my holiday

It's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the night before I must return back to work, and the hour after I indulged in far too many nachos and one too many beers while dining with my Lovie. Time to reflect...

This holiday weekend did me good, but it definitely did not start out so well.

On Thursday morning, I woke early as I was excited to wear my newest skirt and spend an extra fifteen minutes curling my hair for the day's special occasion. Trent and I left our house about twenty minutes later than planned (which is good for me...), and started the trek to my hometown. We drove separately, though, as he had to be back a day earlier than me.

I stopped at the grocery store on my way out of town as I needed to pick up a few ingredients for the appetizer I most recently pinned and wanted to prepare before our gigantic feast. Unlike my usual stops at the grocer's, I was outta there lighting fast and excited to get home and start the weekend.

About a year ago, I bought a new (to me) car which has a keyless entry and keyless start. Literally, KEYLESS. My car unlocks whenever the "fob" is near it and I start the car with the push of a button. Theoretically, this is a fantastic idea as one would never have to stand in the cold and dig through a purse or a pocket to find their keys. But, on this day (Thanksgiving day), this great invention did me no favors...

As I reached for my car door, with grocery bags in mitten-covered hands, the usual *ding!* did not sound as the doors unlocked (as it should when the "fob" is near). Frustrated and cold, I walked to each and every door and tried to open my car doors. Nothing. Annoyed, I walked back inside the grocery store and called Trent.

Trent was already 15 miles out of town. Luckily, though (and a bit frustrated himself...), he turned around to rescue me. Meanwhile, I walked back and forth to my car trying and retrying to get into my car. By the time Trent arrived, my precious curls had turned to frizz and my runny nose (...this was the fourth, miserable day of a cold) had made me look (and act) like a three year old as I found creative ways to stop the dripping without a tissue at hand...

Anyway, after driving across town in search for a new battery, we finally gave up our search (every place was closed), and drove to the next town where we found a replacement. Thank god.

THEN, my grumpy attitude and I started the way back to my hometown. We arrived 2 hours late. Ug. So much for that appetizer...

ANYWAY, enough sulking! The rest of the weekend was great! I ate WAY too much food, played games, and shopped my little socks off. Most of my shopping was done on-line in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. But, my mom, sister, and I still couldn't resist our Black Friday shopping tradition. We left the house at 10:00 PM and returned after 4:00 AM. Successful it was.

Friday was spent eating leftovers, more shopping, and watching "Frozen" in the very front row of a very packed theatre with my baby cousins, brother, and someday-sister-in-law.

Saturday was BAKING DAY!!!!! Several family members gathered together for an afternoon/evening of baking and sharing a dozen or more different Christmas cookie recipes. It was so great and will definitely be an annual thing...

 

Today I was lazy. And sadly, after looking closely at the picture of me above, I noticed an odd bulge near the bottom of my shirt. My belly. Good god. NO, I'm not pregnant. I went and bought my very first Cedar Falls gym membership a few hours ago. It's time to get serious.

Weekend with the Fam Bam and the Friends Schmiends

This weekend was a good one. A really, really good one. Friday evening was spent catching up with three of my old (favorite) co-workers. If I haven't said this before, I love these girls, and I really, really hope we stay in touch for the next fifty years.

Laura (the one standing next to me in the photos below) hosted our get-together this time and served us a deliciously good chicken and dumpling soup. After eating, talking, drinking, and laughing with these witty girls, we all headed to bed. Just like the slumber parties I used to have as a kid (but the drinks are stronger now). The next morning, we went out for breakfast at a tiny little mom and pop place in Ames, The Grove.

Maggie, Leanna, Laura, and me

 

After breakfast, I went to Colo and worked for a couple of hours (not because I had to, but because I really like what I do now!) and chatted with my familia.

 

That evening, my sister, brother-in-law, brother, and *someday*-sister-in-law came over for dinner. THEN, the party really started when our neighbors, the Edel's, came over with their son and his fiancé, Colby and Ashley. We played Settlers, drank, ate, and laughed lots. Then, at 11:30, my brother nonchalantly said "that Hewitt kid" was playing at the Colo bar.

