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Ed. Note: This is the post that I wrote and lost the other day. I stumbled upon it saved in my drafts folder – I had no idea it was there! The dates are a little off because I don’t feel like editing this from when it was written on 12/9. 
Wow, my poor little blog has been ignored since November 19. And before then, it wasn’t very much better. You would think that since I haven’t had a job for, oh four and a half months now, that I would have plenty of time on my hands.
In those months, I have found plenty to keep myself busy with – especially now that we’re engaged. If I wasn’t spending every waking moment searching for a venue, then I was mailing cupcakes or making envelopes (more on that after Christmas). In anycase, I’ve been busy.
After driving to and from Connecticut and only spending two days there (that’s a 12 hour drive for anyone that’s counting), December was right around the corner.
We had planned to get our tree on the first Saturday inDecember – the same as last year. We drive up into the mountains so we can cut our own. Well, Saturday came and we had been to a Christmas party the night before and after consuming one too many root beer float shots, I slept later than we had planned. And it was kind of gross out, so we postponed to the next day.
Sunday we drove up to Boone, NC (where Appalachain State University is) and cut down our tree and came home (more on that soon, too). We hung out at the house for 2 hours while L worked on homework and I finished making envelopes before heading to a friends house that night for dinner where we stayed until 10:30.
Then I started thinking… when the heck were we going to put up the tree?? Or the other decorations for that matter? This is our schedule:
Monday (12/7)
Day: L works at part-time station till 6; I run errands getting stuff for a party that night and prepare
Night: I have ornament exchange party at a friend’s house; L goes for drinks with all the husbands who weren’t invited to the party
Tuesday (yesterday)
Day: L works 24 hours at full-time job; I run errands to get supplies for a banner he asked me to make for a retirement party they are hosting at work next week and then clean the house so I can put out Christmas decorations.
Night: This is when I was going to decorate inside the house (minus the tree that was still in the garage in a bucket of water)
Wednesday (today):
Day: L works at part-time station; I finish any decorating I can do on my own
Night: We go to an award ceremony and dinner for his captain at work
Thursday:
Day: L works 24 hours; I start making cookies for the retirement party they are hosting next week.
Night: L is still at work; I do wedding research stuff.
Friday:
Day: L works till 6 at part-time station; I work on wedding stuff, etc.
Night: We have L’s work Christmas party at 6:30 and have a co-ed baby shower at 7. Hmm, the Christmas party is 45 minutes away and the baby shower is in town where we live. We will obviously be very late to the latter.
Saturday:
Day: We were supposed to run in a 5k, but L is working 24 hours for someone else. I am no longer running because I didn’t register early enough and now it’s like $40.
Night: L is still working, but we have also been invited to a graduation celebration for his friend’s wife. I may still go bc the friend’s wife is friend’s with CR.
Sunday:
Day: L works 24 hours for his normal shift
Monday:
Day: L works till 6 at his part-time station
Night: Nothing. Wait, what? Did I just write ‘nothing’? One night that we don’t have planned. I guess we can decorate the tree this night!
Tuesday:
Day: L works 24 hours
Night: L still working. I’m going to dinner with CR.
Wednesday:
Day: L works till 6 at his part-time station
Night: We have the monthly business meeting at the VFD. Big meeting because we’re voting on a lot of positions.
Thursday:
Leave for his parent’s house and go to a beach music party that night
Friday:
Spend some time seeing family in friends near his parents’; drive back Friday night for a friend’s party.
Saturday:
Attend E’s graduation (she got her Master’s!), then drive back to L’s parent’s house to go to a family dinner party that night.
Sunday:
Attend a second family dinner party with L’s family.
Monday:
Drive together to CT
Tuesday, Wednesday:
Enjoy CT
Thursday (Christmas Eve):
L flies back to his parent’s house and has dinner with them. Then drives to Charlotte to work to let someone go home early that night.
Friday (Christmas Day):
L works his scheduled 24 hours; I’m in CT with the fam
Saturday:
L works his part-time job; I’m still in CT
Sunday:
L works 24 hours; I drive back from CT
***
So, there you have it. We would be able to put up and decorate our tree on exactly one day. and that happened to be 3 days before we go out of town. Well, that’s not very much fun. And a waste of a very pretty (and expensive) tree!
The other night, L said he would put in for a stand-by vacation day for yesterday so we could get some stuff done around the house. When I texted him yesterday morning at 8:30 to see if he got it, he hadn’t. It’s all dependent on how many people have also requested a day and how many other people are already on approved vacations or call in sick. It didn’t look like he would get the night off either.
I continued on with my day. Made his retirement banners, got a gift together for the baby shower and cleaned the house. He texted me letting me know that he was getting moved to a different station for the night and I was bummed that he wasn’t able to come home. I had just finished cleaning and sat down to watch a rerun of the Gilmore Girls when the doorbell rang.
Finally! The kid I bought a wreath from for a school fundraiser was finally delivering it. I opened the door and it was no pimle face teenager – it was L! He had gotten the night off.
He did admit though, that he didn’t think it was going to happen and he actually was moved to a different station. But just before he left they called him back and told him he could go home.
So, we put up the tree and decorated it and put up some of the outside decorations. Unfortunately, it was raining really hard, so we couldn’t put them all up.
Our tree is so pretty and I”m so glad we got it up!
I am really going to try to be a better blogger and post everday like I used to.
L and I had the most wonderful weekend at the beach. We got there a little after lunch time on Friday and left early Monday afternoon. The whole weekend? Absolute bliss. Friday was a little cloudy, but every other day was the aboslute perfect beach weather. Not too hot. Not too cold. Just. Perfect.
