This past weekend the ladies of the bridal party took Miss. Stephanie to Ocean City, MD for her bachelorette party and we all had an absolute blast! While I am not at liberty to disclose all of the events that took place; in fact I signed something that limits my descriptions of the weekend to "we just drank wine and talked about the wedding plans..."
However, as all the girls start sharing pictures there's a series from all the sets that include a lurker and seeing him keeps cuing the jaws theme music in my head. I think it's hilarious so I'm going to share this one little piece from our otherwise quiet bachelorette party ;)
Steph having a good time
But oh, what's this? (cue music...du-nuh du-nuh)
DU-NUH DU-NUH DU-NUN DU-NUH
Woah buddy! You are so not the bride, and you're not even cute...
Ok, get your hands off her, it's time for you to go. Fortunately he did leave us alone, but not until he managed to show up on every single camera we brought with us. LOL
It's so funny to walk into a room and see the cat just sprawled out in the sun... This is why I have so many pictures of her on my phone, it's usually the closest available camera.
I'm still trying to get over my need to have something really important and interesting to say before I initiate a new blog entry. I need to stop, so since no one else will tell me, I'll say it to myself...
"Kim, you're just not that interesting, stop worrying about it so much!"
There, that feels better. This is no longer my blog, it's my glorified facebook status site. Now I feel no pressure to be clever, funny, or entertaining in any way. I'm just going to be.
Today I'm a bit restless and I'm annoyed with the chill in the air as well as my lingering runny nose and the cough it's turned into.
I love Renee’s blog title from last week “It’s Monday, I should blog”. I know the feeling! I always think I should blog but I can’t think of anything to write. No household of crazy kids to report on in our lives, but we’ve been busy nonetheless so I’ll just do a random update.
The holidays were crazy and fun and basically the usual running around and visiting with family. We spent a very hectic Christmas day with my family in Delaware, tore through mountains of presents, watched a movie, feasted, and I ended the evening hanging with mom in the hot tub chatting and soaking away a stress filled month.
The Saturday after, we headed to Massachusetts to visit the DeStratis family, played new games, and enjoyed seeing how much Mitchell had grown and changed since we last saw him. We’re looking forward to visiting again as Cameron is due to arrive very soon! While there I also got to reconnect with Laura, an old college friend, for a wonderful afternoon of chatting over lunch and perusing the isles of Barnes & Noble.
Chris and I got to spend some time relaxing at home since I had taken the whole week between holidays off from work. Chris unfortunately spent a good bit of that week sick, but got to play games and still had energy to hang out with people, so it wasn’t a total bust but still stinks he wasn’t feeling well.
Elin came to visit for New Years so we invited people over, filled the basement with good friends and toasted as 2008 rolled over into 2009. She and I headed to New York the next day to meet up with Sarah, the other original 108 and the three of us spent an unhurried afternoon catching up, eating an excellent lunch and visiting the Guggenheim Then we were treated to her boyfriend’s fabulous cooking and ended the evening playing games before having to drive home.
Not everyone who wanted to could make it to the New Years Eve party so before Elin went back to the bitter cold of Minnesota, we hosted yet another get together. I love having people over to my house to hang out and I love the fact that it’s always so relaxed and laid back. I can only hope everyone who comes over feels as comfortable in my home as I do. All are welcome, I’ll make chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes!
As the last Monday in January winds to a close for me here at work, I’m marveling at how quickly a whole month has elapsed, but if January is any indication, it is going to be an awesome year. I think I’ve already had an opportunity to spend quality time with almost every person who is important to me (including the last week in December). Furthermore this year we’re looking forward to welcoming a new DeStratis baby, Cameron, who will be here before we know it. My brother will get married to a wonderful woman who is already a part of the Bartlett family in every other way. Chris and I will celebrate 5 terrific years of being married. We’re excited to share this with our wedding party “plus” who’ll help us celebrate in OBX, where Chris proposed. I’d love to say I’m going to slow down and enjoy it all, but break-neck seems to be my default speed so I’m just going to buckle in, enjoy the ride and try not to miss a thing!
I joke a lot about how old I feel, not really because of any mental or physical aging, per say, but because everyone around me seems to be growing up and changing. My baby sister graduated from college in May, decided to continue to live four states away, and got a "real job". My little brother owns his own home and is getting married in May. Youth group kids that I remember from when they were in high school are getting married and one even has an adorable little girl! But 28 is not really that old considering I am hard pressed to remember a time when I didn't have a computer in my home.
Granted I was spoiled since my dad owned his own IT company, so I'm pretty sure we had a computer before a lot of people. And I do remember dos; that awful blue screen, having to remember exactly how to type the file you wanted, and word was basically a typewriter on a screen. Still, I can't remember not having one. If you told me today to write a research paper without using the internet, I don't think I could do it.
Computers have come a long way in my lifetime and I remember things changing as windows was upgraded; now you can play solitaire! The internet was introduced; turn computer on, make sandwich while you wait for dial-up, play on the internet till someone needs the phone. Then there was instant messaging; lose hours of sleep as chatting to all my friends at once replaced talking on the phone long into the night. Now even that has been taken one step further with my new favorite thing, facebook!
I always enjoy chatting with my friends online, and I knew of facebook, however the fact that anyone can just look you up and be your friend was a little unnerving to me. There are people I've known whom I'd rather not find me so easily; for some it was hard enough to sever ties the first time, so that was my excuse not to join. Then I started getting bugged to sign up, and I went to my 10 year reunion and had fun catching up with people there, so I decided that after my exam I would go for it.
