2015 Recap, Part II.

This is Part II of my recap of 2015 - find Part I here.

From September through the end of the year, I felt like I was on rollercoaster plummeting down a huge drop. (Or, at least that what I imagine it felt like, since I’ve never actually been on a rollercoaster). What I mean is, life went FULL SPEED AHEAD for the last three months of the year. Erik and I attended an awesome Halloween party and dressed as Wendy Peffercorn and Squints from The Sandlot. I don’t even remember November other than moving Erik’s parents into their new house and celebrating Thanksgiving at my parents’ house.

The period of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas felt short, rushed, and overall disappointing. There were good moments, like buying our first Christmas tree and decorations for our apartment. But I didn’t do much baking like I usually do, and I didn’t really spend time with anyone except Erik’s friends for our ugly sweater party. I don’t know if it was the weather (it was super warm in November and December, so it felt more like spring) or not being in my parents’ house for the Christmas season, but I felt underwhelmed. Christmas itself, along with New Year's Eve, were low-key and I didn't feel my usual giddiness. I was also exhausted from an insane two weeks at work during this time, which didn't help with my holiday spirit.

The first week of the new year never truly feels like the new year because I’m still celebrating through to my birthday on January 8 (one week past New Year’s Day). This year was a little different in that I wasn’t celebrating my birthday in any way, other than getting some gifts from Erik. Instead, this year my youngest cousin on my mom’s side of the family got married on January 9, this past Saturday. It’s a long, somewhat crazy story, but the short version is that it was planned in three months and has been the focus of my mom’s family’s attention for that time. It was a beautiful wedding and we all had a fun time - and, if you know me at all, you know I love weddings in any capacity. For me, though, it was also a finish line. I finally felt like my year was over. My stressful time at work was over, the holidays were over, and now my birthday and the big wedding were over.

So here I am, back to life on my terms. Back to a life not filled with three-week stretches of carefully scheduled days and constant anxiety. Back to focusing my energy on what I want to be doing. One of those things, I’ve decided, is connection with people. This includes diving back into blogging and connections through blogging, because I miss it. Here's to 2016!

2015 Recap, Part I.

2015 is both difficult and easy to recap. There were a lot of big, eventful moments; those are easy to remember and document. I know, though, that I’m missing all the wonderful little things that filled in the blanks - mostly time spent with friends and family in small ways, like summer barbecues and drink dates. And also the fact that two of my closest friends had babies, WHICH I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT until now. (I didn't forget that they had babies, but that they only had them this year.) Those things are not forgotten. In fact, those are the things I probably enjoyed the most, but to cherry pick them out of my brain is too tedious a task to try to do at the end of an entire year. So here are the big, bold, defining things that happened this year.

The biggest and most important thing to happen this year was moving out of my parents’ house and into an apartment with Erik. I often forget the magnitude of this event, considering I was disappointed that I hadn't left home sooner and, conversely, wasn’t sure Erik was fully sold on the idea of living together yet. I remember starting the year with discussions about apartment hunting, and from there on it felt completely surreal.

In June, I went on vacation with Erik and his friends to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We all rented a house for a week, spending our days at the beach and our nights being raucous and drinking too much. I have adapted to spending time with Erik’s friends and enjoy the occasional weekend party spent chugging beer from solo cups. But an entire week was a bit much for me, and I struggled. I spent a lot of time avoiding the drinking altogether and reading on the back deck, feeling happy that I was enjoying the vacation on my terms but guilty that I was separating myself from the group. Overall, I’m proud of myself for going - including having to endure an 8-hour car ride each way - because I proved to myself that I could. I just don’t know that I would push myself through it all again next year.

In July, I was honored to help my friends put together their dream wedding day. The bride - my friend Abbie, who is a long-time friend of Erik and Natalie’s - put together tons of DIY projects and pieces for her wedding, all of which were super gorgeous. (Seriously, she might have to help me one day when I get married…) Anyway, because she had such a specific idea of what everything would look like, she wanted someone she knew personally to help the event coordinators get everything just right. That’s where I came in. We staged things in her apartment a few weeks ahead of time, I gave her advice on finishing up some pieces, and then obviously I played a big part the day of the wedding. Everything tied together so beautifully and I felt really proud and happy that I was able to help. It was everything I love about wedding and party set-up, which is staging all of the tables and centerpieces to make sure it looks perfect.

