Sunday I said I was doing something "random, spontaneous and pretty stupid"... well I haven't disappointed lol. Here's what I have done. Much to the chagrin to my dogs...... Sunday morning I left my house with my mom and we drove to Mentor, OH (just northeast of Cleveland). It was about a 6 hour drive. Why go there? Because almost every winter I feel robbed of snow. It seems like everyone gets snow EXCEPT me! So frustrated, I decided to take things into my own hands. I saw an upcoming Lake Effect Snowstorm was headed to Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. So logically the only thing to do was go! Haha. So Saturday night my mom and I decided we were gonna do this... but wait until Sunday morning to pick WHERE exactly we wanted to go. So Sunday I wake up, look at the weather maps and decide Mentor, OH was the place to go! So that's what we did... we drove for 6 hours, in pouring rain, wet snow, fog and wind...... Once we finally got to OH, we really just chilled. Went out to eat, sight see and on Monday we went to Lake Erie and BOY was it COLD! The winds were around 45mph and the waves were crashing! Monday night while driving, we kinda got caught up in a heavy snow squall... it was certainly an adventure. The interstates, MAJOR HIGHWAYS, were completely covered in snow! That was ... "fun" lol. My poor mom was so stressed driving in that! Haha... well we got back to our room safely and that was that. This morning (Tuesday) when I woke up... my mom was watching The Weather Channel and on my laptop and the first thing she said to me this morning was " so, you ready to go to Syracuse!?" Haha I was shocked but we talked about it for a few minutes and decided Syracuse was about to get hit with even more snow than Ohio and that we'd head that way. So after I took a quick pic outside our Ohio hotel... ... we headed to New York! As soon as we got in the Buffalo area, it POURED snow and it was bad! It amazes me how bad the roads were! Anyway we barely made it to the hotel... and I'm glad we made it when we did. The only problem NOW is the fact that we literally are snowed in here. It's pouring snow out and there's no way the van can make it on the roads anytime soon. And that has me nervous. :/ Anyway we will see how things go. We are right outside of Syracuse in Warners, NY and I really hope to GO to Syracuse, a 10 minute drive, and explore the city. I've always been curious as to how the city was and what it's like. We shall see! That's all for now! Stay tuned!
UPDATE:
It's now January 6, but I wanted to briefly update what happened the rest of the trip. First off... we spent one night in Warners, NY. Then to be closer to everything, we decided the next morning to brave the snow and move to a hotel closer to downtown Syracuse. Good choice. (I just want to mention that as I'm typing this... 2 bombs just went off in Annapolis and Hanover... so I'm hopping from this post to the news and back to the post). Anyway, my mom and I walked thru downtown Syracuse, found a BEAUTIFUL outdoor skating area right in downtown surrounded by Christmas lights and music. It was magical. The people are nice. The land is gorgeous. Loved it... here are the rest of the pics from the trip...
So after getting back from Asheville, NC Thanksgiving was right on top of me. And with that I went to my dads and helped get ready for Turkey Day. Here is a pic of what the dining room area looked like the night before everyone came over. Sexy right? I know, I helped :P Anyway everyone came over and it was a great :D
Now after Thanksgiving you decorate for Christmas! And that's exactly what I've been doing! Here's a few pics.
Above: Wrapping lights around my neck... always playing lol
I have come to terms with the fact that I am a horrible blogger. You may not think so, since I have had this blog running successfully for approaching 5 years now... but it's the little things like me saying I will post "tomorrow" and "tomorrow" turn into "next week". Lol... and that's exactly the case for this post. Last week I said I would post about Asheville the next day... and a week later I'm finally getting to it :)
Ok so here we go... I try and do these things in order that they occured, however that may be a bit tough this time around. We will just have to see how this post goes... shoot I could've been halfway done if I wasn't blabbering off on the keyboard explaining what a horrible blogger I was :P
Tuesday, November 16 - Well I flew down to Asheville on Tuesday. Got there around 3:30pm and as soon as I saw Jared's car pulling up... I heard the familiar scream, "MIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCC"... yes the wonderful Elizabeth Presley was welcoming me in the way she can only do, and she does every single time I fly down :D That's when I know I have officially arrived at my second home. This time Jared was driving, his new beau, Nils, was in the passenger seat and Elizabeth was in the back with me. We go to the house but then Elizabeth and I went to get something to eat at Ianucci's and we left the boys behind so we could catch up. We went back and just had an overall good evening. Rachel and Garrett came over and Rachel cut my hair pretty short, and for the first time I had my eyebrows waxed. OUUCHHH! Haha... but it looked good :)
Wednesday, November 17 - I honestly have no idea what we did this day lol. I could look back on my Twitter and see... but I don't feel like it... and it's not like you really care anyway :P... actually I just went back in time on Facebook and saw that I went to The Grove Park with Jared, Nils, Elizabeth and Anthony. Fun times... we walked around this cool place and we looked at a whole bunch of gingerbread houses. Of course, here are some pics lol.
