Easter weekend

Heya folks. Popping in from the "worst blogger ever" corner of the internet.

I swear it's not because I'm walking away from blogging or anything. I have just been so busy with school and work lately, that I haven't had time to jump on the computer much. When I get busy and don't have much time to myself to just chill out, unfortunately, when I do find a few minutes, sitting and composing a blog post is actually pretty low on the list of things I want to do. I hate to say it, but it is a chore lately. I'm trying to find some motivation, though. Once school is over, I will have more free time. Just about six more weeks! Bear with me!

I'm also going to put Mark-Out Mondays on hold until then. Making trips to the post office is, as ridiculous as it sounds, is just something I don't have much time for nowadays. I wish I did. I love doing that giveaway. Blah. It will be back though!

Anyway, how was everyone's Easter weekend? I hope you all had the fabulous weather that we did over in New England. It was like spring arrived literally over night!

Happy Easter from the most terrifying mall Easter bunny on the planet Earth!

Anthony was on spring break this past week, and despite his jerk professors weighing him down with work even over break, he managed to find a couple days to break free, and we went down to his beach house in southern CT Thursday-Saturday.

I had to work Thursday morning and squeeze in a hair appointment before Easter, and he was working on his project, so we left around 5pm, and got there a little over an hour later. It wasn't a bad ride at all. It was so warm out and the sun setting was so pretty.

Maddie's feelings about getting in the car. That is her "I don't think so" pose. We saw a lot of that this weekend.

The obligatory "and we're off!" Instagram shot.

After arriving and turning the heat and hot water on, we went budget grocery shopping (aka, bought peanut butter, jelly, bread, milk, cereal, and water), and then came back and pretty much went to bed instead of the casino as planned, because my 80-year-old ass got out of bed at 4 for work, and I was "too tired." What a buzzkill.

The full day we spent there (Friday) we had to be out of the house by 9:45am because the house is on the market and there was a showing scheduled. After getting ready, we loaded Maddie and her stink eye into the car, and went off to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, and then waked Maddie from beach to beach. The weather was perfect, and it was just an overall great morning. It was awesome to finally have a day off (it had been a while since I had a day that didn't involve either work or school), and for it to be spent with Anthony (and Maddie!) and have nice weather? I was feeling pretty thankful. ;)

The Mad-ster got a lot of attention on the street. A mail main gave her a treat, and two women stopped to chat and show us every single picture they ever took of their golden on their phone. :p 

This town is so gorgeous. I think it's close to the top of the list of relocation areas. It's dirt cheap compared to our overpriced area, and hello, coastal. The mailmen walk and carry dog treats. How much better does it get? Not to mention, it's still in CT and only an hour from our family. Better yet? twenty minutes from Mohegan Sun. Hehe.

I definitely see a high probability of us living here one day. It was talked about a lot over the weekend. Gah. Love it.

Friday night after dealing with cousin drama, as usual (more on that later, it deserves its own post), we went to the casino. It was fun, but would have been better with one less person. Argh. Kid always has to find a way to muscle his way into everything.

Saturday was kind of blue because it was the day we had to leave. It was a bummer that our time there was so short. Hopefully once school is out schedules will be a bit more flexible and we can do this more often. Because, honestly, it was such a perfect weekend. It was depressing to get back to real life on Monday.

As for Easter Sunday I went to church early, got ready while Anthony was at church with his dad and brother, and then we headed to his grandma's house. Another great day. Overall this Easter was just short of perfect. I didn't get to see my mom for it, but she insisted she was fine with me spending it with Anthony's family. I still felt a little guilty though. But there will be other holidays. :)

Anthony and his youngest cousin. She is too adorable.

His grandma gave me an Easter gift with $20. So nice and thoughtful but completely unnecessary. She is so darn adorable I want to adopt her.

I hope everyone else had a fabulous Easter weekend as well! Can't wait to read all about them!

xoxo

what day is it?

Seems to be the question of the day for me. For the last three months, it seems.

I can't believe how absent I have been since, even the beginning of the year, I would say. I'm trying to think of why, yet the only things I keep coming back to are work and school. But then when I really think about it, I feel like I have a decent amount of free time every day, so that doesn't really explain why I haven't been keeping up with blogging. Or maybe it takes up more time than I think.

