Trouble in Paradise

Hey all you strangers! Sorry I have been totally MIA lately but I have been dealing with some real serious stuff in my life this week. In the blink of eye everything I knew has been totally flipped upside down. Some days I hope to just wake up and find out it was all just a dream but unfortunately that's not the case.

First I found out my ex is now married with a baby on the way, next my roommate informed me that she will be moving to NYC Aug. 1st when our lease runs up so I have less than 2 months til I'm homeless, and then last Friday I was hit with a total shocker...I was fired from my job.

Ugh! When it rains it pours I guess.

So anyways, I'm leaving on Sunday to go to Bermuda for the week with my mom and sis to just relax and clear my head. Please keep me in your prayers, I most certainly need it.

Miss you all!

Quote of the day: "And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9

Back to Reality

You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you return from a fun vacation or from being around friends and family for an extended amount of time? You know...the "ugh, back to reality" feeling.

Well, that's exactly the feeling I have right now and I hate it. I had such a fun 3 day weekend. Not a care in world...and now the reality that it's over and I have to return back to the mundane routine of my life is sinking in. Yuck!

Guess that's just way life goes though :(

Here's are some pics of my crew and I at Kings Dominion yesterday. We had such a blast! Not sure exactly why, maybe the economy has something to do with it, but to our surprise we pretty much had the whole park to ourselves. I loved just jumping from roller coaster to roller coaster without having to wait in any lines...
...my head and stomach, however, didn't really like it so much.

Definitely don't think the adult body (or at least this adult body) is made to handle that sort of extreme intensity.







Quote of the day: "Life can be like a roller coaster...its filled with so many exciting twists and turns. Hop off the straight and narrow whenever you can and take the winding paths. Experience the exhilaration of the view from the edge. Because the moments spent there, that take your breath away, are what make you feel truly alive." ~Stacey Charter

Fun in the Sun

I'm so excited for this weekend! My pool at my apartment opens on Saturday and nothing makes me happier than that :) For the past few weeks, since the pool hasn't been open yet, when its been nice out, my roommate and I have been laying out on the top of our parking garage...gotta love city living.

No one ever parks up there on the top level so the privacy and seclusion made for a perfect tanning spot for us....or so we thought. Unfortunately the parking garage security guard, who so conveniently thought it necessary to "guard" the top level every time we were up there, where not a single car is parked mind you, really kind of made things awkward.

But oh well. You gotta love guys. Do they honestly think they're not obvious? I really wonder.

But other than hanging out poolside every hour of every day this weekend, on Monday my girlfriends and I are gonna go to Kings Dominion. Should be fun. Last year I went to Six Flags with my brother, sister, and ex. It was a good time and I heard Kings Dominion is supposed to be way better. So I'm excited. Then afterwards we'll probably come back and have a little cookout.

Sun, fun, friends, food, pool, day off work...doesn't get much better than that :)

What do you all have planned?


Quote of the day: Charlotte: "Imagine, being blind and not being able to see a beautiful day like today. Can you think of anything worse?"
Anthony: "Stonewashed jeans and a matching jacket.”
~Sex and The City

I Have a Crush

So I just got the new Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual Sale catalog in the mail today and I must confess I have a huge girl crush on Marisa Miller. I mean seriously...

Could she be any more perfect?

Yeah, definitely skipping dinner tonight.

Quote of the day: "The leading cause of death among fashion models is falling through street grates." ~ Dave Barry

Food for Thought

"We spend our whole lives worrying about the future, planning for the future, trying to predict the future. As if figuring it out will somehow cushion the blow. But the future is always changing. The future is home to our biggest fears and our wildest hopes. But one thing is certain, when it finally reveals itself, the future is never the way we imagined it."
~ Grey's Anatomy

.............................................................................................................................................

"Did you say it? I love you. I don't ever want to live without you. You changed my life.

Did you say it?

Make a plan. Set a goal. Work towards it. But every now and then look around. Drink it in. Because this is it. It might all be gone tomorrow."
~ Grey's Anatomy

HUGE Transformation

Waaaay back when I was in college at The University of Maryland (a whole 3 years ago..lol) I used to work for the Terps football team as a recruiting assistant.

Besides doing all the menial tasks that the coaches didn't want to be bothered with, like sending out letters to the potential players, weeding through the hundreds of highlight videos we received every week, etc, etc, etc, it was also my job to tour the recruits around the school and the football facilities when they came for their official visits, sit with them and their families during the game, answer any and every question they might have about the school, and of course look cute while doing it...basically in short, make the boys want to come to UMD.

