A few things I'm loving this week.

Hi all!

I know I've been a little MIA and I'm hoping to get back on track here soon. I was out of town for a long weekend to attend my grandmother's funeral and came back to what basically feels like a war zone in my house. I'm knee deep in major roommate drama and trying to deal with it has kind of consumed my time and energy this week.

I've owned my house for 3 years during which I've probably had 7 roommates/tenants and I've never had an issue until now. I don't have the energy to get into the messy details, but I'm disappointed and to be honest, I am really angry. Needless to say, I'm tired and so ready for this nightmare to be over.

Enough about that, though. I'm back and in the spirit of focusing on the good things, here are a few things that I'm loving this week:

This photo of Jonathan and I dancing at a wedding a few months ago...

 These quotes...

This photo of my siblings and I at my parents' house this week...

This text from Jonathan...

Getting to spend a few days with my adorable nephew...

I absolutely adore that little guy. He is by far the sweetest, most easy-going little baby I've ever been around. Just thinking of his cute face makes me smile.

I couldn't end this on a happier note than that. I hope you're all having a great week!

Cuatro de Mayo

It feels great to say I'm not suffering from the slightest hangover today. Our Cinco de Mayo involved a trip to the flea market, an afternoon bike ride and tacos for dinner at Jonathan's parents' house. I was happily in bed by 9 p.m. while Jonathan played poker with the guys.

Our Cuatro de Mayo, however, was full of dancing, bubbles, tequila and beer bongs. Jonathan's friend threw a huge party and we had an absolute blast!

I made oh, about 4 dozen of these babies, Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies and they were a huge hit. I'll admit to having one of these for breakfast on Saturday morning. They were that good. The recipe is super simple, too!

 

Reason #1,458 why my boyfriend is way cooler than me...he has all this super fancy DJ equipment so he was in charge of providing the music all day. This didn't stop me from visiting him at the DJ table every now and then to steal a kiss or two. This also didn't stop some other girl from hanging around him all day, but that is a story for later on. 

My sisters were there, too! I was so happy they came out and we had a blast dancing and drinking together all day long. 

Jonathan set up his bubble machine by the DJ booth which obviously made it my favorite spot of the day. Why are bubbles so exciting? I'll never understand but if you can't tell from the photo above, they make me so absolutely happy.

Oh, so that girl that wouldn't leave my handsome boyfriend alone all day? I'm really not the jealous type, but I couldn't help but notice that every time I looked over there, she was standing around the DJ table, either dancing or talking to Jonathan. I don't worry about him at all, but in my drunken state, I was a little annoyed by her. This led me to start requesting Jonathan play songs like "Move bitch" by Ludacris in the hopes she would take a hint. I know, so classy. 

Anyway, you can blame this behavior on the multiple margaritas, beers and my participation in this...

Bongzilla. It's as scary as it sounds.

It was another absolutely perfect weekend and I'm already counting down to the next one. My best friend Taryn will be in town just in time to celebrate my 27th birthday. My birthday is on Sunday, but we're hosting a big birthday BBQ at Jonathan's house on Saturday. I can't wait!

Finally linking up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans!

A confession.

Once upon a time, just a few months ago, I was blogging about running a 5K, working out at the crack of dawn and sticking to a healthy diet. Somewhere between then and now, the workouts became less frequent and ice cream, big Sunday breakfasts and candy became more frequent. Don't get me wrong...I still go to the gym, but it's become more of a 1-2 times/week occurrence and my runs don't go much further than 3 miles or so.

I have fallen off the wagon. It's been a slow fall, but it's been a tragic fall. I have fallen in love and off the treadmill, so to speak.

It kills me that just a few months ago I was effortlessly sticking to a relatively healthy diet and I was working out like crazy and loving every minute. I could probably come up with a few excuses, but that isn't gonna get this girl back on track.

The good news is that the beginning is always hardest. Waking up tomorrow at 5 a.m. tomorrow to work out is probably going to be a little sad, but it must be done. I can't use the excuse of Tuesday night being date night with Jonathan anymore. If I can't work out Tuesday nights, I must work out Tuesday mornings. When Jonathan gets up for a bowl of ice cream before bed and asks if I want one, it will be a little hard to say no, but I can say no. I don't need a bowl of ice cream before bed.

No more excuses. No more french toast on Sunday mornings. No more eating out for lunch because I didn't plan anything.

I'm confessing all of this on my blog to help hold myself accountable. There's something about putting it "on paper" that makes me more motivated to stick with my plan. 

It felt great to be where I was at a few months ago. I was healthy, in great shape, I was happy and I had a ton of energy. I need to get back there before I really lose all the progress I made.

This starts now...as soon as I finish the bag of Skittles sitting on my desk.

I'm wondering...

How do you get yourself back on track when you fall off the wagon? Tell me what works for you!

A dream about forgetting to plan my own wedding.

I have to throw in a quick disclaimer: Now that I opened this blog up to everyone I know on Facebook and their mother, you all need to know that I am still going to blog about things as if you weren't reading. So to my sweet, dear boyfriend, please don't lose your shit when you learn I am having dreams about weddings and whatnot.

Okay, now moving on...

Just the other day Jonathan and I were talking about dreams and how it seems like we only have dreams about totally off-the-wall things that would never happen in a million years. I was saying that just once, I would love to have a dream about something normal like going on vacation or something in the future like having kids. Instead, I typically dream about random, unexplainable things like alligators crawling up my house and in the windows while I'm sleeping. I don't even know where this stuff comes from...it's so random.

Ironically enough, that very night we dozed off to sleep and I had a dream about my wedding. That's pretty normal to dream about, right? It was great...for a minute. I remember getting ready, talking and giggling with my mother and my bridesmaids when suddenly, I realized that I forgot to write my vows. Next thing you know, I'm in a complete panic and at a loss for words as I try to write them in the car on the way to my own wedding.

