Life Gets Away.

Between moving, holidays, and wedding planning, life has taken me by storm. I can't believe that I have been too busy to blog! October 31st? C'mon! That's unacceptable. Some people have begun to think that I gave up on them and the blogosphere. Others were concerned that my blog was broken or thought that their computer broke. Fortunately, none are true. Just don't give up on me because I haven't given up on you! I will be back in full force in a few weeks! Maybe a month, if I'm more realistic. Andrew has already instituted the Stress-free Spring and I'm excited. That will mean lots of reading, lots of adventures, lots of days trips, and lots of blogging!

I don't think I was prepared for the whirlwind that was to come! Since I last posted so much has happened. I've been to Florida and back. Attended a wedding. Seen old friends. Enjoyed bridal showers, one of which was the biggest surprise (story to come). Taken on new projects at work. Turned one year older! Completed pre-marital counseling. Andrew and I took a 25-hour Amtrak train from Providence to Chicago. We spent a week visiting with family. My mom flew in and surprised me. We've received fun new presents like a Flip on which I can make an apartment tour for the blog! We've flown back to Rhode Island. He's gone back to work. I've been sick in bed.

Lot's of exciting things to update you on.

But unfortunately they will have to wait a little longer. Right now I have to go work on the ceremony program. Then the list for the DJ. The job of a wedding planner never ends;)

Be back soon! I promise.

It's About Time I Show Back Up!

Wow. I am failing miserably on consistently posting lately, huh? I am so sorry for all you faithful readers who keep checking up on the blog to find nothing new!! I will try to work on this:)

A few weekends ago Andrew and I flew home to Florida for a childhood friend's wedding and a nice visit with friends and family. Here's a recap of the weekend:

Coffee date with Courtney, obviously. Lunch date with Becka, of course. Play some games with the little sister, couldn't skip that. Chat with Dad. Shop with Mom. Visit the big bro's abode to see what new changes have been made since my previous visit. Catch some rays (UV, not TBay DRays--I know, they're not the Devil Rays anymore). Bike ride to grandma's. Visit with extended family. Visit a lake to find an alligator for Andrew--success rate: 3 for 3 (Welcome to Florida). Go out to eat with family. Stop by TI to see Erin. Then rush back to work Monday morning and say goodbye to vacation.

So on this trip my dad and I planned to go out to eat. He loves sushi. I love Indian. Andrew, the tie breaker, loves sushi, tolerates Indian. Sushi it was!

This was my first time eating sushi. And by eating, I really mean cringing my nose and being really weirded out by it. My dad loves sushi and always suggests we get it, I finally caved.

This is me before tasting it. I was remarkably optimistic.














This is me after dissecting it a bit and taking a small bite. I mutilated it so much I had to switch to a fork.















Lastly, this is me trying to convince myself to eat the rest of it. I don't think I'm a sushi gal. Too much stuff going on. Keep it simple. I don't do condiments. I don't do multi-textures. Basically, I don't do sushi. Needless to say, it'll be a while before I muster up the courage to delve back into the luxurious world of sushi, but nevertheless, I tried something new!















Andrew and Dad loved it. Andrew said it was probably the best sushi he'd ever had! So I guess if I was going to try sushi, it's a good thing it was at least 1st rate sushi!:)













This is my little sister Kendall. She is growing so fast! Sadly for me she's only 11 and almost as tall as me!! I guess she'll be able to call me "Shrimp" or "Shorty" some day soon:)




















Speaking of growing up. Getting older is so funny. Not only do I find myself meeting teenagers and thinking that dreaded phrase I hated hearing as a kid, "I remember when you were a baby!" But friends I met in middle school are now friends I've had for over 12 years.

One of these friends, Nick, got married last weekend. It's funny how you reflect on past "chapters" of life when someone opens a new one. My mom and I talked about remembering when I used to go bowling with him in 7th grade and she would drop me off at his old house. Or when he and I took a road trip in college to Alabama and I ran over an armadillo with his car. Or when he sent me a care package in college with toothpaste, deodorant, and a chocolate eclair donut that arrived looking more like roadkill than a chocolate treat (let alone anything edible)!

Or the year we dressed up like farmers for Halloween at youth group. Nick hid in the back of the picture because the pants he got from the thrift store (we all got our outfits there) were so tight that he never wanted a photo like that to show up and haunt him.













