A Weekend Revisited

Wow, I really had a great weekend! Yeah yeah yeah, I missed Tony and all that, but really, I had a wonderful weekend alone.
Let's look at our list again, shall we?

1. Read the whole book for my bookclub meeting on Saturday, minus the first 50 pages which I already read on Tuesday. 

YES. I did this and I am proud. In addition to reading the entire book between work on Friday and 3:00 on Saturday, I hung out with my friend Liz, and later with my friend Katie and went to breakfast with my friend Jamie. So take that, book!I finished EXACTLY at 2:45.

2. Finish sewing the presents I am making for my best friend's baby shower in two weeks.

Nope.

3. Clean my entire house, room by room.

Nope. I was only in my house for the sleeping portion of the weekend, so yeah. Didn't do this.



4. Do a little bit of job searching/applying/researching.

Yes. I don't know why I wrote researching, I don't even know what that was supposed to mean. But I did job search and apply to a few pretty awesome places.

5. Remember to go to church an hour early because I have eucharistic minister training this weekend.

Yes, but the training person didn't show up. So... I guess I won. Or I lost. Or... well. whatever, I don't even know what's going on.


6. Not turning on the tv.

Not one second of tv. Yay! It's easy because I don't OWN a tv and I only watch at Tony's house, but still... a win for me.

7. Getting some exercise. Bike ride maybe? Maybe find a neighborhood pool I could use?

I rode my bike AND I went for a long walk! I put pool here because I was talking about excersize at work recently and said that I really like swimming, and so I meant to search for the nearest pool. (There aren't any gyms in my neighborhood really, it's kind of weird actually.) But obviously I didn't do that part. Still, a win.

8. Maybe, maybe, learning how to knit the scarf I've wanted to start. My friend Liz and I chatted about this today and it inspired me.

Ha. Nope. Not even close.

I did have a great weekend though, and got a lot done! My friend Maggie (also alone this weekend) was so kind to call and check in with me, but she'll be proud to know that I was out and about. When I called her back, hopefully she didn't answer because she was doing the same.

Oh, and I did go to bed on time, every night. A total win!

A Weekend Alone

This weekend Tony is in Las Vegas for his friend Jeff's bachelor party, and I'm here spending the weekend alone. I know, this is not a big deal in any way, but I do have to say, it's my first weekend alone in awhile. And I gotta give some credit to my single ladies out there because there are a few things that I'm really bad at when I'm left to my own devices:
1. Cooking for myself.
2. Going to bed at a reasonable hour.
3. Leaving the house.

Like for realsies, when I'm home alone for a night or weekend, I'll cook me up a box of mac n cheese, and stay up till 2am sewing or reading or watching old episodes of the office on my ipod. (um. i need more than seasons 1-3, just sayin'.)


So I'm all alone this weekend, and here are the things I plan on doing:
1. Read the whole book for my bookclub meeting on Saturday, minus the first 50 pages which I already read on Tuesday. Yes, I have the whole book to read by Saturday at 3:00 pm. No, I'm not a procrastinator, why do you ask?
2. Finish sewing the presents I am making for my best friend's baby shower in two weeks.
3. Clean my entire house, room by room. I feel like I just did this last weekend, but you sure as heck wouldn't know by looking at it, so... yeah... maybe I didn't.
4. Do a little bit of job searching/applying/researching.
5. Remember to go to church an hour early because I have eucharistic minister training this weekend. (I'm only including this because maybe now I'll actually remember.)
6. Not turning on the tv.
7. Getting some excersize. Bike ride maybe? Maybe find a neighborhood pool I could use?
8. Maybe, maybe, learning how to knit the scarf I've wanted to start. My friend Liz and I chatted about this today and it inspired me.

That's actually a pretty hefty list. We'll revisit that Monday and see if I actually succeeded at those. Let's be honest though, I'll be reading from now until Saturday at 3, so...

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Neglectful Blogger

I have been a neglectful blogger.
I have no excuse.

I even have SAVED entries, all ready to post, just waiting for me to not be lazy and add the images.

And here I am, not having posted in an embarrasingly long time.

In other news, why is embarrasingly not a word?
And why haven't I blogged lately?

Nevermind. Let's leave the past behind us, shall we?
So when we last left off, I was babbling about weddings and puppies and new clothes, right? Or not?
I didn't get a puppy, if you were wondering. But I really really REALLY want one. Tony promised me one too, just as soon as we figure out a few things (like where we're going to live. More on that later, perhaps.)

