Sunshiney Days

I heart long weekends! They are so much better than regular weekends. Especially cause mine started out with a half day on Friday, cause our system was down all day at work. So I pretty much came to work, had some coffee, moved to a new (BIGGER!) cubicle, chit-chatted, and went home. I also thought I needed a new alternator, but my mechanic is honest and told me that I do not. So hooray for saving money!

On Friday night, Cory and I went over to Mike and Stephanie's for a last drink-a-thon with Shayna, cause she is moving tomorrow. Mike said they could stay up till 3 a.m. at the latest, cause they were going out of town the next day. Around 6 a.m., I heard birds chirping and saw the light outside and decided perhaps it was time for me to take my leave.

Saturday, I FINALLY slept in, which I've been wanting to do for SOO long, but because of our sleeping in, Cory and I didn't get the text from Lauren Smash till way late. So we sadly missed Lauren! Next time, though, for sure- ice cream awaits. :)

I did get to hang out with Bethany and Harmony at the park, and later we went to a college graduation party for Laura, a young lady I used to baby-sit, way back when. She was my favorite kid to baby-sit for, cause she slept in late, so I could sleep, and then we would watch TV and eat snacks and she was always well-behaved. Anyhoo, I'm old. And Laura's dress was so pretty, I have to show you two views of it:


Laura's party had lots of karaoke that I did not participate in, but my mom did, which was seriously adorable. I have a video but my mom is bigger than me so I will not post it online.

After Laura's party, Cory and I went to Bethany's and Bethany and I watched a girl movie while Cory and Bobby played video games. Bethany and I strengthened our already-strong bond over our agreement that Hilary Swank's face is annoying and she has a horse-mouth.

Sunday was Shayna's last Sunday brunch. So sad!!! Sunday brunch will never be the same without Shayna. Nor will bar nights or baking cookies.

After brunch, I took Lauren shopping for a dress for her birthday. This took hours, but as Lauren said, I knew what I was getting myself into. And actually, we had tons of fun while shopping. Lauren is hilarious and also swears she's getting me a t-shirt with an air-brushed picture of her giving me a thumbs-up for my birthday, so seriously- hurry up, October! Anyway, here's the dress she finally decided on:

Lauren had a birthday party at Mickey Finn's on Sunday. Good times. Here are Joy and Sara...

And Kyle and Bethany, with my mom in the background. Told you she was cute.

On Monday, Cory took me out to lunch at Olga's cause he's a big sweetie and he also loves Olga's. Then we went to the park where Al, Stu and Nevaeh met up with us. Cory and Al skated while Stu, Nev, and I played at the park. Nev is so freakin' cute, it's ridiculous. My parents had a BBQ on Monday night and in case you don't believe me about how cute Nev is, here she is telling Cory to come play and Stuart to go away:

And here she is with Cory, who is teaching her about helicopters. The fall-from-trees kind, not the propeller/airport kind.

In other news, my grandpa now lives at my parent's house. This was a pretty sudden development but it seems to be working out pretty well, so far. I think it's good for him to be around people all of the time, because I know he gets lonely. My dad is trying really hard to make him comfortable and also to inconvenience my mom as little as possible with the whole situation, and I think it's really sweet. I'm very proud of him.

Today I forgot my high heels and only had tennis shoes to wear all morning. Shitty, beat-up ones. So I went home on lunch to get my heels and while I was there, realized there was a terrible, rot-like smell coming from our garbage. It was so bad, I took the bag out and even scrubbed out the inside of the can. Now I feel like the smell keeps coming back to haunt my nostrils. But at least it is no longer living in my apartment.

Hope everyone's having a lovely Tuesday! I'm going to eat a cookie.

Be Sure to Wear, Flowers in Your Hair...

I'm home! And back to work! Total BOO on the work bit. Anyhoo, San Francisco was super fun and I thought it would be best to tell you all about it via gratuitous use of photos. Cause who doesn't like stories with pictures?

The night before we left, Bethany and Al threw a party, complete with a bonfire, a keg, and BOTH of my little sisters. Good times! Matthew was super into pictures that night, as illustrated by his enthusiastic thumbs-up:
The gals in the picture are my lovely sister Lauren, Jenny, Bethany, Bethany's sister Ryan, and Lindsay.