Or when we would meet up at Applebees on Christmas breaks when everyone would come home from college.















And now he's married! Time sure flies!















It was a beautiful wedding and reception at the Tradewinds Resort in St. Pete.















Amazingly, I grew up in Florida and attended many weddings in Florida, yet this was my first beach wedding!















Since Nick is a neighbor my mom was also invited to the wedding. It was so fun having her there.














Andrew and I before the reception. Or should I call him Rico Suave? At one point in the night we were in the reception tent and sitting at our table. My mom pointed out that it was really raining hard outside and you could hear it pounding on the tent roof. Rico Suave leaned towards me and whispered softly, "Oh, is that what that is? I thought it was just my heart racing." To which my mom, who overheard and I, who couldn't take him seriously looked at each other and died laughing. It was a classic Andrew moment.



Lastly, the late night rave in Ybor City. Okay, we were just at the reception. But those lights do look pretty psychedelic in this pic.

A Princess' Tale

Hello Friends. Sorry I've gone MIA again. I have had a big deadline at work and then I scooted on home to Florida for the weekend. I'm home hanging out with family and attending a friend's wedding. More details to come on my adventures in Florida, but here's a little thought for the day:

My weekend sorta feels like I'm in a movie with a similar premise to Princess Diary, but more extreme. Now don't get me wrong, I really like my apartment and stuff in Providence, but we'll Studio 23 just can't compare with a real grown up's place (like my mom's). I feel as though I just found out that I'm not actually a homeless orphan, but the daughter of the queen. I am currently living the life of luxury: Amazing water pressure. Opening a fridge with lots of food. Sleeping on the most comfy bed fit for a queen. Walking on soft cushioned carpet under my toes. Driving on leather seats with power door locks. Watching cable TV on a huge plasma, no less. Air conditioning in the house and the car. 10 ESPNs (for Andrew, of course). Everything is amazing! I feel so spoiled by simple luxuries I used to take for granted.

But before I waste too much of my pampering time on the computer, I've got to go and enjoy the riches awaiting me in the carpeted living room with palm trees and 90 degree weather peeking in the windows:)

Adios friends! I'll be back soon.

A Long, Cranky Week(s)

It's been a really long week. Actually a long few weeks. I am so glad the weekend finally arrived. Work has been really busy and really stressful. (Hence being MIA on the blog-front). Lots of new projects are starting up and I have been unable to finish up my current projects.

I started a report last week that was due last week and I've yet to finish. It's terrible writing for 7 hours a day. It's like being a student again except I don't have the freedom to work for short spurts at a time.

I don't do well at anything abstract and we've had a series of four meetings the past two weeks on "strategic planning" for the future direction of our department. The epitome of abstract mission-writing type stuff. Needless to say these meetings kill a little piece of my soul.

I had two meetings this week for which I was supposed to produce some maps, which prolonged being able to get back to my Analysis Plan write-up. I worked on prepping the data, creating the maps, and tweaking the layouts until the last minute and was super stressed rushing around the office and to the meetings.

I live less than a half mile from work and on numerous occasions I had stressful drives home. Yes, when it's cold or rainy or I have meetings, I drive. Seriously though? Stress shouldn't even be possible in that short distance, but Rhode Island drivers manage to prove that it's possible.

I tried to go to the gym one night this week to sign up for the Planet Fitness $10 a month gig, but between pouring down rain and no parking, I gave up and went home frustrated without getting out of the car.

Did I mention that my insurance company gave me 30 days to transfer my vehicle registration to Rhode Island which involves jumping through a hundred flaming hoops?

