Happy Friday Friends

Happy Friday bloggerians! That is not a word but I enjoyed typing it so lets just say we let me have this one. Remember how I said that Friday was going to be my week in review round up?

I am still going to go with that its just that it has been the lamest week EVER.

No seriously, I am not quite sure how I survived this one. I can't even really tell you a high or low light because it was that uneventful.

I am going to start including your 'license' plate of the week. A few of you might now know this but I collect (pictures of) license plates that I like. Normally they are on parked cars but the real prize is if you can get a great one when its on the road at a light or speeding away from you. Now there is a challenge. So that's why there is a picture of one. Just a heads up.

This afternoon I have my last ever Manor wedding unless someone decides to elope in the next three weeks. So I am putting a link to my favorite Manor wedding pictures here so you can look back at my illustrious career as a B&B wedding planner. *Sniff* Onwards and upwards as they say.

Alright on to the week -

Song of the Week: Zac Brown Bands "Toes" - This is a really great song to symbolize the end of summer and I have had it stuck in my head all week, I don't even speak Spanish :) I want to be best friends with these guys because they just seem like so much fun. Also, Marcy and my parents will embrace it for its 'Alcoholic Country' qualities. I think my favorite line of it is "not a worry in the world a PBR on the way" it reminds me of Bro Jo. Anyways download it and enjoy it I assure you it is infectious and wonderful.

Quote of the Week :

"I like red heads, their lips are like a drop of strawberry jam in a big fresh glass of milk "
Roger Sterling on Mad Men
(which is my latest television obsession I want to be Joan when I grow up except you know obviously not a secretary at a Manhattan ad agency in 1960... well I mean I want her clothes.)

Highlight of the week :
I reached the 'white level' on my FittLinx points this week it is the lowest level you can reach but I have never reached a 'level' on any fitness related thing in my life so it was pretty neat. Plus the screen had all these fireworks and looked very celebratory.

Low Light of the week:
The stupid Y being closed for three day for stupid routine maintenance and not being able to go to Zumba :(

Zumba Highlight of the week : see above low light :(

All in all I am very glad this week is over and now it is only one more week until Gus comes home to visit. Hurray!

I hope you all have a lovely Labor day weekend. Lots of cookouts and fun and such.
Cheers!

Fabulous News :)

Today this blogger is one happy lady because Hermie has purchased a ticket to fly home to the land of Hampton Roads next weekend.

Hurray!

It has been over a month since the last time I saw him and that is really just entirely too long.
I am not sure what fabulous and nostalgic things we might do but I really want to take him to my Wal-Mart and drag his butt in front of the rude check out boy who has on several occasions commented on my purchases of 'single girl' food.

As if one did not feel badly enough about buying single serving frozen vegetables and SmartOnes meals the guy at Wal Mart has to go ahead and in front of the disgruntled, poorly dressed couples behind me call me out for my pathetic purchases.

Well I will show him! Ha. Idohaveaboyfriendandhelovesmesothere!

That is the thing about being in a long distance relationship, unlike Hannah Montana who makes the best of both worlds having your boy live far away is the exact polar opposite.

It is the worst of both worlds.

You get none of the benefits of being single and none of the benefits of being in a relationship.

For example, you go to a bar with friends and a boy offers to buy you a drink. You politely decline not wanting to give him the wrong idea but alas there is no boyfriend there to buy you a drink or defend your honor. So you wind up sitting at a bar, relegated to being a third wheel and feeling so depressed that you wind up incurring a massive bar tab that you then have to pay because you are no longer at liberty to use your red hair and charming personality to your advantage.

Sigh.

That is completely hypothetical of course. I imagine that's how one might feel in that situation.

Not being able to see or talk to you best friend because he is far away, stuck in a basement all day doing various research and tests is definitely a challenge in a relationship.
Especially if one is an insecure jealous wench (ahem) .

Needless to say the last three months have been exceedingly difficult.

Long distance blows, I would never wish it on my worst enemy.
Well maybe my wooooooorst enemy but she totally deserves it.

I am very glad that Hermie is coming home. I think that it will give me some closure in my Williamsburg scene and really get me excited for the move that is only a few weeks away :)

I am really looking forward to being the girl standing with her boyfriend in the Wal-Mart check out line and no matter how smug and content I feel in my blissfully happy relationship I would never ever be condescending to the girl in front of me with her cart full of microwave dinners and yogurt.

At some point we have all been that girl before and while it definitely makes you stronger having someone push your cart for you while you flip through the latest People magazine is a much nicer place to be.

A pirate looks at 25....

We braved the Blue Crab and were rewarded with cheap beer and a lovely deck.

Totally worth it.