 

WHAT???

 

The Famous Neil Hewitt?!?!?!

 

I jumped from my seat and into the shower and frantically made myself half-way presentable. However, being unshowered for 40 hours straight is probably pretty common at the Colo bar, so in hindsight, I regret that shower (it caused me to miss at least 40 minutes of tunes). Regardless, we made it there, drank terrible tasting shots of whisky, listened to some amazing music, played pool, and walked our butts back home.

 

 

For some reason, I can't get these last two pictures to get any bigger or allow me to write captions. SO, the first pic is of Neil (duh). It's not the greatest pic, though, as his eyes look incredibly creepy (I can't tell if they are open or closed) and I looked creepy taking the pics, so I just accepted it. The second picture is of me and Ashley. We didn't look so happy after we swallowed those gross shots. Sick.

 

I spent this morning sitting around with my mom talking about nothing and everything (really, mostly just about food). I spent the evening cooking and freezing some soup (which I have made twice this week now. it's that good.). Anyway, th th th that's all folks!

It's a new day.

Wow. So much to say since my last post (whenever the heck that was). Most importantly...remember this interview? Well I must have done alright, because I got the job! Which is why I have been so absent as of late--I can't even describe how busy I was during the last two weeks of my old job. There were several days when I woke up at 2:00 AM to start working...and didn't stop until 8 PM.

BUT I AM DONE! And I feel like a million bucks.

Anyway, today was the first day of my new job so I felt like this milestone needed to be carved into blogstone.

Surprisingly, I wasn't even nervous this morning. I think I can thank my auditing experience (showing up to new places and meeting new faces every couple of weeks) for this. Despite the fact that today was the deadline to get the October books closed (and everyone was fairly stressed), everyone was really, really friendly.

I think I'm going to like it there.


...I have a lot more to say, but my Midol hasn't kicked in enough to allow me to sit upright any longer. So until then, ta-ta!

TwT: last kiss

I haven't really followed through with my new Tuesday tradition very well, but it's not because I don't believe in the cause (it's mostly because I've been busy putting food on the table). But, after spending the last hour watching old youtube videos (I really am busy, I swear) of my favorite artist, I decided it was about time I host my second semi-monthly/weekly/annually TwT event.

The song I'd like to share with you is tied with about seven other Taylor songs on my "Favorite Songs of All Time" list and it's called, "Last Kiss." It describes the best feelings he ever gave you. It describes his best characteristics. It describes those moments with him that are so vividly engraved in your mind. It describes the sacrifices you made for him. It describes the gut-wrenching feeling you had when he left. It describes how you still want him. It describes how he'll always be the one. It describes how bad you wish he still wanted you. It describes how, despite everything, you still wish him well.

If you're going through a breakup, this is the song for you. And if you're not, it's one heck of a soothing, slow, beautiful song to put you to sleep or calm your stressful day. Enjoy!

------------------------------------------
Bold: genius lyrics.
Underline: best part(s) of the song.
Both: seriously?
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Last Kiss

Written by Taylor Swift

I still remember the look on your face

Lit through the darkness at 1:58

The words that you whispered

For just us to know

You told me you loved me

So why did you go away?

