René of the Day: René of the Day // 9.3-5.11 // Lazy Labor Day

Going into Labor Day weekend, I rarely ever make plans. Riverfest and the WEBN fireworks are such a cluster and my groups of friends are all over the place - so many people go out of town and some of us are dating, married or single and none of us really have great places to throw big parties, so things are usually up in the air. Generally, making plans on the fly makes me a nervous wreck. I worry I'll sit at home alone and bored - this never happens, so why I fret I do not know. It's my nature, I suppose. But the weekend turned out to be one of the best I've had during that holiday...

Saturday after brunch with Lindsey, I enjoyed a long nap and although MR was stuck in Tennessee working all weekend, his friends are wonderful and pulled me along with them to a BBQ. Our friends Eric and Katie had two 50" TVs set up in their living room with the TN game and LSU game and made homemade gumbo, which was delicious! We had around 15 people hanging out, playing corn hole and Beersbee in the backyard and watching the games, grilling out, enjoying drinks and then playing board games until 3am. Then Sanker, Dave and I walked to Dave's parents house to crash - they've been biking across the US this summer so the house was empty but sleeping without AC was a bit brutal. And per usual, they just rolled the party into the next day.

I had plans for brunch at nada with Lori. I'd been dying to go there for brunch and I was so pleased - the huevous rancheros was creamy, spicy, crunchy and lovely. We had bloody Marias (tequlia!) and caught up - and she asked me to be in her wedding in April! :) After that I took another nice long nap... Then Dave picked me up and we made it across the bridge the Newport to our friend Steph's amazing place. Ironically, she lives just a few houses down from our friend Danh who used to host Labor Day every year, but he's recently moved to Chicago. But he still has the house so I was able to walk down and see him like old times!

We had a phenomenal view from Steph's rooftop and played flip cup and darted inside when the rain started... we met some very entertaining and interested Kentucky characters and enjoyed showing our friend Caroline and her sister visiting from Connecticut a great time. Side note, but Caroline went to UVA and moved here in February and it's been a blast including her on a lot of great times over the past few months like Opening Day and canoeing. This year, the fireworks were a bit of a bust - literally. The music wasn't rock and roll, there were long pauses between bursts and the weather was crummy so they weren't as bright and beautiful. But the food and company were fantastic!

The next day, we woke up and decided brunch was in order... But it was a Monday and Labor Day so a lot of restaurants were closed and none of them were serving brunch. So we defaulted to B-Dubs. OMG - their new Thai curry wing sauce on boneless is so yummy (and I rarely use that phrase)! It was a chilly day so we spent the afternoon around a fire pit in the boy's backyard in sweats and made s'mores and just chilled our beans - it was so relaxing and random - I loved it. I need more days like this in my life.