The most interesting part? It was the weekend after Labor Day, so one can say that the “beach season” is over, yet it was very, very crowded. Spring break crowded. But with one minor difference. L and I were probably the youngest ones there by AT LEAST 25 years. Yes, twenty-five years.
You see, L’s parent’s condo is in the heart of Shagging country – the kind of old school partner dance to beach music. About two years ago, one of my friends introduced me to beach music by way of a Chairmen of the Board concert and I’ve loved it ever since. And whenever we go to the beach, there’s always that hint of Shag, even if it’s just the pictures on the walls of the bars.
But this weekend was different. This weekend was the SOS Fall Migration. SOS stands for Society of Stranders. The Myrtle Beach-area, mostly North Myrtle Beach (I believe) is referred to as the Strand. I believe the short version of the SOS history began in 1989 when a guy who was an NMB lifeguard in the 50s started this one time festival for all those that loved beach music and shagging. Thousands decended upon NMB and shagged and partied for 10 days. Then it was repeated the next year, and soon after that SOS became a real organization and now they do this 3-4 times a year. People from shag clubs from all over (mostly the Carolinas and the southeast, but other places too) come together to keep the dance alive and enjoy being with friends. L put it best when he said it was the AARP spring break on steroids.
But you know what? We had the most fantastic time. A long time ago I asked L if we could take shagging lessons before some big party we might throw as a celebration next year and he agreed. But this weekend made me so much more excited about it. They all just have so much fun dancing. The condo balconies were strung with the banners from Shag clubs and the beaches were filled with people our parent’s age and older playing cornhole, drinking, swimming and tanning. But those taht weren’t on the beach were in the clubs. There were Shag workshops beginning at 10am and from our condo we could see people overflowing off the patio of the bar across the street as early as 11am.
The fall migration began on Friday, but was really in full swing by Saturday. We walked into the bar across the street on Saturday evening around 8pm. It was crowded, but we were determined to find a table because we wanted to eat there for dinner. As we walked up, there was a gentleman at the door. L starts to reach for his wallet, assuming that he was there to card, but instead the man asked for our SOS membership cards. L told him we didn’t have them and he said, ‘just go in anyway.’
Later, when we made friends with a well-known Shag DJ, the head of the SOS organization and another SOS member, we learned that you pretty much need to have a card to get into these places. Apparently we were just lucky.
We were able to listen to some outdoor concerts they had and a street festival on Monday too. Very unexpected, but fun events!
Besides that, we took the puppies for two 5 mile walks on the beach and they got to swim a lot too, we ate in our favorite seafood town twice, drove up to Sunset Beach and Ocean Isle just to see it since I had never been (and perhaps secretly wanted to see if there would be any potential places for that party we might have next year – shh, don’t tell L. I tired to convince him that that wasn’t on my mind – but I’m pretty sure he knew it was:).
I totally didn’t want to go home Monday, but alas, all things must come to an end. I guess there are some perks to being unemployed though since we were able to go for almost 4 days!
Here are some photos and videos from the weekend:
Burying L’s feet in the sand
Sunrise walk on the beach
Shep layed down in the water while some other people stopped to talk to us on our walk
Early eveining is one of my favorite times on the beach. L and I headed out before dinner to share a bottle of wine. He’s just learning to appreciate wine, so we started off with my favorite “beginner’s wine” – white zin, or kool-aid wine I’m not gonna lie, I still love it!
At the bar we weren’t supposed to be able to get in to. Right before this picture, a lady sitting next to us leaned over and said, “excuse me, did you drink ALL of those beers?” L just laughed and said “Yes, and a bottle of wine before we came.” The lady laughed and made some comment about her days of being able to do that were over. It was funny and she was very nice. These Shaggers are just so personable and nice!
The water tower has Shaggers painted on it. Supposedly this was a historic moment and it was lit up for the very first time – although I swear it looked like this every other time we’ve been there.
Shep swimming in the ocean – he had a great time and was actually swimming until he got pummelled by a few waves. Also, I really didn’t want to put myself in a bathing suit on here, but our puppies are just too darn cute!
Dixie swimming. She didn’t like it quite as much as Shep – but it’s funny to watch her leap over the waves.
What? I’m actually making progress on my running? No way! That 5k is starting to seem more realistic every day. Last week I ran a mile without stopping for the first time in my entire life. And then, I did it again. I was so impressed and proud of myself.
On Monday, I met L at the fire station where we worked out for 30 minutes and then finished up with a run outside. We did our own thing at the gym and I was finishing up just after him. I tried to increase the weight a little on a couple of the things I did, so I did the same on my last routine. I was doing those things where you hold a weight behind your head and lift it up – to work on the jiggly, underside of your arm (triceps, I believe is he correct term). When we first started doing this a couple weeks ago, I used a 5lb weight, but realized it was a little too easy, so I moved on to an 8lb weight. Monday I was going to go for the 12lb-er. That’s when L just looked at me and was like, “um, no. Use the 25lb one.” Was he crazy? I can’t lift 25lbs up and down behind my head. “You’re selling yourself short, I know you can do it. You’re a lot stronger than you think.” So I went for the 20lb one and you know what? I did it.
We headed over to wear we run and walked a half mile first. I was tired, but didn’t want to admit it. We started running and weren’t too far into when L mentioned how heavy his legs felt. Oh thank God, it wasn’t just me. I barely made it a half mile, but when I made the turn it felt better – for about 30 seconds. It was rough. We finished up the mile and didn’t stop and kept going. Our goal was to finish a mile and a half. And we did. But I will not deny that I almost didn’t make it. And possibly grunted like a cave man during the last two tenths of a mile.
