Sunday, August 30, 2009

Just a little yearbookin'...

I obviously had too much time on my hands today and decided to yearbook some of my friends. They are really in no particular order...Sam in 1970 (yeah...she's black...I think she pulls it off quite well).



Ali in 1980 (they didn't have too many Filipino bodies to choose from...sorry, doll).



Wendy in 1974



Thomas in 1952


Me in 1966



Mom in 1982



Mike in 1990



Laura in 1992


Julie in 1996



Emily in 1962


Chris in 2000


Brian in 1996


Beth in 1980


I have no idea why I found that so darn fun. Sorry if you are offended by your picture.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Snoochie Boochies

I just realized that I could have added a few pictures from the last couple months...


Playing Miniature Golf

Daniel did something amazing...or at least he made some kind of contact with the ball.


Sam was determined to have Will hold the club the correct way. She kept saying, "Daniel is doing it better than you!" I'm not sure how that's supposed to help promote high self-esteem.



Randomly Attacking Chris
I don't know if you can tell, but they pretty much love him.

Only Chris was taking direction. Will and Daniel were too engrossed in Spongebob Squarepants.

Daniel was laid back...with his mind on his money and his money on his mind. I don't think I've ever seen a two year old look so chill.


J's New Apartment
Look! A door!

Look! A kitchen!

Look! A living room/dining room!


Cardinals Game in STL
A picture of Brad and his brother, Paul, on the Jumbo Tron.


Ali showing off what he's learned from all his friends who work at Show Me's.


Poker Game at Beth's
Wendy and Mike

Chris, Wendy, and Sammy

Glenn, me, and Christina

Beth and Scott


Okay, now I feel like I'm really caught up. Good stuff.

Friday, August 28, 2009

How is he starting Kindergarten already???

It feels like just yesterday that Logan was curled up in my arms. When did he get old enough to go to Kindergarten?



And you may remember the time that I was so angry at Sadie for not being born while I was in St. Louis. I'm kinda getting over that...how could you not forgive this face????



I'm super excited that my mom just bought plane tickets to bring Logan to North Carolina in November. I will once again get to prove that I am the best aunt ever (I'm not afraid to buy my nephew's love)...

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

You better watch out...he might try to lean in for a hand-hold.

As a few of you may know...one of my very best friends was too busy to talk to me for about a month. I'm not angry...no, no, no...I was just slightly bummed. It's cool, though. She emailed me the best apology email I've ever gotten. There was more to it than this, but I thought this part of it summed up our relationship quite well and I thought I'd share...


"You're a member of the Channel Four News Team! We need you. Hell, I need you. I'm a mess without you. I miss you so damn much. I miss being with you, I miss being near you. I miss your laugh. I miss your scent; I miss your musk. When this all gets sorted out, I think you and me should get an apartment together"


Who other than Sam can quote Anchorman in an apology???


I LOVE that girl.

Oh! And here is a picture of the reason (on his first day of school in his crazy-adorable school uniform) their family left Charlotte. I blame him for everything (and I realize that that may come off as a little bit bitter....sorry).


Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Christina flopped her nuts.*

Okay, seeing that I'm done with my catch up (well, I'm tired of playing catch up...just be assured that there were a lot of dinners out and fun times at the beginning of August), I will now write about the weekend.


Friday

I realize that I've already written about this, but that's the night Chris and I went to see Counting Crows. We had dinner at Solstice and I channeled my inner 7 year old and ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with tator tots....I then made Chris braid my hair and gush about Zac Efron (isn't that what 7 year olds are doing these days???). He wasn't too keen on that (you know...since he's a dude), but he's a great friend, sooooo.....


