lldangerous
Love me with an open heart tell me anything
I'm not a snow person. It's cold and wet and gets dirty really fast. I would pick 90 degree weather over 30 degree weather every time.
But I'm really enjoying this winter. Maybe it's having our own house or maybe it's the busy schedule, but being snowed in is just the best feeling lately.
I am so looking forward to this weekend. I just want to curl up on the sofa all weekend, finish my book (Reading Lolita in Tehran), maybe start a new one (maybe The Food Taster?), watch our latest Netflix, work on mapping out the Scotland trip, and, if I feel energetic, maybe hop on the Wii fit so I won't feel like too much of a bum (I said maybe).
This weekend is exactly what I need after this week. I know one of my goals for this year is to whine less and I don't like to post about work, so I will refrain from any details. But this week was brutal. For no particular reason. I just feel like I'm drowning here.
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This week is lasting pretty much forever. I technically should get to leave work early today to avoid making them pay me overtime, but we shall see if that actually happens.
I don't want to get into the details here, but this week has been really rough work-wise. A bad combination of office drama and a heavy workload. In the end, I feel like the result of this week will be far less drama and a little less frustration here, so I guess it's for the best. But even that knowledge doesn't stop me from tossing and turning with stress nightmares all night like I did last night. I woke up with the worst headache.
At least I have enough in my personal life to keep my very busy and distracted for awhile. Tomorrow is the second baby shower of the year. In the next few months, I have two baby showers, one bridal shower, three weddings, a trip to North Carolina to meet my new niece... it's going to be a busy and expensive few months. People really need to slow down with the weddings and babies. I think maybe there should be a limit placed on each every year (even though I really enjoy both).
My coworker wished triplets with colic on me the other day. I guess that's what I get for thoughts like that.
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I found myself taking stock of my accomplishments in life the other day. It was an odd moment.
I feel like I spend so much time feeling like I'm behind in work and life and just everything, so it was very strange for this sense of accomplishment to sort of wash over me. Not that I've found the cure for any diseases lately or written any Nobel-prize worthy books, but I feel like I'm right where I should be. Yeah, my house could use some updating and I wouldn't mind a new car and I'm not bringing any new life into the world any time soon, but I feel like I'm doing ok. Probably even pretty good.
Sometimes I just spend so much time stressing out over what I'm not doing that I'm blind to what I already have done or am currently working towards. I am just a true work in progress at this stage, I suppose.
I blame yoga for any semi-deep thoughts I might be having lately. As if I need something to make myself MORE introspective..
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Friday is this blog's 5th birthday.
Five years ago, I was newly single and just starting to think about dating this cute boy named TJ; living in a college apartment with three of the best friends ever; freaking out over graduating college; and keeping impossible hours doing schoolwork, working at The Quad, interning at the Women's Center, working at Syke's and just having way too much fun after FINALLY turning 21.
This morning I caught myself trying to flatten out the wrinkles under my eyes in the mirror. I've had laugh lines for awhile, and I'm cool with them. I laugh a lot, I've earned those.
But these are new and they make me look tired. I am tired, but I don't want to look it...
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I am in full-scale planning mode for Scotland. I hope I don't get sick of all things Scottish by the time June rolls around.
It's a weird trip to plan - it's just so open ended. And I feel like there isn't the same set list of things you MUST see when you go to Scotland as there are with some countries/cities. I've been googling sample itineraries and they're all so different. I found island tours, whisky trails, mountain trails, castle tours, church tours, national park tours....
I've got a couple of months, so I have plenty of time to figure it out. And thanks to www.paperbackswap.com, I can indulge in as many travel guides as I want (I'm up to 6).
In the meantime, if anyone has any tips or must-see places, I'd love to hear them!
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Well, I'm just knocking things off my list of things to do this year right and left. We just booked our flights to Scotland for June.
I guess I better start planning the trip... maybe at least find hotels...
I guess I better start planning the trip... maybe at least find hotels...
Are we ready for a second dog? No sooner did I write my last post about what I want for this year, including another dog, I was tempted by petfinder.com. I think the thing that I'm nervous about most is that it will make Maddie different with us. I guess that's kind of selfish though. I don't like her being alone as much as she is. This dog is calling me though - he looks so scared, but so optimistic. I'm going to sleep on it, but we might go meet him next week.
