Monday, August 31, 2009

Bachelorettes: Two Times the Fun!

While we're on the subject of Bachelorette goodness, I think it's about time I post a few highlights of my own. Because I'm spoiled, I got not one, but two mini Bachelorette weekends! There was no way to find just one weekend when so many of my favorite girls would be free to travel, so instead, we split them up. It was perfect.

For the first weekend, Kaylie, Ashley and I road tripped to San Luis. I needed to do a trial hair appointment--I'm pretty sure they just wanted an excuse for Firestones! :) Three of my other favorite ladies in all the land already live there--Nena, Allyson, and Danielle. It was so great to spend even a little bit of time with all these girls.

Breakfast beverages at the salon...in the days before I realized that coffee and champagne were tearing my stomach apart. (Wah.)

New friends!
Purple Power!
Someday all of my friends will live in the same neighborhood. No seriously, it could totally happen.
The second dose of Bachelorette goodness was spent in the City. It was Father's Day weekend (and my dad was here installing underlayment), so we couldn't venture too far. We went out for a night of yummy noshing at a clean, bright, and spacious (who knew!) restaurant in North Beach, then headed for my favorite bar--The Bubble Lounge. It's such a classic place to get a table and people watch. And this time I got to spend a night out with two more of my favorite girls--Jules and Lisa. We were only missing Alia...damn Kajal and her babymaking!

This is one of my favorite pictures ever taken. Ever! Nena's toasting the magnum(!!!) of champagne we ordered at the end of the night. Yes, we're complete idiots. The 5 of us were already 4 bottles deep when ordered this one (making it what...5, 6, maybe 7?!? Oy.)

Thanks so much, girls, for being in my life. Love you all!

Ashley's BASHelorette

I was in Vegas for Ashley's Big Bachelorette this past weekend! Woo Woo. The good times included table service at Prive, pool time, dealing with customer service at the Venetian, and Thunder from Down Under!! Classic memories, to be sure. Here are a few photo faves...

Btw, everybody swore my tights were not see through before I left the room. Guess I shoulda tested with flash first!

If you weren't already aware, I {heart} Phantom. Everytime we'd get in the elevator at the hotel, I'd hush everyone so I could hear the sweet elevator music!

Ashley and her "television star" crush--Thad, from The Young and the Restless. I'm pretty sure she's the only person under 50 in America that knows his real name!

And a shortlist of my Favorite Things About Vegas:
  1. Best. People. Watching. On. Earth.
  2. No lines in the ladies room in clubs.
  3. Blackout curtains.
  4. Police officers that go from ready to arrest your friend to a 20 minute long chat about opening a burrito cart on the Strip in 7 seconds flat.
  5. $17 poolside nachos.
  6. The handstand move in Thunder.
  7. The bald guy in Thunder. (Don't tell Raf!)

Who's ready to get married?!? ASHLEY IS! :) Huge thanks to Jules and Trace for taking care of planning everything--you girls rocked it (spreadsheets and all!)

Painting & Potter

I was on furlough last week, so painting the house and finishing Harry Potter consumed my life. Mom came to town for the week (cuz she's a rock star) to help me paint the inside of the house. We pulled good 12 hour days Sunday through Wednesday in order to finish in time (and still have a day for Ikea, of course!) We finished all the communal areas, except the studio--which we'll be hiring someone with a spray gun to take care of (way too many nooks and crannies in those rafters to deal with!)

Nothing too exciting decor-wise--it's white. Really, really white. It was just as white before, but now it's CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN white! It's so refreshing to come home to a house that looks clean and bright. I'm stoked to finally have all that ick that belonged to other people covered! Unfortunately, I have no photos to share--too busy working to remember the camera. Lame. Once I'm home during the daylight, I'll snap a shot of the gleaming white to share tho!

Once we were done with our long days of painting, I'd head for bed and another 2-4 hours of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. Oh Harry. It's only been a few days and I already miss you so. I really think I can attribute getting through the last year of wedding planning without having a nervous breakdown to Harry Potter. I'd be exhausted and overwhelmed at the end of countless days, but Harry was always waiting for me--ready to instantly pull me out of my own life. Thank goodness for Harry Potter. Now I just need to find a slough of additional dependably amazing reads for every other overwhelming life situation that's sure to come. Suggestions?

Good news--despite the loss of Harry Potter, I still have 2 things to look forward to: the movies & Twilight! Oh yes, ladies, I already picked up the first book from the library.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Random Thoughts

This is an unorthodox post--to copy an email forward--but I just can't help myself. Some things are so hilarious that I need to memorialize them on the blog, so I can always refer back quickly for a good laugh/cry, whatever.

For those of you cool cats who have already received this by email 17 times, my apologies. For the rest of you--get ready for some goodness! Gina sent this to me at work today and a few of the thoughts had me laughing so hard I was crying at my desk. All but maybe 3 are thoughts I've had myself...and even those 3 still made sense! Oh, good times!

Warning: it's really long. And totally worth it!

Random thoughts from people 25-35 years old...

-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

-That's enough, Nickelback.

-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.

-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

-I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

-The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Vote for Still Time!

I know you're all fans of Still Time, now that you've had the chance to witness them rock our wedding! Show your love by hitting up this site to vote for them in the Battle of the Bands. The winning band will get to play South by Southwest in Austin, TX in 2010. (And I'm pretty sure if they win, we need to get tickets...Vacation!)

You can vote once per day, per email address--so bookmark it, people!

And while you're voting, check out the OrigAudio eco-friendly speakers. Don't those look badass? You get a $6 off coupon for voting, so I might just have to order some so I can finally get some tunes in my office!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Mrs. Married

That's right, I'm home, married, and HAPPY as can be! Especially happy because we have pictures! Our incredible photographer, Ken Kienow, delivered super quick and super amazing images! We enjoyed all 863 over a couple beers and leftover stale cupcakes last night. :)

You can check out some more on Ken's blog, or by viewing the album he linked on Facebook. He or I will also be working on a little slideshow so I don't have to bore you to tears with 800 photos, so keep your eyes peeled for that! And for those of you who would like to cherry-pick through the 800 so you can choose some to purchase, let me know and I can send you the link and password. (Btw, buying prints through his site is really inexpensive, so it's a good way to go.)

The wedding may be over, but the wedding posting is not, I assure you! I have too many great pictures of all the details to not post all about them now that I have so much free time! Plus I'm always getting fun questions from random brides, so it'll be cool to provide more info for those still enjoying the process.

Woo Hoo Weddings! I'm totally hooked, so if anybody is engaged and wants help--I'm your gal! :)