BUT. Not only did I do a mile, but I did a mile and a half. During the grunting phase of the run, L kept telling me that he would give me a 30 minute back massage if I made it. After we finished, he confessed he didn’t think I was going to make it because I had already said I was going to quit. But I didn’t. Woo, go me!
Yesterday, I went out by myself and did it again. This time there was no grunting. And this time I also didn’t do a mile and a half. I did 1.8 miles! If I hadn’t have eaten dinner earlier, I think I could have made it the whole two miles. I couldn’t believe it. The two mile mark was in sight this time.
The 3.1 miles is getting closer and closer. And I still have about 51 days to practice! I don’t want to keel over as I’m crossing the finish line, and I know I’ll probably be one of the last runners, but as long as I finish, that’s all I care about. And I still have plenty of time to improve some.
Oh, and I can practice in a lovely environment this weekend. At the beach! I really thought that when L called his mom she was going to say the condo was already being used, but it’s not! I really can not describe just how excited I am to go this weekend. We’re definitely going Friday – Sunday. L is scheduled to work at his pt job on Monday, but he’s going to see if he can switch it for another day so we can stay through Monday. The beach makes me happy!
I’m sitting here perusing some blogs and looking for job postings and have the news on in the background. A story just came on that really irks me. Soon (I can’t remember when since I was doing too many things at once), US Air will start charging $20 for the first bag checked.
Seriously?
$20 for ONE checked bag?
Come on, people.
Oh, and that’s only if you check your bags online – which I didn’t even know you could do. Anyway, if you check them in at the airport, it’s $5 more.
Ok fine. You need to charge more because you’re losing money. But now you’re going to charge more to do it at the airport?
Sometimes I don’t know if I”m going to check a bag until right before I leave. It depends on what I can fit into what bags.
Also, with all this charging for bags, it causes havok on the plane and makes the boarding process so much longer because people don’t want to pay the fees and try to shove huge bags in compartments that they don’t fit in. Or people who can’t manage to lift their bag above them try to and block the aisle and oh my God can’t you just sit down and fasten your seatbelt so we can go???
Perhaps this will go the way of the fees for soda and water. Since you know, that was dumb too and they went back to it being free.
On a side note, I think all the additional charges are completely absurd anyway. Don’t tell me that the fuel costs more during Thanksgiving than other times. Because I don’t think that’s true yet you’re still trying to charge me $600 to fly from NC to NY. Yeah. Not cool.
Annnd, speaking of crazy ticket prices. Why were tickets to Cabo $230 last Monday and as of last Tuesday they are $450? Because, I don’t know, we may have just booked a week long trip to Cabo for next July to celebrate LM’s 30th bday.
Ok. I’ll end my random tangent.
L and I had a great time in CT. We left last Thursday morning when L got home from work and we made it in 11 1/2 hours. Not too shabby since it’s an average of 12 hours. I felt bad for the puppies though because it was such a hot day and then sun was beating in through the back window on them for most of the ride. We kept aiming the A/C on full blast on them.
We arrived around 8:15 that night and had dinner from my favorite Italian place out on my parent’s deck. Their dog Max, also a black lab but about 35 pounds heavier than ours, has a bad habit of being “too affectionate” with Dixie, if you know what I mean. But I remembered something that someone did at the dog park to their dog once and gave it a try. Whenever he started, I ran over and twisted his ear. He did NOT like this, but it made him stop and he hardly ever even tried to do it again. And then they had a grand ‘ol time playing the rest of the weekend.
Friday L, my mom and I took all three of them to the dog park for awhile and then took them to this little creek nearby to wash off after they got in the mud. They loved swimming and splashing in the water. They all jumped right in and kept coming out and jumping off the small ledge again.
We went home and changed and L and I headed out to grab a train into the city. We had lunch at a place called Jackson Hole in Manhattan – L had eaten at one in Queens on a trip with a friend a few years back and wanted one of their famous burgers again. From there, we took the subway up to the new Yankee stadium for the second Yankee/Red Sox game of the series. We got there plenty early to walk around and check out the new stadium before heading to our seats which were about as high as you could get. It was a lot of fun, however it was a 15 inning game. All zeros on that scoreboard until the 15th inning. Oy vey. Once we got on the train back to CT and into bed, it was 3:15am!
Finally! They won!
Saturday we headed up to one of my favorite places to eat lunch. It should have only taken 45 minutes to get there but there was traffic the entire way and it took us an hour and forty minutes!!! It was well worth it though. After that, we continued on a few more miles to a town where they have a steam train that you can ride. It was a very pretty ride and the weather was perfect. After a quick stop at the outlets on the way home we had dinner with my parents on the deck again. I really love being able to eat outside on nice summer nights.
Sunday was kind of a yucky day, a little rainy and pretty humid. We hung out for much of the day and then headed to the beach around 4 for a cookout with a bunch of my family. We had a quick shower in the middle of it, but after that it was fine. I absolutely loved it. If I can’t eat out on the deck, I want to be able to go eat at the beach whenever I want.
Monday L and I went to a local greasy spoon place that he loves and then toured a city that he is fascinated with because it has a lot of sketchy sections (he can be so weird some times). Then we took the puppies and Max to a park with a river to go swimming. They had so. much. fun. We kept them on their leashes, but at one point decided to let go of the leashes so they could have some more freedom. Bad idea. They splashed in the water, then made their way up the opposite bank of the river and went running. I tried to make my way through the water which was only waist deep, but my flip flops kept falling off, then the rocks were hurting my feet. I was yelling and yelling so loud for them and was so incredibly scared. Just up the hill from where we were was a busy highway and I was afraid they were going to make their way up there. L quickly went running around the river to head them off and was able to catch them. We decided not to let go of the leashes anymore. Well, not until I had a smart idea. L was on the opposite side of the river, my mom was on the same side as me. My thought was that if I went and stood in the water at one end, then we would have all points covered and we could let them go and someone would be able to catch them. L really didn’t like this idea, but went along with it anyway.
