slap in my face

The extreme color of my hair allows me to get away with things that say… blondes or brunettes cannot. I pull the “I can be sassy whenever I want and you can deal with it because I’m a redhead” card a wicked lot every once in a while. So, when the Animal told me he was refusing Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be entirely appropriate to get him something, have it delivered at work, and it would act as a firm slap in the face.

After much thought, I came up with the perfect idea.  He started playing the guitar in the fall and has taken quite a liking to it.  He is actually really good and I love listening to him play (although I could never confess how much I really do love it because then he might start bringing a guitar on all of our dates and I don’t need a third wheel).  I found a FANTASTIC website GT Strings that makes custom guitar picks.  I had 5 different picks made.  On one side was a picture from something we did in our relationship and on the other was a saying to go along with it.  

I found a rockin’ guitar card and wrote in it: Even though you didn’t pick me to be your Valentine, I still picked you. I was proud of that.  The card and gift was to be delivered at work on Valentine’s day by the nurse who introduced us.  However, my slap in the face was blocked when I was swept off my feet—once again—by my man who planned a fun-filled evening at the Bruins.

Even though we spent Friday night eating chocolate covered strawberries after the Bruins game, we still did a little celebrating on the day itself.  I was prepared for dinner and a movie, and that’s just what I got. 

Scallops wrapped in bacon, broccoli, cous cous... we splurged with the bacon

TOY STORY 3!

Not bad for my first official Valentine’s Day celebration in my short 24 years.

Life is so good.

he got me

I have always put myself in a “not surprisable” category.  I am wicked nosy and suspicious of what is going on around me and figured I would always be impossible to surprise. 

Nate swore up and down he “did not celebrate Valentine’s Day” and it was “a ridiculous holiday” and I should “make plans with my girlfriends to celebrate.”  His reaction to my begging to do something, or anything to celebrate the holiday made me pissed off, bummed out, and kinda annoyed. Hi, this is my first Valentine’s Day with a boyfriend, and you aren’t even going to acknowledge it or have dinner with me or at least make-out with me?!

Tickets to paradise!

 I got Nate Bruins tickets for his birthday to see them play the Red Wings Friday night at the Garden.  After work we were heading for his house to change into some black and yellow and while questioning him for the 100^th time what our exact plans were (aka where were we going to eat dinner, how were we getting to the game, what were we doing after the game, etc) he stopped me while walking down Brookline Ave and told me that he got us a room for the night at the Royal Sonesta for Valentine’s Day. (Side note: Nate wore this to work on Friday. How delicious is he?!)

Break me off a piece of THAT

I was so surprised and was in such disbelief that he pulled off such an amazing feat that I damn-near pushed the kid into three lanes of Longwood/Boston rush-hour traffic.  How DARE he pull something off like that without my knowledge? What a little sneak!  What hurt the most--definitely my face because I was smiling so hard for the next hour or so.

We threw on our B’s gear, grabbed a few bottles of Two Buck Chuck and drove over to the Sonesta to check in. We walk into our room complete with a view of the Boston skyline across the Charles River, and find the most delicious looking chocolate covered strawberries for our palettes’ pleasure. (Nate got the “Romance Package”… oooh la la)

Can't go wrong with Chuck

Our view

The berries!

We only had about an hour and fifteen minutes before the game started so we decided to eat at Dante, one of the restaurants at the hotel. We told the waiter that we were in a bit of a rush and he suggested that we order a few of the appetizer/tapas, so we did and it was the best decision of the night. Naturally, we also started with an extra-dirty martini with extra olives on the side. Whoever thought to throw olives in a drink is my hero.

Hi, we'll have two extra dirty martinis and extra olives for her on the side

woof.

We ordered 5 different “little tastes.” And they all come super highly recommended.

