Last Wedding of 2010: The Martins

Introducing Tim and Marty Martin

(I'm always going to giggle at your new name Marty)

Marty, a sorority sister, got married to Tim this past weekend. Marty gets the prize for awesome location because literally the hotel was two blocks from my house!!!!! Thank you! For once I didn't have to worry about being late! Pretty awesome! There was a short and very thoughtful (probably the BEST wedding priest speech ever) that was over before you knew it and then it was off to enjoy the reception. Also this wedding wins the award for best cupcakes EVER. I mean EVER. Apparently they were from some bakery out in Clarendon...I might just have to visit! Also great idea was the bar food appetizers that were brought out after the bar closed. Who doesn't love mozzerella cheese sticks at 10pm?!?! I sure do!

I really need to get a new camera and not have to rely on everyone else to take the pictures. For serious. These are the only pictures I was able to scrounge up from people's fb accounts. I really wish I could find the group picture of all the sisters. Usually we have everyone trying to take a picture from 4893759843720 different cameras, but this time we failed.

Husband and Wife

A bit blurry, but cute!

A few of the sisters at the wedding with the bride.

Third One Down

So, two weekends ago I completed my third half marathon. I had previously harbored thoughts that I could potentially one day complete a marathon. During my run I realized why that is absolutely not possible...I don't like running! And it hurts! Yes, yes I do realize that I run a lot and its weird for me to not like something I do frequently. I always have such (what I like to call) Race Regret. I get super pumped and excited when I sign up for races but then the morning of when I'm waking up way before the sun is up to eat my toast and lace up my shoes, my thoughts are "what the F*CK was I thinking?!?!?!"

This race was held in Richmond and I took my first American train down to Richmond. I really enjoyed it and it was very relaxing! If I had driven down I would have had a severe case of road rage and would really be hating life. I met up with my dad (my running partner) and ate dinner before the race. He wouldn't let me have the beer I wanted to go with my pizza (beer has carbs too!). Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to wait outside for 30 minutes in 30 degree weather...not fun! The race started off really well. This could have something to do with the fact that we snuck up to the 1st corral..such a lifesaver when you don't spend half of your energy sprinting and dodging back and forth around other people. It got to be about 60 degrees by the end of the race and even though I could see my breath coming out of my mouth I was sweating bullets and contimplated on running in just my sports bra. Hello Richmond! I'm half naked in December! I can say for a fact that I will never be running in Richmond again...too many hills! Jesus! Every time I'd run around the corner there seemed to be another fucking one. Not something that you want to see when you are running for 13 miles. My calves BURNED and were not happy. BUT the great thing is that I finished with my best time yet! 2:13...3 minutes faster than my best time. Imagine what it would have been if there weren't any hills. Let's see how fast I can get the next one...yes, I am already signed up for another one (refer again to how I hate running...). My goal is to one day finish in under 2 hours. 1:59 would be fine with me!

During the course of 13.1 miles, I saw a barefoot runner, I almost got hit by a car (damn crazy minivan drivers), saw 26 signs (A is for Awesome, etc.) and a few other memeorable signs:

• Stop reading this sign and run.
• Smile, you're getting laid tonight.
• Pain is temporary. Pride is forever.
• Run like a cheetah.
• Beer is this way.

Guess its time to start training for the next one...

Happy 1st Birthday!!!!!

Happy 1st birthday Searching for a Destination Unknown!!! Wow, I can't believe I've been blogging for a whole year! How time flies and how quickly your life can change within a year. It all started with this post. I started this blog to give myself something to be happy about and shed some joy in my life. Last year I was working in a miserable job with no future, living in a city I HATED, living with my parents AGAIN, always worried I'd run into my ex-fiance, and overall completly miserable. Fast forward a year later and I live on my own, in DC (yay for big cities again!), have a job I like with huge future potential, and am overall pretty damn happy with my life. Not bad for just a year!

I do, however, miss being really close distance wise to a group of lovely females who were always down to go to the bar and drink for happy hour. We were also at the same point in life pretty much and had a lot of things in common. Up here, all of my friends are dispersed and it takes a while for anyone to get anywhere and everyone is so busy (as am I) that its hard to get people together and everyone is pretty much in different stages of their lives. Not that I'm complaining, I'm happy for them. It's just different. Oh well.