It worked well. Except Dixie runs really fast. And she jetted out of the water, with Shep right behind her. My mom was able to grab Shep, but Dixie got by her. This time, she went in the opposite direction of the highway. This was a problem too, though. This park has tons and tons of woods and trails. At first I thought she was going to jump back in the river, but she didn’t. L went running in the other direction to catch her again. I went running after her while my mom held Shep and Max. Except my flip flops were wet and very slippery. So I kicked them off and kept running barefoot. I was calling her and calling her, but she was far out of my sight by this time. I was so scared that she was going to get up in the trails and I wouldn’t even know where to start. But before I knew it here she comes splashing down the river back in our direction. I called her and she came running out and after a few attempts, I was able to step on her leash and catch her.
Oh man. We should have gone home as punishment, but they were having so much fun in the river. We let them swim and since L and I were so wet already, we stood in the water with them. Both puppies swim, but we tried to hold them in place for a picture. It was like a swimming lesson though because both of them kept paddling in place while we were holding them. It was so funny.
Every night all the dogs passed out completely because they were so tired. It was great.
Tuesday we headed home around 9:30 am. It was such a long ride this time. It didn’t take any longer, I just wasn’t in the mood for the drive. We got those static cling window shades for the back window of the car and it helped immensely. The puppies slept all the way back.
I’m really glad we had the chance to go home for awhile and relax. It was a great visit.
Here are some photos of the puppies hanging out on the deck and with Max:
Max
Dad, can we pleeassee eat our supper?
So I’ve officially been out of work for about 2 1/2 days now. And, um, I’m starting to run out of things to do. I don’t want to waste my days sleeping/being lazy, so I get up around 7:45/8 and get dressed and ready for the day. Monday I searched online for jobs for a while, I did some grocery shopping, stopped at Marshall’s to window shop, took the puppies for a walk and cleaned the house top to bottom. And that was it. And you know what? It didn’t take up the entire day. Not to mention, L was working so I didn’t even have him home or coming home from his part-time job to break it up.
Yesterday, I tried a workout on on-demand that sort of kicked my butt, looked for more jobs, ran to the bank, and folded a month’s worth of clothes and put them away. L had a promotional test in the morning, then went to lunch with some of his co-workers and ran some errands. When he got home, it was a nice break.
Today, I met him at the fire station in town so we could drop my car off for an oil change, gave the puppies a bath and got dressed. We’re leaving for CT tomorrow morning so I still need to pack and clean out my car so it’s nice and sparkly for the drive tomorrow. I’ll look for jobs again in awhile, but then that’s it. L is working at his full-time job tonight, so it’s another day of just me and the puppies.
I’m not sure what I’ll do once we get back from CT. I’m trying to come up with little projects to do around the house and space them out so I don’t do them all at once!
In other news, we’ll be on our way to CT in less than 24 hours and L hasn’t asked me any huge important question. 
When I ruined the whole Savannah thing, he told me it would be before we went to CT, but it never happened. We thought about going to the beach the weekend before last. Kind of a last minute idea, but L told me that he’d rather hang out around the house. I thought maybe it was going to be that weekend since he hardly ever turns down a trip to the beach. Maybe he had something planned. But the weekend came and went and nothing happened. Then I thought it would be this past weekend. But as I thought about it more, I didn’t think he would do it then. He told me he had planned to study for his promotional exam all weekend. Saturday we actually ended up working on our fence (yay!) and then we went to a friend’s birthday party. Sunday, maybe? Well, since he didn’t study on Saturday, I knew he would need to study on Sunday. And that he did. All day long. Monday, as I noted, he worked. When I talked to him that night I asked if he was coming home after his test on Tuesday or if he had other stuff going on. That’s when he told me he was having lunch with the guys and then running errands. But he wouldn’t specify what kind of errands he was running. I thought maybe he was going to do it last night. Then when he got home, he told me how he wasn’t going to an FD thing that he had been planning to go to. Then I thought maybe it really was going to happen. Then he went and cut the grass and did some stuff for work. And, of course, it never happened.
He keeps telling me that he has something planned. And that I just need to be patient. And I know that I need to be patient. But I just want it so bad. And I don’t know if he decided not to ask me before we went to CT because he thought I would be expecting it or what. But it’s just disappointing I guess. I know I probably sound like the biggest brat in the world, but I can’t help it. We’ve been talking seriously about getting married for almost 2 years now. And it just keeps getting pushed back. He said this to me the other day. In a really cute and sweet way: I’m not trying to upset you or stir anything up, but I really, really wanted to do it in Savannah.
So, I know that he wants to do it, but. I don’t know. I don’t know what I think. I’m just so ready to start that next part of my life with him and I want it to start now.
But, in anycase. We’ll be in CT all weekend and won’t be back till Tuesday night – so I probably won’t be posting till then. It will be good to get away for a few days – and L even got tickets to the Yankees/Red Sox game on Friday.
It has happened. My poor little car is officially old.
It happened on the way to work this morning. Not long after I got on the highway. Perhaps that’s appropriate considering I spend a good amount of time on that highway every day. And yes, all 100,000 of those miles are from me. It had a mere 11 miles on it when I bought it brand new.
To think, it’s just over 4 years old. My damn commute is what did it. Almost 100 miles a day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so glad I moved in with L – I just wish I could find a job that was a little closer to the house.
So here’s to you, my cute little car. You’ve been loyal to me – even after that minor little accident a few years ago. And when I say minor, I really mean, not so minor. I look forward to many more miles with you. Especially the 743.92 – each way – that we’ll be taking you on in a couple weeks when we go to CT.