On Wednesday I had a meeting at the Department of Health (DOH). They seem to have a couple hundred more employees than parking and it always turns out to be a trick finding parking. Afternoon meetings aren't terrible because a lot of people have left or gone to other meetings and the lots are freed up, but 9:30 meetings are the pinnacle of horrible timing for parking.
I miss the appropriate ramp on one of those fun exits with three forking directions and drive 15 minutes out of the way. Note: this is pretty impossible in Rhode Island. 15 minutes usually gets you to Connecticut or Massachusetts. Well, I finally make my way to the DOH and discover that there is some sort of a police meeting as well.
Great, there goes parking at the non-metered meters. I should explain, for some reason all over Providence are sporadic metered spots with the meters missing. From what I've been taught since there is no meter to pay you can park there and not get ticketed. Doesn't seem legal, but it seems to work.
Well, of course I circle the lot, no spots. Circle the buildings and on-street parking, no free meters. Okay, guess I'll have to do the ethical thing and pay a meter. Oh wait, I don't have any quarters they are all at home in my laundry stash so I can pay $2 a load. So I drive home (don't worry, it's less than 2 miles) in a frustrated rage, get quarters and drive back to my meeting. Late. Welcome to my week. Late, late, late for everything.

Hanging over my head is laundry, laundry, laundry. It needs to be done desperately. No time, no energy, no desire. Part of this is my fault, I've been addicted to an online "novel" (details to follow later).

Well as if awkward tension at meetings, traffic, rushing everywhere, being late for meetings, too much to get done in a work day, etc. isn't enough I got a whammy dropped on me.

A friend from church from Brown University's Public Health Department emailed me to ask if I was going to attend a GIS health conference in Providence in June. I responded that I was actually working on a poster with the Department of Health (DOH) for the conference and was hoping that I would at least be able to attend some of it. A few minutes later she responded and said, "Actually, you're leading a breakout session." WHAT?! This is the first I am hearing of this. Sure enough, I look up the conference website to find that I am apparently presenting a poster one evening and leading a session with someone from the DOH another morning. 1) He never told me that I was doing a breakout session 2) I know nothing about attending a conference like this let alone leading it 3) I am a novice to this whole world of professionals and 4) It turns out that he didn't know we were doing this either! Wow. Just thinking about it stresses me out! I feel totally inadequate and unprepared for this prestigious task. People pay good money to learn from experts. I like to think I'm brilliant, but even I admit, I'm not.

Fortunately, I have a positive perspective on all of this. You may find it hard to believe since I just complained about all of the stresses of my week, but I was just trying to provide context. Honestly. So my week has been more stressful than I'd like, work has been busier than I can easily handle, and my free time has been less relaxing than I would desire. So what?

I am so thankful to have a job, and one that is getting busier at that.

I'm not fighting a disease or dealing with sickness like a few of my family members are.

I didn't just return home from a mission trip to Africa only to be hospitalized with malaria--I'm so sorry you're sick Ann:(

And I'm not recovering from a plane crash that burned 80% of my body. This has been my addiction over the past week. Reading the before and after blogs of a woman who survived a plane crash in Aug 2008 and her sister who raised her children while she and her husband laid in a coma in the hospital.

Now in light of all the bigger stresses out there I've got it pretty good. I love my job (most of the time), I have health and happiness, my family and friends are wonderful, the weather is warming up and the sun stays out until after 6:00 pm now.

What more does a girl need?

Rubbish

I am so sorry for being MIA for so long! I have no good excuse either. I just work, grocery shop, sleep, and hang out with friends. Lately, I've been lacking in good stories to share. Also, I believe I have subconsciously boycotted technology. I'm not sure why, but I've been entirely uninterested in the computer and all its techie ways--blogs, email, Facebook, etc. As a result, you've been neglected. I hope to conjure up some more entertaining stories and start pumping out blogs once again. In the mean time, just sit back, smile, and sigh as I try to make the world a better place, one trash dump at a time.

My studio apartment is not huge, so it started off as a space-saving necessity and has grown into a convenience and way of life. This is my recycle bin (left) and my "landfill" bin (right). I thought I would be irritated by having to take the trash out often, but I've come to realize much of the stuff I throw away is actually recyclable!

A Christmas to Remember

I thought I would fill you in on my upcoming endeavors and warn you that I may be M.I.A. for a week or so!

Family Vaca 2008!!!!!

I'm heading home for Christmas on the morning of the 24th. I get to do the family thing for a few days and then we're headed out on vacation to Orlando. My mom, brother, brother's girlfriend, Andrew and I are headed on an adventure to Gaylord Palms. We're going to visit Rollins, Winter Park, hang at the hotel, see ICE, build gingerbread houses, and go to Universal Studios! I'm really excited for the opportunity to all hang out together and relax a bit.

We'll head back home for a few days where Andrew and I will get to hang out with my family and see a few of my high school friends before heading out on the roadtrip of the century!

