Summer is Almost Here

Today was essentially my idea of the perfect day, or at least pretty close to it. This morning I watched my girly shows while Zach slept in, and then we went for a walk at Difficult Run with Joey, Sam and Kinas. I haven't seen Joey since before I moved, even though I consider him to be one of my best friends. There aren't many guys out there, besides Zach and the two Thomas's lol, that I can talk to on the phone for very long, but I distinctly remember a long conversation I had with Joey while I was in California, primarily because it happened right when we were deciding if we wanted to come and it reminded me what it was like to have such a great core group of friends around. Its something we were lacking in California, even though we really loved Mitch and Donna's friends. Anyways, we had a great time on the walk.. Sam almost swam across the river to do the cliff jump, but I'm really glad he didn't because with all of this rain lately I'm fairly sure he would have drowned because the water is still SO high and fast (the restaurant Cameron works at has been closed all week because of the flooding in Georgetown). The dog ran away for a while, but came right back once he exhausted himself. The heat worked in our favor (it was 90 degrees..) so he couldn't keep going for too long. I seriously love, love, love going on walks with these guys. It was nice hanging out with them again.

This past weekend was Easter, which for me just means working a banquet. I hate working banquets because it almost always means I'm working on a holiday only to make less money because we don't give out checks at the end of the meal, so we only get money when people hand us cash. Its rare. Easter was exhausting, but it was okay because Friday and Saturday were really great. They were actually really busy and exhausting too, but it makes it that much better in my opinion.

Another perk from this weekend was having Mark, Maddy and Jon visiting. Friday night we spent at Jon's house just talking and watching TV and it was so nice just being lazy together. Saturday we went to Starbucks and hung out for a couple hours just telling stories. It was so interesting hearing Jon's story, for example, because it reminded me how much I don't know about a lot of people in my life. Some of the events in his life that he talked about both Zach and I didn't know about, or didn't know the exact details. This had occurred to me before, but mostly with the guys in mind. There are so many things about them that I am aware of, but don't know the details. Its strange. But yea, Starbucks was great. My other major thought leaving that was how fun it would be if Mark and Maddy and Zach and I had children around the same time and were living in the same area. They are so fun.

This week I am preparing to go buy my wedding dress on Friday. I am very hopeful that I will find it then, and will be pretty disappointed if I walk away empty handed. I can't believe this step of the process is about to happen, so it has spurred me to start looking into wedding venues more than I had before and go visit the ones I have already contacted. I am the kind of person that doesn't just see one place and go with it... I have to see every option out there before I can feel comfortable with any decision. Its going to make this whole thing take that much longer.

Besides that, Krista is home so we are going to lunch with her and Kevin on Thursday, and on Wednesday I am making shirts with the girls for our wedding shopping extravaganza. Friday is the big day and tomorrow we have our helper guy, Tony, coming over to paint and stuff, so I have to be here for that. Between all of that and work, I have a full week. But an exciting week!

Home Again

My grandparents and I are now back home after a great time in California. Last time I wrote we were about to head to Joshua Tree, which was a huge highlight of the trip. I happened to get pretty sick while in the desert, but I still had a good time because its just one of those places I could go 1000 times and still be amazed.

After the desert we headed to Jerry's house, which we had to ourselves so it was very nice and relaxing. That night Mitchell drove us around the neighborhood in the golf cart, which was quite the experience because this neighborhood is ridiculous. Then we went to The Yard House, which I loved when we went there over Christmas, but this time it was super loud and packed with women that all looked like they were from the Housewives of Orange County. I still liked it a lot, and maybe my annoyances were based on how I wasn't feeling well. After that we just lounged around, and then I got one of the best nights sleep in my life. Important stuff going on in this blog people, pay attention.

In hindsight this was one of my favorite parts of the trip because it was just so relaxing. We lounged around the house all morning and just enjoyed the perfect weather, nice view and amazing home. On the way back we hit the outlets (best ever, by the way..) and then I went to have sushi at my favorite place with my old coworker. It was so nice seeing her again, and it made me feel like I was living out there again. She is one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Friday we went to see the storyboards for Mitchell's movie, a remake of The Wizard of Oz. I can't say anything about it because we signed strict confidentiality agreements, but lets just say its going to be AMAZING. I was so impressed and definitely want all of the pictures they have for it once its all over with. Mitchell said he would try, so we'll see what happens. That night the Tomcos and Susan and John came over for pizza night. That was another one of the best times we had there. Mitch and Donna have a great group of friends, and these people are some of my favorite. I have such a great time whenever they are over, and everyone is laughing the whole time. Plus, Mitchell's pizza and fried zuchinni can't be beat. Soooooo good.

