GUILTY PLEASURES

These guilty pleasures might make me sound like a little bit of a trash ball but oh well. Ha! But you know sometimes there are just things that you love that you can't help.

At least with the first one I am not alone.
JERSEY SHORE
Unless you live under a rock you all know that Season 2 of the Jersey Shore premiered Thursday night. I was a smidge excited. Kenny and I get the biggest kick out this show. These people are so over the top and the situations that they get themselves into are hysterical. Did anyone else watcht? What did yall think of the first episode?

I thought it was good. It was kind of a re-introductory episode so not a lot happened. My one concern is that we are going to have to listen to Ronnie and Sammi "Sweetheart" whine the entire season. Give me more Snooki, JWoww, and The Situation beatin the beat!

And my other guilty pleasure...
EMINEM
I've always had a flare for the dramatics and I even like drama in my music. I love Broadway,mopey songs, Celine Dion and embarrassingly enough even some Josh Groban! Ha! But the common theme is that all of those are overly dramatic when they sing. I would kind of put Eminem in the same boat. I am loving his song out with Rhianna (who I also adore) right now. And I I'm Not Afraid. In college I loved his song with Dido "Stan." To me his rapping is dramatic. He actually says things in his songs even though some of it might be disturbing. Plus he usually has good hooks and choruses in his songs so they are catchy to top it off.

HER BAGS ARE PACKED

So this morning one of my best friends, Susan, moved away. She and I have lived in the same town for 9 years we figured out last night.

It all started at the ripe ol age of 18. It was move in day at Rice Hall on Mississippi State's campus. And it being August it was H-O-T. I had always heard that the person at the end of your side of the hallway controlled the air so I walked two doors down and politely knocked on the door (she tells this story completely different btw) and asked her if she could turn down the air just a wee bit. And that was it. We were friends. I mean it didn't hurt that we ended up pledging the same sorority and living in such close proximity to each other freshmen year. Being from New Orleans and the middle kid of 6, Susan was a little different from some of my other friends. Anyone that knows her, knows that she is quite the character.

But we have made many the memory and have watched each other move in and out of relationships and consume far to much alcohol and cheese dip! And just this past May I was honored to be a bridesmaid in her wedding as she married the perfect guy for her, Andrew. She of course was in my wedding too. Right before the wedding Andrew got an amazing opportunity with Amazon and they made the decision to move. TO SEATTLE!!!!!

So far away! So this morning she is off...Gone for good. I am very sad. She really is my first friend to move away outside of everyone graduating college. So I kind of feel like there is a little hole from where she left. I guess this just means that I am going to need to purchase a plane ticket pretty soon. At least Seattle is a really fun place to visit and we've never been.

I MISS YOU ALREADY SUSAN!!

WHAT I'VE BEEN FILLING MY HEAD WITH

I've been on a pretty big reading kick this summer and have managed to finish a lot of books. Most of them I have absolutely loved. Here's a little list of what I've finished.

The Hunger Games

Catching Fire
Can you say obsessed! I am obsessed with these books. The third and final installment comes out in August and I cannot wait to get my hands on these. I gobbled these books up within a four day period. Loved them!

The Help
Everyone and I mean everyone has read this book by now. Its really good and it was a nice light summer read. I am excited that they are making it into a movie which they are filming in Mississippi. I would have like to audition to be an extra.

Next I tried to read this:
I've read the entire series and somewhat enjoyed them. But for some reason I just could not get into this book. I got a few pages in and quit. Might be done with ol Sookie Stackhouse.

Heart of the Matter
I had never read any of her other books pretty much because I do not like books about girls who shop and plan their weddings. This one was different from her others from what I have heard. But it was kind of depressing. It was about marriage and sort of the demise of a marriage. A bit depressing but still a good read.

Right now I am reading:
I figured with the Twilight Series and all the Sookie books I had had enough of vampires so it is time for Zombies. This book is written very differently and I am loving it. I also have a thing for post-apocalyptic books and movies. Weird I know.

Things I Have in My Queue:
Animal Farm and 1984 ( never read either of these in high school for some reason)

Eat Pray Love.I haven't read Eat Pray Love but I am hoping to get a Kindle for my birthday next month and I am planning for Eat, Pray, Love to be my first book to read on my Kindle. Right before the movie comes out.

WEEKEND RECAP

Kenny and I had an amazing weekend staying in town. On Friday night we met a big group of friends for sushi before packing up our friends radio flyer with coolers, chairs, and even a battery powered fan and parking it at Memphis Botanical Gardens for their Live at The Garden Concert Series. Al Green was playing along with Robert Randolph as the opener. Kenny and I have seen Al Green before and loved him. So we thought it would be fun to see him again. This was my first time to go to a Live at the Garden concert. I really liked how laid back it all was. They allow you to bring any kind of chairs you want, tables, candles, coolers, food. It really is the perfect opportunity for a nice little date night and it was a lot of fun with friends.


I do have to say that sometimes doing anything on Friday nights is hard for me. It is the end of the work week and I did wake up early that morning so I was struggling a little bit. Was a smidge tired and my chair was pretty comfy along with this fan (who was someones GENIUS idea) blowing on me I might have dozed off in between acts. Ha!!

On Saturday, Kenny went and played golf all day with our friend Michael and I ran errands. I was excited because I was getting to finally pick up this piece that my mom had put together for me for Christmas and we are planning to hang in our office. I think I might have mentioned this before but I love all things Walter Anderson a little too much. Sorry for the poor picture. I carefully put this in my car only to realize that the door wasn't going to close. Oops!