Yes, being young and blond and cute does sometimes help when your dealing with decisions being made by hormone overloaded teenage boys ;)

And since I love UMD, love sports and LOVE tall, hot, muscular athletes...it was the perfect job for me. Free clothes, tickets, fun events to attend, getting to know the players and meet super rich or soon-to-be super rich NFL people...doesn't get much better than that.

Here I am with Coach Freidgen at the annual football gala
Actually even met my (ex) boyfriend when he came for a visit and I was the one assigned to show him and his dad around. After his visit with me that day he ended up choosing to sign with UMD over Penn State, Boston College and all the other schools that were recruiting him. Coincidence? I think not. lol. He obviously liked what he saw ;) wink wink

Anyways, the point of my story is (yes there is actually a point), I've known Coach Ralph Freidgen for quite a few years now and it seems that every day that goes by he keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. By my ex's senior year Ralph literally could barely even walk anymore and during practice would drive his golf cart around everywhere because even the simple task of putting one foot in front of the other was too hard for him to bear.

The good news though...I just found out that Ralphy is finally losing weight!! 86 lbs and counting. He started out at 401lbs and is now down to 315lbs, with an immediate goal of 301lbs. I am so proud of him! He is on a 1,000 calorie a day diet sponsored by this company called Medifast based right here in Owings Mills, MD.

I'm not a watcher of The Biggest Loser but last night one of my friends was telling me about the finale and how the winner now weighs only 117 lbs and so we looked up the before and after pics on the nbc website and I was totally shocked. I think its so crazy how we have the ability to transform our bodies and thus our whole appearance just through diet and exercise.

Hope when all is said and done Ralph will have made a similarly huge transformation.
Good luck man!


Quote of the day: "People couldn't tell I lost a pound. It was like throwing a chair off the deck of the Titanic." ~ Ralph Friedgen after losing 30 lbs

Family Matters

I went home to Cumberland to give my momma some lovin' this past weekend and had an absolutely amazing time with the fam. Bike riding, bike riding and more bike riding pretty much sums it all up. And since pics are far more interesting than words will ever be, I'm just gonna let these speak for themselves....


Me and my sister

Beautiful city of Cumberland in the background

Me and my mom

You are Here! No wonder my thighs were burning...look at that incline!


We made it to Pennsylvania!

Helping the little turtle we almost ran over to safety


That is a true look of terror

30.835 Miles...Ouch!


Hope you all had a great Mothers Day weekend too!


Quote of the day: "When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day's sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay's call, and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else's heart." ~Diane Ackerman

Jim Gaffigan Makes Me Smile :)

A couple years ago the ex and I were headed on a little road trip...don't remember now exactly where we were going, but I'm thinking maybe home to see my parents...irrelevant anyways. So in an attempt to help curb his A.D.D. during the "long" trip he decided to burn a CD of a comedian for us to listen to along the way.

Although his sense of humor and mine were pretty similar, at that time I never even heard the name of the dude he brought and so I was kinda extremely skeptical.

But after like 30 seconds of listening to Jim Gaffigan I was laughing so hard I was crying. That man is absolutely hilarious...by far one of my favorite comedians now. From that very second I jumped on the Jim Gaffigan bandwagon and have yet to get off.

So... while meandering around Barnes & Nobles the other day (always just meandering, never actually buying anything) I saw that Jim had come out with a new CD called "King Baby" that I never heard of. I scanned it under the little listener machine...you know, the thing with the headphones where you can listen to a snippet of each track...and I was laughing out loud in the store. People around must have definitely thought I was insane, but whatev, it was hilarious.

Tonight after work I'm driving home to my parents house for the weekend to give my momma some mothers day lovin' and I decided to download the CD so I would have something to listen to on my boring ride there.

I overheard a couple minutes of it while I was downloading it, but didn't want to completely ruin it for my trip. I can already tell it is going to be insanely funny. I can't wait.

If you've never heard of Jim Gaffigan seriously, go buy his CD or just YouTube him, you will love it. It is completely clean, no foul language, nothing obscene...just 100% funny. Just the way I like it!


Quote of the day: "You think when gym teachers were younger, they’re thinking, 'You know, I want to teach... but I don’t want to read. How about kickball for 40 years? ~ Jim Gaffigan

Check That One Off My Bucket List

Last night was my Boyz II Men concert and let me tell you...they were AMAZING! I don't really even know how its possible, but I definitely love them even more now than I did before.

