I’ve been a part of the Tone It Up community for a little while. I’ve met a couple of TIU ladies through Orangetheory, but I haven’t been able to attend any of the meetups that have been going on lately. A lot of the meetups have happened either while I’m working or when I have other things that I have to go to.
So when someone mentioned online that they were new to the Culver City area and would love to do a dinner hangout, I was quick to respond that I’d love to join in!
The dinner was going to be held at The Wallace, which is only a few blocks away from my house. I was fine walking there, but I don’t walk home alone at night. So I was thinking that I would have to drive, but then one of the ladies going to dinner offered to drive me home!
Then, that morning I found out about my grandpa passing away. My first response was to want to cancel my dinner plans. But then I thought about when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. That night, I had an event to go to as well and it really did help me get through the day. So I figured I would do the same this time.
It was nice to be able to walk to dinner. It gave me time to clear my head. And it was first real walking around that I was able to get done that day (I was pretty much tied to my computer all day).
There were quite a few of us at dinner, but it was perfect! I knew a few of the ladies from before, but I got to meet a bunch of new super amazing women!
The idea at The Wallace is that it is all small plates to share. They say maybe 2-3 plates per person. And since there were so many of us, we kind of split up into a few different groups around the table. There were 4 of us in my group who were going to share, so we checked out the menu and tried to figure out what to get for us.
We ended up with several plates. We got beets (which I didn’t eat because I don’t like beets), cauliflower, short rib ravioli, and a shrimp pancake. And then the one thing that we got that I felt was mean to be was bone marrow.
I had never had bone marrow before. I never wanted to order it because if I didn’t like it, I didn’t want to be stuck with a meal I didn’t like. But my grandpa loved bone marrow. When we would go out to eat, he would always ask the waiters if there were any extra bones so he could have bone marrow. It was one of his things (like drinking martinis).
So it seemed fitting to honor my grandpa’s life by getting something that he loved so much for dinner. This particular restaurant does a very spicy topping on their bone marrow, so I didn’t love that. But it was still very delicious and made me feel like going out to dinner was the right thing to do.
Besides the yummy food, there was great conversation. There were a couple of other ladies who work in the entertainment industry, but a majority didn’t. That’s a rarity for me and I liked it. We all were chatting about various workouts that we do around town and just got to know each other.
I know that I’m really going to try to do more hangouts with the TIU group. They are all so incredible and nice and I really want to get to know those ladies more. I know that I have to miss out on a couple of different events coming up due to my schedule, but I’m really going to try to make it a priority to try to fit in one or two meetups each month with them.
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