It’s been an eventful few days here!

I had a fun weekend, which finished off with my boss’s wedding on Sunday evening. It was absolutely beautiful and such a good time!

Unfortunately, little miss me seems to have been bitten by some bedbugs at the hotel we stayed at. I have a few crazy itchy bites on my right foot, which I just can’t stop scratching. Yuck.

Worse than that, I’m terrified that I’ll have brought some of those little suckers home with me! I didn’t realize that they could be bedbug bites until late last night so I didn’t get to wash all my bedding until today. Everything was freshly laundered in hot water and dried in high heat a few hours ago though, so hopefully I’m safe. Fingers crossed!

On the other bad news front, I’ve been experiencing some popping in my left hip since Friday. I’ve been resting since then in the hopes that it’ll clear up, but no go yet. I’m terribly antsy and can’t stay away from the gym much longer!

A bout of bad luck here, but to bring it back to some good news, I wanted to share the lovely goodies sent to me by my foodie penpal Jen this month. Oh so late, I know, but better late than never, right?

The following was immediately stashed away into my purse for snacking purposes:

• Raw cashew butter: Saving this and can’t wait to try it!
• Dried cranberry and pineapple: I inhaled this almost immediately.
• The Good Bean sea salt roasted chickpeas: I usually don’t go for salty but these are so delicious. I need to find out where I can get more!
• White chocolate macadamia LunaBar: Love me some LunaBars! I finished this in a day or so.

And the following were immediately stashed in my kitchen:

• Homemade cookie bars: Did I say “immediately stashed?” I meant after one was eaten, of course. These were delicious and I can’t wait to eat the other one!
• A dried chile: I am a little intimidated by the color (it looks so spicy!), but I do like spice in moderation.

It was some gooood stuff! Thanks, Jen.

Happy Monday!

I think it’s about time I finally stop hoarding and start sharing my beautiful photos from Hawaii. Most of these were taken on a Canon D80. Enjoy!

Diamond Head

Family photo in Oahu

Dole Plantation

I didn’t know that this is how pineapples grow!

A hibiscus, Hawaii’s state flower!

Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve

A fish my sister and I saw while snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

We saw tons of these fish at Hanauma Bay!

Palm trees at Hanauma Bay

View from the top of a mountain in Oahu

Kailua beach park in Oahu

Aliiolani Hale

Wainapanapa black sand beach in Hana, Maui

My sister scuba diving!

Coral 30 feet underwater!

Random peacock just hanging out at Waimea Valley!

Jumping rock at Waimea Bay Beach Park

Roast pig at luau

We were 10,000 feet up and above the clouds at Haleakala National Park!

The world’s largest dormant volcano at Haleakala National Park

Me at the summit of Haleakala National Park on our last day!

Absolute paradise! Just looking at the pictures makes me nostalgic. I need to go back someday.

I’ve been MIA all week! Has it really been a week since I posted? Whoopsh.

Life has been pretty uneventful for the past week. I’m just counting down the days until I leave for Hawaii – for the record, there are five left with only one workday! Yay!

You know how knowing you have a day off makes the days before go so much slower? Well, considering this is my first vacation all year, the slow day feeling has been times a million this past week. I leave on Wednesday!

On another note, I’ve been eating out more than I should considering I’m about to go on a week and a half long vacation to Hawaii that costs a little bit more than chump change. But it’s been delicious!

Last Saturday, I ate at Qi in Times Square. It’s a Thai restaurant with good food, fast service, and reasonable prices! Total win. I got the tofu pad thai and loved it. My dad and I may be going to the one in Union Square tonight.

On Wednesday, I went to Raaz in Newport for dinner. It’s one of my favorite Indian restaurants, but I usually go for the lunch buffet which is a good deal. For dinner, I ordered the Veg Jalfrezi, a mix of veggies cooked in a tomato-based curry. We also had a basket of naan for the table. I’m still working on those leftovers!

I had two spectacular lunches at work this week. The first: romaine lettuce with corn, bell peppers, quinoa, hummus, and grilled chicken. Loved this combination!

Second: tofu with a sweet chili sauce, hummus with toasted pitas, and roasted zucchini. The tofu was especially good!

At home, I’ve been eating some good stuff too. The other night, I made a veggie burger and roasted zucchini hummus wrap for dinner. Definitely a combination I will have again! And some Rainier cherries on the side, which I recently realized I’m no longer allergic to. I can’t get enough of them now!

Lots of corn. It’s so sweet this time of year! Though I read that the prices will be going up soon due to the drought.

And yogurt bowls whenever I eat breakfast at home. I had this one this morning! Greek yogurt, blueberries, homemade granola, raisins, chia seeds, and peanut butter. I need to figure out a way that I can have this breakfast at work too.

And finally, I have been staring at this picture of my baby Cissie that my mom sent me two days ago. So precious! I miss her.

Tonight my dad and I have our advanced photography course from 6 to 8:30 in Central Park. Can’t wait!

Today was one of my slowest days at work in a while. Some days I’m really busy and want nothing more than one of these slow days, but then when it finally rolls around, I can’t stand it. Having little to do is so much more boring to me than keeping busy! But I think that may just be my type A personality talking.

I meant to write a WIAW yesterday, but never got around to it. I had pictures ready to go and everything, but I was just beat after running some errands after work. So I thought I’d share today!

Breakfast

Love Grown carrot cake granola (so good!), strawberries, blueberries, and a Chobani. Here it is all mixed up!

I’m especially excited to share this one because for once, I had something other than overnight oats for breakfast! My parents just brought two Costco-size boxes of strawberries and blueberries and I’m determined not to let them go bad, so I washed and cut a bunch the night before. I should do this more often.

Lunch

My boss found a place called Energy Kitchen on Hoboken menus and man, was I excited when I saw the menu! Nothing over 500 calories and it all looked delicious. I had a California wrap (hummus, guacamole, roasted red peppers, and cucumbers). Yum! I want to try making this combination at home sometime.

Snack

My building’s cafeteria just put in a Wicked Spoon froyo machine. Mmmmm. This may require a lot of self-restraint.

Dinner

I went for one of my favorite post-workout dinners: veggie protein nachos! I just throw veggie protein crumbles, black beans, and salsa in a bowl and heat it all up. I love that it’s easy and healthy too.

In Hawaii prep news, I just bought an underwater case for my camera online and I think I’ve found the perfect dive shop for my sister and I to go scuba diving with. Off to give them a call back and hopefully book our dive! I’m so excited.