On Saturday night I was soooo excited because one of my best friends, Stefanie from college, was in town with her 10 month old little boy Conrad Patrick who I had never met. Her brother and sister live here and her mom was in town too. So Kenny and I went out to eat with their family. I am sad that I did not take a single picture. But we had the best time at Ciao Bella (one of my favorite restaurants) and then we all went to Muddy's for some cupcakes. By this time it was waaaay past little Conrad Patrick's bedtime and he was still being soooo good! It was so much fun to see them and it made me realize how much I miss seeing her! If only we could all go back to college right where we saw each other everyday.

On Sunday, I stayed in bed ridiculously late watching movies and reading.We watched Old Dogs with John Travolta and Robin Williams in bed. Before you laugh Kenny and I have seen almost everything at Blockbuster that is out right now. I won't bother giving this movie a real review. It was a D-

Then Kenny and I went to see Inception. This movie was amazing. I loved all the people in it especially Ellen Page. And while you might stay a little confused during the whole thing, you just have to keep going with the flow and not try to overthink it. We left the theatre and I literally felt a little daze from it all. It is pretty long and I kind of want to see it again because there is so much to take in and you probably catch more the second time around. Can't wait to own this one and personally I think it far exceeds The Matrix. I give it an A+

After getting home from the movie Kenny and I grilled out sausage dogs that were totally yum and sweet potato fries. It was all so good. It really was such a great weekend!

PARANOID MUCH............

So we got home from being out of town on Sunday to find someone had stolen our Mississippi State flag from the front of our house while we were gone. Not a huge deal.

I mean we love it and of course I am sad because we will have to get another one before football season starts. But in the grand scheme of things it was not an extremely expensive item, it is easily replaceable, and no one actually broke into our house or anything.

So what is wrong with me. On Tuesday night I had a horrible nightmare that I am convinced that was a reaction to the silly flag being stolen. The kind of nightmare where I woke up frozen in bed and had to tell myself it wasn't real. It was just a nightmare. I do not have nightmares very often.

In the nightmare, these kids were terrorizing my street. It was dark and late and Kenny wasn't home and they were knocking on peoples doors trying to get them to come out of their homes so they could do who knows what. It was a dream after all. But they were breaking things and wreaking havoc. In the dream Lena was going nuts and I was looking out the windows trying to call the police but I would stand there with the phone up to my ear but it would never ring.

So last night Kenny is out at a concert with some friends and I am home alone and I have fallen asleep and am sleeping pretty hard when Lena wakes me up barking barking barking. She heard something. So coming out of a deep sleep I am somewhat delirious and my heart is pounding. I get out of bed and find myself deja vuing the nightmare. I start looking out the windows like a crazy woman expecting to see people in my backyard stealing things. Paranoid right??

What am I going to do if Kenny has to go out of town? I am not sure why someone stealing our flag has me so worked up and paranoid. I guess its the feeling that someone was kind of lurking around our house that wasn't supposed to be there. Either way I hope I have zero more nightmares and the paranoia goes away really soon.

CHI -TOWN

For the long weekend Kenny and I planned a little getaway to Chicago for our annual summer trip. We had the best time. Neither of us had been before and we made sure to pack EVERYTHING in! We stayed downtown in the perfect location where pretty much everything we wanted to do was in walking distance, a short train ride or an extremely inexpensive cab ride which we took a few of those to! It was hot!

On Saturday we of course had to pay our respects to the hallowed ground of Wrigley Field. The stadium really is amazing and we got so lucky in that our great seats were in the shady part of the stadium by the 3rd inning. Once we were in the shade I was ready to chow down on a Chicago Style hot dog! Yum!! The game was really exciting and the Cubs won!




After the game Kenny had mentioned wanting to go buy the famous Billy Goat Tavern, site of the famous Belushi skits...you know Cheezeborger! Cheezeborger! Cheezeborger! We finally found it tucked under the Tribune building and we couldn't leave without having one of the famed Cheezeborgers.


On Sunday, it was my turn to have chosen the activity so we went to see Billy Elliot at the Ford Oriental Theatre. OMG this show was sooooo amazing! And oh my lord the dancing! This play had so many talented kids. It totally made me want to have a stage kid! The show was different than what I expected but sometimes having no expectations means you enjoy it so much more, The only tickets we were able to buy were literally in the front row. I had never sat this close before and it was a new experience. We could smell things they were cooking on stage as props and smell their cigarettes. And I am not sure if I was just being emotional or it was seeing the actor's faces so close up but I cried a GOOD bit through this production. We will go see it again when it hopefully comes to Memphis!


After the play we walked around Millennium Park.






It started to get kind of cloudy and started to rain so we ducked into a Jamba Juice. Just had to include this picture because Kenny waited in line for like a hour for these smoothies with a bunch of tweens. By the time he finally got them it had stopped raining.
On Monday we did a lot of touristy stuff. We took an Architecture Boat Tour which really was interesting and a lot of fun.




And we went to the John Hancock observatory and walked around a good bit.


Can anyone guess why we took this picture? Kenny was so mad we missed them by a week. Here's a hint. It is not Julio Inglesias!

For lunch we had to make our tourist checklist complete with Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. So we headed to Gino's East right off the Magnificent Mile. Have to say it was indeed worth the wait.

Here we are waiting on our pizza. The first thing the waitress told us was it was like a hour wait for a deep dish. But we were determined. And by the way I do actually have clothes on in these pictures. It was a strapless dress. Woops.


After we were stuffed from lunch we did some shopping on the Magnificent Mile. I was a little wiped out with it being the last day and all the go go going. So we actually went back to the hotel and took a two hour nap before going to The Custom House for our "anniversary dinner." The food was delicious and they couldn't have been nicer in helping us celebrate the occasion!

So we are home now and I am trying to recover. We did so much and stayed so busy. Loved Chicago and hope to go back someday. Looking forward to this very short week and then a laid back weekend.