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Monday, August 29, 2005

The worst baby shower EVER

Before Saturday I had never thrown a baby shower, and after Saturday, I’m not sure I ever want to do it again. I have a lot to say about the subject, so read on if you’d like to participate in/be subjected to my bitchy ranting.

First of all, what part of RSVP do people not understand? Wait, I can’t really say it like that, because I actually don’t know what the acronym RSVP stands for. Oh! Google just told me, and it’s French, that’s interesting. Ok, back to my point. It absolutely boggles my mind that there are so many rude people out there who choose to simply ignore that little tidbit on an invitation. So for the last few weeks I have been stressing because a total of 5 people had formally RSVP’d, and as of Saturday morning, the list of attendees was at about 9 people, which included me, my cousin/co-host and her daughter, and the guest-of-honor, my cousin Kathy. Did I mention that she was driving about 6 1/2 hours from Chicago for this shower? I was so terrified that the party was going to be a complete bust, we had so many games planned and delicious food prepared, and about 5 people who actually told us they would be there.

So it’s nearing 2:00 PM, when the party is to start, and the guests start arriving. A LOT of guests start arriving. Being that I have an extreme Type A personality, I was sort of freaking out. I had prepared all my cute games for 15 people, thinking that was safe since it was about 6 more people than I was expecting, I hadn’t set out nearly enough chairs, and there would be just barely enough of my beautiful fruit pizza for everyone to have one piece. And there was no way in hell that little bowl of punch was lasting all afternoon, certainly not, given the fact that two of the ladies who unexpectedly showed up each brought along with them two daughters roughly between the ages of 9 and 12. I still can’t believe that, my blood pressure is rising just thinking back on it. Those little brats were guzzling down that punch like they were starving Ethiopian children who had never seen the stuff before.

Oh and Kathy’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law showed up 2 hours late to the party, and had with them the sister’s husband and their 11 year old son who insisted on playing “Baby Price-is-Right” with us and cornering my poor little pup under the dining room table. The party was just pure chaos. I can’t forget to mention that, of course, all those little girls won like every single game and got to choose between prizes like coffee mugs, cheese plates, and fall candy dishes. Ugh. Hopefully their mothers at least took that as a sign that this was not a children’s party and they were greatly in the wrong for bringing them without asking.

I read online that a baby shower should last roughly two hours or so. Well, I think the last guests finally left a little before 7:00 PM. Yes, you read that right, the party lasted FIVE HOURS!

I swear to God, no more baby showers for me.

Monday, August 15, 2005

I'm going to ramble about my weekend

Long weekends are my favorite, especially when they are not filled to the brim with commitments and allow for a plentiful amount of free time for the quiet reflection that has been missing in your life for some time.

Some highlights:

1. I went rollerblading on Friday (I had the day off!) around Lake Calhoun with Angela and
Liz. Earlier last week I realized that I hadn't broken out the good old rollerblades all summer long, and judging by the fact that it took me about 20 minutes of sweaty frantic searching and one phone call to the husband at work to locate them, I'm pretty sure I didn't break them out last summer either. In fact, my last rollerblading-related memory has Lisa in it, and since she's been in Costa Rica for going on two years now, it's safe to say, it had been a while. If you know of a better way of stopping in rollerblades other than my tried and true method of panicking and rolling into the grass and grabbing a tree, please let me know.

2. After lunch in uptown, Liz, Angela and I did a little wandering throughout the shops in the area. We ventured into the Gap and I failed miserably in my attempt to show off my multi-tasking skills by doing two very difficult things at once: sipping diet coke from a medium sized disposable fast-food cup and shopping. That's right. Alicia + Diet Coke + shopping = One big wet mess for the very sweet and understanding Gap employee to clean up.

3. Dan's 18 year old sister stayed with us this weekend while her family was away (she doesn't like staying in their big house alone), and I realized two things about myself: I will not be a good parent of a teenager someday, and I have become a huge nerdy loser since college. His sister informed us that she would be out late, and who am I to give her a curfew (she's 18 years old for goodness sake), but for about 3.7 seconds I did think about the fact that maybe I should stay up and wait for her to get home. At 11:15, however, after struggling with all my might to keep my eyes open while watching an episode of Buffy on DVD, I just had to call it quits. Both Dan and the dog were passed out in the living room with me, neither of them having the same Buffy love as I do, so I dragged them both up and to bed. What has happened to me? 11:15 on a Friday night? That is so depressing.

4. We made blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausages for brunch on Saturday morning, and later that day I finished off the little container of blueberries. Mmmmm... blueberries. I'm thinking we're going to need to make blueberry pancakes a weekly thing.

5. More work on the house, boring, but productive. I won't say anything more about it until we are officially moved upstairs. Maybe then I will take some pictures and post them, because I am just so darn proud of all our hard work.

6.
Betsy and I met up at Old Chicago Saturday night for some pizza and Margaritas, and then saw the latest chick-flick on my must-see list, Must Love Dogs. Sadly, as far as chick flicks go, this one definitely wouldn't go on the top of my list, or anywhere near it, despite my nearly lesbian lusty feelings for Diane Lane. Also, I must note, John Cusack was not looking his best, he seemed pudgy actually, and his character in this movie was the exact same character he played in High Fidelity and Serendipity, and maybe even Say Anything. I guess that's not a bad thing since I liked all those movies, but it doesn't bode well for his acting chops when all I see up on screen is Lloyd Dobler. On that note, mysteriously missing from the movie were a giant boombox and Peter Gabriel's breathy "In Your Eyes". Anyways, it was a good night, and it was fun to hang out with Bets, it's been a long time since just the two of us got together! In college one of us hardly ever even went to Target or Midtown Foods without the other, and now that there's a 30 minute drive between us, it obviously takes a little more work to see each other. 30 minutes in our city is really not a big deal, it all comes down to pure laziness on both our parts I think. ;)

8. I saw the trailer for the movie based on
Jennifer Weiner's book In Her Shoes, which I completely adored when I read it about a year ago. I love that Toni Collette plays the one sister, Rose, I think she is absolutely the perfect actress for that character, I just hope that they don't make the movie all about Cameron Diaz's character, just because she's the pretty skinny one. Grrr... Hollywood please don't screw this one up.

