Getting to Know Us: The Wall Art Edition

I've shared with you other "Getting to Know Us" posts, including our shower art (which we can't do anymore because our shower is tile, sadly) and our messy refrigerator.

Today, inspired in some part by Kaelah's post asking where to find cool art, I'm going to share with you some of my favorite things on our walls.

Jose Pulido Prints

Robbie bought me these prints from this shop for our anniversary last year.  We both love sugar skulls, both aesthetically as well as the cultural aspects and meaning.  These warm my heart every time I see them (which you probably might've guessed, since I had one permanently emblazoned on my body).  There's one missing from the bunch because it's on a shelf, but you can get the idea.

1863 Harper's Weekly Drawing

This is an actual page from a September, 1963 edition of Harper's Weekly.  The drawing is of the First Maine Cavalry "skirmishing." I found this at our framer's shop back in Farmington and bought it/had it framed for Rob.

Caitlin & Cypress Watercolor

I bought this painting from this Etsy shop for Rob one Christmas and we both just love it.

Rob's Army Collage

Rob and I bought matching collage frames to make collages of my time in Russia and his time in the army.  I like his better than mine because I can tell how much it means to him.

Map of Maine (1890)

This was another find from the framer's shop.  This is an actual map of Maine from around 1890 that we think it might be from a magazine or newspaper of some kind.  Rob and I really like it because Maine's cities really haven't changed all that much in over 100 years.

Tattoo Plaques

I found these online, on the website Rocket Assembly.  Cat Rocketship is fabulous to work with and I think these add an awesome element to our home.

Girl with Turtle

As I told you in my last post, Robbie and I have a little inside joke having to do with turtles.  My mother bought us this when we first moved in together in 2008, our first artwork as an adult couple.  It has a special place in everywhere we live.

Rob's Unit

I like this picture because it's Rob's entire unit after they came back from Iraq. Rob hates it because the mountains are Photoshopped (they actually took the picture in front of barracks), but the idea of the picture is enough to earn it a special place in our home.

Cypress Art

My mother and sisters bought us this painting last year for Christmas.  Generally if you aren't sure what to get us as a gift, Cypress art is a good bet. This painting sits above Cypress's beds.

Cocksure Fruit & Vegetable Label

I saw this at a thrift store back in Maine and it made me laugh (5th grade boy that I am).  I went home and mentioned it to Rob, and he asked incredulously why I didn't buy it.  Suffice it to say we drove right back and bought it, and it's followed us from Maine to New Mexico.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Mini-Posters

Those of you who know us at all know that we both love Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Really, it was one of the first things that Rob and I bonded on before we even got together, and it was a real source of comfort when Rob was in Iraq. These mini-posters come with the new volumes and we've been hanging a few of them.  I'm actually considering getting a tattoo of Crow and Servo in this sort of pop-art style at some point.

Rob & Caitlin's Wedding Sign

I bought this distressed wooden sign from this shop and it helped show people where our wedding took place.  Unfortunately it was grey and rainy the day of our wedding, so it kind of blended into the background.  Regardless, we saved it, and I'm so glad we did.  The "Caitlin & Rob" is hanging above our kitchen and we placed this part of it on an easel on the floor. I know it doesn't technically count as "wall art" because of this floor placement, but whatevs.

If you do a post like this featuring some of your wall art, give me the link in the comments! 

Tuesday Bits & Pieces

1. Thanks for all of your kind words about my cactus-in-finger situation. It's slowly getting better, thanks to the antibiotics the doctor put me on.  Anyway, the antibiotics had a rather unintended side effect, namely that I spent all day yesterday vomiting or trying not to vomit.  I honestly don't remember the last time I felt that sick.  By the end of the day I was sobbing to Rob because the nausea just. wouldn't. stop.  Thankfully we isolated the problem antibiotic (#1 of 2) so today I am feeling much better.  What a warm welcome from my new home state, eh?

2. It feels really good to finally know which of Santa Fe's many grocery stores is "ours." I know that's a tiny thing, but in Maine most places only have one grocery store so you kind of identify with it.  We loved our Hannaford back in Farmington because we knew where everything was and could get anything we needed there.  The one issue with our new grocery store is  that we can't get a lot of "conventional" brands (like normal Chex) because it's kind of a hippy-dippy all-natural situation.  Oh well, I guess that's what CVS is for.

