DEAR DIARY MOMENTS

May 14, 2009
Bought plane tickets to go to Utah in July. Is there a word stronger than ecstatic? Currently compiling a list of stuff to do, see, and eat. Are we there yet? (UPDATE: Um… I'm behind the times. Just found out Jen is dating Colin. SEE, I’m missing everything!)

May 15, 2009
Brad finished his first year of Dental School. Deep sigh of relief! A summer off is unusual in the dental school world and it was one of the deciding factors in choosing SIUe. But actually “Off” is a misnomer because he’s doing research with one of his professors and getting paid an actual wage. Excellent. Now we can fund our movie going experiences.

May 16, 2009
Saw Star Trek today, Brad was embarrassed that I made him take a “Live long and prosper” picture in the parking lot afterwards. I liked the movie. He enjoyed it but had issues. On the drive home I had to pleasure of hearing all about the "historical" problems that JJ Abrams has brought to the Star Trek franchise. Ooo boy.

May 17, 2009
Made one of the ten year old girls in my class kill the cockroach that threatened my life. I’m only slightly ashamed.

May 19, 2009
Just finished reading The Bell Jar. Blah. Although well written, wildly depressing.

Watched the premier episode of Glee. Even though a bit obvious, I loved it. My only concern is: once they win Regionals where is the plot going? I guess I don’t care as long as they deliver Don’t Stop Believing caliber performances weekly.

May 20, 2009
Wow. Can’t believe Adam Lambert lost. However, Brad and I watched the performances from the season at americanidol.com and I forgot how consistently awesome Kris was. She Works Hard For the Money? Falling Slowly? Heartless? Ain’t No Sunshine? I must admit - he deserved to win. I appreciated Adam’s talent, but he only sung about two songs that I liked. Shoot me.

May 21, 2009
I’m missing the You Can Dance premier to have dinner and game night at Dave and Jana’s. But no worries! Youtube is there for me. Now I can have RBFs, play Settlers with friends and then catch up on You Can Dance this weekend. Best of Both Worlds people. Take that Miley Cyrus.

May 22, 2009
Leaving for Naperville today. Thank you Todd and Janice for getting married over a holiday weekend, now our trip won’t be quite as rushed. AKA, we have one more day to eat Portillos. MMmmmm. I’m still continuing my letter campaign for them to offer fry sauce. No luck so far.

May 23, 2009
Beautiful wedding. Brad and I actually danced for two songs. I thought the day would never come. No photographic evidence … but we had many witnesses! Should I be concerned that it was the first time we’ve danced in public? Naw.

May 24, 2009
Had dinner with the family. Brad’s nephew was completely against eating the ribs until we were all finished, at which point he proceeded to go to town on the BONES and threatened to smear the juice on his sister (which was not well received, evidence below). That kid is going places.


Walked the River Walk in downtown Naperville. How do they keep that place so clean and hoodlum free? It’s gorgeous. I probably would have gotten some sort of ticket for taking a nap in the lilac bushes, but trust me, I was tempted.

May 25, 2009
Brad and his Dad replaced the Civic’s brakes. We are determined to drive that car until it dies, which may be sooner than we had anticipated.

May 27, 2009
So Can Dance. Is it bad that I schedule my night around it? Did I just hear them say there is going to be Fall season? There are a few I'm a little in love with, although still too soon to tell. But Vegas is next week!

Our favorite quote of the season so far? Nigel telling Mary, “Get a hold of your self woman! It’s just dance!” Brad and I say it to each other in ridiculous British accents.

May 28, 2009
Had the missionaries over for dinner (rescheduled from Tuesday when I forgot our appointment, oops). I tell you, it must be true love realizing I never get tired of hearing Brad tell missionary stories.

OH, FIRST IMPRESSIONS

At my company’s quarterly breakfast all the new employees were giving their traditional introductory poems (everyone has to do it and yes it’s awkward) and our brand new president went first. He was charming and blah blah blah and of course everyone nervously over-laughed. Then the next poet, a lowly standard employee, stood up said,

“The title of my poem is: For An Occasion.”

There was a collective “What did he just say?” because everyone had clearly heard,

“The title of my poem is: Fornication.”

The employee quickly tried to cover his tracks but couldn’t recover. I think everyone cried from laughing so long AND the employee didn’t even end up saying his poem. The icing on the cake? Once everyone finally settled down our new boss got up and said, “Who let that guy in?” Now he's known as the Fornication Guy, not a great resume builder.

CURRENTLY LISTENING

Brad and I have been known to cut a rug. Okay, FINE. No we haven't. Although sometimes we do have dance parties in our kitchen. Okay, not really. By "sometimes" I mean hardly ever and by "we" I mean mostly me. BUT if there ever was a song written precisely for kitchen dance parties this is it.



I snuck this song on to our Common Ground playlist about six months ago. Trust me - it will be stuck in your head for days. You're welcome.

PROM, APRIL 1966

Oh, to be in high school in the 60’s. My mom tells stories of wearing fake eyelashes everyday (to school!), literally ironing her hair, and sleeping positioned to preserve her expertly coifed beehive. Wasn’t it a magical time? Look at her prom photo. The gloves, the bangs (which are oddly similar to my own), the corsage? And I bet my aunt made her the dress. Plus check out her date!