7. I started a new book, Little Earthquakes, Jennifer Weiner's third book, which Betsy gave me for my birthday. I love getting new books, it is one of my favorite things! I could seriously spend hours in Barnes & Noble, but I try to stay away because our checking account can't really handle it.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Let's play "Catch-up"

I’ve really missed blogging. I’ve let this site go un-touched for almost an entire month, and recently it has started to give me an incredibly unsettling feeling. It almost felt like I was cut off from my friends, because while I continued to peruse the blogs I read regularly, I felt like I couldn’t or shouldn’t comment because I wasn’t doing my part. How strange that an online diary can give me such strong feelings of guilt, thrown in with a little bit of loneliness and an overwhelming sense of irresponsibility.

It’s not like I haven’t been busy, I promise there are a variety of things that have kept me away. I’ll try to catch you all up on them here.

**Just had to throw this in here, because I am so frustrated with myself at this moment that I need to rant. I have seriously dripped coffee on my shirt and pants in…let me count… 5 different places in just a matter of a half hour. 9:00AM and I already look like a disaster. Great, this is going to be a good day.

I’ve spent all our money on $4 iced coffees and have been holed up in a dark alley in a little shack made out of Starbucks coffee cups and straws, disabled by my major caffeine buzz, and naked due to the fact that none of my clothes fit because I’ve grown out of them one 230 calorie iced coffee at a time. Dan has left me because I wouldn’t give up my iced coffees for him, which he sees as a dangerous addiction, and I’ve been fired from my job on account of taking 15 minute breaks for Starbucks-runs every hour on the hour.

Hee, just kidding, I had you going though right? Right. I’m still loving the iced coffees, but Starbucks has been pissing me off lately because they never get my drink right. I order a Tall, Iced, Nonfat Vanilla Latte, but they always screw something up. Sometimes they forget the nonfat part, or the vanilla part, but this one time, this dumb woman screwed up the Tall part, if you can believe that, and gave me a Venti! Ok, those two words don’t sound anything alike! It was partly my fault though, because I never pay attention when they tell me how much it is, I just hand over my debit card in a zombie like state. If I had been paying attention, I would have realized that I was charged for the biggest drink you can get instead of the smallest. I try to avoid going to that lady’s cash register these days.

Dan and I just got back this weekend from an amazing vacation in the fabulous Costa Rica! Even more fabulous than laying out on the serene beaches and hiking through lush rainforest was spending an entire week with my best friend Lisa, who, as you may or may not know, is living down there doing her best to help countless Ticos master speaking the unattractive language we call English. We had a wonderful time, the best vacation I could have asked for, but it’s also good to be home, in a place where I can understand what is being said and rice and beans are not served at every meal!

Before that, work was CRAZY, with a capital C-R-A-Z-Y. I had so much to do before I left town, so there was pretty much no way I was taking time out to blog during those last few weeks.

My birthday was July 29th, I can’t believe you guys missed it ;). It was highly uneventful (24 isn’t exactly a milestone year), but very pleasant. I got the best birthday present ever from my parents, who refinished our hardwood floors on our second story while we were away. They look beautiful, and now we are just a few hours of touch-up painting on the trim from moving our bedroom upstairs to where it truly belongs! I am so excited, and so grateful to my parents and their home-improvement expertise. Another notable gift came from Dan’s grandparents, who got me the Audrey Hepburn DVD collection, including Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Sabrina, and Roman Holiday. That impeccable woman is my idol; I want to be her when I’m all grown up!

The month of July was also witness to my first attempt at water skiing and my ultimate humiliation when it took me like 10,000 tries to get my ass out of the water and up on those damn skis. Oh. My. God. Everyone was convinced that I would get up with very minimal difficulty, considering my status as an expert downhill skier (Cooper High Slalom Ski Team Captain, seasons ‘97/’98 and ‘98/’99, whoo hoo), so not only did I have what felt like gallons of water up my nose and what I was sure was a bleeding butt crack from countless wedgies of a particularly painful nature, but I felt like I was such a let down. I was more exhausted and sore after that day than I have ever been. The only time I felt any sort of pride was when I came in and was told how amazed everyone was by my perseverance. I didn’t let them in on my secret, which is that it wasn’t perseverance, it was stubbornness, and my unwillingness to face Dan’s disappointment if I couldn’t do it. Now I’m terrified to try it again though, and I’m not sure if I ever will. I really just don’t like doing things I’m not good at. I’ll tell you one thing I’m good at, and that’s lying on the dock reading trashy magazines and novels. I’ve never had my butt crack bleed from that.

My last bit of news is of the wonderful kind. In a few short weeks I will be leaving the cubicle-dwelling life and moving to my very own OFFICE… with real live walls and a door that closes and locks! [Jumping for Joy!] I am so so so happy, and it’s for real this time, not just a silly pipe dream, it has been confirmed by my boss and everything. I think I’ll leave on that happy note, I have to start planning out the logistics of my pencil holder and picture frames on my new desk. I think I’m going to switch some things up a little bit, I’m an adventurous girl you know ;).