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I'm not a big fan of New Years' resolutions - I think that we should try to be better people in whatever ways make sense to us everyday. That and I tend to not be so great at the broad, long-term goals. If I were to say that my New Years's resolution were simply to lose weight, well, what does that mean? Lose a pound over the next 12 months? Be a smaller size this time next year? It seems too open ended and sort of daunting.
That being said, I do think this is a good time to think about moving forward and think about things I'm excited for and am working towards in the next year. And maybe think of some short-term goals for myself.
Things I'm looking forward to:
- The birth of my new niece in February
- The birth of Andrea's baby in March
- Lots of weddings! Jay and Jill in February, Sean and Jamie in April, Dany and Beth in May, Nick and Tara in October (and those are just the ones I know so far!)
- Scotland! Hopefully, anyway. I think we might just need to book a flight and commit to it. I've been hesitant because of scheduling and money questions, but I really want to go on a big vacation this year.
- Maybe getting a brother for Maddie. We've been talking about getting a second dog pretty much since we got Maddie, so we're thinking maybe this summer.
Some goals I'm working on:
- Yeah, the cliche lose weight thing. I put on a little more than I'm comfortable with last year, so TJ and I are back on weight watchers. I'd like to lose 8 more pounds and then try really hard at keeping it off for awhile. The changing size every other month thing is annoying (and expensive!)
- Getting more organized. My office became a junk room over the past two months with boxes of books I'm getting rid of slowly but surely on paperbackswap.com and piles of Christmas crap, so it's time to clean it out a bit. It's to the point where I just leave the door shut so I don't have to look at it and I vowed to never have a room in my house like that.
- Pay the Christmas bills and then be more careful with money. I'm generally pretty good with money, but once I start spending it's hard to stop. I think I went over my Christmas budget by about 50% and then started hemorrhaging money all over the place on fast food, baby gifts, eating out, clothes for myself, way too high grocery bills, etc. So, I'm doing my best to get under control, pay the bills, and move on. So far, so good this month, but the list above involved babies, weddings, and vacations. Not exactly frugal activities, but I'm going to do my best to keep costs down. I'm currently trying to figure out which old dresses I can have altered to fit me again for the weddings and the cheapest way to get down to NC to see my niece.
- The big one (and the one that is probably the most resolution-y): I'm trying to be a happier person and therefore a nicer person. I'm trying to whine and gripe less and relax so I can be a better friend, family member, and spouse to the people I love. I'm sure this will be a 20-year or so process
I missed bullet points in my minday hiatus.
I'm going to resist the urge to write a long, boring, this is what I've been up to over the past 5 months post. Those of you who know me know that crap already and those of you who don't probably don't care all that much. Instead I'm going to post a crap load of pictures 
Note that none of these adorable children are mine, except for the fluffy, scruffy, white one.
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I feel like I've started a million posts on here in the past few months and then just never finished.
Mostly, I blame Facebook. Seems silly to write things here to a few people who occasionally read when I can broadcast things to everyone I've ever met over FB. But I'm missing writing longer entries. And missing writing things I don't have to worry about every relative I have reading.
So, I'm back. Maybe. For now. We'll see how it goes
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Sometimes when I'm cleaning my house or working in the garden or cooking, I think of the woman who used to live in our house. When I washed the walls before we painted, I thought that she would be happy if she knew we were taking care of her house. When I watched the tulips and daffodils poke through the hard dirt this past Spring, I wondered how long they had been there and pictured her planting the bulbs, hands covered in dirt. When I made my first roast chicken in the oven for our friends for dinner, I was sure Anna would be happy to know that her oven still worked after two years of no use (and again to know that her smoke dectors also still worked).
I even had some lofty idea of sending her some flowers this Spring from her garden. Maybe I should have.
Mrs. Pucci lived in our house for 41 years and raised her family there. When we tell neighbors we live in the Pucci's old house, they smile and sometimes tell us stories about Anna. Our trash cans still say Pucci and we still have the collection of every different size nail and screw you can imagine in the basement. I did throw out the ancient dried cilantro we found and the keys to the garage that was torm down before we moved in. And someday I hope to remove the safety rails from the bathroom and maybe figure out what to do with the blocks of lead in the basement.
I hope Mrs. Pucci would be happy to know that we love her old house and that a new family has come to call it home.
Reason #398456789 I love my iPhone - it took some half decent pictures this weekend at the beach when my regular camera crapped out on me.
We went down to Ocean City, MD with TJ's family this weekend and came back last night. It was a nice little weekend away, but defintely way too short.