Jon Greene is a super hero

Shaking it on the beach, well sorta...

A pirate looks at 25.

It is clear from the above posted pictures that I have returned from a wonderful family vacay to the OBX. It was especially poignant for me because our whole family has not been there together in years and it will most likely be my last visit to the ocean for a very long, long time.

The impact of moving to a land locked state hits you when you realize that in the future you will not be able to just hop in the car and drive to your happy place. The beach for me is more of a mental state of mind than being on the actual beach. Being a rather large child from a young age I have never been one to embrace the 'swim suit', and when I was younger and played in the water I would usually swallow way to much salt water and wind up... well lets just say it was unpleasant. But I love being atthebeach. Its just like a totally different mind set.

Life is more relaxed there, it smells wonderful. My parents spoil me with delicious seafood and low calorie cocktails. You get to go shopping. You do things that at home are mundane but are special because you are atthebeach. Driving down there is a sense of anticipation, an exhilaration that you are going to a wonderful place where you are going to be very happy.

I heart the beach.

I am very glad that my last venture to the ocean was with my wonderful and supportive family although the quote of the weekend might have been my mother trying to plan my "viewing". I am actually not dying. I am just moving away from the people and things that I have grown to associate with love and joy. BUT I just have to remember that I am not losing those things they are just going to be farther away.

Anyways it was a wonderful weekend, exactly what I needed. As a final closing note to those who have lived in those afore mentioned landlocked states in the past....
LAKES ARE NOT THE SAME.

I swear if I have one more person tell me that there are always lakes......
comparing the two are like saying that a ring pop is the same thing as a diamond.
Not even in the same league.

Farewell Atlantic Ocean we shall meet again :(

The weekend is upon us!

It's Friday. Hurray! Another week down.

Only five more to go:)

Not like I am counting or anything right?

I think that on Fridays I am going to start doing a 'week in review' type entry. Its my blog and I do what I want so there.

Several of you have written me wonderful and encouraging things about how much you enjoy reading about the various

(mis)adventures of my daily life and I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you :)

It makes me happy that my blog is being used to procrastinate, enlighten and inspire.

Perhaps inspire is a little extreme but I will allow it.

I like to write and you all enjoy reading so it works out splendidly.

So back to my list :

My current song of the week - “Paparazzi” by Lady GaGa.

I have been listening to this song on repeat all week and I am still not tired of it which says a lot. Clearly the Lady has fun dance songs but I like this one the best. I am posting a link to the video. * Note there is some scandalous material so those offended by amorous embraces might want to skip this one.

Favorite Quote of the Week -

“Now I know what the founders of Phillip Morris felt like. You just wanna give people a smooth, fun way to relax, and suddenly you're just some terrible monster.”

-Michael Scott on last nights Office

Highlight of the Week -

Being on the short list for what might be an amazing job opportunity

(but shhhh don’t ask me about it because I don’t want to jinx it)

Lowlight of the Week-

Having my Air Conditioner leak through my floor into my bathroom, then having it turned off for a day (its August!) then having the wet carpet smell like death, then having it fixed only to have it smell even worse. It is just now at the point where you can walk in without wanting to projectile vomit.

Zumba Highlight -

There is this family mom, dad and two daughters probably 13 or 14 who come to the Y every Thursday night and they all do Zumba and they warm my heart. I too have been a fat kid my whole life and I always mentally picture my parents and Jon Greene shaking it in a Zumba class and the image makes me laugh out loud and it instantly cheers me up.

* Note to my family, there is still room open in class!

Favorite Person of the Week-

Vega Brown for purchasing me fresh tomatoes from our local Farmers Market so that my lunch could have more vegetables. That’s love :)

Alright kids I hope that you all have incredible weekends. The Greene's are going to the beach, hurray! I need to get as much sea as possible before I am official landlocked.

Ciao!

OMG how embarassing.

Sometimes I think really Erin how do you let these things happen to you all the time?

I went to my Y last night for my evening workout routine and had worked up quite a sweat doing my circuit training. I was rocking out to my banging Britney Spears playlist and was aware that I was getting more odd looks from other gym goers than usual.

Sometimes I get a little too into my Britney mix and the world i.e. the weight machines become my stage. I have to remind myself that the reason earphones were invented was just in case those around you did not want to listen to a popular pop song, performed very off key.

My bad.

So I toned down the singing (and choreography) but the looks kept coming which I then attributed to the fact that I had been working out a lot and lost a little weight and that these people must be admiring how smoking I looked. Which consequently brought the Britney dance moves back out. Hey if you got it flaunt it right?

Upon further examination though I realized the looks were not ones of jealousy at my not-so toned upper arms but were actually more like ill-concealed smirks of mockery and derision.