To make matters worse, when I get to the ceremony site, I arrive to find out that I never even booked the venue. So far, we've got a bride and a groom, a whole wedding party with guests, but no vows and nowhere for them to get married. I wish I could say everything worked out, but I must've woken up before anything else could happen.

If you know me at all, you know that I am pretty organized and a little obsessive compulsive. I could totally see myself getting to my wedding day and realizing at worst, that I forgot to take my vitamin that morning, not completely forgetting to write my vows or book the venue! Apparently in my dream life, I expect to just arrive and have a wedding magically appear in front of me without actually planning any of it.

I'm not really into researching the meaning of dreams and whatnot, so who knows where this dream came from. It could mean I am not going to enjoy planning my wedding, whenever that day comes. I doubt it. Maybe it's an overall message to stop worrying about little details in life and focus on the big stuff. Who knows. What I do know, however, is that when the day comes, I'll be sure to book the venue and write my vows before I do anything else!

Why you shouldn't try to dump someone on April Fools' Day

Yesterday was just another day in my book. I'm glad to say no attempted to play any April Fools' Day jokes on me. I love a good prank, but didn't play or hear of any good ones. I did, however, have a part in a very unfortunate misunderstanding. This my friends, is a true story:

After going out on a few dates with a really nice guy, my roomie decided she just wasn't that into him. While at the gym last night, we talked about how she decided to break things off with him rather than dragging it out any longer when she wasn't interested. When he texted later in the night asking her out again, I told her to get it over with and respond by telling him she just wasn't feeling it. She joked about how she'd rather just phase him out but I insisted she be up front and honest. I even took over her phone and wrote out the text for her. It basically said that she just wasn't feeling a connection and didn't want to waste his time.

A little nervous about how he would respond, she asked me to hang on to her phone and read his response and let me tell you...it was a doozy. In all the time we took brainstorming a nice way to let him down, we failed to realize it was April Fools' Day. He thought she was playing a joke on him. 

 

We never saw this response coming and it had us in a fit of laughter trying to figure out how to respond. How did she respond? She just said, "Oh gosh. I didn't even realize it was April Fools' Day." It's the truth. The thought never crossed our minds as we talked about how to break it off with him. He took it well and told her he wishes her the best. Good guy. We did feel bad for him and he was right, it was just the weirdest coincidence ever.

 

And that, my friends, is why you shouldn't try to dump someone on April Fools' Day.

 

Tell me...

 

Were you part of any good pranks yesterday? Has this awkward scenario ever happened to you?   

Lessons Learned from too Much Wine out of a Mason Jar

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

We spent the weekend at my parents' house and went to a wedding on Saturday. I absolutely loved spending so much time with my parents and the wedding was on a farm and an absolute blast.

 As with any social occasion that involves alcohol, I've come away with a few important lessons and feel that it is my duty to share them with you all:

-Even if you are in a happy relationship with a man who loves you a lot, when you arrive at a wedding and shout "I want to get married here!" your boyfriend is probably still going to say, "Woah! Slow down there." Calm down everyone, I didn't say "I want to get married here tomorrow!"

-When you are drinking wine out of a mason jar and the bartender fills the jar to the top everytime you get a refill, drink slowly or before you know it, you've had 1 and 1/2 bottles of wine, a shot of crown and you become a drunken mess who is being mean to your sweet boyfriend for no reason.

-If that boyfriend still loves you the next day after you've thrown his phone, likely embarrassed yourself in front of his family and needed him to take care of you when you got sick from drinking too much, don't ever let him go.

-If you also find out that he took your makeup off for you (while you cried and asked him not to break up with you) and helped you change into pajamas in your drunken, sick state, yet he tells you that he loves you more than ever the next day, close your eyes and thank God you found him.

-Drinking heavily does, in fact, help you survive wearing really uncomfortable heels all night. After a while, you don't even notice you are wearing shoes at all.

-Even though you may have had too much to drink, embarrassed yourself a bit and turned into a hot mess, at one point in the night, you were having an absolute blast and this is what is most important about situations like that.

I hope your weekend was just as much fun (and a little less embarrassing) as mine!

Flowers & a Man Who Actually Called me on the Phone. Is This Real Life?

Hello world. I've been stuck in bed with a nasty cold all week, but yet somehow a lot has happened. This cold couldn't have come at a worse time. I still have Christmas gifts to buy, errands to run before my holiday trips and my workout schedule has been completely thrown off.

In the midst of all this, I absolutely need to post something here because things has taken an interesting turn in the last few days.

I met a really handsome guy downtown last weekend. If your single, you know that 9 times out of 10 when you meet a guy at a bar, the chances that (1) you'll actually hear from him and (2) that you'll actually want to get to know him outside of that environment, aren't very good. Nevermind the fact that you probably had a conversation about nothing at the bar and may not even remember it. Well this guy seemed a little different from the get-go. He bought me a beer and he asked about my job, my favorite books...not the typical "so, where are you from?" conversation most guys go with.

I was surprised to get a text from him Monday and even more surprised that he asked me out to dinner Tuesday night. Then something amazing happened. He picked up the phone and called me to make dinner plans. I can't tell you how refreshing it was to skip the weeks of awkward texting conversation that inevitably end up happening with guys I meet. I feel like so many guys (or maybe just the ones end up interested in) hide behind Facebook chat, texting...anything to avoid picking up the phone and talking like a normal human being. Getting an actual phone call from someone I had just met was such a treat!

Anyway, we met for dinner on Tuesday night and had a great time! Things that made me think I might like this one:

-when I walked up to meet him at the restaraunt, he shouted "You look beautiful!" I'm not one of those girls who needs to be told that all the time, but I've also dated too many people recently who couldn't even tell me they liked me, so it was nice to hear this from him.

-he brought me flowers. What? I haven't gotten flowers from a guy in years. We walked to his truck after dinner to get his jacket (which he made me wear because it was chilly and I was getting sick) and he pulled them out and handed them to me. It was sweet and thoughtful and not over-the-top cheesy. I didn't know how to react!