And here's me and Lauren being silly... I would have a silly picture with Kyle, but she bonged one too many beers and after she threw up on the deck, Bethany and I put her to bed.

And the next afternoon- off to San Francisco! My favorite quotes from our trip there both came from the same Detroit Airport employee. They have these new machines when you go through security that blow puffs of air all over you to check you for explosive powders and whatnot. The guy explained to me how it worked and I said, "Oh, that's really interesting." His response, "Yeah, I'd rather have a raise." Touche. The same guy also told Cory that going through the machine was like getting a blow job.

Anyhoo, the main reason for our trip was to visit with these two guys- David: And our former Portsmouth roommate, Ryan:
We stayed with Ryan all week. Ryan lives above a bar and has at least three official roommates, two of whom are growing battle beards. Actually, I don't know if they're really battle beards but they are impressive beards, nonetheless. And those beards really seemed to bring the ladies, too. Either way, Ryan's roommates were very friendly and very nice to let us take over their living room every night.

Ryan lives within walking distance of a pier with a great view and a nice park. Here are Cory and Ryan taking Baby for a walk...(that island in front of them, on the left, is Alcatraz)...And speaking of Alcatraz, Cory and I went there and we had a great time. We walked to Pier 33 from Ryan's house to catch the ferry, not realizing until about halfway there that it was a REALLY long f'ing walk. But we are hardcore. And the blisters will eventually heal....

Here's a view of San Francisco, as seen from Alcatraz Island...

See those super long roads that are all uphill? I think I walked most of those at some point during this trip.

Cory and I learned a lot of new things about Alcatraz. It was taken over by Native Americans in the '60's, and they lived there for 19 months and eventually earned more rights for Native Americans in the end. They also spray-painted a lot while they were there...

I also didn't know that Alcatraz has a unique ecosystem and is home to tons of really beautiful flowers...

And it's a nesting spot for TONS of birds. No, seriously, more birds than you've ever seen in one place in your entire life. All you hear while you're there is birds, and the entire island smells like bird poop. For those of you who know me and my feelings about birds, you will understand why scenes like this are very scary for me:

Here's Cory on some steps in front of the...cell house, I think? I forget...

Then here's me...see all that white on the ground around my feet? Seriously, bird poop. The guy who welcomes you to the island points out that anywhere there isn't bird poop on the ground is where someone was standing.

Here's the cell house, inside:

Notice how everyone is wearing headphones? The audio tour was complimentary when you paid for the ferry ride over there. It was kind of funny cause the audio tour directs you where to go, and everyone kind of walked and turned and stared at things like zombies. Me and Cory, included.

Cory in solitary confinement:

Someone I talked to after we got home told me they went in this exact cell and swore it was haunted, but I only saw some yuppie girl who stood in there for way too long while we were waiting to take this picture. She didn't look like a ghost but what do I know?

Completely unrelated to Alcatraz, here is Ryan's dog baby and her new favorite toy, courtesy of the lovely LaurenSmash...

When I said in a previous blog that Shayna's dog is one of the only dogs I like, one of the other dogs I was referring to is Baby. Cause she's awesome.

Here's a painting of our dearly departed friend Brandon, done by Ryan:

The first few days we were there, it was regular, windy, chilly San Francisco weather. We carried sweaters everywhere and the wind was so crazy, it blew up my dress and flashed by bottom to the citizens of the city. But then on Wednesday, it was suddenly SUPER HOT! Like 95-100 degrees. And since this NEVER happens in San Francisco, no one in the city has air conditioning. So there is no relief from it, anywhere. You're sweating in the street and decide to go to a restaurant? It's hotter in the restaurant! It's hotter in the stores! Even the hotels don't have air conditioning.

But...it was a great time to go to the beach! The ocean is my favorite place to be, on either coast.

I'd never actually touched the Pacific, though, and it turns out that even when it's been close to 100 degrees outside for days, the water is still so cold it hurts to stand in. So I just kept running in and out till my feet got used to it a bit...

Cory and David are a lot braver than me...here they are THINKING about going in...

Then here they are, actually in the water. They're crazy.