3. We've been having fun cooking in our new kitchen, though space is far more limited than in our last apartment.  Our first meal was comprised of baked chicken tenders and french fries, and tomorrow we're going to our new favorite restaurant for yummy Mexican.  We're trying to get better at meal planning, since our usually MO is to just buy every day what we need for that particular day.

4. We've had a lot of fun decorating our new home.  Since, as previously mentioned, our house is considerably smaller than our previous domiciles we've had to work a lot harder to make all of our things fit.  One thing we got really excited about once we got here was that holy candles are available everywhere, including Target.  We bought La Virgen de Guadalupe and San Antonio, my grandmother's favorite Saint.

5. My Nikon D60 finally got repaired and was sent back to me just before we moved.  I took it along with us on a short hike and maybe, just maybe, you guys won't have to deal with crappy iPhone pictures on here anymore.

6. I hope you all are having a great week so far!

11 Things Meme

I have done this post before so I'll make sure not to repeat myself too much.  I was tagged by my good friend Jess this time and since I have spent most of the day vomiting or coming close to vomiting (more on this later) I thought this would prove a fun distraction.

 

Rules:

1. Post these rules 

2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things 

3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post 

4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them 

5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them that you've tagged them.

11 Things about Me:

1. I think if I could have any job, assuming schooling/talent/money were not factors, it would be a tattoo artist.  I think it'd be so badass to be in such an open, flexible environment just working on your art.  Unfortunately, as any of the people who are currently playing Draw Something with me can tell you, drawing is not my forte.  My brain totally freezes when I need to draw something and it just comes out as a giant mess. 

2. I have had a blog in some format or another (LiveJournal, Xanga, Wordpress, Blogspot) since 2004.  Though I tend to shut down my blogs I always start them back up again.  

3.   Rob and I have a long-standing inside joke about turtles.  At one point my family and I were learning sign language in order to communicate with my cousin's son, who is totally deaf.  The only sign I could remember and teach to Rob was "turtle"(look it up, it seriously looks like a turtle) and we'd do it back and forth to each other all the time.  To this day we have little turtle figurines all over the house and sometimes I still draw little turtles at the bottom of notes or letters for him.

4. I love watching old, antiquated shorts and commercials from the 50s and 60s.  This love for the obsolete probably goes hand in hand with my love of the show Mystery Science Theater, since it's how I was introduced to them in the first place. I just find it interesting to see how advertising and PSAs have changed.

5. Rob and I like to collect books for our bathroom. Currently we have a zombie songbook, a book from the 1930s on making love, another book from the 1940s about finding a boyfriend, a book written by Stan and Jan Berenstain in the 1950s about marriage, the book "All my Friends are Dead," and finally, a chronicle of Russian prison tattoos. I have to thank my sister Megan for those last 3.

6. I've always loved animals, but I underestimated the extent to which I would consider Cypress family.  I know it's morbid, but I dread the day that we have to say goodbye to her because she has made such an impact on our lives.  Sometimes when I think about it I just take a second and snuggle her on the couch so I can remember what it was like when she leaves us. Call it silly if you will, but we love our little beastie.

7. I have a lifelong fear that I won't be able to have children.  Maybe a year or so ago I decided that even if we are infertile, Rob and I will go on to have a kickass life, maybe traveling around and of course adopting a million dogs.

8. My favorite books are usually non-fiction.  For example, I really enjoy "In Cold Blood" and "Under the Banner of Heaven," and I'm currently reading a book about the biological and social differences between men and women.

9. Every time I put deodorant on, I have to sniff it beforehand.

10. Same with my hands after I've washed them.

11. Because of my synesthesia, my married name bugs me more than my maiden name.  My maiden name was a nice shade of purple, but my married name is a combination of red and yellow, which makes me think of Ronald McDonald.

Jessica's Questions:

1. Who's your #1 celebrity crush?

I have quite a few and they are not typical of people my age (haha).  Conan O'Brien, Bruce Springsteen, Dave King from Flogging Molly (I have a red Irishman thing) are the biggest right now.  Also James Franco and Johnny Depp.

2. What's your zodiac sign? 

Gemini.

3. Do you feel your age? 

Not really, but I don't feel significantly younger or older. I feel like I'm 22 or 23 (I'll turn 26 this year).

