Friday Feeling

 

All week, you look forward to Friday. The week may be good or bad, but it's always exciting to open your eyes on a Friday morning, feeling groggy and remember that TODAY! Today is Friday! It puts a little pep in my step, knowing that a little extra free time lies ahead.

This weekend I'll be celebrating several birthdays, doing a little bit of wedding dress preparation.

I tell everyone I know, but if you're planning a wedding, skip the hassle in bridesmaid dress shopping and go straight to Alfred Angelo. Their team here in Columbus have been a complete dream.

Tonight we're having dinner at Hofbrauhaus to celebrate Lynn's birthday.

Tomorrow, we're celebrating Holly with a little DIY and wine party!

My other big plans for the weekend are to take my car to the car doctor. I'm working from home today because my car battery has died three times in 24 hours, and it wheezed pathetically at me this morning when I tried to get to work.

I hope you're enjoying this first official day of spring and International Happiness Day! A holiday I've never heard of, but I see no issue with making an excuse to choose happiness!

How Did I Get So Lucky?

Over the weekend, my friend Pam threw a bridal shower with all of the friends from my hometown. The community in which I grew up is one of my favorite places in the world, and the people there are wonderful. The women at this shower were those who have seen me through childhood, high school and college graduations, new jobs, new boyfriends and now are helping to celebrate my next big step into marriage.

It's really special to have so many people rooting for you throughout your life. The guests at this shower are friends- friends of mine, friends of my mother. People whose children I babysat, people who knew me on the day I was born, people who have come into my life along the way. They have led by example on how to be engaging, smart and loyal women. Their children are my friends, and their encouragement (and watchful eyes!) are a huge part of my drive to succeed.

I'm excited to share this time with them, and was so blown away by their generous spirits and enthusiasm for celebrating together. Pam is a skilled hostess and her house looked beautiful! These images from the day are courtesy of my friend Hanna.

Craft Night Success

Lookie! Look what I did! My friends and I have been having Craft Night as it fits our schedules, and last night I made something that's been on my radar for a few weeks. It turned out pretty well, I think. I needed more room for all my fancy jewels, because the little thing from Claire's just wasn't cuttin' it.

My dad would be pretty proud because I screwed in those things that hold the necklaces (cup hooks?) by putting in STARTER holes...which means I pounded in some nails before trying to screw the hooks in. Makes 'em easier to screw in. Put down your phone- I haven't joined the construction business quite yet.

Good news- I only nailed through the frame once. And the reason I even nailed is because the guy at Ace Hardware directed me to the wrong staples for my new staple gun. He gave me Heavy Duty and I need Narrow, so...Ace failure.

I used some paint from my failed Kitchen Painting Party, so that was pretty resourceful...

(I wanted to paint the kitchen green. Then I tried a bunch of shades and Hated them all. I modified this picture so that you could really see the four varieties of green that are on my kitchen walls at the moment. The plan is to have a camouflage kitchen indefinitely. I know it's not totally beautiful and HGTV probably won't want to stop by but looks on the positive side. In case of any robbers, I can hide in the kitchen and they will never find me.)

Crafty!

I Only Hang Out With the Hottie Muppets.

Someones who have been great lately are my girlfrans.(Does anyone besides me appreciate this creativity with the English language?)

They've been amazing at filling my time with activities like concerts, zumba, crafts and cookouts, as well as open ears and nimble fingers for responding to my needy text messages. And what's weird, is that for all the time I've been friends with them (none of them I've known less than 6 years, some I've known for nearly 25) I have never felt so completely understood, accepted and supported by them.

Thanks friends!

In the past three weeks, I've been privileged to reconnect with  friends that I don't see enough and to build quality relationships with those that I take for granted on a weekly basis. A pattern of my behavior is to be guarded with my suffering (Suffering? Agony? Bottomless pit of depression? I'm just trying to amp up the dramatics in this blog.) No one likes a party-pooper, so I try not to be one. Sharing emotions is hard for me, but I've been getting better at being open with people who matter. To my very real shock, it's doing good things for me.

This weekend I was treated to VIP tickets to Grace Potter with my friend Jess. Lynn planned a tailgate for the OSU-Toledo game that had me dancing my face off. Katie hosted Craft Night, and Lauren invited me to see Katy Perry with her this evening.

I'm lucky. Each person I've talked to has had something helpful to say, something that makes me feel not alone. Not everyone has that. So I'm going to toast that 16oz Bud Light to my wonderful, wonderful friends who have kept me from sitting in the dark, watching sad YouTube videos and crying into the pale ale I bought weeks ago that was intended for someone else.

Cheers!

yes, my friends are white.

Jumbly Musings

Thoughts that don't individually warrant a whole blog post:

I dont like to enter games or contests
because it's so disappointing when I don't win...

I'm happy to have a sister lunch with Jamie today.
It's Sibs Weekend at OU where she goes to school, but Kristen is out of town, and I couldn't visit Athens, so we're hanging out in Columbus instead :)

Spent yesterday reading a blog with some sad, sad content.
I feel like it did me some good though because being the worrywart I am, it gave me a chance to freak out about something I hadn't really considered before, and now, if I'm ever faced with such a tragedy, I think I might be better prepared (is this an appropriate time to knock on wood?)

Finished my goal of watching all 10 best picture oscar nominees
As of last night...saw black swan with my sister. We liked it. I'll give some feedback and thoughts in another upcoming post :)

Looking forward to a Friday night out
with some friends from home...looking even more forward to a Saturday Pretend Getaway with Jake. We had planned to take a weekend trip, but other things got in the way, so now we're Pretending.

Weekend in Cincy

This weekend I got to visit my friend Mollie in Cincinnati. We had dinner at LavomaticCafe with her friend Sammy. My Lavo Burger was tall but delicious and I'm eating my leftover lobster mac 'n' cheese for lunch today! I haven't spent good quality time with Mollie since we lived together about three years ago, which was my first year at the sorority house, and probably the best of my college years.

It was awesome to laugh, catch up on gossip and exchange stories about our Men. I love Mollie because she is crass and hilarious, indulges the Theater Kid in me, tells you like it is and is far more sensitive than she cares to admit. She's a great friend and I hope we take advantage of our chances to get together :)

In addition to a visit with Mollie, we were able to meet some of our other sorority friends to get our nails done at Ambiance. Thanks to Jess for booking the appointment so that we could all be together! After getting our nails did, we had a sushi lunch at Wild Ginger where I got made fun of for acting like an old lady and we took pictures that would hide our pimples...

I don't spend enough time with my TEM girls and love Love, LOVE when we get together. They are the only friends I've ever CHOSEN, and I wouldn't have made any other choice! I'm looking forward to seeing other ladies when we go back to help our active chapter with their recruitment process.

SHOUT OUT also, to a Saturday night at Spagio and Mickey's with Heather, Jess, Kristen and Lynn, some more amazing TEM women :)