Well, either way, I'm taking a quick breather from it now while I zone out, splitting my hypnosis between Les Misérables and blogging. Yes -- I finally (dramatic much? it came out three days ago) got my paws on Les Mis during a last minute Walmart trip last night. Further feeding what was already borderline obsession with that music. I'm so glad this thing is finally on DVD. Since eighth grade I've eargasmed over this music. And, give or take a few miscast characters (ahem, Javert and adult Cosette), I am in love with the choice of actors. Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway? Them alone excuse the blasphemy that was Russel Crowe and Karen Smith Amanda Seyfried. Ahem. Personal bias. Too bad they are such big characters and Russel Crowe was allowed to shred apart one of my favorite songs (Stars) from the musical. :p But anyway..... aside from that, five stars. And every Oscar it received. Oh, and the guy who is all but identical to Phil of the Future? Sheesh. They could be twins. I thought it was him!

In other news, in my 3D design class, we have been assigned a non-cloth clothing or accessory project. I'm making (or attempting) a purse made out of, you guessed it, Starbucks cards. Because since late December, I pretty much eat, sleep, and breathe that place. But in a good way. I'm still loving it so far. Although that may change this week, as our store is now starting Playbook training, which is supposedly a more efficient way of doing things. Some of it makes sense, and seems an improvement, while other bits sound like a disaster waiting to happen. But we'll see, I guess!

Speaking of Starbucks, I am a little behind on my Mark-out Mondays. Oops! This week I forgot, and last week I gave my mark-out to my old boss, lol. And also, a public apology to Lauren, the last winner, whose coffee I still haven't found time to ship. Agh! It will go out this week, I promise! I'm sorry about the delay!

As far as my weekend, it was busy, but fun! I went and saw The Call with my cousin and Anthony. And only them. Literally. We were the only ones. Probably because it was a week night at like, ten. Losers. That movie was creepy. Pretty disturbing actually. I don't love the ones that can and probably have happened before because humans are insane. Eek! Friday I worked and then went to see my uncle's band play, Saturday I worked and saw my friend's play.... she is in high school and no doubt bound for Broadway. And yesterday Anthony and I had some free time to go to the mall, Red Robin with his mom, and then to his grandma's until we parted ways for my staff meeting and his, shocking, endless amount of homework. But overall it was a really nice day and weekend. I feel a much better balance between work and home life with this job, and I love it. It's busy, but a good busy.

What have you all been up to? I miss your blogs! I'm off to read around now!

Sorry for another boring post!

popping in

Hey guys! I just wanted to stop in and apologize for my absence this weekend. I had to finish a wire shoe project between working the bulk of both Saturday and Sunday.

It took until 3:30 this morning, but I finally got it finished. There's nothing like going outside into the frigid March air at 3am and spray painting a giant shoe made of wire to make you feel like you are making a difference in the world. Ha. It will truly be the day when I am (hopefully) working in the graphic design field and I think back with a look of longing in my eye and think, "wow, that wire shoe really solidified my understanding of this field of graphic art."

So yeah, I had to build a shoe, and I was pretty P.O.'d about the whole thing. ;)

looks about right to me.

But I can't really complain too much. Poor Anthony was stuck in the grad studio all weekend working on some site model for his class. It was a group thing, but as usual, he clocked the most hours. I thought my three hours of sleep were bad... He went to the studio yesterday morning, stayed all day, went home at 7:30, ate dinner, returned to the studio at ten, and then didn't go home until 6:30 this morning. And even then, it was only to sleep for an hour and go back to school where he managed to complete the whole day, and stay two hours extra. And as I type this, he is home slaving over quizzes that need to be graded for a professor he is a TA for.

I honestly don't know how he does it. I hope he can finish soon and get some sleep before he has to get up and bring the quizzes back to school for 8am.

I loathe his teachers.

Blah. In other less exhausting news, I finally hit the big 100 followers! This is the third blog I have hit the milestone with, and with the others, I would always conveniently start a new blog shortly after, and have to start from scratch. Ew. Not this time! I'm in the midst of planning a nice little giveaway for all you fine followers. But for now, a huge, big, heartfelt, mushy gushy thank you from me for sticking with my sporadic posting, inconsistent content, rants, vents, random BS, and all those posts in between. 100 might not be a lot to some, but it certainly warms my little heart knowing that there are actually people who read what I write! :)

Love you guys!

lucky.

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous Valentine's Day, no matter who you spent it with!

Quick run-down:

Anthony made a cute little path of Hershey's into his house that eventually ended upstairs at him with a giant stash of candy.

Then, like we did last Valentine's Day, we went to the casino (shocking.) :) We had lunch there, gambled a bit, and of course, ended the trip at Krispy Kreme.

 And then ended up back at his house after a pretty darn good Valentine's Day, if you ask me. I couldn't have asked for a better day, and I couldn't ask for a better Valentine.

Feeling pretty lucky.

