Comet Bluegrass Allstars | Non-Girly Girls Weekend Planning

Before I say anything about the little that actually happened today, I've got to give some credit where it's due: Rob was a trooper yesterday, hiking through the Gorge with me in spite of not feeling well. I don't deserve his type of dedication, but he braved it and I am grateful for that time we got to spend together. #bestever♥

Today, however, he paid for his exposure yesterday. I headed off to church, while he was bound to the bed with a chest cold unlike any that he's had so far. :( 

I breathed in some weekly love solo at the service before running some errands and heading back home. I spent the afternoon engrossed in some hard-copy journaling and meditation on the Transformed devotional that accompanies the series we're in now. 

amen! 

Rob was diligent in his pursuit of sleeping off his bug today, so when evening rolled around and Becky beckoned me to The Comet for live bluegrass & tofu quesadillas, I didn't have a legitimate reason or want to decline. SO, off I went to join her; I definitely don't regret it :) 

bluegrass allstars! 

We ate, we laughed, we chatted for almost two hours with a gentleman from England and listened to live bluegrass music. We also started formulating plans for a non-girly girls weekend, prompted by Kalyn's latest disappointment [we'll just call it that], which will be purposed as a way for each of us to re-calibrate and breathe in some inspiration and encouragement from each other. I think we are ALL in very real need of this. We've planned for April, as of now.. ideas are welcome! 

pretty much. 

^^ We say 'Non-girly' because our idea of such a weekend is one spent buried in a remote location away from civilization. Showering is optional; journaling is not. Said weekends always revolve around camping, hiking, biking, climbing, trekking, yoga'ing, canoeing and/or kayaking, or some variation of all or some of those things. Just the thought of incorporating these three women into the same trip with that environment makes me feel peaceful.

I can't freakin' wait. Plans [weird, I know] start NOW!

I hear we're supposed to get a nice snowy punch in the gut overnight tonight, so pop those windshield wipers up and sleep tight tonight, Midwest blogbots! Be SAFE tomorrow!

xo | cmd

Pre-Birthday Birthday : Yay, Carri!!

Well, her birthday isn't until tomorrow, but that obviously meant we had to celebrate it TODAY! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CARRI!!! 

yayyy!! 

If you know me, then you know I love birthdays. I love other people's birthdays more than my own, which is weird.

happy birthday, girl! 

For lunch, we voted for Carri to take her down to the OTR food staple, Taste of Belgium. If you know anything about me, you know that that is one of my favorite places in this city. If you don't know me, well... you should look into visiting Taste of Belgium the next time you find yourself in Cincinnati [& I think now in Columbus, too??]. It's... amazing.

chicken + waffles = on. point. 

Perfect experience, as usual, and made even more fun by the fact that Carri had never been before today. She hasn't explored much of the OTR scene at all; we decided over our three plates of C&W today that for Elisa's birthday, we would do The Eagle, just down the street. We'll see if that holds true, but knowing us and our shared affinity for food, it will ;)

A couple of Carri's friends are in a band: Eclipse The Movement. She invited us all down to the newly-renovated Woodward Theater [YOU GUYS. I don't know if I'm the only one that preferred the center staircase of the old theater, but eh. The renovation is still gorgeous..].

woodward theater | cincinnati, oh

We at first hadn't made any concrete plans to oblige, but ended up deciding it would be the perfect follow-up to dinner at yes.. The Eagle [I'm a fatty.. dontcha dare judge..]. Rob & I wrapped up eating with just enough time to jog through the chilly air to The Woodward and join Carri, Elisa & her roommate and a fun crowd of others to watch a few bands play.


Definitely a fun little outing.. :)  

my date.. he's kinda cool ;) 

Happy [1 day early] Birthday, Carri!

Thanks again for the invite out tonight, & make it a great day tomorrow!!

xo | cmd 

Tunes & Blooms @ The Cincinnati Zoo

The fact that it was an absolutely GORGEOUS day outside today made it severely difficult to sit still at my desk. That's a good thing. I love the phase between Winter and Spring when the temperatures start to soar; the contrast to snow and slush make the days just that much more desirable.

Becky asked us earlier this week if we'd be interested in joining them for Tunes & Blooms at the zoo tonight, and we had tentatively agreed to attend. I hadn't been to one of these before, and frankly couldn't tell you the last time I'd been to the Cinci zoo. We joined Becky, Mike and some of their friends for a couple hours of great music, even greater company and an all around awesome, relaxing evening outdoors at the zoo.
 
Sydni of course wanted to get her face painted, so I caved and spent the rest of the night on the arm of the most beautifully-decorated little girl in the place. Between our little sidewalk spot and the bathroom, she must've received no less than fifteen compliments on her pretty face, which put a smile on it for the better part of the time we were there (: !

welcome to the zoo for tunes & blooms!

face painting!

my pretty little butterfly

best date in the place

& becky!

syd loves miss becky (:

she wanted to get down and listen to music.. haha

shiny & the spoon

little family jam time ♥♥♥

underneath the kid pile is becky.. somewhere.. haha

dancing with my mini

good night!

