Monday

I've Been Waiting 25 Years for This!

Well, it happened! I FINALLY turned 25 on June 25th! And it seems like things just fell into place. For one, our department picnic was the same day. The only thing better then having the day off work is only having to go to work for 2 hours and then getting to spend of the day playing outside. I was really surprised how much people got involved in the activities. There was softball, kickball, volleyball, and corn hole! Though rain was predicted, it never came and though it was hot, it was a really fun day! Even I went out and attempted to see if I had somehow become a natural at volleyball even though I hadn't played since sophomore year gym class. Turns out, I should stick to tennis.
Look at that amazing form!!
Mommy took me to dinner at Ocean World for my official birthday dinner. They even brought me some green tea ice cream with a candle in it!

Friday afternoon, Damla flew into town. Then Damla, Mommy, and I all went to Fogo de Chao for dinner for yet another birthday celebration. Of course, I'm making the celebrations last as long as possible! The food at Fogo was delicious and the atmosphere was just as fun as I remember!Saturday the Chicago girls came down for some more celebrating! I've never not had a good time with so many of us in one place! I wish that one day we could all live in one giant house again but just as grownups. Or maybe just all live in the same city. We had a little pre-party on the patio and enjoyed the functionality of our newly purchased patio furniture. Then we headed out to all the rest of Broadripple to enjoy our company.

Sunday began with our traditional breakfast at Einstein and then after that it was time for the Chicago girls to drive home. I didn't want the girls to have to leave but at the same time I was really happy that for once I didn't have to make the dreaded 5 hour drive back to Midland after a fun weekend. I think sometimes I still have a hard time grasping that I'm back in Indianapolis.

Sunday was also filled with another fun event--drinks with Roski! He was in town doing some wedding preparations for his wedding in September but was able to squeeze in some Emel time. It's always good to see old friends!

I'd have to say this was a WONDERFUL birthday and thank you to everyone who came out on Saturday to spend it with me!

Triple Triples

Somehow I've only been to Broadripple twice since I've moved here. The weekends are just busy in the summer and we haven't had a chance to make our visits as frequently as we would wish. However, I would have to say that my first visit was a good initiation and I'd like to put in a little tidbit about it.

We started off the night with dinner at Canal Point (which used to be the Seafood Shack). Afterwards we decided to continue enjoying the beautiful weather and went to Brugge to sit on the deck. Brugge brews 3 of it's own beers. The black, white, and triple. We were told the Triple is quite good and ordered a round of those. I would have to agree that it does have a nice taste. We each drank 2 and were informed that 2 is the limit. 2 Triples = 1.5 bottles of wine! Yikes! Needless to say, I did not feel amazing on Sunday and probably won't be drinking any more triples in the near future...or at least not in combination with anything else!

Friday

I want to quit the gym

Well, life is continuing to go well! I'm finding my job to be a good challenge. There is a lot to do and it's tough to distinguish what I should be doing first but I just try to cross off a few things on my to do list every day. At the very least, I like what I'm doing so I can't complain. Due to some reorganization, I already have a new boss but I find him to be very straight forward so the change was not upsetting.

The apartment continues to be my favorite place I've lived since KKG! Kamm and Farley have proven to be quite good influences. They are both avid runners to say the least and though I'm not as into running as they are, I at least consider the fact that they're probably out running and not at home after work so I might as well go work out rather then sit at home by myself.

Upon moving to Indy, I joined LA Fitness. They just built one close to work and there is also another one close to home so I figured it was a no brainer. When you sign up, they give you a free personal training session with a guy who convinces you that personal training is the one and only thing that is missing to making your life complete and full of happiness. So being the sucker for informercials that I am, I signed up. That's where all the problems started.

They started off my charging my card incorrectly. Then when they tried to correct it, they instead charged another fee to it. Apparently all you need to work at a gym is a relatively good body. No brain or computer skills required. The gym has continued to give me the run around for the last month saying they have escalated my issue to corporate. Well, apparently corporate is filled with idiots too. Supposedly their vice president is supposed to enter the credit himself. What kind of VP makes accounting entries? I doubt that the VPs at my company even have access to our accounting system. I've never seen a business with such poor customer service. At first I was amazed that theyr'e still in business and then I just remember that they steal other people's money.

I have tried to cancel the training membership but apparently that's something that's not in the instruction manual of the computer so they can't figure that out either. In the meantime, the trainer keeps offering to let me train "for free" until all these issues are sorted out. I refuse because I know that later they'll say that they can't refund me because I've been using their services.

There isn't a whole lot I can do to help myself at the moment, but I'm passing this experience on to you so that you don't make the same mistake. You would think that having seen the friends episode where Chandler tries to quit the gym that I would have realized what kind of scam artists work at the gym but you would be wrong.

