Best Business Trip Evah!

I graduated from college in May of 2006, went on a cruise the next day with my precious group of college girls (see pics below), came home, moved to Savannah the following day and started a job 2 days later.

I will be honest with you, the transition from college in to the "real world" was not easy for me. I was living in one of the neatest, most beautiful cities in America and I was going through some sort of funk. For about a year after college I was constantly nervous and anxious and ,to say the least, I didn't fully appreciate the two years I spent Savannah. I liked it fine but I didn't love it. Now I am down here this week and think ... what was not to love???!!! Savannah is amazing! The same thing with my job - when I had it I thought I absolutely hated it but thinking back now it was an awesome first job. It is funny how life works, huh? But I am so glad I have had the opportunity to be down here this week because I have had such a great time. A few of you commented or emailed me about wanting to plan a trip and you definitely should!!! Now, I will tell you ... it is HOT in the summer time. And I am talking about miserably hot. I suggest coming in the winter :) Last night I ate with my sister-in-law at a little English Pub downtown called Six Pence and it is a great place to go. Some of my other favorite restaurants are Il Pasticcio (that is where I am hoping to go tonight), Sushi Zen, Jazz'd, and A'Vida. Oh and, of course, you must go to Lady and Sons - just to say you have been! If you can, stay by the river and be sure to bring your spending money because the shops on Broughton Street are FAB!

Tonight I am meeting up with 2 of the girls that I used to work with down here. These girls are 2 of my favorite people in all the world. We are all different in age, background, etc. but when I moved to Savannah and started working with them they both took me under their wings and I love them both tremendously for doing so. We were the 3 Musketeers and we went through a lot together in 2 short years ... we travelled the world together, we went through engagements, weddings, break-ups, boob jobs (haha - not me), deployments, infertility, new houses, and the list could go on for miles. We were only friends for a short while but they will be my forever friends. I have not seen either one of them since my wedding in May ... we have lots to catch up on and I can't wait!

xoxo~

For old times sake

Today I was in "college town" for work. I rode through campus and down greek row just for old times sake. I was flooded with memories ... and something about this time of year makes me really miss college.

Tonight I am staying with my bff and her husband since they live near tomorrow's event. Bff and I are curled up on the couch, 2 glasses of wine, a fire blazing, and Sex and the City is in the dvd player. This is why I probably miss college the most.

Her husband says he worries about us because he says we love each other more than we love our husbands ... and he says we are always touching each other and we always sit extra close. haha!

Now I love the Beau but there is nothing like a night with your bestie that you haven't seen in way too long.

xoxo~

ps: bare with me this week, sweet readers, this has potential to be a loong, busy week!
pss: I am off to Savannah tomorrow ... whoo-hoo!

Wickedly Wonderful

I can't believe I am just now getting around to telling you all my most exciting news of the week! So you know a while back I posted that Wicked was at the Fox Theatre and I really, really wanted to go. Well this month my travel schedule has been crazy busy and this week was the one and only week I would be in town while the show was in Atlanta. I never ordered my tickets and figured that I would just have to wait until next time. But on Wednesday my fab friend Taylor, who knew how badly I wanted to go, called and told me that she snagged us 2 tickets for that night! I was beyond excited and left straight from work on Wednesday to drive to Atlanta, which is less than an hour away.

We met some of her husband's co-workers (whom we got the tickets from) at a restaurant near the Fox, ate a quick dinner, and then went to the show.

**the pictures aren't ultra-clear (we were having some technical difficulty) and don't mind me ... I wasn't looking too spiffy but I didn't have much notice :)

Let me just tell you. The show was soooo unbelievably good. I was telling Taylor afterwards, it absolutely amazes me how talented the actors and actresses are! Not only can they sing (which is an amazing talent in and of itself) but they can act, dance, and are gorgeous on top of everything else! I mean couldn't I have gotten a tiny piece of the "talented pie" ... just a sliver would have been fine. One thing that you may want to know about me is that I LOVE to sing but, unfortunately, I can't. At all. Anyone that knows me can testify. But anyways, the show was phenomenal and I would go see it again in a heartbeat. It was funny and sad and sweet! After talking after the show there were so many things that I noticed but didn't completely process until later. Like, if you have seen it, the significance the scarecrow and the tin-man played.

Two days later and I am still singing its praises. Literally. My favorite musical number was a duet with Glenda and Elphaba called "For Good" - although "Popular" ran a close race! I will definitely be asking for the soundtrack for Christmas!

xoxo~

Whats your pleasure!