This is why I love my city. (:
There is always something to do, be it an expo, community event, concert, market or whatever else that pops up on the schedule. I even got Rob to admit that tonight was awesome, in spite of early hesitations that it'd be more hassle than it was worth. Cincinnati is definitely a place to explore!

Plus, tomorrow's FRIDAY! That can make any Thursday a good time ;)
G'Nite!

xo | cmd

The Doeblerts: Stock the Bar Train Jamboree!

*backdated! ;)

I've seriously been waiting all week for this.
By mid-morning, Rob and I were in the car, en route to Connersville, IN to rendezvous with Catie, Andy & Co. for their Stock the Bar Train Jamboree [aka, joint wedding shower]. Let me tell you, this was a genius idea, and an all-around awesome time for everyone.

I'll spare the chatter & get straight to the pictures. I borrowed a couple from Ryan & Reena, but since I forgot to bring the D90, I had to count on Ryan's Canon to capture a lot of the day (:




whitewater vally railroad | connersville, in

We boarded the train and got caught up with some familiar faces we hadn't seen in a while...

jen! a little filipino love for the trip (:

me, catie & trisha: "roommates," 6 years later!

the beardless guy i brought to the party ;) ♥♥♥♥

This was a legit train ride, complete with a conductor, tickets & all:

(:

and yes, we made him yell, "aaaaaaaaaall aboooooard!"

Once we started moving, The Tye Dyes [aka, Catie & her band] provided some of the soundtrack for the trip out to Laurel. There is nothing quite like an old fashioned train ride with awesome people and live bluegrass music. I could do this every Saturday.

LOVED IT!


yeah, catie!!

Of course, there's nothing like an unfortunate fender bender to add some awe and quick prayer to the first train ride we've taken in a long time. It didn't appear that anyone had been hurt, but we did spend the next 10 minutes after this all speculating on how that may've happened..

ouch :(

The train plugged along for about 45 minutes before we reached Laurel. There, we were met with some Indiana hospitality for lunch.

not nearly as shanty as it might look!

you had us at fried food

^ Lunch = buffet. Of fried food. Let's be honest, nobody was watching their diets today, and a good thing, too, because the food was pretty good. I'm pretty sure we were all back for seconds, if that says anything. (:

After lunch, we all took to exploring a bit outside the restaurant. The train was awaiting us just a few meters away on the tracks; there will be lots of pictures surfacing soon of us all on the train as it stood waiting. 

yes, that's rob. lol ♥♥♥

We boarded back on the train for the trip home, and watched as Catie & Andy tore into all the gifts that were brought to actually stock the bar. I think they did pretty good, haha..

stocking the bar for these two!

because why not?

We arrived back in Connersville, and bid temporary farewells to everyone. Back in Cincinnati, I managed to squeeze in a quick catnap before I was up and heading right back out the door to Rhinegeist for the girls-only part of Catie's bachelorette party.


yessss!

traditional fobby picture from your brown girls ;) haha

I even got a random text from Trish, asking if I was getting into anything tonight. I told her to come and join us, so she did, and it was awesome having her there to spend the evening with us! We left Rhinegeist and bounced around some to good old OTR. Our final landing spot to finish the evening was The Drinkery, and we all left with huge smiles knowing we'd done our due duties as friends to celebrate Catie's approaching nuptials.

trish came to play!

adore her!!

Catie, I LOVE you, and I am SO excited to see you in a month, walking down to tie the knot with Andy! Thank you, THANK YOU for including me on your celebration. LOVE YOU!!!

xo | cmd

Cincinnati Date Night

I had a bad attitude at 2:00 PM today, and it was nobody's fault but mine.

 

Today was a gorgeous day outside: crisp fall temperatures that didn't bite, bright leaves everywhere and a cloudless, sunny sky. And we... spent the entire day inside, doing nothing. Like I said, it was my fault for not forcing us out of the house, but for some reason we ceded to lounging around. Most days, I wouldn't have complained much, but largely in part due to the fact that Rob is just visiting these days, our time together is limited and I felt like we'd wasted it somehow. I was being dramatic, sure... but I suppose the rest was probably a good thing for the city tour we were about to randomly take.

Halfway into the afternoon, we pried ourselves off the couch and did what we each needed to transform back into functioning human beings worthy of public exposure. I had scratched my head for a few hours on somewhere to go; we both agreed we're burnt out on the OTR routine, so I was super excited when it hit me to take him up to Mt. Adams.

city view tavern | mount adams, oh

We had dinner at the City View Tavern. I .. love that place, mainly for its simplicity, but also because it both is and isn't a part of the Mt. Adams landscape. It's up there, overlooking the entire downtown area, but without the overwhelming amount of people straining to fashionably one-up each other.

this is my kinda view (: | mount adams, oh
boyfriend + night lights of the city

my love.