August and September were filled with more summer and early fall activities - barbecues, a corn hole tournament, a belated apartment-warming party, and several fall festivals. Behind the scenes, though, Erik and I were struggling. I knew moving in together wasn’t going to be all rainbows and cupcakes, but I was thrown for a loop when Erik confronted me about some troublesome things of which I was completely unaware. From my perspective, things were going great; for him, not so much. There were rough, emotional discussions, something we don’t normally do (and probably a major cause of this all-of-a-sudden-things-are-awful meltdown). Through these discussions, however, we were able to actually communicate our feelings (what a novel concept!) and work through everything. And, as is usually the case, we are stronger because of our struggles.

Later this week, I'll be sharing the remainder of my year, which covers all of my year-end holiday festivities. (Because apparently, my 2015 recap is a lot more verbose than I expected it to be.)

Thanksgiving Weekend.

My Thanksgiving weekend was a whirlwind of eating and laughing and seeing a bunch of people I loved. Oh yeah, and baking desserts.

On Thanksgiving Eve, Lyndsay and I set out to construct an apple crisp. As usual, I did about 90% of the work, but it's always okay because we both know I love it. Her friend Nina came over and we headed out for drinks because that's what you do on T-Giving Eve.

Except by 11pm, we all felt like grandmas and were ready to go home after only one drink.

This ended up being a good thing. Upon arriving home, I stopped only briefly in the kitchen to make sangria before crashing into bed. In the morning, I turned on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and giddily danced around when they announced the balloons WOULD fly (there was iffy weather, and I would've been truly devastated had they not been included). I happily baked pumpkin pie before my mom got up and took over the kitchen.

Thanksgiving went how it always goes - catching up over appetizers, hovering around the kitchen trying to help in any way possible, barely touching my dinner (hi, anxiety), playing a family game, making and serving dessert. Actually, this year I made cinnamon rolls on the spot and they came out so well that I'm considering just making them all the time. They were miniature and I used the cupcake maker Danielle gifted me a few years ago, so it was super easy and fast.

We were super unhappy that we each matched each other.

The next day was a post-Thanksgiving get-together to see Matt and Amy, because they celebrate the day itself with other family. We had sub sandwiches and Bagel Bites while we completely obsessed over their wedding. It was the first time seeing them since the big event, so we rehashed all the fun details. The kids all escaped to the den to play a rousing game of Card Against Humanity, which I now have to keep in the trunk of my car because everyone is ALWAYS ASKING TO PLAY IT.

Watching Amy play this for the first time and giggle over all of her cards was the best part.

On Saturday (yes, my weekend kept going), I attended Friendsgiving with the H-Town crew. I have been so blessed to have been welcomed into Natalie's group of hometown friends - they are the best kind of people who always have funny stories to tell, listen to every word you have to say, and are just supportive and wonderful. I know how hard it can be making friends as you get older and I am so, so lucky to have stumbled upon another handful of girls I can call friends.

My new BFF even if she doesn't know it yet.

Finally, finally, on Sunday I slept. And lounged. And online shopped. And dreaded going back to work on Monday. But mostly, I looked back on the weekend and realized how much fun I had and how, really and truly, I didn't feel as anxiety-ridden as I usually do. Progress.

Wordless Wednesday: Hershey Park.

Today {Vol. III}

Did you know that I have a lot of best friends? I'm very lucky that way. I met most of them in college and although they're all my soul sisters, my friendship with Melissa clicked quickly and grew incredibly fast.

We met through our friend - and my roommate at the time - Katie. She invited Melissa along on a trip to see the latest Harry Potter movie with our group of friends from our freshman floor. Somehow we ended up sitting next to each other, and before the movie even started, this happened.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you've seen this photo before. Melissa's seen it ten billion times, because I tell this story any time I talk about her.

This is literally about a half hour after meeting each other. I mean, look at those faces. Clearly best friend material.

It was decided, amongst our group of four, that Melissa and I would be roommates in sophomore year. Our friendship exploded; that's really the only way to put it. Our dorm was lacking a little pizzazz, so three days in, we headed to the craft store and decorated with pipe cleaners and foam stickers. We made name tags for our closets. We had Disney-themed bedding. We decorated our toilet for Christmas.

This is a real, honest-to-goodness picture. We're... special. Also, can you have nostalgia for a bathroom?! Because that's happening right now.

Melissa has always, always, understood me the best, often without saying a word. Not only because we have similar personality traits - obsessiveness, a penchant for blogging, over-excitement, and criticizing the Home Shopping Network - but because she's an incredibly understanding person. Whenever I went through a difficulty, she took my "side," whatever it may be, even if I switched from one viewpoint to an opposite one within the same day.

