This weekend was my last before I start my full-time summer internship. It was my last weekend, my last hurrah. It wasn't quite an all-out bender, but I sure did have a lot of fun! I always say that my best plans are made last-minute, or on a whim. This couldn't be any truer about this weekend. 

When my friend texted me "wanna go to all three days of Boston Calling?", it seemed like a no-brainer to me. I was very willing to spend the money to have a mini vacation with a good friend before my new journey began.

I don't know if it's me, but when someone asks me to do anything that involves tickets, money, public transportation, and intense planning - I get discouraged at first. However, I didn't let myself have that discouragement this time. Eventbrite is getting everyone out of their anxious shells and into concert halls, hiking trails, airplanes, movie theaters, and more. They say that "GOMO" is the new "FOMO". They say, instead of having the much-feared "fear of missing out", they want to nurture people "going out more often". You can even host your own event if you want and ticket it right online. 

FOMO is even in the Oxford dictionary, defined as “anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website.” Perhaps we can add a new word to the dictionary - "GOMO" defined as people spending their hard-earned cash on experiences instead of material things.

An avid concert-goer myself, I usually spend between $15-$45 on concert tickets and I go to shows once or twice a month. During my time at Boston Calling, I saw Sia, The Front Bottoms, The Vaccines, HAIM, Elle King, and Disclosure. Sia tickets would've gone for $80 alone, so seeing all of those acts would've been way over $180 separately. 

Due to the insane crowds, I couldn't really see the stage for Sia. Just like a fellow concert-goer said, every song was so fire, it didn't matter that I was so far away. I also got to see Maddie from Dance Moms and Kristen Wiig dance for Sia on stage. If I didn't go out, I wouldn't be able to say that I shared air with Kristen Wiig.

After all, it was a great weekend to reconnect with friends and great music on the last weekend of summer. In the end, I'm glad I went out more often. 

It's been a long, hot, productive summer. I'd be lying if I said this wasn't if not the best summer ever, the best summer in a very long time. What's even better is that I have an even more exciting schoolyear to look forward to. The only word I can use to describe these past couple months is BLESSED! So, heres my summer recap. Please comment or tweet me (@n_vergako) or post yours on my facebook wall. I'd love to know yours. Even better, if you make your own recap tweet it to me and I'll share it!

Remember...

When David and I waited through a Never Shout Never-esque set (with sweaty, pubescent scene girls surrounding us) just so we could be FRONT AND CENTER FOR AARON WEST AND THE ROARING TWENTIES at warped tour...

When I got a really uneven sunburn at the beach thanks to aerosol spray sunscreen...

When I saw Say Anything and Modern Baseball at the House of Blues #WhateverForever....

When I spent four hours scouring the NEWSEUM in DC...

When I got a tour on Boston Harbor Cruises...

When I made Summer Sessions my new favorite spot on Route 1A in New Hampshire.

When I ran a 5K in memory of my best friends grandfather...

When I walked on the Boston Common to WAGE HOPE for an end to pancreatic cancer...

When I came across the Lilly Pulitzer truck and the Vineyard Vines whale on Nantucket... #ACKCity

When I relaxed at my favorite spot on Cape Cod, the Judah Baker Windmill...

When we all twinned with our vegan dishes at Life Alive...

When my fellow PRSSA Eboard members and I pulled off a killer Paint Nite fundraiser and raised SO MUCH money for National Conference!

When I got up close and personal with Niagara Falls...

When I fell in love with Toronto...

When Dom and I took too many cute intern pictures at the State House...

Share with me your summer adventures!

Training for a half marathon is hard enough, doing it with long, gnarly hair is even harder. We all know that it's healthier for your hair to be washed every other day or less. However, with my running schedule this summer I had to shower every day. I know this doesn't mean washing your hair every day, but  my fellow long-haired girls know that showering is a PROJECT with long hair. It takes forever to blow dry, and if you let it air dry it comes out ratty and snarly (or maybe that's just mine).

Basically, by the end of this summer, I was tired of my messy waves and ombre from last July. It was time for a change.

The plan was to do purple and ombre. As I looked on the internet more, I fell in love with the balayage effect.  However, I knew I had to wait until the end of the summer so I didn't go into my work and internship with purple hair. It turns out the store I work at didn't care, but I don't think it would fly at the House of Representatives. I'm glad I waited, because nothing beats going back to school with a new do. Also, the purple will fade in eight weeks, and I want to milk the purple on campus as much as possible. 

So, here is a picture that shows my long, dead-end ridden, lackluster, old ombre hair from this July. It also features a painting I somehow managed not to totally mess up. Yay paint nite!

This was the picture I showed the stylist:

My stylist, Colby form Fantastic Sams in Dracut, MA was AWESOME! He has YEARS of experience and was very knowledgeable about technique. He knew a lot about hair and how it reacts to different treatments, and made sure I had all of my best options for my hair.