So, in the past year, I have...
-written 94 posts.
-been viewed 2224 times.
-went global thanks to an innocent post I wrote about the guy from 52 Burrito Dates.
-been viewed in 13 countries:

• US
• Ireland
• United Kingdom
• Canada
• Russia
• Malaysia (really!??!?!)
• Poland
• Ecuador (really!??!?!)
• Lithuania (really!??!?!)
• China (really!??!?!)
• India
• Slovenia (really!??!?!)
• Sweden

**HELLOOOOO all you interesting people out there reading my blog!**

Whoa its been a crazy and exciting year! Stay tuned for what great adventures are in store for the next year!

The Energizer Bunny Aint Got Nothing on Me

I am just purely exhausted. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I over book and then I end up being super super super tired ALL THE TIME. For eample, this weekend, I am attending my sorority semi-formal as an advisor Friday night, I am volunteering Saturday morning at the Food Bank, going to a wedding on Saturday night, and on Sunday trying to relax, clean my apartment, run errands and squeeze in Harry Potter. I also need a manicure like whoa, a pedicure too probably. Running that half marathon last week wreaked some major havoc on my feet. There is also a Game Night at my apartment that I'd like to go to Friday night, I'd like to meet more people in my apartment building so that should be a good way to do so. I also need to go to the cleaners to get a few things altered. I'm also going to a meeting tonight for an hour to hopefully get more work at work. Yes, I know...crazy.

Next week is Thanksgiving, and I'm going to drive home and also run a 5K, the weekend after that I'm considering driving home again to possibly celebrate my birthday, weekend after that IS my birthday (craziness WILL ensue!), the weekend after that my two best friends might come up for another of my birthday parties or there is another party already planned in Fredericksburg, then its CHRISTMAS. Christmas ALREADY??? Where has the year gone?!?!?!?

Phew, I'm tired already just thinking about it all!

The Midlik Wedding

She's married!!!!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know I'm about a week late one this one...don't shoot me! Life has just been so busy and I've been so tired that it totally slipped my mind to post! And I also find it really odd that we never posed as a group of bridesmaids/bride (besides the professional ones) at the church or reception. Oh well! I can't wait to see the professional pictures!

The festivities started on Friday night when we had rehearsals and then went off to Marker 20 for dinner and drinks. This was SUPPOSED to be a quiet evening where we all went to bed early in preparation for the big day. WRONG. Because we thought it would be a brilliant idea to stay out at the bar until 1:30 am and have a dance party. But it was okay since the bride was there too! We even took shots...NOT SMART when you have to be up at 6:30am the next morning! And to top it off and make it even better we were at the Best Western hotel bar with other randoms and we just danced and drank the night away.

So Saturday morning came around and we were hating life. Well, some of us more than others....thankfully I didn't decide to take more than 1 shot. Mimosas started at 8:30 then off to continental breakfast and then to get our hair done. Melissa and Emily's hair took the longest (2 1/2 hours EACH), you'd have thought they were Cousin It from the Adam's Family! Mine was pretty short and easy and it turned out really great. After our hair was done, it was off to Tropical Smoothie for a quick lunch then back to the hotel to get ready. We were transported to the church by Crystal's lovely family (I LOVED her mom and dad!). The ceremony was quick and beautiful and then we were off to stand outside for like 30 minutes while we get our pictures taken. Hopefully the pain of freezing to death doesn't show in our pictures and we all look great! The sun also decided to be a pain and I'm sure there is a squint or two to ruin a picture. We didn't take many pictures throughout either night, but here are a few I stole off different people's FB accounts. Oh the joy!

USPS delivers! I got so confused because I only saw the back of this guy when he came in and my first thought was "OH MY GOD, THEY DID GOT A STRIPPER!" Thankfully, it was just her dad who works for the post office! He brought her the book version of the father/daughter dance they were going to do! So cute!

Joel and the girls had a dance party alllll niiiiiiight loooooong!

Thumbs up!

Mikey and the girls...He likes it, he likes it! (A Life cereal commerical refrence!)

Before partying...please note a family member came to our door and presented us with a whole cooler of beers to choose from!

Best picture of the night!

Pretty bride getting ready for the big moment.

Lighting the unity candle

YAY!

Saying their vows to each other

Introducing Mr & Mrs Midlik

Always love a good black and white photo

On the party bus...yes, I said party bus! We took a party bus from the church to the reception. Def the way to go!

YUMMY CAKE! I think the cake is one of the best parts of any wedding!

Erika and I getting down.

We Salute You

Happy Veterans Day to all of those who have served our mighty country, past and present. I come from a military based family, so days like this have extra meaning to me. Sadly, I think most Americans do not understand this holiday and just see it as a day off work or school. This is a travesty and should be fixed.


