La Petite Chic

Weekend of Debauchery Recap

Because I love lists and David Letterman's Top 10's, that's what you're gonna get :)  And apparently I only took pictures on Saturday night, so the first half of the list will have to make do with just words!

Top 10 Memories from the Spider Reunion, a.k.a. The Weekend of Debauchery

10.  Leaving the DC Metro area at 7:30 pm and not arriving in Manasquan, NJ until 1:30.

9.  Beautiful, sunny weather the whole time we were at the beach.  And I actually got in the water and didn't get eaten by a shark!

8.  The electricity going out in the grocery store and us offering the two highschool checkout boys $75 cash for the entire cart of food.  (Checkout Boy #1: I don't know if we can...  Checkout Boy #2:  Just take the deal, man!  They've got less than $75 worth in there!)

7.  Winning 3 straight games of beer pong, no thanks to me, I might add. 

6.  Taking "MySpace pictures" with Taylor while we were pre-partying.  Come on, you know it's hot.

5.  Being accosted by the lead singer of the band, which freaked me out so bad I had to take a breather in the techno room.

4.  Taylor getting her rodeo on.

3.  Seeing a real-life Cougar in action.

2.  The Weez in full effect.

1. Good times with great friends!

Favorite Things Friday

Lord, help us all...there's a CORE reunion in the dirty Jerz, starting tonight!  Well, 3/4 of the CORE anyway.  Without going into an overly involved explanation on who the CORE is, I'll just tell you that the CORE is made up of myself, Taylor, Bridget and Sherry.  We all ran XC and track together in college, lived together our senior year and were the best of friends.  Are the best of friends.  We just don't get to see each other as often as we like.

Unfortunately, Bridget will not be able to make this reunion (yeah, thanks Army!), but she will be dearly missed.  As for me and Taylor, we are driving up to the Jersey shore tonight where Sherry is renting a beach house for the summer.  There will be debauchery.  Much, much debauchery.  And I can't wait. 

Hopefully, my liver will survive the weekend, but as I'm usually the lightweight trying to keep up with better drinkers than myself, I'm sure I'll be hurting a bit on Sunday.  Am I the only one who gets hangovers until about 3:00 in the afternoon the day after a night of poor judgement?  Anyway, here's to my favorite thing this Friday: reunions with old, dear friends!  Cheers!

P.S.  I'll be sure to take many pictures :)

The CORE with the other Richmond Track girls at my wedding.

100 Random Things About Me

1.  I am married to my soul mate.

2.  Whom I met in a bar.

3.  I knew he was "The One" the very first night I met him.

4.  When he told me his last name that first night, I distinctly remember thinking, "Wow, that would be a hard last name to take!"

5.  And it was...

6.  But I did take it because I love him and I want to have the same last name as my husband and children.

7.  Speaking of children, I would like to have at least 2.

8.  And at least one of those better be a girl!

9.  I have a lot of girl's names picked out already, but the front runner is still my maiden name.

10.  Before I even met her, my sister-in-law had already decided to name her baby boy with the only boy name I had picked out. 

11.  I told Jon "now we can't name our son that"....a few weeks into dating him. 

12.  That didn't scare him off though.

13.  I can't wait to see what our kids will look like and which of our traits they'll have.

14.  I used to be a really good runner. 

15.  My fastest mile was a 5:10.

16.  I won 3 state championships in high school. (1 in the 1600m and 2 in the 3200m).

17.  I was offered many scholarships, the best being a $20,000/year track and cross country scholarship to a university I loved.

18.  I accepted and ran all 4 years of college.

19.  Now I'm happily retired from running.

20.  Though when we started dating, I did make Jon take a run with me when I was still in good shape just so I could show him his place. :)

21.  I think I will always be able to beat him in long distances, but he will always beat me in sprints.

22.  I've always loved the arts.

23.  I think if I wouldn't have dropped out of tap and ballet when I was 3, I might have been a really good dancer.

24.  I can dance really well in social settings.

25.  I especially like dancing on top of bars (all eyes are on you, but they can't touch you!)

25.  I have good rhythm.

26.  I had to spell check rhythm.

27.  I played the alto saxophone in middle school and was really good at it.

28.  I tried out for and made it into advanced band my first year of playing.

29.  I tried to take up the guitar in college, but it didn't come very easily to me.

30.  My instructor was an old hippie who liked to date younger college women.

31.  I took private lessons from him.

32.  Thankfully, he never hit on me, though he did ask my girlfriend out.

33.  He invited all of his students to a cookout at his house and the only food he had was a bag of cheesy puffs and bouillabaisse. 

