Monday, October 13, 2014

Monday Miscellany

Happy Monday, and a belated Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers!  I actually have today off as the bond market is closed for Columbus Day.  Hooray!  I heart long weekends.  Here's a hodge podge summary of what's going on in my life these days.

- The weekend before last one of my best college friends, Heidi, flew in from Austin for a girls weekend.  It was so much fun to spend a weekend with some of my closest college friends.  On Saturday we went to an apple orchard that also had a vineyard and that evening we hosted some other college friends that lived in the area for a girls night in (which is my kind of Saturday night).  I also got to introduce Heidi to Phil and he got a chance to spend more time around my friends as we ordered in pizza on Friday and included the boys and the kids.  I think the quote of the weekend, though, happen on Saturday morning.  My friend Brooke's little boy who is almost 4 was snuggling on my lap at breakfast and he said, "You smell like my grandma."  Hahaha. This is actually a compliment because my friend's mom is pretty much more fashionable than me (I am not kidding) and according to Brooke she wears nice perfume.  ;) 

Cheers to drinking at 11 am on a Saturday morning!

- Last week was not a great week.  A pipe in my wall leaked and flooded the carpet in my bedroom and damaged some of the wood floors in my living room.  I didn't discover the wet carpet until 10 pm on Tuesday night, which meant maintenance came at 11:45 pm.  I ended up driving to Phil's at midnight to spend the night as they said they'd be my unit for 2-4 hours.  My apartment is still torn up because they have to replace the carpet padding and that won't happen until later this week.  Then they have to replace some of the wood floors.  And patch the big hole in the wall that they cut to fix the pipe.  And hopefully they will clean before they leave because my wood floors are disgustingly dirty.  The timing of this wasn't great because I was already feeling overwhelmed by my schedule and I suck at handling chaos/disruptions to my life.  I just hope all the repairs are made and my home can return to looking clean and organized by the time my friend Lori arrives on October 24th for her weekend visit.

- On a positive note, Phil and I celebrated the 2 year anniversary of our first date on Friday!  The anniversary of our first date was actually on October 2nd but Heidi flew in that night so we had to push back our celebration.  We both prefer casual dining restaurants so we celebrated by going to this cute Cuban place called Victor's.  The food was awesome and it was fun to reminisce about the early days of our relationship.  It's kind of crazy to think about all that has happened over the last 2 years...  However we focused on the early days and did not travel down the memory lane of 2013 because that is not fun for either of us to reminisce about.

- I also got to host Iowa Amber last weekend as she came up for a book fair in Minneapolis. We were drawn to this event because Stephanie Perkins, author of Anna and the French Kiss (and 2 other books) was speaking.  It was fun to listen to her speak!  After the book fair, we went to two independent book stores in the Twin Cities (Micawbers Books and Magers and Quinn). I am shocked that I did not buy any books!  We capped off the day by meeting up with Phil, Lesli and her husband and Allison and her husband for dinner and a game of trivia at Chatterbox Pub, which is a fun restaurant with lots of board games. It was fun to host Amber and get a chance to really catch up.  We had great talks about books, careers, relationships and friendships.

Amber and I having some fun with the props in the Teen tent where Stephanie Perkins spoke!

- I leave for Charleston tomorrow to attend a conference put on by one of the bond issuers we work closely with.  I am hoping I have some down time to do a little exploring or at least some walking around but these conferences tend to involve dinners every night so we'll see what I can fit in.  At a minimum I want to go for some runs as the morning temps will be so mild!

What's on your mind today?  I won't be posting while I am traveling so have a great week everyone!

20 comments:

Kelly (She Wears a Red Sox Cap) said...

I can't believe it's been 2 years since your first date with Phil! Crazy.

I hope your apartment gets all fixed up while you are away this week and then you can come home to not having to deal with that. I hate home issues because you obviously cannot escape them.

Marlys said...

I, too, hope your apartment is back to normal when you return! Water can be such a disgusting mess - as I remember the two times our lower level flooded! Water & fire are two home disasters one can easily live without!
It sounds like you had a great weekend!
Two years - is that possible? Time goes way too fast!
Have a great trip!

Abby said...

Sounds like you have had some great weekends! That is hilarious "You smell like my Grandma" lol.