-I didn't feel like we were on a first date at all. The way he talked with me was like he had known me for a long time. It was comfortable and fun without the first date awkwardness that I am all too familiar with.

We ended the night with frozen yogurt and plans to see each other again tonight. I'm excited and pleasantly surprised by this whole situation.

I think I posted this quote on a blog post a while back, but it rings true for so many things in life including my relationships with people. I can't dwell on people who don't want to be in my life. I need to look forward and put my energy toward the people who want to be here.

I've had a tough time lately finally getting up the courage to speak my mind to people who haven't treated me fairly. I'm realizing when I stop putting my thoughts and energy toward people who don't deserve it from me, I make room for people to come in my life who do deserve my attention.

Unfortunately, this is a lesson I keep having to learn. I'll get it down eventually, but in the meantime, I'm excited to see what happens next. I just hope I'm feeling better in time for my date this evening!

Speaking up, Sea World, Being Crafty and a Runaway Blake

Hello friends. I have a lot I want to say this week and I don't know where to start. I guess I'll start by telling you about my weekend and figure out the rest later this week.

Sometimes when I reflect on the weekend, it's hard to believe I crammed so many adventures, mishaps, awkward moments and good times into such a short time. This weekend was definitely one of those weekends.

Saturday I spent the day at Sea World with The Dog Whisperer, his roommate and a lady friend of his. I hadn't seen and hardly spoken to The Dog Whisperer in a few weeks so I was feeling a little anxious. We had a really fun day and got to hit up just about every attraction they have. The dolphin show is by far my favorite show there and everytime I see it I am completely overwhelmed by how amazing it is. I also cry tears of joy everytime I watch it and this time was no different. Did our whole group think it's weird and hilarious that I cry? I think so, but oh well. Sea World at Christmas makes me ridiculously happy. They have fake snow and do Christmas versions of some of the shows. We fed sting rays, which if you've never done is really awkward because they basically suck the food out of your hand. We also spent way too long in the game area of Sea World and The Dog Whisperer walked away with a creepy amount of small stuffed animal prizes. It was a really fun day.

While I had a really fun day, I have to say that The Dog Whisperer treated me like nothing more than a friend all day. Because he's been sending such mixed signals, I've already backed off quite a bit so if he just wants to be friends, that's cool. It would be nice though if he would just say so instead of leaving me to figure it out on my own. It's exhausting.

My goals for Sunday were simple: at least start to decorate the house for Christmas. I'm saving the Christmas tree for this weekend when my roomie and I can go pick one out and decorate together, but I wanted to get some lights up, get the Christmas candles out and finally pack up the fall decorations. As I tend to do, I got a little overzealous and decided I was also going to attempt to make one of those adorable yarn wreaths I see all over Pinterest.

I wouldn't describe myself as crafty, but I used to scrapbook a lot and I can pull off pretty basic DIY projects. The problem is, that no matter what I do, I always end up spending 3x as much on the supplies and the project takes about 2 hours longer than the tutorial says it should. This is why my crafting days are few and far between. The good news is that I'm pretty happy with the result.

I didn't really follow any specific tutorial because there are so many online and honestly, this is pretty easy to make. Wrapping the yarn around the wreath is really more of a two person job (it took me about 2 1/2 hours and it is not perfect by any means), but other than that, it's pretty self explanatory.

I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty exhausted and mentally checked out after the wreath was complete and I hadn't even gotten around to hanging any lights yet. This explains how I didn't notice Blake walking right out the front door somewhere between me trying to hang the wreath on the door and standing in my kitchen sink trying to hang Christmas lights in my front window (side note: you can't help but stop and laugh at yourself when you're using an ice cream scoop as a hammer for an hour before realizing you have a tool kit in the garage).

When I was finally finished, I realized I hadn't seen Blake in a while. He hadn't been feeling very well and I kinda figured he gave up on following this mad woman around the house and went to sleep on the couch. I walked through the house calling his name and he was no where to be found. I started to panic realizing he could have been gone for an hour or two at this point. I had been so wrapped up in what I was doing, I had no idea when he got out. I started freaking out, crying, calling his name and as I ran outside to look for him, my neighbor from a few houses down was walking up to the door with him.

I was so relieved and panic-stricken that I brought Blake inside and cried like a baby for a good 10 minutes. Before you judge my parenting, I am usually much more attentive. Blake is still a puppy, so I don't let him out of my sight most of the time. I honestly don't know how he got outside without me even realizing it and it really makes me worry about my mental health. He would've had to walk right past me to get outside when I had the door open for goodness sake! The good news is that thanks to my neighbor walking his dogs, Blake didn't go far and I didn't end up having to roam the streets hysterically looking for him.

So yeah, to summarize: Hot mess, party of one right here. I'll get it together soon, I'm sure. I do know that though I feel like I am kinda falling apart, it's making me say and do things that need to be done. I don't ever fall apart without coming out of it feeling better and more secure with myself. So, there's the bright side. Oh, and I'm sure you would all agree that succeeding in any DIY project can make you feel like you could take over the world, assuming you don't let your dog run away without you noticing in the process.

Holy cow that was long. Thanks for sticking around to read it if you did and I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Strippers & Shenanigans

Talk about switching gears! Today's post isn't about random acts of kindness, unless you count "making it rain" on a stripper a random act of kindness. Before a new weekend with new adventures to be had begins, I want to tell you about the hilarious and wild night I had last weekend.

 

This quote really sums it up, but I'll fill you in on the details because they are that random.

source

I made plans to go out with my roommate, Natasha on Saturday night and after going downtown the night before with my sisters, I wasn't sure what I was in the mood for. We've only been out a few times together since she moved in a few months ago, but we've had a blast everytime. We decided to start the night off with a few drinks at Bar Louie then decide if we wanted to head downtown or what. This is how the rest of the night went:

We walk into the bar and I spot two guys I know from high school and two of their friends.

 

The guys immediately ordered us drinks and we all moved to a bigger table.

 

Natasha and I discuss 1. how much fun this is and 2. that we both agree one of the guys is really cute.