Saturday

After spending the day being completely lazy, I got ready to go to Beth's poker night. She had originally planned it for her volleyball buddies, but then decided to extend the offer a few more people. Seeing that the "few more people" showed up (it wasn't just poker; an insane Mexican fiesta buffet was also served), it was decided that it would be best to have a girl's game and a guy's game. It was remarkable how different the games were. Hilarity ensued in the kitchen (where the girls were playing) while the dining room (where the guys were) was dead silent (the silence only interrupted every-so-often with questions of, "Do they ever shut up!?!?" and "WHAT is going on in there?!!?"). I believe my good luck was turned around when Beth realized that I was bluffing the entire time. I've learned that it's really hard to win at poker when you get nothing but crap cards.

Sometime after the first game and hanging out on the back porch for a little while, we decided to combine the sexes (or "make purple", if you will...gasp!) and have everyone play. I believe I may have been the first person out, because I forgot the concept of folding. Who knew that was a hard concept to grasp?? Apparently when you are 32 glasses of wine in, you forget how to do things like "folding" and "not talking".

After the game (well, after there was only Scott and Chris left), Glenn decided it would be best if he took Scott #2 (or is he Scott #1 since he was the first Scott invited???) and me home. I vaguely remember asking Glenn numerous times where we were until finally proclaiming that I knew EXACTLY where we were (because he cared so darn much that I knew where we were, of course). He said he would pick me up for brunch the next morning so that I could get my car back, which brings me to...

Sunday

After a restful night of sleep (lie), I was picked up at 10:45 for brunch at Toast. It was amazing how dehydrated I was from the night before. If the waitress would have just left the pitcher of water, I could have finished it off. Special thanks to Mike for taking care of my brunch (and leaving the boys to take care of their own)...it made me feel super-special for just being a girl.

Glenn dropped me back off at my car after brunch and I went home to take a four hour nap. Around 8 I got quite hungry, so Chris and I went to Midtown to watch the Sox/Yankees game. I was informed that it was my lucky day since Chris had to drop movies off at Blockbuster anyway (which I guess means he wouldn't have wanted dinner if he hadn't needed to do that???). Oh well...I'll take what I can get.


So there you have it. My weekend. Pretty super, huh?





*This poker term was used on Saturday night and Christina and I laughed and laughed and laughed about it for quite awhile. Yes. We had had a few to drink by that time.

Monday, August 24, 2009

I love the irony of needing a wheelchair after tripping over a wheelchair...

End of July (and an era, I suppose)...

As soon as I got back from Wichita, it was very clear that I was going to be spending time helping Sam and Brian pack and generally just sucking every bit of time out of them that I could.

Seeing that hanging out with them every night was darn near impossible (with them having kids and an actual family and whatnot), I went over to Mike's house on Saturday night for an impromptu barbecue and poker game. It was a small, but good group of people (Mike, Chris, Marc, Beth, and Scott) to get to hang out with for the night and I really enjoyed the last minute festivities.

The last week of July was spent in a whirlwind of Fisicaro activity. On Monday, Chris and I took Will, Danny, and, well, Sam to play miniature golf. Did you know that moms don't have to pay and kids play free?? I pretended like I was Will's mom, so it was all of $6 for the five of us to play. I think Chris may have been the only person keeping score...which actually makes sense, since he was the only person that actually cost money.
On Thursday night, Brian, Sam, Chris, and I went to T1 Tapas and the Dirty Martini. After a massive amount of liquor entered all of our bodies, we had to say goodbye to our dear friends. I held my emotions together for all of 32 seconds until I lost it in the parking lot of the Dirty Martini. The awesome part of it was that I didn't even lose it saying goodbye to Sam. No, no, no...I was sobbing and refused to let go of Brian. Sam just yelled across the parking lot, "Screw you! I'm not doing this right now!!"

I'm glad Sam remembered that she had that outburst, because the whole family came over on Saturday morning so that we could have a Fisicaro-Sarah huddle hug and say goodbye.

Sweetest story of the whole Fisicaro goodbye...
Sam called me on their way to Louisiana to tell me that Brian called her from the moving truck and told her that Will was upset about leaving everyone. Brian had told him that it was going to be okay because Papa and Lulu were buying a house in Baton Rouge and he would get to see them all of the time. He then asked, "What about Sarah?"
*tear*


I feel like I'm not doing this "Goodbye to the Fisicaros" post justice, but just know....the last week of July sucked and I miss my dear friends so very much.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

I never mentioned it. Probably because I'm a bad friend.