The concert was at this awesome venue called Birchmere Music Hall in Alexandria, VA. It was my first time there and I was totally impressed. Its a small, intimate place that holds maybe 300 people at most. You sit at tables and they serve you appetizers, dinner, drinks...anything you need to keep you happy while you wait.

Seating is first come first serve so the plan was to leave my place at 4pm, get there around 5pm when the doors opened, get good seats, and then just sit and have dinner til the show started at 7:30pm.

Well...lets just say it didn't quite work out that way.

DC traffic SUCKS!...enough said.

The 13 mile drive to VA took us over 2 hours and we got there almost right as the show was starting. As you can imagine I was beyond pissed. Luckily the second Shawn, Wanya, and Nathan came out on stage, the previous two hours from hell were erased from my mind and I had nothing but feelings of euphoric ecstasy. (Yeah, they are really that good, no lie)

They sang all my favorite songs and then some, handed out roses, serenaded a birthday girl, told jokes, had choreographed dances, and even called some dudes mom on his cell and sang a "Song For Mama" on the phone to her.


Omg you have no idea...I was so in love <3>

I waited the past 18 years to see them (they really started singing together way back in 1991, isn't that crazy)...but it was definitely well worth the wait!


Quote of the Day: "Back in school, we used to dream about this everyday. Could it really happen, or do dreams just fade away. Now everybody is singin' now, it's in this town, woo ooh. So we started a group and here we are...Kickin' it just for you" ~ Boyz II Men ~ Motown Philly

I Have an Idea...Mind Your Own Business

So, you wanna know what really annoys the heck out of me?
(Well, even if you don't, I'm telling you anyways.)


I really hate it when people ask the question "So, are you dating anyone yet?"

OMG seriously??? If I have to hear that question one more time I think I might shoot myself in the head...repeatedly (if that were possible).

First of all lets just get this straight:

1) Mind your own business
2) As if being single doesn't suck enough, the last thing I need is to be nagged about it
and 3) If I was, and wanted you to know about it then I would have told you...thank-you-very-much

*Cue deep breath*

Okay anyways, that was a great vent session. Just what I needed. Thanks for listening.

Happy Monday Everyone! Hope your week is off to a great start...clearly mine is ;)



Quote of the day: "If life gives you a bowl of lemons, go find an annoying guy with paper cuts.”

Craptastic!

This past week was absolutely gorgeous. I whipped out my shorts, tanks and flip flops and was really getting used to all the sun and summer-esque heat. Now, lately, for some stupid reason, good ol' Mother Nature decided we need some rain...and lots of it. Just checked the forecast and looks like there is no end in sight either. Awesome. Can pretty much chalk this weekend up as craptastic!

Tonight I'm going to the Nationals baseball game with some of my girlfriends...if the rain allows. The Nats suck hardcore and I honestly couldn't name a single player on their team if my life depended on it, but that's all really just trivial. Nobody cares about the actual game anyways... as long as I can see the players asses in those tight baseball pants, everything else is irrelevant.


Should be a fun time!


Quote of the day: "Baseball is a game where a curve is an optical illusion, a screwball can be a pitch or a person, stealing is legal and you can spit anywhere you like except in the umpire's eye or on the ball." ~Jim Murray

Ouch. Someone. Help. Please.

So last night I was sitting at my desk in my room removing links from a new Kenneth Cole watch that I just got. Yeah, you know I'm too cheap and my time is too valuable to actually take it to a jeweler and have them do it for me like you are suppose to. Heaven forbid I just hand over $5 and wait 5 minutes for a professional to do it...nope that would be too easy.

Instead I opted to do it myself. And actually to my surprise it went rather well. Shocking, I know.

With my sophisticated watch repair tools, also known as a thumb tack and scissors, I was able to push the link pin through with the tack, grab it with the scissors and pull it out the other side.

Removed a few links. Made sure the new size fit perfectly. Yada Yada Yada. Really smooth process.

Until that is...I'm trying to push the final pin back in, just that little extra bit to make sure it is completely secure. Pushing with all my force of course, the thumb tack slips and proceeds to enter entirely into my thumb. Oh My Gosh!

Can you say OUCH!!!! Quite possibly the most pain I've ever been in.

