redonkulous

So, the morning of Banana's bachelorette party Banana, her fiance and their dog took off for Denver with me following behind them in my car.  Shortly out of town I realized I had left my dress I was planning on wearing that night hanging up in the basement room of their house.  I tried both Banana and Z's cell phones, but apparently they were jamming out to Harry Potter or something because neither answered.  I left a message that I was turning around and would meet them shortly.  Little did I realize that when I made it back to the house, it would be locked.  I had cracked a window in the basement the night before, trying to get things cooled off during the night, so after parking and checking all the doors I went around the back of the house to check out the window, which was luckily still cracked.  It was around 9am at this time.  I was dressed for a day of shopping and lunching (ie I looked cute in my little Banana Republic sundress) and to open the window further and crawl through it, I would have to crawl on my belly through dirt and the window, then drop onto the tiled floor of the basement.  There was no way I was going to get my dress dirty, so I just decided to take it off and threw it in the basement window.  Lovely thing that it is I don't have to wear a bra with it, but I figured the neighbors, if they were looking out their window into Banana's yard at this exact moment, would have probably seen boobies before sometime in their life.  So, only in my underwear I crawled through the dirt, through the window (head first because I am genius of course), then realized I was stuck as I had my torso hanging through the window and my underwear hooked on the splintered wood of the window frame.  If a police man had come along I would have been up a creek.  Needless to say I got my underwear unhooked and fell the rest of the way down, partially landing on my bed, unhurt, and put my sundress back on and grabbed the fabulous little black dress I was going to wear that night, made it out the front door, re-locked everything and was back on the road within 5 minutes and had a fabulous time at the bachelorette party with Banana and our friends.

I was so proud of myself.

can't move

I am never drinking again. 

Big Day

Tonight Banana, the fiancee and I are celebrating the defense of her fiance's PhD, it's officially official, he is a doctor. We bought some champagne, went on a walk with the puppy, had some ribs and now are sitting down to watch Inception, my belated birthday present.  I ran a little bit with the puppy tonight, there was only one near-casualty...Newton turned around to look at Banana as he and I kept running forward and he crashed into an old man, but didn't knock him over.  Newton was just as surprised as the old man.  Now Newton is alseep in the basement.  I love that pup.

shopping till we are dropping

Today Banana and I went shopping for wedding shoes, bachelorette party shoes, and a bachelorette party dress for her.  We were successful on all accounts.  So successful in fact, that I made Banana celebrate on the drive home with me by singing duets.  She is quite a good bass.  Newt and I are holed up in the basement again, he is asleep next to my bed, we are waiting for Banana to come down so we can watch some more episodes of one of my favorite British shows, The IT Crowd.  Tomorrow night I am hoping to get a riled up game of hide-and-seek going, no better way to discover the in's and out's of a new house than that!  Then bachelorette madness on Saturday, woot woot!

Puppy love

I am so in love with my sister's dog, Newt, half Bernese Mountain Dog half golden retreiver.  He is huge but still just a baby and so sweet.  He and I are very alike, neither are big fans of physical activity and prefer to nap in the basement when it is hot outside.  Tonight I had dinner with my friend (only friend still in my college town) and now Banana, the fiance and I are going to watch Jurassic Park...on VHS.  You only wish you were so cool.

In for the night

I am currently at my sister and her future husband's house...so weird that they have a place of their own and I am a guest...the house is pretty well stocked save a few necessities (I had to use a fitted sheet as a towel because all 3 of theirs were in the wash).  It is weird also being back in my old college town, driving by the dining hall, seeing the students shopping at Wal-Mart and knowing within seconds whether the kid is in the marching band, a sorority, the football team or the engineering floor...kids look the same everywhere.  This week we are busy putting her house together and getting ready for the bachelorette party.  I am going to get house decorating tips while I am here.

long time no talk!

I have been the worst blogger ever.  It started on my drive West, when I was driving lots and always seemed to be behind schedule and would just fall into bed at night after feeding. The trip was most excellent, had some delicious food along the way and was lucky enough to see friends and family as well.  We had duck fat tater tots in Nashville, the best barbecue in St. Louis, collard greens in North Carolina, grandma's sweet pickles in Iowa, and multiple multiple Starbucks stops.  I made enemies with the resident GPS I named Pippa (she was British), and honestly believe that Garmin must be in cahoots with Exxon or Bp or something because I feel like I have never driven in so many circles in my life.  Since making it home I have been busy apartment searching and planning for Banana's wedding, today was the first wedding-hair run through and it ended in tears. This week is the Bachelorette party in Denver, cannot wait.  I will try to keep up the blogging now that I have restarted it....

tired

Today we saw the Cahokia Indian mounds and made it to St. Louis.  We went to go up in the arch tonight but missed the cut-off of 9:15, we arrived at 9:20.  It was a beautiful evening regardless, and tomorrow we head to Iowa after a successful trip up the arch and a possible trip to the Body Worlds exhibit.  I cannot wait to see grandma!!