This is how you tolerate industrial fans drying out your room after it floods: by taking model poses in front of it.

With Melissa, I have the silliest, funniest, happiest memories. We survived a dorm room flooding together ("we're dealing with it" ... that was our quote, wasn't it?), creepy bugs disappearing behind furniture, and getting stuck in stand-still, park-your-car-and-get-our traffic by making jokes every five seconds. But she's also the person who read my novel-length e-mails about any given situation in my life and responded with novel-length responses. That, to me, always showed how caring she was and how highly she regarded our friendship, because she was taking time out of her day to become invested in whatever was bothering me.

If you haven't already guessed, Melissa gets married today. I was incredibly lucky to watch her relationship with her soon-to-be husband, Matt, blossom from the very beginning. My favorite story is how we were craving pie one night after a poorly-planned, late-night viewing of The Food Network. Melissa was chatting with Matt - who was, at the time, still "just a friend" - via AIM and he suggested going out to a nearby diner, offering to drive us both over. Clearly, his intention was to win Melissa over, so I found in really thoughtful and charming that the invitation was extended to me as well. I don't know why, exactly, because Melissa said we both had cravings and he'd have to be a real dick to just offer to take Melissa out... but I did. He won me over in that moment, and if I ever had any doubt about what kind of guy he was, I'd think back to that and remember: a good one.

Yes, there is photographic evidence of The Trip for Pie. That guy's a KEEPER.

I cannot wait for this wedding. I cannot wait to see these two people, so in love and so perfect for each other, get married. It's going to be amazing.

Busy Bee.

Work has been eating me alive these days. I keep getting assigned small projects that take up way too much time and my boss has been out, so I took on Thursday's check run all on my own (it took all day). Considering my 'normal' work is handling the mail, it piles up fast because, uh, there's mail every day. (Well, almost. You know what I mean.)

Anyway, instead of droning on about that and apologizing for being MIA, I'm going to share what I've been up to on the weekends! When I get to have fun! And not go to bed at 9pm!

The first weekend in June started out with a semi-surprise visit from Erik. I was super busy, but he came over anyway and decided to be my date for the weekend. Saturday night we went out to dinner before heading south for Lyndsay's twenty-first birthday bash. It was so much fun, but we both felt so old... and mature. Lyndsay enjoyed herself but I stuck around to put a voice to her 'responsible' side and took her home when she requested.

Waiting for her first legal drink!

On Sunday we headed to the opposite end of New Jersey for Katie's graduation, where we ate delicious food, hung out in her dad's beautiful law office, and caught up with Melissa, Matt, and Katie.

My first college besties! Love these girls.

The group!

Last weekend, I had scheduled a visit to Erik's house and ended up with a few extra plans to make my weekend even better! I met up for dinner with Natalie and Danielle right after work, where we ate delicious food, chatted about how weird it was (for them) to be married and who would have kids first, and were rushed very rudely by the waiter at Olive Garden. After that, Natalie and I stayed up way too late making monkey bread, but it was totally worth it to eat it straight out of the oven.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

The following morning was Justine's surprise bridal shower! It was held at her house and her mom and bridal party did a fabulous job planning, decorating, and hosting. Justine totally had it all figured out, but it was still a ton of fun.

The beautiful bride-to-be and her 'maids.

All of the girls!

Finally, this past weekend was Melissa's bachelorette party! Before that, though, I met with Lyndsay at the last minute on Friday night to shop for Melissa's gift and grab a yummy dinner. She was so excited to order a drink with dinner - we got white peach sangria, which was delish. Melissa's bachelorette party started on Saturday with dinner a snazzy pizza place, where we ate on the enclosed patio. Then we headed over to a pottery place to paint new items for the couple's new apartment. It was so much fun an a much-needed creative activity after crunching numbers at work for a few months straight. After that we headed back to the apartment for a bit of debauchery, inappropriately-shaped cakes, and a round of Never Have I Ever.

 

My napkin holder. Can't wait to see it when it's glazed and fired!

Blurry, but adorable, photo of the college girls with the bride-to-be.

 Phallic cakes and confetti! "Do you want black or white?"

Needless to say, even my weekends have been eating me alive! The next few weekends are no different - I've got a potluck, a graduation party, a birthday party for my grandparents, and a few weddings in the coming weekends. I know I'm going to be sad once it's all over, but I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend... in mid-July.