 

Natasha hits on a completely random guy sitting at the bar by filling out a Paper PickUp,

folding it into a paper airplane then throwing it at him. That's when I think it really hit me: I love this girl.

 

He obviously comes over and minutes later she needs my help getting rid of him.

 

After a few drinks, we all head over to a new bar down the street for more fun.

 

We find a really neat outdoor area of the bar to hang out. Because someone says this looked like a VIP area, suddenly we are coming up with celebrity look-a-likes for everyone. One of the guys becomes Rob Kardashian, another becomes

Kenny Chesney even though he really doesn't look a thing like him,

I become Carrie Underwood and Natasha becomes Taylor Swift.

 

A few drinks later, the guys gently break it to us that their plans were actually

to go to a strip club next.

 

I think they were afraid they would lose us for the night, but Natasha and I enthusiastically

announce that we've never been to one and we were totally down.

 

Next thing you know we're all in the car on our way.

 

Some ladies might walk into a strip club with a group of four guys and sit in the corner pouting.

 

Not us.

 

We get in, order drinks, Natasha starts buying the guys lapdances and I am asking Kenny Chesney to teach me how to go about putting money in the girls' panties and telling him "I want to make it rain!"

 

We were truly "just one of the guys" at the strip club and they loved it. It was so hilarious.

So basically, girls' night turned into quite an adventure and Natasha was all about it. I love having friends who are up for anything and just "go with it." Natasha is definitely this way. Our plans of having a girls' night went out the window and she hit it off with all the guys and loved every second. She doesn't get all wrapped up in what our "plan" is or get all weird about hanging out with people she doesn't know. I love it. She is spontaneous and fun and the next day we couldn't stop laughing about our wild night.

Why I Loved This Weekend

Happy Monday everyone!

I kicked off my Monday by landing my client an interview with The Wall Street Journal, so excuse my being overly excited about anything and everything. I was sick last week (boo), but thanks to my awesome doctor, I was back in action just in time to have an absolutely delightful weekend. Why, you ask?

Saturday I spent the morning pampering myself and it was just lovely. I got my highlights touched up and eyebrows done and ran a few errands. I'm headed to Boston/Maine this weekend for a wedding, so it was nice to be out and about getting what I needed for the trip. I followed this up with a really fun dinner with my two girlfriends.

Sunday I had the pleasure of spending the day with my parents, brother and one of my sisters in Orlando. We all had things we needed to pick up for our trip, so we set out on a shopping adventure. My dad and brother aren't the biggest fans of day-long shopping trips, but they hung in there! We took a break for lunch at one of my favorite little restaurants in downtown Winter Garden, but other than that we shopped until we dropped! I am a little obsessed with some of my purchases. So much so, that I need to share them with you.

Nike Lunar Forever running shoes.
I can't wait to run in these tonight!

This shirt from Forever 21.

Eurostep Women's Adrift Boat Shoes.
These are so cute and so comfortable.

Fast Track by China Glaze.

Sundays with my family are absolutely delightful. It doesn't matter what we're doing, the day is always full of love, positivity and lots and lots of laughter. Spending the day with them Sunday left me feeling so giddy and grateful.

And this weekend we're off to spend Friday night in Boston and the rest of the weekend will be spent on a lake in Maine for my cousin's wedding. Should be a blast!

How was your weekend?

Confessions

Why hello there. 

In case you thought I fell off the face of the earth, or if you didn't even notice I was gone, I'm back! Between prepping for my business trip, then being on it for almost a week, then trying to recover from that trip, I realized I haven't blogged in what seems like forever.

Because I don't have any groundbreaking news to share, I won't bore you with a bunch of mundane updates. I do, however, have a few things to confess.

I've seen Magic Mike...twice. 

The first time I saw it, I was all about it. A movie about male strippers, one of them being Channing Tatum? This is going to be so bad and so good at the same time. It was all fun and games the first time, laughing at the horrible dialogue and talking about how hot the guys are. I walked out of the theater saying it was the best worst movie I've seen in a long time. In other words, completely unnecessary to see again. But, I did anyway. I ended up going with my coworkers who hadn't seen it yet and while laughing at the same scenes and drooling over the same men, I literally started to feel like a complete joke for seeing this movie not once, but twice. In case you were wondering, the dialogue and plot are a whole lot more painful to sit through the second time.

Seeing this sexy beast strip was obviously worth the price of admission.
Kidding. He scared me a little. (source)

I had so much fun on my business trip to Indianapolis. 

Don't get me wrong, I worked my ass off. It was exhausting and stressful at times. I was up at 5:30 most days, working the booth for 8-10 hours, then going to dinner or drinks with a client or networking in the bar, all to wake up and do it again the next day. Five days of this and I was one tired girl. I've also never enjoyed my job more. I absolutely thrive in that environment. I love networking and meeting new people. I love meeting clients and potential clients in person and connecting with them. It makes me wish we had more opportunities to do this rather than just the one or two conventions a year we go to. Oh, I also got a chance to meet Brian Tracy. He was a client of ours several years ago and is one of the world's most famous motivational speakers. I was pretty psyched to meet him. 

Brian Tracy!

 I bought a bubble wand and keep it in my car. 

Before you jump to conclusions, let me reassure you: by bubble wand, I don't mean sex toy. 

I'm obviously referring to those sword-like tubes for blowing bubbles. They are really meant for five-year-olds, or me. Either way. I can't explain to you why blowing bubbles makes me so happy, but it does. I bought this when visiting my parents' house one weekend, but left it in my car and I take it into the courtyard at work when I need a break, a stress reliever, a reason to smile, whatever. At least it's the only random thing in my car these days. I drove around with Twister in my car for almost a year, after all. 

That's all I have to say tonight. Talk about random. 

I hope you're all having a great week!