I pulled the "thumb" tack out quickly. Held my hand out as far to the left as I could and turned my head and eyes as far to the right as I could, thinking of course that avoidance would somehow make everything that just happened, including the pain, all just go away. Yeah, didn't so much work :(

So when I finally mustered up enough courage to actually look at my thumb I was totally shocked...absolutely nothing. No blood. Barely a visible mark of where the pin went in. Hmmm. So I grabbed my thumb with my other hand to get a closer look, and just like that I struck oil... blood was squirting EVERYWHERE. I've never seen anything like it. For a half hour I ran my hand under cold water while blood just gushed out. Didn't even think I had that much blood in my entire body. Pretty sure I was on the brink of fainting.

Those are the times when you are actually grateful, for a change, that you have roommates so they can take care of you when emergencies happen. But of course, with my luck, neither of them were around when I really needed them. Figures.

Quote of the day: "God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.”

P.S. Today is the ex's birthday. Ugh! :/

Twitterific

I vowed I wasn't going to do it, but I finally did... I joined Twitter.

Not really sure why, but I saw Oprah do it on her show the other day and kind of felt bad that an old timer like that was one upping me in the technology realm. And I definitely can't be having that.

Soo...despite my better judgement I took the twitter plunge.

Still totally convinced that no one actually cares what I'm doing, the fact that I can stalk other people is most appealing.

I'm a huge TMZ, trash magazine, brain rotting celebrity gossip fan so this is just another way for me to keep up on the lives of my favorite celebrities and athletes and continue to pretend like I actually know them personally. "Yo did you hear what Britney did the other day"...like OMG. Yeah its pathetic.

Anyways, follow me if you'd like...can't promise its gonna be anything exciting. Actually I already know its not. But follow me nonetheless...


Quote of the day: "Technology... the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it." ~Max Frisch

Hello SUN-day!

Dear Sun,

Welcome back! I am so so glad you are here. I was beginning to think cold had a permanent strong hold on you, but I guess I should have known better than to doubt whether you were coming back. These past few days I have spent reconnecting with you have been oh so glorious. My pale skin has been slightly smooched by your lips and I am loving it. I can't wait for all the fun times you and I are going to have this summer. I think its fair to say I love you sun!

With all my heart,
Robyn

____________________________________________________________________

Happy SUNday everyone! Really hope you all are enjoying the weather this weekend as much as I am. The thought of sitting inside on my computer when the sun is shining outside just about eats me alive so I'm going to speed things up and resort to a little bullet point action today.

Friday night I went to the Waterfront with some of my girlfriends. I have never been there before and quickly realized I have totally been missing out. Georgetown, water, boats, outdoor bars and restaurants, young people everywhere...love it. Definitely going back.

Saturday my bestie, her daughter and I went to College Park to stroll around Maryland Day. Its basically like a big carnival on campus where they set up fun stuff to do, see, and eat and anyone and everyone comes through to check it out. Such a perfect day for it too. For lunch we sat on our picnic blanket under a tree, relaxed and people watched. Doesn't get much better than that.

For the rest of the afternoon we went shopping. Spent too much money, but got some great new stuff for summer that made me smile (and that's all that matters). Couple pair of sunglasses, some adorable pink loafers, a Zack Morris posse t-shirt, and a fabulous sheer paisley print tank. Enough said!

Yesterday was the NFL draft and my boy Darius Heyward-Bey was taken by the Raiders as the 7th overall pick. I'm so excited for him...Terps represent!!

And today I'm just planning on going to church, then maybe cruising around downtown with some of my work friends, maybe catch a movie later. There is one called Obsession with Beyonce in it that I'm trying to see. Should be fun!

Quote of the day: "Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the SUN will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move toward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.” ~ Og Mandino

I'm Over it

So...I finally got my new camera in the mail the other day and I'm officially in love. Actually probably more like infatuated and obsessed, but either way you get the idea. I haven't really taken any pictures yet that I feel are worthy of sharing (sorry), at this point I'm still just trying to wrap my mind around the foreign language of aperture, ISO, shutter speed, f-stops and the likes. Exciting I know...Let me tell you, I lead such a crazy life.

Anyways, today I have a dentist appointment. Yippee...I can't wait! (Sense the sarcasm?) Every time I go they tell me the exact same things. You need to floss more and you need to come back in a week and get a crown put on your back molar.

And every time my response is the same...yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah. Don't call me, I'll call you.

Flossing? Really not that fun. I kinda enjoy the whole brushing process, but flossing...not so much. For the first few days after my appointment I'm always real inspired though, and extremely hard core about giving flossing my very best effort. I keep a roll near my toothbrush so I remember every morning, noon and night, bring some to work for when I'm bored, and buy all the latest and greatest flossing gadgets.

... then a few more days go by and I'm like "eh, I'm over it!".

Story of my life.


