sundays are for football

it's football season!

this makes me so very happy. not only do i love football, but i love the activities that surround it. any excuse to sit in a t-shirt, eat dip and drink a couple beers is just awesome. last year i spent every sunday with my momma watching the game. this year i get to spend them with the lovely stud i call boyfriend. i'm excited. 

friday i had the opportunity to tour gillette stadium and meet joe andruzzi. i was an idiot and forgot my camera so i have some lovely cell phone pictures to share. 

joe was basically the closest to a teddy bear without actually being a stuffed animal. he let me wear all three of his super bowl rings. i was so very tempted to steal one.

while we ate, the pats did a walk through before today's game. 

 then we got to see the field. we were strictly forbidden to walk on it. i pet it instead.

 in the process of this awesome tour, we got stuck in the elevator for a minute or so of pure terror. my mom freaked. like full on, she's gonna pass out, freaked. so afterwards we got a beer at toby keith's bar. cinnamon and sugar rim is amazing. all beers should come with it.

today consisted of queso dip, bean dip, beers and friends watching the game. i am in that super relaxed mode now that follows a bunch of food and a couple day drinks. its 8:30 pm and i could pass out. 

oh and tonight i got to spend some time with this face. seriously, i die every time i see her.

birthday

birthdays are so fun.

this one in particular was exceptional. i am lucky enough to have my birthday fall on a long weekend almost every year and i am also so lucky to have great friends and family to share it with. it just makes life seem so wonderful.

26. 

the weekend started with girl's night at a fabulous asian restaurant in downtown providence. i was surprised with the most fabulous cheesecake i have ever eaten. ever.

now prepare yourself for some terrible phone pictures:

i swear this one of the prettiest moons i have ever seen. a blue moon in fact.

 festivities continued to Opa- a lebanese hookah bar. the weather was perfect and so was the company.

 please excuse the demon eyes.

birthday day fun with my family

and him

my brother, sister and nephew made the trip. this made me the happiest of happy.

i mean, look at this face!

to say this weekend was spectacular is such an understatement. 

 i really am so grateful to the people who went out of their way to make me feel so special and loved. 

 to many more <3 

today was one of those days.

one of those days where you just feel it in the air... you can feel things changing. 

it might be the gorgeous mild weather or the excitement of school being right around the corner but things certainly felt different today.

change is one of those things i can't decide how i feel about. sometimes they can be wonderful but most of the time the anxiety of it all just consumes me. 

i feel like this happens a lot around this time of the year. my birthday is right around the corner and school starts in just a few days. it really is great. i love school and well, birthdays are just awesome but its the waiting that drives me bonkers. i cannot wait to be in class and get my syllabus and maybe meet a few people. of course, this will all change a few weeks in when i am knee deep in notecards and very stressed but for now, i'm pretty damn excited.

and my birthday, well how can i not be excited about that?  aside from the fact that i am now closer to 30 than i am to 20, this birthday seems extra special. at least, that's what i'm hoping for. 

the plan is "girl's night"  god, it's been a while since i've had one. this isn't any ordinary girl's night. this night involves all the girlfriend's of the boyfriend's friends. does that make sense? i think so. dinner, bar then meeting up with the boys to ring in my birthday with quite a few drinks and maybe some dancing.

this is how i feel about that:

whoa mama. it's been a while.

there's no real reason for the absence. i blame summer. and my new couch. it just sucks me right in!

so here's the update:

i'm now the proud auntie to this little fellow:

i have a boyfriend.
and he's lovely.

 i feel like this crappy phone picture of us describes us perfectly. also, how awesome is my new couch?

that is pretty much the extent of exciting news in my neck of the woods. school starts in two weeks and in one week i will celebrate another year of being alive. let the "oh my god, i'm getting old!" crap begin.

i was chatting with some girls about it the other day and we both agreed that at some point you just feel like you won't grow up anymore. of course there will be more responsibility. there will be more bills, maybe some babies crawling around and just everyday stresses. i guess we will deal with that as best we can but maturity wise, we all decided we have probably reached a stand-still. one of the girls said it best "at some point you stop growing up and you just get better at faking things in different situations." i probably shouldn't have put quotes there. consider those as air quotes. it's pretty much the gist of what she was saying.

it's been a long day and i have like-new bed to crawl into.
there is sure to be more intellectual things being discussed soon and way cooler pictures as well. stay tuned.

i've always been a momma's girl.

it's nothing against my father. because he's just about the most wonderful man on the planet.