- On Sunday, I was really worried about this work week. Mostly because it was going to be a full five days for me. You see, the last three weeks, I have only worked 3 or 4 days because of vacation and holidays. Thankfully, it didn’t go by as slowly as I thought it was going to.
- Last night I went the the monthly business meeting for the volunteer FD. These meetings can be kind of entertaining when the discussions get heated. There is lots of drama and things wrong in this department. Really. Men always say that women have drama, but we’ve got nothing on these (mostly) guys. The main problem is that they make rules and don’t stick to them. I have mentioned this time and time again. Last night was the perfect example. They created a new weapons policy – in a nutshell, no weapons allowed on FD property unless you’re a police officer, etc. This all came about because someone had their gun in the station the other day just messing around with it (cleaning or something, I mean). This made come people uncomfortable because there are a few members that have a history of physical violence and are quick to fly off the handle. Therefore, having a weapon accessible is not really a good idea. You must remember that we live in the South and our town does have it’s own “back woods.” A lot of the people got all upset saying they couldn’t prohibit that if they have a concealed carry permit – it can be prohibited if signs are posted. They were mostly concerned with the fact that a lot of them keep guns in their car. One guy even said that he probably had three in his truck last night. So, the Board of Directors and the chief said, ‘just don’t bring them in the building. I”m telling your right now, i”m not going to check your cars.” Someone questioned that saying that the parking lot was FD property though, they again repeated, “As long as you don’t bring it in the building, I’m not going to check your truck. It’s fine if it’s in your truck.” If that’s how it is going to be, fine. Just don’t say it as part of a formal meeting. While the entire meeting is being recorded. The rules need to be followed. This is just one example.
- Shep has something wrong with his paw. He has been limping ever since we picked him up from camp two weekends ago. We thought it would go away, because he often limps after he plays a lot, but it hasn’t. We’ve determined that it is his paw, one toe in particular, and not his leg. I mean, he limps really bad. But he still plays with Dixie. I almost wonder if he does it for sympathy. Just kidding. He won’t let L even go near one of his toes. I’ve been giving him some children’s Tylenol, but I don’t know if it’s helping. I just wish he could talk. L might take him to the vet next week if he doesn’t show any improvement. I almost wonder if it is a broken toe, and like a human, there’s not much you can do about it. But we’ll see. Our poor little Shep-dog.
-Speaking of Shep, we’ve got about half of the money for his eye surgery saved. I think we’re going to try and save a little bit more and then move forward and put the balance on a credit card. That was the original plan, at least.
- I’ve recently been thinking about selling three of my Lilly Pulitzer dresses online. They have been sitting in my closet for two years and each of them has only been worn one time for a few hours to a couple different bridal showers. They don’t fit anymore because I bought them in my skinny days. I know that I could get at least $100 each on ebay for them – and that would be $300 I could put toward shep’s surgery, or my credit card, or in savings. But then I think, they would be so pretty to wear to a bridal shower of my own. And there’s no way I”m letting my self stay this size for our wedding and that once I sell them, I don’t have the money to replace them – so maybe I should wait. I’m just not sure. I’m still throwing the idea around.
- My coworker returns from maternity leave on Wednesday. I am SO. EXCITED. It would probably be inappropriate of me to fill her office with balloons, right? Because I’m assuming that she’ll be sad about dropping her little one off at daycare for the first time, but I am definitely excited.
Happy Weekend!
There is this one woman in my office that I can not stand. I’m sure I’ve talked about her before on here. I’m not the only one that feels this dislike toward. Every other person in the office does as well. Literally. Every. Single. Person. Except our boss/owner. He thinks that she is God’s gift to the world. And she thinks that she is better than everyone else. But really she is one of the most inefficient people here. Anyway…
She is going on a business trip and is leaving in a little while. She is going with our new employee that just started about 2 weeks ago, however they are driving separately.
They are going to Charleston, SC, which is about 3 1/2 – 4 hours from where we are. The guy’s fiance just got here because they are going to make a trip out of it and stay the rest of the weekend. He walks by WWW’s (wicked witch of the west) office to see if there is anything additional that she wants him to bring. No, but she wants to know if he printed out directions. Yes, he says. She asks him to go make a copy of them so she doesn’t have to bother looking them up herself.
Seriously.
He had to walk back to his desk, then back past her office to the copy machine and then back to her. I have a problem with people who make annoying requests like that.
Getting to Charleston is pretty easy from Charlotte. And for someone who has lived here most of her life, she should really know the gist of getting there. Once in Charleston, it’s not a terribly hard city to navigate. I really don’t understand why it was so difficult for her to just pop in the address into google maps or mapquest.
I just sat at my desk and shook my head during the entire exchance. Knowing more details about how she is and how terribly she interacts with all the rest of the employees would probably help you understand why this annoyed me so much – but you get the idea.
This weekend turned out to be really nice. Our office suprisingly closed at 3 on Thursday, which was very nice! I headed home and continued to work on the banners I was doing for the Volunteer FD’s 4th of July parade “float.” L and I had a quick dinner and then he headed to training while I went and purchased MORE blue glitter for the signs. I then worked on them until midnight and was still not done.
We had plans to actually put fence posts in the ground Friday, but I had to get these posters done since we were decorating the float at 2. I finally finished at 1:45. Spent a couple hours decorating and hanging out and then went home to shower and change and then headed to LM’s housewarming party.
I was sad about not getting to put the fence posts in. You know, since L cleared the land last AUGUST. Oh well, hopefully we’ll be able to do them next weekend.
LM’s party was fun and we stayed till about 1, which made getting up early the next morning for the parade tough.
