georgia wedding

do you know how long it takes to get from philly to athens, georgia? i'll tell you. too long for a weekend trip. and yet, that's exactly what we did last weekend for my cousin's brendan's wedding. mikeyaz went along for the adventure and was introduced to my entire extended family. which is pretty extended (my mom is one of 8; there are 23 cousins total on that side.) i absolutely didn't prepare him for it and throughout the course of the weekend, he was put in several headlocks by my uncle dennis, forced to drink in excess by various cousins, was nicknamed mike o'malley which was later shortened to mom, and was mooned by my aunt. and he handled it all like a champ.

the wedding itself was beautiful- very woodsy and rustic. none of the bridal party wore shoes and we all ate tacos for dinner. it was nice and low-key and i got to spend time with my family dancing and drinking and swapping stories. absolutely wonderful weekend. until the end. when our van broke down and we had get towed five hours back to harrisburg in the backseat of a deaf man named jack's truck. but we won't focus on that part.

randoms from the homestead and real life

recently, trips home have come to been several guaranteed activies. i will inevitably eat at neato burritto, hit up the salvation army circuit for therapeutic treasure hunting, and drink wine while story swapping with my parents. convenitely, this routine also happens to be a combination of all my favorite past times. as an added bonus, i also got to reunite with the lovely jen and audrey (the cute little thing in the top picture, who is actually not so little anymore and is freaking me out. looking at her is like seeing time in a tangible way. scary. but also adorable.)

and to keep the good-time train rolling? came back to philly and boyfriend mikeyaz rolled into to town. and stayed for a week. it was wonderful. and busy- it happened to coincide with my first week of classes. but we did manage to sneak in a trip to honey's sit'n'eat and gorge ourselves on some delicious homestyle cookin'. shrimp po'boy sandwich for my man, and a raisin and pecan chicken salad sammie for muh self. oh! and friend pickles with homemade ranch to start us off. bliss bliss bliss.

in general, life is pretty bliss. really chaotic and consistently over-scheduled, but generally blissful and full of wonderful people and experiences. i hope yours is the same way.

EDIT: i totally forgot to address that picture of my dad in the middle. and you know what? i still think i'm not going to. i'll just leave that there for you to ponder.

roaring good time

ONE THOUSAND FARTS EVERYWHERE!

i just wrote out this whole nice long post about the jazz age lawn party and how you should go and how special it was and blah blah and stupid dum-dum internet messed it all up. how dare you internet. now i'm going to have to rewrite that jawn and it's tone will be tainted by my current disdain for you. hope you're happy dummy.

finally made it to the jazz age lawn party on governors island this year. i feel like errybody in blog world always goes to this event but never leaves me an deets on how i can also enjoy the festivities. but finally! finally! keiko lynn linked to the events page on her blog and i was able to get in on the action.

i wore my long off-white drop waist chiffon gown with pinned up hair and a fringe-y shawl. the outfit we originally had for mikeyaz made him look like a little german boy so we changed it up and he ended up going in an ensemble that was way un-seasonable. but he sucked it up like a good sport and politely dabbed sweat from his forehead the remainder of the day.

we got to ride a ferry over to the magical land of governor's island. it's really just like a big ol' park and with everyone dressed to the nines in 20's garb, it seemed like we were entering into a whole other world. i loved seeing everyone's interpretations of the 20's- there were the diehard people in amazing elaborate beaded numbers with cloches and round sunglasses, ladies in fringe-y party dresses that were clearly h&m with long pearls and fake flowers, and the punky folks in florescent drop-waisted dresses with chucks on. it made for some incredible people watching.

we picnicked among the gorgeous greenery, browsed overpriced vintage wares, listened to incredible music, watched some unreal swing dancing, attempted to dance ourselves, made up some new moves, decided were weren't the worst dancers but we were definitely bottom three, strolled around the island, laid in the grass, and eventually got back on the ferry to go home. it was a wonderful way to enjoy one of the last weekends of summer. i highly recommend it. for details, check out this website. hope to see you there next summer- i'll be the one cutting up the dance floor with an over-zealous charleston.

