I sat down to write a more serious post…and decided instead to tell you about my weekend.

Over the past year, I’ve had a lot of fun weekends and weekends and trips that look great on Instagram. But on the inside, I was in a dark place, or a sad place, or an anxious place.

This weekend, I had a lovely weekend in the Hamptons with my friends, and I felt nearly none of that, save for a few brief moments. (On a semi-related note, I’ve been using an app lately called iMoodJournal to track my moods to look for patterns so I can do more of what makes me feel good and less of what doesn’t.)

We took the train out early Friday morning, dropped our stuff at the house and immediately headed to La Fondita for our taco fix. (True story: on an unseasonably nice day in February this year, my BFF and I rented a car to drive out to the Hamptons for the day basically so we could go here.)

We got lucky enough to have good weather on Friday (the weekend forecast didn’t look the greatest) and spent the weekend on the beach. Pretty sure I fell asleep with a smile on my face at some point? I will basically buy anything in my price range that Grace recommends on her blog or podcast, so I spent most of the afternoon totally engrossed in the book I was reading, The Thousandth Floor, a futuristic YA novel about high schoolers in 2118 living in a thousand-floor Manhattan tower.

We had dinner at Moby’s, a former group favorite. However, it’s since moved locations and is now on the marina at this terrible hotel my friends and I stayed at last year. The food was still good, and hello, so was the eye candy at the bar, but without the outdoor games, etc, it’s just not what it used to be.

After a lazy Saturday morning of lounging and reading, we went to into town in East for the afternoon, window shopping and having lunch at Citta Nuova, which did not disappoint! I’ve been going out to the Hamptons for the past five summers and hadn’t been out there yet this summer, so it finally felt like summer when we started walking down Main Street. (You know, 3/4 of the way through summer.) Though, I’m still salty Lilly closed there.

I also ate a whole wheel of cheese… (finish this sentence in the comments if you know what I’m talking about.) And this romper just makes me happy, so I think I need to buy it in another color!

And then it was time for my favorite part of any Hamptons weekend! “Meeting House” and then Talkhouse! Technically Meeting House is now Wolffer Kitchen, but whatevs. The food is local, seasonal and mostly pretty healthy. Which is great, because the amount of wine we drank…is not? (In all honesty, post-hospitalization, etc, I’ve drastically cut back on drinking and was proud of my consumption that night: more than usual but still a responsible amount for me, comparatively.)

We had our signature espresso martinis and headed over to Talkhouse. I’m 35, and this is the only place I will wait in line and pay a cover, but Hello Brooklyn, our favorite cover band, was playing, so…

So yeah, we had some fun. In signs of responsible adult Theodora, I was up before 8, not at all hungover and stoked for a surfing lesson! I’ve wanted to surf out there for as long as I’ve been going out there, and I finally made it happen. We took a lesson with Corey’s Wave, which I’d 150% recommend. They were great, and because there were four of us, we were able to have our group be just us, which was super fun. The thing I really liked about them over some of the other schools I’ve taken lessons from is that they give you a bit more autonomy—other schools, for example, have someone who helps you get on the board to paddle to one instructor, who then pushes you towards a third instructor, who finds the perfect wave for you, pushes you, and tells you when to stand.

(This suit is from Athleta and old, but here’s a link to similar cut—I like high neck like this for surfing so I don’t accidentally flash everyone as I’m taking my wetsuit on and off.

We just paddled over to one instructor, who taught us to look back at the waves to see which one might be good. They still picked the wave and pushed us, but it felt like we were doing much more of it autonomously than I have in the past. As such! I stood much more than I ever have, and had SO SO much fun. Also, I’m usually taking surf lessons with strangers, or one friend, tops, so it was so fun to be in a private group of just my friends. I definitely just looked over at them and smiled like an idiot a few times and probably creeped them out. As I looked at the Montauk shoreline on this beautiful sunny day surrounded by friends, I felt so incredibly lucky and alive. I realized typing this how full circle that moment was. One year, one month and four days later, I was surrounded by love and the women who had supported me through this hellacious year. My heart is overwhelmingly full of gratitude: for them, for myself and the work I’ve done, for those instructors who have no idea how powerful their lesson was for me that day, and for the insight to recognize all of this.

What’s brought things full circle for you? What’s new to you that you’re loving as much as I’m loving surfing?!