I am really, really bad about responding to tags and posting awards so if you tagged me or gave me a fabulous award I am truly sorry if I didn't play along like a good friend. Since I am trying to do better in many aspects of my life I will try to do better at this as well. I will begin today! My "in-real-life" friend LyndsAU tagged me to play a Favorite Things game. Here we go ... some people used only words and some used only pictures - I think I will use both.

Clothes

If I could only choose one place to shop it would be BR. Banana never lets me down! Their clothes are classic yet stylish and hold up so well. I can shop for clothes and shoes, for day or night.

Furniture

Restoration Hardware ... no explanation necessary. Everything about it is drool-worthy!

City

I know, I know, I broke the rules and chose 3. I am sorry but there was no way for me to choose. From top to bottom is New York City, Lake Lucerne (Switzerland), and Dubai - in no particular order.

There is absolutely nothing like New York at Christmas. There is no way to describe it other than magical.

I was only in Switzerland for a few days but it stole my heart. Lake Lucerne is the prettiest place on earth. No questions asked. I can't wait until the day that I can take the Beau! Please (pretty please) put this on your list of places to go before you die.

Oh Dubai! Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates and is known as the "playground" for the Europeans. I was in Dubai for almost 3 full weeks with my last job in February of 2007. There is nowhere in the world like it. Everywhere we went all I could say was "this is insane" or "are you kidding me right now." The city is unbelievable ... that is all I can say :)

Sweets

Cupcakes are my all-time favorite treat but my flavor-of-the-week is this :)

Sounds sorta gross but girls, you will think you died and went to heaven!

Drink

Coke. Fully-leaded. It is my first true love and my worst addiction!

Music

I am a country music girl through and through! And I LOVE these two!

TV Series

Friends is my fave of all-time.

Desperate Housewives is my favorite new show. I am not saying it is the best show on tv but it is my guilty pleasure :)

Film

Serendipity! I know what you are thinking ... Whose favorite movie is Serendipity? Extremely random. I don't know why it is my favorite ... I just love it. Maybe it has something to do with my love for New York at Christmas. Who knows!

Workout

Sorry, I got nothin. Pathetic with a capital P ... but I am trying to be honest here!

Pastries

You can't beat a blueberry muffin!

Coffee

I am sooo ready for Christmas!

Anybody, and everybody, can play along!

xoxo~

Wise Man

A wise man once said ...

I am both tired and hungry and have a killer headache. I figure making the decision to cook dinner is pretty irrevocable as is the decision to go walk or hit the gym. So I will do neither. I will, however, do something small around my house but I won't light the world on fire ... don't you worry.

What I did yesterday:

Cleaned the kitchen.

Yep, that's all. But don't judge me. I went above and beyond ... I swept, swiffered, and mopped. That in itself deserves some sort of recognition!

xoxo~

Tis Life!

Life is still crazy and I am determined to get my life back in order THIS WEEK. No excuses! I have a laundry list a mile long and if I get through half of it I will be pleased. The weekend was fun and I hated to see it end. We went to Athens for the UGA/ Vandy game and had a family reunion. Yep, that is how we do it down here ... we all get together to tailgate before a big game once a year and call it our family reunion. Works for me! I got to hang out with my brother which is always fun because he is a riot. He is in college and doesn't come home too much but we always have such a good time when we all get together. He is too cute as well ... if any of you need a sweet southern boyfriend I am taking applications! haha.

Told ya he was a cutie. Anyways, we went to the same college but he was a freshman when I was a senior and we were only there together for one semester because I did an internship in Jacksonville, Florida my last semester. We know a lot of the same people though and I am always trying to get the latest and greatest gossip from him (bad, I know). He told me something really disturbing and it was the first time I had heard of this ... he said there was a new website called JuicyCampus (dot) com. I don't even want to link to it because it is so terrible. Anyways, he said it was an anonymous website where you can link to your college and write things about people and then everyone reads and comments. Of course most people use this site to write ugly gossip about others. My brother said that a couple of his buddies were on the website and telling him the stuff they were reading and he said he couldn't even look at it because the stuff they were saying was so awful (he is really kind-hearted). I don't understand how this is not slander. He said that there was a post with hundreds of comments talking about the nominees for Homecoming Court and people were bashing all the girls that are on the court and saying very hurtful, untrue things. Homecoming Court at a big college is an honor .... I feel so sorry for those girls! People are really taking the fun out of college and I can only imagine how a website like this would impact one's self-esteem. My feelings get hurt at a drop of a hat ... if someone wrote something about me on a public website I would definitely withdraw from school. People, girls especially, can be so ruthless. What do ya'll think about this website? Are any of you familiar with it?