see, i'm my mother's mini-me. our personality is almost identical....aside from a few things.

some things i get from my dad:
like my eyes. i've got my father's eyes. beautiful green eyes.
we're both perfectly ok with being quiet. i can sit for such a long time doing nothing. no tv, no radio, no talking. and be perfectly ok with it. i remember growing up just watching him sit in a chair or sitting on the front steps watering the grass with the hose. just content with sitting there in his thoughts.
we don't do phones. ok, well obviously i have one but you won't catch me babbling on with someone for more than 45 seconds. he doesn't do phones...or technology for that matter. he's so simple and i love that about him.
we have these wonderfully large jay leno type chins. i've always disliked it. but theres one fabulous thing about it: it's going to be almost impossible to have a double chin when i'm older.
he's artsy. so much more artsy than i will ever be. but he has instilled in me an appreciation for art. he used to help me do almost every single one of my projects growing up. and he has the most badass handwriting to go along with it.


he's really such a great dad.

this year is extra special. unfortunately he is on a plane coming home from a long vacation so i haven't been able to see him but when i do, i will be sure to give him the tightest squeeze. you see, this year he has pretty much beat prostate cancer. it's the most curable cancer for men but with all his prior ailments, it was nerve racking. also, it's extra special because i feel like i've done so much growing up in the past year. i've moved out of their house and realized just how much both of my parents mean to me. i think i used to take them for granted when i lived with them because they were ALWAYS there. i mean, always up in my business. obviously i like to have my own life and space but sometimes its nice to just go to their house and pretend i still live there and fill them in on every little thing.

and now to take a page out of my boy Kanye's book:
 Yo blog readers, I’m really happy for you(and that you're reading this)…I’ll let you finish. But my dad is the best dad of all time! One of the best dads of all time!  

haha ok i'm done now. and now i feel terrible i forgot to write a nice post about my mom on mother's day. sorry mom! i promise it'll come soon...you rock too!

i really really love this picture of them. 

where have i beeeeen????

no seriously, does anyone know?

i wish i could tell you this fabulous story about my adventures in life but well, that is not happening. my brain isn't functioning at the optimum level at the moment so it'll have to wait.

it's been a month since i have wandered my way back here which means two things:

1. i have been busy

and

2. i haven't been drinking enough.

i mean that in the most non-alcoholic way possible. 

so here's the update in pictures:

 i discovered an adorable organic farm near my house that had the sweetest couple running it. it had everything you could need and they made all their jams and baked goods right in main house on the same counter they had their small register on.
    been hanging with this handsome fella.

i promise i will have some seriously fun stories soon. horseback riding, zoo trips and all around shenanigans. there have been plenty. be patient, young grasshoppers.

don't call....text.

i used to play volleyball in college. actually, i tell everyone i majored in it.

i spent more time practicing and playing than i did in class and doing homework. maybe thats why i'm still at the job i held before i graduated 4 years ago. whoopsiesssss. 

i remember dragging my butt onto our bus and into our vans to trek to our away games. so many hours of my life i'm never getting back. those were long and mostly boring road trips. i wish my teammates and i were as clever as these guys:

also, these guys are hot hot hot. i miss college.

summer

(when reading the following line, please do your best Mel Gibson Braveheart impression)

FREEDOMMMMMM!

i am free. free from schoolwork. free from sunday cram session. free spending a million dollars at starbucks while studying. semi-free from stress.

for the summer that is. come september, i will be right back to the whole no-life, studying all-the-time thing. blah.

but today and for the rest of the week, i will be celebrating.

sunday

any day that starts with a breakfast sandwich is pretty much going to be a good day. today was no exception.

ham, egg and cheese on a low carb bagel gave way to a long random drive that led me to these lovelies:

 this Rhode Island Red did not like me one bit. i can only imagine how she felt about the screaming children running around

you weren't allowed to feed or pet any of the animals. such a bummer. so basically, i walked around talking in a baby voice trying to comfort these little creatures. they loved it. i was tempted to pet them when the caretaker wasn't looking but i didn't want to push my luck and get bitten or some crazy donkey flu.

so many birds out today. i tried like crazy to get a few pictures of them but man, those suckers are fast.

there was a geese party. i wasn't invited.

i swear this picture looks better than it does here. this man was amazing. i sat on a bench on the water for a bit just watching ducks and geese hang out and saw this old man doing the same. he was adorable and so content so i decided he wouldn't mind if i snapped a picture of him. i probably looked like a huge creep but he made me smile and i wanted to remember him. 