Checklist for the weekend:
- Dumser's Ice Cream
- Kick TJ's ass at skeeball
- Dough Roller breakfast
- Thrasher's fries
- Boat (for TJ)
- Rum Runners
- Playing in the ocean
We got there late friday night so we could get a full day in on Saturday. We started right in on our checklist in the morning and had breakfast at Dough Roller. After a very large meal, we decided that resting it off on the beach would be the best course of action. So, we laid in the sand by some really cool kites. I asked TJ to buy me this crab one and he said no. I thought it would like nice on our roof, he said it would make too much noise and drive the dog crazy. He's just too practical.
After resting up, we walked around on the boardwalk and went into the nearest arcade so we could get the skeeball asskicking underway.
I tried to get a picture of my high score, but it changed over too fast. I set a new personal record, though (410) and beat TJ's high by 200 points.
After some more fooling around at the arcade (including the way-cool photobooth pictures below), we left the beach to go meet up with TJ's parents at the house they rented.
By the time we were all showered up and clean and had a few drinks in us, the rest of the family started to show up. We hung out for awhile before going off to find dinner.
Sunday, we had an awesome breakfast made by TJ's dad and then headed out for some more beach time. The beach was packed and pretty hot, so we spent most of the time in the water. I don't think I've spent that much time in the ocean in years (I usually get freaked out by seaweed or something and lose my nerve). Tamara loved the water too and was so cute in the sand. She kept wanting to touch it, but then it would stick to her hands and piss her off.
After we headed back and got cleaned up, we headed to a nearby racetrack to watch the horses and lose money. Tamara liked the big "dogs."
Afterwards, we headed to the boardwalk for more skeeball asskicking and Dumser's ice cream. I'm just a little pissed I forgot to wear my pedometer for the long walk... Oh, well.
Yesterday, TJ's dad rented us a boat to play on for the afternoon. TJ wants to rent a boat every time we go to the beach, but pretty much always misses out, so he was pretty damn happy.
While we were on the boat, Elmo suffered an unfortunate accident. No worries, he's ok now. Just probably needs to go through the washing machine.
Afterwards, we went out to dinner and Mary and I drank a few too many rum runners. It was a very good thing TJ volunteered to drive us home. I pretty much slept the whole way...
Meanwhile, Maddie is enjoying some quality time at Grandma and Grandpa's with her Aunt Molly. I can't wait to pick her up tonight
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A year ago today, I was in Athens. On the last day of my honeymoon. While I have to say this summer is a million times more relaxing than last summer, it would be really nice to be in Greece instead of my cube right now.
I still have my calandar from last year. I think I might keep it for awhile. It's really funny to look back and see the millions of appoinments for dance lessons, meeting with the florist, getting my hair trial done, dress fittings, etc. Being married is so much more fun than being engaged.
I didn't think I would feel that way. I thought I'd miss wedding planning and all the attention. But I am loving this summer.
We weren't really going to do much for our anniversary because we had a wedding picnic to go to (the downside of getting married on a holiday - we will probably spend every anniversary at some sort of bbq), but we ended up celebrating on the 3rd instead.
We both had off work, so we bummed around the house for a little while, got bagels for breakfast (new favorite = french toast bagel) exchanged gifts (another thing we weren't going to do, but oh well). I gave TJ an Apple gift card to start his new laptop fund (not very romantic, but whatever) and three cards (I just couldn't decide!). He gave me a dandelion necklace made with little bronzed dandelion leaves. Very pretty, but I'm very paranoid I'm going to break it.
We took the train into the city for the ice cream festival at Penn's Landing. I have always wanted to go to this, so I was pretty much about to pee with excitement when I was handed my spoon and set loose in the ice cream tent. And then we ran into a wall of hungry, sticky people proudly carting around with piles of empty ice cream cups and were shoved every which way before we finally found our way to our first stand.
It was pretty disappointing. By that point in the day, most of the stands were down to just vanilla and you had to wait forever to get it. We fought our way through to get a few little cups before deciding we'd rather just walk around Penn's Landing, so we left and got snacks at Auntie Anne's. I'm glad we went because I get very excited about the ice cream festival every year, and now I know I'm not missing anything. Oh, well.
Afterwards, we walked to South Street to do some window shopping and people watching. After an hour or two, we were ready to eat, so we walked to Tangerine and got there 30 minutes early for our reservation. They sat us right away, so it didn't really matter.