On another note, when we returned home last night I walked in to a disaster. Typical after being gone for weeks. My suitcase from Costa Rica was still laying in the middle of the floor, dishes were piled up in the sink, many-a-load of laundry needed to be done, etc. What did I do? I laid on the couch and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall and then Desperate Housewives. I am getting it together this week though ... starting tonight! I will give you an update tomorrow on what I did - just so I am held accountable :)

Oh and get this. This morning at work I got a letter from a Leadership Organization in our community and it said this: "The members of (blank) were asked to nominate someone who they felt exemplified potential as a mover and shaker in our community and your name was selected." I am honored and so excited to participate because I like to be involved and volunteer, all that good stuff, but a "mover and a shaker" kinda made me laugh. I can hear the Beau now when I show him the letter tonight. He is going to say something along the lines of "A mover and a shaker, huh? Lets start by moving some of these clothes off of the floor. Then you can shake it in the kitchen while you fix some dinner."

Mark my words. He is silly!

xoxo~

An oldy but a goody

If I ever need a reason to smile I watch this .... it takes only 30 seconds!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dXGj_-orxw

I wish I was saavy enough to upload the actual video to the blog but I don't know how to do that. Any advice?

xoxo~

A McCainiac

Be a McCainiac ... buy your t-shirt here!

xoxo~

Gal to Gal ... Sad News

I am always receiving emails from DesignHerGals ~ I love this company ... they have the cutest stuff around! I know many of you like it too because I see your little look-alike gal on your blogs. DesignHerGals is hosting a virtual walk for breast cancer and you pay $5, design a girl for the virtual walk, and the proceeds go to to patients with stage IV breast cancer. It is so neat because you can go online and see all the different gals who are walking. If you would like to give a monetary donation this October I think this is a noble charity to give to.

Well the email I received yesterday evening from the company was heart wrenching. Read here:

To our dear friends -

It is with great sadness that I must let you know that our Gal to Gal Foundation President, Dorit Shapiro, lost her brave battle to Stage IV breast cancer yesterday. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting Dorit - I can tell you that she was an incredible woman who believed passionately in the purpose behind the Gal to Gal Foundation.

As you may know, this year's virtual walk hopes to raise $250,000 by asking each and every one of us to take 5 minutes and $5 and go to www.galtogalwalk.org and create your virtual walker. It is our hope to grant hundreds of wishes for Stage IV breast cancer patients and their families this holiday season. With your help we can!

Dorit's wish was not for herself. It was that we make this goal and that no woman living with Stage IV should feel alone in this journey. Please join Dorit's virtual self and all of us today in her honor!

Attached is a tribute to Dorit where you can listen to her own words spoken 1 week ago (!) as we kicked off this event. Unfortunately after this speech she took a turn for the worst. She will be missed by her family and friends very much! Dorit just turned 38 years old with 2 daughters (ages 4 and 8). Please help us grant Dorit's wish.

Watch now!

With hope in my heart!

Jeanne Fitzmaurice

FounderGal to Gal Foundation

Can you imagine??!! 2 girls at home ages 4 and 8. My heart hurts.

xoxo~

Just an observation

Has anyone noticed that Samantha Harris, the host of Dancing with the Stars, has 72 different bones protruding out of her shoulder. It does not look normal. And it is not your average "oh you look skinny ... you can see your shoulder bone and the other little bone right above your shoulder." Ya'll know what I am talking about, right? She has lots of bones - too many.

This might be a biased observation because when I lived in Savannah I used to listed to Kidd Kraddick in the morning religiously (I don't pick it up where I live now) and Kellie Rasberry hated Samatha. I am not really sure why but I hate her too now - I shouldn't say hate, that is harsh, but I dislike her as well on Dancing. How I miss the Hizziewood Hizzle and my friends on the KK show!

