Tag...I'm it!

Alicia over at It ain't easy being cheesy tagged me in a sexy little game. First let me say that Alicia has quickly become one of my favorite bloggers. The girl has a wicked sense of humor and the stories of her adorable little family are quite entertaining so get your asses over there and check her out. Now on to the rules:

write 5 things that make you feel sexy
-post a pic (if you dare!)
-pass it on to 5 lovely bloggers

First let me state that sexy is not an adjective I would normally use for myself, I consider myself more of a "cute" girl. Anywho here's what I got:

1. Wearing 4" stiletto heels...specifically my fab-tastic blue wedding heels
2. First thing in the morning sporting my oh so sexy bed hair... I don't personally find myself sexy but my fiance claims I am and who am I to argue :)
3. Wearing jeans, a wife beater and a ponytail
4. When I'm dancing with my future hubs
5. Wearing a flower in my hair...I do this a lot at weddings with the flowers from the centerpieces :)



Now I'm tagging-
RCaitlin at City Intern Girl Life
Lacey Bean at Perks of Being a Jap
Kristen at K.Law Inspired
Kristen Sara at While We're Waiting
Brooke at oofa luffa le

Have at it you sexy girls!

Wedding Party Wednesday

I haven't talked much about the fabulous family and friends that have graciously agreed to be in our wedding party so I've decided to start Wedding Party Wednesday's, where I will introduce a member of our wedding party and tell you about why that particular person kicks ass.

First up is Krista aka my MOH aka Matron of Honor aka girl that has put up with my craziness for the past decade. I met Krista way back in 1998 when I was still sporting some hideous bangs and thought skorts where the hot thing in fashion. Yeah I was a hot mess. I was a wee little incoming freshman to East Carolina University (GO Pirates!) and going through the treacherous Sorority Rush... err... Recruitment. Krista was already a member of and one of the first people I met when I walked into the AOII house. I think she liked me mainly because I was also from her home state of Maryland and us "yankees" have to stick together. I still insist that a large part of why these wonderful girls agreed to allow fashion challenged little me into their sorority was due to Krista's persuasion and I will be forever grateful.

Ever since we've been incredibly close. We've shared many heartaches and triumphs together and from even our early days of friendship we would plan out our future weddings. I've been able to spend vacations in the Outerbanks with her and her family, Christmas Eve's at her parents house and I even briefly dated her little brother when I was a sophomore in college and he was a *cough*seniorinhighschool*cough*. I also had the honor and pleasure of being her maid of honor last summer when she married her awesome husband Todd (who makes the best sandwich's at 2am when you're drunk!).

Krista and I always joked that we would end up being the crazy cat ladies together but thankfully we've both found amazing men who are willing to put up with us and no longer have to look forward to a future life as spinsters. She's always been like the big sister I never had and I'm so happy she will stand next me on my wedding day!

A Love Story Across All Times

One of the other things I bought this weekend besides my super cute new Old Navy dress was the novel A Time Traveler's Wife. After seeing a few previews for the movie that is coming out next month I figured this would be a great read. It definitely has a bit of The Notebook vibe to it which is another book AND movie that I loved...then again it could be because Rachel McAdams stars in both. I asked my friend April what she thought of the book because she's a big reader so I value her opinion. She said that she really enjoyed it and it picks up a bit more in the middle.

Anywho I started reading the book on Sunday and I'm a little over a 100 pages in. So far I'm really enjoying it and I'm excited to see what happens, though after watching the previews I already have a decent idea of where the story is headed. I must admit it's a bit hard to follow the shifts in narration because it will jump from one character speaking in the first person to another character speaking in the first person, not to mention the jumps in the timeline.

My goal is to finish the book before the movie comes out in a couple weeks because I really do want to go see it. I just hope they don't completely change the ending around like they did in The Devil Wears Prada and My Sister's Keeper.

Check out the trailer. I suspect I will need to sneak in a box or two of tissues with me into the movie theater. God I love a good Love Story!

Weekend Update

After spending so many weekends this summer moving/unpacking or doing wedding stuff, we finally had a weekend of summertime activities. On Friday night we went to a pool party that K's buddy and his wife were hosting for their son's friend that is leaving for Iraq. It was odd being the "grown ups" at a party full of high school/college age kids and to be the friends of the parents there. Eventually the kids moved off to another house where they could drink more freely and Kristian and I were able to relax in the hot tub for a bit. It was a great night minus the 72 mosquito bites I came home with.

