Bridesmaid Dress Shopping!

Next summer, I’ll be a bridesmaid in one of my best friend’s weddings, and the wedding is in LA. I've never been in a wedding before, so I'm really excited! We went bridesmaid dress shopping together yesterday, and I found a dress in under a half hour! We were limited by the fabric/color choices, also by the vast amount of ugly dresses. But we had it narrowed down to two good ones:



I LOVED the flower one, and was hoping she’d like it too. It's just so cute, and so me. But it was sort of awkward for a bit there, because I couldn’t tell which she liked better. She didn’t seem so sure about it, and I didn’t want to pressure her. Because, let's face it, her wedding day shouldn't be about me! But it was definitely the most flattering out of the ones I tried on. And thankfully in the car she was like “Oh I’m glad you picked the flower one, I didn’t really like the strapless one.” She apparently thought I liked the plain one better, so was trying not to pressure ME! Haha.

But- you'd better sit down for this one- sucker cost me $190!! I was expecting (for some reason) a dress to be about $125 or something like that. It’s not a huge problem, and I’m definitely glad I got the chance to pick my own dress style and all. I am just surprised once again by how much I underestimated the cost of something big. And I still have to buy shoes, get my hair done, etc. Eek!

Have you guys ever been in a wedding far away? I've never done it before, so how much should I estimate to spend on all of this? I don't want to underestimate again!

I'm baaaaack!

Hey everybody, remember me?? Probably not at this point! Well, I'm back from Italy now, and sorta uber depressed about it. I come back from sunny Italian beaches, great food and amazing adventures to boring old central PA. And it's cold and cloudy to boot... sigh.

Being in Italy was amazing though. I know it's cliche to say it, but I can't even really describe it to people who've never experienced it. I mean, Southern Italy can be really really frustrating sometimes, which I think people don't expect. There's a lot of corruption and inefficiency, it's dirty and hot and smelly, there are no toilet seats, and nothing ever gets done when people say it will be. Not to mention the infestation of roaches in our apartment! (I lost count after we killed 25 of them.) But then at the same time, it is so incredibly beautiful that you don't mind anymore. I saw more beautiful places there than I've ever seen in my life, seriously. I never completely got over it.

And I had SO many cool adventures. I cliff jumped at a topless beach in Tropea, got stung by a jellyfish (which turned into a battle scar, it's pretty cool), went to a goat farm and ate freshly-made ricotta, snorkeled off the coast of Sicily, saw a saint's day festival, bathed in a smelly sulfur mud bath next to a volcano (and reeked for three days after), got lost in an old-fashioned fisherman's village, tried every regional specialty that I could, bought my food at a loud crazy street market, and relaxed on the beach almost every day. It really was una esperienza indimenticabile! :-)

I absolutely <3 Halloween

Halloween is my favorite holiday out of the whole year, even better than my birthday and Christmas. I love the horror movies, the candy, and seeing everyone's costumes. This Halloween should be good, even though I didn't buy a real costume this year. I am going as a peacock, and I only had to buy some peacock feathers for $10. I already have a shirt with peacock feathers on it, feather earrings, and teal eyeshadow and shoes to wear, so the feathers for decoration were all I needed to complete the costume. It should be awesome, I've always wanted to go as a peacock sometime and now I can!

Another cool thing is that my little sister is coming up to visit for a Halloween party with my friends tonight. She should be here in an hour or so, then we are going to Cici's Pizza for dinner and then getting ready the rest of the night. I hope this party is really fun, because I stayed in last night instead of going out. It should be though, I am really excited for it.

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Going to Minneso:ta! (sorry linguistics joke)

I just bought a plane ticket for Minnesota! The boyfriend is originally from there, and he invited me to come out and visit over New Years. When the semester's over, he's going to stay at my house for a bit before I take him to the airport, then I'll join him in MN on the 30th and stay for a week. I'm soooo excited to meet all his family, especially his little brothers, who are about 14 an 16 and sound like a lot of fun. Plus I'll meet all his friends at the New Years party. :-) I'm mildly nervous about the trip, but mostly just because it's going to be ridiculously freaking cold there. Thank God I bought good snow boots at the mall this weekend! Phew.