Day 1: Head out from Tampa towards Becka's in Port Charlotte stopping at the Roaring 20s Pizza and Pipes restaurant on our way. We will spend the evening with Becka, Jon and baby Reagan! I'm so excited to finally meet her and catch up with Becks.

Day 2: Depart from Becka's house seeing Jenn (Fort Meyers) and the Giant Head of Beethoven and Keri (Cape Coral) somehow on our way to the Everglades! Make a pit stop at the Smallest Post Office in the US and send a few postcards and head towards Miami via Alligator Ally. We'll hit up a few more random stops on our way to Jacksonville. We'll spend the night at Chateau Emy and take her hostage.

Day 3: Leave Jax, with Emy, for Hotlanta swinging by one of the Tiniest Churches in the US in South Newport, GA. Eat lunch in Savannah. Visit the Big Cow and the World Globe Gas Storage Tank. Then arrive in ATL!! Lots of options await us there: the Baseball Equipment Coke Bottle, the Varsity, Centennial Park and most importantly New Year's Conference where we will meet up with Erin and Claire!! We'll watch the peach drop in ATL and then leave Emy with Claire and head on our merry way.

Day 4: Destination: Tennessee. Check out the World's Largest Chair, Replica of the Statue of Liberty and arrive at Grandpas! Hang for a few days on the farm with the family!

Day 6: Head through Memphis visiting the Muffler Man, the New Urbanist Island and some historic sites on our way to Chi-Town. Keep ourselves busy by visiting Lambert's Cafe (Home of the Throwed Rolls), Superman, Big John, the Giant White Cross, and a few other random destinations.

Finally, make my way to O'Hare and back to Providence for work the next morning!

Wheew...I better have some good stories after all that!


View Larger Map

Fall Festivities

Fall has arrived! It's generally my favorite season of the year, but this year it has failed to capture my heart and steal my affection. My guess is that previously I was a student so I didn't mind it getting dark outside at 4:30 pm because I had been romping around outside all day between classes, but now that I'm working it means that the day is over by the time I get out of work! Boo:( [Ha. Nice pun, in light of the Halloween/Fall season] . Speaking of light, I should just get a summer home in Alaska, then it will be light out all day. I've always wanted to see the Northern lights. But wait, I guess to see the Northern lights it has to be dark out, so summer is probably not gonna work. Oh well. Plus to have a summer home that means you don't work, and let's be honest, urban planning is not exactly a field that's going to send me into early retirement.

Well, I love the changing of seasons so I won't let it get me down. I will continue to lounge on my couch  inhaling the sweet aroma of my Pumpkin Spice Yankee candle and bundle up like a blizzard just arrived. Also, I must apologize to my faithful readers for being MIA the past weeks, I was on an excursion of monumental proportions, but didn't forget about you. Where exactly have I been and what exactly have I been doing you wonder? Oh wait no longer!

I went to a wedding in Rockford, Illinois last weekend.

We watched the baseball playoffs. Bad news: Cubs lost. Good news: the Rays are holding strong and playing better than anyone could have imagined they ever would! I enjoyed a week of evenings filled with cable TV and nightly baseball games! But let's be honest, I couldn't stay awake to watch the ending to any of them. And to be more honest, I couldn't even keep myself awake for the debate, which started at 8pm in the central time zone! I make Mr. Bean in Rat Race look less narcoleptic I'm so pathetic.

I went to my first (and possibly last) corn maze!! For those of you who aren't familiar with this crazy autumn activity let me explain. Some entrepreneurial farmer out there decides to make a little dough by creating a maze out of their cornfield. Well, in this case it was a 10 acre corn field with a maze cut through it. The path is about 3 feet wide, the corn is about 8 feet tall and your goal is ...well there are many goals 1) Have fun roaming around in a maze of corn 2) Find the 8 checkpoints in the corn maze 3) Make it out of the corn maze alive and with all limbs. Option 3 was definitely my goal.