Saturday Kristian decided to go down to his parents beach house to spend the day fishing with his dad. While he was off male bonding I decided to go shopping of course. I haven't bought any new clothes in a while and I was in search of some cute new tops and dresses. Alas, I didn't find much that I couldn't live without but I did score a super cute new sundress at Old Navy.



On Sunday we went down to Georgetown and had brunch at Tony and Joe's on the waterfront. It was great people watching and we played a little game of "do you think he's gay?" or "do you think that dude is a terrorist?" I also was able to wear my new super cute Old Navy sundress.

After we ate we walked by the movie theater on K. St. and decided to stop in and catch a matinee of The Ugly Truth. Despite a predictable ending I really enjoyed the movie and surprisingly so did Kristian. It could be the fact that they talked about tits and ass a lot and what guy doesn't find T&A jokes humorous? Finally we made it home and Kristian cooked up a killer Rockfish dinner which we ate while watching Role Models on Netflix with Paul Rudd and Sean Williams Scott. Another very funny movie.

Overall it was another great week and now I'm sitting at my desk at work trying to kill time while they fix our email AGAIN. Sigh.

My first year as a mom...

Well a cat mom that is. Today is the one year anniversary of me bringing home my furry, four-legged son from the vet after having his manhood removed. Two days prior I had gone to the Fairfax County Animal Shelter and adopted him, however they don't allow you to bring them home until they are spayed or neutered.

I always grew up with pets but I had never had one of my own and after finally moving into a pet friendly apartment I decided to embrace my future as a single, crazy cat lady and adopt a little fur ball of my very own. The funny thing is that I almost ended up with two other cats. First, I almost adopted a kitten that a friend of my aunt's had found, however by the time I was in my new place and ready to bring the kitten home he decided he wanted to keep it after all. Then when I went to the shelter I was in the back room looking in all the cages and spotted a tiny orange tabby that was super cute. I went out to the front to ask if I could see the kitten outside of the cage and when we went back another little brown tabby had appeared (apparently he had been busy doing his business in the litter and I didn't see him). So they took both out for me to play with. I had the hardest time choosing because they were both adorable and very playful. The woman looked at the sheets again and discovered the orange tabby was actually still too young to adopt so that made my decision easy and I went with the brown tabby.

I decided to name him Halpert after my fictional t.v. boyfriend Jim Halpert from The Office. When trying to come up with names I didn't want something generic and I wanted the name to have some meaning to me. So I figured why not name him after something I love and anyone that knows me in real life knows I LOVE Jim Halpert. The name actually really suits him and his personality, in fact the very first thing he broke was my Dwight Schrute bobble head doll. Ironic?

Halpert really has brought me so much joy over the past year and he makes me laugh all time. He has such a funny little personality and he's always wanting to play or cuddle. I can't imagine my life without him and I highly recommend anyone that doesn't have a pet to immediately go out and get one whether it's a cat or a dog or a goldfish.


(Halpert's first night at home...he weighed only 3 pounds!)




(Halpert and I this past winter, he finally grew into his ears!)

Pre-marital counseling

I decided to go ahead and check another item of my to-do list yesterday and finally emailed our officiant for the wedding about what requirements/pre-marital counseling we need in order for him to perform the ceremony.

Since we aren't getting married inside a church and since neither Kristian nor I attend church on any kind of regular basis we decided to use my mom's boss as our officiant. My mom is the office manager for a small Methodist church up in Maryland and her boss is the main pastor. I've met him briefly in the past when he came to my grandmother's wake and from the stories my mom tells he seems like a good guy and I think he'll do a really good job. I was also relieved that he was willing to travel down to VA to do this since it's not something he usually does. Plus it will require him to get a VA license to perform marriage ceremonies so we really do appreciate him going out of his way.

He responded back to me today and said that we would need to fill out an "inventory" of our relationship, aka take a compatibility test, so that he can see what areas we need to really address in our meetings. My mom did mention this to me before and says that most couples do well. However there was one couple that scored very low and they ultimately ended up not getting married! Pastor Steve said that there are usually 3-4 sessions involved after we take the inventory so we have plenty of time.