 

Orange: roasted veal, tomato sauce, pickled cauliflower

Purple: little pork burger, Vermont cheddar, maple sugar, pancetta

Green: calamari

Red: whipped roasted hot pepper and marscapone dip, carrots, crostini

Yellow: little beef burger, buffalo mozzarella, smoked pepper aioli, arugula, fried cippolini

Nate’s favorite was the little pork burger, which he could not even take his hands off, not even for one second so I could snap a picture. I loved the marscapone dip and the little beef burger. Our waiter was fantastic the entire night and after we paid our bill he came over with two delicious mint-ish shot/drink things.  Karma J

We left for the game but neither us nor the valet team at the Sonesta could get a cab.  After 10 minutes of trying, and with a little liquid courage, we decided to walk run to the game.  I tightened up my Cons and Nate laced up his boots, and we made our way past the Museum of Science, over the river, and past the 93 onramps to the Garden. 

Bruins Marathon 2011

 Upon our arrival to the Garden, I see a beacon of light coming towards us in a medium-blue North Face fleece.  I recognized the jacket and soon saw the face of the one and only Jaclyn Elizabeth Long in front of us. After some screaming and a long embrace over the barricades in the Garden, Jackie and her friend Jen head out to the liquor store to buy a flask so they don’t have to buy drinks inside. Smarty pantses. 

Nate and I head up three sets of mile-long escalators, stop for a beer, and end up in the 12^th row of the balcony for the first period. There was a man sitting next to us in a full-blown suit. Hi, don’t come to the Bruins game in a suit unless you are important.  And, no matter who you are, don’t sit in the balcony in suit.  You look out of place, uncomfortable, and ridiculous.  Jackie informed us that there were 4 seats in front of her 2^nd row seats that remained empty after the first period, so we made the executive decision to head on down and check them out.  

Before...

Thanks for the heads up...

after!

 HOLLA. No one came to kick us out of our seats, so we remained in the front-row, on the blue line for the remainder of the game. 

We saw Recci…

 And Thornton…

 And caught burrito tee-shirts… 

 And I watched a fight between my boyfriend/best friend… 

 It was phenom.  I had the best time and it was SO awesome to unexpectedly run into J.

Post-game J and J left for greener pastures in Boston and Nate and I met up with our favorite Dans.  

 We went to JJ Foleys for drinks and photo-shoots…  

he picked a winner

 And then to the classy Courtside for karaoke.  The four of us belted out a mean “Bye Bye Bye” at the end of the night. When we had had enough, Nate and Danny struck a pose, and we hopped in a cab. 

 Perhaps the best thing after a night out is a recovery breakfast the next morning.  Nate and I ate at the other restaurant at the Sonesta and had some fantastic egg creations.

We then recovered for the rest of the day at Nate’s house watching movies and being lazy.  It was a fantastic Valentine’s Day celebration. In fact, the best one to date in my book. 

how to make the most of a canceled flight

In the best of all possible flight scenarios, the security lines are short, flights take off on time, you get a free drink, maybe some peanuts, and you AND your luggage arrive on time.

Sometimes, it does not always go as planned. But have no fear, there are tons of ways to make the most of a sucky situation. It all started way back in December on a California vacation with my honey. After having an  AMAZING time in San Fran, we were making our way from San Fransisco to San Diego on a dreary Sunday night.  We flew through security and boarded the plane soon after.  Take off was delightful.  I had the pleasure of sitting in the middle of three seats with no window view. So after an hour of flying when the pilot came over the intercom and announced that we have been flying in circles for an hour unable to reach a decent altitude to go down to San Diego and that due to these mechanical issues, we would be returning to San Fransisco.

I had absolutely no idea we were basically circling the airport. None.  Because it was now almost 10:00 at night and there was only one --completely booked-- flight to San Diego left in the night.  They said they would "try to get as many people on it" as they could but for whoever could not get on, they would throw at a hotel for the night.  After hearing that the select few that would be lucky enough to get to San Diego would be based on frequent flyer miles, Nate and I watched all 100+ passengers RUN like Home Alone down to the departing flight to try to fight for a spot.  We decided to just do United a favor and opt to take the hotel deal.  Within 10 minutes we had a room voucher, $30 for food, and were on the next shuttle to the SFO Hilton.

