raleigh nc

Lake Street Dive! And Valentine’s Day recap!

| cheriarmour

So I gave you guys the little teaser yesterday.  In case you like, forgot or didn’t read it or something I provided that awesome linky for you to review.

But we swapped everything all around Valentine’s Day weekend.  Since Lake Street Dive was recently on Colbert Report, and had blown up, the tickets were super sold out, so a lot of my snowy week was spent begging for tickets on the internet, which I found, 4:00 pm the day of the show.  So hubby and I headed down to Carrboro, the land of the super-cool and laid back hippies, parked, and headed in for the show.

First, we passed by the Fleet Feet Sports there, and I chatted for a little while with the guy who was closing up the store.

P1160173Very pretty store!  And we headed in for a sold out show.

P1160175We were right up at the front, and it was a super, super sold-out show.  Also, side note.  It is a CARDINAL SIN to try and push your way to the front of a general admission show when you came in late.  Don’t do it or I will say something to you.  So serious.  

The opening act was awesome, and they were super sweet.  Here’s Miss Tess…

photo 3-1Who looked like they stepped right out of the ’50s.  Here’s me and the drummer after.

P1160178Sweet guy, and we gave him some suggestions on where he could eat in Asheville, where he was headed the next day.

photo 3 (1) photo 3

The show was awesome.  Rachael Price, lead singer, has a voice that’s like butter, and really really refreshing to hear.

And the best moment of the night?  

P1160177When me and my Elon University Jazz professor got to meet Lake Street Dive!  Can you tell from the photo how excited I am?!

P1160176

Ugh.  I cannot tell you how freaking excited I was.

But the show was awesome, I wish I could have taken you guys out there with me 🙂

photo 4-2And finally, we headed to the Irregardless Café in Raleigh on Saturday for our Valentine’s Day date.  I forgot to take a pic for you guys until I’d eaten all the veggies, but this is the vegan shepards pie.  Super tasty, and Austin bought us a lot of Prosecco to split.  It was really romantic because we got to dance with all the old people to real music.  Two nights in a row of good music!  How did I get so so lucky?

So I really hope your V-Day weekend was great, and single or taken, I’d love to hear about what you did!  How was your Valentine’s Day Weekend?  

Here’s what! What three things are you obsessed with this week?

| cheriarmour

It’s Friday y’all, and time for my Here’s What!

In case you missed it the past few weeks, here are a few links.

1/31/14

2/7/13

And in case you’re still dumb (jk, jk), my here’s what is my “here’s what three things I’m obsessed with this week,” which I totally stole from Andy Cohen, my American Idol.  Andy, please, give me my own show!  I need it!!!  Okay, here goes though. 

Lake Street Dive. 

A friend tagged me in this video on the YouTube, and I’ve been obsessed ever since.

Rachael Price is that lead vocalist, and even though the show was totally sold out, I was able to purchase exactly one ticket.  I know a few friends are hitting the show too, so I should be able to try to find them, but yes, I love Lake Street Dive enough that I’m just going to go to this show solo dolo.

The weather.  

I promise, I’m not lame.  Which I have to say because I recognize that it’s pretty lame to be posting about the weather on my blog.  But it’s been disgusting, especially by NC standards, and I’ve been forced onto the treadmill more than I’d like this week.  Mid next week in good ol’ Raleigh, we will be well into the 70s here.  When we had a snow storm and people were abandoning their cars this week. It literally makes no sense.  But whatvevs, I’ll take whatever keeps me off the treadmill for a day or two.  Raise ya glass for 10 miles on Sunday!  Woohoo!

These Minnetonka Boots

1798801_10100273811496543_1882547200_nI blogged on these a few weeks ago, how I’d been dying for some to add to my collection, so imagine my surprise (delighted surprise), when Austin told me to close my eyes and open a shoe box?  They could not be more perfect!  Gah, they’re exactly what I needed!

So what three things are you obsessed with this week?  

Running Hungover

| cheriarmour

^^ Not something I would ever suggest.  But things happen, right?

I totally got to thinking about this after Monica over at Run Eat Repeat posted this hysterical recounting of how she ran the Palm Springs Half Marathon (in good time, I might add), after taking shots the night before.  The best part was this.  Her rationale for taking shots was that she should take shots instead of drinking cocktails or beers I’m assuming because you can never be too sure how much was in them.  Kinda right.  Kinda hysterical, right?

And it reminded me of the time I PR’ed on a half marathon after Beerfest.

So one of my best friends, Melanie, was running her first half, and I wanted to be there in some way.  And it just so happened that a friend of ours had signed up for that exact race, but hadn’t really done much to run for it.  So she was going to let the bib go to waste!  I totally couldn’t let that happen!  So I decided on a whim that I would take the bib, run the race, and get another race experience under my belt for spring.

Except, Austin had purchased us tickets for beerfest, which fell on the night before the half.

Essentially what beerfest entailed was going around in a tent, seeing everyone you’ve ever met in your life, eating pretzels and whatever food trucks rolled up with, and drinking every beer ever made available in North Carolina.

I just love that gif.  Cause that’s exactly how I felt.  Minus the hamburger meat.  Michael loved it.  I loved it.  We all loved it.  So my rationale is that I’m going to drink some beer, because my husband-to-be didn’t pay $60 for us to stare at each other all night inside of a dirt floor tent, take a cab home early, drink some electrolytes, and hit the hay so I could rise at 5:30, take a few cute pre-race pictures for the blog, and run the race.

Contrary to what you may think, beer has alcohol in it, and before long, my tiny frame had consumed about 10,000 tiny units of local beers.  Not sure what that adds up to in regular beer terms, but it was a lot.  So next rational line of thinking, eat a sandwich because that will cure me, and then take a cab home.  I did all of this, fixed up a nice refreshing glass of Nuun with all the electrolytes that a girl could desire, and woke up around 5:30 am the next morning to run my race.

Surprisingly, the race was beautiful, I felt fine, and I actually PR’ed on the race – I can’t honestly what tell you came over me, but I assure you, I won’t be trying my luck again.  I had enough of a hard time racing Greensboro sober to be playing with my stomach like that!

What’s the worst physical condition you’ve ever run in?