It's a little late that I'm mentioning this, but better late than never...

June 30th

My dear friends Julie and Chris McGranahan had their second baby boy.

Here is a picture of the little squirt, Logan Shawn, with his big brother, Ian.

Time truly flies...it feels like just yesterday that Julie came out to North Carolina from Colorado while she was 7 months pregnant with Ian. Not long before that (okay, maybe 3 years before that), Julie was at my apartment in St. Louis and we were talking about this "new guy" that she met at work.

Life continues to evolve in the most amazing ways....

Congratulations Julie and Chris! I love you!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

I fear that owning Gary will become some kind of gateway drug to becoming "the cat lady".

I still need to do catch-up blogs, but I just wanted to say...

I went to the Counting Crows/Augustana/Michael Franti last night with Chris and a few things struck me.

1. I have never been to a concert where all three of the bands were so intertwined. The show started off at 7:30 with everyone on stage (BTW....thanks for letting me know to get there early, Beth!) and they would all sing each other's songs. I felt a little bad because I had told Chris that we could leave halfway through Counting Crow's set, but they never really had a "set" per se. Odd. Very odd.

2. The name of the show didn't make sense to me. Traveling Circus and Medicine Show. I get the "Traveling Circus" part, but "Medicine Show"? Was the music the medicine??

3. Michael Franti played his hit (see below...it's kind of catchy) and had a ton of kids get on stage with him. Of course these kids were brought by their parents. It was an odd realization that their parents were my age. For a hot minute it felt like we should be at a Jonas Brothers concert. 

4. What happened in Augustana's life to make them so angry at God? Oh...I could go on and on about their bitterness, but seriously. What happened??

Okay. That's all of my thoughts from last night. Good stuff.

Oh, wait...one more thing...

Chris...his son's name is Cappy, not Kathy. For once, I was right. I have to say...it feels unnatural and good.


Friday, August 21, 2009

It's neat that I don't eat baked beans.

Last night I decided to meet Beth, Thomas, Mike, Jen, and Todd for dinner at Tavern on the Tracks before they went to the Sister Hazel show. Since I'm a responsible employee (and had to be up really early this morning), I was sure that I wouldn't be going to the show with them.

Well, after a few glasses of wine and some fun times...my friends convinced me that it would be smarter for me to hang out with them at the concert for a few hours. Special thanks to Thomas for taking care of my cover since the venue was not a fan of my debit card. I owe you one...

All in all, it was a great night and I was able to get home at a reasonable hour.
Highlight of the night: Beth beckoning the lead singer of Sister Hazel (who just happened to be at Tavern on the Tracks) to come over to our table and take a picture. What a showing of testicular fortitude that was! Dang...you get that pic, B...


And just so you know...
The lead singer's name is Ken Block. "Ken" as in "Ken and Barbie" and "Block" as in....ummm.... "building blocks" (*make sure you mime "building blocks" here*).
Thanks for the explanation, Beth.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

If I had a nickel for every time I've said the right thing...I'd have zero nickels.