Just call me RandomMan!!!! haha. Sorry, unless you listen to KK you probably have no idea what I am talking about!

xoxo~

Not too shabby

How was the weekend, girls? The Beau and I were both at home this weekend, which is rare, and it was so nice. I spent Saturday morning cleaning (if you could have seen my house you would have died) and we spent the afternoon watching football at my parents. Sunday afternoon we went and saw Fireproof. I know that many of you have seen it and many of you have blogged on it so I won't elaborate too much but I did love it! I cried my way through the movie and by the end I felt like I had been beat to death. My head hurt and my eyes were heavy ... but totally worth seeing. Check out this website for some great literature and resources on "fireproofing" your marriage.

www.fireproofmymarriage.com

I left this afternoon for the week, I will be gone until Friday. I have been travelling the majority of the weekdays for the past 8 weeks and today was the first time I really didn't want to leave. Of course, I never want to be away from the Beau but he works 65+ hours a week and has an hour commute each way so we don't get to spend a whole lot of time together Monday - Thursday. And those few hours in the evenings are precious to me. I just feel a twinge of guiltiness ... I swear I can't tell you the last time I have cooked dinner or have even been to the grocery store. There are about 5 different couples we need to have over, I have missed Book Club the past 2 months, we have missed several different activities with our Sunday School Class (including going to see Fireproof together since they went on a week night). I told the Beau last night that I hope all of our friends had not forgotten about us. It took a good amount of time for us to find a good social-network and Sunday School Class and as soon as we did I basically fell off the face of the earth. But there is light at the end of the tunnel - there is only about 3 more weeks of this and I will be at home all of November and December! Just in time for the holidays :)

On a better note, when I checked in to my hotel just a little while ago I was super impressed, it's not too shabby! If there is one thing I am snobby about it is HOTELS (okay, to be fair there are a few things I am snobby about but hotels are highest on the list). I have heard horror stories about the cleanliness of hotels and if I thought about it too much I would probably just sleep in my car!

In 2006 the Beau and I went to Orlando for his birthday for the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot and we had this whole package for 2 nights, 2 days at the park, etc., etc. Well to make a long story short I refused to stay in the hotel that had already been purchased, the Beau thought I was being a B until he went in to the bathroom, we checked out (no reimbursement) and went and found a Marriott. I am super-serious about cleanliness in hotels ... my house might not be spic-n-span all of the time but, by golly, I am not staying in a mediocre-clean hotel.

Anyways, back to my point, the hotel I am in now is totally cute! It is a Hampton Inn but it is downtown and is more of a boutique hotel. My room is red and black (one of my fave color-combos ... besides pink and green, of course) and I am really liking it here. The housekeeper even left a little note saying that she "had the pleasure of cleaning my room today" ... how nice is that. If I ever find pleasure in cleaning any room someone better call an ambulance!

xoxo~

Chivalry is alive and kickin'

At least it is Birmingham, Alabama ... this is where I have been for work the past several days.

Yesterday I was leaving my last event before heading back home and I was carrying a box to my car through a fairly busy parking lot. The box was small but it was slightly heavy. My car was maybe 300 feet away and 2 different guys (whom I was working with indirectly) came over and politely offered to carry the box to my car. And then, most impressively, a boy who could not have been over the age of 15 was with a group of about 6 of his friends and he went out of his way to come over and ask if I needed any help. AND he called me ma'am ... I about died because I am NOT a ma'am (quite yet)! I declined all offers but I thought all day about how nice all 3 of those people were - and I am obviously still thinking about it!

I can only hope and pray that if I have a boy one day he would be polite enough to ask someone if they needed any help ... especially as a teenager! You can instill good values (and good manners) in to your children but ultimately they are the ones to decide if they are going to use them or not. This boys mama would be so proud!

This incident just reinforced how important it is to be nice and polite and that manners really do matter ... especially to this southern girl!

xoxo~

Think Pink

I just love this campaign and since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month I wanted to share. This month, and every month, I encourage you to Think Pink! I know that won't be hard for all of you preppy pink lovers out there!!!

Oh and speaking of pink, have any of you seen Victoria's Secret Pink Collegiate Collection? It is cute beyond words! Football pride and pink rolled in to one ... couldn't get much better!
And to save the best for last :)

xoxo~

Back to Life

We are back to reality! I don't even know where to start, the past 5 days have been so much fun and I am still floating on cloud 9! On Thursday we flew in to Liberia and took a 30 minute bus ride to our villa. I had no idea what to expect. The Beau and I went to Saint Lucia in May for our honeymoon and stayed at a Sandals resort so that is kind of what I had in my head. It was nothing like that! We were in a very remote area with the prettiest scenery I have ever seen in all my life. We arrived at a nine bedroom villa that overlooked the ocean. Each couple had their own room and there was a large porch where we all ate meals together everyday. The villa was completely staffed and we were pampered from the moment we arrived. Here are some shots of where we stayed ...