We had been there once before for restaurant week with Andrea, Bob, Karin, and Chris, but we had to pick off a limited menu. This time, we got way too much food haha. We started with the Meze Tasting (hummus, baba ganoush, roasted peppers, feta, egglant fritter thingy, salami, etc.) and drinks (peach sangria for me, lemon soda for TJ). I think that enough would have been enough food, haha. TJ got pork with pomegranite stuff on it and I got a steak for dinner. I don't usually order steak out, but this was amazing. Seriously, the best steak I've ever had. After we split some strawberry shortcake to make up for the ice cream disappointment earlier in the day.
We headed up towards Independence Mall afterwards and sat outside for some of the Philly Pops concert before we decided to cal it a night.
Pretty much a perfect day.
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Some pictures from Bonnaroo...
The horrible downpour as we left our hotel in Nashville on Thursday morning:
It cleared up a few hours later while we were waiting in a very very long line of traffic. Here, Robbie demonstrates how to never get your dad to lend him his car again:
We were kind of bored. What do Katie and I do when we're bored? Make people pose for ridiculous pictures:
Katie found a talent for hydrating people with a water gun (or just so thoroughly soaking you that some was bound to get in your mouth):
A rousing rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I think this was like 4 hours in?
And out came Uno. There are now Uno cards all over my car. I found one in my glove box yesterday and one in a CD case the day before. PS - don't play Uno with Ron. He makes you follow the real rules...
Hours later, finally at Centeroo (I didn't take any pictures in between because I was not quite in a picture-taking mood and soaking wet):
It took us awhile to figure out what this was all about. At first we thought it was just people dancing to nothing just for the hell of it, but you actually waited in line and they gave you headphones to dance to. Pretty cool actually, but we never made it in there.
These port-o-potties were originally for our private use until they filled up the field behind us with campers on day two. They were still the cleanest, newest potties in the place, so we dubbed them the "luxury boxes"
Our lovely campsite, which was nice and shadey thanks to Mom and her lovely canopy:
Ron got a lot of compliments on this outfit:
Ever wonder what 700 acres of hippies would look like? Or what our future will look like if the unempolyment rate keeps going up?
Blanket man??
General craziness:
Beastie Boys:
More general craziness, plus big bugs that lit up at night:
We're freaking adorable
But not as adorable as Katie and Ron when they "air french?"
Says Robbie: "did you see the hooker?"
Now that my blisters/sun poisening has almost cleared up and the angry ball of hate in my stomach has disolved, I'm feeling ready to blog about our wonderful Bonnaroo experience.
Let me just start by saying that I am, in spite of what might follow here, very glad we went and did have a lot of fun. I will also say that you'd have to pay me a whole lot of money to get me to ever go again.
Short version:
- Highs: Santigold, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Phoenix, Al Green, Ted Leo, Beastie Boys, really good food (lots of mexican-inspired, fair-type foods), awesome people-watching time, Daily Show comedians, not getting sick after eating ice cream from Pickle Bob's after only being able to keep down saltines and gatorade for 24 hours.
- Lows: Lots of rain, tornado watch/warning, 8 showers for 80,000 people, afore mentioned sun poisening, watching people do way too many drugs in front of their very young children, day stuck in Pigeon Forge, TN with stomach virus.
- Total time spent in Toyota: About 35 hours
- Phrases/words coined: luxury boxes (the clean, less popular port-o-potties), magic screen (TJ's iPhone), ball of hate (feeling in stomach when you need to vomit), rasharoo (sun poisening), bonnaflu (evil stomach virus).
Long version:
Since it did affect my vacation experience, I'm going to start with the weekend before we left for Bonnaroo. TJ was away at camp, so the dog and I had a lot of mother-daughter bonding time. That Saturday was pretty hot and I accidentally took her for too long of a walk (still learning my way around the neighborhood) and came home and gave her doggie ice cream to cool off. Several hours later, she had horrible, thick brown vomit all over the dining room floor. I figured it was just a combination of things just making her stomach upset and didn't worry too much about it. That night, I let her sleep with me since TJ was away. Around 3 or 4 in the morning, she woke me up by vomitting all over the hallway floor. I cleaned it up and then we cuddled until she fell back asleep. Sunday, I just gave her some rice and gatorade and she seemed much better.