Quote of the day: “Happiness is your dentist telling you it won’t hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill.” ~ Johnny Carson

So Much For Proving Me Wrong

So about 4 months ago, while randomly surfing the net, probably googling some phrase like "how to get over an ex" (yes, I really actually research stuff like that...you can just call me ridiculous), I stumbled upon Ashley D's blog.

Her boyfriend of 6 years had recently broken up with her, and since I was also going through a long term relationship break up I immediately found an incredible amount of comfort in her words. The more I read, the more I wanted to read. In one, multi-hour long sitting I'm pretty sure I read every single one of her posts, in its entirety, some multiple times. For the first time I felt like I wasn't alone in this horrific world known as heartache...and you have no idea how great that felt.

Then along came my girl Classy In Philadelphia. Not too sure how exactly we found each other but we did, and she too was going through a long term relationship split. She had been with her man about the same amount of time as me and mine, and had even broken up around the same time as we did too. Crazy.

Anyways, the point of my story is that now here we are, about 6 months post breakup for all of us (the average amount of time it takes for a guy to realize how stupid he was), and both of their exes have come back around.

Yep, they both finally got that call that all us broken hearted ex girlfriends hope to get one day. The one where they say they made a mistake and really miss us and have never stopped thinking about us the whole time...you know, the one where we can sit at the other end of the phone and laugh to ourselves, thinking "ha ha" I coulda told you so.

Well, for me, not only has my ex not made any contact...he is actually more non-existent than ever.

For over 4 months I haven't heard from him or contacted him (yay me!). The last time we talked on the phone was December 18th (yeah I could probably tell you the exact time of the call too if you wanted to know...typical psycho girl) and at the end of the phone call he said "Ok well I'll call you later", I said "No you won't" and he responded with a line I'll never forget..."Well, I'm gonna prove you wrong".

Hmmm...so much proving me wrong, huh dude??


Anyways, with his birthday being next week the ex became the topic of conversation at work the other day, and at the urging of one of my coworkers I did something really stupid ...I *67ed him.

Yeah I know...bad idea!! I definitely should've known better. My coworker is 40 and single, so I'm not sure what I was thinking taking advice from her, but I did. Oh well!

The verdict is...the call (or actually the 2 or 3 calls I made just to double check I had the number correct and was hearing the voicemail message right) revealed that unless he has gotten a sex change and now goes by the name Linda*, then he has changed his cell phone number.

Yeah, it might not seem like a big deal to you guys, but I'm gonna be honest and tell you that it had me in tears the entire day.

He changed his cell phone number and didn't tell me...Someone he used to call 10 times a day...Someone who he used to tell everything to. He changed his cell phone number and didn't tell me.

Even if I wanted to contact him now I couldn't.

I'm not really exactly sure why this upset me so much but it really, really did.

I guess I always felt that if, God forbid, something horrible happened and I NEEDED to call him and cry in his ear and be comforted by someone who was my best friend for 4 years and knows me inside and out...then I could.

So I guess it just hit me like a ton of bricks to realize...now I can't, AND he obviously doesn't want me to! :(


Quote of the day: "Moving on is simple, it's what you leave behind that makes it so difficult."

Without A Doubt, I'm My Fathers Daughter

Isn't it so funny that when we are young we look at some of the things our parents do and laugh at them hysterically and mock them relentlessly for it. Then when we grow up...yep, we find ourselves doing the exact same things.

Well, today that realization hit me like a ton of bricks, and actually had me chuckling out loud a little bit about it.

It's official, you can just call me my dad.

For years I used make fun of him for ridiculously over-researching his purchases before he made them. A new car or a new pizza cutter, no matter what it was, my father could never fathom the thought of an impulse purchase. He would first look it up in Consumer Reports, compare it with other similarly classed products, ask the opinions of all his friends, scour the Internet for reviews, and then finally...months later (sometimes even years later), based on all of his findings, he would be tickled pink to have purchased what he knew was the very best of whatever it was.

A little ridiculous huh? Yeah I definitely thought so too. "Way to go dad, you got the Mercedes of pizza cutters. Brag on man!"

But I'll be damned if I didn't just do the exact same thing.

Ever since I met V, a professional photographer who goes to my church, I've been absolutely obsessed with photography. Being that I'm a graphic designer by day, I already naturally lean on the side of artsy so its really not too shocking that the art of photography intrigues me.