Cost-wise, the ticket was really cheap- only $229. Basically, it's a bargain... definitely the cheapest plane ticket I've ever bought (or boughten in MN speak- gotta start practicing :-P)!

Tennessee Rocks my Socks

Hey y'all! I'm back from Tennessee! All I have to say is, I *heart* the south. Seriously. The accents, the food... *sigh.* I got to do soooo many insanely awesome things on this trip! Our first stop was in Memphis, which was great. Probably my favorite city out of the two (between that and Nashville- we didn't see much of Knoxville). Although the frozen drinks on Beale St. were kind of a bad idea. But we ate BBQ and fried chicken, saw some great live bands, stood in the studio where Elvis and Johnny Cash got their starts, watched the sun set over the Mississippi, visited the Jungle room, and met the owner of Silky's bar (he insulted me, but that's another story).

Nashville was fun too, but it has such a different vibe than Memphis, which was interesting to observe. I'm not a country music fan at all, so Nashville wasn't as exciting to me as Memphis was, but it was really freaking cool to stand on the stage at the Ryman where Johnny Cash used to perform. Plus we went to a dueling piano bar, which I've always wanted to see. And in Nashville I GOT TO PLAY ELVIS' FAVORITE PIANO! The one he recorded so many of his songs with!! Really one of the coolest things EVER. I almost died of excitement and I'm not even a huge Elvis fan... those people would probably hyperventilate or have seizures or something.

But alas, my Tennessee Tour has come to an end. I just got back home, and PA seems so blah compared to how vibrant and different cities in the South are.

Free Fourth of July

Hey everybody, I hope you all had a great holiday weekend! Mine was pretty good overall. Could have been better if I was in an emotionally better place (on a side note, I'm not going to Montreal anymore... a long story I don't really feel like telling), but Saturday was really nice. My dad took me fishing, which I haven't done in years. I used my old kiddie rod with the push-button reel, for pete's sake. But I still managed to catch four fish, and my dad caught four as well. We didn't keep any because they were so small, but after that we had a BBQ and ate outside on our deck. My friend came over around 7, we smoked some hookah, played chess and then went to the community fireworks. So basically, I had a whole day full of awesomeness for free!

Punxy Wedding

Remember how I was telling you guys about my friend’s “destination” wedding in Punxsutawney? It was this past weekend, and it was definitely the best wedding I’ve ever been to. Not that I’m an experienced wedding-goer or anything, but it was so perfect. Beautiful bride? Check. Great food? Check. Open bar? Check. Doing the Macarena and body surfing to Nirvana? Check and Check! We also ended out the night doing a bar crawl and trying to crash an exclusive party with some of the groom’s friends. So. Much. Fun.

Back home

Just so you know, Williamsburg is really awesome. I never realized how much there is to do down there though- too bad we only stayed two days. I still had a great time though, and got to see the two main parks that I wanted to. At Busch Gardens, we went on all the roller coasters, including the Griffon, the one with two 90 degree drops. I think that might be the perfect roller coaster- you totally feel like you're flying! We also saw the old colonial part of town, I learned a ton, and we ate at a really nice old-fashioned tavern that was open even back then. It was too cool. I want to decorate my house like some of the houses there- beautiful canopy beds with curtains, studded leather chairs, and they were definitely not afraid of bright beautiful color and patterns! The weather was great too, and I managed to keep my food/gas/souvenir expenses under 100 bucks like I wanted. Overall a great success!

Great Weekend :-)

The last few nights have been amazing... my summer is off to a great start! Thursday night I went to the No Doubt concert in Philly, which was insanely awesome. I've been in love with them since I first heard of them (back when I was in 6th grade... can you believe it?!), and it was pretty much a dream come true to see them live. My mom and I went, and we had tickets right up front in the pit, so I was literally about 30 ft away from Gwen Stefani!! Seriously the best concert of my life. The tickets were hella expensive, but my mom offered to cover mine too. I know I steer away from grown kids taking handouts from their parents, but it is nice to let her pick up the tab once in awhile.