4. If you already have a kid(s)- do you want more? If you don't- do you want to have kids? 

I sort of answered this above.  We do want children, but if we can't have them we are (at least at this point) okay with not being parents. I am not naive enough to believe that this may change.

5. Which movie character (not the star playing them!) do you think you're most like?

This character isn't from a movie, but probably Liz Lemon.  Also Sam from "Garden State." 

6. What's your favorite cocktail ever? 

I had this badass margarita in Jerome, Arizona that I enjoyed more than any drink ever.  My go-to drink, though, is a lemon drop with sugar on the rim.

7. If you could trade places with any blogger for a week, who would it be? 

Probably you, Jess! I'd love to live in Hawaii and explore places I haven't seen before.  Also, if I am physically trading places that means I'd look like you, which would be a vast improvement for me.

8. Could you have ever been a contestant on Fear Factor? 

I doubt it. I'm a wuss and a coward.

9. Are you a morning or night person? 

I have aspects of both.  On a project I prefer to wake up at around 5am, but I also like staying up late with Robbie when I'm home.

10. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 

Happily married, living somewhere awesome, maybe with kids or maybe with a million dogs.

11. If you had to live in a reality tv show, which would it be?

"Inkmasters." Then I could just get tattooed all day. 

My Questions for You:

*I'm going to admit that some of these I found online or in books. I'm not super creative.

1. This is one that Rob and I have been discussing at length (found in this book).  If you had a choice between a year in Europe, all expenses paid plus a $2000/month stipend, or ten minutes on the moon, which would you choose and why? I shouldn't have to clarify this, but danger/possibility of shuttle explosion is not a concern.

2.Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?

3. If you were someone else, would you be friends with you? Why or why not?

4. Have you ever read a book that totally changed your perspective or beliefs? What book was it if so?

5. What would you do differently if you knew no one was judging you?

6. This one came from the same place as the moon question (You can read the other questions here):  At long last, someone invents "the dream VCR." This machine allows you to tape an entire evening's worth of your own dreams and watch them. However, the inventor of the dream VCR will only allow you to use this device of you agree to a strange caveat: When you watch your dreams, you must do so with your family and your closest friends in the same room. They get to watch your dreams along with you. And if you don't agree to this, you can't use the dream VCR. Would you still do this?

7. If you could only watch one television show for the rest of your life (all seasons, all episodes) what would it be?

8. If you could acquire any talent in the world instantly, without actually working at it, what would it be?

9. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

10. What celebrity would you most like to have dinner with?

11. What are your top five favorite songs?

I tag Deanna, Sarah Rooftops, Ayla, Tricia, Ashley, Michelle, Violet, Sara, Alycia, Melissa, and No Model Lady! Please let me know if you decide to do this, even if I didn't tag you. :)

Back Among the Living

Yes, ladies and gents, we finally have internet.  And after 3 years of slow Maine internet, this is city internet.  It's fast.  No more pixelated Netflix, no more day-long downloads.  We are legit. I've really missed blogging and sharing this whole process with you.  I'm so sick of using my iPhone for internet, you have no idea.

Anyway let me bring you up to speed! Be warned that this will probably be a long 'un.

The trip was pretty uneventful all in all.  I'll sum it up with a few points:

1. My sister Megan totally kept me sane for the entire trip.  Don't know what I would've done without her.
2. Amie kept Rob company, which was good because driving the Jeep + trailer turned out to be pretty damn stressful.
3. No offense to those of you who live in Oklahoma, but I don't really like Oklahoma.
4. Same to you, Missouri.

We rolled into Santa Fe in the evening of February 21.  We were all exhausted but it was pretty awesome to get "home."  I had a mini-meltdown when I realized the sink was really small (yes, this happened) but Rob seemed excited.  The only issue we've had is that our shower makes a really high-pitched noise when on the hot water, but our landlords are hopefully getting this fixed soon.  In the meantime we affectionately refer to the voice as our shower witch.

On Wednesday we began the unpacking process, visited Target four times, and took the dog for few walks around our new home.  This was also the day that my iPhone took a bath and my hand got a load of cactus spines in it (more on that later).  Additionally, our Comcast self-install kit didn't work and we found out we'd have to wait until Sunday (yesterday) to get internet.  I had a few freak-out moments because I hate moving and all the stress that comes with it, but Megan, Amie and Robbie (and Cypress, a little bit) did a great job of calming me down and redirecting my energy.  I'm very lucky to have so many people around me that understand the direction in which my thought process typically goes.

