The Best Birthday Ever

this past week was my 30th birthday. wowser. i have to admit, i was not at all concerned about turning 30. just didn't seem like a big deal to me. my actual birthday was really sweet-all the well wishes, sweet cards and great gifts (yup, i'm saying it. i like getting gifts.). friday was what i was really looking forward to. eric was coming into town and all my friends here were going to meet me out at a bar close to our house. fun! so eric came into town and we had fun that day-eating lunch, getting pedicures, getting my hair done and having a cocktail. i went home, got ready and lp took me to where we were all going to dinner for the night so we could have a drink before dinner. as we sat there, he told me "eric and i have one more surprise for you" which i thought would be like a cupcake or something. wrong. it was our other best friend kristen!!!! they had all conspired to surprise me by having kristen come in without me having any idea. i started crying. apparently that's what i do when i'm 30. it was absolutely the best surprise i've ever had. after having a drink, we went down for dinner at marvin! great mussels (or if you're kristen, chicken and waffles).

birthday girl

my favorite people in the world

my sweeties

after dinner, we headed to the bar to meet up with everyone else. i had picked up some party hats for the occasion. one of my better ideas.

jj and me, ready for fun

stacey, bob, pete and chris-note the hats

pete loved his house

even chris took a break from law school to come out for my birthday! i feel so special.

eileen made me some sweet glasses- "birthday broad"

yea, i also bought those party blower things too.

the bar let us hook up our ipod so of course my party turned into a dance party. just the way it should.

birthday broad

just dancin'

i had to take a break. kristen gave me a pep talk to get back in the groove.

bob and i are gangsta'

booty shakin'

blair has a couple of these shots floating around

we decided to head to another place where there was live music so we could do some more dancing. eric, kristen, lp, blair, chris and perry and i all headed out, where more dancing was done and somehow a bottle of veuve was ordered- and drank out of plastic cups.

just peeking in the shot here

the next day, lp, eric, kristen and i headed over to brunch at tabard inn. tasty. from there, we went to the jefferson memorial to check out old jefferson. thankfully, both eric and kristen had been to dc before, so after the memorial, we decided to head down to the water to hang out for a little while. after hanging out, kristen and i did some light shopping and then we all went to get ready for dinner. that night we went to cava, which has tasty greek food!
after dinner, we wandered around and went to a few places to hang out for the night. the next morning, i decided that we should go to maryland for crabs! eric, kristen and blair had never been, so i piled everyone in the car and we headed out to annapolis to eat some crabs!

eric getting his crab on!

blair was really good at getting the crab meat.

lp's contribution was building this hammer tower.

that night, kristen, eric and i went to the w rooftop where there is a great view of the city and had a few drinks. it was honestly the best birthday i've had yet. i've never felt so loved and cared for and am so thankful for all of the sweet and caring people in my life.

Book it!- update

k-rab, this update is for you as you have been so diligent in posting to your blog (which i LOVE reading!!). finished the room and let me tell ya, it is sad. not the story itself, as it's told from a 5 year old's point of view, but the meaning behind all of the things he knows and doesn't know. kind of makes you want to punch all those creeps in the world who do things like this. BUT, that being said, it's good. i read it in about a day and a half. lp got me a kindle for my birthday, so i am now able to buy books with the click of a button (yikes!) and carry all my books with me in one little handy-dandy piece of machinery. let's see if i can stay out of debt to amazon!!

Book it!

i have always been a total book nerd. always. maybe it's because i was an only child, maybe it's in my genes- who knows, but i LOVE reading. as i started college, my reading slowed down (oh who am i kidding. i stopped reading because i was studying ALL the time) but after college i started reading again. now it kind of comes in waves where i'll read a lot and then i won't read much for a while. lately, i've been a reading machine. like, can't hardly put books down. and i've read a lot of really good books, so i thought i'd let ya'll in on what i'm putting my nose in:

1. The Hunger Games series (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay)

oh. my. gaaaaahhhhh. these books are so good. i think i read them in like 2 days or something. they are young adult novels (don't judge) but they are really really really good. not sappy, super well written and very insightful. if you are looking for some great books, these are your choice.

2. The Passage

this is another book about the future, but much different than the hunger games series. it involves a little girl, mutated vampire-like humans and a future society. it's long and it spans many decades and is definitely worth the read.

3. Freedom

this book is not about the future, and actually it starts in the past. it's the story of a family and the paths they each take and the effects they all have on each other. i read this book and then found out that it is now on oprah's book club! so if ya don't believe me, trust oprah!

