chapel hill, nc: the poster child for fall

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Today was the most perfect of fall days. If from here on out it gets cold and rainy and dark, it will all be ok, because of this one perfect day. 

Within the past three days, Chapel Hill has decided that it is definitely, officially fall. I noticed it driving home from work on Thursday, and had a few minutes where all I wanted to do was turn off the radio and just be in AWE of the colors that were surrounding what had previously been a very long, very uninteresting commute. I called Brandon just to freak out about it, although being from North Carolina, I guess he is used to this kind of seasonal gorgeousness us Floridians can only dream about. 

Days like these are made to be Saturdays. They are days for driving on country highways to yard sales filled with rose chintz and sconces. They are days for kale and bok choy and peppers all over the farmer's market, for the bee guy's bounty. They are days for eating BLTs and crepes outside while the sun warms your face in the almost chilly autumn air. Fall in this state is incredible. 

Days like today make me want to go home and roast something. And then knit something. And then sip on something warm watching old movies. I may have just outlined my plan for the evening. If you need me, I'll be the one snuggling on her couch with the best boy in the world. 

-Abby

high five for friday!

Looking back, I'm just now realizing that this week was definitely my last full week of summer...maybe ever. Oops. I am so grateful for the job I start on Monday but it will be a big adjustment from these lazy days I've been having! Here are some high five moments from this week:

1. I've been making a lot of lists this week: lists about the apartment, budgets, and random things like remembering to make an appointment at the DMV to get a NC driver's license (eep!). This adorable notepad from Rifle Paper Co. makes that a lot easier to do. 

2. I have discovered Trader Joe's salads. And I will be taking A LOT of these to work for lunch in the future. This one was sooooo good and filling!

3. In celebration of the App Store's 5 year anniversary Apple has a bunch of apps in their store for free that normally cost $$$. One of the ones I downloaded and have been playing around a ton with is Over, a photo-editing app. I highly recommend it. 

4. Last Sunday, Brandon told me about Merritt's, where supposedly he had the best BLT of his life recently. Of course I heard bacon and had to check this out for myself, so yesterday we met up with a friend for lunch. He was not exaggerating folks. I could go on, but let's just say this was the best BLT I've ever had. I would take it over pretty much every other sandwich ever. 

5. Fee is here to visit! En route to pick him up we found out that his train was delayed and so we spent an hour at Brightleaf Square in downtown Durham. Clothing boutiques, antique bookstores, art galleries...we will be visiting again. 

Find out more about High Five for Friday and link up your own here!

Happy weekend!

xoxo. Abby

TWO AMAZING WEEKENDS: PART 2

Alright, folks. Here's the good stuff. This kid and I had a surprise weekend! Meaning, I was super sneaky and talked to his med school friends online waaaaay back in February and found out which weekends would be good to visit in April and then bought a plane ticket real hush hush and called him three hours before on Thursday night and told him to come get me from the airport.

That's the gist of it anyways :)

On Friday, I had some meetings and ran errands while Brandon was in class, and then that night we went to a carnival put on by UNC med and out to dinner in Carrboro. We decided to be a little fancy and ate at ACME, a first for both of us, and had some of the best butter beans we've ever had with Brandon's fried chicken. I decided, heck, let's do something crazy! And ordered guinea hen. I still am not totally sure what guinea hen is...but I liked it. A lot.

Walking around the area some was really fun, and made me more excited to some exploring with Brandon soon.

On Saturday, we went to go do some work at Straw Valley Cafe, a new favorite study spot for Brandon, a beautifully restored property that was filled with beautiful art and was one of the coolest places to hang out that I have ever been. It's also absurdly close to Brandon's current apartment, and I know that we will be going back here many times in the future. Being in a creative space like that was amazing inspiration for me as I worked on my first (and hopefully last?) visual resume for a job interview that I had on Monday.

The rest of our time that weekend was spent destroying season 4 of Parks & Rec and eating calzones (What beach week diet?). Every time we get opportunities to just hang out together like we did, it gets us more excited for the future, and think back to how we used to take that kind of time for granted at Vandy. It is so sweet, for sure. Oh, we also made a quick trip Sunday night to The Crunkleton. That was awesome.

In other news, classes are officially over, and I am officially an alumni of my sorority. Wut. Post-Rites of Spring they are starting to construct the graduation stage, and it finally started hitting me last night at senior chapter that this is actually happening folks. I am about to graduate from college.

More thoughts on that later. For now, I need to go eat Qdoba and listen to the new Melodores CD on repeat. Happy Tuesday!

Abby