Crisis over. Until I was leaving for work Monday morning and she got sick all over the dining room again. I called the vet on the way to work and sorted things out so TJ could take her up that morning. Several hours and over $300 later, we learned that she had a parasite and were given 3 prescriptions and some canned food for her. Not a huge deal, but this meant my mom was hestitant to babysit Maddie because her puppy is so young. Some phone calls later and it was decided that Jelli would watch Maddie for a night so she could have an extra day on the meds before my mom picked her up. So, Monday was shot.
Tuesday night, TJ headed off to get his Dad's car (he was letting us borrow his SUV for the trip) and I packed. Katie, Ron, and Matt came over to drop off all their stuff and to load the cars. All we were missing was Robbie. Around 10 or 11, we found out he was at a 21st birthday party and wouldn't be there until late - so we told him not to come and wake us up, but to just get there in the morning by 6am.
Woke up around 5am on Wednesday and started getting ready to go. TJ called Robbie to see where he was, but no answer. We found him sleeping in his car in our driveway - turns out, he got there late and just slept in his car. Not that big of a deal, excpet we had a 13 hour drive ahead of us that we needed him to be awake for. Not only that, but he didn't get his car fixed, so we ended up having to take mine and he got mad and threw a nerf football at TJ's face, breaking his glasses. As we would tell him when he drew a penis on the window of a McDonald's later in the trip, he's "so 20."
We headed out and made good time getting through PA, DE, and MD. Virginia started to take forever, so we stopped off at a Waffle House for lunch and even met some fellow Bonnaroo-ers (from Boston). A few long hours later, we were finally in Tennessee. We met Katie and Ron at a motel (as we now know that the distinction between hotels and motels are the rooms opening up directly to the outside - the more you know, the more you grow) near Nashville. The next morning, we had what will probably now be my last meal at a Cracker Barrel ever (so sad), went food shopping at a Super WalMart, and then met up with Jimmy, his girlfriend Taryn, and their friend Austin (who had made the drive all the way down with them and didn't even have a ticket yet).
Leaving Nashville (about 60 miles away from Manchester), we saw signs all over the place for Bonnaroo traffic. The exit we were supposed to get off of was blocked by cops, so we had to go several exits down before we could exit. On the way, we saw that traffic in the opposite direction was stopped, with a long line of cars parked on the side of the highway. We felt bad for the people waiting there, thinking we had lucked out and were coming from a less-traveled direction for Bonnaroo - little did we know that these people were the lucky ones.
The next 8 or 9 hours were spent sitting on the side of the road for 30-40 minutes, driving 500 feet, and then sitting again. We amused ourselves with Uno, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, football, washers, running into corn fields, water guns, playing on our cell phones, and drinking (well, the boys did anyway, Katie and I were too worried about having to pee). Ron also threatened to give blow jobs to anyone who cut in front of us in line, which he will probably never ever hear the end of.
Around 9, we finally pulled into Bonnaroo! And it started raining. Then pouring. Then there was a tornado watch/warning and we told to stay in our cars. And we set up our tents in the midst of it, getting absolutely drenched in the process. At this point, we were all frustrated, exhausted, and pissed that we had pretty much missed a full day at Bonnaroo. Which made us really great people to be around, haha.
At a break in the rain, TJ insisted we go find some real food, check out Centeroo and see Passion Pit, so we headed toward the bright lights and loud noises. Passion Pit was pretty good from what I heard, but we were mostly just trying to get our bearings, so we headed back after exploring a bit and, of course, it started raining again. Cold, driving, get-you-soaked-through-your-$1.29-Target-ponch rain. There was nothing to do except try to get as dry as possible and go to sleep. But not before TJ gave us all a good show by walking into the tent in nothing but his boxers, soaking wet, yelled "Watch Out!" and dropped trou because there was no where else even semi-dry to get changed.
The next morning looked optimistic when the hot sun forced us out of our tent around 8am. After enjoying the bright blue sky for about an hour (just long enough to feel hopefull), it clouded over and turned gray. At least that meant we could nap...
So, we napped, ate Chef Ron's hot dogs and burgers, covered ourselves in suncreen and put on our standard issue, matching bandanas, courtesy of Katie, and headed out to Centeroo. The rest of the day was sort of whirlwind-esque and invloved a ferris wheel looking out on miles of tents, some of Animal collective, watching people get their entire bodies painted red, cooling off in a muddy fountain, dancing to Santigold, eating benevolent burritos, watching a guy with a full beard dressed in a hot pink moo-moo dance to Al Green, getting smooshed in a very fun crowd for Beastie Boys, catching a little bit of David Byrne, trying to stay awake for Phoenix, and then finally back to the tents for sleep.
