Every year, even though I want January to be a month of rest and catching up, it seems like I'm just as busy as December some days! But it's all good stuff, so I can complain too much :-)
A lot of the busy-ness involves catching up with friends who I hadn't been able to see during the holidays-even some of my co-workers lol
So last night, my friend Katie and I went to grab some Chinese food and a movie. The food-delicious, the movie-not so much haha
We saw The Devil Inside....and it was decent at best.
I probably would have like it a lot more if there hadn't been so many distractions! I apparently forgot what its like to be at the movies with a theater full of high schoolers on a Friday night. Never. Again. will I make that mistake lol
After work on Saturday, I headed over to my parents to watch the Lions play the Saints. Even though the game didn't turn out like I hoped, I'm still pretty happy with how the season ended up. The Lions have made a lot of progress and it's been really exciting to watch them this year. I'm a Lions fan-always have been, always will be- but it makes it a little a lot easier to say that when they are winning. For the first time in a long while, I'm actually looking forward to the next season.
I felt kind of bad last night-we play a playoff pool at work and I drew the Saints and now, since the Lions lost to them, I still have a chance of winning some cash money. So for the rest of the play offs it's.....
GEAUX SAINTS!
How was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting? Any other football fans out there?
And then, somewhere along the way, I fell in love with blogging. I've had this blog for a little over two years and I'm just starting to get into it. And this is exactly one of the reasons-so I can look back. My year was really full this year-lots of memories and good times and times that I felt so loved and blessed I honestly thought my heart would burst. Without being able to blog about it, I wouldn't be able to look back and appreciate just how amazing my life is. And I know it's only going to get better.
There's been a lot of change and growth in 2011, and I'm a little sad to see it go. But I absolutely cannot wait to see what 2012 has in store for me!
On Friday, M and I went to see The Descendants. I'll admit, I didn't really know much about it. All I knew was that my Dad wanted to see it and that George Clooney is in it. In retrospect, it was probably a little too depressing for a date movie, but it was really good! We both enjoyed it a lot! It was definitely sad, but there was also some pretty funny lines. The girl in the film is also on The Secret Life and it took me almost the entire movie for me to stop imagining her with a preggo belly haha All in all, I really liked it plus you get to see George Clooney so how can you go wrong?
Since I really wasn't feeling well after work on Saturday night I rented a movie (What would I do without RedBox?) and chilled out for the night. Unfortunately, they were out of Blue Valentine so I got 30 Minutes or Less.
Big mistake! I love Aziz Ansari so he was pretty funny, along with Danny McBride and Nick Swardson, but the entire movie I kept thinking "This all could've been avoided if he just called the cops!" Luckily, it was only $1.25 so it's not a huge loss.
Last night I went over to my parents to watch the Lions play and ended up spending the night. Unfortunately, they not only lost but looked horrible. And on top of that, it was again on a national stage. I still have faith, but c'mon guys! On the plus side, being able to crash at my parents is a nice perk of still living in the same city :-)
Did ya'll do anything exciting this weekend? Happy Monday!
I'm a few days belated, but I just wanted to give a huge shout out to my boys for winning the AL Central!
I am seriously so happy-I'm so stoked to go to a play off game (my first!) and I'm so happy I was able to see so many games this year. It was seriously one of the best summers ever!
Also! The Lions have started out 2-0 since the first time in forever (not really, but it feels like that haha) It's sooo nice to wtach a game and know that we're not going to be on the wrong end of a blow out!
And the icing on the cake-I'm undefeated in my Fantasy Football league-is there anything more satisfying than beating a bunch of boys? No, no there is not lol
I know most people won't share this sentiment but...
I love my job.
A lot of people I know are constantly griping and complaining about this coworker or that boss, and while I have those days every once in a while, for the most part, I love pretty much everything about my job.
The office itself is relaxed and fun, my customers are 99.9% of the time easy to work with and my co-workers are some of the funniest, nicest people I know.
Case in point-my awesome boss. Who has season tickets to the Lions. And who likes to give me them when he can't go.
This past Friday, was the Lions first preseason game and since my boss had something to do that night, he gave them to me. Seriously, awesome.
Please ignore my awkward face lol
Before the game, I decided to do a Lions-inspired manicure (duh!), which involved using Ulta Blue Streak the perfect shade of Honolulu Blue and silver shatter that my friend got me because she knew I was having a rough week (how sweet, right?)
That afternoon, I picked up my friend and headed into the city. Kid Rock was playing that same night so we took our time and strolled through the crowds while doing some people watching. Since Kid Rock is from Romeo, MichiganDetroit, it's always a spectacle whenever he comes to town. This year he decided to throw a two-day block party in the parking lot of Comerica Park, where he was performing. I wanted to ride some rides, but we didn't have enough time. Hopefully when he comes back to town next summer, I'll be able to see him perform!
