Air BnB, Brooklyn, Fish Shack and JRAD

The weekend went well for the most part! We stayed at an apartment in Williamsburg that we rented for the weekend through airbnb.com. Have you heard of this cool service? This was our first time using it and we really liked it. Instead of getting a hotel room, for about the same price (or cheaper!) you can stay in someone's apartment (or room, or couch, haha) when they aren't using it. This particular place belongs to a someone who travels most of the year and rents their place out. It is a great location in a really fun neighborhood and just a few blocks away from the venue where the concert we were seeing was being held.

You get a lot more privacy than a normal hotel! And it is a lot more comfortable, kind of like staying a friend's place. This apartment was off-street, so it was also really quiet for being in Brooklyn, which is a big plus to me :)

It was a two bedroom apartment and we rented it with friends. Really cute:

We went out to a late lunch with our friends at Rosarito's Fish Shack, which was on the same block as our apartment. We know lots of people who rave about the place and it has really good reviews. I've been dying for fish tacos, so it was perfect. Really great, fresh food, and the corn tortillas aren't the worst off-paleo food for me (I don't react to corn like I do to wheat!).

We went back to the apartment to hang out, and got to host a party for about 10 people right before the show! It was maybe my favorite part of the weekend, just sitting around, laughing and telling stories with people I really feel comfortable with. I drank wine, like I said I was going to before the weekend, not too much, though, as I said before the weekend started! We hosted because we were so close to the venue, the Brooklyn Bowl, and everyone could walk there.

We were seeing Joe Russo's Almost Dead (JRAD), which is basically a tribute band to the Grateful Dead. The music was REALLY great, but the show was oversold and way too crowded. I got really hot and uncomfortable, didn't drink at the show, tried to drink a ton of water, but never really got comfortable. I couldn't dance much because it was so tight. The way the building is set up creates a bottleneck of people, so there is no place you can really stand where people aren't constantly moving back and forth to the bar and back to the stage. It was hard to fully enjoy the music. But I got over it, enjoyed that part of the night as much as I could, tried to stick with my friends.

The night was saved, though, because after the show, everyone came BACK to our apartment to hang out for a few more hours. When everyone was getting ready to leave, Chris got a call from his childhood friend (who was the opening DJ for the band that night) and wanted to stop by. He brought his friend/DJ partner over and stayed till almost 4 in the morning - they were hysterical and made me laugh for hours :D It was terrific getting to know someone who was friends with my husband for more than 20 years (I've never really hung out with him for an extended period before) and hearing stories and how much they affected the type of men they would grow into.

Once they left, I knew I was in for a tough Sunday - we had to drive back to Albany to get Koda from boarding before noon, so we left Brooklyn just before eight. I didn't get much sleep (I started cleaning up the apartment before 7 AM). I got an omelet at a deli around the corner and settled in for the 2.5ish hour drive. Once back in Albany, I went to my Grandma's house to help my family start cleaning out her house. Long day. I crashed for a nap around 3 PM, woke up, ate some sweet potatoes, fell back asleep till the morning!

I actually did not eat enough on Sunday. I feel very off, in general, due to the lack of sleep. I didn't weigh in this morning - I was too exhausted and didn't care enough to see if wine and eating off plan on Saturday put me up a few pounds. I'll check tomorrow :)

Working overtime every day this week. I am going to have to prep some food tonight to make sure I am all set and don't make any tired/overworked/bad decisions this week!

I had a great weekend... but am sort of glad we do NOT have any more concerts/parties on the calendar. I'm getting older and do not recover from late night parties like I used to in my early/mid 20s. I had three weekends like that in January, too much! Lack of sleep always contributes to a slight decline in my health, so I am looking forward to catching up on and STAYING caught up on my sleep for the next few months!

Hope everyone had a good weekend <3