It is the rainy season in Costa Rica but that did not stop everyone from having a blast. Many of the guests went on a zip-line tour through the rain forest (the Beau and I did not as we just did a zip-line tour in St. Lucia) and had a great time ... I stayed at the villa and had a full body massage with the mother of the bride. Seriously, the best massage I have ever had - not to mention we were on the back porch with a nice breeze and calming noise from the waves. Other days, some of the guests went to another beach and went surfing and many of the boys went deep-sea fishing ... the Beau did both, I did neither. What did I do? I devoured 2 books, relaxed on the porch, hiked down to the ocean, rested in the sun (and managed to get strap lines), ate like a queen, sipped pina coladas, and I LOVED every minute I was there.

Of course since I was on the trip there had to be some sort of drama! On Saturday (the day before the wedding) most everyone went down to Tamarindo to surf but Layne (the other bridesmaid) and I stayed behind ... we aren't really the surfer-type. Anyways, we decided to sit in the hot tub for a little while as it was sprinkling. For some unknown reason I went under water to get all my hair wet. No big deal? Well when we got out my hair immediately started turning green. We are not talking about a little green tint, it was bright blue-ish green! This has never, ever happened to me. There must have been some serious chlorine in that water. I had no idea what to do so I did nothing. When I walked inside to get something to drink the Costa Rican men who worked at the villa were laughing so hard and were making jokes ... of course I didn't care because it was really funny. After the Rehearsal Dinner, Layne was able to get on the internet and find out what to do about green hair! She found something that said to wash it with tomato juice and the acidity would get the green out. All we could find was tomato sauce (like spaghetti sauce) and we spent appx. 1 hour that night washing my hair with tomato sauce. I was gagging because it smelled like vegetable soup and it had to sit in my hair for about 30 minutes. But it worked like magic, thank goodness! Only me, only me!

Sunday was the deep sea fishing trip and the Beau was beside himself he was so excited. They went out from 7 am - 1 pm and caught lots and lots of dolphin. They were able to bring many of the fish back to the villa and that afternoon the cooks made ceviche with the fish they caught. It was soo good and we also had mahi-mahi for dinner. Here is the Beau with his biggest catch of the day

The wedding was Sunday evening at 5 pm. It is weird because the sun rises at 5 am and sets by 6 pm - it was always completely dark by 6:30. It rained a little bit during the ceremony but it made everything more sweet to me! The bride was absolutely beautiful ... see for yourself

This was before the ceremony ... I want to get someone to frame this picture in a double mat and also put the one of her and I from my wedding in it to give her as a gift!

The 2 bridesmaids ... I really liked our dresses and the bouquets were gorgeous!

Here comes the bride - trying to stay dry with the photographer!

After the ceremony ... we were just a little bit wet!

After dinner, a steel drum band came to play and they were so much fun!

It was definitely a trip and a wedding to remember! The bride and groom are staying here until Friday ... dreamy!!!!

xoxo~

In the event of an emergency

you can find me here until Monday! We are off to a destination wedding in Costa Rica!

If we have skies like this during our trip I may not ever come back.

We are leaving here at 5 am tomorrow morning and ....

Number of bags packed: 0

Number of pounds lost: 0

Number of highlights received: 0 (I am most upset about this)

But whatever, it's not about me ... it's all about the bride and I am soo excited! Although I did manage to get a mani and pedi last night.

On Sunday, Taylor (the bride) and I will be reversing roles. We have been the best of friends since high school and I can't wait to see her marry the man that God made for her. His name is Tyler so they will be Taylor and Tyler ... I think that is cute!

I will post a picture just like this, but with her as the bride, when I get back. You are going to be gorgeous, Tay Tay! She reads my blog but says she doesn't know how to comment ... whatever, she graduated from Georgia Tech and is an engineer - she is the smartest person I know!

I didn't get the Beau a birthday present so I am sending him on a deep sea fishing excursion and I have never seen him more thrilled. Taylor's cousins go to Costa Rica often and they like to fish, the last time they went they caught this ...

If the Beau catches something like this he will die and go to heaven. I will SERIOUSLY never have a chance of making him that happy for the rest of my life :)

And Lynds, if I see this little guy I will try and bring him back for you!

I hope you all have a great rest-of-the-week and weekend!

xoxo~