I'm actually pretty excited about this, Kristian and I have obviously already discussed all the big marriage issues i.e. finances, kids, religion etc. but I'm sure there are many things we're missing and talking with someone who works with couples on a regular basis can only benefit our relationship. I've always been very pro pre-martial counseling, I think regardless of how long a couple has been together everyone can benefit from some form of doing this, even non-religious couples which is what I consider us to be. I just hope we score well on our "relationship inventory" I already asked my mom is she could steal us a copy of the test but it's probably a bad karma to cheat on a test given by one of God's workers.

10 months and counting

We are officially 10 months out from our wedding day. Time really is flying by fast, I thought having a 15 month engagement would feel like forever but it really will be here before we know it. I still can't believe summer is half over. I can't help but feel like I've wasted a lot of it by spending my weekends moving and getting settled in and doing wedding stuff...though I shouldn't consider any of that stuff a waste of time. Besides next summer, after the wedding is over we can spend our weekends BBQing, going to concerts and taking trips to the beach.

Anyway seeing how we are at the 10 month mark I figured I should make a list of what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done in the next few months:

Done-
-Booked the ceremony/reception venue
-Booked the caterer
-Booked the photographers and have a tentative date for the engagement photos
-Ordered my dress
-Bought my shoes
-Ordered my mom's dress
-Put together a tentative guest list

To do in the next few months-
-Gather addresses for all our guests
-Order and send out Save the Dates
-Go shopping for bridesmaid/jr. bridesmaid dresses
-Email the officiant and setup our premarital counseling sessions
-Get pricing from some florists and DJ's.

Thank God for the long engagement if I had to cram all this planning into 6 months I would have lost my mind!

My Lucky Day!

A special thanks and shoutout to Kristen Sara at While We're Waiting for picking me as the winner to her first blog giveaway! I've never won a blog giveaway before so I'm super excited! This definitely helps brightens my otherwise gloomy Monday morning.

Because work is fairly hectic today and I should probably be doing something productive to earn my paycheck (and unfortunately blogging doesn't count) here's a quick recap of my weekend-

-Friday night Kristian and I went to Hard Times cafe to listen to some live music and gorge on chili...which came back to haunt us both later that night.

-Saturday we woke up and went to Silver Diner to gorge on some yummy Chipped Beef and eggs (sensing a pattern to the weekend??)

-Saturday afternoon I met up with my mom to go order my wedding dress!!! It's official I have a wedding dress...or at least I will in about 6 months once it arrives. I tried it on for her and I loved it even more the second time around. Also, my mom ordered her dress!! I absolutely love it, it's very classy and elegant and looks beautiful on her. It will also go nicely with my dress. It's pretty much the complete opposite of what she set out to buy but isn't that usually how it works?

-Saturday night I went out for apps and drinks with my BFF Colleen. We went to a restaurant/bar near my place in exciting Woodbridge. We had a great time catching up and letting some old dude buy us drinks. However since we were sitting outside I walked away with about 25 mosquito bites on my legs/feet.

-Sunday we went to visit K's grandmother and unexpectedly received our first wedding present! She had already ordered it and figured why not give it to us now so we can start using it. She got us a fantastic Pro HG Wok which apparently is a very nice brand of cookware.

I'm not familiar with the brand b/c A. I don't cook a lot and B. I don't have the money to invest in nice cookware. Anyway we were both very excited to get this and can't wait for all the yummy dishes we can make.

-Sunday afternoon we stopped by his parents house because they also had a gift for us...a beautiful oil painting of the ocean with waves crashing over the rocks. It's huge and will fit perfectly over our couch in the living room. Afterwards we came home and Kristian made an AMAZING Rockfish stew and we watched a movie in bed.

Overall it was a pretty great weekend!

STD's

First off I have to say that I truly hate that the acronym for Save the Dates is STD...that's almost as bad as the acronym BM for bridesmaids. I don't want to be thinking about poop when I refer to the lovely ladies in my wedding party. But I guess in the day of WTF, OMG, LOL and my personal fav STFU it's to be expected.

Anyhoo, I mention the STD's because I brought up the topic of what we should do for ours to K the other night. To which I got the predictable response of "why do we need Save the Dates, everyone already knows when the wedding is". I took a deep breath and gently tried to explain to my husband-to-be that Save the Dates are a courtesy that many people like to receive. Obviously our immediate family members and wedding party know when the wedding is (at least they better!) but a lot of our other distant family members and friends probably don't have that date marked on their calendar covered in hearts and flowers like I do.