:)

Happy Friday! 

Or, has happy as it can get despite having to go meatless every Friday for the next however many weeks of Lent. Blah.

happy monday

subtitle: Ew.

How was everyone's weekend?

Any fun Super Bowl parties? I wasn't a fan of either team, but ultimately decided on the Ravens for two reasons:

• Michael Oher, the guy on which one of my favorite movies, The Blind Side, is based plays for the Ravens. Come on now, what would Sandra Bullock do?
• my cousin was rooting for the niners.

Hehe.

source

Saturday night, Anthony's sister, her friend, and I went to see Mama. On the creep scale of one to ten, I would give it about a seven. There were some creepy parts, and I will admit I covered my eyes for certain scenes, but overall, I don't think I was as close to wetting my pants as I thought I would be. But, on the other hand, I wasn't anywhere near as disappointed as I was with The Woman in Black. Heck, I practically brought a change of pants for that one. Big let down.

Anyway, the movie itself was pretty good. It was eerie, and had a good plot. It made you like and sympathize with the characters. The acting was pretty good too. Not to mention, the ending was satisfying in a very unsatisfying way. Meaning, as it's happening you're like, "wait, what!?" but after you take a few minutes you realize an alternative would have been cliché. Know what I mean? I hope that is some insight without giving too much away.. I have a hard time finding that happy medium, haha.


Beyond that, most of my weekend was spent at Starbucks either working or doing homework. Anthony's weekend consisted of a project that took him two straight days to finish (including one morning of going to bed at 5:30 am), and then diving right into a five-page paper that he finished up at around midnight last night. Yuck. And I thought my weekend was tiring. Those professors of his...
it's like each one actually thinks their's are his only class.


In other news, remember yesterday when I mentioned rehashing the whole Blogger of the Week/Month idea? I think I will actually go ahead with that one. I'm trying to think of some questions to ask you all. Hopefully this time next week things can get started? Be sure to check back!

I think that's about it for now. Not much to report when the last three days have been consumed with work and school... The next couple of weekends should be more interesting, I hope. And yay, Valentine's Day is coming up. I'm hoping to go to the casino with Anthony again. It (could be) a fun little tradition that I'd love to keep up. :)

What are your plans for this week? Valentine's Day? Anything in mind for that yet?

Hope you are all having a great Monday! Sorry my posts are such a bore lately!

what's new

What's new, what's new...

Gosh, who knows. I can't even remember what I did this past weekend. It's Tuesday right?

I know I worked Saturday night... my first non-training shift at Starbucks -- woohoo! Official barista status here, people!

I worked this morning too. My first opening shift. Arose from my warm little nest of a bed, and left for work at 4:45AM ... #wtf. But I have to say, the one "bye bye bed." was it. By the time I was there, I was awake as though it was a normal time of day. And I have to say, working 5am-12pm was the fastest shift ever. The morning shift speeds right on by, and I think I can get used to the early mornings.... I would totally be up for some more of those! Definitely prefer them to the three closing shifts I got for two weekends from now, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Honestly, if you asked me what the worst schedule would be, it would be exactly that. So I'm not thrilled about it. But hopefully it's only for this week. They can't possibly expect me to give up my entire weekend to a part-time job, right? With school and everything? That would be it, all of my time would be sucked dry. Ugh. I guess we'll see. Blah.

In other news, I know it is now January 8th, but if anyone is still interested in Christmas past, since I have been such a lazy blogger, here are a few pictures from the holidays...

Anthony & I at Mohegan Sun. I had been hoping to get a picture with him in front of the cute little Christmas display at the entrance to the mall. Woohoo! I finally got my Christmas wish! (Ha, not really, but you know..)

Christmas Eve photo frenzy at Anthony's house where he made me look like a midget. But it also shows you just how small their tree was. He wasn't happy with that tree, haha. He kept referring to it as a "poop tree". Hehe.

 

 Us with his brother, he calls himself my boyfriend in law. Haha. We went to the casino while Anthony has been away. He was my hall pass. Baha. Just kidding.

Two midgets! Myself and Anthony's sister, my lil BFF who not only makes me look short (given that she is years younger than me), but also fat. ;)

And one last one of us in front of his family's gorgeous fireplace.

It was a fantastic Christmas overall, and New Year's wasn't half bad either, if you exclude the fact that Anthony was shipped off to TURKEY the next day. ;) Hehe. But, he is home a week from tomorrow! Sheesh, what a grueling week it has been. I will be kissing the ground he walks on come next Wednesday.

