One week until Mexico!

I know I haven't really blogged lately about the going-ons of day to day life. What can I say? I leave for Mexico in a week and I'll be married in 12 days!! I can't even believe how fast it's crept up!! My family and B's family seem to be very excited for the trip and the event.

It's been nearly 5 weeks since I've been on my "wedding program" (I use that term because I hate to say diet). I abandoned Jenny Craig and got back to real foods ~ very boring foods ~ but real, nonetheless. I must say that my body is responding very nicely. I'm under 20% body fat now and I'm at 125 lbs. I haven't been 125 lbs since I was in my early 20's. I always used the excuse, "I'm all muscle" but I've had the sad realization that that's all it was ~ an excuse.

So we still have the daunting task of figuring out how we are going to get 27 gift bags, each filled with goodies and a 60x30" cabana towel, to Mexico. The box the towels came in was about 3 feet high and a foot and a half wide. I don't even have a suitcase that big and that's JUST the towels. Ugggh. I think we're going to box them up in a cardboard box and put the bags and goodies in a carry on and give that to a very helpful family member to bring with them. We were going to FedEx everything but our wedding planner advised against it. She said she's seen one too many times gift bags showing up 3 weeks after the wedding. Mexico Customs is the hang up...there is no rhyme or reason to their process.

I've started having nightmares about possible wedding scenario's that could go awry. Last night I dreamed that it rained, the night before I dreamed that my wedding dress was stolen from my hotel room ~ by our photographer, no less. I guess it's just par for the course and hopefully completely normal. I should probably be taking a Tylenol PM every night but since I'm doing cardio every morning at 5am, I fear that I wouldn't be able to get out of bed.

Oh speaking of this morning.....

I was pulling in to our development from the gym at 6am when I spotted my neighbor walking his two Siberian huskies. One of them went #2 in my neighbors yard and the guy just waved at me and smiled and kept on walking when his dog was finished with his business. This infuriated me to no end! Because either 1. he forgot doggie bags ~ but seeing as he has 2 dogs, I think that's unlikely or 2. he thought walking his dogs under the guise of the morning darkness means that no one would see his dogs go #2...so why pick it up?

Either scenario is just plain messed up! If you are a dog owner, you should PICK UP AFTER YOUR DOG! Period.

God Bless my friend, Ayca, btw. She's staying at our house the entire time we're in Mexico and she'll be taking care of Cooper. I really hate leaving him for more than a few nights at the dog kennel so this was a fabulous option. She can keep him company and make sure he gets plenty of exercise. Thanks, girl!!! You rock!

Why I love Technology

So my blog about my February 23rd Bachelorette Party is way overdue. I hope that doesn't mean you have some crazy expectation of wild stories of a bunch of girls swinging from the rafters because if you do, you are going to be sorely disappointed.

The party was super fun. I had girlfriends come in from Arkansas, Ohio and Wisconsin….so that was super awesome. They stayed with me and it was nice to catch up and have some real girly time. My friend Loretta was the first to arrive. She came straight to my office in the Loop from the airport. We ran tons of errands including picking up my wedding invitations, wedding shoes and hit Trader Joes for some fresh goodies. We then made it over to my friend, Hollys, who does hair and makeup for weddings. She’s coming down to Mexico…….SCORE! So yes, I will have my own personal stylist on board the entire time. How ya like them apples? Holly did both Loretta’s and my makeup as a dry run for the wedding. Brian thought I looked like a hooker….I agreed we need to go a bit more natural for the big day but it was nice for a night out. After my 2 other friends got in from the airport, we all headed to Mizu for sushi which was delish.



Saturday we did what girls do best = shopped. Liz and I headed back over to Holly’s in the afternoon and she did our makeup once again for the bachelorette party. Liz and Loretta are both bridesmaids so Holly will be doing their makeup in Mexico, too. The party was nice. All of my friends came over for appetizers, drinks and of course, gifts! Let me just say right here that my friends are awesome. The food was great, the drinks were tasty and their gifts were fantastic.



We jumped in 3 cabs and headed to The Underground, a new dance club, and a got a table for bottle service. This is where the whole Technology thing comes in.

These 2 guys come over and start talking to me. They ask what the occasion is and I tell them it’s my Bachelorette Party. You would think that they’d say “Oh hey, congrats” and then move on to one of my 15 single friends sitting with me. Uh uh. This guy kept trying to hold my hand, told me how beautiful I am.......yada yada yada…….WHATEVER! Why don’t you just go find another girl to chat it up with as I’m clearly NOT interested and PS - I'M GETTING MARRIED!?! So to cut to the chase, I introduced him to my friend, Loretta and told him that she just completed her PhD and introduced her as Dr. West. At that point he tells me that he plays for the NBA. "So?" I said. He replies, “Well you're telling me she’s got her PhD so I told you what I do”. Okay, fair enough. So a little while and a shot later, they finally moved along to the next table of hotties. I grab friends iPhone and googled this young man. Of course the first thing that came up was THIS Wikipedia page, complete with his latest mugshot. Seriously! How freakin’ awesome is technology that while you are IN the club, you can google these guys and find their laundry lists of legal woes AND the fact that he did NOT play for the NBA but he played for their "Summer League". Oh, and the fact that this guy held a knife to his girlfriends throat and sexually assaulted her was proof enough that my friend, Loretta, need not continue the conversation with him. After the night progressed Pierre came back around. I was sitting against the wall when he motions over to me to come and talk to him. I shook my head and rubbed one of my index fingers over the other one letting him know he was a bad boy. He looked puzzled and say "What?" So I put two fists next to my face, making it look like I was behind bars. Probably not the brightest thing to do to an ex-con jailed for sexual assault. But hey, I WAS up to my eyeballs with liquid courage and walked away with a great story to tell you.