Also, there are probably several friends that don't necessarily know that they will be invited. In this day and age with the economy what it is so many couples (including us) are opting for smaller guests lists so I'm sure there are a number of our friends that aren't sure if they've made the guest list cut...honestly we're still trying to figure out which friends we are and are not inviting. I would like to give these people more than about 8 weeks notice especially since our wedding is the weekend before Memorial Day and I'm sure people will be making other vacation plans. Of course his solution was "can't we just call them and tell them?" Well....yes...we could...but I know of one groomsman in particular who everytime he sees us asks us what the wedding date is. It would be nice if he had a physical reminder of the day in question.

So after making all of my very valid and wise points the boy finally agreed that maybe they are a good idea. One battle won! Now we are just trying to compromise on WHAT to send. I'm pretty insistent on sending out a magnet as opposed to a postcard or some kind of piece of paper which can easily get mixed in with the junk mail and tossed (I hate to admit I'm guilty of this). I think a magnet is more likely to be used and kept and are great reminders. Actually I still have all the STD magnets I've gotten from weddings past. So I think we've agreed to using a magnet. Now the question is do we go with a plain magnet of only text or one that includes a photo?

Oh well I tried

So the clip I tried to post earlier from So You Think You Can Dance doesn't seem to want to work anymore *angry fists* Sorry, I tried :( If I can find the clip posted elsewhere I promise to repost.

I KNOW I can dance...but not like this

So You Think You Can Dance is probably my most favorite show to watch in the summer. I think this is due largely to the fact that I grew up dancing. From the age of 3 until high school I took ballet, tap and jazz dance classes and then I spent 4 years on my high school's dance team so I love all things dance. And the contestants on this show KNOW how to dance. What I love most is that you get to see so many different dance styles from hip hop to ballroom to bollywood. I must admit that everytime I see a routine with the girl wearing a beautiful flowy gown dancing a lovely waltz with a handsome man in a tux it makes me want to run out and sign Kristian and I up for dance classes.

Anyway I just wanted to share the video from my favorite routine from last night. Not only is the routine itself awesome but it's danced to a great Jason Mraz song. K and I are big fans of Jason Mraz. When we first started dating he burned me a copy of Jason's latest CD which he had just bought, for K's birthday I got us tickets to see Jason Mraz in concert and best of all when K proposed Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" was playing in the background.

But back to the dancing...this routine is SICK! Enjoy!

Music to my ears

THIS is one of the many songs that will play at our wedding reception. Everytime I hear it I just smile. Enjoy!

I'd like to thank the Academy....

and most of all my girl Kristen at K.Law Inspired for my very first blog award!



Since I've known Kristen in real life for a decade now I can honestly say that she's one of the coolest chicks I know and her blog cracks me up so go check it out.

I would also like to pass on this award to: Abbie from A Glimpse of the Girl Next Door because she's also in the midst of planning a wedding (God Bless her) and my girl April at Adventures with April because she's the only girl I know who is actually shorter than me and b/c her daughter is super cute.

Apparently the rules in accepting this fabulous award is to post 10 things about myself that you may not know or frankly care about but I'm gonna do it anyway.

1. I hate to talk on the phone, I prefer to communicate via email, facebook or text message. The only people I ever talk to on the phone on a regular basis are my fiance and my mother.

2. I'm obsessed with celebrity gossip and I feel out of the loop if I'm not able to check Perez Hilton or other gossip sites at least once a day. I don't like watching or reading the "real" news it's too depressing. I would rather read about the tragedy that is Lindsay Lohan.

3. I have a fear of deep water and actually any water where I can't see the bottom or know what I'm stepping on. That's why I prefer to swim in pools rather than the ocean or a lake.

4. I've been planning my wedding since I was about 4 but now that I'm doing it for real I'm finding that planning a fictional wedding with no budget is much easier than planning a real wedding with a real budget. However I WILL still read wedding magazines even after I'm married, it's like my version of porn.

5. I can’t sleep without a fan on, even in the winter. I need the noise and I can’t sleep in complete silence. However Kristian's snoring does not count...THAT noise I can do without.

6. One of my biggest fears is that after spending the past 10 years doing everything I can NOT to get pregnant that when it comes time for me to actually want to get pregnant I won't be able to.

