Coffee and a Conversation
As Told Over Brunch is a home for intelligent discourse from the twenty-something perspective - so the stuff you gossip about over mimosas on Sunday morning or over takeout on your friend's couch when happy hour ends too early. We love chatting about our lives, whether it be the relationships we’re building (or destroying), lessons we've learned at work, struggles at school, growing pains we've felt, or even the food we’re talking over.
When I moved from Connecticut to James Madison University, there were a few foods I really, really missed. As in, I was almost as homesick for certain foods as my family. But now, I too can appreciate some Southern food.
Sometimes in my dream world, we live in a world where my Northern favorites can co-mingle with my Southern favorites. If that world existed, it would feature the following delicacies:
Read MoreAs I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’m currently under contract for a house. It has been a whirlwind, but one of the most simultaneously interesting and exhausting portion of the house-buying process is financing the purchase.
Before I began house shopping, this is how I pictured getting a loan: you call up your bank, tell them you’re buying a house, they run your credit, assign you an interest rate and then you have a loan.
Read MoreRecently my best friend got engaged. They met overseas, so I didn't get to meet her fiancé until after he actually proposed - though I knew the ring was coming (because she believed it was coming) and I Facebook friended the guy before they were even official.
Upon meeting her betrothed, he asked how we knew each other. "From college?" he guessed. (I was slightly offended my friend hadn't briefed her beloved further.)
"No, no, we go all the way back to kindergarten," we relived our friendship. "In third grade we ran against each other for SCA secretary. Neither of us won."
Read MoreThis is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.
I've bought a lot of stuff off of Groupon: a pet-treat launcher, a wine bottle-shaped umbrella, concert tickets, paint night admittance, bootcamp classes, three months of a beer club and a few clothing items. I once even bought a maxi dress just to see if the "buy now," button really does buy now. It does.
Read MoreJanuary to March is wedding promo season. No one actually gets married unless you’re having a destination wedding and trying not to pay for your cousin and his/her spouse’s plates. But look to social media for reposts of engagement photos (“#ThrowbackThursday to the time we paid a stranger to photograph us in a backyard we don’t own”), bridesmaid acceptances (“of course I’ll drop a grand on a dress and a bachelorette weekend since we sat together in high school chemistry”), and save-the-dates (“I could just send out the actual invitations, but instead let’s keep the postmen employed”).
The last point is what brings me to today’s narrative. A friend who I haven’t seen since college (so three years ago—actually maybe we saw each other at homecoming two years ago?) is getting married. This week she sent out her save-the-dates. I didn’t get one.
Of course, it’s only day two. Maybe it’s still in transit somewhere between Michigan and Virginia. But I’m beginning to accept that Instagram likes and friendship via bonding over our inability to play beer pong six years ago does not ensure a ticket to an open bar (that’s what nuptials are if you were wondering).
Read MoreWhen Continental Divide joined Richmond Brunch Weekend’s lineup, I had yet to be there, though I only live a mile away. I quickly looked up their menu, and besides craving brunch, their dinner menu looked like da bomb. Southwest Caesar salad? Thai chicken burrito? Yes, yes, yes.
So before I even went for brunch, I stopped by for dinner with a friend. Except my friend and I pushed back our meeting time by an hour because of some crazy thunderstorm, but I was starved, so I ate half a jar of peanuts by the time dinner actually arrived. So then I’m at Continental Divide, and the waiter asks what I want to order, and secretly I’m in my first trimester from those peanuts.
I asked for something lighter, even though I really wanted that Southwest Caesar salad, but I was imagining a plate of romaine sapped in heavy dressing, and the peanuts within me curdled. But my friend did get the Caesar salad. When the waiter put it down on the table, I wanted to crawl across the table and hold him back with a butter knife while I devoured it.
Read MoreWhen I first learned that Shockoe Whiskey and Wine was going to be part of Richmond Brunch Weekend, I was super excited because I hadn’t heard of this restaurant that serves brunch, but all the more reason to try it! Well, there was a reason I hadn’t heard of them serving brunch; they weren’t serving brunch. At least they weren’t serving brunch yet.
I had to wait until last month to visit Shockoe Whiskey and Wine for brunch. But boy, the wait was not for nothing. I do not say this lightly when I say Shockoe Whiskey and Wine, with one single meal, leaped into my top three favorite Richmond brunch places (am I allowed to say that? Does that admit bias? Oops?). Keep reading to find out why!
(I probably don’t need to write that last sentence because obviously you’re going to keep reading. I mean, that’s why you’re here.)
My friend and I originally showed up to SW&W (I’m abbreviating now because my fingers are tired and I want to give SW&W a trendy abbrev) on a Saturday, and it didn’t look quite open. Well, it turned out it was open, but there were only serving lunch.
Read MoreHi there! Leanne here!*
I'm guest-blogging for Sara and Cazey in the name of Cancer Research and the upcoming Richmond Brunch Weekend, which I’m super, super (SUPER) excited about!
Brunch is my thanggg, as I'm one of those people who 100% ascribes to that whole "mimosas made me do it" thing as a kickoff for Sunday Funday (Saturdays too, really). I’m also one of those people who considers most of life’s everyday events to be a grand adventure: “Let’s go on adventure to the grocery store!," “Let’s go on adventure to clean my car!," “Let’s go on an adventure to check my mail!” ...I wonder how many of my friends have wanted to kill me at one point or another?
Today’s brunch-day was no exception and, in fact, ended up being more along the lines of what might more generally be considered adventurous.
Read MoreYesterday I was traversing between VCU’s two campuses, Snapchatting and texting and mulling why I’m getting a PhD when I really just want to travel (this was five days after returning from Denmark). I walk this route on a daily basis (or when it’s not above 80 degrees Fahrenheit), so I have it down flat. I always take East Main Street, and I typically cross to the right side of the road because there used to be construction outside the Jefferson, but as of yesterday the construction’s gone, so I can stay on the sidewalk on the left side of the road.
About a block from the Jefferson, there is an intersection with stop signs. Not stop signs for East Main, but for the side street whose name I don’t know, but I need to check tomorrow, because as the title of this post hints, I got hit by a car and I’m told I should report this to the police.
I pause at this intersection on this sunny day because there is a car stopped at the stop sign. A Cadillac to be exact. The Cadillac is stopped, I repeat.
Read MoreRenting is a waste of money because you're building no equity, you're investing in nothing and you will never recoup that money. You're just throwing money away, which is exactly what I thought about buying a new car when you have an old car that still runs.
It was this realization that caused my next, even more adult-like decision: I am going to buy a house. I very casually started looking online at houses and then started to play with mortgage calculators, and had the light bulb moment where I realized that, not only can I actually afford to buy a house, but that it would be a really good idea.
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