ann arbor recap.

mid-winter break has come and gone. once again, my cup is full. i was fortunate enough to be invited to ann arbor to spend the pseudo holiday with my friend, lisa.

here's lisa.

i arrived in ann arbor on friday afternoon after dropping gerty off at my parents' for the weekend. thanks again, mom and dad. one thing lisa and i have in common is our love for anthropologie, so we hopped in the car and drove to birmingham to explore everything that it had to offer. it had a lot to offer. i have the receipt to prove it.

we pawed. we drooled. we sampled. we lusted. we splurged. and we worked up quite an appetite (why does shopping always do that?). an appetite that could only be satisfied by cupcake consumption.

thank you, cupcake station, for contributing to my future case of sugar diabetes. i got the samoa cupcake (yellow cake filled with vanilla bean cream topped with marshmallow frosting, toasted coconut, caramel and chocolate. jealous?) and you should, too. we left birmingham and drove back to ann arbor. in doing so, we worked up quite an appetite (why does driving always do that?). so we picked up lisa's boyfriend, michael, and grabbed some indian food at temptations.

here's michael. this is the face he made when i said 'look tough.'

here's a sample of some of the delish indian eats.

on saturday, we woke up and met lisa's friend, katie, for breakfast at cafe zola, one of my favorite breakfast spots. i gnoshed on a fritatta with carmelized onions, challah croutons, sweet potato and goat cheese. i don't think i need to mention how tasty it was.

after polishing off our killer breakfast, lisa, michael and i walked through the ann arbor farmer's marked on our way to the treasure mart. the treasure mart is an antique/thrift store filled with funky finds. you all know how much i love antique stores. luckily, lisa does, too. michael was a trooper and tolerated it.

swastika quilt, anyone?

although there were many treasures that i wanted to bring back to 376 W 33rd street, i practiced great restraint and limited myself to one purchase: a mustard yellow lamp.

after leaving the treasure mart, lisa and i continued our shopping spree with a trip to ikea. after all, why stop while we were hot? the ikea trip deserves its own post, so its own post it shall get. i'll just let you know now that it was a successful trip. very successful. after the 5 hour ikea extravaganza (is it possible to do it in fewer than five hours?), lisa, michael and i went downtown ann arbor and met up with our friends, meghan, aaron and jeremy at a yummy restaurant called sava's. i had an awesome burger stuffed with gouda and prosciutto. because i know you're curious.

the trip was great. the food was greater. the friends were the greatest. although we managed to jam a ton of activities into a relatively short period of time, i feel refreshed. i'm tired, but refreshed. if that makes sense. refreshed because by stomach still hurts from laughing so hard. refreshed because i shared the warm embrace of old friends. refreshed because i haven't heard the sound of my alarm in 72 hours. refreshed.

although i am refreshed, my debit card is not. frankly, it's exhausted. stay tuned to see what i brought back from ann arbor.