This past weekend started out with beautiful weather as it was nearly 70 degrees F. here in New Jersey on Friday. It was glorious. I took advantage of the warm temps to get outside. Even though I had already worked out at the gym in the morning, I took an afternoon walk to a neighborhood park. I forgot how nice it is to exercise outdoors. Just to see people out and about enjoying the weather made me so happy. Those tastes of spring sure can do wonders for your state of mind. It's back to being brisk, so I'll have to take advantage of the time indoors until the warm weather is here to stay.
Here's what I'm up to this weekend:
My goal is always to get outside more once the weather starts to turn. Whether it's to try a new coffee shop and sip my latte outdoors or to take a walk on a new boardwalk, getting outside has a wave of rejuvenating me, especially after being cooped up indoors all winter. New Jersey has a lot of wonderful hiking trails and waterfalls, and I definitely want to check out at least one or two this spring/summer. To do something similar where you live, check out this list of the best hiking trails in each state (or Google "hiking trails near me" for a more concise list).
Once the weather starts to warm up, I rarely bake. Who wants to be in a hot kitchen on a hot day anyway? So, I take advantage of chilly spring days to bake my favorites (orange brownies, anyone?). An all-time favorite is chocolate chip cookies. I mean who doesn't love fresh chocolate chip cookies just pulled from the oven? I found this recipe, which happens to be Martha Stewart's daughter's favorite) over 10 ten years ago in a holiday magazine, and I've been a devotee to the recipe ever since. Rarely do I ever make a chocolate chip recipe that isn't this one. If you like thin, crispy chocolate chip cookies, you will fall head over heels in love with this recipe. If not, move along.
Over the weekend, I came across a notebook where I had recorded everything I read during a two year period in college. I don't even remember creating this notebook. It was a complete surprise to me, but it was definitely my handwriting. The notebook was full of lists of books, plays, short stories, and poetry that I wanted to read as well as those that I had read either at my leisure or as required reading for a class. I had forgotten about some of them, and others I could recall clearly. In fact, for a few of them, I could recall the exact seat I sat in for a particular class. One of the classes I took was a short novels class, and in it we read Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. To this day, I don't remember reading this book, so I downloaded it and plan to re-read it this weekend. Sadly, I've never seen the movie, so that's on my to-do list as well.
After seeing Patricia Arquette in Escape from Dannemora (and loving her in the role of Tilly Mitchell), I decided to check out some of her other roles. I had completely forgotten about the critically acclaimed movie Boyhood. Arquette won a Golden Globe Award for her performance. I've started to watch it and plan to finish it over the weekend, if not before. It looks so good. Ethan Hawke (one of my 90s faves!!) also stars.
So, tell me. What do you have planned this weekend?
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