New Beginnings

Welllll, my sister's wedding was amazing, vacation came to an end, and I started my new job! Life is good. Everything went well for Daryn and Jon's wedding; the weather was beautiful, albeit a little windy. They were married at La Grange winery in Haymarket, Virginia (my hometown, holla!) and if you haven't been there I recommend you check it out. The reception was also there and Ted Garber was the musician and he was so much fun! Mike and I had a blast dancing and hanging out. I can't wait to go to another wedding with him at the end of the month!

After being off for almost two weeks I was exhausted this past Sunday. How does that work?! Oh, dinners, hiking, lunches, happy hours, going out until 4am, running, yoga, and everything else under the sun. I started my new job Monday and it's going great so far. It's just orientation right now, but it seems like a great company. I am ready for the weekend though because I feel like I need to catch up on sleep. I haven't slept well the past few nights.

Oh and to top the wedding off, the Hokies won! Woo, homecoming this weekend. I am a little sad I won't be there. It's probably the first homecoming I haven't gone to... maybe ever! Tear!

Staycation

Everyday I'm hustlin'. What?! Okay, nevermind, that is playing on my Pandora right now. So my staycation is starting to wind down; only four days left. I start my new job Monday though so that's exciting. I have enjoyed my time off by getting lunches, dinners, and happy hours with friends. We were supposed to have a softball game last night, but that was obviously ruined because we live in a tropical rainforest now. Yeah, you didn't know? We were transplanted to the rainforest! So we had a teammate happy hour at Hunan One instead. What a cool place! I had never been there, but it has great happy hour food and drink specials.

I've also gotten to work out a lot, which is always nice. Running, lifting, and yoga today! I hadn't been to Dancing Mind Yoga in a good month, so today was hard! In a good way though. I feel great now.

This is a big weekend with lots going on. First of all, (but of course not most important if Daryn is reading this) we travel to Wake Forest. When I say we, I mean the Virginia Tech football team, which I'm obviously a part of. Anyhow, Wake Forest is doing well so I am worried about this game. Furthermore, our awesome defensive end James Gayle isn't traveling with the team because he is hurt! Some dirty Miami player took him out of the game early last Saturday. Weak! Did Nevin teach you those dirty plays? Secondly, my sister is getting married! I had to get some of the length taken off my dress (one of the cons of being short) and I picked it up after yoga. It looks great! All the real fun begins tomorrow. I will be sure to recap it on Sunday!

Up, Up, and Away

I haven't written in a week. Jeez, I've been busy. Let's see. We won our final game of the season. That's right, we go out in style. We were just getting started, but good news--we're playing fall ball too! And our team name is now Coyne Flip. Don't ask. It was supposed to be The Ballston Teabaggers or something. Ahh, guys.

I was up outside of Boston Thursday through Sunday. It was an AMAZING weekend, flying aside. I am not going to get into the nightmare that was flying up there, but flying just ain't what it used to be guys! I want to travel more, but the last four times I have flown have been special. And not in a good way. Anyhow, we spent Friday at the beach lounging and playing wiffle ball. Then Logan and I had dinner and drinks in Rhode Island. Wow. Rhode Island is a BEAUTIFUL state! Who knew? I guess a lot of people, but not me! Saturday I accompanied Logan to a wedding and it was an amazing time. It was an all day and night event so Monday was rough as per usual.

Also, we all know how much Taylo loves to talk crap about metro! Well, I'm about to blow your mind and say something semi-nice. Metro provided me with such epic service last night. I think they broke a world record. My friend dropped me off at the New Carrollton metro (if you don't know where this is look it up on the wmata map) and I made it to Courthouse in 33 minutes! We actually only stopped at, you know, designated STOPS. That's right. We didn't stop in the middle of the tunnel and then jerk forward 27674 times or hang out in the tunnel for five minutes because the train ahead of us was still servicing the station. The train went forward and stopped only when necessary. I am telling you metro provides a real HIGH level of service on Sunday nights. But really that's the only time.