Thursday, November 18 - Ok I've decided I'm too lazy for this post. Lol... soooooooo I'm not gonna do it day by day anymore... im just gonna give you a run down of the rest of the trip in random order...
- went to a mall in Greenville, SC with Rachel. It was a pleasant hour drive each way and got some amazing chocolate :) - had a party in the basement with just Jared, Eizabeth, Anthony and I. It was random and strange lol. - got really sick the last 2 days there. My nose was a virtual waterfall. Ew. - overall a nice retreat from all the drama that people brought into my life. I love Asheville and can't wait to go back. :)
So... I have finally made time to explain the past 4 weeks or so. I figured that after everything has happened, yet before I fly down to Asheville would be the perfect time to catch you up. I am warning you though, I will probably leave some stuff out and I will make it as short as possible... however this will still be a very large, likely biggest post I have ever posted in the past 4+ years this blog has been in use. Ok let's go in order from beginning to now...
Visit Christie at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA
Friday, October 22- Sunday, October 24
Ok, so after a 3 and something hour drive through the Virginia mountains watching a beautiful sunset in the western horizon, I arrived at James Madison University in the mid evening hours. I get a warm welcome from Ms. White, get my bags settled into her dorm and then we pretty much immediately head off to dinner and start making plans for our evening. We eventually decide to go to a sorority party... boy... what followed next is almost indescribable lol. Let me start with the "Drunk Bus" ride. That is an adventure all on it's own. We were at the bus stop at around 10:30PM and people were already drunk HEADING to the parties. But anyway, people had jukeboxes blasting and I'd say about 100, possibly more, college students were singing "Don't Stop Believin' " in perfect unison. After waiting about 3o mins or so, the first bus came... and let me tell you... I have NEVER seen a human stampede like that one. I literally went into partial shock lol. Thankfully that was not our bus, however ours arrived about 5 mins later. So Christie and I get on the bus, ride about 30 mins and then we finally arrive at our pre-game party at the sorority house. Christie and I had already had a couple shots of Vodka before we arrived... but as soon as we got there... they practically shoved gulps of Vodka down our throats haha. This is where I leave details out and just say... I got very drunk, took some hilarious videos and pics, went to a crazy party down the street where I blacked out for a time, made it back to the house, thought I was gonna die, called my mom and other people and so much more lol. Here are just a few pics from that night...
Christie and I eventually passed out at the sorority house, and we both lived. Now, Saturday comes along... we wake up, I have THE WORST hang over I believe possible... we get a ride back to her dorm and I just crash onto her bed and sleep most of the day away. Let me tell you, I did not know hang overs could be that bad. Whoa! Lol. Anyway, that night we just chilled, stayed in and played on the computer and had some friends over, we did go watch a soccer game... that was fun. All in all a much more chill night lol. Sunday was very easy going. I slept in a bit, said good bye to Christie and started my next journey... to Buckhannon, WV to visit Courtney.
