The first day of fall was September 23—just after some major travel for us and just before more of the same. Looking back, I severely overcommitted myself this fall. Good thing it was (mostly) so much fun!
Books I read
I’m proud to report that for the first time, I met my reading goal for the year. My goal was modest: 10 books. But I read 11! During the fall, I read quite a variety of titles: “The Midnight Library,” “Becoming,” “Foreverland,” and “The O.C.: An Oral History.” It was particularly fun to revisit my favorite high school television show with my final book of the year. I set the same goal for 2024, and hope to make it to at least 12, averaging one book per month. If you’ve been married for a while, and especially if you have kids, I cannot recommend “Foreverland” enough. It was both insightful and hilarious.
The worst thing that happened
I began writing my summer 2023 recap post from our hotel room in Nashville, blissfully unaware that in 24 hours I’d be the sickest I’d been in my entire life. Woof. At the end of September, Brandon and I flew to Nashville to see Switchfoot at Ryman Auditorium. Very thankfully, we were the picture of perfect health for the concert. And it was a beautiful experience. Before the show, some fans came around handing out pieces of orange and blue paper with instructions to hold the paper over the flashlights on our cell phones during a particular chorus of a song. It was a surprise for the band, and nearly everyone in attendance at the sold out show participated. The band was clearly touched, as was I.
We had the next day free to explore Nashville before flying home the following morning. I made a dinner reservation at a new tapas restaurant in town—we dined at the restaurant’s original Georgia location years ago and loved it. After dinner, we explored the Opryland Resort before returning to our hotel. By 10:30 pm, Brandon was violently ill. By 11 pm, I joined him. I’ll spare the details, but it was an awful night and it was without a doubt the worst sickness I’ve ever experienced in my life.
We knew we weren’t in any shape to fly home the next morning, so we extended our hotel reservation for another night and didn’t leave our room except for a quick grocery store run. We drove our rental car home the following day. I reported the obvious food poisoning incident to the Tennessee Department of Health and was vindicated when they let me know that they inspected the restaurant two days later and it received a score of ’81’ due to multiple violations.
Where I traveled
In October, I left Brandon at home and took a best friend trip to Europe with Jennifer. We’ve been friend since the 9th grade and have lived a lot of life together! We started talking about doing a special trip for our 35th birthdays a couple of years ago, but set our final plans in February: a cruise to Croatia and Greece bookended with a visit to Venice, Italy. We travel really well together, and we had a great time. Santorini, Greece, was a favorite destination for me. The white buildings with bright blue domes along the cliffside were just as beautiful in person as I imagined, and I nearly shed a tear of happiness when we sat down to eat authentic Greek food in Greece: we had delicious gyros and a tomatokeftedes (tomato balls) appetizer in Santorini and chicken spaghetti and a tzatziki and pita appetizer in Mykonos the next day.
Another favorite trip moment was surprising Jennifer with an Italian cooking class in Venice. When we arrived we realized that we were the only attendees, so we had a wonderful, private experience. Look above for a photo from our class, and scroll down for my finished recreation at home! There’s so much more that I’d love to write about this trip, but I should probably save that for another post.
At the end of November I flew to Washington, D.C., to attend my company holiday party at SPIN. It was my last flight of the year (I took 15 total), and my TSA Pre-Check finally kicked in. Then, to round out the season (and year!) of travel, Brandon and I took a very quick trip to Richmond, Virginia, in December to see one of our favorite bands, The Lone Bellow, in concert. They were incredible, as always, but it was a rough trip outside of the concert.
We booked a hotel a few blocks from the venue so we’d have an easy walk to the show, but it was monsoon-like rain and wind that night. We were also under a tornado watch. On the way back to the hotel, we became drenched. I stepped in a puddle that covered my feet, ruining the only pair of shoes I brought. It was a Sunday night and all of the downtown restaurants were closed after the show. We ended up ordering McDonalds through Doordash and getting a sub-par night’s sleep before driving home the next day. Can’t win ’em all!
Good food we ate
The fall brought lots of good food. A favorite of mine was discovering a local empanada company, MO’ Empanadas, at the farmers market. I also returned from my trip to Europe with a newfound love of pasta! I immediately purchased a pasta attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer and a few other tools. Brandon and I made ravioli from scratch not long after I returned home, but gnocchi is still on our to-do list.
what i watched
We flew through “Fall of the House of Usher” on Netflix as soon as it was released—and loved it. Additionally, I saw “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” with friends and had a blast! We even had an eras-themed dinner party. My contributions were he looks up grinning like a devil-ed eggs and seemingly ranch pinwheels.
on the horizon
I hope winter is a quiet, calm, and slow season. I want to see snow and I want to be cozy at home. Crossing my fingers!