We left the fire station at 8:30 to go get in line and hung out till 10 when it started. The parade route is really small, but it was fun nonetheless. We had great weather – sunny and warm, but not too warm.
I would show you pictures of my signs, but I would have to black out a huge portion of it that includes our town’s name (although, I’m sure I’ve slipped up and left it in some picture on this blog at some point) and I just don’t feel like doing that.
After the parade, L and I just hung around the house and then headed back up to the fire station around 6 for an impromtu cookout before the fireworks in town.
Yesterday, L worked so I took the opportunity to sleep in way later than I have slept in a long time, cleaned the house and took the puppies to the dog park. Ever since Shep came back from camp last weekend he has been limping. He always limps after he plays a lot, and I just chalked it up to him getting hurt when he was younger and it just getting sore. He was limping a lot at the dog park and I wonder if he injured himself at camp. I gave him to children’s tylenol – although I have no idea if it helped or not since he obviously can’t talk! I guess we’ll just keep an eye on it.
Hope everyone else had a nice 4th too!
They don’t call it Hotlanta for nothing! Man was it a scorcher while we were there, but oh boy did we have a great weekend!
L got home from work Friday morning, packed quickly and a little while later we were dropping the puppies off at Camp for the weekend and hitting the road.
We arrived in Atlanta at 3pm and checked into our hotel – The Ritz Carlton. This place was just absolutely gorgeous. And our room. So pretty. And big. And comfy!!
This picture does not include the marble foyer
Lounging on the comfy bed
I had gotten a REALLY good deal on the hotel somehow and it included tickets to the Georgia Aquarium and the Titanic exhibit there. All in all, it was only $10-15 more a night than some of the average hotels we would have stayed at. And I took advantage of that knowing that we probably won’t see the inside of a hotel like that again!
We hung out at the hotel for a couple of hours while L finished up some homework from school and then headed to the first game at 7pm.
Our seats were much better than I thought they were going to be, which made me happy. The place was absolutely packed though! We had some ballpark grub and a few beers and were just in our glory. The beer was definietly expensive ($6.75 if you went up to the stand to get it, $7 if you got it from the guys walking by the seats), but was at least cheaper than the $10 we spend at the concerts lately.
I can not even describe how many Red Sox fans there were. When they all started cheering, you would have thought you were in Fenway.
We were exhausted after the game and just headed back to the hotel. Where housekeeping had come to our room for “turn down” service. We were so not used to this.
Saturday we got up bright and early, grabbed breakfast from Chick fil A and headed over to the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world. They had a few of the areas where you could pet the animals. I was really not into this at all, but L thought it was cool. I did touch a sting ray so he would quit harrassing me about it and inadvertantly splashed the lady next to me when I jerked my hand out of the water. L claims that since he didn’t see me make contact, that it doesn’t count. So not true. I am really not fond of sting rays. Espeacially after I was stung on the foot by one when I was in high school. So this was an exceptionally big deal.
We walked around and saw lots of other exhibits. My favorite was definitely the sea otters because one of them reminded us of Shep. It was feeding time and he was up on the rock and they had a plastic baby pool up there. He pushed it into the water, jumped in and climbed into the pool to float around. He was adorable.
Our tickets also included admission into the special visiting exhibit on the Titanic, but unfortunately we had plans for an early lunch with a girl I was best friends with growing up. We asked if we could leave and come back and the staff said that we could our ticket stamped, but it was only good for an hour. We talked them into giving us an hour and a half. So we left in hopes of that working because we really wanted to see the Titanic stuff, but didn’t want to have to pay admission into the aquarium again – especially since it is a pricey $26/person.
We headed back to our hotel where my friend and her husband picked us up for lunch.
We went to a cute little restaurant on the outskirts of downtown and had a fabulous time catching up. Her and I don’t talk very often, but every time we see eachother, it’s as if no time has passed.
They dropped us off at the aquarium where the crowds had grown emmensley. We walked to the line for people who already had tickets and were crossing our fingers they were going to let us in. We were 20 or 30 minutes past the hour and a half they had given us. We were going to tell them that we had gotten lost and hope that they took pity on the poor tourists. We were in luck though, and the woman checking stamps was sidetracked and only looked to see that it was stamped and didn’t even look at the time.
We headed up to the Titanic exhibit which was really cool. When you entered they gave you a ‘boarding pass’ with a passengers name and story on it. At the end of the exhibit, they had a list of all the passengers who lived and died when the ship sank. I lived. L died. As we were perusing the names, I came across a first class passenger who had survived. She had my middle and last names. My middle name is a family name. I wonder if there was any connection – although I’m pretty sure that no one related to me would have been sailing first class on the Titanic (which cost the equivilent of $42,000 today).
Once done with the exhibit, we headed back to the hotel with just enough time to change and get to the game.
Another great time, even though it was at 4 and hot. It could have been worse though – there were lots of clouds and a breeze every now and then, so we really lucked out.
After the game we decided to get dinner by our hotel. We didn’t want to drive anywhere so we were going to go to Hard Rock Cafe or Hooters. The line at Hard Rock was an hour and a half, and although I’m not a fan of Hooters, they do have fabulous sangria!
The line was only about 20 minutes, but after only a few the host asked if tehre was another party of two. I raised my hand and followed him. We were being seated with another couple. We were a little nervous as we walked back to the table and thought it might be awkward, but it turns out they were our age and there for the games as well. We ended up drinking all night with them and heading to another bar when Hooters closed.
Sunday, we had plans to run through the fountains at Centennial Park because I am a little kid like that and L wouldn’t do it with me last year. Instead, we layed in bed for the morning nursing slight hangovers. We packed up and headed out to lunch at The Varsity, the largest drive in and then to the game which was at 1:30.