I did get some new clothes though. It's part of my "I will dress nice and be confident every day in my appearance" campaign. Here are some of the things I've purchased:

Plus some jeans, and a few sweaters that I can't find pictures of because I bought them at Nordstrom Rack plus a handful of other things here and there. Slowly but surely I am building up my wardrobe. And then I am going to host a
NAKED LADY PARTY*

*there will be no naked ladies.

This is where people bring their good-quality, non-smelly clothes and exchange them for other good-quality non-smelly clothes. I have plenty of things that are perfectly FINE, just not my style anymore. Or that I just don't really feel that great in, but that may look amazing on you. You know? I'm sure you all have these things too. So I will have my naked lady party and then my entire wardrobe will be all things that I love. How perfect will that be?

Sorry for the blog deliquency as of late. I am back, and I'm here to stay, my blog friends.

Wish List!

Okay I'm in the camera-shopping business because I'm planning on upgrading to a new, amazing camera. I haven't been this excited about a purchase in maybe, oh, years!?

So imagine how excited I was when I saw THIS:
http://www.haveanepiphanie.com/home/2010/2/28/epiphanie-give-away.html

HOLY CRAP!!
That's the camera I want!

... must ... win ... now ...

I want this very badly. :)

What a great giveaway! Good luck to whoever wins! (But I hope it's me.)

More Wedding Babble

Listen, ok? I never said I wasn't going to blab about my wedding all the time on this blog. Oh. I did? Well, whatever.
I totally am.

Not all the time, but sometimes a girl's gotta talk about what's on her mind, ok?

We ignored wedding planning for the first, oh, two months of our engagement (except for the occasional small talk), but now we're full force into it.

And now we're wedding-venue shopping. And dude, this ish is tuff.

Here is what we've looked at so far:
A new super swanky event space that literally JUST opened for events. It's so fancy and classy and nice. Oh, and did I say expensive? It's a reasonable price but it doesn't include tables and chairs, lighting, parking, or pretty much anything you need to throw a reasonable party. But I love it so much. So, yeah. We talked with the (exclusive) caterer the other day and she's going to send us some things within our budget and we'll see.

Tonight we are looking at a place in Portland's Pearl District which is like the super trendy and nice part of Portland that people write about in magazines when they come to visit. This place is also brand spankin new and therefore seems to have not capitalized on the cash cow that is the wedding industry. I have seriously high hopes for this place. It includes tables and chairs, there is no corkage fee for alcohol, there is no exclusive caterer (a HUGE plus!) and it's big enough for our massive entourage. I'm so excited to see it. I feel like this is a first date with someone I met on match.com who has a perfect profile. (I've never been on match.com but like, I imagine this is what it feels like?)

We are also going to look at two golf courses/country clubs but I feel a little silly about that because I'm not a country club kinda girl and I've never played golf in my life.

Then yesterday Tony discovered that his favorite restaurant in Portland, a Cuban restaurant, does catering. This was like finding his soulmate on match.com or something. (I need to stop with the match.com references since clearly I know nothing about it.) But for real, it was like the best day of Tony's life. So if we get the place in the Pearl that we're looking at tonight, and we can bring in our own catering, and it's Cuban food? Um yeah, best wedding ever.

Also I didn't give the full update on the dress. I went back and bought it. It's so beautiful and I know that I will love it, even if I'll be wearing it a full year after I purchased it. It's sparkly and pretty and classic. And I got a great deal on it and I just bought it upfront and paid for it and now I don't have to worry about putting it in our wedding budget. Not that I have one of those, or anything.

But honestly? The hardest thing so far has been the freakin bridesmaid dresses! I don't even know what to do with them. I will save this for another post because dude, this is a disaster. I'm looking for six dresses for six very different women that don't match and maybe aren't all solid colored but that look good together and make everyone feel comfortable and beautiful. And so far I'm getting resistance to just letting them pick their own dresses, so I think I'll have to do it. Like I said, saving that for a new post.

/end wedding babble. For today.