BFF Wedding #2.

Well hello there! I’ve been a little MIA – I had wedding weekend up in north Jersey last weekend and then started my new job last week – but I’m hopefully back to blogging regularly.

If you’ve been reading this blog for the past month, you know that my best friend got married last weekend. It was absolutely wonderful from start to finish – I’ll do my best not to ramble, but I make no promises. Also, this is going to be a very photo-heavy post, so be prepared!

I arrived at Erik and Natalie’s house on Thursday night to find a house full of family members. Their aunt, uncle, and two cousins (Melissa and Fernando) from Tennessee were staying there, along with their grandmother and cousin, Carol, from Florida. From that point forward, I spent the weekend being the only one in the house who didn’t speak Spanish and not understanding a single thing anyone said to each other.

The festivities kicked off that evening with a quick outing to a local bar, but Natalie and I called it a night while the rest of the “kids” went to the next bar. Friday was pretty relaxed – some people had work, the visiting relatives went to see some other local family members – so I spent the day lounging with Erik and Carol. The rehearsal started at 5pm, which we were just on time to, and went relatively quickly.

Rehearsing!

Rehearsal dinner was so much fun. The groom’s mother made the entire spread, including everything from Swedish meatballs to baked ziti to delicious cheesecake and cookies. We took tons of pictures and the gifts were handed out – the bridesmaids got Coach purses (mine’s red!), the groomsmen got personalized beer mugs, pocket knives, and gift cards for restaurants, and we bridesmaids also presented Natalie with a photo book we put together. Overall, it was a fabulous time.

Lady Lumps at rehearsal dinner.

 The boys with their new mugs!

Saturday morning was relatively calm, which was unsurprising since I had a later hair appointment than everyone else. With all the other ladies (besides Carol) at the salon at 8:30 and Erik heading out for groomsmen bonding, there were four of us left: me, Carol, Fernando, and Natalie’s dad. This was great because I had time to relax and do my makeup in peace. When I arrived at the salon, Danielle was just getting her hair finished. Mine took about an hour and then it was time for the chaos to begin. When I arrived back at the house, the photographer and videographer had just shown up. Danielle and I got ready just in time for pictures and soon after that, we were on our way.

 

The gorgeous bride making her trademark silly face.

Me, Danielle, and our fellow bridesmaid, Paris.

The limo ride to the church was the worst part of my day because limos tend to make me nauseous, so I felt terrible once we got to the church. Thankfully, the adrenaline from lining up and watching Natalie pull up pushed away all the nerves and gross feelings. The ceremony was absolutely beautiful. I got to walk down the aisle with Erik, which made me super happy. I cried when Nat came down the aisle and when vows were exchanged. It went relatively quickly and before I knew it, we were processing out and handing out bubbles to all the church-goers. After that were a couple of hours of picture-taking, which I absolutely loved (and Erik absolutely hated), and then we headed to the reception.

The bride and her proud papa, arriving and walking down the aisle.

Exchanging vows. (Also, that's me sitting in the pew and it's the only good shot of my hair.)


Procession out of the church. We're cute. :)

The new Mr. and Mrs!!

 Limo ride to the second site for photos.

A sneak peak of the professional pictures.

I had so much fun at the reception, but I’m not sure I can do it justice in writing. We made our grand entrances down a staircase – I hitched a piggy-back ride on Erik from the bottom of the stairs to the dance floor – danced all night, ate really good food, and took a ton of pictures. Our fellow groomsmen, Steve, kept joking that Erik and I were taking our bridal party partnership way too far, what with holding hands, dancing together, and kissing. The highlight was the removal of the garter, where Carol screamed for Kyle, the shyest and most modest guy ever, to use his teeth… and he DID. Natalie’s dad sobbed the entire way through the father-daughter dance, making everyone else cry. I did a decent job at salsa dancing, enjoyed every moment of my slow dances with Erik, and by the end of the night, I was exhausted in the best way possible.

The bride and groom's first dance; sister and brother salsa dancing together.

 
Removing of the garter. So great!

Kris getting ready to catch the garter since his girlfriend caught the bouquet.

My favorites.

 

 On the dance floor!

It was a really great day from start to finish. My anxiety didn’t get the best of me, the weather stayed gorgeous when it counted (it started pouring during the reception), and everyone looked beautiful and had a great time. I had high expectations for this wedding and I was thrilled that it turned out to be everything I thought it would be.