I cannot believe it's been 2 years since your 1st date with Phil! Woah!! That is awesome.

I'm sorry about the snafu with your apartment and the pipe :(. That is so annoying. And when your home isn't clean, it effects your mood!!

Good luck on your Charleston trip! Hope you get a little bit of downtown to do some walking around :)

Nora said...

I love the Chatterbox place; so fun that you all went there =) Sounds like you had a good weekend.

Congrats on two years with Phil. My, the time does fly!

Travel safely tomorrow; hope you can get some you time during the work trip (though I know how tough that is!).

Carolina John said...

hey, 2 years with the big Phil! congratulations! That sounds like a fun time with a lot of different people. I bet Amber K would be a lot of fun to hang out with. Her recent wedding looked like a lot of fun.

Have fun in Charleston! It is a great time to head down there, fall is in the air but it's still warm enough to enjoy the beach some.

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

Sorry to hear about the leak - that sucks! I hope it's fixed up very soon :-) Happy anniversary to you and Phil!!

The Many Thoughts of a Reader said...

Love the photo of you and Amber!

Charis Faith said...

I hate that you are having to deal with that whole water issue, I'm so sorry you are having to deal with that! I loved the pictures you posted of you with your girlfriends, so much fun! I love having such special friends in my life! I'm glad that you and Iowa Amber had such a great weekend! Fair warning Charleston will likely still be humid. It's milder here now but especially at the coast it can still be really humid! Definitely jealous of your runs down there though! I'm ridiculously excited for the 24th! I feel guilty I didn't have as many fun things for you when you visited Charlotte. I did introduce you to Cabo Fish Taco so all was not lost :)

Charis Faith said...

Oh and congratulations to you and Phil!

Stephany said...

Oh, man, that whole issue with the water in your apartment sounds dreadful. I don't deal well with disruptions to my routine, either, so I can imagine how hard it must be to deal with all that, on top of all the other things in your life! Hope everything goes back to normal soon!

Jeanie said...

Water is totally the worst. Tons of good wishes for a quick recovery on the apartment. I've been there -- no fun!

And congratulations on your two years with Phil. I know you've had to weather the separation and a lot of sadness. Coming through all the stronger, I think. Congratulations!

Leigh said...

You have had a couple of busy weeks! Oh man, I hope everything gets sorted out with your apartment soon. Does not sound like fun to deal with :(

Nilsa @ SoMi Speaks said...

You're not standing still, are you? Goodness! But, it all sounds like so much fun, so I'm sure it's hard to say no to much of anything. The weather here is in the low 60s with rain - I had a rather enjoyable run on the way home from Gavin's preschool (though, I was soaking wet by the time I walked in our front door!).

Gavin's school was also closed yesterday, so I got to spend an extra special day with him. Though, I think he had too much fun, because he said he didn't want to go to school today and he'd rather stay at home with me. ;)

Linda said...

Happy anniversary to you and Phil!

I'm glad you had him there to crash when your apartment flooded.

Anonymous said...

It makes me so sad that you've had all of these friends visit and they all got to meet Phil and I still haven't made a trip out there happen!

Happy 2 year anniversary! I must say that I'm not very sad that our little chapter of the lonely hearts club has officially closed.

Amber said...

Other than the crappy apartment crap it sounds like you've had a pretty good week! So glad you had such a wonderful visit with Amber. Makes me think of our fun weekend together back in 2011!! Crazy how time flies.

Hope you are able to fit in some runs in Charleston!

Becky said...

Hope you get some down time in Charleston and that your apartment is perfect and beautiful when you get back!

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

Wow, it's already been 2 years since the first date? I remember that day very well actually... it does not seem like that long ago.

You are lucky you got the day off! We had to go in, since the Equity market was not closed, which doesn't make sense to me... I am glad you enjoyed it!

Lisa-Marie said...

2 years! Congratulations! Your college girl meet up looks and sounds so fun. House stuff is Always annoying. Bleuch.

I have this weekend off, which is pretty much all I am thinking about!

Cherry Blossoms said...

Wow crazy that its been 2 yrs since Phil has been apart of your life. Where is the time going?! It was great to finally meet him :) Good luck with the bedroom repair. I hope it gets finished this week.