"I keep forgetting I bitch slapped someone last night"

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July! Me, I didn't do one 4th of July-related activity, but I had a blast. I'll get into that soon, but first I have to tell you about the most amazing and hilarious thing that occurred the night before. Seriously, if you've been following my blog for a while, I think you are going to love this. You might love it so much you'll want to steal my best friend and make her your best friend. It's that good.

My best friend Taryn is in town for the week. It's been a while since we've been able to spend some quality time together, so to celebrate her visit, I convinced her to come downtown with my roomie and I on Tuesday night. At Independant Bar, one of our stops later in the night, we had the unfortunate luck of seeing Gary. I hadn't seen him since we parted ways in January and I erased every sign of him from my life. I don't mean to be dramatic, but he is really someone I just never wanted to see or talk to ever again.

After seeing him once inside the bar, we decided to leave after finishing our drinks and walked outside the bar to find him standing right there. Ugh. I didn't want to say anything to him or really even make eye contact, but Taryn (who was drunker than I realized) asked if she could slap him. I kind of laughed and said "Hey, you can do whatever you want." I never would have thought she would follow through with it.

Then, the most glorious thing happened. She walked right over to him, leaned over the railing and slapped him across the face. Let me tell you that this isn't typical behavior of her. My best friend Taryn is crazy, but she is more of a quirky and random crazy, not a slapping people in public kind of crazy. I truly think we could have run into any one of my other exes and she would've never done this, but she really, really had it out for Gary after he broke my heart. I think many of my friends/family feel the same way.
 
I wish I could tell you he was shocked by the public slapping, that he started crying like a little baby, or that he thought the whole thing was funny, but we honestly didn't stick around long enough to find out. After the slap, Taryn jumped for joy across the street to the next bar and I walked with her kind of in shock and kind of completely overjoyed by what had just occurred. She was on a slap high, jumping for joy and telling everyone we crossed paths with what had just happened. I did manage to hear him blabbing about how what he did to me just happened to him. I don't mean to be immature, but I was glad to hear that. Oh, the person you left me for just left you for someone else? That is karma and maybe it will teach you not to treat people like that because it will just come back to you at some point.

I can honestly say that I feel like I handled our break up with class and maturity. After the initial freak out, I picked myself up, cut him out of my life and moved forward. I didn't do any of the crazy ex girlfriend things my friends and I joked about. Will the fact that (1) my best friend just slapped him in public and (2) the fact that I am so happy about it completely diminish the mature way I've handled the break up to this point? It's quite possible. But it's also totally worth it.

Taryn and I spent the entire next day together doing random things (none of which included typical 4th of July activities). We couldn't stop talking about what happened laughing nonstop about how hilarious this was. Throughout the day, whenever we complained about how tired we were, how hungover we were or whenever we just needed to laugh again, we'd say "Life is tough. Just ask Gary." Even last night as we walked out of the movie theatre, Taryn goes, "I keep forgetting I bitch slapped someone last night" and we laughed some more. We're calling it the slap heard round the world.

I spent the whole day laughing with this girl

We definitely wrote this on her hand to document the occasion.

I've never been more proud to call this girl my best friend. She bitch slapped my ex boyfriend in public. If that isn't a best friend then I don't know what is.

Dear Credit Card Thief

To the evil human being who thought it would be fun to steal my credit card number and try charging hundreds of dollars on it at a gas station in California--

source

Note to self: Do not let this inconvenience start your week off on a bad note. Worse things could've happened and it's getting taken care of. Let it go. :)

That is all. Happy Monday everyone!

Just Friends

There is a sweet, wonderful, successful man who would give you everything you’ve ever wanted in a relationship. He adores you, appreciates you for who you are, he would give anything to have a chance to be with you. He would never break your heart because he wants to give you the world. BUT…you don’t feel the same way. You know he is a great guy and enjoy spending time with him, but for whatever reason, you don’t see him as anything more than a friend.

Can any of you relate to this? Silly me…of course you can. We’ve all been there at one time or another. Doesn’t this make you crazy?

Wouldn’t life be a whole lot easier if we could simply give these relationships a chance…convince ourselves that we feel the same way and live happily ever after? Instead, we continue to hold onto people who don’t deserve us, feel things for those who aren’t available and fall for the ones who don’t fall for us.

It’s never easy falling for someone who doesn’t fall back, but it’s not any easier being on the other end. I’ve experienced both and both are equally frustrating.

I think it drives my family and friends a little crazy to see me go through the ups and downs of dating, but then not give someone a chance who would actually be really good for me. Trust me, it drives me crazy, too. Unfortunately, all we can do is follow our hearts. If we know deep down that we don’t reciprocate feelings for someone, we have to trust that instinct. Will things change down the road? Maybe. Perhaps one day we might look at this person in a different light. Or maybe we won’t.

Why the rant? I’ve mentioned him before, but My Sister’s Ex and I have become good friends and I’m really glad for that. While I’ve never gotten to a point where I could see a romantic relationship between us, he is someone I want to feel that for. Last week we went out for a few drinks to catch up and chat. I’ve had a lot on my mind and he’s dating a few people so we had a lot to talk about. He’s having a hard time committing to anyone he’s seeing. I tried to give him advice on how to figure out who he wanted to be with and I caught him up on my life. We had a really good night full of great conversation. When I got home, I got a message from him saying, “For what it’s worth, you are the girl I would drop everyone for. And I’ll leave it at that.”

So yes, that has me thinking about this dating conundrum. Have you ever fallen for someone you originally saw as just a friend?

My Dating Life Right Now

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I'd say that sums it up pretty accurately. 

Valentine's Day Recap 2 Weeks Later

I'm sure you've all been chomping at the bit to hear about my valentine's day adventure. Sorry for the delay...I have so much to say but haven't quite found the time to sit down and blog about it. To put things simply, I went on the kind of blind date that gives blind dates a bad name. You all know I've been on my fair share of awkward, down right terrible dates, but this one takes the cake. However, the way it came about was fun and adventurous, so I want to tell you the whole story...