Then, since one of my best friends from college is getting married in only 2 weeks, we had her bachelorette party on Saturday night. We all traveled out to to the Dub C to go bar hopping, and didn't even go to bed until the sun came up (haven't done that in years)! I was a little bit worried budget-wise, but I bought the first round of drinks for everyone and after that didn't pay for a single drink of my own. Sometimes that can be a nice system, as long as people don't all request expensive drinks! The party was awesome though, and I feel like the wedding is going to be just as cool and crazy (although minus the cross-dressing German we found in E's closet at 5am).

A perfect June wedding...

... no, not for me, silly! My friend is getting married in a few weeks, and I am so flipping excited. Let me describe for you some of the awesomeness about her wedding, so you may better understand why I can't wait.

a) All the girls from college will be together again
b) We are road-tripping to Punxsutawney, PA
c) We are staying in the same hotel where Bill Murray stayed when shooting Groundhog Day! (Maybe that’s pretty lame, but I think it’s neat)
d) My mom is letting me borrow a really pretty dress to wear

Needless to say, it's gonna be a rockin' good time. And to make it better, I think my personal expenses for the wedding will be pretty minimal. We each only have to pay $50 for the hotel and about $25 for gas. And yesterday I used my financial smarts and used my JCPenney gift card to buy them few things from their registry. So in theory, I only paid $2 to buy them something that they wanted!

The Summer of Travel Begins

Considering I don’t have a job this summer (first summer I haven’t worked in about 8 years—so weird!), I am overloaded with free time. So I have determined that this is going to be the summer of travel. I mean, I will probably never have a free summer with no job and no classes to take again, and I have a fairly good amount of money stashed away for travel plans, so I’m all set! Here are my big trips for this summer:

1. Williamsburg, VA (1 weekend in June)
2. Newport, RI (1 weekend in July)
3. Memphis & Nashville, TN (1 week roadtrip in July)
4. Montreal & Quebec City (1 week in August)

I would pick one trip that I'm most excited to go on, but truthfully, I'm excited for all of them!! I've been wanting to see these places for a really long time, and now I actually have the chance to do it! I just have to remember to balance having TONS of fun with not spending like crazy. I'm not too worried though—investigating good deals and reading reviews on tripadvisor are actually fun for me, so I should be able to find some awesome deals.

Awesome weekend

Right now I'm in the office trying anything to avoid doing my homework for tomorrow, so I decided to update you on my cool weekend. Friday night I invited some of the other girls in my department out for dinner. They chose this place called Cozy Thai, which has (surprise!) Thai food. I never had Thai before, so I was really excited. I decided to go the standard way, and just ordered some Pad Thai. Simple, but it was soooo tasty!! And the best part is, I had enough for lunch yesterday and it only cost $11 for the meal. I definitely have to go back there again.

Last night my roommate and I decided to have a fun night in. We had all these grand plans to cook quiche, but it kept getting ruined, so we ended up wasting a lot more food than was necessary. First, the pie crust completely collapsed and spilled the egg all over the place, then on the second try the cookie sheet warped and spilled half of the egg mix out again. We salvaged that one, but unfortunately it didn't even really taste good. So, needless to say, we will not be trying to cook more quiche again anytime in the near future. But the rest of the night was fun- we watched Vanity Fair and then went to late night arts & crafts at the student union and painted some birdhouses. We love going to arts & crafts, but it's funny because we're usually there with a bunch of freshman. It's fun though, and now we have a few more things to decorate our living room with. :)

Ok, back to homework now I suppose. I am drowning in it. But my reward for getting everything finished will be going out to the movies with some of the girls later.

Philly Reunion

Yesterday I went down to Philly to have a little reunion with all my best friends from Millersville. First, we went to the Flyers game... best game I've seen in a long time. We scored SEVEN goals to the Caps' one, our goalie Nitty made some beautiful saves, and we had a fake hat trick and a real one. Plus it was good "old time hockey"-- there were about two fights a period. It was fun too because we sat in the very last row at the top... the nosebleed section for sure. But at least the tickets were only $45!