Saturday was Manhattan Beach day. Our first stop was Charlie's house, which is great because its a beautiful home to begin with, and his wife, Liana, has great style. Then we went to their friends house which is right on the beach. It was probably the size of my parents townhouse, and very outdated, but since it was right on the beach in one of the most expensive places in the country, Charlie estimated that it was worth $12 million. Absurd. I think that might be a little mroe than its actually worth, but still. Whoa. After hanging out on the beach for a while Donna and I walked down to the main area and did a little shopping. They were having sidewalk sales that weekend so it was a really great time to be there. They had some reallllly amazing deals, and if I still lived in California I definitely would have been buying a lot. Unfortunately, the clothes people wear out there don't really have a place here in Virginia. But its probably for the better, since I didn't have a lot of room in my suitcase. I did get a few things, though :) Oh, and one of the highlights of the trip? Donna and I got Gatorade and soda the second we got there (10 block walk!) and we had to leave them sitting outside the stores we walked in. A lot of the places have little tables outside for that because theyre upscale stores and its just the norm. The second store we get to, we come back outside to just my Gatorade! We couldn't figure out what was going on, checked the trash can, looked around.. and then I saw it. A bum walking right down the street from us with her soda in hand. Guess he was thirsty. I'm also going to guess he has a soar throat now, because she was sick. We saw him sitting in a little corner later, with a huge sandwich and a lot of half empty drinks; he got himself a nice little meal.

Sunday was a day of rest. I watched a lot of Housewives and then Survivor. Then Isabella and David came by with their new puppy, Benny. SOOOOO cute. No words for it really. Suffice it to say the blades of grass were just about as tall as he is. Its the smallest dog I've ever seen. The girls fell in love. Monday the flight back was great, and I feared it wouldn't be because the way out here was awful. Andddd now I'm bac. To find out there has been major flooding, so we're going to check it out today :)

Back to the Golden State

I am currently sitting right in between Keira and Kyla watching Cupcakes Wars after a long day of hiking with my grandparents, Menchies for lunch, and then new bikes for the girls. I'm exhausted, but I'm happy because its just like the old days. I was nervous about coming back because a) I hate flying, b) I don't like being away from Zach and my family for so long and c) I didn't know how I would feel being back. Not that I thought I would be unhappy.. but maybe I would miss living here? Who knows what I was thinking. I now know that I am very happy seeing the girls and Mitchell and Donna, because the #1 thing I miss about living here is being able to go over to their house for dinner, or spending weekends finding things to do with the little girls. I love having them around. I also missed the weather and the access to endless things to do. It is just so beautiful here, so walking/hiking anywhere is incredible. What don't I miss? Prices and traffic, and being so far away from home. Gas is already about $4.50 here, and today we went to Griffith Park, which used to be right next to where Zach and I lived, and it took probably an hour because one lane was closed on the 5 lane road. Awful.

Anyways, we've taken a few walks to enjoy the scenery. We also went to a nursery to pick out flowers for Donna's house which made me want to have a garden of my own. It's a dangerous place because I could sink a whole lot of money into that hobby. Saturday (today is Tuesday) was the auction for the girls school, which Donna and Carin organized together. They have been working on it like crazy for months; it was more than a full time job. I told her when I still lived out here that I would volunteer during the event, so that was one of the reasons we flew out here now as opposed to another time. First stop was loading up the cars with the gift bags, and we got to her country club, where the event was being held, at about 9 am. We worked solidly until 1:30, which consisted of putting the baskets people could bid on out on the table. They had SO many items, so it was a ton of work. At 1:30 we rushed home, I packed bags of clothes for the event and Donna showered as fast as she could because we had to be at her hair/make up at 2:00. It was a mad dash. After hair and make up we went back to finish setting up. It looked amazing by the end of the whole thing. Mitchell surprised her with a beautiful Tiffany's bracelet and she was very emotional the whole time. It was the culmination of so much hard work. The event went really well, but was very stressful at the end when we had to give people the things they won. But they had great items, so it was fun seeing everything. They had an autographed Twilight poster, a lunch with Jerry for $1000, trips to the Caribbean, Cancun, San Diego and New England, Oscar de la Hoya boxing gloves, so many yoga/workout packages, Disneyland packages... and about 30000000 other things. The benefits of living in Hollywood..... But it was nice seeing so many of Donna's friends (especially Amanda and Susan who volunteered to help Donna even though they don't have children in this school, great friends) and we left the club at 1:30 am... 30 minutes earlier than we thought we would. It was a longggggggggggg day.