Wichita

July 17th- Julie and I started our trek to Wichita. Our plan was to leave at 6am and make it to St. Louis by 6pm. Julie wanted to stop by Dunkin Donuts and run over to Chris' apartment for a last breakfast of sorts. We managed to be at his house by 7:30 (which, of course, is NOT 6am like we had told him...whoops). After eating a couple donuts (don't judge me...I was over-eating out of sadness), we decided that it would be best if we let Chris get ready for work.
After our goodbyes, I set the GPS and we were on our way. I decided that I knew a better way and told Julie to go against the ol' GPS. Yes. I thought I was smarter than a satellite. I am not. Lesson learned.
After a stop at an Arby's that was built in 1992 (gotta love the colors "dusty rose" and "country blue") and a stop for gas at the gas station/truck stop Little Nashville (in Nashville, IL...where I coincidentally have been before for a wedding rehearsal dinner, no lie), we made it home (well, MY home) to St Louis.
My mom had gone to a concert that night, but that didn't stop us from having visitors the moment we pulled in. With my grandparents living across the street and me giving my sister-in-law a play by play of our trip, we had 6 visitors within moments of getting in. I was thankful that my brother said he would go pick up pizza from Imo's (OHHHHH how I love you, Imo's) while we rested and played with my niece and nephew. My grandma walked across the street to their hizzy and brought back over a little ice cream and peaches action. Golly, I love my grandparents.
After everyone left, we continued to eat leftover pizza (which can only be described as provolone cheese on a cracker) until we passed out from exhaustion.

July 18th- I woke up bright and early out of excitement of getting to see my mom. She's pretty much a rock star these days and didn't get home until the wee hours of the morning. We finished off the rest of the cold pizza for breakfast and decided to drive around for a little bit until lunch time. I decided (thanks to Laura's awesome suggestion) that we would have Chevy's for lunch. Chevy's is pretty much Tex-Mex bliss for those of you that don't know.
Laura, Julie, and I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon shopping until we had to go home to get ready for the Cardinals game.
Right before we had to leave for the Cards game, Ali (my STL BFF) walked in with his dramatic flair on full display. I literally fell over laughing when I noticed that he spilled his Vitamin Water on his crotch and it looked like he peed himself. It was too good.
At the Cardinals game, we parked really close to the stadium and enjoyed the game (including when my brother's best friend, Brad, was on the Jumbo Tron because he was chosen to move up to some plush seating....that was weird).
After the game we headed to Show Me's (the Missouri version of Hooters) to meet up with the most random group of people known to exist (Laura, Ali, Julie, Brad, Brad's brother, Angelo, and myself...). Ali, Laura, Julie, and I left around 11:30 to run over to KCLC to steal some CDs. I love free music day.

July 19th- Julie and I met my grandparents and my older brother's family for breakfast at First Watch and then it was Wichita or Bust with a fresh batch of new music to discover...
We made it into Wichita just in time for her dad's birthday party. I love that she was nervous about how many people were going to be at my mom's house on Friday night. Talk about meeting every single person in her family at one time (not just her parents, brothers, sister-in-law, and nephews...we're talking aunts and uncles, too). The good thing was that I was able to differentiate between her twin brothers by the sole fact that Jeff had Bell's Palsy (a condition where half of your face pretty much doesn't work) at the time. We later laughed at the fact that Julie COULD have told me to look for the one with glasses or the one with the wedding ring. No, no, no...learn the medical condition that will no longer be in effect the next time you are in Wichita.
After some delicious lasagna, taking a special liking to her nephew Adam (the kid jumped up on my lap and let me snuggle bug with him!!), and very interesting conversation with her uncle and uncle's friend, I made my way downstairs to pass out from the day's events.