Saturday was my birthday! Everyone at the camp site sang a rousing rendition of happy birthday, accompanied by a yukelale, which was what Taryn called, "the saddest happy birthday she had ever been a part of" haha. I decided all I really wanted for my birthday was a shower, so TJ, Katie and I set out a trek to find the showers, only to discover that they were about a mile away and that the line moved impossibly slow for the 4 stalls designated for women. Katie and I retreated to the handy sink station instead, washing up as best we could using my tank top (I had a bathingsuit on) and the sink. It was gross, but felt wonderful.
Afterwards we went up to Centeroo to walk around and shop a little, see Elvis Costello, Bruce, the Daily Show stars (a lot of the comedians on the show, minus John Stewart), some of NIN, and some of MGMT before heading off to bed around 3 or 4am.
Sunday was an easy day, except for the blisters on my back and arms from the sun. We cleaned up the camp site and loaded the cars, headed up to Centeroo to see Ted Leo and walk around some more. Met up and headed out to take Katie and Ron to the airport in Nashville.
After the airport, TJ and I went to hang out in the hotel and I took the best shower of my entire life. It's really bad when you can't tell what is a tan line and what is dirt when you're washing yourself....
We met back up with Robbie and Matt and ventured into downtown Nashville, which was overrun with crazy country fans for the CMA festival. We got food at a brewery, walked around to the kitschy souvinier shops and found a tank! The tank was in the middle of the street for some reason and it inspired Matt to do a photo essay (I'll have to post pictures of everything later).
The next morning, we got up bright and early for the 13 hour drive home. Fueled up the cars and headed to waffle house for some grease and coffee, where TJ and I were referred to as Robbie's parents (thanks for rubbing in my oldness two days after my birthday). We got on the road and everything was fine - until TJ decided we needed to stop an hour or so later.
10 minutes later, he's in the Kroger bathroom puking as I'm shopping for Solarcaine and ginger ale and Matt is vomitting in the parking lot. Well, that sucked, but on our way.
We made it another hour or so before we had to stop again. We then spent the next 2 hours hanging out on the porch of a Cracker Barrell while TJ, Matt, and I made frequent trips to the restrooms (and the bushes when TJ couldn't make it back inside).
I don't think I can ever eat at Cracker Barrell again. And it's not even their fault.
While trying to figure out if we could drive anymore, I texted Katie to see if she or Ron were sick. Ron called me back 2 seconds later to tell me that they were in the hospital because Katie had been vomitting the entire night before. The doctor's said they thought she had a virus.
Scared for what we might be in for and unable to drive too far, we hopped in the cars and pulled in at the Marriot down the street. Got a room and promptly passed out for most of the day, getting up only to drink ginger ale and then again when my stomach rejected the ginger ale.
We drove home the next day and are all more or less healthy now. Needless to say, I get to pick our next vacation and it will include showers and umbrella drinks.
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And, finally, on the topic of Karin's wedding, I just wanted to post her toast here so I wouldn't lose it:
Andrea:
For those of you who don’t know us, I’m Andrea and this is Lauren, two of Karin’s friends and roommates from college. We were both so excited when Karin asked if we would want to give a toast today, but, since the three of us can’t do anything without checking with the others first, we thought we should speak together.
Lauren:
First of all, we’d like to just say thank you to Karin and Chris for asking us to share in their wedding day and letting us be a part of this happy occasion. It was truly an honor to stand with you at the beautiful ceremony earlier today. We’d also like to thank Karin’s parents, Susan and Bruce, and Chris’s parents, Stacy and Rich, for hosting us all here today.
Andrea:
When the three of us lived together in West Chester, we wrote a list of house rules on the wall of our apartment. While these were mostly just for fun, having had the experience of living with Karin, we would like to now amend these rules in order to give Chris some advice that we believe will lead to a long and successful marriage with Karin:
(L)1. Always have the kitchen stocked with mac & cheese
(A)2. If you see an overturned cup randomly placed on the floor, you are to promptly and properly dispose of the bug underneath it.
(L)3. A birthday isn’t a birthday without tequila, but make sure you have limes. Lemons are not a proper substitute
(A)4. Blankie stays in the bed with you. Period.