4. Super Sad True Love Story

this was probably my least favorite book of late, although it does have an interesting take on our culture and future. i would say read, but i would also say to read these other books first.

i am still in the middle of my reading craze, so i have more books here to read! my future readings will include:

Room

Cutting For Stone

One Day

Never Let Me Go (i've seen this movie so i know the plot, but i'm the kind of book dork who loves reading the book even if i've seen the movie)

happy reading, ya'll!!!!

my girl wants to party all the time, party all the time, party all the tiiiiiimmmmeee

soooooo, i'm back. for a minute. in my defense, i've been so freakin' busy lately! engagement parties, bachelorette parties, birthday parties, more bachelorette parties=exhausted me. since i haven't posted, i'll try to keep this as chronologically accurate as possible.

first up was our friends chris and eileen's engagement party. these two are super awesome people, a super awesome couple and i cannot wait to go to their wedding THIS WEEKEND!

here's the bride and i (i love me some sunglasses)

the sweet bride and groom

kyle just loves america

bean bag toss!!!

this was the scariest squirrel i've ever seen. he was laying down and we thought he was dead, then he got up and staggered around slowly and scurried into a trash can. ugh!!!

group pic (thanks to the self timer!)

a few weeks later, i went with eileen to get her wedding dress. the highlight of this trip for all of us was that the shop was next to a chili's and if there's one thing this girl loves is a chili's!!!

a few weeks later, i headed home for my BF kalinda's bachelorette party. my friends richard and cory are in a band and luckily they were playing that friday night! they started playing literally the week after i left for dc, and i'd never seen them play so i was PUMPED to go see them! and they rocked!

me and bethers!

"siblings"

the next day i headed out to the lake for the party. lp's sweet aunts let me use their lakehouse for the party, which was the sweetest thing in the whole world! i 'decorated' (aka throw some stuff from party city on the table) and got everything ready for the bride-to-be!

the bride's beautiful veil-ha ha!!

beth really loves whiskey.

our "man" for the evening

a few weeks after that, lp and i decided to head to nyc for his cousin rachel's birthday. i barely took any pictures, but we had a blast, stayed out too late, ate too much, drank too much and just had a great time. here's the birthday girl with her cake substitute-chips ahoy and reese's.
the week after was eileen's bach party. it was also a blast with fun games, fun ladies and dancing! eileen and i and some other girls had gone to a burlesque show a few months ago and she thought it would be fun to attempt to make pasties for her party. i totally gave up on the ones i was going to make for her-bird boobies.

jude's were the clear winner.

so that's it for now. i should have many more stories coming up as it's my 30th birthday, thanksgiving, christmas and then lp and i are going to africa on dec 30!!!!

bikes, bikes, friends and moving

it's been forever and a half, right? well, i've been busy! so busy that i'm just now getting the time to sit and write about some of this stuff, but i have been out of this blogging business for so long that i can't even catch ya'll up with one post! this will have to do for now and hopefully i'll get it together and get back to blogging more.

summer started with me getting a bike. it's awesome- gold, 3 speed, fenders, basket, made in about 1970 probably! ha, i definitely got a "loved" bike, but i LOVE it so much. anyway, i got this bike because this is a big ol' bike town and i wanted to start riding to places that were a little too far to walk to but not so far i needed to drive. so the bike is here and it's cool and gold and i just love it. lp and i have taken a few bike rides to see some cool stuff!

group yoga at the washington monument

the green machine is one of his old roomies spare bikes

crabs!

seafood city- name says it all

another day, we headed out to the rolling thunder. this is a once a year thing here where vets get on their bikes and ride around the city. there's a specified path and it is so loud that it really does sound like thunder!




for the fourth of july, we stayed here and lp's cousins came to visit! of course, i got deathly sick. like no voice, sore throat, super tired and run down- the doctor said "viral throat infection" which meant no meds for me, just some lousy ibuprofen. needless to say, i took many naps and wasn't able to participate in ALL the fun, but i did hang in there pretty well for a sick chick.

will (one of the cousins) and lp

nicole (adrienne and rachel's roomie) and adrienne (another cousin)

rachel (cousin), me, adrienne, and nicole

for the fourth, we went up on lp's roof and were able to see the fireworks on the mall. it was a great way to see them- best fireworks and no crowds!

lp and i also made it out to st louis to visit mark and candie. i took like 3 pictures.

lp and i also moved in together. woo! moving was quite an ordeal, but we're in and almost done fixing the place up. more pics when it's done, but for now, here's what i look at when i walk out my front door.

we moved into a basement/ground floor "apartment" of a row house that has been renovated. we're at the bottom (it's technically only 2 steps down from the sidewalk so i hate saying basement apartment), a dude is above us and our landlady lives on the top 2 floors. our landlady loves plants and flowers and so she's kept her outdoor plants on our front patio and she waters them and takes care of them and we just look at how pretty they are!

lp and i went to see arcade fire the other night. they're one of my favorite bands EVER and i've seen them 4 or 5 times and i just LOVE THEM!!! it was out at merriweather, which is a nice outdoor venue so we sat outside and listened to a great band!

a few saturdays ago, i met up with my friend brian and invited my other friend blair along to enjoy some lovely daytime fun. we started with margs at lauriol plaza and then blair and i went to get manicures, have a cocktail at circa and then visited brian at the bar he works at!! it was a long day!

brian, blair, me

just visiting brian at his job!

it's been a LONG summer, but it's coming to an end (thank goodness) so hopefully things will start getting calmer!!!