Every Valentine's Day, one of the popular Orlando radio morning shows does this thing called "The Mile of Men." They basically have men call in describing themselves by their celebrity look-a-like and get put on the station's website. On Valentine's Day, women call in and claim their date and all the daters meet at The Hard Rock Cafe that night for dinner. Well, this year, they added women to the "Mile." 

Always the active participant in my dating life, my mom calls me one morning on my way to work telling me I should call the radio station and try to get on the Mile of Men. I laughed it off, but quickly changed my mind. I obviously didn't have plans for Valentine's Day and let's be honest, my dating life has been non-existent. I'm also always up for a random adventure and knew even if it didn't go well, I would get a great story out of it. 

So the day before Valentine's Day, I get in the car to drive to work and learn that they are interviewing two more girls. I call five or six times until I finally get through and next thing you know, I am live on the radio! I got on the Mile of Men and some basic information about me goes up on their website. The plan is that on Valentine's Day between 7-9 a.m, people can call in and "claim" their date on a first come, first serve basis. I'm the first girl picked that morning and get introduced to my date on live radio. One word: awkward. 

My profile on their website

Was I nervous to go on a date with a complete stranger that I knew absolutely nothing about? No. I definitely wasn't expecting a love connection, but I figured it would be a fun experience either way. I'd probably have a night of good conversation, free food and have an excuse to dress up and go out. I brought my "A" game, i.e. curled my hair, wore a cute black dress and my favorite black heels. He, on the other hand, brought an array of undesirable qualities, i.e. a combover, a beer belly, white New Balance Sneakers and an overall awkward demeanor. To further explain, as he walked up to me at the restaurant, all I could think was "Oh shit, it's going to be a long night." Thanks Mom!

My face says it all.
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Things really only got worse from the initial introduction. There are too many horrific factors here, so I'm gonna break them down for you bullet-point style:

• He is one of those people who looks old and young at the same time. He could've been 26 or 46 for all I could tell at first.
• When talking about celebrity look-a-likes, he said his look-a-like would have to be Harry Potter. First of all, Harry Potter would have been an improvement. Second of all, no, you do not look anything like Harry Potter.
• When I asked what he does for a living, he told me he is a character at Universal Studios. So grown up. What character, you ask? Scooby Doo. Even better, his future goals are to be a stunt man and make it into the next Universal Studios parade. Dream big, my friend, dream big. 
• One of his first questions for me: "Do you like Star Wars?" If you know me, you know I hate all things Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc. I tell him this and hope he sees what I do...that we have absolutely nothing in common. He doesn't come to that realization and the hits keep coming. 
• We talk about pets. I tell him I hate cats, but that I have a puppy and show him a quick picture before moving on. He responds telling me he has a cat, and proceeds to tell me a 20 minute story about the cat and how fluffy it is...or something. I don't know exactly because I stopped listening after he said he had a cat. 
• I was really hoping that we were on the same page, that he could see there was no connection, that we had nothing in common. That way, we could walk away without ending the night on an awkward note. When he awkwardly leans in and tells me I am really pretty, I realize we are so NOT on the same page...not even on the same book. 
• We talk a bit more...about how he loves theme parks and is reading what I can only assume is a children's book about these kids that get trapped at Disney World for the night and all the rides come to life. We talk about what we like to do for fun. I say I like to keep busy and go out a few nights a week. He tells me he likes to go straight home after work and watch television mostly. 

Needless to say, I didn't exactly want to extend the date past dinner. There were a few daters who actually left their dates in the middle of dinner and I would have never done something like that. It was an unfortunate situation, but I enjoyed the whole process and wouldn't have left. That is just rude. So when the hosts stood up and told everyone they were leaving, that we could stay or go somewhere else, I  knew it was time to head out as well. He asked what I was doing after and I quickly responded with "I need to pick up my puppy. A friend is watching him and it is getting late." 

We ended the night with an awkward hug and him asking me if I was on Facebook. Knowing that he wouldn't have a shot at finding me without knowing my last name I said yes and said goodbye and that it was nice meeting him. I proceeded to call my mom and fill her in on the whole situation as she laughed hysterically on the other end.

Did I expect to meet the love of my life? Of course not. But, I at least thought I might end up having a night of great conversation with someone I just wasn't that attracted to. Or maybe I would end up with someone I was attracted to, but we just didn't have much in common. Instead, I ended up with someone I had zero attraction to and nothing in common with, but it's all good, really. Makes for a funny story and was another fun dating adventure nonetheless.

Have you ever been on a blind date? Was it a complete nightmare?

The Best Man

Warning: This post is so long that you might hate me for making you read so much. Let's just say I never bother using the phrase "In a nutshell."

I have to admit that I’ve been keeping this one from you guys. Not on purpose, I swear. It is more that I haven’t known what to say about it and never would’ve expected to have anything to tell you about. I went from having nothing to really say about this situation, to having lots to tell you and having no clue where to begin, so here goes nothing…

Remember in this post, when I  mentioned that my recent trip to Michigan involved a boy? The Best Man is that boy. I met The Best Man at my cousin, Meg’s wedding in Minnesota last May. We met at the reception and had a great time dancing and chatting all night. I had just started seeing The Umpire and I wasn’t really on the prowl that weekend, so when a bridesmaid came up to me and told me “The Best Man is pretty much in love with you,” I was a little taken by surprise. To my further amazement, apparently he still had strong feelings for me even after I ended the night by telling him I had to puke and running away, all after giving him my phone number so we could keep in touch. I had a good buzz going most of the reception and I guess I didn’t realize how much I had had to drink. True to form, I went from fun-loving girl at the party to hot mess status in the blink of an eye. I was obviously completely embarrassed for ending the fun night that way and didn’t really think much of the whole Best Man situation. Yes, I had fun with him. I thought he was really sweet and nice. He also lives in Minnesota and we hardly knew each other, so yeah I didn’t think too much more about it.