Once we finished dinner, I decided to show him around to some more places he's not been. I had far less trouble this time thinking of the next stop for us: Rhinegeist Brewery.

hello, rhinegeist!

This place is special because 1 - you'd never guess that it exists if you are simply strolling by, and 2 - when you can incorporate live acoustic music, cornhole, ping pong and hula hoops in one open arena space, then you've pretty much won over my little soul for an evening out (:

his & hers.. & some live jams!

Definitely a fun little spot!
And.... moving on! We decided we were okay with having a pretty tame night, and we didn't want to travel too much further in between stops, so we caved and headed over to the regular digs to see who we could find.

We found Keith at Neon's within the first five minutes we were there.

pretty lights & happy people @ neon's!

The three of us drank up some good old OTR people watching from the Eli's corner of Neon's before heading over to the Drinkery to meet up with Nader & Co. We found them in the front row of a mini crowd, jamming out to Magnolia Sons, a 10 (or 11?)-person operation that was rocking out on the stage. They were pretty good!

Here's a clip that sadly sounded way better in person than it does on the clip :( .. but hey, they're pretty good and I have to say I'd go see them again the next time they're here!

& thennn... we found the fun little photo booth they had set up...
That's all of us in the back and sort of in the middle, along with some of the band members. These guys were a BLAST.

fun fun fun (:

After all that excitement, the night for us pretty much ended - we want to be up early for church tomorrow without feeling sluggish, so Rob and I bowed out after everyone trodded next door to Japp's [no, thanks, not tonight] and are now back. Looking at the evening, I'm glad we took it easy today. (:

There's always a reason... haha.

xo | cmd

Bluegrass in Washington Park

Today flew by. I'm not complaining, since tomorrroooooooow I'm off after work to Illinois to see Rob & Co. Today was a good day all the way around though; no complaints there (:

Sydni didn't end up at swim lessons tonight, so her and I took a little trip down to Washington Park to oblige an invite from Becky and Mike. There's bluegrass each Thursday down there, at least for a couple more weeks, and after tonight, I'm disappointed that we haven't been doing this all summer - it was fun!

some weeknight bluegrass | washington park - cincinnati, oh

We met up with Becky and Mike for a little while; Nader, Keith & Rick were there, too, so the lot of us spent a couple of hours milling around the park listening to music and watching Sydni run off some of the energy she otherwise would've used swimming.. haha.


Gosh, I love this little girl.

a few of the faces of my favorite mini!

Now we're home: Sydni's preoccupied herself stringing up some beads [no, nothing like me.. at all... ;) ] while I finish up throwing some stuff together for the weekend away.

It's almost Fah-riiiiiiiday!

xo | cmd

'Twas a HAPPY Friday!

[backdated!]
My boyfriend is visiting from out of town.
He brought me Eli's BBQ at work today and hung out with me over lunch.
Have I mentioned I love this guy?!

eli's on the go. at work. this is winning at its finest. hahaha..

I finished the day at work, and headed home for the weeeeeekend! My staff and some of the other Express offices got together tonight to go to the Red's game; I wanted to go but I figured I should be a good hostess and spend time with Rob while he's here. So we headed out to Oakley to see Keith Stall's band King's Ransom play. I do not regret that decision. (:

oak tavern with my loves!

big brother nader!

he looks scared.. haha. [you should be... grrawr!]

& catie's friend bombing. perfect, all the way around ;)

ladd!

so easily my favorite picture from the entire evening. ♥♥♥.
this defines how i feel about him, in one picture.  

myself. irene. catie. this is a funny one:
we all used to work together at clearchannel.
now irene works with ladd.. & i work in the building irene's last employer vacated.
... & then we all hung out tonight (: small world.

he's mine, and i'm his. and together, we're just.... this. (:

one of my best friends in this city. no lie.

yeah, i drink bud heavy. don't judge ;)

We finally pulled ourselves together and headed out of Oakley and down into OTR. Our initial destination was Neon's or Japp's, but we made a stop at Rheinheist to find Andy, Adam & the rest of that crowd before we did so. Once we finally did get to Neon's, I found Beth!

heya, beth! [volleyball teammate & kp's bestie]

patio jenga. welcome to neon's.

a couple of my favorite guys. that one in the center, particularly ;)

he makes me happy.

So yeah... it definitely made more sense to share that in pictures. I love my friends, and I am so grateful for time we get to spend together. I'm really blessed, in so many ways. Rob has to leave sometime early tomorrow..... [sad face], but I'm not complaining at all about the time we spent together this week.

See ya in the morning!

xo | cmd