Once I do get this all sorted out, I will start using the over 100 personal training sessions have managed to earn at no cost to myself. I made sure to get this all in writing because frankly I don't trust a single person at the gym. So, the next step is to start my petition to get American Gladiator's back on the air. I'd appreciate some suggestions on what my Gladiator name should be!On a lighter note, we went to go see The Hangover last night. If you haven't seen it yet, put it on your to do list because it is HILARIOUS!! And I have a new found love for Bradley Cooper. Maybe it's because I've seen 2 of his movies in the last 2 weeks...or maybe because he has super dreamy hair. Either way, the movie is fantastic you'll probably be the only person who doesn't get all of your friends jokes if you don't go see it soon.

Monday

Decorating 101

So, I have never claimed decorating to be one of my fortes.  At times though, I wish that it was. My room, though clean, is pretty dull at the moment.  The first thing I need to do is get a rug.  I found two.  The first one is from Anthropologie and the other is from Urban Outfitters.  I really like them both but unfortunately the one from Urban only comes in a 3 x 5 size and I have a relatively large area to cover.  You can refer to the picture a few posts ago of my room to see what I'm talking about.   I actually have room for both I think that might be a bit too much! 
If anyone has seen any other cute 5 x 7 rugs, feel free to let me know.  I'm still not completely sold on the Anthropologie one...I'm kind of hoping it goes on sale just a little bit more...

So that's the first step.  Next I need to get some stuff on the wall.  I have some picture frames and such but I think it's time to update my pictures.  Remember the days when you printed all your pictures so updating pictures just required pulling out your newest prints?  Oh, sometimes I miss those days.  

Side note: I changed the name of my blog...again.  But the address remains the same unless I change that too so I figure I can change the as much as I want.  :)  

Also, I have a new favorite song...well, I don't know if I'd call it my favorite, but I really like it.  It's called Starstrukk by 3OH!3.  Apparently they named their band after an area code in Colorado.  Their big song on the radio right now is Don't Trust Me which I like up to a certain point. 

 I recommend listening to this song though.  I mean, I also put Pokerface on here and look at what a hit that turned out to be.  Oh if only Lady Gaga knew how much I supported her.  And speaking of Lady Gaga, I love her song called Starstruck too.  

Lake house fun!

Over the weekend we went to Monticello, Indiana to go to Colleen's lake house.  This is the 3rd time I've been to the house and every time always ends up being a great one.  This weekend was no exception. 

First off, Colleen's lake house is super cute so I thought I'd include some pictures of the house and the view.  

Also in attendance were Farley, Kamm, Stacey, Lynn & Todd, Kylie & Randy, Cameron, Flynn, Titus & Trey, and Neal.  The day was complete with corn hole, boat rides, 3-legged races, tons of delicious food, and Dunkaroos which was a new game showed to us by Cameron.  Only the brave ones played this game.  


I bet you guys thought Colleen was joking about the potato sack races, but here are the sacks to prove it. 

I don't think I can write about all the fun so here are just a couple more pictures.  This is definitely an event that needs to occur more often.

My Life is One Giant Sleepover






Exciting things have been happening!! Kamm, Farley, and I moved into our LOVELY new apartment!! I'm super excited for all the fun things to come.

Our apartment is in a prime location, has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and a patio that we hope by the end of today looks better then it did when we moved in. I'm hoping to discover that I have a green thumb and plant some flowers.

Saturday morning, a friend of mine from work helped me load all my big items into his truck and move them into my apartment. The rest of the day was spent driving back and forth from one place or another trying to get all our things into the place. It was a LONG day but a productive one and at the very least at the end of the day, all of us had places to sleep. My mom came over to help me and it was definitely nice having some assistance.

Sunday, I went off on a little furniture finding excursion. For some reason there is absolutely no storage in my bathroom. So, I went out and bought one of those over the toilet storage things as well as some baskets to put my stuff in. Add one bathmat and some over the door hooks and you have yourself a functional bathroom.

My other addition to the bathroom was a towel rack. The directions said to drill a hole in the wall which is fine and dandy if you actually own a drill...I don't. But, I don't come from a family of engineers for nothing. I hammered in the tip of my screwdriver and that worked too!! So of course I had to include a picture of my towel rack as well.

The area in my room needing the most help in my closet. For one, I have a lot of stuff. Two, I used to fit into 3 small closets and now I must fit into one decent sized ones. So there was a lot of reorganization to be done. But I am pretty pleased with the finished product!!

 A high note is that my bed is fully assembled and functional which is good b/c for the last few nights I barely managed to crawl into it due to exhaustion.

In the midst of all this unpacking, I also managed to go grocery shopping. Colleen gave me an egg salad recipe and I tried it. Now, I don't think I am a huge fan of egg salad but I didn't hate this so I took that as a good sign and now I'm posting it for others to try. I especially think if you like egg salad, you'll like this recipe. And the best part is...no mayonnaise!!

3 tablespoons plain yogurt
1.5 teaspoons curry powder
2 pinches of salt
combine those in a bowl

add
5 hard boiled eggs (6-7 because if you only use the whites as Colleen recommends)
toast 1/4 cup of pecans
chop up 1/2-1/4 of an onion
chop up 1/2 of an apple
chop up a bunch of fresh chives
mix it all together and eat your bread of choice

Enjoy!!

This weekend we're going up to Monticello for some lake house fun! I'm sure there will be lots of pictures and good times to share!