roadtrip-day 5

okay, I've got to get rolling on this or I'll never post 'em all!

this was wednesday, our most/least busy day. we slept in. we had breakfast where my brother's friends work (the crispy croissant on brookside, it was YUM!). we saw anna before work.

we went to my little brother's band practice. it was so cool, his friend's parents had finished their garage. it was like a living room with cool neutrals and then a red red red couch, and they had left the garage door windows visible and made a little shelf in front of them and anyway, pretty rad. I need to share these pics with him. by the way, his band's name is ish. they are some cool dudes. and I got to see brandon, which was nice--did I tell you this already? he is one of harvey's friends and the last few times I've been home he's always been around, so I was like "something is missing...something is missing..." and realized it was brandon! too funny.

and then we began to clean.

my mom had told me before that I was to go through my belongings and all that was in the garage. in between that and the actual cleaning a friend of hers had needed some space in a pinch and kind of piled everything up--it was a SCARY pile. I told matt he was not allowed to work alone at all (nor was I) because that pile might fall on top of us!

I did not take a before picture.

however, I did take a during picture. and some pictures of my trunk that I put on the curb. I later found out my mom would've kept it. which makes me sad, but then again, I have no need for it.

after the cleaning (and the rushed reassembly of the garage--all of the sudden we only had half an hour left!) we quickly quickly showered and headed to los cabos at riverwalk. there were LOTS of fun people there, thank you all for coming! and a special thank you to jackie and kendra who stayed late, and an even bigger gold star to syd, who stayed out far far past her bedtime (we were out until maybe 1?).

it was fun. and good to see friends. and good to go to sleep at the end of the day. :)

the best part of waking up…

is not folger’s in your cup. or even java dave’s. it’s having matt in his sleepy haze say “you look pretty.” this doesn’t happen every day, but when it does it makes me smile. :)

I had some supercrazy dreams last night. I haven’t had such vivid dreams recently, but last night I did. It was weird too since I actually slept rather poorly overall.

Dream #1. I had a dream that I had trouble sleeping and that I called my friend Nicole, who also has trouble sleeping, and we talked on the phone to pass the time.

Dream #2. This one was long. And kind of intense. So let’s see…

Matt and I lived in a house. We’d just bought it. It was an older townhome and in the block of homes was a hotel and down the street was a shopping center. It was HUGE. But it had this teeny kitchen. There were two doors in the kitchen, and along that wall were two refrigerators—one that was an old olive-yellowish one that was kind of skinny and a white one that was about 16” wide and four feet tall. In this one plastic had been molded to only hold glass coke bottles. They were side by side and made the tiny doorways even smaller--it was very hard to get in and out of the kitchen.

On the front balcony there was another squat fridge that also would only hold glass coke bottles.

The kitchen also had three stoves. Or two stoves and a dishwasher. It was hard to tell. And VERY crowded. You could barely walk in/out.

At night I went into the basement to find Gobi and Hazel, and heard them meowing in the distance, which was weird. But then I saw this open door, so I went inside to call them. I could see the cats’ eyes in the darkness, but I could also see stairs—lots and lots of beige carpeted stairs. It was like this used to be the bottom floor of a bunch of houses and they’d closed off access to the basement. And I had another townhome on that side of me, so I thought this was particularly odd since these were likely, amongst others, their stairs..

Then, Gobi and Hazel rushed off and I followed them, trying to pick them up and bring them back. And I got lost in this dark sea of stairs. I started to panic, and I guess they did too, and we ran and ran and ran until I saw them go through another door. We were in an area with trees and came around the back balcony of a restaurant. I had no money, no keys, no cell phone, so I asked one of the men smoking if I could get a ride home. He asked where I lived, and I told him, and it was ACROSS TOWN.

I’d just run across town?!? But he agreed to take me home. I was still carrying Gobi and Hazel in my arms. I got home and managed to get inside, and Matt calmed me down, and by then it was midday. He said we should go sit by the lake, which was on the edge of our GINORMOUS backyard. We went by the old boathouse on our property and I sat on a huge rock under an umbrella looking at the smooth, still water and the blue sky.

And then I heard a noise and looked up and saw cannonballs. Friggin’ cannonballs. At least twenty of ‘em heading our way!!! None of them hit us, but they landed all over our property, and did have to take shelter on the backside of the boathouse.

And then I woke up.

No shit.

So, of course, I looked it up. I think, well, without getting very specific, I need to get the negative/cold out of my life so that it isn’t sucking me in. And I feel very helpless and like I'm stuck. The dream says I’ve been thinking about this (and I have, a LOT) but I am not so sure how to take care of this. I mean, I’ve been through rough stuff before, but not like this. But I’m processing the changes that have to be made, and they need to be made right away (that’s actually what the cannon was—about the suddenness).

And it is SO true.

I am really not making it up. Dream interpretation requires you to take your own life into account, but it says what it says. I mean, the small kitchen, two fridges (chilling personality, cold attitudes, etc), three ovens and the dishwasher, the bottles (bottling your emotion), the open door, the basement, the stairs, the stranger, the lake, the cannonballs—it is kind of uncanny!

Anyway, I’ve got some thinking/considering to do. Some things to change. I already knew this, but it is SO WEIRD that I had dreams about things that I didn't even know were related to my situation. It is so strange. I love/hate it how dreams make me think.

it's that time of year again...

you know, where I ask for you to help me pick which photos I should submit to the annual contest at my work. here are the ones that I've done in the past. I decided that I'd limit it to photos from the past year only--otherwise it would make the task a daunting one!

so, this year there are six categories, (the five listed and then work pics) but I'm not entering the one of work photos, I don't think. well, except I may have one photo but I am not sure if I'll be able to locate it. we shall see. I wish they'd mentioned they were doing this earlier--I didn't even maintain those photos since I had no reason to!

oh yeah, AND I can only enter five photos. you can tell me you like more than that if you want, but if you narrow it to 5 or so it will help me greatly! and, some of these might look a little fuzzy 'cause I had to re-size. If you double click you'll see them in all of their detailed glory. :)

anyway, so.

people

a) I call this one "on the road again"
c)

nature

d)

landscape

h) i)


architecture

l) m)

misc

n) o)

r)

I will be ordering my photos by this Friday ( I need to submit them by the 22nd) so if you're willing to give an opinion please do! thank you thank you thank you!

update: I've eliminated some for various reasons. I'm putting them down here so you can see them, but if they're in this grouping then I'm not considering entering them in the contest this go around. some are because of subject/originality, exposure, angle, focus, etc. for instance, photo b? there is a little too much blur to katelyn (the little girl) and in j, though I LOVE the colors, there are too many things distracting your eye. also, a special thanks to melissa for all her photography insight. :)

b) e) f)
g) j) k)

o) b&w p) q)
s) t) u)
v) w)

"wave to mommy in the window!"

~michael

what a weekend! friday night at the durham bulls and saturday night in charlottesville--yay, FUN!

friday we sat behind right field. the opposing team's RF was named Crowe. We cheered for him the whole time--even made up a cheer--and at one point he actually gave us a thumbs up behind his back. I think if we'd been able to invite him to come drinking with us he SO would've joined in. and there were fireworks! and blue moon beer. :) oh, and jenny and matt cooled off my legs for my with their big ol' beer cans! Afterwards we went to Mellow Mushroom for some beerage and Jenny and I were SUPER sad that they'd closed the kitchen five minutes before we went to order. p.o.u.t.

saturday we got up and got it together to get on the road. I had a headache (it started friday around 9pm) and slept a bit of the way. we got to mary alise and michael's around 330 pm, changed real quick and began our adventure! first we went to oakencroft for some yummy wine. the tasting was fun, our lady was hilarious and we enjoyed it a lot! and the we looked on the winery map to find a place that was open until 6 (it was 5 then) and then went to kluge.

we liked oakencroft A LOT better than kluge. kluge definitely had the atmosphere (in spades!)--outdoor tables, pretty bushes and trees, cool presentation but their wines were pricey and they just plain didn't taste as good as at oakencroft. AND for a winery with expensive wines and expensive tastings ($3 a piece v. sharing two flights with cheese for $45ish) I thought it was pretty ridiculous that when I went to ask if we could have more of their stale hard bread (aka crustinis) they were all "that'll be three dollars." WHAT? you have all this high falootin' atmosphere and you charge for that? it's like mexican restaurants that charge for more chips. but anyway, we had fun nonetheless. AND michael found a cheese he really liked!

next after a quick run by the house it was time for dinner. we went to zydeco. mmmm yum! I liked it that their whole upstairs was a bathroom for the ladies--5 stalls and lots of couches and hangout areas for while you wait. and each stall was like a little separate room. anyway. the food was really good (I had gumbo and mac and cheese) and we enjoyed some fried green tomatoes and crawfish tails.

our waiter was HILARIOUS. he picked on matt and michael for having pbr and he made us laugh a lot. it was great. this was when the subject of my sun allergy came up--how it's kind of annoying and means that, for instance, a week long trip to the beach isn't ideal, how I have to stay indoors, etc. we talked about how matt and I want our kids to have his complexion, and michael pointed out how matt will have to always be out there with them. and then he said, describing our future family vacays "kids, wave to mommy in the window!"

I almost cried I laughed so hard.

we walked the downtown mall, heard a lovely rendition of moon river and decided to find a bar elsewhere.

we ended up at the horse and hound. matt and I ordered the twelve beer sampler and the waiter kind of looked at us funny--but since it was only 3 beers total he agreed. I liked almost all of them. After they had their beer MA & M got a sampler with 9. I ordered a beer and then matt ordered ANOTHER sampler, all to himself.

we talked about kids, about matt and me getting married some day, about photography and people and life and travel and their wedding and politics and wine and all sorts of good stuff. AND our server (who was very nice and from ireland by way of boston) told me he really liked my jean jacket. you can take the girl out of oklahoma, but...well, you can't take the oklahoma out of the girl. I like how they're cool to wear still, but know mine is older than most. :)

we went back to their house, looked at pictures from their wedding and our roadtrip and watched will and grace. the boys fell asleep in their chairs and at 2 am we decided it was bedtime. and in the morning? mary alise made us a deeelish breakfast. we were sad to leave BUT I'm glad that we'll be home for almost two weeks before going out of town again, this travel is making me TIRED! oh and on the way home we bought fresh peaches. yum!

and then last night...I finished painting my chest of drawers and then went to VBS. (I am not doing crafts this year, thank goodness, but I'm taking photos and being a "floater." when I was done, after feeding lara's kitties and a quick trip to the grocery store we watched this movie. it was CUTE. and FUNNY. and I liked it. it made me think of center stage but way cooler. and I really like sarah jessica parker, so that was fun too. you should check it out. :)

if only I could remember what marla said.

it was funny. and I liked it. and it was gonna be my title. but I cannot recall.

yesterday evening I stayed up waaaay too late. I left work, went home to change clothes and then went to brixx. they kind of suck, by the way. they don't take reservations but they do take call aheads, and the chick who was running the get-people-seated show was RUDE.

now, I have never worked in a restaurant. I have never been a hostess. but I have been in the customer service industry before and let me tell you, behavior like that? it doesn't fly. nicole was like "yeah, I can tell you're really irritated." because I was. but once we sat down things were MUCH better. :D

jewelry was exchanged. people's engagement rings were examined and gawked at. (congrats again, betsy!) stories were told, giggles were shared, and patty got teary. but in a mushy way. it was SUPER fun. oh and the beer hits of the night were unibroe and franziskaner. so, here's all the ladies.

and here's the most remarkable of the picks. it was all random, and betsy happened to get the necklace (from me) and the earrings (from jamie) and they GO TOGETHER. they're by completely different brands at completely different stores, but they will be quite the ensemble.

also (and this is particularly interesting to me after all the sorority talk going on at kara's blog) it was nice to realize that there was a really good mix there--betsy thought everyone else but her was a KD. not the case. more like...four of us, counting me.

it was good to see people and have some girl time. and they're already asking what we'll exchange next. if you'd like to be invited and you're in the area (or, if you aren't in the area but think it'd be fun to participate and want to send in your thing by snail mail) do let me know!