Another big event so far this trip has been going to the hair salon with my grandma. It was nice, until the end. The people ripped her off and charged her $145 for something that should have been far less, despite the fact that I told them to make sure she knew the price of what she was doing before they did anything. They didn't. There was just a bit of a confrontation, and they ended up lowering the price to $125, then $90, and then they called after we left to offer her a Keratin treatment. I was so livid. I haven't been that angry very many times in my life, I almost didn't want to drive right after because I knew I couldn't focus. But, my grandparents were impressed with how I handled the situation, so that's good at least.. I guess.

Also, I read the book "The Help" over the past few days, which was great. It's based on the issues in the South during the 60's, which is one of the topics I studied during school and really fascinates me. It was so good, and made me kind of excited to live in the South, especially now that those troubles are (mostly) over. Except I did read a stat about how many people in the GOP is Mississippi (where the book is set) think interracial marriage should be illegal. On second thought, maybe things aren't that much better down there....

Anyways, Ira comes over tonight for dinner. Tomorrow we go to Joshua Tree and then back to Jerry and Susie's house in Palm Desert for the night. They wont be there so we'll have the place to ourselves. If you want to see how AWESOME the house is, you can watch "His Way" on HBO, which is about Jerry and a lot of it is filmed from the house. That's about it for now :)

Also, I nearly died on the plane ride here. I was on the verge of puking for at least 20 minutes. I still am not sure how I got off that plane vomit-free. Also, I'm not sure how I'm ever going to fly across an ocean, because I was convincing myself not to panic the whole flight. Worst part of the trip.

Horses, Cherry Blossoms and Honeymoons

This weekend was great. On Saturday we went to Morven Park, which has this beautiful mansion, gardens and an equestrian center. Zach and I briefly walked around the house and other buildings near it before meeting up with my parents at the equestrian center. They were having a steeple chase that day so we found a nice little spot for a picnic and watched. It was a different way to spend an afternoon, so despite the cold weather we had a lot of fun. Sunday I worked all day, but it was actually a really fun day. Katie worked all day too and we decided to go to the Cherry Blossoms today because the weather was supposed to be so nice. The weather turned out to be even better than expected (I have the sunburn to prove it) and DC was amazing. Apparently the rest of the DC area saw the weather reports too, so traffic was crazy. Once we got there we went to Old Ebbitt's Grill for lunch because Katie had never been there. That was a hike and a half, so by the time we got back to the tidal basin we were exhausted and didn't do the whole circle. It was okay though.. the scenery doesn't exactly change a ton. It was a thoroughly exhausting day, and weekend for that matter. Tomorrow I work at night and have a lot of errands to run before that because my grandparents are coming in Wednesday, which is also my mom and Connor's birthday. Then, Thursday I fly out with them to California for a 10 day trip. As far as wedding planning goes, I've been looking at photographers and spoken to a few people at some of the venues. I also told Zach today that we should just go to the courthouse to get married and spend this money on a month in Europe. He said no. Which is okay because I love planning weddings, and hopefully we'll get to live there eventually anyways.That conversation led to a honeymoon conversation tonight.. and I'm left wondering how on earth people decide where to go for their honeymoon. There are just so many amazing places to see. I want to try and find somewhere that has history and culture, amazing weather, nice beaches and some adventurous things to do. My first thought for that was Belize, which I found while reading an article on honeymoons. It has ancient ruins, beach resorts, snorkeling and scuba diving, and ATVing and cave tours. Awesome. I also like the idea of Puerto Rico because it has the beaches, it has nice towns to visit, it has the bioluminescent (or whatever) bays, it definitely has some history. And I think I would feel more comfortable in Puerto Rico than Belize because I know more about it.. but who knows. The place I would feel the most comfortable is probably Europe, but since we may end up living there I don't know if its worth honeymooning to. Plus, I would have an impossible time deciding where to go. Ireland and Scotland look incredible, and then there is Paris and the rest of France, there are about 5 areas of Spain I want to visit, even more in Italy, and then the Greek Isles sound amazing. I won't get started on all of the great things to do in Turkey, or the opportunity to travel between a lot of the countries on the train. It's impossible! Sooo many decisions that still need to be made, and most of them are hinging on us hearing back from the Navy so we know when Zach goes to boot camp. Speaking of the military, I found out this week that my friend Krista is moving home because her husband is deploying. I am so excited, especially because it seems like babies are everywhere in my life.. and as much as I want to have one to play with, I don't want to have any yet. What does this have to do with Krista? She has a 15 month old and is pregnant with #2!!! Sweet. A good friend back in Loudoun to hang out with, and she comes packaged with babies. Its been a good week.