I was red and sweaty but not super gross and its not like I was falling off the machines or anything. I could not figure out for the life of me why on this night everyone was acting like I was some fancy pants oddity.

Then I figured it out.

As I was leaving the gym still dancing and humming quietly ( alright singing Toxic out loud at a pretty high volume) I happened to catch a glimpse of myself in the door window. There I was in my sweaty tank, hair frizzed and curled in ways that only someone who drove a magic school bus could embrace, awkwardly dancing and wearing... pearls.

Yes friends, apparently in my transformation from catering wench by day to weight lifter by night I had forgotten to remove one little accessory that had completely blown my street cred with my fellow gym rats.

I am now the girl who wears pearls while doing lateral curls. Great.

I would have totally embraced it had it been a conscious choice I had made. Lord knows I have been known to wear pearls while doing far more scandalous things but there was always tequila involved and those around me did not smirk and judge so much as they fell down and yelled obscenities.

I have Zumba tonight so I won't have to face the 'lifters' but come tomorrow I will have to make a decision, rock the pearls as if nothing was awry OR somehow become incredibly buff overnight so that no one will mess with me for fear of bodily harm.

I think my choice is pretty obvious :)

I f*ing hate Vera Bradley

Rant, rant, grumble, rant.

Sorry I have just returned from the Office Depot where I waited in line behind honest to God five women with Vera Bradley bags, several even had matching wallets.

Now this is not really that unusual for this area. Loads of my sorority sisters loved Vera, several even bought her napkins (yes the bitch makes napkins) so that they could cut them up and make letters that would match their bags.

No really. That happened.

I have engaged in this conversation alot with various people, some of whom own Vera things and the end result always makes me look like a shallow quilt hating wench. I know in my heart though that I am no such thing, and that goodness will always triumph over evil... its biblical.

I am furthermore convinced that the devil has several matching Vera Bradley collections, with coordinating luggage and that he carries different bags for every day of the week. Perhaps from time to time while torturing sinners in the fiery depths he mentally debates the merits of paisley vs. quilted prints. I would not be surprised.

The kicker though is that they are not even cheap, they are really expensive ugly bags. Realllly expensive. I used to say that they were alright for older women who knit, but my grandmother knits and I would never ever want to subject her to the horror that is a Vera Bradley. Grandma Greene is way too cool for that nonsense.

I have been ranting against this woman for years and I thought that the trend was beginning to die down until I went to the store today and saw that in the enclave of Williamsburg Vera still reigns with her evil pastel fists. Sigh.

Maybe I will be able to escape her in the Boro. Maybe Midwesterners spend their disposable income on fashionable, chic handbags and accessories. Bahahaha right. About that......

I shall close with an antidote,

I was once at a shopping center on a date when he made a point of mentioning that this particular mall had an entire Vera Bradley store which he would be happy to point me in the direction of. He said it in earnest genuinely thinking that I would be pleased and excited by this revelation. He clearly had not anticipated the vitriolic hate filled rant that ensued. Making matters worse he defended himself by claiming that 'all my sisters had them' and that they were 'cute'. Needless to say from that moment on I knew that it was not going to work out.

Call me shallow, call me elitist but I hate Vera and when I stand at the pearly gates of heaven and God is rocking the latest Birkin bag I will know that I have come to the right place. As for those of you who feel comforted by the false promises of a paisley print goodluck with those pitch fork wielding demons, at least your bags will match.

*p.s. If I love you and you own one don't worry I have been praying for you for years and Jesus understands :)

Time is on our side... sorta

Recently I have been writing about being hopelessly bored and lonely but this weekend was wonderful and a massive break from the ordinary mostly because I got to spend so much of it with my incredible familia.

The Floridians stopped by and I got to meet some beautiful blonde boys who will some day wow the world with their incredible dance moves. I got to visit with the menage-a and enjoy a Project Runway moment but mostly because I got to hang out with the Richmond Greene's.

Home is the most incredible place, great food, really clean and comfy and full of love and free toothbrushes :) Absolutely wonderful. I have been itching to get on to the next step of my life but I realized this weekend that the transition period can be enjoyed to. I got to wake up and watch cartoons with my little brother, we got mommy a new phone so she can text, and I have slowly but surely begun to supplement my lost pearl collection... what could be better?

Now that I know there are alternatives to sitting in my shed on a Friday night with sugar free Jello and a copy of High School Musical 3 I am definitely going to start taking advantage of them.

I wonder what next weekend might bring :)

Oh p.s. note to self in the future do not take your parents to see a movie about a young woman who hates her job who becomes a famous blogger.... it does nothing to help your claims that you are not a real writer and blogging is just for fun. Nothing at all.