To my surprise, he texted me after my trip, which was soon followed by a Facebook friend request. I figured there was no harm in keeping in touch, so we would chat via text every now and again…nothing ever too in depth. Next thing I know, he is telling me he wants to come to Florida and hang out for a few days…that I made a big impression on him at the wedding and he would really like to see me again. I can’t quite describe my confusion. Aside from the fact that we danced a little and hung out at the wedding, I also ended our fun night by telling him I had to puke. Yet, I somehow made an impression on this person…so much that he wants to travel all this way to see me again. Huh? As I was still dating The Umpire at the time, I obviously told him I didn’t think that was the best idea, not to mention that I didn’t know how I felt about spending a few days with someone I hardly knew. What if we had nothing to say to each other? It was a little too much at the time.

Fast forward to a few months later. I’m single, again. We were still keeping in touch and getting to know each other. Another opportunity comes up for him to take a trip to Florida. I turn him down again. I can’t quite put into words the amount of pressure I felt about someone paying hundreds of dollars to come visit me for a whole weekend. I just didn’t feel comfortable with it. I told him that is probably isn’t a good idea, but that maybe we could start talking on the phone and really making an effort to get to know each other. This way, if the opportunity for a visit came up again, I would feel more comfortable with it. So we started talking on the phone and learning more about each other. I liked what I knew about him so far and enjoyed chatting with him.

In the meantime, Meg’s birthday was coming up. Her and her husband live in Michigan, about 11 hours away from The Best Man. We both got an invitation to her birthday celebration. I obviously had to decline because I couldn’t really afford the trip up there and he had mentioned that he didn’t think he’d be able to go because of work.

THEN ONE DAY….a week before the birthday celebration….

The Best Man tells me that his work schedule changed and he thinks he can now take the trip to Michigan for the weekend and how awesome it would be if I could go too. That we can surprise my cousin, have a really fun weekend and get to hang out again. I obviously thought the idea was awesome, I mean seeing Meg would be absolutely delightful…but once again had to decline because I couldn’t afford it. Next thing I know he is telling me that he would do whatever it takes to get me up there (aka buy my ticket). I wanted to accept this offer so badly because I knew it would be a blast. I haven’t had much of a chance to get to know my cousin’s husband, I’ve never been to Michigan, a weekend away would be fun…there were a lot of positives.

Unfortunately, all I could think about was how much pressure this puts on the situation. My worst fear was that The Best Man would pay for me to get up there, and we wouldn’t hit it off, or I wouldn’t like him, or he wouldn’t like me…and he would be disappointed. After going back and forth all day about this, I voiced my concerns to him and he settled them telling me that worst-case scenario, we have fun weekend where he gets to see his friends and I get to see my cousin. I threw caution to the wind and decided to go for it. You guys already know I can be impulsive and that my mental stability is questionable, at best. I also need to point out to those of you who don't know me in real life, that I don't take someone buying me a plane ticket lightly. I am overwhelmed and could never put into words how appreciative I am. I even tried to put it into words on the phone with him and I think I just rambled on for five minutes and didn't make any sense. I hope he still got the point. Moving on...

Aside from me being completely overwhelmed by the whole scenario, I was SO EXCITED to surprise Meg and I knew the weekend would be a blast. I was right. The weekend was super fun. Did The Best Man and I have a magical weekend and fall madly in love? No. But that isn’t what I had in mind anyway. I truly wanted a fun weekend away where we could get to know each other a little better. In a perfect world, maybe we would have fallen madly in love that weekend and things would fall perfectly into place and we would live happily ever after.

Unfortunately, life isn’t perfect. Don’t get me wrong. I do like The Best Man. What I don’t know is if those feelings are friendship feelings or more-than-friendship feelings. I don’t think I should be expected to know that right now, though. I mean, we’ve basically been on two (somewhat unconventional) dates.  After two dates, do you know that you have strong feelings for someone? Do you know that you want to start a relationship with that person? Probably not…and that is usually when the person lives where you do! Not to mention the fact that even if we did totally hit it off and want to be together, how on earth would we proceed with this situation?? The whole thing is a little overwhelming to me, to be completely honest. In other words, I don’t know how I feel. I do know that I am incapable of expressing how much it means to me to have someone be so up front with me about their feelings, to make bold, romantic gestures like that.

The challenging part about this whole thing is that even though I don’t quite understand why, I think his feelings are pretty strong. I’d like to keep doing what we’ve been doing…keeping in touch and getting to know each other, but I can’t promise that any of that will progress to a relationship or me returning those strong feelings. I told him we need to keep living life…that neither one of us should miss out on other dating or relationship situations because we are holding on to hope that this weird scenario goes somewhere. I guess all I can do is be completely up front about everything I’m thinking so we stay on the same page and no one gets their feelings hurt.

I hope some of that made sense. Like I said, I know I am totally springing this on you…but seriously…how was I to know there would ever be any more to say about him than the fact that we met at a wedding, danced a little bit and then, not surprisingly, I puked?

Moral of the story: Life is so ridiculously weird sometimes. 

California Girl

My trip to California was everything I hoped it would be. I had a great time with my coworkers, met a lot of great people, worked really hard but had a lot of fun, too.  We even came back with a handful of new clients and I found that clarity I needed when it comes to The Umpire. Where do I start? I think I’ll break this up into sections because there is just too much to cover!

Highlights of my Trip 

My boss took us to Disneyland for the day before the convention started and even treated us to lunch at Club 33! Walking around Disneyland in July is by far much more enjoyable than Disney World this time of year. The sun is shining, it is beautiful, but California doesn’t have the Florida humidity that makes you feel like you might pass out.

Sparkly Minnie ears were a must!

Riding the train

While at the convention, my boss paid for us to get professional headshots taken for our website and marketing materials, which meant getting our makeup and hair professionally done, resulting in everyone calling me Elle Woods/PR Barbie for the rest of the convention. Either way, I can’t wait to see how the photos came out!