 

Thursday came much too quickly and I had to say goodbye to my sister and Amie, and let's face it, goodbyes suck.  Even though I will probably see Megan soon-ish, the mere fact that I'm 3600 miles away just feels weird.

Friday and Saturday were spent unpacking and organizing.  It's been a challenge to effectively use the space we have, to say the least, but I think we found a nice balance.  Our new home is very "us" and very homey.  I have a video tour of it all unpacked, which you can see here!

On Friday I noticed that I still had a cactus spine embedded in my finger and that it was beginning to become infected.  I sort of ignored it until yesterday, when my finger became pretty swollen and the pain was intense enough to wake me out of a sound sleep.

At around 6:30am, I went to the ER which was an experience in and of itself.  After three penetrating needle jabs in the base of my knuckle to numb my finger the doctor told me that I should just take antibiotics and see if the infection dies down on its own.  Side note: I think it's funny when people tell me that needles shouldn't scare me because I have tattoos. Anyone who has tattoos know that the burning sensation tattoos cause does not equal the penetrating evil of medical needles.

Anyway my finger is still swollen and achy, and now sadly bruised because of the needles. I'm hoping the antibiotics work quickly.

Did you enjoy those pictures of my fingers? Hopefully I didn't gross anyone out too much.

So far, we really like Santa Fe.  I think Rob is still getting used to living in a city and somewhere other than Maine, but all in all we're having a great time together.  I'm so happy that we decided to come early so we could spend March getting to know each other before Robbie starts work.  I sure am going to miss him when he's out on fires.

One of our favorite things so far has been the views.  The view from our patio alone is absolutely stunning.

You know, despite having written this post in my head a few times, I'm still shocked with how incoherent it turned out.  I hope you enjoyed looking at pretty pictures, anyway.  I have some more from my camera (which has been resuscitated, thankfully) that I will share at a later time.

For now I'm going to get caught up on your blogs!   

Checking In

Hi friends! Just wanted to let you know that we made it to Santa Fe in one piece (well, many pieces, which we are still unpacking).

I dropped my phone in the bath tub yesterday (it miraculously recovered), then fell and braced my hand against a cactus, and finally, found out that we won't get Internet until Sunday. Other than those things, we are really happy to finally be here and settling in.

Today will hold more unpacking, settling in, and taking our traveling companions (Amie and Megan) back to the airport. I'm so sad to see them leave, especially since we probably won't see them again for a few months.

Oh, and because everyone has asked, Cypress is doing well. The trip was very confusing for her, but I think she's starting to understand that we live here now. She prefers our bedroom mostly, I think because it's cooler and our bed smells like home.

Thank you all for the kind words, and I hope to be back in the land of blog by Sunday at the latest.

The Story So Far

So we are officially halfway through the move...the driving part, anyway.

On Saturday morning we did a absolutely marathon run of cleaning.  We threw away every godforsaken thing we own, I swear.  At one point I asked Rob if we had any more room in the trailer, and his reply was, "Oh, we ran out of room a long time ago, but I'm still finding room."  We had to leave behind our hamper, a rug, kitchen chairs, and a number of other items, but it was all worth it for the sake of ease. Miraculously we managed to get out of the house at around 10:15 and how this happened, I will never be able to explain. It was all so fast and so frantic that I didn't really have much time to feel sad at our abrupt departure and newly empty house.  I did, however, get a chance to take a picture of our empty house as well as the house in which our first apartment was.

Rob and Amie drove in the Jeep with the trailer ahead of me and I drove in my little Corolla.  The 11.5-hour drive really wasn't too bad, maybe because I expected it to be extremely horrific.

On the first night we found ourselves in Carlisle, Pennsylvania...exhausted and hungry but more or less okay.  I literally snacked on chips, cookies and M&Ms all day so I felt pretty awful.

Today we made it from Pennsylvania to Indianapolis.  I finally got to ride the Chang (translation: eat at P.F. Chang's) which made me quite happy, and now we're chilling in the hotel, having drinks and giving ourselves temporary tattoos.

We have two more days of traveling ahead of us so hopefully we'll make it without any breakdowns or random acts of violence toward one another.  

Want to know something funny? Though this has been a really stressful venture I feel closer than ever to my Robbie.  I knew this anyway but I really have faith that we can weather any storm.

