I took my exams today, so except for a couple pesky papers, my summer semester is over! For a quick second, let’s ignore all those writing deadlines (school and work alike) I have piled up…I worry about them when they’re finished.

Also on the list of good things: Last night, Chris made grilled tofu with brown rice and leftover broccoli. He made a great sauce that contained two kinds of peppers, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and a little olive oil. It was pretty awesome.

And tonight, to celebrate, I went out to dinner with my mom and sister at Marseille on 9th Avenue. I had a garden salad (Bibb lettuce with hazelnuts) with the dressing on the side and the grilled salmon for dinner. It came with a roasted tomato and eggplant puree. Lovely. For dessert, we each had a few bites of a dark chocolate pot de creme. Sadly, besides the ridiculous salad, the only legible picture I have is of my mom’s plate of vegetarian couscous (and the duck liver pate, which I just wasn’t into), but in the photo you can also see the cause of the alluded-to illegible photos—one of my two glasses of cava. What can I say? I was in the mood for  something sparkly.

Tomorrow, I’m getting up at the a**-crack of dawn (5 a.m.ish) to squeeze in a quick workout before we head for a weekend in North Carolina. I always feel less stressed if I exercise before traveling—whatever works.

Sure, I’ll be bringing my laptop to finish that 20-page research paper and polish off a few work-related projects, but I’m excited to be going somewhere I’ve never been before. Cheers to that!