I originally stole this picture when Kristin and I wanted to try out beehives (pre-Amy Winehouse), which never happened but I kept the photo ever since. Then a few months ago my Mom came to visit and asked, “Why do you have a picture of me and Gene Kelly on your fridge?” ...WAIT. Gene Kelly? As in Singing In the Rain? Your prom date shares his name with Don Lockwood? Awesome. This Gene Kelly played Will Parker to my mom’s Ado Annie in their high school production of Oklahoma! – and trust me when I say that words cannot express how much money I’d be willing to pay to see that. Dang slow developing technology!

On a side note. I didn’t post anything for her this past Sunday but I must say that I lucked out with a pretty excellent mom. I am currently realizing her exceptional awesomeness more and more every day - for her beauty, her smarts and her ability to create the perfect beehive.

[WARNING: BORING POST] THE TOUR

Kristin requested a tour of our apartment about six months ago, so I feel a bit foolish in taking so long to do this since recently she posted pictures of a house she doesn't even live in yet. Apologies - I'm a slacker. I'm pretty sure she was just being nice in the first place, but what the heck, here we go.

[Note to potential criminals/thugs/evil people that try to use these pictures to case our home, please kindly do not. 99% of our belongings were either free or came from Ikea/Goodwill. Also, we have a rabid dog, an excellent security system, Brad can bench press 800 pounds, and I've seen A LOT of Alias. Thanks.]

KITCHEN: Since this is the only place in the house that we get internet our kitchen table is probably the most well used area. The back door opens into this space and BONUS you can see our ONE FOOT of counter space. It makes cooking extra exciting.

DINING ROOM: From the kitchen you walk into the dining room. Mostly this room is used for Brad's crap. Since he doesn't use his den and the kitchen is either freezing in the winter or 1000 degrees in the summer this is where he spreads out his stuff. Usually you can find binders, papers, change, random clothes, empty glasses, and Brad taking a classroom style nap. BONUS#2, notice The Captain hung in the corner? That was gifted from Brad's parents. He grew up with The Captain and we are delighted that he watches over our dining room. Although, I usually feel like we should be eating shrimp and crab cakes with him there.

BEDROOM: Walking from the dining room you come to the middle of the house. Here you can see four doors within 2 feet (2 closets, bathroom, bedroom). Walking in to our bedroom you will find many a jimmy-rigged item. The piece of furniture holding our TV is Brad's mother's folding table (which we will return someday!) covered with a table cloth. In the right corner you can see a light green curtain. That is actually a little nook that was once a door onto the back porch. Someone once closed it off from the outside so it's just a random useless door. We mounted up a high shelf and hung a curtain rod to create another "closet" to hide a dresser and some plastic drawers. I hung sheer white curtains but the light is so bright you can't really see them.


[Normally we have a brown duvet cover, but it was in the wash]


BATHROOM: Also off of the center of the house is the bathroom. It's long and narrow and I have discovered through chipped paint that it was once pink. That is one tiny space for such a special color. These pictures actually make it look smaller than it is. There isn't a lot of wiggle room, but you don't feel claustrophobic. Also, a bathroom with no counter? That was definitely a man's idea.

DEN: This is Brad's den that is never used. Honestly the desk is too small for him to do much and we don't get internet access. So pretty much this room should be called the file/printer room. I will have no problem kicking him out to make this into a nursery at some point.


HALLWAY: I actually like our long entry way. BONUS#3, you can see the fake chandelier. The lighting in this house is top notch. The living room has no lighting, our bedroom just has four light bulbs screwed in, the kitchen and dining room both have florescent, and at the other end of this hallway is a gothic-esque hanging fixture (not pictured).


LIVING ROOM: This is by far the biggest room in the house (and it has no lighting, that's why there are 3 lamps) but I think we've managed to spread out our stuff enough to fill it up. This room also shows how high our ceilings are; we lucked out with 14 footers. We don't hear a peep from our upstairs neighbors. Our couch was a $30 purchase from Goodwill. Don't worry, I cleaned the crap out of that sucker, scotch guarded it, and then bought a slip cover so we weren't stuck with bright blue (Ash and K, remember the couch from #27? Yeah, that color blue.)


BOOK SHELVES: These pictures make it look like we live in a fun house, but I promise it's just a weird illusion because of the camera angle. These are the shelves that I Ikea Hacked. They came in that light pale beach wood color, which did not match. So I primed, painted and then lined the backs with retro poster paper. It's probably the most crafty I've ever been. Also, in these pictures you can see a corner of the blue couch from when I was washing the slip cover.


And that is a tour of our house. Come visit, we have an excellent air match and a nice big living room to set it up in. I know that my mom is probably the only one still reading but thanks! It almost felt like I was doing a sneak peak for Design Sponge.

SO CAN DANCE

Remember this?



And this?



And this? (skip to .48 sec)



And this? (skip to 1:29)



And this?


Ant this?



Remember Neil and Katie and Josh and Sabra and Dominic and Twitch and Travis and Heidi and Lacey and Benji and even awful Kameron? SYTYCD is the best, I miss them.
I even miss Mary Murphy a little. I said A LITTLE.

May 21st could not come sooner. It has been way too long.