Update

I forgot to do yesterday's post.  So, I am in the midst of a road trip at this time, the planning was a bit by the seat of me and my travel partner's pants, so, as he stated yesterday, "This will be the third time I have been in Tennessee in 2 days".  We have been whitewater rafting on the Ocoee, saw the Biltmore in Ashville, saw the topiary in Bishopville, (where I was stung by a fire ant and now my fourth toe has blisters on it that itch and burn and are spreading up my foot), and tonight we made it into Nashville and had dinner at Merchant's (started out with duck fat tater tots and had some of the best sweet potato fries ever), and now we are back to get some sleep before tomorrow's adventures. 

favorite tattoo

If this isn't funny I don't know what is.  I tried to get this airbrushed on a tshirt but the booth had already closed down.

The dolphins didn't say goodbye

I went kayaking today for the last time, the dolphins didn't come and say goodbye.  Every time I have been kayaking/paddleboarding/boating the dolphins have been involved, and the final time when I wanted to say goodbye of course they didn't show.  Stinkers.  Besides that these last few days have been great, lunch and dinner with friends, the beach, kayaking, sleeping in, reading, I am not thinking of it as goodbye because then it would be too sad so I am just thinking of it as normal activities and I can deal with the goodbye after I realize I am gone.  Tonight my wonderful hostesses and I made dinner and we tried a new watermelon margarita and started watching The Brothers Bloom.  Most excellent.  My travel partner (if all goes according to schedule) arrives around 9:45 tomorrow morning and our adventure West begins, I can't wait.

love this

I can't stop watching this...babies really are like little drunk people and the puppets make it even better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cds7lSHawAw

Out like Trout

I am out of my apartment!!  Now that I am not there anymore it seems like I was never there, and if I was actually there, it was a million years ago in a different lifetime.  I am temporarily camped out at a friend's house and am thoroughly enjoying the company and the cable.  It is Shark Week on Discovery channel and I read shark facts to my movers today as they packed up the apartment.  One was as enthused as I was that sharks can heat up their eyeballs in cooler water temperatures to keep their vision keen, but the other was more concerned about packing, which was probably a good thing in hindsight. 

Best Birth Control

For myself, the best form of birth control is going to a public enclosed place, like an airport, mall, doctor's office, etc. and seeing the unruly, crying, screaming, off-the-wall, in-your-personal-space kids, who's parents have no apparent control over them whatsoever.  I am so not ready for a monster of my own.  Take for example today at the DMV.  Apparently every person in there brought every child they could find under the age of 7 or so, and let them wreak havoc on the DMV and everyone sitting in chairs waiting at the DMV.  I thought I was going to go crazy, and I can honestly say it was my shortest trip to the DMV ever, I got in and out in a timely fashion, but it was horrendous the 10-15 minutes or so I sat there.  The mother behind me had approximately 5 children with her, ages from about 11-infant, and she had brought her friend as well, who had a 3 or 4 year old named Jackson that screamed the ABC's as loud and as long as he could, repeatedly.  Either Jackson or his mom, or one of the other 13 kids in there (or any of the adults, after working in the ER I know this is not unusual) apparently pooped their pants and the assault on my olfactory sense was debilitating.  I had to sit there with a hand over my nose.  So not only were my ears ringing from the yelling, my chair was bouncing from the kids that appeared all around to play jungle gym on the neighboring seats, and I couldn't breathe out of my nose for fear of dry-heaving all over the 15-year old getting ready to take his driving test and his family I was sitting across from.  It was brutal.

Tonight I had dinner with two of my friends from work, and after dinner (they were going to work) I walked over with them to say goodbye to one of the doctors I hadn't had a chance to say adios to yet.  Afterwards, driving home I was laughing because we walked in the ambulance bay doors and an ambulance was there bringing a patient in, and we all knew the patient  because he is one of the ER's "frequent flyers".  How pathetic is it when you know most of the patients signing in or rolling in on a first-name basis?  The longer I realize I am not working anymore, the  more I feel like a weight has lifted off of my shoulders.  This next month will hopefully be excellent in restoring some of my compassion, because it was and still is most definitely fatigued.

Light...yeah right

So moving out West I have a work hiatus until mid-September, and all of my household
belongings/clothes/shoes/bedding/furniture will be in storage until then, so I need to pack only what I need for the next month or so in my car and drive it back with me.  I had visions of just me, a few pairs of clothes, my toothbrush and maybe a pillow heading back...um, no.  I don't think it is humanly possible for this chica to pack "light".  I told my driving buddy to "pack light", I might need to call him back and tell him to wear everything he is planning on bringing because that is roughly how much space he will be allotted.  No me gusta packing.  I always end up packing way too much of one thing and not enough of another, like the time in Georgia I packed 4 different pairs of underwear for overnight but no pajamas or shirts for the next day, or the time in Las Vegas when I had 5 sets of high heels and 3 swimsuits but no clothes for daily activities.  I am solving that problem this time by packing as many clothes as will fit in my car, and roughly all my shoes.  Awesome.