6 Things You Need for the Perfect Lazy Sunday Funday

March 28, 2016 by Sara Woznicki in Leisure, Life In Your 20's, Richmond Brunch Review, Sara's Column, Tweets and Mascara

When people use the phrase, "Sunday Funday," my mind goes straight to the pitcher -- a cheap mimosa pitcher shared amongst friends/ yourself. It makes me think of that time we accidentally ordered too many pitchers at 3 Monkey's and I ended up adopting my friend's dog for the day instead of just letting her out. Or that time Lauren and I ended up randomly drunk at Buddy's without much of a warning.

Mimosa soaked Sunday's definitely are Funday's, but sometimes nursing that hangover is almost as fun. I'm not talking about the throbbing headache, because that's never fun, but everything that comes with the Sunday hangover is actually pretty great. Think about it, what's more fun than a perfect excuse to lay on your sofa and use your chest as a plate?

Sweater Weather

March 28, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Humor, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

e need to talk about sweating. This may seem like the wrong season, but I promise you, it’s not. Sweating can strike anytime, anywhere.

We need to more understanding of the sweaters in this world. We need to turn down the heaters in February and also let people keep their coats on inside if they want to because of their sweat stains.

A few years ago, I had an important interview for a scholarship at 8:30 AM one Friday morning. The month before had been Christmas, and my parents had bought me an overcoat because I wanted to seem like a posh, mature adult, which meant I have a pea coat that goes to my knee. Actually I wanted an Old Navy pea coat, but my mom called it cheap and said she’d buy me a real one. So I ended up with this heavy, wool, charcoal coat. But boy, did it keep me warm. Too warm.

Brunch Review: Southerly Patio & Restaurant

Southerly Restaurant & Patio

March 27, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Richmond Brunch Review

The first Saturday of March, I suddenly realized Richmond Brunch Weekend is a lot closer than I thought, and ATOB needed to start reviewing all these participating restaurants. I called up two friends and we headed to Southerly Restaurant & Patio, which is the dine-in portion of Southern Season. Now Sara and I have been to Southerly one other time, but not for brunch. I’ve been meaning to go back, and it only took nine months, no biggie.

We arrived around 12:30 with no reservation, but were seated promptly. The first thing my friends remarked upon was how fancy Southerly is. Now it’s not fancy in the “you need to dress up” way, but it’s the sort of place “you go to after church,” my friend explained. “Or you take your grandmother for her birthday.”

I definitely agree with this. There were rosebuds in water on the tables. Southerly’s target demographic is not the hungover millennial demographic, but it doesn’t need to be. We have the Fan bruncheries for that. The Southerly is, like its name implies, a taste of the South – a brunch place to take your parents (or rather, they take you) and then have them buy you stuff next door in the Southern Season.

Going Abroad for the First Time

March 23, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

Since tenth grade, I’ve been committed to living abroad. That’s also the year I decided I wanted to join the Peace Corps. I have never abandoned that idea, even as I’ve entered a PhD program and realized how atypical that path is. (True academics may use the stronger descriptor of “stupid.” STEM PhDs get high-paying careers; they don’t abscond to Africa. But I will.)

The irony of my short-term life dream is, I had never been abroad. Until two weeks ago when I went to Denmark. But until then, I have had to cringe and admit I have been a caged bird my entire life, but one day I’ll fly outside the bars aka cross the Big Pond. It’s hard to defend a life dream when you haven’t even tasted it. Or at least you feel deluded.

As I’ve written before, though, I have clung to my decision to live abroad/join the Peace Corps, and I’ve grown even more resolute that I will be applying within the next two years as grad school wraps up. But even as that day has gotten closer, I have felt more and more claustrophobic – like being on a plane with no leg room and you don’t know when the flight ends because you’re phone’s on airplane mode and your wristwatch has stopped working and how many time zones have we crossed, is my phone changing to match it, WHEN WILL I GET THE HELL OFF THIS PLANE, etc. (This scenario did not happen. At all. I promise. Never happened.)

Stitch Fix Now has Shoes!

