in DC. I had never heard of the place and I probably wouldn't have ever found it for Google. ---- I seriously couldn't live without Google.

BreadSoda is located in Glover Park and it's a little ways out, but so worth it. At first I had a hard time finding the place and my saving grace was that there was a little deli type sign on the sidewalk that had the bar's name. The place was pretty spacious for a DC bar which I appreciated it. We even had a whole side table to ourselves. Bottom line the place was really great. Nice atmosphere, clean, fun and I would definitely be going back.

So if anyone wants to check out if your in the DC area check their website www.breadsoda.com


But I really wanted to share some of the special treats I received on that day. I am a very simple girl. I love cards and flowers. I know there not great gifts but I love em.

This is the bouquet of flowers I received at work. Lastly no birthday is complete without a cake and teddy. The teddy is from Mr. P. Thank you everyone for making my 28th a great one!

Heart's Day

In honor of Valentine's Day, I would like to share with you my most romantic day. Oddly enough it didn't include an expensive dinner or trip, a lavish piece of jewelry or even the sweetest words spoken.
One day me and Mr.P were sitting around the house thinking about what to do, we finally decide let's just get in the car and go into the city. That's one of the advantages of living in the DMV area. If you want city, you have the city, if you want country, you got it and if you want suburbia, then we have that too.

So anyways we decided that we would go into the city and find something to do. After driving around and checking out some of the local spots and hangouts we still couldn't decide what to do, but we started to get hungry. If I remember correctly we really didn't have that much money so we knew we couldn't get something too pricey (or mayber we wanted to save money for booze, I really can't remember) so we ultimately decided to get some Subway. We were both really into eating Subway subs at that point, I loved tuna and he loved meatball or steak & cheese subs. So we got two foot long subs, mine tuna, his meatball, so that we could split it. Cause he did like tuna and I had never tried the meatball.

Now we didn't want to sit at the Subway and eat, we wanted to eat somewhere, just not there. Nothing against subway, cause that one is really nice, but it was a nice, dc night and I really wanted to be outside. So we're driving and ultimately we end up at the Mall (Smithsonian). This place is undeniable one of our favorites spots in all of DC. No explanation needed. So I say freak it lets just find a nice spot to sit and eat, which around there it's not that hard. Imagine us walking around with two foot long subs! We end up sitting on a bench right next to one of my favorite museaums, the Freer Gallery of Art.

Then all of a sudden we both hear a loud, boom!!! We look around thinking what is going on? Shortly we see a glittering, colorful, rays of 'fire' coming down. For some reason or another there were fireworks. I love fireworks! Till this day I don't know why there were fireworks.

So we sat back in one our favorite spots, eating subs, watching fireworks and talking about everything we wanted to do/accomplish in our lives. Totally unplanned, but most romantic.