We made our way to Ford Field and found our seats. For being a preseason game and especially for being the Lions, there were a lot of people there. There's a lot of buzz surrounding this season, which is really exciting, considering I really don't remember the Lions ever having a winning tradition. And from what I saw, there's plenty of reason to be excited. Satfford looked good in the three series he played, as did Calvin Johnson and Jason Tulloch. The real pride of the Lions right now is the defensive line and they did not disappoint. Ndamukong Suh made a few tackles and one sack, which was called for "unnecessary roughness" to which coach Schwartz replied "Well, when you are strong as him, it's just going to happen. He just can't help himself!" I don't know what I find that so funny, but it cracks me up lol
They ended up winning the game 34-3, and it got me really excited for the rest of the season.
When we left, the Kid Rock concert was still going on so we stopped and watched him play one of my faves (All Summer Long-such a great summer song) through the gates and when we were leaving he was playing Bawitaba, which is hands down my favorite Kid Rock song.
Well, "Snow-pocolypse" ended up being a whole lotta nothing. I think we got between 6 or 7 inches. Some other parts of the midwest ended up getting a lot more, but on this side of the state, it was a lot of hype and not much actual storm. The worst part of the whole thing was thet everyone was a) driving like idiots (there is no reason to go 55, nor is there a reason to go 15. Can we find some sort of middle ground here?!?!) and b) though the world was literally going to end and bought out all the milk, bread, etc. in every store. Pretty ridiculous, if you ask me haha
The view from my office after round 2
But instead of panicking-I went sledding! haha Hannah, Darin, Leto, Dan, Molly, Sammy and I went up to the high school and enjoyed the freshly fallen snow. It was a lot of fun! I was surprsied that I was able to find people who wanted to go with me, but everyone ended up having a really good time. Sammy was born in New Orleans and had never been sledding and he was *so* excited! After we got some good sledding in (and did some doughnuts in the empty parking lot) we headed to Dom's Bakery to warm up with actual doughnuts and hot chocolate. Yummy! A pretty perfect end to the night, I think.
Friday was my birthday-I turned the big 2-3! haha I woke up and headed over to my parents and my mom made me waffles for birthday breakfast. After that, we got ready and headed out to see a movie.
I absolutely loved it. I don't think my mom liked it quite as much, though. I though Natalie was perfect-so graceful and confused and just amazing. Mila Kunis, besides from being strikingly beautful, was so twisted and played her part amazingly well also. As for my Oscar challenge, I've got a few more left to see:
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids are Alright
The King's Speech
127 Hours
Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone
My mom got The Kids Are Alright from Netflix, so I'm going to try and watch that this after noon and I think we're going to see 127 Hours this weekend. I have untill the 27th to see them all :-)
After the movie, we went to the Creamery and got some birthday gelato and stopped by the Bakehouse to pick up some brownies for our Superbowl dinner. I also got a birthday doughnut and between that and the gelato, I was just about in a sugar come-so delicious! We also went to Kohl's and Target, where I broke down and got some jeggings and to be completely honest, I'm kind of upset it took me this long! They are so comfortable! I'm pretty much in love with them!
My mom and I stopped by Trader Joe's before heading home to take a nap and get ready for dinner. We went to Carson's American Bistro in Ann Arbor. We had never been there before, but it's owned by Main Street Ventures, so it couldn't be too bad. It was really good actually-I was pleasently surprised. We started with fried calamari and I got beef medallions and crabcakes for dinner, which was really, really good! Perfectly cooked-I had to stop myself from eating all of it that night! We got pineapple upside down cake for desert and I took my left overs home to eat the next day. My mother has been using the excuse of "It's for your birthday" to buy me things for the past 6 weeks, which ahs included the sequin tunic, a new chest of drawers, a few new nail polishes and a tank of gas (although I think that was a joke ha!), but she still got me a new shirt which is pretty cute and I'm excited to wear it.
I was so tired by the time dinner was finished, I fell asleep at my parents and had to get up and go to work the next morning. We got about 6 more inches of snow Saturday afternoon so between taking forever to get home (because of the aforementioned horrible drivers) and shoveling the snow, I wasn't really in the mood to go out on Saturday night. So I curled up with some reality tv and hot chocolate and was asleep by 10pm. I'm so lame! haha
Aside from the texts, phone calls and literal day-long barrage of Facebook messages, a few friends got me some treats, as well:
Pretty flowers from my wonderful roommate, Jen
Delicious cupcake from my sweet friend Sider at work (and the rest of the Cake Ladies, too :-)
Sunday after work, I headed over to my parents to watch the Superbowl. We had Buffalo Chicken Dip, Prosciutto and Carmelized Onion Pizza and Seafood Pizza with Shrimp, Crab and Scallops-seriously, I can only hope to be able to cook like my mother some day. It was all so good! We also had Brownie Sundaes for desert-yummy!
Unfortunately, the Steelers lost to the Packers, 31-24. I didn't really have a vested interest in the game, but I would've liked to see Troy Palamalu and Heinz Ward win. I don't usually pay too much attention to the commercials, but this year there was one that stood out for sure.