Away

I do recall now the smell of the rain

Fresh on the pavement

I ran off the plane

That July 9th

The beat of your heart

It jumps through your shirt

I can still feel your arms

But now I'll go sit on the floor

Wearing your clothes

All that I know is

I don't know how to be something you miss

I never thought we'd have a last kiss

Never imagined we'd end like this

Your name, forever the name on my lips

I do remember the swing of your step

The life of the party, you're showing off again

And I roll my eyes and then

You pull me in

I'm not much for dancing

But for you I did

Because I love your handshake, meeting my father

I love how you walk with your hands in your pockets

How you kissed me when I was in the middle of saying something

There's not a day I don't miss those rude interruptions

And I'll go sit on the floor

Wearing your clothes

All that I know is

I don't know how to be something you miss

Never thought we'd have a last kiss

Never imagined we'd end like this

Your name, forever the name on my lips

So I'll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep

And I feel you forget me like I used to feel you breathe

And I keep up with our old friends just to ask them how you are

Hope it's nice where you are

And I hope the sun shines

And it's a beautiful day

And something reminds you

You wish you had stayed

You can plan for a change in weather and time

But I never planned on you changing your mind

So I'll go sit on the floor

Wearing your clothes

All that I know is

I don't know how to be something you miss

Never thought we'd have a last kiss

Never imagined we'd end like this

Your name, forever the name on my lips

Just like our last kiss

Forever the name on my lips

Forever the name on my lips

Just like our last...


Ahh...what a GREAT song!! For those of you who want a good chuckle, this is pretty good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVIYmN5UmmM

Weekend review.

I decided not to give into the growing need I've felt to work on the weekends, and boy am I glad I didn't--I was one heck of an accomplished girl over the past few days!

On Friday I had an interview with a company in Waverly, IA. Immediately after the interview, I felt like it had gone well. But, as the weekend progressed and after I had time to analyze every single word that was said, I slowly lost my confidence. Seriously, though, this job would be perfect for me, and I'd be perfect for the job, I just hope they realize it. BUT, I won't know until sometime this week (hopefully sooner than later), and I feel like the more I think/write about it the worse my odds get. So, topic over.

On Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday I made multiple trips to Target, Scheels, Wal-Mart, Kohls, Hobby Lobby, Hy-vee, antique stores, and even did a bit of shopping on Main Street. In addition, my friend, Christy (from now on, I am going to stop saying "my friend" before referring to my friends; if relationships are unknown, hopefully you readers can use the context to figure it out), came over and did some serious rearranging and redecorating in my household. Since I don't have a before picture, here is a visual: at this time last week, there was a purple wrestling poster, framed photos of cartoon dogs, and an oddly hung black and white dock scene hanging in the living room. Just in case I haven't said this before, I'll say it now--Trent is not a designer. Not. at. all.

Yesterday, I did some serious cooking. I made some SUPERB chicken enchilada soup, chocolate chip cookies, and brandy slushes. However, with the exception of a few taste-testers, the entirety of my produce was tucked away in the freezer where it currently awaits the upcoming "Fab Four Friday" which will be held at my house this time. In attendance, will be my three favorite co-workers (and me, of course). Boy, it sure does take off some stress to have an entire meal already prepped and ready a whole freaking five days in advance. I'm not used to this feeling. 

Random.

I am writing this post while sipping my third large glass of wine for the night, so I apologize for any slurred words or run-on sentences in advance.

I currently have no plan for this here post, but I can't describe the relief I feel to finally be writing again, regardless of the lack of subject or purpose.

Random thought number one: I may be an absentee blogger as of late, but I definitely don't go a day without reading the posts of my four favorite bloggers--the twenty minutes I spend catching up on their lives really is a daily highlight of mine. I mean, seriously, who the heck wouldn't get a good laugh while reading about the daily adventures of Kerri Andersen?!

Random thought number two: The most awkward auditing experience happened to me today. I walked into the office of one of my clients to find no one was sitting at the front desk and, although a sign stated, "Please ring for assistance," no bell was available to ring. So, I patiently waited for someone to walk to the front and notice my presence. While waiting, I heard several people talking in an office or hallway that was just out of sight. The topic of their conversation was, of course, the auditors (aka: me). I nervously waited while they loudly discussed the auditors' need to "dig through everything with a fine-toothed comb" and explained how "they wrote me up for buying a box of Kleenex last year" and mentioned that "they won't leave here without finding something wrong" and finally, "I'm sure they'd let us know if we bought the wrong kind of toilet paper." FREAKING GOOD GOD! Yes, us auditors probably are guilty of some of these things (not the toilet paper remark!!), but seriously!?! Anyway, while fearing that one of these individuals would come around the corner and get caught talking about me, I stood at attention with a giant, goofy grin on my face for a few seconds. Then, after deciding I really didn't want to have that awkward confrontation, I slowly stepped back towards the door, opened it, and slammed it as loudly as possible, announcing my presence. Then, I briskly walked towards their voices and announced myself (and tried to hide the annoyance I felt as they attempted to divert their conversation to something other than the wrath of "The Auditors." This, the fact that I am presumed to be a nuisance/soulless bitch, is probably number five on the mental list I have called, "Why I Hate My Job."