To go from my drab to fab, it took four hours. However, it was so worth it. First, he lightened my hair at the tips and did baby highlights. I was blonde at phase one. After a wash and dry, the real color was applied. He dyed my roots and a few inches down from my roots a nice grey/silver with a touch of a smoky purple. Then, he did my tips and some highlights a bright purple. I am in LOVE!

I was so bored of having just my tips done. I had blonde tips for about four years on and off now. I think it's a more mature look.

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I'm also geeking out about the silver and grey. I chose purple because I wanted to go as bold as I could, however if I also adore the silver and platinum looks that are popular now.

I love the faded purple.

I say switching up your cut and color is the way to beat the summer. However, I always liked to be equipped with the right gear. My friends at Madison Reed have come up with the perfect summer survival checklist:

Have I inspired you to switch up your style yet? If so, I have all of the tools to help you. If I didn't do this crazy purple, I definitely would have done a natural shade either lighter or darker. However, I would've had no idea how to go about that. I would've referred to the Madison Reed color advisor. I did it hypothetically, and got many gorgeous golden brown recommendations. What did you get? Do you think you'll follow through with one? Comment below!

If you choose to dye your hair with their dye, make sure to use these awesome products:

Style + Tame Set

Semi Permanent Gloss

Ever want something to spice up your bbq? I recently did, and I did exactly that. However, I didn't quite SPICE it up, it was more of a sweet upgrade than anything. I love mixing different flavors to see how they react to each other in my cooking. I also love reducing flavors in heat and seeing how they react. These two tricks played out in this BBQ sauce upgrade between the cumin and the cinnamon.

Cumin is native to the Mediterranean near India. Coming from seeds originally, it has a robust flavor that can be described as bitter. It has a strong, warm aroma. Cinnamon, has an equally as strong aroma, however the word to use with cinnamon is obviously sweet. I expected these two to mellow each other out, and the steak rub to add that extra kick. I also love when sweet flavors carmelize out in cooking.

The olive oil made the mixture more fluid so it would be easier to spread, and it would melt into the chicken easier.

We put the BBQ sauce on the chicken for the last ten minutes of cooking time so that it doesn't burn off. We also drizzled some EVOO right before they went on the grill to help the cooking process.

SWEET AND SIMPLE BBQ SAUCE

INGREDIENTS: All ingredients can be your brand of choice. Recipe good for 4 breasts.

After work yesterday, my mom and I decided to go to Old Navy because apparently they were having another amazing sale where everything in the store was up to 60% off. Sometimes Old Navy does this really awesome thing were they do that. One of the many things I love about Old Navy.

Another thing I love about them is that they're a great place to stock up on basics. I got some basic shorts, a tank, and a skirt. However, I also got some non-basic sunglasses and dress. There's always great finds there.  It's helping me achieve my "normcore" look and fill my love for mom jeans, birkenstocks, and things of that nature. Here are my finds from my haul!

Can't wait to rock this outfit. Something tells me it will be very soon.

Maxi Skirt - $20.96

Sunglasses - $13.56

T shirt dress - $13.55

Loving this casual yet preppy dress. Something about it just makes me feel put-together yet beachy simultaneously.

All prices listed above are with the discount, not the original ones. Old Navy isn't always the cheapest, compares to places like Forever 21, so these were some GOOD deals. Everything I purchased was at least 20% off.

Did you get any good deals recently?

I may not "meal prep", however, I do sometimes make a big batch of something and have it multiple times throughout the week. That was my plan with these delicious sweet potato black bean burritos!

In my post about my vegan journey blog post, I mentioned that one day, the vegan gods of the dining hall shown down on me. Chartwells was serving sweet potato black bean burritos. I decided to make my own version with fresher, healthier, ingredients, of course. I basically put my Dollar Store Diva spin on them. 

The dining hall has to feed a bunch of starving college students on a budgets, so they had to use white tortillas and other shortcuts, of course. However, I only had to feed one broke, starving college students. I in this recipe, I used whole wheat tortillas, Green Giant niblet corn, mozzarella, sweet potatoes, and Bush's low sodium black beans.

Oh, sweet potatoes, how I love you. However, you're just too hard. Could you maybe soften up a bit? Just for me?

Sweet potatoes, when you buy them fresh, are very hard. You can't just mash them right away. I cut them into small pieces and microwave them for 5-10 minutes until they're a bit more soft.

After they softened in the microwave, I sautéed them in a pan with some maple syrup to give them a maple flavor. I put this pan on medium heat and covered it to finish the "make sweet potatoes mushier" mission."

While that mission was in progress, I sliced my mozzarella.

 After microwaving it according to the package instructions, I added the niblet corn along with the black beans. Time to mash this burrito filling together!

My mighty masher!

I'm many things, but not a great burrito artist. Chipotle would fire me ASAP. However, this is me trying to fill these puppies before letting them heat up in the oven. I also added the mozzarella, which will melt in the oven.

There they are in their glory!

Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos

Ingredients:

Directions: