Let's Luau

The last Bridal shower for A.Drama.B has come and gone. We are onto the home stretch. Today we had a great party lots of laughs and lots of fun.

The Page Turner's Hit the Road

This evening a very small group of Page Turners made the hour long drive for a super special Book Club meeting in Page Turner's town. This month's book was The Summer of Us by Holly Chamberlin, not gonna lie I didn't get to it. I've been working OT like a crazy person and by time I get home it's past dinner time so I eat and go to bed, no time to read. Yes I know this is bad, sorry. I'll try to be better next time, although August is going to be crazy busy too... Drama's wedding and all. And on top of all that NiBo is leaving the nest, my little bub is moving 35 miles away. So needless to say it's busy busy busy here at North of 10th.

We only had a total of four Page Turners for this evenings adventure out. We had dinner on the patio of a lovely restaurant. It was very nice to get out and chill with some great ladies for an evening. I still can't believe Page Turner makes that drive everyday.

Stay tuned for Sunday's 3rd and final bridal shower. Everyone is very excited about this luau themed party and I hear there are some great outfits that we will get to see to. Have a great weekend everyone!

Movies & More Movies

In an attempt to keep the heat at bay, we inadvertently turned the whole weekend into one big movie marathon. We even got gma & gpa out of the house too, which they didn't really protest, being in a house with no A/C and sitting in a movie theater helped our cause.

The first movie of the day was Captain America: The First Avenger. The movie was awesome! I love comic book movies so this had been on my list of movies to see for awhile now and it did not disspoint. If you check it out make sure you stay after the credits for a sneak peek preview of the Avengers trailer... sadly you'll have to wait a year to see it but I'm pumped anyway!

Not gonna lie sometimes my favorite part of the movie is the trailers before. I love to see what's coming up. This time around the movie I thought looked the best was Three Muskateers... check out the trailer online, it looks good.

After the movie, oh yeah we made my dad come with us too! We headed off to Bdubs for dinner, then we were off to our next movie. A $5 deal at the historic theatre in the city... Breakfast at Tiffany's!! It's always fun to see classic movies on the big screen, obviously I had never had the chance to see it. I've seen this movie tons of times and I love Audrey Hepburn so it's in my DVD collection. Sitting there it's hard to believe that this movie is 50 years old, it was released in 1961. Even dad enjoyed the relaxation, he had seen parts of it but never saw the whole thing.

NiBo just texted me and asked if I would like to accompany him to his guitar lessons and go see a movie... and day 2! NiBo missed out on the movie adventures because he had to work yesterday. His Friday and Saturday evening were spent in the heat. He was asked to be in the band for the local Children's summer play and was sweating it out. Sounds like everything went well, his first paying guitar gig!

Sounds like we will either be seeing Captain America again or the final Harry Potter movie... he's buying so I'll see either ;)

Glad to see the rain came though, gma said we got 1/4" so far and it cooled it off a bit, finally. After this week I've changed my mind about living down south, and have instead decided I may need to move to the Great White North aka Canada. I'd much rather enjoy the cool temps and layered clothing (it hides the rolls) to the need to shed layers and sweat to death.

Hope you all kept cool this weekend too, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Summer Neglect

Please don't turn me over to the authorities for neglecting my little blog. I promise I left the window cracked.

My apologies for my summer readers for not many posts as of late. I don't have an excuse. I could take five minutes out of my day to say something about my day, tiredness really isn't a good excuse or the fact that we are supposed to see a head index of 115 degrees today.

I'm the lateshift person today at work and I'm getting ready to leave so I'll leave you a short note to catch you up.

-Last Friday I took the day off and had a nice day to myself full of running errands and a pedicure. I don't know who this person is taking time for herself but it might catch on. After watching a rerun of Oprah will Rob Lowe on when I was at Target I saw his book and bought it, I can't wait to read it.

-Saturday I worked more OT 8-5 then came home for a short nap that turned into I passed out until it was time for bed woke up then went back to bed. I guess I needed some sleep?

-Sunday morning worked a little more OT then Round 2 of bridal showers for Drama. I'll be posting some pictures later tonight of the showers thus far. I'm in charge of the 3rd and final shower for her friends and some friends of the family, we have a luau theme. I think it will be fun!

-Monday I worked 7-7 came home and worked with Drama on wedding stuff and bahelorette party planning

-Today I'm working the late shift until 7. It's so hot I didn't want to wear jeans so I'm wearing a skirt.. yep you read that right. Extreme heat calls for extreme measures.

Check back later for the bridal shower posts and keep cool today everyone!!

Tale as Old as Time

A.Drama.B and I ventured off to the big city of Chicago today for a little sister trip. Work was offering a bus trip and ticket to see the play Beauty and the Beast and the price was too good to turn down, and when someone else is driving the Chi isn't so bad.

I'm a sleeper, I can sleep anywhere anytime anyplace so the trip felt like time travel to me, sleep, wake up and Bam! We're there. We were set to arrive with a couple hours to spare for lunch or what have you before the show started. For weeks we had been discussing our lunch options and knew where we wanted to go, someplace we've been meaning to hit up when in town but just never had the time... The World Famous Billy Goat Tavern.

You may be familiar with the Billy Goat Tavern from the SNL Skit...  Cheezborger, Cheezborger!



Or my fellow Cub's fans may be familiar with the Goat and the curse of the cubs.

We were not disspointed! When you walk in you are already being yelled at.. "Step Up, Step Up! Don't have all day, lady what you order" preparing myself ahead of time I knew what/how to order... "Double, No chips, Coke" Drama had the same. "Step down, step down! Make room. Here your double"

"Double Best" you really don't have a choice when ordering. After we were seated and enjoying our Double and Coke, it was hilarious to see the other tourists filtering in. One lady asked for a single the cook said "Ok Double!" then a group of other people came in looking at the menu and he said "what you looking at everyone in restaurant eat Double, order Double its best" That was the best part watching other people come in and try to order something else.

After we ate we had some extra time so we strolled around downtown and just wasted some time in the Windy City until it was time for our show. A.Drama.B is a Broadway in Chicago veteran, she had already seen Beauty and the Beast at one of the other theatres and she's seen Wicked and Fiddler on the Roof. Scoring some seats in the Orchestra level is definatley worth it. It always amazes me all the set props and backgrounds and how they can convey so many different scenes on the same stage.

The play was great! Beauty and the Beast is definately one of my favorite Disney movies and the songs are fantastic, and yes they've been stuck in my head all night. The theatre, The Oriental Theatre is gorgeous. I love all the old buildings that Chicago has to offer. It transports you back in time and all you can do is wonder what life was like back then.

All this made A.Drama.B and I more excited for her Bachelorette Party which will be taking place in Chicago coming in August. It's completely untraditional and more suited to things we like to do... you'll have to stay posted for all that... well I'll have to check my confidentiality agreement to see what I'm allowed to share. We are counting down the days til the wedding which is fast approaching and somehow consuming my life too?! I guess that's what I get for being head Maid.

Hope y'all have a great rest of your weekend! Monday will be here before you know it! Check the photo blog for a few more pictures from today!

Retail Therapy Makes Me Need Therapy

I'm sure everyone has been there at one time or another, you find yourself wearing the same things every week on a rotation and you know you need to buy new clothes. I reached that point, I needed to go shopping.

Being a size 00 and being able to try on everything in the stores it sometimes becomes such a daunting task that I've grown not very fond of shopping, but I dragged myself to the mall anyway. Drama (my sister's new blog name, self explanatory) has not 1 but 3 bridal showers this month so being the old maid.. ahem.. I mean Maid of Honor, I must be fashionable, so even more reason I needed to enhance the wardrobe a bit.

Luckily I hit the store at the best possible time, most stuff was 30-40% off (aka only look at those racks) AND it just happened to be what the sales lady referred to as a "splurge" party. If you had the stores credit card (yes I do) then you got 15% off your entire purchase INCLUDING all the sales stuff... awesome. They had a lot of cute things for my petite size so I had an armful already when my BFF the sales lady came back... she said you know hun, we are allowed to give one person 30% off their whole purchase if it's a larger purchase.. what did I hear? Must buy more!!