Random thought number three: I am going to Vegas is just about two weeks and I AM SOOO EXCITED.

Random thought number four: I may or may not have an interview on Friday and I AM SOOO EXCITED.

Random thought number five: I have stared at number four for three minutes now, contemplating whether or not I should delete it because a) I don't want to jinx myself, b) I don't want to announce any future failures (if it comes to that), and c) I really don't want to jinx myself. Hopefully this acts as a qualifier/"knock-on-wood" substitute.

Random thought number six: I just stood up and knocked on wood.

Random thought number seven: There are so many work-related things I should be doing right now (yes, even after working a 12 hour day and working 58 hours last week) and it's really stressing me out.

Random thought number eight: I really miss all of my friends.

That's all for now.

Peace out, Schmeace out.

Another Summer Memory: spontaneity

If I had to pick one weekend of my whole entire life that I will never, ever, ever forget, this would be the one. However, only a handful of people know the details of this event/weekend as the majority of the details are top secret. I apologize, but I can't even break my oath of secrecy on this here blog, so what I am about to describe is the filtered version of the events surrounding this ultra-spontaneous, ultra-memorable weekend.

Here we go:
It was a Thursday night. I arrived home after a long, stressful week of work and was incredibly disappointed that I had to go back in the following day (which was supposed to be a day off) to wrap up some unfinished business.

Like clock-work, I ran (literally) directly to the bathroom to relieve my bladder's growing pressure, changed out of my work attire, and went to see what my parents were up to. I found my dad sitting in the office, staring at our desktop computer, and working on the top-secret event (which will be referred to as a "project" from here on out) which, over the past few months, we had only discussed briefly.

He spent the next hour explaining what he was doing and how he thought he had made headway with the project earlier in the day, but after a discussion with his brother/partner-in-crime (don't worry, not actual crime), realized he had made a small (but very important) mistake in the work he had done thus far. It was very obvious that my dad was disappointed and incredibly frustrated.

The next morning I was not-so-pleasantly surprised when I was woken up at 8 AM by my dad--it was a Friday, and he typically starts work at 7 AM, so it was odd that he was home.

"Andi, wake up! Come here, I've got to show you something!" he said as he swung open my bedroom door. I tried not to let him see the annoyance I felt (yes, I was going into work, but I still wanted to sleep in on my "day off"!) as I drug myself out of bed and back into the office where he sat, again, staring at the computer.

"Look at this," he said as he pointed to the computer screen, "What do you see?" I stared at the screen for a few seconds and answered him. Instantly, his face lit up and he smiled--I gave him the answer he was hoping for. He considered my response confirmation that he wasn't crazy or seeing things and called his brother to explain his newest development. I stayed in the office for a while as they spoke on the phone, and, as the excitement and giddiness of my father grew, so did my interest in the project.

After a while, I headed into our sun room to get my weekly Today Show fix. Meanwhile, my dad could not sit still; he paced our house and our yard for almost four hours while talking off and on to himself, to me, and to his brother. After contemplating calling the loony bin for a good twenty seconds (okay, probably only three...he's not really crazy), I convinced him to sit down and relax for a bit. This lasted very, very briefly. After another short phone call, he had made up his mind, he was going to Montana.

Montana!