Welp, that's all for now. I'm trying to watch some of my DVR'd shows to free up some room for tonight's Pretty Little Liars premiere thang. Getting up at 4 doesn't exactly have me prepared to stay up much past 8:30 or 9, lol.

Hope you all are well! God I can't wait until I have a laptop again. Better shake a leg too, school starts back up in two weeks. Ahh!

one year.

It has been exactly one year since the best guy I know asked this blondie to be his girlfriend in the front seat of his Honda Accord.

Well, now he drives a BMW and my hair is brown, but what hasn't changed is the way I feel about him. I decided he was "the one I'm going to marry" the night I met him at a bonfire, and I haven't looked back since.

 

It has been by far the best year of my life, and I can't wait for all the years to come. I love you! :)

you wouldn't want me as your secret santa

This is a little late, but life (aka, work & school) have kinda-sorta gotten in my way over the last week or so. In fact, this post is about two weeks late. But it actually ties in with something that will be occurring in a couple days, so I guess it kind of works out.

Anyway, after several months of failed attempts at getting a new car, low and behold, Anthony has landed his BMW. A 2006 X3 to be exact.

Ahh. The clouds can now part, and the heavens can finally open up and dub his life "complete" ... for now, at least. Ha ha.

Anthony is a huge fan of BMW. As in, this love of his dates way back to elementary school years. His first car was a BMW, and he has a slew of other BMWs he would like to own in his lifetime. While the X3 probably wasn't his first choice, I certainly love it, and I can tell he does too, now that he has one.

After a long grueling process involving three alternative BMWs about which I won't go into detail because it's just not worth it (well, that, and I'm lazy..), this little beaut won the day.

The downside? (Beside the fact that I couldn't have one too.) It only came with one key. And, unfortunately, with this particular flavor of keyless entry, not only does a key have to be purchased and cut, but there's a little chip inside the fob that needs to be programmed as well, all of which apparently needs to be done through a BMW dealership because they heart money and won't cut a key unless it was purchased from them. Because clearly eBay is trying to steal BMW's business.

Regardless, it sure sounded like a headache to me.

Light bulb.
followed by a few thoughts...

- I suck at getting people gifts.
- They tend to be last minute "hmm, what can I do?!1?!" gifts. Because I have thought and thought and come up with nothing.
- Basically, as the post title reveals, you wouldn't want me as your secret Santa.
- My gifts are rarely things people actually express interest in wanting or needing due to aforementioned suckage. (In my defense, that's because I usually buy things as people mention them, because I get too excited to wait for Christmas or birthdays.......... um.. kind of like what I'm doing now.)

This is perfect. As our one year anniversary is coming up, along with Christmas.

Ah-ha! I shall buy him a new key!

After this genius idea no brainer popped into my cranium, I quickly fetched my cousin (who works at the dealership that sold Anthony the car), as he is an endless cascade of useless car information. Apparently, for this whole process to happen, BMW needs the license, registration, and VIN for the car.

Shit.

I had to think on this one. It would definitely require some fancy footwork, because along with my inability to give decent gifts, I also lack a poker face. Genetic lottery winner here!

Honestly? The idea of me getting this information out from under Anthony's nose without him knowing immediately what I was up to? Snowball's chance in hell, friends. I am that bad. And this had to be a surprise. Because,

a. what the hell else was I going to get him? A sweatshirt? Ehhhh! Wrong answer! Because I am an uncreative loser who bought three of them for him last Christmas while he was busy perusing the Tiffany's display case for the sweetest ring ever. Aka, the I Love You ring I wear as a 24/7 reminder that not only am I, to me, the luckiest lady on this blue marble, but also that I need to step up my gift-giving creativity, because clearly, he deserves better.

b. he is really good at saving money. He knows when to spend and when not to. Which, in turn, means he doesn't love when I spend a lot (or as he sees it, "waste it") on him. So, every time I do, I pretty much have to lie through my teeth and hope he doesn't find out until after the fact, if at all. A few examples..

1. I wanted to buy him a drink at Starbucks last year. A Starbucks drink. Sure, they aren't the cheapest option, but whatever, it's one drink, and they generally fall under $5. He was detailing a car with my cousin, so it was easy for me to be all, "oh, well there was a promotion, I get the second one free." Not completely untrue. There was a promotion running during that time... but it was only til 5pm each day. Oops. I guess I missed it.
2. A few weeks ago he was having a grueling few days pushing 3am nights for several nights in a row. He was at the studio at his school and he was just casually mentioning how he was hungry and wanted sugar. I ended up telling him that there was "a ton of candy here" (he thought I was still at work) and that I was going to grab him some, and to list a few things he wanted. Also not a lie. I was at Stop and Shop, and there was a "ton of candy" there.