Anyhoo. The reason we specifically chose last week to take our trip is because Ryan is graduating from the SF Art Institute with his Masters and he was having his final show last Friday. Here are a couple of his newer paintings....

This cut-out painting is actually his roommate Conner. He did one of David, too, but I realized too late that I forgot to take a picture of that one.

The rest of our trip was filled with lots of walking, shopping on Haight Street, eating at various burrito and pizza places throughout the city, general hanging out, and a really fun night with David's roommate, Ert. She took us to a bar called the Tonga that had fake rain and thunderstorms, live music, and delicious drinks. We also went to a few skateparks and hung out with Ryan's sisters in their non-air conditioned hotel.

On the way home, our flight was cancelled. We were re-routed and had a layover in Vegas, and got home just in time for the drunkest part of Dawn's college graduation party. Sara grabbed Jenny's boobs in front of my grandma and Stuart took all of his clothes off (luckily Stuart waited till after my grandma left).

Here's me and my friend Dani...

Here's Dani's husband, Tim, carrying Dawn (chair and all) to the keg to make her do a keg stand...

And here's Dawn doing the keg stand while Cory laughs at Stu's ridiculously creepy, "Don't be scared, Dawn."

So that's what I've been doing for the last week or so. Really good times. Now we're home and I suddenly seem to be sick. I think being in the extreme hot and then coming home to the cold, damp weather caused it, but I'm actually not minding the current chilliness outside cause I needed a break from the heat. But I could definitely do without this sore throat and runny nose. I totally meant to go to sleep early last night to help get rid of this sickness but then Cory and I started watching season 3 of Weeds and stayed up too late. That show is seriously addicting. Anyone who hasn't watched it, you're missing out.

This concludes our photographic tour of Erin's mid-May adventures. This weekend is Memorial Day Weekend and I have a half day on Friday, no work Monday, plans for a night at Mike and Stephanie's house, a college graduation party, and Lauren's birthday party to look forward to! Summer-summer-summer-TIME!

Have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!

White Chocolate

One of the bonuses but sometimes UN-bonuses of working in an office is that people bring in leftover candy from various holidays and leave it out for anyone to eat. When it becomes an UN-bonus is when they bring in said candy when the holiday is WAY past. Case in point: the giant chocolate Easter egg sitting in the kitchenette near my new desk. Which reminds me, last Halloween, my Grandpa decided that he was going to pass out the candy he had found stashed away in one of his closets. This candy was stashed away by my Grandma, who passed away almost 2 years ago. So already the candy was suspect. However, the only way I could get him to agree with me that the candy was too old to give out to unsuspecting children was to open each bag and take a sample bite out of one candy from each bag. Then, and only then, did he believe me that the candy was stale and gross and unsuitable for children. I'm just saying, those neighborhood kids owe me BIG TIME. I will accept payment in the form of fresh candy.

Moving on. Last weekend, Cory and I went up to East Lansing for his sister's college graduation. Miss Dawnold now has 2 Bachelor's degrees, and graduated with honors from Michigan State. Yes, she is very impressive. On Friday night, despite having to get up at 7 a.m., me, Cory, Dawn, her boyfriend Scott, and their parents all got boozed up and acted all kinds of ridiculous. Some of us passed out in time to get up and be functional at 7 a.m. Cory was still drunk when he woke up, and stayed that way through most of the graduation ceremony. Which means he nodded out a time or two, and found EVERYTHING hilarious. I think graduation ceremonies are super-boring, so I was kind of jealous. It was funny to watch him giggle so much, though...

The view through Cory's eyes at the graduation...Dawn's millionth attempt to keep the wind from blowing off her cap proves futile, so the only thing left to do is...

On Sunday, Kyle and I joined our mom and Grandma for a Mother-Daughter banquet at our church. We were served food by the men of the church and some old friends from Sunday school are in a band, and they played for us. Good times. Kyle said dirty things in church, though. My mom slapped her hand.

Our good friend Dustin is leaving for Spain tomorrow, and will be touring Europe for the next 42 days. So we all went out for $2 margaritas last night and I got drunk on a school night! I mean, work night! But it was good times and Bobby was kind enough to drive my car home for me.

P.S. There are only 4 more days till Cory and I leave for San Francisco! That is fucking awesome.