Now I'm officially addicted. I've been throwing virtual snowballs, sending plants, getting in bar fights, kidnapping people, and beating up mobsters, and I can't make myself stop! I love seeing what other people are up to through the status updates, checking out people's pictures, and writing on the walls of people I haven't seen in years! I've owned a digital camera for a long time but usually forget it at home, or bring it with me and then forget to take a single picture. Now I want to take pictures of everything so I can post them on facebook, because I'm sure everyone cares about what my cat looks like when she's mad and how many pine needles are already in my house from the giant Christmas tree in the family room.
I have to get myself under control here before I start scanning old prom pictures and making videos of my breakfast... Anyone want to join my mafia wars family? :)
So I've never been a huge baseball fan, having only really begun to actually sit down and watch it from time to time and go to games here and there since I married an avid baseball player, watcher, & follower. However, I have always been a Philadelphia fan and I did grow up as a huge Flyers fan as well as kept up with the Eagles. I won't get into my crazy fandom history but I've been a Jersey girl all my life and no matter what, will always feel a special bond with the city of Philadelphia. It's really a great city for so many reasons. Philly is known for some of the best food, sharing it's name with soft pretzels, and cheesesteaks, being home to Tastycake and some of the best restaurants you'll ever eat at. My favorite part about going to South Street when I was in school to get design supplies at Pearl was the fact that it was located directly across from Jim's; my personal favorite cheesesteak place. Philadelphia is also known as a sports town with fans who bleed Eagle's green, passionately hold onto grudges against players who have scorned them, and have the ever-present mantra of "maybe next year".
Throughout the history of sports there have been teams who have dry spells, the Red Sox only broke the curse of the Bambino five seasons ago, the Cubs are still waiting for their curse to be broken, and I could name more then a few teams that, for the sake of the franchise, had better hope there are blue skies ahead. But throughout my lifetime the city of Philadelphia has been practically winless. A quarter of a century and not a single trophy, parade, or team to boast about is a long time for a city with the passionate fans, and longevity that Philadelphia's teams have. We have four teams who have called Philly home for at least 40 years. Teams which have always been at least decent, they give you hope, they have bright shining moments of "almost" for fans to cling to, but always seem to fall just short. Then the Phillies in the last three innings of a game which began two days earlier ended on the perfect note of a perfect season for closer Brad Lidge as he struck out Eric Hinske to clinch the world series and Philadelphia, with a collective cry that was equal parts joy and surprise, was no longer a city of perpetual losers. I went to the parade here because it was three blocks from my office and I just didn't want to be so close and miss it, so around 12pm, half the office set off to watch. Unfortunately, had we really wanted to be there and see everything, we would have had to be there first thing in the morning. As I arrived to work at 8:30 there were people in the streets with Phillies gear on walking around, yelling, horns honking and becoming the makings of a ridiculous crowd. By the time my coworkers and I arrived we were probably at least 60 people deep and couldn't see a thing. Every time someone started cheering it started a wave of people following suit so I would raise my camera over my head and just start taking pictures. I'll post a couple that I took, but it's really not much to look at. But I was determined to be there and I'm glad I can at least say I was a little part of my favorite city's history.
People gathered in an open parking garage close to where we stood.
This was my view for the start of the parade thanks to the guy in front of me who let his kids take turns being on his shoulders. Not his fault really, but still...
That's the Phanatic through the trees, you see him, right?
I told you so.
Yay Confetti!
That's probably someone important, I just can't see.
Cool Phillies flag waved by someone passing by.
People were climbing anything they though would give them a better view.
Just in case you're interested, I found the Philadelphia team's dates established and the last year they won a championship. Just because I was curious. Flyers est. in '67 haven't won since back-to-back cups in '74 & '75 76ers est. in '39, haven't won since '83 Eagles est. in '33, haven't won since '60(!) Phillies est. in 1889, haven't won since '80...until now!
Back in August I had my 10 year high school reunion which I must admit I was a little wary about going to at first. I didn't really have a good reason not to go, I haven't moved very far away and it wasn't like there was anyone I was dreading to see or I had changed for the worse. So after being talked into it by Andria who insisted I'd regret it if I didn't, I found the perfect dress, awesome shoes, and couldn't think of any reason not to go.
But that was back in August, and I've been meaning to post this picture for a while now. I'm really good at making excuses as to why I haven't, one of which being that I was trying to find a picture that would be a good representation of me from high school, while not being totally embarrassing. I was unsuccessful so picture this: Kim, 15ibs heavier with slightly chubby cheeks wearing baggy jeans and an oversize flannel shirt, long straight hair and rocking bangs.
I have to say, it was a good day. I had a soccer game in the morning and Chris and I asked our friends Andria and Jon if we could hang with them the rest of the day instead of going home just to meet up with them later since we were planning on carpooling. So Andria and I made hair and nail appointments and spent the day being pampered and getting ready to look fabulous while Chris and Jon spent the afternoon playing video games. The reunion itself was fairly uneventful and with the exception of an awful senior video put together for graduation with everyone looking 10 years younger and dorkier (ok, maybe just me) and it reminded people of who wasn't there. It was nice to see people and learn who was married, had kids, living somewhere else, etc. I'll probably go back in another 10 years too, as long as I have no reason not to.