(L)5. Take-out Chinese food, wings, or Wendy’s can pretty much fix anything
(A)6. If you really don’t want to watch Blue Crush or Dirty Dancing for the millionth time, just call us and we’ll fill in. But you will have to deal with the million reruns of I Love the 80s, 90210, and Golden Girls.
(L)7. Always live within a 10-mile radius of Kohl’s and Starbucks.
(A)8. Don’t let her borrow your clothes unless you’re ok with them disappearing into the depths of her closet.
(L)9. Sometimes it’s easier to throw out dirty dishes and start over rather than trying to wash them.
(A)10. The remote is always Karin’s – she will use force if necessary.
Lauren
Being English majors, Karin and my writing abilities weren’t just limited to the graffiti on our apartment walls. We also took many literature and poetry classes together in school and often entertained each other by writing poetry about our teachers and friends, like the infamous serious “Ode to a Grecian (fill in the blank)” and “looking out on a freshly fallen cookie.” I think Karin might be expecting a custom-tailored poem for a special occasion such as this one, but seeing as how that poetry was pretty much terrible, Andrea and I decided that it would be better to read a poem that is very special to Karin and has meant quite a bit to the three of us over the years.
Andrea:
Thank you for being a friend.
Travel down the road and back again.
Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant.
Lauren:
And if you threw a party,
invited everyone you knew.
You would see the biggest gift would be from me
and the card attached would say,
thank you for being a friend.
Andrea:
To Karin, thank you for being a friend,
Lauren:
To Karin and Chris, may you know nothing but happiness as you travel down the road and back again.
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Karin and Chris's wedding part 2.
After the ceremony, we loaded back into the limo bus for more champagne (bottle number 3 for the day?) and the short ride to the country club.
When we got there, they were still setting up, but we got to peak at the cocktail area and see the cake!
Karin requested that no one do anything to doctor the following photo, haha.
We bustled up the bride and had yet another bottle of champagne and then the bride and groom went off for some more pictures. Karin showing off her bustle:
The groom looking very sauve:
Cute:
Guests started to arrive shortly after and we got to join the cocktail hour (yay for taking pictures before the wedding!). The food was awesome - mashed potato bar, pasta station, lots of passed stuff.
When it was time to go into the reception, Karin got to see what the guys had planned for the entrances. They had some left over props from Chris's bachelor party, so I ended up with some hot star shaped sunglasses on the arm of a man with a very large fake mustache, with Andrea on his other arm with a red and black feather boa. Behind us were two pirates, and behind them The best man, maid of honor, and blow up doll. I was worried what Karin's parents would think, but everyone was cracking up and had fun with it. My dad actually told me that we need to redo my wedding so we could all do some crazy for our entrances, haha.
Karin and Chris danced their first dance to "I want to Grow Old With You" by Adam Sandler from the Wedding Singer - very cute.
Next were the toasts. Karin had asked Andrea and I to give one because her sister (maid of honor) was too nervous to do it and both best men and the groomsman were giving toasts and she felt under-represented. Andrea and I were psyched, but I'm a nervous wreck about speaking in front of people, so it was a little rough. I think it went over pretty well, though - we got a few laughs, esp. when we recited the theme song from the Golden Girls
The rest of the wedding was sort of a blur. The food was excellent and we had a ton of fun dancing.
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A little delayed, but pictures/details from Karin and Chris's wedding last weekend!
The whole weekend was devoted to wedding stuff. I picked Andrea up on Friday after work and we drove to my parents' area (stopping on the way for some amazing ice cream - dress size be damned!). After running some errands to get last minute supplies, we had dinner with my parents and then worked on our toast. The next morning, we got up early to meet Karin for breakfast at Starbucks and to get our nails done. Karin was cute - talking like she had already had 5 cups of coffee, haha. At the nail place, she was cornered by a very strange woman who proceded to tell Karin her whole life story, complete with unwanted marital advice.
After nails,Karin set off to the florist while Andrea and I went back to the house to begin the lengthy hair straightening process. Andrea's hair is extremely curly, so the whole thing took over 2 hours, some hair-cutting, flat ironing from me, and then reinforcements from Mommy. While I would kill for curly hair, it does make me appreciate my short hair, haha.
With the windows up to prevent any curling, we headed out to the rehearsal with our boys. The rehearsal was very quick (esp. compared to the Catholic ones I'm used to) and we were off to Chris's parents' house for dinner. Dinner was amazing (they made a TON of food) and we got to relax and hang out and practice some Greek dancing in the backyard.