But I think the E*Trade Baby was a close second hehe
That's literally what I feel like. It's as though I went I went to sleep on October 31st and woke up on December 23rd. A lot has happened in between then and now (obvs...) but here are the highlights:
My parents spoiled me for Channukah and got me three (yes 3!) new purses, fleece lined leggings (amazing), clothes, books and a lovely, comfy new Tigers hoodie. Basically, a bunch of awesome stuff.
Helped Hannah put up her Christmas Tree, which was taken down approximately one week later because her kitties terrorized it.
The Metrodome in Minnesota collapsed, leading to the Giants v. Vikings Monday Night Football game being played at Ford Field. They gave out free tickets at 9am the morning of the game, but I didn't get a chance to get down there because of work.
Luckily, my boss, Jaison, is amazing and let me use his stub from the Sunday Lions v. Packers game (which they won!) so I was able to go.
I tried to find someone to go with me and after calling/texting/begging about 15 people, I finally found someone. Clark and I ended up sat 12 rows behind the Vikings end zone.
The game was pretty routine, except that it broke Brett Favre's streak of games started at 321. By the end of the game we moved down to row 4.
It was pretty fun-made for a long night, but definitely worth it.
Spent the night helping my mom in Jackson at one of her trainings and ended up driving through the Holiday Light Show at the Jackson County Fairgrounds.
Recieved quite possibly the best cookbook ever from Kim, my friend at work. With the inscription "Now that you're all adult and shit, get cookin'!" Love it.
Made a "Pimp Cup" for Randy, our sales guy at work.
Attempted to make a fondant covered, two tiered cake with my mother...
"Attempt" being the key word.
Also, even though this happened before Thanksgiving, it's definitely worth mentioning. I met up with John and Scott, who are friends from high school (which was the first time I'd seen anyone since graduation) and headed down to Detroit to eat at Slow's BBQ. Oh. My. Lord. So good! I had a pulled pork sandwich and mac & cheese. It was delicious and I was so stuffed by the time I left! And now, they are one of my customers at work, so hopefully I'll be able to eat there more often hehe
After we went there, we drove around the city for a bit, before ending up at this really cool art deco, jazz bar called Cliff Bells. It was so cool-a really great vibe, beautiful architecture and art, and when we were on our way out the jazz band started playing. It was a pretty perfect end to the night actually :-)
All in all, it's been a pretty busy month, on top of finishing the semester and taking my finals (I ended up with an A and a B-whoo hoo!) and spending $900 on my car for new tires (planned) and a new catalytic converter (unplanned). We also had a record year at work and were pretty much way over our planned sales every week, which is great but tiring! But everything worked out and Holidaze 2010 are officially over! I'm basking in the post-Christmas lull, before we get busy again for Valentine's Day. There's no rest for in the bakery world.
We also had our first major snow/ice storm which put the entire state of Michigan out of commission for about 5 days. The roads were so slippery, my Jeep kept sliding around on the *surface streets*! I was too scared to even attempt to get on the high way. It looked really pretty though, but unfortunately, as soon as I have to shovel/scrape my car and thought of it being the tiniest bit pretty flies right out the window!
Christmas involved my uncle coming in from Chicago (to find a place because he's moving back!) dinner at my aunts with my grandmother Christmas eve (where I scored a few more vintage purses, including another Louis Vitton yippee!) brunch with at my grandfathers and then my mom's twin brother and his family coming in tonight. A lot of family stuff for sure, but on the up side I did find my Hanson Christmas cd, so all is well :-)
All of a sudden, it's a month since I last posted. Whew-busy, busy, busy.
Between school and work, I feel like time is moving at hyper speed. But it's all good stuff, so I can't complain too much.
Let's see besides that, I went to my first Lions game so that was pretty fun :-) My boss gave me a pair of his season tickets for the last exhibition game, which they won! Yay! It was the same night as the Eminem/Jay-Z concert in Detroit, so when my friend Leto and I were leaving the game we stopped and watched Jay-Z perform "Empire State of Mind" through the gates.
Me cheesin' on the way to the game in my new Lions Tee-shirt haha
Let's see what else...been on two dates... The first one wasn't too bad. He was nice, like really nice, too nice. That's just not my style, unfortunately.
The second one was a DIS-AS-TER! He was so unbelievably rude, I was literally in shock. He went on a tirade about how the city of Detroit should be demolished and after that I was so angry I couldn't even look at him! He asked me if I was nervous because I wasn't making I contact, and it took all I had not to tell him I wasn't looking at him because I was disgusted and wanted to leave! Plus, he mentioned sex or some form of it about five times, which in my opinion, is totally inappropriate for a first date. And he wore a hoodie. A hoodie to a first date! I mean, put some effort in please! When I got in my car to leave, I burst out laughing. I couldn't even be angry, all I could do was laugh :-)
October is going to be crazy busy. Besides school and work and getting ready for the holidays at work, there's a few concerts I'm planning on going to and might be planning a trip to DC the last weekend in October for John Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity. So hopefully all that works out :-)
I probably would have like it a lot more if there hadn't been so many distractions! I apparently forgot what its like to be at the movies with a theater full of high schoolers on a Friday night. Never. Again. will I make that mistake lol