Today. {Vol. II}

Just over five years ago, when I was a sophomore in college, I met my very best friend. I don't like putting labels on my friendships or calling one better than the other, and I'm lucky enough to have four "best" friends, but there's one person who tops the list.

My friend circle had just taken a hit in the fall semester. Living arrangements had brought out the worst in somebody, so our group of four was brought down to three. That person moved out, leaving an opportunity for someone else to move in across the hall with my friend Katie. She and I, along with my roommate at the time, Melissa, wondered nervously what kind of girl would move in. Would she be a party girl who went out every weekend, something very foreign to us at the time? Or would she be like us, dorky and silly and willing to spend nights in, discussing music or watching chick flicks?

In January 2007, we found out: dorky and silly, thank God. Natalie pretty much bounded into our lives because that's exactly how she enters your life. She's friendly and outgoing, drumming up conversation by asking you lots of questions about your life that she's genuinely interested in knowing the answers to. Soon we were all having meals and watching TV shows together, surviving a flood in our dorm, and in the spring, making plans to move in together. (Which, in case you're curious, is when we met Danielle.)

Over the next year, my friendship with Natalie (and Danielle) took on its own dynamic. We became this trio - the Lady Lumps - and suddenly I found myself surrounded by a best-friendship that I had longed for since middle school. They became my closest friends and confidants.

All of this is to say that today, Natalie gets married, and I can barely get through this post without tearing up. She met her fiance in high school and when I tell you he's the kindest, gentlest, most thoughtful guy I know, I'm not exaggerating. They complement each other so well and their love is the kind I hope to find one day.

Natalie's stuck with me through some really tough times, particularly when I was putting our friendship on the back burner in lieu of spending time with my now-ex-boyfriend. She is my biggest cheerleader and someone who points out the positive when I can't. She makes any situation fun and any conversation interesting. She's ridiculously caring and giving - she offered Danielle her bed last night, before her own wedding, saying she'd sleep on the floor. She's the reason I met Erik. I'm so very blessed to have someone so amazing in my life.

Today my best friend gets married. It feels like this day has been forever in the making, but that doesn't mean it's any less exciting now that it's finally here. I plan to cry my face off and dance my heart out, with lots of laughter mixed in. It's going to be a fabulous day.

My Double-Header Saturday, or, I Have the Best Friends Ever.

On Saturday, I had a jam-packed day that started with me getting into my car at 10:30am for a 1.5-hour drive to south Jersey to attend Melissa's bridal shower and ended with Danielle and me staggering off of a train and into the parking garage on sore feet at 2am.

The shower was fabulous, which I expected. Melissa is a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland, so naturally there were tea pots full of flowers, cupcakes that said "Eat Me," and a cute tea-themed favor. Her bridal party and her mom did an awesome job. I arrived late at the gorgeous golf club, where I was picked up by a guy in a golf cart and taken straight to the entrance. Faaaancy!

Lunch was delish, the trivia bingo was so fun, and I almost won the purse scavenger hunt (I tied with another friend of Melissa's and the tiebreaker was to find the weirdest item in your purse... she had blueprints, can't really out-weird that). Plus, Melissa was super excited about all of her gifts, so even that part was enjoyable. Around 3, Danielle and I said our goodbyes and headed out in preparation for the evening's events.

We met back up at my house and headed to the train station around 6 to catch a train into New York City. After a quick train ride and walk, we met up with the rest of the crew to celebrate Natalie's bachelorette party!

Dinner was at a restaurant called The Australian, where the attractive bartenders all had Australian accents... yummy. The food was fantastic and we got all our drinking in since they were giving us happy hour prices all night. I handed out favors - purple beaded necklaces, plastic cocktail rings, nametags, and penis ring pops - which everyone got a kick out of. After a few pictures, we headed to our next destination: Culture Club.

Culture Club is an 80s-themed club, which meant all sorts of cool drink names, awesome neon drawing on the walls, 80s movies posters and TVs with clips from those movies playing. It was really hot, but so much fun, especially because we teamed up with Natalie's crazy future sisters- and cousins-in-law, who insisted upon lots of grinding and lap dances.

Since we're all old women now, we headed out to catch our trains home at midnight (aside from the aforementioned future in-laws and Nat's cousin). The walk back was awful because an hour and a half of dancing had killed our feet, but Danielle and I made it. I tumbled into bed around 2:30 and fell asleep instantly.

Honestly, it was a really long day, but I had so much fun. I was so happy to be celebrating all sorts of wonderful things with my best friends.