We checked into our room and headed down to the bar, naturally. Although we were not allowed to use our food vouchers on alcohol (when I rule the world, you will be able to), we ordered a few martinis. They turned our to be THE.BEST.MARTINIS.EVER. We still don't know what made them so delicious and we have yet to find somewhere around here to make a comparable delicacy.

By the time we finished two martinis and were heading to bed, the rest of our flight was just arriving at the hotel. Nate + Kacey = winners.

We were put on the first flight to San Diego in the morning and were told that we would have a treat waiting for us online and to check it later. 

We were pumped to be in sunny San Diego, until we realized very quickly that my suitcase did not have as much luck. In fact, she was cold, lost, and alone for the majority of the day.  United got some *choice* words from Nathan and they offered up $30 for my to buy some underwear. How generous. Who needs a suitcase when you have $30 to spend at Target on new panties and a boyfriend to douse you with Axe so you smell good? It was fine to be able to buy some thongs and borrow clothes from Kristin, but being bra-less due to getting caught on the beach in the rain and its soaking wet, is not so fun.

Thank god to whoever invented a fan.

Moral of the story? If you can tolerate the night in a fabulous hotel with the best martinis in the world, airlines can reward you with $400 in free flights for your troubles. Thanks, United!

Life is good... especially when you have socks like these:

we work hard all week...

so we can do so many activities on the weekends!

My man and I only get to see each other 1-2x a week, so we make sure to plan some fun activities when we do hang out.  Last weekend was no different.  After a quick sit down with a bunch of clowns, I met up with the PharmAnimal to get our weekend on.

We started our date night at our favorite Sushi place in town, Basho.  We ordered some extra dirty martinis to start with extra olives on the side to get the night on. Then we moved on to a beer for Nate and a wine for me and some delicious spicy/crunchy spider roll thing for me and duck for Nate.

  

I had never tried duck before, and to my surprise, it was actually amazingly tasty. We topped dinner off with a romantically shared a crème brulee. 

Instead of gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes, feeding bites to each other, and professing our undying love for each other, we fought for every last bite like starving wildebeests, clanking spoons and viciously grabbing the dish from one another.  But hey, that’s how we roll :)

Our next feat was to move the car from one garage to another and change into hockey-game appropriate clothing. It was easy for me-- I threw on Nate’s sweater-jacket thing. However, this feat was a little more interesting for Nate. He rocked a SEXY outfit to work that day including dress pants and a tie and he needed to throw on some jeans and a zip up.  Figuring the bottom floor of the parking garage was a safe haven to change his outfit, he started to undress. However, mid-bottom-half-change, an entire family of Asians happened to walk by.  Not only did they walk by, they walked by with HUGE smiles on their faces waving. 

Once we got the show on the road, we re-parked, hopped in a cab, and headed over to BU for the hockey game.  We had sweet second row seats and saw BU roast UMass Lowell.  

After the game, Nate deemed it “too busy and hard” to find a cab home and decided to walk from Agganis to Longwood. Not a terrible walk at all if you had the proper cold-weather attire on, but Nate told me I would be fine at the game with just his zip up on because we would “grab a cab there and back.”  Eh, I was a few drinks into the night and easily convinced.  I forgot the one of the side affects of drinking and breaking the seal too early was peeing incessantly for the remainder of the night.  About halfway through our walk back, my jealousy started raging when I saw Nate pull over to pee.  Some people vomit when they see other people vomit and I am the same way with urination.  I tried holding it so hard but knew that I had a 5 minute window to either pee or pee myself.  We walked through the mansions of Brookline for a bit until I found a suitable urination station pile of snow. I asked Nate to kindly stand in front of me to block.  However, as soon as I assumed the position, the PUNK decided it would be funny push me, already frozen from the walk – BARE ASS—into the snow.  I was so mad I lost my urge to pee and needed to get back to the car ASAP.