My Very Own Blog Award

Ooooh lucky me! I just got a blooooogggg award!
It came from this lovely blogger: life of a doctor's wife.
clearly i'm not the wife of a doctor. i'm not even a wife... yet. (i'm working on that though. sorta.)
but i like her blog anyway.
and now i like her even more because she gave me this totally sweet award!

without further ado,
Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award and insert a link to their blog. (done.)
2. Pass on the award to 15 ummmmm..... a handful of other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are great!
3. Contact the other bloggers and let them know they have been chosen for this award.
4. Say 7 things about yourself.

okie dokie, artichokie:

1. I have lived in all of the following cities: portland, oregon. spokane, washington. orange county, california. florence, italy. orlando, florida. tampa, florida. miami, florida. jacksonville, florida. atlanta, georgia. washington, d.c. baltimore, maryland. philadelphia, pennsylvania. boston, massachusetts. las vegas, nevada.

2. I lived in Portland for the first 18 years of my life. I'm only 26, and I've been living in Portland for the last three years. You do the math. Or actually, don't. I'll break it down for you. Between ages 22 and 25, I lived in a lot of places.

3. This is the result of having a super awesome job wherein I traveled around the country and filmed cities for Google Street View. Yes, I really did that.

4. I'm Italian and as a general rule, we don't eat super super sweet things. Oh, we love ourselves some dessert (cannoli, anyone?) but we shy away from things that are oozing with sweetness. Therefore I don't love cakes and candies, but the exception is that I love brownies like they are their own food group. And they should be.

5. I have five nieces and nephews (specifically, two nieces, three nephews) and they rock my world. Everything I (think I) know about children, I learned from living with my sister when my nephew was 18 months old and my niece was born. My sister and I still have disillusions fantasies about living on a large plot of land where all of our (eventual) children can play together and hang out, and where my sister and i will lounge by the pool and get served margaritas by our butler, who we shall name Jeeves. Even if he protests.

6. I don't own a tv. I still watch all of the following shows: LOST, The Office, 30 Rock, Community, Big Love. In my defense, three of those are just on in a row, so that's just one night of tv watching. And then I have no defense for the other ones. Oh, and yeah, I should add that I also watch shows like Say Yes to the Dress (even though I bought my dress. Did I tell you that? I did.), Platinum Weddings (because I like to make fun of it- I mean, for real- a Louis Vuitton cake? I'm not making this up. I wouldn't even know how.), and any home decorating show.

7. Tony, who is my fiance, used to live in an apartment with two of our mutual friends. And their apartment had a Nielsen box. (they don't live there anymore, so I'm pretty sure it's kosher for me to blog about this on the internets.) Anyway, Nielsen is the company that does all those tv ratings. So whenever we watched tv, we were logged in and they knew all kinds of information about us. (Well not me, technically I was a "guest" and they only knew my age and gender. But Tony & co they knew their race, age, where they worked, what kind of car they drove, how much money they made, etc.) So Tony's roommate, a friend of mine, actually the girl who was my partner for point number 3 (above) and I used to watch a lot of Jon & Kate Plus 8. And of course we were logged in, so every time either of us was watching, we accounted for 30,000 americans. And we all know what happened with that show. And to this day, whenever anyone says the name of the show, my friend shakes her head and says, "I ruined that family."


Those are about the most random 7 things I can think of on this Monday afternoon. So now, I must name my fellow bloggers.
To be honest, I haven't added many subscriptions to my blog feed lately, so some of these are just not going to be all that new.

My friend Liz just started a blog: Aus dem Garten.

How about Michelle at Things I Said And Meant To Say, just because she hasn't blogged in a while and maybe this will make her come back :)

And it would be silly to not include Melissa of Duoly Noted, my real life friend who is mad at me because she didn't know I created this blog until the other day :) It's a new blog Melissa, don't be mad!

And Suz at 30 Before 30 because I like her, and her blog.

I'll tag Tony. Because Lord knows we'll be entertained by his seven things. He has a special blog called Geeks R We.

And how about Oh Hay, it's KK. Because for real, this girl makes me laugh. And she's Italian. What what!

And even though she probably won't tell us seven things about herself, I think you should read her blog to see much more than seven things that she is not. Not That Kind of Girl.

Okay, I didn't tag 15. I tagged 7. But whatever man, I'm not that cool.

But for real, there are more blogs on my left hand column if you want to see what else I read.

Thanks again for the award, Mrs. D!

Things I Hate/ Things I Love February Special

Things I love:
- Sunshine! In February!

Things I hate:
- Windowless offices.

Things I love:
Blue skies! In the winter!

Things I hate:
Working the duration of daylight hours.

Things I love:
Flowers blooming! Before spring!

Things I hate:
Knowing that it will rain for the next three months.