34.  I did not know that bouillabaisse is made of fish carcasses.

35.  Until I saw one floating in the pot.

36.  Luckily, since my mother brought me up right, I had brought a homemade chocolate cake along.

37.  Everyone devoured it.

38.  The bouillabaisse...not so much.

39.  One of my dream jobs is to be a pastry chef.

40.  I'm a great baker, but I'm not sure if I could make all the pretty decorations on the pastries because I have shaky hands.

41.  My family and I lived in Germany for over 4 years where each town had their own bakery.

42.  I loved getting fresh brotchen every day.

43.  One of my favorite pastries are chocolate croissants.

44.  The best one I ever had was from Belgium.

45.  Wegman's makes a mean one too.

46.  I love the smell of coffee but can't stand the taste.

47.  Neither can Jon.

48.  We still registered for a coffee maker though because both of our parents love drinking the stuff.

49.  Sometimes I wish that I drank coffee because those caramel latte things sound pretty good!

50.  I love to drink tea though.

51.  My favorite is Honey Darjeeling Black tea.

52.  I'm also a big fan of hot chocolate with lots of mini-marshmallows.

53.  Just don't make mine with milk.

54.  I hate the taste of milk.

55.  And also the smell.

56.  I wonder how I'm going to breastfeed since the thought of milk makes me sick.

57.  The thought of saggy boobs also makes me sick, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

58.  If I were to ever get plastic surgery, I would get a nose job.

59.  So far, I've been unsuccessful in convincing Jon that I need one.

60.  However, I'm almost there with convincing him of the benefits of laser hair removal.

61.  Birthday present, anyone?

62.  I'm born on the cusp of Virgo and Libra and have many qualities of each sign, but probably more of Virgo.

63.  I've been known to be picky and anal, but I'm very creative and dislike conflict.

64.  I wish I could find a job that allows me to be more creative.

65.  I always wanted to be a writer and wrote my first short story in 3rd grade.

66.  One of the reasons I started my blog was to give me good writing practice in case I decide to pursue a career in journalism.