March 22, 2016 by Sara Woznicki in Leisure, Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Sara's Column, Social Media, Tweets and Mascara

I don't open most emails that come to my inbox, as I give away my email all the time to try to win myself trips (which I have yet to win), so I am really a detriment to most company's open rates. One company that I do value greatly and open almost (if not all) emails they've ever sent me, and that's Stitch Fix, the company that sends you 5 pieces of clothes for $20, then if you keep any of them, you get that $20 toward the purchase.

The Illegal Roommate

March 21, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Humor, life lessons, Life In Your 20's

I’ve talked about Justin before, and he’s even written for ATOB. Today I’m going to discuss the summer he moved into my apartment illegally. I should probably say he was “undocumented” versus “illegal” given political sentiments, but either way, he wasn’t supposed to be there and my landlord had no idea.

It was two summers ago. I lived in a row house with no central AC and had one other roommate. Justin landed a paid internship a half hour outside the city and needed a place to stay for 12 weeks. I offered our pull-out couch for a week until he found a place.

Brunch Review: Citizen

Citizen

March 20, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Life In Your 20's, Richmond Brunch Review

My friend Joanna and I grab coffee or lunch about every other week. Joanna usually grabs food at a cart while I pack lunch like the frugal grad student I am. (She’s also in grad school. Maybe I’m just frugal.) Recently, however, the wind chill was a bit too much, so Joanna suggested we go to Citizen.

This wasn’t my first time at Citizen, but it was at their new location on East Main and 12th. Their old location was this small joint underneath what can only be described as a plaza on the side of a skyscraper (okay, it’s Richmond, so the SunTrust Tower is a skyscraper). Honestly, finding the old place made me feel like such a hipster; I needed to put on my thick-rimmed glasses. The new place faces right onto Main Street.

Citizen is basically a city café. You walk in, and half the joint is the bar (like a Waffle House bar, not a bar bar, where you can see them preparing your meal) and the other half is one long row of seating. We decided to grab a table since we weren’t going to sit outside. A waiter soon helped us, which is an upgrade from their old location where it was order-and-seat-yourself.

From Puffins to Hot Dogs: An Icelandic Food Review

March 16, 2016 by Sara Woznicki in Life In Your 20's, Sara's Column, Tweets and Mascara, Leisure, life lessons

At this point in my life, I would be pretty open to it if someone called me a foodie. I take pleasure in eating and trying new foods. So when we headed over to Iceland, I was on the hunt for some good local fare.

A bit of light research led me to believe that the following food selections were Icelandic delicacies: hot dogs, ice cream, puffin, whale and fermented shark.

Out of that list, I was really not okay eating puffin, because I mainly wanted to adopt one, not eat one. Once my uncle gave us a puffin for Christmas. Sounds really cool, right? Except for when you’re a child and think you’re really getting a puffin. Not only didn’t we get a puffin, just the paperwork to one, the last time our puffin was spotted was a few years before we got him. So I’m pretty sure my puffin ownership was over a dead puffin. I digress though, since this is a post about food. But let’s kick it off with my experience of eating puffin.

Google Maps vs. the Military

March 14, 2016 by Cazey Williams in life lessons, Humor, Cazey's Column

A couple of weekends ago, I stayed in Arlington, VA with a friend. That Sunday, I decided to go for a run. My friend suggested I run at the National Mall. I knew this to be a trendy DC/Northern Virginia thing to do and an excellent opportunity for both my Instagram and Snapchat story, so I took her advice.

Finding the metro stop turned out to be my first ordeal. My friend said it was on the other side of the Ballston Common Mall, but then I passed through the mall, and where was it? I'm not one to ask strangers for directions, but I found myself approaching a man on a bench.

Brunch Review: Silver Diner

Silver Diner

March 13, 2016 by Sara Woznicki in Leisure, Sara's Column, Richmond Brunch Review, Tweets and Mascara

When I was planning car shopping, I also needed to plan brunch beforehand. You know the saying, "Never go car shopping without brunching beforehand."

Okay fine -- that's not a saying. But anyways, I brought my friend and her husband to help me, and left it in his capable hands to recommend where we go since we wanted it to be close to the Mazda dealership, which is outside my normal brunching radius.