Visit Courtney at W. Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, WV
Sunday, October 24 - Thursday, October 28
Life changing? Maybe, not quite. What do I mean? Well let's rewind to the very beginning of the West Virginia trip. To get there, I had to drive 3 1/2 hours on a two lane state and county road through steep mountains, hours without cell phone reception. It was an interesting drive for sure. Isolated and feeling alone most of the time, however it was a beautiful drive and a good experience, however one that only needs to happen once lol. Anyway I get to Buckhannon, and pull into the college. One of the very first things I do once I get settled into Courtney's dorm is take a shower. Lol. Then she takes me on a tour of Buckhannon......we eat at CJ Maggies with some of her "friends" and then go back to her dorm and we play some Family Feud with Jessica, Matt and Tim... I think that's it. I don't remember, cuz honestly that night is the only non drama filled one lol. But it was a fun night :P
The innocence and uncomplicated memories of night number 1 are but a distant memory. Now, as far as Monday - Thursday go... I will tread these waters carefully. And I am opting to leave some, if not most details out. In doing so, it will eliminate a lot of drama and information and thus will make this post much smaller than it would've been. However, I will do the best I can, breaking things down by day.
Monday- During the day, everything was fine. Not much happened. At night however, LLLOONNNNGGG story short, we had another Family Feud night and this time a guy named Todd and his then boyfriend were invited to come over and play. Nor Courtney or I knew Todd or his boyfriend, but somehow they got invited via Facebook. Now, Todd chose to come over and his boyfriend chose not to. We had a good night and Todd left and that was that. Todd and Courtney seemed to have hit it off pretty good Monday night. Then as Courtney and I were getting ready for bed... Todd contacted us and said he and his boyfriend had a fight and he needed somewhere to stay... and THIS is where details are left out. Todd, myself and Courtney were up until 7AM talking, laughing and watching TV. Good times.
Tuesday- Well after about 2 hours of sleep, we all got up and about. It was an ok day. Not too too much to say. You know, with me having to leave most things out. But I will tell you Todd had to stay the night again. And that started some drama Tuesday night.
Wednesday- This, arguably, may be the most drama filled day of my life. And if not, it's certainly top 3. It ended with a physical exchange between Todd and his ex, Courtney forcing the ex out. And a ton of drama that followed. Peaking at a point I could not stand any longer. I chose to remove myself from the situation and packed my things... however I couldn't leave Todd there alone or make him stay with Courtney and put her well being at risk by "harboring" him. So I invited Todd along with me to go to a hotel in a neighboring city. And that's what we did. Unannounced we packed our things, he from his dorm he shared with his ex, and I, my things from Courtney's dorm... and we left. I then called Courtney and informed her of things while she was talkig to the "mad mob" down the hall. I get to my car and found this lovely note on the windshield......isn't that mature!? Gotta love how some people are raised or choose to act. Now, I am SO SO SO tempted to name names, go on a rant and callout these lower-than-scum-pieces of trash... but I won't. I'm bigger than that. Anyway Todd and I get to the hotel and actually had a decent evening and overnight sans the drama. Anyway here is a pic of Todd sleeping in the covers lol. Now let's move to Thursday.
Thursday- Wake up. Drop Todd back off at college. Say a very VERY quick goodbye to Courtney. And then I returned home with a much more elaborate and detailed story for my family. What a trip.
Halloween Party at Paige Hill's House
Friday, October 29
To start off, this years party, for me at least, was not as enjoyable as last years. But SOOOO much was different this year from last in my life. Last year I was happily in a relationship, had a ton of friends, the confidence of a pro wrestler and everything was looking up. This year, you can pretty much just reverse all of those things lol. I'm single, although for now at least that's probably best. My friends have all either moved away, are busy, or I have discovered are secretly selfish backstabbers. Because of my last relationship my self esteem and confidence went through the floor... thankfully I'm making a comeback from that, slowly but surely. And as far as the future, it looks ok. I am trying my best to shape it to be a positive one... but really only time will tell. But I definitely see how it will be more of a positive than a negative one :) Now, back to the party that I somehow got sidetracked from lol. It was ok... not as many people there that I knew last time. I mean it was a good time... but I don't know... I guess mentally I just wasn't there. At least I had a GREAT story to tell everyone from the previous weeks events! Haha! After the party, I picked up Kristianna and we sat in the McDonald's parking lot and just talked for hours. It was nice.