67.  I would love to write for a fashion magazine or something of that sort.

68.  I realize this probably means I have to move to New York, so that's probably not going to happen.

69.  I always thought my lifestyle would fit the New York lifestyle.

70.  Except it gets too cold there, so I probably wouldn't be happy in the winters.

71.  Jon and I have bounced around the idea of moving South, but I think I would miss my family too much.

72.  Not to mention going to Orioles games in the summer.

73.  I love to travel and want to go back to Europe since I haven't been there since my family moved back to the states.

74.  I would also like to visit Asia since I've never been there.

75.  Except I'm afraid to see how they treat their animals there, as I've heard many bad things on the news.

76.  Animals have always been a passion of mine.

77.  I once called Campus Police because I saw a car parked with a cat locked in it. 

78.  They broke into the car to let the cat out...it was panting by that point.

79.  I didn't know that cats pant like dogs do. 

80.  I've had 6 dogs in my life, ranging from a St. Bernard to a chihuahua.

81.  I considered becoming a veterinarian, but I'm really horrible at science so I don't think that would work out.

82.  But I was awarded Science Student of the Year in 7th grade.

83.  I don't think Jon believes that one.

84.  I was also English student and Home Economics Student of the Year in 8th grade. 

85.  That means that not only can I read and write, I can cook and clean too!

86.  I actually enjoy some cleaning.

87.  Except for vacuuming, dusting and laundry.

88.  I guess that doesn't leave much else, but I do love to organize and put things in their place.

89.  I used to hate sweeping, but now that we have a broom vac, I don't mind it anymore.

90.  I like to think I have a high tolerance for pain.

91.  Except when it comes to dental pain.

92.  I have never been a good dental patient.

93.  When I was 3 or 4, I told my dentist that I would have to come back another day because my mouth was tired.

94.  My parents were not so happy when they had to pay for 2 appointments!

95.  I have soft teeth, which means I'm very susceptible to cavities.

96.  I get my fear of the dentist from my father, who has been know to yell out in pain.

97.  I always thought I would be famous one day.

98.  I've had lots of 15 minutes of fame, but I figured I would be a movie star.

99.  I guess there's still time, right?

100.  I like lists (surprise!).

A Night at the Ballpark

I had a fabulous time at the O's game last night.  It was actually a very special game to attend as it was the Cal Ripken Hall of Fame Send Off, so there was a pre-game ceremony honoring Cal, his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame and his many other achievements.  He is such an inspiring man and does so many great things for charity.  He is the kind of athlete that deserves his title as role model, unlike some of the other great athletes who have let us down (Michael Vick, anyone?).

Some of the other great Orioles baseballs great were there as well, but really the only one I remembered was Eddie Murray.  I can vividly recall doing the E-D-D-I-E-M-U-R-R-A-Y cheer at O's games when I was a little girl.  One of my favorites parts of the game was when Cal threw the first pitch to Eddie.  So freaking cool!

Best of all, I got to hang out with my Pops which always makes me happy.  My dad got me into my love of baseball and I so very much enjoy going to games with him.  Who needs sons when you have 2 daughters who love sports as much as my sister and I do?  We had great seats, just past the 3rd base line, with a great view of the field.  Just as important, all of the fans around us were O's fans and none of them were beligerant so that is always a plus!  I ended up the night with a neato new bobblehead, plus had a hotdog, nachos and 2 wonderfully refreshing beers for dinner.  What a great night! 

A nostril shot of Jon with my Dad

Ahh, baseball and beer...life is good :)

And a picture from the yard sale, as promised:

Money, money, money, monnnnnnneyyy, MONNNNNNNEYYYYY!!!

Orioles and Beer and Ballpark Franks!

Hooray, we're going to the O's game with my dad tonight!  Which means that I get to leave work at 3:00 today so that we can get to the game on time.  (Really, how sad is it that you have to leave 4 hours early to drive 50 miles?  God, I hate DC.)  It also just happens to be Cal Ripken bobblehead night so I can add to my collection of bobbleheads in my cubicle. 

Going to the O's game also means that I get to eat a jumbo hot dog and nachos and drink a $7 beer!  Not to mention watch resident O's hotties Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis field some balls.  Ha!  What's better than all that?

No, really, going to Oriole's baseball games is one of my favorite things to do.  Sure, they haven't won a World Series title since the 1980's, but they are a fabulous team to watch.  We've got hometown pride whether we win or lose.  Plus, if you've ever been to Camden Yards, you'll never look at another ballpark the same way.  Sigh...I just love them! 

Yard Sale Success!

Our yardsale on Saturday was a smashing success!  Not only do my parents now have their garage back, we also made about $300!!!  Since we still had leftovers after the yardsale, Jon and I decided to go to the fleamarket on Sunday morning to try to sell the rest of our stuff.  It only costs $15 to set up at the fleamarket and you get a much bigger influx of people, so it's well worth your time.

We arrived at the fleamarket at 6:00 am on Sunday morning, me driving my dad's old pickup truck and Jon in our SUV.  Luckily, just as we were pulling into the lot, a woman was leaving one of the prized spots in the shade to join her friend so we snagged an awesome location.  No sunburn!  We stayed until noon and made another $300!!  So we ended up making a little over $600 this weekend from selling all of our old stuff!  Yeah, we had some big ticket items like a Coach bag, a mini-fridge and a wine bar from Crate and Barrel, but still...$600 is pretty freaking awesome!

So what are we going to do with all that money?  Well, we already spent some of it on Saturday afternoon.  People who have been reading me from the beginning might remember that we have been renovating our bathroom, trying to get rid of leaks and ugly popcorn ceilings, etc...  We did the major renovations in May and June, like painting, removing the popcorn ceiling, installing glass shower doors and granite countertop and new sink, and replacing our leaky faucet in the shower.  However, we weren't really happy with our paint color.  We were going for a nice calming, beachy looking blue, with a flat finish.  What we got was a pastel shiny blue that we both did not care for. 