Montana is a good fourteen hour drive from our house, and yes, my dad was going to drive there, non-stop, by himself. The thought of him driving all the way there alone frightened me, but there wasn't much I could do--I couldn't go (I had to work) and there was no way he wasn't going. My dad had his things packed in five minutes and was out the door. He headed to my mom's office in Ames, twenty miles away, to trade vehicles (for our more dependable and more fuel-efficient option) and I frantically tried to get ahold of my brother as I was still incredibly worried about my dad making this fourteen-hour-journey on his own.

Five minutes later (which felt like forever), my brother returned my call. You could imagine how strange the conversation was:

Me: "Hi Dane, what are you doing?"
Dane: "Heading to Des Moines, why?"
Me: "Do you want to go to Montana with Dad?"
Dane: "What? Why?"
Me: "I don't have time to explain right now, but can you go?"
Dane: "Uh...when?"
Me: "Right now."
Dane: "No really, Andi, what do you need?"
Me: "No really, Dad just left. He is going to Montana. Can you go!?"

Subsequently, Dane called my dad and was told the same thing that I tried telling him, and, what do you know, Dane turned around and headed to Ames to pack his things and meet my dad. Whew. I was instantly relieved by this news. Finally, I got out of my pajamas, threw on some clothes and headed to work.

During my drive into work, I started feeling left out of all the excitement. As I said earlier, I had listened to my dad ramble all day long about this project, and I wanted to see it through. My dad is very, very, very laid back and it is not common at all for my dad to get worked up about anything, so it was fun to see him like this--really, really excited about something; I decided I didn't want to hear about this adventure second-hand. So, what did I do?

I called up my boss, asked for Monday off, got it approved, and instead of heading into work, drove to a random parking lot to meet up with my dad and brother. All I had packed were the clothes on my back (and I hadn't even showered for the day).

Once I got there, we decided to take my car (since it was the roomiest option), filled up my tank, and by 2:00 PM, we were headed to Montana. Initially I started driving, but my dad was so anxious and excited that he couldn't sit still in the passenger seat. So, two minutes into the trip I pulled over and let him take over.

Obviously, the first hour (of fourteen) was spent explaining to Dane the urgency of this road trip. Our second hour was spent deciding what to tell our significant others; I had already told Trent where I was going, but he had no idea why I was going. Dane hadn't told his girlfriend either of these things, so we spent another hour pondering any potential consequences, and he eventually called her to explain where he was headed.

We all took our turns driving, but I can say with 99% certainty, that I drove the majority of the trip, straight on through the night--I didn't sleep a wink, and the most my dad and brother slept was an hour or two. We arrived in Montana around 5 AM the next morning and met my Uncle Mike (my dad's brother), who lives in Texas and flew in the night before (luckily his daughter works at an airline and could get him a cheap ticket).

I sprawled out in the car and, FINALLY, was able to take a little nap. I was awoken 45 minutes later by my dad, brother, and uncle who were ready to get started on the project.

Within the first five minutes of our work on the project, we all knew it wasn't going to be a successful day. Still, though, we continued to work on it for the next several hours before calling it quits and hitting up a tiny, small town bar.

This is the outfit I had on as I drove into Ames (for work) the day before (don't judge). This is also the outfit I wore until Monday. Ew.

We sipped, talked, ate tons of peanuts, and eventually drove my uncle to the airport and started our fourteen hour journey back home. Kill. Me. Now.

The ride home was 100% less enjoyable than the ride there (like all drives home are, but times ten). We were tired, cranky, disappointed, and FREAKING tired. By the end of the trip, I couldn't stand straight, definitely couldn't see straight, and had told my dad and brother (multiple times) that I would never go on another road trip with them again. It was the Tired talking, I promise.

I was back in Colo, IA and in bed by 8 AM Monday morning, slept the entire day, and went to work the next day like nothing had ever happened.

The end.

**Epilogue**

The very next weekend, my dad went back to Montana. He flew that time. Thank god.