Lucking out again, there were lots of clouds and a breeze and we finally won a game! So different from the last two where we were ordering beer every time the guy walked by. This time we got two waters and a frozen lemonade.
Once the game was over we started our drive home and arrived around 10:30. It was weird to be in the house without the puppies. L picked them up Monday morning and they looked like they had a great time. Shep was dirty and they both definitely need a bath!
L and I are headed to Atlanta this weekend to catch the Braves vs. Red Sox series. This was my gift to him for our two year anniversary back in February.
We’re leaving Friday morning when he gets home from work, dropping the puppies off at camp and hitting the road. We should get there around lunch time or a little after and will have a few hours to site see, etc. before the game 7:30. Saturday we’re having lunch with my friend that I grew up with and now lives in Atlanta. Her family moved to Florida at the end of 7th grade and she got married last year. I’m very excited to see her and have a chance to get to know her new husband. We’re hoping to hit up the Georgia Aquarium in addition to the games Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
We’ll head back Sunday evening and L will pick up the puppies Monday morning.
I have a dilemma though. I don’t know what to wear to these games! I mean, I know what to wear to a baseball game, but the temps are going to be in the middle 90s! I don’t want to sweat even more than I know I will and I also don’t want super funky tanlines.
Friday’s game is at night, so I’ll have no problem wearing my Braves tshirt with shorts or something. But what about Saturday and Sunday???
Would it be totally inappropriate to wear a sundress to a baseball game? Nothing fancy. A cute, casual one. Kind of like this…
I just don’t want to be “that girl” that looks like she’s trying too hard or doesn’t know how to dress for events. This isn’t my first baseball game, just the first when it’s almost 100 degrees out in the middle of the day.
I have a spaghetti strap navy tank top that I’m sure I can pair with shorts or a jean skirt or something for one game.
Ugh. Please help!!!
Moving on…
Here’s my quick weekend recap - we had a fabulous weekend at the beach and the weather was absolutely perfect the entire time. L got home at 8am Friday, everyone was already at our house and we hit the road immediately.
We unpacked to car quickly when we got there right around lunch time, picked up some beer and sat on the beach till about 6. And proceeded to drink more than a case of beer. We definitely showed our age that night as we were all in bed by 11pm. We had plans to stay at the bar we ate dinner at across from our condo, but we could barely keep our eyes open. I blame it on drinking in the sun, not age.
Saturday we were on the beach all. day. It was amazing. We ate dinner at a great seafood place in a neighboring town famous for it’s selection of seafood restaurants and then went to our favorite piano bar that night.
Sunday, everyone left around 10, but L and I stayed till Monday afternoon. We lounged around a bit and I layed out for a few hours. L nursed a hangover all day.
Monday was more beach time and we finally headed home around 5:30. The puppies enjoyed their walk on the beach, but didn’t get as much time to play as normal since there are restrictions as to what times they can be on the beach during the peak season.
The group before the piano bar
Me and the puppies on the balcony
I wish we had gotten a better picture of the two of us on the beach
L sometimes tells me that I blow things out of proportion or that I get bent out of shape way more about something than I should. Sometimes he’s right (but not all the time . Anyway, I heard them mention a story on Good Morning America today that really made me laugh.
And it involves PETA. You know, the crazy People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The ones who take it to the next level and protest all kinds of stores and events. Even Lowe’s Home Imporvement (I don’t remember why they did, so don’t ask, I just know they did). Or throwing red paint on people who are wearing fur coats.
I understand that these people are trying to protect animals and fight for their rights (‘to parrtttyyyy’ — sorry, couldn’t help myself), but let’s be real here.
You guys all know – and if you don’t, I’m telling you now – that I am a huge animal lover. Hugh. If I could rescue every dog or cat I found, I would. If I could stop painful animal testing, I would. If I could stop people from beating their pets, starving them or just mistreating them in general, I would.
But these extremists are out of control.
Apparently, President Obama swatted at a fly during an interview on CNBC yesterday and supposedly killed it. Now, PETA is mad and is saying that the President should have been a better example. Instead of swatting the fly, he should have brushed it. In order to help him, PETA has sent the President a humane fly catcher.
Seriously.
Don’t you have something better to do with your time? It’s a fly.
But I supposed I should see two sides of the coin and think that someone could say to me, “it’s just a dog.”
Anyway. Those are my thoughts. However, I have no problem with killing flies.
Also, today is my Friday – tomorrow we’re headed to the beach for FOUR DAYS!!! And the weather is still (knock on wood, again) supposed to be perfect. I am so. freakin. excited.
I finally have some time to breathe here at work…
Savannah, as I mentioned before, was AMAZING!! Seriously. We had such a great time and I had aboslutely no desire to leave. The city is everything that I had heard and hoped for.
There are beautiful houses, neighborhoods and squares. Oh, the squares. They are everywhere. Such a nice gem to fall upon when walking throughout the city. You’re hot and your feet hurt? No worries – take a seat on that bench over there in the beautiful and shaded square.
And of course, there is so much history. What I like especially about it is how much the city embraces the history. I’m sure it has something to do with the whole tourism thing, and what better way to bolster your city’s budget than with tourism dollars, but it was really great to see.
Every where you went there was some sort of sign describing the monument, house or just empty space that you were standing in front of.
Before we went, we knew there were some things that we wanted to do/see. We wanted to take a trolley tour, go on a haunted pub crawl, see the Mercer House from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, hit up Leopold’s Ice Cream shop that I had read about, eat at Paula Deen’s restaurant and see some other various items of interest we had read/heard about. Other than that, the trip was an open book.