I feel like there was something else I wanted to talk about, but I can't remember what so I will just leave you with a few photos.

Catching up

I haven't posted since Wednesday because it has been non-stop since then. I went and met a friend for drinks in DC Thursday night, which was great. On my way home I also ran into someone and had a very interesting exchange. I love when you're sober and someone else is wasted, especially when you're really not supposed to see that person wasted!

Anyway, Friday I finished with training early (super early!) so I hit the pool before the gym. Met up with my college roommate in the city again Friday night for dinner, drinks, and froyo. We went to this place Agora and it was good. It's a tapas style restaurant, which I like because you aren't served 8000 pounds of food for dinner. We had a lot of catching up to do. Once again, she is someone I wish I could see more, but it's hard because she lives in Baltimore. In the grand scheme of things, it's not that far, but life happens. Then it was Mr. Yogato for froyo, so good!

I had another wedding Saturday and a tragedy occured. I forgot my camera at my apartment so I had to use my dumb droid to take photos! Ughhhh, didn't turn out that well. Oh well. The wedding was fun and I got to catch up with a bunch of people from high school. My friend Catherine was the one getting married; have known her since 7th grade (6th for her) as our parents lived, and still do, next to each other. So please excuse the crappy quality of these photos:

And with that, another one bites the dust. Hahaha, jk!! I am good on weddings now until... SEPTEMBER! Then I have a coworker's wedding here in DC. The big one is in October when my sister gets married. I am in that one so it's obviously a lot more involved. And oh yeah, it's my sister. Speaking of which, I need to get fitted for that dress. I hate dress fittings.

Today, Logan and I attempted to go follow this trail in Harpers Ferry to the top of a mountain. We could not find parking close enough though so we just ended up going somewhere else close by. I think it was called the Chesapeake and blah blah Canal. We walked on a trail along the water, which was nice. But leaving we saw where people were up on top of the mountain overlooking the town of Harpers Ferry! It looked awesome so we're going to attempt to go again next weekend and hopefully get there early enough to get decent parking. Maybe if I didn't go out last night and get home at 2:30am I could have gotten out of bed earlier than 10am, thus letting us get to Harpers Ferry sooner. Ooops, oh well. Now I think I am going to go take my bike out for a quick ride since I haven't been on it in like a week and a half.

Back to Reality

Sorry for partying and not posting here, but I was very busy this weekend lounging on the beach, frolicking in the ocean, hanging out with my fam and some of my best friends, and enjoying a wedding. All in all it was one of the best weekends ever—one of those I will remember forever. We left around 8am on Friday and made it to Virginia Beach just a little after 11:30am. Not bad! We even got to check into the hotel then even though check-in isn't until 4pm. That's what happens when you roll with a baller like myself. Okay, so my personal assistant dad called ahead the night before and cleared it. We were on the beach by 11:30 enjoying the sun, sand, and some Coronas.

We headed up to the room around 5pm to go to Chick's for dinner. The place was hoppin' and had complementary valet even though it's a hole in the wall! Major plus for them since we all know Taylor does not frequent establishments that don't offer valet. I don't park my own Bentley. HA! Anyhow, I ran into put our name down while they valeted the car. They said 40 minutes so my dad and I went to the bar to get a drink known as the "orange crush" which was recommended to me by a few friends who are locals. It was strong and good! We got our table in about 20 minutes, which was nice since we all know I am the most impatient person alive. My dad and I split oysters on the half shell and then I had this for dinner:

Yum, fish with guac, sour cream, salsa and my fave: SWEET P fries!!

Then I met up with the groom, best man, and other friends at the bar right by the hotel, which turned into a 3:30am evening. I met up with my friend Heather who I have known since I was like 4, which was awesome.