7. In high school I use to stop at Wendy’s or McDonalds everyday after pom practice to get a combo meal. The drive thru people recognized my voice and knew my order yet I never weighed over a 100 pounds until after college.

8. I’m horrible with geography, I use to think that New York was in between Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Don’t even get me started on states like Idaho or Montana.

9. I use to hate to cook, my grandmother always said a man would never marry me if I didn’t know how to cook. The past two years I finally started learning how to cook some basic recipes and now I actually enjoy cooking AND I finally found a man to marry me. My grandmother was a very smart lady.

10. I named my cat Halpert after my fictional tv boyfriend Jim Halpert from The Office.

Done and Done

I'm starting to cross some of the biggies off my wedding to-do list. I sent back the catering contract today along with the deposit so that they will hold our date. We still have up until a month before the wedding to finalize the menu, the guest count, linens etc. I CANNOT WAIT to do the tasting, just looking at the proposed menu on the contract makes my mouth water.

Oh yeah and I FOUND A DRESS!!! Finally! On Saturday I went shopping with one of my besties/bridesmaid Colleen. First we went to Ellie's Bridal in Old Town Alexandria, close to where the wedding will be. There were 3 dresses that I liked a lot but determined one would be better suited for a beach wedding and the other wasn't quite as full at the bottom as I wanted, however Colleen said if I didn't want that one she would take it! But then I tried on another dress and I LOVED it. Colleen pointed out that my demeanor was just different in this dress and I was even swaying back and forth in it as if I were dancing. There are a few minor adjustments I would like to make which the shop can do without any problem and I don't think will cost too much extra. After realizing that I really did love this dress the nerves kicked in because I had no idea how much it cost. They don't have any price tags on the dresses (irritating) and the consultant didn't ask me my price range (irritating x2) so for all I knew the dress could have been $5K which needless to say is WAY out of my budget range. I cautiously asked how much it was and began to jump up and down a little when they said the price was within the range I was hoping AND cheaper than the other previous dresses that I really liked.

Anyway I didn't order it because we still had another shop to check out later that afternoon and because I really do want my mom to see me in it first. So we stopped for a quick lunch at Cosi and then headed to another shop in Falls Church. At the second shop Colleen basically had to help me with trying on and zipping up the dresses and due to my poor planning of wearing a thong got to see more of me than she ever really needs to. There's was another dress there I liked a lot but ultimately not as much as the dress at the first shop.

So my plan is go back this weekend with my mom and try the dress on for her. The store didn't allow me to take pictures but I did send her the link to the dress online and she loved it. Then I'll get measured and put in the order which should take about 6 months. The dress has everything I was looking for, the sweetheart neckline, the lace, the right amount of poof at the bottom, a little bit of sparkle and a reasonable price!

The Man Cave...errr...Closet

Before I moved in Kristian had an entire 2bed/2bath condo to himself which he filled with all of his fun man toys i.e. guns, knives, fishing poles, guitars etc. Well once it came time to try to merge my crap with his crap we had to get creative about how to organize everything. Kristian, like most men craves having his own personal "man" space ideally a whole room preferably an entire garage...which could also hold a flat screen and a kegerator.

Seeing how the guest room is actually furnished and setup to be a guest room K has been relegated to the walk in closet in the guest room. This has become his "man closet". We bought a shelving unit and now it's completely organized with all of his fishing and hunting gear as opposed to having it all spread out on the floor of the guest room which is how he had it before. He also put a little stool in there and he'll go in there at night and just sit on the stool and look at all his fun "toys" or play with his fishing lures. Quite frankly I don't see the fun in that but it keeps him out of my hair while I'm watching my dumb reality shows so I don't try to stop him.


Where Kristian goes to hide from me.

I do feel bad that he's gone from having a "man condo" to a "man closet" but I promised him that as soon as we're able to move into a bigger place I'll make sure he has a room or garage space just for him.

Making my mouth water

First up an update from yesterday's post...I got my shoes today! Thank you UPS man! I pulled them out of the box and they were just as cute in person as in the picture. I lurved them immediately. I tried them on and they were a wee bit tight and by wee bit I mean VERY tight. Can feet retain water?? I think they'll be fine after they've been broken in and fortunately I have plenty of time to do that. I spent a few hours rocking out in my 4 1/4" heels at work. My coworkers thought they were adorable and my boss doesn't know how I'm able to walk in them. Umm about 25 years of practice that's how. Anyway I'm very excited about my new wedding purchase.

