How quickly...

Oh, Maryland. How I miss and love you! I had the fortune of driving up to MD a week and a half ago to visit my little sister, who was home on leave. Foo Foo looks great, and it made me ridiculously happy to be in the same house with BOTH of my sisters at the same time. We went to a cool brewery that opened in Delmar, had dinner at my Dad's an just had some lovely sister time. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, and as such have NO PICTURES. But we were all together. with our dogs. I promise!
Other than visiting my loved ones, I've just been doing the usual : Work, School, Homework, Study. I'm finding the studying thing to be the best -- especially for my math class. Obviously, most of the people in my classes are 18, and coming right from high school... so they don't need as much of a refresher as I do. My class is fast paced, which I like, but it leaves me teaching myself some things, simply because I'm the only one who hasn't been acquainted with the material recently. One of the women I work with asked if I felt like I was at a disadvantage... I'm not sure that I would call it that precisely, but I definitely will be working harder for my grades, at least this semester while I adjust and reacquaint.
The most exciting part of my week? RIVER IS LOSING HER TEETH! It's so weird! I guess with Simon, he ate them, so I never saw them. They are super tiny and cute. If teeth can be cute. I looked it up to make sure it was ok, and she seems to be right on schedule for having all of her adult teeth in a month or so. I'd been a bit concerned that she wasn't eating well, and I suppose it's because her teeth have been bothering her! This morning Hub made her an egg, and she was very happy to eat that, and even managed to eat some of her dry food. They grow so quickly!

Rat's Nest

So, many apologies for my slacking updates -- between the holiday weekend, driving to Maryland, and fighting the swine flu, I've been a bit busy.

Ok, ok, so I don't really have the swine flu. But, I do have some godawful junk that has decided to rest itself in my sinus passages/chest. I am going to break down and actually call the doctor... after a week of not being able to breathe, I think it is time.

During this week of ailment I returned to Maryland (yet again) for Big Sister's graduation. It was wonderful! I can not begin to express how proud I am of her. She has had her of obstacles, but worked hard and she did it! I can only hope I will have the same motivation.

Sadly, I have not much else to report from my trip, because I ended up sleeping the whole time. I left early saturday afternoon, and by some miracle managed not to hit any traffic between on my way home... despite driving through VA Beach and the "big race" in Charlotte (I don't really know anything about this...)

I have been equally lazy upon my return, although I did go to work yesterday (and will today). So, last night all I wanted to do was sit on the couch, which I did, while watching Ratatouille. Now, I've already expressed my love of children's books and their relvance in adult life... this also carries over to movies. I especially like Ratatouille because of it unabashed support of following your passions. This isn't really a movie about doing the right thing, this is a movie about doing what makes you happy. While the scenario of a rat cooking is highly improbable, the message is clear and remains the same: Sometimes loving something is reason enough to do it, and following this passion can change your life, as well as those around you. Now, food is not generally considered a life changing subject -- there is no real adveristy to overcome with food, it does not have a troubled past and it has never really sparked heated political controversy (except for maybe this), but food is a part of our every day lives. And maybe, just maybe, if we allow ourselves to indulge and enjoy the food which makes us happy and reminds us of the warmest, dearest times in our childhood, we would all be a little bit happier. Forget detoxing, diets, fads and all that craziness. Good food can change your life, if only for a moment.

Wedding

Ugh, so the wedding this weekend was horribly, miserably boring and I had no fun at all.

Oh, haha, just kidding. That was for Momma Bear and My Lawyer... who I was unable to update on the interesting pieces of my life, because apparently I write too much here. They decided they could decipher my true feelings about this weekend from reading my blog. Which they shall, in fact, be able to do...