Entering the store around 5:45 I did not leave until 7:00. I HATE shopping, what is wrong with me?! Although I did find some cute things the bright fluorescent lights and full length mirror in the dressing room did little for my ego, that mirror does not show the fairest of them all, that is a harsh smack of reality right to the face.

Moral of this story. I think I've donegonelost my mind. I went shopping actually tried everything on, bought 2 pairs of jeans (my least favorite part of shopping), a dress (I don't wear dresses) and 10 other things. Only a few weren't on sale so I got 30% off and everything else I bought was 60-70% off.. talk about perfect timing.

Ah Memories

As I sit here in the library of my old college waiting for NiBo to be finished with his Freshman college Orientation I can't help but take a trip down memory lane....

Walking through the halls really does bring everything back, I miss being a college student and miss the good ol days.

I had a part-job and only real focus was school. I drove from home the 35 miles for my first year while I lived at home, then moved out the next year.... Freedom. I lived literally 3 blocks from school so I could sleep in late and get up 15 minutes before classes started (NiBo is in the same apartments, I think this will come in handy for him, considering our start this morning) life was just so much simpler and I kind of miss that time of my life.

My days are now full of the humdrum office life and 9-5 atmosphere. I don't get out much anymore and my social life is non-existent, although I do force myself out every once in awhile... like tonight.

Tonight is Armed Forces night in the big city's ballpark. NiBo, my dad (retired Navy) and myself will be taking in a lovely night at the ballpark this evening, I hope it's not too hot out, looks to be a nice night for a game.

Well it's official now NiBo is actually enrolled in classes and all ready to be a pre-med student in the Fall... I'm being texted as we speak to join him in line while he waits for his student ID. I'm outta here!

Update! It was a great night for a baseball game!! The weather was lovely the sun wasn't beating down on us and dad even won a door prize and had his name up on the big screen!! I like getting out to the ballpark it's small and not too many people, just the right size for my too-many-people-around paranoia that sometimes kicks in at bigger events.

The 4th of Awesomeness

Luckily I was able to recover from my mid-summer cold (seriously?!) and was able to partake in the festivities.

The annual parade stepped off at 1.. well 1:15ish we can't always be on time. Interestingly enough our big Fourth of July celebrations are held in an even smaller town 15 miles away, the hillbilly's and WT all burrow out of their holes and manage to get the car off it's blocks to congregate on the even-smaller-than-here city. (But they have a lake and fireworks are prettier over a lake) The parade is full of your typical small town delights, adorable kids with their bikes decorated, the family floats, every person in the district running for a state office, and lots and lots of tractors and every neighboring townships firetruck and ambulance (lord knows what would happen if their was a fire in a 20 mile radius on the 4th) The parade was about 45 minutes then everyone headed down to the pavilion by the lake where all the groups had yummy food, hello lemon shake up and funnel cakes.

After that it was back home to recover from the heat a bit and chill in the A/C. And don't worry folks, I stayed in the shade, no sunburns here! :)

Then a little bit later a wolfpack of three headed out on the bikes, and celebrated real freedom on the open road. It's so much more fun to ride with at least three... two is nice but three is better. We made a small town loop for about an hour then headed back just in time for fireworks.

I got to watch the fireworks at a friends house in the country with a perfect view over their big pond.  The lightening bugs were so pretty as their light showed through the corn as far as you could see and being away from the city lights the stars were so bright! Another benefit of having friends who live in the country.... lighting your own fireworks!

I seriously could not have asked for a more perfect and spontaneous day of awesomeness. It has been a really long time since I have had such a carefree fun day of nothing planned. Everything came together and I had a super wonderful day. This 4th was definately the best I've had in several years. Thanks to everyone who was apart of it.

PS to my GA followers from down south. I'm so sorry I missed you this trip up, I am very sad I didn't get to see you!! Guess I'll have to fly south for the winter to make it up?

Really?!

Who get's sick 4th of July weekend. I have a fever in the middle of a heatwave... epic health fail.

Hopefully I'll feel better for some fireworks in a few days.