See what I have to work around?

Don't get me wrong-- I don't like lying to him. But I do like to be able to get him things every once in a while too... so, what else is a girl to do? Nothing else. Lie!! Duh.

So yeah. I was pretty much backed into a corner here. This gift idea was gold. Finally, something I knew he would love and needed at the same time. However, I couldn't very well waltz up and ask for all of his car information. My best bet was to sneak it, but my backup plan was his mom. And even that would be a gamble. He's no idiot.

Luckily, to my great relief, a silver lining appeared in the form of my cousin being able to finagle the paperwork from the salesman and get it to the BMW dealership.

Problem solved! Phew! Thanks for the leg work, yo!

The key should be done today or tomorrow, and I think I am going to give it to him early before he scoots off and buys one himself. He was already getting antsy and asking my cousin to try to find out if there was a spare key anywhere for the car. Because if he loses the one he has (more possible than you might think... another story for another day), he's pretty much shit out of luck. Gulp.

My cousin and I have it all worked out though. He told me to tell Anthony that I got it for a super great deal through my uncle's auto repair business (which isn't entirely untrue... they knocked about $50 off the price for wholesale vs. retail -- sweet.). And I nonchalantly lead us into a conversation tonight about how he never lets me buy him anything. And he promised he would. So........... we'll see about that.

 

Eek.

I'm excited to give it to him because I know he will like it, and it feels good when he's happy. You should see the kid when I bring him a sandwich. The key would be 10x that. It's like a gift to myself, really.

I'm also a wee bit nervous, because I also know he knows how much they tend to cost, and how he is pretty much known for skimping on the things he doesn't necessarily need.

But he does need it! You can't have just one key to your car.... right? :)

So, anyway, worst case scenario, he might feel guilty. And totally ruin my "SURPRISE!!!" joy by trying to pay me back for it. Psh. I hope he just accepts the gift and doesn't worry about the dollars. Fingers crossed!

Anyone want to do a secret Santa this year? ;)

striking gold.

For a really long time, I was under the impression that I'd either:

a. have to wait forever and a a day for "the right guy" to come along because I am little miss picky; or
b. be stuck alone because I may or may not be hard to take, at times, and have trouble finding someone that would put up with me. (Come on, we all have our moments, don't we?)

Well...?

The truth is, I struck gold with Anthony; and
the sad fact is? He is too humble to ever ever know it, let alone believe it.

I had to go to the bank yesterday, and asked if he wanted to come along. He showed up a few minutes late because he was busy throwing together a surprise picnic lunch that we ate at "the flower bridge" in my town. Seriously?

Color me: smitten

undeserving

hooked.

Streaking

Back in early April, when Anthony and I started hanging out more frequently, we noticed one week that we had hung out every single day that week. It was branded a streak, and we made a goal to try to keep it up for a while.

One week turned to two.

14 days turned to 21.

Three weeks to five...

Five to ten...

You can see where I'm going with this, yes?

Today marks 13 weeks of hanging out daily.

To some this is probably no big accomplishment. Especially to married people, or couples who live together, as, of course you see each other daily.

But to me, I think it's kind of really cool. That every single day for the last 13 weeks, we've made it a point of seeing each other in one way or another.

Most days were easy. We didn't have too much going on towards the end of Spring. Anthony had a final project, but I would sit with him as he worked on it. Usually I brought my computer to his house and we would just chill as we worked on our own stuff. It was fun, relaxed, and gave me plenty of time to perfect my new-found talent (HA!), drawing celebrities on Paint.

I'm sure I've shown these ladies off on the blog before. Haha.

You can't say they don't match up! Unless you're blind. Or maybe I was when I drew them. Hehe. Just kidding. It was fun though, as utterly ridiculous as it and Demi's highly defined facial bones may be...

Then there were days where I had to work doubles, or he had to help his dad with something, or he had school during one part of the day, and I had work during the other. Those days, even though it kind of sucked not to be able to hang out, we always made sure to meet up at Starbucks even for a quick 5-10 minutes of hanging out if not just for "streak maintenance". Short & sweet, right? :)

Even on the day he left to go check out RISD for a day, I saw him in the morning before he left. We met at Starbucks on my way to school and his way to Rhode Island. Sniff.

After 13 weeks of seeing him every single day, I can't even remember what it was like when we only saw each other every other day, or every few days with our conflicting schedule.

I like it this way. I love seeing him every day, and I like making it work so that we can. It adds a little challenge and it's fun having just one extra reason. :)

Happy 13 weeks, Anthony! :) <3