Give Mom a Tour of DC
Monday, November 1 - Tuesday, November 2
So you may be surprised to learn that even though my mom has lived 40 mins from DC pretty much all of her life... she had never really seen the city. So we decided to do an overnight trip to DC and I would show her the city. Of course we stayed at my beloved Hilton Garden Inn Downtown :) SOOOO many memories have happened there. Later that night we went to this French restaurant I have walked by countless times before and wondered how the food was. I believe it is called Bistro Bistro. It was ok. I tried mozzarella cheese made from buffalo milk. Ew. Anyway I gave her a tour and on Tuesday we got haircuts from the fantastic stylest Jonathan at PR and Partners. Who just happens to be a great friend of mine :) And of course Aris works there too so I got to see him too :D All in all it was a good trip :)
Phil Visits
Wednesday, November 3 - Monday, November 8
Yayyyyy :D As you know, or possibly you don't but you should, Phil is one of my closest and longest known friends I have. As you recall, he came down last year to visit me while I was with Nic. Well he came back down this month :D I mentioned that in previous posts, but there was one small change. We had to stay at a hotel. I just wasn't ready to spring having people spend the night on my dad quite yet... in time though. Anyway we really only did one thing really worth mentioning while he was here... and that was we went to TOWN Friday night. I had SO much fun! I don't think I've ever had that much fun at the club before... I usually hate the club, but not this time. It was awesome :D Anyway, honestly there isn't much to say about Phils visit. We hung out with Elle, went to my dads, hung out with Kristianna and pretty much that's it. I was sad when I had to take him back to the airport on Monday... but all good things must come to an end.
Impromptu Visit To West Virginia... Again
Thursday, November 11 - Sunday, November 14
So you may think I am crazy... but I went back. I wanted to spend some time with Todd. So I went back, unannounced except to him. You would think I learned my lesson from my previous visit. But I did not. I will not mention much of the trip except I did enjoy myself. It was pretty fun and relaxing. However, one night, the same scum that messed with me last time, searched for my car and egged it one evening. We called the cops and had them taken care of. People are so stupid sometimes. In the end I had fun and laugh in the pitiful faces of such insecure people.
Well that's that! My whirlwind month of excitement and adventure. And it continues tomorrow when I fly to Asheville and visit my friends and family down there. I am so excited! And you bet I will be posting about THAT in the days to come. :)
So I just got back from a 4 day trip to West Virginia Wesleyan College... again... and more drama happened! I will explain everything as in the coming days. I know I haven't been doing very well at updating... but a lot is going on! Maybe I will tomorrow... or maybe I will at the airport Tuesday or possibly while I'm in Asheville.
So as eluded to in the previous post, I have been busy. Very busy. This is why I haven't posted much. What you have been missing for the past 2 weeks range from drunken nights in Virginia, to drama filled romantical happenings in West Virginia, to running from a friends scorned ex in the the same state. How about a new hair style and giving my mom a tour of DC? Phil comes down tomorrow, and so much more. Yup a lot has happened and it will probably have to wait until next week for me to explain. Excited!?
Alright so I have eluded to this for a while now and I can finally say that the plans are all falling into place enough for me to announce them. Are you ready? Ok.
This weekend I will be going to the mountains of Virginia to visit Christie at college and have a good time. Then I plan on going from there to Courtney's college in West Virginia the beginning of next week. And then head home the middle of next week. Then at the end of the month I plan on going to Paige Hill's Halloween costume party for the second year in a row. Last year was a blast :) Then November 3 Phil is coming down from New York! I'm so excited! I can't wait to see my friend again after a year :D He's staying with my dad and I... my dad just doesn't know this yet haha... I hope he understands! Anyway Phil stays here for about 5 days then I take him back to the airport. Then a week later I will be making my own way to the airport to fly down to Asheville, NC to visit Jared and Elizabeth and my whole North Carolina family :) I CANT WAIT! Then I fly home just in time to have Thanksgiving with my dad and the family.
Now as far as December goes, I'm having a battle with myself about that one. I'm not sure if I want to start working or if I want it to be busy like October and November... or maybe even chill? That my friends, is to be determined.
