This weekend I flew off to the hippie Mecca of Asheville, North Carolina to visit one of my nearest and dearest friends for my birthday. Spoiler alert: it was great!

My friend Teresa is, honestly, one of the coolest, most down to earth people that I know. She’s also not someone who much enjoys city living (unlike yours truly), so moving to the country to work on a farm was definitely the right decision for her. She lives on a bus, spends all day with her hands in the dirt, and seems to have found an amazing group of people who are into things like farming and knitting and using composting toilets. Although I’ve veered slightly into sarcasm (the earnestness brings it out in me, I’m afraid), I love seeing her so happy and fulfilled, even though I miss having her in the city.

I got in late Friday night, and then Saturday morning we got up bright and early to work at a farmers market. Yes, dear readers, I went on vacation and started it out by hawking spinach and tomato seedlings, and it was actually really fun. So many cute puppies! So much tasty food! So many white people with dreadlocks! And apparently I’m aces at parroting Teresa’s tomato facts, and setting up tables, and can even be trusted to put things in the back of a truck without supervision. Certified adult, coming through.

Once we were done with business, we headed to the Biltmore Estate. The Biltmore Estate is basically an enormous fucking castle built in the Appalachian mountains, and it’s beautiful. And I say this as someone who didn’t even get to see the inside of the place. We spent close to 4 hours walking the grounds, and I don’t think there was a corner of the place that wasn’t perfectly manicured and utterly gorgeous.

This dress is from H&M. It’s basically a tent with sleeves and tassels, but it’s bright and colorful and I could smuggle a ham out of a grocery store in it, so I’m going to call it a winner.

Later that evening Teresa invited a few friends over for a bonfire. It was the perfect evening for it – cool enough that the fire felt nice, but warm enough that your backside didn’t freeze. Also, s’mores.

Another highlight was Dance Church, where they do something called ecstatic dancing. I wasn't really feeling the hippie woo woo vibe, but then a Prince song came up on the playlist. I actually love to dance, and this song is suuuuuuuuch a jam.

All in all, it was a really fun, if very short, trip. I'm happy to be back in the city (and not smelling like a hippie, because showering wasn't super convenient), but I loved the chance to spend time with my friend and see a little bit of her new life.

In other news, Jessica from Chronically Vintage interviewed me last week, and I'm so excited for everyone to get to read it! She asked so many engaging, insightful questions, and I really came out of it feeling like I understood myself and my blog a little bit better for it. Someone get her a gig interviewing celebrities, because I'd loooove to know what she and Angelina Jolie would talk about.