Ever since I turned 25, I get really bad hangovers. Not like the ones in college, where I’d just lay around for an hour and then recover. I’m talking full-day, heartburn, headache, light sensitivity and desperately needing a nap.

Cazey likes to tell me that he doesn’t get hangovers, which is especially obnoxious when I’m lying around helplessly hungover.

What’s most annoying is that my hangovers are unexpected. Once I drank four beers over the course of five hours and woke up with a splitting headache. A few weeks later, I drank at least four tequila drinks before switching to a beer or two and woke up ready for the day.

So, you all know me from several blogposts, most notably the time I starred as the illegal roommate. I have mostly written on food and travel in the past, but today, I’m writing about my favorite hobby: Couponing.

Now I know what you’re thinking… couponing is for old ladies. I’m going to highlight the four mobile apps that I use to save hundreds each year. Yes, hundreds!

My parents have never taken kindly to my travels. When I say “parents,” I mean my mom. My dad only cares that I’m financially secure. “Yes, Dad, I can afford this impromptu trip to Amsterdam, but I won’t decline your $20 for gas money.”

My parents’ apprehension does not surprise me. Until this year, they hadn’t been on a plane in 30 years or ever been abroad. On the other hand, I had talked of distant lands since third grade, so I don’t know why anyone was surprised when I hopped off to Denmark three years ago…and then Amsterdam…and then Qatar, Germany, Costa Rica, Italy, Portugal, Spain, etc.

As frequent readers may know, I have a habit of taking weekend jaunts to far-off lands and returning just in time for important grad school meetings or romantic dates (not so much on the latter). This past July my friend Liza texted asking if I wanted to go St. Martin. Despite growing up in Virginia Beach, I don’t characterize myself as a beach person. However, I’ve harbored a growing affinity for equatorial sunsets after witnessing these miracles in Key West and Cuba.

“For how long?” I asked Liza.

We would leave on a Sunday and return on a Wednesday - two full days to lay out, sunbathe, explore the island, and grab some Instagrams.

Early in life we learn what it means to like someone. When we’re wee toddlers, we call it friendship. Later we learn we sometimes like people as more than friends. We call this love - or, more often, some watered down derivative.

For the first few months after we stumble into romantic bliss, or perhaps longer - think cafeteria lunches with your crush sitting at the end of the table - we may confuse friendship and love. We love to hang out with both friends and lovers. We want to share secrets with them. Both excite us - but in different ways. Soon, either through trial or heartache, we learn not to mistake these two concepts as synonyms. Friendship may be given without caution or preamble. Love, or similar affection, is far less awarded and comes packed with nuance and people’s ghosts, demons, and spite (my own especially).

While Cazey is a regular gym member, I am really good at working out for about a month and then giving up for roughly the same amount of time. Just as my DietBet was beginning, Cazey and I were given the opportunity to trial Gold’s Gym Richmond, which could not have been better timing to help me beat my physical fitness goals.

My friends know I ask inappropriate questions. I ask these questions in the most straightforward way possible and usually without ulterior motive. I am genuinely curious what people’s salaries are and how much is their rent and how old are their parents. I freely offer up my own answers to these very questions: I make $28,000/year, pay $550 in rent, and my mom would disinherit me if I shared her age.

Maybe it’s because I’m not trying to hoodwink anyone, but people generally me the truth. And I’m talking strangers disclose personal failures after one inquiry. I once helped my friend pick up a couch from a Craigslist seller. By the end of the interaction, I knew the seller’s hometown, graduation year, and why he and his girlfriend broke up (it was originally her couch).

However, asking these types of questions can sometimes get you into trouble or, at a minimum, leave the wrong impression.

Richmond has been put on the map lately for all of our breweries that have popped over the years. However, we’ve become a city (and state) with so much more to offer. That’s what Cider Week VA celebrates.

We had the pleasure of getting a little taste of what to expect from Cider Week Virginia 2018, which is coming up from November 9-18, 2018. Here’s what’s going down.