July 20th- Oh, Monday. Move-in day. I was up by 8:10, out the door by 8:35, and at Julie's new apartment complex by 9. While Julie was signing the lease, the giant moving truck was making its way to the back of the gated community (believe me...it was a big deal). We spent the morning unpacking while the moving guys brought stuff into the apartment. Wait. While the moving guys brought stuff into the apartment and made me feel bad about my life choices.
(Examples: "You need to find a man!" and "Why don't you have children??" Nice, right????)
Around noon, Jennifer, Julie, and I went to meet her brother Jim for lunch at Freddy's. I had been given a list of places that I needed to check out by a variety of Wichitans (...or is it Wichitanians...or is it Wichita-ans...???) from Charlotte. I believe Beth was the gal that suggested that gem.
After lunch we continued unpacking and made a special trip to Home Depot to find wood to make a bed frame. Dang....we are awesome with our carpentry skills. What I forgot to mention was that it was hot as blue blazes (oh, yes...I just said "blue blazes") while unpacking, because we didn't realize that the only thing that kept us from air conditioned-bliss was the stupid breaker box (not the fact that the power company just hadn't been there like we originally thought). After spending the day in the heat, we decided to go cool off at the Warren Theatre and watch Away We Go. After the movie, we went to have dinner at Taco Tico. I had heard the words "Taco Tico" many times from Chris on varying vacations ("I wonder if there will be a Taco Tico on our way?!?!?" is not an uncommon question...), so I must have built the place up to be magnificent. I'm not sure if I can properly say this. It was not magnificent. Not even a little bit magnificent. The manager (yes, the MANAGER) was a lovely Indian man who did not speak English. When I asked for the Tico Tots (verbatim from the menu), he gave me a look of confusion and just stared at the board above his head as I pointed to my selection. I'm just going to believe that Chris wants to go to Taco Tico just for the memories (and to possibly make fun of the manager who may or may not speak English and who may or may not know the items on the menu).
We spent the remainder of the day watching 13 Going on 30 and singing "Memories" from the musical Cats. (One of those things didn't actually happen, can you guess which??)

July 21st- After waking up and running a few errands, we went to Cinnamon's Deli to get a little to go food (I ordered a roast beef sandwich that I drowned in horseradish sauce....little did I realize was the fact that I accidentally chose "Hot" horseradish sauce...what a sad, sad horseradish experience that was). While chowing on our grub at Julie's place, her parents came over to compliment us on our unpacking and situating skills. Okay, okay...maybe they didn't really compliment us on any skills that we may have, but they visited and that was nice. After they left, I spent the rest of the afternoon hooking up various cords and hanging pictures until we had to go meet Julie's friend, Amy, and her husband, DJ, for dinner at Granite City. I'm realizing after typing out all of the places that we went that we really ate a lot while I was in Wichita. Stupid Wichita with your vast array of delicious chain restaurants (because Wichita is a test-market for restaurants, you know...) and best friend stealing skills. That night we settled in and watched about 30 minutes of the cinematic classic Howard the Duck before we both fell asleep.

July 22nd- After waking up, showering, and packing, we went to The Good Egg for breakfast and then made our way over to the Wichita Airport. I met a boy on my flight (who Chris later told me I shouldn't trust because the guy was on the soccer team at Tabor College and those are guys you just don't trust...unlike the baseball team, I guess), so that helped hurry the flight along. I had a layover in Atlanta and then made it home by 7pm. Chris picked me up and we went to PF Changs for dinner. Dang. I ate out a lot that week.

All in all, I think it was a pretty successful trip...minus the fact that I had to leave one of my best friends in Kansas.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Let's go back to that weekend PART DEUX...

Julie's Going Away Party

On July 11th, Julie had her going away party at Thomas Street Tavern. Prior to meeting everyone at the bar that she first went to when she moved to Charlotte, we had dinner at Carpe Diem. There were many, many people that showed up (which speaks volumes as to how popular my gal is...) and everyone had a great time. Picture time!



Julie, Chris, and I ended the night by going to McDonald's and hanging out at Julie's house until about 3am. Classic.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Let's go back to that weekend...

Guys' Night Out

On July 10th, I went out to dinner at Brixx with Julie, Scott, Sheila, and Chris. I can count on 3 fingers how many times we've eaten outside and this is the reason why...Julie got poo'd on by a bird. Here is a picture of the reenactment...I promise...it looked exactly like this.

After dinner, we met up with a bunch of people at Cosmos for Brian's last night out with the guys before he moved to Baton Rouge. I'm feeling lazy, so I'm just going to throw some pictures at you...



Post-Cosmos a few people headed over to The Attic. Look. More pictures.

(That last picture is of everyone singing along to a catchy tune...not of Thomas committing a violent act against a defenseless woman.)

As you can see, the night ended on a high note and Thomas took everyone home. The End.