The next day he sent a Text Message to Lo. (yeah that's what I said....WHY did she give him her number? She said it was before we googled him....uh huh!) So Pierre asks her if she had fun and of course, I felt the need to take control of this situation. I had her text him back, "Of course I had fun! Any day I can enjoy my freedom is a great day! Wouldn't YOU agree?"

His response: Crickets.

This is good ole Pierre on the right:



Oh and I guess a big-time Chicago DJ was next to us at the neighboring table and I took a picture with him. I’m not from Chicago so when his buddies were telling me he was THE Jonathan Brandmeier I just replied with, “So?” So here is the picture with THE Jonathan Brandmeier. I know. So?

Tagged

Bethie tagged me on her blog...so here it goes!

10 years ago:
I had just moved back to Ohio from Arizona and started my new job at the Sherwin Williams headquarters.

5 Things on my to-do list today:
Write a blog about my bachelorette party (way overdue).
Training session with my trainer tonight.
Conference calls.
Try to get a refund for the very yellow gift bags.
Find more marketing candidates for Perdue!

5 Snacks I enjoy:
Peanut butter and cheese.
Peanut butter and chocolate.
Anything cheesy.
Anything crunchy.
Anything with chocolate.

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire:
Build my Mom and step-Dad a new house on a lake of their choice, with a new boat.
Build OUR dream house on a different lake. ;)
Travel the world with Brian.
Get involved more with my charities.
Train for and complete a few Ironman Triathlons.
I'd come up with a crunchy snack made with chocolate, peanut butter and cheese.

3 of my bad habits:
I'm very hard on Brian.
I worry about things out of my control.
I'm racked with guilt for days when I eat anything to be considered "bad".

Places I have lived:
Chicago, IL
Various suburbs of Cleveland, OH
Yuma, AZ
Jacksonville, NC
Parris Island, SC

5 Jobs that I have had:
Recruiter
Help-Desk Analyst
Administrative Assistant
Personal Trainer
US Marine

5 Things people don't know about me:
Are there 5 things people don't know about me?? This could be hard.
Despite the hard exterior, I'm pretty much way too sensitive.
I had a bunionectomy on my right foot when I was 19. Hot!
This Thursday is my 3 year anniversary with Brian.
I was in my 6th grade spelling bee and was the 2nd person out on the word "Receive".
When I was 22, I drove cross-country with my girlfriend from AZ to OH in a Ryder truck towing my car.

And I tag Mel, Jen and Liz! You’re it!

Why I love Ellen Degeneres

March 12th

Happy happy birthday to my boy, Cooper!!! Can't believe our pup is already 2 years old!

One month from today Brian and I will be hitched!! It's approaching so G-Dang fast I can't believe it.

I thought about not mentioning this next statement but then I remembered my tag line about not having a filter.......so screw it........here goes. B and I were doing what some unmarried couples aren't supposed to do the other night and I realized that if I were to get pregnant now, we probably wouldn't find out until after we were married. Then it donned on me. For years I've been on birth control in an effort to not get preggers before I was married and I did it. I didn't get pregnant! haha

I don't know why that thought was in my head but for some reason I wanted to celebrate it.

Crazy.

So I still owe you a blog about my bachelorette party and I still owe you a blog about my bridal shower here in Chicago. I've been under a huge deadline with one of my clients and I just haven't had the time during the day and when I'm home, I just haven't wanted to pick up my laptop. I will get that to you, I promise.

In the meantime, we need a wedding song! Any suggestions??

Screw signatures

Let's tie that guy's feet up and toss him over that hill to HIS death. That seems much more fitting than letting him see another day of light!!!!

I'm so pissed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Disgusting!

I read on the net today that there is a video making the rounds on YouTube of a SMILING Marine who was videotaped throwing a puppy off a rocky cliff in Iraq to his death. His feet were tied togther with rope.

WTF?

WHAT THE F@CK????

WHO, I repeat, WHO could be so heartless to do something so God awful?

All I gotta say is that the Marine Corps should immediately give him a dishonorable discharge and I sure as hell hope that there are criminal charges for animal abuse brought against this D-bag.

We should start collecting signatures NOW to have this D-Bag kicked out!!!

As of this morning, it's still "undeterminded" by Snopes. Let's just hope it's fake!!!