Over the Weekend - Lazy Days

This was a pretty mellow weekend.  Which, to me, means it was an AWESOME weekend.  I don't care what people think.  I love a low key, chill life that involves watching movies and eating good foods. And playing team fortress 2.  Because I'm also a huge nerd.

So, Friday was seriously great. And also bad.  Great, because I got voted "best week" and got to leave work an hour early.  Which equated to me taking a nap.  So, obviously awesome.  Also great because John convinced me to watch Emperor's New Groove for the first time.  Pretty, pretty good!  But it was also a BAD day.  Because it's the day our fridge broke.

Let's just get the bad out of the weekend right away and say how much it sucks to not have a fridge.  First, we had to throw out everything.  Because not only did our fridge break, but it started to emit heat too.  Because fridges should heat things. Ew. So I called our landlord, who was of course not in the office on weekends.  And the second worst thing about having no fridge? Having nothing to drink that's cold!  Who wants heated up beer? Ew, again.  (Spoiler: the landlord is getting us a new fridge that won't be here til Thursday).

Moving on.  Saturday was great because I saw my boy, Jason Segel, in 5 Year Engagement with my dear friend, Kelly.  It was a long movie, and it got sad and harped on Michigan a bit, but overall I kinda loved it.  After the movie, and with no fridge, I picked up John and went to one of my favorite bar/restaurants, The Grafton.  For tasty diet busting Buffalo Chicken sandwiches. It was lovely.

Sunday was pretty nerdy.  We went to Danielle's to try to get caught up on our Avengers prequels.  Iron Man 2 and Thor.  Oof.  Thor.  So handsome.  It was a pretty perfect end to a lovely weekend.  And leads up to a pretty promising week.

1.) Grafton Menu of my favorite sandwich ever.   mmm.  Pretzel bun.
2.) Me stealing home plate on the walk home.
3.) Wednesday, muggin' on the card table.
4.) Niece's Name/Awesome store.  I love Hazel already.

Friday Faves: Hunger Games

Okay, so the Hunger Games movie has been in theaters for months now.  And yeah, I've seen it twice in that time.  And I've read through the entire series twice as well.

Some may say I have a problem.  To them, I say, "Um. Duh."

But I digress.  This "Friday Faves" is brought to you by the amazingness that is The Hunger Games.

I just got this print in the mail from Goodnightkittens Design and oh. my. god.  I love it.  I haven't found a frame for it yet but it's seriously awesome.  I saw their design on TeeFury and saw that they were Chicago based.  So I took a look in their shop and fell in love. I bought this within 10 minutes of finding it.

These cookies are so beautiful.  Lizy B over at Lizy B Bakes made them for the premier and I just love them.  I mean, look at that mockingjay!

I bought this vinyl Mockingjay decal for my laptop at C2E2.  I wish I could tell you what shop I got it through but there were too many that were similar and I didn't make a note of it.  Either way, I love it!

This GIF.  It cracks me up!!

This tumblr seriously had me laughing SO hard at work today.  If you love Mean Girls and Hunger Games, can we please be friends?  I mean seriously.  What a perfect combination! And bridging a generation gap!

Beanie Baby Hunger Games.  SO GOOD!! It's long.  But it's worth it. (that's what she said).  It's truer to the books than the movie was.  And I just love it.  You will too.

How about you?  Any favorite Hunger Games links to share?

Oh, Nick Offerman

Are you kidding me with this?  I love it.  Mostly because I can picture myself saying the same stupid things that these girls are saying on Twitter.  But now I can picture Nick Offerman (aka Ron Swanson) reading it out loud.  


Thank goodness for Thursday night TV on NBC tonight!


PS - I'm watching a Simpson's Halloween Special and it's got the matter transporter.  You know, where Bart turns into a fly boy?  Hilarity ensues.

I'm an aunt!

People who share today as a birthday:
Ella Fitzgerald
Hank Azaria
Edward R. Murrow
MY NIECE

Oh my gosh!  I'm so excited!  I can't stop staring at the photos of her on my phone and just gushing.  I cannot wait to go to Michigan and meet the little lady.

Congratulations big brother!  Congratulations silly sister, Holly!

5 Ways That Romantic Comedies Ruined My Life

I'm sure that I'm not alone in thinking that romantic comedies have negatively impacted my world view.  In fact, I'm sure that I've had this conversation with several friends at various times in my life.  And I'm definitely not the only one who views a "terrible" movie as a good time and associates myself with the title characters in each respective movie.

I've suffered on the Titanic with Rose, had my heart broken with Sally Field in Steel Magnolias, and longed for a love like Allie and Noah in the Notebook.  But come on!  Life isn't like that!  Love isn't like that.  If anything, my love life can be more closely measured to When Harry Met Sally.  And even that is unreasonable.  And here's why:

1.) I am not a leading lady.

Honestly? This is something I'm just recently starting to come to terms with.  I am not the main character in some epic story.  I am just a normal person, working in an office, living with her boyfriend, and watching too many movies.  Everyone else's lives do not revolve around my own.  They are not my supporting cast.  It's so messed up.  I don't think they got the memo.

2.) Life does not have a soundtrack.

As many times as I have thought, "Man, such and such song would perfectly fit here", it just never happens.  No one else can see that these moments would be better with some background filler because that's insane.  It would be so much easier to be able to read a situation and how I should react if there was a musical queue that signified the change in mood.  And how much easier would it be to see things coming if dramatic/sad music started filtering into the situation?

