I feel like the month of July has been so incredibly busy for me between work, travel, teaching, babysitting, etc. that this past weekend felt almost weird because of my lack of plans and the fact that I had, gasp!, free time! What a concept, right? On Saturday, I even felt, dare I say, bored. I know, I know. I should relish in the times where I don’t have much going on, but when I go from being SO busy to being SO NOT busy, it’s hard to know how to flip the switch and be ok with having free time.

Let’s back up, though, shall we? My gym friends, Athena and Ashley and I have been trying to get together for months and this past Friday we were finally able to align our schedules and make plans. I love hanging out with these girls because they “get” me and my love of the gym and teaching and blog blogging so we always have loads to talk about and I always leave feeling like I have more clarity about whatever little issue I might have.

We decided to go to Russell House Tavern in Harvard Square. I’ve eaten there before, but this time was more fun because it turns out I know the manager! He is my old boss, Mr. Shaw’s (I talk about summers at Shaw’s Ridge Farm with Meredith and the rest of the crew) nephew and he used to manage Red Line, which was another favorite of mine in Harvard Square.  Anyway! The 3 of us girls grabbed drinks at the bar while we waited for our table to be ready. We all got cocktails instead of wine, what a shocker!

Delish! Friday had been a stressful day at work so this was juuuust what I needed to relax! Tyler came to grab us shortly after we finished our cocktails and brought us to our table. He walked us through the menu and said that sharing small plates was the best option. Um, sharing plates? Duh, that’s my favorite thing to do! Lucky for us, he sent out 3 absolutely delicious appetizers for us to try before we placed any of our own orders.

We tried the Smoked Pigs Tail Pierogi, Crispy Poached Farm Eggs and Fiore Di Nonno Burrata. Holy.Yum. The pierogi was my favorite, but the fried poached egg was a close second. Many thanks to Tyler for sending these out to us!!

Food blogger in action! Loved that I wasn’t the only weird  one taking pictures of my food 😉

After we finished those, we decided to order a couple more things: Braised Beef Tongue Meatballs and the crab cakes. Again, both of these were outstanding! I never thought I would eat a beef tongue meatball and enjoy it, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it!

I could have finished there, but since we still had wine and more conversation topics to cover, we placed an order for a flatbread pizza. I forget what we ordered, but it was awesome!

All in all, it was a really great night! Good drinks, great food and even better company! Can we get the next girls night on the calendar soon, please?!

On Saturday, I got up early (like 6:45am early, which is really early for a Saturday!) and headed to Brockton for the Color Me Rad run. I’ll do a full recap on that later- it was a blast!

Shortly after I got back, though, I found myself feeling bored! I had showered and cleaned and it was only 11am. I decided to go to the Somerville Pool, and while it’s not necessarily the nicest place to be, it beat packing up and heading to the beach.

Laying by the pool for the afternoon helped to not only pass some time, but helped to force me to relax! But, just as I was starting to get antsy, I texted my friend, Jessi, she said she was around and would love to get drinks. Perfect! While I waited for Jessi and her friend, Kathleen, to pick me up, I poured myself a glass of wine that my friend, JP had sent me! Last week, he sent me the sweetest “Moe Care Package”, equipped with some of my favorite things!

J.Lohr is one of my favorite Chardonnays so I couldn’t wait to open it!

Shortly after I poured this glass, the girls arrived. We headed to Jessi’s apartment in Charlestown and had another glass of wine while we figured out where we should go. She got these adorable Kate Spade wine glasses for her birthday and all I have to say, is I am very glad I didn’t break it!

We decided to go to Tia’s since they have the best outdoor bar area. The food isn’t great and I think it’s overpriced, but if you’re looking to just get drinks outside on a nice evening, it’s definitely the place to be! I ended up running into an old friend, so I caught up with him for a while- I love how Boston is small enough where you can run into people you know in random places! All in all, it was a really great “spur of the moment” night out!

Questions for you: Have you ever been to Russell House Tavern or Tia’s? What’s your favorite outdoor bar in Boston? Do you tend to order drinks/cocktails or wine/beer when you go out?