After the game we went over to Jacqui's beautiful new apartment (the view out the windows is gorgeous!) and just hung around all night. Our friend was coming home from his grad school in Montreal, so we went to pick him up at the train station around 2am, then picked up Jacqui's roommate in Center City. Can you say clown car? We had seven people stuffed into Jacqui's tiny Jetta... probably the most amusing car ride ever.

Basically, the whole day/night was a blast. Getting so have everyone together again was completely awesome-- it's so good to be around my real friends. Sorry, but my grad school friends just aren't even close to being that great.

ETH

Tonight I went to an Enter the Haggis concert in Philly with a friend. They haven't been in our area in such a long time, so it was cool to see them again. It was a really great show, and they played a bunch of my favorites all right in a row. Of course we were right up in the front row, being the little groupies that we are. Brian was even posing for me to take pictures during the show, which I thought was pretty cool. And the even better part was that my friend paid for my ticket for a Christmas present, so I had the extra money to spend on dinner and drinks. Don't worry, I bought her some as well. :)

My checkbook is suffering!

I have decided that moving to a new town is very dangerous for my checkbook. This town is so awesome, and there's so much to do. I keep seeing all these cool restaurants and bars that I want to try, and I'm meeting and getting to know new people, all of which generally combine to = spending way too much money. Don't get me wrong, it's so much fun, but this kind of lifestyle does not suit a grad student's budget. Not to mention it's been hard on my body to adjust to the new heavy-on-alcohol, light-on-sleep student lifestyle that I've been away from for a year.

Basically my big problem is that this week alone I've spent all my spending money for both this week and next week combined! I know I should start saying no a little more often to balance things out, but it's hard when you are with a new group of people. If you keep saying no, they will stop asking you eventually, which I definitely don't want to happen. Hopefully things will calm down a little bit once the heavy studying kicks in later in the semester.

I Love Florida <3

Well, I'm officially back from vacation. The best vacation ever, I might add. We had the best time- beautiful beaches, fun bars, amazing restaurants, and crazy wildlife. I fell in love with St. Petersburg during this trip- someday I want to live there. Seriously- after grad school, I'm so there. It is a great city with a town-like atmosphere, wonderful weather, crazy fun people, and tons of things to do!

As far as the budget goes, I did better than I thought. Not spectacular, but at least under budget!
Hotels: $142
Gas: $150
Food/Entertainment/Souvenirs: $263
Clothes: $33
Total: $588

Ok, I know I shouldn't have bought clothes, but I really didn't anticipate how many times a day I would have to change due to humidity, freak rainstorms, etc. I only bought two tops and a pair of underwear though, so it's all good.

So basically I'm really proud of myself because I got a whole week's vacation in Florida for under $600! Plus we even threw in a few extra activities that weren't expected, like a visit to the Dali Museum and a mini-trip to Savannah on the way back home. And I got the best souvenir- a crape myrtle tree that is now living in my back yard. :)

SATC!

So it’s the first day of a new month, and already I have spent money! Gah. It was well worth it though- I went out to see Sex and the City with my girls. The movie was awesome, but really heavy and sad at parts. We all spent about half of the movie either crying or trying not to cry, no lie. But on the money front it was good- I suggested to go to the matinee so that we wouldn’t have to pay an outrageous price. Plus we went to Wawa first to stock up on snacks and snuck them into the theater. So overall, I spent $6.75 on the ticket, $2.20 on some toasted ravs from Wawa, and had a blast of an afternoon.

Baseball Game

The Phillies game was last night, and it was so awesome! I don't really like baseball all that much, but going to a game is so much better than watching it on tv. They did all kinds of fun things, I got to see Jamie Moyer pitch, and plus the Phillies beat the Rockies 20-5!!! Plus, I'm proud to say I mostly stuck to my budget. I spent $43 total, which is just as much as I had left for the month. Here's how it broke down:
$35- Ticket
$2- Tolls
$2- 2 Hot Dogs (dollar dog night!)
$4- Water
Luckily my friend paid the $11 for parking (!) since I drove us down. I think the prices for food and drinks there are ridiculous, but it's mostly my own fault since I bought a bottle of water to bring in but then forgot it in the car. But overall, everything was so worth it... I had so much fun!