Woke up at 8:30am to hit the beach before the wedding. The wedding ceremony was very nice and so was the reception. It was five hours long, which became very evident in pictures later in the evening when we all went to the bar. Needless to say I will be detoxing for a bit after that weekend. Anyhow, you know I tore up the dance floor. Practically an episode of "So You Think You Can Dance." Oh, and I CAN! Got to spend time with two of my best friends Robby and Shawn, which is harder to do these days. It sucks how hard you have to work to spend time with friends when you get older. It was so much easier in school when we literally saw each other day in class. Especially getting everyone in the same place at the same time. I have known them both since we were 11, and we have all stayed close through many ups, downs, different colleges, and other life events. It was a pretty nostalgic weekend. Okay, now this crap is just getting corny. Who am I?!

Lastly, it was so fun to spend a weekend with my parents and little sister. We haven't gone on a family vacation in forever and we had a blast. Please note, I have an older sister too so she was missed! Getting out of bed was extremely rough this morning. So rough that I delayed my alarm from 7:30 to 8. Then when I opened the curtains and blinds and saw it was raining, I thought "awwww hell no, I should call my boss and tell him I am not feeling well and go in late so I can sleep 2 more hours." I soldiered on though and just brewed extra coffee.

Your serve

Today was pretty uneventful other than it being that much closer to being the weekend for me. Tomorrow is my Friday! Anyhow, one of the million really annoying things about my job is that I can't have electronics in my office. It really sucks b/c I could entertain you with pictures from my day. Like the gym. I wish I could snap photos of some of those fools. And then my lunch, which I guess I could take the night before.... hmm. Today I had the most rando lunch ever, but it was delish. I had an ezekiel cinnamon raisin english muffin (if you don't know what these are you should get some asap) with Bruegger's cream cheese, a bowl of strawberries and nana, and EDAMAME! All over the place, but it's because again, my weekend starts tomorrow night since I will be headed to my parents and then down to VA beach for a mini-vacay plus wedding.

My day went by quickly, came home ate an amazing dinner then I went on my quest for white sandals. So freakin' difficult. I looked at target yesterday and they were wiped out. Guess someone beat me to the summer sandal hunt. I thought surely DSW won't let me down. WRONG! Why are there so many ugly shoes/sandals out there?! And why are all the ones I like NOT WHITE. I am not being racist, but I need white sandals, okay. It's to go with a dress. So with that fail it was onto play tennis.

My tennis game face! Ha!

Another difficult task in life. My work BFF Jon (as he likes to think of himself) has courts at his apartment. He assured me we could play there. Not so. Four courts. All taken. He says, oh there are some on the other side. Nope. Taken. So we go back to the original courts hoping someone left. No dice. However, we do notice a nice, young gentleman sitting next to a court that has a basket of balls and cones. I wondered WTF is he doing? Actually I think I said that to Jon, so I more than wondered it. Does he think the basket of balls are going to play tennis on their own? Is he going to at least hit around. So Jon asks. This man tells us he is waiting for a lesson. Well, where are they? Oh, I just wait for them to show up, he says. And what if they don't? Then the next lesson comes. And you're paying? He says yes and he is the ONLY ONE who is allowed to give lessons on these courts. OKAAAAAAAY then sir. Thanks for being a life ruiner.

Onto plan B. I find some courts using my droid (his iPhone was failing him). He claims it was more of a user error, but I think it was a combo of user/iPhone. So we meander on down to the park. Slammed with people as well! Jesus, what is this Andre Agassi day!? A court opens, but some dudes are already waiting. They take the court and proceed to rip off their shirts to play tennis in 70 degree weather. Clearly they mean business. We wait... and wait...

...and wait so I snap this photo. Please note shirtless #1

Finally a court clears. Now we lost a good half hour of tennis though. We only got a short warm up and one set in. I lost 6-2. I'm not happy about it. We're going to play a full match either Sunday or next week and it's on. I'll be bringing my Martina Navratilova self to the court this time!