We headed back to my parents' house for some Wii and junk food (there was a lot of junk food last weekend - it's amazing I could zipper that damn dress) and toast practicing.
Andrea and I got up early the next morning for all of the pre-wedding primping rituals and headed over to Karin's for breakfast, hair, makeup and pictures. Karin was in pretty good shape - a little hyper, but not too nervous. And she was wearing our birthday present to her:
Chris, being deemed the most romantic out of our men for the day, had left her a very sweet card to wake up to pointing her in the direction of her mailbox, where she found a beautiful pearl and diamond necklace and earrings. After ooh-ing and awe-ing, we got down to serios hair/makeup business.
Andrea in rollers (after all that straightening!):
Karin looking like a worried Lil Bo Peep:
Ahh, much better:
Brides gotta eat:
Karin and her mommy:
Oh, yeah, brides gotta drink too:
After hair and makeup, the photographer showed up to start snapping some pics. He did a really nice job, but he was a little strange at first. He kept calling us from room to room, but then kicking us out so he could shoot Karin alone. By the end of the day, if anyone said "Ladies" the rest of us chimed in with "get out."
He took a bunch of group shots and portraits of Kars (including one of her getting ice cream from the ice cream truck - my idea, of course, and I'm insanely jealous there was no ice cream truck on my wedding day) and then left us to fool around on our own until the boys got there.
The girls, all married hags, tear...
One of my favorite pictures from the day:
After some family shots with the boys and Chris's family, we headed out in our limo bus to Bucks County Community College for more pictures. It sounds odd, but they have a beautiful sculpture garden there.
Some pics of the ride:
Chris with his women:
Pre-wedding toast:
The bride and groom:
The prettiest bridesmaids:
After pictures, we made a pit stop at Acme for saftet pins because one of the bridesmaids' dress broke. While we were waiting, Karin discovered the bag of props the guys had brought for our grand entrances into the reception. It's a good thing Karin has a great sense of humor...
Well, what wedding isn't complete without a blow-up doll??
At the wedding, the picture taking was turneed over to TJ and he got some great pictures. I *heart* our telescopic lense
So, I'm realizing how long this post is and that the pictures will probably freeze up computers, so I'm going to stop for now and do the reception pics as a second post.
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I'm finding this dark, dreary afternoon more or less perfect. I just want to curl up on the sofa with my dog and some junk food (maybe leftover pizza? maybe takeout chinese - TJ won't be home, so the possibilities are endless!) and enjoy the thunderstorm. Just have to get through this last half hour of work...
For a short week, I feel like this week has stretched on forever. I just have no patience for this job anymore.
Anyway, on to happier things. This past weekend was Karin and Chris's wedding. It was so much fun - what a whirlwind weekend! Karin was such a beautiful bride - probably the most princess-looking bride I've ever seen. I'll post pictures with more detail later because I'm too lazy to do it now. She and Chris are in the Bahamas right now and I'm insanely jealous
I've been trying to work out my own vacation plans for this year. We're heading down to Tennessee in two weeks for Bonnaroo (our tickets came yesterday!) and I'm really looking forward to it and sort of dreading it at the same time. I know it's going to be an amazing amount of fun, but in my head, I can't get over the 14 hour drive and camping thing. Once we actually start getting ready and head out, I know I'll get over it. It just seems like too much work to be a vacation at the moment.
Normally I like more adventure-type vacations, but lately I've been dying for a chance to lay on a beach with a really pretty drink. My parents are trying to plan a group Disney thing this year, so we can't swing the beach thing because of lack of vacation time. We're thinking of going to the Bahamas or something in the winter - any suggestions of where to go? I'm thinking all-inclusive so we don't end up dropping a ton of cash on food and drinks.
Two minutes until 5. Thank god. This weekend should be good - it was supposed to be our do nothing weekend, but that never works out, does it? TJ is at a bachelor party tonight while I clean the messy house and maybe go out to dinner with my parents. Tomorrow, the dog is getting groomed, I need to plant the flowers hanging out on the front porch and do some laundry, we need to paint our new shed, and then we're going to see Anthony's band at night. Sunday morning, I'm off to Ikea with Jelli and then we're having a Bonnaroo planning meeting at our house.
5:02 hooray! Happy Weekend!
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