The next morning we were up bright and early to start our day. The Hunnies had a game in NH (which we won… 5-game winning streak OMG) and we were planning on going snow boarding after, so we stopped at Play it Again Sports to check out equipment.  After being an annoying, prissy girl, only looking at “cute” boards that would match my snow bunny outfit, I finally got off my high horse and settled for a cheap board and boots that were the right size and amazing price. The board is not the most adorable thing I have ever seen, but I do have a scarf to match the green on it.

When we got to my house before the game, Foxy suggested we forgo our trip to the mountain because there was freezing rain on the way.  Foxy knows best, so we skipped boarding and realized it was a lovely day for a Guinness and went to the Irish Cottage for dinner with my parents.  After delicious eats, we got my parents involed in their first game of Cranium ever it was fab.

Nate worked Sunday so we opted for a low, key quiet night in for the Super Bowl. It was perfect.

Sweats & scrubs is how we roll

i love him and he loves bunny <3

And, life is good :)

do yourself a solid...

and get your feet some Crocs!  I can’t give them enough credit for making my feet some of the happiest feet in the world.  It’s very rare that both myself and Bunny find an agreeable pair of shoes, but when we do, we go to town.  Some might dare to say one pair of Crocs is plain absurd.  I have six.

Some of the goodness of a clown's room

Obvi the most sacred Christy collection

It takes a lot for me to get motivated and clean/organize my room, but when I do, I go to town.  I tackled my shoes last room overhaul.  They needed to be picked through and debated upon because my inventory started circa 2000.

the calm before the storm!

half of the "before" inventory

I’ll be the first to admit I ain’t no fashionista, so without further adieu, my past/present shoe inventory:

 

• Slippers
• 1 pair of neon Roos
• 1 pair of vibrating booties
• 1 pair of sneaker slippers
• 1 pair of men’s slide ons (that remain at Nathan’s)
• Crocs
• 2 with the fur
• 4 3 for summer recreation (Would have kept 4 pairs, but one is missing from a Cape trip this summer)
• 1 slip on sneaker
• Flip Flops
• 1 pair of Reeboks
• 1 pair of Target
• 17 4 Old Navy
• Sandals
• 1 Adidas slides
• 4 2 dress thong-styles
• Boots
• 1 Bogs
• 1 Rain boots
• 1 Pink Timberlands
• 1 Hooker boots
• Snowboard boots
• Heels (Gots to keep the heels in case I need them for a special occasion aka leave them under the table at a wedding)
• 1 pair black classy interview
• 6 sassy pairs (very lightly worn, Bunny hates them)
• Sneakers
• 6 4 pairs of running/walking
• 1 pair of basketball
• 1 pair of Air Force Ones
• 1 pair of Shox
• 1 pair of argyle Vans
• 1 pair of low-top black Cons
• 1 pair of knee-high red Cons
• 1 pair of neon calf-high Rocket Dogs
• Flats
• 5 2 pairs of black flats
• 2 1 pair of brown flats
• 2 pairs of purple flats
• 1 pair of leopard flats
• Boat Shoes
• 1 pair of tan Sperrys
• Recreational Shoes
• 1 pair of softball cleats
• 1 pair of turf shoes

In the middle of sorting!

I think that’s it.  I went from 73 pairs of shoes to 41 pairs. Still a ways to go, but not ready to part!  If you want any of the aforementioned crossed-off shoes, they are sitting in a garbage bag in my sister’s closet and I would be more than happy to set them aside for your tootsies.

Life is good, my feet are happy, and my closet looks clean.

Now... off to replace the pair of Crocs that I tossed. Any suggestions?!

Half of clean, color-coordinated closet!