This weekend, we picked out a new paint color (it's called Brandied Pears!) and a new light fixture.  I'm leaving for a Richmond Spiders track girls reunion at the Jersey shore on Friday, so Jon will be all by himself (and Lola) for the weekend.  He's going to install the light and repaint the walls all by himself.  Hooray!  I hate painting since I'm quite awful at it, so I'm happy to be missing out on this final renovation in the bathroom.  And once we're done with the bathroom, we're going to start working on our kitchen.  As much as I curse our tiny little home, I am quite proud of it and love making it better.

The rest of our yard sale proceeds are going to go towards bills.  How exciting...but I'm thankful we have it because money will soon be very tight as Jon starts his MBA program next month.  I took some pictures at our yard sale, but left my camera at my parent's house so I'll upload them once I get it back.  I swear, I get much more use out of my camera now, because everything I do, I'm saying to myself, "I have to take pictures for my blog!"  I'm so hooked on this writing gig :)

Favorite Things Friday

My hair is thicker than it looks.  Many a hairstylist has said to me, "Jeez, I didn't know you had this much hair!" when they set about cutting and blow drying it.  Since the demise of the scrunchie in high school, I became a devotee of Goody's hair rubber bands.  You know...the ones with the gold ribbon running through it and a shiny gold clasp keeping the ends of the rubber band together? 

Those things have power!  They can hold the thickest of hair with minimal slippage and they're nice and thin so they don't stick out like a sore thumb in whatever color hair you have.  These are the only rubber bands that I use.  They are the only ones that I trust to hold my hair in a ponytail.  So imagine my horror and disappointment when I realized they were phasing these out!  I swear, ever since they started bottling water, it's been one thing after the other.   Was Goody afraid that disgruntled women would start suing them over hair breakage?  I, for one, am able to overlook a little hair breakage if it means I won't have to constantly redo my hair because my ponytail keeps slipping lower and lower.

Really, what is it with all of these "ouchless" rubber bands?  It's like once they took out the shiny gold clasp, all rubber band strength went with it.  These new-fangled rubber bands fall out of my hair as soon as my ponytail starts bobbing around.  And don't even get me started on the thick rubber bands.  Those things hurt my head by pulling my hair right out at the scalp.  All I want are my good old Goody rubber bands with the metal in them that have just the perfect amount of elasticity and hold.

Since about 3 years ago, I have been unable to find them anywhere.  If I would have known they were going to discontinue them, I would have bought every pack I could find at Target.  I didn't though.  Thus, I've rationed my dwindling supply and kept close watch over the ones that I have left.  Inevitably though, if you're hanging out with a bunch of girlfriends, one of them is going to want to pull her hair up and not have the rubberband to do it and she is going to ask someone for one.  And since I never leave home without a rubberband around my right wrist, it's kind of hard for me to quickly hide it without the rubberband needing girl seeing it and asking if she can borrow it.  You know, it's never borrowing though...it's for keeps and I know it.  I don't want to seem stingy though and deny the girl a ponytail.  However, I do keep silent count in my head of how many rubberbands I have left now.  (do you all think I'm crazy yet?)

When my mom-in-law and I were sunbathing on the beach last week, she happened to pull one of those precious Goody rubberbands out of her small cosmetic bag that she's kept specificallly for the beach since the 80's.  I got all excited and launched into a version of my spiel above and she completely understood me!  How nice to realize that I'm not the only one who knows how awesomly wonderful the Goody rubberbands are!  And she gave it to me!  I was giddy!  A new metal rubberband to add to my diminishing supply.

Needless to say, I was thrilled on Wednesday when I received a card from her in the mail containing a whole handfull of those precious rubberbands!  She happened to come across a lone pack in Giant and quickly snatched it up for me.  Oh my god, the excitement!  I'm wearing a black one on my wrist as I type this and I'm just so delighted and relieved that I have a small supply that will last for at least another 5 years.  So I took a picture yesterday morning to share with you all.  Mind you, this is taken before 8:00 am and I had just come out of the shower, my hair is a mess and my face make-up free, but I think my smile says it all...

New Goody rubberbands!!!  My favorite thing this Friday!!! :)

Michael Vick makes me sick

Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick Indicted for Dogfighting

Karma's a bitch, Michael.  May you get every abuse you and your cohorts imposed on those dogs back a hundred fold.  You deserve it.

Honestly, how can he live with himself?  Animal cruelty is my hot button issue that sets me off every time.  I just don't get it.