So there you have it! BUSY BUSY BUSY! In this relatively emotionally difficult and confusing time for me after a recent break up, I need to be busy and distracted, and I sure as heck plan on being just that... BUSY and DISTRACTED :)
So its 4am and I'm still up. Why? Because I have no job lol. AND because I'm excited and using my BRAND NEW MACBOOK PRO! I bought it earlier and am loving every minute of it. I can take my entire life on the road with me now! Whether it's down the street or across the globe :) I'm so excited! But I should probably get some sleep now lol. Oh and by the way... that announcement I eluded to a few days ago will be announced tomorrow :)
So many big things are about to happen. I assure you they will be worth blogging about too. More to come. I'm working out the details now. The end of fall 2010 and all of winter 2010 are looking to be amazing. :)
No my post title has no meaning... it was just the first thing to pop into my mind lol. Anyway let's see... what has been happening the past week or so? Hmmm. Well David and I went to DC and did some fun things there. We rode the metro a lot. We went to this place called "Corner Bakery" and OMG IT WAS SO DELICIOUS! Then we went to the Pentagon. A place called Pentagon City which has a HUGE 4-5 level mall and its own metro stop. I got in a little tiff with a ghetto girl who hit me with her stroller and then yelled at me. Then we went to DuPont and walked around. It was nice. Also later in the week we saw "The Social Network". Nothing else really has happened. Haha lame I know. Oh and also as seen in the previous post, Jolene graduated doggy school.
After 8 weeks of vigorous training, Jolene has graduated doggy school :) She can now sit, lay down, come, leave it and watch me. All good, fundamental tricks a dog needs to know. CONGRATS JOLENE!
So lately ... as in all of my adult life, I have always spent way too much money on eating out. And now that I'm approaching 5 months of unemployment, you'd think that with no income, I would've found a way to curb... or even completely halt my spending on culinary tastiness... well you'd be wrong. Being unemployeed gives you nothing but time. And to fill that time, I have eaten... and eaten and eaten. Olive Garden, Friendly's, Chili's, T.G.I. Fridays... and so many more places I lose track. So why am I talking about this? Well... I have no clear reason or goal from it. Just felt like talking about it. I love food and I love eating out. Lol.
Well, like I said in the previous post, David and I went to Dutch Country (Lancaster County, PA) this weekend. And it was a nice, relaxing getaway. From doing "modern" things such as bowling and going to the golf range to the more "Amish" things like walking thru little towns, buying Amish made foods and watching horse drawn carriages drive on by, it was a beautiful vacation. And driving around for hours thru the rolling hills seeing all the Amish homes, villages and farms was absolutely breath taking. I have posted some pics below for your viewing pleasure :)
Bowling at the 24 hour 52 lane bowling alley
Golfing range...
...I sucked, but loved getting some frustrations out on the balls.
Beautiful scenery...
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Small town charm
I have no idea what they were doing.
I ate an ice cream here... it got ALLL over my hands.
... Sunday morning I left my house with my mom and we drove to Mentor, OH (just northeast of Cleveland). It was about a 6 hour drive. Why go there? Because almost every winter I feel robbed of snow. It seems like everyone gets snow EXCEPT me! So frustrated, I decided to take things into my own hands. I saw an upcoming Lake Effect Snowstorm was headed to Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. So logically the only thing to do was go! Haha. So Saturday night my mom and I decided we were gonna do this... but wait until Sunday morning to pick WHERE exactly we wanted to go. So Sunday I wake up, look at the weather maps and decide Mentor, OH was the place to go! So that's what we did... we drove for 6 hours, in pouring rain, wet snow, fog and wind...
... Once we finally got to OH, we really just chilled. Went out to eat, sight see and on Monday we went to Lake Erie and BOY was it COLD! The winds were around 45mph and the waves were crashing! 
Monday night while driving, we kinda got caught up in a heavy snow squall... it was certainly an adventure. The interstates, MAJOR HIGHWAYS, were completely covered in snow! 
That was ... "fun" lol. My poor mom was so stressed driving in that! Haha... well we got back to our room safely and that was that. This morning (Tuesday) when I woke up... my mom was watching The Weather Channel and on my laptop and the first thing she said to me this morning was " so, you ready to go to Syracuse!?" Haha I was shocked but we talked about it for a few minutes and decided Syracuse was about to get hit with even more snow than Ohio and that we'd head that way. So after I took a quick pic outside our Ohio hotel...