Now on to my yummier update. Last night Kristian and I had our first meeting with a potential caterer. We met with Dianna from R&R Catering and we immediately liked her. We walked into the meeting room and she had gone ahead and set up a potential table setting using the wedding colors I had given her. She walked us through the proposal and explained everything to us in great detail. It's obvious that she's very knowledgable and has years of experience. She's also very familiar with our venue which is nice.

After we left we both decided right away that we wanted to hire them. We've heard great things about them including from the photographers we met with a few weeks ago, they have a great rating on Wedding Wire, their pricing is very reasonable, they seem to be very flexible and allow us to change the entire proposal if we want up to a month before the wedding, oh and their menu options look AMAZING! I plan to attend the next open house tasting that they have this fall and then we'll have an easier time picking the items we want to try out for our personal tasting later on. One suggestion I have is to NOT meet with a caterer on an empty stomach. After the meeting was over we had to book it to a nearby Mexican joint so that K could get some food pronto.

My plan is to fax back the contract and send in my deposit tomorrow so that we can check this VERY big item off of the to-do list. Thankfully we still have plenty of time to figure out the type of food we want and whether or not we want to provide the alcohol or have them provide it. Any thoughts? Suggestions? We see the pros and cons of both.

Shoes and Dress Required

So while I'm still on the quest for the perfect wedding dress I have made some progress in my attire for that day...SHOES! I'm sure it's not the norm to buy the wedding shoes before the wedding dress but I already knew what I wanted so I figured why not? Long before I was engaged and actually long before I even met Kristian I decided I wanted my "something blue" to be my shoes. I loved the idea of that little pop of color peeking out from under the dress.

The quest for cute, affordable blue heels wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I scoured MANY sites from Target to DSW to Nordstrom but couldn't find a pair that I really liked and especially not for the budget I was trying to stay within. As with everything else I'm pretty frugal when it comes to the cost of my shoes. Don't get me wrong I LOVE shoes and have more than I'll ever need but I try to keep the cost of each pair pretty low. But for the wedding I figured I could splurge just a TINY bit. So I finally found what I think are the perfect pair on Zappos.com. I actually was debating between two pairs but after emailing both to my mom and hearing her opinion (which was similar to my initial opinion) I decided on the first pair I found. And the best part is that I also got free shipping and should receive them this week. Hopefully I like them as much in person as I do online:



They are just the right shade of blue with the little bit of bling I wanted and they are 4 1/4" heels which is perfect for standing next to my fiance who is a foot taller than me.

Still mentally on vacation

Despite getting off to a rough start last Thursday we ended up having a very nice long holiday weekend. We started off by taking it easy on Thursday night since K still wasn't feeling great so we just hung out and watched Gran Torino which is a GREAT movie. Then K proceeded to do Clint Eastwood impersonations all weekend.

Friday we woke up and my fabulous fiance made me breakfast in bed :) We ran a few errands and went shopping and I found some super cute potential dresses to wear for engagement pictures at Ann Taylor Loft and then found some super cute potential bridesmaid dresses at White House/Black Market. After we finished window shopping we stopped by Burke Lake so he could fish for a little while. Later that night we went out for some apps/desserts and drinks which is my favorite combination. Typically I could do without the main entree, my favorite parts of eating out are the appetizers and desserts and since I was CRAVING chocolate cake it worked out perfectly.

Saturday we got up early and headed down to his parents beach house in the Northern Neck of VA. The weather was fantastic, not a cloud in the sky and not unbearably hot like in years past. So while Kristian and his dad spent the day at the end of the pier fishing I hung out with his mom and aunt drinking on the deck. We tried out Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka and mixed it with Lemonade and between us three girls finished the bottle so needless to say I was more than a bit tipsy and ended up telling my future mother in law my entire life story as well as all the cute little embarrassing stories about when K and I first started dating which I know he loved.

His parents made a great rib dinner that we ate on the deck and by that point I was starting to sober up. We then sat on the pier and watched as all of the other houses around us and across the water set off fireworks. It was a great evening and I promptly went to bed as soon as the fireworks started to die down.