Bodily Functions 101

There are some guys out there that refuse to believe that a woman burps, farts or poops.  I, in fact, dated one of those guys in college.  What a lovely relationship that was...hello, cramps!  Thank god I married a guy that not only believes that a woman does all of the aforementioned bodily functions, he encourages it!  I have to admit that I really never knew how to have a satisfying burp until after I graduated college.  Now Jon and I sound like a chorus of bullfrogs.  The only difference between us is that I still laugh after every successful burp, but hey, to me, I'm still astounded that I can make a noise that big!

I still won't fart in front of Jon though, but it's nothing against him.  I won't fart in front of anyone.  I'm actually quite embarrassed about anything that comes out of that end of my body!  And if I have to poop (it took me a lot to write those words down!) and we're out somewhere and I need a bathroom now, I won't tell him in a such a direct way.  I usually say, "Jon?  My belly hurrrrrrts."   He knows just what I mean, but he still has to say, "You mean you have to poop?"  Oh, the joys of marriage.  He loves to embarrass me about that stuff and gets the opportunity to more than I would like.

I had my gallbladder removed at the tender age of six (due to gallstones) and ever since, I've had some major G.I. issues.  For those of us who know next to nothing about science (like me), let me explain the function of the gallbladder.  Basically, it stores bile and supplies that bile to your small intestine to aid in digestion of food.  Without the gallbladder, the bile constantly drips into the small intestine from the liver and causes lots of lovely irritation.  Which means that if I'm out, I really have to watch what I eat because anything greasy will go right through me pretty damn quickly and potentiallly cause an embarrasing situation if I don't find a bathroom. 

Unfortunately, this means that I sometimes have to use the bathroom at work.  Now, if you are a man reading this, you are probably wondering what the big deal is.  I think I speak for the majority of women when I say that taking a poop at work is probably one of the last things a woman wants to do.  I refuse to do my business when anyone else is in the ladies room.  This presents a problem because there is only one bathroom with about 8 stalls on my floor to accomodate about 75 people.  Some days I have to scramble from floor to floor, riding the elevator up and down, to find a bathroom that is completely unoccupied.  Try doing this as you are suffering unbearable stomach cramps...let me tell you, it is not fun! 

Over the years I've developed methods to my madness.  Always flush during the act in order to mask any odors.  Do "it" as quickly as possibly.  Consider bringing antibacterial hand soap with you because that smell will mask anything right after you put it on.  If caught in the act, wait until the intruder does their business and leaves.  I refuse to get caught!  So yes, I might be a little neurotic about all this, but I've developed these neuroses over the past 18 years of embarrasing situations. 

So, do you go at work? (Look, I'm already back to being shy about talking about poop!)

In the words of the Black Eyed Peas, where is the love?

I've been blogging since the end of April now and I'm beginning to wonder, "so when do I start getting readers and comments and all that good stuff?"  I'm sure every new blogger feels this way in the beginning and I've never been known for my patience so I'm guessing I need to be doing this for a bit longer than 3 months to really get a following.

It is nice to know that people are actually reading your work though.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment to know that people are interested in what I have to say.  I think one of the challenges for my blog is that I really don't have a niche.  I love reading the so-called Mommy Bloggers, but I don't really fit in with them since I'm not a mother yet.  I've been hardpressed to find blogs written by people like me, newlyweds, twenty-somethings, people just living an average life with nothing that extraordinary to write about.  And I've done the searches...google, technorati, blogher but haven't had that much success in finding more "me's".  Not that I don't love my Mommy Bloggers, I just need some blogger buddies like me who might have a little more in common with my blog.

With readers, come comments and I'm really looking forward to the stage in my blog's life when I can start interacting with my readers.  Although I must confess that I was a lurker for a while before I started commenting on blogs.  I admittedly felt kind of like a weirdo for commenting on someone's blog, sort of like I was spying on them and finally coming out of the shadows to say hi, hello, I read all about your life everyday!  But ever since I started my blog, I realized that blogs thrive on comments.  They keep you going, give you ideas, the opportunity to expand on things you've written about.  Plus comments encourage you to visit that person's blog and the love goes full circle!

For now, I'm content with my little blog being just that but I do have high hopes for it to make some friends soon...before I get a complex!  Happy hump day!