i walked on the path behind him because i was so curious as to what he was doing in his notebook. turns out, he was sketching the pond and the gazebo and it was AMAZING. the guy has talent. i walked by him with the biggest grin i could muster because i couldn't help but thinking "this is exactly how i want to be". not when i'm his age, but now. i am pretty much as close to this as possible but plus a whole bunch of guilt. when i take these little day adventures by myself i cannot help but think about what everyone else my age is doing. i'm sure they're shopping, waking up from a big night out or getting brunch with their significant other. thats great and i'm sure they're happy. part of me wishes i was doing those things. but the actual, deep-down true self part of me is so freaking happy just sitting on a bench alone with some birds and an old man. i was so at peace for those brief moments. i hope that part of me never changes.

in my other lives

i have this bad habit.

well, not so much bad as detrimental to my emotional well being.

you see, i can spend a whole day fantasizing about what i do in my other lives. i'm not crazy (well, not THAT crazy). it's just that when I'm bored I create all these other scenarios in my head of what I would rather be doing with my life. most of them have to do with living somewhere fabulous in Europe and not working. in my England scenario, I spend all day in my gorgeous garden and drinking tea with friends; in my Paris scenario I have an insane wardrobe and stay outside all day drinking lattes and in Greece, I get to wear kaftans and flat sandals, go to the beach and eat all day long.

epitome of tranquility

this i could do:

i would never leave

I also have some regular 'ol American dreams that involve actually doing work: writing/experimenting for some fancy website and living the LA lifestyle; owning a farm where i can get tan all day long and ride horses and even one where I own a coffee shop where the workers aren't snarky assholes like most places.

heaven on earth

i would have all my employees make the lattes look like this because every time i get one with a heart, it absolutely makes me day.

man oh man, do i wish i could do all of these things.

sister sister

this weekend was pretty awesome.

why you ask?

well numerous things, really. here it goes:

i had the weekend off! this is very rare for this time of year at my job. but because it was a vacation week, i got stuck working monday-friday. that meant i got an entire weekend to frolic around this lovely state and do a few fun things.

friday night i was dragged out to celebrate my sisters birthday. it was actually a very good time.

i spent saturday morning at a cafe. it was supposed to rain but instead, mother nature decided to be super generous and nice to me and it was an absolute perfect day. i sat on their back patio soaking up the sun and studying. i was also lucky enough to be sitting next to a super hot man and his adorable golden retriever. some day i will have the guts to talk to random men.

after that loveliness, i went rollerblading on the bike path near my house. the "east bay bike path" to be exact. this lovely piece of asphalt is about 14.1 miles long and runs from my town to Bristol, RI (3 towns away) the whole path goes along or over the water. theres a few wooden bridges to go over (so scary) and  on my way to turn around, i decided to take a short cut to avoid the bridge on the way back. and by "short cut" i mean the "longest, most out of the way stupid decision ever". i basically rollerbladed 3 miles out of the way to end up right back at the bridge i was trying to avoid. and here i thought i was good at directions.

i met this little fellow. so many people just biked, jogged or walked right by him. i realize he is a snapping turtle but seriously people, nature is awesome and you really need to start soaking random stuff like this up.  also, he was GINORMOUS.

my fam and i then met up with the other half of us at Flatbeat Pizza Company. this place is basically my ideal restaurant. the waiters wear what the want (ours was wearing a Nimbus Two Thousand shirt from Harry Potter: i was instantly in love) everyone is friendly, almost everything is organic (even the beer) and the vibe is just positive and relaxing. it was such a great time.

we taught dad how to use the GPS on the way. it was rather hilarious to watch.

dad was very talkative tonight. he was running the show.

i tried the peak organic. i love IPAs. i also love any brand that is cool like me and doesn't like capital letters.

lindsay is always tired.

he used to be so good at this as a kid. not so much anymore.

 pumpkin ice cream with gingerbread. this was after 3 large pizzas.

kate is either glowing from her pregnancy or because of their awesome lighting. maybe both.

yea people, let's do this:

interesting thing here. they grow their veggies in raised bed gardens that line the walk up to the restaurant. i was impressed.

today was one of those dreadfully rainy days but i got a lot of studying/cleaning done. i also made these bad boys:

chocolate pancake recipe i got from here.

now back to studying and some wine drinking. hope your weekend was as great as mine. if not, sit back, relax and drink a glass (or bottle) of wine. wine makes everything great.