I hope you're all doing fabulously and thank you x1000 for all of your well wishes and support.

What We've Been Up To: Packing, Tattoos, and Hoarders

Well friends, as you know this week has been a zero-sum dash to get all of our earthly possessions together in one place and ready for a four-day cross-country trip.

This is mostly the reason why I've been so absent on blogs lately.  My Bloglovin' feed is almost to 300 new posts...yee-ikes!  I'm taking a break from the throwing away of things moving now, though, to give you an idea of what our week has been like.

To begin I'll tell you that early in the week I decided to grant total control of packing over to my husband. I wouldn't pack or throw anything away until he told me to in order to protect myself from a full-on meltdown.  At one point he even told me he'd wait for me to leave before he packed because it was easier when I wasn't huffing around all stressed-like.

On Monday we slowly began putting stuff in trash bags and planning what we'd keep and what we'd take to the dump.  Because our new place is so much smaller than our current house we knew we'd be purging like mad people.  I don't know about you, but the feeling you get when you pack one tiny box and end up with 3 huge bags of trash is unparalleled.  I don't understand how people can become hoarders (but more on that later).

On Tuesday we puttered around some more and I got a [freehanded] skull tattoo!  This was actually a going-away present from Adam, who didn't think I had the guts to get a skull tattoo.  Well, ladies and gents, I proved him wrong.

This is just at the beginning--he drew the skull in sharpie on my leg first.

 

An interesting note about this tattoo, and I hope it doesn't come across incorrectly.  I posted the freehand drawing on Instagram as well as the final result and literally received maybe 3 "likes", as opposed to my much more "friendly" sugar-skull couple, which got maybe 15 likes and many comments.  I don't really care, nor does it particularly hurt my feelings, I just find it interesting which tattoos people choose to "like" and those they do not.  Like it or not, we in the blogging world (most of us are hipsters, and I include myself in that) share a lot of the same tattoo fads--mostly American traditional pieces, non-threatening sugar skulls, swallows, roses, craft tools, baking tools, etc. It's not a bad thing and really makes a lot of sense, since many of us share a lot of the same interests.  I've never really seen a skull like this around the blogosphere, so I suppose it just isn't a lot of people's cup of tea and that's okay. I joked to Rob that maybe if I slapped a raven and an Edgar Allen Poe quote next to this one it wouldn't look so scary to people.  

Anyway my friends, on Wednesday we had a huge dump extravaganza (I didn't mean for that to sound as gross as it does).  We took two truckfuls of crap to our local transfer station and it felt amazing, like losing a collective 100 lb of weight in a day amazing. Funny story, actually.  At our dump we have a "share shack," where you can leave still-good items for other people to take.  When we drove up to it we were surprised with how empty it was but started unloading some of our items, such as a computer desk, a small dresser, some shelving units, an end table, etc. Almost as soon as we drove up, a swarm of people came to look at everything we'd left behind.  One woman managed to grab our dresser not 30 seconds after we'd put it down.  Another guy grabbed the end table from Rob's hands, then grabbed a vacuum cleaner hose and a broken door.  He had a huge smile on his face and said in a thick Maine accent, "One man's trash is another's treasure!" We left heavy with the realization that we probably enabled more than one hoarder that day.

On Thursday we got the trailer and put most of our stuff in it.  I'm lucky that my husband is a packing ninja and can fit a lot of things into a small area (that's what she said).  Today is being spent finishing up and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

Poor Cypress is totally flabbergasted by the happenings in our home.  She looks at us like a person who's defaulted on their mortgage and whose things are being repossessed.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we're leaving and what that means.  It deserves its own post so I'll hold out for that.

I hope you've all had a great week so far and happy Friday!

Thoughts on Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is always an interesting holiday to me, particularly because the majority of the population seems to feel so strongly about it one way or the other.  To be honest, I've never been all that torn up about Valentine's Day.  I never had boyfriends in middle or early high school (side effect of being insufferably awkward) but my friends and I exchanged goofy cards and chocolates, and my dad always hooked us up with lots of fun goodies.

On my first Valentine's Day as one half of an awesome couple, my now-husband--who at the time was 17--sang me a song he'd written for me in front of our entire school cafeteria.  The day didn't really matter, but it was a pretty convenient excuse to do the sweetest thing ever. Fast forward to 2009, when Rob proposed to me in our living room after singing me a song.