So Andrew and I had never been to a corn maze before, so we had this picture in our minds. We thought there would be kids, parents, strollers, clowns, balloons, baseball lights like in the Field of Dreams. Basically, we thought we were going to the county fair. Well to our surprise we pull up at 7 pm and no one is there. "Maybe it's closed. They said they were opened til 8 tonight, maybe they changed their mind," we discussed. Lo and behold, a guy walks out of his house towards his shop and flips on all the lights while we sit in the car wondering what we're thinking. Here's your visual: A house in the middle of the country, surrounded by cornfields, with a barn for his animals (reindeer of course), a Christmas tree farm, a banquet hall that is nothing short of Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, and pitch blackness. Oh, and two people: me and Andrew.
"You open?" we asked.
"Oh yea, I've got a group of 45 coming out in about 20 minutes," he replies.
As we are paying he says, "Oh good, you brought your own flashlight" as he points to a lone flashlight on the counter.
"No we didn't, but can we borrow this?" Andrew asks, with the determination to accept nothing short of 'yes' from the man.
"Alright, here's an index card, there are 8 checkpoints hidden out there with different hole punches for each one so I'll know if you cheat. Good luck."
And that was it.
Andrew and I wandered out into the pitch blackness armed with a flashlight, map, and two index cards! Definitely not the kind of people that would survive Man vs. Wild. I'm not sure if you can imagine what it feels like to wander out into cornfields in pitch blackness on a windy night, but I'll sum it up with four words: Children of the Corn. There was no way we were making it out of there alive. Every wind that blew and crack of a cornstalk freaked us out. There are probably foxes or coyotes or wild raging deer! Are there snakes in cornfields? Probably. Who knows. All I knew was that I wasn't making it out alive.

Well about an hour into our carefully calculated excursion (as planners we used the map like a treasure map to ensure that we covered every square foot to get all 8 hidden posts) we heard voices. "Oh good, there are more people out here than just us now, this will feel safer" we thought...wrong! Imagine what it would be like to be in this already frightening situation with 45 college students now in the corn, probably intoxicated, and traveling in packs like sorority girls on their way to the bathroom. Well if the children of the corn weren't going to get us, a heart attack was. Around every corner was a college student, who in the pitch darkness didn't know that we weren't with their group. So, we now had to actually watch our backs and respond to cracking of corn because there were in fact real people hiding in the corn like a haunted house to grab us or frighten us. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs "We don't know you so don't mess with us--we're that pair of two random people in blue jump suuuuits!!!!" (Yea, that's right, we thought it was going to lack fun and we needed to help out a little bit by wearing all dark clothing and acting Mission Impossible in the maze). Wrong. In the words of my favorite Verizon commercial: We got hosed! Well, as you can predict, since I'm writing this post, we made it out alive. But not after the nice farmer family gave us a tour of the entire operation including the banquet hall and bringing out one of the reindeer to pet. In case you didn't know, there is apparently an actual species called Alaskan reindeer. They are very feisty and their antlers are so sharp they make the running of the bulls look like a safe operation. I was pretty sure little Elizabeth was going to gourd me. Luckily, she was on a leash. Well we left the ranch, went out for some ice cream and called it a night. We try to collect the mini baseball helmets (We've got 4. One from Yankee Stadium (fancy!) and the other 3 from ice cream dates).

Then I worked the rest of the week. Working "remotely" is not remotely fun. Your heart says your on vacation but your brain says you have to work and there is constant inner warfare until you cash in your vacation time.

Lots of baseball, lots of eating, lots of sleeping, lots of shopping. I had the most incredible beef tenderloin fondue and got a killer ski hat with tails!

I went to my first apple orchard and picked apples. I saw my first pumpkin patch and bought an overpriced pumpkin from the vine. We went on a Lake Geneva boat tour and saw the fall colors surrounding beautiful, historic homes. Kids in the tropic of Florida really miss out on this Fall business, this season of harvest, if you will. We do, however, not miss out on the art of pumpkin carving. We bought a pumpkin carving kit and made some pretty awesome pumpkins. Mine is the pirate ship on the far left, Andrew's the window (typical architect) on the far right, and Team Grandma with his sisters made the rockin' bat.

I concluded my trip with a stay at the Grand Emy Hotel in the heart of the University of Chicago campus. We enjoyed a dazzling double date with our men at the Med, a brief stroll through a park only blocks from Obama's house, and a night of random stories and laughs (to come in subsequent blogs). Well, this has turned into a really long blog...that's why I shouldn't allow too much time to pass between postings!