i'm down with a.c.

got to experience the magic of A.C. a few weekends ago. no, not aaron carter- the magical vegas of the east, Atlantic City. it was a belated (by six months) celebration of my friend kim's 21st, funded by her amazing, 5'1" father. it was my first casino/resort experience and the whole thing felt a lot like an infomercial cruise ship. as if that's a real thing. during my overnight stay I:
- got to catch up with james, ellen, baby eric, and kimbo. they were my good chums in high school and it was so nice to see them again and realize we have those magical friendships that just click back into place whenever we see each other, despite our terrible lack of communication while we're apart.
- ate at an all you can eat buffet
- jumped on our hotel beds, jumped between the hotel beds, did somersaults until i felt ill, created relay games, and improvised a game of baseball with pillows and only three bases. we played so hard, when kim walked back in the room she told us it smelled dank and we all needed to shower. SIGN OF A GOOD GAME.
- went out to a ridiculous club full of ten dollar shots and men with spikey hair. eric wore a long sleeve wool shirt like a dummy. lots of dancing ensued and there was a baller lady-dj so major thumbs up for that.
- ran into my friend sarah at the club. SUPER RANDOM. the universe is a strange place.
- played terrible slot machines.
- realized i hate slot machines. even when they're called 'kitty glitter' or lord of the rings themed. gambling makes me want to depression vomit all over the place.
- had a bang-up weekend celebrating with old friends.

if you like tacky things and overspending, i highly recommend this place.

back in the game

laptop is back! with a fresh new processor and hard drive! lappy had some serious surgery. i was initially not all that bummed about the loss of my hard drive - i have a lot of my stuff backed up, other things like pictures exist online already, and in all honesty, i needed to clean out my computer anyway. i always like to think i'll go back and read old things i've written but i never actually do and they just end up taking up space. a forced cleaning is a good thing.

but now i'm coming to realize all the little things i'm missing. photobooth picture taken with babies and cousins. screenshots of mike yaz from our video chats. scanned family photos. and microsoft word. the latter can be replaced (just need to grab the software) but the rest are kind of bummers. onward and upward though, right?

in the meantime, here's a picture of me and joan rivers from back when i worked at chocolate world. this was probably december 2007. lookin' fly in my jumpsuit. joan looks pretty okay too i guess.

out of commission

so. my comp is currently on vacation. and by that, i mean broken. snowy black and white bars across your screen are never a sign of anything good. thankfully, john at the apple store is taking care of it (and extending my warranty that expired a month ago just this once! john's the best!) and it should be back after the weekened.

bad part of not having a computer: having to blog from work. not being able to fall asleep watching parks and rec. total lack of facebook. unable to check emails after five.

good part of not having a computer: more time to clean, hang with friends, play outside, explore my kitchen, write lists and plans and goals. all because i don't have the little machine i normally work on (or promise to work on - we all know that 75% of 'work' is really just checking on facebook to see who's pregnant in your graduating class) and feel free-er to go out and actually do things. i might make myself some internet boundaries for the fall. like some kind of parent. a personal parent. for myself. weird.

in other news:
- i'm going to be in new york this weekend with my improv team at the del close marathon! come see us new york-ites! 11:30 am on sunday at the UCB stage! or just come for the whole weekend- it's literally a full weekend of nonstop improv that promises to be the absolute best. and performers drink for free. it is literally, my version of heaven.
- i'm going to atlantic city right after! to celebrate an old friend's birthday with the high school posse. i have vowed to only wear sequins. nothing else will do.
- i learned to turn double dutch ropes! and made a macaroni pony! my internship > the vast majority of internships. (i was going to make that a hyperbole, but it seemed unnecessarily boastful.)

GO READ OR COOK OR WATCH BAD MOVIES WITH YOUR FRIENDS!
see you suckers on monday!

fish of a feather

i have a strange habit of accidentally buying items that coordinate while i'm thrifting. this haul includes a beautiful book with a cover reminiscent of rob ryan, a fish printed dress, and a favorite book from childhood, all in blues and oranges. not too shabby.