Despite all of these things, I don't have any strong feelings about Valentine's Day one way or the other as a holiday.  Rob and I look at it mostly as an excuse to go out to eat, to cuddle extra tight, and to just take a moment to appreciate our love for one another.

This year, I got a tattoo (as previously mentioned) and Rob did a little bit of packing.  We're going to eat some turkey-feta-onion-spinach burgers on gluten-free bread and snuggle and watch Inkmasters...basically the same thing we do every day.  But part of me still enjoys the pink shit at Walmart  and the endless Facebook statuses (except the ones from people talking about how much better they are than Valentine's Day), if you take it for what it is.

I leave you with my new favorite picture of Robbie and I.  If you're wondering why it's kind of grainy, this is actually a cell phone photo of a film photo.  Don't judge.

Honestly Honest, v.2

I struggled over whether to do another of these posts after the first time.  Truth be told, when I write posts like this I'm afraid that I come across as kind of an attention whore...like, LOOK HOW REAL I AM PEOPLE.  Really, honestly, I just think I'm ridiculous and I enjoy sharing that with you good people.  At the risk of sounding obnoxiously insecure, I hope you don't misunderstand my intent.

Anyway the point of this post and its original post, if you didn't read that one, was to kind of bust up the typical "show only the good side on my blog" thing.  Not that I criticize those who choose to do this, I just enjoy being kind of gross.

That being said:

1. It's winter in Maine, which means I don't shave my pasty-ass legs.  To be honest, I've shaved them since this picture, but that's only because I have a tattoo coming up. Think this is TMI?  Be thankful I didn't show you my armpits.

Also, since I'm being honest: I have a better picture of the hairiness, but it showed my underwear on the floor, and that seemed a bit much.

2. This is what my hair looks like after I shower:

3. This is what I look like when I shower at night and sleep on my hair:

4. We don't sweep as often as we should.

5. This is as far as we have gotten in moving.  And we move in T-4 days.

So how are YOU?  

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Week in Santa Fe

I'm back, NERDS!*

So as you all know I spent last week in the Land of Enchantment (New Mexico) with my sister. Our goal, of course, was to find a place to live.  One thing that kind of bummed me out originally was that I didn't have a single place that I was super excited about.

Thanks to Bethany (she's awesome, and has been SO helpful) I had somewhat of an idea to expect but I was still freaking out a little.

We flew from Boston on Tuesday.  On the flight to Phoenix, I bought a snack box since they are generally gluten-free.  When I handed the flight attendant my USAA credit card, she asked if I was military.  When I told her about Rob, she handed me back my card and gave me the snack box for free! As I told Rob, the four years apart and Purple Heart were totally worth the dried fruit and cheese.

We landed and I got a sight of my new home airport, Albuquerque Sunport! As a side note, doesn't "support" sound so much more fun and exciting and less TSA-violating than "airport?"

The next morning we looked at heroin-needle place and, as I told you previously, randomly called our dream house and basically decided on it that day.  I have to tell you, I totally shut down a few times and my stomach was filled with the tumult that only stress can bring.  Once the landlords called on Thursday morning and said that we'd snagged the place my whole being did a huge freaking internal summersault/flip/cartwheel moment.  

I stressed about the limited space (which prompted a complete evaluation of everything we owned, which I wrote out and you can see below) but Megan, who lives in a small space, gave me all the encouragement I needed.  So then I stressed about money, which both Megan and my Robbie helped me through.  Thanks guys!  I'm 100% ready to move forward with this trip and I couldn't be happier.

I hope I accurately convey just how crazy I can be through these blog posts.

We spent the rest of our time in Santa Fe visiting my dad's alma mater (which we'd heard stories of throughout our childhood), seeing the country's oldest church, visiting another old church with a logic-defying staircase, eating lots and lots of food (including gluten-free pizza!) and drinking quite a few margaritas and martinis. Also, I bought a fun sexy dress from Target! I promise it doesn't look that lumpy in real life.

It was genuinely a really fun trip.  I'm really glad that Megan and I got to spend some time together before we are separated by around 3000 miles, and I couldn't have picked a better person to help me through such a stressful time.

I hope you all had a great weekend, and thank you all for realsies for filling out my survey.

*You guys aren't actually nerds, unless you like being labeled as such. I just wanted to channel Liz Lemon.