I'd like to give a special thanks to all those veterans I know:

Dad

Jeremy

Uncle Greg

Mr. Bell

Mr. Nunes

Tim

Greg

Greg

Andrew

Buster

Jason

Gabe

Anthony

Matt

Matt

Alex

Caleb

Amy

Ben

Bob

Charlie

Chris

Chrissy

Cliff

Doug

Ebo

Garrett

Jason

Jason

Jessi

John

Jon

John

John

Tiffney

Greg

Justin

Kharlos

Kyle

Rob

Mark

Mike

Nick

Nicholas

Robert

Trevor

Will

Yes, I realize that this list is mostly by alphabet...thank you FB. I have so many military friends that I wanted to make sure I got everyone (or mostly everyone!) I probably forgot somebody, and if so, I appologize!

This Day in History v. 16

The Breakfast Club. No, not the movie...the eatery. I treated Hannah for her birthday by going to The Breakfast Club down the street in Angel. We had often longingly walked past in the morning smelling the lovely auroma of breakfast cooking in the crisp London air. Often we were willing to spend the extra quid and go but the queue outside was looming around the corner and we were usually too famished to wait that long. Once we finally went inside, we understood why people often waited over an hour to eat brekky here. It was delish! And the inside was super cute and had lots of random things along the walls and games for everyone to play while they waited. However, it was super small inside, but as to be expected for many places to eat.

There are 4 locations and I bet every one of them are just as busy as the Angel location. It's THAT GOOD. They even give away the cute little pins in the first picture of this post. We wore our badges with P-R-I-D-E!

Me enjoying my pancakes and smoothie

Hannah loving on her pancakes and smoothie as well!

The outside of the Angel locaiton

Just some of the yummy goodies they serve

The inside

They always have a sign out front with really cute sayings.

Cuddle Me

EEEKKKK!

That's one way to get your point across...

This Day in History v.30

Me, Dana, and Lora waiting for the fireworks

Happy Guy Fawkes Day! Hannah and I met up with Lora the second time (a Phi Mu that lives in London and is married to a British bloke) to partake on a British tradition of celebrating Guy Fawkes Day. We met Dana, a Phi Mu from Lora's chapter, and made the trek up to North London to a huge park to watch the fireworks. It was super cold as you can tell :)

Funny story, I randomly found Lora through myspace...true story! There was a Phi Mu group page on myspace and I posted a question wondering if anyone knew of any Phi Mus in London because I was going to be living there. Another random Phi Mu posted that she knew her sister Lora was living over there...and history was made :) Lora was our psuedo mom while we were living there. Even though she was our age she seemed to have her act together a lot more than us! Her and her husband had a cute little flat in Finsbury Park and she would cook us yummy American food when we got home sick. Thank you Lora, we will forever be in your debt!

Anyways, a little history on Guy Fawkes Night:

This is an annual celebration held on the evening of 5 November to mark the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy the House of Parliament in London. The occasion is primarily celebrated in Great Britain where, by an Act of Parliament called The Thanksgiving Act, it was compulsory until 1859, to celebrate the deliverance of the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It is also celebrated in some former British colonies including New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, parts of the Caribbean and the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. Bonfire Night was celebrated in Australia until the mid-to-late 1970s, when sale and public use of fireworks was made illegal and the celebration was effectively abolished. Festivities are centred on the use of fireworks and the lighting of bonfires.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot

So Fly Like a G6

Homecoming 2010

Phew...where to start? This past weekend was EPIC. I am so glad that Homecoming only comes once a year because I don't think my liver could take it more often than that. What makes Homecoming even better? It falls on Halloween weekend! Fancy dress party? YESSSSSS please! I loved seeing people I haven't seen in two years, some even more. I never enjoyed or even considered going to Homecoming until I moved away. Now that everyone else has moved too, it makes Homecoming that much more fun! There were even a few new CNU legacies come join our team :)

While we didn't actually go to the game, enjoy the random pictures of the day:

Some of the beautiful women at the tailgating.

Wow, this campus looks NOTHING like when I attended university!

Look what we found!

Captain Chris looks creepy.

Starting to drink at 8am is HARD WORK.

Plaza how I missed thee!

Joshy poo and I

Apparently we are ghetto when in the 'Newz.

Oh lord...we should never drink from 8am.

The man in the mask was who woke me up from my nap. Its a good thing my hand eye coordination wasn't at its' best that night.

Vampire ballerinas are thirsty at night.

One of 785947389578493 pictures we have just like this...well, minus the costumes.

Apparently they don't like you dancing on the bar. Who would have known?

Something was really funny apparently.