If any of you watched Jake’s season of The Bachelor on ABC, you might remember Michelle. She was the one who had the painfully awkward kiss with Jake and was rarely shown on camera not crying. This is so random, but I met her! She was serving drinks at the hotel bar and I immediately recognized her. It took me a minute to figure out who she was and afraid that she might go crazy on me, I finally said “Please don’t get upset with me, but were you on The Bachelor?” She was actually really nice about and I even got a picture with her so I could show my girlfriends back at home. Too funny!

Michelle from The Bachelor

The Umpire: A Tough Call

I set off to California hoping that some distance would help me decide if I wanted to end things with The Umpire. I haven’t gone too much in detail about things, but I haven’t been completely satisfied with how things were with us lately. I feel like things started off really great and maybe we moved too fast, because all of the things I really liked about him at first either changed or started to become an issue for me. When we first started seeing each other, it was like he couldn’t get enough of me. He would invite me out with his friends all the time and while I told him I didn’t want to intrude on boy’s night, he would also comfort me saying he wanted me there and we’d always have a blast. He was really sweet and thoughtful and went out of his way for me. We made equal effort. It seemed like the moment I let me guard down and started opening up to him, all that behavior stopped. I understand that there comes a point in most relationships where that initial excitement fades and maybe my expectations are too high, but I need more…especially when we are only a few months in. When I first met The Umpire, I really loved how fun he was. He liked to be social and go out like I did. We could go out together with a group and have a blast. I recently started to realize that he took that a little too far. I don’t want to sound like a hypocrite because I often go out on weeknights and stay out a little too late, but I feel like going out with your guy friends to the same bar, three nights in a row is a bit much when you are 28-years-old. I don’t know if these things bothered me because I really care about him or because I am subconsciously sabotaging things, but either way it isn’t good. There are things I really like…I love his family, I have fun with him, he is successful and hard working.

The moment of clarity I was looking for came on Saturday. I had been in California for three days and Saturday was the first official day of the convention. I was already in a funk because he hadn’t been in touch with me very much and didn’t seem to be bothered at all by the fact that I was away. I spent 8 hours on my feet working our booth at the convention and I was exhausted. When I looked at my phone realized I hadn’t heard from him all day, I simply texted, “I’m exhausted.” His response? “OK.” OK? Really? I wasn’t looking for a pity party, but a little bit of positivity or consideration would’ve gone a long way. One of the biggest things I try to bring to a relationship is emotional balance. When my friend, my sister, my significant other or my coworker is feeling down, tired or sad, I try to balance that out with positivity, support, enthusiasm….whatever I think will help. I kind of expect the person I am with to be that person for me. I know it probably sounds like I am being dramatic, but his response really bothered me. While it isn’t the single reason I decided to end things, it gave me that “moment” I needed to finally make up my mind. There are so many things I like about him and has a lot of what I need in a relationship…a good family, a good job, a good social life and so much more. But I need emotional support too, and I think that is where we are lacking.

While I made the decision during my trip, I really wanted to have a face-to-face conversation with him and explain where I am coming from. We live in the same area, go to the same gym…we have kickball coming up. I want to be able to end things on a good note. Anyway, I am home now and have yet to have a face-to-face conversation with The Umpire. When I told him we needed to talk, he said he was “going out with the guys and could we do it tomorrow?” That solidified my decision, but our schedules haven’t lined up for me to officially break things off with him. I hope this is the right decision, but that’s the thing about decisions…you don’t always know if they are the right one until it might be too late. You can only act based on what you feel and right now, I just don’t feel like this is right.

 

"Wish" Updates

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that this year is just flying by! I mean, is it just me or does time seem to go faster and faster as we get older? Sometimes, I just want to hit the pause button!

Anyway, you all might remember my 2011 Wish List I shared with you back in January. It’s been a while since I’ve checked in on some of my “wishes.” I’d like to remind you that even though most of these are completely in my control, I don’t like to refer to them as resolutions. “Wish” makes it sound so much more magical!

So here we go…

Fall in Love.

I am not in love. Am I close to being in love? I don’t know. I have actually never been more confused about love in my life, but I am learning and I’m more certain than ever that when it happens, it will be amazing.

Get back in shape and stay that way.

I was doing so well with this one until about March/April! Ironically, or not so ironically that is also when I was able to start drinking again. Following that was May, which was full of birthdays, celebrations and vacations, which was followed by that bitch of a kidney stone, Stella cramping my style for a few weeks. Don’t worry, I am well aware of how pathetic those excuses are. The good news is, I am back at it and I’m even starting to run again. I feel better already!

Take more weekend trips.

Success! Between my weekend trip to Jacksonville in March, my girls beach trip in May and my beautiful cousin’s wedding in Minnesota….I’ve had no problems keeping up with this one! Hoping to plan a trip to Savannah with the girls in the fall and who knows what else!

Find a new job that makes me happy.

Success! The best part about this one is that I didn’t even have to leave the company I worked for. I blogged about my promotion here and I’m so happy at my job now. Amazing!

Volunteer.

To quote what I said in February when I last checked in on my wishes: “Absolutely no progress whatsoever. I need to get on this as soon as possible and at least set some goals to get me started.” I am a joke.

Cook more.

You may remember when I was bragging about how well I was doing with this one back in February. I even dedicated a post about the new crock pot I bought. I don’t even know where that thing is and can’t remember the last time I used my oven for anything other than baking. 

Go camping.

Everyone thinks I am joking, but I really want to go camping! Take me seriously, people!

Stay out of the hospital. This means no kidney stones or rare throat infections. Just be healthy.

You all know where this one stands. I did end up in the hospital but only for a couple of hours to get rid of Stella. I have had some health issues, all kidney stone related, but as of right now, it looks like that is a thing of the past!

So I haven’t made a ton of progress, but I have where it matters. Getting my promotion has been so huge for me this year and I still have a few months to get on the ball with the cooking thing because seriously, why is it so hard for me to get into it? If I could take my obsession with baking and direct that toward cooking actual food, it would be amazing and probably healthier!

If you have any tips or recipes for easing into cooking (other than locating my crock pot) I would love to hear them!

How are you all doing on your resolutions, goals, wishes…whatever you want to call them?