we've emerged.

Cori and I have some dear friends, Katie and Aaron, who while they started dating a few months after us, got engaged and then married several months before us.  Katie and I really bonded during this time period, and I loved having someone be just a few months ahead of me because she was able to speak wisdom about what to expect in these new life stages.  (Ironically, Katie and Aaron also moved away from New Orleans a week before us.)  One of the things that Katie told me about was 'the newlywed hole.'  Basically, it's just the concept that when you're newly married, you kind of hole up together for a couple months and are not super social.


This turned out to be incredibly true for us.  We moved to Tampa a month after our wedding, so the newlywed hole was actually a very natural place to be.  We didn't have any friends to hang out with, but we didn't care because really, all we wanted was to be at our new home together, cuddling and hanging out and watching movies.  As we slowly made friends, our weekends would occasionally include one plan.  I remember early on feeling like I was sacrificing something to share Cori with other people for just an hour or two!


Well, we are slowly but surely emerging from our newlywed hole, and thankfully have made some friends here in Tampa along the way.  This weekend was probably our busiest yet!  (And yes, you can laugh, because especially for you extroverts, it might not seem super busy.)


On Friday we went to the Holy Hog for dinner.  Our neighbors are in love with their barbecue, and when we went with them several weeks back we noticed that their special on the 4th Friday of the month is shrimp and grits.  Of course, we went!  The shrimp and grits were delicious- different from in NOLA though, more southern as opposed to cajun/creole- and Cori is officially addicted to their barbecue pork sandwich.


On Saturday we went to Gasparilla Fest.  We have been planning on going to this parade since the moment we heard about it, and we loved it.  It actually exceeded my expectations; I honestly expected it to be way lamer than Mardi Gras, but it was a legit parade.  I mean... the city didn't shut down, there were no king cakes, and it was only an afternoon, so definitely not quite as amazing as Mardi Gras, but it's as close as I'm going to get this year and I was so thankful for this opportunity.  I screamed (just a few moments of my Mardi Gras yell), I said, "Hey mister!" (even though no one else did) and I got some fun beads.

 These are our neighbors who we absolutely love.  Poor Jude was definitely ready to go home by this point, but it was so fun to be there with them.  Whereas I yelled and jumped and waved my arms and got a few beads, the boys just stood there and all these people would just give them beads.  Nick's wife, Shera, was actually part of the parade.

Pirate ship!  The whole pirate theme was so fun.

Love this picture.  Husband + beads + parade + sunshine = happy Becca!

I got fleur-de-lis beads!  Haha, I actually have this exact one from a Mardi Gras parade, but I was SO excited.  


We stopped by Popeyes on our way home (haven't been since we moved!) and it was just as delicious and I remembered.


Saturday night we hung out with some of my co-workers at a comedy show.  I really like the people I work with, but when you're in a classroom with children all day you don't always have the opportunity to get to know them as well as you'd like.  So it was definitely fun to hang with them.  The comedy club also happened to be right next to a Doctor Who convention, which was hilarious and amazing all at the same time....

the TARDIS

a Dalak

If you've never seen or heard of Doctor Who, I'm sure you think I'm incredibly dorky, and that's okay. ;)


Sunday we went to our church, and then (after stopping at Einstein's to satisfy my craving for potato bagels- I picked up two and have already eaten them both!) had a spontaneous lunch with our friends Cam and Sarah Beth.  Cori and I both really enjoy and respect this couple, so the chance to hang with them and get to know them better was just wonderful.


After that, it was back home to get a few things done (me, getting ready for the new week, Cori, some bills and grocery shopping) and relax (me, reading, internet, and bath, Cori, playing the second Zelda game made for Nintendo on our Wii).


It was truly a wonderful, full weekend.  I'm already ready for another weekend to come our way. :)