We left pretty early yesterday and fortunately didn't hit too much traffic and then spent the rest of the day rotating between laying on the couch and laying in bed watching tv. I did motivate enough to go to the store to buy the ingredients to make homemade vegetable soup last night. Overall it was a great weekend holiday weekend and I can't wait to spend 4th of July down there in the years to come.

Bad Way to Start the Weekend

Unfortunately it appears that our long holiday weekend isn't getting off to the best start. Last night K woke up around 3am because he heard a noise outside, he then wakes me to tell me that either his car had been stolen or towed because it wasn't out there anymore! I figured it had been towed simply because of all the cars in the parking lot his wouldn't be the one that someone would probably go out of their way to steal. I told him there wasn't much we could do about it at 3am and we would figure it out in the morning.

Well he spent the rest of the night feeling miserable, apparently his body has been taken over by some nastiness that requires him to be close to the bathroom (sorry for the visual). We got up this morning and he still feels like death warmed over however the slightly good news is that his car was in fact towed and not stolen. So I drove him to pick it up and $120 later he has his car back and headed home to get back into bed.

I feel so bad because it's partly my fault he got towed. He owns his condo and he has a hangy tag for his car. He actually does have a reserved spot but never parks in it because it's further away than he would like so we both park right across from the condo in the unmarked spots that I assumed were for visitors. Apparently anyone that parks there needs a permit even in the unmarked spots. He finally mentioned this to me before we left for Jamaica because he was afraid that my car would get towed being left in the same spot for a whole week. I wasn't too worried b/c I had been parking there overnight regularly for months. So our brilliant plan was that he would put the real permit in my car and I would make a fake permit to put in his car. Now I'm no professional counter-fitter but I thought the fake one I made at work looked pretty good...at least from a distance. And we haven't had any issues the last month and a half but our luck ran out last night. This comes only 3 months after my car got towed in front of my apartment complex (on the one rare night I actually stayed there) because I didn't get the memo about getting the updated permits.

Annnnyway, he called the HOA to request another hang tag (which we should have done sooner) and the lady in charge of that is apparently already on vacation until next week and for some ridiculous reason nobody else there can supply us with another tag until she gets back. So basically one of us will have to park in the complex across the street that does have visitor parking otherwise there's a good chance one of us will be towed again. I think the whole situation is completely ridiculous and I don't understand why his complex doesn't have ANY visitor parking available.

So between his car being towed, the current parking situation and him feeling like something crawled up in his stomach and died our weekend isn't looking too bright at the moment.

Almost Done

Last night K and I went to re-prime the 3 walls I had painted in my apartment. I had been putting this off for over a month and I really did need to wait until a time when he could help me since I'm vertically challenged and needed help painting closer to the ceiling. I officially have to be out of my apartment this Saturday even though the last time I actually slept there was back in April. I've been counting down the days until I was completely moved out and done dealing with that mess of a place. Despite only living there a year (and only sleeping there a third of the time) I wouldn't have renewed my lease even if I were still single and needing a place of my own to live.

When my BFF Colleen and I moved in there together last year things started off promising but shortly after our move in date the management changed and things went down here. Both her and I have had issues with the management and basically their incompetence and unorganization. Not to mention the fact that the apartment and all the appliances in it are very old and barely work. Thankfully both her and I didn't have to spend a whole lot of time there due to our relationships. The only positive I can really say about the place is that the location was very good and it was within walking distance to a lot of stores (not that I ever walk anywhere, that's why God invented cars!).

Anyway when I moved in I was sick to death of only having white walls wherever I lived so I decided to spruce up the place by painting one of the living room, dining room and bedroom walls. But knowing how the management tries to squeeze every penny out of it's residents and charge for things they don't tell you about up front, I knew that they would try to make me pay God knows how much to re-paint three walls. So after talking to one of the guys in the main office he said all I really needed to do was prime the walls since they paint between tenants anyway. So that's what we did last night. We actually were able to knock it out pretty quick and even got two coats on each wall. However I'm still covered in paint, it's even in my hair despite taking a nice long shower last night. I guess I won't go into painting as my new profession even though it's a pretty kick ass arm workout.

Now all I have to do is go back and grab the few cleaning items I left there and drop of my keys and my rent check for the whole 4 days in July that my lease ran through, give them a big F-U and never look back. I now have a much cuter, much sweeter landlord!