Anyways, from the very first moment I looked at his online portfolio I convinced myself "I NEED an SLR Camera" (those big, professional looking ones you manually adjust..for all you non geeks). So for the past few months, in dad-like fashion, I've been researching til I've been blue in the face (yeah, thats a lie...but I really did do a lot of research though, just not the blue face-turning kind).

Either way, the point is...I finally did it! I took the plunge and ordered one. In a few days, with my wallet a few pounds lighter, I will have my very own SLR Camera. The Canon XSi is the one I finally decided on. Yippeee! I can't wait. Now I just have to learn how to use the darn thing.

Quote of the day: "He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it." ~Clarence Budington Kelland

Work It Out

I hope everyone had a great Resurrection Sunday!

Sorry I've been MIA for a little while, but I went home to visit the fam on Thursday and spent the whole holiday weekend there. Didn't really feel in the mood to write while I was at my parents...so I didn't. But now I'm back, and making my very best attempt to get back in the swing of things.

Soooo...

Anyone watch "The Biggest Loser"? Yeah well I don't either, but apparently there is a trainer on there named Jillian Michaels, and let me tell you, that lady is boss.

This weekend my sister brought over her workout DVD "3o Day Shred" and that joint is ridiculous. I work out at the gym hours a day, everyday and yet those 20 minutes with her somehow always have me begging for mercy. Literally, I'm pretty sure my sister can attest to the fact that I was trying to plead with TV Jillian to "please stop...enough already".

But anyways, there are three different workouts on the DVD...level 1, 2 and 3...each getting progressively harder. We made it to level 2 this weekend and that was seriously a heavy dose of self inflicted suicide, so I'm deathly scared to even think what level 3 would be like. If I survive it one day, I will definitely let you know.

I've also heard from a few people that P90X is another intense workout I should try. Opinions anyone? I've seen the infomercials a few times and was definitely intrigued. Then again, the ShamWow intrigues me, so I guess that really isn't saying too much.

Quote of the day: "I don't excercise. If God had wanted me to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor.” ~ Joan Rivers

Brimming With Fun

After a long cherry blossom filled day in DC on Saturday we finally packed things up and headed home around 6pm. Tired, exhausted and wanting nothing more than to shower and lay around semi-comatose for the rest of the night, I was totally overwhelmed at the thought of a 7:30pm birthday party I had promised to attend. Ugh!

Being a person of my word though, I sucked it up, quickly threw on some party-going apparel, touched up my makeup, and did the best I could to make my wind-blown hair look presentable...and out the door I went...all the way down to Springfield, Virginia.

Despite the angry inner dialogue taking place in my head on the way there, once I arrived I was nothing but happy about my decision to come. My bestie and I arrived a little bit (or actually a lot bit) late, but hey, what can we say...at least we arrived.

The party was a hat party, at the request of the birthday boy, so I dug out one of the very few that I have, and of course, rocked it out.

The man of the night is a professional photographer...a pretty amazing one too I must say...so he had a great idea to turn one of the rooms in his house into a photo booth room during the party. Wow...I had no idea how much fun that could be. We all had such a blast with it. Here are a few of our pics.

After all was said and done Kara and I arrived back at my place around 3 am, and boy were we tired. It's been quite a while since my last sleepover, and despite our complete exhaustion, in little school girl fashion, we stayed up for a few more hours, laying in my bed, giggling and gossiping about the crazy events of the day. Oh how I love best friends!


Quote of the day: "When you wear a hat, it is like medicine for the soul. The hat is the expression of who you are as a women! The hat is your dreams of who you can be. It facilitates the different parts of who you are: mysterious...proper...sexy...playful. "

Get Your Bloomin' Arse Out of My Way!!

Saturday morning was the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in D.C., and for God knows what reason I thought that would be a great time to head down to the mall and check out the beautiful scenery.

Unfortunately, 2 million other people (literally) had the same idea. Ughh...Have I ever mentioned how much I hate tourists?

I pretty much live a stones throw away from the district and thus could've went to check out the cherry blossoms at ANY other time over the past couple weeks, but of course, my bestie and I so conveniently chose to go the same day as every other human being on the planet.

Awesome.

The Metro was a total cluster f***, I couldn't walk without running into someone, someone's child, someone's pet, or someone's stroller, we had to eat lunch on the window sill in the corner of the cafe in the Smithsonian because there were absolutely no seats to be had, and thanks to the hurricane-like winds I could barely even open my eyes long enough to see anything.

...but other than that...those darn cherry blossoms were pretty beautiful, I must admit.

Can you tell how much we loved the wind? That pic pretty much sums it up.

Quote of the day: "Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are." ~ Arthur Golden