3.) There are no dramatic makeover scenes in real life.

No one has ever looked at me and said, you would be PERFECT for such and such situation.  But we need to give you a free super awesome makeover first.  And guess what! Afterwards, you'll totally know how to maintain your new look because everyone inherently knows how to dress and do makeup.  I mean really, Laney Boggs would not have been able to always look awesome just because someone gave her a makeover ONE TIME.  If that were the case, I'd demand a makeover today just so I'd always look awesome.  From here to eternity.

4.)  Montages.

If all of my life could be boiled down into montages I would be way more content with my everyday ho-hum life.  But as it turns out, montages take time.  They are not actual speed.  If I could play some cheesy inspirational song and be done losing weight in a matter of 5 minutes, my god.  Life would be amazing.  But that's not how it works.  Apparently, real life takes time and effort.  Bullshit.

5.) Life is not building up to one dramatic moment.

As much as I would love for life to have one end goal (marriage, declaration of secret love, graduation, a dance, etc.), it just doesn't.  It's filled with those moments.  And while they're special, the difference here is that after they happen, some new problem occurs.  Life is not resolved when the girl gets the guy.  It just keeps going.  And it's not always easy or fun.  As much as I hate sequels, at least they demonstrate that there is life after the end credits of the first movie.

Welcome to Nerdtown

This was a wonderful weekend of nerdiness.  C2E2 was in town (which is a comic book and entertainment convention, in case ya didn't know) and we made a point of going.

This was my second con ever and I loved it even more than the last.  It's such an amazing way to see amazing artists and entertainers all in one place.  And the panels? Oh gosh.  Why didn't I go to any panels last year?  I will 100% be going to the Chicago Comic Con in August.  It just so happens to be on my birthday weekend again.  So that'll help sway the mister to going. :)

Not to mention I'll definitely wear a costumer next time.  Unless that's embarrassing to admit.  In which case, screw you.  You already know I'm a huge nerd. :)  So, it should be very surprising.  John dressed as Clark Kent and got so much positive reinforcement!  It was seriously awesome.

I guess I'm just writing this so that I can remember what a good time it was.  And to perhaps encourage others to go to these events too.  Even if you're not into dressing up or anything, it's still awesome.  Where else can you buy art from local artists en masse?  And see your favorite stars in the midwest?  Or get lost in a colorful world of crazy?  If you need someone to go with, you know I'll be there. :)

Boyfriend Wonder.

Seriously? Nicholas Brendon is effing hilarious.  And I've loved him for years.  Seeing him up close was so memorable and awesome.

Lauren Cohan and Steven Yuen from The Walking Dead.  Adorable and super humble.  Loved them.

Nerd couple extraordinaire.  Happy at the end of a long day of awesome.

Easter Brunch

I'm not sure about you, but when I was a kid I loved Easter.  I have a very distinct memory of waking up at my grandma's house in the middle of the night and needing to get a drink of water.  I walked out of the bedroom and there was just glimmering multicolored lights coming from the living room.

Looking back, I assume the light was bouncing off the colorful grass or cellophane or something but it was amazing.  It just made me feel all warm inside.  Not to mention the fact that Easter entailed family gatherings, hunting for eggs, eating ham, and winning prizes.  4 of my all time favorite things.

But now, I live in a different state than my family and it's not the easiest thing in the world to just drive home over the course of a two day weekend.  So, I have to do my best to make Easter amazing in the city.

During the week, I was talking to my friend Laura and realized she was sad that she couldn't go home for Easter as well.  And immediately, it hit me.  Brunch.  If you can't go home to your family, celebrate the family that you make for yourself, your friends.  I quickly asked John if he would mind us hosting a brunch get together on Sunday and got into hyper planning mode once he agreed.

Let me tell ya, Brunch is amazing.  But brunch with friends on an amazing Spring morning? Even better.  We had waffles and drinks and biscuits and meats and fruit and deviled eggs and so many things!  It was fantastic.  Not to mention I made my new all time favorite playlist for the occasion filled with oldies (think the Big Chill) mixed with indie favorites that sound kinda old.

But let's just get to the good stuff.  The photographic proof.

I hope your Easter weekend was fantastic!

March Photo a Day Recap

I think sometimes I need someone to poke me in the side and remind me that I need to stay on top of things like writing these posts.  I mean, come on, it's April.  And I'm just now posting the remainded of my March Photo a Day pictures from Instagram.

And you'll never guess the outcome of that little endeavor.  Oh wait, I'm not a very dedicated person, so you can probably guess that I didn't actually finish the month long project.  I stopped somewhere near the end when it asked me to take photos of things like my sink or garbage.  I just don't think those are very pretty.

And in case you needed to hear another excuse, I also got a  new laptop so I'm not very focused on blogging when I can't remember to take photos, let alone upload them to my precious new machine.  Anyway,  here's a recap for you!

Prompts: 10) Loud  11) Someone you talked to today  12) Fork (Dinglehopper)  13) A Sign (the best sign)  14) Clouds  15) Car  16) Sunglasses  17) Green  18&19) A corner of your home + funny  20) Before + After (delicious drinks)  21) Delicious  23) Moon  24) An Animal (snugs!)

I've got a list for post ideas.  So someone remind me to write them and I'll be sure to update more. ;)