First of all, let me say that the wedding was beautiful. Everything about it was lovely, and in my humble opinion, perfect for the Bride and Groom. It was a formal, evening wedding and the Cream, Black and Red theme was classic and gorgeous. And the Bride. Oh. My. God. We were all quite jealous of the Groom -- because she was stunning! And it wasn't the hair, the make up or dress that made her that way (though they were all amazing) it was the radiating smile she couldn't wipe off her face. I am so, so, so happy that she has found her one! :)

Leading up the wedding was equally fun and amazing. The really great thing about the bridesmaids was that we have all known each other since middle school/high school and have all been friends for this period of time. It was relaxing, silly and nostalgic and I think I can safely that we all really enjoyed spending the time together. Seeing all the girls dressed up was a lot of fun, and watching the Bride's kids be coerced into their formal wear was adorable.

The reception was wonderful -- good food, good friends and lots of wedding traditions (the garter toss, first dance, etc). Saw a few people I hadn't seen in a long time and watched the groomsmen get sloshed!

We stayed my Big Sister's house, and were persuaded to go out and get food with them -- however Hub and I were zombies the whole time and after scarfing down pizza at Flavors of Italy proceeded back to Big Sister's and passed out.

Had breakfast with friend in Princess Anne and then continued on the long drive home. Part of me can't believe we made it without crashing the car, because both of us were exhausted, but we did and I was rewarded with fabulous snuggle time from my little pug :)

Insanity.

I have completed the weekend of insanity:
5 cities. 48 hours. 1170 miles.
and I'm actually still alive.

Looking back, I used to do crazy things like this all the time. The many times I went to visit RAR in NC when I lived in MD, the random late night drives to college park and fairfax to visit others. In fact, driving from the Eastern Shore to Baltimore really made me reminisce about all the time I've spent in the DC/Baltimore/Annapolis area.

Considering I've never actually lived in that part of Maryland, I've spent a considerable amount of time there. Driving across the Bay Bridge brings back what feels like millions of memories -- spending the day with my Dad at the naval academy, going into DC with my parents and visiting musuems, visiting my first boyfriend in Annapolis, Thursday all-night bar hops at Power Plant, College Park football games, All night craziness with the boys at college park, DC trips, Dunking my head in the fountain in Dupont Circle, Trips to Apex, Paying people's bridge tolls for them, sitting in hot, sticky summer traffic, Blox's car dying while we were double parked in the middle of Baltimore, blasting my radio and going 80... all these memories rush into one place and make me feel alive. Make me feel like there are parts of my life that were simply fantastic. It is easy for me, especially in most of my literary pursuits, to forget these wonderful times. I focus a lot on the details of the negative, life changing experiences that it is nice to be reminded of the wonderfully enriching details in my life.

This weekend will be added to the arsenal of wonderful moments in my life. The dress fitting went well, and the almost Bride is glowing with excitement for her nuptials next weekend. I actually really like the bridesmaid dress, it makes me feel pretty. I got to see my most adorable goose, and had breakfast with Lao Tung. The trek across the bridge resulted in Craziness with Twenty and Salty, Dinner in Columbia, then me getting a bit tipsy at Bourbon Street. Saw old friend, made new ones, and witnessed craziness at the end of the night.

All in all, great weekend.

In the Membrane.

I am slowly losing my mind. Seriously. And part of this mind-loss is resulting in the incredibly ridiculous decision to drive to Maryland for the weekend. Yes. Just the weekend. Now, this is a 1000 mile trip all on its own, but then throw in the fact that not only am I driving to Maryland to have my final fitting for KC's wedding on the eastern shore, I am then driving up to Columbia/Baltimore/Owings Mills to hang out with my friends. Adding approximately another 200 miles onto my trip -- in the wrong direction.

What could be even more insane is that I'm excited. Very excited. I'm going to see a good number of people, some whom I haven't seen in quite a while. While I had originally just planned to stay on the good ol' redneck Eastern Shore, I found that one of my friends from college would be in Baltimore -- Where as she usually is in NY (Upstate) I thought I would take this chance at us being in the same state to go get drunk and dance with her and many other wonderful people.

So, I will be tweeting my progress should anyone want to follow along. And yes, tweeting is now a verb, just like texting and blogging.