We dropped the puppies off at camp on Friday morning at 9am and then hit the road. It only took us 3 1/2 hours to get there and was an easy drive. The weather forecast for the weekend was low to mid 80s with a 30% chance of isolated/scattered thunderstorms each day. I wasn’t too worried about it since I figured they would only be those brief afternoon t-storms.
About 60 or 70 miles from Savannah, it started to pour. I was bummed, but knew we were still pretty far away. The rain stopped and started again several times, but stayed steady as we pulled up to our hotel. We checked in, but couldn’t get into our room just yet, so we headed out to start touring the city. What bummed me was hearing the concierge on the phone say to someone that it was suppose to pour all weekend.
We set out to walk down to River Street in the rain with no umbrella. But it really wasn’t raining so hard that it bothered us. Similar to the rest of the trip, we checked out different shops and touristy sites. And of course, we took pictures.
643 pictures, to be exact.
Before we knew it, the rain cleared and the sun came out for the rest of the day. That evening we took a haunted pub tour and had an excellent time. Though we didn’t see any ghosts, another couple on the tour experienced a door in the basement of one of the bars slam on its own.
Saturday, in the gorgeous sunny weather, we got up and went to stand in line to get a reservation for Paula Deen’s restaurant that night. You can’t call ahead for reservations unless you have a party of 9 or more. Instead, you wait in line and it is first come first serve. By the time we got to the front (about 20-30 minutes) our selections were 5pm or 8:45 on. We took the 8:45 and set out for the rest of the day.
We took a trolley tour which was great and spent the rest of the afternoon walking EVERYWHERE. Literally. We google mapped it when we got back and figured that we walked 6-7 miles that day – probably more.
Dinner was absolutely amazing and everything I hoped it would be. We planned on going to a deuling piano bar after. But there was one problem. We were so. FULL. Oh my gosh. We went back to our hotel because just thinking about taking a sip of beer, or water for that matter, made me want to puke. We promptly fell asleep in our clothes at 10:30pm.
We planned to go out to Tybee Island on Sunday and spend some time on the beach, check out the Tybee Island lighthouse and see some of the Civil War forts on the way. We packed our suits, towels and sunscreen and headed to the car (the first time we had been in the car since we parked it Friday at check in). And what do you know, the sky was covered with dark, ominous clouds.
We got Ft. Jackson and walked around. It was actually pretty interesting. On our way into Ft. Pulaski, the skies opened and it rained incredibly hard. You could see thunder and lighting off in the distance. We checked out the museum and were on our way, planning to return and check out the fort itself later. To the lighthouse we went and it finally stopped raining, but was still cloudy. But we could not climb to the top bc of the weather. So we grabbed lunch and walked on the beach for a few minutes.
On the way back to Savannah, we were able to get out and walk around Ft. Pulaski and then detoured to Wormsloe Historic Site. It was a colonial plantation, but what we really wanted to see was the 1mile+ driveway lined with oak trees. We got there at 5:20 and they closed at 5:30. L ran in to ask if we could just quickly drive through the trees. Apparenlty you’re supposed to pay to do that (which really includes access to the museum), but he let us do it quickly. So. Gorgeous. If only it were sunny.
Once back in town, we decided to have dinner on the river and walk some more until the rain picked back up. We finished with some yummy ice cream at Leopold’s (I highly reccomend the lemond custard sorbet) before sightseeing some more and heading the the hotel.
Along the way, we grabbed a beer to go. Yes, a beer to go. Because they have wonderful open container laws. Anywhere you went, you could get your drink to go. It had to be in one plastic cup of a certain size – but it could be anything. Beer, wine, liquor – it didn’t matter.
Back at the hotel, we were trying to decide where to get a drink. Once again we were full and kind of tired of walking in the rain. Each one of us hoped the other would just say, “come on, let’s go” but we didn’t. We went to sleep instead. And you know what? I was fine with that. Our days were jam packed.
Monday we went out to the lighthouse again and were able to climb to the top. Except that day? It was raining, windy and only 55 degrees in the morning. Sooo freakin cold. We finished up by hitting one more museum and the train museum before heading out of town at 4pm.
It was such a great vacation. It really was. There were a couple times when I thought to myself, “Oh, is this when he’s going to ask me?” based on what he was saying at the moment or that something he said meant he was going to ask later. But he didn’t. And, although I don’t think he believes me when I tell him, my anticipation did not ruin the trip at all. I wasn’t constantly thinking about it. In fact, most of the time I wasn’t. And now? Now I have no idea when he’ll do it so it will be a complete surprise.
For anyone wanting to go to Savannah, here is where we ate (I’ll leave reviews out because they were all amazing – seriously):
Friday lunch – One Eyed Lizzie’s on River Street
Friday dinner – Molly MacPhearson’s near City Market
Saturday lunch – Boar’s Head on River Street
Saturday dinner – The Lady & Sons (Paula Deen’s restaurant)
Sunday lunch – Cousin Vinny’s on Tybee Island
Sunday dinner – Huey’s on River Street
Monday lunch – Spanky’s on River Street
Update: Here are a few photos, I still have a couple more…
U.S. Customs House
Leave it to us to find the scariest stairs to lead us down to River Street
Factors Walk – these were the old cotton factories
River Street
Me with the waving girl
These signs were all over and very informative
In a park
Hanging moss – it’s on all the trees – unfortunately lots of bugs live in there
First African Baptist Church
I just liked this house so I took a picture
L at the First Baptist Church
Independent Presbyterian Church – tallest steeple in Savannah
Us in another square
Aren’t they all so gorgeous?
This dog belonged to the bar tender at one of the stops on our hanted pub tour. He just chilled there and let you pet him and every once in awhile he would mosey on behind the bar.
