snow and eating, eating and snow

this weekend!  sarah and i drove up friday night (no crashing macaroni grill in our onesies this time, sorry world) aka galentine's day, and danielle had decorated the place with streamers and those triangle flag things and gotten us galentine's presents, because she is the best friend ever and truly knows how to celebrate friendship.

we went skiing/snowboarding (helloooo muscles) and we'd been kind of worried about it being too cold but honest to goodness we could not have had better weather for the slopes.  it was sunny and beautiful and just warm enough that i swapped my underarmor for a long sleeved tshirt and then it real-snowed a little bit and i made it down the mountain several times without breaking anything and didn't spend TOO much time on my butt and was even successful getting off the ski lift over 50% of the time.  and sarah was a champ, and danielle was a pro, and we all had the greatest time and ate great snacks and decided that we each had two or three runs left at the same time.

and then the eating started.

we got hokkaido takeout because obviously and ate it while we watched friends.  let me clarify: we ate it while we binge-watched eleven episodes of friends, the galentine's episode from parks and rec, the anna howard shaw day episode of 30 rock, two more episodes of 30 rock for good measure, and when harry met sally.  it was glorious.  PLUS danielle baked us amazing things (strawberry chocolate chip cookies pictured above) and we made a cheese plate and a grape plate and drank cranberry ginger ale like our lives depended on it.  and outside it was snowing and the wind was blowing like crazy and oh boone, i missed you.  it was the best valentine's day ever.

and then!!  we braved the 6-degree weather to introduce danielle to waffle house and get sarah some coffee (worth it) and looked at yachts on air b&b and packed our stuff up and pointed george weasley the hyundai elantra down the mountain and went on our way.  as self-appointed road trip queens, sarah and i have a lot of traditions.  examples: never listen to david sedaris unless you want to fall asleep, sing all the words you know to girl talk, and always get soda shaq.

soda shaq is this weird beverage made by arizona iced tea and sponsored, bizarrely enough, by shaquille o'neal.  there are four flavors (vanilla, orange, blueberry, and strawberry) and each flavor has a different picture of shaq on it.  soda shaq.  i found it at a 7 eleven one day and never looked back, and when i introduced sarah to it, it was clear that we needed soda shaq every time we took a drive together that lasted more than two hours.  and then, suddenly, 7 eleven stopped carrying soda shaq.  we know because we stopped at three of them on our way back from erika's and then called about five more, and then contacted both 7 eleven and arizona via facebook/email until arizona finally answered and said "check cvs!"  so lo and behold, we went into this dinky cvs in wilkesboro of all places, and there was shaq's face smiling up at us.  and all was right with the world again.

and then i got bix, who had stayed with my dad, and he was SO EXCITED TO SEE ME HIHIHIHIHI so i scooped him up and took him home and we played and played and played and then i got in bed to read and he snuggled up with me and, you know, having a dog is just the best.